ON PESTS GENERALLY. I079 



some of our most noxious fruit-pests — the Codlin ^loth to go no 

 further. How, too, pictures of poisoned fruit-consumers and 

 orchard hve-stock were industriously conjured up by those whose 

 business in life seems to be to condemn without trial anything 

 which savours of a new-fangled notion. This, however, has been 

 changed, and there are few fruit-growing centres to-day where 

 the judicious use of such arsenites as Paris Green and London 

 Purple is not in vogue, and gladly welcomed by those responsible 

 for the cultivation of the crops. 



To those even cursorily acquainted with the subject of this 

 chapter it will be patent that to deal in detail with the 

 section known as General Feeders will be a well-nigh impossible 

 task in the restricted space at command. What is aimed at 

 here is rather to enumerate what mav be termed the chief 

 offenders in both the Animal and the Vegetable sections of pests, 

 and to give principles which may be applied practically. No 

 hard and fast line can be laid down, as seasons and other local 

 influences will have to be considered by those who are called 

 upon to fight the pests. The most successful will be those who 

 do not rely on a rule-of-thumb kind of way, but who bring 

 their intelligence to bear in coping with the enemy to whichever 

 section it belon2;s. 



For purposes of this chapter pests may be divided into two 

 broad but well-defined groups — Animal and Vegetable ; for either 

 to one or the other they undoubtedly belong. Of the former a 

 great deal is known ; but of the latter (plant parasites especially), 

 many connecting links in the chain are wanting before they 

 can be successfully controlled. 



Animal Foes. 



These are a host in themselves, though the majority belong to 

 the class Insecta — a class which is so well defined that there is 

 little excuse for the indiscriminate inclusion therein of such 

 creatures as Red Spider, Woodlice, and the true Spiders. 

 Insects may be discriminated in the adult state by the possession 

 of a well-marked head, bearing one pair of feelers : a. fore-body, 

 or thorax, bearing three pairs of legs, and usually two pairs of 

 wings ; and a hind-body, or abdomen, without legs. Spiders proper, 

 and Red Spiders, or Mites, having but two divisions to the body 

 and eight legs (when adult), cannot be properly classed as insects. 



Having determined the species of pest, the first question for the 

 gardener's consideration is "How does it feed?" On the answer 

 the treatment will practically depend. All plant-inhabiting animals 



