1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
725 
leaf are veins or canals through which liquids were 
passing. These veins or tubes were connected with 
a larger one extending through the branches and 
body of the tree. In every leaf, there are openings 
on which bacteria gather. These bacteria, increasing 
with marvelous rapidity, produce an acid which eats 
away the ends of the leaf tubes. Then the bacteria 
descend through the tubes into the leaf, and thus 
journey on into the branches and down to the main 
stalk or trunk. Dr. Smith has proved beyond doubt 
that this is the method of the bacteria which causes 
blight in the tomato and cabbage. Pear blight also 
works in this way, and, possibly, this is also the 
method of Peach yellows bacteria. 
Dr. Smith found a seemingly new disease of the 
tomato. After inoculating potato vines with these 
bacteria, at the end of a week, the vines withered and 
died, and soon after, the bacteria were found in the 
tubers and immediately rotted again. In a general 
way, most potato rot spreads and develops from the 
vines down through the stalks and tubers. Dr. Smith 
has found a disease which attacks cabbage, tomato 
and potato alike, the bacteria being practically 
identical. They first attack the outer edge of the 
leaf, gradually work through the leaf and stem. His 
opinion is that cabbage rot can be prevented by using 
new beds each time for propagating the plants, and 
never planting cabbage after cabbage in the rotation. 
The same plan should be followed with tomatoes and 
potatoes. He does not think that any one variety of 
cabbage is less liable to attacks from blight than an¬ 
other. In a garden plot, and where the work can be 
quickly done, he would recommend cutting off the 
diseased leaves as soon as the blight first attacks 
them. He says, “There is not a particle of doubt 
that Pear blight is caused by bacteria.” He has often 
found germs of bacteria two feet below the diseased 
part of the limb of the pear, and in cutting out 
blighted wood, one should cut at least two feet below 
the lowest darkened point of the bark. 
Dr. Smith once placed potato bugs upon vines which 
had been inoculated with Potato rot bacteria. After 
feeding upon these diseased vines, the bugs were 
placed upon healthy plants. These bugs inoculated 
the new plants with the bacteria and actually pro¬ 
duced rot. Thus we have a new and strong reason 
for fighting the Colorado beetle and other insects, for 
there is no doubt that they do carry these inj urious 
bacteria from one plant to another. c. A. g. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Van Wagenen will tell us how the 
scientist develops and propigates these bacteria. 
The Farmers’ Club. 
[Every query muat be accompanied by the name and address of 
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 paDer.l 
Soils for Hothouse Vegetables. 
J. J. J., Carlton, Mass .—In a hothouse, I intend to raise cucum¬ 
bers, lettuce and spinach. What kind of soil is best adapted for 
them ? How should manure or phosphate be applied ? What 
is the best method for ventilating ? Is much ventilation necessary? 
Ans. —If you succeed with cucumbers, lettuce and 
spinach in a small house without a partition, you 
need have no fear of being unable to grow any or 
all of these crops on a large commercial scale. Unless 
you intend these for home use, it would be best to 
drop cucumbers, or else the last two, for cucumbers 
demand a much higher temperature and different 
management. For heading lettuce, the best soil is 
one that contains much sand and very little clay or silt. 
Prof. B. T. Galloway says of the soil used by the Boston 
growers, that it is “ loose at all times, regardless of 
treatment, it being possible to push the arm into it 
to a depth of 20 inches or more. A four-inch dressing 
of fresh manure, when spaded in to a depth of 15 
or 20 inches, will be completely disintegrated in six 
or eight weeks.” He prepared a soil which gave the 
same results by a mixture of two parts of drift sand 
and one part of greenhouse soil. The greenhouse soil 
was a mixture of one part of clay, and two of well- 
rotted manure. 
The best way to apply manure is to mix it thor¬ 
oughly with the other materials when the soil is 
being prepared for the benches. All gardeners prefer 
well-rotted manure for this purpose. While the 
plants are growing, liquid cow manure is applied. It 
is a common practice to work into the soil a dressing 
of bone meal after the plants are well established. If 
you prefer to try commercial fertilizers, it is best to 
get a complete, low-grade fertilizer. When you strike 
the proportions of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and pot¬ 
ash best suited to your conditions, you can buy these 
elements separately in a concentrated form and mix 
them yourself so as to get the right proportions. 
There are several admirable ventilating devices for 
large establishments, but of the many common sorts, 
no one is best for all purposes. The knack of venti¬ 
lation comes only with experience. Lettuce being a 
cool-house crop, can stand more air than cucumbers. 
In an ordinary forcing house, a sash at the peak is 
sufficient, and avoids side draughts. I ought to say 
that gardeners are generally agreed that the chief 
factor and the most unteachable one in the manage¬ 
ment of soils is the watering. The principles of ven¬ 
tilation, and of soil selection, are discussed in The 
Forcing Book, by L. H. Bailey (The Rural New- 
Yorker, price $1). This is the latest American writ¬ 
ing on the growing of vegetables under glass, and 
ought to be part of the capital of inexperienced 
growers. A visit to some of the successful Boston 
growers would well repay in mistakes to be avoided 
and help gained. The forcing of lettuce and cucumbers 
is brought to a high pitch of skill near Boston, At 
Arlington Heights, you will find 15 acres under glass 
devoted to these crops. w. m. 
A Low Grade Fertilizer. 
F. S. B., Tonis Fiver, N. J .—I send you, under separate cover, 
a sample with analysis of fertilizer or manure, called Texana 
Manure, which is offered at our railroad station for $10 a ton. 
Will you kindly give me your opinion of it ? 
Ans —According to the analysis printed on the 
sample the manufacturers guarantee two per cent 
of phosphoric acid, three-fourths of one per cent of 
ammonia, and one-half of one per cent of potash. 
One ton will, therefore, contain 40 pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid, worth $2, 15 pounds of ammonia, worth 
$2.25, and 10 pounds of potash, worth 50 cents, or 
$4 75 in all. We will take 150 pounds of ground bone, 
100 pounds of tankage, 25 pounds of muriate of pot¬ 
ash, and 1,725 pounds of sifted coal ashes, a fine soil 
from your field, and have more plant food than the 
chemist or the plant can find in such a fertilizer. In 
their circular the manufacturers say : 
This remarkable manure comes to the aid of the farmer just at 
the time when horse manure is becoming more scarce and expen¬ 
sive, owing to the rapid replacement of horse cars by cable lines 
and trolleys in every city. When any material that is necessary 
for the human race becomes scarce, something better always 
comes up to take its place. When the supply of wood began to 
give out coal was discovered, and now that horse manure is be¬ 
coming scarce and high and often poor in quality, the farmers 
find they are able to get a better and more economical article in 
Texana manure. 
Horse manure at $2 a ton is worth at least three 
times as much as such fertilizers. It is true that 
“ something better ” has come to substitute for costly 
manure, but the Texana will not fill the bill. Let the 
farmer sow cow peas and $5 worth per acre of potash 
and phosphoric acid, plow the whole thing under and 
then sow Crimson clover. He will then have a fer¬ 
tilizer that will beat this cheap mixture out of sight. 
Never buy a low grade fertilizer. Let clover and cow 
peas manufacture it at home. 
A Chapter on Wireworms. 
M. M., Medway, Mass .—I have been having a rather unusual 
and disastrous experience with wireworms. I planted a field of 
sweet corn about May 22. It came up very poorly, and I thought 
that the seed rotted. Some of it rotted, I know. About July 1, I 
replanted It and it came up, even worse than the first planting. 
Examination showed small wireworms eating through and 
through the swelled grains and roots of young corn plants. As 
many as a dozen worms could sometimes be found in a single hill. 
The ravages continued until at the end of July; two acres of the 
field were ruined. A half acre in one place had not as many as 
100 plants living. On two previous occasions, I had corn on ad¬ 
joining land, injured in former years. What can be done to 
destroy the pests, or to prevent their ravages ? I will add that 
my seed corn this year was dressed with coal tar to prevent 
crows pulling it, but it did not appear to make it distasteful to 
the worms, for I found them eating through the grains as soon 
as they were swollen. Tne worms are small, round, yellowish- 
brown ones that make holes into potatoes and other roots, and 
tomato fruit when it rests on the ground. Is it practicable in 
any way to poison them ? What can be done ? 
ANSWERED BY M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
The wireworm question is one of the hardest nuts 
that we “ bug men ” have had to crack, and we have, 
by no means, yet got at the meat. These insects live 
in the soil for several years as “ wireworms ”, and 
finally change to what almost every school boy knows 
as “snapping bugs ”, or “click-beetles”. For three 
years, we carried on extensive experiments here at 
the Cornell Insectary against these pests, and our 
results revealed the fact that none of the old, oft- 
repeated, supposed “ remedies ”, such as salt, summer 
fallow, buckwheat, etc., were effective. Further¬ 
more, no method that we could devise reached the 
insects in their wireworm stage. We know of no ap¬ 
plication that can be made on or in the soil that will 
kill the worms without, at the same time, rendering 
the land unfit for use for some time afterward. Thus 
one cannot hope to rid his soil of the pest before 
planting another crop. 
Among the different methods suggested for combat¬ 
ing wireworms, that of covering or protecting the 
seed in some manner has received more attention 
from farmers than any other. From our experiments 
in trying to protect the seeds, we draw the following 
general conclusions : 
Paris-green and Flour Coating. —It is evident 
that it is not practicable to protect seed from the 
attacks of wireworms by coating it with a Paris-green 
paste. The only apparent result was to retard the 
sprouting of the seeds. When wireworms did eat the 
seeds thus coated, they did not appear to be in¬ 
juriously affected by the poison. 
Coating of Tar, —Our experiments agree with 
M. M.’s observations that sometimes the worms will 
attack seed corn, even when it is completely coated 
with tar. In actual practice, but few of the kernels 
would get a complete coat; it requires considerable 
disagreeable labor to apply the coating ; germination 
is considerably retarded, even when the kernel has 
been previously soaked in water; and corn thus 
treated cannot be as readily used in a planter. 
Soaking in Salt. —Our experiments show that corn 
soaked in a saturated solution of salt for 20 hours, is 
as readily eaten by wireworms as if not thus soaked, 
and no injury results to the worms. 
Soaking in a Copperas Solution. —We got no re¬ 
sults which indicate that wireworms will not eat and 
destroy seed soaked in this solution for 20 hours, as 
readily as any other, and receive no injury therefrom. 
Soaking in Chloride of Lime and Copperas —Re¬ 
sults the same as with the copperas solution above. 
Soaking in Kerosene Oil. —They readily attacked 
corn thus soaked (for 16 hours), and no injury resulted 
to the worms. 
Soaking in Turpentine. —They were not deterred 
from eating corn soaked 16 hours in this substance, 
neither were the worms inj ured by doing so. 
Soaking in a Strychnine Solution. —Corn soaked 
in a very strong solution of this deadly poison for 20 
hours, is rendered neither distasteful nor destructive 
to wireworms. 
Our observations upon the life histories of these 
pests revealed one quite vulnerable point ; We 
found that the change from the worm to a “ snap¬ 
ping beetle” takes place in July and August, in little 
earthen cells, a few inches beneath the surface ; but 
the beetles do not emerge from these cells until 
the following spring. The pupae and the newly- 
formed beetles are very tender, and soon died if their 
little cells were crushed in any way. These facts led 
us to recommend that farmers plow and thoroughly 
pulverize the infested soil in the fall, thus break¬ 
ing up these cells and destroying the tender pupae 
and beetles. Many farmers who practice a short 
rotation of crops, keeping the soil well stirred in the 
fall, claim that they are not troubled with wireworms. 
Thus I believe that M. M.’s only hope of ridding his 
corn field of the pests, lies in a system of short rota¬ 
tion of crops practiced for a series of years ; he cannot 
hope to rid the soil of the worms in one season’s work. 
Keep the soil well stirred, as the worms do not enjoy 
being constantly disturbed. 
Ivy on a Damp House. 
J. L. N., Hagerstown, Md — One end of the brick wall of our 
house Is damp In the rainy seasons, so much so as to cause the 
paper on the wall to discolor. I have heard that ivy planted on 
the outside would correct the trouble. If so, what is the best 
variety to plant, and how far apart? The dampness is caused 
by the rain beating against the outside wall. 
Ans. —We should say that the ivy would tend to 
increase the dampness. In so far as we are aware, 
the little stem roots or foot-like tendrils do not need 
moisture. They merely serve as supports to the vine, 
which gets its moisture from the soil. The same may 
be said of the Virginia creeper, Climbing Hydrangea 
and others. The dense mass of foliage upon the 
house would serve to cool the air, causing a deposition 
and retention of the moisture it contains. 
How to Force Asparagus. 
G. B., Hudson County, N. J.—What are the best methods of 
forcing asparagus under glass ? I think that the temperature 
for strawberries under glass will answer for asparagus. 
Ans —Asparagus roots three to six years old are 
usually preferred for forcing. The temperature for 
strawberries, while it will force a rapid growth, 
makes the product spindling, and the result is not so 
good as when grown cooler. Asparagus is sensitive 
to warmth ; 45 degrees will start it into growth. The 
spaces under the benches in forcing houses are usu¬ 
ally used for asparagus, the temperature being the 
same as for lettuce. The roots, which have been pre¬ 
viously treated as for ordinary field cultivation, are 
dug as late in the fall as possiole ; they are then 
stored in a shed or cellar with a covering of leaves or 
straw to prevent their drying out, but are not pro¬ 
tected from frost, as this is an advantage rather than 
otherwise. Care is taken, in lifting, to avoid break¬ 
ing the clumps, and to retain as much earth as pos¬ 
sible about the roots. A pit is made under the benches 
in the forcing house to contain the roots ; the clumps 
are placed upon two inches of soil, close together, 
and covered with four or five inches of soil, that the 
stalks may be blanched. Cutting should begin in 
about two weeks. The temperature should be kept 
rather low for two or three days, and then gradually 
raised. Asparagus may, also, be forced in frames or 
hotbeds, but in the latter, the temperature should 
not be too hot and steamy. The forced roots are use¬ 
less after the one season. A system which has been 
tested with success is to grow the asparagus under 
ordinary field conditions, but with c ireful culture, 
arranged in beds which may be covered when de¬ 
sired, either with glass or canvas sashes, these to be 
removed after the forcing is over. 
