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SWEET PEA BLIGHT. 
I planted sweet peas in the proper 
time last April; they came up (juite 
well and after that they began to wither 
and die out. I got the seeds from a re¬ 
liable seed firm and they looked good 
and fresh. I have had every year the 
linest flowers until this year. When is 
the best time to plant sweet peas to bloom 
under glass for Winter? j. At. 
Oyster Bay, N. Y. 
It looks very much as if your sweet 
peas have an attack of blight. It is not 
stated how long you have used the same 
location or what system of planting you 
have been practicing. I can therefore 
give only the directions for the best 
method of successful culture, and you 
will have to decide whether you have in 
any way been at fault in the planting 
and cultivation. It is not good practice 
to use the same location for sweet peas 
year after year, as they are practically 
certain to be attacked with disease, es¬ 
pecially blight. They should not be 
planted two consecutive years in the 
same location. Most growers have been 
following to a greater or lesser extent 
the trenching method, and with this 
treatment the blight has become a very 
serious hindrance. This is especially the 
case in all light soils, where the trench 
method of planting lias been used. This 
method necessitates the filling in of the 
soil, and when this is done while the 
vines are young and tender, in many lo¬ 
calities the blight has been very destruc¬ 
tive, the tender plants soon turning yel¬ 
low, frequently resulting in the death 
of almost every plant in the row. 
Our most practical growers have long 
since discontinued the trench method, 
for they soon discovered that it was this 
method of culture that was the principal 
cause of the vines dying. What is 
termed the medium or shallow method of 
culture is by them considered much bet¬ 
ter for the successful growing of the sweet 
pea. If the soil is not already well en¬ 
riched a good coat of manure is applied 
broadcast in the Fall and spaded in, al¬ 
lowing the soil to remain in a rough and 
uneven condition until Spring, usually no 
further spading is required. It is to be 
leveled and fined on the surface in the 
Spring with the garden rake. Stretch a 
planting line where you intend your rows 
shall be, with the steel rake or hoe draw 
the soil away from and on each side of 
the line until you have it hollowed out 
about two inches deep where the rows 
are to come. Thirty inches is about right 
for the width of this hollow. Now test 
the soil with your feet, if it seems loose 
and gives way much under your weight 
tread it down until it is tolerably firm. 
Rake smoothly and line off the rows 
about 10 inches apart. Open small fur¬ 
rows with the hand plow or hoe from one 
to two inches deep, seed thus planted will 
be covered only one to two inches, but 
will be at a depth of three to four 
inches below the level of the surface. 
After the seeds are sown they should be 
rolled with a garden roller or the soil 
firmed with the feet, after which the soil 
should be lightly loosened on the surface 
with the steel rake to prevent it from 
baking. Do not fill in any soil around 
the tender vines for six or seven weeks 
after they come up. When the blossom 
buds begin to show some soil can be 
brought up to the vines or a mulching of 
straw or grass may be used to shade the 
ground. Never cultivate the ground 
deeply; very shallow stirring of tin; soil 
is best, just enough to keep the weeds 
down. 
For several years I have prepared my 
sweet pea ground in the Spring with no 
special care, manuring and spading it at 
the same time ground was manured and 
spaded for early vegetables. About April 
or when the first planting of Mar¬ 
rowfat garden peas was made, rows for 
the sweet peas were lined off and fur¬ 
rows opened to a depth of about three 
inches with the hand plow, in which the 
seed was sown rather thickly, the soil 
drawn in from one side and firmed with 
the feet until it felt hard to the tread, 
after which the soil was drawn in from 
the other side and only lightly trodden 
and smoothed off with the rake. My soil 
is a sandy loam, and if it was not well 
firmed with the feet at time of planting 
my sweet peas would not succeed at all. 
Heavy clay soils need but little firming 
with the feet or roller, as the heavy rains 
of early Spring seem to settle the ground 
-efficiently. As to supports for the vines 
one very often has to use that which is 
most convenient. I prefer brush when 
it can be got; the vines seem to take to 
it more naturally and kindly than they 
do to wire; they seem to want to get 
away from wire. I do not know if it is 
because of the heat in the wire caused 
by the hot sun or not, but I have never 
seen peas voluntarily turn toward wire 
for support. 
If blooms are wanted for the holidays 
plant about September 1 or as soon as 
weather begins to get cool. If they are 
not wanted at any particular time I 
would not plant till September 15 to 
October 1. The weather will then be 
cooler and more seasonable for sweet pea 
germination, and for the plants after they 
come up. Keep the house open day and 
night until there is danger of freezing. 
K. 
Storehouse for Apples. 
I have an orchard of about 400 trees 
in which I am thinking of building a stor¬ 
age and packing house combined of the 
following dimensions, 20x00 feet. At one 
end I am thinking of having a packing 
room 20 feet square, and run this part 
up two stories, planked up and down and 
stripped. The remaining 40 feet of the 
building to be used for a storage room 
to store barreled apples in, instead of 
sending them to cold storage. This loom 
to be built as follows. 20x40, concrete 
foundation, double walls, 12 inches apart, 
padded between with sawdust; double 
roof, padded same as walls, earth floor, 
covered with 12 inches of sawdust; the 
side walls to be eight feet high. Tell 
me if such a room can be used as a sub¬ 
stitute for cold storage. Also whether it 
should be ventilated, and how, and where 
should the ventilation be placed.. 
Virginia. l . h. e. 
I do not take kindly to common storage 
for apples in the southern part of the 
country. I think ice should be used early 
in the season anyway. With such a 
building the 20x20 feet for storage of 
empties is not enough room. I would 
make the floor of concrete instead of 
sawdust. A second story should be built 
over the 20x40 storage room to keep heat 
away and a flue run up through it to let 
the heat out. Part of the upper story 
should be fixed for ice and space left so 
the cold air from the melting ice can drop 
down in the storage room. Such build¬ 
ings are used with fair results with ice 
to cool them off when the fruit is being 
picked and as the weather gets colder the 
building is opened at night to let the cold 
air in and closed when it is warm. If 
fruit is to be kept late in the Jpriug ice 
will be required to keep it cold again. 
If the fruit is to be sold locally through 
the Winter and closed out by March, it 
should keep in fairly good condition, but 
it will not be up to the results obtained 
with cold storage when the fruit is placed 
in it in a short time after picking. All 
recognize the importance of getting fruit 
to cold storage as soon as possible. 
Lawrence Co., O. u. t. cox. 
Asparagus Beetles. 
I have about an acre of asparagus 
plants growing from seed. They are 
still very small and the asparagus beetles 
and slugs are destroying them in spite 
of repeated doses of Paris green which 
usually kills them. They are so small 
that l suppose they do not retain enough 
of the poison on the foliage to kill the 
slugs. Have tried brushing them off 
on a hot day as sometimes recommended 
but they were soon back again. 
Long Island. H. L. S. 
For years I used Paris green at the 
rate of one-half pound to 50 gallons of 
water, sprayed on the plants every four 
or live days, at the first appearance of 
the beetles, with very satisfactory re¬ 
sults; while not destroying every insect 
that infested the plants, by the frequent 
sprayings they were kept so nearly under 
control that the plants suffered but 
little. For the last two years I have used 
a Bordeaux-arseuate of lead mixture 
(Pyrox) for all kinds of insect pests that 
usually infest vegetables and fruits, and 
have found it to be the best all around 
insecticide and fungicide I have ever 
used; as an insecticide it is much to be 
preferred to Paris green. There is very 
little danger of injury to the plants if 
used with judgment, and on account of 
its adhesive nature, if it were not for 
the plants making additional new growth, 
a single spraying would be sufficient for 
the entire season. For the asparagus 
beetle, use at the rate of one pound of 
the mixture to six gallons of water. A 
small compressed air sprayer of about 
three gallons capacity will be found a 
very convenient and efficient outfit for 
applying the spraying material. K. 
A smile a minute is better than a mile a minute. 
The Ohio State Fair at Columbus is where the up-stairs business man gets 
“Home from Third.” 
Two months before the opening day practically every foot of exhibit space is 
taken and paid for. 
Exhibits frcm half the States will be displayed. 
The Ohio Exposition is the advertising arena for the top-notch exhibitors. Kings 
of the Ohio showring attract buyers beyond the nation’s boundary line. 
Only those of courage and quality meet in combat on our battle ground. Blue 
Ribbon Men make the fight a good one. 
The last word is spoken here on the finished product of the manufacturer. Not 
only wood and iron, but gray matter as well, are in the competition. 
To win popular favor on merit is the game. 
Timid souls have good excuse for absence : inferior animals and machines travel 
elsewhere. The massive, imposing Exposition halls and arenas inspire 
respect and admiration. Everything is budded well and compels the 
conviction of permanency. Ohio’s Exposition Grounds are not equaled in 
America. 
Doing away with the curse of free passes established the full confidence of the 
people in the management. The free pass is petty graft, peddled out to pets 
and favorites. The common folks who pay their way are willing that others 
shall do the same In Ohio the Governor puts his silver half-dollar into the 
coin box each time he enters the Exposition, and he is glad to feel the thrills 
of manhood while doing it. 
For elegant colored and illustrated premium list, write to 
A. P. SANDLES, Secretary, Columbus. 
, ft.eiswed Sp 3 ,,„, 
eed Down 
^ ^^ Your Fields 
^TILiZ^ S° That You Won’t Have to Plow 
Every Few Years 
One Dollar Invested 
in Hubbard’s 
B 
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Fertilizers for 
Seeding Down 
buys as much actual plant food as $1.70 to $1.90 in low grade 
fertilizers. 
That’s why experts in the Business of Fanning use 
Hubbard's "Bone Base Fertilizers to produce 
B 
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ETTEi 
CROPS 
Much valuable information about soils and fertilizers is 
interestingly written in our booklets, ‘'Soil Fertility” “The Grass 
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the asking. 
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OFFICE AND WORKS, PORTLAND, CONN. 
For Three New Yearly Subscriptions or Thirty 10-Week Trial Subscriptions. 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 333 West 30th St., New York City 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply 
and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
