860 
co-operative association that keeps the reputation of 
its brand to the top will soon find itself short of 
apples to supply the demand, and the question of 
price will be largely what they ask rather than 
what the buyer has to offer. I would suggest that 
the purchaser of barreled apples which have gone 
into interstate shipment, and are found misbranded, 
notify the United States Department of Agriculture, 
Bureau of Chemistry, of the fact. This Bureau lias 
the enforcement of the Federal laws relative to the 
misbranding of food products going into interstate 
trade, and in one instance at least has taken up the 
question of the misbranding of a package of apples 
and assessed an adequate fine. R. n. van buben. 
Suggestions for New York Laws 
CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGES NEEDED.—At the 
recent session of the State Grange resolutions were 
passed for the election of district school superintend¬ 
ents by popular vote, and for a study of the rural 
Apple King David. Fig. 23/ f . (See page 875) 
school question and preparation of a plan to be con¬ 
sidered at the next session. The awakening of in¬ 
terest in rural schools thus shown is encouraging. 
The false step made in adopting the abominable 
township system in 1017 was stopped by its repeal 
tlie next year. But that was not a solution of the 
problem. Some constructive changes were and are 
needed. The repeal of the township law showed that 
the people wish the district, with control by the 
school electors, continued as the unit in the school 
system. 
EQUALIZATION OF TAXES—First among the 
needed reforms is proper equalization of the school 
taxes laid on public utilities. There is no justice in 
having the district in which the utility happens to 
be located absorb all the taxes on it, and thus relieve 
the other property in that district, either entirely or 
in great degree of taxes for school purposes. The 
ideal method would be to have all such taxes remit¬ 
ted to the State Department and distributed to the 
schools according to the needs of such district. A 
district that can maintain a proper school by' a 
proper tax rate should receive no public money. The 
district with a small assessed valuation and slight 
resources should have the money it raises by a proper 
tax rate supplemented from the public moneys with 
sufficient to provide a proper school in that district. 
DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS.—As to electing 
district superintendents, it may be that popular vote 
is not the best method. The present method, how¬ 
ever, could easily be improved. The great fault of it 
is that the superintendent feels and has no respon¬ 
sibility to the body that elected him, and such body 
is without power or control over him. lie becomes 
a part of the State Department and its agent in car¬ 
rying out its policies. If the number of so-called 
school directors of a town was reduced to one, and 
such one director given some power of supervision 
and direction over school matters in his town, a de¬ 
sirable amount of co-ordination and co-operation 
could be realized. Such director could make collec¬ 
tive purchases of supplies at favorable rates and rep¬ 
resent the school interests of the town as a whole 
without destroying local administration by the dis¬ 
trict trustees and the district school meeting. lie 
could promote a sound and normal public sentiment 
for improvement and apply the requisite pressure to 
bring any backward district up to standard. The 
school directors of the towns in a superintendent’s 
district could meet and organize as a board of school 
directors of that district, with such powers as seem 
desirable, one of them being the election of the dis¬ 
trict superintendent. This board should continue its 
organization with periodical meetings at which gen¬ 
eral School matters could be considered; to it the 
district superintendent should report, and to it he 
Me RURAL NEW-YORKER 
should be responsible. It should have the power to 
remove him in case he does not interpret properly 
the school policy of the board so far as it could pre¬ 
scribe such a policy. The district superintendent 
could at the same time be tlie medium of the State 
Department in reaching the district board of direc¬ 
tors and 'in dealing with the school trustees and unit 
districts. There is a proper zone within which the 
State Department should act. and there is a proper 
zone in which the sentiment, of the unit district 
should control. It seems not difficult to prescribe a 
third zone in which a district board of school direc¬ 
tors could render beneficial services; likewise a town 
school director within the town. 
A BUSINESS-LIKE PLAN.—Of course this plan 
would mean a small amount in salaries for the school 
directors. They should be elected in the year when 
the town officers are not chosen, thus keeping them 
free from political combinations in some degree. 
The system would be analogous to that now used in 
looking after the general affairs of a town which is 
done by the supervisors, and to the board of super¬ 
visors which represents the entire county. The 
school director might well be chosen by the school 
trustees of the districts in a town. 
THE PEOPLE IN CONTROL.—These are simply 
some suggestions submitted for what they are worth, 
and to draw out criticisms and other suggestions 
from your readers. Of course the present system of 
consolidation cannot be tolerated. The people should 
control the policy of consolidation. This and other 
schemes for rural school management should not be 
the work of arm-chair officials, but should represent 
the deliberate, well-considered thought of the people 
who must send their children to school under the 
system. The things desired are the best results for 
the children, with the greatest convenience for pa¬ 
rents and children, a tolerable and equable rate of 
taxation, home rule in the fundamental features of 
any plan, a uniform standard of excellence in all 
districts and a preservation of the traditions of the 
district school which experience has shown to be 
valual.e. james g. gkeene. 
Poisoning the Corn Ear Worm 
I have grown sweet corn for many years, but never 
until year before last found any worms getting into the 
ears. I raised last year Golden Bantam and Stowell’s 
The King Road Drag. Fig. 235. (Sec page 861) 
Evergreen. No worms in the Golden Bantam, but quite 
a good many in the Evergreen. There was much smut 
in the Bantam; the cause of it I attributed to the 
excessively wet weather prevailing last season. I cer¬ 
tainly would change ground this season if I could, but 
cannot do so. I have grown corn upon the same ground 
for past three years. The soil, a rich, sandy loam, is 
in good shape. 1 have used a liberal quantity of yard 
manure each season, but no commercial fertilizer. Would 
it be well to omit stable manure and apply some fer¬ 
tilizer instead this Spring? I limed the ground last 
season for the first time. Can you tell how or when 
the worms got into the ears? n. c. F. 
Long Island. 
X PER IM ENTS made in New Jersey in the 
year 1912 show: 
1. That when the poisonous dust is properly 
placed on the corn silks and maintained throughout 
the period during which the silks are green and 
succulent more than 75 per cent of the normal 
damage is prevented. 
2. That any machine which distributes the dust 
in such a fashion as to produce only a light coating 
on exposed parts of the silk is of little or no value 
in corn ear-worm control. 
3. That the dust must be maintained throughout 
the period during which the silks are green and suc¬ 
culent. 
4. That the 50 per cent mixture is the most effi¬ 
cient, because its physical condition is better than 
75 per cent and has more strength than the weaker 
mixture. The work of McCulloch in the State of 
Kansas bears out in a general way the above con¬ 
clusions, but his tests on strength of mixture indi¬ 
cated that 63 per cent is the optimum. 
Since the work above recorded a number of demon¬ 
stration plots of sweet corn have been tested, and 
wherever the infestation has been serious the result- 
May 1, 1320 
ing control has been approximately that which is 
indicated in the preceding paragraph. Two factors 
appear to underlie successful treatment of sweet, 
corn for control of the ear-worm: 
1. The poisonous material must be placed upon 
the upturned silks in a little pile, so that as the silks 
grow it will sift down among them and poison the 
little worms at the point where they begin feeding. 
2. This pile of poisonous material must be main¬ 
tained from the first appearance of the silks until 
they dry up. or the corn is cut for market. This 
usually requires three treatments of the material 
applied with a cheesecloth or tin can sifter. 
It is impossible to say. at this time of year, 
whether the ear-worm will be seriously troublesome 
or not, and it is impossible to say, granting that the 
worm will be present, just what part of the season 
will show a bad infestation. The only way in which 
the need for treatment can be accurately determined 
is found in that close observation which shows the 
presence of eggs of this insect upon the silk. It is 
quite possible that the Farm Demonstration Agent 
could teach the growers of sweet corn to recognize 
the eggs and to determine whether the treatment is 
desirable or not. If the silks show no eggs there is 
little or no reason for making treatments. 
Other things being equal, early-planted sweet corn 
is likely to show less injury than that which is 
planted late, but sometimes early-planted sweet corr 
will show as much as or more'injury than that which 
is planted late. This sort of exception is due to the 
fact that the early crop comes into silk just as a 
brood of moths are on the wing, and consequently 
leaves a heavy deposition of eggs. Later planted 
crops may come into silk just after this brood of 
moths has disappeared and may be slightly if at all 
infested as a result of that fact. 
The material recommended is a machine-made 
mixture of powdered arsenate of lead and sulphur. 
We have found the mixture composed of one part of 
sulphur and one part of powdered arsenate of lead 
the most efficient of those which we have tried, and 
Mr. McColloch has found that a mixture composed 
of 63 parts of powdered arsenate of lead to 37 parts 
of sulphur gave the best results in the State of 
Kansas. thomas j iieadi.ee. 
New Jersey State Entomologist. 
Snow Plows for Automobiles 
F IG. 236 shows a new type of auto snow plow, 
invented by Mr. Claude C. Hyde of Orange Co., 
N. Y. As we see, there are three plows, all adjust¬ 
able. and the side plows are fitted on runners which 
keep them from digging into the roadbed. They are 
also fitted with spiral springs, which permit them 
to pass over obstacles and rough places. Thus it is 
possible to travel at good speed while the snow is 
being plowed out. The center plow can be raised or 
lowered to clear more or less snow from the center, 
as desired. 
Still another reader in Northern New York says 
he lias a successful model of a machine which takes 
power from the auto engine, and whirls a set of 
blades in front of the car, so the snow is thrown out 
An Auto Snow Plow. Fig. 236 
at the sides. The past Winter made the need of 
some sort of auto plow very evident, and it must 
come. 
A number of readers ask what we think of using 
shell marl or ground limestone. These forms of lime an 
very useful when clover or other cover crops are used 
for green manuring, but we have had no great results 
from lime on the trees. We think the apple, or at least 
most varieties, will do best on a slightly acid soil. Un 
less the soil is very sour we would not use lime except 
to start clover. Nitrogen and phosphorus are far more 
necessary. 
