with club root. I have been more or less troubled 
with club roots on my ground, but only on 
ground where cabbage had been grown the pre¬ 
vious year. Nearly all my plants this year 
are set on ground where cabbage has not been 
grown for several years but had been cultivated 
in strawberries; the ground was plowed last 
fall and again this spring and manured with 
common stable manure. The plants were start¬ 
ed in hot beds, in March, and when the proper 
size transplanted in cold frames and thence 
to the open ground. The soil used in hot beds 
and cold frames was old sods piled up a^year 
ago with some manure mixed in. 
I have been raising cabbage for several years 
with very good success bnt this enemy is tiew to 
me. I also showed them to an old gardener, and 
he says that he has never seen anything like it 
before, but thinks it is on account of so much 
wet weather that we have had this spring. 
No doubt you are too busy at this season of the 
year to answer private letters, but you would 
oblige me very much by examining the contents 
of the box and report to me your opinion of the 
cause, and if possible a remedy. If I would 
plow up the ground and set in late plants, will 
the same thing be likely to destroy them ? I 
purchased the seed from you and it grew very 
well and I was expecting to raise a fine crop, 
but I can hardly find a plant that is not infested 
with them. Yours Truly, 
H. S. Thompson. 
Answer. The box was received in good or¬ 
der, and its inhabitants alive and apparently 
undisturbed. They are entirely different from 
any worms we ever before saw in the roots of 
cabbage. As they much resemble “cheese skip¬ 
pers,” we presume that they are the larvse of 
some fly which has been attracted by a diseased 
condition of the plants. The maggots which we 
have spoken of in the “manual,” as the larva? of 
the flea beetle, are much smaller and do not 
burrow into the heart of the plant as these seem 
to, but may be found on roots where they feed 
on the small fibers or rootlets. We do not think 
that these maggots would attack healthy late 
plants set in the same ground, as they will 
probably pass into another stage of their ex- 
istance. We would advise the use of lime or 
wood ashes as a remedy, but if all are as badly 
infested as the sample sent, we doubt any rem¬ 
edy proving effective. 
In regard to club root we confess we know 
practically but little about it, except that by 
changing around the farm and selecting a place 
each year which has not tor a number of years 
had anything of the eabbage tribe upon it, we 
have luckily never been troubled with it. We 
have known of plants from our beds being ruin¬ 
ed by it before maturing, but believe in every 
case they were set on some old garden in which 
cabbage and turnips had been grown for years. 
W e never yet knew of the plants being infested 
with club root on a fresh clover sod or virgin soil. 
NUMBER OF PLANTS AND QUANTITY OF SEED 
TO USE. 
A correspondent sends u* the following with 
the request that we publish it for the benefit of 
our patrons. While some of the items do not 
exactly correspond with our experience we give 
it as written and if any of our customers can 
revise the list we will be glad to have them do 
so. 
Asparagus roots, 1000 plants to a bed 4 by 
225 feet. 
Beans, 1 quart will plant 150 feet of row. 
Beets, 1 ounce will plant 150 feet of row. 
Cabbage, 1 ounce gives 2,500 plants. 
Celery, 1 ounce gives 7,000 plants. 
Cucumber, 1 ounce for 150 hills. 
Lettuce, 1 ounce gives 7,000 plants. 
Melon, 1 ounce for 120 hills. 
Onion, 4 pounds to the acre. 
Radish, 1 ounce for 100 feet of ground. 
Spinach, 1 ounce to 250 feet of row. 
Squash, 1 ounce to 75 hills. 
Tomato, 1 ounce gives 2,500 plants. 
Turnip, H pounds to the acre. 
J. I. Riddle. 
PLANTING THE RUTTS. 
Novi, Mich., June 13, 1883. 
Isaac F. Tillinghast: 
Dear Sir, The seeds came 
to hand promptly and in good order for which 
accept my thanks. Seeing your invitation for 
items of interest for publication I have ventured 
here again. In May number of Seed-Time and 
Harvest I noticed “Improving Potatoes,” by 
Thomas D. Baird. Here is my opinion; plant 
the butts, and for why: For illustration let us 
take an ear of corn. In ordinary seasons early 
in September, say for instance, let us strip back 
the husk on ordinary field corn, we find some 
ears have begun to turn yellow at the butts, 
while at the tips they are white and in the milk. 
From this we learn that the butts are ripe first, 
are the largest kernels, the earliest matured and 
fullest developed chit. Just what we want, 
which, when planted has the strengtn and vigor 
to grow and mature its seed. Before frost comes 
it is ready to receive it, not with a soft half- 
matured chit, but with a hard, full developed 
and fully matured chit that 10 below zero does 
not harm, at least such is my experience, and 
two or three years are required with careful 
selecting, if improving with earliness is re¬ 
quired; in such a case, select the earliest ripe 
and plant the butts. I would like to hear from 
those who have planted the tips a few seasons. 
The butts of potatoes have been planted with 
like success. Small potatoes planted year after 
year produce failure. 
Has anyone raised potatoes from transplant¬ 
ing the vine ? I have, and this is how I did it: 
Before your early potatoes come in blossom, cut 
off a vine one inch below the surface of the soil 
and transplant as you would any other plant. 
If the weather is dry, water a few days. I have 
grown potatoes as large as goose eggs this way. 
Our Seed-Time and Harvest says, “Nothing 
Without Labor.” Stick a pin there. And now 
scratch your head. “Speak unto the earth and 
it will teach thee.’’ Yours Truly, 
Henry L. Lock. 
