1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
125 
“ROASTING” OUT THE SCALE. 
A Texas reader thinks that there might be 
a furnace mounted on wheels, the heat from 
which should be reflected in straight lines 
upon the trees. He proposes to direct these 
heat rays against the tree long enough to kill 
the scale without injuring the tree, passing 
up one side of a row of trees and down the 
other. A year or two ago some one devised 
4v gas torch for doing this work. Have you 
ever tried this, and what do you think of (he 
work? Do you believe that any such scheme 
as this suggested by our Texas friend would 
be of any practical benefit? 
A sort of knapsack plumber’s torch 
was devised a few years ago for 
scorching insects to death, and it was 
thoroughly tested by the Illinois Experi¬ 
ment Station. Most extravagant kinds 
of claims were made for this hug-killer 
by the manufacturers, many of them 
absurd on their face. In spite of these 
claims the tests made by experiment 
stations and others very soon demon¬ 
strated the impracticability of such a 
method of killing insects. It is true that 
one may kill large numbers of scales on 
a badly infested tree, but one can never 
tell where to draw the line, so as to just 
kill the scales and not injure the bark. 
I do not think it is possible to direct 
heat rays against a tree long enough to 
kill the scale without killing the tree, 
especially on the smaller branches. 
Where the scales are two or three lay¬ 
ers deep on the trunk something might 
be done with such an instrument. I 
think the scheme of the Texas man for 
a furnace mounted on wheels is merely 
an ideal dream, and could never be made 
practicable. M. v. Slingerland. 
New York. 
As to this torch business, that was 
tried out very thoroughly in Illinois 
under the direction of Prof. Forbes. 
There is no doubt that a quick heat on 
a moderately thick-barked tree will kill 
the scale. The same heat on a thin- 
barked tree will kill it. It is utterly im¬ 
possible to reach the scales anywhere 
except on the trunks and larger 
branches by this method. Just imagine 
yourself with a plumber’s torch under¬ 
taking to clear a 40-year-old apple tree! 
New Jersey. John b. smith. 
I have never employed the gas torch 
method of destroying the San Jose 
scale. The great difficulty lies in the 
fact that there is not much latitude in 
the application, because the amount of 
heat necessary to destroy the scale must 
be almost enough to injure the plant 
tissues, and I should expect that many 
twigs would be injured by the heat, es¬ 
pecially if the outfit was placed in the 
hands of a careless or inexperienced 
man. On the other hand, there would 
doubtless be many places on the tree 
where the heat would not be sufficient 
to destroy the scale, especially in the 
axils of branches or in depressions 
along the trunk. W. e. britton. 
Connecticut. 
The brief exposure of the bark neces¬ 
sary to avoid injuring the tree would 
not, I believe, be sufficient to destroy 
all the scale insects hidden away in 
crevices and concealed under the rather 
tender buds of the branches. The scale 
is invading Kentucky from Ohio and 
Indiana at present, and is becoming es¬ 
pecially common near Cincinnati, on the 
Kentucky side of the river. Every 
year I get information showing the ap¬ 
pearance of the pest at points along the 
Ohio River, but it has not yet become 
prevalent in the interior of the State. 
This condition, I think, is due to the 
fact that our inspection law was enacted 
before it had become widely scattered. 
I am pleased to be able to say that a 
number of the samples of infested bark 
sent to me from the State this year have 
borne evidence of the presence of a 
small parasitic fly that has destroyed 
large numbers of the scale. In some 
other instances I found that the same 
fungus that appeared in Florida was at 
work on the scale, and 1 hope these two 
parasites will in time reduce the scale in 
number so it will do no serious injury. 
Our people are taking up spraying with 
soap and lime-sulphur-salt wash with 
energy, and some of the infested or¬ 
chards along the Ohio have been re¬ 
stored to a profitable condition by this 
treatment. * h. carman. 
Kentucky._ 
Corn and Potatoes Together. 
E. S. It., Elmira. A'. V.—M.v firm is a 
chicken, farm properly of about 10 acres. I 
grow potatoes and early sweet corn for 
main crop, as the land is too good and 
valuable to raise the chicken feed which I 
need to buy. I thought if the scheme of 
growing corn and potatoes together as sug¬ 
gested by the Hope Farm man would 
work I could raise a nice lot of corn for 
my chickens as well as some fodder for our 
prize dairy cow. Of course we have quan¬ 
tities of hen manure: it is all used and I do 
not need as much fertilizer as some would. 
A ns. —You must expect to find this 
plan of growing corn and potatoes to¬ 
gether very much of a gamble. You are 
rather far north to try it, as you can 
hardly expect to plant the potatoes early 
enough. The plan is safer on warm, 
light soils farther south. We failed to 
grow profitable corn last year, because 
July and August were both dry. The 
potatoes were not as good as they would 
have been if the corn had not been 
planted. With a wet season there would 
have been a fair crop of corn. You 
must also understand that you must use 
fertilizer enough for both crops and 
give double culture. When the corn is 
planted among the potatoes it will be 
necessary to hand-hoe two or three 
times. It is easy to read about such a 
plan, but you will find that it requires 
great skill and hard work. We would 
try it in a small way only the first year. 
A simple way to use hen manure is to 
keep it dry through the Winter and in 
Spring crush it fine. Make a mixture of 
two parts by weight of fine ground bone, 
and one part sulphate of potash. After 
plowing scatter this mixture at the rate 
of GOO pounds per acre, and harrow it 
in. Then use the fine hen manure scat¬ 
tered along the row in hill or drill. 
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