Download Insect Pests and Plant Diseases Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Excerpt from Insect Pests and Plant Diseases: Containing Remedies and Suggestions Recommended for Adoption by Farmers, Fruit-Growers, and Gardeners of the Province There is probably no one general method by which the farmer or fruit-grower can do more to protect his crops from insect injury than by clean culture. A large proportion of injurious insects pass the winter under rubbish of many sorts, and the burning of this will destroy them. It is a safe rule, whenever a crop is gathered, to clear off the remnant-s and destroy them as completely as possible. In orchards this recommendation is Of special value. In dead wood on the trees, or on the ground, many species hide or complete their development during the winter. Every dead branch or twig should be cut, and with other rubbish taken out and burned. Loose' bark is of little or no value to a tree, while it affords shelter to many hibernating species. Never leave an Old wood-pile near an orchard. Many insects breed preferably in dead wood, but when it becomes too dry or rotten, they have a sharp instinct that enables them to discover a weak or sickly tree, and this they may attack and ruin, where otherwise it might recover. Fallen or diseased fruit should always be destroyed or fed to hogs. Field and orchard should contain, as nearly as possible, nothing save the crop, and certainly neither rubbish nor remnants. For field crops, a thorough system of crop rotation prevents the multiplication of many insect pests and plant diseases. It is a well established general rule that plants or trees are better able to resist insect attack when in a thrifty growing condition than when weak in vitality; consequently, such fertilisation as will bring about the healthiest growth is desirable. It has long been Observed that some varieties of fruits, vegetables and grains are more subject to insect attacks than others. Consequently, other things being equal, it is advisable to select such varieties for planting. Of mechanical methods, the simplest way of dealing with many insects, is to pick them off by hand; in the garden and home grounds, caterpillars of most kinds may be easily dealt with so, or their nests destroyed, in the case of those having such. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
