382 THE CABBAGE CKOP. 



the deep and extra surface tillage which the crop has 

 received. 



In the neighbourhood of good markets of consumption, 

 as large cities, some of the finer of the " compact-headed " 

 varieties are very profitably cultivated for culinary con- 

 sumption. The yield is generally less in weight per acre, 

 but the money returns far greater than with the field 

 varieties. 1 



The diseases to which the cabbage plant is liable do 

 not appear to be very numerous, or, at any rate, to have 

 received much attention. The only one of a*ny import- 

 ance with which we are acquainted is unfortunately of 

 very common occurrence, and always, in proportion to its 

 vigour, prejudicial to the healthy growth of the plant. 

 This is the peculiar form of disease known as " clubbing " 

 analogous, apparently, with that disease termed "an- 

 bury" in the turnip, to which reference was specially 

 made at p. 316. Formerly this disease was supposed to 

 be the result of injuries inflicted by an insect, the Ceuto- 

 rhynchuspleurostigma, already described, which, punctur- 

 ing the stem just at the crown of the root, deposited its 

 eggs in it, causing in due time those knots or tubercles 

 indicative of the disease, as we see in the galls or excres- 

 cences of the turnip, as figured at p. 324. By others, 

 again, it was attributed to the larvse of the Anthomyia 

 brassicce, or " cabbage-fly." 



There are some peculiar features, in reference to " club- 

 bing/' which in some districts is comparatively rare, 

 while in others where prevalent, it is rather capricious 

 in its occurrence, passing from one garden which it had 

 infested for years, to another, in which it had not during 

 that time been noticed to any prejudicial extent. Yet, 



1 Exhibition Lectures (1851-2), Society of Arts, vol. ii., lecture 1. An instance 

 is given of a crop of 40 tons to the acre being sold at the rate of 6 per ton, 

 equal to 240 per acre under crop. 



