’ 1438 
The RURAL NEW.YORKER 
September 11, 1920 
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Last week we printed some pictures 
showing the terrible work of the recent 
storm in Central New York. Now we 
print another picture on this page, here 
showing the total destruction of what 
was once a fine barn. The following plain 
and direct letter tells far better than we 
can the hard situation in which these 
storm-beaten farmers find themselves : 
For a good many years I have been a 
subscriber to The R. N.-Y., and have seen 
many questions answered through its col¬ 
umns. Now we are up against a propo¬ 
sition that is a hard one. Four weeks 
ago our county (Allegany) was hit by a 
tornado, the like of which was never 
heard of around here, covering a good 
many miles. Some farms lost every 
building, and from that down to only 
small losses. It came from the west, and 
covered in five or six strips nearly across 
the county, cleaning up several farms, 
then going high, again dropping, picking 
up a barn or house, then lifting again. 
Now the question is. can we farmers (on 
the shady side of 50) ever pay out if we 
borrow money to rebuild? We cannot 
farm it in this climate without good, 
warm barns (20 to 30 deg. below zero 
last Winter), and with lumber, nails and 
labor at almost prohibitive prices, a 35-cent 
dollar does not go very far. With our 
barns gone and the terrible weather of 
the last three weeks, our hay and grain 
are rotting in the fields. This Fall we 
shall be obliged to sell a good deal of our 
stock, as- we have not feed or room for 
them. Professional cow buyers have been 
around offering $25 a head for cows that 
we thought were worth and for which we 
have paid $100 a head. I will send you 
a card or two“showing how my barn looks. 
Of course, some other farmers lost more 
than I did • still this was my only barn, 
and it would cost nearly $3,000 to build 
as good a one now, to say nothing of 
ways. The plants are growing fine, but 
today I found that the whole field is in¬ 
fested with strawberry root-lice; the roots 
and crown are covered with them. Ig 
there any way to get the field clean of 
them? The plants are all growing well 
yet, but. I am afraid they will ruin the 
whole field. We have never had any 
strawberry root-lice here before, and I 
grew all the plants myself in the garden. 
The field is also full of small black ants! 
What can I do to control the lice? 
Northville, N. Y. e. t. 
The last sentence, “The field is also full 
of small black ants,'’ contains a story that 
would fill a good-sized book if all of the 
facts were told. The little dark-brown 
ant of which the correspondent speaks is 
certainly very largely responsible for the 
distribution of the lice throughout the 
field. These ants care for the lice very 
solicitously and tenderly from day to day. 
The ants make burrows in the soil along 
the roots of the plants, and then go up 
to the leaves and carry the young lice 
down and put them on the roots in the 
burrows in the soil. Here the young lice 
suck the juices from the tender roots, 
grow, multiply, and. above all, secrete 
many drops of sweet honeydew which the 
ants gather up for food. 
It is evident the ants are not caring 
for the lice froni a wholly unselfish point 
of view, but rather for what they can get 
out of the tiny creatures. It looks a 
little like graft, but it must be remem¬ 
bered that the lice are well taken care of, 
and put where they can get plenty of food 
and live a comfortable, easy life. It’s a 
sort of a mutual affair, in which both 
parties seem satisfied. When a straw¬ 
berry plant becomes crowded with aphids 
the ants carry them away to a fresh plant, 
and it is largely in this way that the 
whole field becomes infested. 
I suspect that the soil on which these 
plants are growing is sandy and loamy, 
for it is in such soil that the ants and 
A Storm-wrecked. Barn in Allegany County, V. Y. 
losses to orchard (50 trees), crops and 
SO on. SUBSCRIBER. 
Allegany Co., N. Y. 
The situation in that section will ap¬ 
peal to every farmer who reads this. An 
effort was made to have the taxes on this 
ruined property canceled for this year, 
but the following letter sent to the chair¬ 
man of the Allegany County Board of 
Assessors shows that this cannot be done: 
The State Tax Commission acknowl¬ 
edges receipt of your letter of August 9 
in relation to the assessment of property 
in your tax district which has recently 
been visited by a severe storm, destroying 
much property, and in reply you are ad¬ 
vised that this department regrets that 
it has not the power in any way to 
ameliorate the condition of the afflicted 
farmers. Since the date of the taxable 
status of property in the State of New 
York is fixed as of July 1, and no power 
is vested in this department to set aside 
the statutes as made and provided, the 
assessment of property as made by the 
assessors as of July 1 are in all respects 
valid as they relate to the year 1920. 
Very truly yours, 
STATE TAX COMMISSION, 
By DANIEL SPRATT, 
Acting Deputy Commissioner. 
These farmers find themselves up 
against a terrible problem with Summer 
gone and their barns, which are the fac¬ 
tories on a dairy farm, completely de¬ 
stroyed. If they are compelled to sell 
their cows they should at least receive 
full price for them. We would like to 
appeal to other dairymen who may be in 
need of good cattle to help see that these 
cows bring what they are worth. Is 
there not some way in which these af¬ 
flicted farmers can be helped to get on 
their feet once more? 
lice are usually most abundant. It may 
be that E. T. will have to give up growing 
strawberries on this soil, and he may have 
to put them on heavier laud, if it can be 
found on the farm. Strawberries do well, 
very well, on stiff clay soil, as I can dem¬ 
onstrate in my garden and my neighbor’s 
garden any day. 
I am at loss to know how the plants 
became infested with the root-louse, unless 
a few had been present on the plants in 
the garden, but were not noticed. In 
that case, of course, a few of them on the 
plants when set multiplied and were car¬ 
ried all through the field by the ants. I 
know of no way by which the lice may be 
destroyed. It is not practicable to treat 
the whole field with carbon bisulphide, 
and I am not at all sure that this ma¬ 
terial could be used in an effective way 
without injuring the plants. One grower 
reports using this material for white 
grubs that were destroying his plants. He 
made from one to three holes about three 
inches deep in the soil around each plant 
with a broomstick, taking care not to 
make any hole nearer than five inches 
from the crown of the plant. He then 
poured one-half of a teaspoonful of the 
liquid in each hole and quickly plugged 
up the opening with a clod of dirt. With 
our present knowledge of this insect we 
have no further suggestions to make re¬ 
garding its control. glen w. herricK. 
Injury from Painting Tree Trunks 
You print, on page 1351, a letter from 
II. A. D., Massachusetts, reporting injury 
from painting the trunks of fruit trees. I 
notice that the mixture used was made 
dark-colored with lamp black. It occurs 
to me that the injury reported may not 
have been due to the direct action of the 
paint on the tissue, but that the dark 
color of the paint may have indirectly 
brought about the Winter injury known 
as sunscald. You will find a similar case 
discussed in Cornell University Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station Bulletin 
only the material used was coal tar. 
Kansas. A - J - MIX> 
Strawberries. Lice and Ants 
Last May I plowed one-half acre of old 
meadow and set it out to strawberries. I 
set the plants two feet apart each way, 
and enltivatfi them once each week, both 
Lawyer: “You say your wife at¬ 
tacked you with a death-dealing weap¬ 
on. What was it?” Meek Little ^Man^ 
