Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 40

Don't you use dormant sprays?

Mr. Dunlap: I was just speaking about the dormant or winter spray. When you spray in the winter time use lime-sulphur or scalicide.

Mr. Richardson: Another thing: I take a little exception to what Mr.

Dunlap says in advocating buying a spraying machine collectively in the neighborhood, for the simple reason that it is necessary to spray at one particular time, at the vital time just before the blossoms fall and at the time they have fallen. We have found it almost impossible to do any spraying for anybody except ourselves at that time. We talked that matter over before we bought spraying machines.

You said you wondered whether there were any apples grown here commercially. Out of our town we shipped this year eight car-loads of apples. We have three power sprays in our orchard, and we talked that matter over before we bought them, about buying collectively, and we decided it was absolutely impossible to do it. I don't think it is feasible for a small grower to depend on that kind of thing because he may be disappointed. My theory is for each one to have his own sprayer, large or small. Another thing, we find a pressure of 200 pounds is better than spraying without that pressure; we get better results.

Mr. Dunlap: The gentleman misunderstood me. I said where you have just small orchards you could do it collectively. Of course, I do not advocate where a man has enough to have use for a spray machine for his own orchard that he get one collectively. That would be a great mistake, but where a man has only fifty trees in a neighborhood where there are no big orchards, it would be better for a dozen or more to combine. If you can get around with it in a week you will be all right but not longer than that.

Mr. Richardson: I beg to differ with you just the same. I think if you want to spray you must spray at the time; it might rain the next day, and you might miss the whole season.

Mr. Dunlap: There are a good many people who don't like to go to the expense of a spray machine just for fifty trees or 100 trees. If they would combine with a few neighbors they would do some spraying work, otherwise they wouldn't do any at all. If a man will buy a machine and do his own spraying, why, that is certainly the best thing to do, but if he won't do that it is better to combine with his neighbors and do it than for none of them to do it. Community spraying is the best thing to do if you have only small orchards.

Mr. Dyer: What pressure would you recommend in spraying for codling moth where a.r.s.enate of lead is used?

Mr. Dunlap: You can do effective spraying all the way from sixty pounds to 200 pressure. My preference is about 150 pounds. I have known instances where considerable injury was done by using too high pressure.

We have sprayed at 225 pounds, but we have given that up. It is not as good as from 150 to 175 pounds.

Mr. Dyer: I would like to know about what quant.i.ty of a.r.s.enate of lead and lime-sulphur combined would you recommend? How much of each?

Mr. Dunlap: In 100 gallons of water we put three gallons of the concentrated solution of lime-sulphur, as we buy it commercially, three gallons to 100 gallons of water, that is, for the summer spray, and for the a.r.s.enate of lead we use four pounds of a.r.s.enate of lead to the 100 gallons.

Mr. Dyer: In connection with that I would like to ask if you have used or would recommend pulverized lime-sulphur?

Mr. Dunlap: I haven't used any.

Mr. Dyer: Do you know anything about it?

Mr. Dunlap: I think it is a more expensive proposition.

Mr. Dyer: I never used any myself. I thought perhaps that might work better in connection with the a.r.s.enate of lead than the liquid.

Mr. Dunlap: I couldn't say, I have always followed the policy of never departing from well-established lines of work until I am satisfied that the new one is absolutely all right. I have seen in our state men destroy the fruit from a forty or eighty acre orchard by taking up some new thing that was highly advertised and looked very attractive. It is not the same proposition, of course, but they tell us the devil comes in very attractive form. He comes with a swallow-tail coat and a red necktie and a b.u.t.tonhole bouquet, and he looks very attractive. So it is with a lot of these things advertised; they look attractive but for our own good we ought to stick to the things we know and let the state experiment station try them and report upon them.

Mr. Huestis: Does Mr. Dunlap attribute the general dropping of apples to the scab fungus?

Mr. Dunlap: Not entirely.

Mr. Huestis: Do you think that it weakens the stem of the apples?

Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir, the droppings of the apple is largely due to the scab fungus. Of course, some of the dropping occurs as the result of too much rain or too much dry weather, something of that kind, that is not attributable to scab fungus.

Mr. Kellogg: Does spraying injure the bees?

Mr. Dunlap: I have never had anybody prove to me that the bees were especially injured by spraying in the bloom. We do not practise spraying in the bloom, that is, we spray when we have about one-third of the bloom left on the trees. I have never had any injury, and we have orchardists who have bees in their orchards, and they go on spraying the same way. I do not believe bees are poisoned by the spray. Maybe I am mistaken about it, but I have never seen any conclusive proof of the bees being poisoned by the spray. It is possible they might collect it and carry it into the hives and might poison the brood in the hive. I don't know. I thank you. (Applause.)

The Value of Horticulture to the Farm.

MRS. CLARENCE WEDGE, ALBERT LEA.

It is pleasant to have a good roomy subject. E. S. Martin said in Harper's Weekly as Christmas time approached, "There are just two places in the world, and one of these is home." I will paraphrase it by saying, "There are only two places in the world, and one of these is the farm."

So the value of horticulture to the farm is a large subject.

I pa.s.sed a farm last summer that I shall never forget. It was quite unattractive, I believe, so far as variety of contour was concerned--quite level and commonplace. Right across the road from the house was a half-grown windbreak of golden willow. Against that as a background blazed out row upon row of the most brilliant flowers, graduated down to the edge of the road, and extending as far as half a city block or more. Think what a beautiful surprise for every one that turned that corner. I think the occupants of the house must have enjoyed sitting on their porch watching the people in the cars start with pleasure and turn to look as they flew past. That farmer (or his wife) knew something of the value of horticulture to the farm. Perhaps it was a device of the farmer's wife to divert the gaze of the pa.s.ser-by from the porch, for you know we do stare shamelessly when we are on a joy ride. At any rate, that farm would not be forgotten by any one that pa.s.sed it. The advertising that beauty spot gave his place would exceed in value a column a week in the county paper, and not cost a tenth as much.

Lowell remarks, "Nature with cheap means still works her wonders rare."

And there she stands with arms extended, offering the farmer all the wealth and beauty he will put forth his hand to take.

Last fall I pa.s.sed another farm down in Iowa, whose owner had tried to make his place conspicuous by putting a concrete wall and gateway in front of his house, and making lavish use of white paint in decorating his buildings and grounds. He succeeded, but I cannot help thinking that if he had put the money that useless concrete work cost into shrubbery and vines, it would have made his place twice as attractive. I dislike pretentious adornments to the farm, especially where the rest of the place doesn't measure up to them. Like Senator Blaine, who, at the time the Queen Anne style of architecture became popular, on being asked why he did not have his old fashioned house Queen Anned, replied that he did not like to see a Queen Anne front and a Mary Anne back.

A farm home can be something better than a city park. One of the beautiful things that I shall always remember about Berlin was a way they had of bordering their parks and the enclosures of public buildings. They take tree-roses trimmed up to the height of a fence with a hemispherical head. Then they plant them around the edge of their grounds a rod or two apart, festoon chains from the top of one rose stalk to the top of the next, and where the chain touches the ground midway between them, they plant a little ivy which climbs up and conceals the chain and gives the appearance of festoons of vines between the rose trees. I thought them so lovely that when I married a nurseryman I thought I would persuade him to do something of that kind on our grounds, but he has convinced me that while that is all right for a city park, it would not be in good taste in a country place. It would look too artificial. The charm of a country place is its natural beauty.

For the same reason we do not have any trimmed evergreens or hedges on our place. Moreover, the man who makes his living from the soil finds the upkeep of those decorations too pottering, and if he had money to hire it done he would rather put it into his automobile or into other improvements.

The natural beauty that can be set about the farm home will become it better. Wild grape vines or woodbine draping the wire fences tempt the eye of the pa.s.ser-by to linger, and they cost nothing. Once planted, they are there for a life-time. A walnut tree in a fence corner will grow to a fair size in ten years, in twenty it becomes a land-mark. A catalpa of a hardy strain will do the same thing in about half the time in our part of the state. Take an elder from your woods and plant it in an angle of your house, and it makes a luxurious growth that rivals the castor bean of the city park and does not need to be replaced the next spring.

It certainly pays to go in for some kind of horticultural adornments for the farm. They are so easy and inexpensive to obtain and make such a happy difference to the farmer's family and to all who pa.s.s his way.

When you have a specially prosperous year on the farm, save a little of the surplus for new trees or shrubs.

But I remember pa.s.sing another farm, all of twenty-five years ago, where horticulture may once have been of value to the farmer but had become a burden to him. There was a dense grove of willow down at one side, through which the drive leading to the barn was kept wet and muddy by the shade. On the other side rose a high grove of trees casting a gloomy shade on the house and poultry buildings, and a few odd shrubs straggled along the roadside and gave the place an unkempt look. Of all things, have sunshine! City people often have to sacrifice it, but no farmer is too poor to have it in plenty. Don't let your trees tyrannize over you.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to mention the value of a windbreak to a farm. If it has not been provided by nature it is an absolute necessity to plant one as a matter of economy. It saves fuel inside and gives comfort outside. The cows give more milk, and all the animals put on more fat, if they have a sheltered place to take their airing. It is also a good thing to set some bushes or small spruces along the foundation wall of the house on the windy side. They are ornamental in summer, and in winter they catch the snow and tuck the house in against the wind.

When it comes to the garden, the "Value of Horticulture to the Farm"

depends largely upon the farmer's wife, for a garden needs mothering as well as fathering. Few farmers have time to do more for a garden than the actual labor of plowing, planting, and cultivating, and digging the root vegetables in the fall. Somebody must watch the garden, go through it nearly every day, poison the cabbage worms and potato bugs, keep the asparagus and cuc.u.mbers picked, watch for the maturing of peas and beans, and dispose of any surplus either by canning or sending to market. To visit the garden only when you wish to gather some particular vegetable is like milking the cow only when you happen to want some milk.

A garden well tended puts the farm far ahead of the city home for luxuries of the table and cuts the cost of living in two. Fresh vegetables and cream are expensive articles in the city, inaccessible to any but the well-to-do, but it does not take a very thrifty farmer to have them, providing he has a thrifty wife. But to be a real helpmeet she must have an overall skirt and a pair of rubber boots. Then the dewy mornings will be as much of a pleasure to her as to her husband, and she can do her garden work in the cool of the day.

A garden is especially valuable to a farm, because the farm is usually somewhat isolated and must depend more or less upon its own resources for freshness and variety of food. A good garden on the farm will almost abolish the tin can, and strike off a large part of the grocer's bill, to say nothing of making the farmer live like a king.

The Strawberry Weevil.

As strawberries are about to blossom, it would be well to keep a look-out for a shortage in the number of blossoms, for this is the first indication of the work of the strawberry weevil. Because of the diminutive size of the insect, few are acquainted with it, so that the shortage of blossoms or failure of the crop is often attributed to frost, hail, climatic conditions or some other agency. Upon close examination, the buds will be found to be severed from the stem, some lying beneath on the ground, others being still attached by a few shreds in a drooping manner. Further examination around the buds may reveal a small snout beetle, which is the cause of the injury, it being about one-tenth inch long and marked with two dark spots on each wing cover.

The females oviposit in the buds, and then cut them off when oviposition is completed, in order to protect the larva within, which later develops to the adult beetle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Showing beetle of strawberry weevil and the damage it inflicts.]

The strawberry weevil has been especially injurious around the vicinity of Hopkins the past summer. It was not uncommon to find fields with from forty to ninety per cent. of the buds cut, and as the earliest and most mature buds, which would be the first to ripen, are among those cut, the losses inflicted may be quite serious. The weevil not only injures the cultivated strawberry, but is found to attack the buds of the red raspberry, dewberry and wild strawberry. It is a singular fact that only the staminate varieties are injured, especially those which furnish considerable pollen, since this const.i.tutes the chief food supply of both larvae and adults.

_Life History._--The weevil appears as soon as the buds begin to form and soon after deposits an egg within the bud. She then immediately crawls down the stem and proceeds to sever the bud. The eggs hatch within five or six days, and in about three or four weeks the footless grubs become full-grown, coming out as adults about five days later.

This new brood, upon emerging, will attack the leaves, making numerous small holes on the under surface, soon after picking time. As early as August 25 the beetles were found to go into hibernation last summer, within the strawberry fields, being found especially among the dead leaves. The older beds were found to be more seriously infested because of the fact that they wintered over in the small fields.