1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
626 
BEAN DISEASES. 
Reader, Michigan .—What is best to do in 
regard to blight of beans? The Red Kidney 
beans were struck- by blight last year in 
time to cut the crop about one-half. It is 
the first time here. What treatment should 
we give the seed before planting this year? 
Ans.—T rue bean blight is a bacterial 
disease, attacking leaves, pods and seed 
of practically all varieties, including 
Limas. Figs. 217 and 218, from Cornell 
bulletin 239, show leaf and pods with 
this disease. Preventives are selection 
of clean seed, removing diseased plants 
and rotation of crops. Thorough spray¬ 
ing with Bordeaux, five pounds copper 
sulphate, and four of lime to 50 gallons 
of water has been found useful. Three 
applications are made, two at 10-day 
intervals before blossoming, and an¬ 
other while the pods are forming. An- 
BLIOrHTED BEAN LEAF. Fig. 217. 
other serious bean disease is anthrac- 
nose. In this, rusty brown or black 
spots occur on the stems, pods or leaves. 
The leaves blacken and die and the 
seeds are shrunken and spotted. The 
most successful treatment is Bordeaux 
in the strength mentioned above. Ex¬ 
periments have been made in treatment 
of the seed with formalin and corrosive 
sublimate, but the results have not been 
encouraging. 
BEES AND POISON SPRAYS. 
A local paper has made the assertion 
that the practice of spraying fruit trees is 
direct cause of the death of many honey¬ 
bees, and that the bees arc now being re¬ 
duced to the extent of affecting the produc¬ 
tion of honey. Is this a fact? J. d. 
Columbus, Ohio. 
It is an Indisputable fact that the spray¬ 
ing of fruit trees while in bloom has done 
the bee-keeping business severe injury. 
Many large yards have been entirely ruined 
by the practice, and many others seriously 
injured. This has resulted in laws more or 
less effective, against spraying trees during 
bloom, and I wish to say right here that 
the man who sprays two or three days be¬ 
fore the blossoms are all off the trees, does 
fully as much harm to the hees as if he 
had sprayed at the beginning of bloom. I 
think all authorities agree that some pol¬ 
len gathering insect is necessary to the 
proper pollenization of the blossom, and 
the honey-bee is the most active, and in 
most cases the most numerous pollen-gath¬ 
erer, and can always be depended on to do 
its duty. Bees being very short-lived in¬ 
sects, it follows that in Spring it is neces¬ 
sary for them to rear great quantities of 
young bees to be ready for the honey How 
when it comes on. The food of the larva is 
produced by the feeding, or nurse, bees, 
much as milk is produced by cows and other 
animals, by special glands for that purpose. 
To produce this larval food the nurse bees 
eat pollen, honey, and water, and under 
no other circumstances will a bee ever use 
pollen. Pollen in the comb is often called 
bee bread. It has been estimated that a 
strong colony of bees will use as much as a 
bushel and a half of pollen in one year. 
It will readily be seen that blossoms sprayed 
with poison will have poisonous pollen, and 
in case of open blossoms like apple and 
other fruit, from the nectar of which honey 
is made will also contain some poison. Now 
this pollen may be brought into the hives 
and used up nearly as fast as gathered, in 
which case if poisoned it will result in kill¬ 
ing the larva in the cells, or it may be 
stored up for future use, but the result 
when it is used will be the same. On the 
other hand the honey is only eaten by the 
mature bees, and as in case of the pollen it 
may be immediately consumed, or stored, in 
either case it means dead bees when eaten. 
Thus it is easily to be seen that a colony 
may easily be so reduced in numbers by 
getting to poison sprayed trees, as to be 
worthless for honey production, as it is only 
the very strong colonies that can get any 
surplus honey for their owner, and they 
must also be strong at the right time; that 
is when the honey flow is here, and if they 
get a setback during fruit bloom instead 
of a push ahead, they will be too late 
even if they happen to survive. The local 
paper quoted is most assuredly right, an'd it 
would be a good thing for bee-keepers if 
every paper which circulates in the fruit 
sections would go and do likewise. There 
is also another phase to this matter. Any 
arsenical spray strong enough to kill insect 
life will also kill the pollen that it touches, 
so as to make it useless for fertilization 
purposes. This fact alone should deter any¬ 
one from spraying until the blossom has en- 
BLIGHT PODS. Fig. 218. 
tiroly fallen. Bees also gather pollen from 
many other sources than fruit blossoms. 
Nearly all nectar producers are also pollen 
producers to a greater or less extent, while 
some heavy producers of pollen produce no 
nectar at all. Among the latter are the 
elm, bee ;h, hard maple, and some of the 
willows. _ J. A. CUANE. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
A Cement Gun. 
The concrete gun is the latest develop¬ 
ment in concrete making. The Cement Age 
tells of a machine which is now in opera¬ 
tion in New Jersey by means of which a 
soft concrete is blown out of a chamber on 
much the same principle that spray material 
is blown upon a tree. Dry cement mixed in 
the proportion of one part to three parts 
of dry screened sand is put into a tube and 
air pressure applied by means of an ingeni¬ 
ous device. This dry mixture is fed out at 
the bottom of this container and under 
strong air pressure the mixture is blown 
through a flexible pipe and put through a 
nozzle. As it leaves the nopzle it is mixed 
with water which is supplied by a small 
tube which connects witli this cement nozzle 
delivering the water in the form of a fine 
spray as the cement is blown out. Thus 
we have the “cement gun.” The feed of 
the cement and sand can be regulated so 
that any quantity desired can be blown 
out, and the quantity of water can also be 
regulated. In using this gun a 15 horse¬ 
power gasoline engine compresses the air 
and drives it through the tube. The mix¬ 
ture of cement and sand is put in at the 
top of the gun by an ingenious arrange¬ 
ment and power is then started. The 
workman take the nozzle of the pipe at 
some distance away from the “gun” and 
the soft cement thoroughly mixed with 
water is blown with great power wherever 
it is needed. The Cement Age describes a 
job at. Orange, N. J., where this cement 
gun is used for coating an old frame build¬ 
ing with reinforced concrete. On the wall 
of the building a triangular mesh or ordi¬ 
nary wire Is strapped into place. This was 
then sprayed with about one inch of this 
"gun stuff.” The cement was blown power¬ 
fully against the building and into the wire 
so that it remained in place without trou¬ 
ble. For fireproofing an old timber floor, 
four inches of cinders was first spread, the 
gun was then used to drive the filler upon 
these cinders. Then a layer of -’teel rein¬ 
forcement was spread and another inch of 
the “gun stuff” blown in. This, we think, 
is about the most remarkable development 
of cement application that has yet been 
heard of. 
Collecting Fish in Nova Scotia. —The 
principle of collecting food products to be 
brought to a central point for manufacture 
or distribution is becoming very extended. 
Throughout the West, in the dairy business, 
the plan of using a separator on the farm 
and collecting the cream is becoming well- 
nigh universal, and the cream gatherers are 
found everywhere. In many other lines of 
business the same plan has worked out. 
The latest scheme of this kind is reported 
from Nova Scotia. The large fishermen 
have adopted the plan of cold storage for 
keeping their fish. Instead of a large num¬ 
ber of fish boats coming direct to the stor¬ 
age, several steamers have been put in 
commission to cruise up and down the 
coast. They pick up the fish either from 
the fish boats or from stations on land, and 
bring it to the cold storage houses, where 
it is held until sold or cured. The captain 
of the steamer buys the fish wherever he 
can find it. This saves time for the fisher¬ 
men, as they are not obliged to sail to the 
storage town themselves, and also enables 
the company to obtain steady supplies of 
fish. 
Experience With Poison Ivy. —For more 
than 50 years the writer has been familiar 
with .poison ivy, and more than that many 
times poisoned thereby. I have struggled 
with it on four farms; have used scores of 
white and colored men in clearing old fence 
lines and building new ones. I am not a 
doctor, but have prescribed from the coun¬ 
sel of many. Men are variously susceptible 
to the poison, and I have around me those 
that can handle it with absolute immunity 
and others that are poisoned by proximity 
only. These last are warned of their dan¬ 
ger by a peculiar stinging in the eye, fa¬ 
miliar to those who use Prussian blue in 
paints. Any of the metallic salts in solu¬ 
tion will cure, but what will cure one man 
is no good for another. When I go to fence 
building I keep in stock common salt, of 
course ; then the salts of iron, copper, lead 
and zinc. A solution of Sanguinaria Cana¬ 
densis (bloodroot) is good; so is a covering 
of potash soap. Your correspondent is right 
in saying that all these should be applied 
hot, and real hot water is as good as any¬ 
thing if freely used before eruption and 
when the first itching begins. 
Kentucky. h. f. iiillenmeyee. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
DAILY 
OUTPUT 
18,000 
BBLS 
YEARLY 
OUTPUT 
OVER 
6,500.000 
ALPHA 
PORTLAND CEMENT 
is absolutely the best that can be made 
for all farm work. Largely used by 
U. S. Government and in State, Munici¬ 
pal and Railroad work—a reputation of 
20 years behind it. Ask your dealer for 
ALPHA 
Send for Booklet and learn why it is the best. 
ALPHA PORTLAND CEMENT CO., 
ADDRESS 
2 Center Square, EASTON, PA. 
JACOBSON 
SELF-CONTAINED ENGINE WITH AUTOMATIC DRAINING 
WATER TANK. 
No Freezing; No Ovcrhcutlng 
No I.nrico YVutcr Tank 
The Agency is available in somo sections and 
valuable in all. 
JACOBSON MACHINE MFG. CO. 
Ill Irvine Street Warren,Pa. 
43 years’ successfui operation. 
Used in nearly all parts of the 
world. We make a complete line 
of Drilling Machines and tools 
for every condition of earth 
and rock drilling and min¬ 
eral prospecting. Complete 
catalogue No. 120 showing over 
40 stylus of machines free. 
THE AMERICAN WELL WORKS 
General Office and Works: 
Aurora, Ill. 
Chicago Office: First National Bank Bn tiding. 
Bump Pure \\ liter with Impure-Use 
or stream water to pump pure water 
Raises 
water 30 ft. 
tor each foot of 
tall—no trouble or 
pumping expense. Satis¬ 
faction guaranteed. Booklet, 
plans, estimate, FREE. 
Rife Engine Co., 2429Trinity Bldg., N.Y. 
CONTROLS 
LIGHTNI 
This House Was Struck by 
Loss $3000! Furniture destroyed! 
Keepsakes and treasures gone ! Old 
associations gone forever! Plans 
disarranged! Hopes defeated! 
Nothing left but memory ! 
$25 to $50 invested in the 
Dodd System of Lightning 
Protection would have saved 
it alL Is it not worth while? 
Weigh the small amoupt of money required in the balances with the chances you are taking and see whether you can afford 
to continue on unprotected. Don’t doubt it, there is safety in the 
DODD SYSTEM of Lightning Protection 
The thousands of Insurance Companies which have endorsed Prof. Dodd and his great work are not mistaken. Their country 
fire losses are over six million dollars a year. Three-fourths of the fires are caused by lightning. But not a single dollar’s 
loss from lightning have they ever had on any of the thousands of insured buildings protected by the Dodd System. 
Get Protection! Get It Now! 
Standard Copper Cable Rods. Scientific Installation. Personal Binding Guar¬ 
antee — Refund of Money, or Make Good Damage if Damage Occurs. 
All included in the Dodd System of Protection. 
DODD & STRUTHERS, 437 6th Ave., Des Moines, Iowa 
Benjamin Franklin 
Originator of Lightning Control 
West Dodd , who Perfected 
Lightning Control 
It is folly to wait. Lightning will not always spare you. The small investment is made once for all. The Dodd System 
lasts your lifetime. While you are at it, get the protection that you know really protects. Remember, the 2000 Insurance 
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Read them, in our great Free Lightning Book. Endorsement of the Dodd System is universal. 
Write for fine, big Lightning Book. Large pages, fine illustrations, many pictures of vivid 
lightning flashes. Kxplains the laws of lightning, lightning control, the Dodd System. 
Gives Guarantee, Insurance Company indorsements, etc. FRKR. Address 
