764 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 18 
formly. They are both very old breeds, well and 
long established and indelibly mark their offspring. 
The same is true of the South Down, but this breed 
is of too slow growth for this purpose, and its head is 
so 6hort and thick between the ears as to make it 
very dangerous to use the males on common ewes; too 
much loss occurs in lambing. 
My objection to the Shropshire for this purpose is 
that the breed is entirely too new, and the lambs will 
have legs and faces of all shades of color and “ringed, 
streaked and speckled and spotted.” Even Shrop¬ 
shire breeders know that in their thoroughbred flocks 
they must be continually weeding out those lambs 
which breed back to one of the foundation types. 
As to the building up of a grade flock, I have had 
little experience. A few ewes which we have crossed 
a second time, using thoroughbred rams, have not 
given us such results as would encourage us to con¬ 
tinue. I surely would not advise this course. Why 
try to establish a grade flock when the ultimate re¬ 
sult would be to come very near to the thoroughbred 
lype ? When the American farmer has reached the 
point where he is willing to bestow the care and 
attention, and give the feed requisite to succeed in 
this, why not take some of the established breeds and 
try to improve them ? 
If the breeder be young and wish to experiment, 
it is well, and in that case he should make the cross, 
select the ewes of this cross most nearly to his fancy 
and on them use a ram of the breed first used, and 
from the lambs of this cross endeavor to select and 
breed so as to build up a new breed. But this opens 
up a subject so large that space will not permit me to 
follow it. Suffice it to say that for average mortals 
the continual raising of cross bred lambs from the 
common Merino ewes of the country will give greater 
satisfaction and certainly more money. 
j. s. WOODWARD. 
FERTILIZERS AND FRUIT. 
AMONG THE HUDSON EIVEB GBAPE GB0WEB8. 
Part I. 
Fruit Growing on Historic Ground. 
Last week we spoke of the hillsides along the Hud¬ 
son River on which vast quantities of fruits are grown 
and shipped to New York and other large cities. It is 
the object of the present series of articles to tell in a 
brief and simple way what some of the more progress¬ 
ive fruit-farmers in this section are doing, and what 
changes they are making in their methods to keep 
pace with changes in markets as well as with changes 
in other fruit-growing sections. It was our privilege 
to meet these men and talk with them at length. If 
we fail to make their meaning clear on any points of 
particular interest, we shall be glad to have our 
readers ask questions, and we shall try hard to obtain 
correct answers. 
As explained last week, the Hudson River fruit¬ 
growing district is highly favored by Nature in all 
respects save that of natural fertility. The hillsides 
on which the fruits are grown have been farmed for 
many successive years. While not “ worn out,” the 
soil must be heavily fed in order to produce the enor¬ 
mous crops of fruit that are annually sent away. Thus 
it is that the problem of fertility, or how best to pur¬ 
chase plant food, is about the most important one con¬ 
nected with growing the fruit crop. We say purchase 
because this is not a stock country, and most of the best 
fruit growers do not keep anything like live stock 
enough to provide manure for their fields. The great 
proportion of the plant food is bought in the form of 
stable manure or fertilizers. The former is hauled out 
from the towns scattered along the river, and a con¬ 
siderable quantity is brought up from New York. 
Which is the cheaper source of fertility ? Why use 
both manure and fertilizers if one is evidently cheaper 
than the other ? Is it not possible to substitute the 
fertilizers entirely for the manure ? These questions 
frequently came up in talking with these fruit growers. 
We hope that the following facts and opinions will 
throw some light on them. 
The past season has not been very profitable for 
grape growers. While crops have been fair, prices 
have ruled low, so that there has been little left for 
the grower. The following statement, made by one of 
the local papers, of the average cost of picking and 
selling a tonof grapes was said by conservative growers 
to be very fair : 
Cost of packages.$12.20 
Cutting and packing. 8.00 
Freight. 5.00 
Cartage. 3.30 
Commission. 4.00 
Total.$32.50 
The average price obtained for the ton of grapes was 
$40, while five tons per acre of 500 vines would be a 
large yield. One can see, therefore, that there has 
been no fortune in grapes this year, when fair esti¬ 
mates are made on the cost of fertilizing and cultivat¬ 
ing as given in the interview in the next column. 
The Annals of a Fruit Farm. 
At Highland, N. Y., we met Mr. A. W. Williams 
who, with his father, conducts an excellent fruit busi¬ 
ness. They have established a great reputation for 
quality and take remarkable pains not only with their 
growing, but with selecting and packing as well. 
“ How large is your farm and how is it divided in 
fruits ? ” I asked. 
“We have about 80 acres including woodland and 
hill that is not cultivated. Our fruit land is divided 
substantially as follows : 20 acres of grapes, six acres 
of currants, three of raspberries, five of apples, two of 
pears and four of peaches.” 
“ What stock do you keep and what grain and other 
crops are grown ? ” 
“ We have three horses, two cows and about 125 
hens. We raised three loads of hay and two acres of 
fodder corn. We did sow some oats, but plowed them 
in for green manuring. We have seldom grown any 
grain. We buy each year about 40 bales of hay, 300 
bushels of oats and three tons of bran and middlings. 
We aim to keep stock enough to provide work, milk 
and butter. Our flock of hens just about pays our 
grocery bill.” 
“ How large is your working force ? ” 
“ We employ three men regularly, about 25 pickers 
during the picking season, and during the fall and 
spring work from 10 to 13 hands extra.” 
“ Is this farm an old one ? ” 
“ The house is nearly 125 years old. The farm has 
been put through all the changes of farming that have 
taken place in this section—grain growing, dairying, 
potatoes, etc. When we came here, some 25 years 
ago, the land was pretty well run out. At that time, 
there were about 1,000 grape vines, not in good con¬ 
dition, on the place. We have since convinced our¬ 
selves that fruit is the only profitable crop to grow on 
these hills. Our farm is well situated for fruit, with 
a high hill at the west to shelter us from the cold 
winds and a long slope to the east.” 
“ What do you buy to feed your 40 acres of fruits ? ” 
“ We make at home and buy in near-by markets 
about 50 tons of stable manure. We also buy 25 tons 
of New York stable manure. This costs us $2.25 a 
ton. The hauling costs us about $4 for nine tons or 
about 45 cents a ton, which makes the total cost $2.70 
a ton delivered. We also use about six tons of fer¬ 
tilizers each year. We prepare a ‘ home mixture ’ by 
using the hen manure with coal ashes. We burn 
some 20 tons of coal. The ashes are put where all the 
house slops can be thrown over them and then thor¬ 
oughly mixed with the hen manure. This makes a 
fine mixture to put around currant bushes.” 
“Could you get along without buying any stable 
manure ? ” 
“ In answer to that I will say ‘yes,’ if we could get 
a cheap material for mulching. I have no doubt that 
fertilizers and well-rotted straw would give us a com¬ 
plete substitute for manure, but we can buy the 
manure cheaper than we can the straw. Our chief 
reason for buying manure is to obtain a good mulch¬ 
ing material and vegetable matter to lighten and 
loosen up the soil. Ours is a very dry location and on 
such fruits as raspberries, currants, etc., we feel that 
a mulch is necessary. When it comes to the question 
of the price per pound of nitrogen, potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid, there is no doubt that fertilizers are 
cheaper ; but, as I said, on our soil and with some of 
our crops a mulch of some sort is necessary, and 
stable manure gives us this cheaper than we can get 
it in any other material.” 
The Relation of Fertilizers to Manure. 
“You speak of using manure on small fruits; do 
you not use it on grapes, too ? ” 
“ No, except when the vines are young and we are 
trying to produce an abundant growth of wocd. 
Grapes do not need mulching like strawberries or 
raspberries. The roots of the latter are short and 
the fruit grows and matures very rapidly, so that a 
constant supply of moisture must be right at hand. 
The mulch of manure helps to conserve this moisture. 
On the other hand, the grape has a longer growing 
season and its roots stretch out everywhere after food 
and moisture. Thus the mulch is not needed—in fact, 
shallow cultivation is better than the mulch.” 
“ So you use fertilizers on the grapes ?” 
“Yes, after they begin bearing. Our farm is natur¬ 
ally very droughty. Strawberries have never done 
well with us for lack of water, but grapes seem to 
thrive better in dry seasons than any other fruits. 
Our experience is that stable manure is a forcing or 
stimulating plant food. Its amount of nitrogen is 
proportionately too high and when used in quantities 
large enough to supyly^the needed potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid it gives too much growth of wood which 
not only delays ripening, but stimulates the vine or 
tree too much and leaves it in the fall with too much 
tender young growth to be killed by & the frost. This 
is why we say that stable manure is very good for 
forcing the growth of young grape vines, but we never 
would use it on bearing vines to produce a crop. In 
other words, use manure to grow wood and fertilizers 
to grow fruit /” 
“ You say the fertilizers give you an earlier ripen¬ 
ing grape ?” 
“ Certainly, the fertilizers have a tendency to ripen 
the grapes four or five days earlier than when manure 
was used. They not only ripen earlier, but they ripen 
better and more uniformly.” 
“ Do you find any difference in quality and appear¬ 
ance ?” 
“Yes, indeed ; the fertilized grapes are ahead in 
these respects. We have one vineyard of Delawares 
and Catawbas on a spot where it was not convenient to 
haul any manure. They have had absolutely nothing 
but fertilizers from the day they were planted. They 
are the finest looking grapes we pack and as for quality , 
our pickers ought to be good judges for they pick all 
over our 20 acres as well as for other people. Yet, to 
get grapes for their own eating, they will always go 
from choice, right to that spot where manure has 
never been used. That ought to settle the question of 
quality. In fact, fertilizers are absolutely necessary to 
us in order to grow grapes of the highest quality. 
(To be continued.) 
MAKING HOME HAPPY FOR THE HENS. 
Fig. 248 shows the arrangement of one of the hen¬ 
houses and yards at the Hicks Farm. This is planned 
to accommodate both the layers an J sitters, with a 
separate yard for each. The partition between the 
laying and sitting rooms is composed of a tier of nest 
boxes several nests high. Each nest is provided with 
a separate door on each side. The one next the room 
for the layers is of wood, the one on the opposite side 
of wire netting. Starting in in the spring with the 
hens all laying, the board doors are all open and the 
wire doors closed. Then some biddy manifests a de¬ 
sire to sit. If she is found on the nest at night, the 
board door is closed and she is safe from intrusion. 
The eggs may be placed under her at once, or she may 
