THE VEGETABLE AND SMALL-FRUIT GARDEN. 385 



decay, and the well-established fact that the cellar air is 

 not favorable for keeping any kind of vegetables in good 

 condition. For amateur use no plan is superior to the 

 dirt-covered cave for this purpose. In section 85 this 

 is recommended for storing orchard-fruit root-grafts, and 

 in section 137 the dirt-covered cave is recommended for 

 keeping early and late winter apples. For the same reasons 

 potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, salsify, and 

 indeed about all vegetables except sweet potatoes will keep 

 without wilting or sprouting in the dirt-covered cave, kept 

 cool by occasional brief opening when the air outside is 

 colder than that in the cave. 



Vegetables will keep as well in pits, but for home use it 

 is not as easy at the North to get to them for family use 

 as when in the cave. Cabbage is best kept outside for late 

 use. The heads are set together on level soil with the root 

 sticking up in a shallow trench, and then lightly covered 

 with earth until the cold is severe at the North, when the 

 earth is increased in depth to eight inches, and still later 

 mulch is covered over the pit to prevent hard freezing. 

 But if frozen and left until they thaw out under cover, 

 they will rarely be injured. But for early winter use some 

 heads can be kept in the cave by burying the roots in a 

 box of sand. 



390. Garden Insects. With a methodic system of rota- 

 tion of crops, fall plowing, and a general cleaning up prior 

 to the plowing, but little trouble with garden insects will 

 be experienced. In many cases insect-eggs are carried 

 over on the stalks of plants. As instances, the cabbage- 

 louse lays eggs on old cabbage-leaves and stalks left in the 

 garden, and it is about the same with the cucumber-beetle, 

 leaf-louse, parsley-worm, and squash-bug. The fall plowing 

 also mainly destroys the cutworms in winter quarters, 

 the root -maggots, and wire-worms. 



