THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
1b 
RURALISMS 
The Old Strawberry Bed. 
Last Summer in July I cleaned up an 
old strawberry bed of about 15 rods, nar¬ 
rowing the rows to six inches and re¬ 
planting the surplus (old) plants in an¬ 
other place. I found no trouble in mak¬ 
ing the plants grow by watering if there 
was no rain until the roots got a new 
■tart. 
The plants moved in July made a fine 
growth this Spring and were about to 
produce a considerable crop when the 
frost of May 27 knocked them out. I con¬ 
tinued to dig and set plants until mid- 
September, and these being on higher 
ground and later in blooming did not 
suffer as much and produced considerable 
fruit. I had no material to mulch with 
and I thought in March that the action 
of frost had killed them, but later on 
a warm rain started them, and I had a 
well rooted plot before others had com¬ 
pleted setting. I set them close in the 
row (eight inches), and although about 
10 per cent, winter-killed there were still 
enough left and now are making a fine 
show. The one set early in July began 
to make runners immediately after the 
frost relieved the strain of fruit bearing, 
and I now have strong runners to set 
after the early potatoes which will. I 
judge, be ready to dig about July 20th. 
As fast as the runners root I shall plant 
in small pots and place in a shaded plant 
house for a week and then put them out¬ 
side in the cold frame and transplant to 
the potato ground at my leisure. I made 
another interesting experiment in hand¬ 
ling strawberry plants. In mid-Autumn 
I moved a lot of small plants by planting 
quite closely in empty tomato flats. These 
were kept in a cold frame and when win¬ 
ter came covered with a foot deep of 
leaves. In April, when needing the frame, 
I set the flats outside. They were heavy 
with water and most of the foliage was 
decayed. However, they started growth 
and I set them out and the rows are as 
vigorous and thrifty as those of my neigh¬ 
bors who set thrifty runners of last sea¬ 
son’s growth. Several years of experi¬ 
menting have taught me that old plants 
moved in July can be made to thrive and 
give a crop of strawberries the next sea¬ 
son. 
I shall soon try another experiment. A 
reliable firm advertizes several kinds of 
strawberries which 1 wish to try. They 
offer potted plants in July. These I shall 
plant in flats and let any runners they 
make root in adjoining flats. By keep¬ 
ing them in a shaded plant house I can 
prolong the growing season until the be¬ 
ginning of Winter, when I can set the 
flats in a cold frame and cover with 
leaves. I shall also put the sashes over 
them, which I neglected to do last year. 
If by this process I can multiply a dozen 
costing 00 cents five or more fold I shall 
have plants in the Spring which will not 
have cost more than a cent each. These 
plants I can have in a growing condition 
by April 1, and planted in good ground 
will give me 100 plants each by October. 
Then you will see that I have 7.200 
plants from an outlay of 50 or 00 cents 
15 months previous, plus a little fussing 
and considerable loving care. Now, Mr. 
Editor, do not go up in the air when you 
read this, for 140 strawberry runners 
were once produced from a single plant in 
the city of Akron, Ohio. A single plant 
standing in a garden was enclosed in a 
frame about two feet square and covered 
with a window sash and leaves. About 
the middle of March the sun was per¬ 
mitted to shine through the glass and as 
growth started a little weak liquid fer¬ 
tilizer was given it. The plant flourished 
and spread amazingly and when cool Sep¬ 
tember nights came a frame 6x2 feet was 
put around the aggregation of runners 
and a favorable late Fall kept up growth 
under a hotbed sash until about Decem¬ 
ber 1, and in May of the following year 
140 runner plants tvere lifted and re¬ 
planted. The original plant was a wee 
runner set in July where an early cab¬ 
bage stump had been pulled. This was, 
of course, the July previous to the run¬ 
ner production. Growing in very fertile 
soil it made a magnificent growth the 
first Summer, and having warm Winter 
quarters was ready to go to work in 
March. l. b. pierce. 
Damage from Snails. 
What will kill or prevent the damage 
of soft snails on beans? 
At first they attacked the stalk of the 
bean, eating it off, but now they eat the 
leaf leaving just the framework. One 
sometimes sees them on the plant and 
again they are just beneath the surface 
at the root of the stalk. w. M. B. 
Watkins, N. Y. 
Dusting lime around the plants con¬ 
trols snails and trapping with cabbage 
leaves or slices of potato putting the 
traps out at inght, and gathering to de¬ 
stroy the snails in the morning. Gum 
camphor or naphthalene flakes may’ repel 
them. Snails are often troublesome in 
the greenhouse, but this is the first season 
we have had many outdoor complaints. 
Middlings for Cabbage Worms. 
I have had varied success with cab¬ 
bages both early and late and I find in 
this latitude transplanting Winter cab¬ 
bages about July 10 is the right season, 
sowing S00 pounds of hay salt to the acre, 
harrowing it in two days before trans¬ 
planting. and frequent cultivation, deep 
at first, shallow later. 
When the plants are well started watch 
for the green cabbage worms. I have 
used many remedies for these, insect pow¬ 
ders, Paris-grCen, lielebore, all without 
any serious results; but there is always 
danger of a poison being used too late and 
getting into the head with bad results. 
A few years ago I stumbled upon a rem¬ 
edy which has given excellent satisfac¬ 
tion with no possible danger. I was mix¬ 
ing feed in the cow stable on a rainy day, 
and as it stopped raining I went out to 
sprinkle insect powder on some cabbage 
plants. As I returned to the barn my 
hands being damp. I saw how sticky they 
became as soon as I touched the mid¬ 
dlings. I went out and looked up one big, 
beautiful specimen. I sprinkled some of 
the middlings where he was and as soon 
as it touched him he began to roll, which 
is an insect’s method of cleaning himself. 
Boon he was just one nice ball of mid¬ 
dlings. In his rolling around he worked 
oil the plant to the ground and whether 
from exhaustion or from some form of 
suffocation he remained where he fell. 
When the sun came out it dried the mid¬ 
dlings on him in a rigid covering and his 
life was ended. 
I have used middlings a great deal 
since then with excellent results, putting 
it on in the afternoon while the plants 
are dry, or it can be used in the early 
morning. The worms will get into it dur¬ 
ing the night while the dew is falling and 
I have seen the robins following all along 
the cabbage rows in the morning picking 
them up. Get the white flour middlings 
as the coarser kind is not sticky enough, 
or buckwheat flour will do the work 
either. h. b. 
Windham Co. Conn. 
Earthworms. 
Will some one tell us where earth¬ 
worms go to when at times they disap¬ 
pear from view? s. k. 
The familiar earthworm or “angle- 
worm” as it is sometimes called is one of 
our most important animals from the ag¬ 
ricultural standpoint. Earthworms are 
found in ne arly all parts of the world ex¬ 
cept in the dry, sandy soils and in the 
frozen North. They eat their way 
through the soil, making definite burrows, 
and thus opening up channels for the 
water to enter and for roots to penetrate 
deeper. The earth swallowed as they dig 
contains more or less decaying vegetable 
matter, which is used as food. They mi¬ 
grate through the soil, seeking the places 
with at least some degree of moisture, so 
when they cannot be found they are 
usually in the sections of soil that con¬ 
tain a greater degree of moisture. In 
Winter they dig down to avoid too much 
freezing and thawing, for they are able to 
withstand some amount of freezing and 
live, as is true with many of the lower 
animals. 
They should never be confused with 
the caterpillars of insects, however, as 
they are in no way related except in looks. 
Caterpillars must develop further into 
cocoon and adult stages before laying 
eggs, while the earthworm is hermaphro¬ 
ditic. that is. both male and female sexual 
organs are in the same individual, two 
worms often transferring spermatozoa, or 
male cells to each other, develop a capsule 
that lies in the ground, from which the 
young hatch. 
Darwin was the first to call attenton 
to the great good that the earthworms do. 
He estimated after careful observation, 
that in England—and conditions are 
practically the same in America—about 
10 tons of soil per acre pass annually 
through the bodies of these worms and 
that they cover the surface with earth at 
the rate of about an inch in five or six 
years. This is an important means of in¬ 
creasing the fertility of the soil by sub¬ 
soiling and increasing its bacteria con¬ 
tent. 
As the flower out of place is called a 
weed so the earthworm out of place may 
become a pest. In greenhouses and cold 
frames earthworms may become too nu¬ 
merous and work the soil into a hard 
shot-like consistency which does not hold 
the moisture for rapid succulent growth. 
In these cases the use of lime water made 
at the rate of two pounds of lime to a 
pail of water will kill the earthworms and 
at the same time bring about no injurious 
effects to the plants. 
GEORGE H. RAMSON, JR. 
“The June Drop.” 
Every fruit grower has noticed how 
the young fruit falls from the trees be¬ 
fore July. In some cases after a heavy 
bloom, the ground will be well covered 
with little apples. This is Nature’s way 
of rejecting the surplus—but what does 
it mean? A. I,. Hatch, in Wisconsin 
Horticulture, gives this explanation : 
The formation of bloom is always from 
the surplus of material that the tree has 
stored in its twigs and branches the pre¬ 
vious season. Trees bloom before there 
is leafage or new growth to add anything 
to this stored material. Consequently the 
formation of flowers is an exhaustive 
process—that is a use of the material in 
the tree before there is any chance to re- 
store it by new growth. If this mate¬ 
rial is small in amount and is widely dif¬ 
fused through a very abundant bloom it 
is evident that all the embryo fruits may 
not receive a sufficient amount of this 
material to insure vitality for develop¬ 
ment. There is also a tendency for 
growth to enlarge along certain lines of 
vigor and this often absorbs much of the 
material at the expense of other parts, 
especially of the lateral or side branches. 
It is evident that the fruit carried to ma¬ 
turity is that which is most vigorous and 
can appropriate to itself sufficient mate¬ 
rial for that purpose. 
If a tree is not in good condition the 
previous Fall from any cause it may pos¬ 
sess too little stored material to carry its 
bloom to fruitfulness the next season. 
These considerations suggest the follow¬ 
ing remedies for premature dropping of 
fruit: 1. Conditions to secure the full 
vigor and vitality of the tree, especially 
that of maturity to perfect and enlarge 
the supply of stored surplus material. 2. 
Limiting the bloom that the material may 
be concentrated upon the strongest parts 
of the tree. This is accomplished by prun¬ 
ing away the weaker bearing branches 
and by thinning out young fruits. 
Crows and Corn. 
You say that this year the crows have 
pulled your corn in spite of the tar. I 
had the same experience a number of 
years ago, and I finally became con¬ 
vinced that the tar was not of so much 
account as the substance that was used 
to dry it out. I now use air-slaked lime 
for a drier, and the crows never trouble 
the corn. Every year they pull a few 
sample hills and then let it alone. If 
corn is soaked in water long enough so 
that the lime will stick, the lime alone 
is just as effectual without the tar, but if 
used in a planter it will rust the metal 
parts, which it probably will not do if 
the tar is used so as to stick it thoroughly 
to the corn. s. s. chandler. 
Vermont. 
Soapsuds and Cabbage Worms. 
I notice on page 915 you ask for re¬ 
sults with soapsuds for cabbage worms. 
I have used soapsuds for about five years 
with good results. I have the water 
(with soap in it) saved from the family 
laundry and apply once a week by pour¬ 
ing it on liberally in the place of sprink¬ 
ling and as I am never bothered with cab¬ 
bage worms I give the soapsuds the credit 
of killing them. As soapsuds is good for 
plant lice or any soft-shelled insect I fig¬ 
ure it works on the tender cabbage worms 
in the same manner. There is usually 
some kind of washing powder used in the 
boiler but that does no harm that I can 
see and if anything would say that it 
would help. The soapsuds not only 
helps get rid of worms but also helps fur¬ 
nish the plant with water especially in a 
dry time. c. E. w. 
Elyria, O. 
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