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impossibilities, such as a supposition that the crops even in adverse seasons would come to 

 perfection, if the birds were protected, without care and thought on man's part to overcome the 

 disadvantageous natural causes of their failure. 



Any attempt by man to exterminate a noxious insect so generally distributed as what is 

 called the turnip fly must be futile. What he must do is to endeavour to strengthen the young 

 plants artificially in dry seasons, and make them grow quickly enough to enable them to out- 

 grow the damage occasioned by the insects, as they naturally do in favourable seasons. He 

 has to use his energy and ingenuity to imitate the propitious season by artificial means, and pro- 

 bably in time he will be successful. There can be no doubt the healthier the plant is the 

 less chance there is of failure from attacks by insects, and, therefore, what is required is to 

 have the plants in the most healthy state, by some means or other, even in adverse seasons, 

 and this can only be done by having the ground in the most productive state which man by his 

 care and forethought must accomplish, and which difficulty without doubt he will ultimately over- 

 come by patience and perseverance, and after trying many experiments. It is truly wonderful what 

 strides science is enabling us to take nowadays, even in such matters as this; but the difficulty 

 will not be overcome without more care and thought than is apparently bestowed on such 

 matters by the rising generation generally. 



The old saying that "when the wind is in the east it is neither good for man 

 nor beast," we may add that it is often not good for vegetation either, certainly not in spring, 

 as it is then often accompanied by a parching sun, which, however, probably takes the 

 winter cold out of the ground, but it also delays the vegetation, of small seeds particularly, 



