128 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



Field Notes of a Horticulturist. 



L. B. PIERCE, SUMMIT CO., OHIO. 



Although for the most part the winter 

 in northern Ohio has been very different 

 from the last one, yet we have had a good 

 many nice days when one ,conid work at 

 trimming, grubbing, etc., and I have im- 

 proved every minute in doing what could be 

 done to relieve spring of it.s rush of work. 



Weeding is not generally considered win- 

 ter work but I have done a little of it in a 

 Strawberry patch infested with Sorrel. I 



Fig 3 



Devices for Measuring Land. 



found that when the frost was out a 

 couple of inches that the weed could be pull- 

 ed very rapidly, a row twenty rods long and 

 containing perhaps 100 Sorrel weeds to the 

 rod, being easily cleaned up in an hour. 

 Just why this patch should be sprinkled 

 with Sorrel and one, 100 feet distant, just 

 across the railroad, should be exempt, there 

 being one Sorrel plant to a rod, I do not 

 understand unless the latter was hoed once 

 more two weeks later than the other. 



I was unable to mulch these plantations 

 in the usual way with straw because fifty 

 or more times in twenty-four hours they 

 were subjected to a shower of live sparks 

 from a passing engine. As a partial substi- 

 tute I have been mulching with manure 

 from the horse stable, bedding very heavily 

 with straw and drawing it out when the 

 ground was bare and frozen. It is a nice 

 matter to get it on even and thin enough, 

 and after taking lots of pains I am not 

 sure but I vrill have to remove a portion In 

 April as the land is new and rich. The part 

 I have covered was a low gravelly knoll, 

 facing the southeast and very much ex- 

 posed, the light snows disappearing the first 

 snowy day, so mulching in some way was 

 a necessity. 



At odd times in the last few months I 

 have been amusing myself in accurately 

 measuring different fields and plantations 

 on my place, previously estimated by 

 pacing. I can on nearly level ground pace 

 quite accurately five paces to the rod, as for 

 example a rhombus-shaped piece which I 

 paced and made to contain 140 rods, meas- 

 ured when tested with a rod pole 137 rods. 

 I imagine that a good many berry growers 

 as well as farmers have only a vague idea of 

 just exactly how large any particular field 

 is, and therefore in stating yields either 

 wrong themselves or the public. Not many 

 months ago I saw a statement by a widely- 

 known newspaper writer that a field that 

 he had been calling twelve acres proved on 

 accurate measurement to have less than 

 eleven and therefore his large yields had 

 been still larger. To the unthinking reader 

 this doubtless reflected additional glory to 

 that writer. 



" Here is a man," they would say, "who 

 has been getting nearly forty-four bushels 

 of Wheat to the acre and he has contented 

 himself with stating that he got thirty- 

 eight ; he surely does not overstate things." 

 To the thinking, careful reader, ho\vever,this 

 difference of more than an acre in the esti. 



mate of a twelve-acre field will bring dis- 

 trust and doubt. A man who has for years 

 been teaching carefulness and accuracy, 

 making them the corner stones of successful 

 farming has no business to make such an 

 error. He should know to the very last 

 square yard how much the area of a certain 

 field is, and knowing, he will have no occas- 

 ion or excuse for making erroneous state- 

 ments by estimates. It is not difficult to 

 rapidly and accurately measure a field and 

 know exactly how much it contains. 



The most rapid but not most accurate is 

 illustrated in fig. 1 ; a. b. represents a half 

 rod in distance on the ground, a.' b.' repres- 

 ents a pole just long enough to measure 

 this distance by touching either end to the 

 ground. This pole is just as long as from 

 a. to e. added to the distances from e. to b. 

 The pole is first touched to the ground at a., 

 then tilted over without moving the position 

 of the hand until he touches the ground, 

 thus measuring the half rod of course. 

 The length of the measure will vary as the 

 person is tall or short. Used in this way, a 

 person does not have to stop at every meas- 

 ure. Fig. 2 is simply a pair of wooden com- 

 passes with legs eight or ten feet long, con- 

 nected with a stay rod so that the points are 

 eight feet three inches apart, measuring 

 half a rod at a time. The stay rod should 

 be detachable at one end and there may be 

 other holes so as to set the points at six or 

 seven feet for laying out Raspberry rows. 



When not in use it may be folded up and 

 set in the comer of the barn or fruit-house. 

 It is put together with light carriage bolts. 

 Fig. 3 represents the most accurate and con- 

 venient half-rod measure for nearly level 

 land, there being no chance for error. It 

 can be used among growing crops as well as 

 bare ground. It should be strong and light 

 and so securely framed and braced as to 

 make the points unyielding. When not in 

 use it may be hung on two pegs on the side 

 of a building. 



Money and time is often saved in knowing 

 just how large a field is, especially where 

 seeds are bought to sow it or plants to plant 

 it Nothing is quite so annoying as to have 

 a shortage of a trifle, especially when a 

 little forethought and exact knowledge 

 would have prevented it. 



Black Rot of the Sweet Potato. 



Among the various fungous diseases that 

 attack the Sweet Potato none is usually more 

 destructive, and therefore more annoying to 

 the grower than what is known as " black 

 rot," so named because the tubers thus 

 affected turn to a dark color, and in the 

 worst cases change to a powdery substance 

 almost as black as coal. 



Prof. Byron D. Halsted of the New Jer- 

 sey Experiment station who has made an 

 investigation of these diseases, describes the 

 black rot in a recent number of the Country 

 Gentleman. 



The accompanying engraving, at a., he 

 says, shows a Sweet Potato as it appears 

 when badly attacked by the black rot. 

 There are five diseased patches shown — two 

 small and two quite large. The decay be- 

 gins at certain points— perhaps the base of 

 a small side root— and gradually spreads 

 throughout the Potato. At digging time the 

 root may not show any signs of the decay, 

 but will often make its appearance later. 

 In other words, the black rot is a form of 

 decay that continues to spread in the root, 

 whether the latter be in the soil or bin, and 

 therefore the merchant and the consumer 

 may join with the producer in sharing the 

 loss that comes from this cause. 



The trouble is due to a microscopic growth 

 of a fungous inature, and the spread of it 

 through the root js sjnjilar to that of.aimil- 



dew through a leaf, or a mold through a 

 piece of bread or cake. 



At least three kinds of spores are formed 

 by the black-rot fungus, so that there are 

 abundant provisions for the propagation of 

 the trouble, besides the method as illustrate 

 ed at }) in the engraving. The sprout is 

 here seen, and it will be observed that the 

 upper portion and the lowest leaf are repre- 

 sented dark, to indicate that. they are dead 

 and shriveled. This is due to the growth 

 of the same fungus as the one causing the 

 spots, large and small, in the Potato at a. 

 The lower portion of the sprout, c, which 

 normally is colorless from being under 

 ground and covered with small roots, is in 

 this case spotted with long, dark patches, 

 also due to the fungus in question. Should 

 such a plant be set in the field, it would be 

 quite sure to develop Potatoes affected with 

 the black rot, provided it survived. In all 

 such cases the disease has probably gone 

 from the root used as "seed" in the propa- 

 gating bed to the sprouts that grow from it. 

 Laboratory experiments were made in 

 growing sprouts from diseased roots, and 

 invariably the sprouts would be attacked 

 and worthless. 



This point suggests the utmost importance 

 in selecting the " seed," that it be entirely 

 free from the black rot. If there be doubt 

 about this, it would be wise to obtain roots 

 from a locality where no black rot has been 

 known. A second precaution is to discard 

 all sprouts not perfectly healthy. 



It is possible that some substance may be 

 found by experiment that when sprayed 

 upon the hot-beds will assist materially in 

 checking the black rot. In like manner 

 there may be some treatment for the roots 

 after digging that will prevent any further 

 grovrth of the rot. None of the tests made 

 with various substances added to the soil 



Sweet Potato Affected with Black Rot. 



at setting time, have given material relief. 

 In fields where the rot is very bad, it may 

 be wisest to devote the land for a few years 

 to some other crop, and thus permit the 

 fungus that is in the soil to die out. 



Another New Onion Culture. 



JOHN C. HART. 



It seems strange, that so many people of 

 different minds arrive at the same conclu- 

 sion in so many different ways, and that too, 

 almost at the same time. Having been suc- 

 cessful in my experiments, I tell of my 

 splendid crops of the last five years. 



