413 
1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A MARKET GARDENER’S NOTES . 
Early Tomatoes. —In transplanting 
early tomatoes from the hot bed to the 
field great care is necessary, that we may 
not lose the early start gained by previ¬ 
ous work and expense. Any time during 
the first two weeks of May that prom¬ 
ises good weather is about as early as is 
safe in this section of Jersey for trans¬ 
planting. Further south throughout Glou¬ 
cester and Salem counties, where toma¬ 
to growing has become a specialty, they 
set somewhat earlier, but experience 
teaches that May 10 is about the right 
time here. In work of this kind always 
pay more attention to weather indications 
than to any definite date. For instance, 
do not think of transplanting in the face 
of a cold storm. Rather wait until the 
storm has passed, and, following the in¬ 
dications, catch a day when the weather 
is moderating. Of course we are not 
ever sure of weather conditions, but a 
few years of careful observing will en¬ 
able us to hit it more accurately than we 
might suppose. We use the blocking meth¬ 
od. Supposing the plants have been spot¬ 
ted out in the bed on the square about 4 
x 4 inches, we take a spade sharpened, 
or an ordinary weeding hoe that has been 
straightened out and sharpened, and cut 
the bed between each plant both ways, thus 
leaving a block four inches square about 
each plant. Now we lift these blocks of 
earth containing the plants on a flat shovel 
and load them onto a flat-bottomed wagon. 
In the field run a furrow with a one-horse 
plow, and set each block drawing the soil 
around with the hands. Great care must be 
taken that the plants be not pressed in the 
hand, thereby cracking and loosening the 
soil around the roots, thus defeating the 
object of the whole work. It is expen¬ 
sive handling plants in this way on a 
large acreage, but they practically never 
wilt, and under good conditions scarcely 
stop growing. Consequently where earli¬ 
ness is an important object, it is well 
worth the extra effort. A little nitrate of 
soda scattered a few inches from each 
plant will do much to hasten them when 
first placed in the field. 
Insect Pests. —The season of the year 
has now arrived when we must reckon 
with the various pests which prey upon 
our plants. In dealing with cutworms, 
which are about the first to claim our at¬ 
tention, we find that they can be con¬ 
trolled by using Paris-green and bran. 
Stir enough Paris-green in the bran to 
tinge it slightly with green. Just enough 
to make it perceptible. 1 hen sprinkle it 
until it is damp and crumbling through 
and through. We put just as little as pos¬ 
sible of this dampened bran around each 
plant. The worms, strange to say, seem 
to prefer this mixture to green plants, and 
we rarely have anything destroyed where 
this is used. It is a cheap, thorough and 
an inexpensive remedy to apply. Next 
comes the striped melon bug, and a most 
persistent fellow he is, too, boring into 
the earth around our melon and canta¬ 
loupe plants by night, and then coming 
out during the day to feed on the plants 
themselves. One of the most essential 
points in contending with this bug is 
to keep the earth thoroughly hoed and 
loosened around the plants, thereby break¬ 
ing up their place of refuge. T he fact 
that they suck the plant rather than eat 
makes it impossible to poison them, and 
the most we can do is to drive them off, 
therefore we dust dried ground fish scrap 
around the hill. The advantage of this 
fish scrap over other remedies is simply 
this: Other preparations such as plaster 
and kerosene oil, etc., become weakened 
with every rain and dew, whereas the fish 
becomes more offensive the more it is 
wet. In fact, one application often serves 
effectually to rout them. Another point 
in this connection is the thinning of 
melons and cantaloupes. The bugs find 
a more congenial harboring place under a 
cluster of plants than they do under a 
single one. Consequently by thinning 
down to one or two plants in a hill as 
soon as they' are thoroughly up you do 
much to ward off the attacks of these in¬ 
sects. But from another standpoint you 
do much more. A hill that is not thinned 
down until two or three weeks after they 
have come through the ground will grow 
into a big bunch of slim, weak plants; 
whereas a hill that is thinned to one sin¬ 
gle plant as soon as they are thoroughly 
up will develop into a strong, even, well- 
balanced individual—a plant that starts 
quicker, grows faster, and lives longer. 
In short, it gains an advantage at the very 
start and not only maintains this advan¬ 
tage, but it increases all along. It is 
better able to withstand attacks of the 
various forms of fungi to which it is 
subject later in the season. I can not say 
too much in favor of hard thinning early 
in this line of crops. The gain is seen 
throughout the whole season. 
Transplanting Plants.— In setting 
plants there are a few points, apparently 
insignificant but really vital to the well 
being of the plant. Chief among these is 
the making up of the ridge into which we 
set the plants some days in advance of 
the time of setting. A row made up 
while the ground is damp and rained on 
before the plant is set we will find much 
more solid than a freshly prepared one. 
Any pressure on the plant with the trowel 
will be doubly effective in firming the 
earth around the roots. Moreover an old 
ridge will retain its moisture much longer 
than a fresh one, thus insuring a better 
stand. In setting sweet potatoes in a 
dry time much good may be attained by 
“sanding” the roots. That is, by dipping 
the roots in a bucket of water and then 
sprinkling dry sandy earth on them, thus 
practically giving them a coat of mud just 
as they go into the ground. The benefits 
of this treatment are oftentimes decidedly 
marked. In this section where large acre¬ 
ages of plants are set some are using 
automatic setters. We have used a 1 iger 
transplanter with entire success. The ma¬ 
chine sets and waters at one operation. 
The water is placed at the roots of the 
plant. Its capacity is about 25,000 plants 
per day and requires three men to oper¬ 
ate. The strong point in its favor is that 
the water enables you to set irrespective 
of weather conditions. Joseph barton. 
larger cabbage growers whose plants suf¬ 
fer from this pest will report their meth¬ 
ods for controlling it. I suspect that many 
of them do nothing, letting the maggots 
take more or less of the plants. I have 
discussed a cheap liquid application for 
cabbage maggots in recent numbers of 
The R. N.-Y. m. v. slingerland. 
Iron Filings as Mulch. 
D. D. H., North Clarendon, Vt .—What 
good effect, if any, may be produced by put¬ 
ting iron filings around young apple trees? 
Inquiry has ueen made for them here for that 
use, and if beneficial I would like to know it, 
as a large amount is available for our young 
orchard. 
Ans. —Tron is one of the elements that 
all trees and plants require, and nearly all 
soils are supplied with it in sufficient 
quantities, but sometimes this is not the 
case, and artificial applications are an 
advantage. It is doubtful whether the ad¬ 
dition of iron filings or iron in any other 
form would be of any advantage to the 
soil, and, ultimately, to the trees planted 
in it. However, it could do no hurt to put 
on any quantity, and it might be worth 
while as an experiment to treat the soil 
of half or more of the orchard, as the 
filings are easily got, and leave the rest 
to see if there is any difference between 
the trees on the treated and untreated 
parts. _ H. e. v. d. 
For the land’s Sake, use "Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
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FIGHTING THE CABBAGE MAGGOT. 
IF. II., Concord, N. II— I was much inter¬ 
ested in the communication of H. J. Seginan, 
page 3G3, relating to the use that he made of 
wood pulp for Cabbage maggots. Would not 
a thin mortar of blue c-hiy applied around the 
plant harden and give the same protection as 
the pulp does? Would not a handful of 
ashes, or a irttle air-slacked lime, applied 
around the plant, be a preventive? If not, 
would the addition of a little sulphur to 
either ashes or lime make them more effec¬ 
tive? What methods are employed by those 
who raise cabbage in large quantities to pro¬ 
tect the plant from the maggot? They must 
have some cheap effective remedy. Cannot 
some one tell us what it is? 
Ans.— i am very much interested in 
Mr. Seymour’s wood-pulp protector for 
Cabbage maggots. I have never seen it 
used, but I doubt if a thin mortar of blue 
clay would prove a good substitute. I 
should expect the clay to bake and crack 
around the stem, thus leaving openings 
into which the flies would be liable to lay 
their eggs. I have learned, however, from 
experience that theories sometimes do not 
amount to much in fighting insects. I 
would advise the correspondent to try 
the clay, and I wish he would report his 
results to The R. N.-Y. Ashes were 
recommended for Cabbage Maggots more 
than 40 years ago. In 1886 Prof. Cook 
used them in Michigan with no success, 
and they have been used in Oregon with 
fairly good results when applied frequently. 
I suspect that much of the good effects 
from the use of ashes comes from their 
fertilizing qualities, which enable the 
plants to outgrow a slight infestation of 
the maggot. Dry lime has been exten¬ 
sively used as a preventive against the 
maggots. In 1888 The R. N.-Y. reported 
plants treated with air-slaked lime suf¬ 
fered more than those untreated, and in 
1893 lime was used with partial success 
in Pennsylvania and Oregon. It is doubt¬ 
ful if lime in any form will either prevent 
or kill the maggots. I hope some of the 
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