634 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 24, 
GAS OR LIMOID FOR INSECTS. 
I am writing you in regard to an article in The R. N.-Y. 
written by M. V. Slingerland on “Bedbugs in a Henhouse” 
on page 583, only my bugs are mites, and I would like to 
know if the treatment mentioned would destroy them; also 
if it could be used for destroying house flies? Would it 
damage wall paper or paint, or poison food in a house? 
What is the method employed before and after using? 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. v. l. w. 
R. N.-Y.—The hydrocyanic acid gas will kill any 
breathing creature that it reaches. It is a very active 
gas, and must be confined in order to be effective. In 
a room where there are cracks or air holes it will not 
prove successful. It will not damage wall paper or any 
dry food. Damp food like butter will absorb a little 
of it, though not enough to make it dangerous. Read 
the following article by F. C. Curtis, of Maine: 
It seems to me an absolutely and wholly unnecessary 
exposure of human life to use hydrocyanic gas for the 
extermination of vermin, particularly the mite. From 
the habits of the insect it is impossible for the gas to 
reach the eggs, which are laid by millions in small 
cracks, and which in a few days will be in full posses¬ 
sion, and there are very few poultry houses which 
would not allow the gas to escape. Until within a very 
few years the red mite was one of the worst pests 
known, because it was extremely difficult to exter¬ 
minate, but now if all other poultry problems could be 
as easily solved there would be an end to all trouble. 
If A. J. K., page 583, wishes absolutely to clear his 
houses he can do so with a trifling outlay of money and 
a very small amount of time. If he will procure some 
of the new process lime used for making Bordeaux 
Mixture, called limoid by some manufacturers, and 
will make a strong whitewash, using, say two pounds 
to a gallon of water, and with a knapsack or other 
good pump thoroughly spray the house, first cleaning 
the dropping boards, which should be flooded, and re¬ 
versing the perches, dose them carefully as well as the 
perch supports. In fact, force the wash into every 
crack about the roosting places, and if repeated for a 
few T days, lie will soon find that there is not a mite to 
be found. The wash may not, and probably will not, 
reach the eggs, but as it dries it encrusts them, and if 
they should hatch they cannot escape, and besides it 
kills by contact. It is so cheap there is no reason for 
not using it freely, and it .sweetens and whitens the 
house, and a bag of it should be as much a part of the 
poultryman’s stock in trade as grain or charcoal. 
1 remember one day last Winter there was an offen¬ 
sive odor from one of the pens, apparently coming 
from behind the sheathing. I placed a very strong 
solution of this lime in the knapsack and removing the 
nozzle began pumping between the studs with the open 
hose. In a few moments there was a great commotion 
among the hens, and I found they were chasing “white 
mice” about the pen. Soaked with the whitewash they 
had a hard time of it, but the odor disappeared. 
ANOTHER CLOVER PROPOSITION. 
On page 573 I find several statements with reference 
to the growing of clover that impressed me forcibly, 
chiefly because they are at variance with theories that 
are the result of my own experience. These state¬ 
ments relate to “clover sick” soils, which, judging from 
the experience of one of the writers, lead me to think 
an acid condition exists. If this conclusion is correct 
I doubt very much whether “Falieon’s” proposed experi¬ 
ment of sowing clover in August will prove successful. 
I am inclined to think that bis conclusions are based 
on false premises, where he attributes his failure to 
grow clover successfully to a sudden change in the hab¬ 
itat of the plant or to a lack of humus. If either con¬ 
clusion is correct the latter is surely the one. As to the 
first proposition we are privileged to infer that clover 
has grown for him under conditions as to habitat which 
now results in failure. If this is true, we must look 
farther for the cause. The behavior of the plant with 
him is so similar to my own experience with it that I 
believe the same cause is responsible for the trouble in 
both cases. In my own case the cause, or rather the 
principal cause (for later we may find other causes) is 
an acid condition of the soil, as is proved by repeated 
tests. Assuming that “Falieon’s” soil is acid, any differ¬ 
ence in the time of seeding can accomplish nothing 
more than to make a slight difference in the degree of 
failure. We are both of us practically wasting our 
time and seed until we neutralize the acid which the 
soil contains. 
Clover frequently fails because of a lack of humus, 
but in this locality it fails a good deal more frequently 
in spite of it. Humus is the thing, if it carries no in¬ 
jurious acids. But there is the rub. The farmers of 
northern Ohio have their forefathers beaten on the 
humus question, as far as quantity is concerned, but it 
hasn’t solved the clover question for us. Indeed, it 
looks like the more humus the less clover. I am not 
ready yet to declare that clover fails because the soil 
is acid, and that the acid is due to an increased or ex¬ 
cessive quantity of humus, but I do declare that the 
best cared-for farms in this locality are producing the 
least clover because it cannot be grown. 
In the editorial column of the same issue we are re¬ 
minded that “stable manure is alkaline,” and that “it 
sweetens the soil much as lime does,” all of which is 
true. At the same time it puzzles me to know how to 
DRIVE 
TO 
BAER 
ABC7E. 
GROUND PLAN OF DAIRY BARN. Fig. 313. 
DAIR* 
COOL 
ROOT 
ROOM 
ROOM 
CELLAR 
HALLWAY 
FEED 
ALLEY 
11 
13 
15 
17 
19 
21 
10 
12 
14 
16 
18 
20 
22 
FEED 
WLLEY 
reconcile truths that are contradictory. The field on 
our farm which has received the least of this kind of 
“sweetening” grew clover the longest. Again, for 15 
weary years I have worshiped at the shrine of humus, 
only to find at this late date that it has lost its virtue, 
so far as clover is concerned, and needs an occasional 
coat of whitewash to restore it to usefulness. Every¬ 
body knows that caustic lime is a decomposing agency, 
reducing the volume and changing the form of the vege¬ 
table matter it comes in contact with. This being true, 
it looks like a backward step deliberately to use an 
A “CHOP SUEY” LILY. Fig. 314. 
See Ruralisms, Page 638. 
agency that will reduce the quantity of the thing we have 
worked so hard to get. Nevertheless we are using it 
with excellent promise of success. This question of soil 
acidity is a serious one, because its correction involves 
considerable labor and expense. The experiment sta¬ 
tions have given us the remedy, but most authorities 
fight shy of going on record as to the cause. Take my 
own case, for instance. What is wrong with my 
method? We follow the usual five-year rotation com¬ 
mon in this part of the country. The crops are corn, 
oats, wheat and grass. The land is heavily manured for 
corn. Commercial fertilizers are used; on the wheat 
always, on the oats occasionally. The plow land is 
never pastured. Crops of everything except clover have 
been satisfactory, but I realize that something must be 
done soon to increase the supply of nitrogen if I expect 
to continue to grow good crops. Lime will solve the 
question temporarily, and will sweeten the soil. Can 
I avoid trouble by a change in system and rotation? 
Ashland Co., Ohio. J. m. fluke. 
VALUE OF TURNIPS FOR SOIL IMPROVING. 
A few years ago The R. N.-Y. printed an account, 
describing how a farmer -in Pennsylvania enriched and 
improved his farm sowing and plowing down Cow-horn 
turnips. I remember how a few of the contributors 
took up the question, showing up the fallacy of such 
advice, proving (at least to themselves) that as the tur¬ 
nip is composed of mostly water, it is therefore of little 
cr no value for land improvement. As the rain is still 
(June 11) pouring down in torrents, armed with a hoe 
I am out over my farm, endeavoring to lessen the dam¬ 
age this superabundance of moisture is doing, by open¬ 
ing up here and there small ditches to let off the water 
quickly. Doing so I came across a lot where last year 
I grew a crop of turnips. As I always sow clover and 
Timothy with my turnip seed, this field has a nice 
stand of grass. It is dotted, however, all over with 
small patches where the grass is taller and somewhat 
greener than on the rest of the lot, just such patches as 
one is accustomed to see in a lot where manure had 
been hauled on and thrown in small piles, and left there 
for a time, before it was finally spread and plowed 
down. As there had been no manure hauled on this 
field I was unable at first to account for these patches, 
but closer examination showed that here small piles of 
turnip leaves had rotted down, with the above result. 
It is our custom as soon as turnips are large enough to 
pull and throw them in small piles, say about a bushel 
in a pile; here we trim them of roots and leaves for the 
market wagon. The leaves are scattered a little, so as 
not to smother the grass. We do this all during Fall 
until the crop is sold. If I could only show up in the 
columns of The R. N.-Y. these dark green patches as 
they show up in the lot, what a jolt they would give 
your analytic -riends. 
I have had some experience of the same kind along 
this line in my cabbage lot a few years ago; we usually 
cut our cabbage and throw it in small piles and trim it 
of surplus leaves for the market wagon. These leaves 
we left in small piles to rot and plowed the ground the 
following year for oats. From the time oats came up 
until it was cut these patches could be plainly seen, and 
the oats there were much better and more of it than on 
the rest of the ground, and as we seeded to grass with 
the oats these spots showed up in the grass fully as well 
as in the oats. That year a number of cars of cabbage 
were shipped from Long Island, N. Y, to Youngstown; 
the commission men sold it on the track at $7.50 a ton. 
You can probably figure how much the grower got after 
freight and commission was subtracted. After just hav¬ 
ing had the practical lesson of the fertilizing content 
of cabbage I concluded that those growers were selling 
off their valuable Long Island farms at a very low price. 
J. H. BOLLINGER. 
EASY BORDEAUX MAKING.—No end of trouble 
has arisen in the use of Bordeaux Mixture from the co¬ 
agulation when the copper sulphate and lime were mixed 
in concentrated form. The general advice and practice 
has been, and is at the present time, to dilute each part 
and then mix; that is, in making a 50-gallon mixture 
put five pounds of copper sulphate in 25 gallons of 
water, and five pounds of lime (six is better) in 25 
gallons of water and then mix the two. For very many 
men who are spraying from four to six acres of pota¬ 
toes, and do not have several tanks and a complete 
spraying arrangement, this is considerable labor and 
trouble. We have found a way to avoid all the trouble 
and do so with very little equipment. The lime is 
slaked in the usual way, and the copper sulphate, each 
pound dissolved in two gallons of water. When ready 
to spray the lime is put into the sprayer first, as thick 
as it will run through the burlap strainer, taking out 
anything not thoroughly slaked.' The tank is then filled 
up, leaving room enough to turn in the concentrated 
solution of copper sulphate. In this way we make a 
nice, clean Bordeaux which stays in suspension, does 
not granulate, and, so far as I am able to see, is just 
as effective as that made in the orthodox manner. 
h. e. cook. 
CARP IN KANSAS.—The Atchison Globe remarks that the 
German carp appears to he about half flsli and half hog. 
A farmer on Bean Lake says that the recent high water In 
the river flooded 40 acres of his wheat field, and German 
carp swam about, and ate the wheat like greedy hogs. He 
also says they got in the shocks, and threw them down* 
in order to get at the grains. 
