IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 435 



Plant cabbages two or three feet apart, according to the kind of 

 cabbage. I put mine ao close that the last time through the culti- 

 vator breaks otT some of the leaves. The Dwarf Champion tomato 

 suits me the best, yields well, is early, bears good showy fruit and 

 can be picked more easily than those with larger vines. It should be 

 planted close enough to entirely cover the ground at maturity. 

 Ground cherries should be planted the same as tomatoes, putting 

 one-half of the plant in the ground, if tall when setting out, to give 

 them plent}' of roots. They, like tomatoes, throw out roots the whole 

 length of that part put in the groufid. Some of you may think I am 

 putting my plants too close together, but it seems to be a provision 

 of nature for the earth to be covered with vegetation, and if the 

 grower does not plant close enough weeds of all kinds will spring 

 up until the ground is covered. 



There is a great deal said about mulching but the true mUlch is 

 the crop you raise. Go to the forest where the trees are close enough 

 together to shade (mulch) the ground, and when it does rain the 

 moisture is kept until the trees need it. So it is in the potato patch; 

 when the plants cover the ground it will be found cool and moist 

 under the vines; where a few hills are missing, you will find weeds 

 growing. When rows are wide apart, it is the same. So follow na- 

 ture and plant close enough to cover the ground when the plant is 

 about full grown. 



The Plum, or Peach, CukCULIO is a native American insect, and 

 is the chief enemy of all our choicest stone fruits. The perfect in- 

 sect is a small, rough, brownish beetle, with some markings of shin- 

 ing black and ochre yellow. It is about one-fifth of an inch long, 

 quite stout and with its beak and legs folded close to its body bears 

 a close resemblance to a dried bud of the peach or plum. Its small 

 but sharp jaws are on the end of a stout, curved beak. It comes out 

 of its winter quarters early in the spring, and feeds sparingly on the 

 opening leaf buds. Shortly after the young peaches or other 

 fruits are formed, its work will be found upon them. Two sorts of 

 punctures may be noticed; one a simple cut through the skin for 

 the purpose of feeding upon the llesh underneath, the other larger 

 and deeper, accompanied by the crescent-shaped slit, which marks 

 the position of the egg. The cavity for the latter being prepared, 

 the insect reverses its position and drops into it a single pearly white 

 egg. The crescent is then cut, partly encircling it, apparently for 

 the purpose of deadening the little llap, in order that the delicate 

 egg may not be crushed bj^the too rapid growth of the fruit cells. 

 The curculio is a long-lived insect, and the females continue the 

 process of egg-laying at the rate of from two to live a day for a per- 

 iod of six weeks or two months, and, thoufifh but single-brooded, 

 their period of activity is so long that their larvii' will be found in 

 all but the latest varieties of peaches atid plums, and even these will 

 often be seriously marred by punctures made in feeding. 



This insect hibernates in the perfect state around buildings and 

 under the loose bark of forest trees or any other convenient shelter. 

 The best remedies are trapping in the early spring by means of 

 chips and cobs placed upon the careful!}- smoothed earth around the 

 trees and bj' jarring from the trees upon cloths or in the regular 

 curculio catcher. Sprajing with the arsenites has not proved suffi- 

 ciently successful to warrant its advocacy in the case of this in- 

 sect. — Report Mo. State Horticultural Society, 1895. 



