352 



The Cabbage Root Fly. 



[SEPT., 



of the year an exhibition is held of the produce for the different 

 trial allotments, and prizes are awarded for good cultivation. 

 The best cultivator receives a county shield, which he holds 

 until the next year. 



In Surrey the county model allotment scheme has only 

 been recently started. Four allotments have been selected 

 on Lord Onslow's estate, and are now being cultivated by 

 the tenants, under the advice of the County Horticultural 

 Instructor and his assistant. The tenants supply the labour 

 and the tools and receive the produce of the allotment, whilst 

 the county authorities supply the seeds, manures, and in- 

 struction. The arrangements were not completed till the end 

 of March last, too late for proper trenching, but a satisfactory 

 start has been made at three centres, and the fourth will, it 

 is hoped, be much improved before the end of the year. In a 

 Report on these allotments in July last, the County Horti- 

 cultural Instructor observes that in horticulture, as in agri- 

 culture, land that has been insufficiently worked and run down 

 in fertility cannot be restored in one year or two ; it can be 

 improved, and with timely attention in carrying out essential 

 details and proper feeding, it can in no great length of time be 

 made to yield luxuriant crops. This has been demonstrated 

 on numbers of plots in Surrey, and similar results are expected 

 in those instructional allotments instituted by Lord Onslow. 



This fly, whose maggots are a grievous pest on cabbages and 

 allied crop plants, both here and in other European countries, as 

 well as in the United States and Canada* 

 The Cabbage- belongs to the family Ant Jwmy idee, a very 

 Root Fly. large family of flies the members of which 

 (Phorbia brassicce.) may easily be mistaken for house flies. 



There is a great deal of confusion as to 

 the identity of this fly ; the attacks of other root-eating flies 

 have been attributed to it, just as the damage done by the 

 cabbage-root maggot has been ascribed to its -relations. 



