H 2 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 19, 1890. 



My neighbor's fruit reached there the same day, soft and un- 

 salable. It did not bring- enough to pay the freight. The differ- 

 ence in these berries was due simply to the differing effect of 

 the stable manure and the lime. The same day that I sent 

 these berries to Boston I sent a thirty-two-quart crate of them 

 to friends in Kittery, Maine. This crate was on the road a day 

 longer. The berries in it were selected, the largest and ripest, 

 mostly dead ripe, yet these berries arrived in perfectly good 

 condition, and my friends wrote that they were the finest 

 they had seen. 



The Wilson Strawberry, grown with potash and lime, and 

 left to become dead ripe, is hard to beat, either for market or 

 for the table ; but nitrogenous manure will spoil it. It may 

 increase the size of the berry, but it will be at the expense of 

 sweetness and solidity. There need be no fear that liming the 

 Strawberry-plant will injure it. Living vegetation is not 

 harmed by the contact of water-slaked lime, though it will 



tion. Not a berry ripened, and in the course of two weeks one 

 could hardly find a green leaf in the whole acre. The plants 

 died utterly. 



Such complete destruction by this fungus is unusual; com- 

 monly only the leaves perish, and a new growth starts from 

 the root-crown. This growth will in its turn become diseased 

 from the fungus-spores which pervade the tissues they have 

 destroyed. In these the spores of the fungus hibernate, and 

 hatch with return of warmth and moisture in the spring. 



I do not know whether lime will destroy the hibernating 

 germs of this fungus, but from sundry experiences in its ap- 

 plication lam disposed to think it will. However, it is known 

 that lime prevents the germination of the summer spores of 

 blight by which the disease is most rapidly spread. It is well 

 to give the Strawberry-plants a liberal coat of lime in winter 

 or early spring, and repeated lighter doses of dry lime before 

 and after blossoming until the fruit is about one-third grown, 



Montgomery Place: Entrance Front. — See page 139. 



help decompose dead vegetable matter. I have covered 

 Strawberry-plants two inches deep with slaked lime, and seen 

 the plants grow up through it. 



The Strawberry blight {Sphcerella Fragarice) may be pre- 

 vented by a free and timely use of lime. All our varieties are 

 more or less liable to harm from this fungus, which manifests 

 itself in small purple or red spots on the leaf. As these spots 

 increase in size they become a reddish brown, with a white 

 spot in the centre. The leaves badly diseased turn brown, 

 die and shrivel. This will be noticed especially where the 

 fungus has attacked the petiole. Then the leaf will soon 

 wither, though it may not be spotted. The fungus often in* 

 vades the fruit-stems or the calyx. When this happens the 

 growth of the berry is stopped. Moist and poorly drained soils 

 and damp and "muggy" weather favor its rapid develop- 

 ment. Years ago I had an acre of Crescents, carrying a heavy 

 crop. When the berries were about one-third grown the field 

 was struck by this blight, which swept over it like a conttagra- 



when the crop will be reasonably safe and the liming should 

 cease or there will be risk of disfiguring the fruit should there 

 be no rain to wash off the lime. The lighter applications of 

 lime may be conveniently made with a bellows. It is only re- 

 quisite to make a slight, but thorough, distribution of the dry pow- 

 der over the entire surface of the plant. If the lime be on the 

 leaf when the fungus germs alight on it they can do no harm. 

 If the germs reach the leaf before the lime does, they will 

 germinate and enter the tissues, and then the lime cannot af- 

 fect them. The treatment of Strawberry blight can be pre- 

 ventive only. 



Spraying the plants with a solution of hyposulphite of soda, 

 one pound to ten gallons of water, is also preventive of blight. 

 So is a solution of sulphide of potassium, one pound to forty 

 gallons of water. The various formulated solutions of copper 

 sulphate or carbonate are also preventive, but it must be re- 

 membered that all these chemicals are useful only as pre- 

 ventives of disease. The defense must interpose before the 



