06 
Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 17, 1920 
As the New England Homestead of Dec. 
13th says: 
1 “Remember that there was never a time when a dollar 
intelligently invested in plant food would return as much to 
the farmer. The increased fertilizer cost, as reflected in 
terms of the money it will put back into farmer pockets, 
shows plant food actually cheaper than before the war.” . . 
“It is a sound proposition for farmers to use more ferti¬ 
lizer for 1920 than ever before; this, of course, in high grade ; 
brands selected wisely for the purpose they are to be used.” 
SEND FOR OUR 1920 YEAR BOOK 
Ask for the Agency for your Town 
A Lister Crop of Oats 
Listers Fertilizers 
Pay Better Now 
Than Ever Before 
LISTERS 
AGRICULTURAL 
CHEMICAL WORKS 
AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL CO, 
Newark, N. J., Portland, Me., Rochester and Utica, N. Y. 
Also BALTIMORE, MD. 
1 
of a 
You might be getting every year a half peck of 
wheat, 3 pecks of potatoes or 5 quarts of corn. 
No matter how green, tough, hard, big or deep- 
rooted the stumps may be, you can get them out 
quickly and cheaply with Atlas Farm Powder. 
"We blew out bie oak stumps easily with Atlas Farm Powder.” 
■writes Garacovc Farm, North East, Md. 
"I blasted the stumps on 160 acres with Atlas Farm Powder. The 
largest stumps were split to pieces easily,” writes Fred Lauehlin, 
Foster. Mo. 
Ask your dealer for Atlas Farm Powder when 
you have land to clear, trees to plant, etc. Our 
120-page illustrated book, “Better Farming with 
Atlas Farm Powder,” will tell you how simple 
and easy it is to do the blasting. You will find 
the book worth dollars to you. But the coupon 
or a post card will bring it. Write now—before 
you forget. 
ATLAS POWDER CO., Wilmington, Del. 
Pealcis everywhere. Magazine stocks near you. 
I 
ATLAS POWDER CO. 
Wilmington, Del. 
Send me "Belter Farming with Atlas 
Farm Powder.” I am interested in 
< xplosives for the purpose belore which 
1 mark “X.” 
□ Stump Blasting 
□ Boulder Blasting 
□ Subsoil Blasting 
□ Tree Planting 
□ Ditch Digging 
□ Road Making RN—5 
Name- 
|^^ddresa _ 
The Safest Explosive 
The Original Farm Powder 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
Insects Pests 
The Wheat-straw Mit© Attacking Man 
Can you advise me what to do in re¬ 
gard to “sticks” in wheat? “Sticks” is 
what the farmers call them up here; they 
are small insects, so small we very seldom 
see them, hut we often feel them when 
hauling in a stack of wheat. They attack 
us so badly that we are afraid to thrash 
for a few days. We cannot sleep the first 
night at least; the spots they leave on 
our bodies resemble mosquito bites. Can 
you advise me of something that we may 
be able to rub on our bodies and eyelids, 
as they seem to go to the eyes first? 
Stockton, N. J. w. L. 
When I read the foregoing letter the 
words of the Athenians to Paul when 
they first heard him expound the doc¬ 
trines of Christianity, “For thou bringest 
certain strange things to our ears,” came 
forcibly to mind. Surely human beings 
are subject to strange maladies and to 
the attacks of mysterious beasties. The 
Jersey mosquito and its bite seem to be 
outdone by this small and somewhat 
mysterious pest, the “sticker” that 
sticks. However, let’s be fair to the 
Jerseyites, for the trouble to which this 
letter refers was very prevalent in Ohio 
in 1908 and 1909, when harvest hands, 
thrashermen, workers in potteries and 
other laborers who handled wheat straw 
in that State suffered greatly. In 1909 
also an outbreak of the same trouble 
took place among some sailors on a pri¬ 
vate yacht anchored in the Delaware 
River in Philadelphia. An investigation 
of this case showed that these sailors 
slept on mattresses filled with straw ob¬ 
tained from New Jersey and Indiana. 
And now let’s see what caused the trou¬ 
ble, and how curiously one thing in nature 
leads to another and how one thing de¬ 
pends upon another. 
It has long been known that the stems 
of wheat in the field are subject to attack 
by an insect known as the “joint-worm.” 
This is a small wasp-like insect that lavs 
its eggs in the wheat stem, and the larva 
or “worm” lives in the straw near a 
joint, and causes an enlargement and 
weakening of the straw, so that an im¬ 
perfect head is produced and the grains 
remain small and shriveled. The joint- 
worm is a serious enemy of wheat. But 
like most other animals in the world the 
joint-worm has its troubles too, for it 
is attacked by multitudes of small mites 
which are scarcely visible to the unaided 
eye. The mite is a curious looking crea¬ 
ture when seen under the microscope. It 
has four pairs of hairy legs and a most 
efficient beak for puncturing or “sticking” 
the skin and sucking out the juices of 
the ill-fated joint-worm. Although this 
mite has never been given a common name 
we might very well call it the wheat- 
straw mite. Its scientific name, Pedicu- 
loides ventricosus, is certainly out of all 
proportion to the size of the mite. The 
joint-worm is more prevalent in the States 
of the Middle West than in the East. 
In New Jersey there is another insect, 
the Angumois grain moth, that is a pest 
of wheat and in former years, at least, 
the wheat-straw mites, when they occurred 
in New Jersey, were found living on the 
small caterpillars of this motli. The 
mites seem to thrive just as well on one 
insect as the other, so that it doesn’t mat¬ 
ter which pest is present on the wheat. 
In cither case the tiny mites seem to in¬ 
crease in enormous numbers, and when 
man comes on the scene to cut, stack and 
thrash the wheat the mites transfer their 
attention from the joint-worms and grain 
moth to him; and all account agree in 
saying that they are able to make life 
mighty miserable for this two-lejged, up¬ 
standing interloper. It’s a fim instance 
of the close inter-relationships of animals 
and plants and the incidental effect upon 
man. 
The presence of the mites on the human 
skin causes a severe eruption or as phy¬ 
sicians call it, dermatitis, that may cover 
the neck, chest, arms, back and legs. The 
eruption consists of red inflamed spots 
from the size of a pea to that of the finger 
nail. Itching is one of the first symptoms 
of the trouble, which becomes especially 
intense at night. In some cases the tem¬ 
perature of the individual rises, while iu 
other cases headache, nausea, and a mild 
for of diarrhcea may develop. 
From our knowledge of the habits of 
this small mite it is obvious that if the 
joint-worms and the Angou < is .'rain 
moth could be kept out of the fields of 
wheat the mites could not exist, for they 
would find no food to live upon. Iu the 
East, where the grain moth is present, 
it was found that if the grain was 
thrashed direct from the shock and not 
stacked or put in the barn there would he 
very few of the grain moths and conse¬ 
quently no mites. 
Where the mites are already present, 
however, different treatment is needed. 
Goldberger, a physician, who has had 
considerable experience with cases of in¬ 
festation by this mite, suggests that farm 
laborers who must work with infested 
wheat might protect themselves by anoint¬ 
ing the body freely with some agreeable 
oil or grease. Probably vaseline or zinc 
oxide ointment would serve as well as 
anything. Flowers of sulphur sprinkled 
or dusted freely on the body beneath the 
clothing, especially inside of the stockings, 
might aid greatly in keeping the mites 
from crawling on to the person. At least 
this method has proved very effective in 
case of the redbuge or chiggers, which are 
also mites that pester some people very 
much. GLENN W. HERRICK. 
—.- 
The Curculio Can Fly 
Is the curculio which stings the apples 
and makes them knotty a flying insect, or 
does it crawl up the trunk? I shall have 
to hand my trees with tanglefoot next 
year for protection against the gypsy 
moth, and wonder if it will also keep off 
the curculio. A. N. s. 
Unfortunately, the plum curculio has 
very well-developed wings, four of them, 
and can fly wherever it listeth. As a 
matter of fact, it comes out of its Winter 
hiding-place in the Spring and flies to the 
apple trees about the time the buds open, 
where it feeds sparingly for a time on 
the blossoms and tender leaves. As soon 
as the fruit is well set it begins to feed 
on the young apples, and to “sting” them 
by depositing eggs beneath the skin. It 
cannot , therefore, 6c controlled 6 ij band¬ 
ing, hut must be controlled by thorouL - 
spraying. 
I see no reason why the curculio and 
the gypsy moth cannot be effectively con¬ 
trolled at the same time by the applica¬ 
tion of poison sprays. In fact the control 
of the gypsy moth in orchards does not 
seem to be a difficult matter. The eggs 
of the moth are laid in July and August 
in light-brown masses about one inch 
long on the bark of the trunk and 
branches. They do not hatch until the 
next Spring and consequently can easily 
he found during the Fall and Winter at 
any time after the leaves drop. At this 
time the eggs can he killed by soaking 
the masses with coal-tar creosote to 
which a little lampblack has been added 
to mark the treated egg-clusters so that 
they need not be gone over again. The 
creosote is applied with a brush, and to 
reach distant egg-masses the brush may 
be tied to a pole. This work may be done 
at any time between September and the 
following April, and if the trees are 
thoroughly pruned in the Fall and the 
removed branches burned the work of 
coating the egg-masses will be made much 
easier and simpler. 
In the Spring, however, if some eggs 
have been missed and the caterpillars ap¬ 
pear, the trees should be thoroughly 
sprayed with arsenate of lead (paste) 
3 or 4 lbs. to 50 gallons of water, soon 
after the eggs hatch, and while the cater¬ 
pillars are small, because they are hard 
to kill when large. In general this appli¬ 
cation should be made just before the 
blossoms open and while they are pink 
in color. This is known to orchardists 
as the “pink spray.” Then after the 
blossoms fall another application should 
be made, using about 3 lbs. of arsenate 
of lead (paste) to 50 gallons of water. 
This is the chief codling moth spray. 
Finally a third application of the poison. 
2 1 / 4 lbs. to 50 gallons of water, should be 
made three weeks later. 
This schedule of spraying is the very 
best for an apple orchard, and it will con¬ 
trol the gypsy moth, the curculio, the 
codling moth, the cigar-case and pistol- 
case bearers, the bud moth and other 
biting insects that occur on apples at this 
season of the year, glenn w. hekrick. 
