CHAPTER XIV 



INSECTS, DISEASES AND FROST 



The strawberry is less liable to serious injury from 

 insects and diseases than most other fruits. Fifty years 

 ago, when the same plantation was fruited ten to fifteen 

 years, damage from pests was much more pronounced 

 than now, when most plantings are fruited but one year 

 and practically none more than four years. Most of the 

 difficulties enumerated below may be prevented or greatly 

 lessened by careful selection of propagating stock, short 

 rotations, clean tillage, keeping the borders of the field 

 free from weeds, and other cultural methods, without 

 resorting to the use of sprays. Spraying, as a routine 

 feature of strawberry-culture, is practiced by compara- 

 tively few growers, chiefly in the North; but periodic 

 outbreaks of certain pests may make it desirable to spray 

 some seasons in almost every district. Probably over 

 ninety-five per cent of the commercial strawberry crop is 

 grown without any spraying whatever. Nurserymen 

 spray more than growers, so as to secure perfectly clean 

 stock. 



SPRAYING EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS 



The common types of orchard sprayers can be adapted 

 for strawberries. The simplest equipment for a small field 

 is a hand pump mounted on a fifty gallon barrel or larger 



268 



