THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
727 
What are the three most valuable crops that can be 
cultivated in our Central States ? First and greatest 
of all comes corn, easily king of grasses. Second is 
Alfalfa, queen of clovers or legumes ; lustiest of the 
dwellers of the meadow ; richest in its stores of pro¬ 
tein [muscle-makers.] Third is Blue grass, a princess 
of grasses, yet our humble friend and cooperator, 
clothing hill and valley—roadside and ditch bank with 
a living carpet of green—conserving fertility and re¬ 
pairing waste and destruction. .j. e. wing. 
Woodside Farm, O. 
IF THE CLOVER WILL PASS THE WINTER ! 
At a time when the minds of many of our farmers 
were greatly exercised about the profit or loss in 
trying to raise Red clover, a few copies of The R. N.-Y. 
were given me by a subscriber. They contained sev¬ 
eral articles about Crimson clover and the revolution 
it was making in many parts of our country. In read¬ 
ing about Crimson clover, some of us thought that it 
might be the plant that would accomplish what we 
expected of Red clover, as a fertilizer and fodder 
plant. One sowed two bushels on a feed lot with a 
diversity of soil. Another sowed bushel in an 
orchard, another two bushels on rich pi’airie soil, and 
still another two bushels on good prairie. I sowed, 
September 15, four bushels on good upland prairie, 12 
pounds per acre. 1 prepared a good 
.seed bed, covered lightly and it was 
up in four days. As 1 was anxious 
to give it a fair test and to have 
it do as well as I knew how, I got 
two tons of gypsum, 1,000 pounds of 
ground bone, seven barrels of slaked 
lime, six barrels of ashes, leached 
and unleached, and made the mix¬ 
ture as equal in proportion as pos¬ 
sible, which made 27 barrels. I 
sowed one barrel per acre, but left a 
part without any so as to .show the 
effect of the fertilizer. I think that 
I have set a good trap to catch a 
good crop of nitrogen. 
Many of my plants, at two inches 
high, had from 30 to 50 branches and 
are putting out new ones daily ; 
but one of the grandest things I see 
in the future is in seeding corn at 
the last plowing in July for fall and 
winter pasture, and for fertilizing 
or seed crop in spring, which means 
much to me with 30 dairy cows. I 
intend to cut for seed in spring to 
get seed to sow 70 acres of corn. I 
believe that it will prove a grand 
weed eradicator when sown in corn, 
if sown moderately thick, as its 
rapid growth will soon cover the 
ground and keep down or smother 
all weeds. If it succeeds well here 
and proves as good a fertilizer as 
Prof. Voorhees says, it will be of 
great benefit to us, as we cannot 
make manure enough to go over 
our farms. I used an 11-foot broad¬ 
cast seeder, which does its work 
nicely, and can be adjusted for any 
amount. It sows when the surface 
is wet or damp. I have cut a crop 
of Red clover from part of a field 
that was sown with gypsum 12 years ago. On a part 
of the same field where no gypsum was sown, 
though seeded twice, there was no clover. 
Montgomery County, Ill. robisrt boyce. 
R. N.-Y.—We sincei*ely hope the clover will thrive 
and live through the winter. If it does, a blind man 
can see its great value in your farming. We would 
have used more pota^ih than the ashes supplied. 
THE DOUBLE INCOME. 
CREAM AND CALVES. 
Most farmers refuse to believe that veal may be 
made from .skim-milk, but the thinkers who are doing 
it, have studied the .subject and continue to experi¬ 
ment until they are actually producing veal that sells 
readily for the same as new-milk veal. I visited 
one of these farmers recently with the express purpose 
of getting some light on the subject. lie keeps less 
than 10 cows, and sells cream. 
“ There is no reason why such veal as this should 
be inferior to the best calves that suck cows,” he re¬ 
marked. “ It is more work, certainly, to sell cream 
and make veal at the same time ; but I have noticed 
that we have to work for any money we get, espec¬ 
ially these times.” 
“ Are you alone in your practice ?” 
“ Oh, no ! A number who patronize the same cream¬ 
ery and live in this vicinity, are doing the same work 
and Vith equal satisfaction,” he replied. 
“You fatten as many calves as you have cows, do 
you not ? ” 
“Yes, and sometimes more. I don’t u.se all my 
skim-milk in this way. You see my poultry ; 1 keep 
80 Pekin ducks, and on skim-milk they are extra good 
layers. Their eggs are far more numerous than the 
same number of hens produce during the year. I 
know because I keep large flocks of other fowls, and 
all pay well on milk. Ducks’ eggs are not only more 
plentiful, but bring a higher price also—usually 5 to 
10 cents more per dozen.” 
“ But to return to veal ; you would recommend any¬ 
body to fatten calves on skim-milk alone ? ” 
“ Certainly not! It cannot be done. Calves have 
not a digestion capable of getting fat out of a thing 
which contains none, or but very little. Because we 
have tried to do the impossible in the past, m e have 
failed. This is the reason why so many dairymen 
believe skim-milk fattening a failure.” 
“ Have you any objection to explaining just how to 
use skim-milk successfully ? ” 
“Of course not. There is no secret about it, and 
all my neighbors know how. Success consists merely 
in returuing to the milk a digestible fat that is 
cheaper than the butter fat taken from it. This may 
be done in several ways, but in none so cheaply and 
surely, and with so little trouble, as by the u.se of flax 
seed, properly prepared and added to the milk.” 
SALMON BERRY BLOSSOMS. Fig. 19 4. 
“You mean linseed meal or oil meal ? ” 
“No. I have tried this, but too much of the fat has 
been extracted. I get the genuine flax seed. It is 
then boiled in water enough to make a thick, translu¬ 
cent jelly. It tastes good and is good, and any one 
with a cold can use nothing better.” 
“You don’t give this to a calf as soon as he is drop¬ 
ped ? ” 
“ Oh, no ! I like to keep a young calf on new milk 
for five days to a week. Then he should be transfer¬ 
red to .skim-milk gradually. I begin the use of flax 
jelly by putting into each mess a half teacupful, and 
soon work up to a half pint. When the calf is 2>^ to 
3 weeks old, he gets a pint. The strength of the 
ration is gauged entirely by the size and strength of 
the calf and his appetite. I take pains always not to 
cloy the feeder. Give him enough, but never so much 
that he will leave some in the pail. At two weeks, I 
usually begin to put in some middlings or good wheat 
bran with the flax seed. I start with a small handful 
to a mess, and work up slowly. At four to six weeks 
of age, a hearty calf will use a pint, twice daily. It 
helps furnish bone and muscle, and of cour.se the big¬ 
ger the frame the more fat can be laid on by the 
owner. A strong frame also means a good digestion 
usually. The first appearance of .scours should make 
the owner suspicious and careful. In 99 cases out of 
100, the cause will be found in over-feeding. A 
day or two of slight looseness of the bowels need 
cause no alarm. This is not scours but a warning.” 
This farmer has neighbors who u.se the whole milk 
for veals. They make more of it per cow, but at 
greater cost. It is a significant fact that the few who 
have given up fattening calves, and begun to sell 
cream instead, whether they fatten with the skim- 
milk or not, are very much pleased, and are increas¬ 
ing the number of their cows. Not the least profit¬ 
able thing resulting from this system of dairying, is 
the strong manure in such large quantities. Farmers 
who sell the whole milk, never have enough manure, 
as their farms show plainly. The sale of cream and 
meats only, is one of the safest roads to successful 
all ’round agriculture. Hollister sage. 
Fairfield County, Conn. 
FRUIT NOTES FROM ILLINOIS. 
I never saw a finer prospect for an immense crop of 
apples in this locality than there was last spring, but the 
high, cold wind, followed by the hard freeze tliat swept 
over the country just about blo.ssoming time, nipped 
that prospect in the bud, consequently, the crop is a 
very light one. Of the varieties that weathered the 
blasts and frost, Janet and Ben Davis seem to stand at 
the head. In some orchards, every .lanet tree was 
loaded with fruit, and here and there are Ben Davis 
trees with 25 per cent more fruit on than any good 
orchardist would permit them to 
bear. The most curious thing about 
the crop this year is that nine-tenths 
of all the fruit is found in orchards 
that are fully exposed to the north 
and west winds. Orchards that are 
well protected on the north and west 
bore little or no fruit. 
I have always advocated heavy 
wind-breaks of evergreen or decid¬ 
uous trees for orchards, but I am 
beginning to suspect that I may 
have been wrong. It is a fact that 
apple trees that are protected from 
the north and west winds, bloom 
earlier than those fully exposed, 
and therefore are more liable to be 
nipped by a late spring frost. This 
I have noticed several years. On the 
other hand, trees that ai*e expo.'-ed 
to these winds, frequently have more 
than half the fruit blown off’ by 
hard storms in July and August. 
Taking all these things into con¬ 
sideration, I have about concluded 
that a single row of some deciduou-i 
tree that starts late in the spring 
and drops its leaves early in the 
fall, like ash and catalpa, is about 
all the protection a prairie orchard 
needs. The trees should be set six 
to eight feet apart in the row, and 
be trimmed about six feet high. 
Such a row of trees would break the 
force of a hard storm in summer, 
while it would not tend to encourage 
early growth in spring. 
While discussing this matter with 
a neighbor recently, he told me of 
an uncle of his who managed to have 
a crop of peaches every year. 11 e 
has five large, fine trees that are 
well cared for in every way. When 
the ground freezes about as deep as he thinks it will 
be likely to that winter, he hauls sawdu.st from a mill 
nearby, and covers the ground under each tree, fiom 
its trunk at least eight feet outward, to a depth of 12 
to 15 inches. The result is that when other trees are 
in full bloom, the buds on his trees are just beginning 
to swell. The sap does not ebb and flow all winter as 
it does in unmulched trees, and consequently the buds 
are not injured by the frequent changes in the weatlier. 
It is the frequent starting of the sap, and swelling of 
fruit buds in mild weather in winter, that plays havoc 
with peaches in this section. 
I iiA» so much trouble with weeds in my strawberry 
patch last year, that I decided to destroy every one 
that showed a leaf this year, even if I had to go over 
the patch four times a week all summer. It has liceii 
hoed nine times, and raked with a garden rake six 
times since strawberries were gathered. During this 
time, we had seven light showers of rain, and within 
four days after each shower, the entire surface of the 
ground would be red with young purslane. Each 
time these plants were destroyed while in the seed 
leaf, both between the rows and among the plants- 
The eighth crop was as large as the first, and was nip¬ 
ped by frost, llow mony more there are still in the 
ground, I don’t know. A few days ago, I crept along 
the rows and pulled about two quarts of plants from 
their hiding places under the strawberry leavers. 
Many of them were not over an inch long, yet they 
