STRAWBERRY LEAF ROLLER. 273 



their going unpruned has much influence in this direction. We shall 

 speak of the rot and mildew in another paper. 



It is a well known law of growth that the buds farthest from the 

 roots start out first in the spring and those nearer the roots start out 

 later. The uppermost buds utilize so much of the sap frequently that 

 those nearest the roots are starved and do not push into growth. If 

 the vine is left unpruned, the foliage and fruit are farther and farther 

 from the roots of the vine each year, and, if we do not prune it, the 

 shoots continually increase in number, and the sap is utilized mainly 

 by the upper parts of these shoots. Now, if we keep the vine pruned 

 back each year, the sap only goes, of course, to where the vine is cut 

 off, and is utilized more by the branches nearer the roots, and the num- 

 ber of shoots is not increasing so fast to draw the sap away from the 

 main part of the vine. This part of the vine now receiving the sap 

 that would otherwise have passed farther up the vine grows with an 

 increased vigor, and the fruit is better. Cut the vine back to two or 

 three buds the first year, and the second year leave a few more. 



STRAWBERRY LEAF ROLLER, AND HOW TO TREAT 



THE PEST. 



John Schoemaker, Muscatine, Iowa, writes the Orange Judd Far- 

 mer : "I would like all the information obtainable in regard to the 

 best way of fighting the leaf roller. I have been troubled with them 

 for years and find them a great pest. It is uphill business to raise 

 strawberries where they abound, and it would be worth a good deal to 

 me to know how to get rid of them, without having to give up the 

 business. I have tried the annual system — plowing up the patch 

 right after the crop is picked, without success ; for they have taken 

 possession of the new bed, planted the same spring before the crop ma- 

 tured. I tried burning over the old beds soon after the crop was off, 

 but the insects left on the new beds make it impossible to get rid of 

 them. Would it destroy the fruit buds if the beds were burned over 

 in early spring? I am inclined to try this plan next spring. It will 

 not kill the plants to burn them over in July, if the beds are first 

 mowed, then with a sulky rake rake the leaves and mulching together 

 then spread it lightly over the whole surface, after which set fire to it 

 18 



