34 The Principles of Vegetable -Gardening 



year. It is particularly important to rotate if diseases 

 and insects become serious on any one crop ; and in 

 this case, the greatest care should be taken to select 

 those crops, for the rotation, on which the parasites 

 cannot thrive. For example, the club -root of the cab- 

 bage and cauliflower will work on turnips. Insects 

 and diseases should be starved out in the rotation. 

 There are some insects which cannot be starved out in 

 a small area, and it is then necessary to stop growing 

 the crop for a year or two. The cabbage maggot is an 

 example. If this pest obtains a good foothold in the 

 home garden, cabbages and cauliflowers may be discon- 

 tinued until the insect disappears; and this is often 

 a cheaper solution of the difficulty than to attempt 

 to destroy the insect with the bisulfide of carbon 

 treatment. If one lives on a farm, the cabbage patch 

 may be placed on the farther part of the estate for 

 a year or two. When the maggot has quit the area, 

 the cabbage patch may be made again on the old 

 ground. 



In a family garden of 100 x 150 feet, the rows run- 

 ning the long way of the area, eight or ten feet may be 

 reserved on the borders for asparagus, rhubarb, sweet 

 herbs, flowers, and possibly a few berry bushes. A 

 strip twenty feet wide may be reserved for vines, as 

 melons, cucumbers and squashes. There remains a 

 strip seventy feet wide, or space for twenty rows three 

 and one -half feet apart. This area is large enough to 

 allow of appreciable results in rotation ; and if it is 

 judiciously managed, it should maintain high pro- 

 ductiveness for a lifetime, 



