410 



EEL-WORMS IN LEAVES OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



account of a worm about the size and appearance of 

 our northern cut-worm. This worm commences in the 

 tip of the ear and burrows the entire length, completely 

 ruining the corn, so that the people are obliged to use 

 field corn as a substitute, and a very poor one it is, too, to 

 one accustomed to our very toothsome varieties of sweet 

 corn. Another crop that comes to mind is cucumbers for 

 pickles. For five years I tried these in the south on 

 different soils, and varied methods of culture, but the 

 result was uniformly a failure. A few pickings can be 

 got from vines started very early ; they are so grown 

 quite often by being started in pots or hot-beds and trans- 

 planted. This may do for early cucumbers, but is far 

 too expensive for pickle growing, for which crop one 

 requirement is easy and cheap culture and a long season 

 of picking. But the vines in the south would uniformly 

 dry up or blast and were, for the purposedesired.a failure, 

 although the crop had been a very profitable one north. 

 And here I want to call attention to a product that will 

 return large profits to the New England grower, and 

 that is made very largely from wastes from other crops, 

 I refer to ?nixi J pickles, such as are now found in all of 

 our large grocery stores. Several years ago while in 

 general market gardening business, I often noticed these 

 goods, and as new shipments were received, from the 

 pickle factories I examined them closely to see the pro- 

 portion of different vegetables used in their make-up, 

 and noted the defects (according to my taste and the 

 dealer's opinion, ) in some brands that were not receiving 

 the top market price. I formed the opinion that a first- 

 class article in this line would be profitable, sell readily, 

 and that I had the market right at my door, in the 



numerous manufacturing villages with which New Eng- 

 land is dotted. I tried it and found it as I had expected. 

 In fact, by commencing carefully and using the neatness 

 and system necessary to all first-class products, I found 

 that I was able to sell my product for a higher price 

 than some of the best factory brands were selling for. 

 The wholesale price during the past ten years has rang- 

 ed from 25 to 35 cents per gallon in barrel lots. I will 

 give some idea of the method of preparation, which 

 will also show largely why its manufacture is so prof- 

 itable. 



All through the selling season of the different vegetables 

 you can be preparing your stores for mixed pickles. Your 

 first important crop will be bush beans. When the 

 market returns get so low that it is no longer profitable 

 to sell them, put them into your vat of salt brine, where 

 they may stay until fall and winter, or such season as 

 you are ready to freshen them and sour them with vine- 

 gar. Care must be taken to put in no stock that is not 

 tender, as old tough material is no more fit for pickles 

 than it is for sale green. Your small, misshapen cauli- 

 flower you will put away in brine in the same way ; also 

 small onions, small musk-melons jzot quite ripe, green 

 tomatoes, martynia, cucumbers and other materials that 

 you will observe if you notice closely the mixtures for 

 sale. When ready to sell, freshen, cut up the cauli- 

 flower, large cucumbers and martynia sufficiently small 

 to mix well, sour them with cider vinegar, and sell. It 

 will be readily seen that a great part of the material 

 being practically waste products, there is a very good 

 margin of profit, and the market is at your door. 



Coni2. Everett E. Brown. 



EEL-WORMS IN LEAVES OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



A NEWLY INVESTIGATED ENEMY. 



°\ URING the past year, while ex- 

 j amining specimens of diseased 

 I leaves for fungous troubles, eel- 

 worms have been found in the 

 foliage of a number of cultiva- 

 ted plants. That microscopic 

 worms infest plants is no new 

 fact, but it has been considered 

 that they are quite generally 

 limited to the roots or underground parts of the in- 

 fested plants, or at least do not, as a rule, prey upon 

 the foliage. Thus the two bulletins* already issued 

 in this country consider the subject from the stand- 

 point of root-gall producing worms. While it may 

 be true that all plants with leaves attacked by the 

 nematode worms also have their roots infested, it is 

 nevertheless true that a great share of the conspicu- 



The' root-knot diseases of the peach, orange and other plants in 

 Florida, by Dr. J. C. Neal ; A preliminary report upon the life, his- 

 toty and metamorphoses of a root-gall' nematode, by Prof. T. F. 

 Atkinson. 



OQS damage done to many plants is effected by the 

 worms that vvork in the foliage. In many cases 

 leaves have been found in bad condition when the 

 presence of the worms elsewhere was not detected 

 after a careful examination of the other parts of the 

 plant. 



The following are the species of ornamental plants in 

 the leaves of which nematodes have been found in such 

 numbers as to injure materially the infested plants. 

 Early in the season there were complaints made at the 

 experiment station of a failure of the chrysanthemums 

 to do well. The leaves of these sickly plants when mi- 

 croscopically examined revealed the fact that they were 

 being destroyed by multitudes of eel-worms. Later in 

 the season some dwarfed and diseased plants were ex- 

 amined and the dead spots in the leaves of these were 

 found to contain many nematodes. During the past 

 winter, while a special study of fungous diseases of green- 

 house plants has been prosecuted, several other kinds of 

 leaves have proved to be the feeding ground of the same 

 microscopic worms. Thus the bouvardias have suffered 



