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FLEA BEETLE .--This insect, also known as the "ground flea" or "Jack," seldom attacks the plants except while growing in the open ground, and is most troublesome in warm, sheltered situations. A safe preventive, therefore, is to grow the plants in beds or frames elevated about three feet from the ground. The objection to this method, aside from the extra labor involved, is the necessity of almost daily attention to see that the soil does not dry out. A supply of water must be conveniently at hand if this method is used, and it is desirable also, to prevent the beds drying out too quickly, to have the earth at least eight inches deep. In hot-beds this insect is seldom troublesome, being probably repelled by the fumes from the manure used. When the seed is sown in the open ground, as practised by many large growers, an extra quantity should be used to ensure against almost certain loss of some of the plants by the flea beetle. The soil should be rich and fine, so that the plants will pass the critical stage as quickly as possible. Sowing radish seeds with the cauliflower is practised by some, as this seed costs but little, and the radishes, coming up first, are attacked by the fleas, which, to some extent, saves the cauliflowers. When the fleas appear, almost any kind of dust will keep them in check somewhat. Lime and ashes are used, but plaster, which adheres to the leaves better, seems equally good. I have had good success with rancid fish oil, mixed as thoroughly as possible with water and sprayed upon the plants. An emulsion made of the oil, in the same manner as hereafter described for kerosene, would enable it to be used to better advantage. A decoction of tobacco, or fine tobacco dust, are standard remedies for this insect.

CUT WORMS.--Cauliflower plants being fully twice as valuable as cabbage plants, and it being of more importance to have them started at the proper time, it is necessary to give greater care to protect them from cut worms. Absolutely clean land contains no cut worms, but such land is seldom used on which to plant cauliflower. Sod land, which is generally used, is nearly always full of cut worms. A multitude of remedies have been proposed for this pest, but few of them are of much value. The worms are most abundant and destructive in the latitude of New York during the month of May. Fortunately, cauliflowers are usually set out either earlier than this, for the early crop, so that they become well established and out of reach before their depredations seriously begin, or else, for the late crop, they are set toward the last of June, after the worms have begun to pupate, and are no longer troublesome. Until recently, digging and killing the worms by hand seemed to be almost the only practical remedy. Of late years, trapping the worms under bunches of grass or cabbage leaves, scattered over the ground preparatory to setting the plants, has been successfully resorted to. An improvement upon this method, recommended by the Entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, is now in use, and gives excellent satisfaction. It consists in poisoning with Paris green the leaves used to trap the worms, so that there is no need to collect and kill the worms by hand. A good way to do this is to spray with Paris green, in the usual way, a patch of young clover, then cut it and scatter it in small bunches over the cauliflower field a day or two before setting the plants. For the protection of a few plants in the garden, an effectual preventive against cut worms is to surround the stem with a cylinder of paper or tin. This need not touch the plant. One should expect to lose some plants, however, by cut worms, and be prepared with good plants to fill the vacancies.

The same insect attacks the turnip, cauliflower, and probably other plants. A closely related species is very injurious to the radish. The presence of the insect most frequently becomes manifest upon the cauliflower about two weeks after the plants are set out, and is recognized by the plants ceasing to grow, and wilting or assuming a bluish appearance. Such plants should be at once removed, together with the earth immediately surrounding the root, and fresh plants which have been held in reserve set in their places. The only satisfactory remedies are preventive ones. The seed-bed should be composed of soil taken from the woods, or at least from some place where no cabbages or similar plants have been grown. But the most important precaution is to avoid growing the crop year after year upon the same ground, especially after the insect has made its appearance.

The following remedy, given by Francis Brill, in his pamphlet on "Cauliflowers," is worthy of careful trial. Mr. Brill says: "The ravages of the root maggot have made the growing of early cauliflower, and even early cabbages in many sections, almost an impossibility, but there is a remedy, when the maggot has attacked the roots of the plants, which may be known by a tendency of the leaves to wilt and droop in the heat of the day, very much the same as when affected by club root. Dissolve Muriate of Potash in water in the proportion of one tablespoonful to the gallon; or double the quantity of Kainit or common potash salts . Apply this directly to the roots, about one gill to each plant, whether seemingly affected or not, for the maggot will have done much harm before the plant will show it, repeating the application as occasion may seem to require. In sections where these maggots have been prevalent it will be well to make a solution of half the above strength, and when the plants are nicely started apply in the same manner as a preventive. Care and judgment must be used not to overdo the matter, thereby killing the plants as well as the maggots. Experiment a little at first."

CABBAGE WORM .--The imported cabbage worm, now known all over the country, is the most troublesome enemy which attacks either the cabbage or cauliflower, and the most difficult one with which to deal. It seldom wholly destroys the crop, and is generally a little less destructive after a few years than it is at first, being kept in check by its natural enemies. It never disappears, however, and its numbers cannot be materially diminished for any length of time by artificial means. Among the partial remedies in use are the following:

FUNGUS DISEASES.

There are several parasitic fungi which are more or less destructive to the cauliflower at different stages of its growth. The principal diseases of the cauliflower due to fungi are the following:

In this country this disease has been reported from Michigan, New York, Maryland and Florida. On Long Island, in 1889, the cauliflower crop was almost entirely destroyed by this disease, which was attributed to the heavy rains at the time the plants were heading. Some fields were a total loss, and from the best fields many of the heads spoiled before they reached the market.

No satisfactory remedy is known for the disease. The avoidance of damp soils and locations would be of some benefit, but is hardly practicable with the cauliflower. Wide planting is practiced on Long Island in order to diminish the tendency to the disease. It undoubtedly has this effect to some extent, by permitting a more free circulation of the air, thus drying up the moisture on the plants and thereby lessening the opportunity for the germination of the spores. The increased distance may also diminish the chance of the spread of the spores from plant to plant. When this disease appears upon the early crop in hot-beds or cold frames it may be kept somewhat in check by giving as much air as possible, and taking care not to apply water to the leaves.

DAMPING OFF.--This is usually due to a species of Pythium , which attacks the young plants soon after they germinate. The remedy is, to give the plants plenty of air until their stems become strong enough to resist its attacks. An additional precaution sometimes employed is to grow the plants in pans or small boxes and water them only by setting these in a tank of water of nearly the same depth, allowing the water to soak into the soil, but not touch the plants. The disease is seldom troublesome on plants grown thinly in the open air. If it makes its appearance, water thoroughly, but not too often, and sprinkle dry sand over the seed-bed among the plants.

BLACK LEG OR MILDEW.--This is a disease which attacks the stems of young plants which are being wintered over. It is undoubtedly due to one or more species of parasitic fungi, but I do not find that the subject has been studied. Doubtless the rupture of the bark by alternate freezing and thawing gives the fungi an opportunity to attack the plant. The disease is prevented and kept in check by keeping the seed-bed dry. An occasional dressing of sand, lime, wood-ashes or rubbish of any kind, is useful.

FOOTNOTES:

"This disease is not confined to cauliflowers; it is common in all garden vegetables, and is of the same nature as that which attacks tomatoes and which was described by this author in the same journal in 1884." .

"Close upon the heels of a partial failure of the potato crop through rotting comes the news from various points on Eastern Long Island that the cauliflower crop has almost totally failed through the same cause. In Manorville the crop has not sufficiently developed in some of the fields to warrant picking, and in Mattituck and east of that place the rotting will result in an almost total loss. In a few cases there is not yet any indication of rot, but the farmers are afraid to tie the plants up lest rotting ensue.

"In East Moriches, Orient, and the near vicinity, the yield will not be of sufficient value to pay for plowing the ground, not to speak of the other expenses which have been entailed. Through the Hamptons careful observations failed to reveal scarcely a single successful crop.

"Last Saturday Henry T. Osborn, of East Moriches, tied up 2,000 heads and on Monday he cut enough to fill 30 barrels. He let them lie in his barn over night, and the next day not a barrel of them was fit for shipment to market.

"George Cooper, of Mattituck, planted seven acres of cauliflower which he thinks will prove a total loss. And so on the reports come from many East End farmers. The recent heavy rains are generally assigned as the cause of the failure."

CAULIFLOWER SEED.

With no vegetable is it more important to have good seed than with the cauliflower, and in none is there a greater tendency to deteriorate. On this account less dependence is to be placed upon named varieties than in some other cultivated plants, and greater need is required to secure carefully selected strains. Owing to peculiarities of soil, climate and season, and the different degrees of care given by the different growers, seeds of the same variety may be better from one source than from another. On this account, when a variety is found adapted to one's needs it is well to use the same variety, and obtain it from the same source year after year.

Cauliflower seed is mostly grown in Europe, chiefly in Holland and Germany, to some extent in Italy and France, and less in England. One variety, the Large Asiatic, seeds abundantly in Northern India. There are a few localities where the seed is successfully grown in the United States.

In Europe the dwarf early varieties are chiefly grown in the north, and the large late varieties at the south. In the south the seed is most easily grown, and southern seed brings the lowest price.

McIntosh states that cauliflower seed seldom ripens in Scotland. In England, as I have said, it is grown to a limited extent, but not so much as that of broccoli. The seed plants are there selected in June, at the time of heading, and allowed to stand until the seed matures. Mr. Dean states that his Early Snowball produces in warm, early seasons better seed in England than anywhere else. Loudon, in his "Encyclopaedia of Gardening" quotes Neill, as saying that "Until the time of the French Revolution, quantities of English cauliflower were regularly sent to Holland and the low countries, and even France depended on us for cauliflower seed. Even now English seed is preferred to any other."

A later English writer states that the English prefer Dutch seed and the Dutch English seed.

Most of the seed now used in England, as well as nearly all of that sold in this country comes from Holland, France and Germany. The climate, especially of Holland and North Germany, is particularly favorable for the production of fine strains of seed, especially of the dwarf early varieties.

McIntosh says: "Our best cauliflower seed is imported from Holland, and for its quality we have much greater reason to thank the better climate than the growers, who are not over particular in the matter, as Dutch cauliflower seed is sure to sell."

The Mediterranean varieties are generally large, and require for the most part too long a season to be popular and successful in this country. As dwarf varieties have been produced, the cultivation of this vegetable in Europe has extended farther north. As already stated, when the cauliflower was first cultivated in France the island of Cyprus was the only place where it was known to seed, and for a time the plant was known in England under the name of Cyprus Colewort.

Although most of the seed used in the United States is still imported, American grown seed appears to give good satisfaction and is moderate in price. Professor W. J. Green, of the Ohio experiment station, who tested Puget Sound seed in 1889, reported as follows: "The most remarkable examples are found in the Puget Sound cabbage and cauliflower seed, which show great vitality and consequent vigor in growth of plant. We have received numerous samples grown in that region by H. A. March and A. G. Tillinghast, brother of Isaac Tillinghast, the seedsman. These seeds were very large, full of vitality, and the plants uncommonly vigorous. At transplanting time the plants were nearly twice the height of others of the same variety, while the difference in color was very marked. This robust habit continued to manifest itself during a greater part of the season, but as maturity approached, the variation was less and less marked, until at last the others had caught up, and there was no perceptible difference." No change in time of maturity or habit of growth was noticed.

Mr. Brill, of Long Island, states that to secure seed there it is best to winter over the partially headed plants in a cold frame or cellar, and set them out early in the spring. The summers are so warm there, however, that except in particularly favorable seasons but little seed forms. Several excellent early varieties have originated on Long Island, and there is reason to believe that hot, changeable climates, though unprofitable for the growing of seed, are particularly favorable for the production and maintenance of early sorts able to head in hot weather.

It is perhaps for this reason that England, Denmark, and Central Germany have produced more early varieties than Holland, France and Italy. The dry calcareous soil of some parts of England appears to be particularly favorable to the production of early varieties.

In the vicinity of Boston, cauliflower seed has been grown to some extent, especially the variety known as Boston Market, which was formerly very popular there. James J. H. Gregory writes me under date of March 3d, 1891, that he raised 60 pounds of seed of the Boston Market from 500 plants, where from the same number of plants of the Snowball and Extra Early Erfurt, grown under precisely the same conditions, he obtained less than a great spoonful. The seed was raised on an island used expressly for that purpose.

It is a custom in England and Holland, where the season is too short for the seed to ripen perfectly, to diminish the number of seed-stalks on a plant by cutting out the centre of the head. The flower-stalks require to be supported by stakes, and when the seed is nearly mature, to be guarded from birds. A plaster cat is recommended as a good scare-crow, especially if its position is changed every few days, so that the birds will continue to think that it is alive.

Cauliflower seed, as is well known, is smaller and inferior in appearance to cabbage seed, and always contains a considerable proportion, which is shrunken and worthless. This poor seed is removed from the crop as much as possible before it is sold. This shrunken condition arises from the fact that a large share of the flowers fail to set, and many of the pods only partly fill. Shrunken seed is no indication of inferiority of variety, in fact rather otherwise, for the most compact heads, being the most deformed from a structural point of view, give the least amount of good seed. Still, it is not necessarily true that the highest priced seed is always the best and most economical to use. A new variety, until it becomes well established, requires rigid selection, and this so reduces the amount produced that a high price can be obtained for all that is grown. An older variety, on the other hand, which has become so well established, and comes so true that nearly every head is perfect and will furnish good seed, can be supplied at a cheaper rate and may for a given purpose be equally good. As a rule it may be said that the newest and highest priced seeds are too expensive to use on a large scale, and the cheapest seeds are inferior in quality. One should not judge of the value of a variety wholly by the price at which its seed is sold. Most of the high priced varieties are dwarf kinds, which are becoming more and more popular in this country, but which produce comparatively little seed.

Our varieties of cauliflowers have all been developed by means of selection. Desirable features have either been acquired by gradual selection through successive generations in a given locality; or some sudden variation has been preserved and perpetuated. Climate, as already stated, has had much to do in developing certain peculiarities. The varieties of Italy, France, Holland and Germany have in each case certain features common among themselves which can only be accounted for by the influence of the particular climate in which they are grown. It is, therefore, useless to attempt to maintain these characters wholly unchanged in other climates. Hardiness, earliness, certainty of heading, protection of the head by leaves, and shortness of stem, can all be increased by selection, but, as they are all likewise influenced by climate, the selection is more effective in some climates than in others. The varieties of the south of Europe are as a whole characterized by a long period of growth, tall stems, great vigor and hardiness, and by having the leaves inclined to grow upright and protect the head.

The cauliflower crosses readily with the cabbage and other varieties and species of the genus Brassica. It does not usually flower at the same time, however, as other members of the genus, so the difficulty is not usually great in keeping it pure.

The following remarks, by Mr. A. Dean, of England, on a case of apparent crossing in the cabbage tribe will be read with interest:

"A very pretty conical-headed plant of a Colewort was allowed to run to seed, but nothing else of the same family was known to be in flower for a distance of at least several hundred yards. The produce was saved and sown, and has been furnishing food for the table during the past winter, but what a progeny! Some were reproductions of the seed parent, but larger, and proved very handsome early cabbages; others were very fair Coleworts; others bad examples of Cottager's Purple Kale, others Green Kale, while others resembled sprouting Broccoli, both green and purple. One plant was an example of the once popular Dalmany sprouts, and there were many other plants that admitted of no classification. It is probable that bees, which travel long distances, had somewhere found some sprouting in Broccoli flower and had brought pollen from those to the Colewort plant in question."

Spontaneous variation has given a number of curious forms of cauliflower, including one with several heads in the place of one, and another in which the head is flattened sidewise, like the garden cockscomb. These forms have not been cultivated.

Cauliflower seed contains on an average about 7,000 seeds to the ounce, of which about one-half usually germinate, a much smaller per cent. than in cabbage. Long Island growers estimate two ounces of seed to the acre as a safe amount for the small varieties and an ounce and a half for the late varieties.

It was formerly a common belief, especially in England, that old seed would be most likely to produce good heads. There is little evidence to support this belief, and just as little ground for the more recent belief held by some that old seed is particularly liable to produce loose worthless heads. Like all other seed cauliflower seed ought to be as fresh as possible; fresh seed always germinates best and gives the most vigorous plants. Seed two or three years old, however, is generally satisfactory, and it will often grow successfully at double that age.

"CAULIFLOWER SEED GROWING ON PUGET SOUND."

"I am told by very good authority that cauliflower seeds had never been grown in the United States as a field crop to any extent until we made a success of it here on Puget Sound. In the first place a very cool, moist climate is necessary to cure seeds at all. That climate we have here on our low flat islands lying in the mouth of the Gulf of Georgia. We often have heavy fogs in the night, and always dews equal to a light shower every night all summer long. The first expense attending the raising of cauliflower seed is quite heavy. The soil must be a rich, warm loam facing the south, and it will be all the better for having a clay subsoil. We must have the land underdrained once in twenty feet, the drains being three feet deep, to give us a chance to work early in the spring, and also to take off the surplus water when we come to flood the land in July.

"Now we have our plants set, and not one ever wilts in the hottest spring day. In two or three days the cultivator is started and kept a going once a week until the heads begin to form. We hand-hoe three or four times, besides fighting insects. The cabbage maggot is our worst enemy.

"When the flowers commence to bloom out or form heads, is the most particular time. A man who thoroughly understands what a perfect cauliflower is, must now go through the field every two or three days and examine every head, and if there is any sign of its growing in quarters, or if a leaf is growing through the head, or if there is any looseness in its growth, the heads are staked and cut for market. For, as like produces like, it will never do to get seed from an inferior head, especially in the case of cauliflowers; for the seeds from these are more apt to run wild than any seed I ever grew. We usually set a Fottler cabbage in the place from which the poor plant has been cut, and it makes a fine head by fall.

"The expense and trouble are not over yet. The seed is ripening about the time our rainy season sets in, and we don't see the sun once a week on an average, so that our seed must all be dried by fire heat. Our dry-houses are 30 x 20 feet, and 18 feet high with 2 x 6 inch joists running across the houses in tiers, on which we hang the seeds for drying. A brick furnace is built in the middle of the house, with the flue running through the roof.

"We usually make three cuttings. As soon as the pods on the center stalks begin to turn yellow, and the seed a light brown, we make our first cutting. From one to three plants are put in a pile and tied with binding twine. The bundles are taken to the dry-house on wheelbarrows, made with racks on purpose for carrying the seeds. A cloth is spread over the rack to catch any shelling seeds. A man carries about 100 bunches at a load and passes them up to a man in the house who hangs them on nails driven for the purpose. The seed is allowed to hang a few days to thoroughly ripen before firing up. We aim to keep the heat in the top of the house at about 80? until the seed and stalks are dry.

"The bundles are now taken down and laid upon a cloth where they are crushed by walking on them. Grain sacks are then filled with the stalks and pods as full as they will tie up, and the contents are thrashed in the sacks with a flail. The seed is then sifted from the stalks and taken to the fanning-mill, and after putting it through the mill two or three times, we set the boys to rolling it. For this purpose we have a board two and a half feet long by one foot wide, with thin strips nailed on the sides to keep the seeds from rolling off. A boy sits down on a cloth with a pan of seed by his side, and holds one end of the board in his lap, while the other end rests on the cloth. He puts a handful of seed on the top end of the board and gently shakes it. All of the sound plump seeds run off on to the cloth, while the shriveled seeds, bits of stalk, dirt, weed seeds, etc., remain on the board. A smart Indian boy will clean ten pounds a day, at a cost of 50 cents and his board. Now the seed is sacked in double cotton sacks, holding about ten pounds each, and is ready for market."

In a subsequent paper the same writer said, in answer to inquiries upon the subject, that the cauliflower and cabbage readily mixed, but that there was little danger of their doing so in his locality, as the cabbage was nearly out of flower before the cauliflower began to blossom. To make the matter certain, however, boys were sent to every neighboring cabbage patch to clip off all straggling late blossoms that remained. Only one variety of cauliflower, or strains of one variety, is grown by him for seed in any one year.

The following letter from the same writer explains itself:

"FIDALGO, Washington, April 3, 1891.

"MR. A. A. CROZIER, Ann Arbor, Mich.

"I enclose you my circular, with reports from growers and dealers, also quite a few from the experiment stations. I have a large number that I have not printed, as they came too late for this year. The business has grown from a few pounds in 1882 to nearly 300 pounds in 1890. I think in the near future, that Puget Sound will grow all of the cauliflower seed that will be grown in the country. Cabbage seed is also grown to a large extent. I raised about two tons last year, and there probably will be ten tons raised on Puget Sound the coming summer.

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