1362 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 21, 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[ Every Query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the -writer to insure 
attention. Before ashing a question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put Questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
Well for Cesspool. 
I AM moving into a new place; it has 
city water and some of the conven¬ 
iences, but not all. Just back of the 
house is a well 31 feet deep that is not 
used now the city water is in. The water 
level in this well does not vary over four 
or five feet between the driest and the 
wettest season of the year. The soil in 
this location is not at all sandy or of a 
gravel formation ; in fact, w T e are right on 
the edge of the blue clay belt, and there is 
no drainage so an ordinary cesspool will 
work. Would it be possible to put in 
toilet and bath and use this old well for a 
cesspool? One contractor who was at the 
place told me it would be just the thing, 
but I could not help thinking perhaps he 
was after a job more than my welfare. It 
was so contrary to what I had supposed 
was necessary in a cesspool. This man 
told me the water level in the well being 
so constant showed that the liquid mat¬ 
ter would drain off and that the top could 
be cemented on and buried two feet under 
ground and not need attention in years or 
a lifetime. Can you tell me anything 
about it? Also can you tell me if there is 
any advantage in putting a load of clin¬ 
kers in the bottom to break up the paper, 
etc.? K. L. p. 
Fords, N. Y. 
Any attempt to use this well as a cess¬ 
pool would probably be ill-advised as an 
open soil is essential to the success of 
that method of sewage disposal. By act¬ 
ing as a crude septic tank, the well might 
serve the purpose for a time, but its effi¬ 
ciency would probably be short-lived. A 
properly constructed septic tank need not 
be expensive and would provide a perma¬ 
nent means of disposing of your house 
sewage. I cannot imagine any purpose 
which a layer of clinkers would serve in 
the bottom of a tight well. if. n. D. 
Roots in a Well. 
D O you think the roots of live forest 
trees in the bottom of a well would 
pollute the water, or would they tend 
to absorb any impurities? c. w. d. 
Noank, Conn. 
I know of no reason for thinking that 
tree, roots in a well could have any appre¬ 
ciable effect upon the purity of the water. 
It is true that plant roots absorb from 
the water with which they come in con¬ 
tact certain elements of plant food, and 
that they also excrete other substances, 
probably deleterious to plant life, but 
that this interchange could materially 
affect the volume of water in a well seems 
to me highly improbable, though I know 
of no studies that have been made to de¬ 
termine this. The water from which 
plants derive their food is probably that 
thin film which surrounds all soil parti¬ 
cles rather than the soil water which ex¬ 
ists in bulk and fills the wells, u. B. D. 
Adventures With Plant Lice. 
T HE past Summer there grew up in a 
bed on the lawn, a plant of scarlet 
sage. It was about 3% feet high and 
1 % feet in diameter, and stood alone in 
a clear place with nothing touching it. At 
one time about mid-summer, it was sim¬ 
ply covered with plant lice and numer¬ 
ous ants. My son tied, tightly, about the 
stem near the ground, a strip of sticky 
fly paper, so that no ants could pass up 
or down. Three or four days later, when 
my attention was first called to the plant 
and his experiment, the plant was entire¬ 
ly free from both ants and plant lice. 
Perhaps two dozen dead lice were stick¬ 
ing to the fly paper, but no ants. What 
became of them? And was the fly paper 
the cause of their disappearance? A few 
young chickens had access to the lawn 
and they like ants, and -ftc all that they 
can reach. Certain small birds, of the 
warbler family, eat plant lice about here, 
but I have never known them to demolish 
them noticeably or to clear a plant of 
them. E. B. H. 
That Congregation of English Sparrows. 
I N answer to your query on page 1280 
as to how to get rid of the English 
sparrow, for over 10 years I have tried 
many devices for exterminating these 
pests,_ and I have found the trap designed 
by D’r. A. K. Fisher, of the Biological 
Survey, in Washington. D. C., the most 
efficient. I made one of these traps at a 
cost of about 90 cents, and hundreds of 
sparrows have been caught in it. The 
method of making this trap is shown in 
Farmer’s Bulletin No. 383, issued by the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Geneva, N. Y. w. w. g. 
Conditions here are similar, though per¬ 
haps on a smaller scale. When the sea¬ 
son’s output get together there are mul¬ 
titudinous twitterings in the street trees 
at nightfall, and in the morning the pave¬ 
ment is littered with their droppings. In 
Hartford, Conn., large flocks of black¬ 
birds and starlings became a noisy nui¬ 
sance by making the city trees their roost¬ 
ing place. The city authorities got up a 
Fourth of July celebration for their bene¬ 
fit (?) in which Roman candles figured 
largely. The astonished recipients of col¬ 
ored fireballs fled in noisy confusion ; a,' r 
being saluted thus for two or three nig. cs 
they “vamoosed the ranch” for good. This 
brilliant strategy or the use of a high- 
power hose might prove a nightmare to 
the sparrows. But, like town liquor op¬ 
tion, it but moves the pest on to trouble 
other localities. For several years the 
writer lias fought the pernicious sparrow 
with poison, nest box-traps, shotgun and 
air rifle, but with no observable diminu¬ 
tion in their numbers. But this Summer 
I have solved the problem, reduced the 
unwelcome visitors to a negligible quan¬ 
tity, and cut deep into the town supply. 
The cage type of trap is the way out. 
This style of trap is reported to be doing 
fine work in cleaning up public parks and 
private grounds. Some patrons have 
caught 800 and 1.000 sparrows. If one 
chooses to make their own, Farmer’s Bul¬ 
letin 493 gives drawings and directions 
for each trap. About the middle of June 
Inbuilt a cage trap of 5-16-inch mesh. 30x 
15x12 inches, and experimented with 
swinging doors, modified funnel entrances, 
etc.; later equipped the trap with tipping 
chambers, then I literally got the drop on 
them ; 360 were caught in my garden up 
to October 1, 200 in 3% weeks, 51 in two 
days, more than were destroyed by all 
other means in two years; and I am still 
getting them whenever a new 7 crowd comes 
in. But for this effective reduction of the 
breeding stock next season would have 
seen us swamped with them. As the birds 
are caught unharmed any chipping spar¬ 
row 7 that gets into the toils is released 
without other damage than a period of 
enforced idleness, and a slight ruffling of 
his feelings and feathers. If A. C. I\. 
will bait his unw 7 elcome lodgers with 
cracked corn and white bread, and put a 
cage trap into commission he will get 
these pests by the hundred, and get rid of 
the nuisance so that it will never come 
back, for a dead sparrow is a good spar¬ 
row. CHAS. A. BANISTEK. 
Massachusetts. 
Abbreviated Tales. 
C OYER CROPS.—Early in November 
the Rhode Island college at Kingston, 
made the following report on cover 
crops sown in the cornfield in August: 
“From all appearances now Winter 
vetch is the most valuable crop for that 
purpose. Despite the abnormally dry 
Fall we have experienced, this crop, grow¬ 
ing in the shade of the corn until a few 
weeks ago, has now 7 made 16-18 inches of 
growth in many places. The other 
legumes planted in like manner, it seems 
have hardly made more than one-fourth 
of the growth that the vetch has made. 
Sw 7 eet clover and Alfalfa have made sev¬ 
eral inches growth. Crimson clover ranks 
next, and Red clover is hardly notice¬ 
able.” 
This is very satisfactory—far better 
than we could do this year in New Jer¬ 
sey. The dry weather has held our cover 
crops back. They will start, however, and 
partly make up for it next year. Think 
what this vetch means on that light 
Rhode Island soil. When it is plowed un¬ 
der next Spring it will be like putting 
five to eight tons of good manure on each 
acre. 
An Effective “Killer.” —A Pennsyl¬ 
vania reader sends us the following from 
a local paper: 
“Three Holstein cows and four heifers, 
valued at nearly $2,000, the property of 
A. O. Shirey, of Williamsport, who owns 
a stock farm near Linden, are dead, the 
result of arsenical poisoning, and five 
others may die. A wash containing ar¬ 
senic and other ingredients, the formula 
for which was obtained from a farm mag¬ 
azine, w 7 as applied to the sides of the ani¬ 
mals to kill insects. The animals licked 
some of the poison from their hides, 'and 
it is believed that more was absorbed 
through the pores. The mixture was ap¬ 
plied at night, and in the morning the 
seven animals were dead.” 
We ought to know more about this be¬ 
fore forming conclusions. Probably it 
was a wash for killing lice, in which case 
tobacco, kerosene emulsion or sulphur and 
lard would have done the work. This idea 
of using a poison where animals can lick 
it up is much like suicide. Sometimes, 
too, the people who mix such stuff do not 
follow directions. We have known of 
cases where people read such directions 
hastily and used twice as much of some 
dangerous drug as they should have done. 
That is why we hesitate to recommend 
the use of drugs without the advice of a 
competent authority. 
Hay Caps. —In regard to cow peas and 
hay caps, will say that we shocked some 
and covered them with ordinary burlap, 
such as bran sacks are made of, and 
weighted them at each corner with one 
to two pounds weight, and made hooks 
out of ordinary baling wire. It was a 
perfect success. We have used burlap for 
years to cover wheat stacks, and straw 
remains bright to the very top. 
Missouri. w. riehl. 
tect our forests and conserve their pro¬ 
ducts. Frank L. Moore of Watertown 
is president of the Forestry Products As¬ 
sociation. 
State Fair Matters. —There is likely 
to be a change in the administration of 
State fair affairs after January 1, now 
that there has been a change in the State 
administration. It is rumored that a 
change in the make-up of the State Fair 
Commission will be made if the Legisla¬ 
ture can be induced to look upon the 
plan favorably, and an entirely new 
policy of management established. The 
plan will be to amend the present law to 
reduce the size of the State Fair Com¬ 
mission and instead of a commission of 
seven, five appointive and two ex-officio 
members, there will be a commission of 
three to consist of a State Fair Commis¬ 
sioner, the Lieut. Governor and the Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture. 
Commissioner On Titrerculosis.—■ 
The commission appointed by Gov. 
Glynn some time ago to investigate the 
extent of tuberculosis in cattle in this 
State, met for organization last week in 
Albany when Prof. Theobold Smith of 
the Rockefeller Institute of New York 
was chosen president and Dr. Linsly R. 
Williams, deputy commissioner of health, 
secretary. Gov. Glynn addressed the 
meeting and urged that the commission 
proceed to do some thorough work to 
stamp out tuberculosis in New York 
State cattle. The commission is consti¬ 
tuted as follows: Dr. Theobold Smith, 
Rockefeller institute, New York; Dr. 
Hermann M. Biggs, commissioner of 
health; Dr. Linsly R. Williams, deputy 
commissioner of health: Dr. Henry L. 
K. Shaw, Albany; Seth Low, Bedford 
Hills; Professor Veranus A. Moore, 
Ithaca; Albert L. Brockway, Syracuse; 
Albert Manning, Otisville; V. Everit 
Macy, Ossining; II. J. Wright, New 
York; James A. D. S. Findlay, Salis¬ 
bury Mills; Edward Van Alstyne, Kin- 
derhook; Henry Best, West Sand Lake. 
Farm Bureau Matters. —The second 
annual conference of the Farm Bureau 
managers of the State will be held in 
Ithaca Nov. 19-21, and for the three 
days preceding it there will be a meeting 
of the Farmers’ Institute Normal at 
Geneva, both of which meetings the Farm 
Bureau men are expected to attend. On 
Dec. 7-10 the annual meeting of the 
State Leaders of Farm Bureau work in 
33 Northern States will take place in 
Chicago. The work in the State is pro¬ 
gressing favorably. In two counties, 
Chemung and Broome, the entire respons¬ 
ibility and management of the Farm Bu¬ 
reaus has been transferred from the 
Chambers of Commerce to the Farm Im¬ 
provement Associations which are com¬ 
posed entirely of farmers. In Nassau 
County, where there are no Granges 
through which to work the manager has 
found the teachers of the rural schools 
ready to cooperate and the sehoolliouses 
have been used for meeting places. F. 
C. Smith of the Allegany Bureau has 
conceived of an excellent plan of organ¬ 
izing the work in the county. He se¬ 
cures committeemen from different sec¬ 
tions of the town, men who are success¬ 
ful farmers, to cooperate with him in 
various ways. A potato show will be 
held this month. Mr. V. B. Blatchley 
succeeds II. E. Babcock as manager of 
the Tompkins County Bureau, Mr. 
Blatchley having been appointed an as¬ 
sistant professor of extension on the col¬ 
lege staff and will give his entire time 
to the State work as assistant to the 
State director. On October 27 State 
leader Crocheron of California brought 
to the State College of Agriculture, on 
a visit, 20 boys who were winners in 
club contests in some local high school 
communities in that State. 
Anti-Tuberculosis Meeting. — A 
meeting in the interest of the anti-tu¬ 
berculosis movement in the State was 
held this week, Nov. 11, in Syracuse in 
response to a call of the State Charities 
Aid Association and the State Board of 
Health. It was a meeting of the gener¬ 
al staff, so to speak, to shape future cam¬ 
paigns. The State Grange public health 
committee is cooperating in the move¬ 
ment. 
Muck Land Crops. —The muck land 
crops of Madison County are the largest 
in recent years. The onion crop will 
measure about 480,000 bushels, it is 
said. Fully half the crop has been 
shipped from Canastota and vicinity. 
Prices range from 30 to 35 cents a bush¬ 
el. Celery has been a good crop and the 
acreage is somewhat larger than last 
year. Cabbage is a large crop and is 
bringing from $5 to $7 a ton. J. w. D. 
“George,” said the Titian-haired school 
marm, ‘“is there any connecting link be¬ 
tween the animal kingdom and the vege¬ 
table kingdom?” “Yeth, ma’am,” an¬ 
swered George promptly, “Hash.”—Out¬ 
door Life. 
WILDER CURRANT BUSHES 
Perfection, Ruby and Herbert Raspberries. 
J. F. WYGANT, - Marlboro, N. Y. 
NEW YORK STATE NEWS. 
OREST PRODUCTS CONVEN¬ 
TION.—The annual convention of 
the Empire State Forest Products 
Association is in session this week (Nov. 
12) in New York City. A long list of 
speakers contributed of their expert 
knowledge of forestry work that is being 
conducted in this State and on the legis¬ 
lation that is deemed necessary to pro¬ 
St. Regas Raspberry Plants 
Plant St. Regas- Don’t wait until everybody gets 
them. They are a money-maker. They come earlier 
than any others crown in this section, where they 
originated, and nick until frost. The best of refer 
ence. ARTHUR It. HEGGAN, Waterford, N J 
S T. REGIS RASPBERRY PLANTS for sale 
Price reasonable. PAUL L. HEGGAN, Waterford, N. J 
Vildan flraee — 1 ' 0,, > ern Brown sscd.^harrly and tree from 
Oulldll Ui floo Johnson eras*. Write for free sample and 
prices. HENRY FIELD, SHENANDOAH, IOWA 
Order Sunlight Double Glass 
Sash—NOW 
The J. Weller Co., Cincinnati, O., the famous canners, 
ordered first in 1911. In 1912 they wrote: “We will 
buy more this winter.” They did. Also more in 1913 
and 1914. 
No More Mats and Shutters 
Extra thick, of cypress, everlasting, double-glaz> 
with an air space that admits the sun, but not the col 
this sash has rendered the old style single layer sa 
obsolete. It eliminates mats and shutters cutting the o 
one-half and doubling the efficiency in the garden. 
Get Our Catalogue 
Our free catalogue explains everything in detail both 
about the sash and the Sunlight Greenhouse on which 
the sash arc also used. It is inexpensive, attractive and 
a highly profitable addition to any garden. 
If you wish it, enclose four cents in stamps for a copy 
of Prof Massey’s booklet on the use of cold frames, hot¬ 
beds and small greenhouses. 
. SUNLIGHT DOUBLE GLASS SASH CO. 
924 E. Broadway :: Louisville, Ky, 
DON 
It is easier 
SPRAYING 
to keep up than catch np. It takes two years for 
trees to bear after the foliage ia tiestroved. 
Remember, too, that dormaiitspravfng la im¬ 
portant, ami in some states uprayinjc is com¬ 
pulsory. Sprayed fruit Is #ondfruit, and pood 
fruit always Brings a pood price i nan v season. 
IRQNAGE 
Bucket, Barrel, Tower and Traction 
Spiff.'era include 70 com¬ 
binations for orchard, 
field, garden, poultry 
house and home uses. 
Our “Spray” booklet 
shows how you can buy 
barrel or bucket Spraxer 
now and build to large 
uses when you need it. 
Ask your dealer to slio 
this lino and write 1 
for “Spray ’‘booklet ami 
our spray calendar, 
both free. 
BATEMAN M’F’G. CO., 
Box 1024. 
G r°nK>ch. N. J. 
Onti ids 
rumps 
Bronss 
Bali 
Valves. 
Jirtr.p 
Packing 
Easy to 
yet at 
1 TWO SURE MORTGAGE LIFTERS } 
V WE HAVE OTHERS CATALOG FREE 
“ FRIEND ” MFG. CO., GASPORT, N. Y. 
Label Your Trees and Shrubs 
Permanent, water and weather-proof labels. 
Practically indestructible. Send 10 cents for 
sample: 25 cents for 3; $1 for 15: $5 for K'O. 
"WM. G. SHEPHERD, - Williamsport, Pa. 
—My Special— 
Collection Offers 
assure you the most practical 
proven varieties at prices re¬ 
markably low. Found only in 
COLLINS’ Garden 
and Orchard Guide 
Free oil request— the book whieli 
lists and describes all the best 
varieties of fruits, small fruits, berries, shrubs 
and decorative plants. Write for it today. 
ARTHUR J. COLLINS, Box 31, Moorestown, N. J. 
Fear Trees ■ 
AT PRICES ANYONE CAN PAY 
Fraser’s Tree Book 'mailed free) tells what varie¬ 
ties of) Pear trees I grow and gives prices and 
planting hints. If yon could come to my nursery 
yon would see with your own eyes why my Bear 
trees are worth more than others — they are 
straight, strong, big (.but not overgrown) 
trunks, and roots that arc a mass of fibres. 
Write today for a copy of Eraser s Tree Book. 
SAMUEL FRASER, NURSERYMAN 
125 Muin Street Geneseo, N. Y. 
Trees—Plants—Vines st 
in small or large lots at wholesale 
prices. Catalog and Green’s Fruit/ 
Book—FRKK. Green's Nursery Co. vt Wi 
22 Wall St., Rochester, N Y. 
S WEET CLOVER SEEO— The true white blooming variety 
(Melilotus Alba. . Write for free sample of new crop need 
and latest price*. 1IKXUY FI K 1„1>, Shenandoah. I own 
FOR SALE—IN CAR LOAD LOTS 
GERMA M CA TTLE BEETS 
Best Mangle Grown. $0 per ton, P. O. B., Auburn, 
N. Y. T. E. BARLOW, Su|it„ Auburn, New York 
