372 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 5 
then deem such a cross possible, and did not know 
what I had done until May, 1883, when the plant first 
fruited.” 
It is impossible to state yet whether the Logan¬ 
berry can be considered hardy. Mr. Kinney states 
that, at the Rhode Island Experiment Station, the 
winter of 1895-6 was so severe that blackberries and 
raspberries were in jured.but Loganberry canes covered 
with earth were not injured in the least. Some of the 
canes were 10 feet long, and alive to the tips when the 
earth was removed in the spring. None of the plants had 
been left uncovered because the canes had grown late in 
the season, and were so soft and green that it did 
not seem possible for them to survive the winter 
without protection. In 1896, the Loganberry canes 
ripened earlier, and most of the leaves had fallen by 
November 20. Most of the canes were covered with 
earth, but a few were left uncovered, and though the 
winter was not so severe as the preceding one, most 
of the bare canes were killed to the ground. As the 
Loganberry is semi-trailing in its habit, and the canes 
are very flexible, the covering is not difficult. 
The Loganberry canes naturally trail upon the 
ground, so some support must be devised for it, to 
keep the berries clean. In California, where there is 
little or no rain during the season when the fruit is 
maturing, this trailing habit is no disadvantage. At 
the Experiment Station, a trellis made of wire strung 
upon posts was used, the canes being wound around 
the wires when first uncovered. 
The beautiful accompanying illustration, Fig. 163, 
from the Bulletin of the Rhode Island Experiment 
Station, shows fruit and blossoms, natural size, grown 
in the open air at Santa Cruz, Cal., and gathered Jan¬ 
uary 8 last. In Rhode Island, the fruit ripened with 
the raspberries, but perhaps a little later, lasting 
somewhat longer. Mr. Kinney says that the berries 
were not highly flavored when eaten from the bushes, 
but were much improved by cooking. When cooked, 
it is of richer flavor than the raspberry, and milder 
flavor than the blackberry. 
The propagation of the Loganberry is naturally 
slow, since it is best increased by stolons. At the 
Experiment Station, the canes could not be induced 
to root until late in the fall, when a stolon formed at 
the tip of each shoot, where properly covered. As a 
second choice, single-eye, hard-wood cuttings, planted 
horizontally, were found to root readily from the 
base of the buds, but they need very careful hand¬ 
ling, or they die before roots enough to support the 
tiny plant are formed. Two-eye cuttings were less 
satisfactory. Rootlets never start from the end of the 
cutting, but always from the base of the buds. Soft¬ 
wood cuttings give few plants, and root cuttings none. 
The plants produced from cuttings are not so vigorous 
as those from stolons. Seeds of the Loganberry ger¬ 
minate readily, and the young plants are not difficult 
to raise, but it seems likely that these may not be 
reliable for fruiting. 
The Farmers’ Club. 
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the writer to Insure attention. Before asking a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.] 
STRAWBERRIES ON STEEP SOUTHERN SOIL. 
WHAT TOOLS ARE BEST? 
We have a letter from one of our readers in Tennessee, who 
says that he has just set out 60 acres of strawberries on steep 
hillside land. He wants to get hold of the best method of caring 
for such a plantation, and the best tools with which to handle the 
same. The plants are set out 4 feet by 20 and 36 inches, accord¬ 
ing to the habit of the variety, using the matted row system. 
It Is a Big Contract. 
Your subscriber has certainly undertaken a large 
venture in strawberries—60 acres on steep hillside 
land. I trust that he will favor The R. N.-Y. readers 
with a full account of his venture after a couple of 
years’ experience. The nature of the soil is not men¬ 
tioned, but if it is a washy soil like many of our steep 
hills, he will have great trouble to retain the soil and 
keep the plants from being buried to a considerable 
extent by the wash. However, if it is a fairly retent¬ 
ive soil, and the rows have been laid on contour lines 
without regard to points of the compass, he may suc¬ 
ceed in retaining the surface in good condition. I 
have seen very fine strawberry beds on steep land. 
Cultural methods are important in such a case, and 
unless considerable care be exercised, the land will 
form into a terraced condition instead of preserving a 
fairly smooth contour, which latter is much to be de¬ 
sired, so there shall be no special concentration of 
water at any point. In this case, I would not use 
large bladed cultivators at all, but would work the 
soil deeply with single horse coulters, which can be 
easily made by a country blacksmith or purchased 
from dealers, and follow this working by a light har¬ 
row-tooth cultivator. This operation should be re¬ 
peated often enough to keep the soil in prime tilth, 
and it will operate to absorb the rainfall, and thus 
prevent the rush of water over the surface. The beds 
should be deeply worked as late in fall as the con¬ 
dition of the soil will permit, and then not disturbed 
in spring until the crop is off. However, if late work¬ 
ing cannot be given, I would cultivate very early in 
spring, as the soil ought not to become hard and 
compact. wm. b. alwood. 
Virginia Experiment Station. 
Small Culture in Kentucky. 
I have a small strawberry bed located on a very 
steep hillside (southeastern slope of mound builders’ 
mound). The soil is an exceedingly rich, black loam, 
and the berries ripen 10 days ahead of those on the 
level. I terraced the hillside two years ago, and 
worked with an Avery “ man-power” cultivator. Of 
course this would not be practicable on 60 acres. I 
should work often with a Planet truckers’ cultivator, 
using very narrow blades or plows the first season ; 
then cultivate after the first season entirely by hand 
hoes and hand weeding. If the extensive field of our 
Tennessee friend is not naturally fertile, he should 
fertilize liberally with potash and bone. If possible, 
he should use a mulch in winter, that would not wash 
down hill, and I don’t know what mulch to recom¬ 
mend. I use broom sedge ; this could not be used on 
a large scale. d. w. Dickinson. 
Kentucky. 
Strawberry Culture in Texas. 
While I have never had any experience in cultivat¬ 
ing steep hillsides (our land in Texas doesn’t stand on 
edge), I have never found any tool superior to the 
Planet Jr. horse hoe or cultivator, with its numerous 
changeable shovels and easy adjustability to any 
width or depth desired ; it is almost a perfect tool for 
the berry patch. Frequent but shallow cultivation 
with this or a similar tool is the key to success. The 
soil should be stirred as soon after every rain as it 
becomes dry enough to work properly, and at least 
every 8 or 10 days during the growing season whether 
it rain or not. By going through the rows the same 
way each time, after the runners begin to root, and 
not quite so close to the row as the previous time, the 
cultivator will throw the runners around into the 
proper place and cover them sufficiently to root well. 
This is continued until the desired width of matted 
row is obtained, after which all runners should be 
treated as weeds. In this country, we find it best to 
keep the rows quite narrow until after the middle of 
summer, for if the rows are allowed to get too wide, 
the plants are likely to suffer during the hot, dry 
weather of July and August. The amount of hand 
hoeing and weeding to be done will depend on the 
skill and care with which the cultivator is handled, 
and the previous condition of the soil, whether clean 
or foul, and the kind of weeds with which it is in¬ 
fested. The weeds must be kept down at any cost, 
and on the thoroughness with which this is done, de¬ 
pend, to a great extent, the final results. If I had 
60 acres of strawberries, the harvesting and dispos¬ 
ing of the crop would worry me much more than the 
cultivation. _ .tames nimon. 
PICKING LIVE DUCKS. 
How to Kill Lice. 
A reader in Kansas asks this question: 1. “ Does it pay to pick 
the Imperial Pekin duck during the summer, and does it interfere 
with egg production? ” 2. He also says: “ We burn sulphur and 
tobacco in our main poultry house, which is 20 by 30 feet, in the 
fall and winter, but now we have some hens sitting in the build¬ 
ing, consequently, must discontinue that. We keep sulphide of 
carbon in open bottles hung up in the building, and pour kero¬ 
sene on the roosts. Is anything else better ? ” 
THE ANSWERS. 
1. We get only one pound of feathers from every 
10 ducks when we dress them and take all the feath¬ 
ers, and I don’t believe that one would get one pound 
from 15 picked; that would not pay for the time of 
picking at the present price of feathers, besides being 
a positive injury to egg production. 2. Make the 
nests for sitting hens partly of tobacco stems. 
WM. H. TRUSLOW. 
1. I don’t think it pays to pick live poultry of any 
kind. It seems to me a very cruel practice and, aside 
from that, it couldn’t yield more than three or four 
cents’ worth of feathers per bird at most, which 
wouldn’t pay for the time of the picker. It must 
hinder them laying, as a bird cannot make new 
feathers and eggs at the same time. 2. We use kero¬ 
sene on the perches and powder on the hens and 
nests, and have no trouble with lice. I don’t think 
anything more is necessary. G. h. pollard. 
1. That depends. I think not under modern man¬ 
agement. If done just before they shed, it might not 
make much difference except the fright it would give 
them. I would not do it in any case. 2. I should 
spray the whole building, nests and all, thoroughly 
with crude carbolic acid diluted with warm water, be¬ 
fore setting the hens. Crude acid added to kerosene 
emulsion would be still better for this purpose. The 
house should dry out during the day before the fowls 
go back into it. The hens should be thoroughly 
dusted with Persian insect powder before they are 
put on the nests, and this should be repeated several 
times before the eggs are due to hatch. A mixture 
of tobacco dust, powdered sulphur and ashes is a 
good substitute for insect powder. 
SAMUEL CUSHMAN. 
1. With us, the feathers on the Pekin ducks just 
about pay for the picking, and nothing more. The 
best time for picking is when the egg production 
stops and before the bird begins to moult, from the 
middle to the last of July. 2. The best antidote for 
lice, is to paint the perches with coal gas tar. If 
boiled and applied when hot to the bearings and 
perches, what is not absorbed, will harden at once. 
The remedy is effectual, and one application will last 
for years. One of our buildings, the perches of which 
were painted for the last time eight years ago, has 
not had a louse in it since, and it has been constantly 
occupied. j. rankin. 
I. It might not affect the Pekin ducks seriously so 
far as egg production goes, if they were to be picked 
in July, or just as laying ceases, and the fall moult 
begins ; but I prefer not to do it. When the egg 
product is valuable, as it is in most cases, nothing 
should be done to impair it, as this would to some ex¬ 
tent. 2. I have had no experience with any fumiga¬ 
tion or lice exterminator of any kind, and could not 
answer from experience. I use nothing but wood 
ashes which I dust on the dropping boards to prevent 
the droppings from sticking to them. More or less 
of the ashes finds its way into the litter or the floor, 
and whenever the fowls are scratching, the dust rises 
and settles in every crevice. Lice and dust will not 
abide together, especially the dust of wood ashes. It 
renders the droppings of little or no value as a 
manure, as it liberates the ammonia, but it banishes 
lice. h. E. MOSS. 
I. While picking the ducks out of the breeding 
season would, probably, not interfere directly with 
their egg production, it would make them more 
timid, and thus indirectly cause more loss than would 
be gained by the feathers. It takes the feathers 
from about 10 ducklings to weigh one pound, and it 
would likely take all the feathers that should be 
removed from 15 to 20 old ducks to weigh a pound, so 
as to the paying part, it becomes a matter of value of 
time required to do the picking, and the value of the 
feathers. 2. Kerosene on the roosts will prevent the 
red mites from gaining a lodging place, but will not 
interfere with the large gray lice. I use Lake’s lice 
killer, the fumes of which will kill the lice. For 
sitting hens, I remove the nest material, paint the 
bottom and sides of the box, and replace the nest; 
this will effectually kill the lice on the hen. Tobacco 
dust or stems are also good to put in the nests. 
_J. E. STEVENSON. 
The Danqerous Strawberry Weevil. 
J. W. Catawi88a, Pa .—How can I destroy the bug, similar to 
the plum curculio, but much smaller, which cuts the fruit stems 
off from the strawberry plants, just back of the fruit ? I have 
lost heavily for several years. I must have a remedy that will 
not poison the fruit or make it unfit to sell, or injure the plants. 
ANSWERED BY M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
J. W. well describes the destructive work of a very 
serious strawberry pest, the Strawberry weevil (An- 
thonomus signatus). This little curculio measures 
only one-tenth inch in length, and is provided with a 
slender, curved snout, about half as long as the body. 
It varies in color from nearly black to dull red, and 
each wing cover is ornamented with a dark spot. The 
diminutive size of this beetle protects it from observa¬ 
tion, and its presence is thus manifested almost en¬ 
tirely by the decreased number of blossoms, and by 
the severed buds and stems. Often the beetles appear 
in great numbers from the outset, and as the earliest 
blossoms are chiefly attacked, the shortage in the 
crop is largely in the early fruit, or that which would 
have commanded the highest market price. Fortu¬ 
nately, the weevil restricts its work to the perfect 
varieties of the strawberry, and to such pistillate 
varieties as may furnish a considerable quantity 
of pollen, since it is this pollen which constitutes 
the chief food supply of both the grubs and 
the beetles. This explains the well-known prefer¬ 
ence of the insect for such varieties as the Sharpless, 
Charles Downing, Jessie, and Wilson. Among the 
imperfect pistillates, Crescents are often attacked. 
The susceptibility of different varieties appears to be 
in direct proportion to the quantity of pollen pro¬ 
duced, and also to the amount of exposure of the 
buds and flowers to the sun. The beetles work most 
actively during bright, sunshiny days. It is also for¬ 
tunate that this weevil is more or less intermittent in 
the character of its attack, appearing in great abund¬ 
ance for one or more seasons in certain districts, and 
doing a vast amount of damage, and then without any 
