280 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



like other men, but must also cope with vegetable and in- 

 sect evil. Weeds, bugs, worms, what hateful little vices 

 many of them seem in nature ! I do not wish to be 

 thought indiscriminate. Many insects are harmless and 

 beautiful ; and, if harmless, no one can object if they are 

 not pretty. Not a few are very useful, as, for instance, the 

 little parasite of the cabbage worm. There is need of a 

 general and unremitting crusade against our insect enemies ; 

 but it should be a discriminating war, for it is downright 

 cruelty to kill a harmless creature, however small. Still, 

 there are many pests that, like certain forms of evil, will 

 destroy if not destroyed ; and they have brought disaster and 

 financial' ruin to multitudes. 



Mark Tapley hit upon the true philosophy of life, and it 

 is usually possible to take a cheerful view of everything; 

 such a view I suggest to the reader, in regard to the pests 

 of the garden that often lead us into sympathy with the man 

 who wished that there was '' a form of sound words in the 

 Prayer-Book which might be used in cases of great provoca- 

 tion." Under the present order of things, skill, industry, 

 and prompt, vigilant action are rewarded. Humanity's be- 

 setting sin is laziness; but weeds and insects for months 

 together make this vice wellnigh impossible, save to those 

 who are so unfortunate as to live on the industry of others. 

 Therefore, though our fruits often suffer, men are developed, 

 and made more patient, energetic, resolute, persevering, — 

 in brief, more manly. Put the average man into a garden 

 where there were no vegetable diseases, insects, and weeds 

 to cope with, and he himself would become a weed. More- 

 over, it would seem that in those regions where Nature 

 hinders men as much as she helps them, they are all the 

 better for their difficulties, and their gardens also. Such 

 skill and energy are developed that not only are the horti- 



