Pests and Enemies of Ginseng and Remedies Therefor and Specialization in Growing of Crops in General.
By Dr. J. W. BEAL, East Lansing, Michigan.
From Report of Fifth Annual Convention Michigan Ginseng Growers's Association.

-FOR forty years or more the professors of agriculture and horticulture in our agricultural college, and I think in all similar institutions in
this country, have advocated what is called
mixed husbandry, instead of advising farmers
to devote all their capital and energy to growing one crop or one kind of produce to sell
from the farm. Here are some of the reasons
for this advice:
Manure is economized, as crops do not all
feed alike; the fertility of the soil is better
and more economically preserved; weeds are
more easily controlled; it enables a person to
distribute his labor more evenly throughout the
year; it gives a proportion of grain for feed,
and coarse straw for litter; crops in alteration
are less liable to attacks of fungi and insects.
When fields are occasionally cultivated, moles
are less likely to become troublesome.
If all the eggs are put in one basket, and
that basket takes a fall, where will the owner
look for revenues?
One objection can be made to the production of many kinds of crops or animals by
every man, viz: Very few persons have the
ability to carry on well so many kinds of business. Perhaps a compromise between the extremes of one thing and a large number of
things is about right. Let the producer engage in a few lines of only in which he can
succeed best; thereby enabling him to become
proficient in a few things, and not a failure in
many things.
While at South Frankfort last summer, I
observed VanDeman & Co. had dug a trench
about their plat of ginseng, as I remember it
to keep the roots of wild plants from making
inroads on the sacred rights of the ginseng.
In the botanic garden at the college that I
manage, for a long time we were annoyed by
the advent of quack grass and moles, which
came in from the large campus surrounding.
I tried lumber, which was costly and soon decayed. Next I dug a narrow trench to the
depth of eighteen inches or more, one bank
of which was gently sloping to one side, and
on this smooth side plastered an inch to an
inch and a half of cement, which soon hardened so the trench could be filled. The two

enemies, mentioned above, stopped then and
there on their own side of the cement. Any
one wishing to use trees to shade his yard of
ginseng in place of lattice work, could stave
off the effect of tree roots by digging a trench
three feet deep, and see that the bottom contained only infertile soil, which might dis-
courage the tree roots from digging under the
cement for good feeding ground.

To scare thieves at Frankfort the firm named
turned loose at night two lively and noisy
dogs; besides, adjoining the garden was a
small house in which one of the proprietors or
a trusty man slept and watched all night.
The shading at this place, as many of you
know, consisted of seven-eighths cedar strips
four inches wide extending north and south,
placed two inches apart, thus shading two-
thirds of the surface. This seemed to work
so well that the proprietors were going to experiment on exposing wider strips to the light.
From what I know of plant growth, I think
it would require more shade for ginseng, the
farther south we go, especially in places some
distance from a large lake.
Ginseng is a delicate, thin-leaved plant, not
so easy to grow with success as potatoes, corn
and beans. I have often wondered why so
many grow ginseng with success, but I learned
the explanation at your meeting last winter.
Those successfully engaged in the work are
unusually alert and painstaking. In sagacity
they surpass most people who engage in
growing fruits, vegetables, pigs, chickens or
cattle-all combined on the same farm.
Plants may be said to be diseased when
they do not thrive on account of having too
much water or too little, too much light or
too little, on account of a severe wind or un-
suitable fertilizers, and for several other
causes. No special remedies need be prescribed for such things. Cucumbers, tomatoes,
beans, cabbages, are often damaged or destroyed by bacteria, and the plants die quickly.


You may be familiar with the cucumber wilt.
The remedy is to pull up vines as soon as they
show wilt, and destroy them. Plant for a few
years in places remote from where the wilt


has existed . No spraying is effectual . In case
of the fruit and leaves of beans , no spraying is
of any use ; save seeds from healthy plants
and plant in a new place. In cases of beans ,
the disease passes from farm to farm in diseased seed.
As all the older persons present know, when
apples are first grown in a new country, they
are fair and the trees clean and healthy, but
by degrees the larger orchards and the smaller
orchards alike harbor apple crab, black rot,
codling moth, tree borers, and many other
enemies. So in growing any crop of garden,
field or orchard, or ginseng, we are led to
expect a continued increase of fungus foes and
other enemies, as greater number of persons
engage in the business.
You need no introduction to fungus enemies
-minute plants which are parasitic, tramp-
like, sponging their living on your favorite
pet, ginseng.
Now, a word about remedies may interest
you. Of hundreds of inquiries that reach me
every year regarding weeds and plant diseases,
two questions never fail to come with the
specimen: viz., "What is it and how can I
easiest get rid of it?"

Bordeaux is the most famous, and so far,
usually the cheapest and most efficient fungicide yet discovered, and is extensively used in
many countries from Maine to California, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Although
a favorite remedy, it is not an unmixed good,
even when well prepared and well applied.
Careful observations by many experts have detected more or less injury to plants which have
been sprayed -- plants in great variety from the
hardy apple tree growing in sunshine to the
delicate, shade-loving ginseng. Injured leaves
show irregular dead spots, more or less scattered about after spraying with bordeaux. This
injury, especially of apples, is known as "Spray
injury," or "Bordeaux Scald," "Bordeaux
Burning," "Spray Russeting," "Cork Russeting," "Yellow Leaf."
A recent bulletin, No. 287, prepared by
Professor U. P. Hedrick, of the Experimental
Station at Geneva, N. Y., speaking of apples,
says : "Use less copper sulphate ; give the
3-3-50 formula for bordeaux mixture a thorough
trial ; spray in moderation ; spray to
cover the foliage and fruit with a thin film and
yet not have the trees drip heavily ; use the
remedy only in dry weather or when plants
are dry if possible ; use equal amounts of lime
and copper sulphate ." The formula means

three pounds of copper sulphate , three pounds
of lime to fifty gallons of water , which is
weaker than formerly recommended . Bordeaux
mixture is made in this way : Suspend
the copper sulphate in a cloth sack in a cask
of water until it dissolves. Slack stone lime
in water, straining it through a brass wire
sieve, about forty wires to the inch. The solution of copper sulphate and milk of lime are
mixed and well stirred. All the water used
for dissolving copper sulphate and slacking
lime is counted in the mixture which ultimately
is to consist of 3 pounds copper sulphate, 3
pounds fresh stone lime, 50 gallons water, or
in these proportions.

Bordeaux is acid, the lime used neutralizes
the acid, till the combination is alkaline. What-
ever nozzle and pump are used, the pressure
must be high enough to make a continuous
fine mist and be moved along fast enough to
avoid the falling of drops of the liquid.
The Vermoral nozzles have been considered
the standard for excellence. Experts at the
college this summer think a new nozzle called
MISTY or the MISTY, JR., are better than
the Vermoral. Here are circulars of the
Gould Company, corner Ohio and Franklin
Sts., Chicago, Ill., treating of spraying apparatus, and here are copies of Special Bulletin
37 by L. R. Taft of the Agricultural College,
and here are samples of the best kinds of
nozzles for spraying, and here on the wall is
the chart shown last year illustrating diseases
of ginseng.

Dr. Beal: Nematoids have been very injurious among certain gardens in New Jersey.
As a remedy they have used about 175 bushels
of slack lime to the acre.
Mr. Voorhics: Would ashes have the same effect?
Dr. Beal: I can't tell you.
Dr. Latimer: How do they apply the lime
Dr. Beal: Put on the ground and plow
under. Use slack lime.
Mr. Goodspeed: I think you will find that nematodes will increase quite rapidly, and an
increase of two or three years will stop growth
entirely. We get that disease in the old sections of the country more than in Michigan.
I know of no remedy only to dry the root and
start in a new place. It is a disease that is
very readily recognized. Our experience is that sawdust does not retard the disease at all . 
Mr. Pierce : Would it be safe to set gin

seng roots in the ground after that preparation of lime has been put on?
Dr. Beal: No, they recommend to go to an-
other place.
Dr. MeMaster: I will say we found some
nematoids in our old garden while digging
this year. They were in beds from made
ground that had been filled in three or four
feet with old plaster, and wherever that old
plaster was, the nematoids were thick, and
that plaster had plenty of lime in it.
Mr. Twiner: We have used lime every year
and we have never made new beds unless we
gave them first a coat of lime and spaded it in.
Dr. MeMaster: I would like to inquire of
Mr. Goodspeed if it effects the price.
Mr. Goodspeed: It is very rare you get it
upon the body of the root. It comes on the
fibers and does no damage whatever to the
root. You could not tell, after the root was
dried, whether it was effected by that or not.
Mr. Luther: I would like to ask what remedy to use for rust.
Dr, Beal: Do you refer to Alternaria on the
roots? I cannot tell you. I don't know much
about it. I think Mr. Roof will explain Alternaria more fully than I can, if he will do it.
Mr. Roof: To distinguish Alternaria: The
first thing you would discover would be a
brownish spot on the leaf. It might possibly
start on the edge of the leaf and creep toward
the center, but we find ordinarily it begins in
a spot and that spot soon becomes transparent,
from the sucking out of the juices of the leaf
by the fungi. You hold it up to the light and
you see simply a hole, examine it carefully and
you find there is a little film.
Dr. Beal: If you perceive this in the early
stages, you can begin your spraying.
Mr. Roof: Yes. There is a difference in
the starting of Alternaria upon the stalks and
upon the seed heads. If Alternaria attacks
your seed head or stalk either, they both turn
a sort of a rust color. If it attacks your seed
head, you see rust spots upon the seed or head
You may look for blighted seed. In the case
of the stalk, if that should be affected with
Alternaria, it turns a sort of a rust color and
following that you either find a rotten spot
or a dried up portion of stalk. It very often
opens up a hole in the stalk and then crawls
up or down from where it is attacked, al-
though I have seen stalks that were so dried
that there was simply a film on one side where
the outer skin of the stalk remained green
and sufficient sap had been carried up through

that to maintain green leaves, but, of course,
could not produce any growth in that condition.
Dr. Beal: Any one that is looking after dis-
ease must train his eyes to see these points.
Mr. Goodspeed: I would like to ask Dr.
Beal if he knows anything of the diseases we
call rust affecting the skin of the plant.
Dr. Beal: I do not.
Mr. Goodspeed: It is something like potato
scab.
Dr. Beal: On your young plants?
Mr. Goodspeed: Not especially young
plants.
Dr. Beal: Have you had Prof. Whetzel
look that up?
Mr. Goodspeed: We have both been looking it up. The only remedy we can hit upon
is to take the plants and move to a new section, Sometimes they will recover by taking
up and setting in new soil.
Mr. Roof: I just had a little experience.
I will say that it has been my opinion from
observation that it is some bug. Where I
have found that rust, I find that it is not communicated to other roots in my case and.
further, I have taken up roots that were rusted
and transferred to another bed and the rust
has left them.
Dr. Beal: Mr. Goodspeed, has that been extensive enough to cause any trouble?
Mr. Goodspeed: It seems to be located in
different sections. It is not wide spread. but
I know of two or three gardens which it has
got into bad. That disease practically spoils
the root for market. There is a little in Michigan and some in New York, but I notice it
comes more largely from sandy soil. Nearly
every specimen I have comes from sandy soil.
I had one hundred pounds shipped to me from
Minnesota and not a root but was affected.
Mr. Ferris: On the matter of nematoid on
the roots, I would like to ask those who have
had it, would it not be better to throw away
the roots or destroy them?
Dr. Beal: I would, most certainly.
Mr. Goodspeed: In that connection I would
say that if you have a considerable amount of
them, isolate them until they get their growth
and dry and market them, but keep these roots
entirely away from your garden. If you can
afford it the better way is to destroy them at
once, because that pest is certainly gaining.
We have handled this fall something like
175 different crops of green root, coming to us
from Wisconsin and Missouri, and I would

be safe to say that the disease is present in
fully 50 per cent. of the crops. Some crops
will have it on every root.
Mr. Cook: Will the disease in time advance
to the place where it destroys the root? You
said the presence of the disease did not injure
the root for market. If that is the case, why
pay any attention to it?
Mr. Goodspeed: I said a moment ago that
it would increase until it stopped the growth.
It destroys the life, of the fiber roots and their
ability to feed the plant. The fiber roots begin to die first and all means of sustenance
is taken away from the plant, while you have
the body of the plant there that can be turned
into dried root and something realized out
of it.