CHAPTER III 

 GARDEN PESTS 



Significance of the pest problem — Methods of Nature — Story of 

 the Cabbage Butterflies — Other Cabbage pests — Aphides — 

 Asparagus pests — Beet and Mangold pests — Beans and Peas 

 — Carrot, Celery, Onion and Parsnip — Potato pests. 



I NOW propose to take a round survey of the common 

 insects that attack our ordinary garden crops, and 

 to deal at some length with one of them for the purpose 

 of showing what is in my opinion the real aspect of the 

 pest problem. 



As a matter of fact it is a problem of much 

 deeper significance than the mere discovery of an easy 

 way of getting rid of something which bothers us at the 

 present moment. All pests and parasites are working 

 out a definite plan which is not yet by any means fully 

 known, although it is clear the scheme is a compUcated 

 one, even for each particular subject. 



For instance, in the dispersal of mammals, including 

 ourselves, over the various continents and islands of 

 the globe, parasites have played a very important part, 

 whilst species now extinct, like the mastodon, as soon 

 as their purpose was fulfilled and they became as it were 

 " back numbers," were got rid of in ways that no one 

 would at first have guessed at. In fact this question 

 of pests and parasites affords a striking instance as to 

 how very deceiving the apparently obvious often is. 



Think of the mastodon, raging in his might through 



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