FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 173 



gathered, especially if the weather bo mild, will shorten the season thirty days, 

 or they will come to maturity that much sooner than they would if gathered 

 earlier. 



I never handle after storing until the season for marketing. My best keepers, 

 gathered the last of September and first of October, I don't expect to see again 

 until next May. They are stored in bins. The varieties that bring me the best 

 returns are the Red Canada and Roxbury Russet. 



DISCUSSION. 



J. P. Thompson, of Detroit. What do you consider the best method of cul- 

 tivating a young orchard? 



Mr. Pray. By hoed crops ; principally, the corn crop. 



Mr. Thompson. How do you keep your apples in cold weather? 



Mr. Pray. A little frost will not injure apples in the bin. I do not ventilate 

 my cellar during the warm days that immediately follow a severely cold spell. 

 I ventilate on a frosty day. A cellar for keeping apples shotild be dry and cool. 



Secretary Baird. You say that apples will keep much better if harvested at 

 the proper time. What do you regard as the proper time, and how is it distin- 

 guished? 



Mr. Pray. I harvest my apples when I notice the twigs become tender. This 

 is indicated by the dropping of the fruit. 



Prof. Ingersoll. In storing apples, do you place them near the bottom^ortop 

 of the cellar? 



Mr. Pray. I keep them in bins or shelves, extending from about six inches 

 above the bottom of the cellar to as near the top as is convenient for storing. 



Some discussion followed in regard to pruning, participated in by Prof. Beal 

 and others, in which the practice of cutting off large branches was condemned, 

 and all seemed to be agreed that if only small ones were cut off it did not 

 matter at what season of the year the pruning was done. 



FORENOON SESSION. 



Friday, 9 o' doch A. M. 



Mr. Robert P. Kedzie, Assistant in Chemistry at the Agricultural College, 

 read the following paper on 



"analysis of milk from different breeds of cows." 



For thousands of years the milk of the cow has been an important part of 

 human food. Even in tlie earliest writings flocks and herds are mentioned, and 

 we may safely infer that cows' milk in some form, either as milk, cream, butter 

 or cheese, has always constituted an important part of the food of mankind. 



And milk is entitled to a high rank as food. It is one of the very few sub- 

 stances that contains all the elements, and in the right proportion to support 

 life. A person cannot live and be iu good health upon lean meat alone, or po- 

 tatoes alone for any length of time, because in the first there is not enough car- 

 bon, and in the second not enough nitrogen. But in milk we find all these 

 elements present in just the right proportion for human food, and so it is called 

 the perfect food, the type of them all. 



We are apt to think that milk is not a very valuable food because it contains 



