1009. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
©83 
THE STUDY OF A MULCHED ORCHARD. 
A Visit to the Hitchings Farm. 
Part IV. 
I think it has been demonstrated that Mr. Hitchings 
has thus far made a success of his sod orchard. I 
hope, too, that the reason for it has been made clear— 
the soil thoroughly stuffed with humus and kept 
shaded by sod. Now under what circumstances can 
others expect to follow the Hitchings plan? At the 
great Boston fruit show good judges told me that at 
least 70 per cent of the fruit on exhibition was grown 
in sod, while 80 per cent of the prizes were won by 
sod-grown fruit. That is important if true, and if 
the estimate is wrong I would like it made right. I 
spoke of this to a well-known fruit man, 
and he made this remark. 
“The sod men take the prices, but the 
cultivators make the money.” 
That puts it squarely up to the sod 
men, because we all know that cultivat¬ 
ed orchards are profitable. Mr. Hitch¬ 
ings certainly both takes prizes and 
money out of his orchard. There arc 
others. I will quote from a letter re¬ 
cently received from F. H. Ballou of 
Ohio. The object of this is to show 
huw mulching material is obtained and 
how poor and naturally unfavorable 
land has been improved by mulching. 
“I wish you might have seen an or¬ 
chard at Proctorville, Lawrence County, 
which I saw in early October. It cer¬ 
tainly was the most beautiful orchard I 
have ever seen in Ohio. Such Grimes 
and Rome Beauty I have never seen 
anywhere. The orchard adjoins the 
farm and is in sight of the spot where 
the original Rome Beauty tree stood. 
Mr. McCown, the owner, is a quiet, 
thoughtful man, but his faith in the 
mulch system is so deeply rooted that 
a skeptic would feel mighty uncomfort¬ 
able while in his company. He ‘has the 
goods,’ too, in the form of fruit, and 
figures that ought to satisfy the most 
exacting who urges the ‘mud cure’ for 
the orchardist’s cultural difficulties. The 
great big question of ‘where will you 
get the the mulching material’ is solved just as one 
would expect a resourceful man like Mr. McCown to 
solve such^questions. He uses the waste material of 
his own and his neighbors’ farms for the enriching of 
his orchards. In this case the waste growth is broom- 
sedge, which abounds everywhere in that section. 
“Mr. McCpwn’s orchard is 14 years old; it has been 
heavily mulched for seven years; it has been bearing 
profitable crops for four years—or since it was 10 
years old; the past four years, including the season 
just closing, it has netted an average of $100 per acre 
per year; it is merely in the infancy of its fruitful¬ 
ness. The orchard is clipped twice a year and is as 
attractive as a park. The trees are pictures of health 
and vigor. Ask Mr. McCown if he does not observe a 
‘toxic effect’ of the grass upon the trees and he will 
smile and tell you to ‘ask the trees.’ Two rows of 
the 14 -year-old trees (28 trees), of Mr. McCown’s 
year bearing just a nice crop of the largest Rome 
Beauties I have ever seen. Like the fruit of the far 
Northwest, they showed a form much longer than the 
typical Rome Beauty of our section. Mr. McCown 
does not have to mulch. His farm is on second 
bottom land in the valley of the Ohio River. It was 
considered ‘farmed to death’ when he .bought it. 
The location is such that, in former years, it was 
though that apples could not be grown that, would 
color sufficiently well to command a good market 
price. Mr. McCown’s apples from his well and faith¬ 
fully mulched orchard are now eagerly sought by 
buyers who especially seek for ‘hill-grown’ fruit. 
There is enough waste material growing among the 
hills and valleys of southern Ohio to mulch all the 
was ready for a fine start. Cool weather retarded the 
appearance of blossoms, but the first crop was cut 
June 21 with scarcely a bloom in sight. The weighed 
yield of hay was 8,090 pounds. The second crop was 
cut on August 6 , and the hay fed from windrow and 
cock to supplement the dried-up pastures. The yield 
was 7,800 pounds. A third cutting this year was not 
cured for hay, as the date of cutting, September 29, 
did not warrant any attempt at hay-making. It was 
fed to cattle without curing, the weight of the green 
crop being 2,695 pounds. A narrow strip on one side 
of the field was left to stand through the Winter in 
order that we may observe next season what effect 
our late cutting of this season may have on next 
year’s yield. For soil not naturally adapted to Alfalfa 
a yield of 6.18 tons per acre of hay and 
slightly more than one ton per acre of 
green feed, looks very encouraging. The 
same type of soil has produced over 
four tons per acre of Timothy hay on 
the University Farm. This Alfalfa plot 
has not received any fertilizer or reno¬ 
vating treatment in the three years since 
it was sown. edward r. minns. 
N. Y. College of Agriculture. 
HEAD OF CAULIFLOWER FROM CONNECTICUT. Fig. 537. 
CONNECTICUT CAULIFLOWER. 
On September 20, Mr. Chas. Magee 
sent us the head of cauliflower pictured 
at Fig. 537. He calls it “A sample of 
what we can grow on the Connecticut 
hills.” 
“When I came here four years ago, 
there was no cauliflower grown here. 
This year we have four acres of them. 
We started to cut August 20, and will 
have them until Christmas. I have 12 
dozen on the wagon, to take to Nor¬ 
walk and South Norwalk to-morrow 
morning. They are not all like the one 
I am sending you, but they are all good. 
I get from 10 to 25 cents each. The 
remainder of my load for to-morrow 
morning is made up of 100 cabbages for 
which I will get $5, five bushels Lima 
beans, $1 per bushel; five bushels ruta 
baga turnips, 60 cents per bushel; two 
bushels green string beans; nine bushels 
wax beans, $1.25 per bushel. This is a one-horse load; 
on Wednesday I shall have 50 bushels potatoes on 
a two-horse load. I get 90 cents per bushel for them.” 
Speaking of this cauliflower, Mr. Magee says:— 
“The seed for this cauliflower was sown in the 
open ground about May 10, and the plants were 
transplanted June 20. The ground on which it was 
grown was planted with Lima beans last year. Last 
Spring 15 loads of barnyard manure were put on to 
the acre, the ground was plowed early and kept well 
worked. In June 1,650 pounds of 314 - 6-8 fertilizer 
were put to the acre, and worked in. The plants were 
set 30 inches each way, and cultivated once a week 
both ways, until they were too large to work without 
breaking off the bottom leaves. They were also hand- 
hoed three times. In regard to labor and profit com- 
“A COMPOSITE WATCHDOG.” Fig. 538. 
Grimes Golden, have this year returned him more 
clean cash than his nearest neighbor’s farm of 50 
acres has given its owner. The record for 1909 is 
150 barrels at $4 per barrel from the 28 trees planted 
33 feet apart; this means $857 per acre from 14-year- 
old trees. The banner tree of the Grimes holds this 
record for the past five years, the figures being the 
net returns after all cost of mulching, picking, pack¬ 
ing and packages has been deducted: 1905 , $ 4 . 50 ; 1906 , 
$9; 1907 , $ 13 . 50 ; 1908 , $ 22 ; 1909 , $ 27 ; total, $ 76 . 
I he Rome Beauty trees, just a little later than Grimes 
■ n coming into bearing, are now coming in with their 
fruit that promises to build up similar records both as 
to size, quality and quantity. The trees were this 
acreage of apple orchards that will ever be planted.” 
_ h. w. c. 
ALFALFA ON A COLLEGE FARM. 
Experience at Cornell. 
On page 890 you have made some very trite re¬ 
marks about Alfalfa growing. We have a small 
area (one and one-third acre) on Cornell University 
Farm, which was planted to Alfalfa three years ago 
last August. I think it illustrates some of your state¬ 
ments about the crop. The soil on which our Alfalfa 
plot grows is known as “Dunkirk clay loam,” and is 
not naturally adapted to Alfalfa growing. In fact, 
it is a hard soil to manage unless plenty of humus¬ 
making material is plowed under. Under-drainage 
and lime are found to be beneficial on much of this 
soil. As this particular plot was planted more than 
a year before I first saw it, I cannot give the exact 
details of the planting, but I have ascertained that the 
men who did the job used “great skill and patience,” 
the results of “keen observation and study.” The 
plot lies between two slight draws which were stone- 
drained years ago. To put it another way, a gentle 
knoll was selected because it offered some advantages 
in drainage. The land was treated with barnyard 
manure, lime, and soil from an old Alfalfa field on the 
University Farm, before the seed was sown. That 
was where “some little expense” was incurred, but 
success was what its sponsors wanted regardless of 
first cost. 
During the season of 1907 two cuttings of hay were 
taken from it, and the yield calculated as five tons. 
The following Winter season proved to be quite wet, 
and frost heaved the plants badly before Spring. 
Many of the crowns were found standing three inches 
out of ground in early May, while some were dead 
and lying flat on the surface of the ground. How¬ 
ever, enough plants took root to make a reasonable 
stand for hay, and when the first crop was cut on 
June 20 . the yield was estimated at three tons. Lack 
of convenient wagon scales prevented accurate 
weights from being taken in 1908 . The second cut¬ 
ting was harvested August 12 , and estimated at one 
and one-half ton, a conservative figure. The Alfalfa 
made a good growth by October 1 , but it was thought 
best to let it stand without cutting through the Win¬ 
ter. The leaves fell back to the soil, and the ‘stems 
remaining erect were ready to catch and hold the 
snow during Winter. Fortunately Spring freezing 
did no noticeable damage in 1909, and the Alfalfa 
AN OVERGROWN FARM PET. Fig. 538. See Page 994. 
pared with cabbage, it requires more skill and labor, 
and in the New York market the price is about 
double, but in a market such as we have here, there 
is about three times as much profit. But there is no 
crop grown on the farm that requires as much skill 
and experience as cauliflower.” 
LEMON CUCT'MREU.—On page 943 S. ,7. Griffin writes 
of "the Lemon Cucumber.” Is it not the same, with some 
variation, as is sold here in Richmond under the title 
“glass melon” or “vine peach?” The only firm that I 
know of advertising it says: “For preserving only; small, 
lemon-shaped. For sweet pickles, pies, or preserves they 
are superb.” I can vouch for it that they are indeed superb 
for preserves. Many have a peachy flavor, hence they are 
called vine peach ; in others the flavor tends between a 
cucumber and a muskmelon. They produce fruit till frost. 
The seed sells for one dollar a pound or 10 cents an ounce. 
b. c. 
