OUR RIVALS— THE INSECTS 



preventable. It is not impossible, by scientific 

 methods, to double the produce of our fields and 

 orchards. We are just waking up to the fact that 

 ten acres, brought to their best use, are as good 

 as one hundred acres under ordinary tillage and 

 care. The largest leakage is from the rivalry of 

 creatures whose lines of bread-winning cross ours. 

 Mark you, I do not call these insects our enemies ; 

 they have no constitutional desire to injure us, they 

 are only doing just what we are trying to do, win a 

 living and propagate their species — multiply and 

 possess the land. If we enter the struggle with 

 them it will give us healthy competition, and de- 

 velop character as well as secure food. 



I shall not undertake a treatise on moths, cut- 

 worms, and saw-flies, but will try to give you a help- 

 ful chapter that will carry you through the ordi- 

 nary fight in garden and orchard. The snow will 

 not have melted in the woods before we shall find 

 need for spraying pumps and poisons. A barrel 

 of Bordeaux Mixture is the first necessity. Give 

 your orchard, your lawn trees, and your garden — 

 everything but your evergreen trees and hedges — 

 a thorough application at once. The currant 

 worm is a product of the saw-fly, and its first eggs 



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