VEGETABLE INSECTS 



183 



Professor Herrick: Yes. The eggs are laid in the 

 crevices of the soil and the maggots work downward into the 

 roots of the cabbage plant. So much for the fighting of this 

 insect in the field. Many of us grow late cabbages and have 

 trouble with these maggots in the seed bed. It is difficult 

 apparently to grow a crop of plants for late cabbages, at 

 least in the central part of the state, because they are in- 

 fested tremendously not only with this insect, but by a cer- 

 tain species of flea beetle. Many times growers have to buy 

 their plants. 



Maggots In Cabbage Seed Beds. 



A method of combating this pest has been worked out b.y 

 Mr. Schoene of the Geneva Station. He has found that by 

 shading the beds of seedlings with thin cheese-cloth, he has 

 been able to protect the plants so that the growers have been 

 able to raise their own plants very nicely, free from the at- 

 tacks of this maggot. If the bed is outdoors, you can simply 

 set up planks around it. Some prefer six-inch boards, some 

 eight-inch, some even ten-inch. Set those boards up around 

 the edges of the bed, and then over them stretch thin cheese 

 muslin. He has shown in his work with these cabbage plants 

 that the cheese cloth that has about twenty to thirty threads 

 per inch gives the best satisfaction. The muslin is put on 

 just after the seed are sovm or may be put on a little later 

 than that; but certainly it ought to be put on before the 

 plants get above the ground and before the flies have time 

 to come to the plants to deposit their eggs. To prevent this 

 muslin from sagging down in the middle, wires are usually 

 run across to support it — galvanized wires. Mr. Schoene 

 has found if the cloth is removed ten days before the plants 

 are to be set in the field, the plants will prove hardy and 

 will set better in the field than many grown in the open. 

 There are other advantages. These plants are forced ahead 

 so you can actually produce them earlier under the muslin 

 than in open beds. If the muslin is left there too long, there 

 is a tendency for the seedlings to become too spindling. 



Question: How does the cloth protect the plants from 

 the maggots? 



