APRIL 15, 1914 



317 



readers of Gleanings who uiake us a call 

 can put down their names, residence, etc. 

 It will need a fair-sized book, for they 

 come not only from all over the United 

 States, but I might almost say from Eu- 

 rope, Asia, and Africa. 



MOTH-BALT^ AND CREOSOTE FOR SQUASH-BUGS AND 

 MITES. 



I tried the moth-ball remedy for cucumbers and 

 squashes, and it worked to a certain extent; but I 

 did not get to try it till the vines were pretty badly 

 mutilated and squashes were full of worms, some of 

 them. Tlie worms hatch inside of the squashes, 

 melons, and cucumbers in this locality, different from 

 what they do in Illinois and Iowa, where I formerly 

 lived. I had some summer squashes, and quite a 

 good many cucumbers that did better than my neigh- 

 bors' in that line this summer. 



In Your poultry talks I have never known you to 

 mention creosote (a by-product of coal, I think it is) 

 as a good thing to get rid of mites. I generally 

 have to apply it about twice through the summer to 

 keep pretty well rid of them. I use two or three 

 gallons with a brush, and go over roosts, nest-boxes, 

 and walls about as high as I can reach, and gener- 

 ally spill it around on the ground under the roosts, 

 and it answers for some time to come. Care should 

 be taken about using it in very close houses, as it 

 might smother young chicks, especially if the weather 

 is very warm. I lost several young chicks at one 

 time by creosoting a rather tight barrel. They went 

 into it at night, and several of them smothered from 

 the gas thrown off by creosote. It can be bought 

 here by the barrel at 15 cts. per gallon, and perhaps 

 a little higher in smaller quantities. 



The Semet Solvay Co., of Ensley, Ala., manufac- 

 tures it, and will ship by the barrel or in less quan- 

 tities, I think. Guy N. Vedder. 



Birmingham, Ala., Oct. 15. 



" HELIANTl/-^ THE NEW " WONDERPLANT." 



Almost 70 years ago my mother wanted a 

 flower-bed, and father fixed one up witli 

 some very rich dirt, and seeds were planted. 

 In due time a very thrifty plant appeared ; 



The potatoes that grew in six weeks, and the brush that brushed the skins 

 off, instead of paring or scraping. They are the Red Triumph, and one 

 potato is shown only partly " peeled." 



Fig. 4. — A clump or hill of dasheen where a rough 

 small tuber was planted over a year ago. A. I. Root 

 admiring his dasheens. 



and while father declared it was a weed, 

 mother insisted it was one of her new ac- 

 quisitions. Along in the fall it did become 

 a wonderful mass of bloom, and this bloom 

 looked exactly like lit- 

 tle sunflowers. Father 

 still kept joking about 

 her great weed until 

 near frost time, when 

 somebody asked why 

 the ground was heav- 

 ing up about the plant 

 as if it concealed a 

 great hill of potatoes 

 or some similar tubei-; 

 and then there was a 

 big laugh all around 

 about mother's choice 

 " posey.' ' It was an 

 art i c It o k e that did 

 wonders under the 

 stimulus of very rich 

 soil and anxious care. 

 What brings the mat- 

 ter up now? Why, i\ 



