560 
THK. KUKAL NEW-YORKER 
April 10, 1915. 
THE MAILBAG 
How to Kill Moles. 
I am very eager to see a full discussion 
of methods for ridding lawns of ground 
moles. If you can see your way to bring 
this about you may be able to establish 
some facts which will be received most 
thankfully by home-owners whose fine 
lawns are being ruined by these mis¬ 
chievous little pests. w. E. B. 
Wooster, O. 
We have had this question up several 
times before. In every case thus far 
readers have agreed that one of the 
spring traps which drive a set of sharp 
spears down into the mole is the most 
practical “remedy.” Now can anyone 
tell a better or simpler way? War upon 
the mole. How shall we fight him? 
Removing Stumps. 
In answer to an inquiry about getting 
rid of stumps, I had 20 poplar trees 20 
to 24 inches in diameter. I sawed them 
as close to the ground as possible, and 
used six cents worth of coal oil on the 
20 stumps. In three years they had all 
rotted away. One year ago I had occa¬ 
sion to cut some orange trees; one appli¬ 
cation and they are decaying very fast. 
Florida. R. A. hunt. 
Handling Garbage. 
As I have the garbage contract this 
Summer and will have about 200 loads 
I would like to know if there is any way 
to compost it so it will not be a nuisance? 
j. b. x. 
Perhaps the cleaner part of this gar¬ 
bage can be fed to swine. A plank or 
concrete platform a little above the 
ground will be useful for such feeding. 
Pour the garbage on it. There should be 
a gentle slope so the platform can be 
washed off. For composting, muck or 
swamp soil is good. Mix the garbage 
with this soil in piles and throw in a 
little lime as the piles are made up. In 
this way you will obtain a fair compost. 
Use of Wood Ashes. 
I have 2Y 2 barrels of dry sifted wood 
ashes. What amount of nitrate of soda 
and acid phosphate would you recom¬ 
mend to mix with this to sow on top of 
wheat this Spring? Would it be best to 
broadcast it by hand or use a fertilizer 
sower? J- ii- T. 
Your wood ashes will probably weigh 
about 100 pounds per barrel. Call it 200 
pounds in all. That means about 15 
pounds of potash and five of phosphoric 
acid. To make the proportion of plant 
food found in a good garden fertilizer, 
you can use 50 pounds nitrate of soda 
and 150 acid phosphate. Do not try to 
mix these chemicals with the ashes. The 
latter are too fine to mix well. Broadcast 
the ashes, mix the chemicals and scatter 
in the hill or drill. 
Treatment for Oat Smut. 
Will you inform me how to treat seed 
oats for smut? It was quite bad last 
year but as they are good oats would like 
to sow the same seed again. I). M. 
Pattersonville, N. Y. 
The formalin treatment is simple and 
effective. One pint of formalin or for¬ 
maldehyde to 60 gallons of water should 
be used. One plan is to place the oats 
in gunny sacks, filling the sacks about 
two-thirds full. Dip the sacks in a bar¬ 
rel of the solution, and allow the sack 
to remain perhaps 10 minutes. After¬ 
ward the oats should be spread out on 
the floor, and covered with blankets for 
an hour to confine the fumes of the form¬ 
alin. which are the effective part of the 
treatment, or they may be spread on the 
floor at first and sprinkled with the solu¬ 
tion. The oats will swell somewhat and 
the drill should be set to distribute about 
one bushel more per acre, than ordinarily. 
The treatment may be applied early, but 
under farm conditions it may be with¬ 
held until shortly before seeding. The 
oats should be carefully dried. They 
should be spread on the floor to no great 
depth and should be shovelled over fre¬ 
quently to aid the drying process. 
Keeping Russet Apples. 
In regard to P. B. J.’s inquiry as to 
care of Russet apples I remember when 
I was a small boy eating russet apples 
in May that were firm and round. These 
were packed in dry leaves the Fall pre¬ 
vious, a layer of apples and one of leaves, 
until barrel was full. We also had some 
packed in papers, each apple rolled up in 
a piece of newspaper separately and 
placed in barrel until full; these also 
kept perfectly. If P. B. J. lives on sandy 
soil and will dig a hole in a well-drained 
spot, line it with straw, put in apples 
and cover with straw and dirt to keep out 
frost, the apples will come out firm and 
with all their original flavor in Spring. 
Russets so kept are delicious and worth 
all the extra labor. a. 8. h. 
On page 424, P. B. J., New York, asks 
about caring for Russet apples in the 
Winter so they will not wilt. I should 
like to tell him how my father took care 
of them in the Wolverine State, Michigan, 
where I was born. First choose a piece 
of ground that is a little high or well 
drained, then dig a round hole about 
eight inches deep. Put in some clean 
straw, then put the apples in a pile on 
the straw, cover the apples with more 
straw so the dirt will not get on them, 
then cover with soil about four or six 
inches or as much as your climate de¬ 
mands to keep from freezing. Sometimes 
it is necessary to put manure on the out¬ 
side of that dirt and then more dirt again, 
as the Winter demands. No vent is need¬ 
ed through the second coating or cover¬ 
ing of manure and dirt if it gets cold 
enough to have to apply it. If this is 
done your Russet apples will come out 
crisp and nice in the Spring. M. R. 8. 
Maryland. 
If P. B. .T. will pack his Russet apples 
in barrels, make them tight as possible 
when headed up, and lay on sides in cool¬ 
est part of cellar, just above cellar bot¬ 
tom. to ensure dryness, I think they will 
come out in good condition. I have kept 
Roxbury Russets several weeks later than 
this, and had them come out fine. If left 
exposed to the air they are sure to wilt. 
Massachusetts. G. P. 
A Three-year Rotation. 
Would a three-year rotation of corn, 
potatoes, and grass be feasible, planting 
to Timothy and Red clover in the early 
Fall after the potatoes are dug. or is 
tnat too late for sowing Timothy? 
Boonton, N. J. F. E. N. 
It might be feasible, but it would not 
be as profitable as four years—which 
means cutting the grass two years. 
With early or medium late varieties of 
potatoes it would be possible to seed the 
grass and clover after the potatoes are 
dug. The grass would not make its best 
crop the first year, and it would be more 
profitable to let it stand one year more 
and then plow the sod for corn. We 
should not care to go to the expense of 
seeding for only one crop of grass. 
Splitting Rocks With Vinegar. 
Referring to your note on page 206. in 
regard to Hannibal’s method of splitting 
rocks, will say we believe he was theoret¬ 
ically correct in using vinegar instead 
of water. The theory of breaking a rock 
by this method is, of course, that the heat 
expands the stone. By suddenly cooling 
the outside, the surface is contracted 
while the center is still expanded and as 
the rock cannot stretch, it of necessity 
breaks. The most effective material for 
cooling the rock would be the one that 
would take the heat out from the outside 
the most rapidly. As vinegar is a bet¬ 
ter conductor of heat than water, it 
would be more efficient if, of course, cost 
was not considered. K. P. wkight. 
Pennsylvania. 
Oats and Peas for Hay 
Would the regular wrinkled garden pea, 
under ordinary conditions, be as good as 
the Canada field pea to plant with oats 
for a hay crop to feed horses? We al¬ 
ready have the peas and are having a 
hard time to get rid of them. Will the 
regular oats one buys at the mill do to 
plant? P. c. 
The garden peas will grow with the 
oats, the same as Canada peas, but they 
will not give as large a crop. We do not 
know what variety of peas you have. 
Some varieties grow only 18 inches or 
two feet high, while others grow so high 
that they have to be brushed to hold 
them off the ground. Varieties of the 
latter class would give a fair crop, but 
of course the dwarf kinds would be of 
very little value as fodder, and the Can¬ 
ada peas would give considerably more. 
Some of the large growing peas are well 
suited to this purpose, but as a rule they 
cost so much that it does not pay to buy 
them. 
Ashtabula County, Ohio.—Prospects 
are not encouraging for good wheat crop 
in this section of the State this year. 
Dry weather during March and freezing 
nights did much damage to the crop. 
There was considerable warm open weath¬ 
er during February, and during this 
month many maple sugar camps were 
opened. A large amount of sugar was 
made. Land has increased in value dur¬ 
ing the past year about 10 per cent. 
Farmers who several years ago bought 
land here from $25 to $40 an acre are 
refusing from $60 to $00 an acre for it. 
Farmers are planning a larger acreage of 
corn, this year, and the number of silos 
will probably be increased by 20 per cent. 
A number of miles of brick roads have 
been petitioned by farmers, and the sen¬ 
timent in favor of good roads is at 
the highest point in the history of the 
county. Weather conditions have been 
unfavorable to a peach crop along the 
lake shore, and growers consider pros¬ 
pects are ruined. Many farmers rely 
on the silo, and live stock is in good con¬ 
dition this Spring. There has not been 
an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 
the county. Country stores are paying 
from 24 to 28 cents for dairy butter, 16 
and 17 cents for eggs; hogs are bring¬ 
ing about 6 cents; veal calves 8% cents; 
hay from $15 to $18. The competition 
among the cheese factories and milk com¬ 
panies is quite keen. The Ohio and Pitts¬ 
burg Milk Company has made the farm¬ 
ers a proposition of 25 cents a hundred 
above average cheese quotations. This 
is for 3.5 milk, with 2 y 2 cents off for 
each point below this figure, no milk or 
whey returned. w. j. 
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