CABBAGE AS A FARM CROP 177 



In soils which have been in sod for years, cutworms are fre- 

 quently a great annoyance and quite destructive. Such soils should 

 be plowed in the fall and allowed to remain exposed to the action 

 of the weather during the winter. Land which has been used for 

 hoe crops, such as corn or potatoes, is preferable for cabbage. A 

 new clover sod, however, is not usually infested with cutworms. 



The flea beetle and maggot are the two insects which as a rule 

 are most troublesome. In some instances, the green cabbage worm 

 which appears on the heads at any time during their growth, and 

 which is the larva of the yellow butterfly common to cabbage fields, 

 is sometimes very troublesome. This insect, however, can be suc- 

 cessfully treated with a dilute solution of Paris green or hellebore, 

 or if it is not thought desirable to use such an insecticide, a sprink- 

 ling of bug death will accomplish the same result. 



In latitudes south of New York City, the harlequin cabbage bug 

 is the most annoying and destructive pest of late cabbage. This 

 pest is seldom troublesome on early cabbage, but in some localities 

 and during some seasons breeds sufficiently on the early crop to 

 become extremely annoying to the late crop. These insects are 

 more difficult to destroy than any of those yet mentioned because 

 of the fact that they obtain their sustenance, not by chewing the 

 leaves of the plant they infest, but by sucking its juices. Sucking 

 insects are most difficult to deal with because they cannot be de- 

 stroyed by the use of arsenical poisons. The only alternative there- 

 fore is to destroy them by contact insecticides. But unfortunately 

 a contact insecticide of sufficient strength to destroy the insects is 

 detrimental to the cabbage. The usual method of treating this pest 

 is to provide a decoy crop, such as turnips or preferably mustard, 

 which shall come on in advance of the cabbage and is preferred 

 by the bugs, and then to destroy both the crop and the insects by 

 the use of kerosene applied as a spray. 



The cabbage aphis or louse is sometimes an annoying pest on 

 late cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. Like all other 

 plant lice, it obtains its nourishment by extracting the juices of 

 the plant and can therefore be treated only with contact insecti- 

 cides. It seldom proves troublesome during seasons of abundant 

 moisture, but when there is a period of drought during the cabbage 

 season there is apt to be a scourge of this pest. The use of 



