SCIENCE OF FRUIT-SPRAYING 323 



is not certain that every insect or fungus which is brought 

 before the notice of growers by scientific investigators 

 for the first time is new. It should be remembered that 

 scientific research in connection with fruit is of modern 

 growth, and numerous enemies may have been at work 

 unnoticed by cultivators for many years. 



Research in the chemical laboratory is of vast im- 

 portance to practical fruit-growers, and the latter should 

 not become impatient if it moves slowly and by ap- 

 parently halting steps. There is a great deal to be done 

 among fruit that the practical grower, with all his ex- 

 perience, cannot do, and the chemist, the botanist and 

 the mycologist must come to his aid. There must be 

 years of peering through microscopes, of dissecting 

 tissues, of experimenting with chemicals, of test-washing 

 trees and other work which the practical grower is 

 totally unfitted to perform. It is, however, equally as 

 important as preparing soil, carting manure, planting, 

 pruning, grafting and other rule-of- thumb operations. 

 And if experiment seems to be costly, at least let it be 

 borne in mind that the human element behind it is 

 rarely remunerated lavishly. As a rule, indeed, he is 

 worked very hard and paid very badly. He gives him- 

 self up to exacting inquiry because he is animated by 

 the love of revealing new facts and making discoveries 

 which are useful to mankind. He is not of the class of 

 the great industrial inventors, on whose heels tread 

 great capitalistic interests, and who not infrequently 

 reap a tangible reward for their discoveries in the form 

 of valuable shares in great producing companies. 



While research is in the early experimental stage it is 

 inevitable that it should move slowly, and find some 

 difficulty in making final suggestions to the expectant 

 grower. He has been asking for a good deal, considering 



