New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 931 



tards growth and makes the earliest and most profitable market- 

 ing of the crop impossible. Their use has advantages over the 

 use of carbolic-acid emulsion, aside from the greater certainty of 

 protection and liability of the latter to injure the plants. It is 

 easier to apply the pads than to make one application of the emul- 

 sion, and to insure effectiveness of the carbolic acid, repeated 

 treatments are necessary. In using the emulsion, also, the grower 

 is apt to delay treatment too long ; while the pads are best applied 

 as soon as the plants are set and then need no further attention. 



In the past, the tarred-paper disks have been 

 offered for sale at about seventy cents a thou- 

 sand, and they can be made at home for less than this. In our ex- 

 periments on sandy soil, with plants of suitable size, one man was 

 able, without any previous experience, to adjust the pads care- 

 fully at the rate of 300 per hour. On this basis the cost of pro- 

 tecting cabbage will run approximately from $1.35 to $1.50 a 

 thousand plants. The labor cost will vary according to the char- 

 acter and condition of the ground, and the way in which the 

 plants are set. It is difficult to protect properly, by the disks, 

 plants that are set low in the ground or are wilted. 



In the employment of tar-pads as a means of 



Recommendations. , . , ,, , t t t 



protecting early cabbage, truckers should ar- 

 range to transplant seedlings of good size with rather long stems. 

 Disks cannot be satisfactorily adjusted about small plants, for in 

 setting such seedlings it is necessary to place them low in the 

 soil so that only the leaves protrude. Moreover, while transplant- 

 ing it is well to avoid placing the seedling in a depression. This 

 frequently occurs when the work of setting is done by hand, for 

 in making a hole for the roots more earth is removed than is 

 necessary, so that after the operation is completed the plant occu- 

 pies the center of a shallow basin. Tar-pads placed about cab- 

 bages that have been set in such situations are liable to become 

 covered with soil during the first shower, which reduces their 

 efficiency. 



