803 
1909. 
A GROCER RAISES STRAWBERRIES. 
After reading the Hope Farm man's 
results with strawberries, I have been 
letting myself puff up with pride at 
what I accomplished along similar 
lines; in fact, I have got bold enough 
to write and tell how it all came out. 
I have worked for 18 years in a retail 
grocery with hours from 7 A. M. till 7 :30 
P. M. I have had but two half days 
off, to care for berries that were set 
first week in May, 1908. The plot was 
74 x 110 feet, plants being set 21 inches 
apart in the row, with rows three feet 
apart, runners being allowed to fill in 
to make a single hedge-row; and all 
work, after ground was ready for set¬ 
ting, being done by hand, with tools for 
that purpose, in the early morning or 
late in evening. At last, when Fall 
came around, I was proud of that patch 
of berries; not a weed anywhere, and 
you could shut your eyes and imagine 
the crop of big, red berries that would 
be there next Spring. Not being able 
to get straw for mulch, I covered plants 
in early Winter (on top of two inches 
of snow) with coarse barnyard manure, 
which made a fair crop of weeds this 
Spring—and this was lifted from 
plants after danger from frost. From 
that time on till June 17, when our 
picking began, those plants did their 
best. Here was where the tug-of-war 
against difficulties began. I could not 
absent myself from the duties at the 
grocery, and outside of 4^4 hours taken 
from two afternoons, I picked, sold and 
delivered (by bicycle), outside of work¬ 
ing hours, to private families, 1,400 
quarts of fancy berries which brought 
about $105. The lowest price was seven 
cents and the highest thirteen cents the 
quart, which was for the earliest of 
course. I will add here, that I mean 
that I handled personally, all of the 
1,400 quarts with the exception of less 
than 200 quarts which my young chil¬ 
dren and one relative picked. 
Some one will say, why didn’t he 
hire somebody to pick them for him? I 
can only say, ‘I have been all through 
that mill.” With the proceeds of dif¬ 
ferent crops, during the last six years, 
I have raised and marketed nearly 
enough to pay for five village lots, 
which adjoin my house and lot. Great¬ 
er things than this have been done I 
know, but it will help to show what can 
be done when you set out to do it. 
Waverly, N. Y. e. g. w. 
A DISEASE OF PINE. 
Mention has been made of a rust or dis¬ 
ease of pine trees which was imported 
from Germany. The State Forester of 
Vermont furnishes this statement regarding 
the disease: “The disease is similar to the 
wheat rust, passing one stage on White 
pine and two stages on the various species 
of genus Ribes, on either wild or culti¬ 
vated gooseberries and currants. This fur¬ 
nishes a very convenient method of fighting 
the disease, as by eradicating all bushes 
of these species within a reasonable dis¬ 
tance of infected pines, all danger of the 
disease spreading is eliminated. 
The disease was originally confined to 
Stone pine of Europe which is a species 
of White pine, but when our Pinus Strobus 
was introduced into Europe, the rust at¬ 
tacked this pine more than the native 
European pines. Owing to the scarcity of 
forest seedlings in this country, and the 
growing demands for such on the part of 
land owners under the forestry movement 
now growing so rapidly, it has been neces¬ 
sary to import large quantities of German- 
raised seedlings. As a result of this several 
hundred thousand trees were imported this 
year into the States of New York, Vermont, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and pos¬ 
sibly some other States. Fortunately the 
disease was discovered very soon after 
importing. A meeting was held In New 
fork, within a short time after its discov¬ 
ery, of officials of the United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture and various State 
Forest Services, and it was decided to take 
strenuous action toward the immediate 
eradication of the disease. Following out 
this policy we have had here in Vermont 
three men inspecting all of the 70-odd 
plantations which were made in the various 
parts of the State. Wherever currants or 
gooseberries were found within 500 feet 
ot the plantations, they were cut out and 
burned. Very few seedlings were found 
THE RURAL/ NEW-YORKER 
which showed any signs of the disease. Cer¬ 
tainly less than one-half of one per cent, 
so that it is hoped that the disease has 
been entirely wiped out. However, to make 
sure of it, we will go over these planta¬ 
tions again next Spring when it is time for 
the fungus to fruit upon pine, at which 
time there is a conspicuous orange spore 
on the tree, which can usually be distin¬ 
guished. Altogether, I think that there is 
very little danger of this disease ever prov¬ 
ing serious, as it has been discovered and 
dealt with so promptly after its importa¬ 
tion. A. F. HAWES. 
Vermont State Forester. 
BISULPHIDE FOR WHITE GRUBS. 
It is reported that bisulphide of carbon 
has been used to destroy white grubs in 
strawberry beds. Does anyone know about 
it? 
I have not had personal experience with 
this remedy in strawberry beds, but quote 
as follows from Prof. F. L. Washburn, 
entomologist of the Minnesota Station, re¬ 
garding his experiments with this gas 
against white grubs in Blue grass lands. 
He found that “one ounce of bisulphide of 
carbon placed in a quite shallow pan and 
put in a tight box whose cubic capacity 
was 3,438 inches, said box having been in¬ 
verted over a patch of dying grass, killed 
all of the grubs in the patch in three hours 
without in the slightest way injuring the 
green grass with which the gas came in 
contact; or there may be used a large cloth- 
covered frame four inches deep by four 
feet 10% inches by 13 feet 10 inches in 
order to cover a larger area of lawn. Un¬ 
der this, three ounces, six ounces and eight 
ounces of bisulphide of carbon were used 
at different times with exposures of three 
hours each time, this resulting in only a 
partial success as regards killing the 
grubs.” Dr. Washburn thinks that lack 
of success was undoubtedly due to the 
fact that the frame was not tight and that 
the gas not only escaped from the cloth 
but through the crevices of the frame, 
which was not closely jointed. He thinks 
a frame of the same dimensions, made en¬ 
tirely of wood, with tight joints, would 
be as effective as the small box experiment 
which he used in the first instance. lie 
believes that if the injury is treated as fast 
as it appears a small box is better than 
a larger one. I presume that strawberry 
plants would not be subject to much great¬ 
er injury from the gas than Blue grass, 
but this could only be determined by ex¬ 
periment. It would be wise to watch the 
effect of the fumigation on a small lot of 
strawberries before proceeding to treat the 
whole patch. h. a. gossaud. 
Ohio Exp. Station. 
TROUBLE WITH MAPLE TREES. 
We have noticed in many localities this 
season unhealthy maple trees, with dead 
or dying foliage, their appearance suggest¬ 
ing, to casual observers, some disease simi¬ 
lar to the fungus now attacking chestnuts. 
A recent letter from W. A. Murrill, assist¬ 
ant director of the New York Botanical 
Garden, which was printed in the New 
York Sun, states that no specific disease 
appears to be present, the blighting of the 
leaves being due to drought and the attacks 
of plant lice. The treatment advised is 
plenty of water at the roots and a thor¬ 
ough spraying of the under side of the 
leaves with whale-oil soap, one pound to 
eight gallons of water. Says Mr. Murrill: 
“The Sugar maple is a beautiful tree and 
a great favorite, but its requirements as 
to soil and water are unusually exacting 
and its foliage is very sensitive to dust 
and smoke and the punctures of sucking 
insects, especially during periods of 
drought. Maples are especially susceptible 
to leaf blight because they leaf early and 
quickly and bear large thin leaves unpro¬ 
tected by a hairy covering and very sensi¬ 
tive to heat, dryness and dust. The hard 
maples are peculiarly sensitive on account 
of their very large, undivided leaves and 
the density of their foliage. The Norway 
maple thrives better in cities than the 
Sugar maple and is much less affected by 
leaf blight. Attention to the ordinary needs 
of trees, particularly to those of food and 
water, will do much toward lessening this 
trouble. Thinning of the top will decrease 
the leaf surface and make the remaining 
leaves more vigorous.” 
In our district we have had a visitation, 
two years in succession, from the Cottony 
maple-scale, a little pest that is so pro¬ 
tected by its cotton-batting suit that spray¬ 
ing hardly touches it. Ordinarily this in¬ 
sect does not appear numerous enough to 
do much harm, but the infestation was 
quite severe with us in 1907 and 1908, 
and as we have also suffered from drought 
in 1908 and 1909, the combined afflictions 
are evidently trying the maples severely. 
In our district, where shale rock and brown 
stone crop out, young maples in shallow 
soil appear to be the greatest sufferers, 
which would bear out Mr. Morrill's diag¬ 
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