VEGETABLE PLANTS. 49 



try to drive them o,ff by applying something 

 distasteful to them ; but apply the remedy 

 even before the plants are up, to screen them 

 so they will never be found. In addition to 

 these precautions, every thing possible should 

 be done in the way of preparing the seed-bed, 

 and using fertilizers that will cause the plants 

 to come up stout and healthy, with large, green 

 seed-leaves, and keep them in condition to 

 grow as rapidly as possible, so the third leaf 

 may come out before a bug shall find them. 



After the third leaf has made its appearance 

 there is generally but little danger of an 

 attack, especially if there is a supply of younger 

 plants provided for them in the neighborhood. 

 The first, or seed-leaves, of the cabbage are all 

 the bugs seem to have any special liking for. 

 They will, however, usually hang to a mustard 

 plant nearly all summer, so we usually sow a 

 good-sized patch of the white or French mus- 

 tard for their special benefit. We frequently 

 use the same ground for raising plants two or 

 more years in succession, and find that if we 

 clear every trace of cabbage from it as soon as 

 the plant season is over, but few bugs will be 

 found in the vicinity the following spring. 



As these assertions are at variance with the 



