i 9ns. 
LTLiLC RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FALL vs. SPRING SPRAYING 
For San Jose Scale. 
Fall spraying for San Jose scale is not generally- 
followed by western New York fruit growers with in¬ 
fested orchards, most growers being general farmers, 
and in the rush and help scarcity of fruit harvest 
time, other crops are neglected, and it usually takes 
all the time from fruit harvest until Winter closes in 
to prepare for Winter. It is a question if it is ad¬ 
visable to spray for San Jose scale in Fall unless 
'irees are badly infested. The apple orchards of New 
LIME-SULPHUR STEAM BOILING PLANT. Fiu. 29. 
York State are more or less infested with Oyster- 
shell scale, which has been getting worse the past few 
years, and I have several times the past year seen 
apple trees as badly injured by the Oyster-shell as by 
the San Jose, and in some orchards many branches 
killed by it. This scale insect in late Fall and Winter 
is in the egg stage, hatching in western New York 
from June 1st to 20th, according to season. The resi¬ 
due from a late Winter or early Spring spraying for 
San Jose scale with lime-sulphur sprays, applied be¬ 
fore buds burst, apparently kills large numbers of the 
young- Oyster-shell scales at time of hatching, so that 
this pest has been effectually controlled 
in orchards sprayed with lime-sulphur 
in Spring. All other forms of sprays 
successfully used in combating Oyster- 
shell scale and not injuring foliage 
have only proved effective when applied 
within 10 or 15 days after hatching. 
On peach trees it is very doubtful if 
Fall spraying with lime-sulphur will 
prove effective for leaf-curl, whereas 
the Spring applications have proved 
effective for both leaf-curl and scale, 
and without doubt the fungicidal effect 
of lime-sulphur lasts longer and at the 
time of year when most needed if ap¬ 
plied in Spring rather than in Fall. It is 
doubtful if any wash will prove as effec¬ 
tive when applied during freezing 
weather. Lime-sulphur washes when 
applied at a temperature so cold that the 
material freezes as an icy coating over 
the branches, is washed almost entirely 
off by the first rain, but when applied 
under such weather conditions as to 
allow the wash to dry on tree it takes 
a number of rainstorms to wash it off. 
Fig. 29 shows a typical lime-sulphur 
steam boiling plant. Many similar 
plants were erected in Niagara County 
last year, and when operated by a man 
familiar with the work they could cook 
material fast enough for two power 
sprayers. Fig. 31 shows a small one- 
horse spray rig used by Hiram Mc- 
Cullom and Frank Young, of Lockport, 
N. Y. These are handy. Mr. Young 
sprays 15 or 18 acres of fruit with this 
rig, and Mr. McCullom uses it to spray 
his red raspberries, strawberries, etc. 
Both are successfully fighting scale with 
lime-sulphur washes. Mr. Young has 
peaches, pears, plums and currants in¬ 
fested with scale and has it so under 
control that only an expert would dis¬ 
cover it upon his premises. Many have 
thought scale could not be controlled on currants, 
but from an infested currant plantation of about one 
acre Mr. Young picked eight tons, two hundred 
pounds, selling at 5J4 cents per pound the past year, 
and less scale can be found at this time than one 
year ago. The currant plantation at harvest time was 
the finest I have ever seen, and certainly was a 
profitable one. b. d. v. b. 
R. N.-Y.—T bis reference to the scale-infested cur¬ 
rant plantation will be interesting to many small-fruit 
growers, who have been discouraged by the scale out¬ 
look. 
THE GASOLINE ENGINE ON THE FARM. 
Part I. 
Every year the wail goes up a little louder from 
the farmers about the scarcity of help, and in the 
majority of cases, if help is obtained at all, it is very 
inefficient, and the price is far in excess and out of 
all proportion to what the farmer receives for his 
produce. It is possible for the gasoline engine to 
come the nearest to eliminating this evil, first, be¬ 
cause in price it is practically within the reach of all; 
second, it is simple to operate; third, it can be oper¬ 
ated on a small scale at a very little expense; and 
fourth, it is absolutely safe as to danger of firing the 
buildings. I am not going to discuss which is the 
best make of engine to buy, but merely say that the 
cheap, flimsy-made, low-priced engines are the best 
ones to let alone. The farmer has troubles enough 
without buying such. True it is that gasoline engines 
sometimes cut up all sorts of pranks, but in nine cases 
out of ten, it is not the fault of the engine. Your 
batteries may be run down, or some other defect in 
the sparking device, no gasoline in the tank, water in 
the gasoline, an excess of lubrication in the cylinder, 
or lubricating with a poor quality of oil; stoppage of 
water in the circulating tank, if a water-cooled en¬ 
gine, thus allowing the cylinder to become overheated, 
or a stoppage in the gasoline pipes frequently occurs. 
If your engine gets a proper mixture of fuel, as it is 
bound to in the reliable makes of engines, and a good 
lively spark at the end of the compression stroke, you 
are bound to get an explosion every second revolution 
of the fly-wheel, if it is a four-cycle engine. 
The gasoline engine is not a human machine, as 
many a smooth-tongued salesman would have you 
think. It needs care and a little attention, and unless 
a man has some sort of mechanical ingenuity and 
considerable patience, my advice to him is to let 
the gasoline engine alone. The steam engine man will 
tell you that his steam power will give you more 
energy because it gets its propelling force at both 
ends of the cylinder. He forgets that the heavy fly 
A MINNESOTA SILO AND BARN. Fig. 30. 
wheels of the gasoline engine will many times exceed 
any force he can get behind his steam piston. Again, 
he will tell you that the steam engine of the same 
rated capacity will develop more horse power than the 
gas engine of the same rated capacity, that is, that a 
10-horse power steam engine will develop more energy 
than a 10-horse power gasoline engine. To a certain 
extent we will admit for argument’s sake that this is 
true. There is much misconception about the mean¬ 
ing of “horse power” as applied to power-producing 
machines, and indeed the term is often abused and 
misapplied by engine buiTfleys and others who know 
better. This arbitrary and unexcusable practice < f 
power rating (applied to steam farm engines only) 
has led to much misunderstanding about what the 
term horse power, as applied to engines, really means. 
A great many people think that a horse power of an 
engine is calculated from what a horse will actually 
pull, but they are not so far out of the way. after all. 
The association of the steam engine and the use of 
horses for farm work no doubt have had something 
to do with the rating of farm engines. The mechani¬ 
cal horse power is the power required to lift 33,000 
pounds one foot in one minute. This is called “brake 
A ONE-IIORSE SPRAY RIG. Fig. 31. 
test” and practically all gasoline engines are rated by 
“brake test.” The steam engines are rated from the 
size of the cylinder without taking into account the 
increased speed and pressure over the old style slow- 
speed engines. Thus the 10-horse power farm steam 
engine of to-day will develop 35 to 40-horse power 
brake test, so it is plainly to be seen that if you have 
a piece of machinery that requires a 16-horse steam 
power (their arbitrary way of testing), you will need 
to have a 35 to 40-horse power brake test gasoline 
engine to do the same work. In my next, I will en¬ 
deavor to set forth the possibilities of the gasoline 
engine on the farm, its comparative 
cost of oneration with other powers, 
its durability and convenience. 
F. D. SQUIERS. 
FLORIDA SPONGE DIVERS. 
This picture, shown in Fig. 28, was 
furnished by Webster E. Little, of Tar¬ 
pon Springs, Fla., a beautiful city on 
the Gulf coast, which besides being cele¬ 
brated as a health and pleasure resort, is 
known as the seat of the largest sponge 
industry in America. It shows a Greek 
sponging vessel and crew with a diver 
dressed ready for work on the bottom 
of the Gulf. Some 2,000 Greeks, com¬ 
ing direct from the Mediterranean, are 
now permanently located at Tarpon 
Springs, attracted by the profits of the 
business. There is a closed season 
which is strictly enforced. Tarpon 
Springs has for some years been a 
favorite resort on account of its fine 
climate and the superior boating facil- 
ties afforded by several connected salt 
water bayous, the Anclote River and 
Lake Butler. What is greatly needed is 
direct railroad communication with 
Tampa, distant only 30 miles, which it is 
hoped the Seaboard Air Line will event¬ 
ually furnish. This will make the re¬ 
sort accessible and increase its business 
generally. Several months since The R. 
N.-Y. published an excellent view of the 
interior of a sponge packing house and 
gave many interesting details of the 
business. j. y. peek. 
A MINNESOTA SILO. 
The silo shown in Fig. 30 was erected 
by my brother and myself in the Fall 
of 1900. It is 16 feet in di¬ 
ameter and 32 feet in height. The 
foundation is of concrete, three feet 
being underground and about six 
inches above ground. The staves are made of No. 2 
white pine and are tongued and grooved. Completed 
the silo cost as follows: Staves, hoops, rods, doors 
and door-frame, all ready to be set up, $210; founda¬ 
tion and concrete floor, $29; paint, $8 ; skilled labor, 
$6, and casing for side of chute, $14. We filled the silo 
with a 16 horse-power gas engine and large-sized 
cutter. The crew consisted of one man to cut the corn 
with a binder, one man in the field to help load the 
wagons, three teams .for hauling, two men at machine 
and one man in the silo. Corn silage makes the most 
satisfactory, most economical, as well as the handiest 
feed, besides being the cheapest roughage that can He 
produced. Robert freeman. 
