VEGETABLE PLANTS. 47 



This is just what we must prevent them 

 from doing a task more easily accomplished 

 than may be imagined. We know almost the 

 exact spot from which they will come out of 

 the ground, so our first care must be to pro- 

 vide food for them and keep them there. For 

 this purpose we sow, on the ground which was 

 occupied the previous summer with cabbage 

 and turnips, as early in spring as possible, a 

 mixture of cabbage, turnip, and mustard seeds. 

 These may be any old, mixed, or doubtful 

 seeds, which are always accumulating, and are 

 of no particular value. Cheap imported cab- 

 bage seeds will here answer an excellent pur- 

 pose, as their only use is for biig food, and after 

 serving their purpose, are to be ploughed under 

 before they breed a second crop. Of course, 

 we must expect an instalment of bugs or fleas 

 from our neighbors' grounds, if we do not pre- 

 vent their coming in some way. 



By sowing our seeds, as we have shown, 

 upon soil and in a vicinity not occupied the 

 previous season by any vegetation of the kind, 

 we have to contend with no fleas except those 

 which come from other quarters. Let us now 

 inquire what causes them to come, or how 

 they are enabled to find our young plants. 



