464 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July 11, 1908. 
FRUIT. 
3017. Strawberries on Heavy Land. 
My soil is rather heavy, and I would like 
to grow some Strawberries on it if possible. 
It was recently a grass field, and last year 
I grew Potatos and Peas, but the former were 
badly diseased and the Peas were very thin, 
as if something had eaten them. I should be 
glad of your advice on these matters. (A. 
Wood, Northamptonshire.) 
Last season was unfavourable to Potatos 
owing to so much wet, and want of sun. 
Good cultivation will do much to improve 
the land. Trench and manure it in the au¬ 
tumn, giving it a good dressing of gas lime, 
but do not plant anything on it so treated 
for six to eight weeks. Land that has re¬ 
cently been in grass is usually very badly 
infested with wireworm. These creatures 
are the larvae of beetles, which live for three 
to five years in the soil before reaching the 
perfect state, and all that time they are eat¬ 
ing the roots of plants. Of course, while 
the land was under grass these creatures had 
plenty of food, and no one noticed the 
damage. When the grass is destroyed the 
grubs are still there and must have some¬ 
thing to live upon. They, therefore, seize 
upon the roots of anything which may be 
planted in the land, and this may go on for 
a number of years owing to the fact that 
the insects live so long in the larva gtate. 
After you have once cleared the land of 
them by deep cultivation and free tillage in 
order to keep down weeds the wireworms 
will be reduced to such an extent that prac¬ 
tically little harm will be done by them. In 
the meantime, when about to plant or sow 
anything, give a good dressing of “ Kilo- 
grub ” or “ Alphol ” to destroy the wire- 
worm. In the case of Strawberries you 
should plant some time in August or early 
in September, and in that case the land must 
be trenched and manured about a fortnight 
previous to planting. In that case you 
could use the insecticides we have mentioned. 
Varieties of Strawberries which are likely to 
succeed in heavy land are Viscomtesse Heri- 
cart de Thury, Sir Joseph Paxton and Royal 
Sovereign. 
3018. Fig's Rusted. 
Enclosed you will find two Figs of the 
first crop which have failed to ripen pro¬ 
perly, and two of the second crop affected 
with rust. Can you please give cause and 
a remedy through your paper and oblige? 
(Wm. Yelland, Staffs.) 
We have subjected the rusted Figs to 
microscopical examination, but do not find 
any fungus present. We should have liked 
if you had sent some leaves, as well as 
fruits, to see whether we could detect the 
presence of any enemy. The fruits of the 
second crop appear merely to be damaged 
on the surface, as if they had been exposed 
to bright sunshine after a period of dull 
weather. This condition might have been 
brought about by an over moist atmosphere 
continued over too long a time, and you 
might have been encouraged to do this owing 
to the cold and sunless weather which pre¬ 
vailed some time ago. Another possible 
cause we would suggest is that they had 
been suddenly subjected to too low a tem¬ 
perature, thereby checking their growth. 
Some little time ago the nights were so ex¬ 
tremely cold that the temperature was very 
low. Another suggestion is that the first 
crop failed to attain proper size owing to 
the sunless condition of the weather and pos¬ 
sibly a low night temperature, and that the 
second crop has actually been damaged by 
the.sudden advent of heat and a different 
condition of the atmosphere. Outside the 
atmosphere is now extremely arid, and this 
has a great effect upon the artificial condi¬ 
tions maintained inside. On the whole, 
however, we think it must he due to one or 
other of these causes, and that the ailment is 
due to to some physiological cause rather 
than a fungoid enemy. Have you inspected 
the underside of the leaves for the possible 
presence of red spider ? The fruits that 
reached us, of course, contained no red 
spider, but if you had sent us leaves it 
would have shown whether the Figs have 
suffered in any way from this particular 
enemyc 
3019. Peach Leaves with Holes. 
Many thanks for past favours, and now I 
would like to know what is the matter with 
my Peach leaves, some of which I enclose. 
Something seems to have been eating holes 
in them. (T. Anderson, Devon.) 
Your Peach trees have been attacked by 
the shot hole fungus (Cercospora circum- 
cisa). The fungus has now done its work 
for the season, as it usually commences on 
the leaves while they are fairly young. 
You should, therefore, collect all fallen 
leaves and also remove the worst of those 
still remaining if they contain brown 
patches in them, so as to prevent the scat¬ 
tering of the spores, in the house. In the 
autumn, when the leaves fall, you should 
also burn them or remove them some distance 
from the garden. You can spray the trees 
with a weak solution of Bordeaux mixture, 
for the making of which we gave a recipe 
recently under question No. 2990. Next 
spring when the trees are rapidly making 
leaf you should spray at intervals of ten 
days with a weak solution of Bordeaux mix¬ 
ture—that is, you should use more water in 
it than usual, so as to prevent the insecti¬ 
cide from injuring the young leaves. After 
the end of June we should think you would 
not be troubled with this enemy. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
3020. Celery with Grey Patches. 
During the past week the leaves of my 
Celery have got grey patches on them. 
Please let me know what causes this, and if 
there is any remedy. (T. Anderson, Devon.) 
No doubt your Celery is suffering from 
the Celery fly, which is a very common 
enemy. As it produces more than one brood 
in the season you should take particular 
trouble to destroy the first one, if possible, 
and thus save injury to your Celery in au¬ 
tumn. The Celery leaf miner is Tephritis 
Onopordinis. Pick off and burn the leaves 
that are very badly blistered, but in cases 
where only a small amount of damage has 
been done it will be quite sufficient if you 
pick off the damaged portion. In other cases 
where the blister is of small size you might 
search for the grub on the underside of the 
leaf and pinch the leaf just there between the 
finger and thumb in order to crush the 
grub. It is a somewhat tedious operation 
but very effective, and by burning merely 
the worst of the leaves and pinching the 
grub in the rest you will not give the Celery 
so much of a check as it would to cut off 
all the affected leaves. After this operation 
you could dust the plants with soot in the 
early morning while the leaves are still 
moist with dew, and that will help to pre¬ 
vent the mother flies from laying eggs upon 
them. 
3021. Apricot Leaves Sickly. 
I have an Apricot tree on the wall which 
up till lately looked healthy and set a good 
crop of fruit. Now the leaves look quite 
sickly. You will find some of the leaves in 
the box. Please let me know what is the 
matter and the remedy. (J. W. Read, 
N orthumberland.) 
The leaves of your Apricot tree have be¬ 
come infested with red spider owing to the 
dryness of the wall, the situation, or the 
soil, probably all these conditions combined. 
The remedy is water, and plenty of it. If 
you have a garden engine make this play 
upon the tree, washing it well all over. The 
leaves will get thoroughly washed by this 
operation on both surfaces, and that will 
DRIVE DULL CARE 
AWAY. 
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Scarcely Worth Living, But— 
a sixpenny packet of Dr. Tibbies’ Vi- 
Cocoa is the “ Open Sesame ” to all 
the joys of life. Without good health, 
life is deprived of most of the joys 
which should accompany it, and to 
many is scarcely worth living. 
All who take Vi-Cocoa regularly de¬ 
rive a full meed of pleasure from even 
the most strenuous existence. For this 
ideal food-beverage strengthens the 
system against every kind of fatigue, 
it puts fresh life into the weary, and by 
its exhilarating influence drives dull 
care away. 
’ Vi-Cocoa, which is in no sense a 
medicine, .will, when taken habitually, 
assist digestion in Nature’s own way, 
and at the same time nourish the body 
and fortify it against disease. No drug 
ever yet accomplished this. 
The dyspeptic never tastes to the 
full the joys of life 
Vi-Cocoa is the sworn 
foe of dyspepsia, for i 
can be assimilated by 
the most delicate 
stomach. A sixpenny 
packet brings health and happiness in 
its train, and no household should be 
without one. 
help to destroy the red spider. Next night 
repeat the operation, and then examine the 
trees, and if red spider is still present re¬ 
peat the operation. If you have neither a 
garden engine nor hose, you could employ 
the syringe as forcibly as possible, and this 
might be done on several evenings in suc¬ 
cession. See that the water does .not run 
away from the roots of the tree. What you 
apply will thus be of double service bv 
cleaning the foliage and also supplying the 
roots with moisture. Usually the trees that 
get badly infested with red spider are dry 
at the roots. The surface soil should be 
loosened up, and if necessary a ridge of soil 
should be raised to prevent the water from 
running off the border. 
30 2 2. Ants in Strawberry Bed. 
Could you kindly tell me in the next issue 
of your valuable paper if there is any 
remedy to eradicate this horrible pest, as 
they have destroyed many of our best ber¬ 
ries. (Anxious Reader.) 
Several remedies have been applied for the 
destruction of ants, but as they are more or 
less poisonous we should not advocate their 
use in a Strawberry bed. You could, how¬ 
ever, employ such insecticides as “ Kilo- 
grub ” and “ Alphol ” by scattering it all 
over the ground infested with the ants, but 
particularly in the nieghbourhood of their 
nest. Paraffin is also very disagreeable to 
them, but it requires careful handling at 
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