I Begin Work

Then turning to me: "First thing in gardening, Grant, is to look out for your enemies.
You'll never beat them; all you can do is to keep 'em down. Now look
here," he said, picking off a melon leaf and holding it before me,
"What's the matter with that?"

"I don't see much the matter," I said, "only that the leaf looks specked
a little with yellow, as if it was unhealthy."

"Turn it over," he said.

I did, and looked at it well.

"There are a few red specks on it--very small ones," I said.

"Good eyes," he said approvingly. "That's what's the matter, my lad.
You've seen the greatest enemy we have under glass. Those red specks,
so small that you can hardly see them, cover the lower parts of the
leaves with tiny cobwebs and choke the growth while they suck all the
goodness out, and make the yellow specks on the top by sucking all the
sap from the leaves."

"What, those tiny specks!"

"Yes, those little specks would spoil all our melon plants if we did not
destroy them--melons, cucumbers, vines, peaches, and nectarines--
anything almost under glass. But there's your gun and ammunition; load
up and shoot 'em. Never give them any rest."

I looked at him wonderingly, for he was pointing at a syringe standing
in a pail of soapy-looking water.

"Yes," he continued, "that's right--kill 'em when you can. If you leave
them, and greenfly, and those sort of things, alone till to-morrow, by
that time they're turned into great-grandfathers, and have got such a
family of little ones about 'em that your leaves are ten times worse."