Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1912-01-06
Department OF AGRICULTURE
TELLS ALL ABOUT EEL WORM
Agricultural Experiment Station Gives Some VAL
liable Information Regarding the Parasite
Which Threatens Much Loss to
Nevada Potato Growers

tst has estimated that at its rate OF move
ment in the soil it would spread only
thirty inches in growing season.
This pest can be distributed by seed
potatoes, nursery stock and i'll other
ways. Tools used in an infested field
and taken uncleaned to a clean field
will spread it. Hoofs of horses and
muddy boots might also do the work.
Irrigation water, particularly if contain
ing floating vegetables, which had been
dumped in the river, would also spread
the disease.
Kuhn, the German agriculturist, de-
nonstrated that beet tiredness' OF
sugar beets was due to the work of a ne
matode in the roots, so he devised a
method of trapping them by using a
summer rape. This was sown closely
and when the nematodes in the roots
were in the proper stage of immaturity
the crop was plowed up, the plants
either carried off or else left with the
roots exposed to dry air, causing the
destruction of this parasite. If the crop
was not plowed up at the right time, the
eel worm becoming mature, they would
not be destroyed. The trap crop was
repeated three to five times season and
so reduced the number of eel-worms
that good beet crops could again be
grown for several seasons While this
method is unlikely to appeal to the
farmers here and better methods may be
employed, the case is cited to show the
seriousness of the trouble and the ex.
pense which has been employed to
remedy it.
Among the tried and suggested rem.
edies to free infested land are, drying
out the land, flooding and clean culture
Greenhouse owners find it necessary to
| change their soil every few years or elst
heat it with steam so as to destroy the
nematodes. 1t has been found that rivel
bottom lands, lying low enough to b'
I flooded part of the year, are not infested
4 Drying out the soil appears also to de
stroy them. Clean culture will starvt
them. If field be planted to crop no
subjected to infestation little good vii
result if weeds are present which harbol
eel-worm. For example, il field were
sown to rye scattering alfalfa plants an6
common night shade might occur a.
weeds i'll the field and harbor enough
of the pests to keep the soil infested
The author of this bulletin thinks thai
flooding the land, keeping it under water
at least twenty five days might be sat
isfactoly remedy. Perhaps the mos
practical way to rid the soil of eelworn
is to plant crops for two or three year.
which will not support the pest.
Any region is justified in quarantinine
against any other region i'll order to
keep out pests of any kind. 1t would
hardly be possible to inspect seed pota.
toes coming from region known to be
infested with eel-worm with sufficient
care TO be sure that they were all abso-
lutely unaffected. 1t wonld seem, how
ever, that if California has the eel-wornl
already i'll her lands there would be lit
tie point in quarantining against pota-
toes from Nevada, if they were not to be
used for seed potatoes. Potatoes sacked
and marked 'Eel-worm Potatoes, -
should be allowed to be sold in the gen
eral markets for eating. A sack con-
tanning only a small per cent of infected
tubers is but little dsmaged and could
be sold on its its-Fallon Eagle.