The Garden Book, a Popular Treatise on the Growing of Vegetables Under Both Home and Market Conditions (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1915. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII Insects and Diseases So much has been said and written during the last fifteen years about various methods of combating insects and diseases that it seems hardly justifiable to take up space with what must necessarily be a very brief and incomplete treatment. Entire books have been written about the pests affecting different groups of plants. Bulletin after bulletin by the various experiment stations has been published upon the subject, and one can scarcely pick up a horticultural or farm paper without finding some article having to do with the injury done by some insect or disease and the remedy for the same. Too much emphasis has been placed on mere methods of treatment and too little upon the necessity for some knowledge of the insect or the disease itself. The nature and habits of the M organism are usually unknown, the form in which the insect does its damage and the manner of its attack are likewise unfamiliar. The result is that much of the spraying done in the past, and even at the present, is mere guesswork. Insecticides and fungicides of various kinds are applied when it happens to be inconvenient to do other work and in many cases the wrong organism is blamed for the damage being done. Under these conditions treatment is unsatisfactory, and the grower becomes discouraged in every effort to fight the common pests. With so much available information as to the kinds of materials to use and their exact methods of application some brief discussion of the more fundamental things usually neglected will be more to the point. The importance of the subject, however, seems to justify some further discussion of the insect and disease problem from the larger standpoint. There can be no question but what insects and diseases are much more common at the ...