416 
Z>he  R  U  R  AL  N  E  W-YO  R  K  E  R 
March  4,  1916. 
Mlilifiiiliflfi 
Uni  -  Lec+ric 
"  GASOLINE  -fclECTRIC  UNIT 
LIGHTING  SYSTEM 
lii 
ASET  of  six  booklets,  each  one  show-  ■'wW™  Aif-i-i  F/c^^'i 
**■  insr  some  way  of  increasing  crop  yjcNk  VAl&Mfsr.  \ "'H ^ R 
yields  and  lowering  production  cost  by  wM  l1  \w  :-’f| i  j  < 
i  lie  use  of  bet  ter  tillage  tools,  l  or  in-  \f  J*  I  K '  ***&  \^hct^  M 1 — 155 
stance,  wouldn’t,  n  100  per  cent  stand  \  l _ ,^_J 
increase  your  potato  profitsV  O nr  book  \  »'*  ^  w 
let,  “100  per  cent  Potato  Plant! no,''  tells  _  _  _^.l!'TS 
how  to  tret  It.  “iiordeninu  with  Modern  W ffl/ll  W  W  ^  W  1 
Tools”  shows  how  gardening  can  be.  made  a  pleas-  m  m  MM  lAI  /I  M  ’mi  |_ 
ure.  “Spray"  will  help  yon  select  sprayers  for  f  Jrf#/V  MMmwM’i  lppl 
every  purpose.  “Modern  Potato  Diaper*,”  “Home  M  *  Ip 
line*.  Harrows  and  Cultivators,”  an  it"  Waxier  and  IkiLi 
Quicker  Cultivation  with  Two  Horne  Tools,  Riding  and  Walking  Cultivators”  are 
equally  interesting. 
Which  of  these  booklets  shall  we  send  you?  They’re  all  FREE.  WRITE  TODAY 
Box  216,  Grenloch,  N.  J 
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FERTILIZERS 
THAT  FERTILIZE 
The  Vegetable  Garden 
Soil  Sterilization  in  Hotbeds  and  Green¬ 
houses 
Troubles  In  Tiie  Seed  Bed. — 
Greenhouse  men,  truckers,  market  gar¬ 
deners  and  tobacco  growers  are  hav¬ 
ing  more  trouble  each  year  with  plant 
diseases  in  tlioir  seedbeds  than  ever  be¬ 
fore.  The  damping  off  of  tomatoes,  cab¬ 
bage,  peppers,  eggplants,  etc,,  especially 
when  they  first  come  up,  is  a  common 
sight.  Lettuce,  spinach  and  corn  salad 
gets  “mouldy”  under  glass  and  “goes 
down.”  Tomatoes  and  cucumbers,  when 
grown  in  greenhouses,  frequently  get  thick 
roots  due  to  the  soil  being  affected  with 
microscopic  worms  called  nematodes. 
The  wilt  of  eggplant  fields  is  frequently 
duo  to  diseased  seed  beds.  Most  of  the 
troubles  of  plants  under  glass  are  due 
to  certain  insects  and  diseases  which 
accumulate  in  the  soil  and  develop  on 
the  plants  growing  in  it.  Soil  steriliza¬ 
tion  is  already  a  common  practice  among 
many  successful  vegetable  forcers,  florists, 
market  gardeners  and  tobacco  growers. 
Soil  sterilization  is  practiced  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  time  in  two  distinct  ways.  One  way 
i,s  to  disinfect  the  soil  with  formalin 
solution;  the  other  is  by  heating  or  eoolc- 
nig  the  soil  until  the  diseases  and  in¬ 
sects  contained  in  it  have  been  killed. 
Precaking  the  Soil.  —  Sterilization 
must  necessarily  take  place  before  the 
seed  is  planted.  Also,  all  manure  and 
organic  fertilizers  are  applied  before 
uteri! izating  so  that  no  fungus  or  weed 
seed  will  be  introduced  afterwards.  The 
seed  bed  is  thoroughly  prepared  by  loosen¬ 
ing  it  tip  and  incorporating  the  manures. 
Then  it.  is  raked  level  so  that  it  is  ready 
to  he  soaked  with  the  formalin  solution, 
sterilized  by  heat  or  covered  with  a 
layer  of  sterilized  soil. 
Fod.uai.in, — According  to  the  Ohio 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station  the  best 
strength  formalin  solution  appears  to  be 
three  to  3%  pints  or  pounds  of  formalin 
(containing  40%  formaldehyde)  mixed 
with  each  50  gallons  of  water,  applied 
at  the  rate  of  seven-eighths  to  one  gallon 
per  square  foot  of  surface.  The  solution 
may  be  easily  applied  with  a  watering 
can,  hose  and  nozzle  or  by  the  overhead 
Skinner  watering  system,  care  being 
taken  to  get  it  evenly  distributed  and 
applied  so  that  it  will  he  absorbed,  where 
it  falls,  rather  than  allowing  it  to  accum¬ 
ulate  in  the  low  places.  After  the  forma¬ 
lin  solution  is  applied  the  soil  should 
he  covered  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the 
fumes  for  a  few  days.  Then  the  soil 
should  he  lightly  stirred  with  a  garden 
rake  and  allowed  to  air  out  for  a  few 
days  before  seed  is  sown. 
Sterilization  dy  IIeat. — This  is  ac- 
complisbed  in  three  ways,  by  steaming,  by 
surface  firing,  and  by  roasting.  How¬ 
ever,  the  most  practical  method  yet  de¬ 
vised  for  the  sterilization  of  seed  beds 
by  steam  is  the  “inverted  pan  method.” 
A  galvanized  iron  pan,  six  feet  by  10 
feet  and  six  inches  deep  is  inverted  over 
the  area  to  he  sterilized  after  it  has  been 
prepared  for  seeding.  A  a  the  edges  of 
the  pan  are  sharp  they  can  be  pressed 
into  the  soil  an  inch  or  more,  thus 
forming  a  tight  compartment  under  the 
pan  into  which  tin*  steam  is  run  30-00 
minutes  from  a  boiler  at  a  pressure  of 
80  to  150  pounds.  The  loose  dry  soil 
takes  the  shorter  time.  A  one-inch  steam 
hose  may  he  used  to  carry  the  steam. 
Surface  Firing. — To  sterilize  the 
soil  this  is  accomplished  by  making  wood 
fires  over  the  seed  beds.  This  heats  up 
the  top  layer  of  soil  and  partially 
sterilizes  it.  Light,  layers  of  soil  may 
be  spread  over  the  fire  to  increase  the 
amount  of  sterilized  soil.  The  wood 
ashes  are  very  beneficial. 
Over  Heating.— The  soil  may  be  roast¬ 
ed  in  ovens  in  a  limited  way  for  thorough 
sterilization.  This  material  may  be  used 
to  fill  flats  or  to  spread  over  a  seed  bed 
in  a  layer  two  to  three  inches  thick. 
However,  the  formalin  solution  and  most 
especially  the  inverted  pan  steam  sterili¬ 
zation  are  the  most  efficient  and  econom¬ 
ical.  Soil  sterilization  has  many  ad¬ 
vantages  besides  cleaning  out  the  dis¬ 
eases  :  It  kills  the  insects  in  the  soil, 
all  the  weed  seed,  makes  the  plant  food 
more  available,  and  above  all  it  induces 
a  quicker,  more  luxuriant  and  evener 
.growth  of  the  succeeding  crops.  Many 
cases  are  on  record  where  the  expense 
of  weeding  untreated  seed  beds  was  more 
than  the  cost  of  sterilizing  by  formalin 
or  steam.  R.  d.  b. 
Potato  Blight  on  Seed  Tubers 
What  are  the  facts  about  using  tubers 
from  blighted  potato  plants  for  seed? 
Will  they  carry  the  disease?  S.  B.  R. 
There  are  different  kinds  of  potato  rot, 
hut  the  kind  which  is  most  prevalent  in 
New  York  is  the  one  properly  called  late- 
blight  rot.  This  is  caused  by  the  fun¬ 
gus  that  causes  late  blight  of  the  plants. 
Spores  of  the  fungus  on  the  leaves  fall 
to  the  ground,  find  their  way  down 
through  the  soil  to  the  tubers  and  infect 
them.  This  happens  only  in  wet  weather 
because  the  spores  are  very  delicate  and 
easily  killed  by  drying.  It  frequently 
happens  that  there  is  much  blight  and 
yet  very  little  rot.  The  late-bligbt  fun¬ 
gus  does  not  live  over  Winter  in  the  soil. 
It  is  carried  over  from  one  season  to  the 
next  in  seed  potatoes  which  are  only 
slightly  affected.  However,  the  use  of 
blight-free  seed  is  not  so  important  as 
one  is  apt  to  think.  Experience  shows 
that  no  matter  how  careful  one  may  be 
to  plant  seed  perfectly  free  from  blight, 
he  may  expect  trouble  from  the  disease 
whenever  weather  conditions  are  favor- 
aide  for  it.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
under  favorable  weather  conditions  the 
fungus  spreads  with  great  rapidity  from 
one  field  to  another,  and  it  always  hap¬ 
pens  that  some  one  plants  blighted  seed 
which  starts  the  disease.  Seed  potatoes 
which  show  rot  should  be  sorted  out  at 
planting  time  so  that  as  few  affected 
seed  potatoes  as  possible  may  be  planted. 
No  seed  treatment  is  of  any  value  for 
(his  disease.  F.  c.  STEWART. 
Geneva  Exp.  Station. 
There  is  a  Tot  of  potatoes  due  to  the 
same  organism  causing  the  “lute-blight” 
( Phytopht.hora  infesta ns)  in  the  North¬ 
ern  States.  This  organism  is  carried  in 
the  seed  tubers,  whi.eh  do  not  necessarily 
rot.  The  diseased  tubers  may  rot  in  the 
bin  or  soil,  or  in  case  they  grow,  may 
give  rise  to  the  “blight”  late  in  the  sea¬ 
son.  Fnder  our  South  Jersey  conditions 
these  diseased  tubers  rot  in  the  soil  with¬ 
out  producing  plants.  mel.  t.  cook, 
N.  J.  Exp.  Station.  Plant  Pathologist. 
Blight  can  carry  over  on  the.  tubers  as 
a  dry  rot.  This  blight  on  the  tubers  in 
ti  e  field  opens  the  way  for  a  wet  bac¬ 
terial  rot  whi elt  sometimes  becomes  very 
serious,  and  would  he  otherwise  incon¬ 
spicuous  if  it  were  not  for  the  blight  fun¬ 
gus,  which  makes  its  development  pos¬ 
sible.  The  character  of  the  season  in 
July  and  August,  more  than  any  other 
factor,  is  responsible  for  the  development 
of  blight  on  either  the  foliage  or  the  tu¬ 
bers.  The  blight,  so  far  as  is  known,  is 
carried  over  only  on  the  tubers,  so  that 
the  use  of  such  infected  stock  is  the 
starting  point  each  year,  hut  experiments 
several  years  ago  showed  me  that  when 
once  the  blight  has  started  in  a  general 
region  it  will  spread  to  fields  planted 
with  tubers  entirely  free  from  the  dis¬ 
ease.  Of  course  it  i,s  desirable  to  plant 
from  a  crop  not  infected,  or,  if  this  is 
impossible,  to  throw  out  any  tubers 
showing  the  characteristic  reddish  brown, 
sunken  spots  of  blight,  though  no  doubt 
where  it  is  prevalent  some  may  he  over¬ 
looked.  G.  P.  CLINTON. 
Conn.  Exp.  Station. 
Potatoes  on  Virgin  Sod 
What  is  your  practical  advice  regard¬ 
ing  planting  potatoes  on  virgin  soil?  I 
have  plenty  of  chicken  manure  made  in 
a  compost  pile  and  the  nature  of  soil  is 
sandy  loam  on  a  hilly  slope.  Will  eight 
bushels  of  potatoes  lie  enough  for  an 
acre?  Also  could  I  realize  a  better  crop 
by  planting  whole  potatoes  instead  of 
buds?  J.  c. 
New  soil,  long  out  of  cultivation,  is 
very  good  for  potatoes  unless  white  grubs 
and  wire  worms  infest  it.  These  insects 
if  numerous  will  make  trouble  by  gnaw¬ 
ing  the  potatoes.  Chicken  manure  is 
good  for  potatoes  but  the  addition  of  acid 
phosphate  will  improve  it.  We  use  10 
to  12  bushels  of  potatoes  to  seed  an  acre, 
depending  on  the  variety,  since  some 
kinds  cut  to  better  advantage  than 
others.  We  should  cut  all  except  the 
smallest  potatoes. 
