The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-10-12
FARM AND HOME.

FARM AND HOME.
PETROLEUM ASA PROTECTION AGAINST
correspondent of an Eng
lish paper writes that he "has tried
mum er of experiments, extending over
a course of years, which satisfy him
that paraffine oil is something more than
q substitute for the best guano. His
garden having been Overrun with rats
and mice, he had to SOW double quantity
of peas and beans, and sometimes to SOW
these twice over. Last year he sowed
twenty-five pounds of beans and six
pounds of peas without any manure,
but he previously soaked the seeds for
a short time in parafiine oil. None were
touched; every pea and bean germi-
mated and the crop was enormous.
Formerly his onions were attacked by
maggots, and his turnips by fly; but
during the last eight years he watered
between the rows with a mixture of two
ounces of paraffine oil with six gallons
of water. Both maggOts and fly imme-
diately disappeared, and the crops be-
came extremely large and fine. He
recommends that seeds of all kinds
should be sprinkled with the oil before
sowing, or that certain portion of
paraffine oil should be poured over dry
earth or sand, and this prepared earth
should be sown as guanO. He believes
that such earth is powerful manure rs
we'll as remedy for wire-wOrm, grub
and all garden, field and winery pests.
HO states that grain sprinkled with the
81 20 ,,,;ta On "a frnpo N hi ri, uyalI M
insect vermin. For watering green
vegetables, he recommends a mixture of
two wine glassfuls of parafline oil and
six gallons of rainwater, and states that
this will do no injury to the plants, but
that the growth succeeding its applica-
ton is something wonderful, and that
onions and carrots should be watered
with this when one inch long.
The american Manufacturer, in COM
menting upon the above, says: The
idea that any form of petroleum is of
any value as fertilizer is entirely
erroneous. Petroleum contains nothing
that can be of use as plain food, unless
all heretofore accepted theories upon
this subject are rejected.
But there is much in favor of the idea
tlldu lto uoO 40 a PiOtSSOiOh aSdihoo
sects will prove beneficial. 1t Is fact
that its touch causes almost instanta-
neOus death to any of the smaller insects
and it is quite reasonable to suppose that
field over which it has been sprinkled
would be abandoned by them. Great
care should however be exercised in its
use. All the lighter, more volatile
products, such as gasoline, benzine, OF
common kerosene should be rejected, for
the reason that any of these will kill a
plant as quickly as bug. We should
advise any who feel disposed to test the
value of petroleum for this purpose to
use some of the heavy lubricating oils
and instead of applying it in liquid
form, to saturate some earth with it, and
when quite dry sprinkle it over the
ground around the plants, but not or
them. Used in this way it may be Of
value.
"ALITTLE LEARNING NOT ALWAYS
GA DANGEROUS THING."-The gen
tleman who tells the following pre-
fers that his name should not be given
The Major, as we may call him, begar
the cultivation of fruit trees three year
ago, and, being then as he is now an ad
vOcate of doing well whatever he under
takes, planted them in large holes filled
in with earth-cut them back, as tn,
books instruct, so that the tops shoult
be propOrtiOnate to the roots and, know
ing we'll the havoc of the borer in hi
section, washed them then and afterward
periodically with material that, afte
much reading, ne concluded would prov
| oHanosxa ,,n;cAnA,ra 10 Il
structive insect. About u month ag
while going over them as usual, he dis
covered round hole in one of his appl
trees, as round as bullet and of the siz
of a pea, about three inches above tn
ground. 1t was the first he had ever seer
As from season to season his fruit tree
were unmolested, he had grown to fec
confidence in the virtue of his wash anG
indeed master of the situation" so ia
as contested by the apple borer. Now h
recalled with what pride he had pointe
out to neighbors and friends the clear
unscathed bark of his trees. and, condemn
ing his wash and lamenting the hour
of labor in its application as utterl
worthless, it was with feelings of shame
resentment and anger that he hastene
IOI WIZ WIN WhlCh w PuuCn Uud
borer to death. "There is but on
remedy" he remembered to have read
"punch them to death with a strone
flexible wire."
The Major was astounded at the d
mansions of the cavity. 1t extende
downward six inches-upwards one inch
with varying diameter. He punche
away with the vehemence of an injured
exasperated person. He punched him
self out of breath and into perspiratior
Then, rather as an act of sweet reveng
than one which was necessary to doubl
insure the borer's destruction, he nike
carbolic acid, sulphur, tobacco and water
forming dose as strong as he dare to use
and, with a syringe, squirted the cavit
full to overlooking.
Whatever he may have read respectin
the ways of the borer was somewha
vague in his mind, so that in the even
ing of that day he seated himself, wit
a genealogical work in hand, to add t
his chronological lore in general, as i
relates to pomology, and to refresh hi
memory as to saperdd bivittata in partiC
ular. Thus he read in an extract fron
DIR. Fitch "The beetle comes abroa
in June, and drops its eggs under tn
loose scales of the bark, low down, nea
the surface of the earth. The worn
which matches therefrom eats inwar
through the bark till it comes to til
wood. 1t continues to feed and enlarg
its cell under the bark for about twelv
months. Its jaws have now acquire,
sufficient strength for it to attack tn
solid heart wood of the tree, and it &C
cordingly bores cylindrical hole iron
the upper part of its cell, upward in tn
solid wood to length of three or fou
inches or more. These oper
atoms being completed, it throws off it
larva skin and becomes pupa, usual,
at the close of the second summer, O
about fifteen months after it hatche,
from the egg. In this state it lie
through the winter, and changes to it
perfect form the following spring, blu
often continues to lie dormant severa
weeks after its final change, until tn
| - e.