DIGEST OP STATE REPORTS. 393 



sign of a good cowis an open, bouy structure ; not a coarse or loose-fibered, bony struct 

 ure, but a bony structure that is so articulated or hung together that there is elastic- 

 ity and ease of motion about it. Now, where are you going to find the indicative point 

 that will tell this story ? Put your finger into the point of the shoulder, and see if the 

 cow has a cup-like cavity there. If she has, ten chances to one she will be a good 

 milker ; but if not, if her shoulder is hard and compact, even if she is milking well to- 

 day, she will be likely to fail to-morrow. 



You next come to the ribs. Upon a good chest-development depends almost every- 

 thing else in a dairy-cow. She must have a finely-shaped chine, and the spring of her 

 ribs, from the spine down through her heart, must indicate that she has a strong circu- 

 lation ; but you do not want her brisket as deep as a steer's, or like a short-horn bul- 

 lock ; you want the shape I speak of, and you want it with a certain delicacy of or- 

 ganization which indicates that the circulatory system is a strong one and that neither 

 the heart nor the lungs are impaired. But go back to the ribs. You want a rib, not 

 round, like your fiinger, but flat and wide. When you put your hand on it, it should 

 ffeel as flat as a lath ; and if you can get at the edge, you should find the edge sharp, 

 and not a round bone, like the rib of swine. A round rib will answer for a beef animal, 

 l)ut not for a good dairy-cow. Her backbone, moreover, should be open and loose, so 

 that if you run your hand along it you will feel those little cup-like cavities. Let her 

 hips be strong, not too wide, and her hind quarters upright, substantial, vigorous. Let 

 her have a long hind foot. I never saw a short-toed cow in my life that would perform 

 the work of the dairy well. A long hind foot and a good, broad, ample fore foot. Then 

 if, in addition to all this, you can get a hide that is elastic and soft, covered with a 

 ■warm substantial coat of hair, with a good milk-vein and an udder which is packed up 

 ■well between the thighs, and so organized that there is no danger of inflammation, 

 there you have got a cow that will produce all the milk you ought reasonably to ask, 

 and which, when she has completed her dairy-work, can be so fattened as to produce 

 in an economical way your 550 pounds of as good beef as can be fed on a mountain 

 pasture or in a stall. 



In an interesting discussion on the cultivation of fruits, the proper 

 season for pruning apple-trees occupied a portion of the time. As to 

 the most favorable season, Mr. T. S. Gold, of Connecticut, said : " We 

 are advised to prune in June, but as that is a time when a farmer never 

 will prune his trees, we accept what is considered to be the next best 

 time, which is the mild weather in winter." 



Mr. Ordway took issue with him, and said: 



If you trim a tree in the fall of the year, at this time, or any time during December, 

 January, or February, and go to it in May or June of the year following, and take your 

 thumb and scratch upon the bark where you have taken a limb off, you will invariably 

 Bcratch off dead bark of the thickness of an eighth or quarter of an inch. All the bark 

 would have grown if you had cut it off in April, May, or June.- I tried that in my 

 orchard in 1856. There were some places, where I cut off a limb, that the bark died 

 back a quarter of an inch, which had never been known when the trees had been 

 pruned in the spring or in the summer. It is a mistake to trim your trees in the win- 

 ter, and it is a mistake to head-in your trees in the fall; they will die back just as 

 Burely as you do it. 



Mr. Wetherell referred to the practice of Mr. Pierce, of Arlington, 

 indorsing him as one of the most successful fruit-growers in Eastern 

 Massachusetts. He stated tliat his time for pruning, in ordinary sea- 

 sons, was the first two weeks in June ; but if he is too busy then, he 

 takes off a limb at any time he may have leisure after harvest, a foot or 

 more from the tree. Then in June he takes a fine-cue saw and cuts off 

 the stump close to the tree. The final pruning is thus done at the time 

 ne considers most desirable, and the wound, he says, heals over smooth 

 and sound, leaving none of that canker referred to. In reply, Mr. Ord- 

 way said : 



I have no doubt every nurseryman will agree with me, that there is no time in the 

 year when you have got to trim with as much caution as in June. If you are not very' 

 careful in pruning, you are just as sure to start the bark at the lower part of your stub 

 as you live. June is a good time, but July is better. I have had experience all my 

 life in trimming trees, and in grafting and budding all kinds of fruit, and I never saw 

 but one year when I could not trim in April and the first of May. After you get your 

 trees trimmed, mix a bucket of clay and hair, just the same as a man would mix mor- 



