514 
From what we know, therefore, of the fertility of particular 
vines, or particular parts of grape vines, it is evident that selection 
enables us to eliminate from a vineyard all unproductive stock by 
means of grafting, or avoid reproducing undesirable features shown 
in the parent vine. 
INSECT AND FUNGOID PESTS. 
TREATMENT AND REMEDIES. 
Until of late years little or no attention was paid to the damage 
caused by insect and fungoid pests to cultivated crops. 
In the old days of farming and fruitgrowing pests were re- 
garded in the light of an unavoidable calamity, and a visitation of 
Providence; their nature was shrouded in mystery, or they were 
either entirely unknown in some parts of the world, or else were 
often met with, under a mild form, in certain localities; a great 
many, by transplantation to surroundings somewhat dissimilar to 
those by which they were influenced in their original habitat, have 
subsequently developed more pronounced and distinct characteristics, 
and have consequently forced themselves to the notice of cultivators. 
These so-called new pests, either insects or fungi, are as ancient 
as the world, and although they are greatly influenced by their im- 
mediate suroundings, by the food at their disposal, the climate in 
which they live, by the enemies they have to contend with, and by 
many other circumstances of various nature, they nevertheless spring 
from parent individuals in every respect like themselves. 
Every season, almost, we hear of the appearance of new pests, 
and it is more than likely that, for a great number of years to come, 
the list, already formidable, of the sorts of insects and fungi that 
invade and prey on our crops will gradually be made longer still, 
by the addidtion of more unwelcome enemies. 
Various factors combine to bring about this undesirable state 
of things. 
In the first instance, we have seen that new conditions of life 
may develop propensities of a distinctive nature; or, again, the 
partial extermination of some parasites of these pests, either owing 
to unfavourable surroundings or the use of insecticides, by break- 
ire the balance of nature, may insure the preponderance, to an 
alarming degree, of certain species of pests. By the constant and 
more rapid interchange, on the other hand, of plants, fruits, seeds, 
and cuttings of all sorts of ornamental, economic, or useful plants, 
from all parts of the world, many of the parasites of plants have 
been widely disseminated, without, in a great many instances, their 
own particular parasites having been brought with them; and thus 
the appearance of hitherto unknown pests is accounted for in 
countries until then free from them. 
