420 
June 15 
Jarmers Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by 
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sure attention. Before asking a question, 
please see whether It Is not answered In 
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separate piece of paper.]___ 
Blight on Quince Trees 
G. D., White House, N. J.—Last Summer 
some kind of blight struck my quince or¬ 
chard and did considerable damage, kill¬ 
ing four trees to the ground. Sometimes 
it affected the ends of branches, and In 
other cases it girdled the trunk or main 
branches. The bark seemed to die quick¬ 
ly. Only older trees were affected, and 
worst where the ground was moist and 
rich. I cut the dead parts away. If I see 
signs of it again this Summer will It help 
to spray with Bordeaux? What Is the 
cause and remedy? 
Ans.—T he Quince blight is an old of¬ 
fender, and is apt to bring ruin. This 
blight is common to pear and apple 
trees, and there is no better remedy 
known than the knife. Cut away all the 
blighted parts, well below the diseased 
portion, and burn them. The worst 
plants should be entirely removed. The 
experiments in spraying for the lire 
blight have not been so successful as to 
warrant it as a profitable preventive. 
However, spraying hits other enemies of 
quinces at the same time, and might be 
done with hope of benefit. 
BYRON r*. IIALSTED. 
N. J. Experiment Station. 
lielyet Bean or Cow Pea. 
E. R. D., Bnrto, Pa—C&n I grow the 
Velvet bean to maturity or make a suf¬ 
ficient growth of vines, sown about June 
15? It is a young oi'chard w'hich I wish 
to sow with the beans, and in late Fall 
plow the vines under to fertilize a crop 
of corn in 1902. 
—No. We would not advise the 
Velvet bean. With us the growth is too 
slow and small. It is a southern plant 
—not so well suited to northern condi¬ 
tions as the cow pea. Early Black or 
Whippoorwill cow peas sown by the mid¬ 
dle of June will make a good growth. 
When they are plowed under we would 
sow rye for a Winter crop. 
Dung Worms and White Grubs 
W. S. 3/., Bellaire, O.—This Spring I set 
out about one acre of strawberry plants. 
Over one-half the ground I scattered cow 
and horse manure mixed before harrow¬ 
ing. This manure was fresh, having ac¬ 
cumulated only about four weeks. When 
cultivating the plants the other day 1 
noticed the cow manure under the surface 
contained numerous small dark-colored 
grub worms about one-eighth inch long. 
I wish to inquire whether these grubs are 
the very young of the grubs of the May 
beetle, and how came the eggs in the 
firesh manure which was spread about 
April 10 long before the appearance of the 
beetle itself? If not grubs of the May 
beetle, will they grow larger and attack 
the plants? I noticed quite a numbpr of 
long flat black beetles which had holes 
made in the soil; also some very small 
beetles about one-eighth inch long. 
Ans.— During 1895 and 1896 we dis¬ 
cussed at considerable length the ques¬ 
tion if the true white grubs of May 
beetles lived in manure, or that plants 
could become infested with these grubs 
by the use of manure. We then request¬ 
ed all readers to send us any dung 
worms they might find, and several 
readers responded. But none of the 
dung worms sent was the white grub 
of May beetles, nor have we ever seen 
such grubs living in manure. We are 
quite sure that the small grubs found by 
W. S. M. in the rather fresh manure on 
his strawberry bed are the nearly full- 
grown grubs of an Aphodian dung bee¬ 
tle; the beetle is only about a third of 
an inch in length, and has red wing-cov¬ 
ers and a black head and thorax. These 
little beetles appear early in the Spring 
and hover over and bury themselves in 
freshly-dropped or partly decayed ma¬ 
nure in which they lay eggs; the grubs 
hatching therefrom also live in and eat 
the manure. If W. S. M. will put some 
of this Infested manure in a box or some 
soil where it will not dry up, I think that 
by June 15 he will find that they will 
have transformed into the little beetles. 
As these Aphodian dung beetles do not 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
feed upon living vegetation in any of 
their stages, infested manure may be 
freely spread upon any crop without 
fear of injury to the plants. The long, 
flat, black beetles noticed by W. S. M. 
were doubtless beneficial Ground bee¬ 
tles, and it is quite possible that the 
smaller ones were Aphodian dung bee¬ 
tles. We believe one need have no fear 
of introducing true white grubs or any 
other injurious plant-feeding insect in¬ 
to strawberry beds with manure. 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
How to Grow Large Melons. 
T. W. F., South Bend, Neb.—Give what in¬ 
formation you can about growing water¬ 
melons of large size. I And that manure 
increases the amount of vine, but not the 
size of the melon. I plant five feet apart 
each way, and thin to one plant In the 
hill. The vines cover the ground before 
any melons are ripe. I get lots of melons, 
but they are too small for market. What 
effect would it have to cut off the ends of 
the vine as soon as three or four melons 
arc set? 
Ans. —Size in watermelons is more a 
matter of variety than of cultivation. Of 
course the vine must be well fed to pro¬ 
duce full-sized melons, and we have 
found a good chemical fertilizer contain¬ 
ing eight and 10 per cent respectively of 
phosphoric acid and potash a useful ad¬ 
junct to rotted stable manure, which is 
the foundation of melon growing. The 
fertilizer may be applied at the rate of 
two or three pounds to a hill before 
planting, well mixed with the soil sev¬ 
eral inches deep, or can be cultivated 
into the soil after the plants are up. The 
most effective way where the price of 
the product warrants it is to apply the 
fertilizer broadcast at the rate of 1,000 
pounds an acre before planting. Pinch¬ 
ing the ends of the vine and limiting the 
fruits from two to four according to 
strength of the individual vine, would 
certainly tend to increase size of melons. 
What Is Asparagus Rust? 
T. R., Trevose, Pa.—In your opinion, 
would sulphur be of any benefit to put on 
asparagus for the rust? Would sulphur 
and salt do any good? I am of the opinion 
that the rust forms In or under the ground 
around the roots. Is the rust an insect or 
a fungus growth? I claim an insect, for I 
have seen it under a strong glass; others 
have argued to me it is of fungus growth. 
The wind spreads the dust and forms on 
other plants; it has aftected the asparagus 
very much within a few miles of Phila¬ 
delphia. The prices are good, but with bad 
weather and blight we do not cut more 
than half a crop. Would sulphur sprayed 
on the plants do good or injury? 
Ans.—W e doubt the value of sulphur. 
Dr. Halsted, of New Jersey, tried spray¬ 
ing with solutions of glue, gelatin, lime, 
soap and also milk. The Palmetto va¬ 
riety is less susceptible than some other 
varieties, because of its thick skin and 
downy covering. The object of this 
spraying was to give the plants an arti¬ 
ficial coating. These experiments were 
on a small scale, but the results indicate 
that this plan of coating the plant is 
useful. The plants sprayed with soap' 
and with milk were very free from rust,, 
and so were those sprayed with gelatin.. 
You ought to send to the New Jersey 
Station (New Brunswick) and the Gene¬ 
va (N. Y.) Station for bulletins on this 
disease. Bulletin 188 from Geneva shows 
that the rust is a fungus or parasitic 
plant which grows within the asparagus 
and absorbs the juices which should go 
to build up its tissues. Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture has been used for spraying the 
plants, and it seems to be successful 
where it can be put on all parts—thor¬ 
oughly. On Long Island a large ma¬ 
chine costing over $200 is used for this 
purpose, and it does its work well. 
Spraying with small pumps and single 
nozzles does not give satisfaction. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
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The writer of this book is president of the 
Aermotor Company. 
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is a book of information, written by the man 
who knows more than any other man about 
windmills. 
We are not trying to sell you direct. We 
simply want to tell you the facts that may 
save you a costly mistake. 
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AERMOTOR CO.^ 1206 twelfth street, CHICAGO 
We have another book about Power Aermotors for doing all sorts of work —for grinding, for sawing, for cutting feed, 
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