SMALL FRUITS. 325 



avoid it, and it is necessary to use some preventative, some 

 fungicide. There are a very few varieties not subject to this, 

 including the Warfield and Haverland. I do not think we have 

 a variety of strawberry but what is more or less af&ictedat times 

 with this spotting, this rusting, this disease we call rust of the 

 strawberry, or blight. Of course, it is especially abundant in 

 seasons when we have a great deal of moisture followed by in- 

 tensely hot weather; then it grows with great rapidity. If 

 the variety is in a weak condition and there is a lack of plant 

 food in the soil, or a lack of moisture or anything of that sort 

 it is very much more liable to be diseased. I should consider 

 that the preventatives would be first, good cultivation, second, 

 selection of those varieties that I have named, the Warfield and 

 Haverland, as they are not much troubled with it. We must 

 have something to pollenize those with, and I should use the 

 Michel's Early for that purpose. It is not a very good plant, 

 and the fruit is not very good nor very prolific, and if you think 

 it best to use the Captain Jack you can keep it clear of the rust 

 by using the fungicides, either the Bordeaux mixture or potas- 

 sium sulphide. I think the Bordeaux mixture is the simplest 

 and the best; you do not have to use it as often as the other. 

 If you undertake to use such a fungicide as that, you should be- 

 gin as soon as the xilants are established during the first year of 

 their crop, and spray the foliage, probably, three times to the 

 first of September, and then let them grow; and in the spring 

 of the year, spray them at least twice more with the Bordeaux 

 mixture. With such varieties as the Haverland and Warfield I 

 do not think it would be necessary to si3ray them ; but if you 

 have the Captain Jack I think it would pay you to get a spray 

 pump and spray them. 



Now, I will speak of one little matter that was of interest last 

 summer. You all recollect that the strawberries growing under 

 the shade of the trees and along the side of the buildings are 

 generally the best. Now. I have been carrying on a little ex- 

 periment at the farm, which may not be very practical on a 

 large scale, but which is of interest in showing that the plants 

 grown in the shade were healthier than the ones grown in the 

 sun. They seemed to do better. The shade was made by 

 making a screen, six feet from the ground, of poles driven into 

 the ground and covered with brush to keep out, perhaps, one- 

 third of the sunlight. We found that it not only kept the 

 plants very much healthier, but that such varieties as the 

 Parker, for instance, which is one of those growing an im- 



