82 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



finely-powdered lime dusted over is beneficial. When 

 the plants are hearting in, or approaching maturity, 

 the safest and at the same time efficient remedy is 

 to dust fine table salt freely over the leaves and the 

 centres of the plants when they are moist. 



Cabbage Moth (Mamestra brassicce). The cater- 

 pillars of this pest feed on the leaves, and also bore 

 their way into the centres of the cabbage and cauli- 

 flower, the late summer and autumn crops being 

 most attacked. 



Apply the same treatment as for Cabbage Butter- 

 flies. In both cases hand-picking the caterpillars 

 is excellent. 



Cabbage Root Fly (PhorUa brassicw). This is the 

 most destructive pest of the cabbage family, and 

 the most difficult to combat successfully. The eggs 

 are laid in the soil close to the stems of the plants, 

 and the maggots which hatch out crawl down and 

 destroy the roots, afterwards tunnelling into the soft 

 tissues of the stems. There are two or three broods 

 in the year, and the winter is passed in both the 

 pupal and larval state in the soil and at the roots c^f 

 cruciferous plants. Affected plants assume an un- 

 healthy colour, and on being uprooted a number of 

 maggots may be seen at the base of the stem. These 

 plants should be carefully dug up and the grubs 

 destroyed. 



Treatment. Insecticides are of no avail once the 

 plants are attacked, and the main thing is to prevent 

 egg-laying in the first instance. As far as possible 

 planting cabbages in autumn, for succession, should 

 be practised, as these plants are more resistant the 

 following season than the spring-planted ones. When 



