GARDEN FOES AND GARDEN FRIENDS 



135 



Fortunately, such serious disasters do not happen every 

 season, or a gardener would probably become a pessimist. 

 Looked at from the point of view of science, there is for 

 even these troubles some small compensation. They offer a 

 wide field for biological study. Few animal types are more 

 interesting than insects, or better worth children's attention. 

 The cycle of life through which these tiny creatures pass 

 may be watched with keen interest. Children like to con- 

 struct insect cages in which a whole life drama from egg to 

 adult can be enacted. Naturally in these cages the normal 

 condition will be imitated as nearly as possible ; and after- 

 wards many variations in food, temperature, and light can be 

 tried. They may study the cutworm too, contrasting it with 

 our benefactor the earthworm, as well as aphids, or plant lice, 

 the San Jose scale, and the tomato worm. To this list will 

 probably be added other forms, such as the garden slug 

 and the mosquito. 



Our enemies having been vanquished, in theory at least, 

 and the question settled as to who's who in the garden, let us 

 now turn to a study which is just as profitable and infinitely 

 more cheering. This consists in getting acquainted with 

 animals which distinctly benefit the garden. There are some 

 "beasties" which a garden really could not live without. Of 

 course, a gardener will learn not only to recognize and protect 

 these, but deliberately to cultivate them. 



There are insects whose very life work, so it would seem 

 to a casual observer, consists in saving a farmer from pests. 

 One of these, to which he might well take off his hat, is the 

 ladybird, or lady beetle. This little creature's' food is chiefly 

 plant lice. Any one who will watch it for a short quarter 

 of an hour, industriously disposing of hundreds of aphids, is 

 sure to become its ardent admirer. The lady beetle is never 

 daunted. She lays her clusters of yellow eggs, bold as a lion, 



