496 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 16 
fact, it seems strange that the insect has not estab¬ 
lished itself long before this in Great Britain, at 
least. 
When the pest does go to Europe, there is scarcely 
one chance in a thousand that it will go in a sack or 
package of American potatoes, so that prohibitory 
measures, such as Spain proposes, are unnecessary. 
A much more sensible and effective method would be 
to do as Germany did at one time, that is, furnish 
vessels plying between the two countries with cards 
giving illustrated descriptions of the insect in all 
stages, with the request that passengers and crew 
destroy any stray specimens that may be found. 
WHA1 ABOUT THE STRAWBERRY BED? 
HOW HANDLED FOR NEXT CROP ? 
How would you treat strawberry beds after tbe first picking, in 
case you wish to fruit them another year ? How would you plow, 
harrow and fertilize in the expectation of getting another good 
crop? In case you wish to plow the ground, and not fruit the 
second year, what crop generally gives you the best results, 
when planted on the old strawberry bed ? 
Use Cow Peas or Clover. 
Our usual method of treating a strawberry bed after 
the first picking season, is to invert it and sow 
either cow peas or clover. The only profitable crop 
we have ever gathered immediately succeeding turn¬ 
ing under a strawberry bed is Medium clover. Any 
strawberry bed which needs a plow to assist in clean¬ 
ing it up, should never be run a second season. We 
would remove the mulch and cultivate and hoe as we 
did the previous season, if we wished to carry over the 
bed, and begin at once after the first hoeing to spray 
with Bordeaux, and continue spraying at intervals 
until growth ceases, repeating twice the following 
Spring. G. L. BUTLER. 
Middlesex County, Conn. 
Uses Plow and Grape Hoe. 
Most of our strawberries are grown between rows 
of grape vines in the vineyards. At picking time, these 
strawberry beds are from four to five feet wide, and 
from previous culture, fairly free from weeds. If the 
plants are evenly distributed in the bed, and healthy, 
the bed will be wintered over. So, as soon as the 
picking season is closed, the grape hoe is run through 
the vineyard, and a light furrow thrown towards 
each side of the grape row. This will effectually 
smother all small weeds, and so clean the grapes that 
they will need no hoeing. The grape hoe is followed 
by a good one-horse plow, turning the furrows tow¬ 
ards the grape vines. This is continued till the straw¬ 
berry row is narrowed to about 18 inches. If plowed 
narrower, there is danger of breaking through and 
killing blocks of plants, particularly if the weather 
continue hot and dry. After lying a day or two, 
potash and phosphoric acid are spread each side of 
the row. Muriate of potash and ground bone contain¬ 
ing three to five per cent of nitrogen are preferred. 
A light one-horse plow or the grape hoe will now turn 
a shallow furrow toward the bed. The cultivator then 
follows, and in a short time, a mellow bed is secured 
for new plants. After the first soaking rain, the bed 
is carefully weeded. As soon as the runners begin to 
root, cultivation ceases for the season. A bed that has 
been picked two seasons, or one that is very uneven or 
weedy, is plowed under. We use the grape hoe and 
one-horse plow for only about two or three furrows, 
when a two-horse sod plow, set to run about five inches 
deep, is taken to finish the plowing. After a few days’ 
time or a rain, thorough cultivation and an applica¬ 
tion of a complete fertilizer in the dead furrow will 
fit the ground for a crop of fodder corn or late potatoes. 
Orange County, N. Y. w. d. barns. 
A LATE CROP OF PEAS. 
WHY THEY FAIL. WHAT VARIETIES BEST? 
Roots Are Too Small. 
I attribute the failure of late peas to mature a nor¬ 
mal crop of pods, to be due generally to an inadequate 
development of the roots. While I am not in posses¬ 
sion of direct evidence to support this belief, I have 
frequently noted circumstances which appear to in¬ 
dicate that such is the case. I cannot say that I have 
ever raised a satisfactory crop of late peas, yet some 
plantings have done better than others. I have sprayed 
the vines with Bordeaux Mixture without apparent 
results, and at present, am inclined to think that the 
mildew gets the credit of doing more harm than it 
deserves. We know that a hyacinth bulb must start 
slowly at first in order to produce a good spike of 
flowers, and I expect that the pea plant, in some re¬ 
spects, resembles the hyacinth. It does not seem 
probable that it is the high temperature alone that 
interferes with the growth of late peas, because they 
often seem to thrive during the intense heat in July, 
if on moist ground. I think that Nott’s Excelsior has 
done as well with me, for both early and late crop, as 
any kind that I have raised. I like it better than the 
higher-growing kinds, and I think it is quite as pro¬ 
ductive when planted closely. I would plant late peas 
on cool, moist soil, and not use any coarse manure at 
the time of planting. I would plow deep furrows, 
and use chemical fertilizer liberally, working it down 
deep in them, and not fill them nearer than within 
two inches of the top, when the peas are covered. 
Theoretically, then, the furrows should be mulched so 
that the root growth of the peas would get a good 
start before the sprouts appear above the ground, and 
perhaps, with this advantage, the tops would not out¬ 
run the roots as they appear to do when planted in 
the ordinary way. l. f. kinney. 
Rhode Island Experiment Station. 
Experience with Field Peas and Corn. 
I have, a very few times, seen green peas in Septem¬ 
ber or October, but usually, plantings for maturing at 
that season fail from mildew. The heat of midsum¬ 
mer seems to cause the trouble, for when sown in 
August to make late fodder, they remain green until 
the middle of November. I have sown them now for 
several years past, with oats in my peach orchard, but 
the oats blight so often that I shall, this year, use 
corn instead, trying to sow as early as August 1. 
Sown so late, the peas reach only the blooming stage. 
I used the Canada field pea. I found, by trial last 
season, that oats and peas make a very superior mulch 
for strawberries, and this year I shall plow my bear¬ 
ing bed when the fruit is off, and sow for that pur¬ 
pose, using corn instead of oats. m. morse. 
Massachusetts. 
Use the Early Wrinkled Peas. 
In this latitude, our truckers plant extra early 
wrinkled peas, such as Nott’s Excelsior, American 
Wonder and Premium Gem, until about August 15 to 
20, and from that date until September 1, they make 
three or four large plantings of the extra earlies. 
The extra early varieties can, also, be planted along 
with the wrinkled varieties already named, from the 
middle of July until the middle of August, and will 
bring good returns. Should we use the latter types, 
large-leafed wrinkled varieties, we would have the 
same trouble with mildew of which you speak, hence 
the free use of the smooth-leafed extra early varieties, 
and we know of no case, excepting where a protracted 
drought has interfered in the early part of September, 
that there was not a good yield. We have made re¬ 
peated plantings in our trial grounds of the extra 
early varieties, to test the quality, and also purity, 
and have in every case got good results. The extra 
earlies referred to are the round, smooth grains. 
Pennsylvania. , henry a. dreer. 
HIGHER EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE. 
THE U. 8. DEPARTMENT AS A UNIVERSITY. 
Education in the sciences relating to agriculture, in 
an organized form, originated with Congress in 1863, 
when the agricultural colleges were organized, and in 
1887 (I think) when the experiment stations were pro¬ 
vided for. The best work done in these institutions is 
in their agricultural departments, where students are 
trained in the sciences related to agriculture, instead 
of getting a purely literary course of instruction. The 
United States, probably, has the best system of edu¬ 
cation along this line in the world. 
But when students are graduated in these institu¬ 
tions, they have no university especially designed for 
instruction in special work. The result is that students 
who intend to prosecute some specialty after leaving 
college, begin to specialize in college, perhaps before 
they have become sufficiently trained in the subjects 
that pertain to a broad general education. There is 
really no time to specialize in a four-years’ college 
course ; it should be done afterwards, and in fact, 
many of our best scientists have pursued post-gradu¬ 
ate work in the institutions where they received their 
collegiate training. 
It has occurred to me that the 16 scientific divisions 
of this Department could offer better facilities for 
this work than most of our agricultural colleges. 
Our scientific bureaus and divisions are directed by 
able men, are well equipped with laboratories and 
libraries, and the chiefs and assistants could direct 
the studies of a few young men without detriment to 
their work. It would not be necessary to charge 
either tuition or laboratory fees. 
The benefit to the Department would appear when 
wealthy colleges took away, as they sometimes do, 
our scientists, by offering them higher salaries than 
the law provides for the Department of Agriculture. 
When this occurred, we could turn to these young 
men for material to fill the vacancies. Moreover, 
when the colleges in the several States applied to us 
for young men trained in special scientific lines, we 
could put them in correspondence with students here. 
One hundred of these students could be distributed 
through our divisions without detriment to our work. 
The great object aimed at in establishing the system 
of agricultural education would thu6 be materially 
helped. Whether we would give degrees, or certifi¬ 
cates of the work done. I have not yet determined. 
These young men, with the approval of the chiefs of 
division under whom they study, could be placed on 
the eligible lists of the Department without civil 
service examination. It would open up another 
avenue for the young farmers of the country who de¬ 
vote time to the acquirement of knowledge along 
these lines. james wilson. 
Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
The Farmers’ Club 
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piece of paper.] 
Biting and Sucking Insects. 
J. R. A., Reno, Pa.—Last year, one of my cherry trees, an Ost- 
heim, was nearly killed by lice, I should call them, which gath¬ 
ered on the under side of the leaves, causing them to curl and 
dry up. I sprayed the tree first with the Bordeaux Mixture, and 
then with a strong white hellebore solution, but neither seemed 
to have any effect on the lice. This year, they are gathering 
again. What will destroy the lice without killing the trees? 
ANSWERED BY M. Y. SLING ERL AND. 
It was, doubtless, the common Black Cherry aphis 
or plant louse which injured J. R. A.’s tree last year. 
Plant lice of all kinds were unusually numerous in 
1897, and some species are nearly as thick this year. 
The reason J. R. A. failed to check the lice with Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture and hellebore is because one of the 
first principles which must govern insect warfare was 
not understood. In the first place, Bordeaux Mixture 
is a fungicide and a preventive of fungous diseases 
only ! it has little or no effect upon most insects. 
Second, hellebore is a poison, hence usually acts only 
on those insects which have jaws with which they 
can bite off or chew and swallow pieces of the leaf or 
plant upon which they feed, thus enabling the helle¬ 
bore to be carried into the digestive system upon the 
pieces of leaves bitten off. All caterpillars, beetles, 
and many other insects feed in this manner, and can 
thus be effectually reached with poisons like helle¬ 
bore, Paris-green and arsenic. 
But there is a large group of insects whose mouth- 
parts are built on an entirely different plan. Their 
jaws are drawn out into thread-like organs which 
work along a groove in one side of a long beak which 
projects downward from the underside of the head. 
The next time you meet a stink-bug, pick it up (hold 
your nose if you must) and critically examine its head. 
You will easily find this beak, and can readily com¬ 
pare it with a grasshopper’s mouth. Every boy knows 
where a grasshopper’s mouth is, for who has not got 
the “ molasses” from between its jaws ? 
An insect with one of these beak-like mouth-parts 
is called a sucking insect. That means that it gets 
its food by placing the tip of the beak against a leaf, 
and then works its thread-like jaws along the groove 
in the beak and into the inner tissues of the leaf. 
When once these are well into the tissues, the insect 
begins to suck with a muscular box-like compartment 
in its throat, and the sap or juice of the plant is thus 
drawn up between the thread-like jaws, and into its 
body. Thus these sucking insects can get only liquid 
food, and this comes from the inside of the leaf or 
branch. They could not pick up and eat a particle of 
poisoned leaf if they desired. Among these sucking 
insects, are to be numbered all the plant lice, scale 
insects, stink-bugs, and many other injurious insects. 
It is exceedingly important, then, in insect warfare, 
that one understand whether the pest he is to fight is 
a sucking or a biting insect. It is a very easy matter 
to determine this. If particles of a leaf or branch 
are disappearing, as a leaf does before the common 
Currant worm, then use poisons. But if the leaf re¬ 
tain its outline intact, and show little external injury 
except a shriveling or drying up in spots, then insecti¬ 
cides for sucking insects must be employed. Poisons 
are not applied to plants internally, but they remain 
on the outer surface ; when a little of the soluble 
arsenic of Paris-green does get into the tissues, we 
have the injurious burning of the leaves which one 
sees w'hen the poison has been used too strong. Then 
to kill biting insects you shoot your poison insecticide 
at that portion of the plant where the insect is at 
work, without regard to whether you hit the insect or 
not. But when fighting a sucking insect, you must 
aim at the insect itself, and use an insecticide wffiich 
will either fill up its breathing holes along the sides 
of its body, and thus smother it, or you must hit it 
with a liquid which will soak into its body and kill it. 
In short, use poisons for biting insects, and contact 
insecticides for sucking insects. 
