1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
8i7 
scale-like covering 1 under which the insect lives, 
renders it hard to reach with insecticides late in the 
season. The scales are impervious to most of the 
insecticides. As the insect sucks its fool, the poison¬ 
ous applications would, of course, have no effect upon 
it. The most practicable method of combating the 
pest that can now be recommended is to scrape off 
with a stiff brush all the scales possible in the fall or 
winter, and early in the spring as soon as the young 
lice are seen crawling about the tree, spray thoroughly 
with kerosene emulsion diluted with from five to 
eight parts of water. The young lice will begin to 
appear in May and for a week or two will be unpro¬ 
tected by scales, they will thus be easily reached by 
the spray, and the emulsion is death to every one it 
reaches, Spray thoroughly and in time. The emul¬ 
sion is best made as follows : 
Thoroughly dissolve one-half pound of hard or soft soap In one 
gallon of boiling water. While this solution Is very hot, add two gal¬ 
lons of kerosene and quickly begin to agitate the whole mass through 
a syringe or force pump, drawing the liquid Into the pump and forc¬ 
ing It back Into the dish. Continue this for live minutes, or until the 
whole mass assumes a creamy color and consistency which will 
adhere to the sides of the vessel, and not glide oft like oil. It may 
now be readily diluted with cold rain water, or the whole mass may 
be allowed to cool, when It has a semt-solld form, not unlike loppored 
milk. This standard emulsion If covered and placed In a cool, dark 
place will keep for a long time. In making a dilution from this cold 
emulsion, It is necessary to dissolve the amount required In three or 
four parts of boiling water, after which cold rain water may be added 
In the required quantities. 
The small flies proved to be the adults of the apple 
maggot, Trypeta pomonella, a small, yellowish, foot¬ 
less maggot about one-fourth of an inch in length, 
that tunnels through the fleshy part of apples in va¬ 
rious directions. A dozen maggots often ociur in the 
same apple and, as one author has said, render it “ a 
mere mass of useless and disgusting corruption.” 
The presence of the maggots is not easily detected 
from the outside of the apple unless their tunnels run 
near the skin. Usually, affected fruits mature earlier 
and drop off. The maggots continue working in 
these “ windfalls ” until fully mature, which usually 
occurs about August 1. They then leave the fruit and 
crawl into the ground about an inch, where they 
transform through puparia to the flies which emerge 
the following spring. Possibly some of the flies 
emerge the same season and thus account for the flies 
occurring on the trees late in the fall. The flies re¬ 
semble the common house-fly in size and general 
make-up, but their wings are crossed by conspicuous, 
connected, blackish bands. These flies seek the fruit 
and, puncturing the skin with their sharp ovipositors, 
lay their eggs in little cavities just beneath the sur¬ 
face. The eggs are very minute (less than one-twenty- 
fifth of an inch in length), and the scars appear as 
minute brown spots on the apple. Egg laying begins 
in July or earlier, and one female is capable of laying 
about 300 eggs. All varieties of apples suffer, usually 
the sweeter earlier ones the most. The insect is a 
very serious pest in some localities, and has a wide 
distribution over the Eastern and Northern States. 
It is entirely distinct from the codling moth, whose 
larvte work in a similar manner, but mostly around 
the core, while the apple maggot works in the fleshy 
part. The pest is so well protected in the apple in its 
egg and larval stages, and in the ground in its pupal 
sta?e, that the application of insecticides would avail 
but little. The most practicable method of combating 
it that has been recommended is to keep the wind¬ 
falls picked up from under the affected trees. The 
maggots apparently do not leave the apple while it re¬ 
mains on the tree. Either pick up and destroy or feed 
out the windfalls, or turn in the sheep or hogs, if 
practicable, and let them take care of the fruit as 
fast as it falls. m. v. slingerland. 
Cornell Experiment Station. 
Can the Mortgage Be Foreclosed? 
M. A. C., Frederlcksburq, Va .—A family of adult 
children in New York State lost the father two years 
ago, and the mother eight months since. The house 
and lot belonged to the father, who left no will or 
money. The house and lot are mortgaged. One of 
the children, who has cared for the old folks and 
managed their boarding house for a dozen years, 
occupies the home. The other children have homes of 
their own in other places. No administrator has been 
appointed. Can the mortgage be foreclosed before an 
administrator has been appointed ? If the one occupy¬ 
ing the house pays taxes and insurance, cannot she 
continue occupying it as her home till the house is sold 
by an administrator or foreclosure ? 
Ans. —An administrator should have been appointed 
after the death of the father. Any creditor, or any of 
the relatives of the deceased may apply for letters of 
administration, the immediate relatives having the 
preference. If default be made in the payment of 
principal or interest secured by the mortgage, fore¬ 
closure proceedings may be begun at once. These 
could not be put off by failure to apply for the 
appointment of an administrator, for the mortgagee 
could apply for letters of administration if necessary 
to proceed with his claim. If no other creditors of the 
estate, and no legal heirs object, or take any action, 
the occupant of the house will probably not be dis¬ 
turbed so long as taxes and inteiest are paid, together 
with payments on the mortgage when due. But the 
mortgagee has power to sell at any time when default 
is made in payment of principal or interest 
Tree Blackberries and Seedling Chestnuts. 
IF. P. H., Roycrsford, Pa. —1. Is the Tree black¬ 
berry everbearing ? 2. How is it propagated ? 3. 
How is Childs’s All-summer raspberry propagated ? 
4. Has The R. N.-Y. experimented with the Oregon 
Everbearing strawberry ? 5. Does it need any special 
treatment ? 6. What is the best variety of chestnut 
to be worked on the native stock ? 7. What method 
of grafting is best or most successful ? 8. In one cat¬ 
alogue chestnuts are offered; are they worked or 
grafted, or are they chance seedlings ? 9. Is Pride of 
America wheat worthy of trial ? 10. Is the new rye, 
Challenge, worth trying ? 
Ans. —1. No. 2. By root cuttings. 3. This is a 
great variety to sucker. The suckers may be trans¬ 
planted; or, root cuttings may be made. 4. Yes. It 
doesn’t amount to anything. 5. No. 6. We believe 
the Paragon the best up to date. 7. Cleft grafting is 
as good as any. 8. Chestnuts vary as much from seed 
as do apples or pears. No reputable nurseryman 
would sell seedlings. 9. We do not know it. 10. It 
is not a new variety. 
“ A Cord of Stable Nanure.” 
Ii. F. C., Fitchburg, Mass. —I notice that in giving 
statistics in relation to stable manure, you speak of so 
many loads to an acre, or so many tons. That does not 
give any guide in this section, as all stable manure is 
bought and sold by the cord. Can you tell me how 
many tons or parts of a ton would a cord be, as it or¬ 
dinarily runs ? Manure costs here from $3 to $5 per 
cord at the stable. 
Ans. —The weight of a cord of manure depends upon 
several things—the amount of water and straw in it, 
and the extent to which it is packed down. The small, 
tight hay bales of the present day weigh nearly as 
much as the bigger ones that were formerly made with 
a weaker press. We have estimates varying all the 
way from 3,700 pounds to over 9,000 pounds, the latter 
for fresh, wet manure. Probably a fair average would 
be about 2% tons. We wish you could weigh one cord 
as an experiment. Buying manure by the cord or load, 
while generally practiced, is not a scientific way of 
purchasing plant food. When you buy a “ load ” the 
value is determined more by the strength of the horse 
than by the chemist. 
The Cow and Her Cud. 
B. D. S., Sun Prairie, Wis .—Does a cow ever lose her 
cud ? What is the formula for making a cud, if any ? 
What is the effect of giving a cow salt pork, i. e , how 
does it operate ? My co n was sick ; she didn’t chew 
her cud. The result of my inquiries of the knowing 
ones was: “Give her salt pork.” I did so, and she 
got well in two days’ time. Some say there is no such 
thing as a cow losing her cud. 
Ans. —The common idea as to a cow “ losing her 
cud ” would seem to be that the cud is some definite 
tasty morsel which tempts the animal to chew, and 
that if she were deprived of this, the chewing of the 
cud must cease until an attractive substitute is fur¬ 
nished in the form of a piece of palatable salt pork. 
This idea is fundamentally wrong, as the “cud” which 
is brought up and chewed by the healthy cow is simply 
a small portion of the solid food that has recently 
been swallowed (into the paunch), and in ruminat¬ 
ing the animal is simply working over this solid mate¬ 
rial, portion by portion, until the whole contents of 
this stomach have been worked over and more finely 
divided by this second chewing. All animals that do 
“ chew the cud ” have the stomach divided into at least 
three separate compartments, of which the first one 
(in the ox, too) is simply a temporary store for the ac¬ 
commodation of food hurriedly swallowed and very 
imperfectly chewed. When the healthy animal has 
leisure, it sets to work to bring this up, morsel by 
morsel, and to grind it down to a condition of fine¬ 
ness better fitted for the work of the manifolds and 
the chemical or digesting stomach. In doing this, each 
morsel is floated up in a mass of liquid, and, on reach¬ 
ing the mouth, the liquid is swallowed, the solids being 
held between the tongue and the roof of the mouth 
for mastication. As only the solids are detained in the 
mouth for this second and thorough chewing, the 
finely divided material being swallowed with the liquid 
before this second mastication begins, it follows that 
each successive “cud” is made from new and different 
material from the last. 
When a cow “loses the cud” or, more correctly, fails 
to “ chew the cud,” it is not that she has lost any defi¬ 
nite object or material, which, if she still retained, 
would be used as a “ cud,” for all such necessary mate¬ 
rial lies useless in her paunch. Her failure to “ chew 
the cud ” is due to ill health, just as a lack of any de¬ 
sire for food characterizes a sick man. A cow that fails 
to chew the cud is a sick cow, and as soon as she re¬ 
covers from that sickness, she will recover her desire 
and ability to chew the cud. The exceptions to this 
are very few, and are almost all due to a mechanical 
impediment to the bringing up of the cud. For exam¬ 
ple, a cow fed exclusively on dry hay and grain, and 
denied all water, will soon cease to chew the cud until 
water is again supplied. In this case the available 
water in the paunch is soon used up in floating the 
food over into the third stomach, and soon there is too 
little liquid left in the paunch to float any part of its 
contents. These contents, under the compression of 
the contracting walls of the paunch, are formed into 
one semi-solid mass, and no small morsel can be de¬ 
tached and floated up through the gullet to be masti¬ 
cated. Furnish water, and the trouble is gradually 
corrected. Under the movements of the paunch, por¬ 
tions of the semi-solid mass are detached, floated, and 
finally brought up to the mouth. 
But it will be asked how, then, is the “cud” restored 
by giving a large mass of salt pork ? It does not by 
any means follow that the salt pork was, in every 
case, the cause of recovery. The majority of diseases 
tend to recovery after a few days of their own accord, 
and if the salt pork have been given in the interval, 
it gets the credit for what was the successful effort of 
Nature to cast off the illness. We hear little of the 
many cases in which the salt pork was given, but the 
cud was not restored. The only way in which the salt 
pork can assist in the recovery is by the action of the 
salt as a condiment encouraging digestion, and of both 
salt and lard as a laxative serving to unload the stom¬ 
ach of food that had tended to keep up indigestion. 
In the case submitted to us, in which the recovery oc¬ 
curred two days after the giving of the salt pork, there 
may possibly have been an action of this kind, but 
there is no direct evidence of this, and the resumption 
of cud chewing may have been but the result of a 
spontaneous recovery from some temporary illness. 
It may be said in conclusion that no part of the 
system of the ox is so frequently deranged as the com¬ 
plicated chain of stomachs, and uuder almost any de¬ 
rangement the contents of these tend to become drier 
and impacted; also that in all cases of illness attended 
by fever, the same result is brought about, so that a 
dose of laxative medicine to relieve the stomachs is a 
help towards the recovery of health. Bat in any such 
case it is much more rational to give a pound or two 
of glauber salts and an ounce of ginger, than to force 
upon the animal a mass of salt pork. To a carnivor¬ 
ous animal such a morsel might be appet’zing, while 
to a herbivorous one like the cow it can only be dis¬ 
gusting. .TAMES LAW. 
Cow With a Sore Teat. 
PI. E. K., Hannibal, Mo .—My cow is fresh and has a 
scab that is spreading, on the front of the bag. The 
skin is red where the scab peels off after it gets quite 
crusty, but it soon scabs over again, gets hard and 
again peels off. I have kept it well greased with lard, 
but that doesn’t seem to help. The cow seems healthy 
enough and eats well. She gives about 30 pounds of 
milk per day, and makes about 10 pounds of butter 
per week. Is that a pretty good average for a fresh 
cow seven years old, Jersey and Short-horn cross ? 
Ans. —Apply benzoated oxide of zinc ointment to 
the teat after each milking. The ointment may be 
obtained of any first-class druggist. Milk carefully 
so as not to break the scab, and remove the scab only 
when well loosened. Her milk and butter yield is 
about an average for good dairy cows, but not what 
can be called large. That is a good cross. f l k. 
Pine Needles for Mulch ; Insects in Grain. 
J. R. W., Elmira, N. Y. —1. I am covering my straw¬ 
berries with Yellow scrub pine needles (leaves), which 
have been accumulating for 30 or 40 years. They are 
half rotten on one side. Will such a mulch sour the 
land, and so injure the crop 9 If so, what shall I apply 
in the spring to counteract this tendency 9 2. On page 
736 in the last brevity you speak of bisulphide of car¬ 
bon for insects in stored grain. For years, my corn, 
store it as I may, will get sour and become a stringy 
mass. Will this carbon save it? Is it a poison? Will 
it make the grain unfit for domestic or feeding pur¬ 
poses? 
Ans. —1. With the needles of this age we think there 
would be no trouble. Prof. Massey of North Carolina 
informs us that these needles are regularly used in 
that State to mulch beans. In any event a light ap¬ 
plication of lime in the spring would correct any 
“ sourness.” 2. On page 493 of Tiie R. N.-Y. is given 
a long description of the use of this material. Read 
that, or send to the Delaware Experiment Station, 
Newark, Del., for a bulletin on the subject. 
“ Meech's Prolific Quince.’' —G. D. B., Himrods, N. Y. 
—We have never been able to find out just what 
Meech’s quince is. It is claimed that it is wonderfully 
prolific, early, and of fine quality. The R. N.-Y. has 
never tried it. Rea’s is as good as any. 
