New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 129 



METHODS OF CONTROLLING. 

 BURNING. 



One of the first methods suggested by writers for checking the 

 spread of asparagus rust was burning the affected brush. In 

 fact this has been the principal method recommended by Euro- 

 pean writers such as Zimmerman,^, Frank^ and Abbey'^. At first 

 Dr. Halsted^ recommended the same treatment. Drs. Sturgis^ 

 and Stone^*^ followed Dr. Halsted's advice as did also Messrs. 

 Jones and Orton.^ In a later published work^^ j)^^ Halsted says: 

 ^'At best, with these precautions, many of the spores will get 

 scattered upon the soil." Mr. Kinney^^, of Ehode Island, ques- 

 tioned the advisability of burning the brush in late summer; 

 and later Messrs. Stone and Smith"^* took a similar view of burn- 

 ing, stating that they had only recommended burning the in- 

 fected plants late in the fall when they were thoroughly dead 

 and dried out; and that they had never seen the slightest benefit 

 from burning the infected tops, while cases had been brought 

 to their attention in which actual injury had resulted from cut- 

 ting the tops and burning them in August. Following all the 

 above suggestions Dr. PammeP^ in a recent bulletin recommends 

 burning as undoubtedly the best method of preventing the rust. 



There is no doubt that in some sections the above measure has 

 been abused. A few agricultural papers have recommended cut- 

 ting and burning the beds as soon as the rust is observed. As 

 a result some growers have followed the latter method with more 

 harm than benefit to their crops. In 1899 this was tested on two 



"Atlas Pflanzen Krankheiten. 



'Die Krankheiten der Pflanzen, p. 460. Breslau: 1880. 



'Aspai-agii^ Diseases. Jour, of Hort., 1895, pp. 452-453, London. 



'Garden and Forest, 9:395, 1896. 



•Conu. Agr. Exp. Sta. Rept., 1890, p. 281. 



"Hatcli (Mass.) Agr., Exp. Sta. Repts., 1896, p. 73; 1897, pp. 59-00. 



"Vt. Agr. Exp. Sta. Rept, 1898, p. 201. 



"N. J. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bnl. 129, p. 15. 



"Rural New Yorker, 56: 658, Oct. 9, 1897. 



"Hatch (Mass.) Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 61, pp. 14-15, 1899. 



"Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 53, p. 66, 1900. 



9 



