CHAPTER VII 

 SOME GARDEN VICES 



Eit not be imagined that a garden is an 

 unmixed paradise. On the contrary, gardens 

 possess extremely vicious characteristics, as 

 well as no small capacity for arousing unpleasing traits 

 in the people to whom they belong; you will need, in 

 fact, to keep a close watch both on your garden ariu 

 yourself, if you wish to maintain either in approximate 

 perfection. 



Some gardens tend to a frantic indulgence in insects 

 and worms of the very worst kinds, a habit difficult to 

 break, insidious and dangerous. Their capacity for 

 outwitting the gardener, together with all the members 

 of his household, impressed into a too-often unwilling 

 service of extermination, is truly amazing. Here and 

 there, for instance, a garden will acquire the cutworm 

 habit, and once this is firmly fixed upon it it will display 

 endless energy, cunning, and devotion in finding and 

 pampering these noxious creatures, yielding to them 

 its finest plants and fairest blossoms, sheltering and 

 hiding them beyond your utmost skill to discover, 



