Diseases and Insect Enemies of Small Fruits. 233 



hateful little vices many of them seem in nature ! I do not wish to be 

 thought indiscriminate. Many insects are harmless and beautiful ; and, if 

 harmless, no one can object if they are not pretty. Not a few are very 

 useful, as, for instance, the little parasite of the cabbage worm. There 

 is need of a general and unremitting crusade against our insect enemies ; 

 but it should be a discriminating war, for it is downright cruelty to kill 

 a harmless creature, however small. Still, there are many pests that, 

 like certain forms of evil, will destroy if not destroyed ; and they have 

 brought disaster and financial ruin to multitudes. 



Mark Tapley hit upon the true philosophy of life, and it is usually 

 possible to take a cheerful view of everything ; such a view I suggest 

 to the reader, in regard to the pests of the garden that often lead us 

 into sympathy with the man who wished that there was "a form of 

 sound words in the Prayer-Book which might be used in cases of great 

 provocation." Under the present order of things, skill, industry, and 

 prompt, vigilant action are rewarded. Humanity's besetting sin is lazi- 

 ness ; but weeds and insects, for months together, make this vice well- 

 nigh impossible, save to those who are so unfortunate as to live on the 

 industry of others. Therefore, though our fruits often suffer, men are 

 developed, and made more patient, energetic, resolute, persevering in 

 brief, more manly. Put the average man into a garden where there were no 

 vegetable diseases, insects and weeds to cope with, and he himself would 

 become a weed. Moreover, it would seem that in those regions where 

 Nature hinders men as much as she helps them, they are all the better 

 for their difficulties, and their gardens also. Such skill and energy are 

 developed that not only are the horticultural enemies vanquished, but 

 they are often made the means of a richer and a fuller success. 



In a valuable paper read before the New Jersey State Horticultural 

 Society, and recently published in the American Entomologist, Mr. A. 

 S. Fuller makes the following useful suggestions : 



" Insects and diseases are frequently so closely united, or so dependent upon 

 each other, that the naturalist often finds it difficult to determine to which the 

 fruit grower should attribute his losses. Some species of insects attack only dis- 

 eased or dead plants ; others only the living and healthy. If a plant shows signs 

 of failing, we are inclined to speak of it as being diseased, whether the failure is 

 caused by a lack of some element in the soil, attacks of parasitic fungi, or 

 noxious insects. The loss is the same in the end, whether from one or all of these 

 enemies combined. 



" There are two practical methods of combating insect enemies and diseases of 

 plants ; one is to so carefully cultivate and stimulate the growth of the plants 

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