THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



55 



son has a Scckol or Bartlett pear tree that 

 grows wll, yv\ ilncs not bear, aud if root prun- 

 ing be adiiii'nisU'n'il wliile tlie tree isdin-mant 



lop 



■fruit will be the result. This 



prac- 



tice holds i^ootl with plants of all kinds. Any 

 plant tliat does not llower, yet grows ram- 

 pantly, may be helped toward.s flowernig by 

 witholdiiig from it the elements of food. .Some 

 inmates of the fniit-garden, suclias grapes for 

 instance, connnence bearin;,' frnit llie year 

 sucerediiii; their planting, and tlins need no 

 I root-pruning ; but a proper pruning of tludr 

 branches is benelicial to them. Grapes i)ro- 

 i : duce the finest bunches from young canes, and 

 to get them, a few brandies should be cut 

 within an eye or two of the ground every 

 winter. Some strong shoots will Ije the result, 

 producing fruit the following year tlie whole 

 length of the stem, wliich is hard to obtain 

 on wood over a year old. 



On the lawn, deciduous and evergreen trees 

 should be pruned on the same principle <is 

 fruit trees. Many trees require no pruning, 

 growing always into beautiful specimens. Tlie 

 pine oak is. an example of tliis. No pruning 

 can make a more shapely tree of it tlian it 

 makes if left alone. It is not iniusual to sec 

 shrubs trimmed of into a ball-shape, very 

 similar to what the street trees are. The 

 summer pruning is what they want. It was 

 once thought that evergreeiis could not be 

 touched with a knife, but it has been long 

 known in America that these ti-ees bear pnin" 

 ing just as well as any other tree. The knife 

 can be used anywhere needed, and the tree 

 can be brought into any shape desired. But 

 generally evergreens reciuire but little prun- 

 ing ; a shoot pinched off here and there to 

 keep them shapely is generally sufficient. 

 Those who have hedges to prune should be 

 careful to see that the pruuer tlioroughly un- 

 derstands for what purpose he jiruues. if the 

 hedge be thin at the base with a thick top 

 growth, the pruning should be done in early 

 summer while the growth is still going on. 

 The object will be mainly to thicken the base. 

 This is accomplished by pruning back the top 

 shoots, thus throwing the sap to the lower 

 branches, making them vigorous, bushy, and 

 forming a close branch base. Later iti the 

 season, when the growth has ceased the hedge 

 may be trimmed into shape, the conical bein" 

 the best, as affording a better chance to the 

 lower branches to get sun and air. Where 

 the hedges are evergreens they should never 

 be pruned late in the fall as this exposes the 

 inside shoots, the weakest always, to the ac- 

 tion of the winter weatlirr, resulting in much 

 injury to the trees. This of course applies 

 also to single specimen evergreens. Some- 

 times an old tree has braliches'on which must 

 be cut off. These branches, if large, are apt 

 to make unsightly scars where cut from the 

 tree. It is not generally known that a branch 

 cut in summer, when the sap is active, heals 

 over much more quickly than when cut iu 

 winter. This being so, these large branches 

 should lie pruned in the summer time. 



The most useful and easiest mode of prun- 

 ing is that of the summer time. When the 

 young growth is soft, a pinching off of a shoot 

 here and there will produce perfect specimens 

 and leave no scars behind. There is much 

 pleasure in-pruning a growing tree. As one 

 year succeeds the other, the work that has 

 been well done shows itself, and we wonder 

 that the beautiful tree l.elniv us has been pro- 

 duced by so little labor nCmrs. 



Selections. 



ARRAREEK FARM. 



The New Method of Feeding Cattle. 



There can be no more beautiful country 

 than that found in Passaic County, New 

 Jersey, in the neighborhood of Pompton. The 

 village itself is situated on a big plateau all 

 surrounded by hills, real flat lands which 

 stretch out in a level plain between every gap 

 of rising ground. Just beyond Airareek 



Farm you see the continuation of the plateau 

 as it breaks through the blue hills, and ex- 

 tends panoramic-wise far beyond. It is a 

 country bountifully watered, for on Arrareek 

 Farm there are two fairly big rivers, the 

 AVynokie and Kumapo. The country seems 

 especially lifted, from natural circumstances, 

 for dairy-farms, the meadow-lands running 

 down to tlie brink of the wafer. Pompton 

 has its interesting historic reminiscences, for 

 right liy .\rrareeU I'^irin stands an ancient 

 stone house which tradition states wius once 

 General W.vsfiiNOTON's head-quarters in 

 1777, for the old Pompton road was the back 

 route on the line of communication between 

 Trenton and West Point. 



But it is not so much with the beauties of 

 the scenery or with the historic traditions of 

 Pompton that we have to do as with a most 

 novel way of feeding cattle in use on Arrareek 

 Farm. The visit made to the farm is chosen 

 purposely in March, for it is just at that time 

 that, under ordinary circumstaces, cattle are 

 in their very worst condition. Now it has 

 happened that this year, owing to the excep- 

 tional severity of the winter— the coldest 

 known for quite a number of years— cows are 

 in very bad order. Even those having the 

 best shelter and abundant feed have felt the 

 rigors of the past winter. 



Cows on a farm, though all necessary pre- 

 caution may be taken, can not be pampered. 

 The few Jerseys or Ayrshires on the experi- 

 mental farm may be petted aud housed, but 

 when a farmer has 120 head of cattle, though 

 he uses all possible care, if the winter is, a 

 hard one the animals in March and April 

 must look at their worst. Generally hides 

 are rough ; the hair stands the wrong way ; 

 the eyes are heavy, and want that soft sub- 

 dued gleam which is the chiefest beauty of 

 bovine expression. They are languid, and 

 show physical depre.'^sion. There are few- 

 frisky yearlings, and the four and six month 

 calves have a feeble and puny look. If the 

 farmer has been a thritty man, he has been 

 doing all in his power for his stock during the 

 long winter. Tliey have been sheltered every 

 night, often during the day, and have been 

 fairly feed. They have had their ground dry 

 feed, with a plentiful supply of hay. If they 

 have not been allowed to eat their heads off, 

 still, they have been well cared for. Yet, 

 under usual circumstances, they are all of 

 them gaunt and ugly, and their owner has 

 been anxious about them, and is longing for 

 the chance to turn them out into the fields 

 when the first sweet grass saall spring forth ; 

 and then, as if by magic, his poor cows will 

 once more look smooth and sleek, and take on 

 fat, and fill his pails to the brim with the 

 richest and sweetest of milk. 



The visitor at Arrareek Farm, on a cold, 

 rainy day in March, looked at the cows, year- 

 lings, calves, and saw no scarecrow animals. 

 Instead of being m their worst condition, as 

 thin as "a March cow," he was surprised to 

 notice that they were very fat— in fact, a 

 great many of them in good enough order to 

 bo butchered. The eyes were handsome, and 

 full of life. There was no stiffness in the 

 joints of the animals ; they moved around 

 briskly. The yearlings were full of life and 

 animation. The calves came along at call 

 with baby gallopings. In fact, it wiis a happy, 

 contented-looking herd, which had passed 

 through a severe winter, and wore now in 

 as prime condition as when they munched 

 their last mouthful of grass some five or six 

 months before. 



Of course the visitor, when he saw this 

 commenced to wonder. lie was, if the least 

 bit of an agriculturist, accustomed to see poor- 

 looking beasts iu March, and noticing at Ar- 

 rareek Farm something quite the contrary, he 

 propounded to himself for a solution some- 

 thing of this kind: "Mi-. C. W. Mills, who 

 owns these fine-looking cattle, is perfectly in- 

 difierent to the cost. He has been stall-feed- 

 ing these cows. What a lot of money it must 

 have cost, with hay at S22 or $2.5 per ton, to 

 winter all this herd! It must -have cost from 

 88,000 to 810,000 to do it. If he sees profit iu | 



this kind of thing, I do not. It's all very well 

 to 1)0 tender-hearted, but cows are cows, and 

 milk is worth so much a (piart, and butter so 

 much a pound, and though Mr. Bergh might 

 crown Mr. Mills for the excellent condition of 

 his cows, the public would not pav a cent 

 more for his butter or milk. What' a prodi- 

 gious quantity of hay these cows must have 

 eaten!" 



Then the visitor looked to see if he could not 

 find out some huge barns, which must have 

 been bursting out with hay at some time, and 

 ho peered around to find traces of demolished 

 hay-ricks. He had been to the barn, by no 

 means a large one, and seen that it was one 

 of ordinary size, almost entirely occupied by ■ 

 feeding-stalls, and that there was no hay there 

 at all. The longer ho huiitetl, the more diffi- 

 cult it was for him to find the least trace of 

 hay, or straw, or any kind of long fodder. At 

 last he found out that there was not even a 

 sprig, a stem, of hay on the premises. Then 

 he wondered and wondered how these cattle 

 had been kept so fat and healthy duriuir the 

 last long winter. " 



Then' Mr. Mills explained it all. and com- 

 mencing with the very beginning, imparted 

 to the visitor the .story of the silo and the 

 character of ensilage. Mr. Mills, who is a 

 grain merchant in New York, of high stand- 

 ing, familiar with all kinds of wheat and corn, 

 had been long struck with the luxuriant char- 

 acter of some species of the Southern corn. 

 He determined to experiment with it on his 

 farm at Pompton. Having selected his seed, 

 he planted it in proximity to his ordinary 

 New Jersey corn. His idea was that by 

 hybridism he might improve the size and 

 quality of the Jersey com. Planting his corn 

 of both varieties side by cide, when the end Of 

 September came, to his dism-ay the native 

 com was ripe, ears all formed, but the South- 

 ern corn, which was twice as tall, was yet im- 

 mature. If frost came, it would be waisted. 

 Neighboring farmers would lean over the 

 fences of Arrareek Farm and speculate on the 

 character of the extraordinarv growtli, and 

 pass queer comments upon it. ' In fact, this 

 tall corn, green and luxuriant, which required 

 a quicker climate than that of New Jersey, 

 ill time oppressed Mr. Mills. Here was mag- 

 nificent food for his cattle which was likely to 

 be wasted. Evidently it never would ripen in 

 time. Frost would come long before an ear 

 was formed, and then it would all be ruined* 

 He pondered and pondered over the business. 

 Then there did come in early November the 

 Hrst slight nip of frost. He must try some- 

 thing, or his farmer friends would forever 

 have the laugh on him. Necessity is the 

 mother of invention. He remembered the 

 old method of keeping roots in mounds of 

 earth, practiced from time immemorial. All 

 hands were ordered to work. Pits were dug 

 in a dry gravelly soil. The tall corn was laid 

 low, cut in lengths, transpoiied to the pit, laid 

 ui it lengthwise on a foundation of hoards. 

 When the pit was full, it was roofed with 

 planks and covered with eiirth, and entirely 

 irrespective of any other silo, perfectly unac- 

 quainted with ensilage, never having read a 

 word about it in any language, in the same 

 year, 18T0, Mr. Mills .discovered the way of 

 keeping forage. When the time came to" try 

 this food on cattle, the contents of the pit 

 were found to be in fair order. It gave out a 

 vinous odor, was of a tawny green— "the 

 color of cooked beans,'' is Mr. Mill's artistic 

 idea of the exact shade of good ensilage. The 

 cattle ate of it greedily. They came and came 

 again for it. The i)rocess with its make-shift 

 method was a partial success only. What 

 was good in the mass answered airpurpo.se.s, 

 but a certain portion had rotted. There was 

 no fault in the general plan, only the details 

 wanted greater consideration. Then Mr. Mills 

 set about thinking it all over, and devised hia 

 present system of preservation by the exclu- 

 sion of the air by pressure only. 



It all .seems simple enough when you see it, 

 but the simplest things are always those 

 which ouc arrives at after matured thought. 

 When you enter the barn you see two deep 



