Cornell Study Clubs 121 i 



and woods — when they are divested of their obscuring dress of leaves and 

 when the characteristic marks of trunks, tv/igs, and winter buds are plain 

 to view — but much may be learned at this season about the cultivation and 

 care of the trees of the grove and garden. 



The farmer who would derive an income from orchards of apples, pears, 

 peaches, plums, or cherries will never neglect to care for them in winter. 

 He will search his plum and cherry trees for black knot and other fungous 

 growths and will see that these diseases are destroyed while dormant. 

 He will examine the bark to see if scale insects are infesting it; then, when the 

 time for spraying comes, he knows just where the work should be most 

 thoroughly done. In autumn he will have planted cover crops or spread 

 mulches beneath the trees in order to keep the frost from biting too deeply 

 into the earth above their feeding roots. He takes care that the bark 

 is not gnawed from the tree trunks by the hungry rabbits and rats and 

 mice. If he wishes his young trees to make; a vigorous growth of wood 

 the next summer, he will prune them in winter, and the number and dis- 

 tribution of the buds on the branches will often decide for him as to what 

 should be removed. After a " killing frost " he examines the buds to 

 see if the promise of fruit has been destroyed ; if it has been he will plan 

 for a between-row crop in order to save the land from being unprodiictive. 



Study of the care of domestic ammals and poultry in winter 



This is a study having many sides and it should be one of unfailing in- 

 terest. It gives the sort of knowledge that should become almost a ' ' second 

 nature " to its possessor. The farm boy or girl who has a love for 

 animals will find a perennial pleasure in learning how to make them 

 more comfortable and happy, and as a consequence more profitable to 

 their owners. Numberless discussions may arise from observations made 

 by members or through suggestions from reading: for example, that one 

 neighbor has plenty of eggs in winter when the price is highest, while 

 another neighbor's flock, apparently as well cared for, produces few eggs 

 or none; that one flock of sheep increases without mishap, while another 

 loses many lambs through the owner's lack of knowledge of the proper 

 care and feeding of the ewes in winter; that this dairy herd must make 

 up to its owner in summer for the loss occasioned by its unproductiveness 

 in winter, while that one, by a wiser use of balanced rations and other 

 proper care, is profltable the year round; that a horse which lives in a dry 

 and well-lighted stable, whose coat is curried and brushed regularly, and 

 whose food is calculated and balanced, is a happier animal and can work 

 better for his master than another horse which receives less intelligent 

 care. 



