646 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 
Many continue this practice to-day. The 
science of feeding is very modern, and the 
elements of food are of comparatively recent 
discovery. What little is known is slow in 
getting out among the farmers. But the 
readers of the Rural ought by this time to 
know that the two classes of food, known as 
nitrogenous or albuminoids and carbonaceous 
or carbohydrates, ought to be judiciously com¬ 
bined in about the proportion required for 
the sustenance or building up of the animal 
system. In the fall or early winter, dairy 
cows need an additional amount of nitrogen¬ 
ous food along with the carbonaceous crop¬ 
pings of the fields or the coarse fodder that 
may be thrown out to them. They require 
some good clover hay and a grain ration, out 
of which to elaborate milk and keep up the 
muscular system. The carbon is naturally in 
excess in their food in the fall season of the 
year and early winter, until snow comes— 
especially if they are allowed to run in a field 
of uncut corn stalks from which the ears have 
been snapped. They need but a moderate 
supply of this kind of food, which provides 
only heat and lays on fat. It is fat-producing, 
but it is not directly turned into butter-fat in 
the milk. It appears to go first to supply fat 
to the cow’s system, and from this storage 
probably the fats are drawn to enrich the 
milk. But only so 
much is appropriat¬ 
ed to heating pur¬ 
poses—in keeping up 
the normal tempera¬ 
ture of the body— 
and stored up as sur¬ 
plus fat as is digested 
and assimilated. 
If there is alack of 
nitrogen in the food 
to be combined with 
the carbon, the ex¬ 
cess of the latter clogs 
the system and goes 
to waste in the man¬ 
ure heap; that is, 
nearly to waste, for 
the carbon in the 
manure is of little 
value. Beyond six or 
eight parts of carbon 
to one of nitrogen in 
food, is a waste of 
the carbon, When tne 
weather is only mod¬ 
erately cold. In zero 
weather, a larger 
proportion of carbon 
may be fed and ap¬ 
propriated. It is 
therefore better to 
feed the more nitro¬ 
genous foods in the 
milder weather of the 
fall, and increase the 
amount of carbon¬ 
aceous foods as the 
weather grows cold¬ 
er, and especially if 
the cows are exposed 
to the colder tem- 
j*erature, instead of 
being properly 
confined in warm 
stables, as they should be. In mid-winter, 
when the weather is cold and sharp, animals 
exposed to it will eat large quantities of 
straw,corn-stalks,over-ripe and damaged hay, 
or other carbonaceous food; at the same time 
they must not be deprived of a due amount of 
nitrogenous or muscle-and-milk-producing 
food. There is such a thing as an excess of 
this, but it is seldom fed in excess, save some¬ 
times in the form of grain, though instances 
have been reported of disease and even death 
produced by feeding food too rich in nitrogen. 
This is the most expensive kind of food, and 
this explains why cows and other cattle 
so frequently suffer from need of it, while 
at the same time they are gorged to 
almost splitting from ' over-eating carbona¬ 
ceous foods in the vain attempt to satisfy the 
craving of the system for nitrogen. This 
carbonaceous food is comparatively cheap, and 
hence is often wantonly allowed to go to waste 
by feeding it in excess; whereas, did the 
owner understand; the science of balancing 
foods, so as to avoid waste and still furnish 
the animal system with all the required ele¬ 
ments of nutrition, he would save all his 
carbonaceous foods and supplement them with 
an appropriate amount of the albuminoids. 
In this way, a waste of both kinds of food 
would be avoided and a much larger amount 
of stock could be kept. 
My advice to dairymen and feeders of 
stock generally is to feed moderately of car¬ 
bonaceous food while the weather is mild; to 
increase the quantity when it is colder, -and 
prolong feeding it all through the winter and 
spring as well as fall season. Stock will do 
better fed in this way, the same amount of 
food will go farther, and neither common 
sense nor the rules of true economy will be 
violated. The poorer the fodder, the more 
grain should be fed, and vice versa , with 
due regard to the character of both the fod¬ 
der and the grain fed. 
NOTES ON IRON-CLAD FRUITS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Importance of information on iron clads ; 
the Wealthy, Scott’s Winter; McIntosh 
Red ; Bethel of Vermont; Pacific Sweeting; 
Red Bietingheimer; Duchess of Olden- 
burg; Berkoff; Zolotoreff ^Enormous; Yellow 
Transparent and its family; Mc¬ 
Mahon’s White; lourth of July; Cellini; 
Utter; Haas; Walbridge; Bailey Sweet; 
Salome ; Fameuse Sucr&e. 
It is very important that the knowledge 
now being yearly added in regard to the tree 
fruits suited to the “Cold North,” not only 
far, twig-blight has appeared but once, and 
did little harm, except to Siberian crabs and 
some of their hybrids. 
As to the Wealthy, I am convinced that for 
profit we must follow the example of the 
Baldwin growers of Southern Maine, New 
Hampshire and Vermont, and top-work it on 
an iron-clad stock. Duchess and Tetofsky 
answer well for this purpose; but I think 
Switzer an ideal tree for top-grafting, as it is 
the reverse of “bushy” in its growth, and re¬ 
quires very little pruning. With me, though 
a fine apple of its season (about with Fa¬ 
meuse), I fear its habit of dropping most of its 
fruit in August will make it useless; though it 
may act differently in other soils. 
Scott’s Winter is growing in popularity, and 
is certainly very hardy and vigorous. It has 
not the Wealthy’s crab-like habit of over-bear¬ 
ing on young trees, but comes into profitable 
bearing in six to eight years from planting. 
Good soil and culture, or mulching, are re¬ 
quired to keep up the size of the fruit, which 
is never above medium, and becomes small 
with neglect. I find Me Intosh Red rather 
hardier than Wealthy, but this, as in the case 
of Scott, is probably due to its not over-bear¬ 
ing while young. In fact, I fear from my 
own experience that, like St. Lawrence and 
Fameuse seedlings, the fruit buds are more 
GUERNSEY COW FLOWEY SECOND. 
Re-engraved from The London Live-Stock Journals Fig. 328. 
with reference to the Russians, but to those 
of native origin, should be recorded in some 
periodical of national circulation, like the 
Rural New-Yorker. 1 am therefore pleased 
to note that the contributions of Prof. Budd 
are becoming more frequent in the Rural 
and only wish that other careful experi¬ 
menters, such as Charles Gibb, of Abbottsford; 
Que., A. W. Sias, of Rochester, Minn., and 
Messrs. Tuttle and Howlett, of Baraboo, Wis., 
would give at least one yearly summary of 
their experience to the Rural readers. 
There are some sections of the “Cold North” 
where even the Odenburgh yields to the 
severity of winter’s cold. I doubt if orcharding 
will ever be made a commercial success in 
such places. But where the Duchess endures 
the test.winters fully, we may hope to.assemble 
a fair selection of good apples of all seasons, 
sufficient both for home use and market; 
though it is now lacking in long-keeping 
sorts, especially for commercial purposes. 
I wish to state, as a guide for com¬ 
parison to my readers, that with me 
Oldenburg, Switzer and Tetofsky are un¬ 
harmed by the worst winters. Alexander is 
less hardy, but is rarely killed, though its 
American seedling, Wolf River, is killed to 
the ground by a really hard winter. Wealthy 
is seriously harmed in a similar season; but 
top-worked on the Switzer it seems quite safe. 
Talman Sweet, Red Astrachan and St. Law¬ 
rence are rarely killed outright; but seldom 
produce more than a few imperfect fruits and 
are short-lived. Fameuse, top-grafted, yields 
from five to ten crops before giving up the 
ghost. These facts will fairly denote the 
character of my location. I may add that, so 
tender than the wood. Some of my Me In¬ 
tosh are 14 years set, but I have not yet had a 
full crop on any of them. In slightly milder 
localities, however, the report is that they 
bear early and well. The fruit is large and 
fine, and keeps as well as Wealthy; but is 
seriously damaged by spotting in some sea¬ 
sons. If one will wait for it, I feel sure that 
Bethel of Vermont will prove the most profit¬ 
able of any of the late-keeping iron-clads yet 
known. So far as I can yet judge, it is as 
hardy as Duchess. It is as late in coming to 
full bearing, and finally as productive as 
Northern Spy. It is not equal to the Spy in 
quality, but much better than Ben Davis. It 
is a handsome, mottled, red apple a regular 
oval in form,'as large as Baldwin, and as good 
a keeper. It deserves extensive trial by young 
planters, and possibly its bearing may be 
hastened by top-working it upon a slo w-grow- 
ing stock, like Tetofsky. Certainly that effect 
is produced in some cases. Notably I have ob¬ 
served it in the Prolific Sweeting, a fine Rus¬ 
sian fall sweet, not at all productive after 17 
years’ trial as a root-graft, but profusely so 
when top-worked on Tetofsky. I am sur¬ 
prised to find the so-called German apple, Red 
Bietingheimer, (highly praised by Mr. Barry), 
to be quite iron-clad, and to see in it every 
mark of a true Russian. I have never noticed 
any account of its quality for dessert. If good 
for that, it will be very useful. 
It seems curious to me to see Oldenburg 
quoted in the New York market as high as 
Gravenstein, it being so inferior for eating 
uncooked. It is curious also to learn that the 
Oldenburg was not found in Russia by Budd 
and Gibb. Berkoff, Zolotoreff, of the ‘ ‘Govern¬ 
ment List,” are apparently closely related to 
Oldenburg, the former being almost identi¬ 
cal in form and color, but much better in 
quality. Zolotoreff is also better, with a 
brighter color and more oval form; but so far 
on my trees it is too often ribbed and other¬ 
wise ill-shapen to suit me. I find, by the way, 
that if we gather the finest-colored Olden- 
burgs and keep them a while on shelves in 
the cellar, they will ripen up much better 
than on the trees, and that when they are mar¬ 
keted at just the right time they will bring as 
good a price as shop and street-stand fruit. 
Just before they “go” their acidity is much 
moderated. 
Yellow Transparent has been very profita¬ 
ble to me. I have been selling it for a full 
month, marketing the last to-day (Sept 5), 
this being a remarkably cool season. Enorm¬ 
ous, another Russian of the Government List, 
is of about the same season and color as Yel¬ 
low Transparent, though a shade darker, and 
of fair quality; but the stem is short and, like 
Switzer, nearly the whole crop drops before 
maturity. Not valuable. Regarding Grand 
Sultan, Charlottenthaler, Sweet Pear, and 
others of the Yellow Transparent family, the 
fruit and tree of all are nearly undistinguish- 
able; but I find the true Yellow Transparent 
much the hardiest and most profitable in the 
orchard. 
McMahon’s White, 
of Wisconsin, is an 
apple that grows in 
favor with me as I 
see more of it. It 
is an excellent suc¬ 
cessor to Oldenburg 
in season, is about 
as early to come in 
full bearing, as large 
and as productive, 
better in quality, and 
though not so bril¬ 
liant in color,it is a 
very hand some apple. 
The tree is quite iron¬ 
clad here. 
“Fourth of July” 
is here a September 
apple, medium in 
size, very productive, 
poor in quality and 
not needed because 
of so many other and 
better sorts. Cellini 
is very hardy and 
productive; fruit 
large, dull red and 
pretty good. The cod¬ 
dling moth makes it 
a favorite place of 
deposit for its eggs, 
and the fruit is badly 
riddled by worms, 
otherwise it might 
be hard to choose be¬ 
tween it and McMa¬ 
hon, their season be¬ 
ing about the same. 
Utter, Haas, Wal¬ 
bridge, Bailey Sweet 
and Salome fail for 
lack of hardiness, 
and are worthless 
here. Fameuse Sucr6e is hardier than Fameuse, 
and does pretty well top-worked on iron-clads, 
buc it spots badly. In quality it is the best of all 
apples of its season— September, October. I have 
a large assortment of the latest Budd-Gibb im¬ 
portation (1884) of Russian and North German 
apples, pears, plums and cherries, but cannot 
report much of interest in regard to them yet, 
except that most of them are nearly or quite 
iron-clad, and that the few which have this 
season shown fruit indicate that the quality of 
it will average well with our older sorts. It 
is a bad mistake to suppose that the East 
European fruits are generally poor. They ex¬ 
cel the average of our old sorts in beauty, and 
are little if any inferior in quality, while they 
succeed much farther north. 
If people are to reject the seeds of grapes, 
it is important that only those varieties be 
cultivated that have a sweet pulp or sweet 
flesh throughout. This can be said of few 
of the present popular varieties in cultiva¬ 
tion. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
A JERSEYMAN’S JOURNEY (CONTINUED). 
Perhaps I did not get a good idea of the 
stock kept in the Chemung Valley. A car- 
window view is always imperfect, anyway. 
From what I saw, however, I judge that 
farmers there have ideas regarding the utility 
