218 
December, 1890. 
/ OBCH RRDteVORR D 
they were found in great abundance upon 
the trees where the syrup had been placed. 
They relish the paste used in binding books. 
Dr. Riley, in Insect Life, Vol. I. page 67, 
gives an account of their peculiar taste in 
this line, by whicn they had destroyed the 
binding of important documents on file in 
the United States Treasury Department at 
Washington. He says : “ Tiie basement 
was first visited and many books examined 
which had the entire backs eaten off. 
These were old as well ps more recently 
bound books, and were on shelves away 
from the floor. They had even eaten the 
blue and ted paint from important maps.” 
A very cheap and practical remedy is to 
sprit. kle powdered borax in their runways 
and haunts. In the cas° mentioned, Dr. 
Riley recommend'. d the use of California 
pyrethrum. bubach or Persian Insect Pow- 
der — these terms are synonymous. In the 
evening sprinkle or blow the powder into 
cracks and crevict s that serve as places of 
concealment and then close the room tight- 
ly. In the morning the dead and stupefied 
roaches should be swept up and burned. 
By repeating this two or three times they 
will all be kdled. Care should then be 
taken not to let them get started again. 
Plant Lice. 
Tn Bulletin No. 72 of the New Jersey 
Experiment Station, Prof. John B. Smith 
describes several species of plant lice. Those 
infesting the peach, cabbage, cherry, melon 
and the grain plant louse are given especial 
prominence. For most of these he recom- 
mends the use of kerosene emulsion, which 
is prepared as follows : Mix together one 
pint of kerosene oil, one quart of soft soap 
and one quart of water. Mix thoroughly 
by means of a force pump, pumping it 
back and forth from one vessel to another 
or into the same vessel. When the mixture 
is permanent, so that the oil does not rest on 
top, the compound may be diluted so that 
only one-fifteenth is kerosene oil; that is, 
add ten pints of water. This solution, if 
sprayed upon the infested plants, will be 
sufficient to destroy all lice. The appli- 
cation, however, must be thorough, as the 
lice hide under the leaves, causing them to 
curl around so as to protect them from out- 
side enemies. Powdered tobacco is very 
highly recommended for the lice found on 
cabbages. The powder should be dusted on 
while the plants are wet with dew. 
A New Wheat Pest. 
Prof. H. Garman, of the Kentucky Ex- 
periment Station, in a recent bulletin 
describes a new wheat pest known as the 
“frit fly,” Oscinis vuriabilis, Low. This 
pest has long been known in Europe, where 
it has done considerable damage to growing 
crops. This i; its first appearance in this 
country, and perhaps will prove very 
destructive unless some ready means of 
destroying it is found. The remedies recom- 
mended are the application of stimulating 
dressings, and the destruction of volunteer 
wheat where it seems to be most frequently 
met with. 
Winter Work. 
Vines may be pruned and cuttings made 
whenever the wood is not frozen. All work 
possible should be done now to save time 
in spring. Cuttings will grow better if 
made before hard freezing. Almost any 
variety will grow if they are treated in the 
right manner. T?iiey should be tied into 
bundles of about 150 with the butts made 
even, and put into the ground on a warm 
exposure, in an upright position, with the 
tops down and butts up and fine soil or sand 
filled in between them and over the butts 
to about three inches deep; then coarse 
litter thrown over the top to remain until 
early in spring. There they will callous 
and often throw’ out roots before the buds 
start. Then they should be taken up, dip- 
ped into water and set out with care in 
good rich soil, well packed. Nearly all 
will grow and make strong plants the first 
season. All tender vines and hybrids 
should be covered and protected at once as 
stated last month. When the ground is 
not frozen vines can still be set out. All 
young vines should be protected where 
they are or taken up and heeled in; very 
few hardy young vines will endure the 
sudden changes of our w inters without 
being killed outright or so injured as to be 
worthless. — J. Stayman. 
Layered Vines for Vacant Spaces. 
Missing vines in the rows may be replaced 
by laying down a cane, to fill the vacancy. 
In pruning leave a long cane as near the 
ground as pcssible for the purpose and if it 
is not long enough it makes but little dif- 
ference. Dig a trench about a foot deep 
and lay the cane down to the bottom as far 
as it will go, bend it short at the end 
and bring it to the top of the ground, 
then fill in with good rich soil. Let but 
one cane grow from it unless there is an- 
other vacancy. The next fall continue the 
trench until it comes to the right place and 
then lay the cane down and bring it up 
where desired. This method appears more 
tedious than laying down a long cane but it 
is stronger rooted and will make up for lost 
time in the end. We have continued this 
process sometimes for three or four missing 
vines and could see no difference in them. 
In fact they appeared extrastrong and good 
as they were well rooted all the way 
throughout the trench. 
Old vineyards may be renewed in this 
manner and made young and thrifty again; 
fully as good in two years as a new vine- 
yard four or five years old, and, so far as 
we can see, equally as good if not better. 
In doing this there is no time or crop lost, 
but we must prune short and prepare for it 
by leaving a cane for layering as above 
stated. It would no doubt be better if we 
would renew our vineyards by layering 
every few years, but it is difficult to give a 
general rule at what age it should be done, 
so much depends upon the condition of the 
vines and the varieties that are grown. 
We have experimented upon this matter 
for a great many years until we have re- 
newed all the vines we have. We are sat- 
isfied that there is not a Concord vineyard 
any where, of six years old, that would not 
be improved by renewal, and even some at 
four years. The Cynthiana, Norton and 
Herman which are deeper rooted and more 
enduring, perhaps, do not require it. In 
renewing a vine it is not necessary to have 
a new cane of the current year’s growth; a 
one or two years old cane is as good as any. 
Neither is it necessary to layer the whole 
vineyard at one time, either fall or spring 
will do, so that the work is done well; the 
main thing is to have it done before the 
vines show debility and the surface too 
much filled with roots. — J. Stayman. 
Influence of Stock on Cion. 
I notice in your issue of November that 
you ask if the grafting of an early grape 
upon a late variety would change its season 
of ripening. About ten years ago I grafted 
the Lady grape upon Isabella with the result 
that it now ripens from one week to ten 
days later. I have the Lady on its own roots 
within one hundred feet of the grafted vine 
and am thus enabled to make accurate com- 
parison. — C. Lauppe, Champaign Co., Ohio. 
Some Notes on the November Number. 
I have read the “Vineyard” in your last 
number with much interest especially Mr. 
Stayman’s advice about grafting over such 
worthless varieties as Mo. Reisling, Elvira, 
&c. The advice to change undesirable va- 
rieties by grafting is generally good but its 
value would be greatly enhanced, if it could 
be always followed with practical success. 
The “how to do it” has been frequently told 
by apparently practical writers and gener- 
ally seems easy enough, but I find from my 
own experience and that of others who sel- 
dom appear in print or speak in public, that 
there are far too many failures, to make the 
practice a general success. The difficulty 
seems to be in hitting just the right condi- 
tions in both cions and stock. There is not 
agreement on this point. Some say the cion 
alone should be dormant and the stock in 
growing condition; others that both should 
be dormant and the operation should be 
done early, at or before the movement of 
the sap, and yet in opposition to this idea I 
have in mind a man, remarkably successful, 
who pays apparently little regard to these 
conditions. 
Some years ago, I went with a gentleman 
from Virginia to see this man’s vines and 
learn his methods. He said he could show 
us better than he could tell us, so he went 
to a part of his garden where his wood was 
buried, picked out a graft and cut off a vine 
then four years old that had grown a foot 
or more, saw ed and chiseh d out the place 
for the graft, and stuck it in, in a very 
bungling manner, just to show his method. 
