Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 83

Mr. Moore: Some varieties of cabbages are not nearly so severely attacked as others. I think of the two that they would prefer radishes probably. Growing them side by side you find they infest the radishes.

That was my experience last year. I grew the first generation of cabbages, and the second generation I took over into the radishes because I wanted to treat them there.

Mr. Rasmussen: Did you say the same fly attacks the onion and the cabbage?

Mr. Moore: The onion has two different flies, one which is black in color, with light colored bands across the wings, and that one pa.s.ses the winter as a larva in the old onions left in the field. It is an injurious practice to leave old onions there to breed these maggots. If they were taken out and destroyed you could do away with that one. The cabbage fly is different. When you use the spray it would probably be all right to use the sodium a.r.s.enite for the onion and the lead a.r.s.enate for the cabbage. The type of leaf is entirely different, and on the cabbage you are apt to burn them with the sodium a.r.s.enite while the lead a.r.s.enate will give you practically the same result.

Mr. Goudy: The cabbage b.u.t.terfly, does that come from the same maggot?

Mr. Moore: No; this maggot is on the root, the cabbage b.u.t.terfly lays its eggs on the leaf. You get the cabbage worm from the cabbage b.u.t.terfly.

Mr. Goudy: What do you do for that?

Mr. Moore: Paris green is used to a great extent, but many people have a horror of using Paris green. Last year, I think it was, I was called up on the phone by some one and I advised him to use Paris green. He said that he was afraid it might poison everybody. I explained to him there was no danger from it, as you know the cabbage leaves grow from the inside, not from the outside, and the spray would be on the outside leaves. Besides that, we usually spray early for the cabbage worm while the heads come on later.

Mr. Goudy: Did you ever try capsic.u.m, sprinkling that on the heads?

Mr. Moore: No, sir.

Mr. Goudy: I saved my cabbages one year by using that.

Mr. Moore: Some people claim salt is good. One of the students mentioned it to me. One applied it by putting a spoonful around over the head, another dissolved a tablespoonful in about ten quarts of water and sprayed it on. Salt is rather injurious to vegetation as a rule. Of course, they only put it on the leaves, and the cabbage is a hardy plant. Air slaked lime is also good, but would have to be applied several times. With the a.r.s.enate you apply it once and kill all the brood.

Mr. Ludlow: We took them all off of mine one year by using boiling hot water.

Mr. Moore: Yes, sir; water is very good. The objection is, on a large scale it is not feasible.

Mr. Miller: Slug shot is very good.

Mr. Moore: Yes, sir; it doesn't contain very much poison, but it is sufficient to kill the cabbage worm.

Mr. Cadoo: I used just simply wood ashes.

Mr. Moore: The cabbage worm is one that is very easy to handle.

A Member: I have always used salt. I think it makes a more firm and solid head, that is my theory, I don't know whether I am right or not. I have been doing that for years.

Mr. Moore: I don't know. I never heard of the treatment with salt until two or three days ago when several students mentioned that they used salt. Some people won't use Paris green. There was one case a man said his wife wouldn't let him do it even if she knew it wasn't poison; she didn't like the idea of Paris green on cabbage.

Mr. Ingersoll: Is there anything you can suggest to control the yellows in asters?

Mr. Moore: The yellows in asters has been a problem which has been very amusing there at the farm. A man sends in an aster to the entomological department, we examine it and can't find anything that belongs to our department, and we send it to the plant pathological department, and they send it back to us. Last year we made a point in every case of yellows in asters to send some one to investigate and find out what was going on to produce it. In some cases it seemed to be a fungous disease.

One case I know turned out to be a fungous disease, the very next one was due to plant lice on the roots of the asters. In that case I don't think you get quite the distinct yellows of the asters, but rather the plants wilt and become weak and finally die. That can very easily be controlled with tobacco extract, pouring it upon the buds of the plants.

We do not know definitely about the yellows. We think it is more or less of a physiological disease of the plant, not due to an insect. This last year we have not found any what we would call the true yellows. There is an insect that produces similar trouble on other plants, a plant bug, which is hard to secure because it flies away. That is the reason we have been sending out to see exactly what is going on in the field, and we didn't see any evidence of their work this year. Another thing, it seems to be a year in which the asters did fairly well, and there was very little yellows.

Mr. Ingersoll: You think that irregular watering might make any difference or very solid rooting?

Mr. Moore: It might do something of the sort. The most we heard of the yellows was the year before last, and we were held up at the time with other work and could not investigate properly. Any one here that has yellows in asters next year, we would be very glad to hear from him and send some one out to find the cause. It wouldn't surprise me that it was something in the treatment of the aster.

Mr. Cadoo: Do angleworms hurt house plants?

Mr. Moore: Not as a rule. They do eat a small amount of vegetation, but ordinarily in a house plant, if you have, say, a worm in a pot, I think it is rather beneficial than injurious, because it keeps the soil stirred up.

Mr. Rasmussen: What is the spray for the cabbage and onion maggot?

Mr. Moore: Unfortunately I am a very poor person to remember figures, and I carry this around with me. One spray is three ounces of lead a.r.s.enate, two and a half pounds of brown sugar to four gallons of water, but we found that probably a little better spray was to use the New Orleans mola.s.ses instead of the sugar and the formula is: One ounce of lead a.r.s.enate, one-half pint of New Orleans mola.s.ses and one gallon of water. The spray that was used for the onion maggot and was devised over in Wisconsin is: One-fifth ounce of sodium a.r.s.enite, one-half pint of New Orleans mola.s.ses and one gallon of water.

Mr. Rasmussen: The Wisconsin spray is what I used to spray my place several years, and I was wondering if it was the same.

Mr. Moore: It was peculiar that they started to work on the onion maggot in Wisconsin at the same time we started on the cabbage maggot here.

Mr. Rasmussen: We have controlled the onion maggots almost entirely, but the cabbage maggots are very difficult.

Mr. Moore: In our control plots it controlled it very well. Our plants were infested only with a few maggots, but not sufficient to do any injury.

The Wealthy Apple.

F. H. BALLOU.

(THE OPINION OF AN OHIO APPLE GROWER--FROM A BULLETIN ISSUED BY OHIO STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.)

The value of a variety of apple commercially usually decides its place in the estimation of growers. Naturally the later maturing, longer keeping or winter varieties are generally accorded this preference.

Orchardists in the southern part of Ohio doubtless would elect Rome Beauty queen of money makers, were the question put to a vote. Apple producers of northern Ohio or western New York would as surely vote for Baldwin. But what variety would you--Mr. Lover-of-apples-and-apple products--vote for and plant if but a single variety and s.p.a.ce for but a single tree were available? After twenty years observation and enjoyment of apple precocity, apple dependability and all-around apple excellence throughout a long season, the writer continues annually to cast his ballot for Wealthy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Rolla Sfubbs, of Bederwood, Lake Minnetonka, under his favorite tree, the Wealthy.]

True the Wealthy has its faults--so have all the other varieties of apples of individual choice--and so have we--the growers; but for early fruitage, prolificacy, excellence for culinary use, extended period of usefulness, richness and delicacy of flavor when ripened in a cool cellar and good keeping qualities when under proper conditions it is placed in cold storage, there are few if any varieties other than this that combine so many splendid and desirable characteristics. From mid-July to mid-September of the present year we have been using Wealthy for culinary purposes with steadily increasing enjoyment as their quality has gradually become finer and finer. At this writing, September 18, we have in the cellar attractively colored, well ripened, pink-and-white-fleshed Wealthy delightful for dessert use; and there are yet Wealthy--firm and crisp--on the trees for later autumn use if kept in the cellar, or early winter and holiday use if placed in cold storage.

If we could have but one apple tree that tree would be a Wealthy. This statement is made with full knowledge and appreciation of the many other excellent varieties of various seasons, including Grimes, Jonathan, Stayman and Delicious.

Law Fixes Standards for Containers for Fruits, Berries and Vegetables in Interstate Commerce.

(TAKEN FROM "WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE," THE ORGAN OF WIS. STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.)

Standards for Climax baskets for grapes, other fruits and vegetables, and other types of baskets and containers used for small fruits, berries, and vegetables in interstate commerce, are fixed by an act approved by the President August 31, 1916. The law will become effective November 1, 1917.

The effect of the act will be to require the use of the standards in manufacturing, sale, or s.h.i.+pment for all interstate commerce, whether the containers are filled or unfilled. A large part of the traffic in fruits and vegetables in this country enters interstate commerce. The law relates only to the containers and will not affect local regulations in regard to heaped measure or other method of filling. A special exemption from the operations of the law is made for all containers manufactured, sold, or s.h.i.+pped, when intended for export to foreign countries, and when such containers accord with the specifications of the foreign purchasers, or comply with the laws of the country to which the s.h.i.+pment is destined.

Standards of three capacities are fixed for Climax baskets--2, 4 and 12 quarts, dry measure. These containers, often known as "grape baskets,"

have relatively narrow, flat bottoms, rounded at each end, and thin sides flaring slightly from the perpendicular. The handle is hooped over at the middle from side to side. In addition to fixing the capacities of these standard baskets of this type, the law also prescribes their dimensions.

The other standards are for "baskets or other containers for small fruits, berries, and vegetables." They are to have capacities only of one-half pint, 1 pint, 1 quart, or multiples of 1 quart, dry measure.