384 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 48 
sary to use wax when I remove the largest 
limbs ? Is there any particular time to prune 
to cause the tree to bear better ? What is 
the best fertilizer to came the trees to bear ? 
There is n large enough growth of wood but 
not of fruit. My trees are about fourteen 
years olJ and many of them are six inches or 
more iu diameter.— John W. Prey, Saltillo, 
Nsb. 
We have our doubts in regard to the. trees 
needing o.ny pruning further than to keep 
them in proper shape. Pruning of healthy, 
vigorous trees, such os yours undoubtedly 
are, only increases growth and puts off the 
time of fruiting. If the heads of the trees 
are too dense, as is very likely to be the case 
with thrifty young specimens, wait until 
mid-summer or after the leaves are fully 
developed, then prune out a portion of the 
inside branches in order to let in the light and 
somewhat check the long, Blender growth 
which is generally the result of too much 
crowding. 
Summer pruning is much preferable to 
winter or early spring, for trees of luxuriant 
growth and consequent unfruitfulness. We 
would not advise adding any manure to trees 
so long as they continue to make a good, 
vigorous growth ; but a little lime scattered 
about them may be benellcitu. It Is certainly 
a good sign to have trees grow rapidly, al¬ 
though they are usually a little more tardy 
in coming into full bearing; but there is 
really no loss in the end but a positive gain, 
for the larger the size of the tree when it 
commences to hear the less likely will it be 
to receive a check to its growth, besides being 
capable of producing a larger quantity at 
one time. 
Wherever large branches have to be re¬ 
moved it is a good plan to cover the wounds 
made with some substance that will keep out 
the water until they are healed or covered 
with a new growth of wood. Common paint 
will answer ; but grafting wax is considered 
preferable. Apply the wax when melted 
and hot, using nn old paint brush or swab 
made of rags. It is better to let the wouud 
dry a few days before applying the paint or 
wax, because neither will adhere readily to 
the wound when green or moist with sap or 
water. A few days’ exposure to sun and 
wind will dry the surface sufficiently for the 
purpose. 
Jiulusti|ial 
DOES'IT PAY TO HIRE 1” 
The above is a question asked by a corre¬ 
spondent, to which we reply without hesita¬ 
tion, “ Yes.” But doubtless our inquirer will 
say, “ What I mean is, Does it pay and is it 
profitable to have hired help On a farm V 
Again wo say, Yes. But its paving depends 
not upon the labor performed by the hired 
help, but upon the brains you have power 
over in guiding and directing the working of 
the men you employ. Please let me say that 
if thei’e is a man who comes to you for work, 
who has in his head brains equal to your 
own, but who by unfortunate chance has 
been compelled to take a situation under 
you, that man will remain with you only so 
long as he can make enough to establish 
himself upon a rented ground, either as a 
gardener, orchardist or stock grower. Again, 
if you hire a man who hms physical power, 
but is uneducated in its use nn adapted to 
your need, you must make up your mind 
that to you belongs the guiding and direct¬ 
ing power in order to get from what you 
may term the machine a profitable working 
return. Don’t suppose for a moment that 
the man you hire at what we term regular 
wages—say $10 to $30 a month and board- 
lias brains like yourself; do not ever think, 
that you can tell him to go and do such a 
piece of work without your own personal 
direction. As well might the merchant, who 
has a half hundred clerks under him expect 
each and every one to know his business and 
work for his interest, as for you to suppose 
your hired man upon the farm or garden is 
going to make the crops grown a profit to 
you. 
In the first place, what does he know of 
the cost of raising a bushel of corn of pota¬ 
toes ? Has he ever flguved the interest of the 
laud ? the costs of plowing and seasons of 
alter culture? the cost of the seeds, etc., and 
compared it with the results obtained from 
the crop ? I almost fed like asking you, 
good Inquirer, if you have ever studied that 
item of cost and returns carefully. Do you 
know that here in New England, taken in 
connection with the interest and cost of 
working a crop, the sum total of the value 
of a bushel of com or wheat, or of pears, 
apples, raspberries, etc., is double, aye, often 
treble that of the same grown in Illinois or 
Kansas ? It is not that labor is less expen¬ 
sive in those States, but. it is that for a quar¬ 
ter of a century' they have had no cause to 
apply manure. Again, their land is smooth, 
clear of stones, etc., and easily tilled. The 
whole of your question is answered in a few 
words, viz,;—“ No business will prosper that 
is not cared for by the owner of it.” “ He 
who by the plow would thrive himself must 
either hold or drive.” In other words, no 
machine, even down to a laboring man void 
of brains, can be operated successfully with¬ 
out a capable engineer. F. R. E. 
-♦-*-*- 
AGRICULTURE AS A RECREATION. 
Gentlemen of fortune should turn landed 
proprietors similar to English ones and not 
buy tracts merely to let them he in their 
wild state, waiting for a rise in price per 
acre. What is to prevent a gentleman from 
residing on a large estate, forming a fine 
portion around his mansion, and rent the 
great bulk in convenient farms on such con¬ 
ditions as will insure its being kept up to the 
highest state of fertility ? Many gentlemen 
have estates something like this, but they 
rent and allow every thing grown to be sent 
off to towns or to go to market, without any 
provision being made for replacing the plarft 
food used up by the crops ; not only so, but 
they use up the land in their own occupancy 
just as badly as their tenants do, the result 
being such poor crops that the whole do¬ 
main does not bring in enough to keep up 
the owner’s establishment. 
Some years since, a speculator in some of 
the necessaries to conduct the war at its 
commencement, who made with others a 
nice fortune, bought six thousand acres of 
land and built a large house and put up a 
quantity of good farm stables, barns, &C., 
so far proceeding on a good and liberal poli¬ 
cy ; but here all the business qualities iu his 
nature were exhausted and the rent of his 
proceedings were folly personified. . He had 
a number of cows, low-priced common ani¬ 
mals, and had not more than two pounds of 
butter per week from them on an average. 
When winter came, they were fed so badly 
that spring saw the last of them ; they 
could not bring forth their young. He had 
a fiock of 2,300 sheep and when winter came 
they were not fed ; during a snow, hundreds 
died and yet there was Lay but the shepherd 
was forbidden to give any to them, as it was 
to be sold. 
A man went to the celebrated Mr. Berg in 
New York and represented the extreme 
cruelty in this case, and Mr. Tuttle, his 
lawyer, was instructed to prosecute ; but on 
finding the culprit owned 6,300 acres of land, 
paid for and fine buildings erected with 
thousands yet unspent, the suit dropped 
through. However, the Great Creator pun¬ 
ishes more surely than man can do ; for this 
miserably unfeeling man suffered first in the 
loss of 800 head during the snow storm and 
all the young from the effects. Well, having 
failed in his own efforts to farm and make 
anything at all from his domain, he rented 
to anybody who would plow up the best 
portions of the land and crop it; and thus 
all the fertile and richest dells and nooks 
were soon reduced by crops of eorn, &C., 
without any return in manure ; consequently 
the laud was no longer able to support the 
number of cattle and sheep it formerly did 
and, as in the case of all farms where the 
original plant food is not kept, replaced by 
renovating crops, or manure made from the 
crops grown, it. did not pay aud the man 
who might have been equal in wealth of 
laud and had an income as great us an En¬ 
glish baronet or lord, had to give up and 
offer the place for sale. As the reduction of 
fertility, by plowing up all the Bweet, rich 
old grass porti- n< hot reduced the value of 
the soil to as great, an amount as the mansion 
and barns cost, the gains from the contracts 
have been considerably lessened. 
Here is another instance where farming 
don’t pay. 
If this estate had been in the possession of 
a man with real talent for business and one 
who understood the importance of good 
feeding of cows, sheep and land (for the land 
must be fed) it might have been a paradise 
of an estate ; and although it was not strong 
enough in soil, naturally, for the best per¬ 
manent grass, being too sandy, nevertheless 
having been well grazed with sheep and 
cattle previous to coming into the hands of 
the proprietor alluded to, it was the best and 
most productive light soil pasture ; and there 
were several hundred acres of deeper land 
which cut good hay ; but it would take a 
fortune to replace the former fertility. 
A Working Farmer. 
33mim Dnsbrnuln). 
N. Y. STATE DAIRYMEN’S CONVENTION. 
Binghamton, N. Y., Dec. 9,1874. 
The “ N. Y. State Dairymen’s Association 
and Board of Trade ” convened at the Court 
House, Binghamton, on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 
at 11 o’clock A. M., the President, Mr. X. A. 
Willard of Herkimer Co., in the chair. 
The morning session was chiefly occupied 
in preliminary business, the appointment of 
committees, See., as follows : 
On Order of Business. —Dr. E. G. Crafts of 
Broome Co., F. Blanding of Madison Co., J. 
V. Scovill of Oneida Co. 
On Finance. —Wm, It. Osborn, Gen. G. F. 
Jones, D. L. Halbert, M. W. Shapley, Wm. 
Blanding, all of Broome Co. 
On Dairy Products.—J. C. Truman, S. D. 
Martin, W. Blanding, all of Broome Co.; 
-Johnson of Delaware Co., T. Eglestoa of 
Chenango Co. 
A recess was here taken until 2 P. M. 
On the assembling of the Convention in 
the afternoon the house was well filled, dele¬ 
gates being present from various parts of the 
State and from other States. First in order 
was the Annual Address of the President, a 
synopsis of which is as follows : 
MB. X. A WILLARD $ ADDRESS. 
Mr. Willard commenced by referring to 
the articles of the Associatien which provide 
for an Annual Winter Convention to be heid 
in any part of the State thought desirable 
for the promotion of the dairy interest. He 
said : 
Last year our Convention was held at Sin- 
clairville, Chautauqua Co. The attendance 
was large and the meeting one of the most 
useful of any previously had in the State. 
Our Executive Coramitteee, in selecting 
Binghamton for holding the Convention this 
year, did so on the representation that the 
location was central, easily accessible by 
railroad, and was one of the best points for 
• accommodating the dairymeu of the South¬ 
ern tier of counties ; and the generous man¬ 
ner in which the citizens of Broome Co. have 
responded to the requirements of the Asso¬ 
ciation in meeting necessary expenses of the 
meeting has been very gratifying to me, 
since it shows that the efforts of this Society 
in advancing the dairy interests of the State 
are duly appreciated. 
PROGRESS Of THE DAIRY INTEREST. 
The progress which has been made in the 
branch of industry winch calls this assembly 
hero to-day has been most remarkable. Dur¬ 
ing the last decade no other branch of farm¬ 
ing has made such large advances, and a 
large share of its growth and prosperity may 
be attributed to the knowledge disseminated 
by our Dairy Association. 
On the 6th of January, 1SG4, there occur¬ 
red in Rome, in this State, the first Conven¬ 
tion of dairymen that had ever been called 
together on the Continent. At that time 
associated dairying was scarcely known out¬ 
side the central counties of New York. It 
was not until 1863 that the associated system 
began to move forward in earnest. About 
110 factories were erected that, year, and the 
whole number in opeeatiou at the close of 
1863 was only about 200. 
The butter factory system at that time had 
not been inaugurated. Wo were then ex¬ 
porting about 10,000,000 pounds of cheese and 
23,000,000 pounds of butter. In 1859, or four 
years previous to 1863, our exports of cheese 
were only a trifle over 9,250,000,000 pounds. 
Thus it will be seen the average annual in¬ 
crease of our cheese exports from 1S59 to 
1863 were iu round numbers 7,500,000 pounds. 
At the. end of 1873 the annual export of 
cheese from America to Great Britain was 
over 104,000,000 pounds—an increase of 64,- 
000,000 pounds iu ten years. But of this 20,- 
000,000 pounds came from Canada. In addi¬ 
tion, we exported about 10,000,000 pounds to 
other countries than Great Britain, making 
our total exports over 90,000,000 pounds. 
The Canadians up to 1866 purchased from 
the United States all the cheese needed for 
home consumption. Our bill on Canada for 
cheese in 1805 amounted to 8200,000, aud this 
probably represented nearly 2,000,000 pounds. 
It is estimated that there are from 1,200 to 
1,500 cheese and butter factories in New 
York State alone, while the associated sys¬ 
tem has been earned into the Northwest on 
a large scale, and of late is rapidly gaining a 
foothold in other sections, especially in Maine, 
which affords a good field for its operations. 
FEAR OF OVER-PRODUCTION. 
During the lest ten years there has been a 
constant fear on the part of dairymen that 
our cheese production would be over-done, 
and yet, judging from year to year, we are no 
nearer that event, and indeed, apparently, 
not so near as in I860, when, on account of 
the inferior product manufactured, our 
eheese was a drug iu the home and Euro¬ 
pean markets, and Samuel Perry, who bought 
up the bulk of the American dairies, went 
to the wall under the immense pressure of 
unsalable goods. 
Dairymen, in looking at this matter, do 
not take into consideration all the circum 
stances concerning it. The increase of popu¬ 
lation both at home and abroad—the bar¬ 
riers that limit t he increase of dairying, such 
as the supply of cows, the necessity of fitting 
the lands for dairy farming and skilled labor 
in manufacturing. I have said that our 
cheese exports since 1863 have increased 84,- 
000,000 pounds, and it would be safe to say 
that our home consumpt ion has also increas¬ 
ed in the same ratio. Think, for a moment, 
of the number of cows needed to produce 
64,000,000 pounds of cheese. At 400 pounds 
to the cow, it would require 160,000, or 320,- 
000 more cows to supply the increased ex¬ 
ports and the consumption of our cheese at 
home during the time named. 
HOW THE MILK CROP IS DISTRIBUTED. 
Now, statistics show that 41 per cent, of 
the milk produced in the United States is 
consumed directly as food and 54 per cent, 
of the. milk is used for butter ; this leaves 
only 5 per cent, of the milk to be made into 
cheese ; and if it requires 320,000 cows to 
supply this increase of cheese production, 
then the whole number of cows needed to 
represent the increased consumption of milk, 
butter and cheese during the last ten yeat-9 
is 6,400,000. As no such Increase of cows has 
been made, we must conclude that the cheese 
factories may have drawn away from the 
butter and milk dairies more or less cows, 
and this has undoubtedly been the case. 
Now, according to the census returns, the 
milk cow8 in the United States in 1850 were 
6,885,094 ; in 1860 they were 8,581,735, and in 
1770 they numbered ll,0SS,fi25, thus showing 
that the average increase was less than 
2,500.000 cows for each decade. You will 
see, therefore, that the mere matter of sup¬ 
plying cows for the dairy is a formidable 
barrier against tuiy suddenly enormous in¬ 
crease of this industry, for we cannot grow 
a cow in a month or a year. In other words, 
the Increase of population is faster than the 
increase of dairy stock. 
HOME NEEDS HOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. 
Iu estimating the product of the dairy we 
scarcely ever take Into Tull account the needs 
of our own people—the enormous quantity 
demanded for home consumption. We are 
apt to look simply at the quantity exported 
and wonder how it is possible that the En¬ 
glish people can consume such quantities. 
Let us turn our attention for a moment to 
the consumption of butter in the United 
States, and I think you will then appreciate 
what a tax this article alone is upon the pro¬ 
ductive power of our dairies. 
TNE AMERICAN RUTTER CROP. 
The annual butter crop of the United 
States has been variously estimated at from 
700,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 pounds. This, how¬ 
ever, it appears, is a low estimate. 
8ome time during the past summer the 
New York Butter and Cheese Exchange ap¬ 
pointed a committee of eminent merchants 
to consider the subject of classifying and 
grading butter, in order to facilitate the 
trade in this important staple. The commit¬ 
tee in their report, state that the census sta¬ 
tistics of dairy products are incomplete and 
defective : and they affirm further, that the 
latest, the most analytical and reasonable 
estimate iu regard to the butter product of 
the country is the following, which has been 
prepared by an experienced and careful sta¬ 
tistician. The amount in stated to be 1,440,- 
000,000 of pounds per year which, at 80c. per 
pound, amounts to ?432,000,000. Thisis truly 
a vast sum of money, and yet 30c. per pound 
is not considered an excessive price for good 
butter ; and notwithstanding the immense 
production in the aggregate, the demand 
continues to keep ahead of the quantity 
made, otherwise prices would sensibly de¬ 
cline. 
THE RATE OF BUTTER CONSUMPTION. 
Nor does the consumption seem extrava¬ 
gant when the calculations are given in de¬ 
tail, especially when it is considered that 
Americans are excessively fond of this arti¬ 
cle of food. The committee estimate that 
out of our population 5,000,UD0 consume one 
pound each per week : 10,000,000 consume 
three-fourths of a pound each per week ; 
20,000,000 consume one-half pound each per 
week and 10,000,000 consume one quartet- 
pound each per week. At this rate 35.000,- 
000 people would consume 1,040,000,000,000 
pounds.per annum for table use, and one 
third as much as the above for culinary pur- 
