586 
Dx  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
April  14,  192o 
V 
Horticultural  Notes 
How  Spraying  Our  Apple  Trees  Has 
Repaid  Us 
I  have  an  interest  in  a  large  orchard  in 
West  Virginia.  This  orchard  contains 
nearly  20,000  trees.  I  have  helped  spray 
the  trees  every  year  for  several  years. 
We  have  a  very  good  late  model  sprayer, 
which  has  rendered  excellent  service. 
The  tank  has  a  capacity  of  three  barrels. 
A  two-horse  power  engine  keeps  the  pres¬ 
sure  at  128  lbs.  for  two  spray  guns.  The 
sprayer  is  placed  on  a  low,  broad-wheeled 
truck,  drawn  by  two  horses. 
We  buy  the  prepared  lime  and  sulphur 
spray  in  half -Carload  lots.  Three  gallons 
of  this  solution  are  mixed  with  every  bar¬ 
rel  of  water  for  the  first  spraying.  For 
the  other  sprayings  the  mixture  is  the 
same,  except  that  3  lbs.  of  arsenate  of 
lead  hre  added  to  each  barrel  of  water. 
I  generally  see  to  the  hauling  of  the  water 
to  the  orchard  and  the  mixing  of  the  spray, 
while  my  brother  runs  the  sprayer.  The 
orchard  is  located  on  a  hill.  Water. must 
be  hauled  from  the  creek  about  a  mile 
away.  This  requires  a  second  team  of 
horses  and  another  man.  Three  barrels 
are  hauled  at  each  load,  and*  one  team 
can  keep  the  sprayer  going  all  day. 
Using  the  right  proportions  of  spray 
and  water  plays  a  very  important  part 
in  making  spraying  successful.  I  always 
weigh  the  arsenate  of  lead  and  measure 
the  lime  and  sulphur  for  every  mixing, 
because  it  is  very  important  that  the 
right  proportions  of  each  be  maintained. 
One  day  last  year  I  could  not  be  on  tin* 
job,  and  another  man  took  my  place. 
Things  seemed  to  go  along  very  well  that 
day  until  about  three  o’clock  in  the  after¬ 
noon,  when  my  brother  discovered  that 
the  man  had  not  put  any  arsenate' of  lead 
in  the  spray,  and  as  a  result  the  day’s 
work  and  the  material  were  lost.  This 
shows  that  one  cannot  be  too  careful  in 
mixing  the  spray.  I  have  helped  my 
brother  operate  the  sprayer.  I  do  not 
like  this  job  very  well,  because"  of  the 
chemical  action  of  the  spray  on  the  skin. 
I  always  grease  my  hands  and  face  with 
“Vaseline”  before  starting  into  this  work. 
The  spray  guns  we  use  are  about  30 
in.  in  length,  and  the  hose  is  35  ft.  long. 
In  spraying  a  tree  we  go  all  the  way 
around  it.  spraying  the  top  limbs  first  and 
then  the  lower  ones  in  the  order  in  which 
they  come.  In  this  way  we  cover  the 
whole  tree  and  do  not  respray  any  part. 
If  we  did  not  have  a  definite  procedure 
we  would  often  spray  some  parts  twice 
and  other  parts  not  at  all,  and  so  lose  a 
great  amount  of  material  and  time. 
On  the  average  it  takes  three  weeks  to 
spray  the  orchard  once,  but  we  spray  it 
three  and  occasionally  four  times  a  year. 
We  apply  the  first  spray  generally  before 
the  blooms  appear,  in  order  to  check  the 
diseases  and  insects  that  affect  the  tree 
itself.  A  second  is  applied  just  after 
the  bloom  falls  to  destroy  tin1  insects  that 
lay  their  eggs  in  the  tiny  fertilized  apple 
and  to  guard  against  fungus  diseases. 
A  third  spray  is  applied  when  the  apples 
are  about  as  large  as  the  end  of  one’s 
thumb,  to  protect  the  fruit  and  tree  fur¬ 
ther  from  these  pests.  Sometimes  a  fourth 
spray  is  applied  when  the  insects  or  a 
disease  is  very  bad  in  the  orchard,  but 
generally  three  regular  sprayings  each 
year  are  sufficient. 
This  means  that  we  are  in  the  business 
from  nine  to  11  weeks  each  year.  One 
can  easily  see  that  it  takes  ;4  lot  of  spray 
material,  as  well  as  a  lot  of  money  to  pay 
the  hired  help.  We  have  to  hire  three  to 
live  men  to  help  us  do  this  work,  paying 
them  $2.25  a  day  apiece.  Although  this 
seems  like  a  lot  of  money  to  pay  out  for 
spraying,  yet  when  the  big.  clean  apples 
are  picked  and  sold  in  the  Fall  we  readily 
see  the  return  of  our  money. 
People  come  in  wagons,  automobiles, 
trucks  and  almost  any  conveyance  imagin¬ 
able  to  the  orchard  to  see  it  and  to  select 
their  own  fruit.  Last  Fall  a  man  came 
to  the  orchard  in  a  road  wagon  from  a 
neighboring  county  and  took  home  36  bu. 
of  fruit.  We  get  better  prices  for  our  ap¬ 
ples  than  any  other  fruit  grower  in  the 
county,  and  our  customers  are  always 
satisfied.  We  never  have  had  it  bit  of 
trouble  selling  our  fruit,  for  the  reason 
that  spraying  alone,  if  nothing  else,  ad¬ 
vertises  its  quality. 
Spraying  apple  trees  is  becoming  of 
greater  importance  each  year  to  us. 
There  are  two  reasons  for  this.  First, 
the  public  demands  fruit  of  the  best  qual¬ 
ity.  The  bigger  and  freer  from  insect 
injury  the  apples  are.  the  better  they 
are  going  to  sell.  Such  apples  can  only 
he  produced  by  spraying  and  properly  at¬ 
tending  to  the  orchard  each  year.  Sec¬ 
ond.  new  insects  and  diseases  are  found 
each  year  in  almost  every  orchard.  There-  • 
fore  we  are  compelled  to  fight  them  with 
new  methods  and  new  Sprays.  One  rea- 
s«vn  for  these  new  pests  is  that  our  forests 
are  dying  out  and  these  pests  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  leave  their  former  homes,  and 
they  naturally  attack  the  apple  tree  be¬ 
cause  it  is'  not  very  sturdy. 
Urbana,  Ill.  glen*  c.  law. 
Seed  Corn  and  Crows 
Our  corn  field  this  year  has  woods  on 
three  sides,  and  the  crows  are  very  numer¬ 
ous.  Would  you  give  me  a. tried  and  true 
method  of  treating  the  seed  corn  that 
will  prevent  the  crows  from  pulling  it? 
Pennsylvania.  c.  F.  G. 
Some  things  that  are  tried  are  not 
always  true-  A  few  years  ago  we  asked 
our  readers  to  tell  what  they  had  used  on 
seed  corn  to  prevent  crow-pulling.  Sev¬ 
eral  hundred  replies  came  in,  and  90  per 
cent  advised  the  use  of  coal  tar.  Other 
suggested  remedies  were  sulphur  and 
Paris  green.  "Pyrox,”  kerosene,  and  tur¬ 
pentine.  We  have  used  tar  with  good 
results  in  most  cases.  In  some  seasons 
the  tar  will  not  fullyk  repel  the  crows. 
We  are  quite  sure  that  we  have  seen  cer¬ 
tain  crows  pull  and  swallow  the  tarred 
corn.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  crows  will 
pull  a  few  hills  and  then  quit.  The  way 
we  do  it  is  to  put  the  seed  corn  in  a  metal 
pail  and  -warm  it  slightly.  Then  pour 
the  tar  on  top  and  stir  it  up  with  a  long 
iron  spoon  until  the  seed  is  well  covered 
with  tar.  Then  dust  on  fine  wood  asheis. 
Such  seed  corn  will  not  work  well  through 
a  seeder,  but  can  easily  be  dropped  by 
hand.  The  tarring  seems  to  retard 
sprouting  for  a  few  days.  It  pays  to  har¬ 
row  the  field  thoroughly  before  the  corn 
comes  up  and  to  keep  working  it  from  the 
start — anything  to  force  a  quick  growth, 
so  that  the  corn  will  get  too  large  for  the 
crows  to  pull.  It  pays  to  put  up  poles 
or  stakes  around  the  field,  run  strings  be¬ 
tween  them,  and  tie  white  rags  to  the 
strings.  Some  of  our  farmers  lay  news¬ 
papers  on  the  ground  with  a  stone  at  tin* 
center.  The  stone  prevents  the  papers 
from  blowing  away,  but  the  wind  flaps 
or  waves  the  corners  and  scares  the 
crows.  Many  ingenious  schemes  have 
been  worked  out.  and  no  doubt  our  read¬ 
ers  ’will  tell  of  some  of  them.  This  an¬ 
nual  battle  wi.th.thc  "crows.,.- see  ins  to  be 
as  old  as  corn  culture  itself.  The  first 
white  farmers  found  the  Indians  fighting 
crows  and  wolves  by  keeping  men  and 
boys  in  the  cornfield.  The  corn  was  fer¬ 
tilized  by  putting  fish  in  the  hills,  and  the 
wolves  tore  out  the  hill  trying  to  get  the 
fish.  Many  man  today  will  tell  how  as 
a  boy  he  spent  days  in  the  cornfield  chas¬ 
ing  crows. 
Scab  and  Rot  in  Potatoes 
I  want  information  in  regard  to  treat¬ 
ing  or  preventing  scab  and  rot  in  pota¬ 
toes.  The  latter  was  very  prevalent  last 
Fall  in  this  section,  many  fields  being  a 
total  failure.  It  is  quite  common  here 
to  sprinkle  the  tubers  with  air-slaked 
lime  when  storing  in  the  cellars,  claiming 
thereby  to  stop  the  spread  of  rot.  I 
propose  to  “doctor”  the  pieces  at  planting 
time  ;  one  handful  of  the  lime  to  each  hill. 
Another  method  I  read  of  in  an  old  farm 
paper  is  one  teaspoonful  of  sulphur 
dropped  directly  upon  the  cut  potatoes, 
then  covered  as  usual.  N.  w.  T. 
•Scattering  lime  over  potatoes  in  stor¬ 
age  is  quite  a  common  practice,  and  in 
some  cases  seems  to  delay  rotting,  es¬ 
pecially  when  the  potatoes  are  kept  dry 
and  well  aired.  Dropping  a  handful  of 
lime  on  the  seed  in  the  hill  is  about  the 
worst  thing  you  could  do.  It  will  be 
quite  sure  to  increase  the  scab  disease. 
Land  plaster  or  sulphate  of  lime  is  some 
times  used  in  this  way  with  fair  results, 
but  we  consider  sulphur  much  better.  Of 
course,  the  scab  disease  i  very  different 
from  rot.  The  scab  is  caused  by  a  germ 
which  may  be  found  on  the  seed  potato 
or  in  the  soil.  Our  advice  is  to  use  certi¬ 
fied  seed  potatoes  and  have  them  treated 
or  soaked  before  planting.  Where  rot  is 
feared  we  should  soak  the  “seed”  in  a 
solution  of  two  ounces  of  corrosive 
sublimate  to  35  gallons  of  water.  Put 
the  seed  potatoes  in  this  for  90  minutes 
and  then  cut  and  plant.  As  an  added 
precaution,  we  dust  the  cut  seed  pieces 
with  powdered  sulphur.  Our  plan  is  to 
cut  the  seed  into  peach  baskets,  scatter 
the  sulphur  over  the  cut  seed  and  shake 
the  basket  well.  The  sulphur  that,  falls 
through  can  be  caught  an  a  paper  and 
used  again.  Some  growers  who  use  a 
planter  put  the  sulphur  in  the  seed  hop¬ 
per  of  the  machine. 
Potato  rot  is  a  very  different  propo¬ 
sition.  The  sulphur  treatment  will  help 
somewhat,  but.  of  course,  you  should  not 
plant  on  ground  where  the  rot  was  found 
last  year.  Use  certified  seed,  if  possible, 
soak  in  the  solution  here  mentioned,  and 
plant  on  clean  ground.  Spray  the  vines 
with  Bordeaux  mixture  from  the  time 
they  are  a  foot  high  and  keep  the  plants 
growing  as  long  as  possible.  Get  them 
out  of  the  ground  early  if  the  season  is 
wet,  store  in  a  cool,  dry,  airy  place,  and 
sprinkle  lime  over  them  if  there  is  any 
sign  of  rot  when  you  dig. 
Cutting  Out  Poison  Ivy 
We  have  bought  a  nice  country  home, 
which  is  infested  with  poison  ivy.  There 
are  “trees”  of  it  with  “trunks”  several 
inches  in  diameter  on  the  fence  between 
lawn  and  garden.  We  want  to  destroy 
these  before  they  get  sappier  or  leaved 
out.  We  are  till  susceptible  to  the  poison 
in  Summer  time.;  What  are  the- best  and 
surest  methods  of  eradication? 
Pleasant  Valley,  N.  Y.  mrs.  a.  t.  s. 
You  have  a  most  unenviable  job  ahead 
of  you.  Y'ou  must  destroy  the  ivy  “root 
and  branch”  if  you  expect  to  exterminate 
it.  Some  people  are  immune  to  the 
poison.  Get  such  a  person  if  you  can. 
Smear  the  face  and  neck,  hands  and  arms 
and  insides  of  the  nostrils  with  “Vaseline.”1 
Keep  the  mouth  shut.'  Put  on  old  clothes 
and  thick  leather  gloves.  With  a  spud 
or  sharp  spade  cut  off  the  roots  of  the 
plants  under  ground  and  drop  a  small 
handful  of  salt  or  a  tablespoonful  of 
kerosene  on  the  part  of  the  root  left  in 
the  soil.  Pull  the  vines  carefully  away 
from  trees  and  old  fences  and  promptly 
burn  them.  Hunt  for  every  vine  and 
treat  in  the  manner  here  described.  There 
is  no  other  way  to  clean  out  the  pest. 
If  you  are  susceptible  to  the  poison,  you 
are  likely  to  “catch  it”  during  this  per¬ 
formance,  in  which  case  use  any  one  of 
the  following  remedies:  Apply  solution 
of  sugar  of  lead,  tincture  of  grin  del  ia. 
tincture  of  witch  hazel  or  pure  olive  oil. 
The  witch  hazel  seems  more  effective  if 
heated.  Some  cases  may  be  cured  by 
profuse  bathing  with  strong  soapsuds  of 
laundry  soap,  just  as  hot  as  can  be  borin' 
without  blistering.  The  latest  ti-eatmenr 
we  have  heard  of  is  an  application  of  io¬ 
dine,  painted  on  with  a  swab  of  absorb- . 
•‘lit  cottpn.  This  causes  some  exudation, 
which  may  be  absorbed  by  dusting  with  > 
boraeic  acid.  Prompt  healing  was  re¬ 
ported  after  a  second  application. 
Hydraulic  Elevator 
1  submit  a  type  of  elevator  or  dumb 
waiter  easily  made  and  erected.  It  can¬ 
not  fall,  has  no  pulleys.  The  same  prin¬ 
ciple  can  be  used  on  a  cider  press;  can  be 
attached  to  pi’esent  water  supply,  or,  if 
none  is  available,  may  be  worked  with 
a  hand  pump.  A  pipe  is  set  vertically. 
Into  that  pipe  another  pipe  slides  freely 
through  a  closed  top  or  stuffing  box.  A 
three-way  valve  allows  pi-essure  to  enter 
pipe,  “B,”  and  push  pipe  “C”  upward. 
As  “C”  rises  the  cage.  “A”  rises.  When 
it  goes  as  high  as  desired,  a  projection. 
•J.”  strikes  “K,”  which  pulls  a  rod  con¬ 
trolling  a  three-way  valve,  “D,”  and  stop¬ 
ping  the  elevator.  To  descend  again  the 
valve  “D”  is  turned  so  there  is  an  open¬ 
ing  from  “B”  to  the  atmosphei-e.  The 
weight  of  “A”  and“C”  cause  the  car 
slowly  to  descend.  Guide  hands,  “F,”, 
hold  the  controlling  rod  in  place.  It  is 
noiseless,  powerful  and  durable,  but  unless 
oil  or  glycerine  is  used  will  freeze  in  cold 
locations.  *  ~  j.  g'. 
'1  he  tS))iUD  (juh  til  Work 
