1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
669 
[Every query roust be accompanied by the name and address of the 
writer to Insure attention. Before askinR a question please see if it is 
not anewered in our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
A REMEDY FOR WHITE GRUBS. 
E. H. V. E., Stanley, N. Y .—Is there any way of pre¬ 
venting white grubs eating strawberry roots ? I have 
a new bed planted last spring on a clean piece of corn 
stubble in which the pests are making sad work. I 
saw tobacco recommended in The Rural some time 
ago, but the use of it seems hardly practical. Hasn’t 
some strawberry grower discovered a remedy ? 
Here in Fairfield County, Conn., we have never suf¬ 
fered from the white grub in our strawberries, but 
would suggest the use of muriate of potash, which 
would make an excellent fertilizer and might destroy 
the grubs. It should be worked into the soil near the 
plants. EDWIN HOYT. 
There is probably no real preventive or remedy for 
the injury done by white grubs. I aim to avoid the 
pests by not planting on sod, and I also make the 
ground pretty rich, so that the plants not eaten by 
them spread as much as possible to fill vacancies made 
by them. I never allow a field to stand in clover more 
than one year at a time, and grow no other grass on 
the place This is my experience here, in Lucas County, 
O., and it is probably the same as that of other growers 
elsewhere. w. w. farnsworth. 
The only effectual remedy I have tried is to dig the 
grubs out wherever I see an evidence of their work. 
Here, in Dutchess County, N. Y., I have never been as 
seriously afflicted as some others by their depreda¬ 
tions, which may be owing to the fact that I seldom 
set plants on corn stubble ground or ground enriched 
by unfermented stable manure, for I use chemical 
manures only for growing my plants and I fancy that 
potash and bone are not favorite articles of diet for 
white grubs. w. f. taber. 
Here in New Jersey, I have had no experience with 
white grubs. They do not bother me much. I know 
of other growers who are troubled considerably by 
them and the only way they fight them is to pull up 
the plants as soon as they wilt and they are sure to 
find the grubs at the roots. Some try to destroy the 
pests while plowing the ground before they set the 
plants by making a boy walk behind the plow and 
pick up all the grubs he can find. a. johnson. 
The only remedy I know of is to dig carefully around 
the plants until I find the grub and then I destroy it. 
The moment it attacks the roots the plant shows it by 
the wilting of the leaves. I fought them personally 
this season in my Timbrell bed and did not lose over 
five plants in a lot of 200 and more set the past spring. 
The liberal use of either lime, wood ashes or a good 
fertilizer thoroughly incorporated with the soil at the 
last harrowing just before planting, is the best and 
only preventive I know of ; but no surface application 
of any kind after planting will prevent the ravages 
of these destructive pests. t. j. dwyeb. 
FORCING A COLT’S GROWTH. 
J. B., Oroton, N. Y .—What is the best and safest 
feed on which to force the growth of a three-year-old 
colt running on fair pasture ? 
Grass is the natural and perfect food for cattle and 
horses, and with a good, rich, nutritious growth, a 
horse not working, or a cow not in milk, will lay on 
fat very fast; but where the pasture is only ordinary, 
to stimulate the growth of a young horse, where it is 
not as rapid as desired, I would give him four to six 
quarts of wheat middlings once a day. This ration 
will build up muscle. If fat is desired, an addition of 
corn meal with less middlings will do; but I take it 
that muscular growth is what is desired. 
M. H. C. GARDNER. 
First of all, new milk; second, skim-milk; third, 
wheat bran and ground oats, the quantity to be regu¬ 
lated according to the digestive ability of the animal, 
as there is very little danger of injury to the colt on 
such feed, in such quantities as he will propeny 
digest. To teach the colt to drink milk, he must first 
be put in a stall, and given very little water until he 
becomes thirsty, and at first one should put in the 
water just enough milk to discolor it—hardly enough 
to be perceptible. Then gradually the amount should 
be increased, and in a few days he will drink the milk 
readily. By this means we at one time made, on a 
very large, three-year-old Clydesdale colt, which was 
thin, a growth of 417 pounds in four months, the 
largest growth we have ever known to be made on a 
horse in the same length of time, smiths & powell co. 
A Celery Disease. 
IF. C. J., Toronto , Can. —What is the cause of rot in 
celery, and also a preventive ? 
Ans. —There are half a dozen diseases of leaves and 
stalks which might pass as “ rot.” Send to the New 
Y T ork Experiment Station at Geneva, N. Y., for a bulle¬ 
tin on “ Some Celery Diseases. The preventive given 
there is to 6pray the celery with the Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture from the time of transplanting till the blanch¬ 
ing. Do not let any of the refuse of the diseased crop 
rot on the ground if celery is to be grown there next 
year. 
A Greedy Overfed Horse. 
J. J. M., Rossville, N. Y. —1. My horse does not chew 
his oats thoroughly, as a small quantity passes him 
whole. What is a preventive ? 2. When standing in 
the stable, most of the time at present, his droppings 
seem to be hard enough, but when he is harnessed and 
driven two or three miles his bowels become very loose 
and after standing overnight, they seem to be natural 
again. His food is 12 to 16 quarts of oats per day with 
the ordinary quantity of hay. His drink is rain water 
from the cistern. What should be his treatment ? 
Ans — 1. The fact that the horse does not chew his 
oats more thoroughly may be due either to some 
trouble with his teeth, which interferes with the proper 
mastication of his food, or to a habit of bolting his 
grain and swallowing it without chewing it properly. 
The prevention will depend upon the cause. Examine 
the teeth, and if found at fault, employ a competent 
veterinary surgeon to remedy the trouble. If they 
are all right and it is evidently due to eating too 
rapidly, placing two or three lumps of rock salt or 
cobblestones, the size of the double fist, in his feed- 
box and causing him to p ! ck his oats from around 
them may correct the habit. If this does not, it may 
be necessary to feed the oats ground, preferably in 
the form of chop, i. e., to mix the ground feed with 
slightly dampened cut hay. 2. The looseness of the 
bowels is probably due, in part at least, to the want 
of proper mastication of his food ; also in part to the 
fact that he is be'ng overfed ; while chronic intestinal 
indigestion may have resulted from the above or other 
causes, which if present might cause the trouble. 
You are feeding about twice the quantity of grain an 
ordinary driving horse should receive when doing so 
little work. The allowance of hay should also be 
limited, especially when there is any bowel trouble, 
as in this case. In addition to correcting the feeding 
and diet, it would be well to give an active purgative 
to unload the bowels, as six to eight drams of best 
aloes, as referred to elsewhere in this paper, f. l. k. 
Foot Rot in Cattle. 
IF. D. A., San Antonio, Texas .—I have a small herd 
of half and three-quarter Jerseys and this summer all 
of my milch cows got sick with the following symp¬ 
toms : They were stiff and lame in either the hind or 
fore legs ; the joints seemed to be painful, but there 
waB no swelling or heat. They had no fever, and 
their digestion was normal. Their appetite was very 
good and they were not unusually thirsty. The milk 
flow was somewhat reduced. Some of them fell off in 
flesh, but mainly from a disinclination to move about 
and graze, for when I commenced to feed them more 
bran and cotton-seed meal, they picked up again. 
Their urine was normal. The trouble lasted from 
June until November, though some of them have got 
entirely over it, and only two are slightly stiff yet. 
Aug.—Judging from your description, I am of the 
opinion that the lameness was in the feet, instead of 
in the joints, probably a form of foot rot, which is not 
uncommon among cattle. Examine the feet between 
the' claws and around the top of the hoofs, especially 
at the heels. If found to be diseased, pare away all 
dead or diseased horn and clean between the claw* by 
drawing through a strip of cotton cloth or untwisted 
rope. Then apply a dressing of strong hydrochloric 
acid with a small swab so a* to thoroughly cauterize 
the diseased surface. Repeat the treatment every two 
weeks until healed. Place the cattle where their feet 
will be as clean as possible during the treatment. 
F. L. K. 
Is It Colic or Skin Disease ? 
C. C., Shenandoah, la.— My four-year-old mare is 
suckling her first colt which is about four months old. 
She was always healthy until the last month. She gets 
sick at night as often as four times a week without any 
apparent cause, and rolls and bites her sides viciously 
and acts as horses sometimes do when troubled with 
colic. A good dose of soda always relieves her. How 
should she be treated ? 
Ans. —I cannot tell from this brief description 
whether the mare is suffering from repeated attacks 
of colic or only from a nervous irritation of the skin, 
known as prurigo. In either case a good purge, fol¬ 
lowed by a light diet, will probably give the desired 
relief. Prepare the mare by feeding only bran mashes 
for 12 hours. Then give a dose of six to eight drams 
of the best aloes, either in a ball or as a drench, and 
continue the mash diet until she is freely purged The 
dose of aloes may be repeated in three days, if she is 
not sufficiently purged by the first dose. Continue a 
light, laxative diet until the trouble has entirely dis¬ 
appeared. F. L. KILBOBNE. 
A Tenant On Suffrance. 
E. D. G., (No address.) —A lives in a house belonging 
to C, but refuses to move out or pay rent long due. 
Can C lease the house to another man and will the 
man holding the lease have power to get A out in 
two weeks ? 
Ans. —The name of the State in which A lives is 
not given, yet in most of the States the rights, reme¬ 
dies and liabilities of landlord and tenant are more or 
less changed and supplemented from those provided 
for by the “common law,” by statutes peculhr to each 
State. It is impracticable therefore to gi/e a definite 
answer, especially as nothing is said about the terms 
of the lease. In a general way, however, a tenant 
whose term has expired or who has forfeited his rights 
by failing to pay his rent, or otherwise, may be ex¬ 
pelled by process of law, or the landlord may take the 
law into his own hands and remove him and his effects, 
if he can do so without a breach of the peace. In the 
exercise of this power, however, he cannot exceed the 
bounds of humanity without rendering himself liable 
for the consequences. For instance, he must not put 
a tenant and his family out at midnight or in a drench¬ 
ing storm, and if one is too ill to be safely moved, he 
must be allowed to remain. 
A Little About Bone Fertilizers. 
J. B. H., Carrolltown, Pa. —1. Where should samples 
of fertilizers be sent for analysis ? 2. How much of 
each brand would be required for a sample ? 3. 
What is the difference in value between fine raw bone 
and dissolved bone ? 4. Should bone be fine or coarse, 
and is there any difference in value between the two 
kinds? 5. In a home mixture for potatoes, what is 
the best form of phosphoric acid ? 
Ans.—1 and 2. Write to the Pennsylvania Experi¬ 
ment Station at State College, Center County, for in¬ 
structions about sending samples for analysis. 3. The 
fine raw bone contains three or more per cent of 
nitrogen. “ Dissolved bone” usually means hone biaclt 
acted upon by acids. The bone black is bone charcoal 
prepared much like wood charcoal and of course the 
heating drives off the nitrogen Very few raw bones 
are treated with acids for commercial fertilizers. A 
portion of the nitrogen is lost by such treatment and 
the fine bone flour is more economical for the farmer. 
4. The finer the better. The stations in analyzing 
bone divide it into four degrees of fineness—fine, fine 
medium, medium and coarse. In the fine, nitrogen is 
figured at 15 cents a pound and phosphoric acid at 
seven cents. In the coarse grade the values are 7% 
and three respectively, and the difference is due 
entirely to fine grinding. 5. For a simple mixture we 
should use fine ground bone and a very small amount 
of superphosphate. 
Chemicals for a Hay Field. 
J. F. B., lunbridye, Vt.—l have a field of good corn 
land that will cut from a ton and a half to two tons of 
hay per acre. I wish to keep it in grass ; what shall 
I use as a top-dressing that will make it continue to 
yield as much grass as at present, or more ? It must 
be a commercial fertilizer, as barnyard manure is en¬ 
tirely out of the question. The hay is Herd’s grass 
and clover. 
Ans. —We should use any of the high-grade grass 
fertilizers sold on the market. If the piece is small, 
probably it will be just as cheap to buy the prepared 
goods. If you want to try home mixing, you may use 
per acre 50 pounds of muriate of potash and 200 pounds 
of ground bone in the fall, and 50 pounds of nitrate of 
soda in the spring. 
Irrigating from a Small Stream Illegal. 
J. IF. M., Stony Point, N. Y.—A year since, we built 
a dam across a small stream of water that runs through 
our land and down through that of our neighbor, giv¬ 
ing us a very pretty little pond sufficiently above a 
part of our farm to enable us to use it for irrigation, 
and, when so used, (for a few hours at a time) the flow 
of water is cut off from our neighbor, who complains 
to the Board cf Health of being deprived of water. 
Have we the right to use the water for irrigation ? 
Ans. —As a general principle, the owner of land 
along a stream has a right to use the water for any 
purpose not inconsistent with a similar right in the 
owners of land above and below or opposite his place ; 
but where the stream is small and doesn’t supply more 
water than is sufficient to answer the natural wants 
of the different proprietors, none of them can use the 
water for either irrigation or manufacturing, but for 
domestic purposes or for watering stock any proprie¬ 
tor is justified in using all the water. 
