THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1139 
RURALISMS 
Trouble With Asters. 
Will you tell me the cause of stem- 
rot in asters, and what will prevent or 
cure this trouble? I have lost all, or 
nearly so, for the last two years. My 
neighbors are also having the same trou¬ 
ble ; will sometimes start to bloom and 
go in a couple of days. w. M. D. 
Cleveland, O. 
W. M. D. asks about as difficult a ques¬ 
tion as it would be possible to pro¬ 
pound to give a correct answer to. Of 
all manner of vegetation I think the 
aster is the most erratic, and the most 
difficult to handle in a satisfactory man¬ 
ner. I have grown asters for about 10 
years. My brother Clias. M. Weaver 
has been growing them for a longer per¬ 
iod, and each season our experiences and 
results are different, and each season we 
think we know less about aster growing 
than we did the preceding season. This 
season we have about 150,000 plants 
blooming, in our combined plantings on 
adjoining properties, and during the last 
week of July shipped over 250,000 asters. 
In many instances returns are coming 
in so low that it would have paid us to 
have more stem-rot this season. One 
lot of 7.000 sold for $8.25 in Boston, the 
express charges on same being $3.30 and 
commission 15 per cent. There are even 
others than the farmers, who pay more 
for marketing the product of their labors 
than they receive entire. I merely men¬ 
tion this to show that this season we do 
not consider our usual growing troubles 
of a serious nature, though we have had 
them in abundance. 
Shortly after planting in the field this 
season, a peculiar affection started in 
one lot of C. M. Weaver’s plants, variety 
Queen of Market, color light blue. The 
leaves on one side of plant began to turn 
black at end and draw downward, giving 
the plant a one-sided appearance. In a 
short time the entire plant turned black 
and died. In this manner he lost about 
10,000 plants. In my field about 1,000 
feet distant there was practically none 
of this disease, and in his field it was 
confined almost entirely to this variety. 
This was possibly caused by some condi¬ 
tion in the soil in the greenhouse that 
was used in potting this lot of plants. 
On the other hand his field is practically 
free from the stem-rot W. M. D. is in¬ 
quiring about, while I have lost possibly 
10,000 plants with this disease. 
In this instance I feel sure that the 
trouble is caused by too much moisture. 
My field is low in spots, and on each low 
place where water has an opportunity 
to collect, the plants have died—just 
about the time one or two flowers have 
been filled from them. Our season has 
been unusually wet, and in addition we 
used the Skinner irrigation system when¬ 
ever the soil became somewhat dry, and 
these irrigating periods being followed in 
several instances by heavy rains I feel 
sure caused stem-rot in this instance. 
W. M. D. does not give any particulars 
as to soil conditions, variety, rotation, 
or any other suggestion that may help 
solve the trouble, so the above is merely 
a statement of conditions and results 
here this season. If Queen of Market 
aster is grown on the same piece of land 
that was planted to the same variety the 
preceding season the exception with us 
would be possibly a few asters, but the 
rule, borne out by a number of trials, 
would be an entire loss by stem-rot. This 
may be the trouble in the case under 
consideration. Two years ago we plant¬ 
ed about 50,000 Queen of Market plants 
where same variety was grown six years 
previously on part of the plot, and gen¬ 
eral farm crops grown during the inter¬ 
vening period. I do not think the plants 
growing where the asters were six years 
before averaged one flower per plant, as 
nearly all died of stem-rot, while remain¬ 
der of planting where asters had not been 
grown previously made a fine crop. Tak¬ 
ing these experiences into consideration 
the suggestions would be, do not plant 
Queen of Market where asters have been 
planted before, and avoid over watering 
or soil that is inclined to be wet. The 
mid-season and late varieties with us are 
not affected by stem-rot, and do not seem 
to poison the soil, as I have pluuted 
Queen of Market where the late-branch¬ 
ing were grown four years previously, 
and had no loss through stem-rot, 
though I have noticed each season it 
would follow very closely if a protracted 
wet spell followed a heavy irrigation 
near the blooming period. Our heaviest 
losses invariably have been, not through 
stem-rot, but the disease known as yel¬ 
lows. I have seen entire fields in this 
section turn yellow almost over night, 
and thousands of flowers form which do 
not have any other color than a light 
green. The experiment stations admit 
frankly they know of no cause or cure 
for this trouble. We have often noticed 
a sudden change either causes or accen¬ 
tuates this trouble. We have observed 
here that irrigation after a long dry 
spell, or a rain under same conditions 
makes matters worse. 
ELMER J. WEAVER. 
Collar-rot or “ Winter Injury.” 
Can you tell me why my 20-year-old 
apple trees have a spot near the ground 
that is rotten? The spot is about a foot 
high and nine inches wide. One of the 
trees seems as though it was dying from 
it. i. c. 
Milton, N. Y. 
Without a more detailed description 
or seeing the trees it is hard to state 
definitely the cause of the trouble, but it 
is doubtless one of two things—Winter 
injury or collar-rot. If most of the trees 
are injured on the same side or to the 
same extent, if no injury was apparent 
prior to this season, if the bark is in 
place and can easily be pulled off in a 
loose sheet, and especially if it is dead 
all, or nearly all, the way around, and 
no callus has been formed along the 
edge of the diseased area, the trees have 
Winter, injury. If the dead areas are on 
only a few trees and on different sides, 
if the bark is dry and clings closely to 
the tree, and the dead area is clearly 
marked by a canker line as in fire blight 
on pears, if a callus has ever been found 
on part of the wound and especially if 
you can detect a wound or borer hole 
from which centre of infection the dis¬ 
ease has evidently spread, the trouble is 
collar rot. One must see the trees to 
diagnose the case. To prove the diag¬ 
nosis correct, Winter injury will not 
spread and collar rot will gradually in¬ 
crease its area. The best treatment in 
either case is to cut out the diseased bark 
and back one inch into healthy tissue, 
and paint with lime-sulphur solution and 
then with gas tar. This will prevent col¬ 
lar rot from following Winter injury and 
in most cases will clean up collar rot if 
the work is carefully done. To prevent 
Winter injury, plow and cultivate early 
in the season and force the tree to make 
its natural growth. Plant a heavy cover 
crop in July to check growth and ripen 
the wood before Winter. The bark in 
the crotches and around the collar seem 
to be the last part of the tree to ripen in 
the Fall. To prevent collar-rot keep the 
borers dug out, avoid injuries in culti¬ 
vating and trim all wounds around the 
base of the tree and paint them with lime- 
sulphur. E. W. MITCHELL. 
Grafting Maple on Box Elder. 
I have been advised that the maple 
can be, and has been, grafted on to the 
box elder. I would like to know if this 
is a fact, and if so which maple should 
be used. T. H. M. 
So. Pekin, Ill. 
The box elder is closely allied to the 
maple, the species Negundo aceroides 
(box elder) and its variegated variety 
were at one time classed by the botan¬ 
ists with the true maple. I have not ex¬ 
perimented with the box elder as a stock 
for the maple, but on account of its 
close relationship to them I have no 
doubt any of the hardy species and va¬ 
rieties could be .successfully grafted on 
it, but I should not consider the box 
elder a desirable stock for grafting and 
would not use it, except under extraor¬ 
dinary conditions. The sugar maple 
makes a splendid stock for grafting to 
other species and varieties, and is the 
stock commonly used for grafting the 
beautiful globe maple on. The sugar ma¬ 
ple is long-lived and in every respect, 
much more desirable for any purpose 
than the box elder. K. 
Borers in Woodwork. 
I had a Summer house built on my 
farm this Spring, and wishing to have it 
“rustic” all the posts, railings and trim¬ 
mings are made from pitch pine growing 
on the place. Now grub worms or borers 
of some kind have attacked it, and if 
something is not done very soon it will 
crumble all to pieces. They work under 
the bark and that will surely have to 
come off. Will you tell me what to do? 
Stroudsburg, N. Y. j. g. 
The rustic Summer house in which 
borers are at work, should, I believe, be 
thoroughly treated with kerosene oil, ap¬ 
plying it very thoroughly with a brush, 
so that it may enter the holes of the bor¬ 
ers and kill them at their work. In case 
you find that some of them persist in 
spite of this treatment, it would be well 
to inject a little of the kerosene directly 
into the holes, by means of a small oil 
can. If these measures are carefully fol¬ 
lowed, I believe you will be able to eradi¬ 
cate the borers from the Summer-house. 
C. II. R. 
A large map was spread upon the 
wall and the teacher was instructing the 
class in geography. “Horace,” she said 
to a small pupil, “when you stand in 
Europe facing the north you have on your 
right hand the great continent of Asia. 
What have you on your left hand?” “A 
wart,” replied Horace, “but I can’t help 
it, teacher.”—Brooklyn Eagle. 
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