CHAPTER TWELVE 

 OUR RIVALS-THE INSECTS 



IT will not do to get a too roseate view of country 

 life as a sort of escape from worldly anxieties and 

 cares. There is no such thing as successful land- 

 tillage without brains. Instead of the elbowing of 

 city life you will get a keen competition with insects, 

 and with a low order of vegetables — both insignifi- 

 cant in size, but the only real rivals that man has. 

 The battle begins early in the spring, and continues 

 until autumn has placed our crops in storage. Even 

 after that we are not quite at rest, for all winter long 

 you and I, and the birds, will be doing a good deal 

 to destroy the homes of worms and insects. 



I have seen more than one man whipped by 

 quack, and not a few driven off their farms by po- 

 tato beetles and codlin moths. In the concrete, 

 these antagonists spoil for the farmers of the United 

 States $300,000,000 worth every year — that is, one- 

 tenth of all our production. Most of this waste is 



