4 
VOL. XLVH. NO, 2004. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 23, 1888, 
faco® K’cva os NTs 
$2.00 PER YEAR. i i 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
THE WHITE PINE. 
EFFECTS OF CUTTING BACK. 
Fig. 211 shows the effect of repeated disbud¬ 
ding or cutting back upon the White Pine. 
The tree i3 about 13 years old and it is about 
13 feet high. It is drawn by Mr. Berghaus 
from a photograph taken about a month since. 
The tree was about five years old when bought 
from a nursery, aud the cutting-back process 
was begun the fourth or fifth year after¬ 
wards, before which time little is gained by 
this operation, the object of which is to cause 
a denser growth than that natural to 
the tree. 
By cutting back a branch to the 
joint or node beneath the tips, many 
buds will be stimulated to push 
which would otherwise have remain¬ 
ed dormant, and the result will be 
that from two to a dozen will grow 
in the place of one. In this way the 
White Pine, iu a few years, may be 
made to take a form as compact as 
that of the common Hemlock. Ev¬ 
ery year for the past^five yearsjthe 
specimen under consideration has 
been increasing iu graceful, compact 
featheriness, so that people.quite,fa- 
miliar with the ordinary form of this 
tree, sometimes ask what it is. We 
now regard it as second injbeauty— 
a beauty quite its own*too—to no 
other evergreen in the RuralGrounds. 
It is perhaps botter.to^disbud'iu the 
fall or early spring, the only objec¬ 
tion being that cutting back is ac¬ 
complished in one-tenth the time. 
The grand White Pine is not half 
appreciated as an ornamental tree. 
The Norway Spruce and Balsam Fir 
are so much handsomer in the nur¬ 
sery that inexperienced people are 
induced to buy them in preference. 
But let us plant within 50 feet of each 
other a White Pine and either of the 
others mentioned, treating the White 
Pine as we have suggested, and in 15 
years thereafter the White Pine will 
be by far the best, view it as you 
may, of the three. The compactness 
which it is capable of assuming is 
best shown when it forms a hedge and 
is annually cut back so as to confine 
it to any desired limit. 
POINTS IN CALF RAISING. 
The business duiry cow is a grade. She 
costs less to produce than the thoroughbred, 
aud she is almost as good at turning feed into 
milk or butter as is her aristocratic sister who 
traces on both sides back to a blue-blooded an¬ 
cestry. The grade cow has often the stronger 
constitution. All good dairymen know that 
inherited qualities are reasonably sure to be 
transmitted. If thoroughbred cows were as 
cheap as natives, every dairy in the country 
would doubtless be filled with them. They 
are not, and the business dairyman is obliged, 
as a measure of economy, to resort to a thorough 
bred bull for use upon his cows. The produc¬ 
tion of the dairy cow requires study and 
science. There are men who have added from 
30 to 40 per cent, to the milk product of their 
herds by judicious breeding and selecting, 
that is, they have reared calves so superior 
to their mothers that a given num¬ 
ber of them will produce 30 per cent, more 
milk or butter than an equal number of the 
old ones. With a view to interesting other 
dairymen in this work of improvement,we sent 
the following questions to a number of dairy¬ 
men who have become Doted in their various 
communities for the improvements they have 
made in their herds. The object has been to as¬ 
certain the effect of a thoroughbred sire 
on graded calves and the methods of selection 
and handling employed by those who pro¬ 
duce superior dairy animals: 
1. What breed of bull do you use? 
2. What proportion of the calves are marked 
after him as to color and shape? 
3. Would you, under any circumstances, 
raise a heifer calf from a good bull out of one 
of your poorest cows, even if she was large 
and well-shaped? 
4. In selecting heifer calves are you guided 
by size and external markings or by the record 
of the sire and dam? 
5. What treatment do you give your calves 
during the first six months of life. How are 
they started ? 
It is thought that these questions pretty well 
cover the secret of successful starting in the 
selection of a dairy herd. The following 
notes are from successful, dairymen. Let us 
hope that they will help others to be successful. 
FROM C. R. SHONS. 
1. For the last 10 years we have used Holstein 
bulls, our first one being 15 10 pure-bred, and 
with the exception of the calves from one 
mouse-colored cow, wo never got a calf that 
was not black or black-and-white. He was 
kept four years. 
2. In the last six yeais we have had 
several thoroughbred bulls, and have had, 
altogether, six red calves out of about 40 
calves dropped each year. As to shape, with 
the exception of the get of one thoroughbred, 
they have invariably taken after the mother, 
though almost always growing up better 
milkers. 
3. No. 
4. Invariably because of their mother’s rec- 
cord. I have raised two very handsome 
calves simply because they were large aud 
handsomely marked; one I have killed for beef 
and the other will die next winter. 
5. The calf is never allowed to suck the cow 
more than once, it is then taken away and 
fed its mother’s milk until that becomes good. 
Then it is fed entirely on skim-milk. 
I prefer to have calves come in the fall or 
early winter, so that they may be cared for 
when there is not much to do, and they always 
bear the change from milk to dry feed and 
hay better than the change from milk to 
grass iu the spring and summer. 
Orange Co. N. Y. 
FROM J. E. WELLS. 
1. Dutch Belted (thoroughbred.) 
2. Nine-tenths as to color, aud probably 
one-third to two-thirds as to shape. 
3. No. 
4. In selecting heifer calves we are very 
particular to have a “Belted” calf, but we 
don’t think it pays to raise calves from a poor 
cow. 
5. We generally start them off with pure 
milk aud continue till they will eat some feed, 
and then gradually decrease the milk as we 
can increase the grain feed (oil meal, wheat 
middlings) for about six weeks, when we stop 
milk and continue the feed. We cau raise a 
good calf at any time, but we think late fall 
calves do better than spring calves. 
Chester, N. Y. 
FROM N. S. HOWELL. 
1. 1 have had in succession four grade Hol¬ 
stein bulls—the first a half-blood; the next two 
three-fourths Holstein, and the present one is 
thirty-one-thirty-seconds, and just old enough 
for service. 
2. The greater portion of calves—at least 75 
per cent, or more—resemble the sire iu color 
and size, but not quite so many are like him 
in shape. 
3. I have not known a good cow to be 
raised from a poor mother. 
4. I began by raising the large, finely- 
marked calves; but now I would not take as 
a gift (to raise) one from an indifferent cow, 
no matter how good the sire. I want the best 
thoroughbred bull I can get; then I would 
raise the calves from the best cows even 
though such calves may not be all 1 would wish 
as to size, shapo aud color. When 
a cow proves poor I cease to breed 
her. 
5. I take the calf from the mother 
after she has licked it dry, and either 
tie it up or put it in a pen alone. I feed 
her on milk (till it is fit for other use) 
three times a day, from two to three 
quarts at a mess. After that I feed 
skim milk and increase the mess lit¬ 
tle by little, being careful not to 
over-feed. When four to six weeks 
old, two feeds a day will do, giving 
the same amount in all as before, the 
calf having what good hay it will eat. 
At this age, if short of milk, give thin¬ 
ned starch made by mixing a hand¬ 
ful or two of the best wheat-mid¬ 
dlings or flour with one-half pint of 
warm water; then stir in boiling wa¬ 
ter to make the proper mess. Cool 
somewhat, salt a little and feed. 
Washingtouville, N. Y. 
FROM M. H. C. GARDENER. 
My dairy herd is composed of na¬ 
tives, grade Jerseys,Belted Dutch aud 
Holsteins. For the past four years I 
have used a Holstein sire; my present 
bull is 31-32 pure—sired by a thor¬ 
oughbred bull—great milking famil 
ies on both sides. All the calves are 
black or black with a small propor¬ 
tion of white. I have not had a red 
calf since the Holsteins were intro¬ 
duced into the dairy, and as to shape 
and characteristics, those of the sire 
largely preponderate. I consider it 
futile to attempt to raise a good cow 
from a very poor milker. I have 
tried it with some just because they 
were pretty likely calves, but 1 have 
always failed. In raising a calf I want a good 
mother—a heavy milker. I would not reject 
such a calf if it should be smaller at birth 
than the average; for it may with proper 
treatment outgrow the others. Yet I am 
pleased to have a favorite cow drop a good- 
sized, finely developed calf, with nice teats; 
for it is natural to think that such a calf’s 
prospects are better than those of a scrawny 
one. 
As to feeding calves, and rearing them, I 
have not the advantages that butter-makers 
have. All the milk in this country goes to 
the New York market, so we have no skim- 
milk to feed. After the calf gets straightened 
up, and is lively—say in one to three days—I 
take it away from its mother and then it fasts 
for one meal. When I feed it, it goes to drink¬ 
ing naturally with but little trouble. I give it 
all it will drink for a week or two; then I take 
a small quantity of linseed meal—about a 
tablespoonful—and pour scalding water on it, 
making a slippery mucilage, and add it to 
the milk, gradually increasing the meal, aud 
decreasing the milk, so that by the time it is 
A WHITE PINE SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF REPEATED DISBUDDING. From Nature. 
Fig. 211. 
