Pests and Remedies 125 



successfully with them all summer, and at last 

 the plants are in their full glory of bloom, there 

 arrives a true plague of grasshoppers who veri- 

 tably devour them under our eyes! And then, 

 last of all, when we put them to bed for the 

 winter, there comes a disease to attack the 

 dormant roots which practically ends their use- 

 fulness. 



No, there are plenty of enemies to the dahlia; 

 but fortunately few people have more than two 

 or three of them to attend to. In one locality, 

 that two or three may be quite a different 

 collection from that endured by another garden 

 a few miles away. This may be partly due to 

 climate, but more often to soil or neighbouring 

 plant life. In a garden like mine, for instance, 

 surrounded by the wilderness of virgin forest, 

 the enemies which I must fight are quite differ- 

 ent from those which a friend must look for who 

 lives in a community of carefully cultivated 

 gardens. 



We might divide the enemies into three 

 classes — ^four-legged, six-legged, and those who 

 have no legs at all. I confess there are some two- 

 legged animals who come to my garden when I 

 am not there, and carry off my best blooms — 

 my method of combating them is to invite them 

 to come by day when I am there, that I may have 



