i89o 
755 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
fruit in spite of the unfavorableness of the season. We see 
the same thing shown in our orchards, when among many 
sorts only one or two or three bear a crop. They suit the 
locality in that point exactly, though few or none of them 
originated there. But in that same season it would be in¬ 
deed phenomenal if all the native seedlings (supposing 
they were numerous) should bear well, when all the grafts 
failed to bear. I never knew it to be so. Even in this 
“offest” of all off years, some trees are bearing a full 
crop. Nearly every variety in my orchard this year is 
bearing well, but McIntosh Red has not yielded two 
bushels on 30 trees, although this is its bearing year. 
Plainly the peculiarity of the season has affected it be¬ 
cause it is more sensitive to this special peculiarity than 
the rest, which are nearly all Russians and Siberian hy¬ 
brids. But not all the Russians are bearing. Switzer is 
carrying very little fruit, though this is also its year. 
Besides McIntosh, two other Canadian varieties, Winter 
St. Lawrence and Canada Baldwin, are bare. But 
Fameuse, another Canadian, and St. Lawrence and Shi¬ 
awassee Beauty—seedlings of the Fameuse—are bearing 
heavily. An English variety, Sops of Wine, has borne a 
full crop. To what does all this tend ? Well, if my 
orchard had been mostly McIntosh, Winter St. Lawrence 
and Canada Baldwin, I should have regarded the Canadian 
family of apples as incapable of resisting the ill influences 
of a season like this. Yet the good crops of other Canadians 
upset that idea. And so with the Russians; most of them 
carried heavy crops, but not one of 20 Switzers, 
though a productive sort, and due to fruit this year, bore 
more than a few scattering fruits. And along with the 
Russians and other iron-clads came the rather tender 
Sops of Wine, with its heavy load, all of which goes to 
show that things which seem to look so may not be so, 
the superior productiveness of seedlings not excepted. 
2. With regard to the second question, I think we have 
too few facts on which to form a conclusion. I believe in 
growing seedlings, and I know that seeds of some excel¬ 
lent varieties have produced other varieties as good as 
themselves and even better, while it is very rare to find a 
good seedling from the seed of cider apples. Yet that is 
not an impossibility. Regarding the great majority of 
our choice apples, nothing is known of their parentage. I 
do not know any reason to suppose that a seed taken from 
a fruit on its own roots would be any more likely to pro¬ 
duce a valuable sort than seed from a graft of the same 
seedlivQ upon another stock ;—and I doubt if anybody is 
any wiser than I am on the subject. A long course of care¬ 
ful experimentation must be gone through before we can 
have anything better than guess-work here. 
Orleans County, Vt. [dr.] t. h. hoskins. 
Cultivation Is the Main Thing. 
1. If the seedlings are of fine quality, no; if most of 
them are of poor quality, yes; consequently if I wanted 
cider apples every year, I would plant a grafted orchard of 
those seedlings suited for the purpose or of the best cider 
crabs. A grafted orchard would give a uniform product 
which would be more profitable than such as would come 
from a pure seedling one In a large orchard in wnich 
about one-half the trees were standard grafted kinds and 
one-half seedlings, the grafted varieties, as a rule, bore 
Brown’s Hay Barn. Fig. 344. 
fully as well as the seedlings, gave far heavier crops, and 
lived to as great an age and as vigorously'. The land was 
uniform in character. 
2. I should say, no, provided the trees from which the 
seeds were taken were in robust health. I regard the culti¬ 
vation of a tree as having far more to do with its 
health and vigor than the mere fact that it was a seedling 
or a graft. Of course cions from healthy trees should al¬ 
ways be grafted upon vigorous, healthy roots. The cions 
should be taken from well-established, bearing trees, not 
from nursery rows. All varieties were once seedlings, and 
hs the root does not affect the character of the fruit (unless 
diseased), while the leaf produces roots to suit its charac¬ 
ter, the seedlings from grafted trees should produce as 
good results as those from seedlings. I think the cause of 
weakness lies in the neglect of cross-fertilization and in 
planting for quality to the neglect of vigor. It is a pretty 
well-established law that the trees, vines and plants of 
great vigor produce fruit of indifferent quality, and that 
most varieties of fine quality are produced upon less vig¬ 
orous or weakly plants, though there are some exceptions, 
and from these exceptions the new varieties should lie 
produced. Good judgment and large experience are requi¬ 
site in the originator to produce valuable new varieties, 
among plants as well as among animals. t. v. MtJSSoN. 
Grayson County, Texas. 
Selected Grafts More Valuable. 
1. During the past 30 years I have given much attention 
to seedling apple trees. During a large part of the period 
I have been a member of seedling committees of our horti¬ 
cultural societies, and have personally fruited many hun¬ 
dreds of seedling trees. This experience favors the view 
that selected grafted varieties, such as Duchess, Auisovka, 
Borovinka, Wealthy, Longfleld, Fameuse, Jonathan, 
Grimes’s Golden, and many others, will produce far more 
regular and valuable crops, in sections where they are 
hardy, than the average of seedling trees. During the 
30 years tens of thousands of seedlings have been tested in 
the West, while those which have stood propagation and 
been added to our recommended lists can be counted on 
the fingers of one hand. 
2. This query, in the light of long experience in this 
country and Europe, opens up a wide field of thought 
and inquiry. Beyond a shadow of doubt the best and 
plumpest seeds of the cereals, corn, etc., will give the best 
results, as they contain most stored starch and the most 
inherent vitality. But with fruits it is equally true that 
the largest do not contain the largest or most perfect 
seeds. Careful trial has shown that the seeds of Yellow 
Bellflower, Northern Spy, Gloria Mundi, and other varie¬ 
ties with an abnormal development of flesh, will give but 
a small per cent, of plants, and that these will be weak 
and puny. On the other hand, seedlings of Red Romanite, 
Fink, Milam, and our common seedling cider apples stand 
uniformly in the rows, and are healthy and vigorous. I 
may say that the chance seedlings from the largest and 
best fruits have at the West proved a total failure, and 
practically the same may be said of all chance seedlings. 
But a new era is dawning. In the near future I believe 
we shall secure prizes from systematic crosses of our best 
old varieties of all the orchard fruits on truly iron-clad, 
and more nearly primitive, varieties. I am glad to state 
that such crosses have already been made on the College 
Farm at Ames and at other points, and I regard the young 
seedlings as very promising. Judging from all prior ex¬ 
perience in Europe and America, I must believe that the 
systematic crossing of such choice varieties as Grimes’s 
Golden, Northern Spy and Osceola, on such heavy bearing, 
large seeded and truly iron-clad varieties as Anis, Hiber¬ 
nal, Recumbent, and Silken Leaf, will give us a large per 
Brown’s Horse Barn. Fig. 345. 
cent, of prizes. We will soon know something of the size 
and quality of the fruit of these pedigreed sorts, as they 
will be top-worked on bearing trees next spring. 
Iowa Agricultural College. [prof.] j. l. budd. 
THROUGH THE GENESEE VALLEY WITH A 
CAMERA. 
brown’s big barns. 
Thomas Brown, of Scottsville, N. Y.. has one of the 
finest and most productive farms in Monroe County. 
Half of it is on the Genesee Flats, at this point two miles 
in width, and the other half is upland. Everything that 
wealth and the architect could do to make large practical 
barns with an immense storage power has been done, and 
as a result Mr. Brown has the finest barns of their class in 
the Genesee Valley. The farm is principally devoted to 
raising hay and wheat and the buildings are designed 
chiefly for the storage of those crops. Fig. 344 shows the 
largest barn and perhaps the most interesting one owing 
to its peculiar construction. It is 100 feet long, 60 wide, 
with 2S foot posts, and, as the cut shows, a drive floor run¬ 
ning the entire length with bays on either side. The roof, 
which by the way used up 88,000 shingles, is supported by 
an ingenious system of bracing known as the “horseshoe 
truss.” At regular distances tie beams cross the barn 
nearly on a level with the tops of the posts, and on these 
rest the points of the shoe, while the round part rises and 
is fastened to the roof, leaving plenty of room for the use 
of track and slings in unloading hay. This peculiar truss 
is used in all the barns and is so cheaply and conveniently 
constructed as to become a prominent feature in modern 
barn building, supplanting in time purline posts and 
plates and tie girts with all their many inconveniences. 
Light and airy as the truss appears to the common 
observer, eminent engineers, after a careful examination, 
have pronounced it capable of carrying with safety a rail¬ 
road train of loaded cars. 
The capacity of the barn is something enormous, hold¬ 
ing, as it does, 350 tons of hay in the bays and loft above 
the floor. The basement is divided into a number of com¬ 
partments designed for the care of cattle. One is fitted up 
with stalls for feeding 45 steers, and each has a stall, 
manger and feeding rack to himself. Adjoining this room 
is the cow stable, having room for eight cows only, which 
are kept solely for the purpose of supplying the house with 
milk and butter. Directly under the drive floor in the 
middle of the basement, safe from the action of the cold, 
is the large root cellar. Near this is the granary holding 
3,300 bushels. The rest of the room is cut up into box- 
stalls for bulls, calves and colts, and they are also used 
for lying-in stalls for the cows. The cut gives but a faint 
idea of the height of the barn, as at the back end it is fully 
107 feet from the ground to the ridge. 
Fig. 345 shows the horse barn, ice-house, and Mr. Brown’s 
private office. The horse barn is 90 by 45 feet with 20-feet 
posts, and for a large barn it is a model of its kind. The 
ground floor has single stalls for 14 horses and six box- 
stalls besides. The carriage room is large and convenient, 
as are also the harness rooms. The frame-work below is 
of oak and the entire ground floor is sided and ceiled with 
hard pine, finished in hard oil. Even the heavy timbers 
and huge beams that support the loft above are planed 
and oiled to correspond with the pine ceiling. The loft, 
though small in comparison with the other barns, affords 
enough room to store away 100 tons of hay. From the 
cupolas to the floor a series of hollow boxes that can be 
lowered and raised as the hay is put in serve as two perfect 
air shafts, insuring the thorough keeping of the hay. 
Fig. 346 shows “ The Hill Barn ” as it is called, from the 
fact that it is located on a hill about half a mile from the 
other buildings. As will readily be seen, this differs some¬ 
what from the other grain and hay barn, and to my mind 
is really the most practical barn on the place. Its dimen¬ 
sions are as follows : Length 126 feet, width 50 feet, with . 
24 foot posts, and only one drive floor. The structure 
stands on a fine wall 10% feet high. This summer the 
basement has been fitted up for feeding sheep this winter ; 
and it will certainly answer the purpose admirably. The 
barn-yard, while not exactly on the “ Cornell ” plan, is, I 
think, equally good. The large shed seen at the right 
forms three sides of it, and the barn the fourth, in the 
center of the yard and directly back of the doors, big 
locust posts set five feet in the ground and rising above it 
nearly to the top of the wall, support an open frame¬ 
work on which the straw is stacked as it comes from the 
thrasher. This straw shed, covered barn-yard, or what¬ 
ever one chooses to call it, is sided with matched pine, and 
will last for years. On stormy days stock are turned into it 
to exercise, or if the basement should be crowded it would 
provide warm, comfortable quarters for at least 200 sheep. 
All of the barns and basements have an abundant and 
ever-constant supply of water provided by cisterns, and a 
very complete system of water works, connecting with an 
immense storage reservoir, holding enough water for a 
week’s supply, which is filled by a 12 foot windmill, from 
never-failing springs. The roofs of the first two barns were 
painted after shingling, while on the last the shingles were 
dipped before they were laid, which is by far the best 
method, even if it does take time. The total cost of these 
three barns is somewhere in the neighborhood of §18,000 or 
§20,000—a considerable sum to put in barns, you may say. 
Yes, and this season when I was there Mr. Brown was 
. building another of the same size as “The Hill Barn.” 
To the “common farmer,” these barns would be, of 
course, extravagant and unnecessary. But they are just 
what Mr. Brown needs. I presume that some of the read¬ 
ers have been wondering how on earth he is going to fill 
them. If so, they will wonder no longer when I say that 
his hay crop will foot up at least 800 tons, and he has, be¬ 
sides, 200 acres of wheat that will yield 30 bushels per 
acre; 60 acres of beans and 24 acres of corn. The rest of 
the farm is devoted to pasture. edward f. dibble. 
Livingston County, N. Y. 
Oil Meals as Stock Feed.—T he following note from 
one of our subscribers in Pennsylvania voices the senti¬ 
ments of hundreds : “ Owing to the advance in the prices 
Brown’s Hill Barn. Fig. 346. 
of all stock feeds this winter, those who have to buy and 
wish to feed economically, yet well, will be looking for 
substitutes for corn and oats; and linseed and cotton-seed 
meals seem to fill the bill, but there are so many kinds, 
qualities and private brands that one is at a loss to know 
which gives really the best feeding value for the money. 
Linseed-oil meal is made by one process and oil meal by 
another. I have before me circulars and prices from 
three firms and each claims the best results for its pro¬ 
cess, and the prices vary, and each intimates that goods 
offered by the others are impure.” When fed in a mixed 
ration, for the production of milk or flesh there will be 
little difference in results, so far as cost is concerned. The 
old-process meal, however, is not so well suited to butter- 
making, as it contains too much oil. Neither food can be 
used as an entire substitute for grain. Either can only 
take the place of a part of the grain. 
Some Busy Bees. —We have four hives of bees. If they 
have produced any new swarms this year no one knows of 
it. Two of the colonies have each filled 36 two-pound sec¬ 
tions, and the other two have filled respectively 53 and 54 
two pound sections. That is, the yield has been 72, 72, 106 
and 108 pounds. Some of the last sections taken off were 
not quite full and capped over. We have honey on the 
table three times a day and have sold over §20 worth. The 
cleorne is an excellent honey plant. It has not much honor 
here in its own country, being called skunk-weed or stink- 
weed, but sometimes the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. The 
bees visit it for a very long time. One of my neighbors 
sent East for the seed, not recognizing in the name 
“ cleorne,” the vile-smelling weed known in every field and 
on every ditch bank. o. H. 
Greeley, Col. 
