1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
735 
SULPHUR FUMES FOR POTATOES. 
New Way of Preventing Scab. 
SCAB EXPERIMENTS—I plant an early, a 
medium, and a late-medium potato, all at the same 
time. The season is sure to be favorable to one of 
them, and sometimes to all of them. One can mar¬ 
ket the early ones early, and the others will be better 
later. I use Acme for early, Early Kansas for me¬ 
dium, and Carman No. 1 for late medium. These 
have proved to be superior, in my tests of over 30 
varieties. I used to dip in corrosive sublimate solu¬ 
tion for scab. Ten crates were submerged in a 
trough, and, while they were draining, 10 more were 
soaking. I have left them in all night without harm. 
My attention was called to the experiments with sul¬ 
phur by the New Jersey Experiment Station, and I 
at once used sulphur on the fresh-cut seed. The re¬ 
sult was all that the station claimed for it. It not 
only reduced the scab, but acted as a stimulant, and 
the keeping quality of the new crop is greatly im¬ 
proved. The treated seed has kept well for five 
weeks before planting, and this seed is not so liable 
to rot. Many seed pieces are sound and good at dig¬ 
ging time. I regard the use of sulphur on the seed 
as of very great value. I experimented with sulphur, 
and believe I have made a valuable discovery. 
EFFECTS OF SULPHUR.—During the Spanish- 
American War, the priee of sulphur was so high that 
I was forced to do some thinking. In our county 
(Allen) there are five huge 1,000-retort smelters, with 
3,000 workmen engaged in smelting zinc, using nat¬ 
ural gas for fuel. One of these smelters does not use 
the regular 350-foot chimney, and the sulphur fumes 
kill all plant life for half a mile around. Workmen 
in these smelters say that the sulphur fumes cure 
the worst cases of catarrh in the head. Sulphur 
fumes drawn into the mouth and held there will kill 
the exposed nerve in a decayed tooth, so that no more 
toothache results, and the tooth need not be removed. 
I reasoned that, if the fumes of sulphur were so de¬ 
structive to insects and disease germs, and would also 
kill plant life in the open air, these fumes used in a 
tight building would destroy the scab germs on pota¬ 
toes. Being a Yankee, of course I tried it. 
HOW IT WAS DONE.—My cold-storage house is 
32x20 feet inside, built of stone, with double walls 
and air space between; double floors above with 20 
sheets of paper and 3 inches of sand between, triple 
doors at each end, and a ventilator that, when closed, 
makes an air-tight room that will hold 2,000 to 3,000 
bushels of potatoes. I burned a very small amount of 
sulphur in this closed room when it contained about 
400 bushels of potatoes. The result was that one 
variety that had sprouted had the sprouts asphyxi¬ 
ated, and they dropped off at the eye. The others 
failed to show any signs of sprouting until they had 
been exposed to the daylight some time. In fact, I 
became alarmed. For the first time in my life, I 
planted homegrown seed that did not show a sign of 
life. I sold some of this seed, but told every one who 
bought, that I would not warrant it to grow. 
THE RESULTS.—The potatoes all came up nicely 
in a shorter period than usual, and the scab germs 
were entirely destroyed. The potatoes in the 
bucket, Fig. 269, are the treated seed August 1, 
1899, and those in Fig. 270 are those that had 
been exposed to the daylight; the large stocky 
sprouts can be plainly s^en. The scab can be 
seen, especially in the tuber in front of the toy 
engine. These pictures were taken after the 
new crop was ripe, and the old seed was yet 
sound and unsprouted. 
My wife had 150 glass jars of fruit, 100 quart 
tin cans, and 100 pounds of lard in the storage 
room. The sulphur fumes destroyed the con¬ 
tents of the cans, penetrated about four inches 
down into the lard, and spoiled that much of it. 
I have dug the early and medium potatoes, and 
the crop is free from scab. The cost of fumi¬ 
gation was less than one cent on 400 bushels 
of seed, or lower than when soaked. 
Kansas. j. c. Norton. 
R. N.-Y.—The value of sulphur fumigation in a 
closed room, for destroying both insect and germ life, 
has long been recognized. Mr. Norton’s adoption of 
this plan seems a very practical one, and its economy 
is a strong recommendation. 
It is well to remember the next time you get a raisin 
seed in your tooth, that California has 60,000 acres in 
raisin grapes, representing 7°,000,000 pounds of raisins, and 
about $3,000,000 in annual value. There is a raisin growers' 
association in California trying to pick a few plums out of 
the business. 
A British steamer, which recently arrived at Phila¬ 
delphia, from Java, ran out of fuel while on her voyage 
and, in addition to burning all available woodwork, 80 
tons of sugar were fed into the furnaces, before she 
reached a coaling station. The Louisiana planters have 
often used molasses for fuel, burning it in special stoves 
or burners. 
WHEN TO SUBSOIL. 
In Fall or in Spring. 
A New England reader has a field of clay loam, with a 
hard clay subsoil. He has decided to subsoil the field, 
and will plow it this Fall, plowing again next Spring. 
Would subsoiling this Fall have as good an effect as would 
be the case if the subsoiling were done next Spring, at 
the time of the Spring plowing? The piece is now in 
grass, and will be turned over during October. From our 
own experience, we would subsoil this Fall, believing 
that in this way better results will be obtained. Would 
you subsoil in the Fall or Spring? 
My experience in subsoiling has been rather lim¬ 
ited, but I should prefer to subsoil such land in the 
Spring. The frost and rains of Fall and Spring 
would be likely to puddle the soil if done in the Fall, 
FUMIGATED WITH SULPHUR. UNSPItOUTED. Fig. 209. 
and thus prevent the free access of the air, one of 
the principal benefits derived from subsoiling. Un¬ 
doubtedly, the teams are in better shape for such 
work now than in the Spring, after a Winter’s idle¬ 
ness, and time is, with most farmers, more plentiful 
than in the Spring, but, nevertheless, I should do it 
in the Spring, and thus have my land in the highest 
possible condition for growing the season’s crops. 
Probably on land with such a subsoil there is not 
much likelihood of plant food being washed down 
and out of the soil, but on all well-drained land I 
always aim to leave a Winter crop to prevent that 
leaching of plant food and washing of the surface 
soil. Either Summer or Winter-fallowing of culti¬ 
vated land is a costly way of managing, and is a relic 
of past agricultural ignorance. With the improved 
and cheap implements of the present day, there is 
no excuse for it. f. a. p. 
Dudley, Mass. 
I would advise subsoiling this Fall, by all means. 
The water would have freer course through the soil, 
and it could be worked earlier in the Spring. 
Connecticut. edwin iioyt. 
We do but little subsoil plowing, as we prefer to 
make clover roots do the work for us. But occasion¬ 
ally, where the subsoil is especially hard, it becomes 
necessary to use the subsoil plow. As a rule, where 
subsoil plowing is to be done, it should be done in the 
Fall or very early in the Spring. Clay soils are so 
slow in drying that Spring subsoiling frequently does 
more harm than good. If the Spring work is delayed 
until the soil is in proper condition, there is not 
then time enough for the soil to become compacted so 
that capillarity is restored. As a rule, we would 
subsoil in the Fall, in order to secure best conditions 
for crop growth the next year. l. a. Clinton. 
Cornell Experiment Station. 
POTATOES IN THE NORTHWEST. 
Fitting the Soil for the Crop. 
Commercial fertilizers are but little used in this 
part of the Northwest. Not only the first cost of the 
fertilizer, but also the high rates of freight, would 
make it too expensive to use profitably with the 
present prices of produce. The usual custom is to 
crop the land to wheat every year, as long as the 
crop does reasonably well, which is, perhaps, from 
six to 12 years from the time it is broken, and then 
change to flax, oats, barley, or seed to Timothy for 
a year or two for a rotation. Some of the land is 
also Summer-fallowed to rest and enrich it. The 
usual way of Summer-fallowing is to plow the land 
in the first part of July, turning under at that time 
a heavy growth of weeds, and the land is then ready 
to seed the next Spring, after a light harrowing. 
Corn and potatoes are also grown as a cleaning 
crop, but the average farmer hauls the manure from 
the stables to a pile and leaves it there. Nearly all 
the straw is burned immediately after thrashing. 
In preparing land for a crop of potatoes, I usually 
sow the land to millet, oats for hay, oats for pasture, 
or to rape for the sheep, manuring as much of it as 
possible with well-rotted stable manure, applied with 
a Kemp spreader, but have not tried any commercial 
fertilizers, and do not think it worth while to use any 
as long as the stable manure is so plentiful. I have 
a part of my potatoes this year on land that was in 
hay and pasture for five years. It was sown to flax 
in 1898 to subdue the sod, and the potatoes are yield¬ 
ing 200 bushels per acre on it, and the stock is very 
fine. The majority of the large growers, however, 
plant their potatoes on the wheat or other stubble, 
without any special preparation, and expect to get 
paid for the cost of the cultivation in the increased 
crops of wheat that follow. geo. w. bilsborrow. 
Minnesota. 
LAWS REGARDING CONSUMPTION. 
The agitation over consumption is not confined to 
preventing the spread of the disease among animals. 
The authorities are beginning to recognize how the 
disease is spreading from one human to another, and 
some of the States are beginning to hedge in the 
disease. California has always been a Mecca for con¬ 
sumptives. When far gone with the disease, con¬ 
sumptive persons go to California or to Colorado, in 
the hope that the mild climate and pure air may at 
least arrest the progress of their ailment. The re¬ 
sult is that many persons too far gone ever to recover, 
go to these States to die. They mingle freely with 
the people, and there seems little doubt that in this 
way the disease has often spread. California pur¬ 
poses to quarantine against such patients, and to pre¬ 
vent their coming into the State except under a 
strict quarantine. Inspectors are to watch in¬ 
coming trains, and strict precautions will be 
taken to prevent consumptives from mingling 
freely with their fellows. 
Michigan has recently passed a law making 
consumption a contagious disease, the same as 
scarlet fever and diphtheria. This law requires 
physicians and families to report cases of con¬ 
sumption to the health officer, and funerals are 
to be carefully guarded. A physician in De¬ 
troit made a test case by failing to report, a case 
of consumption. The case was decided against 
him, and he was fined $50 for the offence. We 
have been in correspondence with a number of 
physicians in Michigan, and they report that 
most doctors are heartily in favor of the law, 
and ready to do all in their power to have it 
enforced. The people, too, are mostly pleased 
with the new regulations, and consider them reason¬ 
able requirements. In fact, during the past few years, 
and especially since the discovery of the cause of the 
disease, there has been a great agitation among the 
people regarding it. The tendency is to place it under 
nearly the same restrictions as hedge in other con¬ 
tagious diseases. There are some who go so far as to 
believe that it is only a question of time before con¬ 
sumptives who have reached a dangerous state will 
be compelled to leave home, and live in parks or 
reservations maintained for them in the high alti¬ 
tudes of the Rocky Mountains. It is an evidence of 
the change in public sentiment, to say that, while 20 
years ago this scheme would have been derided as the 
visionary product of a crank, now a large minority of 
peopie regard it as not only just, but a very sensible 
method of handling a very dangerous disease. 
FUMIGATED WITH SULPHUR. SPROUTED IN SUNLIGHT. Fig. 270. 
