1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ROOT APHIS AND PEACH TREES. 
To Start a New Orchard. 
A. B„ Ilolland, Mich .—I am trying to grow 
a young peach orchard on the site of an 
old one. The soil is rather light sand, high 
and rolling, and on it stood one of the first 
peach orchards grown in this section. The 
old orchard was chopped down in 1897-’9S, 
but the stumps were not all pulled until 
the Spring of 1901, and here was where the 
tiouble began. The ground was not plow¬ 
ed or cropped from 1896 until Spring of 
1901. All this time it was covered with a 
heavy June grass sod and we thought was 
in prime condition for re-setting. So in 
the Spring of 1901 the ground was plowed 
and fitted and set out to peach trees. The 
most serious obstacle to growing a young 
orchard with us is the root aphis, so think¬ 
ing to get ahead of them we bought a bar¬ 
rel of tobacco dust and as far as it went 
we put about a half pound to a tree. The 
trees grew and did very well. In 1902 most 
of the trees grew very nicely but some of 
them began to show signs of the aphis. As 
I supposed tobacco dust was a sure cure 
for the aphis I chose four trees, dug away 
the dirt nearly to the roots, and spread the 
dust a'n inch or more thick as far as the 
roots extended. Then I covered the to¬ 
bacco with soil and to hasten results put 
on two pails of water to each tree. Two 
of the trees promptly died, the other two 
lingered along and died this Spring. The 
ether two were re-set but the little trees 
have died from aphis, therefore my faith 
in tobacco is much shaken. Last Spring in 
April we had very warm weather; the 
trees pushed out their young leaves, and 
then came the freeze of April 29 which 
killed many of the twigs outright, and 
nearly all the leaves, so that they dried 
up, and would rub to powder in your 
hands. As though this was not enough, 
when the trees were pushing out new 
leaves they were attacked by the leaf-curl.' 
The work of destruction so well begun was 
finished by the root aphis so that long be¬ 
fore the Summer was over all I had to 
show for my erstwhile fine young orchard 
was a lot of dry sticks. Now out of 400 
trees I have about 100 left. As the ground 
is now infested with aphis the question is, 
what shall I do to enable me to re-set this 
soil, and not lose my trees. Thus far, all 
my efforts to grow trees on soil infested 
with aphis have been failures. What I am 
thinking of doing is to inject about four 
ounces of carbon-bisulphide on each spot 
where I expect to plant a tree, then about 
two weeks afterward plant the trees, put¬ 
ting about one pound of complete fertilizer 
in each hole. Any advice will be appre¬ 
ciated. 
The tobacco that A. B., Holland, 
Mich., used around his peach trees to 
kill the aphis was in the first place not 
enough to do any good, and in the sec¬ 
ond place, was undoubtedly too much 
for the health of the trees. He should 
have placed four pounds of the tobacco 
dust about the roots within 1 V 2 foot 
from the trunk, and thus he would un¬ 
doubtedly not have suffered from the 
use of the same. As he placed four 
inches of the tobacco dust around the 
entire area of the roots, he must have 
had many times the amount of tobacco 
dust there that should have been. It 
seems to me, however, that in a year or 
two the tobacco dust would be rendered 
harmless to the trees, so that by culti¬ 
vating over the place when the trees 
have died and then putting in new trees 
he should succeed in raising them. My 
experience has been that four pounds of 
powdered tobacco placed about the trees 
by removing the earth from around the 
trunks for a distance of 1*4 foot and 
then filling in with four pounds of to¬ 
bacco dust and putting in the earth 
again, will not injure the trees but will 
kill the aphis. This should be done in 
the Spring, when the first settled warm 
weather appears. j. m. stedman. 
Columbia, Mo. 
Not enough tobacco dust was used at 
the first application to accomplish the 
purpose, and I cannot understand how 
the liberal dose applied later could have 
killed the trees if it was pure tobacco 
dust. I think some other factor must 
have come in to cause such deadly ef¬ 
fects on the trees. I am also wondering 
if the root-aphis is the prime cause of 
the trouble. If it is aphis work, prob¬ 
ably the lice existed on the roots from 
the old stumps, if they kept alive, or 
ants may have taken care of the lice. I 
think before I carried out the carbon bi¬ 
sulphide programme I would grow some 
other crop for a year or more on that 
land, which would require frequent and 
clean cultivation. In other words, en¬ 
deavor to starve out the Peach root- 
aphis before resetting to peaches. Then 
see that the new nursery trees are free 
from the aphis before setting them; 
have them thoroughly fumigated or 
dipped in a tobacco or soap solution. 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
The infestation of soil with the Peach 
aphis for several years, or even one 
year, after the trees were dead or re¬ 
moved, seems quite improbable, if not 
impossible, because when there were no 
live roots to feed upon they would die. 
They do not live upon grass roots. If 
the stumps were alive and sprouting 
until the Spring the young trees were 
planted then the aphis could have lived 
over until that time and changed to 
their roots. The fact that the young 
trees grew very well the first year after 
planting is evidence that the aphis was 
not abundant on them. The applica¬ 
tion of “an inch or more thick” of to¬ 
bacco dust over the roots of four of 
these trees the second year after they 
were set was a strong dose, but I am as¬ 
tonished that it killed the trees. Per¬ 
haps they were about dead anyhow. To¬ 
bacco is a good manure, and I have 
never known it to injure plants or trees, 
but I do not say it might not do so. In 
my opinion, the severe Spring freeze 
and the succeeding leaf-curl had much 
to do with the death of the 300 out of 
the 400 peach trees, and perhaps far 
more than the aphis. If they were 
healthy trees when set, were in soil that 
was fertile, and were well tilled and 
otherwise cared for, it would seem to 
me that they should have been able to 
withstand the few aphids that might 
have been in the soil, or that came 
through the air from neighboring or¬ 
chards that were infested. This latter 
way of spreading is the more common 
one with this insect. I do not think, 
from my understanding of the habits of 
the Peach aphis, that impregnating the 
ground with carbon bisulphide will be 
necessary before replanting the trees. 
Well rotted manure fortified with a rich 
commercial fertilizer and all thoroughly 
mixed with the soil where the trees are 
to be set would be my plan, and then 
good treatment of the trees afterwards. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Unless I had very good reasons for 
doing so I should hesitate about setting 
a peach orchard on ground that was 
badly infested with aphis, especially the 
Black aphis, but if I did set it I would 
use plenty of unleached wood ashes well 
worked into the soil where the trees are 
to be set. After setting the trees I 
would sow about the trees every Spring 
enough of the following formula to 
maintain a strong growth during the 
proper growing season: Two hundred 
pounds nitrate of soda, 500 pounds fine 
ground bone, 300 pounds muriate of pot¬ 
ash. I would use from three to five 
pounds per tree as needed; would give 
thorough cultivation until about middle 
of July, or later if a dry season. We 
189 
have never had good success with to¬ 
bacco for Black root-aphis. The carbon 
bisulphide would have only a tempor¬ 
ary effect, as it is very volatile. The 
chlorine in the muriate of potash has a 
tendency to keep away the aphis, and is 
quite lasting in its effects. Spray thor¬ 
oughly every Spring before April 1 with 
the following solution: One pound cop¬ 
per sulphate to 15 gallons of water for 
curl-leaf. The theory is to maintain a 
good growth of the trees by proper fer¬ 
tilization until well established, when 
the aphis seem to have less effect on 
them. People buying nursery stock 
should watch carefully for these insects, 
as they are often found on young peach 
trees, and are difficult to get rid of. 
Michigan. l. j. post. 
Teacher: "Johnny, can you tell me 
what classical music is?” Johnny: 
“Yes, ma’am. It’s any kind a fellow 
can’t whistle.”—Credit Lost. 
“Cheer up,” said the minister; “you’ll 
meet your three wives in heaven.” “Par¬ 
son,” gasped the man, “that’s just 
what’s a-botherin’ of me!”—Atlanta 
Constitution. 
Bob: “Couldn’t I be the mother some¬ 
times, instead of always being the doc¬ 
tor?” Nellie (scornfully): “How could 
you be the mother when you haven’t got 
a lap?”—Punch. 
“It is said of John D. Rockefeller that 
he never worked for a salary in his life.” 
“Then it is not surprising that he doesn’t 
actually know how much he is worth.” 
—Chicago Record-Herald. 
“And do you think,” he asked, “that 
men progress after death?” “Well,” 
she replied, “if they don’t, it would al¬ 
most seem useless for some of them to 
die.”—Chicago Record-Herald. 
“And you want to marry this young 
man, you say?” “Yes, papa.” “What 
does he do for a living?” “Oh, papa, I 
din’t know him well enough to ask him 
about that!”—Yonkers Statesman. 
“The weather hereabouts,” said the 
stranger, “frequently disagrees with 
me.” “Oh! there’s a man living in this 
town who is worse off than you. The 
weather never agrees with him.” 
“What’s the matter with him?” “He’s 
the local weather forecaster.”—Phila¬ 
delphia Ledger. 
Special Sale of Farm Supplies 11 
* SOME GENUINE BARGAINS IN FIRST CLASS MATERIAL, MERCHANDISE AND MACHINERY AT SACRIFICE PRICES 
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rape ijfin “ “ 454c “ 
First class wrought iron pipe for water and 
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Our high grade “Premier” brand, 
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Farm Forges 
$6.35 each 
We bought several carloads of 
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[POULTRY NETTING 
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in¬ 
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S’gle bitted 
axe, cast 
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D’ble bitted (ditto) 40c 
Good padlocks . 6c 
Wire clothes lines 10c 
All-steel hatchets 30c 
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Monkey wrenches 9c 
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6c 
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A 11 - steel 
hammers, 30c 
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Chicago House Wrecking Co « 35th and Iron Sts., Chicago 
