STATE HORTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 37 



found in the entire patch. A. few miles further a small patch of 

 cabbages were, at that time, in the same condition. Six weeks later 

 I noticed in the latter patch a number of small to medium sized heads 

 cleaned of the worms and fit for use. Being led by curiosity to 

 count them, out of 258 I found 175, mostly in the same two rows, 

 fit for use. On inquiring why the majority had headed mostly in the 

 same two rows, I was told that about five cents worth of common 

 black pepper, ground fine and dusted on the cabbages about the last of 

 September, was the cause, and that about twenty-five cents worth ap- 

 plied a week sooner would have saved every head. A few days previous, 

 about fifty miles west of this place, I noticed, in passing the field of 

 a market gardener, that he was taking a load of a fair quality of cab- 

 bages to town, for which he readily found sale. Inquiring why his 

 cabbages had headed as well as they did, he said that about the 

 middle of September, in the entire patch of a few thousands, no 

 cabbage had headed yet ; but this being the time of early frosts, and 

 when caljbage worms pupated for the last time, it gave the cabbages 

 a chance to form what could be called a fair crop. Should this man 

 have fed his entire crop in September it would have been a consider- 

 able loss to him, and other things being equal, I can see no reason 

 why the several acres fed to the sheep would not have come to a fair 

 crop, or even if, like in the case of the small patch where pepper was 

 claimed to have been the cause of saving the few heads, some such 

 cheap and harmless insecticide had been used. I see no reason why 

 half or three-fourths of the crop would not have been better than 

 the meagre profit realized in feeding to sheep, — although better thus 

 than let them go to waste. 



History tells us that in time past a man taking corn to the mill 

 would place the sack on one side of the back of his mule, and stay 

 it there by tying it to a stone equal in weight placed on the other 

 side. Also, that " a law was made by the Irish Parliament, only a 

 little over two hundred years ago, to prohibit the drawing of harrows 

 by the ' tayles ' of horses " ; a practice which was thought to impair 

 the breed of these animals. Strange as these facts may seem, they 

 show that inventive talent has completely revolutionized the process 

 of performing different kinds of work ; " what required the labor of 

 many under primitive methods is now better done by one person 

 with the aid of improved appliances." One of the most experienced 

 market gardeners tells us, concerning this matter, that '' it has been 

 a wonder to many of us who have been workers in the soil for a 

 generation, how some of the simplest methods of culture have not 

 been practised until we were nearly done with life's work." 



There are few of us but have had such experience. Personally, 

 I must say that I never pass through a year but I am confounded to 

 iiti.(\ that some operation cannot only be done quicker, but done 

 better, than we have been in the habit of doing it. 



