AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



103 



plants of turnips and cabbages, sometimes eating them entirely 

 Fig. 66. off before the third leaf is formed. When 

 prevailing, they destroy with equal prompt- 

 itude the plants in a small seed bed or a 

 breadth of acres. 



Soaking and stirring the seed in sulphur 

 water, and rolling the surface after sowing, 

 have been recommended as preventives, as 

 a, natural size ; 6, magni- well as the sowing of ashes and plaster upon 

 the young plants ; and where the turnip crop 

 is esteemed, they are sometimes caught in the throat of a light 

 bag, made with a pronged frame in the fashion of a shrimp- 

 net, which is carried steadily over the surface of ,the land in 

 precisely the same manner as the shrimp-net is carried over 

 the flats. But as it is a short-lived pest, it is generally better 

 to dig or plow the ground a second time, and resow the crop, 

 taking care to give it a vigorous start. 



For this purpose, few things will be found more efficient than 

 coating the seed thoroughly with common whale oil, and dry- 

 ing it off with plaster immediately before sowing, taking care 

 to cover it completely but lightly, and gently roll the ground, 

 or beat it moderately with the back of the rake. 



GRASSHOPPER. 

 ACRYDIUM FLAYOVITTATUM. 



Fig. 67. 



Natural size. 



Once in a series of years, particularly in certain localities, 

 grasshoppers become a resistless scourge, consuming every young 

 green crop ; but in ordinary seasons the garden may be defend- 



