368 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKERJ 
May 26 
Farmers’ Club. 
[livery query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to Insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see 
whether it Is not answered In our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
Blossoms on Young Stnawberry Plants. 
J. R. M. K., Sunnydale, Wash.— Is It neces¬ 
sary or would it be better to take off the 
blooms of strawberry plants that were set 
out In the last week of March? Will they 
exhaust the plants if left to set fruit? 
Ans. —It is best to remove all blos¬ 
soms from Spring-set plants, as the re¬ 
sulting berries are usually small and im¬ 
perfect, and the process of fruit and 
seed production is always an exhausting 
one to the plant, which needs all its vi¬ 
tality to establish itself and throw out 
runners for next year’s fruiting plants. 
Ants in a Dooryard. 
C. E. M., Evansville, Ind.— Can you tell 
me what will destroy ants In our door- 
yard? We can raise nothing in the shape 
of grass on account of these little pests. 
Ans. —With a crow-bar or similar in¬ 
strument punch several deep holes in 
each ants’ nest, and pour a tablespoon¬ 
ful or two of carbon bisulphide into each 
hole. Quickly plug the hole with a 
piece of sod. The fumes of the liquid 
will penetrate into all parts of the nest, 
and are sure death to all animal life 
therein. Handle the liquid as you 
would gunpowder, for it quickly vola¬ 
tilizes, and its fumes are explosive when 
ignited. Druggists usually sell it. 
m. v. s. 
When and How to Trim Vines. 
Subscriber (.No Address ).—When Is the best 
time to trim grapes, and is there any par¬ 
ticular way of trimming them? 
Ans. —Grapes can be pruned during 
mild weather at any time in the Win¬ 
ter and early Spring, but it is best not 
to defer it later tnan the middle of 
March. The idea is to remove all weak 
and slender cancs entirely, and to cut 
back.the spurs on the larger branches to 
two or three 1 uds, so that the growth of 
the vine may be concentrated in the 
fruit-producing portion, and not wasted 
in making useless wood. There are 
many excellent methods of pruning and 
training American grapes. The experi¬ 
ment stations at Cornell University, 
xthaca, N. Y., and Blacksburg, Va., pub¬ 
lish bulletins on this subject, which can 
be had on application. 
Fertilizers for Peach Orchard. 
J. TF. T., Andover, N. J.—My peach orchard 
is on a hill, good farm land, grubbed and 
plowed last year, and ready to grub and 
plow now. Has never borne a crop yet; 
looks like it this year. What quantity of 
muriate of potash, 80 per cent, and finely- 
ground bone would you apply per tree if 
you hadn’t much money, but yet wished 
to keep your trees healthy, and to color 
fruit? One man buys the ingredients; 
mixes on barn floor equal weight or bulk 
(I don’t know which), and then puts three 
to four pounds to tree; sprinkles on 
ground so it meets from tree to tree, and 
harrows in. A driver takes the load and 
two men take a row of trees, one man to 
a row, sprinkling on with dippers. I do 
not think these trees require much if any 
nitrogen, although a little might be good. 
Ans. —One part each by weight of 
muriate of potish and fine-ground bone, 
and three parts of dissolved rock, 
will make a good mixture for peaches. 
Use four pounds or more per tree, about 
as you describe. We should sow cow 
peas in drills or hills in June, or Crim¬ 
son clover broadcast in August 
When and How to Bag Grapes. 
R. F., Anderson, N. 0.— When, how, and 
why are grapes bagged? Will bagging 
them keep them from rotting? I have a 
lot of Black Hamburgs, White Muscats 
and Seedless Corinth that are in full bloom 
now. Is it worth the trouble to bag them 
for home use only? What size of bags 
should I use? 
Ans. —Grapes are bagged as soon as 
the berries are fairly set, say about the 
size of swan shot. An ordinary grocer’s 
bag cf brown or Manila paper is slipped 
over the bunch, and secured about the 
stem with a rubber band or a loop of 
common twine. It protects the growing 
berries from insects, mildew and rot 
germs. If properly done it is quite a 
certain protection from the brown and 
other rots. Grapes are so cheap here in 
the North that it is seldom commercially 
profitable to bag them, but we would 
certainly bag the varieties you mention 
for home use. The bags should be pro¬ 
portioned to Le size of the full-grown 
cluster, such as those of ity to two 
pounds capacity. Any grocer can supply 
them. 
Killing Plant Lice. 
8. P. L., York City, Pa.— What will kill 
lice on rose bushes and other flower plants, 
without injuring the plant? 
Ans. —Tobacco in any form is obnox¬ 
ious to aphides or plant lice. Tobacco 
dust or snuff freely dusted on the plants 
while wet with rain or dew will fre¬ 
quently clear them out. Tobacco tea 
made by steeping stems in hot water 
until the liquid is a dark-brown color 
may be applied by a spray pump or per¬ 
fume atomizer, if there are not many 
bushes to be gone over. Tobacco stems 
or leaves may be dampened and burned, 
and the plants cleared of the infesting 
lice by exposing them to the smoke for 
two or three hours. Kerosene emulsion, 
made by dissolving two ounces hard 
soap in two quarts of hot water, and 
adding tablespoonful of kerosene, which 
may be induced .to unite in a milky 
emulsion by beating or churning with a 
syringe, will destroy all lice or other 
soft-bodied insects it may touch without 
injury to the plants. It should be freely 
applied to the plants, and washed off 
with warm water an hour or two after¬ 
wards. The emulsion must be perfect 
enough, so that no small drops of the 
kerosene can be seen floating on the 
surface, or some injury to the foliage 
may ensue. 
How to Grow Big Melons. 
S. F. L., Scotland, Ont.— What is the best 
method of growing extra-large melons, 
especially muskmelons? I wish to grow 
some large ones. 
Ans. —To grow large melons it is 
necessary to select strong, vigorous 
plants, which can be done by making up 
broad hills containing an abundance of 
well-rotted manure or rich compost, 
thoroughly incorporated with the soil. 
Make the hills for muskmelons about six 
feet apart each way, and the water¬ 
melons at least eight feet each way. 
Plant 15 to 20 seeds in a hill, covering 
with half an inch of fine soil. When up 
and past the greatest danger of insects, 
thin gradually until only one, or at most 
two, of the strongest plants are left to 
each hill. These plants may be gently 
stimulated with bone dust, guano or 
weak liquid manures, and the ends of 
the vines pinched off when they have at¬ 
tained the length of three or four feet, 
in order to induce the formation of 
strong laterals, on which the fruits will 
be borne. When five v.r six melons have 
set on a vine, reduce the number to two 
of the most promising, and afterwards 
keep all pistillate flowers pinched off as 
they appear, but take every precaution 
to preserve the foliage. Of course, it is 
understood that the vines must receive 
the best culture, and be carefully guard¬ 
ed from insects. Other things being 
equal, the variety and soil will determine 
the size of the melons secured. 
Sulphur for “ Curing " Trees. 
W. M., East Pembroke, N. Y.— Some farm¬ 
ers here are drilling holes in their apple 
trees, filling the holes with sulphur, and 
then plugging them, hoping In this way 
to keep away destructive insects. One 
man claims great good for his orchard, 
more and better fruit, and the trees that 
were not treated with the sulphur failed 
to yield any fruit whatever. Other men 
think that the idea is absurd. I would 
like your opinion. 
Ans. —Many years ago this old "sul¬ 
phur-plug” remedy was exploded by 
showing that there was just as much 
sulphur in the hole at the end of five 
years as when it was put in. A few 
years ago many wealthy suburban resi¬ 
dents in the Hudson Valley, in New Jer¬ 
sey and Connecticut, were humbugged 
to the tune of $1 or more per tree to 
have a plug of sulphur and soot put in. 
The right to use this mysterious cure-all 
in the State of New Jersey was sold for 
$6,000. The idea is that the sulphur is 
taken into the circulation of the tree, 
and going to the leaves, finally poisons 
or otherwise kills insects which feed 
thereon. This notion has been consid¬ 
ered too absurd by modern scientists to 
warrant any experiments to prove it. 
Chemists assert that to make sulphur 
available for plant food it must be acted 
upon by strong acids and changed to a 
sulphate. Sulphur is insoluble in water. 
Both the Chemists and botanists here at 
Cornell do not believe that a particle of 
the sulphur plugged into a tree or dusted 
on potatoes ever gets into the circulation 
of the plant. m. v. slingerland. 
The "Absent Treatment" for Disease. 
A Subscriber, Vineland, N. J.—ls the en¬ 
closed advertisement on Weltmerism a 
humbug? Do you know of anyone who has 
been cured by their "absent treatment?” 
Ans. —The advertisement refers to "a 
great magnetic healer” who is said to 
cure people without the aid of medi¬ 
cines, knives or anything else in par¬ 
ticular. Our best answer to this ques¬ 
tion is to print the following: 
Washington, May 15.—An order has been 
issued by the Post Office Department for¬ 
bidding the delivery of mail matter and 
the payment of money orders to the Amer¬ 
ican School of Magnetic Healing, S. A. 
Weltmer, President, and J. H. Kelly, Sec¬ 
retary, of Nevada, Mo. The concern ad¬ 
vertises to heal disease and to relieve 
poverty upon payment of certain fees, no 
matter what the distance between the 
“healer” and the patient, by means of 
Prof. Weltmer’s thoughts. The persons 
making the required remittances for treat¬ 
ment of any disease by the absent method 
were notified that they must assume a 
passive attitude at certain hours of the 
day, and at these hours Prof. Weltmer’s 
“healing thought” would flow out to them. 
Five dollars were charged for 30 days' 
treatment, and at the end of that time, 
unless a cure was reported, an additional 
$5 was called for with the announcement 
that the treatment would close unless the 
remittance was forwarded. A person af¬ 
flicted with poverty could obtain relief by 
sending $1 a month, for which Prof. Welt¬ 
mer would send his “very best thoughts” 
to the patient at certain hours of the day, 
which would lift him out of the throes of 
poverty and despair. 
Strange as it may seem, hundreds of 
people send their hard-earned dollars 
for this absent treatment. There is an 
absence of sense about such business 
tha't speaks ill for society. There are 
too many people now who, all too will¬ 
ingly "assume a passive attitude” every 
day, and stick to it. Some of them do 
not need a healing force half so much as 
they need a toeing force from a large 
boot. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
Soon Saves Its Cost. 
A Labor Saver. 
»A 12-Year 
Old Boy 
can do more and better work, either 
in the field or garden, with this 
HAND CULTIVATOR 
——than three men can do with common hoes, 
lows, hoes, cultivates—astride or between rows. Ifnoagent 
your town send *1.35 for sample delivered and terms to agents. 
Irlch Mfg.Co., 20 River St.,Rock Falls,III. 
Vi kills Prairie Oogs, 
' Woodchucks, Gophers 
andGrain Insects.“The 
wheels of the Gods 
grind slow but exceed¬ 
ing small.” 80 the weevil, but you can stop their 
K “ Fuma Carbon Bisulphide ” as agoing 
EDWARD R. TAYLOR, Penn Ian, N. Y. 
66 
FUMA 
"He Laughs Best 
Who Laughs Last." 
A hearty laugh indicates a degree of 
good health obtainable through pure blood. 
As but one person in ten has pure blood, 
the other nine should purify the blood 
<with Hood's Sarsaparilla. Then they can 
laugh first, last and all the time, for 
Never Disappoints 
Tobacco Crops 
By an expenditure of $3.75 the 
yield of Tobacco was increased in 
value $71.20 per acre, by the uscof 
Nitrate of Soda. 
Free information to be had by ad¬ 
dressing John A. Myers 12-OJohn 
St., New York. Nitrate for sale by 
fertilizer dealers everywhere. 
Write at ones for List of Dealers. 
The Slag Phosphate 
is not in the Fertilizer Trust. We are 
still selling at old prices. Orders must 
be Bent in early to receive prompt 
shipment. Address 
JACOB REESE, 
400 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
The Beautiful Egyptian Lotus for 
tub, tank or pond. Two fine roots for one dollar. 
It. P. GLtIKFING, Kivcrhead (L. I.). N. Y. 
MONEY-MAKING CROPS 
Southern Cow Peas 
and Soja or Soy Beans 
yield large amounts of the most valuable forage, 
and are better fertilizer crops than clover. Send 
tor descriptive Circulars. Other sceite now 
in season. Sorghum, Millets, Hungarian Grass, 
Dwarf Essex Rape, itroomcorn, etc. 
j. chas. McCullough, c.^f^Y; 0 . 
Cleaning Dept., Vine and Water Sts. Office, Cor. 2d and Walnut. 
FOR SALE 
—1.000 Bushels Crimson Clover 
Seed; 1,000 Bushels Cow Peas. 
JOSEPH E. HOLLAND, Milford, Del 
C rimson 
Clover. 
Genuine Delaware Seed. Circular describing 
its uses, also prices, sent on application. 
HENRY A. DREER, Philadelphia. 
CWEET POTATO PLANTS — Jersey Yellow, 
° $1.50 per 1,000. Vineland Bush, $1 per 100, by mail. 
Also other varieties. Send for circular. 
FRANK S. NEWCOMB, Vineland, N. J. 
11| A p || ft We are Headquarters for 
Kill JC.llU Seed & Plants. 
I Valuable book about it, telling how tog row thousands of 
doll are worth, what used for and who is growing it.Sent for 10c 
AMERICAN GINSENG GARDENS, ROSE MILL, New York. 
10 
Peach Trees 
10 Apple, Plum or Pear 
80c.; 10 Dwarf Pear 60c. 
10 Quince 75c.; 10 Grape, 
Gooseberry or Currant 
50c. Write Quickly. C. NURSERY AND ORCHARD 
CO., Charleston. W. Va. 
50c. 
SLUG SHOT 
KILLS INSECTS IN THE GARDEN. 
In use since 1880. Is effective and safe to use. 
SOLD BY SEEDSMEN EVERYWHERE. 
Send for Free booklet on Bugs and Blights to 
B. HAMMOND, FishklU-on-Hudson, N. Y 
For $i I will send by express or freight, i Alpha, i Paragon, 
i Numbo Chestnut Tree grafted, worth $2.20. Full line of 
Nursery StocK. Certificate. MoorettYw^BuriiSnSnty, n. j. 
VICTOR I E AHEDQ COLUMBIAN 
PEACH LEAUEKd ASPARAGUS 
This Victor Peach is undoubtedly the earliest peach known. The tree is a vigOTOua grower, 
hardy, free from disease and a prolific bearer. Fruit Is of good 6ixe, fine flavor, good color and 
a splendid shipper. 1,000,000 trees of 60 varieties. Columbian Mammoth Whit© 
AfiparaffUft. Early, shoots and stays white, robust, vigorous, delicious. Profitable forni&rket. 
ABkaboutthese and our Plum and Apple Tree** 8truwberrle»* etc. Catalogue If KEE, 
HARRISON’S NURSERIES, Box 20, BERLIN, Md. 
