of the most insidious diseases we have in the whole fruit industry. I
think that scab fungous disease is probably the one that affects you the
most. Now, scab fungus will not be noticed particularly in the spring of
the year. The time that those spores are most prevalent, the period of
their movement as spores in the atmosphere and the lodging upon the
fruit, is right at the beginning, right about the time of the blossoming
or immediately following. For a period of about two weeks at blooming
time and after is the time that you have that condition.
And the trouble is--it is just like typhoid fever. You let typhoid fever
get into a family, and they do not think anything of it except to take
care of the patient properly if he has it, but it doesn't scare the
neighbors, it does not interest them. But let the smallpox break out in
a community, and everybody is interested and scared to death for fear
they are going to get the smallpox.
Well now, as compared with things of a fungous nature, the scab is a
good deal like typhoid fever. The latter is insidious and it will
destroy more--I take it there are more people die in the United States
of typhoid fever every year than die of smallpox, ten to one. I haven't
the statistics but I have that in mind, that it is a fact that they do,
and yet there isn't half the fuss made about typhoid fever that there is
about smallpox.
Now, that is so about the scab fungous disease. In Illinois, to
illustrate, we have what is called the bitter rot fungus in the southern
part of the state. If any one has the bitter rot they are scared to
death, they think they are suffering untold misfortune. The bitter rot
attacks the apples when nearly grown. The ground is covered with the
rotted apples, and you can see them in the trees, but this little bit of
scab fungus, they do not seem to notice that.
The reason is this, that scab comes from very minute spores that appear
upon the apples in May or June, and as the summer advances they spread
more and more. It depends, of course, upon the amount of moisture there
is present, but it begins its work when the apples are very small. If it
gets upon the stem of the apple it works around the stem and the apple
drops off, and you have apples dropping from the time they are the size
of peas until the very last of the fall, and while it looks in the month
of June as if you are going to have a good crop of apples when it comes
harvest time your crop has diminished greatly or to nothing, and you
wonder where it has gone. With this scab fungus they just keep dropping,
dropping, all through the season; whenever you have a little rain or
wind these apples that are affected will drop off. You don't notice them
very much because they go so gradually, one at a time or so, and you
don't notice you are having any particular loss until it comes fall, and
you find that your crop is very small.
That is why I say, you should wake up to the fact that it is necessary
for you to spray if you are going to have perfect fruit and plenty of
it--and I doubt not you could increase the amount of fruit you have in
the State of Minnesota by ten times in one year by simply spraying your
orchards thoroughly at the proper time with fungicide.
To do this, as I said, you must have a spraying outfit, individually or
collectively, in your neighborhood, and if you get one individually you
can take the contract to spray your neighbor's trees, if you wish, and
get back enough to pay you for the outlay. If you have only a few trees
and you have some one who understands it, you could just as well spray a
few other orchards in the neighborhood and get your spraying done for
nothing in that way, charging them enough to cover the cost and enough
for some profit. That is done in some sections and is a very
satisfactory way.
The only way, however, that I would do this, if I were you, would be to
enter into a joint arrangement of not less than five years, because if
you do it from year to year, if a man has good fruit one year, he may
say, "I guess I don't want to go to that expense this year; I will drop
that." You know how it is. If you make a contract for five years then
you can make your plans accordingly and get your material and your
spraying outfit and everything. I wouldn't trust to a one-year plan
because they get "cold feet," as the saying is, after the first year,
and perhaps they have not noticed any great advantage and they back
out, but if they keep it up five years they wouldn't be without it.
In a small way it isn't necessary to have a high power, high pressure
engine to do this spraying with. A _good_ hand pump, as they make them
now, has a very efficient force in applying this spray. It is not the
force with which the spray material is applied that makes it effective,
so much as it is the thoroughness with which it is done. You have to do
a thorough job. In spraying you are providing insurance for your apple
crop. That is just what it means, and not to spray is like doing without
fire insurance on your buildings. You do that, not because you want
fire, but you are doing it for protection, you are going to be on the
safe side. You are doing like the darkey woman when she was about to be
married. She had been working as cook, and the day came for her to be
married. That morning she brought a roll of bills down to the boss. She
said: "Mr. Johnson, I wish you would keep this money for me. I's gwine
to be married." He said: "Is that so? But why do you come to me with
this? I should think having a husband you would have him take care of it
for you." She said: "Lord a' massy. Do you think I was gwine to have
that money around the house wid dat strange nigger there? No, sir."
(Laughter.)
That lady was taking the precaution of being on the safe side, and that
is what we do when we spray our orchards, we are going to be safe.
There are a great many kinds of spraying materials. There is the
bordeaux, one of our best fungicides, but we find in Illinois that it
also, while it is a good fungicide, has the effect sometimes of burning
the fruit if the weather conditions are just right. If you have pretty
fair weather conditions up here and don't have too much rain, you
probably would not get your fruit affected too much, and if you are not
growing it for market it doesn't matter so much because all it does is
to russet the fruit. It doesn't do any particular harm except when the
scab fungus is especially bad, for then it does injure the foliage more
or less. On the whole, in Illinois, we are using the lime-sulphur in
preference to the bordeaux, and our commercial orchard growers there
have completely abandoned the bordeaux except for bitter rot fungus or
blotch fungus, which comes late in the season. The spray just before the
bloom is a very important one for the scab fungus. After you can see the
pink of the bloom on the trees as they begin to look pink, before the
blossoms open, put on your lime-sulphur, or you can use bordeaux mixture
at that time if you prefer it, without injury to your fruit.
(To be continued in April No.)
Everbearing Strawberries.
GEO. J. KELLOGG, JANESVILLE, WIS.
A few words about this new breed. Progressive, Superb and Americus are
the best three I have found in the last ten years--don't confound
American with Americus. Pan-American was the mother of the whole tribe.
This variety was found in a field of Bismark, by S. Cooper, New York,
and exhibited all through the Buffalo World's Fair. There is where my
first acquaintance with it was formed. From this one plant and its
seedlings all the ten thousand everbearers have been grown. But
Pan-American don't make many plants. There are a great many good kinds
in the ten thousand, and a great many of them worthless. So look out
when and where you buy. I have great hopes of your No. 1017, but kinds
do not adapt themselves to all soils or climates.
I have not found any success with the everbearers south of the Ohio. I
have tried them three years in Texas. I sent plants to Bro. Loring, in
California, and they failed to produce satisfactorily. Missouri grows
almost all Aroma; California but two kinds commercially; Texas only
Excelsior and Klondike for shipment. I hope our No. 3 Minnesota
June-bearing and our No. 1017 Everbearing, will have as great a range as
Dunlap.
Friend Gardener, of Iowa, has a lot of "thousand dollar kinds." I hope
some of them will do wonders. He sold 5,000 quarts of fruit after August
15. A firm at Three Rivers, Mich., this season advertised 30,000 cases
in September, but perhaps it was only 3,000; I have known printers to
make mistakes. My boy's beds of Superb, Progressive and Americus were
loaded with ripe and green fruit and blossoms October 1st this year.
Most, if not all, know the fruit must be kept off the everbearers the
season of planting till the plants get established, usually two or three
months, then let them bear. If you want all fruit, keep off the runners;
if all plants, keep off the fruit. Beds kept over that have exhausted
themselves will need rest till July to give big crops. Beds kept over
will fruit a week earlier than the June varieties, rest a few weeks,
then give a fall crop, but don't expect too much unless you feed them.
There are ten thousand kinds of new everbearers, so don't buy any that
have not been tried and proven worthy. There are thousands that are
worthless. Friend Haralson only got No. 1017 out of 1,500 sorts. He has
now 3,000 new kinds, set out four feet apart each way, he is testing.
From what many growers are doing this breed will pay commercially, but
it will be by experts. I have not time to advocate cultivation in hills
or hedge rows; if you want big berries this is the way to get them. Be
sure your straw mulch and manure mulch are free from noxious weed or
clover and grass seeds. Everbearers need the same winter care as June
varieties and a good deal more manure. Don't cover with asparagus tops
unless free of seed. Put manure either fresh or rotted on the old bed
with a manure spreader or evenly by hand. There is a possibility of
manuring too heavily.
[Illustration: A typical everbearing strawberry plant as it appears in
September.]
Mr. Durand: What is the best spray for leaf-spot and rust in
strawberries?
Mr. Kellogg: Cut it out and burn it, but then there are some sprays with
bordeaux mixture that will help you, but you have got to put it on
before the rust shows itself.
Mr. Miller: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg if he advises covering the
strawberries in the winter after snow has fallen and with what success?
Mr. Kellogg: If the snow isn't too heavy you can do it just as well
after the snow comes as before, but if your snow comes early and is a
foot deep you have got to wait until the January thaw before you can
successfully mulch them. That snow will protect them until it thaws off,
until the ground commences to freeze. If the snow comes early and stays
late it is all the mulch you need.
Mr. Franklin: Are oak leaves as they blow off from the trees on the
strawberry beds, are they just as good to protect them as straw would
be--when there are lots of oak leaves?
Mr. Kellogg: If you don't put them on too thick. You don't want more
than two inches of leaves. If you do they will mat down and smother your
plants.
Mr. Ludlow: Have you had any experience with using cornstalks that have
been fed off, just the stalk without the leaves. Is that sufficient for
a winter protection without the straw or leaves? I put on mine just to
cover them. They are four inches apart one way and then across it the
other way so as to hold it up and not get them smothered.
Mr. Kellogg: That is all right. I have covered with cornstalks.
Mr. Ludlow: Would it be policy to leave that on and let the strawberries
come up through, to keep them clean?
Mr. Kellogg: If you get the stalks on one way and haven't them covered
too thick the other way, leave them on; the strawberries will come
through.
Mr. Gowdy: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what he thinks of planting
different varieties together.
Mr. Kellogg: It is a good plan. I spoke of Dunlap and Warfield. The
Warfield is a pistillate. If you plant all Warfields you get no fruit.
If you plant all Dunlap it will bear well but it will do better
alongside of a pistillate, or it will do better alongside of some other
perfect. It will do better to plant two or four kinds. They used to ask
me what kinds of strawberries I wanted, and what was the best one kind.
I told them I wanted six or eight in order to get the best kind. I want
an early, and a medium, and a late, two of a kind.
Mr. Gowdy: I planted one year three varieties with great success.
Mr. McClelland: What time do you uncover your strawberries?
Mr. Kellogg: I don't uncover them at all. If you got on four inches of
mulch you want to take off enough so the plants can get through, but
keep on enough mulch in the spring to keep your plants clean and protect
from the drouth.
Mr. McClelland: Will they come through the mulch all right?
M. Kellogg: They will come through all right if it isn't more than two
inches. If they shove up and raise the mulch open it up a little over
the plants.
Mr. Willard: I would like to ask the speaker, the way I understood him,
why he couldn't raise as good strawberries on new ground as on old
ground?
Mr. Kellogg: The soil seems to be too loose. Now, that twenty-one acres
I had, it was full of leaf-mold. It was six inches deep and had been
accumulating for ages. I couldn't account for it only that it was too
loose, and I had to work it down with other crops before I could grow
strawberries.
Mr. Willard: So it would be better to plant on old ground or old
breaking than new?
Mr. Kellogg: Yes, old ground that has been well manured, or old ground
that has never been manured, will grow better strawberries than new
soil, as far as I have tried it. New clover soil is a good soil.
Mr. Wedge: It might add to the value of this discussion to state that
Mr. Kellogg's soil at Janesville is rather light soil anyhow. I am under
the impression that if his soil at Janesville which produced so poorly
on new soil had been a heavy clay soil that the result would have been
different.
Mr. Kellogg: That twenty-one acres was clay after you got down to it and
was in the woods; my other fields were out on the prairie. I don't think
the light soil had anything to do with it, with my failure in the woods,
I think it was the new soil.
Mr. Sauter: Can the everbearing and the common varieties be planted
together?
Mr. Kellogg: Yes, if you are growing plants you want everything.
Mr. Sauter: How far apart must they be planted?
Mr. Kellogg: So their runners won't run together, and they won't mix. If
the runners mix maybe you would get some crosses that are valuable.
Mr. Clausen: I was just thinking it might interfere, that some one might
not plant strawberries at all on account of new soil. I would say I have
a neighbor, and he had entirely new soil. It was black oak and
hickory--I have some of that myself. I never saw a better patch of
strawberries than he had. I don't think I ever saw a better strawberry
patch than he had of the everbearing kind, so I don't think it is just
exactly the old soil.
Mr. Willis: I have my strawberries on new ground, and they did very
fine, couldn't be better. From a space of five feet square I got
twenty-eight boxes, that is, of No. 3.
Mr. Wedge: Forest soil or prairie?
Mr. Willis: It was light clay. I have got about an acre and a half on
new soil now, and they look very fine.
Mr. Glenzke: What would be the consequence of the berries being planted
after tomatoes had been planted there the year before? What would be the
consequence as to the white grub that follows the tomatoes, and other
insects?
Mr. Kellogg: That white grub don't follow tomatoes, if the ground was
clear of white grubs before. It is a three year old grub, and it don't
come excepting where the ground is a marsh or meadow, and doesn't
follow in garden soil, hardly ever. If the ground has been cultivated
two years, you don't have any white grub.
Mr. Glenzke: Part of this ground had been in red raspberries, and I
found them there. This year I am going to put in tomatoes and prepare it
for strawberries. Will that be all right?
Mr. Kellogg: You may get some white grubs after the raspberry bushes if
your raspberries have been two or three years growing. Potato ground is
the best you can follow strawberries with.
Mr. Rasmussen (Wisconsin): What trouble have you experienced with
overhead irrigation with the strawberries in the bright sunshine?
Mr. Kellogg: Everything is against it. You wet the foliage, and it is a
damage to the plants. You can't sprinkle in the hot sun without damage.
Mr. Rasmussen: I didn't mean in putting it on in that way, but where you
use the regular spray system. We watered that way about seven years in
the hottest sunshine without any difficulty, and I wondered if you ever
put in a system and sprayed that way, as I think that is the only way to
put water on.
Mr. Kellogg: If you wait to spray after sundown it will be all right;
the sun mustn't shine on the plants.
Mr. Richardson: Mr. Yankee once said in this society if one man said
anything another man would contradict it. So pay your money and take
your choice. I sprinkle my strawberries in the hot sun, and I never had
any damage done to the plants. His experience is different. Ours is a
heavy clay loam.
Mr. Kellogg: Tell the gentlemen about the peat soil, you had some
experience with peat soil.
Mr. Richardson: No, I never did. It wasn't peat, it was a heavy black
clay and I had the best kind of strawberries, they came right through a
tremendous drouth without any water at all.
Mr. Kellogg: What did you use?
Mr. Richardson: I used a common garden hoe.
Mr. Willis: I heard some one talking about the grub worm. I read of
somebody using fifty pounds of lime to the acre, slaked lime, and 100
pounds of sulphur to the acre in a strawberry bed, and he killed the
insects.
Mr. Kellogg: I think that wouldn't kill the grub; he has a stomach that
will stand most anything. The only thing I know is to cut his head off.
(Laughter.)
Mr. Willis: Would it improve the plants, fertilize the plants, this
lime?
Mr. Kellogg: Lime and sulphur is all right, and the more lime you put on
the better--if you don't get too much. (Laughter.)
Mr. Sauter: I am growing the Minnesota No. 3, and also the No. 1017 as
an everbearer. Is there any kind better than those two?
Mr. Kellogg: I don't believe there is anything yet that has been offered
or brought out that I have examined thoroughly that is any better than
June variety No. 3, as grown by Haralson, and the No. 1017 of the
everbearers. He had a number of everbearers that bore too much. There
was No. 107 and No. 108, I think, that I tried at Lake Mills, which bore
themselves to death in spite of everything I could do.
Mr. Simmons: The question has come up two or three times in regard to
peat soil for growing strawberries. Peat soil will grow strawberry
plants first class, but the fruit is generally lacking. That is my
experience. I grew some on peat soil for two or three seasons, and the
plants grew prolific, but I didn't get any fruit.
Mr. Ebler: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg what treatment he would
advise for a strawberry bed that through neglect has matted completely
over, in which the rows have disappeared.
Mr. Kellogg: Plow out paths and rake out the plants and throw them away
and work the bed over to rows about two feet wide.
President Cashman: I see you all appreciate expert advice. We have Mr.
Kellogg well nigh tired.
Mr. Kellogg: Oh, no; I can stand it all day.
Mr. Cashman: I am sure you all agree that it is a great privilege to
listen to Mr. Kellogg on this subject. If you will follow his advice
very closely it will save you a great many dollars, even to those who
don't grow more than an ordinary family strawberry bed. He has had forty
or fifty years of experience, and he has paid large sums of money for
that experience and now turns it over to you free of charge, and I hope
you will all profit by it.
Mr. Kellogg: I have grown probably 300 different varieties of
strawberries, and the more kinds I grow the less money I make.
(Laughter.)
Mr. Wedge: I would like to ask Mr. Kellogg and I think we would all be
interested in knowing when he began growing strawberries?
Mr. Kellogg: Well, I don't hardly know. I didn't go into the business
until 1852, but I commenced picking strawberries in 1835, and that was
where the Indians had planted them. My father commenced growing
strawberries when I was a boy, but when I got to be a man I went at it
myself in 1852. (Applause.)
_IN MEMORIAM--Mrs. Melissa J. Harris_
Passed January 29, 1916.
Mrs. Melissa J. Harris, widow of the late John S. Harris, one of the
charter members of our society and rightly called the godfather of the
society, passed to her reward on January 29 last, at the age of
eighty-five years. Since the death of her husband, which occurred in
March, 1901, Mrs. Harris has made her home with some one of her four
surviving children, all of whom live in the southeastern part of the
state, not far from La Crescent, where Mr. and Mrs. Harris resided from
1856 up to the time of Mr. Harris' death, some forty-five years.
[Illustration: Mrs. Melissa J. Harris.]
Many of the older members of this society have enjoyed the hospitality
of this kindly home, among them the writer, who passed a very pleasant
day there, looking over the experimental orchards of Mr. Harris, some
twenty years ago. No member of our society surpassed Mr. Harris in his
zeal for its welfare, and he was ready to sacrifice anything apparently
to advance its interests. If the card index of the reports of this
society was examined it would be found that no member has begun to do
the service for the society in the way of contributions to its program,
reports on seedling fruits, experimental work, etc., that was done by
him. His passing left a real void in the life of the association which
has never really been filled. A splendid life size photo of Mr. Harris
adorns the walls of this office; a reproduction from this in reduced
size is opposite page 161, Vol. 1901 of our annual reports.
The funeral services of Mrs. Harris were conducted in the Presbyterian
church at La Crescent, the same building in which services were held
for her husband, at which there were present from our society as
representatives Mr. J.M. Underwood, the late Wyman Elliot, and the
writer. Her body was laid to rest beside that of her husband in Prospect
Hill Cemetery at La Crescent.
Mrs. Harris is survived by four children, ten grandchildren, and nine
great-grandchildren. Frank I. Harris, one of the two sons, is well known
to our membership who attend the annual meetings or the state fair;
another son, Eugene E., who is also a life member (Mr. Harris saw to it
that both of his sons were made life members during his life time) has
occasionally been with us. Mr. D.C. Webster, of La Crescent, at present
in charge of one of the society trial stations, is a grandson of Mrs.
Harris. Exhibitors at our meetings and at the state fair are all well
acquainted with this valuable member of our organization.--Secy.
EAT MINNESOTA APPLES.
Contributed monthly by R. S. MACKINTOSH, Horticulturist,
Extension Division, University Farm, St. Paul.
FRUIT NOTES.
Early spring is the best time to prune apple trees. More and more
attention is being given to the pruning of young and old trees in order
that they may be able to support large loads of fruit. Yet too many
trees have been neglected and now look like brush heaps instead of fruit
trees.
Neglected trees should have all dead and interlocking branches removed
this year. Next year a few more needless branches should be taken out
and some of the others shortened. After this a little attention each
year will keep the tree in good form.
Each year the Agricultural Extension Division of the University of
Minnesota arranges for pruning and spraying demonstrations in different
orchards of the state. Communities wishing this kind of help, should at
once send in petitions signed by fifteen or more persons interested in
fruit growing. Send applications to Director, Agricultural Extension
Division, University Farm, St. Paul.
Pruning is a good subject for farmers' clubs to take up in March and
April.
Look out for rabbit injury this spring. Apple trees cost too much
GARDEN HELPS
Conducted by Minnesota Garden Flower Society
Edited by MRS. E. W. GOULD, 2644 Humboldt Avenue So.
Minneapolis.