CABBAGE AND TURNIP-GALL WEEVIL. 37 



deeply buried) in due time the beetles, with the help of their 

 long boring beaks, will come up through the ground all well 

 and strong ; so that if Cabbage is planted over the buried 

 stocks, it is most conveniently placed for the supply of the 

 new brood. This may seem an overdrawn statement, but 

 such treatment and results are only too true. 



In common garden cultivation the old plants might easily 

 be got rid of by throwing them to the pigs, or into a farm- 

 yard where the grubs (if they came out) would be choked in 

 wet manure. In field cultivation, where the stocks are 

 cleared by the cart-load, it would be desirable to burn them, 

 or shoot them into a field-pond away from houses where the 

 smell would not cause annoyance, although it would hardly 

 be worse in this way than when the old stocks lie rotting in 

 heaps. But wdiatever is done, it should be done at once, 

 before the maggots have time to leave the galls. 



Eotation with other crops is the best cure, but where 

 Cabbage (including under this term Rape, Cauliflowers, 

 Brussels-sprouts, or other plants of the Cabbage tribe, wild 

 or cultivated, that are liable to this infestation) must be con- 

 stantly grown, then the best application to the land appears 

 to be gas-lime. 



With regard to amount of gas-lime that can be safely used, 

 and the time of application, it should be laid on arable land 

 when clear of crop in autumn or winter, and allowed to be 

 exposed to the air for at least four weeks before being 

 ploughed in. Thus, by exposure to the air, the nature of the 

 lime, which at first does good by its acrid properties, killing 

 what is subjected to it, is so altered that it is changed to 

 sulphate of lime, a manure suitable for all land on which 

 gypsum is of use, and especially serviceable to many legu- 

 minous crops and Turnips. 



The quantity mentioned by Dr. Voelcker as safe is two tons 

 per acre, applied as above ; but the further amount that is 

 desirable depends on the strength of the gas-lime, the nature 

 of the soil, and other points as nature of succeeding crop, 

 and time that can be allowed for the caustic gas-lime to be 

 exposed. Those who wish to go into the nature and uses 

 of gas-lime as an application to the soil will find excellent 

 observations in Dr. Voelcker's four-page leaflet, of which the 

 title is given below.* 



Gas-lime has been found useful for clearing infested 

 ground, applied broadcast and pointed-in, or as a dressing 



* " On the Composition and Use of Gas-lime in Agriculture," by Dr. Augustus 

 Voelcker; four iDages. Reprinted from the Journal of 'Gas-lighting,' etc. 

 Printed by W. King and Sell, 12, Gough Square, Fleet Street, London. 

 (Probably procurable on application or through a bookseller). 



