1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
4i3 
to  drought  and  heat.  This  comes  about  from  the  check, 
for  the  time  being,  of  evaporation  from  the  surface  of 
the  leaves.  But  the  question  of  absolute  benefit  to  the 
crop  in  case  of  potatoes  from  this  sort  of  artificial 
dew,  can  be  settled  only  by  experiment.  I  doubt 
much  its  value  though  the  temporary  revival  of  the 
foliage  would  quite  certainly  result  from  such  spray¬ 
ing.  In  case  of  extremely  warm,  dewless  nights  it  is 
possible  that  a  spraying  just  at  evening  would  con¬ 
siderably  invigorate  the  plant  by  aiding  the  cells  in 
storing  or  holding  the  feeble  supply  of  sap  which 
would  come  into  the  stem  during  the  night,  thus 
rendering  the  cells  turgescent  and  enabling  the  plants 
to  carry  on  vital  activities  during  a  part  of  the  day  at 
least.  With  the  large  sprayers  which  I  have  intro¬ 
duced  into  the  Norfolk  region  we  are  able  to  spray 
two  acres  per  hour,  if  the  water  supply  is  handy,  by 
the  use  of  one  man  and  horse,  hence  the  cost  of  an  ex¬ 
periment  ought  not  to  be  much.  wm.  b.  ai.wood. 
Virginia  Experiment  Station. 
I  have  had  no  experience  myself,  and  know  of  no 
experiments  in  sprinkling  potato  vines  in  time  of 
drought.  It  would  probably  have  a  slight  effect  in 
reducing  transpiration  from  the  leaves,  and  would 
thus  be  beneficial,  but  I  doubt  if  it  would  be  profitable, 
unless  the  water  was  near  at  hand  and  readily 
obtained.  During  the  night  the  dew  generally  pro¬ 
vides  conditions  similar  to  those  secured  by  sprinkling, 
and  little  would  be  gained  by  applying  water  at  that 
time.  At  midday,  the  sun  would  quickly  evaporate 
the  small  amount  of  water  that  would  be  applied,  and 
its  effect  would  not  be  marked.  I  should  expect  the 
best  results  if  the  water  could  be  applied  between 
three  and  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon. 
Michigan  Agr’l  College.  L.  K.  taft. 
I  have  very  little  faith  in  the  value  of  surface  spray¬ 
ing  for  potatoes  in  the  manner  suggested.  No  horse¬ 
power  sprinkler  with  which  I  am  familiar  would  de 
liver  half  enough  water  at  one  spraying  to  wet  the 
ground  at  all  thoroughly,  and  to  make  repeated  spray¬ 
ings  would  be  expensive,  as  the  machine  would  draw 
hard  over  ground  wet  on  the  surface.  I  do  not  know 
of  any  experiments  in  this  line.  Unless  the  spraying 
were  done  in  a  sufficiently  thorough  manner,  it  would 
do  more  harm  than  good.  Prof.  King’s  experiments 
made  at  our  station  show  that  wetting  the  surface 
only,  in  times  of  drought,  actually  causes  the  soil  to 
lose  water  faster  than  before,  from  the  fact  that  it  re¬ 
stores  the  capillary  movement  to  the  surface,  that  be¬ 
fore  the  wetting  was  cut  off,  on  account  of  the  surface 
layer  being  too  dry  to  conduct  water.  I  think  that 
the  horse-power  might  be  used  to  better  advantage  by 
causing  it  to  operate  some  kind  of  a  pump  that  would 
convey  the  water  to  the  field  in  sufficient  quantities  to 
thoroughly  wet  the  ground,  so  far  as  the  work  of 
irrigation  was  undertaken.  e.  s.  goff. 
Experiment  Station,  Madison,  Wis. 
Soiling  Sheep  ;  Fall  Lambs. 
R.  M.  B.,  Washington,  D.  C. — 1.  Are  there  any  sheep 
men  in  the  country  who  practice  soiling — cutting  and 
feeding  green  crops  for  their  stock  as  dairymen  do  for 
their  cows  ?  2.  What  is  the  best  method  of  bringing 
ewes  to  the  ram  so  as  to  have  lambs  dropped  in  the 
fall  ? 
In  the  summer  sheep  do  not  do  as  well  on  anything 
else  as  on  good  short  and  sweet  pasture,  and  then  they 
should  be  shifted  from  one  field  to  another,  so  as  to 
allow  the  abandoned  field  to  grow  up  and  be  well  over¬ 
run  with  young  clover.  I  have  soiled  sheep  on  rape 
and  peas  sown  with  oats.  This  makes  excellent  feed, 
and  so  does  ensilage.  Give  me  good  pasture  and  no 
flies,  and  I  will  get  better  and  stronger  sheep  than 
the  best  of  soiling  food  with  grain  will  produce.  Ewes 
can  take  the  ram  at  almost  any  time  of  the  year.  The 
best  time  will  depend  on  the  breed  and  management 
of  both  the  ram  and  the  ewes :  158  of  my  ewes 
lambed  last  January  and  February,  and  at  least  140 
will  lamb  this  and  next  month.  I  breed  our  Dorset 
ewes  the  second  day  after  they  have  lambed,  and  if 
they  refuse  the  ram,  he  is  taken  out  of  sight,  and  put 
back  the  next  day,  and  so  on  until  the  ewes  take  him, 
but  as  a  rule  they  take  him  the  second  day  after 
lambing.  t.  s.  cooper. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  one  who  soils  sheep  here,  in 
Washington  County,  N.  Y.  Ewes  to  be  bred  early  in 
the  season,  should  not  be  run  down  in  flesh;  neither 
can  they  be  expected  to  have  early  lambs  if  they  came 
in  late,  and  have  carried  or  suckled  their  lambs  until 
June.  They  should  have  a  run  on  good  pasture  with 
shade  and  water,  and  have  a  daily  feed  of  bran  or  oats, 
and  the  rams  should  be  kept  separate  from  the  flock 
until  the  time  of  service.  Some  think  that  a  sudden 
change  from  grass  to  dry  feed  for'a  week  will  cause  the 
ewes  to  come  in  heat.  A  friend  in  an  adjoining  county 
who  has  been  a  successful  grower  of  early  lambs, 
says  there  is  no  secret  about  the  matter,  but  his  ewes 
are  kept  in  good  flesh,  and  he  keeps  his  rams  in  a  lot 
by  themselves  until  he  wishes  to  use  them  for  breeding 
purposes.  tiios.  e.  hunt. 
So  far  as  I  know,  no  one  about  here  “soils”  sheep. 
We  have  lots  of  pasture.  No  one  near  here  had 
secured  lambs  in  November  or  December  so  far  as 
I  know,  until  Mr.  Geo.  E.  Jones  imported  a  lot  of  Dor- 
sets  last  spring  and  summer.  Most  of  these  lambed  in 
November  ;  but  early  lambing  in  this  case  depends  on 
the  bi’eed,  and  nothing  but  good  feed  is  needed,  so  far 
as  I  know.  I  have  a  Dorset  dropped  last  August  that 
weighed  115  pounds  a  few  days  ago  after  it  had  been 
sheared,  and  it  yielded  a  little  over  five  pounds  of 
wool.  The  mother  of  that  ewe  dropped  last  August, 
had  a  pair  of  twins  again  last  winter  or  spring,  mak¬ 
ing  three  lambs  within  a  year.  I  expect  this  ewe  to 
lamb  next  October.  The  best  way  to  secure  fall  lambs 
about  here  will  probably  be  to  get  Dorset  sheep,  which 
can  best  be  made  to  produce  them.  a.  wetmore. 
It  is  necessary  for  us  to  soil  our  sheep  in  part  here, 
in  Middlesex  County,  Mass.,  as  during  the  middle  of 
the  summer  our  pastures  get  dried  up  and  we  have  to 
feed  corn  fodder,  barley  or  some  green  fodder  to  keep 
the  sheep  alive.  Even  the  little  soiling  we  do  is  qxxite 
expensive,  and  if  we  had  to  soil  them  entirely  it  would 
be  altogether  too  expensive.  I  obtain  the  best  success 
in  getting  a  crop  of  lambs  in  November  or  December, 
by  keeping  the  ewes  in  good  condition  and  by  using 
two  or  three  rams  with  the  fioclc,  changing  them  every 
morning.  The  lamb  market  for  Boston  is  improving 
very  much  ;  it  is  still  rather  limited  but  broadening 
more  and  more  every  year.  N.  J.  b. 
Not  one,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  learn,  practices  soil¬ 
ing  sheep.  The  most  that  is  done  is  to  feed  them 
some  grain  on  grass,  usually  in  orchard  pastures.  The 
most  common  method  of  treating  ewes  for  early  lamb 
raising,  is  to  secure  those  that  have  been  fevered  by 
road  or  car  travel,  or  by  fasting  for  a  short  time, 
and  then  increasing  the  food  by  the  addition  of  a  small 
grain  allowance.  Another  method  has  been  practiced, 
viz.,  placing  the  sheep  in  a  cool  basement  for  a  short 
time.  Others,  “it  is  said,”  have  driven  the  sheep  up 
and  down  the  lanes  of  farms  in  order  to  get  them  into 
a  fever;  but  I  do  not  think  that  this  has  been  prac¬ 
ticed  to  any  extent.  If  the  lambs  have  been  taken 
from  the  ewes  early  the  year  before,  and  Horn  Dorset 
rams  are  used,  the  objects  sought  are  likely  to  be  at¬ 
tained.  X.  I’.  ROBERTS. 
I  know  of  no  one  in  this  county — Steuben,  Ind. — who 
soils  sheep.  Land  is  too  cheap  to  stimulate  stockmen 
to  make  an  experiment  of  that  kind,  and  our  people 
carry  on  mixed  farming,  and  do  not  study  methods  as 
they  should,  or  would  do,  if  they  devoted  themselves  to 
one  special  branch. 
For  early  lambs  I  think  the  best  plan  is  to  use  a 
breed  of  sheep  that  are  the  most  prolific ;  and  that 
make  the  best  mothers.  I  expect  to  make  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  market  lambs  my  business  in  the  future,  and 
for  that  purpose  have  selected  the  Dorset  Horn  sheep  ; 
and  my  experience  with  them  for  two  years  induces 
me  to  believe  that  I  have  made  no  mistake.  Ewes  of 
this  variety  which  dropped  lambs  in  April  and  May, 
1891,  and  were  allowed  to  run  with  the  ram  constantly, 
and  whose  lambs  were  permitted  to  suckle  until 
weaned  by  the  mothers,  dropped  lambs  again  in  Decem¬ 
ber  and  January  next  following.  The  rule  is,  twins 
or  more,  often  more ;  and  they  will  furnish  milk 
enough  for  the  crop  ;  and  it  is  astonishing  to  see  how 
they  will  eat  and  assimilate  food  when  very  young. 
From  my  experience,  I  believe  that  the  Dorset  can  be 
bred  at  any  time  desired,  without  any  special  care  or 
preparation  ;  and  that  if  the  lambs  are  weaned  when 
six  weeks  old,  75  per  cent  of  the  ewes  will  breed  spring 
and  fall.  I  wish  every  one  who  contemplates  rearing 
early  market  lambs  would  investigate  the  merits  of 
this  breed,  as  I  think  that  for  that  purpose  they  cer¬ 
tainly  have  no  superior.  The  wool  is  of  secondary 
importance,  but  is  entitled  to  consideration,  as  it  helps 
to  pay  for  keeping  the  ewes.  wili.iam  e.  kimsey. 
What  Ails  the  Strawberries  P 
O.  G.,  Oswego  Falls,  N.  Y. — What  is  the  matter  with 
my  strawberry  plants  ?  Those  I  have  planted  this 
year  mostly  had  black  roots  just  below  the  crown  and 
the  leaf  stalk  was  black  just  above  it.  A  great  number 
have  died  out,  some  after  lingering  along  for  three  or 
four  weeks.  The  plants  were  got  from  a  new  plan¬ 
tation  which  had  been  top-dressed  last  spring  rather 
heavily  with  wood  ashes  and  this  spring  the  plants 
don’t  seem  to  grow  as  they  should,  except  in  a  place 
near  the  hen  house  which  got  the  hen  droppings  and 
is  also  sheltered  by  the  buildings.  Now,  was  the  cold, 
late  spring  the  cause,  or  did  the  wood  ashes  burn  the 
roots,  or  is  the  trouble  a  lack  of  nitrogen  ?  All  last 
season  the  plants  grew  and  looked  very  vigorous. 
They  were  not  covered  through  the  winter.  Will  this 
account  for  the  matter  ? 
Ans. — Except  that  the  wood  ashes  were  too  thickly 
*  -  plied,  we  know  of  no  cause.  It  would  be  well  to 
add  hen  manure  or  phosphate  and  nitrogen  in  some 
form  to  a  part  and  see  if  this  addition  helps  the  plants. 
Perhaps  the  May-beetle  grub  has  caused  the  trouble. 
A  Destructive  Melon  Insect. 
Y.  D.  II.,  Eilgewood,  Ga. — The  canteloupe  season 
being  near  at  hand,  can  Tiie  RuRAr,  or  any  of  its 
readers  tell  me  what  will  prevent  the  worms  from 
boring  into  the  canteloupes  and  spoiling  them  before 
they  are  ripe  ? 
Ans. — The  insect  is  probably  the  common  melon 
borer  of  Georgia  (Phokellura  hyalinatalis).  There  is 
a  possibility  that  it  may  be  a  congeneric  insect  which 
more  commonly  bores  into  cucumbers,  and  which  I 
have  called  the  pickle  worm  in  an  article  which  I  pub¬ 
lished  in  my  Second  Report  on  the  Insects  of  Missouri, 
pages  64  to  70,  but  from  the  locality  it  is  more  likely 
to  be  the  former.  The  melon  worm  was  treated  in  the 
Annual  Report  of  this  Department  for  1879,  pages  218 
to  220,  and  is  illustrated  at  Fig.  5,  plate  III.  It  seems, 
from  observations,  that  there  are  several  generations 
in  the  course  of  a  season,  the  insects  increasing  in 
numbers  until  about  the  time  when  the  melons  ripen, 
when  they  are  in  full  force,  and  in  a  position  to  do 
great  damage.  Early  planting,  so  that  the  melons 
will  be  ripe  before  the  appearance  of  this  largest  and 
most  destructive  brood  of  worms,  will  be  efficacious 
in  a  locality  where  melon  growers  are  numerous.  This 
method,  however,  will  be  less  efficacious  nowadays 
than  it  was  some  years  ago,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
object  of  every  large  melon  grower  is  to  force  his  crop 
as  early  as  possible,  in  order  to  get  the  earliest  melons 
into  the  Northern  markets.  The  early  broods  of  the 
caterpillars  will  probably  be  found  feeding  upon  the 
leaves  and  stems  of  the  plants,  and  should  either  be 
killed  by  hand,  or,  in  the  case  of  large  gardens,  the 
plants  should  be  sprayed  with  Paris-green  or  London- 
purple  in  the  proportion  of  half  a  pound  of  the  poison 
to  50  gallons  of  water.  This  could  be  safely  done  up 
to  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  ripening  of  the  crop,  and 
will  probably  be  the  most  satisfactory  remedy  which 
can  be  tried.  The  moth  which  lays  the  egg  from 
which  the  worm  hatches,  has  a  wing  expanse  of  a 
little  more  than  one  inch,  and  is  whitish  or  almost 
hyaline  in  color,  with  a  dark  brown  or  blackish  border 
around  the  wings.  It  may  be  attracted  by  poison 
sweets  or  lights,  and  in  this  way  some  damage  can  un¬ 
doubtedly  be  averted.  c.  v.  ltiLEY. 
To  Try  to  Kill  Wire-Worms. 
It.  V.  R.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. — I  have  an  acre  of  potatoes 
planted  according  to  the  trench  system,  but  I  have 
discovered  that  the  land  is  full  of  wire- worms  ;  would 
an  application  of  salt  kill  them  in  time  to  save  the 
potatoes  ?  Would  the  latter  stand  so  much  salt  in  the 
soil?  Bow  much  salt  would  it  take  to  kill  the  pests 
on  an  acre  of  clay  land  ? 
Ans. — We  do  not  believe  that  any  application  you 
may  make  will  either  kill  or  drive  off  the  wire-worms, 
that  would  not  injure  the  potatoes.  We  would  advise 
that  you  give  the  acre  a  liberal  dressing  of  kainit — say 
600  pounds — or  what,  perhaps,  would  serve  as  well, 
while  it  would  give  a  complete  food,  a  liberal  dressing 
of  a  high-grade  potato  fertilizer.  If  the  land  has 
already  been  fertilized,  then  there  will  be  little  need 
of  the  additional  dressing.  While  neither  kainit,  salt 
alone,  ashes,  phosphates  nor  nitrate  will  harm  the 
worms,  yet  they  do  not  like  fertilizers  as  well  as 
manure. 
Potato  and  Other  Questions. 
W.  A.  K.,  Franklin,  Pa. — 1.  Are  the  Rural  New- 
Yorker  No.  2  and  the  Rural  Blush  Potatoes  early  or 
late?  2.  Where  can  I  get  Scarlet  Clover  seed?  3.  Is 
the  Crown  Jewell  Potato  a  good  early  one?  4.  Is  the 
J.  A.  Everitt  man-weight  hand  cultivator  as  good  as 
the  Planet  Jr.  for  garden  work? 
Ans. — 1.  The  Rural  No.  2  is  intermediate,  inclining 
to  late.  Many  dig  them  early  and  sell  them  for  early 
potatoes,  because  they  make  an  early  growth  large 
enough  for  the  purpose.  The  Rural  Blush  is  late.  2. 
W.  Atlee  Burpee  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  or  Landreth 
&  Son.  3.  Yes.  4.  We  do  not  know. 
Miscellaneous. 
Ants  Not  Enemies. — H.  G.,  Central,  Mo. — We  know 
of  no  injury  that  ants  do  to  fruit  trees.  It  will  be 
found  they  are  after  plant  lice  (aphides)  or  other  food 
and  do  not  injure  the  trees. 
E.  C.  H. — Westhampton,  L.  I. — The  best  remedy  for 
insects  on  young  poultry  is  buhach. 
Fresh  Lime  for  Bordeaux  Mixture. — G.  S.  S.,  Middle- 
burgh,  Pa. — It  is  much  better  to  use  freshly  burned  lime 
in  making  this  mixture,  but  if  you  cannot  get  it  you 
will  have  to  use  that  which  has  been  burned  a  long 
time. 
Cut  Worms  Beat  Us. — W.  D.  W.,  Malone,  N.  Y. — The 
fat,  greasy  cut-worm  is  alluded  to,  we  presume,  as  the 
grub  that  eats  your  corn,  melons  and  squashes.  We 
know  of  no  practical  remedy. 
