CHAPTER TWELVE 
OUR RIVALS—THE INSECTS 
Ix will not do to get a too roseate view of country 
life as a sort of escape from worldly anxieties and 
cares. There is no such thing as successful land- 
tillage without brains. Instead of the elbowing of 
city life you will get a keen competition with insects, 
and with a low order of vegetables — both insignifi- 
cant in size, but the only real rivals that man has. 
The battle begins early in the spring, and continues 
until autumn has placed our crops in storage. Even 
after that we are not quite at rest, for all winter long 
you and I, and the birds, will be doing a good deal 
to destroy the homes of worms and insects. 
I have seen more than one man whipped by 
quack, and not a few driven off their farms by po- 
tato beetles and codlin moths. In the concrete, 
these antagonists spoil for the farmers of the United 
States $300,000,000 worth every year — that is, one- 
tenth of all our production. Most of this waste is 
