The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 153 



pit or seeds. The moth lays innumerable eggs 

 which, hatching on leaf or bark, feed in armies, strip 

 the orchard of its foliage, choke the trees and pre- 

 clude all hope of fruit. The borer pierces the bark 

 and kills stock and limb ; the scale shingles over the 

 bark with its wretched shields, sucking up the sap, 

 and leaving the tree as dead as if scorched by fire. 

 So every plant known to the fruit-farm has its 

 enemies. Not a tree or shrub, not a vine or root, 

 not a tuber or leaf of any sort escapes, — no, not 

 one. 



The fruit-grower is confronted by legions of ene- 

 mies ready to swoop down upon his plantation and 

 consume it from the face of the earth. As the 

 country becomes more thickly settled, as forests are 

 destroyed, prairies broken up, the vast wild made 

 a habitation for man, insects and fungi, deprived 

 of their feeding ground in the wild, have turned to 

 our feeding ground, the cultivated field, to our 

 wheat, our cotton, our orchards, our vineyards, 

 our gardens. It would be presumptuous to attempt 

 to catalogue these enemies. The Bulletins from 

 the Experimental Station, State and National, and 

 the innumerable books by experts trace the life 

 history of these pests and tell how to combat 

 them. It is an appalling task but it cannot be 

 escaped. ' 



»As an example of timely and practical contributions, see "Fall 

 Manual of Practice in Economic Zoology, " Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Wooster, Ohio, U. S. A., November, 191 1, Bulletin 233, 164 pp.; 

 Index, vii. pp. Illustrated. This tells the fruit-grower the name, habits, 

 ravages, and methods of destroying every insect, worm, grub, moth, 



