THE SMALLHOLDER AND INSECT PESTS 11 



go out for a change. It made me want to find out what 

 his real trouble was, and as we were going round the 

 establishment together, I happened to let out something 

 about entomology, when, Hke the famous ointment, I 

 found I had immediately touched the spot. 



My new-found friend at once began to pour out a 

 host of both real and imaginary evils. To quote his 

 own words, as near as possible, he said, " It's Hke this, 

 sir, so soon as ever you get a decent crop of anything, 

 there's bound to be some ' blarmed ' creeping insect 

 come along, and all your work goes for nothing." He 

 then described the work of many insects I was well 

 acquainted with, and also went on to expatiate upon 

 the ravages of others quite unknown to me or indeed 

 any one else, " uncommon artful ' blighters ' that do 

 the double shuffle and vanish even while you look at 

 'em, then come back as soon as you've moved off and 

 start fresh." 



Of course it is only the unexplained that is mysteri- 

 ous, and the sooner we get a working knowledge of the 

 species referred to in this book the better for our food- 

 crops. We shall see that there is more variety, more 

 beauty, more ingenuity and more danger in the insect 

 world than in any other department of Nature. And it 

 is inextricably mixed up with the history of plants. In 

 fact, as regards the person above mentioned I could 

 see that curiously enough he had made exactly the same 

 mistake as had happened to me many years ago when I 

 first began to study insects. He had clearly gone at 

 the business of gardening from the elementary standpoint, 

 " for growing plants learn all about plants." I confess 

 my own mistake was quite as bad, but I soon found it 

 impossible to get very far in the one subject Tvithout 

 obtaining a working knowledge of the other. 



There is, therefore, the strongest reason why the grower 

 should make himself something of an insect-hunter in 

 more senses than one. The way in which the poHce 



