EGARDENING 

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Pesticides in the garden
Part 1: Ancient beginnings
by Catherine Kavassalis 

A priest was going to the grove of old Robigo [the god of mildew],
To offer the entrails of a dog and a sheep to the flames.
I went with him, so as not to be ignorant of the rite:
Your priest, Quirinus, pronounced these words:
‘Scaly Robigo, spare the blades of corn,
And let their tender tips quiver above the soil.
                                              (Ovid. "The Robigalia." Fasti Book 4)

A 17th Century impression of Ovid's Garden

For at least ten millennia, humans have been cultivating plants. We can assume that for just as long, people have had to deal with insects, disease and weeds. Certainly, remedies for blights, vermin and herba inutilis (weeds), appear in the earliest of recorded histories. Over the centuries, mechanical, spiritual, magical, physical and chemical pest deterrents have been tried with varying degrees success.

In the beginning, early peoples had to clear lands of unwanted plants and insects using simple tools and sometimes with fire. The hand picking of weeds and insects was common. In Biblical times, locust collecting was even mandated by law. Of course, this was not always sufficient to ensure healthy crops, so farmers sought alternatives. Across cultures and time, from the ancient Mayans to the early Romans, farmers looked to their god(s) for help. Prayers, offerings and sacrifices were made to various deities in the hope of preventing the ravages of pests and disease. Magic was also tried. But, incantations and folk practices, like burying dead toads or hanging crayfish in the garden, gave only intermittent results.

More consistent results were obtained by observant gardeners who recognized the connections between cultivation practices and garden health. It became evident that the siting of gardens, the preparation of soil (from the improvement of drainage to the use of various fertilizers), and such things as the rotation of crops were critically important. Two millennium ago, the Greeks and Romans recognized the importance of companion planting and the benefits of intercropping (mixed plantings) to reduce pest populations. These scientific gardeners also began to observe that certain plants and minerals were effective pest deterrents. These were the early botanical and chemical pesticides.

A survey of ancient and classical writings shows evidence that inorganic materials and plant products have been used for pest control for many millennia. First records of insecticide use date to 2500 BCE and indicate the Sumerians used sulfur compounds to control insects and mites. Ancient Chinese writing suggests that botanical insecticides like pyrethrum were in use at least as far back as 1200 BCE.   Indeed, by the first century, the ancient Greeks and Romans had set out "the principles of seed treatment, fumigation, tree banding, and the use of preparations to control pests," (Smith and Secoy, 1975, Forerunners of Pesticides). In Naturalis Historia (a collection of 37 books on Natural History published beginning around 77 CE), Pliny the Elder documented many such remedies. For instance, Pliny tells us if grapes are molding to:

...  sprinkle them with ashes and vinegar, or with sandarach [an arsenic compound] ...Cato, too, gives receipts for certain medicaments, ... to prevent the vine-fretter [a caterpillar] from attacking the tree, he recommends that two congii of amurca of olives should be boiled down to the consistency of honey, after which it must be boiled again with one-third part of bitumen, and one-fourth of sulphur; and this should be done, he says, in the open air, for fear of its igniting if prepared in-doors; with this mixture, the vine is to be anointed at the ends of the branches and at the axils; after which, no more fretters will be seen. Some persons are content to make a fumigation with this mixture while the wind is blowing towards the vine, for three days in succession. (17:47, -- Medicaments for trees).

Through trial and error, ancient peoples had discovered that certain compounds like arsenic and sulfur and certain botanicals like pyrethrum were indeed effective pesticides, and are in fact in use today. 

As the Roman civilization declined, so too did the science of agriculture in Europe.  During the Middle Ages, more often than not, religion and magic superseded science. Among the oddities, "there arose in the ninth century the curious and remarkably durable practice of prosecution, excommunication, or anathematization of insects and other animals in ecclesiastical courts of law. Historical records document at least 13 such cases in the 9th through 15th centuries. In the 100-year span of the 16th century, 18 trials were conducted. They then began to taper off, but the practice continued well into the 19th century," (Evans 1906) 

It was not until the17th century, when the likes of Francis Bacon ushered in the Age of Reason, that the art of scientific observation began anew. Progress was slow.  Even though Robert Hooke observed that rust on grains was associated with a fungus in 1667, he did not understand that is was the cause of the disease. Some 180 years later, the great Irish potato famine was generally "blamed on leprechauns and the new railroad locomotive," (Baker. 2001). However, in 1853, when Anton de Bary, a German botanist, proved that a fungus (Phytophthora) was causing the potato blight, public opinion was ready to change. "Disease was no longer viewed as some dark, magical force, but now a biological system involving microorganisms," (Shelton, 2001).

Despite confused beginnings, the Age of Enlightenment dawned. In 1885, a French mycologist, Pierre Alexis Millardet began experimenting with copper sulfate and hydrated lime to control downy mildew on grapes. This so-called Bordeaux mixture became the first commercial fungicide. Around the same time, across the ocean, an American entomologist was experimenting with arsenical compounds like London Purple and Paris Green to control infestations by the Colorado Potato beetle. These were amongst the first commercial insecticides to be widely broadcast on farmers' fields. Old remedies had been rediscovered and thus began a new era of pesticide use.  Part 2 will explore pesticide use in the modern era.

 

May toads nestle in your flower beds and help you tend your beauties in the spring.

 

 

Resources and References and Interesting tidbits:

 

 Interesting quotes and tidbits:

"I adjure you, ye mice here present that ye neither injure me, nor suffer another mouse to do so. I give you yonder field" (here you specify the field, perhaps a neighbour's) but if ever I catch you here again, by the mother of the gods, I will rend you in seven pieces'; write this and stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise, taking care to keep the written side uppermost." (Geoponica xiii) quoted by Powell 1929.

In Rerum rusticarum libri III (Agricultural Topics in Three Books), Varro says, "Steep a wild cucumber in water and where-ever you sprinkle it the bugs will disappear," (Book 1:1)  Note: wild cucumber (presumably Ecballium Elaterium) is known for its pest and disease resistance (Attard and Scicluna-Spiteri, 2003).

It is generally supposed that if seed has been first steeped in wine, it will be less exposed to disease. Virgil recommends that beans should be drenched with nitre and amurca of olives; and he says that if this is done, they will be all the larger. Some persons, again, are of opinion, that they will grow of increased size, if the seed is steeped for three days before it is sown in a solution of urine and water. ...Democritus recommends that all seeds before they are sown should be steeped in the juice of the herb known as "aizoüm,"[sedum or houseleek] ... If blight prevails, or if worms are found adhering to the roots, it is a very common remedy to sprinkle the plants with pure amurca of olives without salt, and then to hoe the ground. (Pliny 18.45 --The best remedies for the diseases of grain)

Democritus has described a method of rooting up a forest, by first macerating the flower of the lupine for one day in the juice of hemlock, and then watering the roots of the trees with it. (Pliny 18.8 --Maxims of the ancients of agriculture)

Fern will be sure to die at the end of a couple of years, if you prevent it from putting forth leaves; the most efficient method of ensuring this is to beat the branches with a stick while they are in bud; for then the juices that drop from it will kill the roots.4 It is said, too, that fern will not spring up again if it is pulled up by the roots about the turn of the summer solstice, or if the stalks are cut with the edge of a reed, or if it is turned up with a plough-share with a reed placed5 upon it. In the same way, too, we are told that reeds may be effectually ploughed up, if care is taken to place a stalk of fern upon the share. A field infested with rushes should be turned up with the spade, or, if the locality is stony, with a two-pronged mattock: overgrown shrubs are best removed by fire. Where ground is too moist, it is an advantageous plan to cut trenches in it and so drain it; where the soil is cretaceous, these trenches should be left open; and where it is loose, they should be strengthened with a hedge to prevent them from falling in. When these drains are made on a declivity, they should have a layer of gutter tiles at the bottom, or else house tiles with the face upwards: in some cases, too, they should be covered6 [p. 4019] with earth, and made to run into others of a larger size and wider; the bottom, also, should, if possible, have a coating of stones or of gravel. The openings, too, should be strengthened with two stones placed on either side, and another laid upon the top. Democritus has described a method of rooting up a forest, by first macerating the flower of the lupine7 for one day in the juice of hemlock, and then watering the roots of the trees with it.(Pliny, CHAP. 8.--MAXIMS OF THE ANCIENTS ON AGRICULTURE.) [Hemlock (Conium maculatum) does suppress plant growth (Hillman, 1977)]

Japanese farmers used Orion as an agricultural symbol (Uchida, 1973; Hara, 1975; Nojiri, 1988). In this lore, the three stars are variously called Awainya Boshi (Millet Stars), Komeinya Boshi (Rice Stars), or Awaine Boshi (Millet and Rice Stars). All of these names relate to seeing Mitsu Boshi as a kind of fulcrum, balancing the yield of rice or millet crops as they move across the heavens. The star Alnilam (Epsilon Ori) is seen as the center of this fulcrum. Mintaka (Delta Ori) being higher or lower than the center indicates the yield of millet; Almitak (Zeta Ori) by contrast represents the yield of rice. In latitudes of Japan, Mitsu Boshi rise in an apparent vertical position. As the three stars move across the sky in the Fall, they appear at an angle that gives rice a strong weight on the balance; this is the time to harvest that grain and plant millet. As the constellation is seen setting in the West in late Spring, Zeta Ori begins to dip lower and lower; this is, of course, the time to harvest millet and plant rice. ( Renshaw, S. and Ihara, S. 1999)

Monet's blindness and Van Gogh's neurological disorders are likely directly related to their use of Paris Green (used as an insecticide during the 1860 potato blight.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Green

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