A CHEAP ORCHARD-SPRAYING OUTFIT.

(U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.)

Spraying to control various insect pests, particularly those of the orchard and garden, has reached so satisfactory and inexpensive a basis that it is recognized by every progres

Orchard-spraying Apparatus.

sive farmer as a nec

essary feature of the year's operations, and in the case of the apple, pear, and plum crops the omission of such treatment means serious loss. The consequent demand for spraying apparatus has been met by all the leading pump manufacturers of this country, and ready-fitted appaconsisting

ratus,

of

pump, spray tank or barrel, and nozzle with hose, are on the market in numerous styles and at prices ranging from $20 upward. The cost of a spraying outfit for orchard work may, however, be considerably reduced by purchasing merely the pump and fixtures, and mounting them at home on a strong barrel. An apparatus of this sort, representing a style that has proven very satisfactory in practical experience, is illustrated in the accompanying figure. It is merely a strong pump with an air-chamber to give a steady stream, provided with two discharge hose-pipes. One of these enters the barrel and keeps the water agitated and the poison thoroughly intermixed, and the other and longer one is the spraying hose and terminates in the nozzle. The spraying-hose should be about 20 feet long, and may be fastened to a light pole, preferably of bamboo, to assist in

directing the spray. The nozzle should be capable of breaking the water up into a fine mist spray, so as to wet the plant completely with the least possible expenditure of liquid. The two more satisfactory nozzles are those of the Nivor and the Vermorel type. A suitable pump with nozzle and hose may be obtained of any pump manufacturer or hardware dealer at a cost of from $13 to $15. If one with brass fittings be secured it will also serve for the application of fungicides. The outfit outlined above may be mounted on a cart or wagon, the additional elevation secured in this way facilitating the spraying of trees, or for more extended operations, the pump may be mounted on a large water tank.

PREVENTION OF OATS-SMUT. (Goff.)

The smut of oats, which causes an annual loss to the farmers of the United States amounting in the aggregate to millions of dollars, may be entirely prevented by treating the seed oats before sowing, at a cost for labor and materials which need not exceed five cents per acre of oats sown.

Two methods of treatment have been found satisfactory. These we will call for convenience the Formalin Treatment and the Hot-water Treatment. The first has the advantage of being the simpler, but it requires a small cash outlay for materials. The second requires no materials or apparatus except what the farmer already has, unless it be a good thermometer.

The Formalin Treatment.-Soak the seed oats one hour in a solution of formalin, made by adding one ounce of formalin to every 3 gallons of water. Place the water in a barrel, or other convenient vessel, add the formalin to it, and pour in one and one-half bushels of seed oats for each 3 gallons of the solution. At the end of one hour, draw off or pour off the part of the solution that is not absorbed by the oats, and spread the oats on a clean floor to dry. They should be shoveled over once or twice a day until dry enough to sow.

Formalin is a liquid that may be purchased at drugstores. Ask for forty-per-cent formalin. It costs from 50 to 60 cents per pint, and a pint contains enough for about 30 bushels of seed oats. It is sold in smaller quntities at 10 cent per ounce. If formalin is purchased in considerable quantities, it will be well to have the druggist weigh out one ounce in a small bottle, and then mark on the bottle the height to which the ounce reaches. This bottle may then be used as a measure in adding the formalin to the water.

The Hot-water Treatment consists in soaking the seed 10 minutes in water at a temperature of 133° F. Heat the water in a large kettle, and close by sink a barrel in the ground to within a foot of the top. Pour a part of the hot water into the barrel, and take the temperature with a good thermometer. Then add either cold or hot water, stirring it in the mean time, until it shows a temperature of 138°. Put about a bushel of oats in a coarse gunnysack, tie this to one end of a pole and rest the pole over a post, thus making a lever, by which the sack of oats may be easily raised or lowered. Now dip the sack of oats into the water in the barrel. The water will be immediately cooled, and hot water must be added to keep the temperature about 133°. Let one person attend to the temperature, and another to handling the oats. Keep the oats moving in the barrel. Take them out at the end of 10 minutes, dip the sack at once in cold water, then spread on a clean floor to dry. Shovel them over three times a day for a few days, when they may be sown with a force drill; or in two or three hours they may be sown broadcast. As the oats absorb considerable water, it is necessary to sow about half a bushel more per acre than when untreated seed is used. This is on the basis of two and one-half bushels per acre. Two men in one day can treat enough seed to sow twenty

acres.

This treatment may also be applied with satisfactory results for the prevention of smut of other cereals than oats, and for prevention of potato-scab, as will be seen from the following article.

THE FORMALIN TREATMENT. FOR THE PREVENTION OF THE SMUTS OF CEREAL GRAINS AND OF POTATO-SCAB. (BOLLEY.)

For Wheat, Oats, Barley, and Millet.-Use formalin (40 per cent solution of formaldehyle) at the rate of 1 pound of the liquid to 45 or 50 gallons of water. Use any method of wetting the grain most suited to your means. Sprink

ling and shoveling is as effective as dipping, if carefully done.

It is well to treat one day and allow the grain to remain piled up overnight, thus allowing the fumes of the solution to act throughout the pile.

Cautions.—(1) In the case of oats or barley the wetting must be more thorough than in the case of wheat, so that the formalin or gas may penetrate beneath the husks of the grain.

(2) Do not allow wet grain to remain in a pile long enough to get hot. A very slight degree of fermentation may greatly reduce the yield.

For Potato-scab.-Soak the tubers before cutting one hour and a half in a solution of formalin at the rate of one pound of the liquid to thirty gallons of water; or in a solution of corrosive sublimate, using one pound of the chemical to each fifty gallons of water.

Note: The potato-scab fungus lives from year to year in the soil and upon old vines. Hence it is wise to try to keep it off your lands, by treating all seed-tubers. (See Bull. 37, N. D. Experiment Station.)

FIGHTING THE

CHINCH-BUG

KEROSENE EMULSION.

BY MEANS OF

(GOFF.)

Experiments have established the fact that with thorough work according to the directions given below the kerosene emulsion will prevent the invasion of cornfields by chinchbugs, even though the bugs appear in great numbers.

How to Make and Apply the Kerosene Emulsion.-Slice half a pound of common bar soap, put it in a kettle with one gallon of soft water, and boil until dissolved; put two gallons of kerosene in a churn or stone jar, and to it add the boilinghot soap solution; churn from twenty to thirty minutes, when the whole will appear creamy. If properly made, no oil will separate out when a few drops of the emulsion are placed on a piece of glass. To each gallon of the emulsion add eight gallons of water and stir. Apply with a sprinkling-pot.

Every farmer should learn to make this emulsion, as it is a most useful insecticide. It is especially valuable for killing lice on cattle and hogs. Paris green will not kill chinchbugs.

The bugs will be very likely to enter cornfields bordering grainfields, after the grain is cut. Before they have had time to do this plough a deep furrow along the side of the field they will enter, and throw into it stalks of green corn. When the bugs have accumulated on the corn, sprinkle with the emulsion. Put in fresh stalks and sprinkle whenever the bugs accumulate. If they break over the barrier, as they probably will, run a few furrows a few rows back in the field, and repeat. When they have attacked stalks of standing corn, destroy by sprinkling.

If the remedy is tried, it should be used persistently. To kill one lot of bugs and then stop will do little or no good. When the bugs threaten to destroy as much as five or ten acres, it will pay for one or two men to devote their whole time to the warfare. Only a part of each day, however, will be needed. Some corn will be lost at best, but the most of the field should be saved.