25 —On Pests 



By 

 W. D. Drury, 



Generally. 



So manifold are the foes of cultivated plants, and so com- 

 plicated the life-histories of the majority, that when their 

 numerical strength and peculiarities are seriously considered one 

 wonders that the average garden yields such a good return as it 

 does. In this country economic entomology and plant pathology 

 are yet in their infancy, though there arc evidences that a know- 

 ledge of them, elementary though it be, is not only eminently 

 desirable but absolutely necessary to present-day gardeners. At 

 one time comparatively little was heard of pests, and any falling 

 off in crops was put down to errors in treatment, or oftener 

 perhaps to certain weather influences which were popularly sup- 

 posed to be conducive to "blight." Then, again, it must not be 

 forgotten that fifty years or so ago the amount of garden land 

 under cultivation was infinitesimal compared with what exists to-day. 

 America and several Continental nations are far ahead of us 

 in their knowledge of .pests and the best means of keeping 

 them under control. We seem to suffer severely from that 

 peculiar prejudice against anything new which is characteristic 

 of many who till the soil, and until such has been broken 

 down, or considerably modified, we shall continue to play second 

 fiddle to more go-ahead nations. As an instance of this 

 prejudice one has but to think of the cold water which was 

 thrown upon the efforts of those teachers of a decade or so 

 ago who ventured to suggest the use of arsenites in dealing with 



