18 The Spraying of Plants. 



where the standard remedy for mildews, and when this failed, 

 growers were at a loss to apply anything more efficient. The 

 best insecticides were the various forms of soap, tobacco, quassia 

 chips, carbolic acid, and hellebore, although the last was a com- 

 paratively new remedy. Kerosene was also used in America to 

 a limited extent. With these materials gardeners and fruit 

 growers managed, as a rule, to produce good crops. 



But a change was to come. In America it was brought about 

 by insects ; these became so abundant and began to do so much 

 damage in districts that before had not suffered seriously, that 

 new remedial measures were demanded. A new insect, the 

 potato beetle, was introduced from the far West, and this threat- 

 ened to be even more destructive than those which were in- 

 digenous to the East. 



In Europe the revolution was brought about by fungi, but 

 not by the European types. They came from America, and 

 have shown, in southern Europe particularly, the same push 

 and energy which is everywhere recognized as characteristic of 

 the American. And so it came that while the growers in 

 France were combatting fungi, those in America were contend- 

 ing against insects, and a great difference soon arose in the 

 methods of treatment adopted. It was a veritable revolution ; 

 for old remedies were obliged to give way to new ones, and 

 established methods to those but little tried. Indeed, the 

 change marks an epoch in the history of the cultivation of 

 plants. 



