1892.] ESSAYS. 169 



freely to make them strong and stocky, and take the glass oif 

 of them for about two weeks before setting them in the 

 field ; set them in rows three and a half feet apart and 

 from one and a half to two and a half feet apart in a row. 

 Henderson's early summer is one of the very best varie- 

 ties for all seasons unless it is for winter, and I think it 

 would prove equally desirable for winter if it was sown late 

 enough so they didn't get too ripe. They grow very quick, 

 I have had them fit for market in less than three months from 

 sowing the seed, the early ones can be followed by squashes or 

 pickling cucumbers by planting between the rows in June, or 

 the ground can be sown with winter spinach after the cabbages 

 are cleared off. Cabbages are the prey of various pests that 

 render them difiicult to raise sometimes. The best remedy I 

 have ever found for them is high manuring and thorough culti- 

 vation, so as to stimulate a quick and rapid growth ; this will 

 usually carry the crop through with little injury if attacked, 

 and they are less liable to be troubled than if the growth is 

 slow. With cabbages as with most crops the small number 

 grown by the amateur suffer far more than the large 6elds. The 

 black fly is the first enemy to put in its appearance. Air 

 slaked lime sprinkled on the plants is an effectual remedy ; the 

 next enemy and by far the worst that we have to deal with is 

 the maggot in the root. This is caused by a fly similar to the 

 house fly which deposits its eggs close to the stalk of the plant ; 

 as soon as they hatch, the maggot bores into the stalk and down 

 to the roots and sometimes ruins whole fields. 



One remedy is to go through the field and with the hands brush 

 the eggs away, another is by hilling them up at the proper time 

 so as to start out new roots, but the best of all is to have large 

 strong plants to set in a highly manured field the last week in 

 April or the first of May, use phosphate in the hill and always 

 cultivate and hoe the crop in the morning or on dull cloudy days 

 and do it often. 



Beets are a very important crop and are in demand the 

 year round ; but the profit to be derived from them I think 

 has fallen off more in the last ten years than on most any other 

 vegetable. The 1st to the 4th of July used to be very early 



