Sutton and Sons - The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition

S >> Sutton and Sons >> The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition

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[Illustration: EARWIG (with wings spread, magnified)]

==Slugs== are serious plagues to the gardener, and they sometimes appear
in large numbers so suddenly as to suggest the idea that the little
Slugs have come down in showers. Young crops are especially liable to
injury from these vermin, and it is not easy, even in well-kept gardens,
to keep them down. Constant attention is necessary, particularly in wet
seasons. But here, as in the case of many other kinds of vermin, means
may be adopted that will accomplish the double purpose of destroying the
plague and benefiting the land; for lime, salt, soot, and nitrate of
soda are certain Slug-killers, and will usually pay for their employment
by their enrichment of the ground. The nice point always is to employ
them advantageously. It should further be borne in mind that a Slug
slightly touched by lime or salt has the power of throwing it off by
means of the slimy exudation with which the creature is endowed. But if
again quickly assailed in a similar manner death is certain to follow.
Land made ready for sowing may be pretty well cleared of Slugs by
broadcasting it with salt. Unfortunately, these destroyers are only
effective in fine weather. In rainy seasons, or when a crop is rising,
it is necessary to resort to trapping, and many kinds of vegetable
refuse make tempting baits for Slugs. Pieces of Orange peel, suitably
placed, are soon covered with the vermin, especially in the winter
during intervals of frost. Cabbage leaves, sliced Turnips and Potatoes,
or almost any waste vegetable may be used. The traps should be scattered
about at dusk, and be gathered up in the morning, and buried in pits, or
destroyed by fire.

Gas-lime is highly destructive to Slugs, but when first applied it is
poisonous to plant life. An excellent method of using it is to dress the
surface in autumn at the rate of from four to six cwt. per acre, and to
dig the ground deeply four weeks later.

Rows of Peas are easily protected by a covering of barley sweepings, or
by charcoal broken very small and flavoured with paraffin. Slaked lime,
carefully used, is also employed with satisfactory results.

==Snails.==--In their methods of attacking garden vegetation, and in the
extent of damage they cause, Snails may be placed in the same category
as Slugs. During the day the Snail usually remains in hiding, emerging
from rockeries and creeper-covered walls in the evening or after a
shower of rain. They may be trapped by one of the methods suggested for
Slugs, and preference should be given to the use of Cabbage leaves. It
will, however, be safer to protect young plants by giving heavy
dressings of lime or soot. Hand picking is the surest means of dealing
with them, and in the winter months large numbers may be collected from
among box edgings, the base of ivy-covered walls and similar shelters.
Birds, especially thrushes, show a marked partiality for Snails.

==Wasps== are a terrible scourge in some gardens. They spoil a large
quantity of fruit, and jeopardise the remainder by forcing the harvest
before the crops are ready for gathering. When the localities of the
Wasps' nests are known, it is a simple task to dispose of them.
Turpentine and gunpowder were formerly in vogue, especially among the
younger members of the community, to whom a spice of danger is always an
attractive element in the fun. But these are clumsy methods of
destruction and will not compare with the far easier remedy of poisoning
the colonies by means of cyanide of potassium. Dissolve one ounce of the
drug in a quarter of a pint of water. This will be sufficient to destroy
several nests, but it is a deadly poison, and must be kept in a place of
safety. Soak a piece of rag in the fluid, and lay it over the entrance
to the nest. There is no occasion to run away; not a Wasp will venture
out, and those which return from foraging will not lose their tempers
and find yours, but at each successive attempt to enter their home they
will become feebler, until they fall near or beneath the drugged rag.
After an hour or two the nest may be dug out, when every insect,
including queen and pupae, will be found dead.

If the colonies lie beyond your frontier, or their positions cannot be
ascertained, the enemy must be disposed of by stratagem and in detail.
One of the best modes of trapping them is to put some injured fruit
beneath one of the trees, and over it a hand-light raised about three
inches above the ground by stones or pieces of wood placed at the four
corners. This light must have a rather large hole at the top. Upon it
should rest another light from which egress is prevented, except through
the apex of the lower light. After the Wasps have visited the fruit,
they will rise into the first light, and gradually find their way
through the opening into the one above, from which not one insect in a
hundred will escape. In a trap of this kind we have seen an enormous
number of Wasps and Hornets which had been lured to death within a few
hours.

Another simple and effective method of destroying these pests is to pour
a small quantity of ale mixed with sugar into glass jars and suspend
them from branches of Pear or Plum trees. The vessels must be emptied
every few days and the liquid renewed.

[Illustration: WIREWORM (natural size and magnified)]

==Wireworm== is the most persistent and destructive of all the ground
vermin. There are fully a dozen species of beetles the larvae of which
are known as 'Wireworms,' and of these the 'Spring-Jacks,'
'Click-Beetles,' and 'Blacksmiths'--=Elater obscurus, E. lineatus=, and
=E. ruficaudis=--are the most prevalent. The female beetle deposits her
eggs in the earth in the height of the summer, and in due time the worms
emerge and commence their depredations. These worms have a tenure of
three to five years in their subterranean homes, during which time they
feed voraciously, and are not very particular as to what they eat. Their
muscular power renders them expert in burrowing, and they are well
protected by their horny jackets. When their term of feeding is
completed, they descend to a considerable depth and change into the
chrysalis state, from which they come forth as jumping beetles in the
course of July and August, a certain proportion remaining in the ground
to complete their final change in spring. Their power of destruction is
then at an end. They resort to flowers, lead a merry life for a short
time, and when they pass away leave plenty of eggs to continue the race
of Wireworms.

For practical purposes the Wireworm may be regarded as inhabiting every
kind of soil and consuming every kind of crop. The crops it is most
partial to are Grass, Potatoes, Turnips, and the juicy stems of all
kinds of cereals. The larvae may be trapped by burying in the ground
pieces of Potato, or better still thick slices of Beet root; the spots
to be marked, and the traps examined every few days, when the Wireworms
can be destroyed. Superphosphate sown along the drills with seed has
saved spring-sown crops from destruction; and Vaporite, a proprietary
article, has also been used with marked success. The latter gives off a
gas smelling of naphthalene which kills the Wireworms. Soot is a
well-known remedy, and by its use the crops are also benefited.

==Woodlice== are very destructive but easily caught, and they may be
completely eradicated by perseverance. When a frame or pit is infested,
they can be destroyed wholesale by pouring boiling water down next the
brickwork or the woodwork in the middle of the day. If this procedure
does not make a clearance, recourse must be had to trapping. In common
with Earwigs, they love dryness, darkness, and a snug retreat; but while
a mere home suffices for Earwigs, a home with food is demanded by
Woodlice. Take a thumb pot, quite dry and clean. In it place a fresh-cut
slice of Potato or Apple, fill up with dry moss, and turn the whole
thing over on a bed in a frame or pit. Thus you have devised a Woodlouse
trap, and next morning you may knock the vermin out of it into a vessel
full of hot water, or adopt any other mode of killing that may be
convenient. Fifty traps may be prepared in a hundred minutes; and those
who are determined to get rid of Woodlice may soon make an end of them.

==Rats and Mice==.--Traps are efficient while they are new, and almost any
reasonably good contrivance will answer for a time, but will fail at
last, or at least for a season. To keep down Rats and Mice effectually
there must be invented a succession of new modes of action, for these
creatures--Rats especially--are so clever that they soon see through our
devices, which then fail of effect. Generally speaking, two rules may be
prescribed. In the first place it is imprudent to fill up their holes or
stop their runs; let them have their way. If you stop them, they will
make new thoroughfares, to the further injury of the foundation; and,
besides, when you are acquainted with their runs, you know where to put
traps and poison for the vermin. As to the best poison, there is nothing
so effectual as arsenic; but it should be employed with great care, and
before it is brought on the premises the question of safe storage must
be considered. A fat bloater split down and well rubbed with common
white arsenic will kill a score of Rats, provided only that they will
eat it. Cut it into four parts, and place these in or near their runs,
and cover with tiles or boards to prevent dogs and cats obtaining them.
If this fails, try bread and butter dressed with oil of rhodium and
phosphorus. The oil of rhodium seems to possess an irresistible
attraction for these vermin. When dry food is preferred, there is
nothing so good as oatmeal; and it is a golden rule to feed the Rats for
a few days with pure oatmeal, and then to mix about a fourth part of
arsenic with it. Several proprietary articles are offered for the
destruction of Rats. Before resorting to these means of annihilating
vermin it is necessary to take steps to prevent the bodies from proving
a nuisance after death. A good fox-terrier will keep a large garden free
from Rats and Mice.

THE FUNGUS PESTS OF CERTAIN GARDEN PLANTS

Many of our garden plants are liable to the attacks of fungi. Cures are
in most instances unknown, but in some cases preventives--which are
better--have been adopted with partial or entire success. Plants raised
from robust stocks, grown in suitable soil and under favourable
conditions, are known to be less liable to disease than seedlings from
feeble parents, or those which have been rendered weakly by deficiencies
in the soil or faulty cultivation. Whether weakness is hereditary, or is
attributable to a bad system, the fact remains that disease generally
begins with unhealthy specimens, and these form centres of contamination
from which the mischief spreads. It is, therefore, important that seed
from healthy stocks should be sown, and that a vigorous constitution
should be developed by good cultivation.

==Anbury, Club, or Finger-and-toe==.--The disease known by these various
names is common in the roots of cultivated cruciferous plants such as
Cabbages, Kohl Rabi, Radishes, Swedes, Turnips, &c., and also in many
cruciferous weeds, including Charlock and Shepherd's Purse. The cause of
this disease is an extremely minute fungus, which may lie dormant in the
soil for several years for want of a comfortable home, and when a
cruciferous plant becomes available the fungus fastens on the fine
roots, multiplies rapidly in the tissues, and produces malformation and
decay. After the disease has made some progress insect agency frequently
augments the mischief, so that on cutting open a large decaying root it
is not unusual to find the interior packed with millipedes, weevils,
wireworms, and other ground vermin.

Unlike the Potato disease, which spreads from plant to plant through the
atmosphere, the fungus of Finger-and-toe infects the ground, and from
the first spot attacked the disease spreads rapidly in all directions
and in various ways. It may be carried by the soil adhering to
implements or the boots of labourers. And each patch becomes a new
centre of infection which is spread by digging or raking. Every scrap of
infected soil, or of diseased fibre which may be added to the
manure-heap, distributes the virus over a wider area, so that
Finger-and-toe may suddenly appear in parts of the garden which have
hitherto been free from this troublesome pest. A very simple experiment
will prove the certainty and ease with which the spores may be
introduced to fresh land. Macerate the tissue of old Finger-and-toe in
water; use this on young isolated plants of Cabbage or Turnip and in a
short time the plants will be infected.

The fungus which produces Finger-and-toe is known as =Plasmodiophora
brassicae=, and it belongs to the =Myxomycetes=, or {~~}slime-fungi,' which,
as a rule, live upon decaying vegetable material. The protoplasm of the
fungus ramifies among and within the tissues of the roots of attacked
plants, and eventually produces an amazing number of spores so small
that more than thirty millions would be required to cover a superficial
inch. A microscope of great power is necessary to reveal them to human
vision.

[Illustration: FUNGUS OF FINGER-AND-TOE DISEASE =Plasmodiophora
brassicae=]

The spores are capable of resting in a state of vitality for a long
time, and can easily withstand the frosts of winter. The illustration
shows at A the fungus in its protoplasmic condition, and at B its
ultimate sporiferous or 'seed'-producing stage, after the protoplasm has
changed to a mass of minute spores (enlarged five hundred and twenty
diameters). When a spore in due course germinates, its protoplasmic
contents escape through a small aperture in its wall and begin moving
about of their own accord in a slow writhing manner. The movement is so
much like that of the microscopic animal organism found in ponds, and
called =Amoeba=, that this tiny mass of moving protoplasm is called
=Myxamoeba=, to denote that it is an amoeba-like form produced by one of
the =Myxomycetes=. Each myxamoeba is drawn out at one spot into a fine
delicate tail or cilium, as at C, D, E, and is capable of a creeping
motion in moisture. When quite free from the spores, transparent
expansions or limbs extend from the bodies of the myxamoebae, as at F, G,
and when these organisms, after existing in the soil for a longer or
shorter time, reach the roots of cruciferous plants, which they
apparently enter through the root-hairs, they again assume the
protoplasmic condition shown at A, and live within the cells, at the
expense of the nurse-plant. Other cruciferous plants are less seriously
damaged by the pest than are Turnips and Cabbages; but it is evident
that if diseased Charlock is near Turnips, the latter are very likely to
fall a prey to the disease. We advise the sowing of the best seeds, the
eradication of cruciferous weeds, and the destruction by fire of all
decaying Finger-and-toe material, for it is in this material that the
spores of the disease rest ready for continuing the disease in the
following season. It is also desirable that cruciferous plants should
not be continuously grown in the same quarter--in other words, it would
be prudent after an attack of Anbury not to repeat a cruciferous crop on
the same ground, but to follow on with a crop of some other class.

Numerous experiments have shown that slaked lime can be relied on to
destroy the spores of Finger-and-toe in infested land. An application of
from fourteen to twenty-eight pounds per pole may suffice in the case of
light soils, but fifty-six pounds per pole will not be too much on heavy
land, and the dressing should be given either six or eighteen months
before a Cabbage or Turnip crop is sown; the longer period is the more
certain in its effect. Preference should be given to stone or rock lime
over chalk lime. The former is much more powerful and efficient. It may
be necessary to repeat the dressing twelve months after the first
application. As regards the occurrence of Anbury in seed-beds, frequent
transplantation is a very effectual mode of stopping its progress, for
the little galls can be pinched off by the workman, and burned as he
proceeds; and the plant, being invigorated by change of soil, will soon
grow away from the affection. In transplanting Cabbages it is a good
plan to discard and burn such plants as are obviously affected with
Anbury. It is worthy of remark that in market-gardens this disease is by
no means so prevalent as to interfere with the routine of cultivation,
although the Cabbages, Broccoli, and Cauliflowers grown in these grounds
are, under other circumstances, especially liable to attack. By 'other
circumstances' we mean that market-gardens are generally kept under
high cultivation, the land being perpetually turned and heavily manured;
and these measures appear to be a preventive of Anbury, while they
result in heavy crops. But on land less energetically tilled Anbury may
prevail to such an extent as to interfere seriously with the order of
cropping. Another very important mode of keeping down the pest consists
in burning instead of burying the stumps and all other refuse of the
crop that cannot be turned to account.

Confusion may be prevented if we point out that Club-root, Anbury, or
Finger-and-toe--whichever name may be used--is quite distinct from an
apparently similar malformation of the root which is sometimes induced
by certain characteristics of soil, seed, or manure, and is in fact a
case of reversion to the original wild type. Instead of a shapely, solid
Turnip, the bulb is divided into a number of coarse, worthless
tap-roots, caused by either poverty of the soil, careless cultivation,
or a degenerated stock of seed. Those who save their own seed
continuously for years are almost certain to become well acquainted with
this malady. They will find a change of seed necessary, and at the same
time an alteration in the routine of culture. A healthy, vigorous plant,
derived from a pure seed-stock, does not easily make Finger-and-toe, but
a sound root that stands for food and money.

'Grub.'--The wart-like growths formed upon the roots of Turnip and
Cabbage by the little hard beetle known as the Turnip-gall Weevil,
=Ceutorhynchus pleurostigma=, are also quite distinct from
Finger-and-toe. By cutting across a malformed root of Turnip or Cabbage
it is usually not difficult to determine the cause of the mischief. If
it is Finger-and-toe the root will be found filled with decaying matter;
in the case of Weevil attack the small legless maggots, commonly called
'Grub,' will be brought into view; and if it is merely an instance of
reversion the cut root will appear to be healthy.

==Potato Disease==.--The fungus which causes the Potato Disease, or
'Blight' as it is sometimes called, was formerly known as =Peronospora
infestans=; now it is recognised by scientific authorities as
=Phytophthora infestans=. The mark of its pestilent touch on the
foliage, and its destructive effect on the tubers, are unfortunately too
familiar in gardens and on farms. In dry seasons its energies are
restricted, but the scourge is never absent, and during wet summers the
parasite may do its deadly work on such a vast scale as to cause a
Potato famine. Moisture is a necessity of its existence, and in rotting
haulm, decayed tubers, and damp soil the spores remain in a resting
condition until they are afforded an opportunity of multiplying with the
marvellous rapidity that invests the disease with its terrible power. A
series of six illustrations, five of which are highly magnified, will
enable the reader to follow the development of =Phytophthora
infestans=.[1]

[Illustration: No. 1]

The illustration No. 1 shows a Potato leaf on a reduced scale disfigured
by the attack of the fungus. The =Phytophthora= is sending mycelial
threads (called hyphae) in all directions through the substance of the
leaf, feeding on the protoplasm of the cells and destroying the
chlorophyll, or leaf-green, in those cells.

[Illustration: No. 2]

[Illustration: No. 3]

No. 2 shows the fungal threads at work. In a diseased Potato plant
these threads, or mycelial hyphae, make their way through the substance
of the leaves, and down the haulm into the tubers, from which they
consume the food stored there.

No. 3 exhibits the various stages of germination of one of the conidia
of =Phytophthora infestans=: (=a=) the ripe conidium in water; (=b=)
protoplasmic contents breaking up into blocks, which separate and escape
(=c= and =d=) as minute kidney-shaped zoospores (=e=) each with two
cilia; (=f= and =g=) the zoospore coming to rest and losing its cilia;
(=h=, =i=, =j=, and =k=) successive stages of germination of the
zoospore.

[Illustration: No. 4]

No. 4 represents a longitudinal section of Potato-stalk with germinating
zoospore, the germ-tube of which has pierced the cell-wall, and is
growing inside the cell, as shown at +.

[Illustration: No. 5]

[Illustration: No. 6]

No. 5 affords a view of another piece of tissue of the stem of a Potato
plant, and shows the hyphae of =Phytophthora infestans= running in the
cell-walls; (=a=) nucleus of a cell; the other contents shown are
crystals and chlorophyll corpuscles.

No. 6 is a section of a Potato tuber: A, the cell-walls; B, the starch
grains; C, the mycelial hyphae.

Spraying Potato plants twice or thrice with Bordeaux mixture has proved
effective in warding off the attack of =Phytophthora infestans=, and the
practice is now freely adopted, especially in humid districts. The first
application should be given towards the end of June or early in July,
immediately the haulm is sufficiently developed. The Bordeaux mixture is
made in the proportion of four pounds of pure copper sulphate and two
pounds of quicklime to forty gallons of water. The foregoing quantities
will give what is known as the =one per cent.= mixture. For the =two per
cent.= mixture the quantities of copper sulphate and quicklime must be
doubled, but the amount of water should remain at forty gallons. In its
effect on the fungus, however, little difference is to be found between
the two solutions. The copper sulphate is stirred into a few gallons of
hot water placed in a wooden tub or earthenware vessel. When quite
dissolved, add twenty or thirty gallons of cold water. The lime, which
must be freshly burnt quicklime, is then slaked in another vessel and
thoroughly stirred with two or three gallons of water until it is of the
consistency of thin cream. As soon as the liquid is quite cold, filter
it through coarse sacking into the copper sulphate solution and add
water to make a total of forty gallons. To be effective, Bordeaux
mixture must be applied in the form of a fine spray, and not with a
coarse-holed syringe.

The Burgundy mixture, the use of which is preferred by some, acts in a
very similar manner to the Bordeaux mixture, and is made in the same way
as the latter, except that washing soda (five pounds) is substituted for
quicklime.

Those who leave Potatoes to rot in the ground because the crop is not
worth digging, or who bury diseased haulm and tubers in a shallow
trench, under the impression that it is a safe way of getting rid of
worthless vegetation, are simply storing =Phytophthora= for another
attack in the event of Potatoes being planted in the same land again. If
buried at all, it must be at a considerable depth, but the effectual
method is to destroy all Potato refuse by fire.

==Wart Disease (Black Scab) of Potatoes== (=Synchytrium endobioticum=,
Percival).--This extremely infectious and destructive disease of the
Potato has been given a variety of names in different parts of the
country, but it is now generally known as the Wart or Cauliflower
Disease, the latter term being attributable to the Cauliflower-like
appearance of the outgrowth of the fungus. This outgrowth first shows in
the eyes of the young Potato in the form of small wrinkled warts. These
multiply and combine, thus creating a dark spongy scab which eventually
decomposes. Where the disease is very rife it attacks haulm as well as
tubers, and a yellowish-green mass may sometimes be found just above or
just below the surface of the soil. As a rule, however, no outward
indication of its existence is to be seen in the crop during the early
stages of growth, but towards the end of the season the haulm of badly
diseased plants often retains a fresh green appearance when the foliage
of others, which are healthy or only slightly attacked, is dying off.

Infection is perhaps most commonly spread by the planting of diseased
tubers. Another frequent means of dissemination is caused by consigning
infected haulm to the waste heap instead of to the fire. The spores may
also be introduced in manure from animals fed on diseased Potatoes in a
raw state, and they may even be carried from one plot to another on
garden implements or the boots of those who walk across infected ground.
Immediately any sign of the disease is observed it should be dealt with
promptly and in no uncertain manner. Every particle of the infected
material must be carefully collected and burned. Dig out the soil around
all diseased plants and burn this also. On infected land it is important
that some crop other than Potatoes be taken in the season following the
outbreak, and, if possible, such land should not be used for Potatoes
for at least five or six years. But where garden space is limited, a
contaminated plot may have to be requisitioned for Potatoes within two
or three years. In such cases it is an excellent plan to dust the sets
freely with sulphur at the time of planting and to repeat the
application before earthing up.