462 
<THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 23, 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention. Be¬ 
fore asking a question, please see whether it is not 
answered in our advertising columns. Ask only 
a few questions at one time. Put questions on a 
separate piece of paper.) 
KEEP THEM AT HOME! 
The following members of the New York 
Senate voted against Governor Hughes in 
bis efforts to remove the Superintendent 
of Insurance. Some of them have done so 
twice—others are backsliders. All have 
proved unworthy in a fair test. All are in 
districts where the votes of farmers can 
defeat them. It should be the duty of 
every farmer to blacklist them and keep 
them away from Albany. Vote them out! 
•TOTIIAM P. ALLDS.Norwich. N. Y. 
A EBERT T. FANCHER.. Salamanca. N. Y. 
S. PERCY HOOKER.LeRoy, N. Y. 
.I01IN RAINES .Canandaigua, N. Y. 
SANFORD W. SMITH.Chatham, N. Y. 
WILLIAM .T. TELLY.Corning, N. Y. 
HORACE WHITE .Syracuse, N. Y. 
BENE M. WILCOX.Auburn, N. Y. 
JOSEPH ACKROYD .IJtica. N. Y. 
FRANK M BOYCE... East Sehodack, N. Y. 
FRANCIS IT. GATES. ..Cliittenango, N. Y. 
WM. W. WEMPLE.Schenectady, N. Y. 
WM. T. O’NEIL.St. Regis Falls, N. Y. 
OWEN CASSIDY .Watkins, N. Y. 
DISSOLVING BLUE VITRIOL 
I notice an article from Mr. Wells 
on how to dissolve blue vitriol for 
spraying. I think there is a much bet¬ 
ter way, which many fruit growers as 
well as myself have practiced for a 
number of years, which eliminates one 
of the disagreeable tasks connected with 
spraying. When getting one or more 
pounds of vitriol we grind it by running 
it through a small steel ring grinder, 
either by hand or other power. Then 
weigh out the number of pounds you 
wish to put in a tank; put same in a 
coarse sack, place it in small hopper on 
top of tank, which is provided with a 
fine screen for screening everything 
which goes into tank. .The water re¬ 
quired to fill the tank will in passing 
over or through the vitriol dissolve it 
before the tank is full. Vitriol grinds 
easily; many use second-hand coffee 
mills such as are used in stores. The 
hired help at odd spells or in bad 
weather grind the vitriol and weigh it 
out in small paper sacks sufficient for 
each tank; then all labor of dissolving 
vitriol is over and none wasted. 
New York. geo. w. potter. 
Stones for Tree Mulch. 
J. P., Pennsylvania .—On page 208 I men¬ 
tioned the case of an old, unused road cov¬ 
ered with broken stone and then left. The 
growth of trees and shrubs on this old 
road was much greater than on the sur¬ 
rounding open land. I have been thinking 
about that old roadbed, and it occurs to me 
that some of the extra growth might be due 
to the very small pieces of broken stone. 
I believe we are taught that soil is pro¬ 
duced by this wearing away of the rock. 
These stones were broken by hammers, and 
of course many very line pieces were pro¬ 
duced. About 15 years since a man in this 
county pnt in a large plant nearly 40x120 
feet long for grinding up and mixing rock 
(native). He claimed that some rocks were 
male and some female and by their ad¬ 
mixture he produced a fine lertilizer. And 
by putting on it a high sounding name he 
sold a good bit of it to the credulous. We 
bought a little. It gave some good results, 
but was of little value. 
Ans. —From observations of our stone 
walls we think the heavy growth of tree 
and shrub is due to the mulching effect 
of the stone upon the land. There have 
been many efforts to prove the value of 
crushed rock as a fertilizer. Some of 
the granites contain quite a high per 
cent of potash. Propositions have been 
made to crush the granite to a fine pow¬ 
der and then treat it with electricity so 
as to make the potash available. A 
number of experiments have been made 
in this country and in Europe, but thus 
far available potash in this form costs 
more than in the potash salts. 
Self-Boiled Lime Sulphur Mixture. 
On page 424 you say this mixture Is 
used for poach diseases in Summer. IIow 
is tlie mixture made? 
Ans.—A Government bulletin gives 
the following directions: 
The mixture that gave the most promising 
results was composed of 10 pounds of sul¬ 
phur (flowers or flour) and 15 pounds of 
fresh stone lime to 50 gallons of water, and 
may be prepared as follows: Place the 
lime in a 50-gallon barrel and pour a two 
or three-gallon bucket of boiling water over 
it. Immediately add the sulphur and an¬ 
other bucket of hot water. The heat from 
the slaking lime will boil the mixture vio¬ 
lently for several minutes. Some stirring 
is necessary to prevent burning, and more 
water should be added if the mass gets 
too thick to stir, but the cooking is more 
effectual when the minimum quantity of 
water is used, usually from six to eight 
gallons being required. A piece of old car¬ 
pet or gunnysack thrown over the top of 
the barrel helps to keep in the heat. The 
boiling will continue from 20 to 30 minutes, 
depending upon the quality of the lime. 
When the boiling ceases, dilute with cold 
water to make 50 gallons, stir thoroughly 
and strain through a sieve of about 20 
meshes to the inch in order to take out 
coarse particles of lime, but all the sul¬ 
phur should be carefully worked through. 
In a similar manner, enough for 150 gal¬ 
lons may be prepared in a barrel by using 
30 pounds of sulphur and 45 pounds of 
quicklime, with about 20 gallons of boiling 
water. When the boiling ceases, the barrel 
should be filled with cold water and diluted 
with 100 gallons more when transferred 
to the spray tank. 
The boiling should not go on too long, 
for then the mixture might burn the 
foliage. The experts are not advising 
this self-boiled mixture for use against 
the scale. The steam-boiled or cooked 
mixture is stronger, and for that reason 
does not suit as a fungicide. The self- 
boiled mess is not so good for killing 
scale, but will destroy some fungus dis¬ 
eases without injuring the foliage. 
While some of the sulphur is dissolved 
a large part of it is mixed mechanically 
with the lime water. Thus the mixture 
must be kept well agitated. Paris-green 
can be used with this mixture if desired. 
It is hopefully claimed that this wash 
will prove superior to Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture in treating several diseases. Apple 
scab and Apple bitter rot have been 
prevented by it without injury to the 
foliage as was the case when Bordeaux 
was used. Brown rot, scab and similar 
peach diseases have been held in check 
by this wash after Bordeaux had failed 
or injured the foliage. 
Elm Leaf Beetles. 
J. IT. I)., Ilolliston, Mass .—I enclose sam¬ 
ples of some bugs wc have found very plenti¬ 
ful in various places in the house this Win¬ 
ter ; behind picture frames, over window 
frames, and other similar hiding places. 
Can you tell me what they are? 
Ans. —The insects proved to be Elm 
leaf-beetles, which have been devastat¬ 
ing elm trees in portions of New York 
and the New England States for sev¬ 
eral years. The beetles go into hiberna¬ 
tion in the Fall in sheltered places, and 
many of them succeed in getting into 
the attics of houses. A friend recently 
swept up about three quarts of them in 
an attic here at Ithaca. As soon as the 
leaves begin to expand on the elm trees 
the beetles will try to get out of the 
house to feed upon the leaves, and later 
lay their eggs, from which will develop 
the grubs that skeletonize the leaves in 
July and later. It is one of the most 
serious insect pests of shade trees we 
have. One should destroy all of the 
beetles that can be found in the house 
during the Winter or early Spring. 
Much can be done to check their rav¬ 
ages by spraying the trees soon after the 
beetles begin work, and again in July 
when the grubs are working, with arse¬ 
nate of lead at the rate of 8 or 10 
pounds in 100 gallons of water. It is a 
difficult job to spray large elms, but it 
is being done in many places with much 
success. Late in Summer, when the 
grubs get full grown, they crawl or 
drop from the trees, and many of them 
gather around the base on the surface 
of the ground or in the crevices of the 
bark, where they transform through 
yellow pupse to the adult beetles. One 
can often collect pints of these trans¬ 
forming grubs and pupae around the 
bases of the trees. Much could be done 
to lessen the numbers of the insect if 
these transforming stages were either 
crushed or killed with boiling water 
every few days. M. v. slingerland. 
Anybody Can Kodak 
The No. 2 A 
BROWNIE 
Pictures, 2 J4x 4 Price, $3.00 
Built on the Kodak plan—uses 
Kodak film cartridges and may 
be loaded and unloaded in broad 
daylight. No dark-room for any 
part of the work. A perfectly 
practical little camera for snap¬ 
shots or time exposures. 
THE 1908 KODAK CATALOGUE 
fully describes and illustrates our six 
styles of Brownies and fifteen styles of 
Kodaks , ranging in price from $1.00 to 
over S100.00, and fully explains the day- 
1 i ght developmentmethods which have 
done away with the dark-room. Free at 
any Kodak dealers or by mail. 
EASTMAN KODAK CO. 
387 State Street, 
Rochester, N. Y., The Kodak City. 
STONE TOMATO PLANTS JiT,*:? 1 .*? 
ready after May 20th. WinningstaJt and Market 
Gardener’s No. 2 Cabbage Plants now ready at $1 
per 1,000. Caleb Boggs & Son, Cheswold, Del. 
THE ENORMOUS YIKI.D of 50.000 quarts of 
1 Strawberries now growing by iny system on 
one aere. Send for CHART. 
KEVITT’S PLANT FARM, Athenia, N. J. 
SWEET POTATO PLANTS. 
ttnn flflfl Jersey Yellow, Jersey Red and Big 
UUUjUUU Stein; $1.50 per M. Plants ready 
May 20th. JOHN CASAZZA, Vineland, N. J. 
EAR QAI C—Millions Sweet Potato,Cabbage 
rUll OHLC and Tomato Plants. Price list 
free. Good plants. Michael N.Borgo.Vineland,N.J. 
CAR CA I E— Crimson Clover Seed, $3.50 to $4.50 
lUn OHLC bushel; Cow Peas, $2.50 to $3.00. 
JOSEPH E. HOLLAND, Milford. Delaware. 
GRAFTING WOOD 
from old French Vine¬ 
yard; White or Black. 
Write for prices. Albert Deniau, Vineyardist, 
5 Rue de 1’lsle, Amboise, France. 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS. 
Geo. R. Schaubeu, Box R. Ballston Lake, N. Y. 
PLANTS— 2,000,000 All 
Head Early, Succession, 
Early Jersey Wakefield. 
Early Summer plants ready. Strong, stocky plants. 
They have an average of 4 square inches of space 
each over the whole field. 10,000 $7, 5,000 $4, 1,000 $1. 
F. W. ROCHE1LLE, Chester, New Jersey. 
A MARVELOUS RECORD! 
DODD & STRUTHERS 
100,000 Homes in Iowa Honor Dodd & Struthers. 
2,000 Insurance Companies in the United States endorse the Dodd & 
Struthers Copper Lightning Rods and recommend their use. 
The report of the Iowa Co-Operative Mutual Insurance Associations for 
1907 shows the losses on buildings not rodded to be $50,404.71 and on 
buildings rodded $15.00. 
When you learn that the Dodd & Struthers System of Lightning Rods 
protect a majority of the risks of these 53 Insurance Companies, what is your 
conclusion? Can you afford to patronize any other system? 
And when you see the terrible loss on buildings without rods and the 
comparative safety of buildings with rods, can you afford to take the risk? 
Our free booklet will tell you how our rods are made and why they protect 
you. Ask us for one of these booklets and we will send it FREE. 
Des Moines, Iowa 
