658 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 9 
HEALTHY STALKS. Fig. 278. RUSTED STALK. Fig. 279. 
THE EFFECTS OF THE NEW ASPARAGUS DISEASE. 
used to check the develop¬ 
ment of the asparagus rust, 
but apparently without 
any definite results. 
So far as observed, 
neither the character of the land nor the kind of 
fertilizer used, nor the method of cultivation prac¬ 
ticed, has had any noticeable influence upon the 
development of the asparagus rust. 
The theory that the prevalence of this rust is 
wholly due to the wet season is hardly tenable, be¬ 
cause, in some localities where the season has been 
exceedingly wet, the asparagus rust is not known. 
For some reason Palmetto plants, growing beside 
Moore’s Hybrid, were but slightly affected when the 
others were rusted badly. 
Whether the rust will reappear on beds next year 
where it has been this, or not, can only be a matter 
for conjecture at the present time ; but it is believed 
that it will, and those who are most familiar with pecu¬ 
liarities of the disease, think that it is likely to prove 
a very serious trouble and one that will, probably, 
be difficult to control. Certainly, no one can look 
over the asparagus beds at Concord or Auburn with¬ 
out being impressed with the fact that the asparagus 
rust is an unusually virulent disease, and it is on this 
account that it is at present attracting so much 
attention. Fig. 278 shows healthy asparagus stalks 
as they appeared the last of August, and Fig. 279 
shows a section of a stalk which has been defoliated 
by the rust. L. f. kinney. 
Rhode Island Experiment Station. 
Have you sent for our New Book List ? If not, bet¬ 
ter do so at once. You are likely to find some book 
offered there that will be worth $ $ to you. 
results. They are left in one compact layer upon the 
cold subsoil, to leach into the bowels of the earth. 
There are portions of the country where they tell us 
that fertilizers are of no use, but there is plenty of 
evidence everywhere that, if correctly used, 50 per 
cent will be gained. The old drag-plow method of 
turning everything to the bottom has led to this 
error. To get best results from fertilizers and give 
all the plants an equal chance, they should be evenly 
mixed with the surface soil near the water line. 
Coarse vegetable manures should be separated and 
thus mixed. They will then lighten the soil and aid 
in their own decomposition. The instrument that 
will loosen the earth six to eight inches deep without 
packing the subsoil, and evenly distribute the plant 
food near the surface, is the one wanted. Drag plows 
can never be made to do the work in this manner, 
hence, they destroy fertilizers. 
3. The drag plow will not pulverize. The drag 
plow is made especially to turn the furrow slice 
easily. It is not made to break and loosen the soil, 
for the more it breaks and loosens, the more power it 
takes. The theory is to turn the furrow bottom side 
up with the lightest draft; hence, the reason why so 
much of the land plowed with the drag plow remains 
so hard. Some land will loosen and become soft if 
stirred with any tool, but a large per cent of the cul¬ 
tivated land, if plowed with a drag plow of sucb 
form as to break and pulverize the soil, would require 
an elephant to move the plow; in fact, such land 
cannot be softened and made into a good seed bed 
GEO M. CLARK. 
CELERY THAT GOES 
TO SEED. 
In this climate, celery is 
ordinarily a biennial, that 
is to say, it requires two 
seasons to come to matur¬ 
ity. In this habit, it is 
like the turnip, cabbage, 
carrot and many other 
familiar plants, which fcrm 
a cluster of leaves and a 
strong root during the 
first season’s growth, live 
over winter and, the fol¬ 
lowing season, send up a 
seed stalk. After ripening 
its seed, the plant dies. 
The biennial habit of 
growth is not absolutely fixed in the case of celery, 
for the plants occasionally complete their growth in 
a single season, form seed, and die. 
When radish seed is sown in the fall, the plants 
form thick roots which live through the winter, send 
up a seed stalk the following season, and die. When 
radishes are sown in spring, the plants may complete 
their growth and mature their seed that same season. 
It is known that winter wheat has been changed into 
spring wheat in a few years by growing it under 
conditions favorable to the development of the seed 
the same season in which the seed was sown. The 
habits of celery may be influenced in a similar way. 
Although it naturally passes through a period of rest 
in winter, before forming seed, yet by starting the 
plants under glass late in winter, and afterwards 
moving them to the open ground, some portion of the 
crop may run to seed that same season. When celery 
is transplanted to the open field early in the season, 
makes a vigorous growth at first, and then is checked 
by drought, it is more likely to run to seed when con¬ 
ditions again favor active growth than it is when 
planted in the field later, or when an abundant sup¬ 
ply of moisture is available so that growth continues 
active throughout the season. The check which 
the plants receive during drought appears to serve, 
to some extent, the same purpose as the period of 
winter rest. A plentiful supply of soil moisture is 
essential to the most successful celery culture. For this 
reason, low ground is often devoted to growing celery. 
.It is hardly necessary to call attention to frequent 
rust are either the Conover’s Colossal or Moore’s 
Hybrid, or some slightly modified form of these kinds; 
but in one field of 13 acres, there were a few rows of 
the Palmetto. For some reasons, these plants were 
but very slightly attacked by the rust, while the 
remainder of the field had rusted badly, and even 
Hybrid plants that had been set in the Palmetto rows 
where these plants had died out, were turning brown; 
still the Palmetto plants were perfectly fresh and 
green. No satisfactory explanation could be found 
for this unless it was due to some varietal peculiarity 
of the Palmetto. 
In conclusion, the present information relating to 
asparagus rust may be summarized as follows : 
It is a fungous disease, presumably like the aspara¬ 
gus rust that has been known in Europe for a good 
many years. 
It seems to have been noticed first in this country 
last year (1896) when attention was called to it by 
Dr. Halsted, of New Jersey, Prof. Maynard, Dr. Stone, 
of Amherst, and others. It was discovered in at 
least one field in Concord, Mass., in September, 
1896, but its presence would probably have been over¬ 
looked, unless a careful search had been made for it. 
The general outbreak of the disease in Concord, 
Mass., occurred during July of the past summer 
(1897). In the rorthern part of Rhode Island, it, 
probably, occurred about the same time, but it was 
not discovered until late in August. So far as known, 
no asparagus beds are free from the disease within 
the infestedlocalitiesabout 
Auburn, R. I., and Concord, 
Mass., where no less than 
400 acres are devoted to the 
cultivation of this crop. 
The disease is not confined 
to these centers, but is re¬ 
ported from various towns 
in Massachusettsand Rhode 
Island, and from other 
sections of the country. 
Acres of asparagus in 
Concord were entirely de¬ 
foliated by the rust early 
in August, but a large pro¬ 
portion of the beds there 
and about Auburn were 
more or less green as late 
as September 1, and some 
of them were attacked so 
late that little injury can 
result this year. 
Mowing the tops in sum¬ 
mer is a questionable prac¬ 
tice. There is no evidence 
that it has done any good 
in Concord, where it has 
been tried on a large scale; 
but there are indications 
that the roots of the plants 
have been needlessly weak¬ 
ened by it. 
In one case, at least, the 
Bordeaux Mixture has been 
SOME DEFECTS IN COMMON PLOWS. 
I wish to call attention to five prominent defects in 
landside and swivel plows. We will call all such 
plows, drag plows: 
1. Drag plows make a plow crust. They are used 
in all kinds of land, hill and plain, black-wax, adobe, 
clay, lime, alkali and all sorts of compounds. In 
fact, nearly all of the surface earth, when drying, 
bakes or hardens, and all such lands, when plowed 
with a drag plow, harden the subsoil. The downward 
pressure of 300 to 500 pounds continuously troweling 
down the surface of the subsoil at about one depth, 
finally makes what science calls a plow crust, often 
becoming so hard as entirely to cut off the subsoil 
water, thereby causing premature drought. The 
water supply, for this reason, is becoming a very 
serious matter. This continual packing finally makes 
a sort of a sub-roadbed so hard that a pick will hardly 
penetrate it, hence the premature failure of water, 
and drought. 
2. The drag plow destroys fertilizers The prevail¬ 
ing sentiment of all drag-plow makers and users is 
now, and has been, that the more complete the fur¬ 
row slice is inverted the better the plow. Most of 
the farmers before plowing spread the fertilizers upon 
the surface, and then turn them down upon the sub¬ 
soil to the bottom of the furrow, six to eight inches 
below the surface. The work thus done is believed 
to be perfection. Fertilizers thus buried give small 
with the drag plow. Finally, there is no land that 
can be made into a correct seed bed with any drag 
plow now in use, though on stony, hillside land, drag 
plows must still be used. 
4. The drag plow makes the land foul. The direct 
action of all drag plows is to make the land more and 
more foul. The theory prevailing in the minds of 
drag-plow makers and users is now, and ever has 
been, that the furrow must go bottom side up with 
everything upon the top carried to the bottom. Soon, 
six to eight inches of the surface soil become alive 
with foul seeds, ready at every action of the plow to 
spring into life. It is true that the drag plow turns 
the earth over smooth, and at first sight, pleases the 
eye. The bull-tongue and surface stirring devices 
used before 1797, did not completely invert the sur¬ 
face soil. The weed and other foul seeds were kept 
near the surface where germination would soon take 
effect, and they could be uprooted, hence the land 
was kept much more free. No wonder after this 
farmers claimed that the early turning plows made 
the land foul. 
5. The drag plow is of hard draft; in its best form 
it requires 500 pounds and more draft to the foot fur¬ 
row—two horses to drag a 12-inch plow ; three and 
four horses to draw a 16-inch plow ; 8, 10 and 12 
horses to a 40-inch gang of drag plows, and 10 to 16 
horses to draw a 50-inch gang of drag plows, six 
inches deep The draft of the drag plow is from 50 
to 100 pounds to the inch of furrow slice under favor¬ 
able conditions, and there 
are plenty of conditions 
where 8 and 10 horses are 
used on single drag plows. 
The facts are that, from 
first to last, the drag plows 
have been horse-killers. 
We rejoice now that the 
days of the drag plow are 
numbered, that the time 
when plowing to please 
the eye is over, that plow¬ 
ing instruments are now 
made that will destroy the 
plow crust, save the fer¬ 
tilizers, make an excellent 
seed-bed, and soon kill out 
all foul rubbish. 
