The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-14
THE FARM AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST To AGRI-
CULTURALIST AND HOUSEWIFE.
Failures in the Characterization
Weeds and How to Treat Them.
Crimson CIOvcr-Humus in the Or
chard-The knowledge of Plants.

chard-The Knowledge of Plants.
how it is with the mass of gardeners
and truckers in this section of the
country, but in speaking for myself
do not hesitate to say that in no year
in the past thirty has results been
any more unsatisfactory than they
have this season of 1902 What. with
insects, blight and drought, it has been
an uphill business in eearly every
detail from start in October to finish
in July. 1t will be remembered that
we had hardly any spring. but it was
a regular jump from winter into sum-
mer. Owing to occasional severe
freezes and the abnormal conditions
in February and March, nearly all
fall paintings proved a failure, more
or less; then excessive dry weather
in April and May; then a period of
too much wet; then drought again.
and. altogether, conditions never
worked together more completely TO
produce poor results in nearly every
Not in thirty years has the Irish
potato crop been so little worth the
gathering. Though a persistent fight
saved the vines from the potato bee
tie and though the effects of the blight
was but slight, the yield of potatoes
was smaller than / have ever known
it, and the quality was about as poor,
too.
Then the onion crop for the first time
in many years was nearly a failure.
Bermuda onions sowed in February
produced bulbs not much larger than
marbles. The crop was fit only to
make pickles of.
Tomatoes, too were almost a COM
plete failure. The few that matured
were tough and barely fit to eat. The
vines suffered from blight and many
died out without setting fruit. Then
large proportion of the green toma-
toes rotted and without the help of
the boil worm.
There is something radically wrong
with tomatoes. Half of the seeds YOU
buy or grow do not terminate, and
as observed when the plants are set
out, many of them wilt and die down
without visible cause. Is it the eff
feet of blight upon the seeds? 1t is
4bAtC POo0lbiNs anu IL may DC lIlcbl tic
plant is on the verge of extinction for
awhile at least.
The melon patch of Rocky Fords"
What beautiful sight on the 10th of
June! Not missing vine; a stand
perfect; leaves a rich green; bloom
enough to give the appearance of a
golden sheet; young melons forming
by hundreds and hundreds; never a
prettier prospect. A rain of two inches
on June Is seemingly assured the crop.
But not so. No further rain has
fallen, and on July 10 my melon patch
is not the pretty picture it promised
to be month ago. The skeleton of
the vines are there and the ground
is dotted over with many small scald-
ed melons that will never mature.
Should they ripen they would hardly
be wholesome.
The fourth of crop that ripened
between July l and 8 were nearly
perfect melons, and the sudden COL
lapse of the plants was really remark
able.
Drought. blight and lice must be
chalked on melons of 1902. The blight
gets little worse every year.
Any other failure?
Yes. 1t must be written OF cabbage
Ruined by rust, insect and drought
that is, the main summer crop matur-
ing in June and July. The early crop
heading in May or earlier, was nor
NAL The harlequin bug was equal
in numbers to the potato bug, and
did all the damage he could It's a
difficult insect to keep up with.
As to butter beanS-the little butter
fly that infests this plant, especially
the bunch or dwarf bean, was never
more destructive than this year With
the Of he Il &c
insidious insect has swept the vines
almost entirely. The crop is mil
compared to what it was last year
and year before.
This is also an insect difficult to
deal with, and the damage it does is
done almost before his presence is
suspected
If there are any egg plants this year
1t will be the result of daily hand
picking of the potato bugs from the
plants. The cry every morning Is,
They come! They Gomez
Truly. it has been bad year for
gardening. 1 hope never to see it
quite so bad. altogether, as it has
been this year.
1t is evident that the Southern gard
ener and trucker will have to bestir
himself to meet this monster invasion
of insects and blights. The fight is
on, and must be fought to a finish in
good style.
A two-weeks' drought nowadays is
about as destructive as a four weeks
drought was twenty years ago. The
only remedy for drought is to put
humus in the soil. Much of the blight
we have is the result, no doubt of the
absence of humus in the soil, 1t GER
tainty magnifies the effects of drought
and drought, in turn magnifies the
presence of disease and insect.