"/ would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.'' J U L Y t This NEWSLETTER is published monthly by the Greenkeepers Club of New England, and sent free to its members and their Green's Chairmen. Subscription price ten cents a copy, or a dollar a year. GUY C. WEST Editor 64 Prospect St., W e s t Barrington, R. I. GEORGE J. ROMMELL, JR. Business Mgr. 54 Eddy St., West Newton, Mass. July, 1940 Vol. 12, No. 7 Contributing Editors Homer Darling R. A. Mitchell Howard Farrant Charles Parker Frank Wilson The ideas and opinions expressed in the subject matter of this NEWSLETTER are not necessarily those of the Editor or the members of the club as a whole. TOP DRESSING METHODS AT THE PQNKAPOAG GOLF COURSE By Sam Mitchell We are fortunate here at the Ponkapoag Golf Course in having about an acre of land that is available to use as a compost field. To this field we have added native peat, rotted leaves, stable manure as top dressings and have grown a crop of buckwheat each spring and a crop of winter rye in the fall which were plowed under. We added whatever fertilizer and lime was necessary to grow the cover crop. We also haul in each year the same amount of loam as was stripped over. We figure to strip from one-third of the area so that any one area is stripped only once in three years. The loam is taken off about four to six inches deep in July or August when it is dust dry and run through a Royer Compost machine which at the same time throws it into our storage house. This removes the most of the heavy debris and large stone. About a week before each topdressing, we screen a batch of this material through our double rotary screen which is Vz" mesh on the inner screen and Vis" mesh on the outer screen. After a truck is loaded in the Royer Shed we add to the load fertilizer, lead or othermaterials desired to add to the mixture to go on the green with that topdressing. The rotary screen does a perfect job of mixing in the fertilizer, etc. without any extra labor. This double rotary screen and the Royer are both operated by a 2 H. P. slow speed electric motor. We are now ready for the actual topdressing. The greens are usually cut the day before. Two men pole the greens to help dry them off. One Overgreen goes out with the Buell Spiker to spike ahead of the dressing. We have two trucks haul out from the shed and dump a load on each green. The drivers are pretty clever about the size for each green and usually hit it about right. Occasionally we have some dressing left to pick up. Spreading is done with two Root Spreaders, two men to a spreader but only one spreader to a green. We start to spread at 8 A. M. By 9.30 the material is dry enough to work in. The second Overgreen has a long broom attached to the rear. This broom is made up of five street push brooms bolted to a bar. _ This tool will cover an average green in about ten minutes and put the fine material out of sight. By this time the two men are in from poling and they start to hand water each green. They put on all the water the green will take with a rose nozzle but not enough to let the water run. This settles the dressing down so that we are able to put on our regular greens sprinklers that night if necessary without any danger of washing the dressing around. This method of dressing means an extra screening but we eliminate all the labor of hand mixing in of our fertilizer. It means we are able to clean up the whole dressing job in one day and so do not have the course tied up only the minimum amount. We do the eighteen greens, two practice greens, and four nurseries in one day. In order to operate this program successfully, it is necessary to have the loam dust dry when housed with the Royer. By having it in a field it is reasonably easy to dry it out with a double disk harrow which would not be possible in a compost pile. I think the Overgreen with the brush on the back is the biggest labor saving device in the whole job. One man does more now than we used to do with four men with drag mats and does a better job. FARM A N D HOME WEEK MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE LAWN PROGRAM Stockbridge Hall, Room 20 FRIDAY, JULY 26 10.00 a. m. Introduction to the Day's Program L. S. Dickinson Special Lawn Problem Questions submitted by visitors 10.30 a. m. Lawn Soils, Grasses, Diseases and Insects F. V. Grau, L. S. Dickinson 12.00 m. Consideration of Special Lawn Problems (previously submitted) F. V. Grau, L. S. Dickinson 12.30 p. m. Luncheon at College Cafeteria 2.00 p. m. Special Lawn Problem Questions submitted by visitors L. S. Dickinson 2.30 p. m. Lawn Fertilizers, Weeds and Maintenance F. V. Grau, L. S. Dickinson 3.30 p. m. Consideration of Special Lawn Problems (previously submitted) F. V. Grau, L. S. Dickinson 4.00 p. m. Summary of Lawn Program L. S. Dickinson Who's W h o on the Program Dickinson, Lawrence S., Assistant Professor of Agrostology, M.S.C. Grau, Fred V., Extension Agronomist, Pennsylvania State College, State College, Penn. McBRIDE, REED S H A N A H A N MEMORIAL WINNERS William J. McBride successfully defended his crown in the annual John Shanahan memorial golf tournament of greenkeepers and pros at Brae Burn on July 8th, when with Elmer Reed, former assistant pro at Brae Burn and now with McBride, and representing Nashua, N. H., they turned in a net 69. Best gross figures were marked up by the Lexington pair, Alex Ohlson and Cal Peterson, with a 77. Last year McBride won with Guy Paulson. The scores: W. J. McBride and Elmer Reed, Nashua, N. H., 80—69; Tom Mattus and John Sheehan, Albemarle, 81—72; Alex Ohlson and Cal Peterson, Lexington, 77—73; E. Palhamus and Steve Sincuk, Charles River, 85—73; A. M. Barney and Harry Pezzullo, Wampanoag, 82— 73; Phil Cassidy and George Ford, Needham, 79—73; Art Anderson and Roy Brondson, Brae Burn, 86—74; Jim McCormick and Roland Hancock, Mt. Hood, 80—74; Ted Sanson and George Apple, Bear Hill, 79—74; Simy Braid and Bill Cosgrove, Grand View, 86—74; M. O'Grady and John Gilholm, New Bedford, 85—75, M E M B E R S IN GOOD S T A N D I N G J u l y 15, 1 9 4 0 Lloyd G. Stott M. D. Maxwell C. T. O'Keefe W. F. Larner Edwin Hanson Maurice Ryan John Latvis Guilford R. Johnson H. D. Farrant H. C. Darling A. E. Anderson Arthur Fontaine P. G. Wanberg N. J. Sperandio George Volmer James McCormack T. F. Clarke P. F. Hayden Valentine Flood Nicholas Bruno Albert Scott Joseph Oldfield Everett Capello Everett J. Pyle J. L. Counsell E. A. Polhamus Edward Murphy H. B. Cottelle Ralph Thomas Stephen Hannon Alex Ohlson Oscar Chapman Franklin Hammond Harold Mosher Louis Marratto P. I. Cassidy R. A. Mitchell Francis Tuscher F. H. Wilson S. S. Mitchell R. W. Peckham Roland Robinson G. J. Rommell , A. Sperandio Geno Pettazoni Elmer Fuller Simeone Braro A. M. Barney Edward Ohlson James Sullivan T. T. Mattus Edward Buecher Eugene Mauro T. P. Anderson Thomas O'Leary M. J. O'Grady R. W. Mansfield Frank H. Wilson, Treas. THE RELATIVE PERMANENT TOXICITY OF INSECTICIDES, FUNGICIDES AND WEEDICIDES Walter S. Eisenmenger (A. G. S. A. Conference Paper) The question of toxicity of elements is a relative one. All elements when present alone in a water solution with plant tissue are poison to the plant, but if some of the elements as compounds are mixed, the toxicity is decreased or entirely overcome. Thus sodium nitrate, calcium nitrate, magnesium sulphate when each is used separately are in water solution and even very dilute are toxic to plants, but if they are mixed together each compound overcomes the toxicity of the other. This is not all of the story for the soil contains not only a water solution but varying sized particles of rock. Some of these particles are large and quite unreactive. We have what the soil people call coarse sand and, if infinitely small, they are called clay. Any element which is called toxic is less toxic by far when added to clay than when added to sand, for the clay has many thousands more of surface than the same volume or weight of sand. The poisons are absorbed or stick to the outer surface of soil particles and are rendered in this way harmless or inert toward plant life. This is of intrinsic importance, for all applications of chemicals are less reactive on so-called heavy soils than on light soils. The writer has recollection of an instance where the toxicity of a given copper sulphate solution was sixty times as toxic in sand as in a loam soil, and records in England have instances where copper solutions were more than two hundred times as toxic in sand as in clay. Now another factor which governs the toxic quality in soil is a chemical one, and this too is more pronounced in effect in loam and clay than in sand. Let us illustrate. In one of Defoe's stories relating men isolated on an island without recourse to drinking water resorted to the procedure of pouring sea water through successive layers of soil and finally were able by the filtering process of securing some water to drink. This could have been a physical or chemical process, but let us dwell on the chemical and take a copper sulphate or blue stone solution and run it through clay in quantities. If we would collect what was a blue solution, we would find now a filtered material which was no longer blue but like pure water. Part of the copper sulnhate, namely the copper, was held by the clay, and sulphate part went through with the water and was clear. Now many of nature's soils are admirably adjusted for this so-called base exchange and what you add to the soil after it has reacted is no longer what it was when it was applied. In the above instance the copper had combined with a part of the soil and become an insoluble copper compound, and what is present and insoluble is the same as not being present at all. This is important, for some elements as copper, lead and mercury in the soil have a decided tendency to form insoluble materials which given a little time never again become soluble unless work is done upon them and nature does not do this; only miners and smelters resort to this. Poisons have been classified in toxicology. Some of them in the animal body affect the nervous system, others the heart muscles, the skin", the kidneys, the contraction of arteries and the like, while others, more inclusive in action, impair any living tissue whether plant or animal. They are called protoplasmic poisons. These poisons are those such as mercury, copper, arsenic—in fact all the so-called heavy metal salts which are soluble. Their action is to coagulate or stiffen the protein with which they come in contact. Nature has borne kindly with the plant, for both the soil, the plant and animal body, are to degree successful in making these harmless. In the animal the liver attempts to have them combine with something else to make them less harmful for the kidneys. The plant also tries to keep them out of the plant body by rejecting them or — making them less soluble if they do get into the plant. The soil is the most admirably adapted medium to detoxifying these, for it is a system par excellence in making a soluble substance as mercuric chloride, lead arsenate or copper sulphate to an insoluble or inert form and, as before stated, an insoluble form is the same as if none were present as far as toxicity is concerned. This is illustrated by the fact that where nature is at work making elements insoluble, we observe that plants do grow in areas where copper, lead and mercury are mined. Man does something to them before they harm plants, and when they get to the soil for a time they go back to the form meant for them in the soil. If they remained soluble they would not Your advertising message will reach the men who buy if y o u A d v e r t i s e in t h e — N E W S L E T T E R — Write the Business Manager f o r rates. Plan Fall Seeding Requirements Now Call on the Woodruff representative. Get the benefit of the experience his organization brings you. Put to work Woodruff's unique acquaintanceship with New England climate and soils. Have a special mixture developed for your own particular requirements. In addition to supplying the largest quantities of native, New England grass seed, Woodruff continually experiments with turf improvements, offers rare and new varieties for unusual conditions. Get in touch with a Woodruff representative today. Distributed by N e w England Toro Company and Connecticut Toro Company S W O O P UFF CRASS Velvet Bent Sod 250,000 sq. ft. Kernwood 10,000 sq. ft. Piper at-putting green length 100% Weed Free Matured Sod, strips 1' x 4' Deliver U, prices upon, request William Mitchell TURF New London GARDENS New Hampshire BENT GRASS SEED SEED DIVISION P i p e r Strain Velvet Bent Native Grown R h o d e Island Eent ALSO FAIRWAY MIXTURES Purchase with confidence, direct from the g r o w e r , viable, winter hardy seed, at lowest price commensurate with highest quality. A. N. KINGSTON, PECKHAM RHODE ISLAND be there, for water would have washed Bordeaux mixture which is in them out. It is of g r e a t i m p o r t a n c e to present. itself a series of compounds made by r e m e m b e r t h a t m a n - m a d e c h e m i c a l s a r e mixing copper sulphate and lime is one t h e o n e s w h i c h h a v e a c a p a c i t y to pro- of the more common of sprays, yet duce bad effects on living tissue. probably less on greens than formerly. Let us proceed with the mercury com- It is the writer's experience that a growpounds adopted by men interested in er of potatoes used the equivalent of plants for the purpose primarily in de- one carload of copper sulphate per stroying fungi. Calomel which is quite annum on forty acres of land in the insoluble, but soluble enough to destroy form of bordeaux and for a series of some bacteria of the colon of the human years, yet no diminution of yield was and fungi of soils, is not in low doses or noted; in fact, an increase * of yield applications toxic to animals and seed resulted. plants, and only by abnormal treatment reason for this was that the alkawould it be changed to bichloride of lineThecharacter of the lime and the calmercury in the colon, plant, or soil. It cium of the lime both acted against is the safer of the two mercury com- poisons, and what was not immediately pounds used on plants. a poison never became one. The copper When we apply bichloride of mercury for the most part stayed in the soil, yet to the soil in any appreciable quantities, it never hurt plants. This is not to it kills all living tissue and, if this is mean that l o w l i m e b o r d e a u x will n o t sandy soil, the results will be more pro- harm v e g e t a t i o n at the beginning. This nounced, but will probably change to a is the one almost universal spray maharmless character equally as soon. But terial to destroy fungi, and in modern this compound is changed by soil and agriculture we would do little without organic matter soon, for if protein of it where certain crops are involved. The vegetation decomposes, enough sulphur peculiar character of this spray is the compounds are formed to form the fact that the lime added to the soil is Cinnabar, the mercury compound that quite rapidly washed out of the soil and was mined from the soil originally and copper far more slowly. No better eviis insoluble. Also the protein of plants dence for lack of cumulative effects of which were killed will combine with copper could be afforded. the mercury, in the same way that Lead when added to plants in the people mount a herbarium, wood and form of arsenate of lead has been menstuffed animals with bichloride of mer- tioned a possible form of cumulative cury. Mercury is not likely to hurt poison. asWhat poisoning effect lead may plants by acting as a cumulative poison have on the leaf tissue is immediate, in the soil; it m a y retard growth by de- for lead of all the elements used reverts stroying helpful bacteria after the time soon in soil to an extremely insoluble has elapsed for them to have the capa- compound. The things that may city to kill the seed plant, but this too bine with lead in the soil, as sulphurcomor is transient. Time will overcome this sulphate and carbon dioxide, form comalso. pounds which are identical to the ore Red oxide of copper is used instead from which we get lead and are insoluof bordeaux mixture for the claim by ble and consequently relatively harmless. many that it will not exert the imme- It may be asked, why do some of the diate toxicity that will be exerted by elements which are in seemingly insolbordeaux. It is harmless because of its uble combination kill insects if they do apparent insolubility, nor will it become not hurt plants. Not all insects are demore soluble. The solubility is so low stroyed, depending upon the pH of their that it cannot be measured in water, alimentary tract. Those which have a yet the infinitely small solubility enables rather low pH may convert in their dimen to use it for soil disinfectant, and gestive tract what was entirely an inyet realize on the land a growth of seed soluble salt to a slightly soluble one and plants. Many of the lower forms of be poisoned. Lead sulphate is insoluble, plant life, bacteria and fungi are far and formed in the soil and insects may more sensitive than the higher plants to get it into their bodies, but unless they the exceedingly small amounts in soil. die from a stagnated gut or change the they will not die from the Copper sulphate is difficult to use as solubility,Acids convert many relatively such, for it is an acid salt which will poison. compounds to slightly solubl'e burn the leaves of plants out of pro- insoluble and make them more soluble portion to the amount of good the compounds This is true with respect to lead arsencopper in the salt will do, unless one ate. Calcium arsenate, when applied is cares nothing for what seed plants are m Treats turf for only 21 cents per 1,000 sq. ft. Costs as little as $1 25 a pound. Special Semesan contains both chlorophenol and cresol mercury for quick, long-lasting effect against brown patch and dollar spot yet costs one-half to two-thirds less than inorganic and gives greater effective coverage. Applied in solution or dry with compost or the McClain Hydrolizer by gaging and cutting down the water to a minimum. Write for free Turf Disease Pamphlet. Special Semesan 5 lbs. $7.00 25 lbs. $32.50 100 lbs. $125.00 Nu Green— 5 lbs. $6.25 . 25 lbs. $28.75 100 lbs. $110.00 maaiaBi 85 S T A T E STREET, BOSTON, MASS. Tested Seeds, Florida Humus and V. C. Fairway Fertilizer more soluble and may cause immediate harmful effects on plants. It does not have to be acted upon by the gastric or intestinal juices to .be effective. In this case arsenic acts alone on the insect. When lead is present, both lead and arsenic act individually but the insect must do something to the compound. Now that enough has been said of the elements which the soil content has rendered harmless, let us consider another ^ ^ class of elements—those if you please which the periodic table in* chemistry places in a position suggesting different properties—the elements arsenic selenium and thallium. Here the evidence of lack of accumulation is not so pronounced. Let us first consider arsenic. In our own greenhouse the effect of arsenic has not been pronounced. For two hundred parts per million of arsenic trioxide we if anything experienced stimulation for barley and buckwheat showed no signs of toxicity when one thousand parts per million were added, but at this concentration showed some lack of chlorophyll, narrow leaves and apparent lack of transpiration. This was a loam soil. According to the results of nearly all experiments, the concept of Nagli enunciated more than seventy-five years ago holds: it is this that when an element exerts toxicity to a plant in measurable quantities infinitely small amounts of this element will stimulate that plant. This seems to be the case in most instances. Our data shows this as does that of Greaves of Utah, as well as the workers in Oregon On a loam or clay in our area two hundred parts per million of arsenious oxide did a service rather than a harm. Harm has been reported, however, by the Montana Station, the Washington Station and South Carolina. At South Carolina where vast amounts of arsenates are used on cotton for boll weevil there was apparently a decided influence deleteriously to some other crops and the germination of seeds. At Washington an old orchard that had been heavily sprayed for about twenty-five years, and then removed, showed soil which was deleterious to the growth of some plants, especially alfalfa. You greens men, are somewhat fortunate for grasses, including cereals, are the most resistant to arsenic poisoning of numerous plants. Arsenic compounds are not readily changed to an entirely insoluble form by acids or bases. In either case they will still be soluble. If any of you have perchance lived in an area of our country where a smelter has been working on the old basis— where all the fumes pass off the stack— you will have noticed on the hillsides dead vegetation or none at all. The initial cause of this phenomenon is the sulphur dioxide which comes from the stacks, but arsenic is always associated naturally with sulphides and it too comes off the stack. The sulphur compounds kill the green materials, but the fact that no vegetation comes soon afterward is claimed to be arsenic. Today with new apparatus they precipitate both the sulphur and arsenic, and sell their products, and little damage is done. Where by accident or otherwise too much arsenical is placed upon a soil, liming the soil will, to a great degree, overcome this bad effect. There is a great difference of opinion about the actual harmful effects of arsenicals but unless continuous use in a lavish manner is made, it seems a doubtful factor in green culture. Some may claim that much is harmful, but more likely it is something else doing the harm. But it is an element which by careless use may in extreme cases come to contribute harm. It has those unique properties as an element in its reactions. Like selenium it will react with acid or base readily, and in each instance not become extremely insoluble. Of the two salts sodium arsenate or sodium arsenite, the latter is the more soluble and consequently more toxic, and will burn plants more quickly. This applies to immediate effects. Arsenic pentoxide is more active than arsenious oxide. The former is more soluble than the latter by nearly one hundred times. The slower the action of these compounds, the longer will their desirable action be prolonged. Ammonium arsenate is soluble to a high degree, but will burn plants less than the corresponding sodium compound. But this does not mean that harm cannot be done by this compound as far as immediate effects are concerned. After all these arsenates and arsenites are in the soil they form the same type of compound by reactions with the particles. Therefore as far as permanent or cumulative effect is concerned, they are all in the same category. Selenium is one of the most persistent poisons in soil, which is exceedingly harmful not to plants, but to animals which eat the plant. This trouble is not one encountered in humid areas, but in the West. Sulphate of iron is used as a selective compound to kill certain plants, and yet does not seem to hurt others. It does not seem at moderate concentrations to hurt grass tissue, oats, bents, etc., but does to a degree certain of the caryophyllaeeous and solanaceous families as chickweed and mustard. This effect is immediate and the iron sulphate immediately changes to an insoluble oxide of iron in the soil, and no permanent effects would ever accrue. There are several compounds which in the manufactured state are in the solid phase, but their vapor pressure soon brings them into a gaseous phase, at least parts of them—cyanogas and carbon disulphide. First of all a novice who has no knowledge of the properties of these compounds should not handle them for they are dangerous. Cyanogas from a cyanide salt at infinitely low concentrations will kill any animal including man. If large quantities are liberated in a small greenhouse it will destroy the tender newly formed leaves of plants. If used it must be repeated for the incisted infant types of insects are not attacked. No permanent effects are possible for its gas is easily dissipated into the air. Its use in warfare could not be employed for this reason. It is the most deadly of all gases. Carbon disulphide is a heavy gas and descends instead of rising—goes down into burrows and kills insects and rodents. It is not a deadly poison for plants or animals, but to a degree acts as an anaesthetic or intoxicant acts on the nervous system. It has no permanent effect on plant life. It too should be carefully handled for it is inflammable and mixtures with air are explosive. It will burst into flame only a little above the boiling point temperature of water. Of all weedicides, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium chlorate are the most inclusive in their harsh action toward vegetable life. They make no distinction between good and bad plants— all are killed. In immediate effect the sodium chlorate is the most active, next calcium, megnesium and then potassium. The results of these salts applied are not for a long time, for the reducing agencies of the soil change the chlorates to chlorides which may contribute to growth rather than retard vegetative growth. One of the newer weedicides is ammonium thiocyanate. This performs a good service apparently, and leaves no permanent bad effects for any extended period. ^ YOUR BEST I N S U R A N C E FOR Almost every championship golf course in the country keeps its greens in perfect condition with hand-pushed mowers. Many have proved by competitive tests that t h e ' P e n n sylvania Super-Roller Greensmower is the finest machine of its kind. H i g h speed ballhearing cylinder with 8 blades of the finest crucible-analysis steel, oil-hardened and temy^K p e r e d , i n s u r e s t h e s m o o t h , r i b l e s s c u t t h a t is e s s e n t i a l f o r a good p u t t i n g s u r f a c e . T r a i n of I 3 cut gears, running in grease in dust-tight case, assures an easy-pushing, f a s t - c u t t i n g mower. Castor wheels are mounted on hardened steel bushings with alemite lubrication. The light weight aluminum rollers, 7 inches m diameter, are interchangeable right or left. The width of cut is 18 inches. W e feel confident that careful comparison will convince any greenskeeper of the greater efficiency of this famous Pennsylvania mower and prove that here indeed is his best insurance f o r the maintenance of championship greens. Pennsylvania L a w n Mower Works, Primos, Del. County, Penna. Snwn» TU OAn,rv W O O D W O R T H B R A D L E Y , INC N H A a N Send For Latest Catalog Containing complete information on this and other Pennsylvania mowers f o r the golf course . . . . including the D E L U X E FAIRW A Y G A N G M O W E R S . Units in both 30 and 36 inch sizes. • 120 Cypress Street, Brookline, Mass. 1 3 1 D o r r a n c e S t r e e t , P r o v i d e n t , R. I. "Water White Kerosene" will kill weeds and other vegetation. The killing process is not in this case as in others. This material shuts off the respiratory system of plants. They cannot exchange the gases oxygen for carbon dioxide and the reverse. If you would spill grease of any kind on a spot of the lawn, the grass would die. Dogs not too infrequently will drag greasy materials about a lawn and spots may be seen, caused by grease resulting in impaired grass growth. This material if from heavy oils may persist for a year or more, for bacteria are rare which break up the petroleum products, yet where derricks once were used in drilling for oil, vegetation again gets started and thrives. Calcyanamid is toxic to all types of plant tissue but plants which have an underground rhizome are difficult to kill, for calcium cyanamid as we use it is insoluble in water, and by the time it gets into the soil to a great depth it is another substance. Two weeks after adding cyanamid on a spring or summer day, one may find crystals of urea resulting from the cyanamid; it is the initial decomposition product and may be found on the surface of the soil. It seems for this reason to be not too serviceable in killing quack grass. Other plants with root surface near the top of the soil have been killed by this chemical. No bad permanent effects are possible. Chlorpicrin is an excellent weedicide if used in sufficient quantities and stimulates weeds if only a little is present. It may be a stimulant in the proper sense, but it contains nitrogen which too may serve for nutrition when the chemical decomposes. No permanent bad effects linger afterward. Borax must be used with care. Fifteen parts per million are good. Often 100 parts per million will kill plant life. Lime added to fields to which too much borax has been added will help to restore normal growth. Two much borax may last for several years in effect on an acid soil. It is a risky compound to use as a weedicide, unless all is to be killed for some time. President Secretary Treasurer Chairman, Chairman, Chairman, Chairman, Chairman, There are several insecticides which are used, such as tobacco dust, nicotine sulphate, pyrethrum, rotenone and derris. With the exception of nicotine dust the others are especially toxic to coldblooded animals, but not to man. They will kill only selectively. None of these leave any temporary or permanent injury to plant life. As far as toxins to plants are concerned, they have inherited resistance and lack of resistance from their earlier forbearers. Those elements or compounds more frequently found in soil waters or even sea waters are the least toxic; thus the salts of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium in nature do not hurt plants, but the relatively rare salts of the elements copper, silver, gold, mercury and others are toxic for the fact that plants of today and their ancestors have never adjusted themselves to them for they were rare. Elements may be present but only slightly in solution and plants can tolerate only a little of them. Thus nearly eight per cent of the earth's crust is aluminum, and four and one-half per cent iron. They are, if soluble, destructive to plant life in appreciable concentrations but nature makes them in soil insoluble. As a matter of digression, but to prevent tragedy or unhappiness, let us dwell finally on the case in the use of just a few of the killing chemicals. Have the mercury salts inclosed in a tight container and plainly labeled as to content. We do not regard even metallic mercury as having any great vapor pressure, yet history shows that in an inclosed room over a long time persons have been poisoned from the atmosphere surrounding the mercury. Cyanogas is deadly and the antidotes are of little avail. Take care about the least bit of this material. It is the author's experience that just about half of the human race can detect the odor of this gas. For gastric poisoning for heavy metals as mercury and lead as well as arsenic, induce vomiting and administer white of an egg or milk. It is better never to have these chemicals near than to be careless with their use. OFFICERS' DIRECTORY John Counsell, 5 Ellsworth Rd„ Peabody, Philip Cassidy, Needham Golf Club, Needham, . . . . . Frank Wilson, Charles River C. C., Newton Centre, Enter Comm N. Sperandio, 90 Brinsmead St., Marlboro, Golf Comm Paul Hayden, 81 Orange St., Waltham Welfare Comm Lloyd Stott, Meadowbrook G. C., Reading Employ. Comm. . . Arthur Anderson, 358 Fuller St., West Newton Trustees Paul C. Wanberg, 17 Eddy St., Waltham, Mass. Mass. Mass. Mass. Mass. Mass Mass' Mass give you improved playing conditions at lower mowing costs WORTHINGTON CUTTING UNITS Twenty-six years of research and p r a c t i c a l o p e r a t i n g e x p e r i e n c e h a v e developed the 1 9 4 0 Worthington Cutting U n i t to t h e h i g h e s t s t a t e of e f f i c i e n c y and operating economy. Gear housings are dust, sand and grease-proof. Filled to proper level they require checking o n l y o n c e d u r i n g t h e s e a s o n . T h e r e are n o o t h e r p l a c e s t o g r e a s e o r oil. H a n d a d j u s t m e n t of t h e b e d - k n i f e s t e e l is a n exclusive Worthington f e a t u r e — a n d the q u i c k e s t of a n y c u t t i n g u n i t o n t h e m a r k e t — n o tools required. From the greenkeepers' and opera t o r s ' v i e w p o i n t s , t h e r e is less f u s s i n g Below is the conventional s p i r a l - t y p e reel. Note s t u r d y demountable rims which, w h e n w o r n or b r o k e n a c c i d e n t a l l y , c a n be r e p l a c e d in a f e w m o m e n t s a t less t h a n i/ 2 t h e c o s t of a n e w w h e e l . Above is the patented "V" or h e r r i n g b o n e reel preferred by many golf course superintendents. Note — rubber pneumatic tires are available as extra equipment. fe- and trouble with Worthington Cuttin" Units and Gang Mowers. The general d e s i g n is s i m p l i c i t y i t s e l f , its c o n s t r u c t i o n s t r o n g a n d s t u r d y t o g i v e y e a r s of s e r v i c e , a n d a b e a u t i f u l c u t u n d e r all c o n d i t i o n s w i t h a c u t t i n g r a n g e u p to 4 i n c h e s . Its g r o u n d w e i g h t is 2 2 3 lbs. Investigate the Worthington 1940 Cutting Unit before your m o w i n g probl e m b e c o m e s a c u t e this S p r i n g , or w r i t e us t o d a y f o r c o m p l e t e d a t a a n d specifiC. M . SAWTELLE New England Distributor 3 Walker Terrace Cambridge, Telephone: Trowbridge Mass. 7491 T h e W o r t h ington Golf C h i e f and t h e W o r t h i n g t o n Multig a n g w i t h 7 c u t t i n g u n i t s , c u t t i n g a w i d t h of 16 f e e t is, w e believe, the fastest, most flexible, most efficient and e c o n o m i c a l g a n g - m o w i n g o u t f i t in t h e w o r l d . N o t e size of n e w f l y - k n i f e s t e e l section above, i t is a s p e c i a l h e a t - t r e a t e d , o i l - t e m p e r e d alloy steel w i t h a m i n i m u m Rockwell h a r d n e s s of 4 0 - c , a l l o w i n g for greater w e a r and greatly lengthe n i n g t h e l i f e of t h e r e e l . BuckneF BaiiiMobile A Self-Propel led Sprinkling Vehicle Which Moves Itself O v e r Large Turf Areas NEW ENGLAND DISTRIBUTORS FOR T H E RELIABLE ANT C O N T R O L '"«« Bt-SO FOR GOLF GREENS A N D L A W N S NO BUYING RISK: SELECT YOUR PACKING C o u n t r y C l u b S i z e : Twelve Large BUCKEYE Antubes with Four Dropper attachments. Delivered for 9.25. Use one. If not entirely satisfied return balance and owe nothing. Enough to make 6000 drop applications. B u l k Q u a r t P a c k i n g : Complete with Patent Dropper Gun. Both sent delivered for $10.00. Enough to make 10,000 drop applications. Look For The Blue Packages— New England Toro Co. • ; DISTRIBUTORS FOR. N^Tk^AND' 1121: Washington St-!, West'Newton — WESt New. 1658