CHAPTER IX 



GARDEN FOES AND GARDEN FRIENDS 



On every stem, on every leaf, and on both sides of it, and at the root of 

 everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of a gnat, 

 caterpillar, aphis, or other expert. — Oliver Wendell Holmes 



A gardener tries to give to the plants for which he has 

 become sponsor ideal conditions, as nearly as possible. He 

 conspires with them against other eager organisms which, by 

 shading them from the sunshine and eating up their food, 

 would like to crowd them out. What would be bounteous 

 living for a single plant, expanding in symmetry and beauty, 

 would, when divided among a lot of little plants, scarcely 

 afford to each more than a starvation diet. So a gardener 

 must, first of all, provide for his plant children plenty of elbow 

 room, and then he must put within their reach such infant 

 foods as will best bring forward the individual quality, or what 

 might be called the specialty, of each. His aim is not to pro- 

 duce examples of all-round perfection, but plants which do 

 great things in some one line, as in flavor, beauty, or food 

 value. A crispy leaf, for example, is the specialty of lettuce, 

 and a tart, juicy .stem that of rhubarb. 



A good many plants not offered in the catalogues may 

 really have as great intrinsic value as those on the seedsman's 

 preferred list, although we call them weeds. Nobody can say 

 with any truth, " Once a weed, always a weed." The humblest 

 members of the vegetable kingdom may .some fine day be 

 found sitting in high places. In our grandmother's time, for 

 instance, so delicious a fruit as the tomato was looked upon 



127 



