6i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 11, 
grass and rye, $905; 17 acres wheat, $504.16; 12 acres 
potatoes, $956.88; milk and calves, $519.56; total, $3,- 
287.60. Thus after 20 years of this rotation one of the 
best crops of the series was grown, and it is safe to 
say that the farm never was in a higher state of fer¬ 
tility. On June 20 Mr. Lewis reported that he never 
had a better prospect for all crops. The wheat looked 
right for 35 to .40 bushels per acre, the corn better 
than ever, and the grass good for 2 l / 2 tons per acre, 
while the potatoes were in fine condition. The crops 
this year arc divided as follows: 18 acres potatoes, 
17 acres corn, 17 acres of wheat, 15 acres mixed grass 
and 16 acres of Timothy. The Alfalfa is in good shape, 
and has been used both for hay and for green fodder. 
Mr. Lewis also says that he is using more fertilizers 
than ever, in spite of the increase in the amount of 
farm manure and its better quality. When we first 
began to report the change on this farm to dairying, 
there were some who said: “That settles it, he will 
soon see how much better it is to feed his hay and grain 
at home, and keep more stock.” Yet after years of 
careful trial Mr. Lewis is using more fertilizer than 
ever and still limiting his herd of cows to the number 
needed to cat the cornstalks, which are the only part 
of his farm crops not salable in the regular market. 
There are some things about this method of farming 
which arc familiar to older readers, but which are new 
to others. Nearly all the fertilizer used for the entire 
rotation is used on the potato crop. This is the pre¬ 
vailing habit of eastern farmers who follow a rotation 
of this sort. Some of them use a ton or even 3,000 
pounds of fertilizer to the acre. Of course these farm¬ 
ers realize that the potato crop cannot utilize all the 
plant food in a ton of fertilizer, yet experience shows 
that it is not economy to use less. Such farmers expect 
to obtain a good share of their money from potatoes. 
It pays to feed this crop so that it cannot suffer for 
plant food. The reasoning is that even if the potatoes 
might yield a full crop on 800 pounds of fertilizer there 
will be but little loss from the surplus, since the wheat 
and grass which follow the potatoes keep the soil well 
covered. Mr. Lewis once told me that only once in 
six ov seven years can he hope to produce a maximum 
crop of potatoes. The soil and the season—in fact all 
conditions must be just right to make a full crop. As 
one can never be sure when the conditions will be per¬ 
fect, it is safe to feed heavily every year. If the potato 
crop is unable to use all the fertilizer the grain and 
grass will be better to pay for it. There is one advan¬ 
tage which a fertilizer farmer has. Practice enables 
him to tell when a crop needs extra plant food. He 
can quickly supply the need in complete fertilizer, or 
nitrate of soda or potash alone. In Mr. Lewis’s farming 
it sometimes becomes evident that grass, grain or 
potatoes need more food. It can be quickly given. 
Even the corn, in spite of the well-manured sod, some¬ 
times responds to the use of additional fertilizer. While 
these extra applications are often made in general the 
fertilizing for the potato crop is supposed to carry the 
wheat and grass in addition. We have seen farmers 
who simplify this rotation by cutting out the corn' and 
wheat. They use fertilizers heavily on potatoes, dig 
early and seed soon after digging to Timothy—cut two 
or three years if the grass holds and then plow and 
plant potatoes again. In a few other cases farmers 
get on with even less labor by seeding to clover after 
potatoes, pasturing hogs or beef cattle on the clover 
and plowing down the pasture for potatoes again. The 
object in using all the manure on the sod is to save 
labor and to force the corn crop. It is a general belief 
that corn does better on manure than any other farm 
crop, and it is also understood that manure is likely to 
make the potatoes scabby. Formerly one weak point in 
this plan of farming was the fact that the soil was left 
bare through the Fall, after the corn crop. Whenever 
this is done there is a loss of nitrates through leaching. 
Some years ago Mr. Lewis began to sow Crimson clover 
at the last cultivation of the corn. This crop gave ex¬ 
cellent Fall pasture, and helped the soil. 
In view of last years crop and the present condition 
of the farm we certainly believe in “Chemicals and 
Clover” for many locations. It will be most successful 
on a level farm where the soil is quite uniform. Some 
farms are not well suited to such a rotation, for there 
are wet fields where potatoes would not do well, and 
dry fields where corn is not suited. It would be a mis¬ 
take to put large quantities of fertilizer on the wet fields 
or to plow them every two years. It would be better 
to seed them well and keep them in grass as long as 
possible. All these things must be considered. Some 
modifications would probably be needed at the South, 
which we will try to discuss next week. h. w. c. - 
Hogs and Spraying.- —Some time ago I saw an inquiry 
with regard to turning hogs in an orchard after spraying. 
At the last spraying one vear there were a few trees too 
heavily loaded. ‘ After finishing spraying we immediately 
pioke-d about a bushel for eight or 10 shotes, about all 
we thought they would clean up with their other feed. 
They were given the same amount of apples each day for 
three or four days. No had effects were ever noticed. 
Th“ trees were spraved with five pounds blue vitriol, five 
pounds lime and 6Vo ounces Paris-green to 50 gallons 
water. They were also sprayed until they began to drip. 
Lapeer, Nicb. a. m, b, 
SUNDAY CREAM DELIVERY . 
We have one creamery where a part of the patrons 
object to delivering milk “on the Sabbath.” Those pa¬ 
trons deliver the milk during the Summer season, be¬ 
ginning about the middle of May, Saturday evening. 
They have excellent spring water, 48 degrees, and by 
aerating well before putting in cans the three milkings 
come to the creamery Monday morning in excellent 
condition. I do not think this milk would be in good 
condition for shipping if it had to be drawn three or 
four miles, but if near the shipping station it would be 
all right. We find this milk all right for cream or but- 
A FARMER'S FLOCK OF SHEEP. Fig. 254. 
ter making. When the farmers live a long distance 
from the creamery and have abundant water supply and 
cool, at 46 to 48 degrees and aerate it well, having cans 
very clean, and the milking is done in a clean manner, 
Saturday night’s milk can be kept and is kept over until 
Monday, and is all right, first-class condition, Monday 
morning. In some cases 1 have seen it better than where 
brought in each day. It is in the care, in milking and 
cooling. 
In brief, if the dairymen have good cool water, run¬ 
ning water, the milk being aerated in the open air, put 
into clean cans, agitated until cool, say 60 degrees, and left 
in 48 to 50 degrees of water, it will keep over Sabbath 
and be in excellent condition to deliver to a butter or 
cheese creamery, if it has been milked in a clean stable 
by ai clean person from a clean cow and into a clean 
pail. Cleanliness is the chief point to be observed in 
every case. W. M. peck. 
New York. 
PREPARATION FOR THE WHEAT CROP. 
If I could have my choice of ground to sow on, I 
would choose a field where a heavy clover sod, or where 
cow peas had been plowed down and potatoes raised 
the present year, using at least 1,500 pounds high-grade 
fertilizer on the potatoes. The potatoes having been 
kept clean, and dug in good time. I would not plow for 
the wheat, but harrow at least four or five times, and 
then drill in the wheat, drilling with it 400 pounds of 
good fertilizer, with at least three per cent quickly avail¬ 
able nitrogen, eight per cent phosphoric acid and six 
“HOW HAPPY COULD HE BE WITH EITHER, WERE 
’TOTIIER DEAR CHARMER AWAY!” Fig. 255. 
per cent potash. Then in the Spring, if it did not start 
to grow promptly, I would sow broadcast 150 pounds 
nitrate of soda per acre. A heavy dressing of stable 
manure will make a large stand of straw which will not 
fill well unless one is sure the ground contains plenty 
of phosphoric acid and potash. o. d. Thompson. 
Pennsylvania. 
Getting Large Wheat Crops. 
This is not a regular wheat country; that is, where 
wheat crops follow wheat crops without rotation, but 
other crops are grown, a common rotation being clover, 
corn, .pats ant! wheat. We have followed very success-. 
fully a three-years’ rotation, one of clover and two of 
wheat, but as a rule a longer one is advisable. Clover, 
potatoes and wheat is the best paying rotation we have 
ever tried. I would follow this rotation if I were try¬ 
ing to get the largest possible yield of wheat. I have 
grown over 45 bushels of wheat per acre when wheat 
followed potatoes. The clover sod is to be turned late 
in Fall or early in Spring for potatoes. On this crop 
we always use 800 or 1,000 pounds of fertilizer per 
acre, then about 200 pounds with wheat. In this rota¬ 
tion we get a money crop from our clover by clipping 
it when it first begins to head out, and saving the 
second crop for seed. The haulm from thrashing the 
clover seed goes back to the land, is scattered over the 
thin parts, and with this rotation land will get better 
and produce heavier crop as the years go by. We con¬ 
sider clover by far the best crop to turn under for 
wheat on our limestone soils. We thus get all the 
ammonia the wheat crop demands in the cheapest pos¬ 
sible way, and the other mineral elements are supplied 
by using a commercial fertilizer. The trouble in follow¬ 
ing the potato, wheat and clover rotation is that we 
usually want to grow more wheat than we do potatoes, 
and this caused us to adopt simply the clover and wheat 
rotation. I cannot conceive of a better condition to 
insure a large yield of wheat than to sow after a crop 
of potatoes has been harvested, next to turn under a 
good crop of clover in the latter part of July or first 
Of August. W. W. STEVENS. 
Indiana. 
AN OVER-PRUNED ORCHARD. 
I have just come into possession of an apple orchard 
of 120 trees, and wish some one who knows would lie kind 
enough to tell me how to make this orchard hear. It was 
planted 18 years ago by a man who was accustomed to 
apple culture and It was well treated, that Is, was culti¬ 
vated, and manured and trimmed (by the owner), but to my 
mind never close enough. The owner having died two 
years since it was neglected that year, but last season a 
professional trimmer was put in. and he left more wood on 
the ground than in the tops, much to the improvement of 
the appearance. Year before last there were about 40 bar¬ 
rels of fruit, last year very few bushels and this year there 
was scarcely a blossom. Part of the trees were planted, 
supposedly Kings, but were really Twenty Ounce. The 
remainder’ are mixed sorts, but mostly Rhode Island Green¬ 
ings, but all act alike so far as bearing goes. The trees 
have been sprayed once this year, and are to have three 
more treatments. Is there any lxmefit to accrue to future 
crops or the trees by persistent spraying in barren years? 
Perhaps I should say the land on which this orchard stands 
Is high but flat, and not drained artificially—good clay 
loam soil, with southern aspect. k. g. b. 
Ingersoll, Ont. 
It is quite evident to me that this orchard has been 
too severely pruned. This is what has caused the 
falling off in yield of fruit, for the excessive prun¬ 
ing by the “professional trimmer” forced the trees 
into growth, in the effort of natuie to replace the 
branches cut away. Many of these “professionals” 
are tree butchers rather than sensible tree primers. It 
requires far more good sense to decide which branches 
to leave on the trees and which to remove than most 
orchardists realize. As I have said before in public, 
there are many ignorant persons who think the more 
brush they make in the orchard when pruning, the 
more skill they display. It is a great mistake to cut 
and slash an orchard tree, as many do. There is 
benefit in a reasonable amount of pruning in an apple 
orchard, but this should be done with the best of 
judgment and in moderation. The trimming off of all 
the small branches and twigs along the main branches 
of an apple or any other fruit tree is a detriment 
rather than a benefit to it, yet we often see 
it done. Many people do this in their ignor¬ 
ant but well-meant attempts to help their trees, and 
think they “look nice” anyhow, but to my notion, they 
look shanky and hideous. Nature clothes the branches 
of most fruit trees with small branches as a protec¬ 
tion from the direct sunshine and to help in the suste¬ 
nance of the whole constitution of the tree. These 
minor branches also bear considerable fruit, although 
not so much or that of so good quality as the outer 
and upper ones, where the sunshine has more effect 
upon them. Pruning should be done to assist nature in 
the development of the tree and its fruit, and not so as 
to suppress either. 
Now is a good time to prune apple trees, for at this 
time of year there will be little or no growth of sprouts 
from the wounds. They will heal more quickly if 
made in midsummer than those made at any 
other time of year. The main objection to 
pruning now is the scarcity of time for such work, 
owing to the usual pressure during the growing sea¬ 
son. The orchard under discussion is probably in 
good condition for bearing, and will produce good 
crops of fruit after this year, or when it has had time 
to recover from the terrible ordeal that it has had to 
undergo since the tree butcher was turned loose in it. 
Good tillage should be given, and any fertilizing that 
may be necessary. There may be a thick growth of 
shoots that came out where the butcher cut off the big 
branches, and the most of these should be removed be¬ 
fore this season’s growth stops, H, & VAF PFMAN. 
