THE ENEMIES OF PLANT LIFE 



shrub and fields of waving grain, — to realize 

 that the grasshopper means death to the crops 

 and death oftentimes to hope, — it is an expe- 

 rience not easily to be forgotten. 



In general, the insect pests which now and 

 then upset the wholesome balance of nature 

 are of two kinds, — those which make their 

 home in the plant itself, the plant acting as the 

 unwilling host of the pest, and the exterior 

 ones, so to call them, the insects which prey 

 upon the plant from without. Most of these 

 pests are true animal life — flies, mites, cater- 

 pillars, and so on. There are, too, pests of 

 another type which now and then arise which 

 are vegetable in character, low forms of plant 

 life — the rusts, mildew, bunt, smut, molds, 

 and the like, diseases, rather than pests, which 

 thrive on decaying vegetation and which some- 

 times do irreparable damage to growing crops. 

 They are fungous in their growth, rapidly 

 multiplying and carrying decay and disintegra- 

 tion wherever they go. But, for present con- 

 sideration, we may turn to the insect pests 

 as of peculiar interest, for in their control we 

 have one of the most significant and impor- 

 tant advance steps yet taken by those who are 



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