PLANTS OF THE BRASSICA GENUS. 163 



From one to two pounds of seed per acre will 

 be sufficient. The first mentioned quantity should 

 be ample under average conditions, but it may be 

 necessary sometimes to sow fully twice that amount. 



The time for sowing the seed will depend con- 

 siderably upon the place which is given the crop in 

 the rotation. The young plants are somewhat 

 tender for a time, hence hard frosts in the spring 

 will destroy them. But they will withstand slight 

 frosts without harm. The seed should not be sown, 

 therefore, much sooner than the regular season of 

 corn planting. There may be instances where the 

 crop sown thus early will mature too soon to best 

 serve the end for which it was grown. When plants 

 reach a maximum growth in hot weather, many of 

 the outer leaves wither and are lost as food. Sow- 

 ing should not be done at a period so late as to 

 hinder the crops from making good heads, since the 

 food value lies more in the head than in any other 

 part of the plant. But this crop may, with more 

 propriety than some others, be sown somewhat late, 

 owing to the great power which it has to continue to 

 grow in the late autumn^ 



Should the small black beetle (Epitrix spec.) 

 attack the plants when young, they ought to be 

 dusted promptly, and while the dew is yet on, with 

 air-slaked lime and wood ashes. And should the 

 plants suffer later from the attacks of the cabbage 

 worm (Pieris rapae, Linn.) they ought to be sprayed 

 once or twice with kerosene emulsion or paris green. 

 Paris green would be the more effective application 

 of the two and there will not be any real danger in 

 using it thus when the cabbage are not to be fed for 



