THE GROWING OF THE VEGETABLE PLANTS 457 
sown directly where the plants are to stand. For early onions, 
however, the special practice has recently arisen of transplant- 
ing from seedbeds. 
Brassicaceous group — Cabbage, kale, cauliflower. 
‘These are cool-weather crops, all of them withstanding con- 
siderable frost. The cabbages and kales are often started in 
fall in the middle and southern latitudes, and are harvested 
before hot weather arrives. 
In the northern states, these plants will all do best when 
started early in hotbed, frame, or greenhouse, — from the last 
of February to April — and transplanted to the open ground 
May first to June first, partly because their season of growth 
may be long and partly to enable them to escape the heat of 
midsummer. Still, some persons are successful in growing late 
cabbage, kale, and cauliflower, by sowing the seeds in hills and in 
the open ground where the plants are to mature. It is best to 
transplant the young plantlets twice, first from the seed-bed to 
boxes, or frames, about the time the second set of true leaves 
appears, placing the plants 24 inches apart each way, and 
transplanting again to the open ground in rows 4 to 5 feet 
apart, with plants 2 to 4 feet apart in the row. If the plants 
are started under cover, they should be hardened off by ex- 
posure to light and air during 
the warmer hours of several 
days preceding the final trans- 
; eS 
planting. 
The most serious enemy of 
cabbage-like plants is the root- 
maggot. See discussion of this 
insect on pp. 187, 201. : aaah 
The cabbage-worm (larva of 295. The white butterfly that lays the 
the white butterfly shown in Sa aaa 
Fig. 295) can be dispatched with pyrethrum or kerosene 
