56 PICTORIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



much the best thing is to remove the lower leaves of the infested 

 plants, so as to deprive it of its shelter, and destroy them. 

 Carrots: — 



The only enemy of Carrots which, in my experience, is a perpetual 

 source of serious danger, is the maggot of the Carrot fly, Psila Rosse. 

 This pest almost ruins the Carrot crop in some instances. There is 

 no reason why it should be allowed to destroy so much as a single 

 Carrot, and the method of prevention is purely cultural. The fly 

 lays her eggs in the loose soil round the crowns of the young Carrots, 

 and if the soil is kept close and firm from the first she cannot effect 

 an entrance. I have acted on the principle here involved with 

 perfect and complete success for several years in a garden formerly 

 very badly infested by the Carrot maggot. If Carrots are not 

 thinned until they are half grown there is a considerable disturbance 

 of the soil, and if care is not taken to close up the soil round the 

 plants left in the rows the fly has matters all her ow^n w^ay. A 

 rough thinning of Carrots should be done when they are only 1 inch 

 high, and the soil then patted down along both sides of the rows 

 with the back of a rake. The second thinning should be done when 

 the roots removed are the size of long Radishes, and consequently 

 nice for cooking. The soil should be firmed as before. To make 

 assurance doubly sure, 1 gallon of gas liquor may be bought at the 

 gasworks, diluted wdth 6 gallons of water, and poured between the 

 rows. This treatment secures splendid Carrots and no maggots. 



Celery. — The great Celery enemy is the small fly called Tephritis 

 onopordinis, which deposits eggs between the skins of the leaf. The 

 greyish zigzags which are seen on the leaves of Celery in summer and 

 autumn are caused by the burrowings of the maggots which hatch 

 from the eggs in question. The Tephritis seems to be an eccentric 

 sort of creature, attacking the Celery by fits and starts. Sometimes 

 it fires a shot or two early in summer, resumes the attack spasmodic- 

 ally a few wrecks later, and then either retires altogether or braces 

 its energies for a vigorous onslaught in autumn. In any case, it need 

 do no serious damage, for the watchful cultivator may nip its 

 operations in the bud l3y pinching the first patches seen between his 

 linger and thumb. If it should escape his vigilance, and threaten to 

 become seriously troublesome, or should he object to the tedium of 

 j)inching, let him spray the plants towards evening wdth "soaparite" 

 (1 lb. of best soft soap boiled in 1 quart of water for an hour, then 

 ^ pint of paraffin stirred in, and the solution well churned with 

 a syringe in 8 gallons of water). This is a much more certain 

 preventive than dusting with soot, and if the solution is properly 

 prejjared the Celery is never tainted. 



Cucumbers.— Cucumber growers have two rather troublesome 

 foes to deal with, namely red spider and stem-canker. The first will 

 never have a chance to gain a footing if abundance of moisture is 

 provided ; therefore, a saturated state of the atmosphere must be 

 maintained. If tlie [)lants are allowed to suffer from drought, and 

 the atmosphere to become arid, red spider will appear, and then the 



