December, 1913 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



295 



Some of the Plate Fruit and Honey Exhibit* made at the Ontario^HorticuItural Exhibition' Last ^ Month 



house. I have several strains which ap- 

 pear of exceptional value and whose ap- 

 pearance has suited almost everyone who 

 has seen them. These I hope in another 

 year to be able to pass out to you for 

 trial. 



I have also been working on tomatoes. 

 For indoor work I have been trying to 

 breed the good qualities of the Industry 

 tomatoes — especitlly its dise^ase resist- 

 ance, on to the pink tomato which I ob- 

 tained in Grand Rapids, Mich., four years 

 ago, and which has exceptional thickness 

 of flesh with thin skin but good carrying 

 qualities. These I hope also before long 

 to be able to give you to prove out. I 

 have made it a practice to send out seed 

 of varieties which have proved of value 

 under our conditions, to any who desired, 

 hoping by this means to be able to give 

 you something which will increase your 

 returns. 



We all know that frequently we obtain 

 seed which is not such as is represented, 

 and probably have tried to find some way 

 to overcome this difficulty. For a num- 

 ber of years we have grown seed of vari- 

 ous vegetables as radish, lettuce, beets, 

 cabbage, tomatoes, onions and melons, 

 with excellent results. The Dominion 

 Oovernment last year made some pro- 

 vision for assisting in this work. Can 

 we not help along by experimenting, un- 

 der the care of your Association, to find 

 where we could grow seeds commercial- 

 ly in. the province?. 



Would it be possible for you to add 

 cabbage and sunflower to the three crops 

 already in the crop competitions? They 

 are very important crops in the province, 

 and could be judged in the field in the 



fall, and then shown at the Horticultural 

 Exhibition in November. The interest 

 in the competition before has been great, 

 ;md the addition of these crops should 

 tend to increase their interest. 



Soft Rot of Vegetables 



B. BUnchrd, O.A.C., Guelph, Ont. 



That the soft rots of our comon gar- 

 den vegetables are mostly caused by bac- 

 teria is a fact not always realized by gar- 

 deners. Research work carried on dur- 

 ing recent years has proved this to a 

 certainty. 



The most common result from the at- 

 tack of the bacteria is a soft dark rot of 

 the affected parts. All plants are com- 

 posed of cells, each cell being enclosed in 

 a cell wall. In the early stages of the 

 disease the bacteria live between the 

 cells. They produce substances which 

 have the power of destroying the Cell 

 wall. After the cell wall has been thus 

 broken down, the organisms infest the 

 whole tissues, which become a soft, pulpy 

 mass. 



The bacteria generally gain an entrance 

 through an injured portion of the plant, 

 such as an insect bite. A wet season, 

 too, is much more favorable to the 

 spread of the disease than is a dry one. 

 When storing vegetables care should be 

 exercised in sorting as the rot will spread 

 from a diseased specimen to a healthy 

 one if they be touching. 



A most important control measure is 

 to keep insects in check. Caterpilars are 

 largely responsible for the spread of rot 

 in cabbages. One part of Paris green to 

 fifteen parts of flour, sprinkled on the 



cabbages, will keep them down. It is 

 possible for the bacteria to live in the soil 

 for several years. It is difficult for them, 

 however, to gain access to an uninjured 

 plant. Care then should be taken in cul- 

 tivating the plants so as not to injure 

 them in any way. 



All diseased plants or parts should be 

 removed and burned as soon as noticed ; 

 should the disease become general it is 

 best to harvest the good specimens and 

 burn the rest. Practically the same or- 

 ganisms cause soft rot in cabbage, cauli- 

 flower, radish, carrot, mangle, turnip, 

 parsnip, potato, celery, onion, aspara- 

 gus and rhubarb. 



Protecting Small Fruits.— Wherewin- 

 ter protection is necessary the straw- 

 berry bed should be mulched with long, 

 strawy stable manure, after the ground 

 freezes, but before severe weather. 

 Cover the plants two inches deep and 

 two or three between the rows. Rasp- 

 berries should be protected by laying 

 them down. Bend them over near the 

 ground and hold in place by a shovel- 

 ful of earth near the tips. Straw, hay, 

 or corn stalks, or even soil, can be used 

 for mulching, but it should not be put 

 on before the first frosts. — H. Gibson, 

 Staatsburg. 



Too much stress cannot be put upon 

 careful handling of any crop to be stored 

 and duritig storage. Faph bruise or 

 cut gives the proper conditions for the 

 development of disease and if rough 

 handling is permitted we are sure to 

 find decay starting from such places, 

 eventually infecting the whole crop. 



