The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
847 
THE MAILBAG 
When to Water the Garden 
I would like to know if it is a better 
plan to water young plants early in the 
morning, say about 5 o’clock, or is it bet¬ 
ter in the evening? Most people water 
them at night, but probably because they 
have no time in the morning. 1 think 
that if watered in the morning the plants 
grow better, because the water sinks in 
and catches the root right with the sun, 
when at night, if the nights are chilly, it 
makes the ground colder, and I think the 
flowers and other young plants do not 
Start to grow till about 8 in the morning. 
New' Windsor, N. Y. ,t.C. 
Generally speaking, people will visually 
water their plants when it is most, conve¬ 
nient to do so. Most of us are too busy 
in the morning to spend much time water¬ 
ing. There ia more time at night. Prob¬ 
ably the ideal would be to water early and 
then scratch or cultivate the soil before 
the sun is high. That would act to pre¬ 
vent evaporation, but if the wet soil is 
left most of the water will evaporate and 
the soil will harden or “cake." There 
will be less loss through evaporation if 
the water is used at night. The plants 
could use more of it. As a rule, it is 
better to use less water in chilly weather. 
Gasoline and Woodchucks 
Woodchucks are certniuly a terrible 
pest in the gardens in Connecticut. A 
farmer told me of a remedy that he had 
used for years with success. He blocks 
up all the woodchuck's holes hut one, 
then pours a pint of gasoline as far down 
Ibis hole as possible and closes it. I tried 
this on several holes and they were not 
reopened that season. I do not know 
what became of the woodchucks. Is it 
possible that the vapor of gasoline could 
kill them? w. c. deming. 
Connecticut, 
Of course this is not positive proof that 
the woodchucks were killed. We have 
had several reports from people who say 
they bucked a car or truck up near the 
hole, connected one end of a hose to the 
exhaust pipe, put the other end down the 
hole, and started the engine. They claim 
this surely killed the woodchuck. 
Fighting the Chinch Bug 
The Ohio Experiment Station suggests 
the following plan to stop the migration 
of chinch bugs from one field to another: 
Compact the soil on a strip about a 
foot wide, which has been cleared of 
weeds or grass, by running over it a few 
times with broad tire of wagon or other¬ 
wise, make narrow groove in middle of 
this strip with narrow tread wagon or by 
hand; wet the soil evenly in bottom of 
groove so that it may hake and become 
firm. When dry, pour creosote, tar or 
tarvia into groove, through nail hole in 
bottom of metal pail. 
Tost holes 20 in. deep and 20 ft. apart 
should he dug with their sloping rims 
just touching side of grooved line next 
stubble, so that the insects will fall into 
them as they go up and down the line. 
Kill insects by pouring a little kerosene 
and water into post holes each evening. 
Tar must be renewed twice each day 
av first. A barrel of tar. which may he 
purchased locally at 8 to 20 cents a gal¬ 
lon, will maintain SO rods of barrier. 
Tftrvia costs 17 cents, and is vised like 
tar. Creosote does not need a compacted 
line or groove; it should be spread about 
noon each day. A barrel of crude creo¬ 
sote, Grade 2. will maintain a half mile 
of barrier. 
Terriers and Woodchucks 
Regarding your suggestion that a good 
shot with a rifle is the best way of ex¬ 
terminating woodchucks, a good dog. pre¬ 
ferably one of the terriers, has got that 
method stopped 40 different ways. An 
Airedale is the leader of them all in that 
respect. L Vv. M. 
M assaehusetts. 
That is good—where the woodchucks 
come down to the garden. A good dog 
will get them there. In the hack pastures 
the dog has to roam too far from home. 
It is usually a mistake to let him travel 
off alone. Many Airedales are too much 
inclined to wander, anyway. Many a 
dog wandering too far from home has 
been shot. He should be kept near the 
house. 
Properties of Poke Berries 
Are poke berries poisonous or not? If 
not. what use can they be put to? 
Philadelphia. n. J. M. 
Pokeweed, Phytolacca deeandra, is de¬ 
scribed by medical authority as emetic, 
purgative and narcotic. These properties 
are most active in the root, hut death is 
reported from eating a handful of the ber¬ 
ries. which caused excessive purging, fol¬ 
lowed by coma, and death six days later. 
Dried berries, leaves and roots, have been 
used in medicine, and fluid extract of the 
root is often used in veterinary treatment. 
We have been assured that the berries 
can be use.i in pies, hut as the flavor id 
mawkish, with an underlying acridity, and 
the fruit is certainly of doubtful char¬ 
acter. we think this hardly possible. The 
tender young shoots are often used as 
Spring greens, and seem quite harmless, 
with a flavor rather like delicate aspara¬ 
gus. The juice from the ripe berries is 
.sometimes used as a dye, but is fugitive 
in character. 
Chicks and Potato Bugs 
Regarding chicks and potato bugs, will 
say that we have planted the family po¬ 
tato patch where thw chickens could range 
over it. and have never had aud trouble 
with bugs. We have practiced this a 
number of years, always with good re¬ 
sults. while the. potatoes planted out in 
the fields too far away for the chicks al¬ 
ways have to be sprayed or dusted, J. u. 
Brown Co., Kan. 
If. N.-Y.—Yet you cannot call this com¬ 
plete evidence. We think some individ¬ 
uals among poultry are more likely to 
eat the eggs than others. We still doubt 
if any birds will eat the slugs or beetles. 
Propagating Roses 
Would you tell me how to propagate 
roses, climbers in particular? 
Sauquoit, N. Y. mrs. c. s. M. 
Most climbing roses are very easily 
propagated by cuttings of ripe wood set 
in a sheltered place in the garden. Make 
cuttings about <> or 8 in. long, using the 
ripened wood of flowering shoots about 
July 15. Trim the foliage short, and set 
the cuttings quite deep, so that about two 
buds are above ground. In a dry locality 
it is advisable to invert a glass jar over 
each cuttings, leaving undisturbed till 
the following Spring, hut in the latitude 
of New York we have found this unde¬ 
sirable. the cutting suffering from mildew, 
so we do not Cover them, but select a 
sheltered place, with good, friable soil, 
usually a part of the rose hod. The soil 
is stirred and kept free from weeds, and 
if there is a long, dry spell, the cuttings 
are watered occasionally. When the 
ground freezes, earth is hilled up around 
the cuttings, to avoid injury from seven' 
weather. Most of the cuttings will be 
rooted the following Spring, and may then 
be planted where they are to remain. This 
is the easiest, method for amateurs to in¬ 
crease their stock of roses, and many va¬ 
rieties may be rooted in this way, but 
there are some that will not grow from 
such cuttings. Another easy method is 
by layers. In the Spring bend down a 
branch near the tip, cutting a little slit 
or heel in the outer bark on the lower 
side. Peg it down at this point, and lay 
a little earth over it ; then leave it undis¬ 
turbed until the following Spring. By 
that time a good biineh of roots should 
be formed; cut off the tip. with the roots 
attached, and set like any other plant. 
This is an excellent method of propaga¬ 
tion for many shrubs, roses and hard- 
wooded vines. 
Field-grown Tulips 
I intend to plant about one-half acre 
to tulips this Autumn, and wish to get 
the land in the best of condition for them 
b.v the use of chemicals aud by plowing 
under green crops this Summer. I also 
intend to plant some Gladioli next Spring 
(1923) and desire to get this land in the 
best possible condition by green manure 
crops an J chemicals, or dried sheep ma¬ 
nure. Will you advise how to proceed? 
I have read somewhere not to plow un¬ 
der trash for tulips. How is that? My 
land is a rather light loam of medium fer¬ 
tility. 1\ c. 
Fulton. N. Y. 
Tulips will grow and bloom satisfaetor- 
il.v without any special soil preparation. 
Like all other plants (up to the point of 
overdoing it) they will lie benefited by 
putting the soil in good fertile condition. 
They are planted very late in the Fall— 
just before freezing weather—and bloom 
in the Spring almost as soon as vegeta¬ 
tion starts, and, like other early flowering 
bulbs, quite a hit of the substance of the 
flower must be stored in the bulb. If 
you wish to take up the bulbs when the 
tops have completely dried up and plant 
them another season, a rich soil will as¬ 
sist materially in the development of the 
bulb for the second season. 
If the soil is very poor, a heavy appli¬ 
cation of horse manure in the Spring, 
plowed under, followed by 1% or two 
bushels of cow peas, will add humus and 
fertility. The cow peas- can be plowed 
under by September 1. and lime applied 
if soil is acid. When preparing to plant 
tulips about the middle of October, an¬ 
other application of vell-vottal manure 
could be disked into the surface. Sheep 
manure will give a very small return 
for the money spent, as the actual plant 
food is of very little more value than 
horse manure. ELMER j. weaver. 
Plum Pockets 
The plum pocket or plum bladder is 
caused by a fungus, and seems most abun¬ 
dant when the weather is cold and damp. 
The plum becomes swollen and distorted, 
due t.o an abundant spongy growth, and 
is useless. Pockets appear on the same 
tree year after year, and single trees may 
he affected without injury to surrounding 
trees. Red and blue varieties seem to be 
affected more than other sorts. For con¬ 
trolling this disease all twigs showing in¬ 
fection should he removed and thorough 
spraying with lime-sulphur is recommend¬ 
ed. While this has not shown complete 
control. fewer pockets appeared on 
sprayed trees than on unsprayed. Or- 
chardists who follow a regular spray 
schedule are rarely troubled with the 
pockets. T. it. T. 
Wife: “Whatever have you got there, 
Henry?” Henry: "An airgun, my dear. 
The man told me that it would shoot 
slugs and, you know, the garden is full 
of them."—Credit Lost. 
Apples sprayed with arsenate of lead 
From actual photographs 
Without Kayso 
With Kayso 
KAYSO makes the Spray Spread and Stay 
KAYSO—the casein spreader and adhesive, insures a complete covering 
of poison on your maturing fruit. 
There are no unprotected areas when KAYSO is used. 
Live your trees KAYSO protection 
now. The Summer months are the 
time of heaviest loss from worms and 
disease. 
The ordinary spray collects in drops. 
Only the surfaces actually covered by 
the blotches of poison are protected. 
The numerous small areas between 
those blotches afford places of infec¬ 
tion for brown rot, scab and other 
fungous diseases. Worms enter the 
fruit between the blotches of poison. 
The thin, uniform film produced when 
KAYSO is used gives effective pro¬ 
tection against infection and worm 
infestation. 
KAYSO makes the poison adhere 
persistently, regardless of rains. 
In the summer cover sprays KAYSO 
produces a thin film which is practi¬ 
cally invisible and prevents that 
blotchy, conspicuous poison coating so 
objectionable when the mature fruit 
goes on the market. 
KA\ SO is safe—no spray injury can 
result from its use. 
KAYSO is convenient—you sift it 
into the spray tank. 
The cost of KAYSO—substantially 
less than one cent per tree—is repaid 
many times over in the increased effi¬ 
ciency of the sprays and the additional 
number of trees that may be covered 
with a given amount of solution. 
Use KAYSO with Bordeaux Mixture, 
Arsenate of Lead, Nicotine Sulfate 
and all Sulfur Sprays. 
Aik your dealer , or mail this coupon to 
the New York Office. 
Enclosed please find 40 cents. Mail me 
sample package KAYSO, sufficient for 
zoo gallons of spray. 
Name _ 
Address. 
R - 6-1 
CALIFORNIA CENTRAL CREAMERIES, INC. 
175 FRANKLIN STREET, NEW YORK CITY 
SAN FRANCISCO CHICAGO LOS ANGELES 
