AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST '.HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL . AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. - Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEH & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
V 0 L . XI . ] HEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1854. [NUMBER 17. 
m-FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, tfc., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
THE CABBAGE. 
No. IY. 
TnE enemies of this vegetable are not very- 
numerous or formidable. It is very hardy, and 
resists attacks that would prove fatal to more 
delicate plants.* 
It is a bright May morning, and you visit 
your cabbage plantation. You left the young 
plants yesterday in the most thriving condition, 
not a plant missing in the whole enclosure. The 
dressing of super-phosphate of lime, or other 
fertilizers, applied a few days ago, were begin¬ 
ning to show themselves in the darker green of 
the leaves, and you retired to rest to dream of 
huge wagon loads of early Yorks, and early 
Dutch, by midsummer. But now as you look 
over the emerald beauties of your garden, you 
behold many a dew-spangled plant prostrate. 
You examine a plant and find it cut off almost 
as square as if done with a knife. There is no 
enemy in sight, and you begin to stir the dirt 
in search of him. Sometimes you find him 
close by the stem, within a half inch of the sur¬ 
face, and with the proofs of his villainy thick 
upon him. He is rarely found more than six 
inches from the scene of his plunder, and a 
little search will bring him to light. You seize 
the culprit by the head, and serve him as he 
served the cabbage. 
This malefactor, whom we have thus sum¬ 
marily executed, without the benefit of clergy, 
is commonly called the cut worm, though he is 
only a cut worm, there being several species 
somewhat resembling each other. He has been 
booked by Dr. Harris as the Agrotis devastator. 
You will find a particular account of him in the 
first volume of the American Journal of Science, 
page 154, by John P. Brace. The egg from 
which this dark-colored worm was hatched, was 
laid early last autumn, in some sheltered spot 
close by, and has been hatched but a few days. 
These devastators continue their depredations 
about four weeks, then cast their skin, and are 
found as pupae or chrysalids in the earth, a few 
inches below the surface. The pupae state lasts 
four weeks, and the moth comes out about the 
middle of July. It conceals itself in the crevi¬ 
ces of buildings and beneath the bark of trees, 
* For a description of its insect enemies, we are princi¬ 
pally indebted to T. W. Harris, M. D., than whom there is 
no higher American authority on Entomology. His report 
on insects, published by the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
and reprinted last year by White & Potter, of Boston, is 
a work, that ought to be in the hands of every farmer and 
gardener in the country. If the husbandmen of America 
were possessed of its knowledge, and u t scd its precautions 
against insect depredators, it would save millions to the 
country every year. 
and is never seen during the day. About sun¬ 
set it leaves its hiding-place and is constantly 
on the wing, is very troublesome about the 
candles in houses, flies rapidly, and is not easily 
taken. They soon lay their eggs, which are 
hatched either in the fall or spring. 
There are several other species of the Agro- 
tidians, which often prey upon the cabbage. It 
is chiefly through the months of June and July, 
that they are found to be most destructive. 
Whole corn fields are sometimes laid waste by 
them. Potato vines, beans, beets, and various 
other culinary plants suffer in the same way. 
The products of our flower gardens are not 
spared ; asters, balsams, pinks, and many other 
kinds of flowers are often shorn of their leaves 
and of their central buds, by these concealed 
spoilers. 
The Noctua Glandestina, another corn cut 
worm, preys also upon the cabbage. The corn 
cut worms of this species make their appearance 
in great numbers at irregular intervals, and con¬ 
fine themselves to no particular vegetables—aU 
that are succulent being relished by these in¬ 
discriminate gormandizers—but if their choice 
is not stinted, they prefer maize plants just out 
of the ground, early sown buckwheat, young- 
pumpkin plants, young beans, cabbage plants, 
and other garden vegetables. Grass is their 
food when first hatched in the fall, and as the 
frosts come on they burrow in the earth, and 
reappear again in the spring about half grown. 
They seek their food in the night, or in cloudy 
weather, and retire before sunrise into the 
ground, where they remain coiled up during the 
day, except while devouring the food, which 
they generally drag into their places of conceal¬ 
ment. Their transformation to pupie occurs at 
different periods, sometimes earlier, sometimes 
later, according to the forwardness of the season, 
but usually not much later than the middle of 
July. The moth is very abundant in the New- 
England States from the middle of June till the 
middle or end of August. The head, the collar, 
and the abdomen are chosnut-colored. Its wings 
expand an inch and three quarters, and when 
shut overlap on their inner edges, and cover 
the top of the back so flatly and closely, that 
these moths can get into very narrow crevices. 
During the day they lie hidden under the bark 
of trees, in the chinks of fences, and even un¬ 
der the loose clap-boards of buildings. When 
the blinds of our houses are opened in the morn¬ 
ing, a little swarm of these insects, -which had 
crept behind them for concealment, is some¬ 
times exposed, and suddenly aroused from their 
daily slumber. 
Among the various remedies recommended 
for this tribe of enemies, is fall plowing. This 
exposes the eggs and young worms to the in¬ 
clemency of the winter, and many of them arc 
destroyed. Fall plowing improves the texture 
of all heavy soils, so that the recommendation 
is a good one for many soils, whatever may be 
its influence upon the insects. A very effectual 
method is that recommended by Mr. Asahel 
Foot. After having lost more than a tenth 
part of the corn in his field, “ he ordered his 
men to prepare for war, to sharpen their finger 
ends, and set at once about exhuming the ma¬ 
rauders. For several days it seemed as if a 
whole procession came to each one’s funeral, 
but at length victory wreathed the brow of per¬ 
severance ; and corn being planted in the place 
of the slain enemy, he had the pleasure of seeing 
his field restored to its original order and 
beauty.” This is rather an expensive remedy, 
but if it saves a crop, it is time well spent. 
Mr. Deane, a well-known agricultural writer, 
states that he once prevented their depredations 
by manuring his garden with sea-mud. The 
plants generally escaped, though every one was 
cut off in a spot of ground contiguous. Mr. 
Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, protected 
his cabbage plants from cut worms by wrapping 
a hickory leaf around the stem, between the 
roots and leaves, before planting it in the ground. 
The late Hon. Oliver Fiske, of Worcester, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, says that, “ to search out the spoiler 
and kill him, is the very best course; but as 
his existence is not known except by his rav¬ 
ages, I make a fortress for my cabbage plants 
with paper; winding it conically and firmly 
above the root, and securing it by a low em¬ 
bankment of earth.” 
We have been very little troubled with this 
enemy of late, and have not lost one plant where 
we used to lose twenty. We attribute the ex¬ 
odus of these vagabonds to our free use of salt 
in our compost heaps, and to sea manures. If 
a piece of land is freely dressed with sea-weed 
and marsh-muck, or mud from salt water ditches, 
we are confident that cut worms will “ cut and 
run.” The sowing of six bushels of refuse salt 
to the acre, is a good way of supplying the land 
with chlorine and soda, and in large quantities 
we have little doubt but that it tends to the de¬ 
struction of the eggs and young of insects. 
Other tribes of enemies will be noticed in our 
next. 
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HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 
Second Conversational Meeting. — Monday, 
Dec. 9th. Mr. W. J. Linsley in the chair. 
Subject — The general cultivation of the Rose. 
An Essay was read by Mr. P. B. Mead embra¬ 
cing both the natural and political history of the 
Rose, which was listened to with attention and 
interest. An Essay was read by Mr. J. C. Par- 
