1913. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
976 
PEDDLING IN THE BUSY SEASON. 
The picture at Fig. 372 shows another 
“human document” of farm life. A truck 
farm is a busy place at this season. A 
load of onions is to be sent away and 
all hands are busy. This work cannot 
be put off until some other day. While 
they are all at work a peddler walking 
down the road spies the group and comes 
to display his wares. lie has the goods 
on exhibition, but no one has time to 
notice him. “This is my busy day!” 
There is no reason why this job is not as 
important to the workers as that in any 
office where this sign is hung up. There 
The first yield of those cucumber vines 
was great until the bug got hold of it 
and the melons were promising too, but 
now it is all over with both. I am 
sending you a few bugs in a little box 
to see whether what I call a ladybug 
is really one and I also put in two black 
bugs (tiny) with a red stripe crosswise 
which my gardener says is a young lady- 
bug but which I believe to be quite 
another insect—perhaps the one that 
does the damage. m. w. 
The insects sent were the Twice- 
stabbed ladybug, a very useful insect, 
which is not attacking the cucumbers, 
but is evidently attracted by other in¬ 
sects upon which it feeds. The lady 
bugs were very lively when received, and 
had apparently eaten the “tiny black 
NO TIME TO PATRONIZE THE PEDDLER. Fig. 372. 
will be no sale while the onions are be¬ 
ing bunched and this peddler might as 
well move on. 
When to Cut Brush. 
Every year at this time people come 
asking about the best time for cutting 
brush, briars, vines, and young trees. In 
most communities there is a wise man 
who gives the advice to cut this crop in 
the full of the moon, during August. 
Some who do this succeed in killing out 
the brush, and they attribute the result 
to the moon. How much is the moon 
responsible for this success, and why is 
this season the best time for doing the 
work? The moon has nothing to do 
with it, except to make a date for per¬ 
forming the operation. These vines and 
hushes make a vigorous growth through 
the Summer. In August in our latitude 
such growth is completed. It has been 
made very largely at the expense of the 
roots, which stored up plant food, and 
gave it out freely through the Summer. 
Left to itself the vines and the shrubs 
would now stop growing, and through 
the remaining days of Winter story up 
a renewed supply of nourishment for 
another season. In this respect they 
operate much like the asparagus plant. 
All gardeners understand that during the 
Summer the asparagus root is storing 
up plant food for the next Spring’s 
growth. When Spring comes the root 
sends up its shoots, and after cutting, 
the root proceeds through the Summer to 
replenish itself. In much the same way 
the vines and shrubs in an old field 
are now ready to stop growing and got 
busy for another season. If now we cut 
off the toils of these plants, nature forces 
the root to send up a new growth to 
take the place of the old. The root is 
not prepared to do this, still it does re¬ 
spond with rather a feeble growth. The 
result is that the root when Winter 
comes has had no opportunity of going 
through its natural process of recovery, 
and the chances are that it will die 
through the Winter, or make a very 
treble growth in Spring, which may 
easily be killed out. That is the theory 
upon which the plan of cutting vines 
and brush in August is based. As stated, 
the moon has nothing to do with it, 
except that the change of the moon gen¬ 
erally comes at a time when the growth 
above ground of these plants has stopped, 
and that indicates the best time to get 
•alter them. The fact is that the best 
tune to wear out a vine, a tree, a horse 
or a man is to get after it at the time 
"I exhaustion, and force it to make extra 
and unnatural exertion when it should be 
at rest. 
Squash Bug on Cucumbers. 
In the beginning of the Summer my 
melon. and cucumber vines were doing 
splendidly; for past few weeks they are 
!" miserable condition, owing to some 
insects, which cover the underside with 
i heir eggs. We see so many ladybugs, 
at least what we used to call ladybugs 
w hen 1 was a child, on the* vines, and 
'ay gardener insists that it is this insect 
and no other that does the harm, lays 
' s D!® 8 011 (he leaves and causes them 
o die or wilt. Now we were always 
aught that ladybugs ate other insects 
and were told never to kill them. Can 
you tell me who is right, and do you 
now of any remedy for those vines? 
bugs” referred to in transit. Evidently 
from the reference to the egg masses, 
the insect attacking the cucumbers is the 
common squash bug, a rather flat, rusty 
brown iusect with a strong sucking beak 
and rather small head. It sucks the 
juices of the plant, causing the leaves 
to turn brown, curl up and die. The 
red or orange egg masses are deposited 
on the underside of the leaves, and the 
young, which are grayish or black, are 
often found in a curled-up leaf. Ten 
per cent, kerosene emulsion will kill the 
young, but the adults are not affected 
by contact poisons, except when strong 
enough to hurt the plant. A good many 
may be trapped under bits of wood laid 
around the hills, especially late in the 
day, when they should be destroyed; tin* 
egg masses should be pinched out and 
burned. Clear up the ground thoroughly 
in the Fall, burning all trash, as adults 
hibernate in sheltered places. They are 
disgusting creatures, and seem extremely 
plentiful the present season. 
A Good Smokehouse. 
I saw sometime ago that you wanted 
plans for a smokehouse. Mine is a frame, 
9(4 feet square and 9(4 feet high to top 
of plate. The meat is hung on a round 
pole about 10 inches in diameter. It 
has two mortices at the top for two 2x6 
scantling to cross; the ends are connected 
with 2x4 scantling. By driving 20-penny 
spikes far enough apart so the pieces 
don’t touch it will hold all the meat 
needed for a family. A stone is placed 
in the middle of the floor and has a hole 
drilled in the top to hold an iron pin 
for the post to revolve on. A plank is 
laid across the top of the frame and has 
a hole bored for the top pin in the post. 
Bore two or three two-inch hqles through 
the post to put poles in to hang the sau¬ 
sage on. Make the door to open out so 
it will not interfere with the poles and 
meat. But a cement floor in and build 
the (ire to smoke the meat. I use hard¬ 
wood sawdust, and put several bushels 
on the floor, start it to burn and it will 
smoke for several days and does not heat 
the meat. q. h. 
A Back-to-the-Lander’s Notes/ 
In June I planted quite a patch of po- | 
tatoes and when spraying was necessary 
I sprayed them for experiment with the 
lime-sulphur and arsenate of lead mix¬ 
ture I had used for my orchard. The 
day after spraying our cows got loose 
and ate up all the tops of the potato 
Plants. For a day or two I was worried 
and looked to see the cows die, but for¬ 
tunately they remained alive. The pota¬ 
to crop, though, was entirely ruined. I 
tried Alfalfa on this plot, first, treating 
the ground with lime. The result was a 
failure. On your advice I tried lime, us¬ 
ing marl on a large lot I seeded for grass. 
On the next lot I used no lime. We had 
quite a severe drought in June, and little 
growth was noticed in either field. Now 
the field which had been limed shows a 
line growth, while that on tin* unlimed 
field is a poor patchy growth. Both 
fields had the same amount of manure. 
I am now going to take a new field and 
try commercial fertilizer. Last Fall I 
planted 25 fruit trees, using dynamite to 
make the holes. So far I have lost hut 
one tree and the others are doing well. 
The year before in spading holes I lost 
SO per cent of the trees planted. I. I. k. 
New York. 
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W- ... t,- *y enin 8 J; os t 15 a *tory of a farmer who 
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through a 60-mesh screen to 95 % through 
