THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
747 
\v i t li 
has ex- 
the San 
Testing the Spray Material. 
In spraying tin* first time for scale my lime-sulphur 
solution tested six. Is that all right, or is it stronger 
than necessary? What should the solution for the sec¬ 
ond spraying test? Docs the arsenate of lead make it 
test different? Should it be tested before the lead is 
put in? I did not test the solution for the second spray 
last year, and I burned some foliage. b. b. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
F oil a strong mixture for the San Jose scale the 
dilute preparation of lime-sulphur solution 
should test about 4.5 degrees Beauine. To ob¬ 
tain a spray of this density one should dilute one 
gallon of the concentrated lime-sul- 
plnir solution testing .‘12 degrees 
Iteaume with eight gallons of water. 
With a density of six degrees Beaume 
for the diluted mixture the spray used 
by the inquirer is somewhat stronger 
than the preparations commonly ap¬ 
plied to fruit trees by our commercial 
growers to combat the San .Tose scale. 
There is no harm in applying a spray 
at this strength, and the only objection 
to such a practice is that there would 
be a more economical use of the con¬ 
centrate or stock material by making 
somewhat greater dilutions 
water. If the correspondent 
perienced difficulty in fighting 
Jose scale and he has finally succeeded 
by the use of strong mixtures in com¬ 
bating the pest, he should, however, go 
slowly in changing over to the employ¬ 
ment of weaker spraying preparations. 
The reading on the scale of the hy¬ 
drometer will be a trifle higher when 
arsenate of lead in the usual proportions is held in 
suspension in the lime-sulphur solution; but if the 
lead is allowed to settle the test will be about the 
same as for the dilute lime-sulpliur alone. The hy¬ 
drometer reading for lime-sulphur testing 32 deg. B. 
diluted with 40 parts of water is about one degree 
Beaume. In our spraying operations we determine 
the density of the stock material or concentrate and 
dilute with water according to the table of dilutions 
contained on the last page of Geneva Popular Bul¬ 
letin 329-330. 
Slight burning of apple foliage by 
cannot always be prevented. More¬ 
over. it is not entirely a matter of the 
strength of the preparation. To re¬ 
duce injuries make the proper dilutions 
and spray trees with the minimum 
amount of liquid to moisten the foli¬ 
age, refraining from the treatment of 
orchards as far as possible during very 
hot days or during periods of extreme 
heat. i*. j. parrott. 
Geneva (N. Y.) Exp. Sta. 
average rainfall this clover might be made into bay, 
but of course you realize that you will have better 
fruit if you clip the clover and leave it on the 
ground. 
“Farm Training” and Other Knowledge. 
T RUCKER, JR., is right when he says he “can¬ 
not afford to train men for his work,’* and 
“Accountant.” who has trained some for office 
help, thinks otherwise. If “Trucker” has not been 
studying closely and doing practical work for 10 
years he is not much of a trucker, so it is easv to 
The Connecticut Boy Hunters, Woodchucks and Turtles. Fig. 270. 
see how difficult it would be to train others at once. 
A tenderfoot in a garden is a calamity. We sent a 
good, willing fellow, who had cultivated corn in its 
early stages, into a l(!-acre field last Summer for 
the last plowing. The gangs were set to keep away 
from the roots and bang the soil over them. We 
wondered why it took him three days and why he 
thought it such hard work. lie had fought the gangs 
and cut off all the roots close up to the stalks. Then 
the Fall was dry and his $6 wages was counted on 
the loss side with 400 bushels of corn at 75 cents. 
Little 
man 
Clover in an Orchard. 
I have on this date growing in my ma¬ 
ture apple orchards a fine crop of clover. 
Work has been so pressing that I could 
not turn it under this Spring. What do 
you advise me to do with it? Could I 
turn in pigs and by feeding some addi¬ 
tional grain make a profit on it? Would 
you advise cutting it for hay? I know 
that cutting the crop in orchards and 
hauling it away is poor practice, but 
would it do any harm to do it now, 
where the remainder is going to be 
plowed under anyway? F. K. 
Peekskill, N. Y. 
A RE there any fruit buds on the 
trees this year? It will make 
some difference in treatment if 
the trees are not to bear this season. 
We should not hesitate to plow under 
the clover up to .Tune first if that 
seemed desirable. With such late plow¬ 
ing the soil should be rolled and packed 
firmly at once, and at least 1,000 
pounds of air-slaked lime used to the 
acre. While early Spring plowing of 
such clover is best we would not hesi¬ 
tate to plow late if we could not do 
the work earlier. A drove of active 
pigs would make good use of this clov¬ 
er. They should be fed some corn and 
middlings to “balance” the clover, and have free 
access to water, salt, charcoal or wood ashes and 
bone. Unless these are supplied the pigs will gnaw 
the tree trunks. They may do it anyway, in which 
case you must protect the trees by driving strong 
stakes about them. The trouble about cutting hay 
in an orchard is that farmers take away the hay 
and put nothing back. We cut the grass in several 
of our orchards and take it out as hay, but at once 
haul back all the manure on hand and scatter un¬ 
der the trees. We also plan to top-dress the grass 
in the orchard. Handled in this way with a fair 
lime-sulphur 
thin 
like 
this 
show 
to 
that 
the 
ITS 
go 
rCf 
a live man. It was no pleasure like the incessant 
fight with insect, animal and bacterial life, with 
plans for soils, seeds, tillage, grains, feeds, and care 
of several kinds of companionable animals, nor the 
growing of things for the table, training trees and 
multitudes of efforts during all seasons and in every 
kind of weather. There is no comparison between 
the work in an office and the discipline and hard¬ 
ships which develop strength in the fields. 
Talk about training a beginner in a garden or on 
a farm; I have worked 50 years learning and some¬ 
times think I am only ready to begin, while I can 
make a hand in trade easily. Think of 
training a hand to do what I did dur¬ 
ing my five hours today. I trimmed a 
lot of lambs, sorted Delaine sheep for 
wool, size and constitution and set two 
end posts. Other days have more va¬ 
riety and take more skill, and a be¬ 
ginner would be about as expert as a 
baby. I have been in the training busi¬ 
ness, and had a good many spectators 
while I or some one who knew did the 
work. Efficient farm work is a growth 
and comes only by close study and 
long practice, and life is too short for 
a man to train anyone unless it is his 
own boy who grows up at it. 
A farmer wears plain clothes and 
sometimes looks seedy, but you must 
never judge a man by his clothes. I 
met one in Southern Ohio under his 
shade tree. He had bare feet and 
head, was unwashed, unshaven and 
uncombed, and half clad with a flan¬ 
nel shirt and overalls. Ilis name had 
a high flavor from the Emerald Isle, and my thoughts 
from it and his looks were that I would get the best 
from Ireland, but he kept in the United States, and 
fascinated me with more botany, geology and agri¬ 
cultural chemistry than I had ever heard. A doctor, 
lawyer, office man, banker, etc., look trim and smart 
compared to a farmer, but any chump can learn so 
he will pass for places like theirs in a few years. 
The farmer knows a lot that few ever think of. He 
can handle more machines and tools dexterously, 
understands animals, seeds, grains, feeds, soils, 
fences, ditches, woods, buildings, waterworks, the 
relation of climate to each operation, 
etc., better than the man in any other 
vocation, and then he must know mar¬ 
kets at both ends, deal with every class 
of business and know nearly as much 
about each as the folks in it know, and 
to think that a tenderfoot from the 
city or a graduate of an agricultural 
or any other college can either go to 
work or be taught suddenly is the pre¬ 
rogative only of men who are not prac¬ 
tical farmers. 
For instance, how long will it take 
to teach him how to handle a spade 
dexterously in a ditch or lay tile in 
it, or to shear sheep or doctor foot rot, 
or train a colt or a tree, or to work 
horses to get the most from them and 
keep them happy, or do all the thou¬ 
sands of things necessary on a farm? 
The simple operations of manual labor 
may be mastered. A beginner can 
graduate from moving enough hay for 
a hen’s nest to gather a bunch with 
a fork and lay it against 
the load, and he will do 
the end of the harvest he 
to lay nice big forkfuls on 
the side of 
well, if at 
knows how 
top of the 
the 
are 
Orchard Spraying in 1950. Fig. 271. 
This represents a dream of the artist, who probably came in tired from working a hand pump, and 
well fumigated with lime-sulphur. He has the coming farmer sailing over the orchard in an air¬ 
ship, blowing the spray down upon the trees! A ridiculous thing you say. Yet go back 25 years, 
when the business of spraying was in the cradle, and see what your father would have said if 
some one had pictured our present spraying outlit. Twenty-five years ago we asked Prof. I. P. 
Roberts to give our artist a suggestion for a picture of "clean fruit for the future.” He made a 
sketch of a boy driving a flock of sheep into an orchard—as the best he could think of! 
works a farm needs to know more than office 
Give the editor unlimited editorial knowledge 
limited farm knowledge and good-bye II. N.-Y. 
man near the soil must know infinitely more 
any office man. Office work is a rut, and a 
who 
men. 
and 
The 
than 
man who has been in this rut can take a boy with a 
common school education and teach him how to 
stay in it. The writer started in without a teacher, 
and became sales manager in three years, with high- 
salaried men under him, and made it go without 
any loss from farm plans. There was some money 
in it, but not enough variety of thought to interest 
load, and so with every one of 
simple operations, while there 
many that take years of practice. 
This is written to show soil tillers 
that they are well fixed in knowledge. 
I am personally acquainted with thou¬ 
sands of them, and have associated 
with all other classes. If you will 
take the trouble to notice you will 
find that compared to the stock the 
farmer must have, the little all others 
have is deplorable. Most any farmer 
can walk into any business house, office, college, 
court house or capitol and feel that be carries a 
greater variety of more useful learning than any. 
not farmers, present. Any successful farmer can 
perambulate Washington, D. C., without apologies. 
Ohio. W. W. REYNOLDS. 
When a man must seek companionship in a dog is it 
a compliment to the dog or the reverse to the man? 
It 
first 
come back year after 
take as much as they 
seems that you take Summer boarders when they 
come to your house. You keep them when they 
year. They keep you busy and 
can get. 
