THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i8d& 
THE SAN JOSE SCALE QUESTION. 
WIIAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT ? 
The Chairman of the Executive Committee Speaks. 
( Concluded .) 
From the foregoing, it appears that at this time 
Prof. Smith felt certain that the scale had not spread 
to the old orchards or into the ornamental trees of 
the parks or along the roadsides, but that it was con¬ 
fined to the nurseries then known to be infested and 
to such young stock as had been recently distributed 
from these; possibly only a small per cent of these 
young trees were infested. I am forced to suggest, in 
the light of Prof. Smith’s strong statement just given, 
that if New Jersey had, at that time adopted a rigid 
law providing for the stamping out of the scale in the 
then infested areas, and strict control of the nurseries, 
so that their premises might have been cleared of the 
scale, the lamentable statement made by Prof. Smith 
recently would never have been called for. 
This last statement referred to is the one made by 
him at the Moorestown Farmers’ Institute, December 
last, and printed in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, 
December 24. In this paper, Prof. Smith lays great 
emphasis upon the fact that a large part of the State 
of New Jersey is thoroughly infested, and that the 
orchards, young and old, the ornamental trees in 
parks and along the roadsides, are seriously infested 
over a large part of the State, and now he positively 
asserts that the San Jos6 scale can never be eradicated 
in New Jersey. This last statement is probably true. 
In fact, I believe it is true, and I do not take up this 
point to criticise his last statement, but again to sug¬ 
gest that if, during the three years which have elapsed 
since his Brooklyn statement and this latter state¬ 
ment, the State of New Jersey had pursued the stead¬ 
fast course of rigidly controlling the infested nurseries 
and stamping out the isolated cases, so far as possible, 
this lamentable statement referred to above would not 
now have to be made. 
Referring again to Prof. Smith’s statement in The It. 
N.-Y. of January 8, he takes the strongest kind of 
grounds against the work of inspection and the issuing 
of certificates of apparent freedom from the scale, and 
insists that the purchaser must himself inspect the 
stock, or, as he puts it, let the buyer beware. This 
statement, in the light of the fact that, ever since the 
scale was discovered in New Jersey, Dr. Smith has 
been publishing in the newspapers and in bulletins 
which have been sent broadcast, a large amount of 
matter concerning this scale, and that during this 
period the infested area in New Jersey has, doubtless, 
according to his own statements, increased several 
hundred fold, seem to me to point to quite illogical 
reasoning on his part. 
As in a measure justifying his opposition to the giv¬ 
ing of certificates by entomologists, he makes several 
statements that trees have been shipped into New 
Jersey infested with scale, yet carrying the certificate 
of an entomologist. This may well have occurred in 
a few instances considering the fact that, wherever 
inspection has been attempted, the inspectors have 
been much over-worked and have not had the means 
necessary to do the work in a proper manner. But to 
argue that, because some error or oversight or even 
some dishonest practices may occur under inspection, 
we are not to try to stop the dissemination of this pest 
seems to me simply to be begging the question. 
It is certainly demonstrable by the work done in 
this State (Virginia), and I believe, also, in other 
States, that the inspection has immensely decreased 
the amount of infested stock that has been handled 
from the nurseries, and that it has served to locate 
and, in many cases, restrict the spread from local in¬ 
fested areas, and in some cases, entirely eradicate the 
scale therein. After several years’ experience in deal¬ 
ing with this question, I give it as my firm belief that 
our best hope of checking the spread of this obscure 
and pernicious pest lies in the most thorough inspection 
under competent, trained entomologists, and the de¬ 
struction of all infested nursery stock, and, as a 
further measure, the restriction and eradication, so 
far as possible, of infested areas in the State outside 
of the nurseries. Because we have the scale, is it 
sound argument that we shall continue to dissemin¬ 
ate it ? 
My experience, after two years of work, is that no 
seriously infested nursery will ever be overlooked by 
an inspector having proper training. If this is then 
the case and these thousands and, in some cases, hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of trees can be withheld from dis¬ 
semination in commerce, why is not inspection a 
practical and proper means of restricting the spread 
of this pest ? 
From information which I have, I feel that I am 
safe in saying that New York growers are slumbering 
in fancied security in regard to this scale not being 
able to maintain itself in New York above the upper 
austral life zone and, undoubtedly, when the State 
has been thoroughly inspected, facts will be ascer- 
i67 
tained which will be very unpleasant to many of the 
fruit growers. For my part, I do not believe there is 
any real danger to foreign countries from the unre¬ 
stricted entrance of our fruit, but it will not be so 
easy to convince them if we permit this scale to 
spread further. Until now, I have purposely avoided 
treating this matter in the newspapers, because I 
especially wished to allay and not create alarm ; but 
as the time has passed when a fair statement can do 
harm, I have thought it best to make this general 
statement and partial reply to those who have pub¬ 
lished so voluminously in the newspapers and agri¬ 
cultural press. WM. B. ALWOOD. 
Chairman Executive Com. Washington Convention. 
AMONG THE MARKETMEN. 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
Spring LAMBS.-There has been an excellent de¬ 
mand for these lately, and prices have been much 
higher than earlier in the season. One dealer said 
that he had been getting $7 and $8 each for lambs 
that were considered too light for the general trade. 
He had sold some previously for the same shipper for 
extra prices, with the result that the latter hurried 
along everything that would possibly do—light or 
heavy. lie ought to consider himself extremely for¬ 
tunate to get such big prices for such small lambs. 
Most shippers still send them with the heads and feet 
on, thus making the express charges heavier, and giv¬ 
ing the receivers considerable trouble. They should 
remember that the regulations of the Board »f Health 
of this city require that the heads and feet shall be 
removed before they are offered for sale. 
X t t 
Live Poultry. —The market has been overstocked 
all Winter. Dealers give several reasons for this. 
Dressed poultry has been in such excessive supply, 
and has sold for so low a price, that many who for¬ 
merly shipped dressed, are now sending alive. Then 
larger quantities than usual have been received from 
the South and Southwest. The weather this Winter 
has been so warm and open that it has been favorable 
to collecting and shipping. Sales have been slow be¬ 
cause dressed poultry has been so low in price, so that 
there is now quite an accumulation. On March 8, 
occurs the first of the Hebrew Spring holidays—Purim 
—when considerable quantities of live poultry, par¬ 
ticularly fowls and hen turkeys, will be required. 
Shipments for this holiday should reach here the lat¬ 
ter part of the previous week. The next holiday will 
be the beginning of Passover week, which lasts from 
April 7 to 14, when all kinds of live poultry will be in 
demand. All stock shipped should be well fattened 
and in prime condition. Extreme prices are not prob¬ 
able. 
t X t 
Refrigerator Strawberry Crates. —There have 
been inquiries about the refrigerator crates now in 
use for shipping strawberries from Florida to the 
northern markets. At Fig. 72, page 158, a 64-quart 
crate is shown. Several different forms have been, 
and are still in use, but the style shown seems 
to be best adapted for the purpose, and to be the fav¬ 
orite. The improvement is in the manner of supplying 
the ice ; the latter is in a shallow, galvanized tray 
fitting in the top, and the full size of the crate. One 
old style that I saw this morning had a narrow, up¬ 
right receptacle for the ice, which formed a sort of 
partition through the center of the crate. Another 
had a shallow ice-pan in the center of the top, of a 
size that allowed a row of berry baskets to be set 
around-it. This, perhaps, saved space, but did not 
carry the fruit in so good condition. The idea in the 
newest pattern seems to be that the ice is distributed 
over the entire upper surface of the crate, thus cool¬ 
ing the whole evenly, and as cold air settles, it goes 
all down through the crate uniformly. The berries 
in these crates seem to arrive in fine condition. The 
construction is pretty well shown in the illustration. 
This crate measured, outside measure, about two feet 
two inches, by two feet six inches, by two feet seven 
inches. It held four layers of quart baskets, 16 in each 
layer—64 in all. As shown, a drain pipe extends 
from the bottom of the crate up nearly to the bottom 
of the pan, and a spout from the latter drains off the 
water from the melting ice. The ice-pan can be lifted 
out to get at the berries. There is a ventilator through 
the middle of the crate as shown. The whole is solidly 
built. The cover is fastened on with bolts set stationary 
in the crate, projecting through the corners of the 
cover, and fastened with nuts. The latter cause a 
good deal of trouble to receivers, as they are sunken 
in the cover, and it is difficult to get at them with an 
ordinary wrench. Some crates have a different and 
preferable device for fastening. I believe the crate is 
patented. Most of them hold five tiers—80 quarts— 
the artist drew a 64-quart one. F. H. v. 
CUT AND SHREDDED. 
Many of our public schools, both town and country, 
are woful failures so far as giving practical, business 
training is concerned. Too much attention is paid to 
the ornamental frills, and not enough to the solid 
foundation necessary to success in after life. The 
writer knows of schools in which pupils just in their 
teens are crammed with Latin, French and German, 
yet these same pupils can hardly read aloud a page of 
common English so as to make it intelligible, or figure 
the interest on a note. A school should be a place of 
training for the active, responsible duties of life, and 
it fails of its purpose if it does not so guide and train 
the young that they shall make better citizens, and 
live broader, happier and more useful lives. Not one 
in 10 of our school children even knows how titles to 
property are given or transferred. 
In 1892, the State of New Jersey established a tax 
on collateral inheritances. Under this law, when a 
person dies leaving an estate worth more than $500, 
5 per cent of its appraised value shall be paid over to 
the State, except where the property goes to any of 
the following relatives: Father, mother, husband^ 
wife, son, daughter, brother, si&ter, or lineal de¬ 
scendant, or to the wife or widow of a son or the hus¬ 
band of a daughter. Property left to religious, char¬ 
itable, or benevolent institutions is, also, exempt from 
the tax. The net revenues to the State thus far from 
this source are $539,731.02. Nearly one-third of this 
sum has been paid by 17 large estates. This tax has 
not interfered with the rights of any direct heirs, but 
has provided a good fund for paying public expenses, 
and thus reducing other forms of taxation. 
The new Employers’ Liability Act, which goes into 
effect in England July 1, holds an employer directly 
responsible for any injury received by an employee in 
the course of his regular work, the only defence al¬ 
lowed being “ serious and willful misconduct ” on the 
part of the workman. If a person be incapacitated 
for work by such injury, half wages must be continued 
to the sufferer, and in case of death, the minimum 
compensation allowed is three years’ wages, where 
survivors were totally dependent upon the victim. 
Where there are no dependents, a maximum of $50 is 
allowed for funeral expenses. It is said that this pro¬ 
vision will cause employers to give a preference to 
unmarried men without dependents. The Act includes 
all employees, whether engaged in manual labor or 
otherwise. Employers are preparing to organize 
mutual insurance companies, which will divide the 
liability. 
A “ corn convention ” was recently held in Chicago, 
which organized an association known as the Ameri¬ 
can Maize Propaganda. The object is chiefly to en¬ 
courage the use of corn as food. Corn exhibits are to 
be made at all the large expositions, with cooking 
schools in full operation. A traveling exhibition of 
corn products with a cooking school is to passthrough 
the chief cities of Europe and the East. The object 
is to show the people of the world something of the 
great value of maize as a human food. Congress will 
be asked to help, and from the character of the men 
who are at the head of the organization, it is evident 
that our great American cereal will get what belongs 
to it. It is high time something of this sort was 
started. As was stated several weeks ago, the use of 
cotton-seed meal as human food in the place of lard, 
and as stock food in place of corn, has seriously re¬ 
duced the demand for that grain. We must organize 
a new demand for it among humans who do not now 
understand its value. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Wm. E. Hunt, of Hunt’s Corners, N. V., writes that he has 
cured bog spavin by the use of Oombault’s balsam. He applied 
it when the spavin began to show, and made seven applications. 
It is an excellent liniment to keep in the stable. 
The Bradley Fertilizer Company, of Boston, Mass., has been 
doing business for many years. They were pioneers in the early 
manufacture of superphosphates, and their business has steadily 
grown. Readers are invited to send for their pamphlets and 
other literature, which will always be found plain, clear and 
forcible. 
A subscriber from Naples, N. Y., sends ua an advertisement of 
the Tyrone, Pa., artist which he cut from a religious paper, and 
wants us to caution readers against him in order to stop a good 
many w-ho, no doubt, would send $2.50 for which they would get 
no just equivalent. It will be remembered that wc have two 
different times before cautioned readers against this fraud. 
Who has not heard of the famous Planet Jr. tools ? If there 
are any such benighted people left, they should by all means send 
at once to S. L. Allen <fe Co., Philadelphia, Pa., and ask for a copy 
of the Planet Jr. catalogue for 1898. These tools are used every¬ 
where in scratching the crust of our planet and forcing it to 
yield up an honest living to cultivated plants. For further par¬ 
ticulars, read the catalogue. 
Tools may come and tools may go, but there is one standard 
implement that holds its place on the farm. The Acme harrow 
still remains the best implement for finishing up the average 
plowed field for seeding. It packs, crushes, levels, crumbles, 
drags and smashes, turns and twists the soil and leaves it just 
right for the seed bed. We consider it a remarkable fact that no 
one has yet been able to devise a tool that will do this peculiar 
work better than the Acme. During the past year we have used 
it for following the Cutaway and plow, for covering small seeds 
and for covering potatoes and corn, and it has also taken the 
place of a roller. It is certainly a grand good tool. It is manu¬ 
factured by Duane H. Nash, Millington, N. J., who will send you 
circulars and full description. Look it up. 
