SMALL FRUITS IN MAY AND JUNE. I7I 



on a rich, well cultivated soil, preferring a northeastern slope. 

 Nothing but strong, healthy suckers or tip plants should be used, 

 as the success of the planting depends on the first year's growth. 

 The fruiting patch should be cultivated once a week so as to keep 

 a dust mulch. Raspberries need an immense lot of moisture to 

 bring tlie fruit to the desired size, and where this is lacking the 

 crop will be short if not a failure. 



If currant bushes have been mulched, cultivation is necessary 

 only to keep the weeds down. In dry seasons cultivation is better 

 than a mulch. In May and June the currant worms need more at- 

 tention than the currant's, for if they are not tended to we need not 

 look for the currants. The best way to tend to them is to feed them 

 Paris green. The essential point in successfully combating the 

 currant worm is to watch when they make their first appearance, 

 not on the top of the bush but on the inside. Then spray with Paris 

 green, using six ounces t'o forty gallons of water. The work must be 

 thoroughly done, so that the inside of the bush as well as the out- 

 side will get some of the spray. If a rain should set in shortly after, 

 they must be sprayed again. If the second brood should come when 

 the currants are ripe use hellebore instead of Paris green. 



Gooseberries are treated practically the same as currants ex- 

 cept before the buds open spray with Bordeaux mixture. 



Mr. J. V. Bailey : I would like to ask Mr. Yahnke how he 

 handles the second crop of worms. 



■ Mr. Walter Yahnke : Take the white hellebore in powdered 

 form and sprinkle it on. 



Mr. J. O. Weld : How do you keep the birds from eating the 

 currants. Out at my place two years ago last summer I did not 

 get any currants because the birds got them all. 



The Qiairman : What kind of birds were they ? 



Mr. Weld: All kinds. 



Mr, John Nordine : Plant more currants. 



Judge Moyer : Plant the Russian mulberry, and they will leave 

 the currants alone. 



Mr. C. W. Merritt : On a strip along the road about two hun- 

 dred feet long I have the red Russian mulberry planted, and the 

 birds will go for the mulberries as long as there are any left. 



Mr. J. W. Murray: Plant enough fruit so you will not notice 

 what the birds take away. 



Mr. Albert iLano : I rather doubt the gentleman's statement 

 that' all birds eat currants; I think there are only a few that do. 

 I would advise him to just shoot off a gun, not shoot at the birds, 

 but the noise of the gun will scare them away. 



