116 VEGETABLE GROWING IN NEW SOCfTH WALES. 



As they increase in size, they become slender, bright-green caterpillars 

 (popularly known as " cabbage worms") and rest upon the surface of the 

 leaves, gnawing holes right through them. At first they confine their atten- 

 tion to the larger outer leaves, but as they increase in numbers they gnaw 

 aU through the plant, and if they are allowed to reach this stage the cabbage 

 r cauliflower is soon of no marketable value. The caterpillars are active 

 little creatures, and if touched they roll away or drop from the leaif to the 

 Around, often hanging suspended on a silken thread, and thus they escape 

 their many enemies. When full grown, they betake themselves to the 

 shelter of the under side of the leaf upon which they have been feeding, and 

 spin a lattice-like, elongate, oval cocoon, or rather hammock, of silken 

 strands, securely attached to the leaf, but open at both ends. It is such a 

 flimsy, delicate structure that one can observe the transformation of the 

 insect. At first a green pupa, it changes to dull brown, and finally reveals 

 all the delicate outlines of the coming moth, enclosed in the pupal skin. 



Our cabbage and cauliflower growers in many districts, grow these vege- 

 tables'practically all through the year, the young plants often being set out 

 alongside those ready for cutting, or upon the patches from which the 

 marketable vegetables have been. cut. Thus, with a continuous crop, the 

 cabbage moth can breed all the year round. This is one of the reasons why 

 the cabbage moth is such a serious pest in New South Wales. 



Many growers are not careful enough in seeing that the young cabbage 

 plants which they buy are perfectly free of moth grubs. Anyone going 

 around the Sydney shops when the suburban resident is busy planting his 

 kitchen garden, and there is a brisk demand for cabbage plants, will see 

 plants for sale with their leaves riddled with holes caused by the cabbage 

 moth, and covered with grubs and eggs. 



Unless the young plants in the seed-bed are treated until the time of 

 planting out, they soon attract the moths from old cabbage patches. If all 

 cabbage plants were carefully clipped and washed before they were planted 

 out, they would have a fair start in life, without any aphis, cabbage moth, or 

 other pests infesting them. 



Then again, cabbage and cauliflowers are grown in other fields, and 

 as soon as they are ready, all the marketable ones are cut and bagged. 

 The unsaleable ones are left on the ground, to rot or run to seed, and 

 remain until the owner wants the ground for something else, which may 

 not be for months. This neglected- plot is the breeding-ground for the 

 cabbage moth and all other cabbage diseases, insect, and fungus. 



There is no doubt that the application of boiling water will kill all the 

 grubs with which it comes in contact, without doing any serious damage to 

 healthy plants. It is applied with a watering-can with a fine rose, the 

 operator walking down between the rows and giving each infested cabbage 



