i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 8 
Prof. L. H. Bailey’s Opinion. 
I believe that the certificate of a reputable entomolo¬ 
gist saying- that he has examined the stock, and has 
been unable to find San Jos6 scale, is really worth a 
good deal to the purchaser. It does not guarantee the 
stock to be free, by any means, but it establishes a 
very strong probability that it is free. At any rate, 
the stock could not be very badly diseased, and still 
escape the inspector. An entomologist could not give 
a clean bill of health for all the trees of a nursery, for 
to make a sufficient examination to enable him to do 
so. would cost more than the stock is worth. 
Cornell Experiment Station. L. n. BAILEY. 
Legislation Needed in New York State. 
Of course, I have no means of knowing of the care 
that may or may not be exercised by entomologists in 
examinations made of orchards throughout the coun¬ 
try. It may be in the most thorough manner, or it 
may be very carelessly done. So far as I know, no in¬ 
stance has yet been found here. Prof. Lowe, of the 
New York Station, as well as Prof. Slingerland, of 
Cornell, have both been over my orchards, and while 
every tree has not been examined, an effort was made 
to hunt out and examine trees that showed any evi¬ 
dence of disease or weakness, for the purpose of getting 
at the truth. I am well aware, however, that it’s a 
difficult matter to handle. The Scale may have a scat¬ 
tered existence in orchards, and never be discovered 
until the trees are literally infested, and from them 
spread over an entire section. I low the ground can 
be covered absolutely without legislative action of an 
imperious character, requiring the employment of 
many men at great expense, I do not see. For myself, 
1 fear more from neglected orchards than from the 
dissemination of trees from nurserymen, for the rea¬ 
son that the latter are sharply on the lookout to-day 
for everything injurious to their interests, and many 
States, independent of the certificates referred to, 
have enacted laws and inaugurated a system of 
inspection that will prevent the introduction from 
other States of anything injurious. But in this 
respect, our own State is behind ; and legislation 
should be had this winter to cover full protection 
not only in regard to spreading the danger from 
plants, but fruit as well. s. d. willard. 
New York. 
Certified Establishments More Trustworthy. 
It is not supposable that the examinations 
upon which these certificates are based can have 
been so careful and thorough as to amount to 
a guarantee against infection. In few, if any, 
cases is it possible to assume that the alleged 
examinations have been otherwise than very 
cursory, since, owing to the minuteness of the San 
Jos6 scale, even a careful examination of a large 
nursery, tree by tree, could scarcely warrant the 
assumption that none had been overlooked. In the 
case of Yellows, also, the contagion doubtless 
exists for a considerable period before the outward 
manifestations of such infection are discoverable. 
These assumptions being admitted, it may, naturally, 
be inferred that those who have submitted their 
plantations to inspection, fully believe their stock to be 
free from contagion, while those who fail to call for 
inspection may be supposed to be either aware that 
their stock is untrustworthy, or too careless in the 
matter to justify public confidence. Reasoning from 
such premises, it would seem wise that the certified 
establishments be regarded as trustworthy ; while, at 
the same time, the planter should carefully choose 
those in whose thorough carefulness and integrity he 
may have the greatest confidence. We can imagine no 
more effective method of insuring thorough careful¬ 
ness and strict honesty in matters of this character, 
than to require inspectors, in all cases, as far as possi¬ 
ble, to trace infection to its source, and to report fully 
and publish openly the source from which infected 
trees have been received. t. t. lyon 
Michigan. 
Certificates of Little Value. 
As to the value of nursery “ certificates of inspec¬ 
tion ”, of course, an intelligent entomologist spending 
considerable time in a nursery, going ve»-y carefully 
over every nursery row of trees and furnishing a cer¬ 
tificate that he finds no trace of San Jose scale or 
other injurious insect, does furnish a certificate of 
some little value. However, the average nursery in¬ 
spection, so-called, means a few hours, or a day at the 
most, spent at the nursery, and a more or less hurried 
investigation, which, while it may be of some value, 
is no guarantee whatever that the trees are free from San 
Jose scale, Yellows or Peach rosette, as many nursery¬ 
men, by publishing these certificates, would have their cus¬ 
tomers believe. It should be plainly understood that 
these certificates are no guarantee whatever. San 
Jos6 scale and Yellows are all about, probably a great 
deal more abundant than any of us knows. 1 am 
rather under the impression that they are going to be 
beneficial rather than harmful to the nursery trade or 
orchard planter. They are stimulating better care 
and closer investigation, and in this way, will, prob¬ 
ably do more good than harm. I have not been able 
to find either Scale or Yellows in my nursery, either 
here in Connecticut or in Georgia, but if the Yellows 
is here, there is not one chance in 10,000 that any 
man could detect it in the nursery row ; but the dis¬ 
ease is prevalent all through the North and, probably, 
more or less affects every nursery in the North. That 
is why I am propagating trees in Georgia, so as to 
start them where the disease is never known. Keep 
iip the inspections, but do not place too much confidence 
in “certificates”. I know from conversation with a 
number of entomologists that they consider them of 
far less value than do the nurserymen, who are print¬ 
ing them so freely in their catalogues. j. n. hale. 
Connecticut. 
The Scale is Alarmingly Distributed. 
It is quite true that the certificates of entomolo¬ 
gists and inspectors merely show that they “have not 
found” San Jos6 scale in the nurseries examined, 
which is simply the Scotch verdict. Unfortunately, 
under cover of such certificates, and even the addi¬ 
tional cover of claimed fumigation, this Scale has been 
steadily disseminated up to a very recent date, and I 
fear the mischief is still going on. These “ certifi¬ 
cates” are not of much “real value to a purchaser”. 
The inspection made this year in Delaware by Prof. 
Wesley Webb, has abundantly proved this unfortunate 
fact. The original source of infection in this State 
seems to have been a continuous one even up to a very 
recent date, and most of the cases found are readily 
traceable to this nursery. Where not so traceable, 
the trouble has come from the practice among nursery¬ 
men of exchanging and buying stock. By this means, 
this Scale has reached a very alarming stage of 
TYPICAL ENGLISH SOUTH DOWN SHEEP. Fio. 9. 
dissemination among the nurseries of the whole coun¬ 
try. The buyer of nursery stock to-day can seldom 
have any satisfactory assurance that he is not buying 
trouble and loss and ruin. What can be done to put 
this business again on a safe basis, I am not prepared 
to say, but it is not right in my opinion, that the pub¬ 
lic should be kept in ignorance of the fact that many 
nurseries are now infested, and that the certificates 
they have are of little value to purchasers. I think all 
such should be avoided and, so far as possible, for the 
present at least, the planter should grow his own 
stock. In my opinion, no legislative enactments for 
the suppression of San Jos6 scale in orchards, and for 
the prevention of its spread on nursery stock, can be 
made too careful and stringent. e. h. Bancroft. 
Delaware. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Farm Account Books. —In keeping 1113' farm accounts, 
I use two books ; one of them I carry in an inside vest 
pocket. It is about three inches wide and six inches 
long, ruled for the day of the month and for dollars 
and cents. It has about 200 pages. I reserve the first 
three pages for an index. I then write at the top of 
the page whatever subject 1 may be interested in. and 
leave as many pages as I think will hold the record 
for one 3 r ear ; experience alone will teach how many 
pages to leave. No two men will keep the book ex¬ 
actly alike. Some of the subjects in my book have 
the following number of pages: Clothing, seven 
pages ; groceries, ten ; corn, four ; sheep, four ; news¬ 
papers, one ; tools, two. I use one book for each year, 
and commence the book January 1. The last (50 or 
70 pages I use for a common memorandum. The other 
book should be perfectly blank except the ruling for 
writing ; the size is about 8 inches by 10 or 12. I rule 
this book to suit myself. I call each line of writing 
one year. If there is any item that happens every 
year, I make a column for that item, or the sum of 
those items for that year, and set it down in its place 
opposite the year. When the page is full, I can see 
all about the item for 25 3 r ears : 
■COHN.-. ,-SHEEP.-, 
Com. plant. 
Fin. plant. 
Corn 
cut. 
Out to grass. 
1890. 
.... May 
3 
May 
27 
Sep. 
8 
Apr. 
27 
1891. 
.... Apr. 
29 
May 
27 
Sep. 
5 
Apr. 
27 
1892. 
.... May 
16 
May 
21 
Sep. 
13 
May 
3 
I also draw a map of the farm every year, and mark 
on every field what was raised there. t. .j. s. 
Eagle, Wis. 
R. N.-Y.—Who can give a simpler system than this ? 
South Down Sheep. —The picture of South Down 
sheep shown at Fig. 9 is reengraved from the Mark 
Lane Express. These sheep are prize winners at Eng¬ 
lish live stock shows, and are good specimens of the 
breed as found on the other side of the water. The 
South Downs have not been forgotten in the boom for 
mutton sheep that is now starting anew in this country. 
A few years ago, there was an outcry for Shropshires, 
but it is, probably, true that the South Down is the most 
widely known of all the mutton breeds in America. 
These sheep will average lighter than the Shropshires. 
but they are of good shape, hardy and full of vigor. 
They give a good carcass of the best mutton, and 
are easy keepers compared with other mutton sheep. 
South Down rams have been extensively used in the 
herds of grade Merinos formerly kept for wool on the 
Rocky Mountain ranges. Fed upon the sweet grasses 
of this mountain region, these South Down grades 
provide, perhaps, the finest mutton in the world. 
Straight Talk About Implements. —Situated as we 
are, far removed from the manufactories of improved 
agricultural implements, and where but few are in use, 
we labor under great disadvantages, and like many 
others, are dependent on catalogues and the recom¬ 
mendations for all our information before pur¬ 
chasing. In some instances, we have found the 
implements just what we needed, but in others, 
they were of no use whatever. My object in 
writing is to ask farmers to be more guarded in 
giving recommendations, remembering that many 
other farmers like ourselves are dependent for 
their knowledge of new implements on what 
they say which, in too many cases, amounts to 
financial loss and disappointment. Again, if manu¬ 
facturers would, in their advertisements, give 
their price of implements, it would save much time 
in correspondence. The same will apply to stock. 
I am a native of the Empire State, but have been 
farming where I now live for more than 20 
years, and like this country much better than 
my old home. As a whole, this State is many years 
behind the northern and northeastern States in 
improved farming, but God has done much more 
for us in climate, soil, and variety of products than 
for the region mentioned. Cotton being the main 
and money crop, makes a very good market for 
such products as are consumed at home, and it will 
continue so as long as cotton is the principal crop. 
Alexander, Ark. w. s. T. 
Whitewashing Peach Trees as a winter protection, 
interested me. I believe it a good plan, and shall ex¬ 
periment with it in a small way ; I have made one 
application already ; on December 9. I sprayed four 
trees, two Abundance and one Burbank plum, and 
one peach tree. I used the wash as recommended by 
the Missouri Experiment Station, four parts lime and 
one part skim-milk, and sprayed it on with a Bordeaux 
nozzle. Since then, we have had several very hard 
rains, and contrary to what I believed, that the rain 
would wash it off badly, I find the wash is adhering 
very well. I intend to try a few more peach trees 
later in the season. g. w. h. 
Ogle, Pa. 
Sterile Pears; Japan Plums. —I think that the 
advice to mix an orchard with many kinds, or a few 
kinds very much mixed simply to fertilize each other, 
is doing more harm than good. The Bartlett pear well 
illustrates that hobby. Having that variety from, at 
least, five different nurseries, I am satisfied that two 
varieties of Bartlett are sold. One is more thrifty, 
fruit a little larger, and somewhat darker wood 
growth. There is no doubt that this will fertilize 
itself. As there has been some discussion in regard to 
the Satsuma plum, I would say that I had that variet3 r 
and Burbank grafted and bearing before there was a 
Japan plum bearing fruit for miles around. Neither 
has failed to bear except in 1896, when the buds were 
killed. No other grafts have done equally well, even 
under more favorable circumstances for fertilization, 
yet no one would claim that, because the original 
grafts came from California, it injures their fruitful¬ 
ness. Last season, the best bearing Satsumas were 
upon the lightest ground, which proves nothing. An¬ 
other season, the results might be entirely different. 
Lunenburg, Mass< u. o. M. 
