94 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 'i? 



The government looks after the farmer, and 

 in case of plant epidemic in the wheat field or 

 orchard does what it can to check them. But 

 the flower gardener usually has to shift for him- 

 self. A good beginning, however, has recently 

 been made in his behalf. For example, when 

 Mrs. Edward Harding three years ago brought 

 out her delightful and gorgeously illustrated 

 de luxe volume on peonies she added a chapter 

 on their diseases — seven were known at that 

 time, and Professor Whetzel of Ithaca was 

 on the lookout for others and their cure; while 

 Doctor Taubenhaus of Texas has devoted the 

 greater part of his valuable book The Culture 

 and Diseases of the Sweet Pea, to the diseases 

 which have caused so much sorrow among disap- 

 pointed lovers of this exquisitely fragrant 

 favorite. 



GRASSHOPPERS, WOODCHUCKS, CROWS, AND CATS 



After all, ordinary plant enemies and diseases 

 seem insignificant compared with such devastat- 

 ing hosts as the grasshoppers which gardeners 

 and farmers are sometimes called upon to fight 

 — ^flocks of insects which in a day or two eat 

 up everything green in sight. One summer 

 North Dakota spent $600,000 on the warpath 

 against grasshoppers. In Maine- — at least in 

 Oxford County — ^they are usually scarce — hardly 

 enough to supply bait for fishing; but one 

 summer we had a regular visitation of them. 



