30 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SO as to reach the under surfaces of the leaves, will be found effective. 

 Ten per cent kerosene emulsion is also effective, but occasion- 

 ally injures plants. Where hydrant water under pressure is avail- 

 able, a strong jet from a garden hose will often wash off and destroy 

 the aphides. Reproducing with the same rapidity as the pea louse, 

 this insect must be attacked before it becomes numerous to ensure 

 success. 



Possibly the most serious of our cabbage pests is the root maggot. 

 Frequently plants are found withering and when examined white 

 maggots will be found embedded in the roots. These maggots 

 are the young stage of flies rather smaller than, but nearly related 

 to the house fly, which deposit their eggs in the soil near the stems. 

 Where the eggs are laid in plant beds the maggots are often trans- 

 ported to the field on the young plants. This has been successfully 

 prevented in New York by screening the plant beds with cheese 

 cloth. No entirely satisfactory methods of fighting the pest in the 

 field are known. Many rake the soil up to the plants and then as 

 soon as eggs are found, hoe them away to the middle of the row, 

 where the young maggots perish. But the small white eggs are 

 difficult to see, and this method is but partially successful. Some 

 advocate placing sand which has been saturated with kerosene 

 about the base of the plants. This acts as a repellent to the flies 

 and any maggots which may hatch from eggs laid upon it are 

 killed by the kerosene. If too much such kerosened sand should 

 come in contact with the stem the plant might be injured. Carbon 

 bisulfide has often been used with considerable success. With a 

 dibble make a hole four or five inches from the plant and pour 

 in from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful of carbon bisulfide, and 

 at once close the hole with earth and pack with the foot. The 

 vapor of carbon bisulfide penetrates the soil and will kill most of 

 the maggots. Early planting may sometimes be found of value. 

 It seems that the insect passes the winter in the soil in the pupa 

 stage, so that cabbage planted after cabbage or any other crucifer- 

 ous crop, or near last year's cabbage bed is more badly attacked. 

 Here again fall plowing and rotation is of great importance. 



Only a few representatives of the hundreds of insect pests of the 

 garden have been discussed, but to consider even those fairly com- 

 mon would require a goodly volume. 



