VoL. LX. No. 2672. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 13, 1901. 
PER YEAR 
AH EXPERIENCE WITH MELON BLIGHT. 
WHAT A MICHI&AN MAN DID. 
Fighting insects and Disease. 
We have received many requests from readers for In¬ 
formation about Melon blight. F. A. Slrrine, of the 
New York Experiment Station at Jamaica, L. I., sends 
In the following letter from Holmes Bros., of Ypsilanti, 
Mich., who are large melon growers. This treatment is 
based on the work done on Long Island by Mr. Slrrine, 
INSIDE “WORKS” OE A POTATO. Fia. 107. 
who says: “Some pickle growers on Long Island, who 
took the precaution to spray' their cucumber vines to 
prevent the downy mildew of the cucumber, obtained a 
yield of 100,000 pickles per acre, while many who did not 
take the trouble to spray had no pickles to pick. The 
latter were so much in the majority that pickles were 
worth at least their w'elght in silver, if not in gold.” 
PREPARATION AND PLANTING.—On our land, 
which is sandy, we use 15 cords of coarse straw and 
stalk manure per acre, spread broadcast and plowed 
under to a depth of seven inches. In addition we use 
about 300 pounds of home-mixed fertilizer per acre 
applied by means of a grain drill. We have been 
quite successful with 800 pounds of good home-mixed 
fertilizer per acre used alone, 1,200 pounds per acre 
gave us ranker vines but no more melons; but we 
have better results as a whole when we use plenty of 
coarse straw and stalk manure with a small amount 
of fertilizer. We fit the ground about the same as 
for corn, in addition we give thorough tillage. We 
start our melons in cold frames, planting the seed 
about April 20, and transplant to the field from May 
20 to June 5. We have nearly 23,000 melon boxes 
made, which will give us plants enough for about 
18 acres; planting in rows six feet wide and five feet 
apart in the row. We plant Emerald Lem, Paul Rose 
and Osage. The Paul Rose is our best basket melon, 
as it grows more uniform in size than the Emerald 
Gem. The Emerald Gem is a little earlier with us, 
and of better quality. 
FIGHTING INSECTS.—The striped beetle has given 
us much trouble, but we have always heretofore con¬ 
trolled it by the use of carbolized lime sifted on the 
hills, combined with decoy squash vines planted on 
the margins of the field; we also plant one row of 
squashes through the middle of each field. In addi¬ 
tion the squash vines are used for lures for the Black 
squash-bug. The latter are picked from the vines 
while pairing, and from under decoy shingles, per¬ 
sistently. In addition we watch carefully for the eggs 
and pick them; one needs sharp eyes for this work. 
It is quite a task to hand-pick these bugs from trap 
plants around fields of 14 or 15 acres, but we do it, 
and find that it pays us. The past season’s work 
shows that the spraying with Bordeaux Mixture is 
even more effective in driving off the striped beetle 
than is the carbolized lime. We have been troubled 
very much with the aphis, or plant louse. The only 
way we could control it was to pull the vines on 
which its work is first teen. One can readily distin¬ 
guish its work by the color and appearance of the 
vines, and at the first sign we pull them, pile, and 
cover them with kerosene. 
FIGHTING DISEASES.—Diseases first showed in 
our fields in small patches about three years ago, and 
have been increasing very rapidly ever since, until 
last season (1899) we lost several acres almost en¬ 
tirely. What melons we did get were poor in quality. 
In 1899 our Osage field was literally covered with full- 
sized melons that were not marketable on account of 
a disease. All the southern melons that came into 
this market last year were also off quality. We 
learned of the work done by the New York Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station on the downy mildew of 
cucumbers, and after receiving the bulletins, together 
with a letter on spraying, we decided to try spraying 
our melons. We commenced spraying about June 12, 
1900, and sprayed once each week until we com- 
POT.ATO WITH A BONE TO PICK. Fio. 108 
menced to pick, August 3, making six applications in 
all. We are convinced that it would have paid us to 
make two more applications. We used the one to 
eight formula in preparing the Bordeaux Mixture, but 
there were indications that this strength injured the 
leaves, especially when applied to the under surface 
of the leaf; hence another year we shall spray with 
the one to 12 formula and commence the spraying 
before transplanting to the field. 
The last of June and the first of July a cold wind 
whipped the vines of our Osage and basket melons, 
in exposed places, destroying the first set of melons. 
The result was a partial failure of the crop. On ma¬ 
tured vines that held the first set of fruit we obtained 
very satisfactory results; holding their flavor until 
the last. The damaged vines grew considerably after 
the spraying was discontinued, and gave us a fair 
demonstration of what the spraying was doing for 
us; around the center of the hills, which usually go 
first, the leaves stood up finely, while the unsprayed 
tips died down completely. Furthermore, the spray¬ 
ing appeared to check the blight after it appeared on 
the leaves. We think no miidew showed on our fields 
the present year, but the Alternaria (the so-called 
Cantaloupe blight) continued gradualiy to kill off the 
old leaves; but, as a whole, we are sure that the 
spraying helped to save our crop last year. The 
blight usually makes its appearance in our vines 
about the middle of July, but we noticed it the past 
season about June 25. We used the Eclipse pump 
made by Morrill & Morley, of Benton Harbor, Mich. 
It is important to have a high pressure pump in order 
to get a satisfactory spray. We buiit a spray cart 
especially for the purpose. This cart has a tread of 
six feet, that being the width of the rows. The thills 
ai'e placed one side, so that the horse is in front of 
one wheel and travels between the rows. We ob¬ 
tained one-fourth inch web hose, using two leads of 
it Each lead is 25 feet long, but it is so light that 
it does not drag the vines enough to cause any in¬ 
jury. The nozzles were attached to the hose by means 
of a short brass rod provided with a stop cock. W^ 
also have a frame to which we tie each lead of hose. 
This helps very much in carrying the weight of the 
hose. Our year was not as successful as we would 
like, as the cold weather in June retarded our trans¬ 
planted melons, while the favorable weather of July 
and August advanced hill-planted melons so rapidly 
that the two crops came in together. The spraying of 
18 acres (including price of machine) cost us $150. 
HOLMES BROTHERS. 
SOME FREAK POTATOES. 
The cuts on this page illustrate potatoes grown 
under unusual conditions. Figs. 107 and 109 show 
views of a young tuber developed within its parent. 
The section. Fig. 107, shows how the bud started un¬ 
der the skin from the opposite side of the potato, and 
grew through the flesh until a new tuber was formed 
and grew large enough to burst the old potato. Just 
why this bud grew through the flesh instead of di¬ 
rectly out of the potato is not easy to determine, but 
it was evidently one of the ordinary accessory buds 
with which the usual potato “eye” or buried branch is 
provided. The specimen was found in a cellar while 
preparing potatoes for seed, and it is possible that the 
direction of growth was caused by the potato lying 
on the side from which the bud started, thus forcing 
it to grow upward through the flesh, if it developed 
at all. The potato in Fig 108 was evidently on a 
hunt for phosphoric acid, and has wedged itself so 
tightly in the femur of some animal that it has burst 
its bony casing, which was still quite rigid and firm. 
A potato is neither a root nor a true tuber, but mere¬ 
ly a dormant branch swollen and stored with starch 
and reserve materials, preserving its bud axes in the 
form of tne “eyes” we are all so familiar with, but 
POTATO INSIDE OF POTATO. Fifl. 109. 
the point difficult to understand is how this soft and 
watery growth is able to exert sufficient pressure to 
burst anything so firm as this bone must have been. 
These interesting specimens were kindly sent The R. 
N.-Y. by Prof. C. L. Newman, of the Arkansas Ex¬ 
periment Station, at Fayetteville, Ark. 
