82 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER.. 
February 10 
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS. 
ANTI-FREEZING TANKS.—Regarding the pro¬ 
tection of water tanks from freezing in Winter, I 
think the amount of protection will depend on loca¬ 
tion and surrounding circumstances. Here in south¬ 
ern New York State I would lay all pipes at least four 
feet below the surface, ana in very exposed places 
lower; put water in at bottom of the tank. At hy¬ 
drants use a stop-cock at the bottom of ditch, with 
a lever for opening and shutting; and when your 
pipes leave ground to go to tank make casing and 
fill with at least 18 inches of dry sawdust all around 
the pipe, and continue this to the bottom of the tank. 
Let the overflow return through the bottom of the 
tank, with pipe reaching up in the tank as high as 
you wish the top of the water, and returning through 
the same box oi sawdust to the bottom of the ditch. 
If this is well done, and the tank inside a building, 
and covered, holding not less than 100 barrels, you 
will have no trouble from frost. Of course, the more 
the mill pumps the better, and the nearer the well to 
the tank the better. c. l. b. 
Millport, N. Y. 
STATE SEED DISTRIBUTION.—The California 
Experiment Station at Berkeley conducts a seec. dis¬ 
tribution of its own. The idea is to obtain a small 
stock of new varieties of plants for seeds, and send 
them out from the station to such Californians as 
desire them and will pay postage or expressage. This 
year, for example, 10 varieties of new European straw¬ 
berries have been secured, and one plant of each kind 
will be sent for 25 cents, or one each of five Kinds for 
15 cents each. Resistant grape vines are also offered 
at 10 cents for five cuttings. These are French selec¬ 
tions from American wild species, and are not in¬ 
tended for fruit, but for roots on which to graft the 
desirable table and wine varieties. New cereals and 
garden plants are also offered, and among other novel¬ 
ties we notice the following: New Zealand oil tree, 
Australian turpentine tree, English holly, Tagasaste 
or “tree Lucerne,” said to be a valuable shrub for 
bees. The various salt-bushes and plants for green 
manuring and a variety of millets from Russia are 
also mentioned, as well as a stock of melons brought 
from a desert in South Africa. So far a- we know, 
the California Station is the only one doing this class 
of work. Some of our scientific men say that the 
station goes outside of its privilege in distributing 
these new varieties, but there is a question about that. 
We think that some of our other stations might well 
follow along this line. 
ANXIOUS FLORIDA DAYS.—These are anxious 
times in Florida. Fertilizer dealers, truckers, fruit 
growers, and landowners are on the anxious bench 
regarding the doings of Jack Frost. If that sharp- 
toothed gentleman will only keep away from them 
for the next six weeks, Florida will be able to cut a 
fair slice of breast meat from the turkey of prosperity. 
Another freeze 'hard enough to kill vegetables will be 
a serious blow to the State. Letters from Florida 
show how anxious growers are. They watch the ther¬ 
mometer on cold nights, and as the mercury gees down, 
prepare themselves to screw up their philosophy or 
light the fires. We have one letter from a large 
orange grower who, at the beginning of the season, 
put scattered piles of dry wood all through his orange 
grove. One afternoon the mercury began to fall, but 
all the local prophets thought there could be no dan¬ 
ger. In the face of their predictions, down fell the 
mercury until it reached 28. Then this man routed 
out his helpers and started every fire in his grove a- 
burning. He says that within a comparatively short 
time he raised the temperature to 36 degrees, and 
held it there until the mercury began to rise and the 
danger was over. He is satisfied now that by means 
of fires or torches they can raise the temperature 
about 10 degrees, provided they start in time and can 
receive fair warning of Jack Frost’s coming. If this 
is true, it will mean a great help to Florida growers; 
at least to those who are able to stand the expense 
of fuel. 
UPLAND CRANBERRIES.—There is no variety of 
the cranberry peculiarly adapted to upland cultiva¬ 
tion. Any of the varieties cultivated on bogs or any 
of the varieties growing wild along the edges of ponds 
or in swamps can be grown on the upland. The culti¬ 
vation usually given to the strawberry is all that is 
required. They can be set 15 inches each way, as is 
the custom on bogs, and be allowed to take the whole 
ground, or they can be set 15 inches apart in rows 
three feet asunder, and kept to the rows. A heavy 
dressing of peat helps, and a mulching of pine needles 
or other litter for the Winter is desirable. Clean cul¬ 
tivation, of course. A number of years ago my father, 
the late B. M. Watson, transplanted from the swamps 
a small bed of cranberries. The soil was a light 
sandy loam, the cultivation just what we give to 
strawberries. The first year there were a few berries; 
the second year the bed was literally loaded. I am 
familiar with all the best bogs of this section, and I 
have never yet seen on any of them such an enormous 
crop of first-class fruit. The third year there were a 
few berries and a little later in the season one could 
take hold of one end of a row and pull the whole 
thing off, as one would take a blanket from a bed. 
The cutworms had destroyed the whole thing. Any¬ 
one who undertakes to grow cranberries on the up¬ 
land will run up against the same difficulty. There is 
another worm for which, as yet, the only remedy is 
flowing. There are a good many things to grow on 
the upland, and I think that I should prefer to grow 
some of these, and buy my family supply of cran¬ 
berries from the bog. t. k. watson. 
HILL AND LEVEL CULTURE.—Having read in 
the various agricultural papers the benefits of full 
and frequent culture, we planted our crops in the 
Spring of 1895 in such shape, and under conditions 
that would enable us to determine accurately the cost 
of each plot of potatoes. The acreage in hills was 
16%; in level culture, one acre. The yield of mer¬ 
chantable tubers in the hills was 4,745; on the level 
acre 367. The average yield in the hills was 294 
bushels per acre, while the cost per acre was $32.14. 
The level culture cost $33.50 per acre. In 1896 the 
average yield in hills was 262 oushels; on the level, 
276 bushels. In 1897 the average in the hills was 271; 
on the level, 308. In 1898, with level culture only, 
the average was 269 bushels. In 1899, the average 
yield was 252 bushels. Our land is a gravel loam, 
with a gravelly subsoil. I had noticed that in a few 
hours after working in our potatoes with a shovel 
plow, set deep, so as to loosen the ground, that the 
potatoes presented a wilted look, and in dry times 
they would appear to remain at a standstill for sev¬ 
eral days. I attended an institute at Marshall Hall, 
in the Spring of 1895, and an illustrated talk by Mr. 
E. Van Alstyne set me to thinking. First, why do we 
shovel-plow potatoes? Second, why do we hand-hoe 
when horses can do it very much faster, and far 
easier for the hired man? I decided to let the pota¬ 
toes determine the questions for me, with the result 
that I am a firm believer in level culture on all lands 
that are subject to drought. I began my experiments 
a believer in the old method of hilling corn and po¬ 
tatoes. I believed that potatoes would grow on top 
of the ground when not hilled, but no one should 
think that one can have a weeder and an Iron Age or 
Planet Jr., drawn across the field at stated periods 
of 10 days, and expect a large crop of fine tubers. 
One must have eternal vigilance and plenty of grit, 
especially if he be the first one in a community to 
test new methods. h. l. b. 
West Cambridge, N. Y. 
THE USE OF HYDROCYANIC ACID GAS. 
FOIi KILLING INSECT PESTS AND VERMIN. 
Its Use Outdoors and in Buildings. 
Part IV. 
IN VARIOUS INCLOSURES.—I have great confi¬ 
dence in the use of this gas in mills, granaries, store¬ 
houses and other buildings for the destruction of in¬ 
sect pests and other vermin. Last Fall I was show¬ 
ing a nurseryman how to generate the gas, and not 
desiring to waste the material used, asked if he did 
not have a granary or shed where I could place the 
chemicals, thinking, perhaps, I might destroy some 
insects that were secluded in cracks and crevices. 
The building was a two-story wooden structure, rea¬ 
sonably tight. The ceiling and floor were close. The 
upper part was used for a work-shop and general 
storeroom, while the lower floor contained four large 
bins for grain, two on either side, leaving a space 
about 12 feet between them as a drive-way. Two 
bins contained Indian corn, and two were about half- 
filled with wheat. We laid some old bags and blan¬ 
kets over the stairway opening into the upper room, 
put the sulphuric acid and water in an old crock, 
dropped the cyanide in it, closed and locked the out¬ 
side door. What we saw the next morning was sur¬ 
prising. The first thing to meet our eyes was a dead 
mouse near the door; we then began to look for dead 
insects, and were not disappointed, as the floor was 
literally covered, in many places, with the Saw¬ 
toothed Grain beetle (Sylvanus surinamensis). Near 
the granary doors they were actually piled up. On 
the floor, where there was a crack in the casing or 
siding, their dead bodies were found by thousands. 
Even along the casing of the outer doors they had 
come out of their hiding places and dropped dead. It 
was a complete surprise to me, as I had not seen a 
single insect in the building the day before, when the 
•gas was liberated. You can imagine the satisfaction 
it gave the owner to see the floor covered with the 
dead carcasses of these destructive little denizens, and 
he declared that the operation had been worth $25 to 
him. 
ITS APPLICATION IN MILLS was the direct out¬ 
come of this experience, and I made the first prac¬ 
tical test in a three-story brick mill, 72x40 feet, in 
Pennsylvania, badly infested with weevil, June 10, 
1899. A second test was made in an Ohio mill June 
29, 1899, which was overrun with the Flour moth. In 
both instances the results were gratifying. The 
Quaker miller wrote: “We used the chemicals as di¬ 
rected, and are convinced that through the use of this 
gas we can retain possession of our mills.” The 
Buckeye miller said, “I send you by mail sample of 
web, moth, weevil and bugs, the gas destroyed. I 
wish to thank you for what you have done for me, 
and tell you that the experiment was a grand suc¬ 
cess.” I made a careful examination of the material 
sent, and found seven species of dead insects in it. 
Less than two weeks ago we directed the fumigation 
of a large Canadian mill, in which we used 152 pounds 
of cyanide at one time. This was, perhaps, the largest 
amount of cyanide ever used at one time in a single 
building. We will report the outcome of this enor¬ 
mous charge at some future time. 
There is not the slightest danger of this gas in¬ 
juring grains or the manufactured products, either 
for edible purposes or for germination. My colleague. 
Dr. Chas. O. Townsend, State Pathologist, has deter¬ 
mined these facts, and will soon publish his results in 
bulletin form. The method of applying gas in mills 
and granaries is the same as in greenhouses and other 
inclosures. The capacity of the mill is determined, 
and .20 gramme cyanide per cubic foot is used. The 
building is closed as tightly as possible, and the 
crocks are set at various places on the floors. The 
cyanide, in packages of equal weight, is suspended 
over the crocks by means of a string, so arranged as 
to be lowered at one time from the door leading out¬ 
doors or into the floor below. In fumigating a build¬ 
ing of more than one story, begin on the top floor, as 
the gas is lighter than air, but very diffusive, and the 
operator must, therefore, get out as quickly as pos¬ 
sible. After the charge is set off on the top floor, 
come down rapidly and fuse the next floor, and so on 
down. 
A DEN OF RATS SUFFOCATED.—It is not an 'un¬ 
common thing to have old buildings overrun with rats 
and mice. Where it is possible to confine the animals 
to the room I would give them a dose of gas (.25 
gramme per cubic foot). I cannot do better than cite 
an instance that came under my observation three 
years ago. A brick smokehouse on an old Colonial 
estate was a veritable rat den, and a source of great 
annoyance to the owners. I was called to diagnose 
the case, and suggested gas. The plans were laid; but 
how to get the creatures out of the burrows in the 
ground was a perplexing problem. We decided to 
stop up all holes leading outside, and starve the oc¬ 
cupants for two or three days. This having been 
accomplished, one evening in June we opened the 
door and scattered a half bushel of Indian corn over 
the floor. In the meantime, a large snuff jar was 
placed near the center of the room, in which was 
poured the acid and water. The cyanide was then 
suspended over the jar, and the string passed out of 
the door. The door was closed, and strips of paper 
pasted over the cracks, as it was rather open. Ten 
minutes later we heard the piping and squealing so 
characteristic of hungry rats. We waited half an 
hour, and then gradually lowered the cyanide, which 
was hidden in the top of the tall jar. The door was 
not opened until the next morning, and when Tim, 
the handyman, had gathered up and laid the rats 
side by side, we counted 57, old and young. Tim's 
face lighted up as he exclaimed, “Boss, we’s got every 
rat on de place!” And, indeed, it did look as if we 
had every one, certainly every one that was in that 
house. How many got back into their dens we will 
never know, for they never came out again. 
IN DWELLING HOUSES.—I hesitate in recom¬ 
mending the general use of this deadly gas in private 
houses; but it can be used to good advantage at 
times. A prominent professor in the service of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, told me, not long 
ago, that he used this gas successfully in a house in 
Floiida he occupied a short time while making some 
investigations, which was overrun with bedbugs. *He 
said it brought them out of their hiding places in a 
huri y to certain death. I know of still another in¬ 
stance where a Summer cottage had become over¬ 
stocked with fleas and after two or three applica¬ 
tions of the gas, at intervals of a week or 10 days, 
“the tenants abode in peace.” I am also of the opin¬ 
ion that it can be used to good advantage in hen¬ 
houses; but, perhaps, frequent application would be 
necessary for a time. The chicken mite would be 
more difficult to destroy than the ordinary louse. In 
applying the gas in this manner, darkey Tim would 
say, Boss, be suh an’ hev your chickens on de out¬ 
side roost.” 
