428 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 8, 1924 
Every year there are questions about 
the relative merits of dusting and spray¬ 
ing. There are fruit growers who need 
a new outfit. Up to this time they have 
used a liquid spray, but someone tells 
them that dusting is quicker and less ex¬ 
pensive, and they want to know if they 
can safely give up liquid spray entirely. 
I have not been able to do so, and I do 
not expect to while the scale is with us. 
For leaf-eating insects and most plant 
diseases the dust serves us well, but fox- 
scale and other sucking insects the liquid 
is better. In fact, I do not think it pos¬ 
sible for us to kill the scale with any dust. 
Claims are made that it has been done, 
but I doubt it. It is possible that we 
may yet find some way of using inoculat¬ 
ed sulphur for this purpose. In a damp 
season it might kill some of the scales. I 
think dusting in early June or at the 
time the young scales come out and crawl 
about, might kill some of the tender 
scales, but for dormant work the dust is 
of little value. We must use some quick¬ 
spreading and penetrating liquid in order 
to kill this dreaded insect. In cases 
where there is no scale to trouble us, the 
dusting alone will answer. What we real¬ 
ly need is a practical combined machine 
which can be used for dusting or spray¬ 
ing, as we like, with adjustable tank and 
dust box, to be worked by the same en¬ 
gine as desired. 
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So far as dusting goes, we have found 
it quite equal to spraying for leaf eaters. 
The power outfit is cheaper than the 
sprayex*, but the dust costs more. The 
work of dusting is quite offensive to eyes, 
nose and mouth, but the work can be 
done about three times as fast as spraying. 
We can start out in the morning with a 
load of dust and work continuously until 
noon, while spraying would mean several 
long trips to the water supply. On our 
rough hills, with the water far away, it 
would be difficult, with our present outfit, 
to cover all our apple trees before the 
worm enters the fruit. With the dust, 
we work slowly along the windward side 
of the tree, blowing a cloud into the top, 
twisting the tube up and down and side- 
wise as we pass along. The dust sifts 
slowly on through the orchard. You see 
it as a yellow cloud drifting on and 
slowly dropping down. In many cases it 
will sift into the trees four rows away. 
In some cases we have known it to sift 
over the fence into adjoining orchards, 
which were not otherwise dusted or 
sprayed, yet for 100 ft. or more over the 
line you could see the effect in a cleaner 
crop. 
«jc $ :Jc He $ 
For apples we use 85 per cent sulphur 
and 15 per cent dry arsenate of lead. I 
am not sure that we need so much ar¬ 
senic, and perhaps we could save some¬ 
thing by substituting hydrated lime fox- 
part of the sulphur; but I do not care to 
experiment much with a good tiling, and 
our proportion does the trick. There are, 
of course, other mixtures of powdered to¬ 
bacco, sulphate of copper, and so on. but 
sulphur and arsenate represent the back¬ 
bone of the mixture. I hear of people 
who are experimenting with gypsum or 
sulphate of lime, and some chemical for 
separating the lime from the sulphur. No 
doubt many of our present plans will be 
changed by new investigations. Just now 
work is being done to develop substances 
which, when put into the spray or dust, 
will cause them to stick better. Thus a 
new use has been found for_ skim-milk, 
and I have no doubt something will be 
found to make the dust stick like a plas¬ 
ter. As it is, the dust as it settles on the 
tree will hardly wash off in an ordinary 
ram. 
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Our idea is to work into strawberries 
more and more, on the theory that in any 
readjustment of farm methods we must 
plan to have each day’s labor count for 
the largest possible returns. A day’s 
work hoeing strawberries ought to be 
worth moi-e than a day at hoeing corn. 
Of course the corn is the surer crop, for 
drought, late frost, heat, flood, or half a 
dozen other things may wipe out the en¬ 
tire strawberry profits. That means a 
chance, and we mixst all expect to take 
chances as we turn away from the sure 
things. We select the best epots on the 
farm for berries. These are usually rath¬ 
er light loam soil, well drained, and with 
no dishing spots. I can look out of the 
window now and see a place where we 
have spent much time and money cul¬ 
tivating berries, only to lose part of them. 
There is a low spot in the center of this 
place, and the water has settled into it 
like a pond, and frozen solid. Most of 
these plants will be found dead in the 
Spring, smothered by the water and ice. 
(J .od surface drainage is necessary. We 
(over the ground with a good coat 
chi .ken manure and plow it under, 
harrowing the ground until it is like an 
,. heap. We set the plants in rows 4 ft. 
-ul 2 ft. in the row. That makes 
s' q. .ft for a plant, with over 5.000 
; s r 0 r, acre. We can set such va- 
Marshall and Chesapeake in 
nil , 2 fi. or even 18 in. each way. You 
ih Worries by sxxch planting, if you 
■ P (he field clean, but it costs too much 
in labor. It is also an expensive labor 
propositioix to get down on your knees 
and plant w T ith a trowel. I like to plant 
with a spade. A man can drive the spade 
straight down into the ground and work 
it back and forth to open a hole. Then 
let a boy put the roots of the plant right 
in behind the spade. With a quick jerk 
the man pulls the spade out, letting the 
dirt fall in around the roots. Then by 
stepping on the soil around the plant it is 
firmly fixed in the ground. With a little 
careful practice such planting can be done 
very rapidly, and it will be a better job 
than you can ever do by hand. When 
the average planter gets his fingers on a 
strawberry plant he can hardly resist 
the temptation to squeeze the damp soil 
up around the i-oots, which is the worst 
thing you can possibly do. In addition 
to the chicken manure I would like to use 
some good mixed fertilizer, or a mixtui-e 
of GOO lbs. fine ground bone aixd 200 lbs. 
muriate of potash to the aci-e. I would 
use half of this at time of planting—in a 
narrow strip along the row—and the 
other half in August, or just before the 
fruit buds for next year’s crop are started. 
As for vax-ieties, we shall plant for main 
crop Big Joe, Chesapeake, Marshall, 
Howard 17 and Gandy. These are suited 
to our soil and conditions. They might 
not answer elsewhere. And this ei-6p 
must be kept clean. That is easy to write 
about, but it means sweat and backache 
to translate it into work. 
* * * * 3: 
I have a letter from a man who ac¬ 
cuses me of inconsistency or worse. He 
says I have advocated raising smaller 
crops so as to get rid of the surplus, and 
here I turn around and buy more land so 
as to raise more stuff. He seems to think 
I am like some of those farmers at the 
South, who meet with others and agree 
to grow less cotton, and then go out and 
hire a new mule to raise more! I did nor 
buy these newer acres in order to raise 
larger crops. I wanted more level land 
near the buildings, so that we can sod 
down our steep hills and save working 
them. Rough and steep land far from the 
buildings naturally costs more to work 
than level land nearby, and we must all 
study labor economy. Then, I consider 
this new land a good investment as things 
look now. I think it better to put capital 
into land which promises to rise in value, 
rather than to invest in so-called “securi¬ 
ties.” Like many others, I might be bet¬ 
ter off to let the farm alone, leaving it to 
grow up to grass, fencing it in and i*ent it 
out as pasture, or try sheep and cattle to 
eat up the grass «nd grain. That would 
save labor bills and leave us free from 
care, but I feel under some, obligations to 
provide work for some of our people, even 
though for a time the income barely pays 
the labor bill. And there is some satisfac¬ 
tion in feeling that your land is improv¬ 
ing. Nature is not conquering you and 
stealing back your land. When the time 
comes, as it surely will, when farming 
will have a fairer chance, you will be 
ready to take advantage of it. I am not 
going to try to raise more. We are doing 
our share to readjust things, by giving up 
sweet corn, tomatoes and similar crops, 
and concentrating our work on the things 
we can do best. I always have to buy 
some hay and grain, and we shall need 
more if we increase our chicken business. 
8o, instead of trying to grow so much 
market stuff, we shall seed considerable 
land to Sudan grass, Soy beans, barley, 
and thus produce more fodder and grain. 
We even have, in nxind buying a few 
steers and sheep in the early Fall, getting 
them in fair shape on this rough fodder 
and grain, and killing them from time to 
time during the Winter, the meat to be 
sold to neighbors. That has been done in 
a small way with some pi-ofit. It is a fact 
that for a few years past we have been 
producing more food than we can distrib¬ 
ute to advantage. There are still hungry 
and poorly clad people in every com¬ 
munity. If all could have what they need 
and desire, our farmers could hardly sup¬ 
ply the demand. Until distribution 
catches up witjh, production many of us 
are woi-se off as we produce more, and I 
think we are far wiser to.limit production 
to what we can safely handle with a rea¬ 
sonable outfit of labor and capital. This 
is no time to “plunge” or to produce gen¬ 
eral, “bumper crops,” but we should study 
our land and our resources, and try to 
make one man’s labor count for as much 
as possible. H. w. C. 
Right of Town Officials to Vote 
I am one of the justices of the peace in 
this town. They tell me that the town 
clerk cannot vote, only the justice. The 
supervisor votes, now if the town clerk 
can vote, how can there be a tie? 
New Yoi-k. C. F. S. 
The Attorney General has ruled that 
the supervisor has the same right as other 
members of the town board to vote on all 
questions coming before the board fo- 
considei-ation and determination. The At¬ 
torney General has also ruled that the 
town clei-k as a member of-the town board 
has the same right as any other member 
to vote on all questions. If thei-e is a tie 
the motion is lost. n. t. 
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Grapes 
are in greater demand than ever before and 
are selling at prices that yield attractive 
profits to growers. 
Practical viticulturists have learned that 
liberal quantities of nitrogen must be sup- 
plied to produce the most abundant crops. 
Experiments have shown that 
Nitrate of Soda 
200 Pounds Per Acre 
Early in Spring 
supplies the necessary nitrogen in imme* 
diately available form at just the right time. 
Ail small fruit crops are found to profit 
greatly from the use of Nitrate of Soda 
nitrogen. And it is now recognized that it 
is almost useless to attempt to grow orchard 
fruits profitably without Nitrate of Soda. 
My free Bulletin Service issued period¬ 
ically is full of the latest and most authentic 
information on the proper use of nitrogen 
in its best form for all crops. If you wish to 
receive these bulletins, send me your name 
and address and to identify this advertise¬ 
ment add the number 2042. 
Dr. Wm. S. Myers, Director, CHILEAN NITRATE COMMITTEE 
25 Madison Avenue, New York 
