February, ’23] 
GLASGOW: CABBAGE MAGGOT IN SEED-BEDS 
69 
the problem of maggot control resolves itself largely into the protection 
of the young plants while still growing in the seed-bed. 
In this part of the State, where cabbage has developed into one 
of the major crops and where the seedlings are often produced in 
immense beds several acres in extent, the protection of the young plants 
from maggot attack has become a serious problem. 
While the pest is not always present in destructive numbers, it is usual¬ 
ly common enough to cause an appreciable amount of loss in seed-beds 
each year. At times it becomes so abundant as to destroy most of the 
exposed plantings, the result being measured not only by the direct loss 
to the individual producing the seedlings but by a greatly curtailed 
acreage set to cabbage during such seasons. 
For the protection of seed-beds the chief dependence of cabbage 
growers during the past ten or fifteen years has been the use of cheese¬ 
cloth screens applied before or very shortly after the plants appear 
above the ground. While this method is thoroughly effective and leaves 
little to be desired so far as control is concerned, it is unfortunately rather 
expensive and involves a considerable amount of labor. On this ac¬ 
count many growers, although recognizing the constant danger of loss 
from the maggot, continue to produce their seedlings in open beds. 
The success which has attended the use of mercuric chloride for the 
control of the maggot in early cabbage and cauliflower naturally sug¬ 
gested the possibility of adapting this method to the control of the same 
pest in seed-beds. This, together with the possibility of working out a 
method of control more flexible and less expensive than screening, led 
to a series of tests during the past three seasons to determine the prac¬ 
ticability of substituting the mercuric chloride treatment for the cheese¬ 
cloth screen. 
In comparing the cost of the two methods, the advantage is decidedly 
in favor of the mercuric chloride treatment. The total cost of three 
applications, including labor and bichloride at the rate of one dollar per 
pound, would be approximately ninety dollars per acre. 
To screen an acre of seedlings, distributing the cost of the cheesecloth 
over five years and that of the lumber over a period of ten years, the 
total cost per acre would be at least twice that allowed for three ap¬ 
plications of the bichloride. This would amount to an added expense 
of at least ten and twenty cents per thousand plants, respectively, for 
the two methods. 
A further advantage in favor of the bichloride treatment is its adapta¬ 
bility. During some seasons a considerable reduction in the total cost 
