The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-03-14
lCopynght. 1907. b. Joseph B. Bowles.)

their own single and fig-tree. so to
speak.
The next morning, before the amor
Gus sun could get in his deadly blight
ing work on the cabbages, l inserted
a couple of shingles apiece to each
plant and the sun disappointedly went
to work on other sections Of the gar
den. watered the cabbages some
more, and by evening they were GER
tainly on the mend. But, alas! for the
rarity of Christian charity,-a long,
low, rakish worm of a bright green
color, appeared In the offing, and with
him came myriads of his tribe. The
scientific name of this pest is the
hcrnicus cussicus, and his common
name, the cabbage-worm. Each worm
sports from 10 to 107 horns, big and
| little, and when these lads are very
small you can scarcely tell them from
the cabbages, so alike are both in col
| or But they grow at a fearsome rate,
and as they grow, your cabbages are
| devoured with sickening rapidity, leav-
| ing mere stripped stems where once
| the broad and succulent leaves Of the
| growing vegetable gladdened the eye.
| consulted a gardening oracle and he
told me to spray them with salt wa
| ter. / did this for awhile and the
/ worms actually throve on It, After
long, hot night, nothing seemed to
| give them such snap and nerve as to
| get refreshing saltwater bath such
as l used to give them. have seen
I one of those worms which would look
like he had lost all interest in his job
|, revive almost Immediately under
saltwater spray, and go to eating cab
bage as energetically as a starved
I, highway COW. / soon saw that the
saltwater treatment only made them
more frisky and ravenous than ever,
so sent for book which gave direc-
lions for exterminating them. This
book recommended DR.. Killem's insect
powder This stuff was scattered
| over them with a sort of blow-gun,
and good deal of 1t got up your nose
and made you sneeze. But the worms
fairly dotted on it.
l realized instantly that had been
the victim of a fraud. There is no
way of killing the hornibus cussicus
except with a club. ! found a small
baseball bat in the smokehouse, left
there by some small boy, and with
this weapon l sailed out and fell on
the cabbage-worms and wreaked great
slaughter upon them. But it was too
late; they had about gotten away
with the cabbage crop. But just as a
guide for future gardeners l want to
say that the only way to get rid of
these brutes is to take club and
maui them to death.
We planted radishes of two or three
varieties, lettuce, swiss chard, beans,
peas, sweet corn, beets, tomatoes,
turnips, spinach, and some other va
rieties of vegetables, and for the most
part they came up well and seemed
anxious to please. But the weeds
grew strong and thick, and although
cut them down diligently. they came
on undiscouraged and threatened to
swamp our garden If something was
not done to rout them. 1t was here,
like whats-his-name of old, that
jumped into the breach, or rather the
breeches, and performed prodigy OF
valor.
1t was easy to be seen that cutting
them down only increased their
strength and number. The only re
sort was 70 dig them out bodily and
carry them away. This 1 finally &C
complished by roofing them out from
the bottom with a long-handled hoe
and wheeling them away in wheel
barrow that had locomotor ataxia In
it's wheel and almost made me bow
legged trying to follow its gyrations
! was compelled to remove severa
tons of soil in taking away the weeds
but at last the job was finished. After
that the garden looked immense
, Cecile could come out in her ''glaC
rags" and gather vegetables, and az
for the baby, she preferred 1t as 6
playground to the lawn around the
, house. By a vigilant use of the hoe
,, kept the weeds and grass away from
|, the garden all the rest of the tim,
until fall.
The secret OF successful gardening
; is not so much In intellect as it is II
the endless grind of detail work. Jus
E hard, remorseless whacking ava.
! with hoe morning and evening, stir
I ring up the earth along the lines o
your rows of vegetables, letting tn,
! sun and moisture In at the roots, ant
. keeping the grass away from the beds
! But sometimes the grass is goo'
!, scheme. For instance, when you hav
, lettuce bed that is growing fast, lie
! the grass grow up in the rows and
! will retard the lettuce growth some
4 and keep it from going to seed to
, soon. In this way you can have lei
> tuce all summer from one bed. an
the grass. Overwhelming the lettuce