The current and gooseberry are also infested with several species of plant-lice. A gentleman whose bushes were attacked by lice and the currant worm at the same time, wrote to the "Country Gentleman" that he destroyed both by a strong decoction of white hellebore, applied from a fine rose-sprinkling can. The bushes were turned back and forth, so as to get the solution on the under side of the leaves. The writer concludes:
"The decoction of hellebore must be strong to be effectual. I make it as follows: To a gallon of boiling water add a tablespoonful of pulverized hellebore. After standing fifteen or twenty minutes, add three gallons of common soapsuds. When cool, apply with a sprinkler, I do not know that there is any virtue in the soapsuds, excepting it makes the solution stick to the leaves."
There are three species of currant borers with unpronounceable names. Their presence is shown by yellow foliage and withering fruit in summer, and by brown, shrivelled branches in winter. Cutting out and burning is the only remedy. Usually, a vigorous bush will outgrow the attacks of this enemy; and good cultivation gives vigor, and also disturbs and brings to the surface the worms that have entered the soil to undergo their transformation. From first to last, tonic treatment supplements and renders more effective our direct efforts to destroy diseases and enemies.
Most earnestly would I urge caution in using all virulent poisons like
Paris green, London purple, hellebore, etc.
Whenever it is possible to substitute a less poisonous substance, do so by all means. Some good people regard tobacco as the bane of banes; but to many it does not cause the feeling of repugnance and fear inspired by hellebore and more poisonous insecticides. Let all such articles be kept under lock and key; and one person should have charge of their use, and be held responsible for them. Moreover, any watering-can used with Paris green and like substances should be marked with the word Poison, in large letters. If insecticides are used in the form of a powder, great care should be exercised to keep it from falling on other vegetation or fruit that might be eaten by man or beast. I have known of pigs and horses dying from eating herbage on which Paris green had blown from a potato field. London purple, which, as a cheaper and equally effective article, is taking the place of Paris green, must be used with the same caution, since it is a compound of arsenic, and equally poisonous.
It is my wish and intention to experiment carefully with the various means and methods of coping with the diseases and enemies of small fruits, and to give this chapter frequent revisions.
CHAPTER XXIX
PICKING AND MARKETING
In the proceedings of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society, I find the following interesting paper from the pen of Mr. C. W. Idell, a commission merchant, whose intelligent interest in fruits extends beyond their current price. He gives so graphic a picture of the diminutive beginning of small fruit growing and marketing, that I am led to quote freely:
"About the earliest knowledge I could obtain of the strawberry in our State is that it first grew wild in many regions, particularly in the county of Bergen. The negroes were the first to pick this fruit for the New York market, and invented those quaint old-fashioned splint baskets, with handles, that were and are still in use in that county. These berries were taken to New York, the baskets being strung on poles, and thus peddled through the city. I would state, for the benefit of those who have not seen these baskets, that it was the intention of the original makers of them to have them contain a half-pint each, but soon they became so reduced in size that each buyer was compelled to guess at the contents of those he bought.