CHAPTER XII 



INSECT AND FUNGOID ENEMIES OF GARDEN CROPS 



PROBABLY every plant supplies either food or shelter or both 

 to one or more insects or other animals and fungi, and where, 

 as in the farm garden or orchard, plants are growing in greater 

 numbers than is the case on land not cultivated, the abundance 

 of the food or shelter thus provided encourages the multiplication 



of objectionable guests. In 

 the United States of Amer- 

 ica, where fruit plantations 

 frequently extend to hun- 

 dreds of acres, it is a matter 

 of life and death for the 

 fruit grower to take all 

 possible precautions against 

 a fungus or insect obtaining 

 a foothold on his planta- 

 tions. In this country, 

 generally speaking, crops 

 are not cultivated on so 

 large a scale, and the neces- 

 sity for combating the 

 spread of insect and fungoid enemies is not yet fully and generally 

 recognised, although the losses yearly in one crop or another are 

 sufficiently serious. 



In order to wage war successfully with plant pests it is 

 essential to possess a complete knowledge of the life-history of 

 the pest, so as to know where it is lurking at each stage of its 

 existence, and at what stage it can best be attacked. The number 

 of such pests is considerable ; probably many have not yet been 

 recorded, and in the case of many of those which have been 

 recognised as causing injury to crops, we are not yet in possession 



180 



FIG. 72. The Winter Moth. 



