Jh* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
It is a little aggravating to read in rhe 
Baltimore papers that tlie rainfall of 
June lias been above the average, -while 
lip to this date, the 17th. we have had 
none. The sea wrack rolls in in the 
. morning and it is cloudy all over, but in¬ 
stead of rain it is hot sunshine by 10 
o’clock. Where not irrigated the vege¬ 
table crops are simply drying up. The 
Irish potato crop is going to be seriously 
reduced and callings will predominate. 
The majority of the tomato growers 
(and that means about every farmer in 
this section) are holding off from making 
contracts with the eanners, the general 
opinion being that the open market will 
be the best chance. Canners are now 
offering 40c a basket, but getting few con¬ 
tracts. The drought has retarded plant¬ 
ing and has affected the growth of the 
plants, so that the prospect is that the 
crop will be late and probably short. 
Good quality marketable Irish potatoes 
are bringing as high as $000 a barrel, 
and the price promises to hold up. Our 
grocers are charging $1 a peck. Sour 
cherries and blackberries are held at 2oc 
a strawberry box. As the garden is giv¬ 
ing us a good crop of red currants and 
gooseberries we are not patronizing the 
grocers. The black raspberries were on 
the table today from the garden (June 
171. We have not planted any red ones 
since we grubbed out 10 St. Begis and 
threw them away. 
Last Summer 1 was sick and did not 
g' t the canes of the Nantieoke blackberry 
stopped at proper height, and now the 
canes are fully 10 feet high, and the crop 
promises to be immense if we can get at 
it. May have to use a step-ladder. This 
variety ripens in August and runs into 
September, and we have fine blackberries 
after other people have forgotten about 
them. The Atlantic dewberry ripens at 
same season, but is small and poor, and 
if it does no better this season than last 
I shall grub it out. A correspondent in 
Oregon sent me plants that lie claims to 
be cross between blackberries and rasp¬ 
berries. But doubtless they will prove to 
be. like the Loganberry, simply a pure 
blackberry. I planted them and will take 
care of them and hope they will do better 
than the Loganberry. That berry has 
never made much impression in the Bast, 
and I have found it a very poor cropper, 
though good as far as it goes. 
Me evidently would have had tomatoes 
from the Bonny Best before this had the 
weather been more .favorable. There are 
plenty just On the turn, but none fit to 
pull yet. Had I grown some Earliana I 
would doubtless have had some before 
this. But I am content to wait a few 
days and get a better tomato. The late 
crop from which we hope to get our Win¬ 
ter. cans filled are still in the seedbed 
waiting for rain. We are as usual plant¬ 
ing our succession in crops of string 
beans and sugar corn, but in soil outside 
the irrigated area it is simply dust; I can¬ 
not see how any germination can take 
place, for our sandy soil seems perfectly 
dry a spit down. And the papers tell of 
thunder showers and cloudbursts, while 
we have not heard a mutter to indicate 
rain. 
Dahlias are making starved, hot-weath¬ 
er bloom, and the ('annas are sending up 
diminutive spikes before they have at¬ 
tained one-fourth their natural height. 
The beds of everbloomiug Begonias stand 
the drought and heat as well as anything. 
They help us greatly here in bedding, for 
the geraniums that make such pretty beds 
North are worthless here, and only grown 
in pots. .V tub of Agapantluis got frozen 
in the hard \\ inter of 1017-18 and I sup¬ 
posed it killed, but I put it in the cellar 
and in Spring it started to grow and is 
now very luxuriant. But though this is 
true it has not yet succeeded in making 
bloom as it had done for years before. I 
have a magnificent plant of Bignouia gran- 
diflora growing on root of our native 
trumpet flower which gives great trouble 
by sending up suckers all over the lawn 
10 feet or more away from the plant. I 
am thinking of trying a layer of the 
Grandiflora so as to get it on its own 
roots and grub out this stock : that is, a 
mound layer of the main stem. Can it 
be done? Somebody say. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
Trouble with Strawberries 
I have a small patch of strawberries 
for home use and from day to day a few 
plants turn down and die. In almost 
every case we looked for cutworms but 
fail to find any. The entire main root, 
we find, is simply a brown or dry rot. 
What causes this, and what is the rem¬ 
edy, if any ? f. e. n\ 
Long Island. 
Strawberry plants sometimes have 
their roots injured during the Winter 
and then they become weak and die dur¬ 
ing the growing season. This is more 
likely to occur in an old strawberry bed 
than in a young one, and some varieties 
are sometimes injured when others nearby 
are not. Nothing is said in the letter as 
to age of the bed. variety or the treat¬ 
ment. but I think there may have been 
root injury for one reason or another dur¬ 
ing the Winter, although it was an open 
one. Sometimes the soil conditions and 
drainage are other factors in the case. 
M. A. B. 
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