April, ’24] 
SAFRO: PRICK OF INSECTICIDES 
239 
program may be greater than the value of the crop and still be not only 
not prohibitive but economically obligatory. 
i 
What is meant by “cheaper insecticides”—another term that is very 
frequently used and regarding which there is considerable uncertainty 
as to its meaning. There must, of course, always be a search for cheaper 
insecticides; and furthermore, the search for new insecticides must con¬ 
tinue regardless of present prices of materials. 
Home manufacture is frequently suggested. If a fruit grower can 
save fifty percent of the cost of lime-sulfur by making it himself rather 
than by purchasing the manufactured article, is it necessarily a cheaper 
insecticide to him? Assuming allowance has been made for the labor 
value of the growers time, the fuel in cooking and such other usual 
items of expense that must necessarily be included in any study of 
comparative costs, another factor of considerable importance is yet to 
be reckoned with—and a factor that is too often entirely overlooked— 
this is the factor which for the lack of a more accurate name may be 
called ‘ ‘ convenience. ’ ’ 
The economic factor of convenience must not be underestimated. 
It is the direct motive for that specialization in human activities that 
is characteristic of modern civilization. What is its value to the 
individual? Its value is exactly what that individual is willing to pay 
rather than have to do without. 
An attitude of resentment can at times be detected on the part of 
the present generation of fanners toward the reactionary tendency of 
agricultural writers to base their recommendations on premises that 
were not questioned several generations ago; and it is proper for the fann¬ 
er today to resent the assumption that he is not a seeker after comfort—- 
whatever that term may imply—or that his economic ideas are so 
undeveloped that he is willing to place his bodily labors always lowest 
in the scale of economic values. 
This factor is repeatedly ignored in official publications. The modern 
American idea of contingent success is independence. This may mean 
an opportunity to be lazy, it may mean an opportunity to ride a hobby, 
but whatever it does mean the underlying thought is that it places the 
individual in a position where he does just what he pleases to do even 
though the fact of its pleasure may depend upon whether the work in 
question is voluntary or obligatory. 
When a grower is strongly urged to make his own lime-sulfur it may 
not always solve matters to suggest that this can be done during the 
winter, and therefore, should be undertaken by the farmer in order to 
