‘Practical advice should be “Spray as little as you possibly can” rather than “Spray to the limit of
your capacity.”...Pres s ure on the pes t population s hould always be as s light as pos sible.’
Unfortunately, s uch vis ion has not prevailed in the corres pondi ng agricultural s ervices of the
United States. The Departme nt of Agricultu re’s Yearbook for 1952, devoted entirely to insects,
recognizes the fact that ins ects become resistant but says, ‘More applications or greater
quantities of the ins ecticides are needed then for adequate control.’ The Department does not
s ay what will happen when the only chemicals left untried are thos e that rende r the earth not
only insectless but lifeless. But in 1959, only seven years after this advice was given, a
Connecticut entomologis t was quoted in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry to the
effect that on a t leas t one or two ins ect pes ts the last available new material was then being
us ed. Dr. Briejèr says : It is more than clear that we are traveling a dangerous road. ...We are
going to have to do some very energetic research on other control measures, measures that will
have to be biological, not chemical. Our aim should be to guide natural processes as cautiously
as possible in the desired direction rather than to use brute force...
We need a more high-minded orientation and a dee per ins ight, which I mis s in many
researchers. Life is a miracle beyond our comprehe ns ion, and we s hould reve rence it even
where we have to s truggle agains t it...The res ort to weapons s uch as insecticides to control it is
a proof of ins ufficient knowledge and of an incapacity s o to guide the proces s es of nature that
brute force becomes unneces s ary. Humblenes s is in orde r; the re is no excus e for s cientific
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