9o6 
December 24, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
morning, good silage with some corn in it twice a day, 
with a few bean pods at noon. The grain feed, besides 
corn in silage, would consist of buckwheat middlings', 
wheat bran and ground oats. There is not a question 
that nicely-cured second-growth clover is better than 
the first cutting for cows giving milk. The reasons, 
therefore, are not so easy to give, but I believe one 
reason is that it is cured without so much drying. We 
know that it is heavier to handle. In the Fall of 1903 
there was no frost to hurt grass, and when the ground 
froze it was as green as ever. We had a piece of mixed 
grass (clover and Timothy) that had made a moderate 
growth, and was nice and green. This was cut after 
the ground was frozen and raked together with some 
snow in it. The snow melted and the bunches froze, so 
that when broken up it was in icy flakes. We, threw 
enough for a feed of the frozen grass in the basement 
24 hours before time of feeding, and the heat from the 
stable would loosen the ice so that the cows could 
shake it out of the grass. This was an experiment, and 
I expected that the flow of milk would drop off, but 
was happily disappointed. We never had cows start in 
Winter with as good a flow of milk before. Dairymen 
are all aiming to secure “June conditions” for January. 
We have the warm stable, covered barnyard with warm 
water for the cows to drink, and why not put grass in 
cold storage for Winter use and make a complete thing 
of it? The steam pipe would quickly thaw it out when 
wanted for feed. Wet the grass when securing instead 
of drying. The more water you get into a cow the more 
milk you can get out of her. Small drinkers are small 
milkers. Alfalfa will prove a boon to milkmen, pro¬ 
vided they can get it to stay with them. On our place 
we have had about five acres of Alfalfa for four or five 
years, and for two years with five acres of Alfalfa and 
6)4 acres of clover and Timothy have fed 14 head of 
cattle and five horses. The horses were fed hay the 
year through and the cattle once a day all Winter, and 
twice a day for a couple of months in Summer. We 
cut about 45 to 48 tons of hay from the 11)4 acres of 
ground. Alfalfa is all right, and we have reseeded the 
ground where Alfalfa was killed by frost last Winter. 
Trumansburg, N. Y. a. p. 
THE FAMOUS CALIFORNIA APPLES. 
I have read your account of how the apple crop is har¬ 
vested in Ohio, western New York and in Nova Scotia. 
Doubtless you are aware that there is a large district near 
Watsonville, in Santa Cruz Co., Cal., where apple raising 
is carried on successfuly. Would you tell us how apple 
trees are treated in that locality and how the crop is har¬ 
vested, also how they can make the crop sell the land for 
a thousand dollars an acre, while in the East it is not salable 
at one hundred? l. c. s. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
I intended to look over the Pajaro Valley again this 
Fall, but learned that the apple crop was light and poor 
in quality, so did not go down there. The majority 
of the apple growers in that section have yet to learn 
that there will always be comparative failures of New¬ 
town Pippins (their main crop) every two years unless 
they are severely thinned when they set too full. Be¬ 
sides this being an off year the crop of apples was 
severely injured by heat from forest fires on the moun¬ 
tains north of the valley. Many apples were cooked on 
the trees. The query of your correspondent as to treat¬ 
ment of apple trees whereby large returns are made 
from them is not hard to answer. To begin with, the 
soil is rich, the atmosphere moist and cool, and fully 
three-fourths of all the trees planted are Newtown 
Pippins, a variety that does exceedingly well in Cali¬ 
fornia, and brings top prices in New York and London. 
Practically all of the perfect apples are shipped to those 
cities. The apples bring to the grower approximately 
75 cents per box for Bellflowers and $1 per box for 
Newtown Pippins, being usually sold to some shipper 
who furnishes boxes and packs the apples, returning the 
■culls to the grower, who disposes of them as best he 
may to driers or in the coast markets. I have no doubt 
that $1,000 per acre has been obtained for apple or¬ 
chards in Watsonville district, as is also the case in this 
valley for first-class paying orchards of prunes, peaches, 
apricots, cherries, etc., but you must bear in mind that 
such places are exceptional, for with all the advantages 
that we have here for successful fruit growing it is the 
man more than the location who is responsible for large 
returns from the orchard. I may add here that the 
picking of these apples which are intended for distant 
markets is very carefully done. Eggs for hatching are 
handled no more carefully, and the sharp eyes of the 
packer are very sure to discover any bruise, wormhole, 
abrasion of the skin, lost stem, or any other blemish 
that may cause the fruit to decay or detract from its 
appearance in market. 
During the last two years the Codling moth has in¬ 
creased rapidly in the apple orchards near Watson¬ 
ville, and quite extensive experiments are afoot looking 
towards the checking of the pest. Spraying affords 
temporary relief, but we now have hope that the para¬ 
sites recently obtained from Spain will prove as useful 
in exterminating the Codling moth as has the ladybug 
the San Jose scale. While on the subject of apples I 
will report results from my experimental orchard. A 
Winterstein from Burbank bore its first apples. The' 
tree has not grown well the past year, and the apples 
were small, but of excellent flavor, ripening three weeks 
later than Gravenstein. I expect better results next sea¬ 
son from a top-grafted tree which has grown better 
than the original. Stayman Winesap bore a few fine 
apples of large size, good flavor and ripe now. It 
makes a strong bid for a place in top row. Black Ben 
Davis and Extra Ben Davis bore a few medium-sized 
apples of fine color and very poor flavor. If there is no 
improvement next season they will lose their heads and 
something else be grafted on their shoulders. A good 
a .'■&: <>2ft . V 
A PATIENT FARM PARTNER. Fig. 424. 
many new varieties will give us some apples next sea¬ 
son. .Newtowns and Pearmains gave us a fine crop. The 
Pearmains are in demand for Thanksgiving. Some 
Oregon apples have appeared in the San Jose markets, 
mostly Ben Davis and Ga^io. Being highly colored, they 
make the fruit stores attractive, but customers who 
know pass them by, and ask for Newtowns, Pearmains, 
Smith Cider, Hoover and other home-grown'apples. 
Santa Clara Co., Cal. h. g. keesling. 
A HUNT FOR A STOLEN HORSE. 
Hard for a Thief to Dodge Papers and Phones. 
... •' ■' • 
Sunday night, November 6, I had a slight attack of 
pleurisy, pain, in chesf, fever, etc., but the remedies ad¬ 
ministered broke up the. fever, and I awoke in the morn¬ 
ing in a heavy perspiration, to be informed, by my hired 
man that my horse,, buggy, harness, robes and all had 
been stolen in the night. Anxious as I was to be out 
and doing, I had sense enough to see that to go out¬ 
doors in my condition would probably mean pneumonia, 
so I sent my granddaughter over to Neighbor Whit- 
ford’s with the request that he drive to the station— 
FIRST CALL FOR DINNER ! Fig. 425. 
2)4 miles—and telephone to all the surrounding towns 
a description of the stolen property, and I wrote to the 
newspapers all around as far off as Springfield, Mass., 
New Haven, Hartford, Putnam and nearer towns, real¬ 
izing that the widest publicity was my best chance of 
getting our dear old “Ben” back again. When we 
came out of New York 10 years ago we had bought 
“Ben”—then a thfee-year-old colt—-and he had grown 
up with us and developed an intelligence almost hu¬ 
man, and became the pride and pet of all the family. 
To lose him meant much more than merely to lose a 
horse. My granddaughter did not return until noon; 
then we found that she and Mr. Whitford had driven to 
Stafford, six miles, tracking the horse thus far. The 
thief had galloped him most of the way. They had lost 
the track there, but had got a lot of postal cards printed 
and mailed, and had telephoned all around, finally get¬ 
ting word from Morison, Mass., that a young couple had 
driven to the hotel there at five in the morning, horse in 
a reeking sweat, had stopped two hours to rest him, and 
then driven off. Whitford sent Alice home with Ins 
horse and went to Monson by train, only to learn that 
it was Sunday morning when the horse was at the 
hotel, which made it certain that it wasn't mine. Tues¬ 
day was Election Day; no word about Ben. Wednes¬ 
day I went to Stafford, and set some men to work on 
clues, for by this time I had made up my mind that 
the thief was an 18-year-okl boy who had been put 
in the Reform School for stealing, had broken out and 
got away two years ago. He had gone into my cow 
barn and taken a lot of oats and cracked corn to feed 
Ben, so as not to be obliged to stop at livery stables, and 
had taken the stable blanket so lie could put up at iso¬ 
lated farmhouses where news of the theft would not be 
likely to be received. By this time I began to be doubtful 
if 1 should ever see old Ben again, but Thursday morn¬ 
ing early a neighbor in East Willington who has a 
’phone in his house, drove up to my door and said: 
“ 1 he Chief of Police in Westfield, Mass., says they 
have your horse 12 miles from there, on Bland ford 
Mountain. ' 1 went to Westfield by train, arriving at 
noon, took dinner with Chief Cash, and then we got a 
livery team and drove 12 miles—seven miles of it con¬ 
stantly up hill—and found Ben, buggy, robes and every¬ 
thing in Mr. Ripley’s stable. 
1 he newspaper did it. Mr. Ripley bought a Spring- 
field paper to see the election news, his wife read about 
the stolen horse, saw it driven past the house, told her 
husband; near nightfall the thief, returning on his 
tracks, stopped at Ripley’s to enquire the way. After 
he had gone, Ripley telephoned Chief Cash at West- 
field that the thief and stolen horse were coming down 
Blandford Road, then got a constable and drove after 
the thief, expecting to run him into the Chief’s hands. 
But old Ben was tired out, and the thief turned in at 
a farmhouse on the way, and was just going out to 
the barn with a lantern when Ripley and the constable 
drove into the yard. They found the lantern in the 
barn all right, but the thief had skipped. But weren't 
Ben and I glad to see one another? The old fellow 
put his head on my shoulder and pressed his nose up 
against the side of my face, and I confess I had to swal¬ 
low two or three times to get the lump down out of 
my throat. As Ben had rested all day, 1 hitched him 
up and followed Chief Cash into Westfield, making the 
12 miles in an hour and 40 minutes, and next day 
started for home, but did not get there until Saturday 
noon, stopping with a friend over night on the way. 
Between electricity and newspapers a horse thief docs 
not stand much chance to get away with the stolen 
property nowadays. Ben and I were received literally 
“with open arms,” and I am pretty sure he got rather 
more hugs and kisses" than I did. geo. a. cosgrove. 
BOILING LIME AND SULPHUR CHEAPLY. 
In all the discussion in The R. N.-Y. of the salt, sul¬ 
phur and lime wash, I have never seen anything given as 
to how a small fruit grower, with but few trees, could 
best prepare the mixture, not having steam heat to boil 
it. 1 have used the 50-pounds lime, 50-pounds sulphur 
and 15-pounds salt to 150 gallons water formula for two 
seasons with excellent result. I first tried boiling in a 
kettle, but found it slow and unsatisfactory, so made a 
boiler such as is used much hereabouts for cooking hog- 
feed, made of two pieces 2 x 12-inch five feet long for 
sides, and two pieces 2x12x2)4 feet long for ends; 
firmly nailed the ends of the sides projecting six inches 
to form a box 2)4x4 feet inside measurement. For 
bottom a piece of galvanized sheet iron 3 x 4'/ 2 feet was 
nailed, using sixpenny nails, the sheet iron projecting 
over the ends to protect the wood from fire. Two iron 
bolts three feet long were used to draw the sides to¬ 
gether to make it water-tight. The boiler was set on 
bricks high enough for firing and a brick flue built a 
few feet above the boiler. Enough of the mixture for 
three barrels of spray can be boiled at once in a boiler of 
this size. This boiler is cheap and easily constructed. 
It heats up quickly and boils the mixture thoroughly, 
and, I believe, will be found entirely satisfactory for 
the small fruit grower. 1 feel sure where the mixture 
is thoroughly boiled it will prove effective in any climate. 
Even here a great many growers who have tried it say 
it is no good, but I absolutely know it has saved my 
trees from destruction. Boil it thoroughly (at least an 
hour), apply it hot through a coarse nozzle, and put it 
on the backs of Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Scale and family, and 
they will trouble you no more. I enclose two pieces of 
bark from two trees which two years ago were encased 
in scale, by far the worst in the whole orchard. The 
insects still adhering have Pe£n “good” scales for over 
a year and are only a few of those which at one time 
covered the stems of these trees. 1 have oftenest been 
helped by the very elementary things published in The 
R. N.-Y. and thought a description of this boiler mi-ht 
help some of your readers if you saw fit to publish it. 
Cleone, Oregon. e. e. 
R. N.-Y.—It is just such practical experiences as this 
that makes The R. N.-Y. useful to readers. The scales 
on the bark were as dead as door nails; in fact, as 
rusty as the common steel nail! 
