858 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 3 
A large cow will receive when in full milk flow, six to 
eight pounds oats and two to three pounds oil meal daily 
in Winter, about one-half that in Summer. The hay 
consists of clover, vetches and oats. Alfalfa has been 
and is being tried, but is not yet a success. 
KALE AND RAPE.—These two plants, which are not 
in general use as cow feed, are coming into great favor 
at Cloveridge. Objection is commonly made that they 
will taint the milk, but if properly fed there is not the 
slightest danger. A cow that is regularly well fed 
a balanced ration can consume soon after milking 
a moderate quantity of such feed as turnips, cabbage, 
kale, or rape, without tainting her milk in the slightest 
degree. Kale seed is sown in April the same as cab¬ 
bage seed, then transplanted in late June or July, 
setting about 2J4 by three feet. In this climate it 
will grow all Summer and Fall, stand hard freezing 
in Winter, and take on fresh growth in the Spring, 
yielding 15 or 20 tons per acre of a feed that is very 
highly relished by all kinds of stock. A small field 
of kale is shown in Fig. 308. Rape is sown, two or 
three pounds per acre, with the Spring grain when 
grass seed is not used, and when the grain is cut the 
rape comes on and makes very fine pasture, though 
care must be used not to allow stock turned on it very 
long at first, for there is danger of bloat. 
MILK RECORDS—A pair of scales is hung at a 
convenient place in the stable, and each cow’s milk 
weighed and recorded at every milking. I his may 
seem to those who have not tried it a great deal of 
work, but when once accustomed to it, it takes but 
very little time, and it is indeed time well spent. In 
no other way can one know what the individual cow 
is doing, and not only that, you can see at a glance 
when a cow is short in her milk, and ascertain at once 
whether it is the cow’s fault, the milker’s, or the feed¬ 
er’s. It is the greatest possible help to good clean 
milking. Milking hours are 5:30 A. M.-in Summer, and 
6 A. M. in Winter; 5:30 P. M. in Summer, and 5 P. M. 
in Winter. By making the change in time from Sum¬ 
mer to Winter very gradually I find no difficulty or 
ill effect whatever, but great care is taken to adhere 
as closely as possible to the schedule. The rule is, 
"Cows must be milked on time, other work can wait." 
Figures for this year are not yet complete, so I will 
give last year’s. The herd then consisted of 28 cows, 
average for the year, and the milk yield was 173,600 
pounds, or an average of 6,200 pounds per cow. Aver¬ 
age test was 4.2 per cent, or 260 pounds of butter fat 
per cow. I must admit, too, that another reason for 
giving last year’s figures is that owing to an exces¬ 
sively dry season, almost no rain from May 1 to Octo¬ 
ber 1, feed has been short and the milk yield disap¬ 
pointingly light. At the present time the milk is being 
sold to a condenser, but the plan is soon to resume the 
original practice of separating and shipping sweet cream, 
the skim-milk being indispensable to successful raising 
of calves and pigs. The profits of dairying are only 
moderate, but the income is steady and the land is 
growing richer instead of poorer. w. K. Newell. 
Oregon. . 
A STOCK BUSINESS IN LOUISIANA. 
Two of us are thinking of going into the business of feed¬ 
ing stock, each putting in same amount of money. We 
can buy or rent land and feed native or grade cattle. In 
such an enterprise what should the one who manages the 
business receive for his share or wages? 
He should receive 50 per cent of the net returns and 
a stated salary agreed on beforehand. If he is experi¬ 
enced in general farming and stock raising he does 
not need to ask your advice; if not, he would better 
leave it alone unless he has money to experiment with. 
If he is willing to pull off his coat and go at the work 
right he can start in a small way and without much 
risk. I would be opposed to starting in on rented 
land for several reasons, among them being these: It 
does not pay to improve another’s land unless one has 
a long lease, and improvements are not generally found 
suitable for stock raising on rented farms. This State 
has such a long list of feed and different kinds of land 
I cannot tell you what his chances are for feeding with 
profit without knowing his proposed location and trans¬ 
portation facilities. Here we have a fine feed for hogs 
in the by-products of rice; also a fine feed for cattle in 
the cotton-seed oil mill products. Along the marshes 
there are fine cane brakes, in which cattle keep fat, but 
the meat is inferior. In some parts of the State hogs 
do well on acorns. There are a number of other feeds, 
cheap and good. Alfalfa, sweet potatoes, artichokes, 
pumpkins, sorghum, peas, and the general feed, corn, 
raised here. In Opelousas cattle have been fed on cot¬ 
ton-seed meal and hulls with profit by experienced 
feeders. Others have tried it and lost money under 
much the same conditions. We have a very fine feed in 
a native grass, called Crab or Crop grass, which gives 
two crops a year, and is as good for work horses as 
Timothy, in my opinion. It is very fine for cattle also, 
and as it comes without sowing it is one of the best 
feeds to be had cheap. Rice polish is better to fatten 
hogs on than corn, and generally much cheaper. Na¬ 
tive cattle, well taken care of, raise some fine offspring 
from pure Short-horns, and such cattle generally sell 
well. There is a small demand for purebred stock, 
and I would prefer to take chances on improving the 
native stock in cattle or hogs. It seems to me your 
CLOVER AND PEACH ROOTS TOGETHER. Fus. 399 
reader could get more advice worth heeding from some 
practical farmer near his location; one who knows the 
amount of capital he has, amount of rent he will have 
to pay, and the kind of land he is to get. I do not 
think he can do anything in this part ot the State, as 
rent would be too high as long as cotton is around 
the 10-cent mark. The above is the result of my ex¬ 
perience and information gathered from reliable parties 
in 12 years of time at this place. T feed rice bran 
for milk in connection with pasture m Summer and 
Crab grass hay in Winter. I have fed the hay to 
horses working on the road and consider it equal to 
Timothy. T have seen the rice polish fed to hogs by an 
old Kansas feeder, and he got better results than with 
corn, and at less cost. I have gone with the buyers 
for cattle and seen them pay more for a half or three- 
quarter Durham 8 to 12 months old than they would pay 
for a two-year-old native. j. R.- d. 
Duson, La. _ 
A SIDE LIGHT ON COVER CROPS. 
Cover crops in an orchard serve three purposes. 
They protect the soil, enrich it, and hasten the seasonal 
PEACH TREE GROWN IN CLOVER. Fig. 400. 
maturity of the trees. We are usually advised to 
grow a crop which serves the three uses, but there may 
be objections to the triple purpose cover crop, as we, 
hope to show. In an experiment to determine the re¬ 
lationships, good or bad, between various herbaceous 
plants and the peach, we grew a number of young trees 
in 16-inch pots in intimate contact with the other 
plants. The experiment for this season is just con¬ 
cluded, and one of the most apparent relations between 
the peach and the plants grown with it is that some 
of the herbaceous species check the growth of the 
trees, causing them to ripen their wood, and some do 
not; but, to the contrary, extend the growing season 
of the young trees. Thus, long before there was suffi¬ 
cient frost to injure peach foliage, the seedling peaches 
grown in pots with oats, rye, Blue grass, mustard, po¬ 
tatoes, or any one of the several other species, had 
dropped their leaves, and the trees were ready for Win¬ 
ter. Not so with the young trees grown in pots with 
Crimson clover, peas and beans. Until a severe frost 
on the night of November 1, the leaves remained on 
these trees green and luxuriant. So far as ripening 
of wood is concerned, they are totally unprepared for 
the Winter. Fig. 400 shows the condition of the trees 
in clover at this time. 
An examination of the root growth in the various 
pots was interesting. The root systems of the trees 
and the plants in the first-named group were not at all 
intimate. The roots of the two plants scarcely came 
in contact with each other, but the roots of the clover 
and the peach were so intermingled that they were 
matted together, and could not be easily separated. 
Fig. 399 shows this intimacy of peach and clover roots 
after all the soil had been removed. 1 do not know 
that it is certain that other plants can make use of the 
nitrogen prepared for the roots of living legumes, but 
the behavior of the peach and the clover in the pots 
in this experiment indicate that such is the case. 1 here 
are other indications that point to the same conclu¬ 
sion. Thus we know that wheat or Timothy growing 
with clover makes a larger growth than when growing 
alone, seeming to absorb some of the nitrates prepared 
by the tiny organisms which convert the nitrogen of 
the air into plant food for the legumes. The practical 
side of all this is that legumes are not good cover 
crops when the object is to cause trees to ripen their 
wood. I believe that peach trees would suffer more 
in a cold Winter with a legume as a cover crop than 
without a catch crop of any kind. The experience of 
peach growers confirms this opinion. I'or a cover crop 
to hasten the maturity of the tree, instead of a legume, 
one of the cereals, as oats or rye, would certainly an¬ 
swer the purpose much better. u. p. hedrick. 
Michigan Ag’l College. 
SAVING LABOR IN THE ORCHARD. 
I have about 60 acres in young orchards, and they 
are working me too hard. What do you think of my 
plan of making poultry lots or yards of them, fence 
them up into lots of about three acres each? Put 150 
hens in each lot; keep them seeded down to clover and 
mulch around the trees and let the hens do the rest; 
feed the hens well and make two profits out of this 
land with a minimum amount of labor. Would it be 
necessary to plow up the land or could the clover be 
kept reseeded by running the Cutaway harrow over the 
land? Or if you do not approve of this plan, how 
would it do to seed the 60 acres of orchards to Alfalfa, 
provided it can be done, as that is a new plant in this 
section? Taking it for granted that it can be done, 
how would Alfalfa do in an orchard? Some writers 
say it will not do. If it would be all right could it be 
pastured with pigs and hogs with profit and keep the 
orchards fertilized and in good growing and thrifty 
condition? The hogs could be turned from lots and 
turned on others and give it a chance to grow up after 
being eaten off. We have a good market 27 miles to 
Baltimore that would take all the poultry, eggs and 
pork a man could raise at a good price, also the fruit. 
I think these problems would greatly interest others 
who are trying like myself to solve this labor and help 
question by adopting improved methods in our prac¬ 
tice that will reduce the labor to the minimum. 
Maryland. a. h. h. 
R. N.-Y.—We submit these questions to readers for 
discussion. Do not think that poultry running at large in 
an orchard will require no care. It seems easy to say 
that they can run about and pick up their food, but 
if they are to pay they must be watched and cared 
for, and the work of keeping up the flocks, hatching 
and brooding, means hard work at a season when the 
orchards need attention. In our own experience, hogs 
come • nearer taking care of themselves under such 
conditions than any stock we have tried. If you can 
have running water in the orchards and keep the hogs 
well supplied with wood ashes and salt, one man can 
care for a large herd without interfering with other 
work. You must plan to give them some grain, but 
this can be broadcast without great labor. As to Alfalfa 
in orchards, the objections are that the plant is so 
greedy for water and food that the trees may suffer. 
When the Alfalfa is pastured or cut and not permitted 
to bloom we do not believe it will hurt the trees. We 
are seeding it in our own orchards, expecting to pas¬ 
ture or cut for mulch. We know of one 14-year-old 
orchard in Alfalfa which is a great success. 
