1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
433 
Weeds and Moles in Lawn. 
J. W. S., Chicago, III.— How can I exter¬ 
minate dandelion, plantain, and moles in 
my lawn? I have cut off the two former 
until I am tired of it, and my trap does not 
get the moles. 
Ans. —There seems to be no royal road 
to the extermination of the pests enu¬ 
merated above. Persistent cutting of 
the dandelions and plantains below the 
growing point will win in the end. It is 
not unusual to see from five to 20 or 
more men, each armed with a knife and 
bag of grass seed, on some of the large 
lawns in the suburban districts, cutting 
out these pestiferous weeds and plant¬ 
ing a pinch of grass seed in each tiny 
bare spot left by their removal. Not¬ 
withstanding the common impression as 
to the futility of traps, moles can be 
practically exterminated by persistent 
trapping. The common error is to set 
tne trap with the trigger too near the 
ground, so that the mole springs it be¬ 
fore he is in a position to be fairly 
caught. There is really no other prac¬ 
tical w~y to destroy moles. 
A "Cutworm Lion." 
I). M. T., Decatur, Ind.—I send you a speci¬ 
men of a worm that will eat what we call 
the cutworm. I do not think that I have 
ever seen any account of them. If it is 
something new, and its habits bad aside 
from killing cutworms, I would like to 
know. Hessian fly has about ruined the 
wheat, and cutworms are worse than ever 
known. 
Ans. —The cutworm devourer reached 
me in a decomposed condition, but I was 
able to make out that it was the grub 
of one of our larger ground beetles. 
These grubs are famous cutworm eaters, 
and they have been called “cutworm 
lions,” or the “cutworm’s dragon.” The 
murdering of a cutworm by one of these 
ground-beetle grubs has been graphic¬ 
ally described as follows: “Upon discov¬ 
ering a cutworm, the grub is instantly 
on the alert, all vivacity, and as if crazy 
with excitement. The cutworm, perhaps, 
holds its head bent down stifily upon its 
breast. The grub thereupon briskly 
roots and pushes the worm about, and 
pinches it with his jaws, whereby he 
gets it to throw back its head, where¬ 
upon, he instantly grasps the cutworm 
by its throat, sinking his sharp jaws 
through the skin, and clinging thereto 
with the grip and pertinacity of a bull¬ 
dog. The cutworm, maddened by the 
pain, writhes and rolls over and over, 
and thrashes his tormentor furiously 
about to break him off from his hold; 
but every expedient of the poor cutworm 
fails. The grub clings to his grip upon 
tbe cutworm’s throat, till the latter, ex¬ 
hausted by his violent struggles, grad¬ 
ually relaxes his efforts, becomes more 
and more weak and powerless, and final¬ 
ly succumbs to his fate. Having thus 
murdered the cutworm, the grub leisure¬ 
ly proceeds to feed upon it, biting two 
or three holes through the skin in dif¬ 
ferent places to suck out its contents. 
It is occupied three or four hours in 
completing this work, and the grub be¬ 
comes so gorged thereby that its own 
skin is distended almost to bursting. It 
then crawls slightly under the ground, 
and there lies and sleeps off its surfeit, 
and then comes out and wanders off in 
search of another meal of the same kind. 
When the gruu is small, a single cut¬ 
worm suffices it for one or two days, but 
as it approaches maturity, it devours 
one or two cutworms daily.” 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
Building a Dam. 
W. H. D„ Middlebury, Vt .—I wish to build 
a dam to make a small pond and get fall 
enough to bring the water to my house and 
barns. It is about 40 feet rise. The dam 
would have to be eight rods long. I 
thought of putting it three feet in the 
ground and seven above, to be made of 
stone. Would eight feet on the bottom and 
four feet on top, the slant to be all but six 
inches on the inside, be strong enough? 
Would you use Portland cement, or would 
Rosendale do? How about the overflow? 
How much would it be worth a perch to lay 
the stone, the one who takes the job to find 
the cement, draw stone and sand, and do 
all the work? The stone would have to be 
drawn about 50 rods, the sand about 10. I 
would furnish the stone and sand. 
Ans. —For a dam of this size there is 
no need to go to the expense of building 
it of stone. Indeed, if the only abject of 
it is to bring tne water to the house, up 
4o feet rise, this may be done far cheap¬ 
er and quite as effectively by digging a 
sort of small canal from up the stream 
far enough to get a fall of four feet, 
and put in one of the Rife hydraulic 
ramis. Nor is there any necessity for 
making anything like so expensive a 
dam as this. A wooden frame set in the 
stream, and filled in with earth, would 
answer all needs for strength and sta¬ 
bility. The method proposed would do 
very well for a dam of this height, but 
the cost of it would be far greater than 
it need oe. I suggest this plan: Dig out 
a trench across the stream at the spot 
where the dam is intended to be. Make 
a timber frame the length of the dam 
with a mudsill eight by 12 inches to be 
laid in this trench. Set posts in this sill, 
where the stream runs, for a gate, which 
is put in after the dam is made. This 
gate should be wide enough to let the 
stream flow through. Set other posts 
along the ditch to support a beam run¬ 
ning the whole length for the top of the 
dam. Then board up inside of the dam 
with double inch boards, leaving the 
opening in the middle to be closed up 
the last. Then pile in the stones on 
the lower face of the dam, but it will be 
AN INEXPENSIVE DAM. Flu. 138. 
well to set sloping posts outside to sup¬ 
port the inside frame. When the dam is 
all finished except the center opening, 
close this by doubled planks one inch 
thick, nailed to the posts on each side. 
This will make the overflow. The 
easiest way to raise the water is to set 
one of the Rife water rams at the foot 
of the dam and lead the water to it by 
a pipe or spout. Fig. 138 shows how this 
work is done. One hundred dollars 
should cover the whole expense; $50 
might do it if the work was done by an 
experienced builder. Round timbers flat¬ 
tened on one side would do as well as 
sawn stuff, and will lessen expense. If 
the pond is stocked with trout it will 
pay the interest on the whole cost in 
fishing for the boys. H. s. 
for us than the Minkler. Both seem to 
ue of the Romanite class, and the pe¬ 
culiar flavor of the Romanite is easily 
uecected in the fruit. But neither keep 
quite so long, although there is a de¬ 
cided improvement in both size and 
quality. 
We have two other apples here tuat 
resemble each other very much—the 
Belmont and the Celestia. Both are 
from medium to large, yellow, conical, 
narrowing to furrows at the eye; both 
have a large open core, with a juicy yet 
somewhat grainy flesh, and the flavor is 
much the same. Celestia ripens a little 
earlier, the tree has more limbs and is 
more upright and compact. Neither are 
very heavy bearers, and Belmont blights 
badly. When it comes to quality they 
are all right. Warder says of Celestia, 
“The very best,” and he is nearer cor¬ 
rect than Downing, who places it as 
“very good.” But tney are only late 
Fall anti early Winter apples here, and 
neither bear enough to make them mar¬ 
ket apples. I do not know tne origin 
of Dominie and Bethlemite, but judging 
irom the fruit a relationship may oe 
suspicioned here. The latter -s only a 
Fall apple here, for it drops badly, and 
y_t with care it may be kept until into 
December. Dominie is a month later, 
and somewhat larger, but the shape, 
color, texture and flavor is the same, and 
wnen 1 get them mixed in the cellar it is 
V' r y difficult to separate them. In tree 
and leaf, especially, the Dominie is very 
peculiar as all Know. So also is Beth¬ 
lemite, but in a different way—the 
leaves are among the largest and the 
young shoots are among the stockiest of 
all me varieties. The tree is very vig¬ 
orous and tall, and is a wonderful bear¬ 
er, with the bad fault of dropping too 
early. As to quality both varieties 
grade as very good. Many years "go 
i.ie Dominie was largely planted here, 
but l. developed some fatal faults, and 
is now little grown. One of these faults 
is dropping before picking time, and an- 
otner is a tendency to rot unless well 
handled. Some varieties do not fail us 
even if we do have a week or so of warm 
weather in October, and such are the 
kind the iarmer wants for Winter fruit— 
the Dominie is not of this class. Down¬ 
ing and others place Wells as a synonym, 
but although the latter has not fruited 
here, I have reliable authority for say¬ 
ing that they are distinct. I have been 
surprised that an Illinois apple, tne 
Stanard, is not more widely distributed, 
Downing’s description is correct except 
as to size and season. It is fully 
“large,” but the season is Fall here. It 
is an enormous and yearly bearer. 
Sangamon Co., Ill. benj. buckman. 
APPLE TALK. 
I see that Mr. Van Deman gives Mink¬ 
ler as a synonym of the Brandywine 
apple, and this is in accordance with 
Downing, and yet, we in this State are 
accustomed to think of the Minkler as 
originating with the late S. G. Minkler, 
of Illinois. Perhaps a discussion of 
this point in The R. N.-Y. will bring 
out the truth, so there will be no ques¬ 
tioning in future in regard to it. Here 
we consider the Minkler as one of the 
best Winter apples for family use. It is 
a hardy long-lived tree, and I have a 
tree that has been in bearing for over 
30 years. The growth is rampant, ir¬ 
regular and spreading, and will take up 
fully 40 feet in the orchard. The head, 
on account of the drooping tendency of 
the lower limbs, should not be started 
at less than four feet, and probably five 
would be better. The stem or body of 
la 8 tree is naturally crooked. I have 
only young trees of the Brandywine, and 
I must say that so far the growth re- 
lembles the Minkler. Nero must be a 
close relative, for there is a decided 
likeness both in tree and fruit. Al¬ 
though this variety has fruited here only 
about three years, I am much pleased 
with it, and it may even prove better 
We have had a very cold, dry Spring, 
which was hard on all crops, 'there has 
not been a good soaking rain sufficient for 
the pastures, wheat or grass for six weeks. 
Right around here there will be few 
peaches, cherries, plums or pears, but a 
large crop of apples. Not three miles 
from here there are peaches, and the 
greater part of Ohio, I think, will have a 
large crop of fruit. Ours did not bloom, 
and many peach and plum trees are killed 
I think there will be few Japan plums in 
Stark County. My Satsuma and Burbank 
trees were killed, but Abundance and Wil¬ 
lard were not hurt. p - B 
Louisville, Ohio. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
kk 
FUMA 
• •kills Prairie Dogs 
' ' Woodchucks, Gopher: 
and Grain I nsects.“The 
wheels of-the Uodt 
grind slow but exceed 
ing small." So the weevil, but you can stop theli 
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