5o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 29 
good one, anrl I cannot agree with many who say 
farming dees not pay.” 
Miss Sage is correct in her opinion that there is a 
great deal to he obtained from the farm besides cold 
cash. Conversation with her help reveals the fact 
that however “strictly” her books may be kept, many 
a barrel of apples, quarter of lamb and tub of butter 
never find a place on the ledger, because they make 
no returns, except the gratification of feeling that 
“it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Her 
recent travels in Europe as well as her home and sur¬ 
roundings give abundant proof of refinement and the 
cultivation of art and literature possible to the studi¬ 
ously disposed, even on the farm. 
The (folden heads wave tn their wealth, 
Until the harvest moon; 
The beaded dew breathes forth good health 
But (tone at summer’s noon. 
The rushing brook, the woods, the rock, 
Down by the Old stone mill; 
When winter's chimed from Nature's clock 
The poet Ungers still. II. S. 
ANOTHER PORTABLE FENCE. 
A portable fence of my invention (see Fig. 173) is, I 
think, better than the one shown on page 429. It is 
much lighter to handle, and, by removing the pole 
from the top and lifting the hooks from the staple, it 
may be closed like a jack-knife. Several sections may 
be laid on a stoneboat or wagon and drawn where 
wanted with much less trouble than with the other. 
The legs should he of oah timber, the rails of any 
stiff sort not liable to spring. When set up, the barbed 
wires, being on one side only, may be set either side 
towards the field ; if it is pastured by horses, put the 
wired side out, as they cannot then get their feet en¬ 
tangled ; if for other animals, either side will do. I 
have used it for three years and regard it as cheap 
and durable. It answers a good purpose. s. s. k. 
Memphis, Miss. 
SUMMER OR WINTER BUTTER. 
You ask for a discussion on the relative cost of but¬ 
ter made in winter or in summer, and the respective 
profit there is in it. The question is not so simple as 
your remarks would indicate. It is easy enough to 
find out what the food of a cow costs and the care of 
attendance, say, in the months of June and July, and 
to compare that sum with the corresponding cost of 
maintaining the same animal in, say, January and 
February. You can also find her yield of milk or but¬ 
ter in the same months and the prices at which you 
can sell the product and so figure out in which period 
you can reap the greater profit. I venture to say that 
in nine cases out of ten, provided other things are 
fairly equal, the summer months will give you the 
best results. I say other things being equal, and I 
mean by this that in both cases the cow has had all 
tbe good, nutritious, properly balanced food she can 
make use of, and that she is in each case in about the 
same period of her lactation. There is, however, an¬ 
other very important item to be considered, which I 
think in many cases will reverse the result as to 
profits. That is the cost of the keeping of the cow 
during her dry period and the cost at any rate during 
the winter, whether she is milking or not. We hear 
of cows which can hardly be dried off and so give a 
naying return the year round, but I venture to say 
that in most dairies, even the very good ones, there is 
an average period of two months in which the cows 
are dry, and their keep and care during that period 
have to be reckoned when we discuss the cost of their 
product. If they are dry in summer, it has to be 
charged at summer pasture with hardly any attendance 
at all. If in winter they have to be fed well on food 
which had to be gatherei, handled and housed, and 
they themselves, except for milk, require just the 
same attendance as though in profit. The expense of 
winter dairying is not the full cost of the food and at¬ 
tendance on the cows’ milking in winter, but the dif¬ 
ference between the food and attendance on cows 
milking and cows dry. Another item has to be con¬ 
sidered, which is, under which system will the cow 
give the greater yield and profit in the whole year ? 
My own experience is emphatically that a cow 
calving in October will give more milk in the year 
than if she calves in the spring. When a cow has 
given milk for six months and is pregnant, there is 
the natural tendency to dry which is accelerated and 
aided by the cool weather and drier pasture in the 
fall of the year in the case of the spring-calved cow. 
On the contrary the one that has milked during six 
months of winter comes out of tbe barn on to the suc¬ 
culent grass of the spring, which is the most milk- 
producing food possibly to be found, and with the 
warm weather she is maintained in her flow for some 
time longer, only drying up in the hot, dry days of 
midsummer, when she can take her yearly rest from 
milking to the best advantage. 
These considerations put a different complexion on 
the question of summer and winter dairying than 
would appear from the hold statement made by Mr. 
Chapman as to the relative cost of butter in summer 
and wit.ter. The prices obtained for the butter are a 
further consideration which varies much according 
to the circumstances of situation and market, and 
into which I will not now enter. Sydney fisher. 
Alva Farm, Knowlton, P. Q. 
WHAT A GOOD SOW WILL DO. 
The R. N.-Y. is undoubtedly right in its belief as to 
some brood sows being worth more than others. 
Some are more prolific, and some are better sucklers 
than others aDd are more kind to their young and to 
the person attending them. I think it is well to use 
good judgment in selecting sows for breeding pur¬ 
poses. My plan is to select one of good length and 
deep up and down through the body and carrying the 
size well back to the quarters. I also want one well 
rounded out in the hams and straight on the back. I 
keep none hut pu ebred stock, and don’t breed until 
the sow will be one year old or over when she drops 
her first pigs. I want the latter to come about the mid¬ 
dle of March and last of September—two litters a year. 
Here is the income from a registered Poland China 
sow, beginning March 20, 1892, and ending March 20, 
1893. She had seven pigs each time : the first seven 
were fattened and killed January 1, 1893, weighed 
1,750 pounds gross, and sold for 7 % cents, or $126.87 
in all. The September pigs—seven in number—I have 
yet; but on March 20, when one year old they would 
weigh 700 pounds and could have been sold a dozen 
times for $55, so that the sow’s income would be 
$126 87 + $55, or a total of $181.87. This statement 
can be verified by affidavits, but it should be remem¬ 
bered that hogs were high last year and are high yet. 
Take the same account at the prices received in years 
past and the result would be quite different. As to 
the amount in dollars and cents, it requires care and 
attention to raise two litters per sow each year, and it 
also requires the same to make the pigs weigh 250 to 
300 pounds at January 1, when nine months of age. 
It does not pay any hog raiser to let his pigs stop 
growing. I do not crowd my pigs, but I do not allow 
them to squeal or root for feed. 
Somebody asked not long ago about keeping old 
sows to breed : I keep mine just as long as they do 
well; my oldest one now whose performances are 
reported above is five years old. She has nine fine 
pigs now, dropped March 19, 1893, and is due to farrow 
again on September 6. I can handle her like a dog, 
she is so gentle, and I try to have all my pigs the same, 
for meat can be put on a gentle faster than on a wild 
pig. The expenditure of neither time nor money 
prevents me from breeding to the best I can find. 
This will apply to all kinds of stock as well as to hogs. 
Miami County, Ohio. darius ross. 
TRUTH, “MODIFIED.” 
Not less than 350 varieties of Russian tree fruits 
have been imported within the past 22 years. This is 
a conservative statement, which may be 100 within 
the fact. I have been testing every distinct variety 
from this large number of which I could get a scion or 
a young tree ; yet I have not seen, much less fairly 
tested, the fruit of as many as one-third of the whole 
lot. I do not believe there are 10 men in America who 
have seen and tried more of them than myself. I am 
not sure there is more than one—Professor Budd, of 
Iowa. As regards their quality, so far as I have tested 
them, they certainly average quite as good for dessert 
or culinary use as a like number of varieties taken at 
random from the American Pomologieal Society’s list 
of 339 varieties, much the greater part of which I 
have had to deal with as a judge at fruit shows in 
the past 35 years, in the the East, West, North and 
South, including Canada. 
Now, what can men of experience think of these 
writers for the press who are continually declaring all 
Russian apples lacking in dessei t quality ? When they 
are asked to name the varieties they have tested, they 
generally begin to stammer, and the outcome is that 
they know scarcely any other Russians than those first 
imported—Oldenburg, Alexander, Tetofsky, Red and 
White Astrachan. If they have seen and tasted any 
of the later importations, this list will rarely be more 
than doubled. 
As an illustration of this sort of‘criticism, I may 
quote from the Agricultural Department of the Chi¬ 
cago Weekly Journal, which says (italics mine) : 
The Importation of the hardy Russian and northern European apple 
and pear trees into this country, and their gradual improvement 
through crossing them with the native fruits have tong promised a com¬ 
plete revolution In fruit growing in the tier of Northern cold States. 
The .fruits from these foreign trees do not compare with our native stock, 
but the hardiness of the trees makes It possible to grow our test 
apples on them In very cold regions. 
Such remarks as these, by writers of such limited 
experience, are neatly characterized by Professor 
Budd, in Rural Rife, by the words heading these re¬ 
marks. While there is no denying the old Roman 
maxim that “ there is no disputing about tastes,” yet 
there is such a thing as fair play. This general de¬ 
preciation of the quality of Russian apples began with 
their second importation, and this shows that the 
opinions of writers were based upon their knowledge 
of the first importation. “ Handsome, but inferior in 
quality,” has been the verdict on, them; and it has 
been passed along to the later arrivals, and attached 
to them before the first one of them had bloomed on 
American soil. If there ever was a “ snap judgment,” 
it has been this upon the apples of Russia. 
It is, by the way, a cuiious commentary on such 
fashions of judging that while not one of the first five 
imported Russians is classed in the American Borno¬ 
logical Society's lists above the bottom rank of “good,” 
yet they are double starred for a majority of States. 
This means that while not of high dessert quality, 
they are still regarded as valuable acquisitions to our 
American orchards ; and this is proved by their wide 
cultivation, wider than that of any native apples, all 
of which are more or less limited and local. 
The rank of “ best” is awarded, in the American 
Pomologieal Society’s list of 339 recommended apples, 
to no more than 21 varieties. These ratings were 
affixed early in the history of the society; and the 
older members were very conservative as to awarding 
the highest rank to any other than their own particu¬ 
lar favorites. They were willing to admit tbe favor¬ 
ites of the newer members to the rank of “very good,”— 
too many of them, I think—hut the list of “ best ” was 
carefully guarded ; and, as a matter of fact, small as 
it is, the most of them are apples that very few people 
cultivate, being local in adaptation, and more or less 
faulty outside of their mere dessert quality. 
Unquestionably the prime merit of the Russian 
apples, as a class, lies in their size, beauty, free and 
early bearing, and that cosmopolitan character which 
wins for them “ double stars ” from Maine to Louis¬ 
iana, and from Florida to Idaho. They are also very 
free from all sorts of disease—always drawing atten¬ 
tion in the orchard by their clean, bright bark and 
leafage and their abundant crops of handsome fruit. 
But one from among the later importations is yet 
widely known—Yellow Transparent. No apple ever 
leaped to popularity quicker than this ; and it seems 
to justify the general verdict as a handsome and very 
good early market apple. It is not an Early Joe in 
quality, hut there is more money in one tree than in 
20 of the Joe. It is good enough for the market and 
sells well wherever planted, from Canada to the Gulf. 
Prolific Sweeting is another apple, certainly worthy 
to be marked “ very good its saccharine quality 
being pure and its flesh tender. In season, it is two 
months later than the Yellow Transparent. It is of 
full medium size and the tree is exceedingly vigorous. 
I find it to bear earlier and more freely when top- 
worked on Tetofsky than if root-grafted. Charlamoff 
is a very handsome and very good apple, in season 
soon after Oldenburgli, and much superior for eating 
out of hand. Longfield is a profuse, early and annual 
hearer, disposed to overbear. Tn quality it is very 
good. Switzer, which is equally good, is handsome in 
tree and fruit, and perfectly iron-clad; but, even 
aside from its name, I dcubt its Russian origin; for 
it spots and even cracks occas onally, and its foliage 
is subject to disease. I suspect that its name indi¬ 
cates its origin correctly. Arabka is the longest 
keeper I feel sure about. It is a large and very dark 
red apple, resembling Black Detroit, though flatter, 
and keeps beyond mid-winter here. It is a good cul¬ 
inary apple. I have about 100 kinds of late importa¬ 
tions now coming to bearing, among which are at 
least a dozen that will be good keepers in the northern 
tier of States. But the trees are yet small and have 
not borne full crops. My experience is that we can¬ 
not tell surely how new varieties will keep until we 
can test them in considerable quantities, and under 
varying conditions. I doubt if more than a few of 
the imported Russian apples will prove long keepers 
south of the line of 42 degrees. It is of small impor¬ 
tance if they do not Yet seedlings and crosses from 
this race of apples will unquestionably he grown that 
will be keepers even in the Southern States, and highly 
valued for their vigor, beauty and productiveness. 
Orleans C ounty, Vt. t. h. hoskins. 
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