622 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 19 
climb and she never was a “rustler”. So she is to 
this day, a big, ease-loving, sleepy cow, capable, 
under right conditions, of wonderful results. In a 
scanty pasture, she lies down in despair, while the 
Devon roams the hills and grubs among the rocks, 
just as her ancestors have done for so many genera¬ 
tions in English Devonshire. So the Holstein has no 
place climbing the mountain sides of that great dairy 
county of Delaware, and the Delaware County people 
have found it out, and there the more agile, rustling 
Jersey has possessed the field. Yet I am not certain 
but. for the prairie farmer in the corn belt—where he 
can, to soijoe extent, give Zuyder Zee conditions—the 
Holstein cow may approach nearest to our definition. 
It is hard for any one entirely to avoid partisanship 
in breeds. Perhaps it is best for a man to choose the 
breed which he fancies, but it is folly to expect suc¬ 
cess with any breed unless we are able to give it, to 
some extent, the same conditions under which it has 
been developed. So we are to seek after the cow 
which will give us the greatest amount of butter for a 
given amount of food. Perhaps, for most of us, at 
present, we shall retain any cow that, with good care, 
will give 300 pounds of butter per year. We find 
many of these among the so-called “ native stock” of 
our own township, and we find some among all the 
breeds. We do not wish, however, to go into 
the beef breeds. This is a day of specialization 
in every line, and there is something incompat¬ 
ible between a thick loin and thigh, together 
with the ability to lay on fat freely at an early 
age, and the capability of milking largely and 
persistently. To combine them is as fallacious 
as to try to combine the American trotter and 
the Clydesdale. The dairy cow is a wonderful 
production in her way, and her breeding and 
care and the manufacture of her product, rep¬ 
resent one of the highest phases of agriculture. 
.) AIXED VAN WAGENEN JR. 
put in good condition. The holes were mostly dug in 
the fall, 18 inches square and deep. They were 
marked off 16 feet north and south and 20 feet east 
and west, by means of wire cables properly spaced. 
This gave us straight rows with much less labor than 
by the old plan of sighting and staking off the ground. 
The trees are carefully packed m moss, shipped 
about the middle of March, and immediately upon 
their arrival, were nicely heeled in at different and 
convenient points in the orchard. When the ground 
was in good condition to work, the planting was 
pushed. A few trees were taken up at a time and 
packed in wet straw in a spring wagon, which fol¬ 
lowed right along with the planters, who were handed 
the trees as wanted ; the roots were thus kept moist 
all the while. Even the small, white rootlets that 
had started while the trees were in storage during 
winter, were kept alive and fresh. In planting, the 
holes were half filled with surface soil, carefully 
tamped with the feet. The rest of the soil was thrown 
in loose, and a slight depression was left around the 
trees, to act as a sort of basin to catch the rain. The 
trees were all cut back to two feet, and the land was 
cultivated with corn. Twice during the summer, the 
trees were hand hoed, suckers kept pruned off, and they 
made a strong, luxuriant growth, some of the limbs 
A GREAT ORCHARD OF KE/FFER PEARS. 
WHY AND HOW XT WAS STA1XTED. 
Two years ago last spring, upon realizing that 
we owned some exceptionally good fruit lands, 
and seeing the fruit interests developing all 
around us, I decided to plant a commercial 
crchard. Just what kind of fruit to select, 1 
hardly knew ; but finally concluded to follow 
my life-long penchant for pears. Of all varie¬ 
ties, the Keiffer was preferred, and I planted 
it exclusively. The planting of 85 acres in a 
solid block of Keiffers was looked upon by older 
fruit growers as a very risky enterprise. The 
selection has been very severely criticised by 
many, and heartily commended by a few. The 
criticisms have been that the Keiffer was not 
good to eat; in fact, was not fit for anything 
but to look at and sell ; that we should have a 
variety—a succession of pears from earliest to 
latest—that with such an orchard I would glut 
the market; that there should have been, at 
least, one tree in ten of some other variety as 
a fertilizer, and many other objections of like 
nature. 
To the first criticism, I answer that the 
Keiffer, when properly handled, and in its 
season, is a most desirable pear to eat out of 
hand, is unexcelled as a canner, and it is to 
sell that we are growing it, and so long as it will 
sell, I am all right. In regard to planting a vari¬ 
ety, it is not my intention to go into the retail 
fruit trade, hence a succession of fruit is just 
what I do not want. My aim is to sell the entire crop 
in a lump, or pack and ship, and by having a quantity 
to dispose of all at one time, I hope to reach markets 
and get prices that smaller orchardists cannot reach or 
supply. As to glutting the market, I have no fear 
that fine, well-grown, perfectly-handled Keiffers will 
ever beg for buyers. When the subject of cross-fer¬ 
tilization is brought up, I can only say that, if it does 
become necessary, I shall top-work with the most 
desirable cross-fertilizer. In fact, when I planted the 
orchard, I aimed to replant with some other variety, 
not dreaming that all the first planting would grow. 
In March, 1895, I planted 11,360 trees and the follow¬ 
ing fall 11,357 were alive, only three having died. 
In September, 1894,1 visited the nursery from which 
I had decided to buy trees, and saw that the stock 
was strong, vigorous and first-class in every respect. 
The order was placed, and the trees were to be two- 
year-old whips, ranging in height from four to six 
feet, dug in the fall, carefully root-pruned and win¬ 
tered in a frost-proof storage house, to be delivered 
in spring on order. Our orchard site is located on 
ridge land ; the soil is a clay loam, underlaid with 
cavernous limestone which gives it almost perfect 
drainage. The original forest was very dense, con¬ 
sisting of walnut, hickory, oak and sugar tree growth. 
It was nearly all new land, being two and three years 
from the stump. This land was all fall plowed, and 
THE McPIKE GRAPE. IMPERITECT CLUSTER. Fig. 
(See Ruralisms, Page 627.) 
being four feet in length. My x-emarkable success in 
getting a perfect stand, I think, was due to having 
good trees and then handling them so that the roots 
were kept moist all the while. w. w. stevens. 
Washington County, Ind. 
CAULIFLOWERS IN THE STRAWBERRY BED 
For several years, I have been experimenting in 
growing different kinds of vegetables between the 
rows of strawberry plants, the first year after setting. 
I set all strawberry plants in the spring, and when I 
first began to grow them, got no returns for the use 
of the land the first year. My land is in the village, 
worth $500 per acre, and too valuable, I thought, to 
lose -the use of, besides getting no compensation for 
my labor the first year. My first experiments were 
with early peas and potatoes ; these were planted 
between the rows of strawberry plants early in the 
spring. I found them quite profitable, but they pre¬ 
vented all cultivation with a horse, until late in the 
summer, and they required too much room. I next 
tried cabbages, and succeeded in growing good crops 
of Early Winnigstadt cabbage, both early and late, 
with but little injury to the strawberry plants. I 
prefer to grow late cabbage, for I can cultivate the 
strawberries until about July 1, and then transplant 
them. 
Last year, I set a few cauliflower plants between 
the rows of strawberries, and found that they re¬ 
quired less room than the cabbages, and were much 
more profitable. This year, I have cauliflowers set in 
nearly my whole bed of new strawberry plants of 
about one acre. They are growing finely, and prom¬ 
ise to head well. I have been doing some figuring on 
them, and find that they pay the whole cost of grow¬ 
ing my strawberry plants, including fertilizers and 
labor, if I choose to hire the work done, and still 
leave a considerable surplus. Some people tell me 
that I am taking too much plant food from the soil, 
therefore injuring my strawberry plants and lessen¬ 
ing the crop next year. This I will admit, with 
ordinary culture ; but by making the land very rich, 
and using plenty of water, I can see but little differ¬ 
ence in the yield of strawberries where the cabbages 
or cauliflowers have been grown. About 90 per cent 
of most vegetables is water ; if by supplying extra 
water, I get a larger growth, I can afford to feed the 
plants more nitrogen, potash, etc. 
When the cauliflowers are taken up, I clean the 
strawberry plants from weeds and early in the win¬ 
ter, give them a liberal dressing of manure for a 
mulch and to supply the food they may need. The wet 
weather we usually have here late in the fall, causes 
the roots to make a good growth, and I have not 
failed to have the plants winter well and 
produce large crops of fine berries. Cauli¬ 
flowers require about the same treatment as 
cabbages, but to grow large and marketable 
they must have a rich soil, and plenty of mois¬ 
ture. I try to have only a portion of them 
mature at one time. I grow mostly the Early 
Snowball. The first sowing is in the hotbed ) 
and I continue to sow at different dates in the 
open ground, until the last of May. I plow in 
a very heavy dressing of stable manure before 
setting the strawberry plants, which are set 
very early in the spring. A few cauliflower 
plants are set from the hotbed early in May, 
but for the main crop, 1 transplanted from 
plants grown in open ground, early in June. 
These will head in September or later, when 
there is a demand for cauliflowers for pickling. 
Before setting the plants, I run the culti¬ 
vator between the rows of strawberry plants, 
and then with a light plow, open a furrow three 
or four inches deep. Unless 1 am satisfied that 
the soil is rich enough, I scatter some good 
commercial fertilizer in the furrow. The ground 
has been made so mellow by the frequent cul¬ 
tivation of the strawberry plants, that they 
are transplanted very easily. If there is not 
sufficient rain to wet the ground when ready to 
plant them, the hose leading from the water 
tank is turned on the rows. I do some cultiva¬ 
tion after this with a wheel hoe, but as the 
strawberry runners grow close to the cauli¬ 
flowers, I am obliged to do most of the work 
with the hoe. 
I remove a part of the outside leaves when 
the cauliflowers are nearly grown, and feed 
them to my horse. The plants are kept growing 
by giving them plenty of water, and I have 
but little trouble from club root, or other para¬ 
sites of the cabbage family. The greater part 
of them are sold from the market wagon ; the 
remainder are shipped to commission dealers 
in the cities. I can usually avei-age from 8 to 
10 cents per head, and from 8,000 to 10,000 can 
194. be grown on an acre. Deducting culls, the sales 
from an acre should be $700 or $800 ; or, if 
fertilizers, labor, and expense of irrigating is 
deducted from this, the net profit ought to be about 
$600. In some seasons, cauliflowers can be retailed at 
15 and 20 cents; this about doubles the profit. My 
irrigation plant cost me less than $100. The water is 
elevated from a brook near by into a large tank, and 
pipes are laid from this in different directions over the 
farm. I find that one great essential in gardening is 
water, and the more that is used, the greater the profit. 
Delaware County, N. Y. w. h. jenkins. 
PLUM AND APPLE NOTES BY S. D. WILLARD. 
The Field plum had its origin, I think, in Schoharie 
County, N. Y. It is a seedling of Bradshaw, which it 
resembles in size and, in a measure, in color, except 
that it is darker and, ripening as it does from a week 
to 10 days in advance of its parent, has a value as a 
market sort. It is a good producer, and the tree is 
one of the most hardy grown, ripening to the tip the 
wood, which is of a hard, bony character. It is an 
excellent orchard variety, but not much known as 
yet. I think that Messrs. T. C. Maxwell & Bros., and 
myself have, perhaps, fruited it more than any one 
else. 
This has been an off year for the plum growers of 
western New York. With a few exceptions in some 
favored localities, the crop has been a failure. The 
heaviest setting of fruit here has been upon some of 
the Damsons, notably the Farleigh and French Dam- 
