Tit RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1791 
Before I forget it I would like to ask 
what experience you have had with late- 
hatched chickens. As I write, one of our 
Leghorn hens goes marching across _ the 
lawn with her brood of seven little chicks. 
She stole her nest and hatched nine 
chicks in late October. The hen is now 
molting and is half bare of feathers, yet 
she sticks to her brooding job with a per¬ 
sistence rare in a Leghorn. Are these 
chicks likely to live and do well? We 
have had little experience with such late 
starters before. They are hvely enough 
now, and seem to grow well, but there is 
a hard, cold Winter ahead of them. The 
human commuter’s life is hard en< j! u £ b > 
but when a Leghorn hen with half of hei 
feathers thrown out tries to give this soit 
of a continuous performance she seems to 
need help. _ H< w - c * 
Controlling Mealy Bug 
How can I rid my foliage plants of the 
white fungus, or what some people call 
tte S m"alf bVj It intake the stems 
and under side of the leaves g.e. c. 
Aneram Lead Mines, N. i • 
Mealv bug is not a fungus, but a small, 
scale-like insect disguised in a protective 
covering like a tuft of white wool. It 
is destroyed by contact insecticides, such 
as whale-oil soap solution, but it is aim- 
cult to get through the protective water¬ 
proof covering worn by the insect. On 
tender plants one may remove the in¬ 
sects with a brush dipped m soapsuds 
or ordinary house plants-may be plunged 
into the soapsuds, which will kill the 
voung insects, and remove many ot the 
adults. In the greenhouse it is P°s> blb J® 
to knock many of the inspects off the 
plants with a hard stream of water from 
the hose. Very often, in commercial es¬ 
tablishments. whale oil soap or nr tiee 
oil is used, the insects being rubbed off 
with a little sponge attached to a stick 
when infesting tender and valuable plants. 
It is very necessary to get rid of mealy 
bug. for‘it spreads rapidly, and is con¬ 
trolled with difficulty among soft-wooded 
plants in a greenhouse, so commercial 
florists make every effort to keep it out. 
Tender greenhouse climbers such as btepn- 
amotis. Cissus, Hoya (wax plant) or 
passion flower, afford harbors foi mealy 
bug that are difficult to reach, and are 
regarded as undesirable in consequence. 
House plants,- however, may be kept 
clean, if proper vigilance is observed. 
The Sale of Christmas Trees 
At this season of the year and earlier 
manv of our people write asking questions 
about the trade in Christmas trees. V ho 
sells them? How much do they bring, 
and how are they handled.' These Christ¬ 
mas trees are sold by commission men 
and some other dealers, very much as 
other farm goods are handled. I or a 
week or two before Christmas certain 
Streets of this big city are well decorated 
with these trees. Some of them are piled 
on the streets where they are unloaded 
from cars or floats, others are hauled 
to the stores and sold there. The larger 
trees have their branches tied up so as to 
prevent too much breakage and also to 
save room in shipment. Several commis¬ 
sion houses here have handled these trees 
for many years; the price will vary from 
vear to‘year, and it sometimes happens 
that many of these trees after Christ¬ 
mas are thrown away because of no sale. 
Shapely trees 20 feet high may bring 
$15 and fiom that price they run down 
to $1 for small trees suitable for a cele¬ 
bration in a sitting room. An embargo 
has been placed on trees in several lo¬ 
calities. This is to prevent introduction 
of tree diseases or insects. The Federal 
Horticultural Board, at Washington. I). 
C. has charge of this embargo. Some of 
our readers write evidently with the be¬ 
lief that there are great fortunes to be 
made in the sale of these Christmas trees. 
That is a mistake, however, for this crop 
varies in its returns the same as any 
other. One year there may be consider¬ 
able profit in it, while in the long run for 
a series of years, the shipper will do well 
if he obtains a small margin of profit. 
Increase of Strawberry Plants in Florida 
Mr. Babcock, on page 1077, reports the 
increase of a single strawberry plant, 
and asks: “Is this only a duplication of 
what strawberry plants have been known 
to do?” Under climatic conditions here, 
stock plants are set in April, and their 
progeny is dug up and set out during 
October and November to produce the 
crop. 
Last April I set 1,500 stock plants o0 
in. apart in 5 ft. rows. We have not yet 
finished planting, but the work is far 
enough advanced to indicate that the to¬ 
tal will be very close to 100.000 plants, 
or an average increase of 00 for each 
stock plant. Aside from those planted, 
there were over 10,000 plants discarded a- - 
too small. This is not exceptional, but a 
fair average as compared with plant beds 
I have had here in previous years, With¬ 
out doubt the increase per plant would 
have been much greater if more ample 
space had been allowed as much of the 
space was very much over-crowded. The 
varieties in this case were Brandywine 
and Missionary d. l. iiartman. 
Florida. 
□I 
□ 
Haul Your Stock to Market 
by Pneumatic Tire Equipped SELDEN TRUCKS 
and Cut Down the Shrinkage Loss 
* ' ' * ‘ *” ’ * lower of endurance to 
When you take cattle, hogs or sheep to market, 
you know how they always lose weight, due to 
Shrinkage which they undergo in the long, hard 
journey. 
This shrinkage amounts to a considerable loss 
to the stock raiser in a year. When hogs are 
driven to market on foot or by horse 
drawn wagon, for instance, the shrink¬ 
age loss is often about 6% or higher, 
while the loss in transporting by 
pneumatic tire equipped SELDEN 
TRUCKS could be reduced to but 
1% or less—a difference of about 
$25.00 per 10 hogs in many cases. 
This saving alone is sufficient to justify 
the installation of SELDEN TRUCKS. 
SELDEN TRUCKS are smooth in 
operation. They are massive in con¬ 
struction, powerful and speedy. They 
are built on sound engineering prin¬ 
ciples that furnish them with easy rid- 
1877 
The first gasoline motor pro¬ 
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world was a SELDEN. The 
present types of SELDEN 
TRUCKS are the product 
of continuous experimenta¬ 
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ence in manufacture since 
the day of their inception 
ing qualities and the p 
render economical and profitable service for 
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With pneumatic tire equipped SELDEN 
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and other perishable materials to their destina¬ 
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SELDEN TRUCKS increase the 
profits of farmer and stock raiser. 
SELDEN TRUCKS are built in 
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Ask the Selden Dealer in your locality to sho'w 
you the model SELDEN ‘TRUCK, best adapt¬ 
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one); or write us for whatever information 
you desire. 
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Motor 
’Erodes 
inq 
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“I want freedom of speech.” yelled the 
soapbox orator. “No, you don’t.” retorted 
the impulsive auditor. “You uever made 
a speech in your life without taking up a 
collection.”—Washington Star. 
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FOR YOUR SPARE TIME THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, Dept. “M,” 333 West 30th Street, N. r. 
