1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKERi 
351 
THE END OF A HA TEFUL VISITOR. 
The Use of Hydrocyanic Acid Gas as a Means of 
Ridding a House of Bedbugs. 
Now that we are hearing so much about hydro¬ 
cyanic acid gas as a means of cleaning nursery stock 
from the dreaded San Josd scale, and of eradicating 
insect pests in greenhouses, let us consider its use to 
the housekeeper, in the home, as a means of ridding 
the house of bedbugs. The use of the hydrocyanic 
acid gas is, perhaps, the cheapest and by far the 
surest method of ridding a house of these pests, as it 
penetrates every crack. There is absolutely no escape 
for the insects when the gas is used. In using this 
substance it must always be remembered that the gas 
is colorless, and is very deadly. One full breath of it 
might prove fatal. Even though it is so very danger¬ 
ous, like dynamite, when properly used it is a safe 
and powerful means of execution. It not only kills 
all the bedbugs, but all Other insects as flies, ants, 
waterbugs, etc. Always look out for pet dogs, cats, or 
rats, as it will not spare them. 
To fumigate a single sleeping room, find the cubic 
contents of the room by multiplying the height, the 
width, and the length together; divide this product 
by 200, and the result will be the number of ounces 
of cyanide of potassium (98 to 99 per cent pure) re¬ 
quired. Stop up all cracks about windows and doors, 
to prevent the escape of gas. Open the bedding. Put 
an earthen jar in a convenient place, as near the 
center of the room as possible. Into this jar place 
twice as many ounces of water as cyanide of potas¬ 
sium required. Into this jar containing the water 
pour iy 2 times as many ounces of sulphuric acid 
(strong commercial, about 1.8 specific gravity), as 
cyanide required. If the acid is of sufficient strength 
the liquid will steam. Have the cyanide near on a 
newspaper folded in such a way that it can slide off 
easily. Hold your breath and slide the cyanide into 
the jar. Go quickly from the room (without inhaling 
air) closing the door and locking it to prevent any¬ 
one from entering. After an hour or more the room 
can be opened from the outside. If only the door can 
be opened the windows of the room into which 
it opens should be open. Do not attempt to 
enter for another half hour, at least. Use a jar 
of sufficient size, so the liquid will not fill it 
more than half full; the jar should be small 
enough in diameter, however, so that the liquid 
will be deep enough to cover the cyanide of 
potassium. The fumigation should be done in 
the morning, so the rooms can be well airel 
out before sleeping in them. 
The gas will not injure any of the furniture 
or hangings in the room, but the liquid or acid 
will, and to protect a carpet or floor from the 
possible injury caused by spattering when the 
cyanide is put into the jar it is always a good 
plan to set the jar into a wash tub with about 
an inch of water in it. As soon as you enter the 
room after fumigating take out the jar and dump the 
contents. Don’t put it in a sink or drain as the acid 
may eat out the piping. If two floors, or an entire 
house is to be fumigated, at least one jar should be 
used on each floor. Do not use more than two pounds 
of cyanide in any one jar. All doors should be open. 
When everything is ready put the acid and water to¬ 
gether, and have the cyanide weighed and on a paper 
near each jar. Commence at the top of the house to 
pu't the cyanide into the jars. As soon as this opera¬ 
tion is completed (which should be done as quickly 
as possible) leave the house and lock the door. If a 
house can be left this way for three or four hours 
in the forenoon (while the family are making a visit) 
they will probably never be troubled with any more 
bedbugs, unless they import a new stock. The house 
should be opened as much as possible from the out¬ 
side an hour before entering. Then open all windows 
and doors until thoroughly “aired out.” The cyanide 
of potassium can be obtained for about 35 cents per 
pound, 98 to 99 per cent pure (always use this 
strength). The acid will cost from two to five cents 
per pound in quantities. The expense of fumigating 
a room 12x15x10 would not be over 25 or 30 cents. 
If for any reason the time of fumigation must neces¬ 
sarily be short, double the amount of cyanide, using 
one ounce to 100 cubic feet of space, and fumigate for 
25 or 30 minutes. Great care must be exercised in 
opening the room. 
WHAT BECOMES OF THE INSECTS?—While 
some of them probably die in their haunts, many of 
the insects will be found upon the floor. Those about 
the bedding can easily be shaken or brushed off. The 
insects will not trouble, what few may escape being 
swept up. As to the rats and mice, I think only those 
in the room will be killed. The gas will penetrate 
the walls, but will not do so rapidly enough to kill 
the rats at once, and as a small amount of gas irri¬ 
tates the throat and lungs, the rats will move on. In 
a house badly infested with rats they have numerous 
passages to the cellar and outside. I do not think 
ix would kill the rats and mice in the walls of a house; 
it might drive them from the house, which would, of 
course, be preferable. I have never known of any 
trouble resulting in bad odors after fumigating for 
bedbugs. The first smell of the gas starts, I think, 
the bugs up out of the cracks, and they are then killed. 
Nearly always after fumigation one can sweep up 
more bugs upon the floor and about the bed than 
would be imagined. h. d. h. 
Amherst, Mass. 
A CEMENT FLOOR FOR MANURE PIT. 
What Will It Cost? 
L. A. C. gives the most definite instructions that I have 
ever seen in regard to cement. Will he give the prob¬ 
able cost of cement floor, 12x30, for a manure pit? How 
protect the ends and sides, whether with wall laid in 
cement or with rock set up edgewise? I wish to drive 
in and out with wagon. Will some one with cement 
stable discuss its demerits, coldness, etc.? e. d. r. 
Crooked Creek, Pa. 
If the stones for the floor foundation are easily ob¬ 
tained without any cost except the hauling, that item 
of expense would not be large. Probably the only 
materials for which there would need to be a cash 
outlay would be the lime and cement. The amount of 
water lime required for filling the interstices between 
the stones will depend very largely upon the care with 
which the stones are laid and pounded down. For a 
floor 12x30 feet there would probably be needed about 
five barrels of water lime. Water lime sells at Ithaca, 
N. Y., for 80 cents per barrel, and the price is prob¬ 
ably about the same in Pennsylvania. For the finish¬ 
ing coat there will be needed two barrels of Rosen- 
dale or Portland cement. Rosendale cement sells for 
$1.25 per barrel, and Portland cement for $3 per bar¬ 
rel in central New York. Portland cement will make 
a better floor than will the Rosendale. The difference 
between the value of the two cements lies largely in 
the fact that the Portland cement is a manufactured 
product, and is quite uniform in quality. Rosendale 
cement is a natural product, and while one sample 
' /A‘i 
A WELL-LAID CEMENT FLOOR. Fig. 105. 
may be nearly as good as the Portland cement, an¬ 
other sample may be quite inferior, The Portland is 
very uniform, and always to be relied upon, while the 
Rosendale is variable in quality and cannot always 
be depended upon. 
Fig. 105 shows a cement floor which was laid at 
Cornell University in 1885. It is still in good condi¬ 
tion. In building 'this floor stones varying from 10 
pounds to a few ounces were used to form the founda¬ 
tion. The larger stones were placed at the bottom, 
the mass thoroughly saturated with water, and all 
forced into the earth with a heavy wooden pounder. 
A thin coat of gravel was next spread over the whole 
and solidified in the same way. When the super¬ 
structure was completed the mass was again wetted 
and treated with a coat of thin mortar composed of 
four parts sand and one part of water lime, and this 
solidified as above. When sufficiently hard to sustain 
the workmen the whole was covered with a coat one 
inch thick made of three parts of sand and one of 
Rosendale cement. After about 24 hours the floor 
was sprinkled with water, and also thereafter when¬ 
ever it had the appearance of drying too rapiuly. The 
edges of the floor may be protected by having the 
cement portion come against a piece of 6x6 timber. 
This timber should be sunk so that the top of it comes 
tc the level of the floor. Such a piece of timber is 
used to protect the edge of the covered yard at the 
Cornell University barn, and it has been driven over 
for years, and has protected the edge of the floor 
from crumbling. l. a. Clinton. 
Listing Corn.— The statement was recently made in 
The R. N.-Y. that all the corn in Kansas and Nebraska 
is listed. Here in the southeast corner of the State 
that way of planting is not a success, and the entire 
crop is planted on the surface of the earth, and not in 
the bottom of a ditch. Listing corn only succeeds in a 
dry climate, where the soil is deep and porous. Here, 
where the land is underlaid with a hard, compact sub¬ 
soil or limestone, the first heavy rain after planting 
washes it out or covers it up with mud. h. g. 
Walnut, Kan. 
CULTIVATING IN DRY SOIL. 
WHY WE STIR THE SOIL. 
Does it Pay to “Kick Up a Dust?” 
During the drought after we have produced an earth 
mulch by cultivation, what is the use of cultivating 
again until a shower forms a crust? I am a strong advo¬ 
cate of thorough culture, but can hardly see the benefits 
of stirring up dust as long as it remains dust. w. f. 
Ohio. 
Cultivation early in the season, especially before 
the ground has been planted, has for its object the 
saving of soil moisture in the deeper layers of the 
ground; the aeration of the surface soil so as to 
facilitate the formation of plant food; the drying out 
and warming of the seed bed, so as to fit it better 
and earlier for germination; and the developing of 
the soil texture, which is essential to vigorous and 
rapid growth of young plants. After the crops are up, 
where intertillage is practiced, the early cultivation 
has again for it's object the development of plant food 
as well as the killing of weeds and the saving of soil 
moisture, and the maintaining of the right soil tex¬ 
ture. To secure these ends the early cultivation can 
to advantage be deeper and more frequent than later 
cultivations. When it ceases to be desirable to cul¬ 
tivate for the purpose of aerating the soil, and the 
main object is to kill weeds and conserve soil mois¬ 
ture, it is then only desirable to cultivate as often 
as is necessary to maintain a good mulch. While the 
soil is wet the cultivation should be more frequent, 
usually as often as once in seven to 10 days. After 
the soil becomes quite dry, as happens in period of 
drought, then the cultivation may not be necessary 
oftener than once in two weeks, but judgment must 
be exercised in this as in all other matters. If the 
deeper soil just below the mulch is still quite damp 
the tendency is for the moisture to creep up into the 
mulch and reconvert It into comparatively firm soil, 
and leave the mulch too shallow; when the mulch 
comes to be much less than two inches deep, that is, 
when the soil becomes damp at a distance of two 
inches below the surface, there will usually be enough 
loss of moisture through the upper mulch to make it 
worth while to cultivate again, but if the dry 
soil has a depth of two to three inches there is 
little to be gained in stirring the soil if the 
mulch is already light and loose. 
Of course whenever a rain comes during the 
season of cultivation, which wets through the 
whole mulch, it is very important to cultivate 
as soon after such rains as possible, because if 
this is not done the wet mulch will hasten the 
capillary rise of water from deep in the ground, 
and bring about a loss of not only the rain 
which has fallen, but a considerable portion of 
the deeper soil moisture. Late in the season, 
especially with corn and potatoes, it is ques¬ 
tionable whether cultivation will not do more 
harm than good, even though the mulch has 
become fairly firm. It is the habit of most crops 
on which intertillage is practiced to throw up in 
July roots very close to the surface, evidently 
for the purpose of taking advantage of the plant 
food which capillarity and rapid evaporation 
tends to concentrate at the surface, and also to 
take advantage of the lighter rains, which after the 
soil becomes dry, seldom penetrate deeper than two 
to three inches. It will be readily understood that 
after the soil has become occupied close to the sur¬ 
face with these fine feeders, cultivation at such a 
time would not only hasten the loss of water that is 
only located in the surface two or three inches, but 
it would destroy the roots which are there to utilize 
that water as soon as it falls, and with it to take up 
the nitrates and other soluble plant foods which have 
been concentrated near the surface, and which the 
rains have dissolved. It will be seen from this state¬ 
ment that the correspondent’s judgment as to the 
slight gain to be secured from frequent cultivation 
after the mulch is thoroughly dry is essentially in ac¬ 
cord with sound principles. f. ii. king. 
Wheat Fish.— Maine is a good fishing country, and wo 
have read recently that people are even fishing for wheat 
in Portland Harbor. Hundreds of bushels of this grain 
have been pumped overboard from a- wrecked ocean 
steamer, and the thrifty natives have been harvesting it 
in paying quantities. The ruling price for it has been 
20 cents a bushel, and one man has cleared ?70 from it, 
according to report. It takes a Yankee to make money 
out of his disadvantages. 
Frozen Apple Seed.— On page 224, Mr. Van Deman, in 
answering a question by G. E. H., said that he did not 
know whether apple seeds required freezing to sprout, 
but doubted the belief that they must be. After read¬ 
ing this I planted 19 seeds in the house; they had never 
been frozen, and 18 of them sprouted. The seeds were 
taken from a few Tompkins Kings on April 1. I had 
been keeping these apples in the cellar to experiment on 
their keeping qualities. They were perfectly sound and 
in fine condition on that date, keeping much better than 
Greenings. v. r. w. 
Lysandtr, N. Y. 
