8a6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 19 , 
DIPPING YOUNG TREES TO KILL SCALE. 
I have never used whale-oil soap for this purpose. I 
believe this soap has not proved absolutely efficient in 
fighting the San Jose scale, and since it is rather dis¬ 
agreeable to handle I should prefer some other insec¬ 
ticide in which to dip the young trees. Were I to use 
A HUMBLE FARMER. Fig. 379. 
Third Prize Picture. 
whale-oil soap I should not want a solution weaker 
than one pound of soap to one gallon of water, and 
would use two pounds to the gallon if possible. I 
should trim the trees and be careful not to immerse the 
root systems in the solution in dipping. It might cause 
no injury to the roots to be dipped, but I should want 
to be on the safe side so as to avoid injury. I have 
done a little experimental work in dipping apple, pear, 
peach and cherry nursery stock in undiluted kerosene 
and crude petroleum. The peach and cherry trees were 
seriously injured, as were also Bartlett pears, but the 
pear trees happened to be rather weak. Robust trees 
might not have been injured so much. The Kieffer 
pears were also somewhat injured. The apple trees 
were slightly injured. These trees remained in the 
kerosene and crude petroleum only long enough to be¬ 
come thoroughly covered with the materials. I should 
not want young trees to remain in any dipping mixture 
longer than a few seconds. Lime-sulphur-salt wash 
would be excellent for this purpose. If I had young 
trees to dip I should use either a 50-per-cent solution 
of kerosene emulsion or the kerosene-limoid mixture 
for apples and pears, and a weaker solution for other 
trees. I should prefer the kerosene-limoid mixture 
because it is easier made. [prof.] c. p. close. 
Delaware. 
If fumigation has been properly done it will be unnec¬ 
essary to dip or otherwise treat the trees in any way. 
That it has been properly done, however, cannot always 
be known, and in such cases dipping in whale-oil soap 
two pounds, water one gallon, should be all that ought 
to be needed for their protection. This is the strength 
at which the soap is sprayed during Winter months, and 
I should prefer not to use it this strong for a dip at any 
other time. I should dip the trees in just long enough 
for them to get wet all over, down to where the upper 
roots start, as the scale does not live below ground; 
then take them out and drain off. I do not know that 
this treatment has ever been tried, and have simply 
modified the spraying method to fit the altered condi¬ 
tions. It might be that the strength given is too great 
for dipping, as the trees would get more of a dose than 
if sprayed with it, but I cannot tell. I should not treat 
all my trees that way till by experimenting I had learned 
if they could stand this strength. Then the kind of 
tree might make a difference. What I have written 
refers to fruit stock, and it might be too strong for 
peach, though all right for other kinds. Then, too, the 
climatic conditions in the South may differ from those 
here, and I have had no experience in the South. All 
in all, my advice would be to experiment on a few 
trees of different kinds, both early and late in Winter, 
and watch the results before attempting it on a large 
Scale. H. T. FERNALD. 
Massachusetts. 
The soap will undoubtedly destroy any living scale it 
may reach, but if the solution is strong, and the whole 
tree is dipped, may do injury to the rootlets. I would 
not advise a stronger solution for such purposes than 
one pound in two gallons, and should not leave the 
trees in the solution at all, since they will remain moist 
for some time anyway. I have sometimes had plants 
dipped in coal oil emulsion, and then in about five min¬ 
utes washed the roots in clear water. This might be 
done in the case of soap solutions to advantage. 
Kentucky Exp. Station. h. garman. 
CULTURE OF EGG PLANTS AND TOMATOES 
Would you advise hilling of egg plants just before com-, 
mencing to bloom if they were being blown down too much 
by winds? Do you think cutting off the crown bud or top 
of tomato plants will make larger tomatoes, and if so, should 
this be done when first commencing to bloom or sooner? 
Should egg plants, peppers and tomatoes be fertilized and 
worked after they begin to bloom and bear, or will such 
prove detrimental by causing plants to shed blooms 
and fruit? Are egg plants and peppers assorted into differ¬ 
ent grades like tomatoes when crated for shipment to east¬ 
ern and western markets, and if so, how marked? 
Florida. j. g . c . 
Here in New Jersey, where such plants as tomato, 
egg, and pepper are grown in hotbeds or greenhouses 
to be set in the open ground as soon as all danger 
of frost is past, culture is far different from growing 
the same crop below the frost line in southern Florida, 
where the soil is never very cold. Here we -set all such 
plants rather shallow and in time work a certain 
amount of soil to and around the plants. If season 
proves wet we do this to a greater degree than we 
would provided season was dry, because the flatter and 
finer we have our soil on surface of ground the better 
it will withstand dry weather. On the other hand, in 
a wet season, the more rolling it is the better it will 
shed heavy rains; therefore, hill a little if good judg¬ 
ment dictates, but be careful not to prune the roots. 
The early tomato crop here is handled far differently 
than I should judge it ought to be in our Southern 
A SAMPLE OF ILLINOIS CORN. Fig. 380. 
States. Here a given quantity of fruit at the right 
time is worth double what the same amount would be 
10 days or two weeks later; hence we aim for earliness 
instead of large yield; therefore but few growers cut 
the crown buds from their plants. There has been 
some considerable discussion among local growers here 
and a little done in way of experiment m taking out 
the crown buds. In some varieties it has the appear¬ 
ance of doing good, not in increased size of fruit, but 
in more fruit of slightly smaller size but a more even 
grade, that ripen rapidly after beginning, but not so 
early as those from crown buds. The climatic con¬ 
ditions at blooming time have more to do with varia¬ 
tions in quantity of fruit set than any one thing the 
tomato grower has to contend with. If weather is 
wet and bees not moving about among the blooms at 
this critical period, the set of fruit will be light. The 
taking out of the crown buds has been done here about 
the time or just before the first bloom begins to open. 
I would not advocate taking out anything but the bunch 
of buds. 
In providing food for these three crops it is first 
necessary for us to know what forms of plant food are 
best adapted for each individual crop. The tomato does 
well with side dressings of nitrate of soda, from 100 
to 150 pounds per acre, provided sufficient amounts of 
phosphoric acid and potash have been applied before 
setting the plants. I have applied nitrate of soda as 
late as when fruit is all set with good results, but the 
grower must be careful not to put on too much at this 
time, else he starts a new leaf growth at the expense 
of fruit. Nitrate of soda also does well as a side 
dressing for peppers under similar conditions. I have 
known this to increase the crop 50 pounds per acre 
after being applied in mid-season, and the whole of 
better quality and higher market value than would 
have been the case had no side dressing been used. 
In the case of egg plant I like fish, either raw from the 
shore or scrap, and that ground. This crop apparently 
prefers this form of nitrogen to all others, or at least 
that has been my experience here. The crop is less 
liable to blight when fish in some form is used. Fine 
ground fish scrap works very nicely on the pepper as 
well, but should be applied earlier than soda, for the 
reason that it has to rot before becoming available as 
plant food. Nitrate of soda should not be used at or 
just previous to blooming; it is apt to cause blooms to 
fall and fruit not set, but if applied after fruit is set 
and in proper quantities, I see no harm in its use, but 
have seen great benefit as stated above. 
Cultivating these crops in the case of the tomato 
should be about once a week till vines fall down and 
forbid further trespass. As to egg plant and peppers, 
we Cultivate nearly the whole growing season, being 
careful as plants grow to go shallow enough to avoid 
severe root pruning; in fact, I think it essential to 
a maximum yield that cultivation is kept up. Both the 
egg plant and the pepper continue to set fruit nearly 
the whole season, hence cultivation is essential to the 
proper development of that fruit. Grading is not prac¬ 
ticed here as much as it should be. In the case of egg 
plant we cut fruit to nearly a uniform size; this can 
easily be done with any crop that is gathered in the 
green state by cutting frequently, thereby having a 
uniform run of fruit. When our crop is in season 
they are generally shipped in barrels, the fruit cut at 
such size as will take between 50 and 60 eggs to fill a 
barrel; culls left home unless prices are above the 
average. Grading is not practiced on the pepper at all. 
The principal consumers of the pepper are foreigners, 
and they are not so critical as a more select trade 
would be. Where these vegetables are grown out of 
season I should say grade by all means, marking them 
prime, fancy or whatever the conditions indicate. 
C. C. HULSART. 
THE CABBAGE SNAKE.—On page 785 some remarks 
were made about so-called “snakes" in cabbage. The I). 
Landreth Seed Co. give the following in the Florists' Ex¬ 
change: “A very objectionable thing, but a non-poisonous 
creature, has caused consternation, principally among the 
colored people in parts of Kentucky. Tennessee and Georgia, 
by developing from an egg. within the folds of cabbage 
heads. It is an eel worm, of which there are many forms; 
this variety is two to three inches in length, of the thickness 
of a hair, and is called the ‘cabbage snake' by people of the 
district where it prevails. The mature worm lays eggs in 
large numbers, which are eaten by cabbage caterpillars, 
within the bodies of which the eggs are hatched; the worms, 
after a time, bursting the bodies of the caterpillars, and. 
after liberation, assuming their external life and further 
development. They then subsist on the cabbage or other 
plants on which they find themselves, and lay eggs for an¬ 
other generation. Few want to eat cooked snakes or worms 
in connection with their boiled cabbage, but to those who 
like the combination there is no restraining law, and no 
resultant harm, no poisonous effect, as currently charged, 
any such injury being from a too liberal use of Paris-green 
or other insecticides. Experiment with rabbits, guinea pigs 
and other animals has proven that the snake is non- 
poisonous; extracts from the snakes, injected hypodermically, 
have proven entirely innocuous. The prevalence of this so- 
called ‘snake’ in certain localities has caused much loss to 
HEAD OF A GOOD OLD FRIEND. Fig. 381. 
See Page 82S. 
cabbage growers, who have had difficulty in selling the prod¬ 
uct of their fields, and, consequently, they hesitate to grow 
new crops of cabbage, the result being that there has been a 
diminished demand for seed in the localities where the 
‘snake’ has been mostly observed ; but now, as all the cir¬ 
cumstances are better understood, the cultivation of cab¬ 
bage is again assuming its normal conditions." 
