1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
BLACK-HEARTED POTATOES FOR SEED. 
One of our readers in Michigan asks the following ques¬ 
tion: "Are potatoes with black spots in the center all 
right for seed?” Will you tell us what your experience 
has been with these blackened or hollow-hearted pota¬ 
toes? Is it not probable that by the use of sulphur we 
can prevent any great injury from blight in the use of 
these tubers? 
I have had no experience in planting hollow-hearted 
potatoes, but would not consider them as good as 
solid ones. It seems to me that by cutting the seed 
so as to expose the hollow, and dust with sulphur, 
that good might be done, but one desires to know the 
cause before recommending a cure, especially when 
there is no experience back of it. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. byron d. iialsted. 
The black and hollow heart in potatoes is due to 
some agency other than plant diseases; therefore I 
see no harm in using them for seed. The only effect 
that I can see would be that the young potato plant 
would be deprived of the small amount of food repre¬ 
sented in the hollow heart, but since this condition 
usually occurs in large tubers, this loss is of little 
moment. If I remember rightly, this hollow heart is 
more or less of a varietal characteristic, and if so, the 
remedy is simple: plant those varieties that do not 
Show a tendency to produce imperfect potatoes. 
Geneva Exp. Station. w. paddock. 
Your correspondent doubtless refers to the diseased 
condition known as the internal Brown rot of the 
potato. This has been studied at the Minnesota and 
New York Experiment Stations, and observed in Ver¬ 
mont and numerous other 
States. The cause has not 
been determined, but it has 
been shown that it is not a 
germ disease, and apparent¬ 
ly is not communicate! 
through seed. The experi¬ 
ments have not been exten¬ 
sive on its communicability, 
however, and it is safer to re¬ 
ject such seed until the cause 
is more definitely understood. 
Such tubers can have no re¬ 
lation to the true blight (late 
blight) of the potato. The 
blackening and decay of 
tubers associated with this 
blight always begins at or 
near the surface, and is of the 
kind familiarly known as the 
dry rot in this State. The 
late blight is perpetuated by 
Che use of infected tubers, 
and great care should be 
taken to avoid the use of seed 
containing this blight fungus. 
L. R. JONES. 
Vermont Station. 
I am not sure that I under¬ 
stand clearly what these 
black spots at the center are. 
I am not positive that they 
indicate blight. Blighted po¬ 
tatoes usually show a black 
ring when a slice is cut off 
the stem end of the potato. It does hot seem to me 
to be proper to use potatoes of this kind for seed, and 
yet in practice it is a very difficult matter to avoid 
doing so. I have not used sulphur to prevent the 
blight in the way suggested, nor have I heard of its 
being used. I doubt whether anything will destroy 
the germs of the blight in the seed potatoes. 
Ohio Exp. Station. w. J. green. 
“CANNING SHARKS" IN NEW JERSEY. 
You did a good work in showing up the creamery 
sharks, and I think it probable that you have been 
the means of keeping me out of their hands. A few 
weeks ago a slick fellow, with a prominent farmer, 
came among the people of this section, both farmers 
and business men, trying to get them to take stock 
in a cooperative canning factory. The list was 
headed by the president and cashier of our bank, and 
a number of our most prominent business men were 
on the list, before they tried to work the farmers. 
The story was very plausible, and the promoters suc¬ 
ceeded in getting about $11,000 subscribed. They have 
a building, and have just put the machinery in. The 
whole thing is probably worth $5,000, although I do 
not think they have paid for the building. They rep¬ 
resented that they were going to run the plant, and 
showed that the profits would be large, and the 
farmers’ stock could, most of it, be paid in produce. 
As soon as the machinery was in the place, they got 
around among the subscribers, and got there lively, 
too, before they had time to compare notes. By tell¬ 
ing all sorts of lies they succeeded in getting $7,000 
or $8,000 worth of good notes, and skipped. The 
stuff they left is pethaps worth $2,500. I have been 
trying to get the address of these people, but have 
not been able to do so. I have heard that they came 
from Chicago. I hasten to write this before obtain¬ 
ing further facts, so that you can get after them, as 
they are a set of swindlers going for the farmers’ 
money. They no doubt are working the whole coun¬ 
try fast as possible. w. a. y. 
Boonton, N. J. 
HEELING IN FRUIT TREES OVER WINTER. 
At the farmers’ institute held here January 16-17, 
M. L. Dean, of the Michigan Agricultural College, in 
his talk on Setting Out an Apple Orchard, said to the 
farmers present: 
If you cannot get trees early enough In Spring buy In 
Fall and heel In through the Winter. In heeling put dirt 
clear to small limbs and cover farther if no snow. Would 
not advise Fall planting from the liability of freezing 
and thawing to break the small fibrous roots before the 
tree is firmly established. 
Whether the above is practised by Mr. Dean or 
not, I cannot say, but for a long series of years I 
have experimented along this line, and observed the 
experience of others, and my observation and ex¬ 
perience do not coincide with the teachings of Mr. 
Dean. If the nurseryman does not get trees to you 
early enough for successful planting, get them of a 
nurseryman who does; but be sure to do your part by 
getting your orders to the nurseryman early. If you 
purchase in the Fall, that is the time to plant them, 
but if you are going to plant in Spring, let the nur¬ 
seryman take the chance of carrying them through 
the Winter, for he is better prepared, and understands 
how, better than the average planter. 
There is every advantage for the farmer in planting 
in the Fall, and I have, with scarcely an exception, 
had better results in planting hardy pears and apples 
at that time. Of course, I do not advise the planting 
of stone fruits at that season. The farmer has more 
time in the Fall, and will do the planting with more 
care, and the earth is friable, in better condition, and 
with the same care, he will do a better job. If the 
tree is a good one, it will be dormant, and in the best 
of condition for planting. The tree should be planted 
in October, a spacious hole dug, the tree set a little 
deeper than it stood in nursery row, and, lastly, earth 
heaped up several inches about the trunk of the tree 
to keep it from being injured by swaying in strong 
winds. Thus planted, the roots will callous and the 
earth will settle firmly about them, and the tree will 
start growth in the Spring with all other vegetation. 
The frost seldom reaches the roots of trees planted in 
this manner sufficiently to do them injury, and 99 
times in 100, if this tree is injured at all, it will be 
the branches, which Mr. Dean would leave exposed 
even if heeled in. Would trees planted in this manner 
be in so much danger of injury to their roots from 
freezing, as those heeled in on top of the ground, 
especially as generally done by inexperienced per¬ 
sons? No, and it does not work in practical experi¬ 
ence, either, as many farmers in this country can 
testify. Trees planted in Spring suffer more from 
poor planting, than in being received late by the 
planter. Trees planted in wet and mud in Spring 
may never recover from the effect, and if one wait till 
ground is in proper condition it is almost sure to be 
late, and the trees will not do so well that season. 
Ithaca, Mich. f. w. b. 
i 83 
WHY OPPOSE THE SAN JOSE SCALE LAW? 
That the San Jos6 scale is a very serious menace to 
all the fruit interests of the State, no one can doubt. 
That its introduction has been due to the nurserymen 
is equally clear. Though not intentionally, of course, 
and perhaps not carelessly, yet they are the parties 
responsible for the Wide spread of this pest. Inspec¬ 
tion by State authority and certificates of immunity 
from such inspectors are not worth the paper on 
which they are printed, nor can they be in the very 
nature Of things, for a half-dozen inspectors, spend¬ 
ing all their time in a Single large nursery, and in¬ 
specting every tree sent out, could not be certain that 
a few trees might not be slightly infected and escape 
detection, and thus plant the pest in a new locality 
On the other hand, fumigation is certain to destroy 
every last one of the scale on 'infested trees, and fumi¬ 
gation is easy and not half as expensive as a thor¬ 
ough inspection of the trees. 
In view of these facts it seems to me that the bill 
now before the Legislature should become a law, and 
no one, certainly not a nurseryman, should oppose its 
passage, yet I am told that the only ones who appear 
before the committees in opposition are nurserymen. 
Do they want the fruit-growing industry of the coun¬ 
try ruined? Surely the wide spread of the scale will 
very materially injure, if not ruin it. The only excuse 
I can see for their opposition is because they feel that 
they have the scale on their grounds, or expect to get 
it in some of the Stock they are obliged to purchase to 
keep up their assortment, and do not wish to be at 
the expense of putting up a 
fumigating plant. I am told 
by those who have the plants 
and use them that the ex¬ 
pense of thorough fumigation 
does not amount to one- 
fourth cent per tree, and who 
would not rather pay a cent 
each more for trees on which 
he was certain no scale exist¬ 
ed, than to take the chance of 
having his orchards infected? 
I am so sensitive on this 
point, that I won’t hereafter 
buy a tree from any man, or 
a scion either, that has not 
been thoroughly fumigated. 
I think we ought to get a 
list of all nurserymen who 
oppose the passage of the 
scale law, and have it pub¬ 
lished, and then as orchard- 
ists refuse to buy their trees. 
I go a step further. I want 
to see every tree in New York 
with San Jos6 scale cut down 
and burned. Why not? If a 
man has any infectious dis¬ 
ease he 'is shut up. If a man 
has stock with a contagious 
disease, he must either keep 
them on his own premises, 
and away from the line fence 
next his neighbor, or will be 
liable for the damage they 
may do by spreading the disease, and be further sub¬ 
ject to a heavy fine. Now is not the San Jos6 scale 
worse than any disease affecting our live stock? And 
is it not a fact that where a tree is attacked and the 
scale not killed, it in time kills the tree? Then why 
should not the law step in and compel the destruc¬ 
tion of tree before the scale is spread to all the 
neighboring trees and orchards—‘thus cursing the 
whole community? We have a law compelling the 
destruction of peach trees having the yellows, and no 
judge has questioned the constitutionality of the law. 
The difficulty has been in showing beyond a doubt 
when the trees had the disease. With the San Jose 
scale it would be very different. This can be diag¬ 
nosed beyond question. While Peach yellows is bad 
enough, it is only destructive of peach orchards. San 
Jos6 scale is a hundred times worse, because it not 
only kills peach trees, but nearly all other kinds 
of trees and plants. It will be better to spend a few 
thousand dollars in paying for trees destroyed than 
to Shut our eyes and let the whole fruit-growing in¬ 
dustry be ruined. j. s. woodward. 
R. N.-Y.—It is reported that genuine cases of peach 
yellows have been found on plum trees. Connecticut 
has, we think, repealed the “yellows” law. Our com¬ 
ments on Mr. Woodward’s article will be found on the 
editorial page. 
Prof. L. O. Howard, the Government Entomologist, re¬ 
ports the use of bisulphide of carbon against clothes 
moths. The clothes are stored away in a wooden chest. 
In the cover of the chest is a large auger hole with a 
sponge tied immediately below it. In midsummer a few 
drops of bisulphide of carbon are poured through the 
auger hole on the sponge, and the hole is then closed with 
a cork; the fumes being heavier than air, sink down into 
the chest and destroy every living thing. 
