754 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 20 
ings. It didn’t seem to be any outcome of an under¬ 
valuation of women as women, but largely because 
of the economic condition. Large bodies of men, it 
is true, are called into the military service, but the 
real cause seemed to lie more in the stringent condi¬ 
tion of things—the inability of the men to support so 
many members of a family as they do here at home. 
The German doesn’t, from the outset, expect to sup¬ 
port the whole family, to be its only breadwinner.” 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
THE APPLE ORCHARDS OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 
FRUIT WORTH FIGHTING FOR 
Varieties, Culture and Market Methods. 
Part II. 
Prof. F. A. Waugh, of the Vermont Experiment 
Station, estimates that, in 1896, there were, in Grand 
Isle, 34,885 bearing apple trees, and 17,229 trees too 
youDg to bear. The 1896 crop was estimated at 40.424 
barrels. So far as actual results are concerned, 
therefore, the apple-growing business has not been 
developed as it should be. There are so many natural 
advantages for orcharding, and the fruit is so 
fine in color and flavor, that it seems a mistake 
for the farmers not to push the business hard. 
Nature has given them a special product. The 
keen, bracing climate of the North packs an ex¬ 
quisite flavor under the apple’s skin, and then 
paints a healthy color upon its cheek. Let an 
apple grower of the Southwest once fill his mouth 
with a well-ripened Fameuse from Lake Cham¬ 
plain, and his first thought would be to go forth 
with an ax, and cut down his Ben Davis trees. 
God packed the world’s supply of gold away in 
rough and inaccessible places. It seems to be a 
principle of plant growth that the farther north 
a variety of apple can be grown, the finer will it 
be in quality. 
Most of the Grand Isle growers prefer budded 
nursery stock, two or three years old. Prof. 
Waugh says: “For exposed situations, native 
stock top-grafted is thought to make more 
hardy trees. One apple grower plants all Tal- 
man’s Sweets and subsequently grafts the tops 
with any other varieties desired. This is much 
better practice than the use of ‘natural’ seed¬ 
lings, first, because it gives a highly desirable 
uniformity of growth in the resulting orchard; 
and, second, because the tree of Talman’s Sweet 
is one of the very best for top-working, making 
a clean body with strong crotches. In some 
cases, however, it is desirable to change the tops 
of certain trees, and the trees bearing natural 
fruit should be top-grafted to standard varieties. 
Here, as elsewhere, the best growers realize that 
trees of the same variety may differ in produc¬ 
tiveness and beauty of fruit. Of course such 
differences are reproduced through the scions. 
Grafts should always be taken from the best trees 
—those with known capacity for producing fine 
fruit and lots of it.” Trees are set 40 feet apart, 
which takes 27 trees to the acre. 
Along the shores of the lake, it is necessary to 
plant windbreaks to head off the bitter winter 
winds, and it is said that all orchards need wind¬ 
breaks at picking time, or nearly half the fruit 
may be blown off before the pickers get at it. A 
thick row of arbor-vilae gives sure protection, 
but is not so satisfactory in other ways. In some 
cases, belts of tall-growing western dent corn 
are planted around and through the orchards, 
and in others, Northern Spy trees are planted 
on the exposed sides. This variety, among other 
good qualities, makes large trees, and its fruit 
holds on well. It is not much damaged by the 
wind, and serves to protect the rest of the orchard. 
The soil on these islands is naturally strong—close 
to the rock—but much of it has been in cultivation 
for over a century, and it must be fed to produce 
good crops of fruit. All orchards are under cultiva¬ 
tion. Corn, beans, and similar crops with summer 
cultivation, are planted in young orchards. Bearing 
orchards are plowed and harrowed, and in most cases, 
some “cover crop” is grown to shade the ground and 
keep down weeds. The practice of sowing a crop 
like Crimson clover, buckwheat and peas or rye to 
cover the ground during the winter, did not seem to 
be general, and this, it seems to me, is a mistake, 
is true that the deep snow gives ample protection 
but I would like to have some living blanket down 
under it. 
A good deal of stable manure is used on these 
orchards, either every year or once in two years. 
Dairying is quite a business, and a number of sheep 
are kept. As is usual in such localities, I found a 
small minority of “ fertilizer cranks,” who use kainit 
or muriate with bone or dissolved rock with good 
success. In such a locality, a “chemicals and clover” 
man is about as lonesome as a Prohibitionist in poli¬ 
tics. He generally has the best of the argument, but 
cannot overcome common usage and habit. Most 
growers seemed ready to admit that it is profitable to 
use potash and phosphoric acid with the stable manure. 
It seems to me a mistake to try to keep any ordinary 
cow on two acres of ground that can be made to 
produce such apples as were exhibited on the Island. 
There are millions of cows to compete at butter¬ 
making, but there are mighty few acres of land that 
can match those apples. 
These apple growers watch and spray with great 
care. They are thorough about it, too. The Bordeaux 
Mixture or the Bordeaux with Paris-green added, 
attends to the scab and the Codling worm. The 
Fameuse is quite liable to scab if left to itself, but 
when well sprayed, can be kept smooth and fair. The 
apples are carefully picked and sorted, and a part of 
the crop is sold at once from the orchard. Mr. Kinney 
holds his fruit in a ventilated storage house until the 
lake freezes over, and then it is hauled across the ice 
to Burlington for shipment. He said that he knew of 
only one ease where apples were badly frozen on this 
trip, and that if the thawing were done slowly , the 
THE AUSTRALIAN SALT-BUSH. Fig. 316 . See Ruralisms 
It 
apples would hardly show any injury resulting from it. 
There is no doubt about the possibilities of apple 
growing on Grand Isle. If some form of cooperation 
which would guarantee uniformity of varieties and 
methods of sorting and packing could be devised, the 
islands could be made headquarters for fine fruit. 
Buyers would swarm in to secure these wonderful 
apples. The people are kindly and hospitable. It 
ought to be an ideal place in which to spend an old- 
fashioned New England Thanksgiving. The people 
on South Hero Island form a little community or 
world of their own. It is a perfect agricultural com¬ 
munity in one sense, in the fact that there are really 
no towns on the Island. A few buildings are scattered 
around the church or store, but, for the most part, 
each house stands alone—on its own farm. You will 
find doughnuts “like mother used to make” on the 
breakfast table, and solid cold bean soup cut up into 
slices like meat. They are having a free delivery of 
the mail at Grand Isle, and in front of every farm¬ 
house, we saw the little mail box all ready for service. 
This mail delivery is proving very satisfactory. It is 
a great comfort and convenience. I am told that, 
where such things are started, other plans for coopera¬ 
tion usually follow, so that free rural mail is only one 
step along a good road. Bicycles have found their 
way to the Island by the dozen, and one farmer told 
me that they were demoralizing the hired men. 
“ Why,” said he, “ my man rides almost all night, and 
spends the day trying to rest up for another night’s 
ride!” _ h. w. c. 
SHALL / BUY A SHREDDER? 
STRONG PROS AND SOLID CONS. 
Last year, it cost about 850 to shuck about 600 shocks 
of fodder, and it was still in the field. About a load 
of corn was caught out and snowed under ; half of 
this was hauled in by wading mud and tramping 
wheat to death, and the other half load of shucked 
corn was left a month or more, and would not have 
been seriously injured if a lot of stray pigs had not 
found it and scattered it. We were often out of feed 
and had to draw on the hay mow, while hay was 
worth 88, and we had more fodder than we needed. 
We hauled the barn full on fair days if the ground 
would bear us, and often stood up a few loads out¬ 
side. This got snowed under and wet with melting 
snow, so as to be bad to feed and badly damaged. 
We fed in big boxes under shelter, but the cattle 
ate only the best, and we soon had stalks belly 
deep everywhere. This might not have been felt 
so much by one who, by the help of a grown son, 
avoided hiring; but when one hires it cut and 
shocked, then shucked and hauled and fed, and 
then wastes over half, it is a serious question 
whether one would not better leave it in the field, 
as many do. 
Two of us began to talk shredder and husker 
a few days ago, when a curious thing showed 
itself. Nearly every farmer wanted his fodder 
shucked and shredded, but didn’t want any stock 
in a machine. A man, if asked, would smile and 
say, “ Mr. B out our way bought one three years 
ago, and is mighty sick of it; you can buy bis 
cheap.” I soon saw that each of the three ma¬ 
chines in sight of here could be bought; one man 
came to me and said, “Be sure to look at mine 
before you buy ; I’ll sell so cheap that you can’t 
buy elsewhere.” 
There are three reasons why this state of things 
should exist, odd as it is, that nearly every one 
wants a machine to husk his corn and shred or 
cut his fodder, but doesn’t want stock in it. A 
small machine, say four rolls, doesn’t keep men 
busy, and they are always waiting or doing half 
work. But the worst drawback is in the bad 
weather conditions so late in the fall, as not 
much fodder is free from sap before November. 
Then the days are short and nights frosty, and 
the shadow of a big oak tree will shade about 10 
acres till 9 o’clock. The frost or frozen rain mvst 
thaw before it can dry off, and a shower twice a 
week, which is quite common, makes it too wet 
about all the week for fodder to keep. Then the 
roads are heavy, and it is bad getting around 
with a traction engine, and pipes burst with 
freezing while waiting for fodder to dry. The 
boiler must be “blown out” after every shower. 
After frost and dew are off, it is a short day, and 
hands can’t work two or three days out of the 
week, and be docked to seven hours on those days. 
A dozen jobs are waiting, the machine is losing 
money, one shreds too soon after rain, and the 
winter’s feed is damaged. In fact, it is long 
fodder and long time, long help and long pay, 
long board bills, and the machine men have lots 
of running and fussing, and no profit. 
The first year that the shredder fever raged, 
■ each live agent at the Indiana State Fair took 
orders for 40 machines, at 8450 each, due in six 
months. That very fall was a disaster in itself, 
as corn ripened slowly, was cut full of sap, and 
frequent humid weather kept it from curing, so 
that much of it rotted in the mow after shredding. 
This, together with the great difference farmers 
found to exist between summer thrashing and win¬ 
ter shredding, gave shucking machinery a black eye, 
and all machines went back that could be sent back, 
while those who had given good notes, grumbled as 
they kept the elephant on their hands. To-day I was 
told that no man about here has made a dollar above 
expenses to pay on a corn shredder. In looking at 
shredders in Indianapolis two days, there was not 
another inquiry right in the season, and the finest 
weather on earth. This simply means that shredding 
is not a business for farmer machinists, such as use 
thrashers and hullers. The shredder is doomed to 
sell to, say two or more farmers, who will keep it as 
they do a binder, for their own use. By helping each 
other, we can use one to secure our own feed, and 
then house it. 
The second thing apparent is that shredders are too 
high-priced. No doubt the cost of introducing com¬ 
pels manufacturers to sell high. They have been im- 
