452 
understand the husinoss in sellinj;, nor the demands 
of eons\iincrs. Tliey liavo constant and increasing 
demand niion tlieir thought, rime aJid energy to 
meet the many ]ir(»ldems that confront them in their 
woi'k of in-odnction in cultured metliods. In jirnn- 
ing. in use of fertilizer, as yet inad(><inately under¬ 
stood. in the control of innnmerahh^ insect i>ests 
which re(i\iire eternal vigilanoe ;ind large linancial 
Corky Scab of the Potato.'Fij?. 187. See Hope Farm Notes, Page 462 
outlay for spr.aying tMinipment iind ettstly eheniicals, 
in the increasing nece.ssity for prott'otion from frost 
injury, also involving the nec(‘ssity for greater 
knowledge of the means to Ik* einidoyed before mak¬ 
ing large exitenditnre of money for this purpose, in 
addition t<t other deni:in<ls th.at are constant upon 
their time,in tlie processes of i»rodnction. At this 
jioint. the Exchange eomes in to aid the grow(*rs 
at tin* nnirketing end of their business, to realize 
the ht'st valn<‘ that may Ix' ohtaimxl for their pro¬ 
ducts. For this jinrposc* the Exchange has .-in (or¬ 
ganization that for coinphoteness and ellicicmc.v in 
carrying out a selling system for the producer at 
the h*ast cost, while at the same time aiding the 
.selling ageiuw in handling the ])rodnct witli greater 
economy, and with a lessened cost to the ultimate 
consumer, is niuxinah^d by any known Inisiness 
corporation. 
THE nUSINESS OUCANIZATION.—'I'lie Ex- 
clnuige with a hnsim^ss oltic(‘ in Eos Angeles has a 
large staff of trained men as active heads of sev¬ 
eral depa rtnnmts, as lemon sales, (orange sales, traf¬ 
fic, field, advertising, insnnuuv, snjoplies and a l(‘gal 
(hpijirtnient. K(‘gnlar we(‘kly meetings are held by 
fhe hoard of 17 directors at which the heads of the 
departments nnike W(‘ekly reports upon their work. 
At these UK'tdings the joacking house managers and 
many growou's, ofEni hetw(Mni 100 and 200, are itres- 
ent. to listen to the very full ivjKorts iind discus¬ 
sions that are given. onom^K t. powkix. 
(To Ik* c(»ntinned.l 
A Homemade Automobile Power Sprayer 
A MAN needs to he considerable of a mechanic to 
assemble a ])ower spra.yer, and it r(*(inires con¬ 
siderable nu'chanical ability to keei) one nj) in i-e- 
pair. My first pctwer si)rayer was a horse-drawn 
Itotato spra.yer for w-hich I jaiid $5 secoii'l-hand. It 
was sold because it was no good (?E I imrclnised 
a two-hoi’sepower two-cycle marine engine, which 
the owner had discard(*d. lie said it was no good 
.•ind would not run. Hy making some changes in 
the sprayer and mounting the marine engine on it, 
to drive the pump, I had a light and very satisfac¬ 
tory j)Ower si)rayer. The only x)bj('ction was the 
small caiKtcily (»f the tank, (>(• gallons. 
In 11)12 I ]nit together my jtn'sent sprayer. I 
used the same marine engine to drive a single-acting, 
duplex pump, 200-gallon tank with two galvanized 
iron propellers, for agitators; they are of nu'dinm 
jiitch, mounted on a shaft in taidi, and the.y certain¬ 
ly agitate. This outfit was used on a tram wagon. 
In 1914 I bought an automobile, mounted the 
sprayer on it and have used this outfit for two sea¬ 
sons. This is the fir.st autonudnle jmwer sprayer of 
which I have knowledge. 1 spray commercially for 
a distance of about 2S miles east and west. There 
is not much north or south to it, as the north foi'k 
of the island is (luite narrow in this vicinit.v. I 
find a great advantage in the automobile outfit. 
With the team it re(piired a good half day to go 
and come from the farthest imint.s, with no income 
from two men and the outfit for that time. We had 
to put up the team at a livery or some other place 
and pay carfare to and from the various points, be¬ 
sides getting to work late and (putting early in or¬ 
der to make train connections and take proper care 
of team. 
With the present outfit we go and come in an 
hour or so and work as long as we please. There 
are no very large orchard.s, and some can he reached 
from the highway. 1 can go almost anywhere and 
have no trouble in getting through my own or- 
She RURAL NEW-YORKER 
chard in cultivated ground. We use 2o(» ft. of -^.s-in. 
hose Avith one angle nozzle and pole of varying 
lengths to suit the work, u.suall.v eight or 12 ft. 
We s])ray from the ground and always ujiward 
against the wind. If the h'c side of twigs and 
branches are coveivd. usually enough will blow 
hack to cover the windward side, except on the 
trunk or larger br.-iuches. In sjtra.ving (‘1ms. we 
.sometimes use MbO f(*et of hose and of cour.se one 
man with the i)()le goes in the trees, sometimes as 
high as 70 or SO feet. 
In the orchard one man handles tin* ixde and 
the other looks after the machine and handles the 
hose for the man with the ]xde. P.y having a long 
ho.se there are very few .shifts to be made and lh(*y 
are made without interrupting the s])raying. We 
have spra.ved seven aci’cs of mature trees, four of 
ai)ples and thive of jiear.s, in about 15 hours, going 
.short distance for wiiter and filling tank with jtails 
from a bucket ])uni)i. At home we till from irri.ga- 
tion ])iix‘s in the orchard. AVe start on the h'e side 
of tive jind work to windward and thus avoid any 
drip from getting into the e.ve.s. 
AVhen not .spraying I u.se the car as a delivery 
and general lairjjo.se car about the place. Can dis¬ 
mount si»rayer and mount body in half an hour. 
Long Island. Nat k. hootit. 
A New Phase of the Lime Question 
N the South, especi:ill.y in North Farolina. the 
managers of (he St.-ite Hoard of Agricultun* are 
trying to persuade the farmers that they can make 
Sweet Potatoes Bedded in Sand. Fig. 188. See Page 453 
a clu!a]> fertilizer with a mixture of 1,000 jtounds 
of ground limestone or marl, (100 ixninds of c(ttton- 
seed meal and 400 pounds of acid phosphate to make 
a ton, and they have roundly censured me for ad¬ 
vising the farmers to do no such thing. All admit 
the essential value of lime in vegetation, and its 
effects' on the character and physical condition of 
soils. It is ofttui said that a limestone .section is 
a fertile one. This is not ahvays because of the 
lime, for much so-called limestone soil is mainly 
a fertile alluvial deposit on limestone formed in the 
ancient lak(‘, and really has little i-elation to the 
rock lx*low. In fact, farmers in the limestone val- 
l(*ys Iind that applications of lime have as good (Ef¬ 
fect as on non-limestone soils. The farmer Avho 
farms in a good rotation of crop.s, grows and uses 
the legume croi)s, either as manure direct, or as 
food for stock, and returns the manure will Iind 
that liming the soil once in six ycmrs will greatly 
l)romote its i)roductive character. 
'There is a general effort now, as there was in 
England a hundred years ago, to i)ersuade the far¬ 
mers that the only proper form of lime is the raw 
ground lime rock, the natural carbonate. Doubtless 
this material when linely ground, so that the larger 
l)art of it will iiass a 100-mesh screen, is valuable, 
if used in double the amount of water-slaked, burnt 
lime. If, therefore, a farmer can get and apply a 
ton of this material as cheaply as he can get and 
apply 1,000 ixninds of the hydrated lime, he can use 
the limestone. Then we are told that the objection 
to the burnt lime is its caustic character burning up 
the humu.s. Now there may be a little caustic 
character in well water-slaked lime, but it very 
rapidly changes to a carbonate in the soil, and its 
presence does promote the nitritication of the or- 
gjuiic matter in the soil, and that is what we want 
it to do. It is the duty of the farmer to maintain 
and increase this organic matter. 
It is claimed that slaked lime Avill release potash 
Mar<'h 24. T.I17 
in a soil abounding in Ibis material in an in.soluble 
form, but has it ever been proven that the ground 
rock will have this eff(^ct? Has it ever been proven 
that like the water-slaked lime, the ground rock 
will flocculate a clay soil and make it more mellow, 
or make a sandy soil more compact and retentive of 
moisture? 
Then to return to the fertilizer mixture. Since 
(he effect of lime is to promote the nitrification of 
organic matter, the lime mixed with material con¬ 
taining oi^anic nitrogen like cottonseed meal, will 
scxui free ammonia, and that will be lost. Tlten it 
will revert the phosphoric acid and make it le.ss 
available. Hut they claim that it will i)revent the 
formation of more insoluble forms in the .soil. This 
being true, then the general liming of the soil in 
its i)re]»arati()n in i)roper amount would be far bet¬ 
ter than mixing the lime in the fertilizer. They 
claim that the liiiu* noplaces potash. It can only 
do this through the release of insoluble potash in 
the soil, and the g(>neral and liberal liming of the 
soil would do this far better. And yet the Southern 
farmers are being told that the above mixture is .-i 
cheap fertilizer. Of course it costs less than a ton 
made up of ]>roper plant food, but it would subj(*ct 
the farmer to loss in its use. All the benefit that 
could be derived from the mixture would be had iu 
a larger amount by the previous liming of the whole 
land in proper amount. And what form of lime 
a farmer should use will depend on the cost of the 
material applied. Tame by all means, but never 
mix lime in any form with commercial fertilizing 
materials. w. F. massky. 
The Fight Against Quack Grass 
O F all our common farm weeds quack (or witch 
or twitch ) gra.ss seems to be the most hated. 
'I'his ])est is everywhere. It has put 10,000 acres 
out of profitable culture in South Dakota, and 
about as many more in New England. Our scien¬ 
tific friends have fired a dozen bulletins at it—and 
yet it gains on the farmer. The late.st bulletin is 
No. 170 of the South Dakota Station at Hrookings. 
This giv(*s a picture of the grass ((‘opied at Fig. 
1.S9) which shows Avhy it is so hard to fight. XeAV 
plants are sent vip from the I'ootstocks—it spreads 
underground so that it cannot be destroyed like 
some other plants b.v preventing the seed from de- 
A’clojiing. The theory of killing it out is stated in 
this bulletin as folloAvs: 
Any method intemb'd to kill this troublesome pest 
will include, fir.st, some metluxl of procedure Avhieli 
will piTA’ent to the largest extent the growth of leave.s. 
for the reason that the rootstocks are dependent for 
their growth upon the material absorbed by the roots 
and elaborated in the leaves in combination Avith the 
material Avhich the leav'es draw from the air. Thus by' 
limiting development of the top in any way the amount 
of growth of underground stems is thereby limited. 
The second factor which any method of eradication 
should include is the turning up of the rootstocks at 
such a time or season Avhen they Avill be most likely to 
be desiccated and killed by the action of the sun. 
Like most otlu^r true theories this one is hard to 
Avork out. Many of our readers have told how they 
did it by keeping it pastured down by sheep, by 
giving up a year to thorough harroAviug, or by soav- 
ing some smothering crop like buckwheat, but it is 
a job at best In garden culture the plants can be 
dug up and burued, or where the grass is in patches 
tarred paper is laid on the soil oati* these patches 
and kept dOAvn Avith stones. 
