CHAPTER IX 

 DISEASES AND INSECT TROUBLES 



QUITE recently I had a letter from a very noted 

 gardener, in which he said Sweet Peas were going 

 out of cultivation to a great extent in his part of 

 the country, because so many growers had their 

 plants destroyed by streak disease. He added 

 that it was his conviction that the disease was 

 chiefly caused by over-manuring. This statement 

 brings to mind a discussion at one of the Confer- 

 ences of the National Sweet Pea Society on this 

 same subject. Mr. Andrew Ireland, formerly 

 Messrs. Dobbie & Co.'s Sweet Pea grower, 

 gave his experience in this wise. He was asked 

 to go and inspect a lot of Sweet Peas which had 

 streak trouble. Like the practical man he is, he 

 got a spade and turned up some of the soil in which 

 the plants were growing. After doing so, he turned 

 to the grower and said, " My man, it is not a 

 gardener you should have sent for, but a sanitary 

 inspector ! " Against this, we have to put a 

 statement made at the same Conference by Mr. 



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