65o 
T1IE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 31, 
under conditions where the air in the soil contains 
much more carbonic acid than is usually found in sta¬ 
bles. and this would make the rate of diffusion rela¬ 
tively more rapid. A simple problem in arithmetic, 
based on these figures, will show how impossible ven¬ 
tilation by diffusion is. 
The open space in the muslin used in the thinnest 
screen, as I observed it in Mr. F. H. Lord’s stables, 
Cedarhurst, Long Island, is about 35 per cent. The 
pore space in dry, loose soils is usually greater than 
this, even as high as 50 to 60 per cent. Besides this, 
diffusion under Winter temperatures is much slower 
than it is under Summer temperatures. Cows pro¬ 
duce carbonic acid at a rate of from 10 to 15 pounds, 
or 80 to 120 cubic feet, per day per 1,000 pounds 
weight. This being true, it is easy to see that a large 
screen surface must be required to remove the car¬ 
bonic acid from a stable of 20 to 40 cows. Taking 
the smallest rate of production, no less than 2,000 
square feet of such muslin would be required to allow 
the carbonic acid produced by a single cow to diffuse 
outward and maintain the per cent in the air of the 
stable as low as 1.5, assuming that the rate of diffu¬ 
sion through the muslin could be as rapid as that 
which has been observed for the soil. 
Where muslin screens are used for ventilation the 
air must enter and leave the stable just as it does 
where the chimney principle is employed, under the 
influence of wind pressure, and the pressure developed 
by differences in temperature which tend to establish 
convection currents. But muslin screens, such as those 
which have been used by Mr. Lord at Cedarhurst, 
offer very material resistance to the action of the wind 
in forcing air through them, and likewise to the influ¬ 
ence of convection currents, this influence being al¬ 
ways relatively very small, especially under the con¬ 
ditions which have been proposed for ventilation by 
means of muslin screens. We found, for example, at 
the Lord stables, that when a wind velocity of 11.53 
miles per hour was blowing in through the open, un¬ 
obstructed window, the insertion of the screen reduced 
the rate of flow of air into the stable to as low as 
1.23 miles per hour. These facts make it clear that 
when the wind velocities are low, much of the time 
even less than five and often less than one mile per 
hour, the amount of air which can be forced into the 
stable through muslin screens must be very small 
compared with the amount which will enter through the 
same screens under wind velocities greater than nine 
miles per hour. So, too, it must be evident that 
screens must offer a very marked resistance to the 
tendency of the cold air to drop into the stables and 
of the warm air to pass out of the stables, through 
the simple differences in weight or density which result 
from differences of temperature. These facts are il¬ 
lustrated experimentally by results which I have ob¬ 
tained, using the apparatus represented in Fig. 321. 
This apparatus is a galvanized iron cylinder provided 
with a close-fitting cover and six ^4-inch windows, 
which may be left open, or which may be closed either 
with screw-caps or covered with pieces of muslin. 
Fig. 322 represents graphically results which were ob¬ 
tained by placing a kerosene lamp, burning, inside the 
chamber. When the windows were all open and the 
ventilator at the top, with the air moving across the 
cylinder 7.39 miles per hour, the flame had the size 
and shape represented at 1, but when the air was 
still, that is, no wind pressure, convection currents 
only acting, the flame was reduced to the size repre¬ 
sented at 2. Again when the ventilator was closed 
but the windows all open, and the air still, so that 
only convection currents could take place through the 
windows, the lamp was able to do work represented 
by the smaller flame, 3. Then, with muslin screens on 
all of the windows, only a very little closer than those 
used by Mr.. Lord, and with nearly 11-mile wind, the 
flame was finally reduced to the condition represented 
by 4. Finally, when tl wind velocity was reduced to 
3.26 miles per hour, the muslin ventilation was only 
barely able to keep the flame alight. With the air 
still, the lamp went out. 
Into the same piece of apparatus, provided to 
represent the muslin screen-ventilation, we placed a 
Wyandotte rooster, weighing 5.5 pounds. With five 
windows closed and one window with the muslin screen 
same as used in Cedarhurst stables, the bird 
came to the condition of gasping for breath in 6.5 
hours. Muslin screens were then put on all windows, 
but in 2.5 hours the bird was in greater rather than 
in less distress. The ventilator in the cover was then 
opened, so that convection currents would have a more 
marked effect, but provided with the muslin screen, 
but in this condition the rooster only revived a very 
little. But when the muslin screens were removed in 
the course of an hour and a half the bird was breath¬ 
ing normally and moving around in the apparatus. 
During this experiment so much moisture was thrown 
off by the rooster that it ran a stream from the under 
side of the cover when it was removed, and the dry 
sand placed in the bottom of the ventilation chamber 
had become wet on the top, so that it appeared damp 
to the eye. „ 
Facts like these should help practical farmers, whose 
judgment is generally better than they are often given 
credit for, to think twice before they attempt to de- 
STACK COVER AND LOW-DOWN WAGON. Fro. 320. 
pend simply upon muslin screens for stable ventila¬ 
tion. They are a positive hindrance to the entrance 
of air into the stable, and particularly at the time of 
low wind movement, when the main factor then tend¬ 
ing to produce ventilation is difference in tempera¬ 
ture. It is our judgment, after many years of specific 
study of this question, that the chimney principle must 
be employed in proper stable ventilation unless some 
other forced system is adopted. Screens may be used 
if desired to cover fresh air intakes, but they are not 
durable, do not admit the air at the most desirable 
A VENTILATION TEST. Fig. 321. 
level, and are a positive hindrance or obstruction at 
times when there should be no obstruction. 
F. H. KING. 
FRIGHTENED BY SAN JOSE SCALE . 
In the Spring of 1905 I planted on a farm in Greene 
County, N. Y., 300 apple trees, 100 peach trees and 100 
pear trees. While visiting the farm in August, 1906, 
1 found two of the young Baldwin trees infested with 
San Jose scale, and i promptly dug them up and 
VARIATION IN THE SIZE OF FLAMES UNDER PERFECT AND 
IMPERFECT VENTILATION 
1. WISDOWS ALL OPES: WIHD 7.39 MILES PER HOUR; VEHTILAT'-d 
AT TOP. 
2. WMD0WS ALL OPES; AIR STILL; TEST IL AT OR AT TOP. 
3. WINDOWS ALL OPES; AIR STILL; VESTILATOR CLOSED. 
4. SCREEBS OB ALL WIBDOffS; WIBD 10.97 MILES PER HOUR; 
VEIT ELATOR CLOSED. 
5. SCREEDS OS ALL WISD0WS; 3.26 MILES PER HOUR; VEHTILAfO# 
CLOSED. 
EFFECTS OF VENTILATION. Fig. 322. 
burned them. Visiting the farm,again in July of this 
year I found six of the Baldwins infested, and I also 
dug up these trees and burned them. Now, the ques¬ 
tion is, what shall I do, and when shall I do it? While 
I was unable to find any other trees with San Jose 
scale on them, yet there is every reason to suppose 
that other trees are infested, and will develop by next 
year. Owing to the fact that there is no other scale 
in this immediate locality, and because the Wealthy 
and McIntosh Red trees, planted at the same time, show 
no infection, I am inclined to think the trees had 
scale on them when shipped from the nursery. How¬ 
ever of this I have no proof. In view of the menace 
to young trees from San Jose scale, I would like the 
opinion of some fruit growers in the Hudson River 
Valley (where this orchard is located) as to whether 
it is advisable to continue to plant orchards. I had 
started out with the idea of planting 1,200 or 1,500 
fruit trees, and in a few years of going on the farm 
to live, having spent my early life on a fruit farm near 
this one, but San Jose scale has frightened me. 
Washington, D. C. J. s. b. 
R. N.-Y.—What do growers in the Hudson Valley 
have to say about that? Are they too much frightened 
to keep on planting? We have had a bad dose 
of scale, but we shall keep on planting trees, 
confident that we can hold the insect in check. If 
we had those trees we would give them a thorough 
soaking with “Scalecide” in late October, or as soon 
as growth has stopped. If Scalecide is used, make the 
solution 16 parts of water to one of oil, and be sure 
that every twig and branch is coated. In early Spring 
give the trees another soaking with Scalecide or lime 
and sulphur. If a tree is badly infested, it nay be well 
to cut it out, but we had some very bad ones last Fall 
that were sprayed as an experiment, and have made 
remarkable growth this year. With two sprayings each 
year, thoroughly done, and the trees kept headed low, 
we are confident that the scale can be held in check 
and that tree planting will pay. 
KILLING OUT WITCH GRASS. 
I notice on page 605 an inquiry as to the best means 
of killing that most troublesome weed, witch grass, or 
couch grass, Triticum repens, and you advise repeated 
Summer plowing, harrowing and burning. As they 
involve an immense amount of expensive labor, I 
thought a little of my experience on the subject might 
prove acceptable. Witch grass will not grow when 
completely overshadowed. I once had a nursery field 
on which young plum trees had been grown for sev¬ 
eral years, and it had become a dense mass of Triti- 
cum roots, to eradicate which seemed an endless task, 
but instead of digging it up I cleared a spot about 18 
inches square, about every two feet, and making a 
hole put in two .good forkfuls of stable manure. On 
the spots thus prepared I planted a good strong to¬ 
bacco plant, carefully cultivated around it. In due 
course the plants grew very vigorously, and entirely 
covered the ground. When we cut the tobacco in the 
Fall there was not a living particle of the grass to be 
found, and the soil was clean for the next crop. In 
another instance a friend of mine had a four-acre field 
very foul with witch grass, and after plowing once 
and applying a liberal dressing of superphosphate he 
drilled it with silage corn on every other furrow, using 
the horse hoe between the rows. The corn grew and 
completely overshadowed the land, except-in a few 
places where the crows had taken the seed. Where 
this was the case the grass was as rampant as ever, 
but everywhere else where the corn grew it was en¬ 
tirely destroyed. geo. moore. 
Massachusetts. 
A CROP TO “START WITH.” 
What branch of fanning would enable a practically in¬ 
experienced person with some knowledge of agricultural 
chemistry to engage in, and in which he could be sure of 
a good living the first year, assuming there is no encum¬ 
brance on the farm, bearing in mind at the same time the 
cautioning you have given from time to time regarding the 
toil, sweat, etc., entailed in the occupation? Can as good 
farms be obtained in the State of New York at the same 
figures as are offered in the New England States? 
Queens County, N. Y. a. H. 
No, we cannot name a crop or line of farming 
that will guarantee an inexperienced hand a living 
the first year! It is easy to tell how to do it, but your 
knowledge of agricultural chemistry must be backed up 
by some years of hard experience. If you had a farm 
reasonably well covered with grass and fenced, you 
might use most of it for pasture the first year. Near 
the cities it is often possible to obtain horses to pas¬ 
ture. This gives some little income, and if the fences 
are good and water abundant not much work is re¬ 
quired. If you have capital enough you can buy some 
yearling cattle and keep them on pasture to sell in the 
Fall, or you could raise a crop of fodder corn and 
millet to feed them through the Winter. We would 
begin farming on such a place with a few acres each 
of corn and potatoes and a good garden. If you can 
find a few acres of suitable potato soil—that is, an 
open loam, well drained and reasonably clean, you will 
probably find potatoes the best paying crop for the first 
year. This crop is nearly always salable, can be han¬ 
dled with machinery and responds well to high fertil¬ 
izing and good culture. In spite of all that you can 
read about it, you will find potato growing no picnic. 
With weeds and bugs and blight and scab from the 
start, constant care is required to pull the crop through, 
but we would try it under the conditions named. 
There are no better farm bargains on earth than some 
of fhe “retired” farms in New York State. 
