1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER; 
495 
FUMIGATING NURSERY TREES. 
A reader sends us a letter from a nurseryman who is 
afraid of fumigating- his trees with the hydrocyanic acid 
gas. There seems to be some misunderstanding yet about 
the proper time for fumigating, and so we have asked 
Prof. W. G. Johnson to give the facts once more. 
In all of our publications regarding fumigation 
methods of nursery stock, we have repeated the fact 
that nursery stock cannot be fumigated during the 
growing season, and that this process is used only 
after the trees are thoroughly dormant, that is, late 
in the Pail, during the Winter and early Spring, be¬ 
fore the buds begin to shoot. We conducted a large 
series of experiments one year ago, in which we tested 
conclusively the physiological effect of this gas upon 
trees in various stages of growth. In all cases where 
the trees were in full foliage, and where the buds had 
started, the foliage was invariably injured by the 
gas, when used in the normal strength, twenty-five- 
hundredxns (.25) gramme cyanide per cubic foot of 
space enclosed. The experiences of your Ohio cor¬ 
respondent should be sufficient, without further ex¬ 
tenuation, that trees cannot be fumigated after the 
buds begin to unfold. It might be well for me to 
quote some points to be remembered by persons who 
are fumigating, summing up the results of our ex¬ 
periences: 
1. Never let a tree grown by you get out of your 
hands unless you have fumigated it. 
2. Never fumigate a tree on which you know there 
is a San Josd scale. The furnace and not the fumi¬ 
gating house is the place for such trees. A dead scale 
on a tree is just as demoralizing to your business as 
a live one, if seen by the buyer. 
3. Never use the gas stronger than .25 gramme cya¬ 
nide per cubic foot on any kind of nursery stock. 
4. Never leave the tree exposed to the gas longer 
than an hour. 
5. Never fumigate trees, especially peach, a second 
time. 
6. Never fumigate trees in a car after it is packed. 
7. Never fumigate trees when they are drenching 
wet. They may be moist, even quite damp. 
8. Never puddle the roots of trees before they are 
fumigated. 
9. Never fumigate cedar-s and evergreen trees, un¬ 
less there is some special cause for it. 
10. Never fumigate trees until the wood is well ma¬ 
tured and the buds thoroughly dormant. 
11. Never fumigate after the buds have begun to 
open in the Spring. 
12. Never fumigate June buds and peach under 
three feet with gas stronger than .18 gramme cyanide 
per cubic foot. Better use .16 gramme. 
13. Never fumigate buds, grafts or scions with gas 
stronger than .16 gramme. 
14. Never leave the cyanide can where children can 
reach it. 
15. Never let the cyanide can be without a con 
spicuous label poison. 
16. Never leave the cyanide exposed to the air. It 
will absorb moisture and be ruined. 
17. Never take a bag of cyanide out of a can, until 
you are all ready to use it. 
18. Never leave the door of the fumigating room 
open a moment after the cyanide has been dropped in 
the jar. 
19. Never allow a person to go near or open the 
door when fumigating. 
20. Never allow anybody to enter a room under 10 
or 15 minutes after the door and ventilators are open. 
21. Never empty residue or jars where children can 
play in x„. 
22. 'Never allow residue to remain long in the jar. 
23. Never put a new charge in a jar containing the 
old residue. 
24. Never put sulphuric acid -in tin or iron vessels; 
it will eat them up. Always use glass or earthenware. 
25. Never lose an opportunity to caution persons 
in your employment or on your place about the dan¬ 
ger attending the inhalation of this gas. 
SILAGE FOR SUMMER FEEDING. 
Dairymen all over central New York, who depend 
upon pastures for their cows, are complaining that 
the supply of milk is growing shorter every day. Pas¬ 
tures are brown and. parched, and there is almost a 
complete repetition of the experience of one year ago, 
when there occurred a prolonged drought. Soiling 
crops have been advocated, and various crops recom¬ 
mended, though our experience this year but confirms 
us in our belief that there is only one “best” way for 
providing Summer feed, and that is by means of the 
silo. We know of no dairyman who feeds silage dur¬ 
ing the entire year, yet we know many who have 
their silo from which to feed during the Summer, 
when the pastures dry up. The Cornell University 
herd consists of 15 cowis, which are giving milk at 
the present time. The pasture upon which these cows 
were kept dried up, as have all pastures in this vicin¬ 
ity. In the bottom of a large stave silo there re¬ 
mained several feet of good corn silage. The cows 
were brought to the stable and fed a ration of silage 
daily. They at once increased their daily milk yield 
from two to three pounds each. After being fed on 
silage a few days we cut some oats and peas which 
had been grown for soiling. These oats and peas were 
in prime condition, but instead of increasing the milk 
flow the cows actually fell off in their production. 
When put back on silage they immediately increased 
FILLING SILOS FOK SUMMER FEEDING. Fig. 167. 
their flow again. While soiling crops are valuable, 
the necessary work during the busy season is so great, 
by any soiling system, that many farmers and dairy¬ 
men do not practice the system. Where silage is fed 
the heavy work comes late in the season, when other 
work is well out of -the way. No further attention is 
then required until it is desired to feed the silage. 
For Bummer feeding no other system can compare 
with silage for economy and value. Fig. 167 shows 
the filling of a silo for Summer use. l. a. c. 
USE OF THE RIDING CULTIVATOR. 
In these days, when the silo is coming into general 
use, and the value of the corn crop is becoming more 
appreciated each year, the proper methods of corn 
cultivation should be well understood. In actual prac¬ 
tice many fields of corn are neglected until the weeds 
and grass have outgrown the corn, and then the at¬ 
tempt is made to cultivate and hoe, and it will be at 
the expenditure of a great aimount of labor that the 
corn is made clean. Fig. 168 shows a way by which 
one man with a team and cultivator may easily cover 
five acres a day. The wheel cultivator is an imple- 
WORK OF THE RIDING CULTIVATOR. Fig. 168. 
men-t which should be on every farm. As they are 
now manufactured they can be used on steep hillsides, 
and they may be made to do their work quickly and 
well. After the corn is planted, and before it has 
appeared above ground, the spike-tooth harrow may 
be used. This will keep the surface soil loose, de¬ 
stroy weeds and grass in the row, which otherwise 
would have to be removed by hand. The wheel cul¬ 
tivator may then be taken to the cornfield and set to 
work. When the corn is small, the fine teeth with 
shields should be used on the cultivator, and they 
should be run as close to the corn plants as possible 
without digging them out. The first cultivation of 
corn is a most important one. If the cultivator is 
kept far from the corn row for fear of uprooting 
corn, it gives weeds and grass a chance to grow, Cul¬ 
tivate close to the corn and deep at the first working. 
As the com plants get larger the broader teeth may 
be put upon the cultivator, and the dirt will thus be 
made to cover the weeds and grass in the row. As 
corn is now very generally planted for silage the 
rows run but one way. This method of planting 
makes it all the more imperative that the tillage shall 
be thorough. The wheel cultivator lessens labor, in¬ 
creases production, and enables the farmer to care for 
a crop of corn or 'potatoes at about one-hal'f the cost 
at which it could be cared for otherwise 
L. A. CLINTON. 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
Bacteria and Beans. 
A neighbor who is a “doubting Thomas” says: 
“What nonsense to think a bean will not grow with¬ 
out a bacteria, and that those little bunches add any¬ 
thing to the soil, x nat fool farmer on Hope Farm 
who Ite trying to make money pulling pumpkins from 
a stone heap has sent for a bag of bacteria to doctor 
sick beans.” I usually have some gun loaded for this 
practical fellow, but this time was dumb. If scientific 
men hold to the theory that bacteria are essential to 
a healthful growth of tne bean, facts do not bear out 
the statement. Last year I selected a field which had 
not grown beans for 20 years, and was presumably 
free of bean bacteria. This was planted to beans, with 
eight kinds of fertilizers and the same number of 
varieties. Plots were left unfertilized, and one trench 
had bean-bacteria soil scattered in the bottom. This 
bag of soil was procured from an old bean field near 
Rochester, and was pronounced right by an expert 
from Cornell. 
The growth of foliage was luxuriant, healthy and 
satisfactory in every row. At intervals during the 
Summer, and at harvesting, the roots were carefully 
examined, and no bacteria were found except on the 
one row. The plants in this row had roots covered 
with them. You can plant bacteria and grow a crop, 
but they are not necessary or essential for the growth 
of the plant which furnishes a home for them. 
Neither the foliage nor beans proved by actual weigh¬ 
ing to be superior in the bacteria row. “Bacteria are 
fungus in nature, and are parasite or refuse eaters.” 
Such plants would naturally be injurious rather than 
helpful, one would think. 
The constant teaching of the value of legumes to 
furnish nitrogen is all right, but overdrawn, until 
'the necessity of sowing bacteria is better understood. 
My beans, which yielded at the rate of 22 to 45 bushels 
per acre, did not add an ounce of nitrogen from tlbe 
air. No clovers, cow peas, beans and other lauded 
crops, are worth more than corn or buckwheat unless 
bacteria spores are present or procured. The value of 
clover is not in the bacteria grown on its roots, but 
in the humus furnished by the mass of roots; by its 
loosening and mellowing capacity. When I walk over 
my eight acres of clover sod planted to potatoes, and 
sink ankle-deep into the mellow soil; when I note 
the moisture in the finely-divided subsoil, notwith¬ 
standing the drought; When I note the absence of the 
weeds which were smothered by the luxuriant growth 
oi foliage last season; when I think of the size of 
those bacteria compared with the clover plant; when 
I think of the, perhaps, ounce of bacteria to the ton 
of clover, I feel tbe neighbor is the nearest right, and 
so I have sown six acres for bulk rather than quality. 
A mixture of oats, corn, Canada peas and rape seed 
is to 'be turned under this Fall, for humus, instead of 
cow peas, Crimson clover and slender trash for nitro¬ 
gen. Am I making a mistake? c. e. chapman. 
R. N.-Y.—Our reasons for using the soil from a 
field where Soy beans have .grown were as follows: 
We have found that cow peas are very useful for re¬ 
storing wornout land. Some farmers say that the 
Soy bean is better, but with us, this bean has never 
done well. It is claimed that this is because the 
special bacteria are not present in our soil. We pur¬ 
pose giving the Soy bean every Chance to beat the 
cow pea, if it can, for we want the be^t. Such men 
as Prof. Cottrell, Prof. Brooks and Prof. Phelps be¬ 
lieve that the use of this soil will give a better crop 
of Soy beans. Their arguments are plausible, and we 
will try it. We are not prepared to argue the matter 
until we know something about it. 
Second Hay Crop.—I have for several years practiced 
top-dressing my meadows, tbit I wished to keep over for 
next year’s mowing, with about 300 pounds per acre of a 
fertilizer testing about four per cent nitrogen, eight to 
nine per cent phosphoric acid and some potash, this being 
applied soon after mowing. 1 mow over the meadows 
the second time, as much to clear away objectionable 
growth as for the grass obtained, which is considerable. 
I had a good crop of grass last year, while many com¬ 
plained of very light yields. I have now a good crop. 
On old meadows I have never tried an application of 
nitrate of soda alone, but in applying a complete fertilizer 
on meadows in good heart, in small quantities, each year, 
to keep the grass roots vigorous as well as to get a 
second crop large enough to pay for doing the same, and 
at the same time keep clean meadows, I feel quite 
successful, and feel sure it is a good practice. 
New Haven Co,, Conn, J, norris barnes, 
