1014. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
761 
Man-eating Sharks. 
There seems to be some doubt whether 
sharks really attack humans. I have se¬ 
cured some information on the subject 
from a couple of Bahama Islanders which 
I send for the benefit of your fish depart¬ 
ment. You say a certain government offi¬ 
cial says they don’t tackle humans. Gov¬ 
ernment officials know a heap but they 
don’t know it all. The Bahama Islanders 
say they do eat men, that is, the big ones 
do. If a person is in water where he can 
wade he can frighten the small ones 
away, but the big ones don’t scare worth 
a cent, and then you would better look 
out. My informants said they knew of 
a big shark swallowing a man, but the 
man had a knife in his hand and prompt¬ 
ly cut an exit from the shark, and as 
soon as he could conveniently excuse him¬ 
self he went home. I don’t think our 
old friend Jonah was onto his job—in¬ 
deed he wasn’t. f. it. c. 
Boca Raton, Fla. 
R. N.-Y.—But those Bahama Islanders 
were certainly onto their job of “telling 
about it.” We might suggest the follow¬ 
ing conclusive test for the government 
experts to prove their case. Let them 
jump off a wharf into water where 
sharks are known to be waiting. Of 
course it might be claimed that they car¬ 
ry so many figures that they would make 
dry eating, but the experiment would be 
a good one. 
An Effective Fire Extinguisher. 
I have been interested in a couple of 
articles in your paper on the use of fire 
extinguishers and the employment of car¬ 
bon tetrachloride for this purpose. In 
our laboratory we use an extinguisher 
made in New York City which employs 
carbon tetrachloride as the active agent. 
This extinguisher consists of a cylinder 
and a piston therein actuated by a han¬ 
dle. It is loaded with carbon tetrachlor¬ 
ide, and kept in this condition for use. To 
operate, the handle is merely worked 
back and forth and the fluid forcibly 
thrown on the blaze. This chemical is 
very volatile, about as much so as chloro¬ 
form, and extinguishes the fire by pro¬ 
ducing a blanket of non-flammable vapor 
which takes the place of the air neces¬ 
sary to the maintenance of the flame. 
We have found this extinguisher equally 
efficient with burning wood, gasoline, al¬ 
cohol, ether and other highly inflammable 
materials. It can be used where water 
would have no effect whatever, as, for 
instance, if a quantity of oil is on fire. 
No hand fire extinguisher is of much use 
after the fire attains considerable size, 
but if employed while the flame is small 
the one under discussion will do very 
efficient work. w. F. dubois. 
Chief, Buffalo Laboratory. 
U. S. Dept, of Chemistry. 
Aphides on Rudbeckia. 
I have a clump of perennial plants 
known hereabouts as “Golden Glow.” 
They are free bloomers, the flowers a 
bright yellow, and pretty, but have the 
drawback of becoming infested with in¬ 
sects clustering on the blooms just at 
flowering time. The insects are reddish 
in color, and are not unlike “red spiders.” 
This seems general, and several of my 
neighbors have discarded them on this 
account. What is the best means of pre¬ 
vention, or the best way to get rid of 
them? w. H. T. 
Germantown, Pa. 
There is a reddish plant louse or aphis, 
not red spider, that is very troublesome 
on the Golden Glow Rudbeckia. It is 
not usually noticed until so plentiful as 
to disfigure the plant. It can be dis¬ 
lodged by spraying with tobacco extract, 
which may be procured, with directions, 
from any seedsman, or with seven per 
cent, kerosene emulsion. It is well to 
inspect the plants from time to time, 
before the flowering period, noticing any 
aphids present, and using preventive 
spraying before the trouble is serious. 
Red spider is also likely to appear on the 
under side of the leaves during very dry 
hot weather; the sprays referred to will 
be beneficial, but this enemy may also 
be routed by hard spraying with cold 
water. 
Alfalfa Questions. 
On page 446 an article on Alfalfa by 
Harry Chapin causes me to proceed more 
carefully, and seek advice. I have IS 
acres wheat seeded to Timothy last Fall, 
and to Red clover this Spring. Would 
it be wise to sow two quarts Alfalfa to 
acre for inoculation purposes? Would 
that amount be sufficient, and would it 
be beneficial? Soil is good rich loam. 
Bloomingdale, Mich. v. V. B. 
I should not advise the sowing of a 
small quantity of Alfalfa with other seed¬ 
ing, for the purpose of inoculating the 
soil, though it might survive, and inocu¬ 
lation take place in two or three years, 
if the field had a heavy application of 
manure before seeding, thus insuring a 
plentiful supply of nitrogen in the soil. 
At best it is a tedious and uncertain 
method. If the small quantity of Alfalfa 
would grow a full seeding would; if it 
would not grow no inoculation would re¬ 
sult. Where Sweet clover grows wild 
by the roadside Alfalfa will grow in the 
adjacent field without inoculation, where 
it does not grow the soil can be inocu¬ 
lated by a very simple and inexpensive 
process. Three hundred pounds per acre, 
of soil from an old Sweet clover or Al¬ 
falfa patch, sown broadcast and dragged 
in without exposure to a hot sun, will 
secure inoculation. I would advise let¬ 
ting the Timothy and clover on wheat 
field take their natural course, and select 
some other field well drained and in good 
condition, on which a cultivated crop was 
grown last year. Fit the ground as in¬ 
dicated on page 446, inoculate with soil 
if necessary. Sow 30 pounds per acre of 
pure northern grown Alfalfa seed and 
expect at once paying crops and Alfalfa. 
H. c. 
Sawdust as a Manure. 
J. Q. B., on page 402, asks: “Would 
oak sawdust be of any value as a ma¬ 
nure?” The proprietor of a sawmill in 
Wilkes-Barre told me he had a ready 
sale for all his sawdust at one dollar for 
a two-horse wagon-box full, and 50 
cents for a one-horse wagon-box full; 
that it was bought by livery men, and 
horse keepers, for bedding their horses, 
and absorbing the liquid manure, and 
that farmers bought it readily, believing 
it was more valuable than when straw 
was used for bedding. He said sawdust 
was a deodorizer and disinfectant in sta¬ 
bles. I do not believe it is any better 
deodorizer than clean straw, and not 
nearly so good as dry earth, or land 
plaster. It is doubtful whether it is a 
deodorizer at all. It merely overpowers 
the foul odors of the stable, by the more 
pungent smell of the pine and hemlock 
tree. As an absorbent of liquid manure, 
it is no better than cut straw, or chaff, 
which will rot completely in a few 
months, while sawdust will remain sound 
in the soil for many years. Sawdust 
does not soon decay. I have seen it iu 
the soil after it had been plowed under 
three years, as sound as ever. Pine wood, 
when the pores are kept thoroughly sat¬ 
urated with water, is indestructible. 
Some of the sawdust in our icehouse, 
which has been in use for 20 years, is 
not rotten. The large creek that runs 
through our farm in an overflow of its 
banks, left in some places considerable 
sawdust from the mills above. These 
places when the ground was plowed, 
produced nothing, because the sawdust 
made the ground so light and porous, it 
could not retain moisture, without which 
plants cannot grow. 
When farmers in this region were 
clearing woodland, they were careful to 
put the old pine “sogs” on top of the 
log-heaps to be consumed, for well they 
know from experience that rotten wood 
was an injury to the soil, and that no 
wheat would grow where the rotten wood 
was mixed with the soil. I once bought 
several loads of manure in which pine 
shavings and sawdust from a planing mill 
had been used for bedding and have al¬ 
ways been sorry, for it was a loug time 
in rotting, and the value of the manure 
seemed to be impaired by the shavings 
and sawdust. j. w. ixgiiaai. 
Pine Shavings Hard to Rot. 
Referring to composting pine shavings, 
page 668, will say white pine shavings 
make fine bedding for horses, cows or 
poultry, and I have used them for years, 
hut have been unable to compost them as 
they seem to get tougher with age. We 
have plowed under manure, which we 
considered well composted and found on 
replowing the land three years thereafter, 
clean well-preserved shavings fit to be 
used for bedding again, if they could have 
been collected. We now spread the shav¬ 
ings manure with the spreader iu the 
Fall on the corn stubble. This gives the 
rains a chance to leach the mauurial 
value from the shavings and the wind 
will blow most of them away during the 
Winter. n. h. l. 
Pay Less 
For Better 
Roofing 
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I for potatoes—4 styles to choose from to suit your 
special conditions. We guarantee them todo the 
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valuable time and save all of the crop in good condition. 
1 
IRON ME 
DIGGERS 
No. 155 
For 
Heaviest 
Conditions 
Wheels, 32 or 28 inch. Elevator, 22 or 
20 inches wide Thorough separation 
without injury to the crop. Best two 
wheel fore truck. Right adjustment 
of plow», shifts in gear from the seat. 
Can be backed,turnsshort into next row. 
Ask your dealer about them and 
write us for descriptive booklet. 
BATEMAN 
M’F'G CO. 
Box 102D 
Grenloch, N. J. 
HAY CAPS 
Stack, wagon and implement covers; 
waterproof or plain canvas. Plant bed 
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HENRY DERBY 
NO GRAIN IN THE STRAW 
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Farquhar Efficiency ye^sofmachlS 
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IF e also make Potato Diggers, Grain Drills, Engiv es. 
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453 Y, St. Paul's Ave., Jersey City, N. J. 
SMALL INVESTMENT 
REASONABLE PRICE % 
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When You 
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Capacities from ^ 
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14 South Street, Middletown Springs, Vt. 
They 
