206 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 10 , 
be a sharp distinction between the commercial orchard 
and the one growing apples for home use. The former 
will cover a large area with few varieties, the latter a 
few trees of several kinds; it may be with two varieties 
on the same tree. The former is the one that pays the 
mortgage and educates the children. Its first character¬ 
istic is vigor; a strong grower, good foliage, not easily 
affected by fungus and long lived. In this connection 
let me say, precocity —or early bearing—and longevity do 
not usually go together. Next, productivity; a tree 
may be hardy, yet a shy bearer, and so return a small 
income. Then, a good handler. By this I mean not 
easily bruised; one that will carry long distances if need 
be and stand up. I am an advocate of more careful 
handling. One of the things my father impressed upon 
me was to handle apples as if they were eggs. Yet 
conditions often arise that give an apple with the above 
characteristics a decided advantage. One that is as 
little affected by insects as possible; not that we can 
do without spraying, but there are always seasons when 
thorough spraying at the proper time is impossible. 
Preferably a variety with a long, flexible stem; one that 
will not drop readily. I*or example, the Gravenstein; 
with some of the desirable qualities 1 mention, yet with a 
short, thick stem, in a deep calyx, blown off by the 
slightest breeze, before they attain size or color, all les¬ 
sening the profit. An annual rather than a biennial 
bearer. The, strain on the tree is less. There is the 
chance of two seasons’ markets. They will -be of better 
size and higher color. Last; as good quality as possible. 
I have put this last, not that I do not appreciate it. The 
more quality the better. But the highest quality, with¬ 
out a majority of the above requisites, is like “faith 
without works.” 'I his is a vital and much disputed 
point, and I think a rock on which many founder. They 
see an apple of the highest quality—beautiful to look 
at—selling at from one-third more to double the price 
of ordinary sorts. Therefore they decide that these will 
pay best, forgetting that they may be delicate trees, shy 
bearers, weak foliage susceptible to fungus, prone to 
drop before mature, and for which the extra price ob¬ 
tained will not compensate. 
SOME GOOD VARIEIIES.—I grow the King, Jon¬ 
athan, Spitzenberg and Newtown Pippin, all of the high¬ 
est quality, and splendid sellers, bringing big prices. I 
can grow fine apples of all of them. Nor do I want 
any others for my family, in their season. Nevertheless, 
I am not setting any of the above in commercial or¬ 
chards. Why? The King is a very delicate, short¬ 
lived tree, decaying just above the ground. They will 
not yield more than half the quantity of a Greening or 
Baldwin of the same age. The Jonathan is a slow 
grower, poor foliage, very liable to scab; while a heavy 
bearer, the small size of tree and fruit prevent its yield¬ 
ing large enough crops to be of the greatest profit. Yet 
I have a few exceptionally fine trees. The Spitzenburg 
is a weak tree, although more than 60 years old, very 
poor foliage; while I would not call it a strong bearer, 
its peculiar habit of growth makes few fruit spurs for 
the size of the tree and prevents it being a large yielder. 
Most often it is a biennial bearer. Any such must give 
large yields in the bearing year to be profitable, at any 
price. The Newtown is very slow to come into bearing 
and an uncertain bearer at best. Liable to scab, its 
thick foliage and habit of fruit to grow somewhat in 
clusters makes complete spraying very difficult. The 
fruit is inclined to grow knotty or corky. I always have 
at least one-third more culls from this variety than 
from any other 1 grow. I know that liberal feeding, 
good cultivation and intelligent and thorough spraying 
will in some measure overcome these difficulties, and 
in this I speak from most satisfactory experience. With 
the increasing amounts of all these things necessary in 
any case I do not want to start with the heavy handicap 
of all these weaknesses. 
PAYING APPLES IN THE HUDSON VAL¬ 
LEY.—I always refrain from recommending vari¬ 
eties except when I know all the conditions. The 
following are what I am setting myself, because 
I have found they have paid me, and I am grow- 
. ing apples to pay my debts, not for sentiment or to edu¬ 
cate the market. No matter what the size of the or¬ 
chard, I should set from one-third to one-half of Fall 
varieties. Some seasons adverse conditions will affect 
Winter sorts and the Fall varieties will escape; two bas¬ 
kets of eggs instead of one. The season of gathering 
is much lengthened, a most important point when avail¬ 
able laborers and bad weather conditions are taken into 
account. They sell well. For the past 20 years I 
have averaged as much for my Fall as for my Winter 
fruit. The foreign markets usually want them. No 
fruit will pay better in cold storage, yet I seldom have 
to put mine there. I mention more varieties than one 
would usually set, except in a very large orchard. I 
speak of them in their order of ripening; when two of 
them are of about the same season the first named is 
my preference. 
Alexander; thrifty, annual bearer, beautiful fruit, 
great seller. Last year brought $3, this year $4 per 
barrel. Poor quality; somewhat liable to rot on tree. 
Lime and sulphur nearly a complete remedy. Maiden’s 
Blush; thrifty, free from fungus and worms, annual, 
but not heavy bearer, fair quality, beautiful in appear¬ 
ance, good seller, rather delicate skin. Does best in 
rather heavy soil. Duchess of Oldenburg; hardy tree, 
good foliage, annual bearer, good seller, fine quality; 
inclined to overbear; not a good shipper. Wealthy; 
thrifty, beautiful, fine quality; extra seller when good 
THE SHEEP ARE SAFE HERE. Fig. 94. 
size; as the tree gets age inclined to overbear small 
specimens of knotty fruit; wants high feeding and 
severe pruning. Fall Pippin; thrifty, long-lived, annual 
and heavy bearer when well fed; highest quality, good 
keeper; sells well both at home and abroad; somewhat 
liable to scab, but easily controlled by Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture. One of the best. Holland Pippin; thrifty, an 
annual bearer, and will yield even more fruit than the 
hall Pippin. Not at all liable to scab. More delicate 
flesh, not of as high quality, nor so good a keeper or 
TIIE PEACH-LEAVED CAMPANULA, MUCH REDUCED. 
Fig. 95. See Ruralisms, Page 216. 
shipper. McIntosh Red; fair grower, superb quality; 
beautiful; keeps till after holidays. Extra seller, some¬ 
what inclined to overbear. Its most serious fault is its 
inclination to drop before greatest size and highest 
color are attained. Barring this, one of the best, of 
which one can safely set heavily. R. I. Greening; long- 
lived; strong grower, annual bearer (when well fed) 
of mod erate crops, or heavy biennial bearer. High 
quality; good seller; more liable to attack of Codling 
moth than most; not over strong foliage, but a variety 
to tie to. Sutton Beauty; thrifty, medium-sized tree, 
annual bearer, beautiful fruit; fair quality; good seller. 
Baldwin, after all is said, the most profitable of all. 
Good grower; heavy biennial bearer; fruit and foliage 
very free from fungus and insects; medium quality; fine 
keeper; always sought after at fair prices. Fruit some¬ 
times affected by rusty spot under the skin. Trees of 
late years show weakness. 1 am setting more heavily 
of this sort than for the past few years, for the fruit 
will be wanted. It will be observed that all the above, 
except Alexander, arc of good quality, and that none 
has all the virtues. Yet they are all thrifty and pro¬ 
ductive and sure money-makers. With such a list I 
feel no disposition to seek for extra high-priced kinds 
with weaknesses, nor new sorts, exploited by nursery¬ 
men with trees to boom, the like of which never grew 
anywhere but in Paradise, and my recollection of the 
story is that the results there were most disastrous. 
edw’d van alstyne. 
TO MAKE A COW EAT. 
I have a farrow cow not giving milk that I have been 
trying to get fat enough to kill, feeding her all the cornmeal 
and hay she will eat, but the trouble is she will not eat 
enough. If you try to get her to eat only just so much 
she backs off and won’t eat anything hardly for a day or 
two. Some of your readers can tell me perhaps what I 
can do to get her to eat more. She is not old. I have read 
somewhere that buckwheat straw is not good for horse bed¬ 
ding, acting in some way injurious to horses. I have for¬ 
gotten what it is. I have used buckwheat straw for three 
Winters for bedding and two of the horses have gone wrong; 
what is the trouble? j, b. 
Fenton, N. Y. 
It may be that the cow is a poor feeder, and needs 
an appetizer. It will doubtless help her appetite and 
digestion if you give her a tablespoonful twice a day of 
the following mixture: 50 pounds of oil meal, 2]/ 2 
pounds common salt, 2 '/ 2 pounds of Epsom salts, 2'/ 2 
pounds powdered charcoal, two pounds saltpeter, two 
pounds powdered gentian, V/ 2 pound fenugreek. Corn- 
meal is a pretty concentrated feed. Many animals will 
not eat it freely and get sated with it. If she eats 
freely, “all she will eat” is more than she will digest. 
I would suggest that you add to the cornmeal one- 
half the weight of first-class wheat feed, or of dried 
brewers’ grains. This will be more digestible, and 
probably more palatable. If you can give her some 
roots it will help both appetite and digestion. Pota¬ 
toes are better than none. Above all things, do not 
give feed more than she will eat, and have a good 
appetite for the next feed. The trouble with the buck¬ 
wheat straw is, that it irritates the skin of the horses, 
very much the same as the buckwheat cakes sometimes 
affect the interior of the stomach, and through that 
the skin of the human. I would never use it to bed 
any animal. e. van alstyne. 
RECLAIMING WORN-OUT PASTURES . 
There are generous areas in the East of natural graz¬ 
ing lands to which the above title does not apply. Such 
lands are not generally natural corn or grain lands— 
are not arable lands. Much has not been plowed within 
the memory of old inhabitants. But the worn-out pas¬ 
ture land is generally natural corn or grain land. In 
fact, its downward impetus was given by grain and 
corn farming in the early half of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury. I am not an enthusiast regarding the commercial 
importance of reclaiming old pastures for grazing pur¬ 
poses. It is too much like bucking against geology. 
The elements are continually breaking down rocks and 
developing latent fertility, but man is not built to wait 
for these slow processes. These pastures have been 
subjected to a slow, almost geologic, process of deple¬ 
tion, measured by generations of men, and had passed 
the profitable recuperation point before we were aware 
of the catastrophe. The average eastern worn-out pas¬ 
ture cannot be reclaimed without an expense beyond any 
income that a-nimals can graze off from it. We may 
incline to the sentimental desire to see the uplands 
dotted with groups of cattle feeding peacefully among 
the shady groves. 
The hard fact remains that our fathers and grand¬ 
fathers ad infinitum did with force of arms and malice 
aforethought burglarize, skin, scrape and deplete said 
land with corn crops and grain crops and cattle, so 
that, if we plow, harrow and hatchel a la Clark ad in¬ 
finitum and spend good money for commercial fertil¬ 
izers we cannot get our cost back by letting cattle travel 
over the fields. What, then, shall be done? If the land 
is arable or can be cleaned for culture at reasonable 
cost, it will pay to put it into cultivation and raise sell¬ 
ing crops or forage crops for intensive feeding in the 
barn or upon the land. Note here that we people in 
the East have not advanced very far in intensive graz¬ 
ing upon small areas. If these lands cannot be broken 
into profitable intensive cultivation, what can we do bet¬ 
ter than to abandon or plan to timber according to the 
teachings of modern forestry? e. c. birge. 
