THE GARDEN INSECTS. 457 



THE GARDEN INSECTS. 



" Heat and cold, and wind and steam, 

 Moisture and drought, mice, worms, and swarming flies 

 Minute as dust, and numberless, oft work 

 Dire disappointment, that admits no cure, 

 And which no care can obviate." COWPER. 



However perfect a garden a horticulturist may have; however well 

 stocked it may be with the most delicious fruits, with the most beautiful 

 flowers, and with the choicest vegetals ; however judicious may be the 

 arrangements of his greenhouses and of his horticultural appliances; yet 

 if the gardener be not acquainted with the habits of the insects which 

 dwell therein, and if he does not know what to protect and what to 

 destroy, his labour will frequently be lost, and he will be unable to 

 assign any reason for his failure. 



Many a time have I seen a crop of melons and cucumbers destroyed 

 by aphides feeding unobserved on the under surface of the leaves ; many 

 a time have I seen crops destroyed by red spiders, and as often have 

 I known the coccus, when unrestrained, to kill plants. 



Sometimes the grub of the cockchafer or of the wireworm has been 

 the offender in killing a plant by eating the roots. Sometimes larval 

 grubs live between the two layers of the leaf, others eat its soft parts, 

 and at other times greedy caterpillars devour the entire plant in a 

 succulent state. 



Again, large trees are destroyed by the formidable caterpillar of 

 the goat moth, which perforates their trunks in all directions ; and 

 the larvae of beetles inflict great damage by devouring the new- 

 forming wood. 



As a rule, gardeners do not grapple with insect pests sufficiently 

 early, and the master should be quick to detect insect ravages and bring 

 them under the notice of his gardener, so that he may adopt whatever 

 measures may be practicable to prevent mischief. 



Above all, both master and gardener should know what to destroy 

 and what to preserve ; for lady-birds, the most useful of all insects, have 

 been killed as noxious, and ichneumons, the caterpillar-destroying help- 



