December  5,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
505 
Our  Vegetable  Crops. 
Many,  no  doubt,  will  have  good  cause  to  remember  the 
•  drought  of  the  past  season,  and  the  many  pests  incidental  to 
it,  and,  among  others,  I  certainly  shall  not  forget  the  havoc 
wrought  by  grub  amongst  Brassicas,  such  as  I  had  never 
hitherto  seen  or  experienced.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
season  I  was,  in  regard  to  this  pest,  very  much  in  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  “the  man  in  the  street,”  and,  in  common  with  some 
of  our  political  friends,  not  possessing  “  an  intelligent  antici¬ 
pation  of  events,”  took  no  preventive  or  remedial  measures 
until  almost  too  late.  Cauliflower  and  autumn  Broccoli  were 
by  far  the  greatest  sufferers,  nearly  all  the  plants  succumbing 
in  the  seed  bed  ;  but  all  the  members  of  the  family  were 
affected  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  Even  Seakale  of  two  or 
three  years’  standing  died,  the  inner  bark  of  the  stems  being 
completely  eaten  by  the  larvfe  of  the  fly,  which,  in  appearance 
and  habits  is,  if  not  identical,  very  similar  to  the  Onion  fly. 
Some  of  our  scientific  friends  will  perhaps  pronounce  them 
as  being  distinct. 
The  first  appearance  of  anything  being  wrong  with  the 
plants  was  the  drooping  of  the  leaves,  and  on  discovering 
that  the  stems  were  being  devoured  by  grubs,  I  had  the 
seed  bed  dusted  heavily  with  lime  and  soot,  but  it  was  too 
late  to  have  any  effect  on  the  growing  broods,  and  eventually 
practically  every  plant  died  in  the  case  of  the  Cauliflower,  as 
i  have  previously  stated.  Even  early  Cauliflower,  which 
had  been  wintered  in  frames,  collapsed  laid  in  the  rows 
just  as  they  were  beginning  to  heart  in.  Fortunately,  I  had 
plentv  of  Peas  at  the  time,  and  was  able  to  manage  without 
the  Cauliflower.  Matters  were  beginning  to  look  serious,  so 
I  procured  a  sufficient  number  of  Cauliflower  and  autumn 
Broccoli,  and,  previous  to  planting,  had  the  stems  puddled 
in  a  strong  mixture  of  soot  and  cow  manure,  and  after  plant¬ 
ing  and  watering,  dusted  heavily  around  the  stems  with  a 
mixture  of  paraffin,  soot,  lime,  and  dry  wood  ashes  ;  but  all 
to  no  purpose,  as  although  the  fly  would  not  deposit  the 
broods  on  the  soil,  they  laid  in  the  axils  of  the  leaves,  and 
the  rocking  of  the  plants  by  wind  would  leave  sufficient 
space  around  the  stem  for  the  larvae,  after  incubation,  to 
find  their  way  to  the  base  and  work  upward. 
The  puddling,  too,  seemed  to  affect  the  plants  adversely, 
the  foliage  recovering  but  slowly.  I  decided  to  discard  it. 
The  piece  was  again  replanted,  and  after  dusting  around  the 
stems  with  the  aforementioned  mixture,  I  had  the  plants 
•syringed  twice  a  week  in  the  evening  with  a  mixture  of 
paraffin,  softsoap,  and  water,  using  a  quarter  of  a  pint  of  oil 
with  sufficient  soap  to  make  an  emulsion,  dissolving  the  same 
with  a  little  hot  water,  and  afterwards  adding  three  or  four 
•gallons  of  soft  water.  This  proved  effective,  and  I  lost  but 
few  plants  after,  although  they  did  not  thrive  well  until 
■cooler  weather  came  with  the  August  rains.  Almost  every 
Leek  died  as  well,  presumably  from  the  same  pest  ;  but  after 
planting  some  obtained  from  a  friend,  I  had  these,  too, 
•syringed  with  the  paraffin  solution,  and  lost  very  few, 
although  I  found  on  examining  the  soil  that  eggs  were  being 
laid  as  fast  as  ever. 
At  the  time  I  chanced  to  read  an  article  in  a  contempo¬ 
rary,  treating  of  grub  in  Brassicas,  in  which  the  writer  stated 
that  the  grub  was  a  secondary  affair,  and  was  the  sequel  to 
Lhe  putrid  condition  of  the  stem,  brought  about  by  a  real 
•disease  ;  but  that  most  people  made  the  mistake  in  thinking 
the  grub  the  primary  cause  of  the  death  of  the  plants,  and 
adding  that  the  pest  or  pests  have  usually  spent  themselves 
by  the  end  of  June.  However,  in  my  own  case  the  eggs 
were  laid,  and  incubation  took  place  well  on  in  August. 
Tiewed  in  this  light,  is  not  the  case  analogous  to  Finger  and 
'Toe  in  Turnips  1  If  so,  perhaps  a  winter  dressing  of  lime  to 
the  ground,  which,  on  first  consideration,  I  thought  would 
be  useless,  might  be  of  good  service  in  preventing  another 
attack.  Apropos  of  the  above  theory,  I  had  noticed  that  on 
a  piece  of  ground  planted  with  Kale,  which  had  not  pre¬ 
viously  carried  Brassicas  for  many  years,  not  one  plant  died, 
and  what  was  more,  all  throve,  but  on  the  adjoining  piece 
nearly  all  died.  I  may  sav,  too,  that  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  garden  has  been  sadly  overdone  with  the  Cabbage 
.  family,  circumstances  compelling  it,  and  perhaps  a  bad  rota¬ 
tion  may  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  virulence  of  the  out¬ 
break,  as  well  as  an  abnormal  season. 
In  thinking  the  matter  over,  too,  I  remember  seeing 
some  early  Cauliflower  I  had  pricked  out  in  a  frame  earlier 
in  the  season,  showing  signs  of  suffering,  and  on  pulling  one 
up,  found  that  the  stem  had  perished  ;  but  after  haying  the 
rest  dusted  with  lime  and  soot,  and  a  little  more  soil  pulled 
around  the  stems  of  the  plants,  they  recovered,  but  only  to 
die  some  time  after  planting  out,  from  grub.  At  the  time 
they  were  in  the  frame — April — I  should  say  the  fly  would  be 
in  the  chrysalid  state,  and  consequently  would  not  have 
started  to  complete  the  mischief  wrought  by  disease,  if 
disease  it  be.  I  had,  at  any  rate,  as  a  friend  remarked, 
grand  lessons  in  entomology,  such,  too,  as  I  do  not  want 
again  ;  but  to  be  “  forewarned  ”  should  be  “to  be  fore¬ 
armed,”  and  another  season  I  shall  be  better  prepared  for 
the  fray. — D. 
Manna. 
The  vexed  but  exceedingly  interesting  subject  of  this 
curious  product,  or  phenomenon,  crops  up  from  tune  to 
time,  when  the  reader  is  invited  to  assimilate  vastly  diver¬ 
gent  views  and  statements  on  its  nature  or  origin.  From 
some  little  research  in  the  matter  the  writer  has  ventured 
to  put  together  and  embody  the  following  notes  with  the 
view  of  elucidating  some  sort  of  a  truth  from  the  various 
opinions  of  travellers  who  may  be  held  from  their  actual  ex¬ 
periences  to  have  spoken  with  some  considerable  show  of 
authority,  so  that  these  records  “  se  non  vero  ”  entirely  are 
for  the  most  part  at  any  rate  “  ben  trovato.”  If  there  were 
no  differences  of  opinion,  we  should  have  no  fancy  waist¬ 
coats,  as  the  homely  saying  goes.  So,  too,  we  are  the 
richer  for  the  many  opposite  data  urged  as  to  what  Manna 
actually  was,  or  is,  and  as  to  whether  that  of  modern  or  his¬ 
torical  times  is  in  any  way  identical  -with  that  of  the  Bible 
story. 
If  we  take  the  probable  meaning  of  the  word  itself,  “  the 
gift  of  heaven,”  its  special  and  providential  visitation  or 
appearance  in  the  days  of  the  Israelites  seems  explained^ 
So,  too,  its  other  likely  definition,  the  Hebraic  “  man  hu  ” 
“what  is  it?”  appears  to  demonstrate  its  extraordinary 
occurrence  by  way  of  a  particular  dispensation.  Whether, 
however,  the  peculiar  food  which  the  Wanderers  eat  with  so 
much  early  enjoyment  bears  any  similarity  to  either  the 
Manna  mentioned  from  time  to  time  in  history,  or  the  pro¬ 
duct  called  by  the  same  name,  and  cultivated  in  various 
countries  at  the  present  day,  assuredly  can  never  be  known 
with  certainty,  and  it  seems  an  unprofitable  problem  in 
many  ways  to  attempt  to  solve,  though  it  may  be  stated  that 
there  h«s  been  more  than  one  eminent  authority  who  was 
persuaded  that  it  is  the  self-same  identical  thing  as  the 
minute  fungus  truffles  which  spring  up  in  the  sand  in  parts 
of  the  desert  plains,  and  form,  indeed,  part  of  the  staple 
food  of  the  Bedouins  wandering  in  those  districts. 
The  Manna  on  Mount  Sinai  is  stated  to  be  a  sugary  exuda¬ 
tion  of  a  bush  of  the  Tamarisk  species.  We  gather  from  the 
narrative  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  to  what  we  must  term 
with  much  show  of  reason,  the  miraculous  Manna  of  Moses, 
many  facts  which  assert  the  very  special  circumstances  under 
which  it  appeared,  proving  it,  in  fact,  to  be  a  substance  very 
different,  apparently,  from  these  sugary  exudations,  under 
whatever  form  or  particular  conditions  the  latter  have  from 
time  to  time  appeared,  or  are  produced  in  current  times. 
Thus,  then,  we  learn  it  came  every  morning,  save  on  the 
Sabbath,  in  the  form  of  a  round  seed  somewhat  resembling 
hoar  frost.  It  was  necessary  to  gather  it  early,  before  the 
sun  would  melt  it,  and  it  must  not  be  laid  aside,  except 
specially  for  the  Sabbath,  or  it  bred  worms  and  became  foul. 
It  was,  moreover,  prepared  for  food  by  grinding  and  baking, 
and  its  taste  was  similar  to  that  of  fresh  oil  and  honied 
wafers.  The  whole  nation  for  forty  long  years  presumably 
subsisted  upon  it,  and  it  alone,  till  suddenly,  when  the  people 
obtained  new  Corn  from  the  land  of  Canaan,  lo  and  behold, 
it  stopped !  Thus,  both  Jews  and  Christians,  and  believers 
in  inspired  Scriptures,  will  very  reasonably  always  regard 
Manna  as  a  miraculous  gift  of  the  Omnipotent,  and  not  as  a 
mere  product,  however  occasional,  of  Nature. 
The  Oriental  productions  of  the  Arabian  deserts  and  other 
Eastern  regions  have  by  no  means  the  same  qualities  as  the 
above,  being  medicines  rather  than  food,  stimulating  rather 
than  nutritious.  They  were  (and  are)  produced  for  the  most 
part  but  in  small  quantities,  and  only  in  certain  months, 
but  were  capable  of  being  kept  for  a  length  of  time.  The 
celebrated  Arabian  physician  picturesquely  but  somewhat 
mysteriously  describes  it  as  a  dew  which  falls  on  stones  or 
