Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota Part 46

I have marketed this fall some over 400 barrels of apples, mostly Wealthy, d.u.c.h.ess and Northwestern Greening. Three hundred barrels of these were s.h.i.+pped direct to local merchants in Dakota and western Minnesota towns in small s.h.i.+pments of a few barrels at a time or as fast as they could sell them. I started this way of marketing during the big crop of 1913 and this year again, getting nearly all of my old customers back and many new ones. I secured satisfactory prices, and for my location I believe I have solved the marketing problem. One does not pay much attention to the marketing as long as enough only for local demand is produced, but when one has a surplus to dispose of the marketing problem looms rather large. I have tried several times s.h.i.+pping to commission firms, but have never received satisfactory returns.

A Successful Cold Storage for Apples.

H. F. HANSEN, ORCHARDIST, ALBERT LEA.

Mr. Clarence Wedge: I want to preface this short paper with the statement that Mr. Hansen is a man who has worked himself up from the very bottom of the horticultural ladder. He came to Albert Lea a very poor man, and I think supported himself for some time by trapping and fis.h.i.+ng and such work as he was able to do. He is a man with a great tendency to investigate and to work out problems for himself. By his thrift and persevering investigations he has brought himself into a fine property and great success. He is the market gardener in our part of the country and a credit to his kind. (Mr. Wedge reads the paper.)

When my orchard, near the city of Albert Lea, began to bear heavy crops of fruit, I found it very desirable to hold the Wealthy and other kinds that ripen at the same time until after the farmers had marketed their fruit. We have a very good cold storage in Albert Lea that is open to the public, but the price they charge is sixty cents per barrel for two months' storage, which is more than the fruit will bear, and so I began to think of putting up a cold storage of my own.

My first one was built underground with pipes for ice and salt to cool it, something like the system that I am now using. But I found out in the first season that it takes a great deal of ice to offset the heat that is coming in from the ground at the sides and bottom of the cellar.

And so I built the storage which I am now using entirely above ground, using the bas.e.m.e.nt under it for storing cabbage and vegetables. I built this in 1913, the size 28x56 feet, using cement blocks for the bas.e.m.e.nt, where the cabbages are stored. The cold storage above this is built as follows:

First, an ordinary frame building with 2x4 inch studdings sheathed on the outside with drop siding with No. 3 flooring. Inside of this sheathing 2x4 inch studs placed flatwise, sheathed on the inside with No. 3 flooring, and the six-inch s.p.a.ce back of the studs filled with sawdust. On the outside of this firing strips one-half foot are nailed, which are covered with linofelt. One-half foot firing strips are nailed inside of this, and these also covered with linofelt. To this again one-half foot firing strips are added, to which are nailed metal lath, and the whole is plastered with cement. The floor both above and below is made of 212 joists, with No. 3 flooring nailed below the joints, the s.p.a.ce between which is then filled with ten inches of saw dust, leaving an air s.p.a.ce of two inches at the upper edge of the joists. The joists are then covered with linofelt and then the linofelt covered with No. 3 flooring.

On the north and west sides I found it necessary to add one more waterproof coat of linofelt in order to make sure of keeping out the frost.

I have so far only finished up for cold storage one-half of the room, using the other half for a packing room, so that my present facilities are only 2828 feet. This room is cooled by eight inch pipes of galvanized iron, extending from the attic above to troughs near the floor, that are sloping so as to carry off the melted ice. These pipes are on both sides about two feet apart. The ice is pulled up into the attic by horsepower and broken up small enough into pieces to feed the pipes. The amount of salt used with the ice depends upon how fast we want the ice to melt. A large quant.i.ty of salt cools the storage down quicker. In practice I find that it takes one hour for a man to elevate a ton of ice, chop it up and fill the pipes. They hold something over a ton and must be filled every other day in ordinary September weather. It will not do to let the pipes remain less than one-half full. When the ice gets down that far, we have to fill again.

The total cost of my storage when it is entirely furnished up and the present capacity doubled will be about $3,000.00. At present it holds 2,000 standard size apple boxes.

I find that it only pays to put in good fruit that in ordinary seasons will keep until the first of March and hold its flavor well and give good satisfaction on the market. Icing stops about the middle of November. The cost per box for storage is as follows: Ice and salt, ten cents. Interest on investment, six cents. I have figured out carefully the entire cost of growing and storing apples, and find out that leaving out the interest on the value of the land, it will approximate forty-eight cents per bushel. This includes cultivation, spraying, packing, and picking. The question which now interests me is whether we can grow fruit good enough and stand the expense and compete with apples grown in the other good fruit sections of the country.

Mr. Older: I had the pleasure of visiting this plant with Mr. Wedge, and this man had quite a good many boxes of as fine apples as you would wish to see. This was along the latter part of February, and they were in fine condition. He had a lot of Jonathans and Yankees and some other varieties I don't remember, grown on top-worked trees there.

The Plum Curculio.

EDWARD A. NELSON, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.

(Prize Winner at Gideon Memorial Contest.)

The small crescent-shaped punctures, so common on apples, plums, peaches and other fruits, are made by a small snout-beetle known as the plum curculio. The beetles issue from their winter quarters at about the time the trees are in full bloom and feed on the tender foliage, buds and blossoms. Later they attack the newly set fruit, cutting small circular holes through the skin in feeding, while the females, in the operation of egg-laying, make the crescentic cuts so characteristic of this species. The egg, deposited under the skin of the fruit, soon hatches into a very small whitish larva or grub, which makes its way into the flesh of the fruit. Here it feeds greedily and grows rapidly, becoming, in the course of two weeks, the fat, dirty white "worm" so well known among fruit growers.

The curculio is a native of North America and for more than 150 years has been known as an enemy of fruits. Our early horticultural literature abounds with reference to its depredations. In more recent times the great increase in planting of fruits, brought about to supply the increased demand, has permitted it to become much more abundant than formerly, and the plum curculio const.i.tutes at the present time one of the most serious insect enemies of orchard fruits. Statistics gathered of its depredations show that it is distributed over much of the area of the United States. Its western limit is, roughly, a line drawn through the centers of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. East of this line the entire United States is infested except the southern third of Florida and the northern half of Maine.

Is the plum curculio causing much damage to the fruit growing industry of this country? That it is is shown by the National Conservation Committee in its report in Volume III, page 309, where it states that the average annual loss in late years to only three fruits is as follows:

Apples $3,257,806

Peaches 4,088,814

Plums 1,244,149 ---------- Grand Total $8,590,769

Just think of it! A total loss each year to only three fruits of over $8,500,000. This amount is a heavy drain upon the fruit growing industry of this country. During the past twenty-five or thirty years the total damage caused by this insect, to the various fruits which it attacks, would, on a conservative estimate, probably be not less than $100,000,000.

These figures show the absolute need of the adoption of effective remedial measures against this insect so as to lessen this loss. But before we can hope to combat this insect systematically and successfully it is necessary to know its life history and habits.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The curculio in its stages of growth, and its fruit injury.]

There are four distinct stages in its life cycle: (1) The egg, (2) the larva, or "worm," (3) the pupa, and (4) the adult, or beetle.

The curculio pa.s.ses the winter in the adult stage under acc.u.mulations of partly decayed leaves, among the closely-packed dried gra.s.s of sod-covered orchards, and probably wherever suitable protection from the winter may be found. Its depredations are usually worse near woods, so it probably finds here very suitable places for wintering.

In the spring, when the fruit buds are unfolding, the beetles begin to emerge from their winter quarters and feed to some extent on the blossoms and tender leaves of the fruit trees. Mating soon begins, and by the time the fruit is well set the beetles make this fruit the chief object of their attention. The circular punctures in the skin are feeding punctures, while the crescent-shaped ones are egg-laying punctures. A single egg is deposited in a puncture, although several may be placed in a single fruit. From one to eight eggs may be deposited daily by an individual female, which may be continued for several months. The great majority of the eggs, however, are deposited by the end of eight weeks. These eggs hatch in from three to seven days, being influenced greatly by the weather.

The egg hatches into a larva, or "worm," which bores into the fruit. It becomes full-grown in from twelve to twenty days and bores out of the fruit. It enters the soil, burrows to a depth of one-half to two inches, and forms an earthern cell in which to pupate. In three or four weeks it emerges as a full grown beetle and attacks the ungathered fruit and the foliage. On the approach of cold weather the beetle seeks a protected place in which to pa.s.s the winter.

The character of the injury is very nearly alike in all fruits. In the plum the fruit often falls to the ground before mature. In seasons of short crops very little fruit may remain to ripen. The punctures cause the fruit to become mis-shaped and to exude ma.s.ses of gum. The ripe fruit becomes "wormy." The late varieties may be seriously injured by the new generation of adults. In the apple the injury to the fruit is about the same as in the plum, except that the infested fruit is not so likely to fall to the ground and that the egg rarely hatches into the grub there. The fruit becomes knotted and pitted. The late varieties may also be injured by the new generation of adults. In the peach, cherry and other stone fruits, the injury closely resembles that of the plum.

Although the plum curculio has some natural enemies that tend to reduce its numbers somewhat, yet they are not important enough to be considered as effective means of control. Some of these natural enemies are parasites of various kinds, birds, chickens and the like.

There are several remedial measures practiced, varying in their degree of effectiveness. Away back in the early days of horticulture in this country, when the curculio became very abundant rewards were offered for an effective method of combating it. Several were proposed, but only a few were at all effective. The best of these methods is what is called "jarring."

The curculio has the habit of falling to the ground and "playing 'possum" when disturbed. This led to the practice of holding or spreading sheets beneath the tree and then striking the tree a sudden, forcible blow with a padded pole or mallet in order to dislodge the beetles. The trees were jarred daily from the time the calyx or "shuck"

began to slip from the newly set fruit until the beetles had disappeared, or for at least four or five weeks. This was practiced to quite an extent, but it takes too much time and is too expensive.

A still better remedy is clean cultivation. Experiments have shown that as high as 76.75 per cent. of the pupae may be destroyed by means of thorough cultivation. The mere breaking of the pupal cell, leaving the earth in contact with the body of the pupa, is fatal to many. Others are killed by the crus.h.i.+ng action of the earth as it is stirred. Others are exposed to the elements and subject to the attacks of their enemies, such as ants and birds. Sunlight is quickly fatal to them, and exposure to the air on a warm day in the shade is also fatal to them.

Observations show that the insect is in the pupal condition in the ground in from fifty to sixty-five days after the falling of the blossoms of such fruit as apples and plums. Data have been presented to show that the minimum time spent in the ground is about twenty days.

Shallow cultivation should begin, therefore, in about eight or nine weeks after blossoming. It is best to cultivate every week or oftener for six or seven weeks. It is very necessary that this cultivation should reach immediately beneath the spread of the limbs, as most of the curculios are found here, having dropped from the fruit above and burrowed into the soil where they fell.

The third method of combating the curculio, the method most commonly used and most generally recommended, is spraying with a.r.s.enical poisons.

The spray most generally used is a.r.s.enate of lead. The most economical and effective way is to add a.r.s.enate of lead to Bordeaux mixture. The Bordeaux is mixed in the following proportions: three pounds of copper sulphate (blue vitriol), four pounds of lime, and fifty gallons of water. To this amount of Bordeaux mixture three pounds of a.r.s.enate of lead are added. In place of Bordeaux mixture lime-sulphur may be used.

If the insecticide is used alone, three pounds of a.r.s.enate of lead in fifty gallons of water make an effective spray. It is best to spray three times, the first spraying coming just before the blossoms open, the second coming ten days later, and the third another ten days later.

The cost is from ten to fifteen cents per tree for the three sprayings.

This cost is lessened when combined with other sprays.

While spraying greatly reduces the injuries inflicted, yet it is apparent that account must be taken of other factors, such as the relative abundance of insects as compared with the amount of fruit present on the trees. With a small fruit crop and an abundance of curculios, the most thorough spraying in the world will not serve to bring through a satisfactory amount of sound fruit.

While spraying is undoubtedly the most important aid and, if persisted in from year to year, may answer for its control, as its effects are c.u.mulative, yet it is clear that other control measures should also be employed. In all cases which have come under observation the insects have always been found most abundant in orchards which are in sod or are poorly cared for and allowed to grow up more or less in weeds and trash.

Also, orchards near woods always suffer severely, especially along the border. As opposed to this condition is the notably less injury in orchards kept free from weeds and trash. In such cases spraying usually given for other insects, as the codling moth, serves to keep the curculio well under control. In fact, it may be said as a general statement that the curculio will never become seriously troublesome in orchards given the usual routine attention in cultivation, spraying and pruning now considered essential in successful fruit growing. Serious losses from the curculio are almost conclusive evidence of neglect, which is best and most quickly corrected by the adoption of proper orchard practice.

AN ANTIDOTE FOR WASP STINGS.--It not infrequently happens that persons biting unguardedly into fruit in which a wasp is concealed receive stings in the mouth or throat. Such stings may be exceedingly dangerous and even fatal since the affected tissues swell rapidly and this is liable to cause difficulty in swallowing and breathing. An effective antidote is employed in Switzerland. The sting is rubbed vigorously with garlic, or, if it is too deep in the throat for this treatment, a few drops of the juice from bruised garlic are swallowed.

If garlic is not to be obtained onion may take its place, but is a less active agent. The efficacy of this simple remedy was verified by a Swiss specialist, who found it important enough to be presented at a session of the Vaudois Society of Medicine.

Increasing the Fertility of the Land.