CHAPTER XI 
Farm Practice in RELATION To [NsEcT CONTROL 
To a considerable extent, — more than most of us suspect, — the 
depredations of injurious insects in our fields, orchards, and gardens may 
be reduced or controlled by the farm practice followed on a given place ; 
methods of tillage, crop rotations, and such matters as thoroughness 
in eradicating weeds. More emphasis should be laid on the fact that 
all farm matters, including the tax paid to insect pests, are largely 
interdependent ; that careful consideration given to the subject of prob- 
able insect attack when planning the procedure for a season or a 
series of seasons invariably will pay, and pay well. 
Crop Rotation 
Of these various matters, crop rotation is one of the most important. 
An example will illustrate the point. 
Many insects attack only one kind of plant; say corn, for example, 
or strawberries, or onions. It may always be expected that a few such 
pests will find their way to a field that has been planted to some one of 
these crops. If not very abundant, they may, and probably will, 
pass entirely unnoticed, and the injury that they do will be so slight 
that it may properly be disregarded. 
Now, many or most of these insects spend the winter close by the 
scene of their summer's feeding ; in the ground, under rubbish, or 
elsewhere near at hand. Assume now that this field is planted to the 
same crop the succeeding season. It will start out with an abundance 
of insect enemies, especially adapted to that crop. Instead of an 
injury so small that it passes unnoticed we may have a disastrous attack. 
Again it is well to avoid planting in the same field in successive 
seasons crops that are closely related botanically. Some of our in- 
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