Cabbages and Cauliflowers: How to Grow Them | Page 9

a very dry season, I hold that it is rather the product than the cause of disease, as with the bark louse on our apple-trees; as a remedy I advocate sprinkling the plants with air-slaked lime, watering, if possible, and a frequent and thorough stirring of the soil with the cultivator and hoe. The better the opportunities the cabbage have to develop themselves through high manuring, sufficient moisture, good drainage, and thorough cultivation, the less liable they are to be "lousy." As the season advances there will sometimes be found patches eaten out of the leaves, leaving nothing but the skeleton of leaf veins; an examination will show a band of caterpillars of a light green color at work, who feed in a compact mass, oftentimes a square, with as much regularity as though under the best of military discipline. The readiest way to dispose of them is to break off the leaf and crush them under foot. The common large red caterpillar occasionally preys on the plants, eating large holes in the leaves, especially about the head. When the cabbage plot is bordered by grass land, in seasons when grasshoppers are plenty, they will frequently destroy the outer rows, puncturing the leaves with small holes, and feeding on them until little besides their skeletons remain. In isolated locations rabbits and other vegetable feeders sometimes commit depredations. The snare and the shot-gun are the remedy for these.
Other insects that prey upon the cabbage tribe, in their caterpillar state, are the cabbage moth, white-line, brown-eyed moth, large white garden butterfly, white and green veined butterfly. All of these produce caterpillars, which can be destroyed either by application of air-slaked lime, or by removing the leaves infested and crushing the intruders under foot. The cabbage-fly, father-long-legs, the millipedes, the blue cabbage-fly, brassy cabbage-flea, and two or three other insect enemies are mentioned by McIntosh as infesting the cabbage fields of England; also three species of fungi known as white rust, mildew, and cylindrosporium concentricum; these last are destroyed by the sprinkling of air-slaked lime on the leaves. In this country, along the sea coast of the northern section, in open-ground cultivation, there is comparatively but little injury done by these marauders, which are the cause of so much annoyance and loss to our English cousins.

THE GREEN WORM.
A new and troublesome enemy to the cabbage tribe which has made its appearance within a few years, and spread rapidly over a large section of the country, is a green worm, Anthomia brassic?. This pest infests the cabbage tribe at all stages of its growth; it is believed to have been introduced into this country from Europe, by the way of Canada, where it was probably brought in a lot of cabbage. It is the caterpillar of a white butterfly with black spots on its wings. In Europe, this butterfly is preyed on by two or more parasites, which keep it somewhat in check; but its remarkably rapid increase in this country, causing a wail of lamentation to rise in a single season from the cabbage growers over areas of tens of thousands of square miles, proved that when it first appeared it had reached this country without its attendant parasites.
Besides this green worm, there are found in Europe four varieties of caterpillar variously marked, the caterpillars from all of which make great havoc among the cabbage tribe.
The most effective destroyer of this, and about every other insect pest, is what is known as the "Kerosene Emulsion." This is made by churning common kerosene with milk or soap until it is diffused through the liquid.
Take one quart of kerosene oil and pour it into a pint of hot water in which an ounce of common soap has been dissolved; churn this briskly while hot (a force pump is excellent for this), and, when well mixed, which will be in a few minutes, it will be of a creamy consistency; mix one quart to ten or twelve of cold water, and spray or sprinkle it over the plants with a force-pump syringe or a whisk broom.
Another remedy is pyrethrum. Use that which is fresh; either blowing it on in a dry state with a bellows, wherever the worm appears, or using it diluted, at the rate of a tablespoonful to two gallons of water; applying as with the kerosene emulsion. Mr. A. S. Fuller, who is good authority on garden matters, succeeds by applying tar-water. Place a couple of quarts of coal tar in a barrel and fill with water; let it stand forty-eight hours, then dip off, and apply with a watering-pot, or syringe.
Chickens allowed to run freely among the growing plants, the hen being confined in a movable coop, if once attracted to them will fatten on them. This remedy might answer very well