The Press., 1894-09-27
WEEDS AND WORMS.
A sermon preached at Wilmington, Conn.,, May
 1894. by Rev. CHAs H. BROWN

WEEDS AND WORMS.
 A sermon preached at Willington, Conn, May 1894. by Rev. CHAs. H. BROWN.
 Jonah 4: 7. -"And God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and 1t smote the gourd that it with ered.";!
 have had in mind for some time the consideration of subject that forces it. self upon the attention of everyone that lives in the country. Whoever has had anything to do with farming or gardening has learned that good part of his work Is to fight the foes that threaten the health or life of his plants. The weeds, as general thing, grow far more vigor- ously than the good plants, and, if they be not kept down, will so choke these or so suck up the vitality of the soil that but scant harvest will be obtained. Of more serious import are the insect pests that commit such ravages in our gardens. Almost every plant that we cultivate is subject to their depredations. A bug eats the leaves of one plant and a cater pillar preys upon the tender verdure of another. Another withers, apparently without cause, and it Is found that a worm underground has been gnawing at it's root Nor are the flowers that we cultivate, merely for their beauty and fragrance, free from such ravages. A similar battle has to be fought in their behalf if we are to have any satisfactory results. Otherwise the plant will be the prey of insect parasites and the beauty of the flower will be blighted by the worm drawing at it's heart. But enough has been said to bring before you the fact which is apparent to everyone. The meaning of the fact who, that has had to battle with these insect pests, has not asked9 Doubtless all of you have said time and again, "why were these weeds and worms created just to be a trouble to the farmer and dorist?" What I want to do this morning is to attempt to ans- wer this question. It may be said that our cultivated plants are, to very con- siderable extent, exotics. Elsewhere they may be found growing with all the vigor of weeds with us; but here they are not native to the soil. Far more generally, however, they have been changed by cul- tivation. They have an artificial nature therefore, that can thrive only in an arti- ficial enviroment formed by man. Con- saquentlv when deprived of this enviro- ment they are no equal competitor with the weeds in the struggle for existence. That must happen to them which would happen-to our domestic animals under similar conditions. Thrust out from mans care and supervision into a savage wilderness they would die, being less fit than their wild competitors to obtain food; or they would have a tendency to lose their acquired traits, reverting to the original type from which they have been changed by cultivation. So left to them selves our cultivated plants must be stifed in the mere physical struggle for space and air or will have a tendency to lose all the qualities imparted by cultivation, be- coming, like their wild competitors, mere weeds.
 More to the point is another suggestion that is often offered in this connection. There is always some antidote or means provided in nature lrlfI for the warrding off of foes with which the farmer has to con- tend: T9 keep down the weeds he has simply to use the cqltivator or the hoe, He has some poison, perhaps, that will assure him against the assaults of the in- sect pests that infect his fields and gar den. Thus Paris-green has been found an effectual remedy against the ravages of the potato pug. Some other agent supplies the place of this in battling with other pests. A good part of farming is thus the requirement. of that experience or knowledge that will enable one to ward off from his plants the attacks of the foes that assail them. The farmer, therefore, can no more forego the exercise of intel ligence than can any other class of work CTS. He :lust be continual observer and student of nature. He should have at his command the best results of scien- tific investigation. Otherwise, and it must be ever increasingly so, he cannot look for any large success in his calling. Doubtless many revolt against this con- ception. They would have world where with the least effort and exercise of