88 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



the crop. But our most formidable enemy of the insect 

 tribe is that which attacks the roots of the Cabbage fam- 

 ily, causing the destructive disease known as the " club- 

 root." There is a general misconception of the cause of 

 this disease; happily our peculiar location here, gives me 

 the means, I believe, of thoroughly disproving some of 

 these absurd dogmas, that club-root is caused by "hog 

 manure," " heavy soil," " light soil," etc. I do not doubt 

 that "it has appeared thousands of times with just 

 such conditions ; yet, within three miles from the City 

 Hall of New York, I can show to-day, on the classic 

 shores of Communipaw, scores of acres that have been 

 just so manured, both light soils and heavy soils, that 

 have grown Cabbages for twenty consecutive years, and 

 yet, the first appearance of club-root is yet to be seen. 

 On the other hand, I can show on soils, not more than a 

 mile distant from those on the Communipaw shore, where 

 the ground is cultivated in the very best possible manner, 

 and where every variety of manure has been tried, and 

 yet it is impossible to get a crop of Cauliflower or Cabbage 

 clear from club-root for two years in succession. Now, the 

 reason of the immunity from the pest on the one variety 

 of the soil, and not on the other, does not, to us, admit of 

 the slightest particle of doubt. On the shore side, and 

 for nearly a mile inland, there are regular deposits of oys- 

 ter shell, mixed with the soil, almost as we find pebbles in a 

 gravelly soil ; now, our theory is, that the insect which 

 occasions the club-root, cannot exist in contact with the 

 lime, which of course is present in large amount in a soil, 

 containing such abundance of oyster shell. Reasoning 

 from this, we have endeavored to bring up soils deficient in 



