1808 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
383 
recommends the following - : One pound of white 
arsenic, two pounds of washing soda, three gallons of 
water; boil and dilute with three times the volume of 
water ; apply while warm, in fine weather. A thorough 
application at the beginning of the season will be 
sufficient to keep a path clean throughout the Sum¬ 
mer. A simpler and very effective formula is as fol¬ 
lows : Two pounds of sulphate of copper or blue 
vitriol ; six gallons of hot water ; dissolve and apply 
as a spray, or through an ordinary sprinkling pot. 
Any one having considerable trouble with weeds and 
grass growing on roads and paths, will do well to try 
these mixtures during the coming season. 
Wood Asuks and Potato Scab.—A number of read¬ 
ers insist that they have succeeded in raising excellent 
potatoes without scab where wood ashes were used as 
fertilizer. Generally speaking, moderate doses of 
wood ashes or lime are quite sure to increase the 
amount of scab, for tbc reason that this lime encour¬ 
ages the growth of the scab fungus. Prof. Wheeler 
says that there are two conditions that would account 
for this success with wood ashes. The seed potatoes 
may be entirely free from the germs, as well as the 
soil. In this case, of course, no bad effect would be 
noticed from the ashes. It may, also, be possible to 
make a soil 
so alkaline 
that thescab 
fungus will 
not grow. 
In other 
word s, too 
much lime 
m i g h t de¬ 
stroy tin; 
scab fungus 
as effectual- 
1 y as too 
much acid. 
T here a re 
situations in 
the country, 
for example 
in northern 
Michigan, 
where wood 
is large 
used f 
fuel, and 
where wood 
ashes are 
very cheap. 
In many of 
these situa¬ 
tions, but 
little scab 
has ever 
been noticed 
and very 
heavy appli¬ 
cations o f 
ashes a re 
made. Prof. 
Wheeler’s statements may explain why it is that, in 
such localities, farmers find wood ashes a very profit¬ 
able fertilizer on a potato field. Asa general practice, 
however, small applications of ashes are not to be rec¬ 
ommended on potatoes ; in fact, even in the sections 
above mentioned, we would much prefer to use the 
ashes on clover or grass, rather than to applvthem 
directly to potatoes. 
MACHINERY TRIALS AT FAIRS. 
HOW TO MAKE THEM MOKE EFFECTIVE. 
The R. N.-Y. has often asked the managers of our 
leading fairs why they do not attempt to make their 
machinery exhibits more effective by giving the ex¬ 
hibitors a chance to show their tools in actual opera¬ 
tion. Why not have plowing and harrowing matches? 
Why not plant actual crops of corn and potatoes, and 
invite the manufacturers of diggers and harvesters to 
go right into the field for trial? The answer has 
usually been that such things are impossible ; but the 
Iowa State Fair managers have disproved that state¬ 
ment. Hon. John Cownie, who has had charge of the 
machinery department of the Iowa Fair, writes us the 
following note : 
When this department was assigned to me, it was in a very 
bad condition, very little interest being taken in the exhibit from 
year to year. I immediately inaugurated new methods, and 
among these was the planting of crops, and widely advertising a 
test of every kind of farm machinery or implement that could be 
put at work in the Held. Potatoes and corn were planted on the 
grounds, a few acres of land having been secured for the pur¬ 
pose within the inclosure. I planted the potatoes myself. The 
rows were made with the plow, and as straight as a line could be 
drawn, the potatoes covered again with the plow in my own 
hands, and I knew that the work was well done. Corn was 
planted, and both potato diggers and corn harvesters put to a 
practical Held test, great interest being manifested by the farm¬ 
ers in this new departure. I am within bounds when I say that 
several thousand farmers witnessed the exhibits of these ma¬ 
chines at the last two annual fairs, and it proved not only an 
interesting feature, but at the same time, enabled farmers lo 
contrast the merits of the machines, and a large number of sales 
were made upon the grounds. I feel sure that, if adopted at 
every State fair, these practical exhibits would not only be in¬ 
teresting, but of immense value to farmers. John cownie. 
Fig. 170 (taken from Farm Implement News), shows 
a scene on the fair grounds at digging time. The 
Dowden and Hoover diggers are represented at work. 
The potatoes were all sold to the dining-halls on the 
fair grounds at 60 cents a bushel, thereby paying all 
the costs of planting, seed, etc. Corn harvesters 
worked in the standing corn, and cutters handled the 
stalks. There were plowing matches and trials of 
corn planters, all of which attracted large crowds. 
As Mr. Cownie well says: 
To see a machine standing idle upon a tloor, and to see it actu¬ 
ally doing the work for which it was intended, are entirely dif¬ 
ferent; and the crowds of people who thronged around the ma¬ 
chines mid implements, when at work, attested, beyond question, 
that Held work, properly conducted, can be made one of the lead¬ 
ing features of our State fairs. Without detracting in the least 
from other departments of these annual meetings, it must be ad¬ 
mitted that the implement and vehicle department proves to the 
vast majority of visitors the greatest attraction, and it is just as 
true that machinery in motion will attract the attention of even 
the thoughtless and indifferent. Said a farmer, an old man 
leaning on a staff, when watching one of the Held exhibits, 
“That beats horse racing. There is something to be learned 
a-feeling well repaid for my trip.” 
Now why cannot this plan be adopted and carried out 
at our eastern fairs? Why should New York lie 
satisfied to sit still, while Iowa goes ahead ? With a 
little hustle and energy, our New York State Fair 
managers might get some of these crops started this 
year. In any event, they might lay aside enough soil 
to start a good plowing match. Then let the harrow 
men take hold of the plowed ground, and show us 
what their tools can do. Then let the seeders go over it. 
If this plan were worked up with any sort of energy, 
it would prove one of the best features of the fair. 
REBULA TING THE SAN JOSE SCALE BY LAW. 
DOES INSPECTION OF NUKSKKY STOCK REALLY INSPECT? 
( Concluded .) 
Let us consider, for instance, insects like the Aspara¬ 
gus beetle or the Elm-leaf beetle. These creatures 
hibernate in the adult or beetle stage in all kinds of 
shelter, and not at all, usually, upon the plants that 
they infest. Elm-leaf beetles, for instance, will crawl 
into the crevices of telegraph poles, under the loose 
bark of trees, will get into houses, into boxes, into 
dry moss, or in fact, into anything. European elms 
introduced into this country might be carefully in¬ 
spected, and not a trace of the beetle be discovered ; 
yet the box containing the trees, or the packing around 
it, might contain, under slivers of wood or under or in 
the folds of the wrappings, beetles which could not 
be discovered except by the merest accident. In fact, 
it is not even necessary that the beetles should be on 
the boxes or packing containing the plants. Another 
parcel of goods that comes from a region in which 
either Elm-leaf or Asparagus beetles occur, might con¬ 
tain the adult insects in the dormant condition. Here is 
a case where the examination of stock will be abso¬ 
lutely useless, simply because the insects do not Win¬ 
ter upon the stock itself. How the Elm-leaf beetle 
got into this country, or how the Asparagus beetles 
reached here, no one knows. I do not believe that 
they could have been discovered or prevented by any 
system of inspection. 
It frequently happens that caterpillars, or similar 
larvae feed upon plants, and wander off to pupate else¬ 
where, and some of those bore into wood. For in¬ 
stance, some of the feeders on grapes live upon the 
foliage, and when ready for pupation, wander to some 
distance, then bore into a convenient plank, post or 
board, and change to a pupa, ready to come out the 
following Spring. Assuming that a number of these 
caterpillars made their way into some boards near an 
outhouse in a foreign vineyard, and that these boards 
were used afterward in constructing a box or crate to 
contain plants sent to America, the most careful ex¬ 
amination of the plants would fail to discover the 
least trace of the vineyard pests snugly concealed in¬ 
side of the surrounding boards. 
The Wood leopard-moth, which within recent years 
has been introduced into the vicinity of New York 
City, is one 
of those in¬ 
sects that 
1 believe 
would have 
come in, in 
spite of the 
most careful 
inspection. 
Of course, if 
it had been 
in a living 
plant, it 
might, pos¬ 
sibly, have 
been discov- 
e r e d , a 1 - 
though even 
that is very 
doubtful ; 
but this 
borer also 
has the wan¬ 
dering habit 
and often 
pupates in 
places quite 
remote from 
the infested 
trees. Mr. 
8 out hwiek 
brought in 
an infested 
branch, and 
a few days 
afterward, 
discovered 
that the lar¬ 
va) had disappeared; neither was he able to find 
where it had gone until the moth emerged, and he 
discovered the hole left by its exit in the woodwork 
of one of the window casings. This borer probably 
did not come in onariy living plant at all. The chances 
are all that it came in some pieces of lumber used, 
perhaps, in packing, and thrown away on the docks 
when the steamer arrived. Many other cases could be 
cited ; but these will serve to illustrate. 
A weak point in the bill is the adoption of an amend¬ 
ment at the request of the florists, that florists’ plants 
should be exempt from the requirements of inspection. 
It is, probably, quite true that a great many of the 
plants would be ruined by being inspected ; but this 
exemption will permit packages to remain unbroken, 
and these packages may contain, besides the insects 
strictly infesting hothouse plants, any number of 
others that may live in the open air. 
Another weak point in the bill has been pointed out 
by Mr. Craw, the quarantine officer at San Francisco ; 
that is, in the provision for certificates of inspection 
made where the plants are grown. No nursery or 
any large body of plants is free from all insects. 
These may be quite harmless in the country where the 
plants are grown ; but there is nothing to warrant 
the belief that they might not become seriously in¬ 
jurious in our country. Acting upon his knowledge 
of the condition of affairs in the foreign country, the 
inspector may truthfully certify to the absence of 
“dangerous” insects, yet, under such a certificate, 
there may be introduced a most destructive pest. 
Scale insects and such as are tied to the plants would, 
probably, be discovered in most cases. Mr. Craw has 
a most interesting collection of insects at San Fran¬ 
cisco that have been stopped at that port and pre¬ 
vented from entering the United States. Yet that 
collection, although interesting from that standpoint, 
f y 
A TRIAL OF POTATO HARVESTERS AT THE IOWA STATE FAIR, 181)7. Fig. 170. 
here. I always visit the fair to see the improvements being made 
in farm machines, and when I see them at work, I go home 
