How to Get Rid of the White Grub 



M^' first number of The Strawberry 

 has been received and ihoroughly 

 digested, and it is good. It has 

 the right ring. There are so many peo- 

 ple who don't know; not only the begin- 

 ners, but those old in the business. For 

 instance, I should judge by the letters 

 you publish that the white grub is the 

 strawberry grower's greatest enemy, and 

 yet the white grub is the easiest of all to 

 get rid of, if only you know him from his 

 cradle to his grave. 



The white grub is the progeny of what 

 is known in this section as the May 

 beetle, June bug and Dor-bug. This 

 beetle lays her eggs in the latter part of 

 May or early in June here in the North. 

 She is very particular where she puts 

 them, always selecting a good feeding 

 ground for her young — the white grub. 

 Her favorite locality is ground covered 

 with a good grass sod. She also is partial 

 to manure that has been recently spread 

 upon the ground or lies in piles. She 

 never puts her eggs in hare ground unless 

 attracted by manure. After the eggs are 

 laid the beetle dies. It requires two 

 years for the grubs to grow to maturity 

 and become beetles. 



With this knowledge it is easy to plow 

 and to plant with reference to your future 

 strawberry plot. If your land is in grass 

 this year, or if you have land on which 

 you have put manure in the spring, that 

 land is well stocked with grubs. 



Next spring they will be one year old. 

 Plow your land this fall, or next spring, 

 before the beetles lay their eggs, and they 

 will not lay them there. 



Don't put on fresh manure. If you 

 use manure, spread it in the fall. It will 

 then become leached or so old that it will 

 not attract the beetles. Plant the ground 

 with any hoed crop you choose, except 

 strawberries. Good clean culture will 

 put the land in good condition to plant 

 strawberries the following spring, when 

 the grubs will have all changed to beetles 

 and left the field. 



There is no extra trouble in doing this, 

 as it is quite necessary that sod land be 

 planted to hoed crops one year to fit it 

 for the berry crop. 



Commercial fertilizers may be used at 

 any time. 



Please let your people know this and 

 they will bless you. 



Northboro, Mass., Sept. 22. 



By John F. Johnson 



practiced there is seldom much damage 

 done by the white grub. We have been 

 growing strawberries on a very large scale 

 for more than twenty years, and seldom 

 ever lose a plant by the grub. 



Our correspondent's enlightening arti- 

 cle on the white grub and the way in 

 which to prevent his serious depredations 

 places us and our readers under great 

 obligations to him. Prevention always is 

 the better "remedy" in whatever line of 

 work we may be engaged, and we are 

 sure the suggestions made by this corres- 

 pondent will result in largely reducing 

 the ravages of the white grub — at least 

 among Strawberry folk. 



But the cure of the white grub, once 

 he gets a start and is actually at work 

 in the patch — there's the rub! And 

 notwithstanding the protest of a Pennsyl- 

 vania reader, there is no help for that 

 situation save to get the pest out of the 

 field or patch by killing them. This 

 Pennsylvania member, W. W. Franklin, 

 of Corry, writes us as follows: 



"The process you suggest of getting 

 rid of the grub is so slow — to dig him up 

 and cut his head off! It puts me in mind 

 of a man that came along peddling flea 

 powder, done up in small packages. On 

 the outside of the package it read, 'Direc- 

 tions within.' A merchant bought a dol- 

 lar's worth and opening a package found 

 the following: 'Take a flea, prick h im 

 under the fifth rib with a fine needle; that 

 will cause him to open his mouth. Then 

 insert some of the powder between his 

 teeth, and — there's your dead flea!' So I 

 should have preferred a wholesale way of 

 getting rid of the grub. But at least I 

 shall know better in future than to put 

 strawberries on clover sod! 



And then this kindly old friend, with so 



delicious a sense of humor, adds: 'If I 

 were forty years younger I'd like to go 

 into the business. I like it, and there is 

 not a weed in my patch. If only those 

 grubs would let them alone! If I had 

 had the instruction before that now I am 

 getting from The Strawberry, I could 

 have saved myself a lot of trouble. 



A Victorious Strawberry Patch 



V. F. in November Delineator 



THE writer has had seven years' ex- 

 perience in strawberry culture; with 

 such success that she thinks more 

 women with a small plot of ground should 

 raise strawberries. "Doubtless God might 

 have made a better berry than the straw- 

 berry, but doubtless God never did;" and 

 it is not often that the market is so over- 

 run that there is not good sale for this 

 luscious berry. 



We started with about one-quarter of 

 an acre of good, well-drained, rather ele- 

 vated land. As plants differ greatly in 

 different localities, we visited the nearest 

 successful strawberry grower and learned 

 of him the best plants and the best meth- 

 ods for our soil. From him we bought 

 our plants and hired him to come and 

 give us the right start. We also read and 

 gathered hints wherever we could on suc- 

 cessful strawberry culture; and we worked 

 with such enthusiasm that the very first 

 year we raised a crop noted for size, qual- 

 ity and quantity. Besides having an 

 abundance of the delicious fruit to eat and 

 quantities to give to our friends, on our 

 sales in the near-by village we netted al- 

 most one hundred dollars. 



The men plowed and gave occasional 

 help, but the most of the work was done 



GROWING STRAWBERRIES FOR A LARGE MARKET 



We always have advised putting on 

 manure late in the fall or during winter, 

 and by spreading the manure out thinly 

 exposes the young grubs to freezing, also 

 lo the attacks of birds and fowls; and we 

 agree with Mr. Johnson as to manuring 

 and growing some cultivated crop before 

 setting to strawberries, but this can not 

 always be done. Where fall plowing is 



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