1588 
IShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
sects  and  blemish  and  the  fruit  is  handled  as  care¬ 
fully  as  eggs.  lie  also  conceived  the  novel  method 
of  storing  the  fruit  in  cold  storage  with  arrange¬ 
ment  so  that  the  consumer  may  secure  apples  in 
bushel  or  barrel  lots  at  any  time  during  the  yeai\ 
ORCHARD  RESULTS.— This  grand  old  man  of 
Onondaga  Hill  is  SO  years  young,  has  pruned  100 
trees  this  past  year  and  spent  much  time  this  Fall 
sorting  apples.  This  remarkable  orchard,  28  years 
old,  yields  the  owner  from  six  to  eight  thousand 
dollars  annually.  He  knows  every  individual  tree 
and  calls  them  “his  children.”  The  secret  of  Mr. 
Knapp’s  success  goes  back  to  the  time  when  he 
worked  for  others,  for  he  said,  “I  always  tried  to 
earn  a  little  more  than  T  received.”  Those  who 
know  him  feel  that  his  courage  and  his  absolute 
honesty  in  all  his  dealings  have  also  marked  him  as 
a  successful  man.  Mr.  Knapp  is  wealthy  today,  and 
his  50  acres  are  worth  $35,000.  iitjgh  findlay. 
Gasoline  for  Cleaning  Hogs 
Instead  of  scalding  in  the  usual  manner  T  have  tried 
a  new  wrinkle.  Most  men  dislike  the  work  of  scald¬ 
ing  a  hog  because  of  the  steam  and  smell,  and  the  new 
plan  does  away  with  this  entirely.  The  method  as  re¬ 
ported  to  me  was  to  take  the  dead  hog  to  an  open  place 
free  from  litter  or  straw,  and  where  there  is  nothing  to 
catch  on  fire.  Then  pour  a  small  quantity  of  gasoline 
over  the  carcass  and  touch  a  lighted  match  to  it. 
The  plan  sounded  so  good  that  I  gave  it,  a  trial  on 
two  large  hogs.  No  directions  were  given  as  to  the 
best  way  of  applying  the  gasoline  or  the  quantity  to 
use.  I  bad  been  simply  told  that  a  farmer  in  another 
neighborhood  used  the  method  and  it  was  successful. 
So  I  put  my  hogs  in  a  safe  place  and  used  the  gasoline 
very  sparingly.  Less  than  a  pint  covered  the  whole 
carcass  except  the  part  touching  the  ground. 
OME  of  our  readers  found  the  above  note  in 
Farm  avd  Fireside,  and  they  have  written  ns 
to  know  what  there  is  to  it.  We  have  had  no  ex¬ 
perience  with  this  sort,  of  work,  but  we  have  writ¬ 
ten  to  a  large  number  of  hog  men,  asking  about 
it.  Thus  far  we  have  not  been  able  to  find  any 
who  have  actually  tried  this  experiment  with  gaso¬ 
line.  Several  have  heard  of  its  being  done  with 
reported  success.  Around  Yates  County,  NT.  Y..  it 
seems  to  be  the  general  practice  to  skin  the  hogs 
instead  of  having  them  scraped  clean.  Butchers 
go  around  doing  the  work,  taking  the  hide  in  pay¬ 
ment.  This  skinning  the  hog  appears  to  be  very 
satisfactory.  In  other  cases  we  are  told  of  people 
who  slaughter  the  hogs  in  the  usual  way,  then  pile 
dry  straw  over  them,  and  set  it  on  fire  so  as  to 
make  a  quick,  hot  blaze.  This  singes  off  the  hair 
on  the  hog  without  injuring  the  skin,  but  thus 
far  no  one  of  our  correspondents  has  tried  this 
gasoline  method.  If  any  of  our  readers  have  tried 
it,  or  know  where  it  has  been  tried,  we  would  like 
very  much  indeed  to  have  them  tell  us  about  it. 
Since  writing  the  above  we  have  received  the  fol¬ 
lowing  note  of  experience: 
We  have  given  this  method  a  thorough  trial  with 
satisfactory  results.  It  is  no  fake.  Our  method  is  to 
bang  the  hog  up  and  pour  the  gasoline  from  the  top 
thoroughly  wetting  the  hair  all  over  the  body  with 
gasoline.  Then  a  lighted  match  is  touched  at  the  low¬ 
er  end  of  the  hog  and  in  about  two  and  a  half  minutes 
all  the  hair  is  singed  off.  After  the  hog  is  well 
scraped  it  is  as  clean  and  white  as  though  it  had  been 
scalded.  Of  course  the  amount  of  gasoline  to  use  de¬ 
pends  on  the  size  of  the  hog.  To  obtain  good  results 
enough  gasoline  must  he  used  thoroughly  to  wet  the 
hair  from  Ike  outer  end  of  the  hair  to  the  skin.  The 
burning  does  not  affect  the  meat  any  more  than  scald¬ 
ing.  In  cleaning  hogs  by  this  method  no  more  gaso¬ 
line  should  be  close  at  hand  than  that  used  on  the 
hog.  W.  H.  UNDERWOOD. 
Illinois. 
When  the  Cow  Makes  Her  Milk 
Will  you  give  the  best  formula  for  grain  to  feed  a 
registered  Jersey  cow  for  milk?  She  was  fresh  about 
a  month  ago.  weighs  about  N50  lbs.  Would  it  be  best 
to  feed  wet  o y  dry?  I  would  like  you  to  explain  about 
how  much  milk  there  is  in  a  cow’s  udder  before  milk¬ 
ing,  supposing  she  gives  six  quarts  at  a  milking.  I 
claim  that  the  milk  is  made  while  milking  to  a  very 
largo  per  cent.  M.v  friends  laugh  at  me.  F.  w.  p. 
Connecticut. 
YOU  do  not  state  roughage  you  have  on  hand, 
but  assuming  it  to  be  mixed  bay  a  good  ration 
for  your  cow  is  IS  lbs.  bay  daily,  and  1  lb.  grain  to 
3  lbs.  milk  from  the  following  mixture:  Two  parts 
gluten  feed,  one  part  cottonseed  meal,  two  parts 
dried  beet  pulp.  The  beet  pulp  may  be  soaked  in 
three  times  its  weight  of  warm  water  or  mixed  with 
<  thcr  grains  and  fed  dry.  Add  one  per  cent,  coarse 
line  salt  in  making  up  grain  ration. 
You  are  entirely  right;  most  of  the  milk  is  man¬ 
ufactured  in  the  udder  during  milking  process. 
Just  how  all  different  ingredients  are  secreted  and 
mixed  together  in  cow's  udder  probably  never  will 
be  known.  Inside  the  cow’s  teat  is  a  hollow  tube; 
this  tube  runs  up  to  a  chamber  known  as  milk  cis¬ 
tern  or  milk  reservoir.  The  average  capacity  of  this 
milk  cistern  is  about  one-half  pint.  All  the  milk 
that  Is  already  made  when  one  starts  to  milk  lies 
in  these  milk  cisterns.  The  cow  does  not  have  com¬ 
plete  control  over  the  muscles  of  the  teat,  so  one 
can  usually  draw  a  pint  to  a  quart  of  milk  when 
he  sits  down  to  milk  old  Bossy  in  spite  of  her  ef¬ 
forts  to  bold  it  back.  Tiny  duets  radiate  in  all  di¬ 
rections  from  the  milk  cistern  to  the  milk  glands 
proper  in  the  upper  part  of  udder.  These  ducts 
branch  in  all  directions.  At  the  point  where  these 
branches  join  the  main  duct  is  a  muscle  over  which 
cow  lias  absolute  control.  The  milk  is  secreted  in 
gland  tissue’  a  spongy  mass  of  cells  and  blood  ves¬ 
sels.  and  must  flow  down  through  the  milk  duets 
Grafting  Done  by  Mr.  Knapp  to  Supply  More  Sap.  Fig.  622 
to  the  milk  cistern  before  it  can  be  drawn  from  the 
udder.  Hence  by  controlling  muscles  in  milk  ducts, 
a  cow  can  bold  up  or  let  down  her  milk  at  will. 
The  new  milker  usually  gets  only  a  pint  or  quart  in 
the  milk  cistern  until  the  cows  finds  out  he  means 
business,  then  she  lets  down  her  milk.  The  *pies- 
tion  is  often  asked  if  the  milk  is  not  all  made  in 
Hie  udder,  what,  makes  the  udder  get  larger  before 
milking?  This  seems  to  be  due  to  a  sort  of  piling 
up  of  materials  from  which  the  milk  is  made  in  the 
An  Early  Bearing  Duchess  Apple.  Fig.  623.  See  next  page 
gland.  It  is  the  milking  process  only  that  stimu¬ 
lates  the  secretion  of  this  milk  by  the  gland. 
H.  F.  J. 
A  Talk  About  Apples 
rl  lie  statement  about  some  of  the  apple  trees  at  Hope 
Farm  bearing  20  bushels,  or  nearly  that,  at  13  years 
old  is  such  an  enormous  yield  that  I  would  be  very 
glad  to  know  more  about  the  amount  of  mulch,  ma¬ 
nure,  etc.,  that  was  put  around  them  from  year  to 
year.  If  a  large  amount,  enough  to  keep  all  grass 
killed  out  as  far  us  the  limbs  extended,  it.  is  far  dif¬ 
ferent  from  the  small  quantity  usually  used,  I  have 
this  year  visited  Hitchiiigs’  orchards,  near  Syracuse, 
and  1  found  no  orchards  or  trees  lie  had  mulched 
December  30,  1910. 
heavily  enough  to  kill  out  the  grass  from  around  the 
trees;  in  fact  I  was  surprised  at  the  small  amount 
apparently  that  he  had  ever  placed  around  the  trees. 
I  noticed  llitehings  has  out  about  400  acres  of  young 
trees  besides  his  older  orchards  of  around  100  acres, 
and  I  hear  of  other  orchards  in  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylynnin  and  New  England  of  from  a  few  acres  up  to 
1,0(10  acres,  that  are  set  outside  of  the  enormous  ap¬ 
ple  belt  of  Western  New  York  by  the  lakes.  I  am 
at  raid  the  apple  business  in  the  near  future  will  be 
about  like  the  past  history  of  the  potato  business  from 
20  to  25  years  ago.  Mr.  Carman,  former  editor  of 
1  IIK  R-  N.-\,,  T.  B.  Terry  and  A.  I.  Root’s  writings 
and  hooks  seemed  to  give  the  potato  business  a  great 
start  and  boom.  This  with  the  invention  of  the  eleva¬ 
tor  potato-digger  seemed  to  increase  production  so 
much  and  reduce  prices  that  even  Terry  went,  out  of 
the  business  himself.  Now  potatoes  are  from  $1.25  to 
$1  .■! 0  in  this  part  of  New  York,  while  apples  are  be¬ 
ing  given  away,  even  nice  Spy.  In  fact  so  far  as  I 
have  ever  observed  in  the  villages  and  smaller  places 
there  is  never  much  of  a  market  for  apples,  as  nearly 
everyone  has  them  in  the  garden,  or  friends  on  farm’s 
where  they  can  get  them  given  to  them  sometimes.  I 
see  small  orchards  around  this  section  where  the  farm¬ 
ers  let  those  who  have  no  apples  go  and  gather  them 
free  or  on  shares  and  many  are  not  gathered  at  all  in 
seasons  of  heavy  winds,  etc.  The  yield  of  apples  and 
potatoes  is  about  the  average  here  this  year.  I  am 
wondering  if  in  the  future  the  big  markets  can  take 
all  the  apples  from  these  mammoth  orchards. 
Otsego  Co.,  N.  Y.  CHARLES  L.  TODD. 
THESE  Northern  Spy  trees  at  Hope  Farm  are  on 
just  the  kind  of  land  that  variety  demands. 
They  are  planted  at  the  base  of  a  springy  hill.  The 
is  strong  and  deep,  with  plenty  of  moisture. 
Each  year  we  put  perhaps  SO  pounds  of  straw, 
weeds,  rotted  cornstalks  or  manure  under  the  trees 
about  as  far  out  as  the  branches  extend.  This  cover 
kills  out  most  of  the  grass  under  the  tree.  A  little 
grass  grows  through  it,  but  never  enough  to  hide 
the  mulch.  As  to  the  future  of  the  apple  business 
you  may  get  any  opinion  you  like,  all  honest  and 
all  based  on  practical  experience.  Many  people  for¬ 
get  that  both  apples  and  potatoes  are  crops  for  a 
series  of  years  and  n<>t  crops  to  be  estimated  for  one 
year.  Most  of  us  forget  that  two  years  ago  potato 
growers  were  in  despair  over  their  prices.  The 
crop  was  so  large  that  it  could  hardly  he  given 
away,  and  some  growers  abandoned  it  in  disgust. 
Had  they  kept,  on  the  prices  for  the  past  two  years 
would  have  made  a  fine  average,  and  that  is  what 
wo  must  work  for  in  both  potatoes  and  apples.  One 
year  with  another,  potatoes  will  prove  profitable 
anywhere  within  reasonable  distance  of  a  good 
ma  rket. 
We  think  much  the  same  is  true  of  apples.  Mil¬ 
lions  of  trees  have  been  planted  and  millions  will 
follow.  A  large  proportion  of  them  will  never  pay 
expenses.  They  are  planted  on  unsuitable  soil. 
Baldwin  and  McIntosh  planted  on  heavy,  wet  land 
suitable  for  Spy,  would  never  pay.  Then  many  trees 
are  planted  off  in  faraway  places  where  the  cost  of 
hauling  and  shipping  eat  up  all  the  profits.  Small 
orchards  off  in  such  places  will  not  pay.  The  own¬ 
er  cannot  make  carload  shipments,  and  must  de¬ 
pend  on  buyers  and  commission  men  to  handle  his 
fmit.  There  will  not  be  much  profit  on  farms  where 
the  orchard  is  a  sort  of  side  issue.  There  may  be 
several  hundred  trees,  but  some  other  farming  is 
the  main  business  and  tin*  trees  do  not  get  full  care. 
There  are  usually  too  many  varieties,  and  the  fruit 
cannot  be  sold  to  advantage.  The  future  will  make 
it  more  and  more  clear  that  the  profit  in  the  apple 
business  wilT  go  to  men  who  make  a  regular  busi¬ 
ness  of  it.  It,  must  be  a  special  business  well  lo¬ 
cated  near  markets,  well  handled  and  large  enough 
to  supply  a  full  trade  through  the  season.  The 
apple  market  in  the  large  cities  has  never  been  half 
developed.  It  seems  to  us  that  the  apple  business 
is1  just  about  the  reverse  of  the  poultry  prospect. 
The  large,  special  hen  farms  rarely  pay  as  well  as 
the  smaller,  well  kept  flocks  on  general  farms  or 
gardens.  The  side  issue  orchard  rarely  pays,  nor 
does  the  great  orchard  company.-  The  orchard  of 
medium  size,  well  located  and  handled  as  a  special 
business,  will  pay  a  fair  profit  through  a  term  of 
years. 
N  page  1417  we  told  how  the  scientists  claim 
to  have  fed  sugar  to  a  pumpkin,  and  made  it 
into  a  “whale.”  There  was  a  time  when  people 
would  Wallow  this  sugared  science — and  enjoy  it. 
Now  it  is  different: 
The  letter  submitted  stating  ‘(hi*  forcing  of  pump¬ 
kins  by  sugar  water  is  a  fraud  is  right.  I  personally 
tried  the  sugar  water  treatment  on  four  separate 
pumpkins.  The  fruits  grew  naturally,  but  they  grew 
as  nature  intended  them,  that  is,  from  the  plant  food 
drawn  in  by  the  roots.  The  sugar  in  the  water  solu¬ 
tion  crystallized  on  the  feeding  wick,  causing  fbe  wick 
to  become  almost  as  hard  as  cardboard.  The  jars  of 
sugar  water  did  grow,  or  1  might  say,  drew  about  all 
the  ants  in  the  neighborhood.  Maybe  the  Scientific 
American  thought  they  put  the  pump  in  pumpkin. 
New  Jersey.  Elmer  a,  Fredrickson. 
The  trouble  is  that  most  papers  seem  to  think 
they  must  tell  these  big  bluffs  and  padded  stories 
in  order  to  please  the  people.  Have  they  not  sense 
enough  to  know  that  the  people  do  not  want  these 
yellow  tales,  but  the  old-fashioned  truth? 
