64o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 17 
and south, for this reason: when an intensely cold 
snap comes on suddenly, the wind almost invariably 
comes from some westerly point, and very often but 
little snow falls. The little that does fall is swept 
along by the blast and finds lodgment in every little 
furrow and depression in the fields. If the drill fur¬ 
rows run north and south, naturally the snow is drifted 
into them and remains there to protect the wheat 
plant during the two or three days the cold snap 
usually lasts. The deeper the drill furrows, within 
reason of course, the more snow will they retain and 
the more effective will be the protection. 
I have seen the sort of drill G. B. A., page 624, im¬ 
agines would be an ideal seeder, and some wheat 
growers like it very well; but I have yet to meet one 
who, after thorough trial, is satisfied that it is superior 
in any respect to the hoe drill. Without a doubt, a 
drill of this sort will do better work on rough, trashy 
land than a hoe drill, and for that reason, is better 
adapted to the use of Farmer Wayback and his neigh¬ 
bor, Mr. Oldrut, than the latter; but progressive 
farmers have quit sowing Winter wheat in rough, 
trashy land. Winter-wheat growers in this section 
long ago learned that it is folly of the worst sort to 
plow trash under when preparing land for Winter 
wheat, because undecayed trash in the bottom of the 
furrow holds water and causes the soil to heave badly 
and throw the wheat plant out. No harm is done in 
turning stubble under immediately after harvest, be¬ 
cause it rots completely before Winter ; but to turn 
under a heavy coat of weeds and trash a short time 
before seeding is to invite disaster. 
The ideal ground for Winter wheat is entirely clear 
of all trash, smooth and fine, mellow as a garden bed 
to a depth of, at least, three inches, and firm under 
that. In a soil like that, the hoe drill works to per¬ 
fection ; the seed is placed exactly where it is needed 
—under the mellow surface soil, which the shoots can 
easily pierce, on the firmly packed subsoil, in which 
the roots will secure a firm hold that ordinary frosts 
cannot loosen ; w T hile the drill furrows are made just 
the right depth to secure the greatest protection to 
the plant during the Winter. 
Winter-wheat growers have learned that the soil 
must be prepared in the most thorough manner if 
anything like a full crop is desired. Neither new 
variety of seed nor method of seeding will compen¬ 
sate for lack of thoroughness in the preparation of 
the soil. This is not so much a question of much work 
as of effective work. With a disk, a plank float and a 
harrow, a skillful farmer can make a perfect seed-bed 
for his wheat after the land has been skimmed over 
with the plow. Some farmers still cling to the idea 
that it is necessary to plow wheat ground deeply. 
Don’t do it. If you want to open up the subsoil so 
that the wheat roots can reach the plant food stored 
therein, let clover do it for you. Clover can do it 99 
per cent better than you can do it with any imple¬ 
ment. Give clover a chance to do your subsoil work ; 
you try to do a perfect job on the surface. If you do 
this, the hoe drill will do satisfactory work for you. 
Illinois. FRED. GRUNDY. 
SCALE INSECTS ON CALIFORNIA FRUIT. 
ARE THEY DANGEROUS TO EASTERN FRUIT GROWERS? 
One day last week a friend brought to The R. N.-Y. 
a sample of a California orange which he had just 
bought at a street stand. This orange was well covered 
with black and dark-gray scales. The man who 
bought the fruit was confident that they were the 
dreaded San Jose scale. They seemed to us too large 
for that insect, but in order to make sure of the mat¬ 
ter, the orange was sent to Prof. Slingerland with the 
request that he examine it. We asked Prof. Slinger¬ 
land to tell us whether, in case these really turned out 
to be San Jos6 scales, there is any use legislating 
against this insect on our own trees, if California is to 
be free to send them to us on her fruit. The follow¬ 
ing reply has been received from Prof. Slingerland : 
It’s the Red Scale. —No, the scales infesting the 
California orange are not the San Jose scale. They 
are the dreaded Red scale (Aspidiotus aurantii), one 
of the worst pests of citrus fruits in California. So 
far as I know, this scale has not yet appeared in the 
orange groves of the South ; it is a native of Australia. 
It resembles, superficially, the San Jos6 scale very 
much, as it is about the same size and of the same 
shape. It has a much more reddish or brownish color 
than the San Jos6 species, which is grayish or black¬ 
ish. When examined under high powers of the micro¬ 
scope, a specially prepared specimen of each species 
would show minute structural differences. Further¬ 
more, the Red scale of California occurs only on citrus 
trees, while the San Jos6 scale has never been recorded 
as feeding upon the citrus trees, attacking only decid¬ 
uous plants. This last fact gives ground for the state¬ 
ment that there is no danger of the introduction of 
the San Jos6 scale into the East upon oranges or 
lemons, and as these fruits are not grown here, 
oranges as badly infested with the Red scale of Cali¬ 
fornia as the one sent me, are no menace to eastern 
fruit growers. Other scale insects sometimes occur 
upon oranges or lemons in our eastern markets, but, 
so far as I know, any “scaly” orange or lemon en¬ 
dangers no fruit grower outside of the region where 
such fruit can be grown. In short, nothing is to be 
feared from the presence of “ scaly ” oranges or lemons 
in our eastern markets. 
San Jose Scale Does Come. —But it is a fact that 
the San Jos6 scale does often appear upon our city 
fruit stands upon California fruits. Usually only in¬ 
fested California pears thus find their way into our 
markets. One can easily find such pears in the mar¬ 
kets of the larger cities, each fruit bearing many liv¬ 
ing examples of the San Jos6 scale in all stages. 
Doubtless, this infested fruit had been shipped to the 
East for several years before the San Jos6 scale was 
found on any plant here in the East. Theoretically, 
there is a chance that, upon some of the peelings 
from these infested fruits, thrown by the wayside, 
perhaps there might be a few very young scales 
crawling about, and some of these might get to a tree 
whereon they might start a colony of the scale. 
Cannot Spread this Way. —There is scarcely any 
chance that scales several days old could be thus in¬ 
troduced into a region in this manner ; only the very 
youngest or recently hatched scales travel about. 
Theoretically, then, there is a chance that the San 
Jos6 scale could be introduced into a new locality 
upon infested California pears, but practically, there 
is not the slightest evidence to show that this scale 
ever was thus introduced into any locality. In every 
case, its introduction into a new region can be direct¬ 
ly traced to nursery stock, buds, scions or similar 
parts of infested plants, not from the fruit of such 
plants. It is true that the scales will live and thrive 
for a considerable time, a month or more, on the fruit 
after it is picked. In brief, then, the San Jos6 scale 
is shipped east alive cn California pears; there is a 
possible chance of its being introduced into a new 
region in this way, but there are no '"acts to prove 
that such an introduction has ever taken place. 
Hence, from these facts, it is easy to see that the 
European countries which prohibited the importation 
of our American green fruit, really had no definite 
facts to support any such vigorous measures. With 
nursery stock, the case would be very different. I 
doubt whether the San Jos6 scale will ever be intro¬ 
duced into a new locality because of a shipment of 
California or any other American fruit into that lo¬ 
cality. M. Y. SLINGERLAND. 
New York State Entomologist. 
SALT RIVER MUD FOR FERTILIZER. 
HOW SHOULD IT BE HANDLED ? 
What is the best method of treating river mud pumped and 
dredged on to meadows, so that it may be economically and 
quickly brought to a condition which will permit cultivation. The 
mud is now a year old, and owing to a mild Winter, has received 
little action from frost. It will not yet safely bear a horse in 
spite of the thick baked crust formed by the past severe heat 
and drought. Early in June, I had holes dug one foot in diameter, 
and the same depth, on a space of half an acre over which had 
been previously scattered 14 barrels of lime. In these holes, was 
placed enough rotted leaf mold, of which I have an abundance; 
to this was added and mixed with it a handful of fertilizer, and 
in this were deposited a half dozen velvet beans, the rows of 
holes being four feet apart each way. The beans were soaked 24 
hours before planting, and owing to the drought were watered 
two or three times. In many of the hills the beans came up about 
three or four inches, then died down. The same is true on a 
sandy piece of adjoining land where the mud has been plowed 
under with manure; in this latter case, not more than five or six 
inches thick, the land having been a vegetable garden for several 
years past. Strong one-year-old privet died at the end of the row 
resting in the dried mud. Save for marsh grass, it seems to kill 
plant life. n. a. t. 
Long Island, N. Y. 
Used on a Connecticut Farm. 
Harbor mud is hauled out in the late Fall, on a farm 
in this neighborhood, allowed to drain, freeze and 
thaw and leach through the Winter, and is used on all 
crops the following season, being reckoned to be as 
valuable for crops as stable manure. It is said to dry 
in clods and to be of little value unless it has weathered 
one Winter. The freezing is said to pulverize it. It 
has been sold wet and unseasoned, for SI.50 per load 
on the wharf. I am inclined to attribute its action on 
this particular farm largely to its mechanical effect 
and to the lime in it (from sea shells which come up 
very abundantly in this particular place). But “ sea 
mud ” is extremely variable in its character, and so is 
the soil of seashore farms. There is no use generalizing. 
Connecticut Experiment Station. e. h. jenkins. 
Experiments at Newport, R. A 
This raises a question of considerable importance to 
farmers and others residing near the seaside. In all 
cases of this kind, the chief difficulty is getting rid of 
the salt, of which the mud taken from the bottom of 
salt rivers or bays contains altogether too much to 
permit of vegetable growth. Just now, Newport is 
building an esplanade along the southern shore of the 
harbor, having dredged the shallow waters to a con¬ 
siderable distance, the material being used in build¬ 
ing up the lowlands along the water’s edge, which is 
protected by a newly-built stone wall. The best of 
this material, however, was not spread at once, but 
was piled in heaps for the purposes of drainage and 
aeration, where it has now remained for more than a 
year, while the other work has been going on. Lay¬ 
ers of lime were intermingled, and care was taken not 
to make the piles too large to admit of thorough 
drainage from the fallen rains to the center. This is 
designed to be spread on top when the work has been 
otherwise completed, and it is observed that, after the 
first Winter, these heaps are covered with a coarse 
and weedy vegetation, and it is believed that the ma¬ 
terial will answer the purposes of a good top-dressing 
for grass. This opinion seems to be justified by other 
experiments on a smaller scale in this locality. But it 
will be noted that this substance came from the bot¬ 
tom of the harbor, and may be composed quite largely 
of materials deposited there during a long series of 
years. The “salt river” mud, of which you speak, 
may be a somewhat different thing; still, there 
is no doubt that it has certain elements of fer¬ 
tility in considerable proportions that can be brought 
out and made useful by a similar process. 
The trouble in the case you describe, I should say, 
is chiefly from the lack of preliminary drainage, 
through which the superabundance of salt can alone be 
got rid of. This may be, at best, a long process, and 
require a good many rainstorms as well as some freez¬ 
ing and thawing. If spread on a flat surface, and 
especially on a hard meadow soil, it would be very 
difficult to dispossess it of the objectionable saline 
qualities, especially if the surface be level or nearly 
so. In that case rain, when falling upon it, might 
soften the mud and form a pasty compost with¬ 
out rapidly changing its qualities for the better. 
I know of no other, and certainly no better, way of 
getting rid of the salt than by drainage, and with a 
solid bottom, and flat at that, this process must go 
on, if at all, very slowly. Salt does not evaporate 
and go off in the air readily, as is the case with many 
other elements ; it may dissolve and disappear from 
sight many times, and still remain on or near the sur¬ 
face. Now I suspect that is just the trouble in the 
case you describe, and if so, I see no better way of 
getting rid of a present difficulty than plowing it 
under. I doubt that the gain would warrant the ex¬ 
pense and trouble of this process under ordinary con¬ 
ditions ; but it may be, if the meadow in question is 
injured by the presence of this “salt river” mud, it is 
the best thing to do. On the whole, I doubt very 
much whether farming by the use of this material 
can be made especially profitable, at least for the first 
few years after the application. lucius d. davis. 
Rhode Island. 
Good Results from Salt. 
Living as I do near Salem and Marblehead harbors, 
I have had opportunity to observe the results of sev¬ 
eral trials of salt river mud as a fertilizer, and in 
every instance, it has proved a failure. In one in¬ 
stance, black harbor mud was taken from beneath a 
slaughter-house, which would seem to add very ma¬ 
terially to the fertilizing quality of the mud by the 
animal refuse dropped through the scuttle on to the 
flats beneath ; but even with this addition, the mud 
was found to be of no value as a fertilizer ; I suppose 
from the fact that all plant food, to be assimilated, 
must be in solution. As this mud is the accumulation 
of sediment for many years, which, if it ever had any 
fertilizing ingredients, must have been dissolved and 
washed out by the tide water, I think the reason why 
the river mud placed upon the land failed to produce 
crops was from the lack of fertilizing ingredients, 
and not from the salt which it contained; this, I 
think, was not enough to prevent plant growth. 
Although agricultural chemists deny that salt is a 
fertilizer, I have unmistakable evidence in my experi¬ 
ence that salt, at the rate of 10 bushels per acre, will 
increase the yield very much of many crops, viz., 
grass, carrots, cabbage, mangels and others; I have 
frequently found that mangels would taste salt, where 
it had been applied, showing that they did assimi¬ 
late it. It is not probable that this mud contained 
more salt in proportion than at that rate. I do not 
know what peculiar condition pertains to the applica¬ 
tion of such mud in Nova Scotia to apple orchards 
with success as claimed. 
We have in Salem harbor, mussel beds, sometimes 
from one to two feet thick, where myriads of 
live mussels generation after generation have lived 
and died one over-the other ; the under portion is com¬ 
posed of the decomposed shells and remains of the de¬ 
funct mollusca, and this has been found to be a valu¬ 
able fertilizer, when dug in the Fall and Winter and 
spread upon the land. Although very sticky and 
tenacious, it becomes, by the action of freezing, very 
friable and fine. Onions, carrots and other vegeta- 
