i8g5. 



GARDENING. 



263 



JAPANESE WINEBBRRY. 



many as 12 to 15 crates a day were gath- 

 ered, and the time of picking lasted be- 

 tween 3 and 4 weeks. 4 good deal of the 

 berries was also sold to the villagers and 

 farmers hereabout who are too negligent 

 to raise their own fruit. 



I know of no more abused or praised 

 fruit than this is, so it surely must be 

 very fickle in its behavior. One person 

 says the plant isn't hardy, another de- 

 clares the fruit is worthless, while a third 

 pronounces it perfectly hardy here, and its 

 fruit of a most delicious quality. My own 

 experience is that it isperfectly hardy here, 

 and a good bearer of good berries, which 

 when quite ripe have a pleasant but not 

 high flavor; they are also of a beautiful 

 colorand very juicy, and have small seeds, 

 and they keep well The sale of the fruit 

 through this neighborhood, as it became 

 known, increased very much. The field 

 when in full bearing was the most beau- 

 tiful sight in the way of a crop of berries 

 1 ever saw. And I am going to increase 

 my plantation. 



P. S. I feel that this much abused fruit 

 should have at least one friend to speak 

 a good word for it; what I have written 



Queens, Long Island. 



The twig is almost covered with a scale 

 insect, so small as to need a magnifying 

 glass to see it to advantage. It is known 

 as Aspidiotiis ancylus, Putnam, and is 

 nearly related to the San Jose scale, 

 Aspiiliotus perniciosus, Comstock, which 

 is just .It the present time exciting a great 

 rK:il ol interest and alarm in having been 

 Introduced lately into New Jersey and 

 1,1 Hi;; Island nurseries and widely distrib- 

 uted, thence we fear, through New York 

 .iiiil (ithcr of the Atlantic states. 



When currant bushes are so badly 

 inlcsted as the sample sent it would be 

 better to cut them down and burn them 

 On others less infested the young can be 

 killed by spraying with a strong kerosene 

 emulsion in early June, or at the time of 

 the hatching of the young. The most 

 favorable time for killing the insect is in 

 the winter, when the plants are dormant, 

 when they will bear a spraying of two 

 pounds of whale oil soap in a gallon of 

 water, with the result of leaving hardly a 

 scale alive. I- A. Lintnf.r. 



Spraying Fruit Trees —Now is the 

 lime to attend to this. It is an ugly, per- 

 plexing and disagreeable job for amateurs 

 to undertake. They get muddled among 



the pumps and nozzles, and mixed up as 

 regards fungicides and insecticides; and 

 whi e all admit the advantages of spray- 

 ing, very few are prepared to attend 

 to the work themselves. But as 

 they would gladly pay somebody else to 

 do the spraying for them, it is our duty 

 to stir up some one in every tovvn to go 

 into the spraj'ing business as into the 

 threshing machine business, and give him 

 encouragement by employing him to do 

 our work. With farmers, nurserymen 

 and fruit growers for market spraying is 

 a business necessity, and they take to it 

 as a m tter of routine work. As most 

 all of the State Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations publish separate bulletins and 

 calendars on this subject we would sug- 

 gest that our readers apply to the station 

 of their state for these bulletins. We 

 have them from New York, Massachu- 

 setts, Michigan, Delaware, etc. 



Insects. 



n BAD SCALE INSECT ON CURRftNT BUS«ES, 



H. A. B., St. Louis, writes: "Please find 

 inclosed a piece of wood from one of my 

 currant bushes. I find that several of my 

 bushes arecompletely covered with scales. 

 Please tell me what it is, and what to do 

 for it, as I have never seen anything like 

 it before." 



TAB CURRANT AFAIS. 



I have been greatly troubled with a 

 louse that swarms on the under side of 

 the leal ol the red currant. The leaf on 

 the upper side first looks black as if blis- 

 tered, then dies, and the bushes are soon 

 denuded of leaves. For the last two 

 years have heavily mulched my red cur- 

 rants with tobacco stems, and not a louse 

 has appeared. This may be an old rem- 

 edy to you, but it is new to me. Have 

 you a remedy for this kind of vermin? 

 Thedifficulty'is to get anything to stick 

 on the under side of the leaf. C. W. F. 



Oshkosh, Wis. 



The insect infesting the leaves of the 

 red currant is. in all probability, the cur- 

 rant aphis, Myzus ribes (Linn.). It is 

 rre(|uently common on the currant. Very 

 little can be done for its destruction if left 

 until it has found shelter within the curls 

 of the leaves produced by its punctures. 

 When it first emerges from the egg in 

 early May it can be killed by spraying 

 with a strong kerosene emulsion or whale- 

 oil soap solution. I had not heard that 

 the msect could be kept away by mulch- 

 ing with tobacco stems. Should this 

 prove to be an effectual preventive it is a 

 discovery of importance, lor the tobacco 

 at the same time will serve as a valuable 

 fertilizer for the plant. Tobacco water 

 has long been used for killing aphides 

 that infest various plants, as well as 

 tobacco fumigation. J. A. Li.ntner. 



.\lbany, N. Y. 



LOOK OUT FOR BUGS. 



In (Gardening, page 24-8, you say "bt 

 careful not to kill the lady bugs." Last 

 year my roses were overrun with lady 

 bugs and I killed them, thinking they 

 were damaging the roses, in fact I kill 

 everv bug I can find on them. Now, was 

 I right to do so, or should I have spared 

 the lady bugs? B. W. Y. W. 



Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 



You did wrong, very wrong. The lady 

 bugs are among our best friends. They 

 don't eat the plants at all, neither do 

 they suck their juices. But they have 

 voracious appetites, their food being the 

 eggs of other insects, chiefly of noxious 

 aphides. 



When you write to any of the advertis- 

 ers in this paper please say that you saw 

 the advertisement in Gardening. 



