1912 . 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
©63 
Pitting Cabbage. 
It. O. J., Pittsburg, Pa .—Will you give 
me best method of storing cabbage for 
Winter by pitting and banking with earth? 
After being pulled and piled together, are 
they injured by being frozen solid before 
covered with earth? 
Ans. —Cabbage is quite hardy, and will 
stand considerable frost in the Fall with¬ 
out material damage; in fact it is rather 
improved in quality by it, if not frozen 
hard and allowed to thaw out in the air. 
By the second or third week in Novem¬ 
ber the heads should be pulled up, root 
and all, the outside leaves folded in 
closely around the head, and placed side 
by side root up in rows three to five 
rows wide on a well-drained piece of 
ground; a gentle slope is an ideal situa¬ 
tion. The soil is then thrown on them 
four to six inches deep, which will 
leave the roots sticking out of the 
ground. The soil covering should be 
well packed so as to shed the rain as 
well as possible. After cold weather 
has set in and the ground has become 
slightly frozen, forest leaves, straw or 
cornstalks to the depth of four to six 
inches, placed on top of the pit, will 
prevent the earth from freezing hard, 
which will greatly lessen the labor of 
getting out the cabbage when wanted 
for use. If a covering of boards or 
shutters is laid over the litter it will 
prevent it from getting wet and freezing 
together, which will further lessen the 
labor of getting the heads out. K. 
Club-Root in Cabbage. 
J. F. W ., Cliardon, 0.—4 have trouble 
with cabbage, and wish some one would 
tell me what is the cause and what to do. 
I have been trucking for many years and 
never saw anything of the kind. The 
leaves begin by turning light blue and the 
center of leaves a paler, lighter color, do 
no good any more, and then the weaker 
ones stop growth entirely and die. When 
pulled up some of the roots are found to 
have formed a knot about an inch below 
the surface, and some of them are about 
rotten. Land is a heavy dark clay. A lot 
of green straw manure had been turned 
down in the Spring and I limed it on top. 
Ans. —Your cabbage has an attack of 
club-root. This is caused chiefly by 
planting too many successive years on 
the same ground or sowing seed too 
often in the same place. The disease is 
caused by a minute insect, and when the 
soil is once infected with it, it will re¬ 
quire several years’ cultivation in other 
crops to free the soil from it. Heavy 
applications of lime in Fall and Spring 
will check it to a greater or lesser ex¬ 
tent, according to the nature of the 
soil. It is never advisable to grow cab¬ 
bage more than two or three years on 
the same soil; it is far better to rotate 
the crops, planting such crops as corn, 
potatoes, or anything not related to the 
cabbage on ground next year where cab¬ 
bage was grown this year. There is 
no remedy for the plants after being at¬ 
tacked by the disease. K. 
Spraying Cucumbers and Melons. 
Bulletin 72, issued by tbe Storrs 
(Conn.) Experiment Station, discusses 
spraying experiments conducted from 1903 
to 1911 inclusive. At first tlie work con¬ 
sisted of studies of the effect of Bordeaux 
Mixture. In later years there has been 
considerable injury from the Bordeaux, 
which has failed to control disease com¬ 
pletely, so some of the newer fungicides 
have been used. 
The most common and destructive disease 
found in Connecticut cucumber and melon 
fields is downy mildew or blight, caused 
by a fungus closely related to the one 
causing late blight of potatoes. It is some¬ 
times found on the watermelon, squash 
and pumpkin, but seldom causes much in¬ 
jury on these plants. The trouble, which 
develops most rapidly during hot humid 
weather, usually appears some time in 
August. The disease first presents itself 
in the form of irregular yellow spots, ap¬ 
pearing first on the leaves in the center of 
the hill. The spots enlarge and run to¬ 
gether so that the whole leaf becomes af¬ 
fected and finally shrivels up and dies. On 
the under side of the leaf the spots are 
of a faint purplish color. Cucumbers on 
affected vines become misshaped, producing 
the so-called “nubbins.” The melons on 
the diseased vines do not develop naturally 
and when mature possess a disagreeable 
flavor. IIow the fungus passes the Winter 
has not been determined. Since the disease 
is more troublesome on land where cucum¬ 
bers and melons have been grown for a 
number of years, it probably lives over 
Winter in the soil, but it may advance 
northward from sections where the host 
plants are grown throughout the whole 
year. 
Four other diseases affecting cucumbers 
and melons are the scab fungus, leaf spot, 
anthracnose and bacterial wilt. In the 
plots used for spraying experiments all 
these diseases were studied, no effort being 
made to study the effect of the spray on 
any particular disease. The scab, the leaf 
spot and the anthracnose all seemed to 
be more easily controlled with Bordeaux 
than the downy mildew. 
After the nine years’ experience the con¬ 
clusion was reached that Bordeaux mix¬ 
ture, even in very weak proportions, causes 
more or less injury to the foliage of cucum¬ 
bers and melons. When used at full 
strength and at half strength it greatly 
prolonged the life of melon plants, and 
enabled them to mature a large proportion 
of their fruits. Spraying thoroughly both 
sides of the leaves, while increasing the in¬ 
jury of the foliage, was only slightly more 
effective in controlling the disease than 
spraying the upper surface of the leaves 
only. The use of poison in the mixture 
seems unnecessary, as leaf-eating insects 
seldom trouble the plants so late in the 
season. All the sulphur preparations tried 
caused serious injury to both melons and 
cucumbers. It appears that while Bordeaux 
mixture is the best remedy we have, it will 
not completely control the diseases of 
melons and cucumbers; three or four ap¬ 
plications will keep plants alive and pro¬ 
ductive from two to three weeks longer 
than unsprayed plants. In seasons when 
disease is not present, or when it appears 
late in the season, unsprayed plants are 
usually more productive than those that 
have been sprayed with Bordeaux. On cu¬ 
cumbers, Bordeaux injures the foliage and 
interferes with the setting of the fruit. With 
melons the injury is mostly restricted to 
the foliage, but the spray seems to retard 
the maturity of the fruits. Yellow-fleshed 
sorts are not so much affected in flavor as 
green-fleshed varieties. Early-maturing va¬ 
rieties are recommended, Emerald Gem 
being a favorite, and every effort should be 
made to secure an early crop. Light, well- 
drained soil, a warm location and an early 
start are advised. Quick-acting chemical 
fertilizers should be used to hasten matur¬ 
ity ; excellent results followed basic slag, 
600 pounds per acre, to which may be 
added 200 pounds each of nitrate of soda 
and muriate of potash. Spray just be¬ 
fore the disease appears (in Connecticut 
about the first week in August) with Bor¬ 
deaux, 3-3-50. Spray again at intervals of 
about 10 days. 
It is necessary to use more care in 
spraying cucumbers than melons, as the 
Bordeaux interferes with the setting of the 
fruit. The spray should be directed to¬ 
ward the center of the hill and contact 
with blossoms avoided as far as possible. 
Late cucumbers, or those grown for pick¬ 
ling, are most likely to be affected; as a 
rule a good crop of early cucumbers may 
be matured before the disease appears. 
The Buckwheat Crop. 
Living as I do in what is probably one 
of the greatest buckwheat sections in New 
York States, it is hard to realize that 
buckwheat is not better understood. Buck¬ 
wheat seems not to be adapted to all soils 
or climates. In this section there are four 
or five towns particularly adapted to its 
production. Of these one town stands out 
prominently as the largest producer; here 
fully 40 per cent of the cultivated acreage 
is sown to buckwheat. Even here, where 
it grows at its best, it is considered some¬ 
what an uncertain crop. A crop that must 
be sown during the hottest part of the 
Summer, it must have plenty of moisture 
to germinate. If sown too early in the sea¬ 
son the hot sun and wind “blasts” the 
blossom; then we have false kernels. If 
sown too late the frost catches it. It re¬ 
quires hot weather to grow and cool 
weather to ripen, it is a rank feeder, and 
requires plenty of phosphoric acid. Here 
buckwheat is sown from June 15 to July 1 
on sod that has been plowed in early Sum¬ 
mer. Farmers agree that it does best on 
freshly plowed sod. We sow from 24 to 
36 quarts to the acre. Japanese and the 
little gray varieties are sown. The former 
is not so popular ; it is, I think, rather the 
heavier yieldcr, but in a rainy season there 
is more danger of not being able to get the 
larger kernel dry, in which case it will of 
course heat in bin. Some farmers mix the 
two varieties and after several years of 
such mixing we have a sort of cross. 
It is cut with a binder the same as rye 
and oats, and set in shocks of from two to 
10 bundles. It should be shocked as fast 
as cut; if allowed to wilt it does not stand 
up well. After being cut it is allowed to 
stand out in field from two to four weeks. 
We always thrash from field. Straw is 
stacked and used for bedding for horses 
and cows. It is said to be poisonous to 
pigs. Buckwheat remaining as it does, in 
blossom from three to four weeks, furnishes 
probably the best working material for bees 
known. Twenty-five bushels per acre Is 
considered a good yield. Prices run from 
60 to 80 cents per bushel. a. j. iiill. 
Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
I have raised buckwheat a number of 
years, and I always cut my buckwheat with 
a binder and set it up in twos, and never 
had any trouble with it molding or being 
spoiled. L. d. s». 
Ohio. 
Harvesting Buckwheat. —On page 868 , 
Mr. A. D. B., of Titusville, N. .T., asks in 
regard to harvesting buckwheat with a 
binder. I have cut some that way my¬ 
self, perhaps 20 acres, and have seen many 
other fields cut with a binder, and think 
their use to be all right when straw is 
long enough to be bound. It should be 
cut while some of the buckwheat is still 
somewhat white, or not very ripe, so as to 
avoid shelling the grain. Set about three 
or four bundles together so they will not 
fall down, and time and wind will dry 
them out. P. J. b. 
Galway, N. Y. 
Alfalfa with Wheat. 
I plowed under a heavy piece of sod. I 
limed heavily on the sod before turning at 
rate of one ton per acre of hydrated lime. 
1 want to sow it to wheat about September 
1. I would like to get it in Alfalfa. Can I 
sow Alfalfa with the wheat with success, 
or shall I sow Timothy and clover? 
Fisher’s Ferry, Pa. f. w. p. 
We should sow the Timothy and clover. 
Our reports indicate a poor chance for Al¬ 
falfa when seeded with wheat. 
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