"EVERY plant that the farmer, gardener and fruit grower cultivates is subject to the attacks of one or more of these parasitic foes. The grape alone has more than fifty of these pests, and it is a wonder that we are able to grow this choice fruit at all! More than two hundred and fifty species live upon the apple, and it is very probable that fully one-third of these are positively injurious." It seems strange that we have never known until within the present generation how many are the enemies of the agriculturist. We have attributed our failures to Providence and the weather, or if we could find no better reason we have laid them to the moon. Now we are finding out that obscure failure is due to some definite and individual agency, and that agency is oftenest a fungus or an insect; and we are looking so sharply for these insidious foes that we are discovering the causes of failures in which they have no share. We sometimes think that the greatest good which this increasing knowledge of fungi can bring is the sharpening of our wits.

It is certainly a great educator, even to the man who knows nothing about fungi; he is led to look rather than to guess.

"Despite the fact that these microscopic foes have destroyed our crops for years, causing annual losses of millions of dollars, no intelligent attempt worthy of note was made to investigate them until within the past ten years. Five years ago practically nothing had been done in this country toward checking their ravages; in fact, it is only during the past three years that anything like a systematic effort in this direction has been put forth." It is stimulating to live in this new era of inquiry. We are picturing to ourselves the time when the greatest perplexities of the farmer will be overcome, and most of us even hope to live until that time. Certainly every year marks great progress. No doubt this uncompleted year has itself seen greater progress than has been made in some entire centuries. But we must not expect too much. To-day a scientist discovers a new enemy, and to-morrow the world is demanding a remedy for it; and if perchance the remedy is not forthcoming, demand warms into complaint and impatience.

We know that there is more than one experimenter who hesitates to announce a discovery unless he can announce its "practical" bearings or utilities at the same time.

The public seems to say that it is better not to find an enemy than to find him and not dispatch him forthwith. All this is a direct and positive hindrance to investigation. The truth must be discovered before it can be applied.

We should not be impatient if we cannot find remedies for all our ills. Progress is rapid, perhaps rapid enough. It is better to feel our way in a measure, for thereby we avoid costly mistakes. We are making the acquaintance of our friends and foes, and the more we learn of them the more completely can we control them. The farmer and horticulturist must get themselves into line with this new work. Most of them are not yet able to comprehend it fully. We expect that results will come as fast as people are ready to apply them. The investigators are now far ahead of the practicers. The majority of fruit growers are still asking how to kill the codlin moth !