128 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



fall is a good remedy. The flour should be mixed with the 

 pyrethrum overnight. In a small way hand picking may be 

 successfully resorted to. If the worms are troublesome 

 where cabbage is grown on a large scale it is customary to 

 use arsenical poison mixed with flour,- as recommended for 

 the potato bug. The poison cannot be applied in water, 

 as it will not stick to the leaves. These poisons, it is evi- 

 dent to anyone, can be safely applied before the plants 

 commence to head, and recent careful trials and analyses 

 of cabbage thus treated with Paris green show there is 

 very little danger in using it at any stage of the plants. It 

 is the simplest of remedies and effective, yet not dangerous. 

 There are parasites that attack and kill the worms and 

 chrysalises, and Dr. Lugger has shown clearly that they 

 sometimes may be destroyed very rapidly by disease as 

 well as by insect parasites. It is not uncommon to have 

 nearly all these worms die in the latter part of any season 

 from one or both of thes^ causes. 



Cabbage Plusia (Phisia brassicae) . The cabbage plusia 

 eats irregular holes in the leaves, and burrows into the heads 

 of the cabbage. The parent insect is a moth of a dark-gray 

 color distinguished by a silver mark on each wing. The 

 eggs are laid on the upper surface of the leaves singly or in 

 clusters. They soon hatch into pale-green translucent 

 worms, marked with paler longitudinal stripes on the back 

 and sides. When full grown these worms are about two 

 inches long. They resemble span worms in their mode of 

 locomotion, hence are easily distinguished from the cab- 

 bage worm. The full-grown caterpillar spins a cocoon, 

 generally on the under side of the cabbage leaf, in which it 

 undergoes its changes. The insect winters over in the 

 pupal state. The remedies for this pest are the same as 



