CHAPTER VIII 



The One Insect and One Disease 



The daffodil amateur has a happy lot in 

 the matter of diseases and insects. No 

 green fly to suck the juices, no host of invad- 

 ing bugs to chew up the results of the year's 

 work; nor are there rusts or anthracnose that 

 must be sprayed with poisons. The daffodils 

 flower and ripen their foliage before any of 

 the everyday pests of the garden are awakened 

 for the season. And after that, even, they 

 are comparatively safe, for the bulbs are usu- 

 ally distasteful to moles and mice, which 

 turn to them only when all else fails ; and foli- 

 age nor plants are not relished by either 

 browsing animals or by birds. 



Daffodils may not be immune, however, 

 for the sparrows have made a start. In 

 the spring of 1906, I noticed for the first time 

 that a few of the earliest daffodil flowers 

 were being nipped by these birds. Incident- 

 ally the variety was Early Bird. Daffodil 

 salad evidently was not to their liking, 

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