Chapter VII 
SOME GARDEN VICES 
I ET it not be imagined that a garden is an 
unmixed paradise. On the contrary, gardens 
—^ possess extremely vicious characteristics, as 
well as no small capacity for arousing unpleasing traits 
in the people to whom they belong; you will need, in 
fact, to keep a close watch both on your garden and 
yourself, if you wish to maintain either in approximate 
perfection. 
Some gardens tend to a frantic indulgence in insects 
and worms of the very worst kinds, a habit difficult to 
break, insidious and dangerous. Their capacity for 
outwitting the gardener, together with all the members 
of his household, impressed into a too-often unwilling 
service of extermination, is truly amazing. Here and 
there, for instance, a garden will acquire the cutworm 
habit, and once this is firmly fixed upon it it will display 
endless energy, cunning, and devotion in finding and 
pampering these noxious creatures, yielding to them 
its finest plants and fairest blossoms, sheltering and 
hiding them beyond your utmost skill to discover, 
x +5 
