7 
ns to believe that there might be something in the remedy. When 
these adverse reports came in we wrote to Mr. Erwin to inquire whether 
he had made further experiments and for farther evidence. He replied 
as follows, August 23, 1885 : 
I received last Thursday evening your assistant’s (L. O. Howard) report of your un- 
successful trial of the “cold-water remedy ” for cabbage worms. I have since called 
upon two old gardeners in the vicinity, who had used it. Mr. Thomas Homer was the 
only one whom I found at home, and he was ill . When I told him the result of your ex- 
periments he interrupted me by saying: “They have not used very cold water, or 
have used a rose-sprinkler when they should have thrown away the rose and used the 
spout. I have used ice-water, and it would make them turn white and would not 
hurt the plants. Deacon Farwell used to make me use ice-water and drench the 
plants at noon or in the hottest part of the day. I have used nothing else for many 
years, and have lost scarcely a head of cabbage since I used it.” I have in answer 
quoted this honest old Scotch gardener for the reason that for the last three or four 
years I have not worked in or done any gardening for myself. I used to drench my 
plants every few days, always in the warmest part of the day, or about the time the 
pests were the most active and destructive — when they were on the upper side of the 
leaf— and have been told by others that they have succeeded after the worms had 
filled every crevice with their droppings and rejected chippings, which they had by 
drenching cleaned out; and here you discover is another benefit and argument for a 
copious shower of water. 
Possibly those who have experimented have, through fear of injuring the plants, 
hesitated to use water cold enough or have used it too sparingly and in the cooler 
part of the day. In making the discovery I was too late to avail myself of caution 
about the safety of the plant, and was compelled to solace myself with the idea that 
if the cold had injured and killed them I was not in a worse predicament than before 
using the cold water, for if I had killed the plants I had only anticipated a few days 
the certain result of the pests. 
Perhaps the vermin are of a tougher habit in a warmer climate, and I would not 
hesitate to reduce the temperature of the water another degree or two and be sure of 
the top degree of the day to apply it. 
Several persons have told me that they used it last season with success, and one 
person that he had not been troubled this season, not yet having discovered any 
worms; but until recently but few persons in our vicinity grew more than a hundred 
plants. This season I have noticed not a few acres planted with cabbages. 
Please have your tests made properly and in the right time, and I think you will 
succeed. It may seem too simple to be of much benefit, and scarcely worth the trial, 
and single efforts may fail for want of a little care. Let them act as if there should 
be no such thing as failure, and they will succeed. Drench more frequently. 
In view of such positive statements on both sides we cannot consider 
the question as decisively settled yet, but a pretty strong case is made 
against the remedy in the reports which now follow. 
O. V. KILEY. 
