THE PERSISTENCY OF PESTS 



Weeds defy the latest and the earli- 

 est frosts, grow with their roots in the 

 air ; and cut down, spring up, grow on, 

 blossoming and ripening their seed in 

 creeping stealth and ever unscathed by 

 blight ; and so flourish in spite of all 

 unkindliness of man or stress of nature, 

 that the husbandman wishes that they 

 might by some freak of demand become 

 the useful plants, his present crop the 

 undesired ones. 



Somewhat the same position in which 

 weeds stand opposed to the plants which 

 the husbandman depends upon for his 

 livelihood, vermin hold toward the beasts 

 and birds upon which the sportsman 

 depends for his recreation. While they 

 whose protection men endeavor to main- 

 tain during the season of procreation, and 

 at times when scarcity of food prevails, 

 decrease often to complete extinction, the 

 vermin, whom the hand of man is always 

 against, continue to increase and multi- 

 ply, or at least hold their own. With 

 them as with the weeds nature seems to 

 deal with a kinder hand. She spares 

 and nourishes them, while she destroys 

 their betters. 



256 



