1910. 
493 
THE RURAL NEW«YORKEB 
KILLING OUT WILLOW TREES. 
Nine years ago I bought a farm on 
which was a row, about one-half mile 
long, of thickly set large willows, and 
those which had been cut off and had 
branched out vigorously. These were 
along an open ditch, so especially hard 
to kill. The roots stopped up the tile 
ditches for -several rods, as well as the 
open ditch, which was our outlet for 
draining farm. Their branches shaded 
several rods and each wind storm 
strewed the fields with twig's. Then 
there was about one-fourth acre of pussy 
willows, besides a number of large iso¬ 
lated yellow-barked willow trees. I 
went resolutely to work, cutting them 
close to the ground at any season of the 
year that I could get a little time. I 
bored a number of holes in each stump. 
During the growing season of the year 
I filled these holes and laid on top of 
stumps coarse or refuse salt several 
times. Few sprouts started, but those 
must be broken off. Whenever possible 
I let the cows into the field where I 
was killing willows—after the salt had 
dissolved—and they would eat every 
•sprout and even the stumps themselves. 
It is sure death to the willows. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
R. B. B. 
OYSTER-SHELL BARK LOUSE. 
This year we have received many 
samples of apple twigs carrying various 
scale insects. Readers have read about 
the San Jose scale, and when they find 
OYSTER-SHELL BARK LOUSE. Fig. 188. 
any strange growth on the wood of trees 
they begin to fear that the dreaded in¬ 
sect has come. The great majority of 
these twigs are covered by the Oyster 
shell scale. In order to show what this 
looks like we have photographed the 
twig shown at Fig. 188. The long, slen¬ 
der scales closely crowded together, are 
easily 'seen on the bark, We do not 
usually find the San Jose scale with the 
Oyster-shell, although they sometimes 
mix together. We must understand that 
this Oyster-shell scale covers the eggs 
and not the living insect. With the San 
Jose scale the live insect is found under 
the small gray covering, so that when 
we spray the dormant tree we can pene¬ 
trate the covering and kill the mother 
insect. A spray of ordinary strength 
will not destroy the egg form of the 
Oyster-shell insect. The surest way to 
fight it is to wait until late May or 
June, when the little insects have hatch¬ 
ed, and spray with a weak solution of 
whale-oil soap. Unless the scales are 
very thick the insect will not do great 
damage. 
ORCHARD LAND ON THE POTOMAC. 
Some inquiries have been made recently 
ni I he R. N.-Y. in regard to buying suit¬ 
able cheap land in Virginia and elsewhere 
to plant to apples. .Being thoroughly ac¬ 
quainted with the district, I believe mere 
are about as many advantages for the apple 
man here along the Potomac on either side 
as anywhere in the country. Being con¬ 
siderable Government work in Washington 
and vicinity,' which, of course, pays more 
wages than the farmer could afford to pay, 
this has tended to draw on the labor until 
a great many of the farms have been aban¬ 
doned by their owners, some rented, some 
allowed to grow up. I know of several large 
farms whose owners are working as com¬ 
mon laborers for the Government. I have 
no doubt if they had put out their farms 
to apples when they first began to work 
for the Government (which was about 10 
years ago), and spent a fourth as much 
time on them as they have for Uncle Sam, 
they would be dollars to cents better off. 
What are the advantages? First, the price 
for land so near to a large market and 
more especially as it is the capital of the 
United States. There are thousands of 
acres in the section named that can he 
bought as low as $10 per acre, plenty of it 
has wood and timber to more than pay for 
it. Then again we can get produce to 
market at a very small costv A man 40 
miles down the river from Washington can 
pick his load and get to market as quickly 
and as cheaply as one can haul by road 12 
miles. I have nothing to sell, and am 
not writing this as a snare to induce some 
one from a distance to locate here, for I 
think it much better to settle near one's 
native place. What I want to see is im¬ 
provement. To make this country what it 
should be I think the farms should be cut 
up into small farms and farmed with the 
“Herron spirit.” I'm sure there are many 
toilers in Washington who know little or 
nothing about farming who could not very 
well do any worse than now. I also be¬ 
lieve there are many others in the city in 
better circumstances who would do well to 
put some of their savings in land along the 
river. The man of small means could buy 
a few acres, set out to orchard, raise chick¬ 
ens while waiting for orchard to come into 
bearing. The man of means could buy more 
acres, set to orchard and sow to grass 
while waiting. If he held a position or 
business in city lie could very easily look 
after it. With the etlicient motor power 
a man could run down evenings after work, 
as hundreds do for pleasure. On a farm I 
rented last year there were 22 York Im¬ 
perial apple trees about 25 years old, that 
are in sod, and have been kept pruned, but 
never sprayed. I picked 150 barrels (alto¬ 
gether), netting me over $300. They took 
up about half an acre, and more than paid 
the rent for the farm of 240 acres. There 
was another orchard on the place, about 
200 trees of same age, that had been neg¬ 
lected ever since planted, not even pruned. 
From those I picked or rather scraped to- j 
gether 40 or 50 barrels of apples, mostly 
Winesaps, for which I got about $50. This 
orchard is a fair illustration of this sec¬ 
tion, for most all of the old orchards were 
planted on this ‘‘root hog or die” system. 
Maryland. p. f. skinner. 
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