13)1 
only half a crop of strawberries or a quarter of a crop of 
currants or a failure of apples; and still come out, all 
right. I rarely see a bad year for more than two or three 
sorts of fruit. So practically I have all we can use ; and 
sell on an average about $1,000 worth a year. No auc¬ 
tioneers are needed. But while I absolutely manage every 
phase of the work, I am not stout enough to do much hard 
work. I keep one man the year ’round at $35 a month. 
This Item of help a fruit grower can generally very much 
reduce. I am not living by fruit growing, but wish to 
demonstrate what a man or a family can do on two condi¬ 
tions, 1, by distributing his crops, and 2, by studying them. 
There is an additional item of great importance: I have 
a neighbor who owns several acres of Red Astrachan 
Apple trees. He has never made money enough in good 
years to cover the losses of bad years. The glut of the 
market on early apples is such as to warrant the planting 
of not over one-twentieth of an orchard to early sorts. 
But if one had a wisely selected list covering the whole 
season, he will be sure of safety, if not of large gain. The 
same is true of pears. No one should plant too heavily of 
one sort. Unless one is fixed for shipping Bartletts, fine 
as they are, they will not he fine for him. And if one ships 
largely he had better distribute his varieties from August 
to November. The same is true of cherries and plums. 
My plum crop covers over two months, and includes a 
dozen varieties. Five varieties, however, will be enough. 
I do not advocate a large number of sorts of apples ; but 
there should be varieties enough to cover the whole season, 
and they should be mainly late apples, which keep well. 
The rule for fruit growers is good for vegetable growers, 
and for general farmers. They should divide their crops, 
and labor, and have something to sell and 
eat at all seasons. 
Dr. Hoskins’s discussion of manures is 
of immense importance, and should be 
heeded. I wish what he says could be 
printed and posted on the barn doors all 
over the land. I was talking but yes¬ 
terday about the waste of manures herea¬ 
bouts. A large part of the barn manure 
is never covered. A great deal is burnt up 
in the piles, weeds and refuse are thrown 
away; muck is not applied. I have been 
able to get for the hanling 30 loads of 
wall plaster pulled from a public building. 
Before I discovered the chance as much 
more was used up in grading. I have piled 
some of it in my cow yard to be mixed 
with manure and wet and ground up well 
befoie it is applied. Coal ashes, although 
not a direct fertilizer, are immensely valu¬ 
able on clay lands. They will render hard, 
cloddy soil friable and productive. I save 
and get from others all I can. I keep bar¬ 
rels running for liquid manure, to be used 
with buckets on celery and wherever else I 
choose. I look about for everything to 
make a manure pile. Even leaves, if mixed 
with other materials, make a valuable addi¬ 
tion to the piles. e. p. POWELL. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
671 
yet I have raised here as good crops as T ever raised any¬ 
where, and I came from a great grass country. New land 
here (it was nearly all a wilderness 30 vears ago), contains 
no nitrogen—it was once covered by the ocean. There is 
no deposit of vegetable matter, the frequent, fires having 
destroyed it as fast, as jt accumulated, and as T have taken 
off some fields 20 times as much nitrogen as I have put on 
them, T leave readers to judge where it came from. I have 
brought poor land up to a high degree of fertility with the 
application of but very little nitrogen, by planting corn, 
sowing clover and pasturing, of course applying the other 
two necessary elements which cost but little. Here is the 
history of one field as a sample: 23 years ago when I came 
here my place was covered with woods and bushes; one 
field had been cultivated, but had b 3 en abandoned years 
before as exhausted. I planted it with corn, putting some 
bone only in the hill, and giving it a dressing of phosphate 
just before the crop eared, at the same time seeding it to 
clover and Timothy; and from that time to this it has 
been in corn and grass—corn one year, clover two and 
Timothy one, except that it was one year in wheat. Very 
little nitrogen was applied in all those years; the grass 
was cut and fed or sold, and the land has kept improving 
all the time. Five years ago I took from it a heavy crop of 
corn, no fertilizer having been applied except a little in 
the hill; next year I sowed clover and Timothy with mil¬ 
let and also 400 pounds of kainit, and 600 of dissolved South 
Carolina rock to the acre. As usual, during the three 
succeeding years I must have taken off eight tons of first- 
class hay to the acre, which, being mixed, would represent 
240 pounds of nitrogen. The heavy crop of corn on the 
field at present shows that there is as much now as when 
“CHEMICALS AND CLOVER.” 
Let Clover Hunt the Nitrogen. 
It almost seems as if Nature has some 
great laboratories manufacturing phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash to supply vegeta- R. I s 
tion; but with all our knowledge and 
wisdom we have not found any. I have seen farms to all 
appearances exhausted of their fertility which passed into 
other hands, and after a time became very productive, no 
fertilizer being applied except what was made on the land, 
and that, too, when a large quantity of produce was sold 
off the places. I have seen exhausted land left to rest and 
recuperate for a few years, greatly improved by it. It is 
generally believed that land is improved by pasturing, yet 
stock gives back nothing to the soil but what it takes 
from it. 
A recent issue of The R. N.-Y. gives an account of a 
field near Marblehead, Mass., which had been a cow past¬ 
ure for 250 years, and had not received a particle of manure 
during that time, except from the droppings of the cows, 
and probably only from these during the day; and, not¬ 
withstanding the vast amount of plant food taken from 
the soil to supply milk to the villagers, there seemed to be 
no diminution of fertility, the requisite number of cows 
having been kept upon it all those years, fat and sleek. 
It is a self-evident truth that Nature is continually manu¬ 
facturing nitrogen, which is liberated by the decay of all 
animal and vegetable matter, whether in the soil or out of 
it; the nitrogen escapes in the form of ammonia, and makes 
its home in the atmosphere. Having great affinity for 
water, the fertilizer is carried down to the roots of plants 
by the rains and dews—and during the small hours of the 
night, especially when the soil is covered with vegetation, 
a vast amount of it is absorbed by the roots of plants, 
which act as powerful magnets. The wise farmer will 
capture all the nitrogen he can by applying and keeping 
the soil well supplied with the other elements necessary to 
produce a rank growth of vegetation. 
There are some plants that leave far more nitrogen in 
the soil than they take from it, clover standing at the 
head. The New Jersey Station says that a ton of clover 
hay takes from the soil 40 .pounds of nitrogen, seven of 
phosphoric acid and 33 of potash, which elements would 
be worth in market over $9, and that no farmer in this 
State could afford to sell It for less than $15 per ton. I 
differ in opinion with that statement; my clover takes from 
the soil only $2.10 worth of fertilizer per ton, leaving far 
more nitrogen than it takes out of the land. I do not 
apply any nitrogen to grass, either clover or Timothy, and 
change their cattle into a polled breed, so far as I am able 
to learn. I think we are, as a rule, trying to reduce the 
size of the horns, and there is quite a difference between 
the size of the horns of our imported cows and their 
female progeny, those of the latter being in many in¬ 
stances not over half the size. I have never seen a pnro- 
bred Hereford calved that did not in due time have horns, 
and would hesitate to believe that snch au animal was 
ever dropped. I am not in favor of any change in our 
breed as far as the horns are concerned, and with a breed 
of such long standing, in my opinion, we might commence 
to breed off the horns and our children could not complete 
the job with any degree of success. It is verv easy to take 
off the horns or keep them from growing by the use of 
friend Haaff s Ilornkiller, which does the work perfectly. 
The color craze and horn craze have done more to render 
Short-horns less profitable in manv respects than any¬ 
thing else. I am glad to see the subject of “ Polled Here- 
fords brought out, and hope to learn something upon 
this point. I will take an improved “twist” Joaving the 
horn changed only by the use of Haaff’s Ilornkiller 
where it strikes the fancy of a breeder. j, f. waters. 
Andrew Co.. Mo. 
I Prefer Hereford Horns. 
I don’t know that any breeder of pnrebred Herefords 
has practiced dishorning. I have never had anv desire to 
adopt this plan, and prefer that my Herefords should carry 
their horns. I don’t think that the practice of dishorning 
would aid in making a polled breed of Herefords. A great 
many bullock breeders have adopted the practice of dis¬ 
horning, and of the cattle that come to the Union Stock 
Yards, at Chicago, a great many bear no horns. These 
are no better and perhaps no worse than 
those with horns. Whether the practice 
hns come to stay I have my doubts. 
Will Co., III. T. L. miller. 
Nobody Wants the Horns Off. 
1. No, I do not know ot any breeder who 
wants the horns off his Herefords 2 No. 
3. I cannot see where am thing would be 
gained. 4 I think it could be done by 
crossing with a polled breed, but of course 
the cattle would not be pnre Herefords, 
but, would have the Hereford marking. 
Shelby Co., Towa. henry e yeomans. 
-Y. RASPBERRY-BLACKBERRY HYBRIDS. Fig. 243. 
it was planted before; add to it the amount carried off In 
this way in the corn crop and the loss will be 300 pounds, 
and during those five years not more than five pounds has 
been applied; still the clover has drawn from some source 
enough nitrogen not only for its own use, but for the 
Timothy and corn which have cost nothing for fertilizers. 
Vineland, N. J. j. w. 
Live Stock Matters. 
SHALL WE HAVE POLLED HEREFORDS ? 
During the past few years a fierce war has been waged 
against cattle horns. The polled breeds have gained from 
this. It is no fun, after all, to cut off horns or “kill ” them 
with acids or hot irons on the calf. Several breeders of 
the popular established breeds have started systematically 
to produce specimens perfect in all respects except for the 
horns which are to be “ bred off.” We have already a 
“ Polled Durham ” herd-book in which excellent polled 
Short horns are recorded. Polled Jerseys and Holsteins 
are to be found and their numbers are increasing. How 
about the Herefords ? This question has been frequently 
asked. The Herefords are beef cattle before anything else. 
They are quick feeders and easy keepers—ugly and surly 
by nature. Dishorning is mainly practiced on beef cattle 
because the hornless animals can be fed, sheltered and 
shipped much more easily and cheaply than when the 
horns are left on. Very many Hereford bulls used for 
stock purposes are dishorned. In order to start the dis¬ 
cussion we have sent these questions to a number of Here¬ 
ford breeders. The first of the answers follow. It is some¬ 
what surprising that no record is given of a “sport” or 
purebred Hereford without horns. 
1. Has the “ dishorning craze ” gone so far as to tempt 
Hereford breeders to try to produce a “ Polled Hereford ” 
breed t 2. Do you know of any instances where pure¬ 
bred Hereford calves have been produced without horns ? 
3. Would “Polled Herefords” be desirable? 4. In your 
judgment could such a breed be produced ? 
Reducing the Size of Horns. 
The “dishorning craze” has not affected breeders of 
purebred Hereford^ far enough to induce any to try to 
WISCONSIN CONDENSED MILK. 
I recently visited the factory of the Wis¬ 
consin Condensing Company at Monroe. 
Tt is a fine new brick building located on 
the north side of the city near the Illinois 
Central Railroad depot. This is its second 
year, and it seems to be doing a good busi¬ 
ness. Although themanagers report a loss 
from last year’s work, they hope the balance 
will be on the other side this season. They 
take milk from 25 patrons and handle 
about 7,000 pounds a day. They pay from 
85 cents to $1.25 per 100 pounds according 
to the season. Every milk can, as soon as 
emptied, is washed and steam-scalded, so 
that the folks know that all cans are clean. 
This also saves the farmers some work, 
and it is a plan that every cheese factory 
and creamery should adopt. Each lot of 
milk is sampled as soon as weighed, and 
its specific gravity is taken, and if it should 
vary more than one decree from the regular 
standard, a test is then made in the Babcock tester. The 
milk is boiled by means of steam pipes and is pumped 
into a vacuum pan where no air can reach it. After it is 
condensed it is cooled down and canned in tins holding 
nearly a pint apiece, and each contains about three pints 
of milk in a condensed form. The factory makes its own 
cans, and there is quite a fine tin shop in connection with it. 
The selling price to dealers Is from 5 to 5% cents per can, 
and It is shipped mostly to the far West,, but, some goes to 
Florida and other Southern States. Washington, Oregon, 
California, Montana, Utah and Colorado use most of it. 
This is the only milk condensing factory in this part of 
the State, and it is to be hoped that it is the beginning of 
another large market for milk. 
While at Monroe I also visited the Illinois Central Rail¬ 
road depot, and saw the largest quantity of cheese I ever 
beheld. This county is a great one for cheese making, and 
the depot was filled with Swiss brick and the “ loud ”- 
smelling Llmburger. There was none of the American 
style of cheese, all being of the above three kinds. There 
were at least 30 tons of Swiss and probably from 10 to 12 
tons of each of the other two kinds. 
I also drove by the farm of A. Ludlow, which Is the 
largest in this State, containing over 1,500 acres. They 
report having just thrashed 80 acres of oats, at a yield of 
71% bushels per acre, which is a pretty good show. Grain 
and potatoes are good here ; but corn is at least two weeks 
late, and the drv weather has damaged it to a serious extent. 
Janesville, Wis. L> R> 
Notes. 
Holstein vs. Jersey.— A tremendous word battle is 
going on between representatives of these breeds. The 
Holstein cow Pauline Paul has, It is claimed, made 1,153 
pounds of butter in a year. Now a Jersey cow, Bisson’s 
Belle, claims a record of 1,029 pounds in the same time. 
In both cases the butter was supposed to be “ well washed 
and worked, salted one ounce to the pound, reworked and 
reweighed.” Each side appears to think that there was 
something wrong about the way in which the butter was 
churned and weighed on the other side. After long argu¬ 
ment the Holstein man has challenged the Jersey breeder 
to match Hieson’s Pelle against Pauline Paul; both cows 
