18 CABBAGES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 



PROTECTING THE PLANTS FROM THEIR ENEMIES, 



As soon as they have broken through the soil, an enemy 

 awaits them in the small black insect commonly known 

 as the cabbage or turnip fly, beetle, or flea. This insect, 

 though so small as to appear to the eye as a black dot 

 is very voracious and surprisingly active. He apparently 

 feeds on the juice of the young plant, perforating it with 

 small holes the size of a pin point. He is so active when 

 disturbed that his motions cannot be followed by the 

 eye, and his sense of danger is so keen that only by 

 cautiously approaching the plant can he be seen at all. 

 The delay of a single day in protecting the young plants 

 from his ravages will sometimes be the destruction of 

 nearly the entire piece. Wood ashes and air-slaked 

 lime, sprinkled upon the plants while the leaves are 

 moist from either rain or dew, afford almost complete 

 protection. The lime or ashes should be applied as 

 soon as the plant can be seen, for then, when they are 

 in their tenderest condition, the fly is most destructive. 

 I am not certain that the alkaline nature of these affords 

 the protection, or whether a mere covering by common 

 dust might not answer equally well. Should the covering 

 be washed off by rain, apply it anew immediately after 

 the rain has ceased, and so continue to keep the young- 

 plants covered until the third or fourth leaves appear, 

 when they will have become too tough to serve as food 

 for this insect enemy. 



A new enemy much dreaded by all cabbage raisers will 

 begin to make his appearance at about the time the flea 

 disappears, known as the cut-worm. This worm is of 

 a dusky brown color, with a dark colored head, and 

 varies in size up to about two inches in length. He 

 burrows in the ground just below the surface, is slow of 



