MR. BEATTY ADDRESSING A GROUP OF STRAWBERRY GROVCERS AT DURANT, MISS. 



Among the Mississippi Strawberry Growers 



ByFrankE. Beatty 



ONE day in early October there 

 came to us the Macedonian cry, 

 "Come and help us," from a 

 group of commercial strawberry 

 growers at Durant, Mississippi, and as soon 

 as possible thereafter I responded to that 

 call, and went down to see what it was 

 that our friends had said was destroying 

 the fields that had yielded them such rich 

 harvests of berries for several years. At 

 Chicago an official of the Illinois Central 

 railway expressed to me the concern his 

 company felt that the destructive visita- 

 tion be investigated, its nature discovered 

 and, if possible, the trouble removed. 

 At Champaign I stopped off for an inter- 

 view with Prof. S. A. Forbes, the eminent 

 entomologist, whose researches, explora- 

 tions and publications in that field have 

 placed him in the front rank in his pro- 

 fession. It was my pleasure also to dis- 

 cuss general horticultural matters with 

 Prof. John W. Llo\d, and to confer with 

 Prof. C. G. Hopkins on matters relating 

 to soils and fertilizers, than whom no man 

 in the United States better is fitted to 

 speak with authority. None may visit 

 this great University, with its splendid 

 agricultural and engineering departments 

 training bright young men for careers 

 along technical lines, without a higher 

 estimate of the meaning of education and 

 the necessity of just such training if the 

 young man of the future is to attain 

 highest success. 



ADJOINING the University farm 

 are the experimental grounds of 

 Rev. J. R. Reasoner, the originator of the 

 Senator Dunlap strawberry, and a horti- 

 culturist of large learning and experience. 

 I had known Mr. Reasoner some years 

 and had experienced before the cordial 

 hospitality with which he welcomes every- 

 one interested in the strawberry, but 

 never before had I been privileged to in- 



spect the work he is carrying forward on 

 his place at Urbana. Space forbids any 

 details of this visit and its discoveries; 

 suffice it to say that he is doing a great 

 work therein the interest of the strawberry. 



THE following day I reached Durant, 

 where I was met by Elmer Morgan, 

 secretary of the Strawberry Growers' As- 

 sociation of that place, and soon there- 

 after we were in the infested area, search- 

 ing for the cause of the serious mischief 

 that threatened to devastate these broad 

 and splendid fruit fields. Ten minutes 

 was all the time required to discover it, 

 and knowing the cause the remedy was 

 not difficult to determine. Down in the 

 crown of the plants were large numbers 

 of aphides. These are a small green 

 louse that saps the juices from the roots 

 and tenderer parts of the plants. In dry, 

 hot weather these lice are carried to the 

 lower parts of the roots by black ants, and 

 while the lice drain the roots of their 

 juices, the ants suck the lice, thus keep- 

 ing the latter hungry and willing to work. 

 Entomologists have dubbed these lice the 

 the black ant's cow because of the habit 

 of the ant thus to get its sweets of the 

 plants vicariously. 



ANOTHER cause of serious trouble 

 was the beetle, which I found in 

 large numbers in many of the fields vis- 

 ited. These pests eat little holes in the 

 leaves of the plants, leaving them with 

 veil-like perforations, while their larvas 

 feed upon the roots of the plants. Beetles 

 readily may be driven out by the gener- 

 ous and persistent use of Paris green, and 

 by destroying the beetles we shall soon 

 be rid of the iarvit. The louse, being a 

 sucking insect, may be utterly routed by 

 spraying with kerosene emulsion, and by 

 dipping the roots of the plants in a strong 

 tobacco tea just before setting them out. 



Page 5 



This treatment destroys the eggs of the 

 lice, if there be any on the roots, and 

 serves both as a preventive and cure. 

 With so strong an organization as the 

 association at Durant behind the move- 

 ment, I have no doubt that the growers 

 there will soon be rid of these enemies 

 and that what appeared to threaten the 

 very existence of the commercial growing 

 of strawberries in that section will soon 

 be a matter of history. Of this associa- 

 tion W. M. Smith is president, and Elmer 

 Morgan is secretary and treasurer. 



HOW great was the interest in this 

 investigation and its results I had 

 occasion to realize in a very pleasant way. 

 Who has come into the South and en- 

 joyed its warm and generous hospitality 

 but will understand the manner of my 

 kindly reception there."" And after it was 

 definitely understood that the seat of the 

 trouble had been located and the remedy 

 for the disease was practically assured, 

 the strawberry growers from near and far 

 began pouring into the enterprising little 

 city, and it became necessary for me to 

 go from field to field, to the number at 

 least of twenty, talking to groups of in- 

 terested auditors, sometimes to few, fre- 

 quently to many. And how the questions 

 poured out in one ceaseless torrent from 

 the lips of those so vitally interested in all 

 that relates to successful strawberry cul- 

 ture! For three days I went over the fields 

 talking and explaining and giving the 

 listeners the best I could out of my own 

 experience in strawberry culture. A local 

 photographer caught with his camera one 

 of these groups, and it is shown herewith. 

 Finally on Saturday there was a meeting 

 in the town hall — not a big auditorium to 

 be sure, but it was packed by an inspir- 

 ing audience, who listened eagerly to all 

 that was said upon the subject. This 

 meeting was held in the afternoon, and 



