778 
ADVANTAGES OF OWNING SPRAYER.—From 
the standpoint of efficiency the best method for a 
grower, where he has acreage enough, is to own his 
machine. He can then spray to advantage at the 
most opportune times. A man does not have to have 
10 acres or more to afford a machine. Growers of 
five or even three acres could pay for a machine in 
two or three average years, if not in the first year. 
The next best method is for two or three growers to 
purchase a machine together, and, lastly, the com¬ 
munity potato spraying association, where growers 
of one or more acres can join together to have their 
spraying done. There are those who say that spray¬ 
ing can only he done by the expert, that few can 
afford the price of a good machine, that the average 
person cannot make up the spray material, etc.: hut 
where there is a will there is a way. and the way 
i« made easy to obtain with the Farm Bureaus and 
Agricultural Extension force of the State to help 
those that desire it. 
BEST TYPE OF MACHINE.—The kind of machine 
used is a big factor towards thorough work. During 
the past few years rapid strides have been made by 
manufacturers in improving spray machinery. The 
spray machine that will spray from four to six rows 
using one nozzle to the row and applying 40 to 50 
gallons of spray solution per acre at a pressure of 
75 to 100 pounds is obsolete. The best results cannot 
be obtained with such a machine. The only thing 
to recommend it is the price, and at that it is an 
expensive machine when one compares the result 
obtainable by one of the better and higher priced 
sprayers. 
TRACTION SPRAYERS.—At the present time the 
best types of machines are the traction sprayers 
equipped with triplex pumps. These up-to-date 
sprayers will maintain a pressure of around 200 
pounds at all times, and will spray four rows at a 
time, using three nozzles to each row, or six row’s 
using two nozzles to each row. With this equipment 
from 100 to 125 gallons of spray solution can be 
applied per acre, and a thorough job done. A very 
satisfactory type of spray boom, especially for the 
early applications and for spraying the under sides 
of the leaves, particularly for plant lice and leaf 
hopper, is shown in operation in Fig. 300. This is 
known as the drop nozzle type of spray boom. It 
sprays four rows at a time, using three nozzles to 
the row, one nozzle above and one nozzle on each 
side, thereby spraying not only the top, but both 
sides. The nozzles between the rows can be turned 
up a little if necessary, and will do a very good job 
in coating the under side of the foliage. When the 
plants get nearly full grown and it is not necessary 
to spray for plant lice, a modification of this boom 
as shown in Fig. 302 is very satisfactory. In this 
case all three nozzles spray down onto the row, but 
the two outside nozzles spray at an angle to the 
row, getting better covering of the foliage and deeper 
penetration. 
PRESSURE IMPORTANT.—The pressure of 200 
pounds breaks the spray up into a fine mist, which 
not only thoroughly covers the foliage, but sifts 
through the plant and covers the stalk, branches and 
to some extent the underside of the foliage. The 
pressure is very important, as anything under 150 
pounds will not make a very fine mist, and as a re¬ 
sult the foliage is sprinkled instead of sprayed, a 
common practice with the old type machines. Some 
purchase a duplex pump machine instead of one 
equipped with a triplex pump because it is a little 
cheaper. However, a duplex pump cannot maintain 
better than 150 pounds pressure with the above type 
booms without crowding the team. The triplex 
pump sprayers run much smoother and furnish 
ample pressure easily. It is necessary to renew the 
disks in the spray nozzles quite often, as the opening 
rapidly wears larger, so that instead of applying 100 
gallons to the acre one will be applying 125 to 150 
gallons per acre. No. 3 or zero disks are satisfactory 
•where using three nozzles to the row. A type of 
sprayer used by some large growers is equipped with 
an engine to run the pump. This machine has many 
advantages. There is always a continuous pressure 
at all times, especially when turning around at the 
ends of the fields or when starting up in the middle 
of the field after a stop. The engine releases the 
team of that extra draft, and more ground can be 
covered. The expense of this type of machine, how¬ 
ever, puts it beyond the small grower’s reach. 
WHAT TO SPRAY WITH.—This is an important 
question, having many sides and angles, especially 
since the market is flooded with commercial mix¬ 
ture^ each agent of which will claim the super- 
i'oritjB^his brand over every other. There are three 
class^^BLmaterial needed: an arsenic of some kind 
to con^^^^he chewing insects, like the Colorado 
potato spray that will kill by contact such 
•Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
insects as the plant lice, and a fungicide that will 
prevent such fungus diseases as late blight, etc. For 
chewing insects probably arsenate of lend in a paste 
or powder form is about as commonly used as any. 
The rate usually recommended is 2 pounds of powder 
to 50 gallons of solution. This amount is undoubt¬ 
edly necessary when using the old type machines, 
which do not apply more than 50 gallons of solution 
per acre. I have found 2 pounds of powder to 100 
gallons of solution ample where applying 100 gallons 
or more per acre. If one applies powdered arsenate 
of lead at the rate of two pounds to the acre, so 
that the plants are thoroughly coated, there need be 
no worry from potato bugs. For plant lice, leaf 
hoppers, etc., one of the nicotine sprays is used. 
Black Leaf 40 is the most common, and is used at 
the rate of one pint to 100 gallons of solution. For 
the control of fungus diseases there is just one 
preparation that is satisfactory, and that is Bor¬ 
deaux mixture, which is made up of copper sulphate 
and lump or hydrated lime. This is usually made 
up according to the 4-4-50 formula for the earliest 
sprayings; that is, 4 pounds of copper sulphate and 
4 pounds of lime to 50 gallons of water. Many 
growers increase this to a 5-5 or 0-6-50 formula for 
the later sprays, when the weather and season is 
more favorable for late blight development. 
DON D. WARD. 
(Continued Next Week) 
The Trouble Over Lard Substitutes 
F OR years the big packing interests have been 
placing upon the market a substitute, so-called, 
for butter. As has been shown, this is only a cheap 
imitation, and does not contain those vital constitu¬ 
ents essential to normal body growth and develop¬ 
ment. Not only would parties interested in the man¬ 
ufacture of oleo lead one to believe it to he a substi¬ 
tute for butter, but they have resorted to about every 
available means to secure legislation to enable them 
to sell it not only as a substitute for real butter, but 
to sell it as butter itself. But all this has been known 
and widely discussed for years. 
It is true that about every good thing is sooner or 
later imitated. The packers have tried to imitate 
butter by substituting, wholly or in part, cheaper 
animal fats in the manufacture of their product. 
Now these imitators are being imitated, and what a 
howl they are setting up. When the dairymen com¬ 
plained of the competition of the oleo makers, the 
latter only laughed; yes, even sneered. Everyone is 
familiar with their line of argument, which, by the 
way, has convinced thousands of dairymen of its 
soundness to the extent of inducing them to use oleo 
upon their own tables. 
The war created a huge export demand for lard, 
and prices soared. Even by paying unheard-of prices 
for lard the American buyer was not always able to 
supply his wants. This led to the manufacturing of 
substitutes for lard. As long as the packers could 
sell all their lard at a good profit they were little 
worried about these substitutes. The effect of plac¬ 
ing these substitutes upon the market was to supply 
a demand for shortening and to keep the price from 
going higher than it did. and to creat an increased 
market for vegetable oils, from which these lard sub¬ 
stitutes were made. So great was the demand for 
vegetable oils for this and other purposes that vast 
quantities were imported. When the demand for 
lard fell off the packers found themselves facing the 
same situation that has for years faced the dairy¬ 
man; that is, a competing product that was selling 
at a lower price, and which was selling in such large 
quantities as to make great inroads into their trade. 
Forgetting, or assuming the public had forgotten, the 
vast sums of money expended in various ways to 
exploit oleo. these men are now whining about the 
methods used to induce the public to buy lard sub¬ 
stitutes. To use their own language: “Many mil¬ 
lions of dollars were spent in advertising those sub¬ 
stitutes for lard, and the campaign went on until if 
virtually became an anti-lard crusade.” Who would 
think that even a packer would have the effrontery 
to make such a statment publicly? Mr. Packer did 
not kill the dairy industry outright simply because 
his efforts along that line did not quite yield the re¬ 
sults he evidently hoped for. Now that the lard sub¬ 
stitute is at his throat the packer is appealing to the 
very interests he tried to kill to help him. It is evi¬ 
dent that the placing upon the market of ‘. r( rd sub¬ 
stitutes has not only cut down the demand cor lard, 
but is compelling the packer to fight for wh ; trade 
he has and to operate upon a closer margin than be¬ 
fore, all of which is supposed to be foreign to his 
methods. 
Contained in this whine it is implied that, so far 
June 4, 1921 
as possible, he does not intend to stand any more loss 
than is absolutely necessary, but will pass this on 
down to the hog grower-. To make the usual profit 
upon his investment the packer will have to operate 
upon a higher margin because his volume of business 
in lard has shrunken. We infer from what the 
packer says that he will proceed about as follows to 
see that he does not have to share the losses with the 
producer: The prices of other pork products will be 
boosted to the highest point the public will stand, 
and, if there is still any shortage in the income, the 
price of hogs to the grower will be cut. It is safe to 
assume, however, that the packer will anticipate this 
shortage and cut the price of hogs at the start. Any 
way you figure it. it is evident that the packer will 
not soon file a petition in bankruptcy. 
As stated, the manufacture of lard substitutes re¬ 
quired vast quantities of vegetable oils. So great 
w-as this demand that prices for cottonseed and pea- 
^nut oils reached unprecedented levels, which led to 
• the importation of huge quantities of these. These 
imported oils, together with the lessened demand, 
caused the price of cottonseed and peanuts to fall 
below the cost of production. White Spanish peanuts 
that had sold for $200 per ton went down to $30. 
with no buyers except speculators. Cottonseed 
brought scarcely enough to pay for ginning, baling 
and ties. Last October, before prices reached the 
lower levels, the oil mills were offering $16 per ton 
for seed, from which they extracted the oil, resold 
the hulls at $16 and the meal at $50 per ton. I sup¬ 
pose they sold the oil to secure a profit upon the 
transaction. It is estimated that the cotton crop of 
Alabama cost the growers 42 cents per pound. 
Some sold at around 10 cents. We grew an extra 
good crop of runner peanuts, and, after paying for 
picking and baling, had 85 cents per acre left to pay 
for fertilizer, seed, labor, taxes, etc. Is it any won¬ 
der that Southern farmers are asking for a protec¬ 
tive tariff to save them from having to compete with 
cheap imported oils? J. d. prickett. 
Alabama. 
Plums Fail to Ripen; Sexes of Insects 
1. Can you tell me what I can do for plum trees? 
They look healthy and bear a lot of plums, which rot be¬ 
fore they are ripe. Last year I did not get one quart 
from two trees. Every plum that remained on the tree 
was half rotten. The trees are not old. 2. IIow can I 
tell the male from the female butterflies and insects? 
Easton, Pa. c. r. w. 
ITE plums in question are affected with that 
common and almost universal disease, brown 
rot. Probably the plum curculio is also at work on 
the fruit, and this makes matters worse. However, 
these two enemies of the plum may be controlled by 
a combination spray which obviates the necessity of 
making separate applications for each one. 
What is known as self-boiled lime-sulphur is the 
sovereign remedy for the brown rot, and if arsenate 
of lead is added to it the curculio will also be held 
in check. The self-boiled lime-sulphur is prepared 
by placing in a barrel 8 lbs. of the best stone lime, to 
which is added a small quantity of cold water in 
order to start it slaking. Eight pounds of sulphur 
worked through a sieve to break up the lumps is then 
added slowly to the slaking lime which is kept from 
burning by the addition of cold water; care must be 
taken, however, not to add so much water that the 
lime will be drowned. The slaking mixture must be 
stirred constantly. Just as soon as the slaking is 
completed (which should be in about 15 minutes) 
the barrel is filled with cold water (50 gals.). The 
mixture is strained into the spray tank through a 
sieve of about 20 meshes to the inch. Paste arsenate 
of lead should be added at the rate of 3 lbs. to 50 
gals. The first spraying should be made just after 
the blossoms fall, the second about two weeks there¬ 
after, and a third application should be made about 
one month before the fruit ripens. 
2. I regret to say that in the case of most insects 
there is no Avay by which the layman can tell the 
females from the males. Among the butterflies and 
moths very often the females will differ in color and 
markings from the males. For example, the female 
of the common white cabbage butterfly Inn two 
round black spots on the outer part of the fore wings, 
while the male has but one. Most of the female 
moths, for example, have larger and heavier abdo¬ 
mens than the males, and there is often a difference 
in the form of the antennae of the sexes. Unfor¬ 
tunately there are no general differences between 
the sexes of most insects which are visible to the 
eye. and which can he described. For example, 
among flies, beetles and bugs the well-trained ento¬ 
mologist often has great difficulty in separating the 
sexes. GLENN w. HERRICK. 
