24 THE EURAL LIBRARY. 



meadows are cut and the cattle turned on them till corn is large enough 

 to cut, and this keeps them in rough fodder until the silos are opened, 

 so that, as stated, the corn plant provides cow food from the last of 

 July until the last of May. Of course, some hay is fed with the ensil- 

 age, but the latter provides most of the ration. Up to this year strongly 

 nitrogenous foods like bran and cotton-seed meal were bought and fed 

 heavily, making a good ration with the ensilage. The cows are Jerseys 

 of good breeding. The cream only is sold, delivered at the door. The 

 cows stand over iron gratings with a cement floor beneath them, so 

 that the rich manure is all saved in good condition. 



This system of dairying gave a good profit, but the chief object of 

 it was to provide manure for the great apple orchard. It did this and 

 did it fairly well, but the dairy farm fed the orchard at the expense of 

 itself. You will notice there was no clover in the rotation--in fact 

 hardly any rotation at all. The only fertility brought to the farm under 

 this system was in the form of grain fed to the cows and the great 

 crops of apples sent away each year more than balanced that. If the 

 90 acres of orchard were fed properly there would be little manure left 

 for the dairy land. In other words, the strength of the dairy land was 

 all going to the orchard while by rights, in order to maintain the cows 

 properly all of the manure should have gone back to the grass and 

 corn. 



A. Change of Food for the Orclvard. 



More fertility of some sort was evidently needed, the farm could not 

 improve so long as nothing but grain was brought to it, and Mr. Hart 

 began seriously to consider the use of fertilizers. Where should they 

 be used ? On the orchard directly and thus leave the manure for the 

 grass and corn, or on the latter crops and thus provide heavier crops 

 and more manure for the orchard ? Either plan was feasible, but after 

 experiments Mr. Hart decided to put the fertilizers directly on the 

 orchard. This has given the best of satisfaction— producing fruit of 

 fine flavor and high color. He uses about 400 pounds per acre of bone 

 and potash broadcasted in spring and harrowed in. Hereafter, Mr. 

 Hart says that he will use no more manure on the orchards, but will 

 crowd it all on the corn and grass lauds. The change to fertilizers too, 

 has brought in another change, viz., the growing of clover in the 

 young orchards. In fact, Mr. Hart said that he doubted if he should 

 fill his silos at all as the work came just at his busiest time in apple 

 picking. With the clover hay now grown, he expects to feed the cows 

 as cheaply as before. With the use of the clover, too, it will not be 

 necessary to buy so much of the nitrogenous grains. Thus on this 

 famous fruit farm fertilizers have solved the problem of fertility with- 



