266 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



the others each about three more rows on either side. In the use of this 

 and of all other pumps it is advisable to add a strainer to the lower end 

 of the hose in order to prevent impurities from entering the valve. In 

 an emergency, where no machines are at command, these fountain 

 pumps do excellent service, and many prefer them to other means of 

 applying the poison. They are, however, wasteful of material, and the 

 poison is more apt to get on to the bodies of those employed in their 

 use than in most of the other modes of sprinkling." 



Three or four of these pumps may be operated in the same cart and 

 from the same tank, and the vehicle can be driven very rapidly in cases 

 of haste. Mr. P. Oalahan, of Selma, Ala., informs me he prepared 

 rough carts with short axles, upon which he used his ordinary wagon 

 wheels, and, driving on a rapid trot with the barrel of poison and fount- 

 ain pumps on each, with occasional change for a fresh team, each cart 

 poisoned forty acres per flay. As set forth elsewhere, it is cercaiuly a 

 very considerable advantage to have less than four wheels to the vehi- 

 cle, as it can then be turned shorter and driven quicker and with less 

 damage than is jjossible with the ordinary lumber wagon. In this con- 

 nection the reader will do well to notice the high legged wheels de- 

 scribed in the elevated frames of machines., in the following portion of 

 this report. These same legged wheels apply equally well to carts, and 

 so u§ed will save more of the crop. 



By using the wheels from a wagon or any wheeled farm machine, a 

 simple cart for conveying poisoning apparatus is easily constructed 

 with a wooden or iron axle, or with legs for the wheels. It must be re- 

 membered that shafts, if used in their ordinary position upon carts, 

 place either the horse or the w^heels upon the rows. If shafts are em- 

 ployed they must be set to one side. This produces a side-draft uncom- 

 fortable for the horse. Where a special axle is to be made it can be 

 given length enough to cause the wheels to straddle a pair of rows ; then 

 the shafts and horse maybe centrally placed over the intermediate row- 

 interspace ; but when an axle of usual length is taken it will generally 

 be better to use a median tongue above the row and a span of horses 

 ahead of the w^heels -, and a tongue can generalh^ be more easily found 

 or made than a pair of shafts. 



Concerniug the use of the '' fountain-pump," we/ quote from the De- 

 partment Report "On Cotton Insects," 1879: 



"The most practical way of applying wet poisons that has come under our observa- 

 tion is by means of a machine known as the fountain-pump. 



* * * *•* » * 



"In using the fonntain-pump, one man works the pump, another hand (often a wo- 

 njan) accompanies him and carries the bucket containing the mixture. Other hands 

 keep these upxjlied with the poison. As some parts of the work are more tiresome 

 than others, the hands are transferred from one part to another at intervals. The 

 water is conveyed to and about the fields as far as possible in wagons. 



" It isestimated by those who have had much experience in applying poisons in this 

 way, that where water is easily obtained, with one fountain-pump and eight handa 

 (three of whom may be women) 25 acres of cotton may be poisoned in one day. The 



