1914. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
995 
OPENING OF THE CAPE COD CANAL. 
AST week witnessed the opening of the new canal 
dug across the neck of Cape Cod. For the past few 
years the work of digging this canal has gone on 
very quietly. Not much attention has been paid to it, 
since the Panama Canal was a much larger proposi¬ 
tion, and one which had absorbed public attention. Yet 
this Cape Cod Canal is sure to have a great influence 
upon the commerce of the Atlantic coast, and will prove 
a great convenience and developer of business. Ever 
since the Pilgrims made their settlement at Plymouth, 
there have been dreams of such a canal. It is said 
that Miles Standish, the captain of the small Plymouth 
army, was something of an engineer, and that even in 
his day he saw the possibilities of this ditch across Cape 
Cod. The outside of Cape Cod is the most dangerous 
point along the Atlantic coast—worse even than Cape 
Hatteras. In time of storm it is a wild and dangerous 
trip past Cape Cod, and a very large proportion of the 
losses to shipping along the coast have occurred there. 
The opening of the canal marks the beginning of a pro¬ 
tected water route between New England along the 
sound of Long Island to New York City. The distance 
is shortened by many miles, and vessels can travel in 
practically all kinds of weather. Looking beyond the 
present there are still greater possibilities. For the 
last century, wise men have seen the advantage of an 
inside water route all the way between New England 
and Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. Such a route would 
cross New Jersey and on to Chesapeake Bay, then down 
across Virginia and North and South Carolina to 
Savannah or Jacksonville. A glance at the map will 
show the many rivers and inlets which may be utilized 
for such a route. Congress has started again and 
again to provide for such a passage, but for one reason 
and other it has always been given up. The present 
Congress is said to be in favor of such an enterprise, 
and in the course of time it will without question be 
worked out. In such an event a vessel can start from 
Portland, Me., or Boston, Mass., pass through the Cape 
Cod Canal and along Long Island Sound and then 
journey in safety, protected from severe storms, or 
from the ravages of a hostile fleet, down through the 
country to the Gulf of Mexico and if need be to the 
Panama Canal. Such an inside waterway would prove 
a great safety and convenience and a wonderful devel¬ 
opment of the Atlantic coast region. It is coming in 
time, and for that reason, if for no other, the opening 
of the Cape Cod Canal is a great event in the com¬ 
mercial history of New England and the Atlantic coast. 
The Connecticut Poultry Meeting. 
T HE meeting of the Connecticut Poultry Association 
held last week at the Connecticut Agricultural 
College was probably the most interesting if not 
the largest gathering of poultrymen ever held in this 
country. The close egg contest between the English 
Wyandottes and the American Leghorns has created 
deep interest. Added to that was the fact that Tom 
Barron, the English poultry breeder, was to attend 
this meeting and make two or three addresses. There 
has been a great desire among poultrymen to see and 
hear Mr. Barron. The result was that all the hen men 
who could do so travelled out to Storrs. The Connecti¬ 
cut Agricultural College is a hard place to reach. It is 
located in a rough country, nestling among the hills 
far from the railroad. Still over 000 people gathered 
at this place, some coming in wagons, others in automo¬ 
biles or in any conveyance possible. It is safe to say 
that a good proportion of those people came prepared 
to scoff and remained to pray. A good many of them 
have been sceptical regarding the value of these egg- 
laying contests, and a great many of them had some¬ 
how formed the idea that there was something wrong 
about Tom Barron and his birds. It is safe to say that 
all of these people went home impressed with the value 
of the contest, and agreeing that Mr. Barron is a plain, 
straight, honest man, whose knowledge of a hen and her 
ways has been learned by hard and patient experience. 
There was a fine program, but the best part of the 
whole meeting was the long trip through the egg-laying 
contest. The leading pens were visited, and Barron 
and others explained their methods of selecting hens in 
an effort to pick out the good layers from the drones. 
This was thoroughly interesting to the crowd, and all 
through the day there might be seen little groups of 
men and women scattered about the college grounds 
discussing this great question of throwing out the 
drones, and how to improve the laying qualities of the 
hens. 
There was no building on the grounds large enough 
to contain the great crowd. Everyone was good-nat¬ 
ured and happy in spite of the fearful weather. We 
shall try to give a full account of the meeting later, and 
a good synopsis of Mr. Barron’s talk regarding the 
breeding and selecting of a laying hen. As is usually 
the case, a talk by such a man is in a class by itself, 
and one must hear and see the man himself in order to 
get a fair idea of what it means. _ No printed report 
of such a thing could really do full justice to it. 
New Jersey Organization. 
HE new State Board of Trade and Commerce of 
New Jersey promises to be of great good to the 
farmers of the State. The objects of the new 
federation are to take concerted action on State¬ 
wide problems, to make the federation a clearing house 
for the latest thought and experience in civic and com¬ 
mercial work, to analyze and take constructive steps in 
regard to such matters as agricultural and industrial 
development, civic and social conditions, residential and 
recreative facilities, water-ways, city planning, good 
roads, municipal research, community publicity, voca¬ 
tional education, retail credits and many other lines of 
activity; to advance the prosperity and prestige of New 
Jersey through the increased efficiency of its several 
communities, and to build up public opinion that truly 
reflects sound economic principles. It is understood 
that stops will be taken at once to investigate such 
rural problems as consolidation of schools, transporta¬ 
tion of pupils, purchase of school supplies, salaries and 
cost of living of country school teachers, marketing and 
transporting of farm produce, co-operative purchasing 
of fertilizers, seeds and farming utensils, farm and do¬ 
mestic help, libraries at convenient local centers, etc. 
This work of investigation will be done by trained ex¬ 
perts. D. T. II. 
New York State News. 
(INFERENCE OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES. 
—The chief event in farm circles the past week 
was the first annual conference of co-operative 
associations of the State, at Utica, called by Com¬ 
missioner Hnson, and presided over by Marc W. Cole, 
Superintendent of the Bureau of Co-operation. It was 
an informal meeting in respect to the program as there 
were no set speeches, but rather was it a comparing of 
notes on the work of the co-operative societies of the 
State, there being representatives from nearly all these 
associations as well as from other co-operative socie¬ 
ties not organized under the new State law. The 
question box and the round table were important fea¬ 
tures of the meeting. Superintendent Cole stated the 
purpose of the meeting to be to crystallize into a brief 
statement to be made to the Legislature at its next ses¬ 
sion, some of the things thus far accomplished by the 
bureau of organization, and other things it. hoped to do. 
in order that the Leliglature may be well informed as to 
the necessity of such a bureau and of the growing im¬ 
portance of co-operative societies. Certain amendments 
to the co-operative law were also to be considered. It 
is probable that at the next conference, which will be 
held in Utica in December, more definite information as 
to the working of the law and the need of its amend¬ 
ment in certain respects, will be available. The reports 
of the representatives of the various State co-operative 
societies will be included in the bulletin to be published 
in a few weeks which will contain a complete report of 
the proceedings of the conference. 
FARM HORSES AT STATE FAIR.—It looks now 
as if the department of farm draft and breeding horses 
at the State Fair this Fall would break all records. 
Premiums aggregating something over $0,000 in the 
104 classes will bring out a fine lot of animals. Be¬ 
sides the money premiums there are gold and silver 
medals offered champions by the Belgian Society of 
Brussels, the New York Belgian Society, and the Hack¬ 
ney Horse Society. The Percheron Society of America 
offers gold and silver medals. This show is of especial 
educational value to farmers and stockmen, for whom it 
was established some years ago. 
STATE FLORAL CLUBS.—The annual meeting of 
the State Federation of Floral Clubs will be held at 
Syracuse, September 3, during State Fair week. It is 
probable that I>r. Beverly T. Galloway will be the chief 
speaker before the federation. Dr. Galloway was for 
many years chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry at 
Washington before becoming the head of. the. State 
Agricultural College at Ithaca. The federation is com¬ 
posed of all the professional and amateur flower clubs 
of the State. 
BIG WEEK FOR THE CHEESE MEN.—The 
meetings of the Watertown Produce Exchange on Sat¬ 
urday, July 25. witnessed the big week’s work of the 
season when 8.520 boxes of cheese were sold at 14 cents 
per pound, making an approximate total of $57,000. 
OUR STATE MINES.—While New York has no 
gold mines it has a very considerable mining industry, 
as is shown by the report of the State Geologist, recent¬ 
ly issued. Tlie aggregate value of ores and mineral ma¬ 
terials for the year 1913 was $41,704,020. an amount 
larger by several millions than the total reported for 
any preceding vear. Iron ore was worth $3,870,841. 
There are two rock salt mines and about 25 evaporating 
plants in active operation which turned out 10.819.521 
barrels of salt, valued at $2,850,004. the largest on 
record. Natural gas contributed $2,549,227 to the total 
and petroleum $2,255,508. Portland cement was pro¬ 
duced to the amount of 5,140,782 barrels, valued at 
$4,873,807. Clay materials produced a value of $12,- 
077,872, and stone products had a value of $0,763,054. 
J. W. D. 
Grasshoppers and Grandfathers. 
PRESENT PLAGUE.—We are receiving vigor¬ 
ous complaints of the injuries of grasshoppers 
and urgent requests for aid in checking the rav¬ 
ages of these hungry hordes of insects. All of 
the outbreaks of these locusts that we have investigated 
so far have been confined to regions having a sandy or 
gravelly soil. Yet the outbreaks are so widespread and 
so serious that the situation is worthy of some general 
consideration. 
THE KIND DOING THE INJURY.—In the first 
place, we find that the species of grasshopper causing 
nearly all of the trouble is the lesser migratory locust 
(Melanoplus atlanis). a close relative to the notorious 
Rockv Mountain locust that devastated the fields of 
Kansas, Missouri and other Western States in the sev¬ 
enties. This locust is widely distributed over nearly 
the whole United States, and is apparently one of our 
common grasshoppers in New York State. We refer to 
this commonness of the insect in order to emphasize the 
fact that the injury being done now is not due to the 
work of any new or extraordinary pest, but is due 
rather to the unusual development of a common and 
well-known insect. Moreover, as we shall point out 
later, this unusual development has probably been fos¬ 
tered by lax methods of farming. In order to under¬ 
stand the relation that exists between the development 
and increase of this insect and the usual methods of 
farming, it will be necessary to know something of its 
life history. 
THE LESSER MIGRATORY LOCUST—In the 
fields where the swarms of the locusts are to be found 
at this time (June 26), a large number of them will be 
seen to possess wings. This means that such indi¬ 
viduals are now full-grown. There are. however, many 
of them without wings. These are the young, immature 
individuals that we call nymphs. Probably by the first 
of July a majority of the locusts will be t'l 11-grown, with 
fully developed wings. They will then be capable of 
migrating from one field to another, in fact, for consid¬ 
erable distances. It is not definitey known just how 
long before these adult locusts will begin to deposit their 
eggs. Observations indicate that they will be laying 
their eggs the latter part of July and first part of 
August. 
METHODS OF CONTROL.—There are temporary 
methods of controlling an outbreak of these locusts that 
will furnish considerable relief and protection to the 
crops immediately menaced. One of the most successful 
methods of obtaining temporary relief from the injuries 
of grasshoppers is by killing them wuth poison baits. In 
Kansas, where locusts often become a plague, a new 
poisoned bait was used last year on a large scale, and 
with most gratifying success. Professors Dean and 
Hunter of Kansas give most interesting and enthusias¬ 
tic reports of their use of this bait which is made up 
as follows: Bran, 20 pounds; paris green, one pound ; 
syrup, two quarts; oranges or lemons, three fruits; 
water, 3% gallons. The paris green and bran, while 
dry, are thoroughly mixed in a washtub. The juice of 
the oranges or lemons is squeezed into the water and 
then the skin and pulp of the fruit is chopped up fine 
and added to the water. The syrup is also added and 
then the bran and paris green are thoroughly wet with 
this mixture. This bait seems to be very attractive to 
the locusts and succeeds in poisoning them in immense 
numbers. It is sown broadcast over the infested fields 
early in the morning. The locusts do not eat it readily 
after it becomes dry, hence the early morning applica¬ 
tions. . Some judgment must be used regarding the 
places in which the bait is to be scattered. For exam¬ 
ple, in Alfalfa fields it would be best to cut the crop 
first and then scatter the bait. The same would prob¬ 
ably be true of meadows. In all cases the bait should 
be scattered where the insects are thickest or in their 
path if they are migrating to new fields. The amount 
of bait indicated by the formfila given should be suffi¬ 
cient for about five acres. In the long run, however, 
one cannot afford to fight grasshoppers, at least, in New 
York State, by the use of poisoned baits. It is ex¬ 
tremely desirable to employ a method that will perma¬ 
nently rid an infested area of these voracious pests. 
GOOD FARMING A REMEDY.—We have empha¬ 
sized the fact that the eggs of these grasshoppers are 
laid in the soil; that they are laid in ground that is 
fairly compact, for example, in old pastures and mead¬ 
ows, along fence rows, ditch banks, and similar places; 
and that the eggs lie over Winter in the ground. It 
is evident that a system of farming still carried on as 
our grandfathers carried it on, namely, one in which 
the pastures and meadows and fence rows are main¬ 
tained world without end, is especially conducive to the 
welfare of grasshoppers. A run-out meadow, a century 
old fence or an old pasture bare of grass in a sandy re¬ 
gion is an ideal place for grasshoppers to deposit their 
eggs and to increase in undisturbed tranquility and 
happy felicity until a season comes when their oppor¬ 
tunity arrives and they appear in hordes. On the other 
hand, it has been shown that the eggs of grasshoppers 
can he destroyed by plowing and harrowing the laud in 
which they are deposited in the late Fall or early 
Spring. Therefore, it happens that the man who prac¬ 
tices a modern three or four-years’ rotation, even in a 
sandy gravelly region, is largely protected from the rav¬ 
ages of these insects. This was brought most forcibly 
to the attention of the author in an investigation of an 
outbreak of grasshoppers in central New York. A 
small farm which the author visited had literally been 
cleaned of Alfalfa and other crops, while on an adjoining 
farm on which there had been in practice a modern rota¬ 
tion there was no serious injury. No object lesson 
could have been plainer or more convincing. The only 
practicable way for the owner whose crops have been 
destroyed, to obtain a permanent contr-ol over the 
locusts, is to plow and harrow every foot of land possi¬ 
ble on his place this Fall or early next Spring before 
the eggs hatch. Fall and early Spring plowing and 
harrowing, then, is the most important method of per¬ 
manently controlling locusts in New York State. In 
conclusion it may be said that the more intensive a sys¬ 
tem- of farming becomes the less extensive toill be the 
outbreaks of insect pects. 
GLENN W. nERRICK. 
N. Y. College of Agriculture. 
Government Crop Report. 
ONTINUED excessive heat, with deficient rainfall 
and more than the usual sunshine over the prin¬ 
cipal crop-growing sections, made this the mos 
trying week of the season on crops now at critical 
stages of growth. 
In the Winter wheat sections harvesting is largely 
completed, and dry weather favored thrashing which is 
under way in the central and northern portions. Plow¬ 
ing for next year’s crop has begun. 
In the Spring wheat States dry and hot weather were 
somewhat unfavorable in North Dakota, and damage 
from rust is reported from western Minnesota. In 
other sections the crop is generally suffering from heat 
and drouth. 
In the corn belt the week was generally unfavorable 
in States to the eastward of the Mississippi, except in 
the more northern districts. Drouth still continues in 
Missouri and Oklahoma and it is getting dry in Kansas. 
Nebraska and Iowa, although the crop is generally in 
excellent condition in the last-named States. 
In the Ohio Valley drouth is again severe and much 
damage has been done, while farther eastward in the 
Atlantic Coast States rain is now badly needed in many 
portions. 
Harvesting of oats is nearing completion in the north¬ 
ern districts, with a poor yield. Damage from rust is 
reported in many localities. 
In cotton-growing States showers over the eastern 
and central portions of the belt maintain a generally 
good condition of crop, but many localities were with¬ 
out sufficient rain and plant is now beginning to suffer. 
In Texas and Oklahoma hot and dry weather the 
greater part of the week prevented any improvement 
in condition of cotton crop over large areas, and growth 
is generally at a standstill, with considerable deteriora¬ 
tion in sections where drouth is severest. 
Good showers in Florida improved conditions, and 
late crops are doing w r ell in some other southern locali 
ties, but rain is very generally needed in all trucking 
districts. 
Over the Atlantic Coast States, from Virginia north¬ 
ward, the week was hot and dry over the southern por¬ 
tion, and corn, tobacco and other crops are being seri¬ 
ously affected. In the more northern portion cooler 
weather prevailed, showers for present needs occurred 
very generally and crop growth progressed satisfac¬ 
torily. 
Over the Western plains region and the mountain 
and plateau districts the ranges continued in excellent 
condition, especially in the southern portion. Forag ■ 
crops of all kinds are making satisfactory growth. The 
fruit outlook is good and water for irrigation continue 
plentiful. 
Over the Pacific Coast States the weather was favor¬ 
able for harvesting hay and Winter wheat in Wash¬ 
ington and Oregon, but it continued too dry for spring 
wheat, which is now suffering for rain. 
In California crops made satisfactory progress and 
the drying, canning and shipments of fruit progresse 1 
as usual. 
