DISEASES OF THE PEA. 277 



spheric changes we here reiterate what we have often ex- 

 pressed, that our agricultural societies have yet a vast deal 

 to do before they can say they have done all they can do 

 to make known what, for lack of a more suggestive word, 

 we here call the philosophy of our crop culture. What- 

 ever may yet be done by them " if it were done, 'twere 

 well that it were done quickly " we will venture to say 

 the most good will be done if they direct their attention 

 to discover, if possible, the causes which predispose crops 

 to be attacked either by atmospheric, vegetable, or animal 

 diseases, rather than to the discovery of a cure or cures for 

 these diseases. To prevent is better than to cure, if, in- 

 deed, cure can ever be successfully carried out when dis- 

 ease in plant life has once set in. We are inclined to 

 believe that prevention is hopeful, cure is hopeless. 



75. The insects which attack the pea crop, and too fre- 

 quently rapidly and completely destroy it, are pretty 

 numerous. The seed when fairly in the soil is attacked, 

 or very liable to be attacked, by mice, and by the milli- 

 pede insects. Mice are so fond of the pease that their in- 

 genuity in discovering the locality of their deposit, and 

 their perseverance in getting to them, are something won- 

 derful. One practical man states that he suffered heavily 

 from the attacks of mice, until he adopted the plan of 

 spreading a layer of coal-ashes over the soil where the seed 

 was deposited. Pease have also been recommended to be 

 steeped in coarse train or lamp oil, and by others in coal- 

 tar, before sowing, so as to make them obnoxious to the 

 mice. To prevent them finding out the position of the 

 seed, it will be well to make the surface as uniform in 

 appearance as possible. The attacks of the snake milli- 

 pedes is another cause of the seed being destroyed. 



76. Should the seed pass safely through the ordeal 

 which it has to encounter through the attacks of mice or 

 of millipedes, the leaves are no sooner developed than they 

 are in their turn subjected to the attacks of " weevils," of 

 which the species known as the Sitona lineata, or "striped 

 weevil," is that commonly found to attack the field pea. 



