1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
meal allowed to come to a boil in about a pint of 
water. This is increased until, at the age of two or 
three months, I give her a teaeupful in, say, three 
quarts of water with enough milk to make her plump 
and satisfied. The hot gruel will warm the milk so, 
while one must take the trouble to make the gruel, 
he does not need to warm the milk also. At about 
four weeks old, the calf will begin to pick up bits of 
her bedding, and then she should be supplied with a 
little fine hay. At, say, two months old, I nail up a 
box where she can get to it, and give her a little bran 
or oatmeal. I let them have all the bran they will 
eat. It will not fatten them, and is a very fine bone 
and muscle former. 
I am inclined to think that it is best not to turn the 
calf out to pasture the first season, for the grass is 
likely to produce diarrhea, and if exposed to a cold 
rain, it will sometimes catch a cold, and the first we 
know, we have only a calfskin left. Give the calf as 
much room as possible; but don’t turn several in a 
pen together, for after eating, they will be pretty 
sure to suck each other. Keep them well bedded and 
clean, and if she be fed as suggested, she will not be 
spoiled for a dairy animal, if she be not allowed to 
run out the first summer. The milk and gruel may 
be made thinner by adding more water as the calf 
learns to eat more bran or oats, until, at the age of 
five or six months, she may be given only water with 
her hay and grain. 
While a calf should always be well fed, do not, by 
any means, allow her to become fat. Your neighbor 
may take the prize away from you at the fair ; but 
when he is obliged to sell his for beef, your calf will 
be a prize-winning cow. My first experience with 
raising calves, was when my father gave me 
three heifers to raise from the three best 
cows out of a dairy of 40 ; I was to have 
one for caring for them. After they were 
well started, I had all the sour milk and 
meal (corn and oats) I cared to feed them. 
As luck would have it, I didn’t kill them, 
and they grew to be the pride of the 
farm. They were sold to a neighbor when 
about 10 months old, for $20 each (they 
were native stock), and I am sorry to say, 
not one of the three was ever worth the 
room she occupied in the barn as a dairy 
cow. The fall calf, I think, is the more 
profitable to raise. The cow running in 
the pasture has a better chance to keep 
in perfect nealth, and having more exer¬ 
cise, will produce a stronger calf. Then, 
again, while the spring calf must have 
grain for a year, and, usually, more, the 
fall calf may be turned out to pasture 
the following spring. If allowed to come 
in at two years old, she has a fine chance 
to develop her udder while running on 
grass the second season. 
Never raise a calf that has not a good 
constitution. If she be naturally weak 
at birth, or if she be inclined to “scour” 
without apparent cause, just shut your 
teeth firmly together, seize the ax and 
knock her on the head—or, better than 
that, get the hired man to do it. Never 
mind if she be from that great-producing, 
thoroughbred cow. If you keep her, she 
will be always a source of trouble to you, and a dis¬ 
grace to her mother. Right here is the point where 
it takes nerve to be a successful breeder. It is a hard 
thing to do, only the man who has done it knows how 
hard ; but if you keep her, it will be harder to stand 
the consequences. j. grant morse. 
WHAT AILS THIS APPLE ORCHARD ? 
WHAT WILE MAKE IT BEAR ? 
I have an orchard of 60 apple trees, of about 40 varieties, set 
35x40 feet, 19 years ago. It bore a full crop about eight or ten 
years ago, and aside from that, has not borne more than the 
equivalent of one good crop in the 19 years. It has been fed with 
ashes, clover and stable manure, and well pruned and sprayed. 
Part of the soil is sandy loam, and part clay loam. The trees 
are thrifty, yet I do not think that it is making an excessive 
growth. It is well drained. Possibly It receives too much nitro¬ 
gen. At least, I shall apply no more stable manure until I take 
a few good crops from it. What can I do to start it to producing ? 
It ought to yield 200 barrels per annum, instead of that many 
pecks or less as it now does. i>. 
Ohio. 
F. does not say whether his apple orchard has been 
cultivated or not, neither does he state what has been 
its growth. It certainly should have shown more 
productiveness than he indicates. With the few facts 
that he has stated, my own opinion is that he might 
have given it too much stable manure. My advice 
would be to cease putting upon it barnyard manure, 
break up the ground, and give it a cultivation, if he 
has not already done so. Such culture is quite likely 
to develop fruit buds. If it is still obstinately dis¬ 
posed, I should, about the middle of June, take a 
sharp knife and open the bark around the bodies of 
the trees. The simple passage of the point of the 
knife will, oftentimes, induce the sending out of fruit 
buds the following season. This stops the flow of 
sap for the time being, yet it heals at once, and I have 
seen no injurious effects from such treatment, while I 
have induced fruitfulness, in several instances, that 
has been very marked by this treatment. 
New York. s. d. willard. 
I cannot understand why his apffre trees do not 
bear, at least, every other year, a good crop of apples. 
His soil is all right. His pruning and spraying the 
same. Too much stable manure is, no doubt, the 
trouble. Wood ashes are good for all fruit trees. I 
have no doubt that, if he discontinue spreading stable 
manure under the trees, he will, in a year or two, 
have all the apples he wants. n. ohmer. 
Ohio. 
Stop manuring, stop spraying (to kill bees and other 
friends), stop pruning in the spring, but prune lightly, 
both top and root, the last of July or first of August. 
Sow rye and pasture close for one year. Ring a few 
of the branches next spring, such as you can afford 
to lose after bearing the following year. This will 
show whether excessive growth is the cause of failure 
to bear. s. s. bailey. 
Michigan. 
Whether the orchard has been kept under cultiva¬ 
tion or simply given surface manuring, is not stated. 
It seems probable, however, that F. may be correct 
in his supposition that it has received an undue pro¬ 
portion of nitrogenous manures. It would seem 
probable, therefore, that the desired result may be 
best secured by giving the ground a thorough plow¬ 
ing (if with considerable root-pruning, well) and 
afterwards, harrowing in a good application of special 
fruit-encouraging fertilizers. The breaking of a few 
roots by the plow will have the effect of root prun¬ 
ing, thus encouraging fructification, which will be 
still farther aided by applying the proposed fertilizer. 
Michigan. t. t. lyon. 
It is impossible for me to tell what is the reason 
this orchard does not bear, unless it be, as the owner 
suggests, that it has had too much nitrogen. I think 
that if he will apply only potash and phosphoric acid 
in unleached ashes, or any other good form, and cul¬ 
tivate shallow but often, the trees will bear, unless 
they are of unsuitable varieties, which is not likely. 
For a market orchard, he has too many varieties, but 
for home use or experimental purpose, it is all right. 
In many orchards, variety is the worst disease. 
Virginia. h. e. van deman. 
I should, in the first place, seek to check the growth 
of the trees and bring them into bearing. As soon 
as they began bearing, I should then take the usual 
care of them, and cultivate again. The best way I 
have ever found to do this, is to sow the orchard to 
oats and seed it to clover and Timothy. Cut the oats, 
and then later in the summer, cut the growth of 
clover, Timothy and weeds, and take them both off 
from the ground. If they do not form plenty of fruit 
buds the next summer, and bloom well the following 
spring, either plow the ground and sow oats again 
as before, or cut the hay twice during the summer 
and take it off. This plan followed two years, I have 
never found to fail in bringing an orchard into bear¬ 
ing. When once in bearing, the usual care and atten¬ 
767 
tion will be necessary for fear that the orchard will 
be injured. 
I have practiced another plan which has proved 
successful. To an old plow beam, I attach a sharp 
coulter, and run this coulter deep enough to cut off 
the roots of the trees each way. The proper distance 
is one foot from the tree for each inch of diameter. 
A tree six inches in diameter, should have the coulter 
run six feet from the tree. I have never found this 
to fail on special trees. Here we have no trouble 
with our commercial varieties ; they all bear young 
enough. But some of the amateur varieties we have 
to bring into bearing, also some of the varieties for 
family use. l. a. Goodman. 
Missouri. 
I think that the soil is deficient in the apple-pro¬ 
ducing food or has been plowed too deep. Fertilize 
the orchard with dissolved bone black and muriate of 
potash (50 per cent potash) about equal parts, and 
apply 1,500 pounds per acre. Do not plow, but har¬ 
row it in. If in grass, turn over the turf very thin, 
not over four inches, harrow well and spread on the 
fertilizer. Experiment on one or two trees by digging 
in June a narrow trench, two feet deep, all around 
the tree, say eight feet from the body. Then fill the 
trench again with the soil thrown out. This root- 
pruning checks the growth, and has a tendency to 
cause fruit buds to form. Apply the fertilizer in the 
spring as early as practicable. edwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
THE NAMES OF OUR FRUITS. 
There is one thing to which I would like to ask the 
originators of fruits and all others connected with 
their naming, to give their most careful attention— 
that the names should be short, simple 
euphonic, and not in conflict with any 
others already in use. All such names 
or parts of names as Prolific, Red, Green¬ 
ing, Blush, Pippin, Pearmain, Beauty, 
Improved, and Seedling are out of place 
Denoting seedlings by numbers is aL 
right at home, but never, no, never, send 
them out under such title to the public. 
First know that they deserve names, and 
then give them those that are right. Use 
none in the possessive case. The hasty or 
inadvised naming of fruits is the source 
of very great annoyance, confusion, and 
in some cases, financial loss to many fruit 
growers. It often happens that some of 
our best varieties are found, originated, 
or introduced by those who have not had 
the opportunity to learn of other kinds 
that bear all or a part of the names that 
they purpose to give to those of their 
own introduction. Some desire to per¬ 
petuate their own names, which is often 
very proper, or, to give high-sounding or 
even ridiculous names, irrespective of 
consequences, or, sometimes, regardless 
of the facts. 
We have two standard authorities on 
fruit nomenclature, or, in fact, one, for 
the two now act in conjunction — the 
American Pomological Society, and the 
Division of Pomology of the United States 
Department of Agriculture. It is their aim 
to simplify and purify the names of our fruits, and to 
this end, the scheme which, as United States Pomolo- 
gist, I inaugurated in 1888, began, and afterwards 
placed very largely in the hands of that most precise and 
competent pomologist, Mr. T. T. Lyon, of Michigan, 
and finally left it there, is now nearly worked out. The 
result of this renovation and compilation of the entire 
list of the names of all the fruits cultivated in the 
United States, as nearly as was possible, with their 
synonyms, is about to be published, so I notice by the 
public press. It is to be earnestly desired that the 
nurserymen and aU others will carefully study this 
list, and bring their catalogues into line with it, and 
thus aid in the advancement of our pomology. 
If those who are about to name new fruits will 
correspond with the Division of Pomology, as to the 
propriety or possible conflict of the proposed names 
with others already in use, they will be greatly helped 
and confusion avoided. There is a card list in that 
office, which, by this time, must be nearly completed, 
which covers the entire field of pomological nomen¬ 
clature for our country. It was planned for the 
benefit of the public, has been made with the most 
studious care at considerable cost of the time of ex¬ 
perts, and should be made use of, so far as is possible. 
It is this list which will, as I suppose, be published 
in accordance with the plan I laid. But in card form, 
it is easily revised, and thus kept continually up to 
date. No person should claim the right to name and 
put a fruit before the public until it has undergone 
the scrutiny of this one standard authority ; because 
of the danger of duplication and confusion. It is 
also well to have the qualities of new candidates for 
THE ALASKA QUINCE. (TRUE SIZE.) Fig. 251. 
See Ruralisms, Page 770. 
