1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ground from this cause. The injury to larger trees is 
not so apparent until long after it has occurred. This 
is why the results of the injury are seen by J. O. B., 
and doubtless, by many others, during both Winter 
and Summer. 
It has been noticed by all observing orchardists that 
the south side of the tree trunks is worse affected by 
this so-called sunscald than any other. It is thought 
that the reason for this is that the drying effects of 
the sun are greater on the south side, and the varia¬ 
tions in the amount of moisture, as well as in tempera¬ 
ture, are consequently greater. The south side is the 
weakest and the least able to resist the tension upon 
the living tissues. If the soil is fertile and moist 
throughout the growing season, there is little danger 
of injury. Hence, under conditions of good soil, and 
thorough cultivation to conserve the moisture, and in 
a mild and equable climate, there is very little sun- 
scald of trees. 
Injury to tree trunks from blight is less common 
than the former. The effect is practically the same, 
so far as injury is concerned, but the cause is quite 
different. Unlike the sunscalded tree, on which the 
bark becomes loose, that on the blighted trunk adheres 
closely to the dead wood. The bacterial germs of 
the blight generally enter to the tender tissues, where 
they find a suitable place for propagation, through 
cracks in the bark. These cracks are often the result 
of changes of temperature, which split the bark in 
the weakest places, and often that of the weakest 
trees. Once into the living tissues, there is nothing 
to prevent the spread of the disease. Fertile soil and 
good cultivation to keep the trees in healthy condition, 
so that there can be no chance for the entrance of 
blight, is the only practical means of defense, so far 
as I know. 
How to Preserve Ripe Fruit. 
F. A. 8., Midge Road, N. Y.— How can I preserve ripe fruit for 
samples, so as to hold its natural color ? 
Ans. —There is no way. so far as I know, to preserve 
ripe fruits in their natural colors, for any considerable 
length of time. This has been tried repeatedly by 
myself, as well as by many others, and in no case have 
I seen it a success. All preparations that are effect¬ 
ive in keeping the fruit from decay will, in a short 
time, fade the red, yellow, blue, and other colors. 
They become dull, unnatural, and unsatisfactory. 
H. E. V. D. 
Castor Beans in an Orchard. 
F. L. D., Victoria, Mo. —Are Castor beans a good orchard crop ? 
What variety ? When shalllplaut? How far apart? What is 
the average yield per acre on land that will make 40 bushels of 
corn? Would 15 bushels per acre be a paying crop ? Are Castor 
beans detrimental or beneficial to land ? 
Ans. —I would not advise the use of Castor beans as 
an orchard crop. They are gross feeders and take a 
great quantity of water from the soil. Their large, 
numerous leaves also make too dense a shade for young 
trees, and require too much light themselves to succeed 
well under the shade of older trees. They are not 
generally recommended as an orchard crop in this 
State. Better crops for the orchard are corn, potatoes, 
garden vegetables or small fruits, leaving a few feet 
of space for clean cultivation, along either side of 
each row of trees. Cow peas, grown as late in Sum¬ 
mer as will permit them to mature, pastured to hogs 
in Autumn and plowed under the next Spring, have 
given excellent results in Missouri orchards, particu¬ 
larly where the soil needs enriching. If, however, it 
is desired to grow Castor beans in the orchard or else¬ 
where, select the dwarf sort, plant them late (about 
.rune 1 in this latitude), five feet apart each way, one 
plant in a place and cultivate the same as corn. Castor 
beans sometimes pay well, but they are an uncertain 
crop as to yield, and are often attacked by a destruct¬ 
ive fungous disease called blight. j. c. whittbn. 
Missouri Experiment Station. 
How to Propagate Elders. 
W. M., Lynn. Mass.— How can I grow Elder bushes? 
Ans. —The Elder may readily be propagated by cut¬ 
tings of the mature shoots, also by layers, as well as 
by division of the clumps, and by soft wood cuttings. 
Propagating Small Fruits and Grape Vines. 
C. W. B., Alum Bank, Pa. —Will you give the different methods 
of propagating raspberries and blackberries, from tips and root 
cuttings, also different ways of propagating currants, grapes, 
etc. ? 
Ans. —Blackcap raspberry tips of the present sea¬ 
son’s growth are buried in the earth toward the close 
of Summer, and these tips take root, and are used for 
setting the next Spring. Blackberries and red rasp¬ 
berries throw up stickers from the roots, and these 
are dug up for setting new plantations. Or the roots 
may be dug up, cut into short pieces, and these planted 
in drills. Currants are grown from cuttings of young 
wood, set well into the ground in late Fall or early 
Spring, with one or two buds above the surface., They 
may, also, be propagated by layering. Grapes may 
be propagated by laying down shoots of the previous 
season’s growth, and covering them with soil, when 
they will root readily. The usual way of propagating 
grapes is by means of cuttings taken in the Fall, kept 
moist during the Winter, and planted out in Spring 
with one or two buds above Che surface. 
" Pure Potash ” for Tree Washes. 
R. 8. E., Kentville, N. S. —What are the comparative strength 
and caustic effects, as a tree wash, of washing soda, Babbitt’s 
(O. H.) pure potash (as sold in one-pouud cans) and rock potash 
or potash of commerce? 
Ans. —The washing soda is a crude carbonate of 
soda. Babbitt’s pure potash, we have found to be a 
caustic soda, or sodium hydrate (chemically). Rock 
potash, or potash of commerce, is a caustic potash, or 
a hydrate of potash (chemically). Solutions of the 
same strength of each may be made up by using ap¬ 
proximately the following proportions : For Babbitt’s 
pure potash—one pound of the potash to four quarts of 
water. For the rock potash—one pound of the rock 
potash to 5 >3 quarts of water. For the washing soda 
—one pound of soda to 5 % quarts of water. 
K. B. VOORHEES. 
The Value of Poultry Manure. 
Reader, St. Lawrence County, N. Y. —I can buy in this village, 
manure—mostly from grain-fed horses, sometimes some cow 
manure—for -10 cents per large one-horse load. The manure varies 
in quality, but some is very good. A man has carefully saved the 
manure from his fancy fowls; he asked me what I would give 
for it. I did not want it at any price, but offered 25 cents per bar¬ 
rel. He appeared insulted by the offer. Which contains the 
more plant food, a large one-horse load of good horse manure or 
two barrels of hen manure ? 
Ans. —There is a good deal of humbug about the 
value of poultry manure. This dates back to the 
time when Peruvian guano or sea-fowl manure sold at 
a high price. Where poultry eat about the same food 
as cows or hogs, their manure is valuable only because 
it contains less water and refuse, while the liquids 
and solids are passed together. Of course, the man¬ 
ure is worth much less when full of feathers and 
trash. The manure from fancy poultry is not worth 
a cent more than that from scrubs, unless the former 
TWO SIMPLE FISH TRAPS. Fia. 132. 
are fed heavily on meat. We consider 40 cents a barrel 
a good price for poultry manure—more than most of it 
is worth. We would rather have a good one-horse load 
of horse or even cow manure. 
How to Make a Fish Trap. 
0. 0. (/., Aylett, Va.— Have any of your readers had experience 
at making a hedge and fish trap out of fine woven wire ? If so, 
won’t they describe it ? The river adjoining my place has changed 
its bed, but there are ponds in the old river all the time, and 
whenever the river rises a little, there is a current through it. I 
have thought that, if I were to make a stoppage across the old 
river near its mouth, of small mesh wire, with a trap of still 
smaller mesh wire at the opening, I woxild catch lots of fish when¬ 
ever the river is up. 
Ans. —Fish traps are very convenient methods of 
taking fish at the seasons when they are running up 
the streams. They are generally made of laths in the 
form of a V, with the apex pointed up the stream. 
Wings are fitted inside, as shown in the upper part of 
Fig. 132, so as to hold the fish which enter, as they have 
the habit of following around the sides, and in every 
instance miss the opening by which they entered, and 
are thus imprisoned, and easily dipped out with a 
hand net. This method of taking fish is mostly used 
to take eels, which always come up streams to spawn 
in the Spring, and thus these traps are commonly 
called eel traps. Other fish which spawn in the Fall 
are thus taken at that season. 
There is no reason why the traps should not be 
made of wire netting, which should not be less than 
one-inch mesh, so as to let the small fish go through, 
except that a good many fish will get caught in the 
meshes, and die before they can be taken out. This is 
an objection against making the wings of wire, for 
many fish would be caught by the net and be either 
lost or be taken out with difficulty. The ordinary 
method is to place a row of stones in the form of 
wings from the lower end of the trap across the 
stream; these turn the fish to the mouth of the trap, 
which they enter rather than try to get over the 
stones. This, however, is only possible in shallow 
streams, and in the shallowest parts of the bed. The 
trap is generally set in the deepest water, for the fish 
naturally choose this passageway. The wire netting, 
of course, would be open to the objection that it would 
catch all the floating trash going down the stream. 
28 l 
and be thus very likely to be broken. This might be 
easily removed, however, and it is the only objection, 
except the cost of it, that lies against it. 
Another form of trap for fish is also shown in the 
lower part of Fig. 132. This is a box of any conven¬ 
ient size, set in a stream, with wings placed to direct 
the fish to the opening. It is open at the front, of 
course, and the top as well, and two rows of bars, or 
in this case, of wire netting, are set across as shown. 
The fish go over the bars and, being stopped by the 
end of the trap, go down between the bars, and like a 
chicken hunting the hole in the fence through which 
it got into a garden, try everywhere but at the right 
place. A few may escape, but very few will. 11 . s. 
The Tobacco Worm ; a Curious Mistake. 
G. S. C., Essex. County, Ontario, Can.—A large acreage of tobacco 
will be planted in this county tliis year, and I would like to know 
whether there is any way to lessen the depredations of the to¬ 
bacco worm that infests the plants. In regard to this pest, I in¬ 
close the following item clipped from one of our local papers. 
“The Gimpson weed, a bad pest to the farmers, is to be culti¬ 
vated here next year by tobacco growers. By careful observa¬ 
tion, it has been found that the devil’s darning needle fly is the 
insect that deposits the egg that matures into the tobacco worm. 
This fly invariably selects a Gimpson plant, which the farmers 
will raise among the tobacco plants, so that they may destroy 
the larvEe with Paris-green.” Is it not a miller instead of a fly 
that deposits the eggs ? 
ANSWERED BY M. V. SLINGKRLAND. 
The author of the newspaper clipping has. indeed, 
made a bad mix-up of the facts relating to the tobacco 
worm and the Gimpson or .Jamestown weed. The 
northern tobacco worm (Phlegethontius celeus) is the 
same insect with which most of us are familiar as the 
big, formidable, green caterpillar which is often found 
eating our tomato vines. This worm, like all other 
caterpillars, is, of course, the progeny or the young 
stage of a “ miller ” or moth, and the “ devil’s darn¬ 
ing needle fly ” has not the remotest connection in any 
way with the tobacco worm in any of its stages, or 
with the Jamestown weed. The adult form of the to¬ 
bacco worm, which lays the eggs whence come the 
worms, is a large, strong-winged, big-bodied moth, 
nearly as large as a humming bird ; as it has similar 
habits of flying at dusk swiftly about from one flower 
to another, and dipping its long tongue into flowers 
as do the humming birds, the moth belongs to a group 
which are commonly known as the “ Humming bird ” 
or Sphingid moths. These large moths appear in the 
Spring, and deposit their eggs on the tobacco or 
tomato plants, not on the Jamestown weed, usually 
only one or two eggs in a place. The well-known 
large, green tomato or tobacco worm hatches from 
these eggs, and feeding ravenously for a month or so, 
gets its full growth and then disappears in the ground 
to enter into the next stage of its existence, the 
curious brown pupa. It is in this pupal stage that the 
insect winters in the soil. Farmers often plow up the 
pupae early in the Spring. Thus is the life-story of 
the tobacco worm briefly told. 
What is its relation to the Jamestown weed ? It is 
simply that the large, nectar-laden flower of this weed 
offers peculiar attractions to the parent moths, hence 
they visit them often. For many years, extensive 
growers of tobacco in the South have taken advantage 
of this habit of the adult insect or the moths of the 
tobacco worm. If there are not enough Jamestown 
weeds growing near their tobacco fields, they often 
go so far as to plant the seeds of this weed about their 
fields, and when the plants are in bloom, into a few 
of the flowers, a dose of poison is placed each evening, 
and the rest of the blossoms are destroyed. Some¬ 
times, the poisoned blossoms are picked from the 
plants and set upright in the ground about the tobacco 
fields. The poison most often used is a mixture of 
one pint of water, one-fourth pint of molasses or 
honey, and one ounce of cobalt; sometimes arsenic or 
strychnine is used instead of the cobalt. The Ken¬ 
tucky entomologist states that this method of poison¬ 
ing the moths has stood the test of experience for over 
40 years in the South, and is still in favor with the 
growers. He states that the best time to use it in 
Kentucky is during August, when the moths are the 
most abundant. I am not sure just when the moths 
appear in the greatest numbers in Canada. 
It has been shown by the Kentucky Experiment Sta¬ 
tion that Paris-green can be U 3 ed with safety on the 
tobacco plant to kill the worms. Spray the plants 
early, as soon as the first young worms are seen. Do 
not wait until the worms get two-thirds grown, for it 
will then take a good deal bigger dose of the poison 
to kill them. Three applications can be safely made 
in Kentucky, the last one as late as the middle of 
August. Usually, this tobacco pest is not so numerous 
but hand-picking of the worm is the only method 
that need be resorted to. The average newspaper 
entomology,” which usually emanates from the inner 
consciousness of some one who does not know a bug 
from a crab, is not often so badly mixed as the above 
clipping, but it is usually not to be relied upon unless 
signed by some one of recognized reputation. 
