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 miore 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 
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