SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 523 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



Radish Maggots. — Before the Ingham Horticultural Society, Prof. Cook 

 reported the radish maggots unusually destructive, and the nearly related 

 onion and cabbage maggots were doing immense harm this year in Michigan 

 and contigious States. These maggots work just under the ground on the 

 stems, and frequently destroy the cabbage-plants before they are removed 

 from the hot-beds. He said the kerosene emulsion, or bisulphide of carbon, 

 would surely kill these maggots without injuring the plants. Those who 

 had reported that the latter would not do effective work on clay soil, or that 

 it killed the plants, had, without doubt, deferred the application till the 

 plants were beyond hope. The experiments at the college this season showed 

 conclusively that, if carefully applied and used in time, both these substances 

 and gas lime were each a specific against these maggots. This information, 

 could it be known and acted upon, would save thousands of dollars yearly to 

 our country. The substances must be got about the stems of the plants, and 

 that early before the plants were already girdled and tunneled to death. Mr. 

 Lee said that about Detroit the gardeners planted out cabbages in quantity, 

 expecting to lose the most of them. He had tried bisulphide of carbon, and 

 knew it would always work on clay or sand, and would not hurt the plants. 

 He made the hole a little away from the plant. Professor Cook said pour 

 about one half teaspoonful of the liquid into the hole, and fill and pack down 

 at once. The soap and kerosene emulsion could be turned about the plants 

 ad libitum and do them no iujury, while every maggot well immersed was 

 surely killed. 



Peter Henderson details in the Rural New Yorker his method of combat- 

 ting the same enemy : 



To counteract its ravages in our sample grounds, where we test all our 

 varieties of cabbage and cauliflowers, we had until this season dressed the 

 land heavily with oyster shell lime, using at the rate of 150 bushels to the 

 acre, sown on the land after plowing, and then well harrowed in. But this 

 year the man in charge of our trial grounds was absent at the time the 

 ground was being prepared for the cabbage and cauliflower, and the dress- 

 ing of lime was, for the first time in five years, omitted. The cabbage and 

 cauliflower plants, which were strong spring-sown transplanted plants, were 

 set out about the middle of April. They started well, but about the middle 

 of May the droop in the leaf showed that the maggot was at work. We at 

 once scraped the soil from the stem of each plant and dusted lime around 

 it, again drawing the soil up to the stem. In addition to this a good hand- 

 ful of guano was dusted around every five or six plants, or about as thick on 

 the surface of the soil as sand is usually strewn on the floor. 



The application of lime at once arrested the work of the maggots on the 

 stems, and the guano started a quick growth, causing each plant to make 



