182 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



light that it is easily and quickly handled by one person. As soon as the blos- 

 soms have fallen from the tree and the fruit is well set — standing out on their 

 stems so that the entire branch can be taken off at a single clip without injury 

 to the wood or leaves — I commence the operation of removing it. Placing the 

 ladder under or by the side of the branch to be operated upon, I ascend the 

 ladder, if necessary, and steadying myself by holding the branch with one hand, 

 while with a pair of sheep shears in the other I cut off every bunch of apples; 

 Leing careful to leave as much of the stem of the apple on the tree as I can 

 conveniently. When all the fruit is removed from a branch, I skip the next 

 one and operate on the third, and so on until I have gone over the tree. This 

 removing of the fruit must not be confined to little branches here and there 

 over the tree. All the fruit must be taken from a main branch, and if pos- 

 sible a corresponding one on the opposite side of the tree, so that the weight of 

 fruit will bear equally on each side. The fruit left on the tree will not be so 

 large at maturity as it would, provided a portion of each bunch had been re- 

 moved. It will, however, be sufficiently improved to amply repay for the time 

 spent in the operation, while the great advantage is that of having a portion of 

 the tree bear fruit every year. This operation once performed need not be re- 

 peated until the fruit has been killed by frosts or other climatic influences. 

 The removing of the fruit in this way is not so tedious a job as some suppose. 

 If the trees are not too large — say they are from twelve to twenty years old — a 

 smart, active man can go over fifteen to twenty trees in a day. In 18 G3 I 

 operated in this manner on some Rambo trees, that had hitherto been very per- 

 sistent in their habit of bearing every other year. Since then a portion of these 

 trees have borne fruit every year until 1875, when it was killed by the frost. — 

 (r. F. N., in Practical Farmer. 



FEEDING VALUE OF APPLES. 



There seems to be no question as to the value of sweet apples for fattening 

 purposes, but a good many think that ordinary second and third grade apples 

 as they come from the orchard are worthless as feed for milch cows. It is a 

 prevailing opinion among some farmers that apples actually check the flow of 

 milk. 



It is a question of some importance this season, apples are so abundant, and 

 if anything can be realized from the lower grades through feeding them to 

 stock there may be quite a saving of cattle food. 



There is no doubt in the minds of those who have experimented with care in 

 the use of apples as food for milch cows that, with judicious feeding, they 

 will not only form a palatable mess, but increase the flow of milk. The proba- 

 bility is that when there has been a loss of milk in connection with the use of 

 apples, that the animals have been allowed to gorge themselves, and thus, with 

 an unnatural condition of the digestive organs, the lacteal secretion has suffered 

 diminution. In feeding apples the farmer should begin with small quantities, 

 and use a small proportion of bran, increasing the amount of them gradually. 



The writer hereof is well acquainted with a fanner in Kent county, Michi- 

 gan, who, with this management in seasons when apples were abundant, in- 



