-7- 



guide although I have Icnovm people who fed tvrlce that many. Apples may take 

 the place of a portion of any other standard succulent feed such as silage, 

 root's or grass but it should be remembered that they have a somewhat higher 

 water content than either silage or grass and adjustment should be made ac- 

 cordingly. 



"On a dry matter basis, a peck of apples is equivalent to about 

 10 povmds of good corn silage. It should also be remembered that apples arc 

 a strictly carbohydrate feed. Their content of total protein is low and it 

 is not highly digestible. Roughly, they contain about l/6 as much digestible 

 protein as good corn silage does. For these reasons apples cannot take the 

 place of any considerable part of the grain in a milking cow's ration. I 

 strongly suspect that much of the drying up of cor.'s reported v;hen apples are 

 fed is due to the failure to recognize these iiiiportant facts. 



"Curiously enough, the recorded results of feeding apples to cows 

 are very meager. In two experiments at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 

 Canada back in 1904 and 1905, apples vrere substituted for a portion of the 

 ensilage and roots custoi:iarily fed. The cov;s relished the apples and seemed 

 to thrive on them, snail gains in weight being noted. There ■v\'as a slight in- 

 crease in milk yields when the apples were fed. 



"In 1905, at the V.'ash. Agr. Exp. Sta., whole apples were ensiled 

 alone and also with alfalfa hay, in the proportion of 80f! apples and 20^% hay. 

 The straight apple silage did not prove particularly sat is fact or^-, being too 

 soft for best results, but the apple-alfalfa silage was a good product, verjr 

 palatable to cows, and maintained milk production on a verjr high level." 



0:16 I'eans of Changing the Bearing Year 



IiTthe' October" Issue of the American Fruit Grower, we find a report 

 of a sprayijag experiment at the University Experimental Farm, Kearneysville, 

 W. Va. A block of 13-year-old York Imperial trees, 25 to 30 feet high and 

 almost completely bierjiial, was used for the testing of two materials: (1) A 

 tar oil distillate and (2) a material laaown as DITO, a prepared mixture of 

 dinltro-ortho-cyclo-hej:j'-l-phenol in oil. The trees were sprayed at the early 

 pink stage, check trees and treated trees being selected at random through 

 the orchard. These materials proved very satisfactory from the standpoint 

 of practically complete removal of the crop which was the objective of the 

 spraying, 'ifhere a single application of 2T' tar oil distillate v;as used prac- 

 tically no apples set on those trees. 



Since 1953 the even numbered years have been relatively short apple 

 crop years in the U.S. v;ith much better prices prevailing than during the odd 

 numbered years. I'any orchards, however, have been producing their main crop 

 during the odd numbered years with disastrous financial results to the grower. 

 This experiment suggests a method by v/hich the on year for part of such bien- 

 nial orchards can be changed and orchard production as a whole made more \ini- 

 form from year to year without the complete loss of the crop. It would appear 

 to merit the serious consideration of grov/crs who have certain varieties in a 

 strongly biennial condition. 



