754 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 9 
secret may lie in one or more of the following points: 
Sod culture; the sod taking up the elements of fertil¬ 
ity in the Spring, prevents an eiceseive wood growth. 
This grass being cut in early Summer, decays and 
gradually gives up its fertility during late Summer 
and Fall, when it is most needed fully to develop and 
strengthen the fruit buds and carry to maturity a 
crop of apples. He does not trim; that is, cut back 
the young growth of the tree, or cut off any branches 
except those that are necessary to the good health of 
the tree. This in itself is conducive to early bear¬ 
ing. I have noticed that if the end of young growth 
is not cut off, the terminal bud is likely to make a 
rather short growth the year following, and the side 
buds to develop into fruit spurs. If the terminal bud 
is cut off, several of the side buds will send out strong, 
thrifty shoots, while the buds below fail to develop. 
It may be that the low heading of the tree has some¬ 
thing to do with the early bearing and high color of 
fruit. It is a question whether these apple trees that 
are headed low bear heavy crops before ordinary trees 
begin to fruit at all, or will ever grow as large as 
trees grown in the usual way. Mr. Hitchings tells 
us that as a rule they bear annually. It seems to 
me that his 11-year-oId Pewaukee trees were of about 
the ideal size, 12 to 15 feet high, and yielding about 
18 bushels of apples to the tree, three-quarters of 
which could be picked from the ground. 
These are some of the advantages of the method 
of culture. Early bearing, easy picking, easy spray¬ 
ing, easy to fumigate if necessary, high color, annual 
crops on young trees, a short fall for the fruit upon 
a mulch, almost all windfalls salable as picked apples. 
It requires less labor and attention than cultivating 
and sowing and plowing under of cover crops, and the 
results that he gets surpass anything that I have seen 
in the apple-growing line. Just think of one to two 
bushels of Spy, and double that quantity of Duchess 
and Wealthy on a six-year-old tree; nine-year-old 
Greenings and Baldwins, with five or six bushels of 
fruit, and trees of many more varieties at that age, all 
bearing. We could even occasionally find apples on 
trees that had been set only three years. Would it 
be advisable for apple-growers over New York State 
to adopt Mr. Hitchings’s methods, and would they 
get the results that he does? I don’t know, but be¬ 
lieve that it is quite possible, and would advise any 
fruit-growers who live among the hills to go and 
study his methods and conditions. Go when the fruit 
is on the tree, and see the results. I know that those 
sturdy, short-legged trees had a business look, and 
filled baskets with fruit, while trees grown in the 
usual way were getting size. It certainly looks as 
though one need not wait until an apple orchard is 
20 years old for a crop of fruit. v. 
4 NEW SCHEME FOR ADULTERATING MILK. 
The following Item Is going the rounds of the press: 
‘•A new milk adulterant has been discovered in use by 
the dairy inspectors in Minnesota. It Is called vIscogen, 
and is composed of sugar, lime and water. It has the 
effect of making milk appear richer than it Is, as the 
lactic acid in the milk turns the lime to a thick, white 
substance that assimilates with the milk, Improving its 
looks without injuring its taste.” We sent this to Dr. 
S. M. Babcock, the inventor of the famous milk tester, 
and he replies as follows: 
Viscogeri is prepared by dissolving caustic lime in 
a solution of cane sugar, and was first recommended 
by Dr. Russell and myself as an agent which could 
be used without detriment to health for the restora¬ 
tion of the consistency of Pasteurized cream, which 
is very much thinner than natural cream, containing 
the same amount of fat. In natural cream the fat 
globules are to a considerable extent grouped together 
in masses, containing all the way from two or three 
. to several hundred globules, while in Pasteurized 
cream the globules are uniformly distributed. The 
thinner appearance of Pasteurized cream is due to 
this fact. It was found that viscogen caused the fat 
globules to become grouped in a similar way to 
natural cream, and that-the consistency was in this 
way restored. The amount of viscogen required to 
accomplish this is very small, so that the lime intro¬ 
duced is scarcely more than the difference found in 
natural milks from different sources. Before publish¬ 
ing our bulletin, leading physicians were consulted 
regarding the sanitary effect of this addition, and 
without excepton, we were told that it did not injure 
the cream; in fact, most physicians recommend the 
addition of lime water to milk for children and in¬ 
valids, as it is supposed to promote its digestibilty. 
We also consulted legal authorities, and were told 
that viscogen could not be considered an adulteration 
if the consumers are informed of its use. Under these 
conditions only have we recommended it. The cus¬ 
tomers of the University Creamery all prefer cream 
treated in this way to natural cream. Mfherever vis¬ 
cogen has been used in the manner recommended by 
us, there seems to be no objection either from a sani¬ 
tary or legal point of view. In this respect It differs 
widely from the ordinary preservatives and adulter¬ 
ants that are added to milk. I presume, however, 
that in many cases unscrupulous parties nave used it 
to deceive their customers regarding the richness of 
cream, and wherever this has occurred the penalty 
for adulteration should be strictly enforced, although 
no injury to health is likely to result from such prac¬ 
tice. I very much regret that this substance, which 
was originally intended only to benefit the consumer, 
has been misused in this way. s. m. baboock. 
CAN WE EAT CORN CAKE AND HAVE IT? 
The question of silage as Winter food for farm stock 
is quite an important one with me, as it also is with 
thousands of farmers who have silos, and fill them 
SULPHUR SPOTTING OF NORTHERN SPY. Fig. 341. 
One-half Natural Size. See First Page. 
nearly every Pall. It is also an important question 
with thousands of farmers who have no silos, and 
are from year to year, wintering their stock in the 
old way, on dry fodder, with, perhaps, a little grain 
to cows that are in milk. This latter class of farm¬ 
ers cannot be said to be all non-progressive, because 
a great many of them are watching and noticing the 
varied success of those who have, and use silos, and 
as they become convinced of their utility and econ¬ 
omy, proceed to build, and fill them on the most ap¬ 
proved plans and practices obtainable. The practice 
of filling silos with corn in the glazed state, running 
the whole product through the cutter, ears and all, 
is getting to be pretty well understood, and the meas- 
EFFECT OF SULPHUR FUMES ON APPLE. Fig. 342. 
One-half Natural Size. See Firat Page. 
ure of success where the silo is tight, and the silage 
reasonably well tramped, is very good, and farm 
stock, including milch cows, dry cows, store cattle 
and horses, will relish and thrive on it, if a little 
straw is added to the ration. But the greater ques¬ 
tion with me is, how to cut and preserve dry corn¬ 
stalks with the ears off, so that the product will come 
out of the silo in an eatable and appetizing condition. 
If you will give this question to Prof. King, or some 
other of your practical and valued contributors (who 
, as yet have said little or nothing in their articles 
on this subject), and who will give us practical di¬ 
rections now to preserve cured cut fodder in silos, 
you and they will deserve and receive the thanks 
of thousands of farmers who are anxious to learn 
how to practice economy in the matter of wintering 
farm stock. 
I have tried it with more or less success by cutting 
quite short, say half an inch, wetting and tramping 
thoroughly. I think when I succeeded the best was 
when I used the most water, so that the material 
packed well, and was quite firm, excluding the air as 
much as possible. The mass would heat and fer¬ 
ment more* or less, and soften the hard portions of 
the stalks so that stock would eat them up quite 
clean, and seem to do well on them with a small 
grain ration. We are all, as farmers, keeping more 
or less stock, such as dry cows and store cattle, that 
will winter fairly well on fodder, with but little grain, 
but the milch cows and work horses must have grain. 
If we put the fodder and grain all into the silo to¬ 
gether, all the stock must share alike, unless you add 
more grain, raised for that purpose, from the bin, to 
the cows in milk and work horses. Now, why cannot 
we let the corn stand and ripen, pick off the ears, or 
cut and husk in the old way, silo the fodder and crib 
the corn to grind and feed when needed, and where 
it will do the most good? Some of our large fore¬ 
handed farmers may say that the labor required in 
husking, cribbing and grinding the corn is unneces¬ 
sary, and a waste, when tne fodder and grain can all 
be stored in the silo by one operation, but I must 
differ with such, for we usually find the bottom of the 
silo by the time grass is up enough to pasture in the 
Spring; tnen our corn is gone (unless we raise an 
extra piece to harvest in the old way), and we want 
corn all Summer for our poultry, pigs, horses, and, 
perhaps, some for our cows, when the pastures get 
short and dry, and the prospects are that from now 
till the corn harvest of 1902 it will take quite a bit 
of labor to buy a bushel of good, sound corn, to say 
nothing of the bushels that farmers must have to tide 
them over. e. g. o. 
Wysox, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—A few years ago there was quite a dis¬ 
cussion regarding this plan of husking corn and cut¬ 
ting the stalks into the silo late in the Fall. Several 
of our readers were very enthusiastic about it, and in 
theory it seemed like a fine plan for utilizing the corn 
crop. We did our best the following year to learn 
how the theory worked out. We were unable to find 
a single man who cared to repeat the work. If there 
are any who follow the plan year after year, we would 
like to hear from them, for their experience will be 
of great value. We think our friend is right in say¬ 
ing that on most farms a certain amount of dry corn 
is necessary. By running the dry stalks through a 
shedder, we have found it possible to save our dry 
grain and provide cheap Winter roughage for all 
the stock. 
PAINT OF LIME AND SKIM-MILK. 
Several R. N.-Y. readers wish to know more about 
the milk and lime paint mentioned on page 675. 
There is no cast-iron rule for mixing it; no mysteri¬ 
ous chemical aflinity; no drier; no failure, if every¬ 
thing Is not weighed to an ounce; and, in fact. It is 
a most accommodating mixture. It is necessary to 
keep it thin, for if it has much body, like other paint, 
it will flake off; but on rough boards, like unplaned 
hemlock, it may be much thicker than on a smooth 
surface. We do not try to put on enough so that the 
lumber will not show xhe grain when dry. Of couree 
to get a uniform result, all the paint for any one 
job should contain the same proportions of milk and 
lime. Any kind of milk, sweet or sour, or even but¬ 
termilk, will answer. Use water lime, not stone 
lime or cement. It can be bought in paper sacks, and 
needs no slaking. I use for unplaned surfaces, one- 
half pound of lime to a pound of milk, stirring thor¬ 
oughly, and then stirring in the coloring matter to 
suit. Keep tne mixture well stirred while putting on, 
and stir well from the bottom of the tub before dip¬ 
ping out a second supply. You cannot mix it so that 
the lime will not settle some. On this account, I 
would not mix more than a 50-pound butter tub full 
at a time. _ c. e. chapman. 
ROOT-PRUNED TREES IN MEXICO.—I will not 
argue further with Mr. Trott, page 690, as to how far 
north a root-pruned tree will succeed, but certainly 
as far as a piece-root graft will grow, the two being 
practically identical, but I do seriously object to the 
impression he makes that root-pruning originated in 
Mexico. Texas Farm and Ranch has quite a number 
of subscribers in that country, who, reading my ar¬ 
ticles on the subject for the last 10 years, have written 
me frequently as to its adaptability to the coffee tree. 
I have always advised them to root-prune, and ex¬ 
actly as Mr. Trott describes, and G. M. Clark, of Lu- 
gunas, Oaxaca, had the nerve, like Mr. Hale, with the 
peach in Georgia, to set out a great many thousand 
coffee trees that way with perfect success, though 
strongly advised against it by old planters. 
K. M. srnmGnsLLOw. 
