1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
445 
high quality, and a careful examination prepares the 
mind for understanding why the butter made from 
Guernsey cream possesses qualities that are not obtain¬ 
able from the milk of any other animal. 
“The long-inherited purity of a class of cattle is an 
element in breeding of far greater value than is gen¬ 
erally supposed. There is, as is well known to scien¬ 
tific men. a tendency in all young animals to develop 
the traits of a remote rather than those of an im¬ 
mediate ancestor. The commingling of various or 
even quite antagonistic strains of blood may produce 
animals of very unusual individual merit, but such 
traits are not fixed nor prepotent, and any one using 
such beasts for stock purposes will learn to his cost 
that the traits of the different sires and dams will 
come out in the most unexpected manner, confusing 
all plans and defeating success. But with thorough¬ 
bred animals of long-guarded breeding, the traits are 
fixed and no ‘ striking back ’ to remote crosses can 
bring out doubtful features. In the case of the 
Guernseys, that are probably the most pure-bred of 
any cattle, the overruling of their strong breeding is 
remarkable, one cross often producing cattle that ex¬ 
perts cannot distinguish from full-bloods, so strongly 
are they marked with the orange fawn color, golden 
and soft skins and horns and hoofs full of rich tints. 
This is a consideration of very great importance to 
those who desire to grade up herds for dairy purposes, 
and it accounts for the great value of thoroughbred 
sires. The number of Guernseys is so limited, there 
being only about 4,000 of all ages on the island, less 
than half of which could be imported to advantage, 
that it must be many years before large herds of 
thoroughbreds will be numerous; hence the main 
reliance of dairymen must be upon grades; these are 
of marked value, and already a demand for them 
exists that is not supplied.” f. taiikk willets. 
(To be continued.) 
[Every query must be accompanied by tbe name and address of the 
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$100 TO FEED 30 ACRES OF ORCHARD. 
WHA T WILL IT B U Y ?. 
J. IF., Gains X Roads, Va. —I have 30 acres of or¬ 
chard from four to eight years old, and wish to apply 
chemical manures to it. The land is rolling, with a 
red clay subsoil and topsoil from sandy to stiff clay, 
which predominates. I have, say, $100 to lay out for 
the fertilizers. What shall I buy ? Raw bone (ani¬ 
mal) at $30 per ton ; ammonia, four per cent; phos¬ 
phoric acid, 21.50; South Carolina dissolved rock, at 
$14 per ton, 13 per cent phosphoric acid ? 
Dissolved South Carolina Rock and Clover. 
If I had 30 acres of orchard on land such as de¬ 
scribed, and desired to expend $100 in fertilizers so 
that the greatest possible amount of benefit to both 
trees and land would be obtained, my plan of proced¬ 
ure would be as follows : I’d plow the orchard care¬ 
fully, not deeper than four or five inches, and harrow 
with an ordinary drag harrow a week or ten days 
after plowing ; then, towards the last of July, I’d drill 
on the 30 acres $64 worth of dissolved South Carolina 
rock, and follow this by sowing broadcast one bushel 
of Scarlet clover seed to each five acres, following 
after the sowing with a light drag. Six bushels of 
this clover seed, nicely broadcasted, in seasonable 
weather, should produce a splendid stand, and the 
following May a heavy growth of clover to be turned 
under. All this successfully carried out (and any one 
capable of owning such an orchard should be easily 
capable of making a complete hit of it) will give 
greater satisfaction in the way of land improvement 
than any other plan in which $100 can be invested. 
Such at least has been my own experience with or¬ 
chards on sandy land. j. w. KERR. 
Caroline County, Md. 
Spend the Interest in Experiment. 
I have had no experience in fertilizing an orchard 
with chemical manures, but I would suggest that as 
this correspon lent will have to guess at what will be 
best to apply, no matter to whom he goes for advice, 
he had better not invest his $100 all at once, but do 
some experimental work in a questioning way; ask 
the trees what they require in the way of feed. One- 
tenth of a ton each of the raw bone, South Carolina 
rock and floats, applied liberally, should anfewer the 
question so far as those fertilizers are concerned, but 
I think he had better ask them the potash question 
also, and separately. No one can tell him just what 
to use ; if I had succeeded with bone, it would not fol¬ 
low that he would do well with it, even though he 
and 1 had the same kinds of soils ; the previous treat¬ 
ment of the soils would make all the difference in the 
world. One hundred dollars represent the profits on 
a good many barrels of apples. He may put $100 
worth of fertilizers on his orchard and never get a 
cent of it back in apples, so I would advise him to put 
most of that money at interest and spend the interest 
in experimenting rather than to invest it all in fertil¬ 
izers and apply them at one time. It is making a big 
wager ; even if he can afford to lose it, and does lose 
it. it is not “ well and good,” for he has proved too 
little at too great an expense. But if he is resolved to 
make the $100 wager, I believe it would be safer to 
stake the whole amount on raw bone and potash (from 
wood ashes) and put it on 15 acres instead of 30. 
Baltimore County, Md. a. l crosby. 
Does the Orchard Need Potash P 
If the orchard is on the Piedmont red clay, I would 
prefer to use the acid phosphate, with a liberal addi¬ 
tion of plaster—sulphate of lime. I would apply it 
this summer, and cultivate well, and in August would 
seed the orchard to Crimson clover and plow it under 
as soon as in bloom in the spring. I have found that 
on this Piedmont red clay plaster gave me as good re¬ 
sults as potash in the form of wood ashes; not that 
the plaster has any potash, but it enabled me to g< t 
the use of the abundant insoluble potash in the soil. 
One hundred dollars will not give a very liberal 
dressing to 30 acres. The plaster will cost say $7 per 
ton, though I have bought it for less. I should use 
then, say, 200 pounds of the acid phosphate and 550 
pounds of plaster per acre, which would about make 
the $100 dollars at those figures. This dressing will 
enable him to make a good growth of the annual 
clover, and this plowed under will give good results 
in the growth of the trees. If the orchard, on the 
contrary, is in the tidewater section, I would substi¬ 
tute an equal value of sulphate or muriate of potash 
for the plaster, or would invest the whole amount in 
hard-wood ashes at the same price, or less than the 
cost of the acid phosphate. Potash is of prime im¬ 
portance in the orchard, and if not abundant in the 
soil it must be supplied. If the soil is of fairly good 
fertility, I would prefer the wood ashes to anything 
else, but if there was more money to be spent I would 
not object to a liberal addition of raw bone meal. 
Wake County, N. C. prof. w. f. mahsey. 
Bone and Potash Forever. 
One hundred dollars is much too small a sum for the 
best or most profitable results on 30 acres of orchard ; 
but it will pay for two tons of raw bone meal and one 
ton of high grade muriate of potash, and an applica- 
catioj of these would give the best returns on the in¬ 
vestment. I have a 22-acre peach orchard that gets 
20 tons annually. j. h. hai.k. 
Hartford County, Conn. 
Handling: Cream In a Hot Climate. 
B. Ij , Fort Smith, Ark .—How shall I secure a uniform 
temperature for urlk and cream in a climate subject 
to extremes of temperature—from 10 degrees below 
zero to 105 degrees above? My dairy room is 36 by 
50 feet in the clear. The floor has three elevations, 
with a difference of three feet between each, the low¬ 
est being a cement-lined basement three feet below 
the level of the ground. The 000 gallon milk vat 
monopol zes the highest floor; the separator (Danish 
West) and 300-gallon cream vat take about two-thirds 
of the middle floor, and the 300 gallon revolving churn 
and power butter-worker about absorb the lowest. I 
get from 75 to 200 gallons of milk per day, according 
to the season; but expect to get more than double this 
quantity within a year or two. In the severe winter 
weather, my cream either does not ripen at all, or, if 
heated by steam, ripens imperfectly or unevenly, or 
cooks. In the heat of summer it ripens so fast that it 
becomes divided into whey and curd before sufficient 
has accumulated to chura. I should add that my dairy 
room has three doors and six windows, and the ma¬ 
chinery is immediately adj fining it. I am inclined, as 
a remedy, to encase both the milk and cream vats in 
small heat-and-cold-proof apartments, amply ventil¬ 
ated, if possible, the covering not to extend up to the 
ceiling of the dairy room. I indulge the hope that 
either by making the walls of these apartments double 
and of good, thick lumber, leaving a space between, 
or by making them of rough hewn logs, chinked and 
plastered (and possibly another wall of plank with 
space between,) I can accomplish my object. It is on 
this point of the compartments, and also on the best 
method of ventilating such little rooms that I desire 
information. My vats are connected directly with 
cold well pumps with a temperature of from 54 de¬ 
grees tj 60 degrees; but this seems to make no appre¬ 
ciable difference during our hottest weather. 
Ans.—T his seems to be a case in which there should 
be no difficulty, for the temperature of the water is 
precisely right for the management of the cream, and 
for its ripening and the churning. Where the winter 
temperature is 10 degrees below zero there should be 
a sufficiency of ice for use in the summer in the cold 
storage of the butter, or if necessary in the keeping 
of the cream. That the cream does not ripen satis¬ 
factorily seems to indicate some error in its manage¬ 
ment, for if it were kept at a temperature of 60 
degrees, it should ripen sufficiently in 36 hours by the 
mere exposure to the air protected from the outside 
heat in the summer, The uneven ripening may be due 
to the want of frequent stirring to preserve uniformity 
in the acidification, and an ice closet or refrigerator 
would prevent the trouble in the hot weather. This 
might be built in the lower part of the dairy and need 
not be more than 8x10 feet in size, with an ice chamber 
above and the cream room under it. This closet may 
An Ice Closet. Fig. 161. 
be made in this way : The walls are double, and filled 
between with dry sawdust, or the spice of six inches 
between them may be made air-tight by lining them 
with air-proof paper. The ice chamber above should 
have a floor of sheet zinc, a little sloping to one corner, 
that the water from the melting ice may drain off. 
This metal floor will cool the chamber to any desired 
degree, and in the summer churning it will not be 
difficult to keep the right temperature by the addition 
of powdered ice to the cream. The butter when made 
may be stored in the ice closet until disposed of. To 
avoid difficulty with the cream in cold weather, the 
closet may be warmed by hot water to the right tem¬ 
perature. By regulating these paints in the manage¬ 
ment in the ways suggested, there should be no diffi¬ 
culty in keeping everything in the precise condition 
for the best dairy work. It might be desirable to 
use a stove in the dairy in the cold season, and regulate 
the warmth by a thermometer. The ice closet may be 
built as shown at Fig. 161. If no ice is provided, the 
cream may be kept cool by setting it in narrow, deep 
pails in a tank of cold water—the water being changed 
as necessary to keep the temperature at 60 degrees. 
II STEWART. 
Seedling Strawberries and Tile Covers. 
L. C., Greenfield, Mich —1. I have thousands of seed¬ 
ling strawberry plants grown from the seed of the 
Crescent, Wilson and Charles Downing. By taking 
care of them, what am I likely to accomplish—are they 
likely to resemble the originals ? 2. In tiling land 
where there is a quicksand bottom, would it be advis¬ 
able to cover the tiles with straw, grass, etc ? 
Ans. —1. The fruit of the seedlings will vary indefin¬ 
itely. The best way is to mark all the plants that 
bear superior berries ; propagate them and destroy 
the rest. 2. Some covering for the joints of the tiles 
wculd be useful. We have seen tarred paper, sods and 
bits of clay used for this purpose. We do not know 
about using grass or straw. All who have tried these 
or other substances are requested to give tbeir experi¬ 
ence. 
Value ol Leather. 
A. W. B., Thoma8ton, Me .—What is the value of 
fine leather as a fertilizer? It is finer than sawdust, 
being the waste from sandpapering and polishing 
shoe soles. 
Ans —The agricultural value of the leather is next 
to nothing. It contains quite a high percentage of 
nitrogen, but it is locked up in such a combination as 
to be unavailable for plants. The leather could be 
used as an absorbent back of the cows to hold the 
liquid manures. It would also be benefited somewhat 
by mixing through the manure piles. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
California Privet .—A. W. P., Coulterville, Ill.— 
Privets grow very readily from cuttings in almost any 
kind of soil. To strike cuttings in a small way, use 
tbe newer wood with a joint of the older wood, and 
keep the soil moist. 
Cabbage Lice.—3. M., Antroch, Cal.—Tobacco water 
will destroy these lice; so will the kerosene emulsion. 
Sun burned Horses.—F. B. B., Austin, Texas.—As to 
your question: “I have a team of black carriage 
horses which sun-burn very badly on their flanks and 
sides. They are kept in the shade as much as pos¬ 
sible,” we know of no remedy except to keep them 
out of the sun. Why not blanket them ? 
