130 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
tissues of other plants. These fungi include the scabs, the 
smuts, and the blights. They do not sound pretty ; nor are 
they. Each fungus falls upon its own pet victims. Potatoes 
are commonly attacked by a scab which appears sometimes 
on the tuber itself and sometimes on the soil surrounding it. 
This is easily recognized. If the scab is already established 
upon the potato, a good sun bath given to a pile of potatoes 
all ready for planting will work a cure. Potato plants suffer 
from a blight also. This blight looks like a white mildew, 
and it may be detected on the stem and leaves. Celery too 
suffers from a blight or rust, and so do beans. On beans 
the rust attacks both leaves and pods in wet weather, so one 
must never brush against them when they are covered by 
dew. Various sprays are recommended for driving away the 
villains ; Bordeaux mixture is one. Corn smut is a serious 
malady which takes the form of a swelling that may appear 
on any part of the plant system. Underneath the silvery 
white coating there will be noticed a black mass filled with 
fibers. Get rid of these at all costs, lest they spread. Burning 
is the only sure way. 
Every plant, moreover, has its insect followers. But again 
no gardener, amiable though he may be, will voluntarily go 
shares with animals, who, like himself, enjoy a delicious salad. 
To be sure, since many of us, men and beasts, have such 
similar gastronomic tastes, it is not becoming in humankind 
to be too supercilious. And yet it is fair play to get ahead of 
these insects if you can. Sometimes the game is ours ; not 
infrequently it is theirs. It is a significant comment that in 
all probability not a single pest wrestled with by man, since 
he came to abide on this eaith of ours, has ever been stamped 
out. At the present time six hundred million dollars’ worth, 
at the very least, of foodstuffs in the United States is being 
destroyed yearly by insects. It really amounts to paying a 
