3o8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 8 
Washington, in most respects a most interesting and 
valuable publication, whose object is to lay before 
the public the most valuable results obtained in the 
experiments at the many stations located in the dif¬ 
ferent States. As a striking result of what appears 
to me a great waste under the present system of in¬ 
dependent action in experimenting at the various 
stations, I would call attention to a report from 
Cornell, I think (I speak from memory), made three 
or four years ago, where the statement was made 
that several hundred (seven, I think), were carefully 
tested, and about the entire number condemned as 
worthless. Now, as varieties that do first-rate on one 
kind of soil fail to give satisfaction on another of a 
different character, doubtless more or less of this 
great number would have proved themselves to be 
acquisitions on other soil. Would not, therefore, the 
institution of a system of interchange of seedlings 
between stations where soils are different be a step 
in progress along the lines of a wise economy, and 
likely to result to the advantage of the great public ? 
Massachusetts. j. J. h. Gregory. 
The Farmers’ Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
the writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.1 
Drinking Water in Cisterns. 
X. Y,, Memphis, Mo. —Is rain water, caught in eave spouts and 
carried through conductors of galvanized iron, as good for drink¬ 
ing and culinary use, as if good tin was used instead ? Does 
water standing in or around galvanized iron thereby become dan¬ 
gerous to health if used as above indicated ? Water caught upon 
a shingle roof contains a considerable quantity of material worn 
from the wood, which is not desirable in water to be used for 
drinking and cooking. Is there any paint or preparation which, 
applied to the shingles, will stop or lessen this trouble, and at the 
same time not impart any injurious or disagreeable qualities to 
the water ? 
Ans. —There has never yet been any serious ques¬ 
tion raised of the ill effects of the 
zinc coating of galvanized sheets in 
regard to water flowing over a roof of 
this kind, or through similar pipes for 
the conveyance of water. But it is not 
necessary to run any risk in this way, 
for tin may be used for the roof or 
pipes and made sufficiently durable 
by the mere painting of it with the 
common iron oxide paint, which is quite 
insoluble. It is most desirable that the 
rain water from a shingle roof should 
be filtered before it is stored in a cis¬ 
tern ; this is done in a very simple 
manner by making the spouts discharge 
into a barrel in the lower half of which 
a filter of clear sand is made. An ex¬ 
cellent filter is made in this way. First 
some coarse,well-washed gravel is put in 
the bottom of the barrel, but resting on 
a false bottom pierced with small holes, 
leaving two inches or so of space under 
the false bottom. On the gravel is laid 
some broken charcoal, and on this some more gravel, 
on this some coarse, well-washed sand, and on this a 
layer of gravel. This is covered with a board having 
a sufficient number of holes in it to pass the water. 
The two boards, one at the bottom and that at the 
top, are firmly fixed so that, if necessary, the barrel 
may be reversed and thus washed clean by passing 
water through it. This filters the water of solid 
matter, and the charcoal takes away most, if not all, 
of the dissolved impurities. Or a swinging double 
pipe may be fitted to the lower end of the leader 
from the eave trough, in such a way that the first 
water runs to waste into a drain until the roof is well 
washed of all filth that gathers on it, such as dust, 
leaves, droppings of birds and the worn fiber of the 
wood, and then the clean water only is turned into 
the cistern. The swinging pipe may be made self¬ 
acting by having a small hole made in the waste pipe 
through which a part of the water will run into a 
receptacle attached to the arm of the pipe, and when 
this receptacle is filled, the weight of it overbalances 
the other arm and this swings into connection with 
the cistern pipe, thus delivering the clean water into 
the pipe by which it goes to the cistern. This is a 
simple matter that any mechanic will be able to 
arrange. The painting of the shingles with the red 
oxide of iron paint will prevent the wear of the wood 
into the fibrous pulp mentioned, which is due to the 
action of the weather. h. s. 
How to Trim York Imperial Apple Trees. 
F. W. V., Pennsylvania.— How shall I head York Imperial and 
Sutton Beauty apple trees ? Are they high or low-growing trees ? 
Ans —York Imperial has a round, well-shaped 
head, neither very upright nor very spreading. Sut¬ 
ton Beauty is more upright in habit. Both varieties 
make very nice orchard trees with little trouble. 
Ht E< Vi 
Using Salt on Peach Trees. 
O. H. B., Milltown, Pa.— Last fall, in November, after examin¬ 
ing for borers, I placed around the base of my young peach 
trees (planted in the spring of 1896) one quart of a mixture of 
equal parts of common salt and wood ashes. The soil was then 
returned around the trees Early in the winter, a chance tree 
manifested evidence of something wrong, as the tips of the 
branches appeared dead, the under bark brown on some sides 
of the tree, extending, in some cases, down in the root. At that 
time, I thought it the result of careless work in burning a little 
rubbish which was raked up and burned before plowing the 
ground in November. As spring advanced, I noticed that the 
peach trees were slow in pushing forward, and soon the true con¬ 
dition was manifested—the entire orchard of 800 trees being 
dead- A chance tree showed some life, but was so seriously dam¬ 
aged that I deemed it best to remove all and replant. My reason 
for applying the salt was this : Having heard, at random, many 
times, that salt was beneficial to peach trees, even so much as a 
peck to a tree, I thought, certainly, one pint would not do any 
harm. I have no idea of the cause of the result other than the 
application of the salt. 
Ans. —G. H. B. has had a sore experience from 
either following bad advice, or from misunderstand¬ 
ing the meaning of some writers. I have never tried 
common salt as a supposed manure, or as an insecti¬ 
cide about the base of fruit trees, but I have no faith 
in either. That it is a virulent poison to nearly all 
vegetation, except when applied in a very moderate 
way, is well known by most people. As a manure, it 
is practically worthless. It has a tendency to make 
the soil retentive of moisture, and has proved bene¬ 
ficial in some cases when not applied thickly. I 
would never put salt about the base of any tree 
unless I wanted to kill it. This I have done in a few 
cases where I wished to destroy undesirable trees on 
the lawn or in a field. h. e. y. d. 
“ California” Grapes in Delaware. 
G. T., New Fo/vfc.-Will California white, sweet, big grapes 
grow in Delaware to make it pay ? 
Ans. —The grapes which are usually grown in Cali¬ 
fornia are of an entirely different species (Vitis vini- 
fera), from those grown in the open air in the Eastern 
States; the former are foreign, while the latter are 
of native American origin. All of the foreign varie¬ 
ties are of very different character of vine as well as 
of fruit from our own, which succeed so well all over 
the country. However, in California, both classes 
seem to flourish, the foreign kinds doing as well as in 
any other part of the world. They are more tender 
than our native kinds, and will not endure a climate 
where the ground freezes more than a very little. 
They also are peculiarly subject to the damaging 
effects of an insect called phylloxera, which works on 
the roots very seriously, and also to the fungous dis¬ 
eases which prey on our own species, but in a less 
serious degree. They will not succeed in Delaware or 
anywhere outside of a glass house this side of central 
Texas. From there on, and into southern New 
Mexico, they are grown to some extent by covering 
the vines with earth from fall to spring. The fungous 
diseases are less prevalent there. It has often been 
supposed that the same kinds of grapes that are 
grown in France and southern Germany would do 
equally well in the milder parts of this country, but 
thousands of trials have proved that they will not, 
and for the above reasons. In a house made for the 
purpose, where the temperature and diseases may be 
under control, they grow luxuriantly. Muscat of 
Alexandria is one of the leading white varieties. 
H. e. v. D. 
Grass for a Sandy Hill. 
C. A. J., Yonkers, N. Y. —1. What is the best grass seed for a 
hot, sandy hill, with pine trees on the north ? Plenty of stable 
manure. It is to be used as a lawn or with one crop of grass fit 
for winter cow feed. 2. An old man told me that he never 
mulched his strawberry plants, and thought it made them more 
able to resist the cold spring weather, not being checked as 
readily as his neighbors’ mulched beds. He begins picking the 
last of May, before any around him have ripe berries. He is not 
particular to keep the kinds separate. 
Ans. — 1. Our choice would be Blue grass. 2. In 
soils that “heave”, mulch is helpful to protect the 
plants from alternate freezing and thawing. 
All About Whale-oil Soap. 
A. L. H., Ithaca, Wis. —Whale-oil soap is a better basis for 
kerosene emulsion than common soap. In solution, it is an ex¬ 
cellent insecticide alone. Kerosene is so injurious to rubber 
hose that it is very objectionable on that account used through 
the common spray pump. If we can use whale-oil soap in mak¬ 
ing our insecticides for treating the whole family of sucking 
insects, the true bugs, such as plant lice or the aphis, the gray 
squash bug, thrips, etc., as well as scale lice like the Oyster- 
shell Bark-louse, we shall be able to make a more efficient spray 
and use less kerosene. At 10 cents per pound as sold at retail, 
the price is too high, and we need more full information 
about buying the oil and making the soap from common pot¬ 
ash, which ought to be easily done and cheapen the product very 
much. Can’t The R. N.-Y. give us all necessary information 
about it, at least let us know where the crude oil can best be 
had, as that is, doubtless, the best to use ? The gray, stinking 
squash bugs last year killed our full-grown pumpkin, cucumber 
and squash vines, and we would like very much to b« ready for 
them this year with good whale-oil emulsion. 
ANSWERED BY M. V. SUNDERLAND. 
It is true that whale-oil soap sometimes makes a 
better kerosene emulsion than ordinary soap. It is 
also true that kerosene soon injures rubber hose, and 
that whale-oil soap is an excellent insecticide when 
used alone. As recent experiments have shown that 
whale-oil soap is one of the most effective agents to 
be used against the San Jos6 scale here in the East, 
it will, no doubt, come into more general use against 
sucking insects. But the different whale-oil or, more 
properly, fish-oil, soaps now on the market vary so 
much in their composition that they cannot always be 
depended upon to produce the desired or expected 
results. It has been found that the per cent of water 
in these soaps may vary from about 9 to nearly 50. 
And, curiously enough, those that contain the largest 
percentage of water make, by far, the thickest solu¬ 
tion when dissolved at the rate of two pounds to a 
gallon of water, the strength required to kill the San 
Jos6 scale. One of the tests to be used, then, when 
one contemplates buying a fish-oil soap, is to get a 
small sample and dissolve it at the rate mentioned 
above ; if the solution does not solidify or become too 
thick for spraying when it becomes 
cool, it may, usually, be depended 
upon. A soap made with potash lye is 
more desirable, but nearly all, if not 
all of the fish-oil soaps are made with 
soda. 
Whale-oil soap was used in this coun¬ 
try as an insecticide as early as 1842, 
but has never come into very general 
use, although Prof. Comstock found it 
very effective against scale insects, 
and strongly recommended it in his 
report as United States Entomologist. 
Plant lice are killed when the soap is 
used at the rate of one pound to 10 gal¬ 
lons. In destroying scale insects, it is 
necessary to use it much stronger, the 
proportion varying from one pound in 
five gallons to two pounds in one gal¬ 
lon of water. It can hardly take the 
place of kerosene emulsion as made 
with ordinary soap, unless it is sold 
for considerably less than its present 
price. Of the ready-made fish-oil soaps, that sold 
by Leggett & Brother, New York City, has been 
found to be uniform and reliable. It is sold in 
barrels of about 450 pounds at four cents per pound, 
in boxes of 100 pounds at six cents per pound, 
and in 50-pound lots at 6% cents per pound. Any one 
can make his own fish-oil soap by dissolving 3>£ 
pounds of concentrated lye in 7>£ gallons of boiling 
water, and to this boiling solution adding one gallon 
of fish oil; continue boiling for two hours, and then 
allow to cool. Under the term fish oil, may be 
understood whale oil, menhaden oil, sturgeon oil, seal 
oil, or any other similar material. I do not know 
where the crude fish oil can be obtained in large quan¬ 
tities. Perhaps a letter addressed to the Department 
of Agriculture at Washington would secure the neces¬ 
sary information. 
A kerosene emulsion made with fish-oil soap, instead 
of ordinary soap, would, doubtless, prove more effec¬ 
tive, but would be more expensive if made according 
to the usual formula. Of the two, kerosene is, doubt¬ 
less, the more effective insecticide. I think that it 
would be just as well to use the whale-oil soap alone 
instead of trying to combine a less amount of 
kerosene than the standard emulsion formula calls 
for. 
One cannot hope to control the squash stink-bug 
with a spray applied to the old bugs or eggs. When 
the bugs are young, that is, without wings, perhaps 
they can be effectually checked with a fish-oil emul¬ 
sion spray. This stink-bug is a very difficult pest to 
control, but its numbers can be largely reduced by 
going over the young vines once or twice a week 
early in the season and hand-picking the old bugs 
which have come from their hibernating places, and 
also destroying any egg clusters which may be found. 
This is the most practicable and surest method of 
combating the insect yet sugge sted. 
A KATYDID AND THE WORK SHE DID. Fig. 133. 
