CHAPTER XI 



Farm Practice in Relation to Insect Control 



To a considerable extent, — more than most of us suspect, — the 

 depredations of injurious insects in our fields, orchards, and gardens may- 

 be reduced or controlled by the farm practice followed on a given place ; 

 methods of tillage, crop rotations, and such matters as thoroughness 

 in eradicating weeds. More emphasis should be laid on the fact that 

 all farm matters, including the tax paid to insect pests, are largely 

 interdependent ; that careful consideration given to the subject of prob- 

 able insect attack when planning the procedure for a season or a 

 series of seasons invariably will pay, and pay well. 



Crop Rotation 



Of these various matters, crop rotation is one of the most important. 

 An example will illustrate the point. 



Many insects attack only one kind of plant ; say corn, for example, 

 or strawberries, or onions. It may always be expected that a few such 

 pests will find their way to a field that has been planted to some one of 

 these crops. If not very abundant, they may, and probably will, 

 pass entirely unnoticed, and the injury that they do will be so slight 

 that it may properly be disregarded. 



Now, many or most of these insects spend the winter close by the 

 scene of their summer's feeding ; in the ground, under rubbish, or 

 elsewhere near at hand. Assume now that this field is planted to the 

 same crop the succeeding season. It will start out with an abundance 

 of insect enemies, especially adapted to that crop. Instead of an 

 injury so small that it passes unnoticed we may have a disastrous attack. 



Again it is well to avoid planting in the same field in successive 

 seasons crops that are closely related botanically. Some of our in- 



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