ii6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
A FUMIGATORIUM. 
Strong Argument In Favor of Gas Treatment 
Instead of Whale Oil Soap—Profes¬ 
sor W. G. Johnson’s Views. 
I believe the day is near at hand when every nurseryman in 
this country will find a fumigatorium as necessary a part of his 
equipment as seeds, buds and grafts. For his own safety and 
the protection of his customers it is now absolutely indis¬ 
pensable in many localities. Some nurserymen are now fumi¬ 
gating with hydrocyanic gas every bud that is used, whether it 
is cut from their own trees or comes from some other nursery. 
The trees are then passed through a fumigatorium before they 
are delivered to their customers. My experience and experi¬ 
mental work for the past two years leads me to conclude that 
the gas treatment is the only satisfactory and inexpensive 
method known at present that is at all practicable for the de¬ 
struction of the San Jose scale and other insects upon nursery 
stock. Dipping in tanks of whale oil soap, of course, has been 
done very successfully by some nurserymen ; but who could 
afford to expend the money necessary to get ready for the dip¬ 
ping of a million trees, to say nothing of the cost of materials 
and labor required to carry the operation through ? 
In a fumigatorium 10,000 trees, or as many as the room will 
hold, can be treated as easily as one ; but how about the dip¬ 
ping? Every solitary tree must be handled, or a vat large 
enough to take several, say a dozen at the most, must be con¬ 
structed, and then a derrick and pulley block would be neces¬ 
sary to handle them, to say nothing of the stench and disagree¬ 
ableness of handling the trees afterwards. To me, at least, 
the dipping process is out of the question, so far as the sup¬ 
pression of the San Jose scale is concerned, upon nursery 
stock. The chances of a scale surviving this treatment are 
many times greater than that following gas. 
Last fall and this spring I selected several extreme cases of 
badly infected apple, pear and plum trees, and passed them 
through a fumigatorium. They were then set out near my 
house, where I could keep them under constant observation. 
All the trees have made a beautiful growth, and at the present 
time not a living scale can be found upon any of them ; while 
an apple tree (Ben Davis) that was not fumed, and set out 
as a check on the other lot, was literally alive with young scale 
some weeks ago, and was destroyed to avoid the spread of the 
pest to other trees some distance away. From many other 
tests I have made this summer upon trees infected with this 
scale, I am convinced that hydrocyanic gas, properly handled, 
is the most satisfactory and inexpensive method of treating 
nursery stock. 
A building suitable for fumigating nursery stock need not 
necessarily be an expensive affair, one in which from 25,000 to 
60,000 trees, according to size, can be fumed at once. The build¬ 
ing is about 32 feet long by 15 feet wide, and is divided into 
four compartments. In front there are two rooms about 14 
feet square by 7 feet high ; and two smaller rooms on the end 
4x7 feet. These latter rooms are used for small lots of stock. 
The building is made of rough pine boards, with batting out¬ 
side, and lined with a good quality of flooring, with tarred 
paper between. The ceiling and floor are also double lined 
between with paper. Between the rooms there is a double 
flue opening from above, which is reached by a ladder in the 
rear of the building. When the process of fumigation is over 
the cap on the flue is removed and the door opened a few min¬ 
utes later The size of the fumigatorium must be made accord¬ 
ing to the amount of nursery stock handled. The one I have 
in mind has a capacity of from a million and a half to two 
million trees annually. The trees are hauled from the nursery, 
and from 10,000 to 25,000, according to size, are packed loosely 
flat on the floor, with the roots against the opposite sides of the 
room. The chemicals are then prepared by the director or 
superintendent, and the door is closed and guarded for half an 
hour. In the meantime the other room, which had been sim¬ 
ilarly packed, has been aired, and the trees removed to the 
heeling-in grounds or packing sheds, as the case may be. 
The only expense incurred is in the double handling of the 
trees and a few cents for chemicals. So far as the gas is con¬ 
cerned, it can be generated for less than two cents per thou¬ 
sand trees. The materials used are water, commercial sul¬ 
phuric acid and fused potassium cyanide (98 per cent., pure). 
In generating the gas an old earthernware vessel, holding about 
a gallon, is taken, into which is placed the water, then the acid, 
and, finally, the cyanide in lumps ; the door is then closed and 
the operation is complete in from 30 to 40 minutes. For every 
150 cubic feet of air space in the enclosure, i ounce by weight 
of cyanide, i fluid ounce of acid and 3 fluid ounces of water 
should be used. 
The nurseryman who resorts to this method of fumigation 
is sure to command public confidence, and the only essentials 
necessary for success are (i) a good tight house, (2) the chem¬ 
icals, and (3) careful supervision by some reliable person dur¬ 
ing the operation. W. G. Johnson. 
College Park, Md. 
Another volume of the Rural Science Series, edited by Professor L. 
H. Bailey, has been issued by The Macmillan Co., New York. It is en¬ 
titled “ The Principles of Fruit Growing,” and is by Professor Bailey 
himself. All who know Professor Bailey’s manner of imparting useful 
information will appreciate at once from the following summary of the 
contents how valuable is the book to the fruit-grower: An introduc¬ 
tory discussion, comprising an inventory and classification of fruits, the 
fruit zones, the outlook for fruit-growing ; the location as to climate, 
with a full discussion of frosts ; the tilling of fruit lands ; the fertiliz¬ 
ing of lands ; the planting of orchards ; secondary care of orchards ; 
why are orchards barren ; diseases; insects and spraying; picking, 
packing, and storing fruits, shipping, etc.; photography and nomen¬ 
clature. A very useful bibliography comprising all the American 
books in the author’s library, which are devoted to the general 
principles of fruit growing, is also appended. The author’s re¬ 
marks upon the purchase of plants and trees from nursery¬ 
men will be of special interest to readers of this journal. He 
gives the orchardist good advice, but at the same time gives the 
nurseryman the credit due him. With this book the orchardist may 
answer any of many questions continually arising. And it is as enter¬ 
taining as it is instructive. “The United States now leads all countries 
in the extent, variety, excellence and abundance of fruits, and our 
people are pronounced fruit consumers, and this desire for fruit is very 
rapidly increasing” says Professor Bailey: “That kind of fruit 
usually sells the best of which there is the least. It may not be in¬ 
trinsically the best. It is simply that in which there is the least com 
petition. The key-note to the business, therefore, is diversification or 
individuality. The grower should aim to have something or to do 
something which his neighbors do not do, although it may really not 
be any better than what they do. We are apt to be discouraged by 
being told that • there is room at the top,’ for if we all get to the top 
then we are all at the bottom. It is better to say that ‘ there is room at 
the top and on the sides.’ The best, as commonly understood, is really 
the unlike.” The book is illustrated, pp. 508, |1.25. New York. 
The Macmillan Company. 
