December, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
51 
If either is used it must be re- 
moved next spring. 
(3) A cone of earth around the 
base of tree (6 inches high) will 
usually turn mice. 
(4) A shot-gun is also a good 
tree protector. The Game Laws 
permit you to kill rabbits, on 
your own land, at any time of the 
year even if you have no license. 
Be careful to observe the under- 
lined words. 
Winter Protection for Straw- 
berries 
(1) Sometime before winter 
sets in, the strawberry bed must 
be covered, not to protect the 
plants from frost but to protect 
them from heat. 
(2) We want the plants to 
freeze in the autumn and most of 
all we want them to remain frozen 
until spring. Alternate freezing 
and thawing will seriously injure 
the plants. 
(3) After the ground is frozen 
and before heavy snow, cover the 
plants with any material that will 
keep out sunshine. A light cover- 
ing is sufficient. The ideal mate- 
rial is marsh hay. Clean straw or 
cornstalks m,ay be used. Branches 
of evergreen trees, hemlock, 
spruce, cedar, etc., furnish excel- 
lent material. Leaves are not de- 
sirable as these form a covering 
which is too compact. If stable 
manure is used it should be light 
and “strawy.” Any material 
which contains weed or grass 
seeds is undesirable. 
Fresh Rhubarb in Winter 
Canned rhubarb is good, fresh 
rhubarb is better. By digging a 
few roots from the garden before 
the ground freezes we may easily 
have the fresh kind nearly all win- 
ter. In the October, 1916, num- 
ber of Wisconsin Horticulture, 
Pres. Rasmussen outlined the plan 
of procedure as follows: 
Select three-year old plants, or 
as much older as you may have, 
dig late in the fall just before it 
freezes. Sink your spade full 
length of blade, cutting a circle 
close to the hill, then by carefully 
prying you can lift the hill in a 
solid clump without loosening the 
dirt or breaking the roots to any 
extent. Place these roots on the 
north side of a building or bush 
(out of the sun) and let them 
freeze for about four weeks, this 
is very essential for if they are 
not thoroughly frozen the crop 
will be a failure. Now take an 
old barrel of any kind put in 
about four inches of saw-dust or 
garden soil, even coal ashes will 
do, but saw-dust is light and clean 
and holds moisture well. Next 
place the frozen clump in and 
pack saw-dust or other material 
around roots and cover to the 
depth of about three inches. If 
you leave the crown exposed you 
will get too many small stalks. 
See that the .tilling is two or three 
inches higher around the outside 
of the barrel than in the center, 
thus preventing the water from 
running down the outside of the 
barrel onto the floor. Place in the 
cellar, water well and cover with 
carpet, burlap or anything conve- 
nient that will entirely exclude 
the light. Light would develop 
leaf at the expense of the stalk 
thereby lessening the crop ; light 
would also rob the stalk of its 
rich red color, delicate flavor and 
tenderness. 
Now all you have to do is to 
keep it watered and watch it 
grow. The temperature of your 
cellars may vary from 35 to 70 de- 
grees Fahrenheit. The higher the 
temperature the faster it will 
grow, but any cellar will grow 
rhubarb. A hill of rhubarb 
handled in this way will produce 
more pounds of edible plant than 
if left in the ground as its food 
has all been stored in the root for 
the coming season and is all trans- 
formed into stalk insted of leaf. 
Asparagus may be grown in the 
same way except that it must be 
kept warmer and must be given 
some light and it will be found 
more delicate to handle. Green 
onions may be grown from sets in 
flat boxes and may be given 
plenty of light. If one has 
plenty of room and a little time 
beet greens might also be added 
to the list, planting the old beets 
same as onions. 
A Most Wonderful Mixture 
It’s an unfortunate fact that 
the less a nursery agent knows, 
the more stock he can sell. The 
ignorance of many traveling rep- 
resentatives of nursery .firms is 
profound. Witness the following: 
A member who lives in Milwaukee 
inquired of the agent of a well 
known Wisconsin nursery firm as 
to a disease affecting his rasp- 
berry plants and was told that it 
with anthracnose and was advised 
to spray with the following mix- 
ture : i 
i /4 lb. paris green. 
3 lbs. blue vitrol. 
4 lbs. air slaked lime. 
i /2 lb. wood ashes. 
30 gallons water. 
Make one day before using : 
two applications this fall, four 
days apart ! 
No doubt the paris green is de- 
signed to kill the “bugs” that 
cause the disease. The i /2 pound 
of wood ashes in 30 gallons of 
mixture is undoubtedly meant to 
serve as a fertilizer next spring, 
but why, oh why, the slaked lime? 
May we suggest the addition of a 
pinch of Bull Durham and a little 
saleratus ? 
