8 
In the matter of control of injurious insects, I think also we are rather 
apt to overestimate the actual effort made. It is undoubtedly true that, 
as a general rule, in this country, and still more so abroad, no steps 
are taken by the ordinary farmer, fruit raiser, or trucker to destroy or 
prevent the presence of noxious insects. Yet I believe it to be true as 
a rule that such farmer or trucker is successful if he cultivates well, 
selects his varieties intelligently, and makes a careful study of the 
marketing of his products. 
Professional economic entomologists are practically limited to our 
own generation, but insects destructive to cultivated plants are not of 
recent origin, nor are the conditions which are supposed to be so favor- 
able to unusual multiplication of injurious species characteristic only 
of modern methods of culture. From the time man first began to till 
the soil and practice the arts of agriculture and horticulture, have 
special plants been grown in masses together, often two or three only, 
over whole provinces or countries to the exclusion of everything else, 
and such special cultures have been going on uninterruptedly for two 
or three thousand years in many places, as witness the olive orchards of 
southern Spain, Italy, and Syria, and the culture of the grape and the 
citrus fruits in different parts of the Old World. Instead of being 
despoiled by insects, as might be supposed in-accordance with modern 
ideas, the cultures cited are as successful to-day, if not more so, than 
at any time in the past, and in fact are often much freer from insect 
damage than recent plantings in newer parts of the world, and this in 
spite of the fact that, as a rule, nowhere are any special steps taken 
to control or prevent insect depredations. 
Coming to our own times, fruit raising is just as successful in Cali- 
fornia, Italy, and Spain to-day as it was before the growth of com- 
merce introduced into each of these countries many new insects. Not 
one of us, also, can recall a time when he suffered for the lack of the 
necessaries or the luxuries of life on account of insects. We have the 
San José scale, the Hessian fly, the imported cabbage worm, and fifty 
other pests from abroad; we have such important native pests as the 
Colorado potato beetle and the chinch bug; yet the production of crops 
particularly affected by these insects proceeds with little apparent check 
therefrom. Occasionally an individual will suffer severely, but as a rule 
it will be found that it is the result of his own neglect or ignorance, 
and whenever there has been an absence or scarcity of any particular 
vegetable, fruit, or other product of the soil, the cause as a rule has 
not been the fikect enemies, but some other adverse condition much 
more universal and fandamentale 
The writer grew up in the great western corn and wheat belts t the 
home and headquarters of the chinch bug, and the first region to be 
visited by the Colorado potato beetle, and early afflicted also by the 
Hessian fly, and yet in twenty years’ experience a farm was never 
known to be completely devastated by any of these pests. Two or 
