3i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER.’ 
May 5 
A BUG-LIKE TWIG. 
A reader in New York State sent us the twig from 
which the picture shown at Pig. 95 is taken. At first 
sight it looked like a bug with long arms or claws. 
The sender wrote: “What is the matter with twig en¬ 
closed? The whole tree is the same; early apple. 
Trees each side are all right; the varieties are Snow 
and Wealthy.” The twig certainly looked as though 
some insect had paid attention to it, hut Prof. Sling- 
erland says: 
“The twig which Q. sends is not diseased in any 
way, but there is simply an enlargement of what the 
botanists term ‘mechanical tissue.’ A fruit was borne 
at that point last year, and it did not take all the food 
which was sent to that point by the tree,hence some 
of the food was elaborated into the enlargement of 
the branch. Some varieties show this peculiar en¬ 
largement more than others. Why they do, no one 
knows.” 
AN OUTFIT OF GARDEN SEEDS. 
“I was brought up on a farm in southern New York, 
but I remember that we seldom had a good garden. 
There was a place for a garden fenced off properly, 
but somehow it never was Started right, and, at any 
rate, we never had what you call a good supply of 
fresh vegetables.” 
The speaker was an old farmer’s boy, who came to 
the city, like hundreds of others, to make his own 
way amid the bustle and rush of town life. 
“It seems strange, I know, to think that in the 
country, where there is plenty of land, a farmer’s 
family should be without good vegetables; yet that is 
too often the case. We should have had a good gar¬ 
den, for Father would rather hoe than milk, and it 
would frequently happen that while the rest of us 
were milking, he would work in the garden, but the 
trouble was to get seeds and start them properly. It 
is all well enough to say that seeds are sold at every 
country store. So they are, but they are not always 
of the best quality, and farmers do not always know 
what to buy. Then again, you leave it to dribble 
along, and buy a package of seeds when you want it, 
and ft will be like the farmer who says he does nor, 
raise strawberries because it is cheaper to buy them. 
That may be true, but he never gets around to pay 
money for a supply of fruit for his own family. Wo 
usually ended by having potatoes and beans. When 
1 came to New York, I found it easier to get a variety 
of vegetables here than on the farm. That struck me 
as a curious thing, and I made up my mind to try at 
least to have a good farm supply one season, anyw r ay 
I took the catalogue of a well-known seedsman, and 
went through, making a list from what I knew, and 
what seemed sensible printed statements. I finally 
hit upon the following outfit, and ordered the seeds: 
% pint beans, Stringless Green Pod.10 
M> “ “ Burpee’s Bush Lima.10 
1 quart “ Valentine .20 
1 ounce beet, .Extra Early Turnip. .10 
1 packet cabbage, Vandergaw.05 
1 “ carrot, Chantenay .05 
1 pint corn, Perry’s Hybrid.10 
1 “ “ Crosby’s 12-rowed .10 
1 “ “ Stowell’s Evergreen .20 
1 “ " Early Mammoth .10 
1 packet cucumber, Giant Pera.10 
1 “ “ Imp. White Spine.05 
1 ounce onion. Yellow Danvers.10 
1 packet “ Giant Yellow Rocca.05 
1 pint onion sets. Yellow.10 
1 “ “ “ Potato .10- 
1 packet parsnip, Imp. Guernsey.*..05 
1 pint peas, Burpee’s Extra Early..15 
1 “ “ Telephone .12 
1 " “ Stratagem .15 
1 packet lettuce, Deacon.10 
1 “ radish, Fr. Breakfast .05 
1 “ “ Early Rosy Gem.05 
1 “ squash, Hubbard .05 
1 “ “ Giant Summer Crookneck.05 
1 ounce turnip, Purple Top.10 
1 “ rutabaga, Burpee’s Imp. Yellow.10 
1 “ beets. Lane’s Impl. Yellow.10 
1 packet sweet peas, Mixed.05 
Total .$2.72 
“They came to hand, and Father put them in, the 
first year making one job of it. Later years he learned 
to plan't at different times, so as to secure a longer 
season of peas, corn, etc. When once started it be¬ 
came part of the regular work to take care of the 
garden, because there was a varied crop in it, and 
Father took great pride in his work. He loved to 
show off his garden. The result was an abundance of 
everything. Our folks could not begin to eat it all, 
and that garden ran over and floated good things off 
to the neighbors. That $2.72 gave the family a small 
fortune in the way of fresh vegetables, and from that 
year on we have always figured to have much the 
same outfit of seeds. The average farmer does not 
care so much to play or experiment with novelties. 
He wants a plain outfit that will give him a succes¬ 
sion right through the season, and which will not in¬ 
terfere with his regular work. Give him that, and 
you will bestow a perfect blessing upon his family. It 
seems to me like a high compliment to our modern 
seedsmen that a city man can go right to their cata¬ 
logues and, without particular study, make up an 
outfit of seeds that prove as satisfactory as this one 
did. What a mistake it is for a farm family to be 
without this luxury, when less than $3 will provide 
such an abundance of good things. No matter what 
table demands are made of the women folks, there is 
something in the garden from the Fourth of July to 
Thanksgiving that will help them out in preparing a 
meal. The above list has been practically duplicated 
every year for eight or lO years. The changes have 
been principally in early corn. Earliest of All did not 
prove very satisfactory, and Evergreen came too late, 
though of excellent quality. I think I made a mistake 
first in ordering too much of the late and not enough 
of the early varieties.” 
FACTS ABOUT THE CODLING-MOTH. 
Will Arsenic and Soda Kill It? 
Having read with considerable Interest in a recent issue 
of The R. N.-Y. Prof. Slingerland’s statements in re¬ 
gard to Paris-green and the substitutes for the same, 1 
wish to submit the following question to him: Does the 
Professor know, by actual experience or other data, that 
the Codling-moth can be as successfully combated, by 
the use of white arsenic boiled with lime, or sal soda, 
as by the use of Paris-green of legal purity? In support 
of this I w'ould say that last season I wrote Prof. 
Slingerland on this point. He referred me to the Michi¬ 
gan Bulletin 156, saying that It was strictly reliable. 
This I did, as did also several of my neighbors, but my 
apples were unusually wormy, as was the crop of many 
others in the county, who used the white arsenic. Hav¬ 
ing become apprehensive of poor results with white 
arsenic they are going to resort to the use of Paris- 
green. c. h. w. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
Such reliable and successful New York fruit grow¬ 
ers as Messrs. Yeomans, Maxwell and Powell have 
used the white arsenic boiled with lime or sal soda 
for one or more years in place of Paris-green, and 
they are unanimous in their testimony that better re- 
“MECHANICAL TISSUE” ON AN APPLE TWIG. Fig. 95. 
suits follow, so far as controlling all kinds of biting 
insects are concerned, than from the use of Paris- 
green. This data I consider sufficient to warrant the 
strong recommendations which I have made for our 
fruit-growers to use these cheap substitutes for Paris- 
green. Last year was an unfortunate one, so far as 
the damage done by the Codling-moth is concerned, 
because the second brood of this pest was unusually 
large, resulting in many more wormy apples than 
usual, late in the season. Spraying with poisons has 
little effect upon this second brood. Three important 
factors enter into the spraying for the Codling-moth. 
First, the thoroughness, time when it is done, and 
the strength of the poison used, the first two being 
most important. Poison must be applied within a 
week after the blossoms fall. In regard to the Michi¬ 
gan formula in their Bulletin 156 for using the white 
arsenic, I find that they recommend its use one-half 
as strong as it should be. They use it at the rate of 
one pound of arsenic in 400 gallons of water or Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture, whereas most of our large fruit grow¬ 
ers in New York are now using Paris-green at the 
rate of one pound in 100 gallons of Bordeaux for 
spraying for the Codling-moth and other apple pests; 
they are using it even stronger on potatoes, but for 
peadhes it should not be used more than half as 
strong, as one pound of white arsenic is equal to about 
two pounds of Paris-green in poisoning qualities. A 
little arithmetic will show that, when we boil one 
pound of white arsenic with two pounds of lime or 
four pounds of sal soda in one gallon of water, we 
should use one quart of this Stock mixture to each 50 
gallons of Bordeaux Mixture. This proportion will be 
equal to a Paris-green spray at the rate of one pound 
in 100 gallons. Thus two factors may have much to 
do with the unsuccessful results in Niagara County 
from the use of white arsenic. First, in following the 
Michigan formula, not enough of the poison was used, 
and second, the unusually large numbers of the sec¬ 
ond brood of the insect, which are not reached with 
the spray, would help to explain the larger number of 
wormy apples. m. v. slingerland. 
Watch the Cellars and Packages. 
The Colorado Board of Horticulture issues a bul¬ 
letin in which the following statements are made: 
When wormy apples are put in the cellar in bins, boxes 
or barrels, the worms may be destroyed if the following 
directions are heeded: About May 1 to 10 these worms 
begin to hatch into millers—the Codling-moth. If there 
is a window in the cellar they may all be caught by 
placing a funnel in a funnel made of mosquito bar over 
a funnel-shaped frame. The small funnel will admit 
them Into the larger funnel and once Inside they are 
safe. The door to the cellar must be kept closed while 
trapping them. 
For some years I have bought second-hand apple bar¬ 
rels in Denver for my next year’s crop. I have a cellar 
that holds 1,000 barrels. From March to May 1 I used 
to burn sulphur in the cellar, thinking it would kill the 
worms and millers as they hatched out, but the apples 
kept getting more wormy. Fumigating did no good—it 
will not kill one worm out of 100. The barrels and boxes 
ought to be scalded. I have a large kettle that I use 
for that purpose. They ought to be kept in the boiling 
water long enough to be sure the worms are dead—about 
a minute to the barrel will kill them. 
There is no question but that 'thousands of Codling 
moth caterpillars leave the apples after they are 
packed and placed in crates, barrels, or store-rooms. 
These caterpillars spin their cocoons in any angular 
spot in the place where the apples are stored. Thus 
in using old crates and barrels one is very apt to in¬ 
troduce many of the pests into his locality, hence 
where the insect is a new pest, or does not occur at 
all, it would be advisable to scald such crates or bar¬ 
rels. It is doubtful whether fumigation with anything 
else than hydrocyanic acid gas or carbon bisulphide 
would destroy caterpillars in their cocoons on the 
crates. One can easily demonstrate that thousands of 
the moths are bred in store-rooms or cellars where 
apples are stored, hence one should always use the 
means described by the Colorado apple growers to 
prevent those moths from getting out of store-rooms. 
Another way to accomplish this would be to screen 
all windows and doors with fine wire netting. The 
moths will not live more than two or three weeks 
after emerging, and if they cannot get out must die 
in the store-room, where they will do no harm. 
M. V. 8. 
THE POTATO-SCAB PROBLEM. 
GREAT DAMAGE.—I have been studying this prob¬ 
lem for io years, and know that out few people real¬ 
ize how great the loss is, or how much annoyance is 
caused by this disease. When one has planted a lot 
of varieties for show purposes, and has taken extra 
care of them during Summer, he is disgusted with 
the whole business ll a majority of his best speci¬ 
mens are useless, and he has to let others take the 
prize. The five to 10 per cent tax he has to pay on 
the main crop, sold at the car, is as hard to become 
reconcileu to as the war tax on freight receipts. The 
conclusions drawn on page 295 are good, and may be 
true. The illustration of the hen and the henhouse 
is one a poultry man can see, but how can you mix 
the sulphur with the soil so evenly as to hit every 
scab germ? One cannot tell where the tuber will lie, 
and there is a good deal of soil in the first eight 
inches of earth on an acre. 
VARIETIES AFFECTED.—Feeding scabby pota¬ 
toes to stock may kill file germs, but it is safer to 
cook them first. The idea that a potato, because of 
its shape, will be less affected, is “drawing it fine.” 
Varieties are affected in varying degrees, and shape 
has little to do with it. For example, Carman No. 1 
will show considerable scab where No. 3 would show 
none. I have seen N^. 2 nearly ruined by scab. The 
Orphan d.d not show any scab for five years, and I 
was about ready to proclaim it scabproof, when it be¬ 
gan to show a few specimens. It’s a long, thin- 
skinned variety. In examining thousands of bushels 
while loading at the cars, I came to believe that the 
knobs were no more affected than the other parts. 
The family which the variety originated from has 
more to do with susceptibility than the shape, growth 
or thickness of skin, and the length of time intro¬ 
duced also affects the solution of the problem. While 
there is no doubt that beets are affected by scab, and 
that weeds nurse diseases, the fact that potatoes fol¬ 
lowing beets were affected is no proof, any more than 
it would be that blackberries were the cause had 
they been used. 
HUMUS AND SOAKING.—I have a small spot 
which had not been planted to potatoes in 20 years, 
yet a trial showed it impossible to grow a bushel of 
merchantable tubers on the whole plot. It had been 
in berries for several years before the trial was made. 
Were they responsible? It is said that clover will not 
