270 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April i, 
in view, nicely bedded, the long hairs clipped from their 
udders, the Hanks clipped half way up, it was not a 
CORROSION OP STEER PIPE. Fig. 113. 
See Rural isms, Page 280. 
difficult problem. Score cards like the lollowing were 
passed through the audience: 
A SCORE CARD 
FOR JUDGING THE SANITARY CONDITION OF DAIRIES. 
PROPOSED BY R. A. PEARSON, 
Professor of Dairy Industry, College of Agriculture, Cornell 
University. 
I. Health of the herd and its protection : 
Points de- Points 
Perfect, ticient. credited, 
of cows 
Health and proper Isolation 
sick or at calving time. 
Light in stable. 
Ventilation of stable. 
Food and water. 
Comfort of cows. 
9 
3 
3 
3 
‘> 
Total ... 20 
II. Cleanliness of the cows and their 
surroundings: 
Cows .. . .. 
Stable . 
Barnyard and pasture. 
Stable air . 
6 
■t 
4 
6 
Total . 20 
III. Utensils: 
Water supply and location and pro¬ 
tection of its source.. 0 
Construction of utensils and their 
cleaning and sterilizing. *> 
Care of utensils after cleaning. o 
Use of small-top milking pail..3 
Total . 20 
IV. Attendants: 
Health . J 
Clean overall milking suits and 
milking with clean, dry hands. . . t 
Quiet milking, attention to cleanli 
ness of udder and discarding fore 
milk . 4 
Total . 20 
V. Handling of milk : ,, , 
Prompt removal from the stable to 
pure air . i 
Cooling . ‘ 
Handling milk in a sanitary room 
and holding it at. a low temper¬ 
ature .. 
Total . 20 
6 
Total score 
If the total score is 
96 or above.... 
90 or above.... 
80 or above.... 
Below 80. 
100 
And each division is 
18 or above.... 
10 or above.... 
12 or above.... 
Or any division is 
below 12. 
The dairy is 
EXCELLENT. 
GOOD. 
MEDIUM. 
POOR. 
for 
These have been formulated by Prof. Pearson. 
use in examination of such dairies, and by comparison 
with the surroundings in many particulars it was not 
a difficult matter for him to verify the truth of his 
subject. 
THE POINTS OF A GOOD DAIRY COW.—Henry 
Van Dreser, of Cobleskill, made the concluding address 
of the afternoon on the above subject. This was made 
vivid by a living illustration from one of Mr. Cook's 
cows, a three-fourths Holstein, 12 years old, within two 
days of completing a year’s record, due to calve next 
Fall. Thus far she has given 22,500 pounds of milk, 
with an average test of 3.3 per cent of butter fat. Mr. 
Van Dreser said she was as nearly a perfect type of 
cow as he had ever seen. She was a living illustration 
of several things. First, that a good cow need not be 
a highed-priccd purebred. Her grandmother was a very 
ordinary cow, her mother—the daughter of a fine pure¬ 
bred Holstein bull—a very good one. Her sire was 
also a pure blood Holstein. No such cow could ever 
have been produced from a scrub, or even grade bull. 
Next, that good feeding docs not “wear out’ a cow. 
This cow has always been well fed. With her horns cut 
off she would surely have been taken for a six-year-old. 
While always a good cow, never till two years ago did 
she do anything remarkable. Then after calving it was 
noticed she seemed to suffer from a too full udder 
between milking. They then began to milk her three 
times a day, and fed her better, with the result that last 
year she gave 17,500 pounds of milk. This year she has 
eaten about 20 pounds of grain daily, with an abundance 
of bulky food every day, Summer or Winter. This is 
not a large grain ration considering the milk she gives. 
Her yield for the year is nearly four times as much as 
that of the best cow shown in Mr. Smith’s chart, and 
five pounds of grain, one-fourth of this cow’s ration, for 
such a cow would be light feeding. Had she been 
allowed to shrink in her flow, through insufficient and 
scanty food last Summer when milk was low, she would 
not be giving 50 pounds daily now with milk worth 
$1.40 per 100. Lastly, she is a living example that a 
cow should not be condemned if she does not make a 
large record as a young animal, if she has the points 
of a good producer, even if her production is only 
moderate. The meeting was presided over by D. P. 
Witter, of Berkshire, Tioga County, who with Mr. Van 
Dreser spoke to the people in the evening at the Grange 
Hall. There were in addition to the citizens of the 
locality many prominent men from the county, as well 
as the State. As a practical demonstration of “cow- 
ology” I have never seen its equal, even in the many 
State Dairy Associations I have attended. 
EDWARD VAN ALSTYNE. 
HOW CLOSE TO PLANT APPLE TREES. 
The report of the Western New York Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, page 98, speaks of l’rof. Craig’s illustrated talk on 
SAWING WOOD ON AN ILLINOIS FARM. Fig. 114. 
"The Results ot urenard Survey in Wayne and Monroe 
Counties,” in which he is quoted as follows: “lie said that 
the worst enemy of the apple orchard is the apple tree. 
Close planting is ruinous. Statistics show that the yield 
per acre steadily decreases as the number of trees per acre 
is increased." Does this refer to orchards planted 20 or 30 
feet apart, and none of the trees taken out as they grow 
and interlap? Which orchards do you consider will bring 
the owner more money per acre, trees planted 40 feet apart 
each way or those planted with standard trees 40 x 40 feet 
and tilled in with varieties of a dwarfish habit, such as 
Wealthy? That makes the orchard stand 20 x 20 until they 
have yielded a few crops, and as soon as the limbs meet to 
take out the filler trees, thus leaving the orchard stand 
40 by 40 feet. I would very jnuch like to have your opinion 
AN ILLINOIS FARM WOODPILE. Fig. 115. 
which orchard would yield the best returns over a period 
of, say, 20 years? H. t. d. 
New Jersey. 
My remarks on the results of an orchard survey in 
Wayne County, and with special reference to the dis¬ 
tance of planting trees, did not apply to trees that were 
planted as close as 20 by 20 or even 25 by 25 feet 
apart. The bearing apple trees in that section were 
largely planted about war times. Many of them were 
planted two rods apart each way. These are now 
crowding badly, and every other tree should be taken 
out. In this sense, the worst enemy of the orchard 
is the tree itself. The filler method is one which I be¬ 
lieve in, if it is thoroughly carried out. There is no 
reason at all why temporary trees should not be planted 
20 by 20 or even less distance if these fillers are 
removed before they injure the permanent trees. An¬ 
swering your questions specifically, of course an or¬ 
chard planted with fillers like Wealthy, so that the 
distance between the trees is 20 by 20 feet, will be 
vastly more productive in the first 20 years than an 
orchard planted 40 by 40. The standard varieties do 
not reach their maximum period of productivity under 
35 years in western New York. Spys are just coming 
into bearing at 20 years, so that it is eminently wise to 
occupy the ground during this interval; but at the 
same time it is also eminently wise to see that the 
temporary occupants of the ground do not injure those 
which are meant to be permanent. john craig. 
CONTINUOUS CULTURE OF POTATOES OR 
STRAWBERRIES. 
Paying crops of potatoes can be grown on the same 
soil continuously for a period of years without a green 
crop rotation, provided an application of stable manure 
is used to supply the humus which is so necessary to 
keep the soil in a friable condition. I have a plot of 
ground that has been cropped continuously for 15 years, 
not having grown a green crop to be plowed under dur¬ 
ing that time. We have grown potatoes on a portion of 
that plot five consecutive years without manure or fertil¬ 
izer of any kind, which yielded 195 bushels per acre, 
while another plot which had been manured two years 
previous, and had grown a crop of strawberries, yielded 
227 bushels per acre. I do not claim the above is 
good farming, but it is good conditions .for experi¬ 
menting. There are market gardens about New York 
that have been continuously cropped for upwards of 50 
years. But the supply of fertilizer and humus has been 
kept up by very liberal applications of stable manure, in 
some cases 40 tons per acre, besides from 1,000 to 2,000 
pounds of commercial fertilizer. Soil treated in the 
above manner is bound to be productive. The only 
possible objection to growing the same crop contin- 
ously for a period of years is that the enemies of the 
crop (both insect and fungi) increase annually where 
there is no change. The above is especially so with 
the potato. South of New York Crimson clover can 
be sown after early potatoes, to be plowed under in the 
Spring, thus supplying nitrogen as well as humus. 
As to strawberries, it will pay much better to rotate, 
as the strawberry needs the humus most one year after 
the plants arc set. It is impracticable to supply large 
quantities of manure at the time of setting without in¬ 
creasing the labor of caring for the plants, and running 
some risk of injury from drought the first Summer. 
My plan has been to manure a sod liberally, say 35 to 
40 loads per acre, planting the same to corn, giving the 
best of cultivation to destroy the weeds, thus lessening 
the labor the following season. The plot is set to 
strawberries, which are picked one season; as soon as 
picking is over, the strawberries and mulch are plowed 
under, and the plot sown with buckwheat, to be again 
plowed under and sown to rye and seeded down to 
Timothy and clover. Cut two years, then again manure 
for corn. Thus we have a five-year rotation with one 
application of manure and two lots of material to 
plow under, besides the sod. There are several combi¬ 
nations that will work as well as the above. A reason¬ 
able amount of chemical fertilizer applied to the buck¬ 
wheat and rye will generally pay. 
JOHN JEANNIN, JR. 
HAULING MANURE DAILY.—Said one of my 
neighbors to-day: “I have been getting better crops 
and increasing the productiveness of my farm constantly 
since I commenced hauling manure and spreading it 
daily.” A majority of our farmers are doing the same 
thing, and the number of them who are thus doing 
is increasing. In no other locality save in one where 
the Borden Company purchases the milk, do 1 know 
of so many farmers who take out the manure daily. 
Commonly it has been supposed that the principal rea¬ 
son for doing this is one of cleanliness and sanitation, 
but the idea is coming more to the front that soil 
fertility is thus increased over what it would be by haul¬ 
ing at long intervals. Get the manure on the land 
the day it is made is coming to be the mandate. There 
are some who haul it at frequent intervals, but de¬ 
posit in small piles, and then spread in Spring. In al¬ 
most every instance this practice is not upheld by our 
institute instructors and our men of science, nor does 
it seem to be sustained by experience. The extra work, 
the unequal fertilization, and the actual waste in some 
instances, all argue against the practice, and there is 
little or nothing to be said in favor. Perhaps the most 
extreme view of any that 1 have known was made 
A GOOD PRUNING SAW. Fig. 116. See Page 277. 
prominent at a recent institute. “How long before an 
expected freshet is it safe to spread manure on a river 
flat?” The answer was: “If I could be reasonably 
sure of three weeks’ time before a freshet I would 
spread it.” This supposes that the flat is simply over¬ 
flowed, but not washed by the river. h. h. lyon. 
