1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER- 
447 
blossom. Running a cultivator through the rows 
while beans are flowering is disastrous to the crop. 
I have known the yield to be decreased at least five 
bushels per acre by one cultivation at this time.” 
“Is there any other special point to be observed in 
cultivation ? ” 
“Yes; beans must never be cultivated, under any 
circumstances, when there is the least particle of dew 
or moisture upon the foliage. I can't undertake to 
give any scientific reason for this, but it is a fact that 
the foliage is seriously injured by working at such a 
time. For this reason, work in a bean field cannot 
begin in the morning until the sun has been up long 
enough to dry off the plants.” e. t. r. 
(To be continued.) 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Fliks for Poultry. —The Mark Lane Express tells 
of the Insectivora Food Company, of London, which is 
selling a new food product called, Preserved Tropical 
Flies. These flies are caught in the swamps and lakes 
of South American countries by spreading nets over 
the water during the night. The flies are then dried, 
pressed, and shipped to England to be sold as poultry 
food. The eggs of these flies, w T hich are about the 
size of poppy seeds, are also collected and sold as 
chicken food. It certainly is a remarkable state of 
affairs, when English hens are fed upon flies taken 
from South America. 
Usk for the Old Mowkr. —A serviceable truck 
wagon can be made with old mowing-machine wheels. 
I saw a log, weighing at least 1% ton, on one of 
these wagons. It had been hauled for some dis¬ 
tance over a rough road, and the wagon seemed to 
stand the hard usage all right. The driver said 
that it had been used for several years. Evi¬ 
dently mowers are not made on the plan of the 
“Wonderful one-hoss shay,” as the wheels not only 
outlive the rest of the machine, but bid fair to wear 
out a set of wagon axles. w. 11 
Remedy for Apple Borers.—A friend in Cleve¬ 
land, N. Y., recommends this remedy for Apple 
borers : Melt and mix together equal parts of mut¬ 
ton tallow and resin. Cut strips of factory cloth 
about five inches in width, long enough to go around 
the tree, and leave one-half inch ; spread this with 
the mixture, and wrap around the tree at the base, 
so that the plaster will be about two inches under 
ground, and three above. Repeat once a year until 
the trees get large enough. This is not a sure 
remedy after the borers get into the tree. Take 
off the old plaster, once a year, and with an old 
case knife, separate and examine the tree, and 
make sure that the borers are out of it. Then you 
can keep them out. 
Evaporated Vegetables. —A reader in Orrville, 
O., says that, in that section, they annually pro¬ 
duce immense quantities of onions and potatoes. 
Growers have an idea that they can market these 
crops in a condensed form, that is, as evaporated 
vegetables. We doubt the wisdom of attempting 
anything of this sort. In California and Oregon, 
vegetables are evaporated for shipment to Alaska. 
The miners want their food in as dry a state as pos¬ 
sible, in order to facilitate carrying it over the 
mountains. Potatoes, as we understand it, are 
first partly boiled, then sliced and evaporated in 
the usual way, it being necessary to use consider¬ 
able sulphur to bleach them properly. While there 
might be a limited demand for evaporated vegetables 
in the West, we doubt the wisdom of entering into 
the business on a large scale. 
Milk Dealers Make Prices. —Nearly a year ago, 
the New York Evening Post printed the following 
figures showing what various directors of the so-called 
New York Milk Exchange paid for milk, and what they 
obtained for it: 
Wholesale. Retail. 
Beakes, E. 12th St., N. Y.3c. in bulk. At store. 6c. 
3>4c., bottled. Served dipped, 7c. 
Bottled, 8c. 
Sanford, 138 W.31st St., N. Y...3 l /£c. Dipped, 5 and 6c. 
. Bottled, 7 and 8c. 
Wm. A. Wright, N. Y. and B...3c., bulk. 8c. 
3>4c., bottled. Registered cows, 10c. 
J. Laemmle, 202 Bleeeker St., 
New York.3c., bulk. 7c., dipped. 
3*4c., bottled. 8c., bottled. 
T. O. Smith’s Sons, 872 6thAv..4c. 8c. 
We understand that these men have never attempted 
to deny these statements. These men and others like 
them, have decided that the price of milk to farmers 
shall be 70 cents for a 40-quart can. They now man¬ 
age to buy milk so that the net price to farmers 
actually falls, in some instances, to 44 cents per can. 
One of these dealers can pay freight on a can of milk 
with a total cost of 76 to 86 cents, and sell it for, at 
least, $2, having only the cost of handling it, while 
the farmer has all the cost of production. These men 
regulate prices, and take the first opportunity to 
squeeze the farmer’s share down to the lowest notch, 
while they make the consumer pay all he will stand. 
Lively Cloth Making. —On page 420, we referred 
to the remarkable feat of turning out a suit of clothes 
complete, in six hours and four minutes from the time 
the wool was growing on the sheeps’ backs. We have 
now obtained further particulars. At 6:30 o’clock in 
the morning, half a dozen shearers began to shear six 
fine sheep. The wool was at once scoured, dyed and 
prepared for spinning. It went through 18 processes 
of manufacture before it was ready for weaving. 
.Just as soon as it was off the loom, six tailors attacked 
it with their shears and needles, and in just two 
hours from the time they received the cloth, they had 
worked it into a fine suit, with every button in place, 
and warranted not to rip. Just 34 minutes past 12, 
the suit was ready for the wearer. The previous 
world's record was eight hours, made at a mill in 
Scotland. This remarkable record simply shows what 
can be done when every possibility of modern inven¬ 
tion and skill is pushed to its fullest requirements. 
Wheat Middlings as Food. —Not long since, we 
had some opinions regarding the use of wheat mid¬ 
dlings as a substitute for wheat flour. Prof. Chas. D. 
Woods, of the Maine Agricultural College, says : “The 
outer layers of the wheat berry appear to contain 
certain principles which are decidedly laxative. On 
this account, bread made from flour containing the 
outer layers of the ivheat berry is hastened through 
the digestive tract, and in consequence, is not as com¬ 
pletely digested as bread made from flour prepared 
from the inner portion of the wheat berry. While 
flours containing the outer layers are valuable as a 
‘ regulator ’ for people of sedentary habits, they are, 
THE ADULT CHINCH BUG. Fig. 2 00. 
The line at the right denoting the natural size. 
probably, not economical for hard-working people. 
I have, therefore, serious doubts as to there being any 
economy for active, hard-working people to add wheat 
middlings to bread flour, even though it may be pro¬ 
cured for one-third the price. You understand that 
this is an inference, and practical experiments might 
not bear me out. While flour makes up a large por¬ 
tion of the food of people, one who has not given his 
attention to it would be surprised to see how little 
the cost of food depends upon the cost of flour. Even 
the poorest people use many other things in which 
nutriment costs more than in flour.” 
Substitutes for Manure. —J. W. Kerr, of Mary¬ 
land, knows a good deal about the use of fertilizers 
and green manures. He says : “ To use commercial 
fertilizers profitably, on special crops, at the present 
day, requires business ability, careful thought and 
watchfulness at every turn of the operation. The cred¬ 
ulous, confiding farmer, he who does not look inquir¬ 
ingly, straight into the eye of every fertilizer dealer 
from whom he purchases, would better stick to stable 
manure for strawberries or anything else. As to cow 
peas, my experience with them for more than a quarter 
of a century, leads me to believe them greatly over¬ 
praised at the present time, as to soil improvement 
when plowed under. If I desired to dispense entirely 
with stable manure. 1 would try to divide my plots so 
that I could rotate with clover.” 
Taxes on Tobacco. —A tobacco grower in Ohio says 
that he commends the editorial on page 404 concern¬ 
ing the sale of tobacco scrap. He says that a tobacco 
dealer in Ohio or Kentucky who handles 100,000 pounds 
of tobacco in a season, will have, at least, a ton of 
scrap, which has cost him, perhaps, $200. He could 
sell this to greenhouse men or others, who do not re¬ 
sell or manufacture for, perhaps, $50. The Revenue 
Department will not allow this sale, and the dealer 
carts the stuff out and dumps it into the river. He 
should be allowed to sell this scrap to any one who 
wants it, without first mixing it with ashes, lime and 
sulphur. This may seem like a small matter, yet there 
are thousands of tons of such scrap which have a 
legitimate use as insecticide or fertilizer. Thousands 
of men want it, and need it, and yet, cannot get it, 
because of the absurd restrictions enforced by the 
Revenue Department. 
A NATIVE AMERICAN—THE CHINCH BUG. 
DEFENSIVE MEASURES AGAINST ITS OFFENSIVE TACTICS. 
In Bulletin No. 74, of the Kentucky Station, (Lex¬ 
ington), Prof. H. Garman gives a very interesting ac¬ 
count of the life history and habits of the chinch bug. 
The picture at Fig. 200, gives an excellent likeness of 
this bug, of course very much enlarged. The actual 
length of the bug is indicated in the black mark at the 
right. This chinch bug is pretty well known in most 
parts of the country. It is a native American insect, 
and before the advent of the whites, it probably, lived 
on native grasses. It rarely does much damage in 
New York or the New England States, but in the 
South and West, it frequently does a vast amount of 
injury. The statistician, J. R. Dodge, estimates that, 
in 1887, the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas, lost together, 
$16,000,000 from chinch bug injuries. 
As shown in the picture, the adult bug is about 
3-16 of an inch long, and 1-16 inch wide. It feeds 
at all times after leaving the egg, and is provided 
with a beak, thus taking only the sap of the 
plants for its food. The Winter is spent under 
boards, logs or leaves at the edges of cultivated 
fields. The insects remain torpid until the warm 
days of Spring. When the wheat begins to grow, 
they make their way into the field, and lay their 
eggs in May and June in the earth about the 
plants. Each female lays about 500 eggs, and 
then dies; The mischief is done by the young 
bugs which hatch from these eggs. They devour 
the small grain, and then leave the wheat and 
oats for corn, traveling on the ground, some¬ 
times accumulating in heaps several inches deep. 
This brood matures on coin, and places the eggs 
for a second brood on the lower blades as well 
as in the ground. 
The chinch bug may be recognized by the pecu¬ 
liarly buggy odor which it gives out. Its repulsive 
smell is such that very few bugs will eat it. The 
quail is said to eat chinch bugs occasionally, and 
the common toad has a tough enough stomach to 
devour it. It, probably, has fewer natural enemies 
than any other American insect. The chinch bug 
does not like wet weather, and is most numerous 
in seasons following a drought. 
During late years, scientists have become inter¬ 
ested in cultivating and scattering a fungous dis¬ 
ease which kills large numbers of the bugs. This 
fungus is cultivated in laboratories, and sent out 
to farmers, who place it among bugs kept in a 
box. When these bugs begin to die of the disease, 
they are taken to the field where other bugs are 
abundant, and set free, other healthy bugs taking 
their place in the box ; and in this way, the disease 
is actually scattered, and frequently kills off vast 
numbers of the bugs. 
Other methods of fighting the chinch bugseonsist in 
plowing furrows ahead of them, and at intervals of 
two rods, holes are dug in which the bugs will accumu¬ 
late, where they may be killed with kerosene. Some¬ 
times tar is used, boards being set on edge in the 
ground, with the upper edge painted with tar. Some¬ 
times, the tar alone is used as a barrier, and the bugs 
will not pass over a line of tar, as long as it is fresh. 
The scheme that gave satisfaction in Kansas, was to 
plow a ridge of earth ahead of the bugs by plowing 
two furrows together. This is smoothed down with a 
heavy drag, and along the top of the ridge, is poured 
a line of tar, petroleum or salt and coal oil. Holes are 
dug about 100 feet apart, and the bugs following into 
them are killed by using a little coal oil from time to 
time. Steam generated in the field in a boiler, hauled 
about by horses, has been recommended as a bug ex¬ 
terminator. The chinch-bugs are said to do most 
harm to crops on poor soil. Hence, it is claimed that 
fertilizers help by quickening the growth of the crop. 
Take it all in all, the chinch-bug, in localities where 
he thrives, is a nuisance, and he must be fought early 
and late in order to save the crop. The habits of the 
bug in journeying from one field to another and his 
aversion to tar and kerosene give us a fair chance to 
head him off. Up and at him, before he has gained a 
foothold in your fields. 
