1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
087 
THE OSWEGO APPLE. 
The apple shown at Fig. 478 was sent us by L. 
J. Farmer, of Pulaski, N. Y. It originated in 
Oswego County, N. Y., near Lake Ontario, and the 
tree has fruited every year since it commenced to 
bear, in 1905. In appearance it resembles both Spy 
and Spitzenburg, though handsomer than either. 
The quality of the specimen, tested was fairly good, 
though it had been in a warm room too long for 
best results. 
GREAT IS ALFALFA. 
\\ oodland Farm is given up to four crops, corn, 
Alfalfa, beardless barley and Soy beans. The past 
season has not been remarkably favorable for all 
the crops, and yet, as we look over the results of 
the season’s work, we cannot but feel gratified. We 
harvested from 60 acres of Alfalfa, probably between 
200 and 250 tons of beautiful hay, and from 60 acres 
of barley in which Alfalfa was sown, probably about 
60 tons of mixed barley and Alfalfa hay, and a 
later cutting from the same field of about 40 or 50 
tons of Alfalfa hay. By the way, we like this bar¬ 
ley hay mighty well. We sow the barley in the 
first place just to get a proper stand of Alfalfa, 
and having all the grain that we need on the farm, 
we really prefer cutting it for hay rather than let¬ 
ting it mature. There is always enough young 
Alfalfa in it to improve the quality a good deal. We 
think we would like it very well even without this 
Alfalfa. It is the smooth or beardless barley, and so 
there are no beards to contend with. We cut it when 
in the dough stage, and how the stock of all kinds 
do like it! It is both flesh-forming and fattening, 
and we feed it to everything we have with the very 
best results. 
The corn was mostly planted under unfavorable 
conditions. . Part of it lay in the ground for weeks 
before the weather became warm enough for it to 
germinate, as we had a little warm weather at 
planting time, followed by cold weather. However, 
we secured a beautiful stand, even under these con¬ 
ditions. One field suffered from drought as soon as 
the corn was up, this being the last field, that we 
planted. For several weeks it was so dry that the 
corn remained almost stationary, but later on we 
had splendid rains, and the corn throve very well. 
A drought came late this Fall, just about 10 days 
before the corn was properly matured, and most of 
our corn suffered more or less from this late dry 
weather, but even under these conditions, the yield 
that we secured was really surprising, even to our¬ 
selves. We have husked one 20-acre field that aver¬ 
aged about 80 bushels per acre, this being the lowest 
yield which we have had this year. A 45-acre field, 
on which we have husked only a little, seems to go 
between 80 and 90 bushels. Another 45-acre field 
of better ground is husking at the rate of a flat hun¬ 
dred bushels per acre. The last two fields were 
grown on Alfalfa sod; the field that husked only 80 
bushels was not. The field that husked 80 bushels 
had some manure; the other two fields have had 
none for a number of years; this would clearly 
show that the Alfalfa sod of itself had benefited 
the corn even more than the manure. 
Ohio. _ CHAS. B. WING. 
“THE BASHFUL STATE.” 
One would hardly claim at first thought that such 
a title could be made to fit New England. The 
Yankees are not supposed to be lacking in assurance, 
yet when it comes to trying to hide opportunities 
under a bushel Vermont can-take a front seat. It is 
doubtful if in any State of the Union there is less 
poverty, discontent or hunger than in Vermont. With 
a population of some 350,000 there are home oppor¬ 
tunities for three times as many. Remember that in 
New York City alone there are 900,000 Russian Jews 
—with both parents born in Europe! Vermont is 
covered with opportunities in dairying, general farm¬ 
ing, gardening and apple culture. These opportuni¬ 
ties are known and recognized, yet they have never 
been fairly put before the people. That is why the 
State may be called “bashful.” The R. N.-Y. believes 
it will be to the advantage not only of Vermont but 
the rest of the country as well to tell something 
about the State. Let us first take this letter from 
Chester Co., Pa. 
I went to see the exhibit of Oregon apples. They were 
wonderfully fine, nothing like them grows in this country. 
Can you tell whether it is the soil or climate? If soil, 
what can we apply to our ground to give the large size, 
clear skin and high color to our crops of apples? 
Not a blemish on them, no worm holes, no scab, just bright 
clear skin. The Jonathan took the highest polish, though 
several other kinds were very nearly as pretty and shiny. 
The Grimes Golden were twice the size of those grown 
here, and more tender in flesh. b. s. 
The exhibit referred to was 266 boxes of prize¬ 
winning apples from Oregon. We have seen much the 
same exhibit in New York. They were remarkably 
fine, but there were finer apples exhibited at the Ver¬ 
mont Horticultural Meeting at Montpelier. Not only 
finer in appearance, but much higher in quality! 
You must remember that tho'se Oregon apples are 
picked fruit—one out of 50,000. Not every apple 
grown in Oregon could compare with- these. If you 
could scour Chester Co., Pa., for a few boxes of 
the very best you could make a good showing. There 
are more of them in Oregon, because the growers 
there work together in growing, packing and selling. 
Those apples did not come from a dozen different 
growing the trees and the clear, pure air for ripening 
and coloring- the fruit. There can be no argument 
over the fact that just as handsome apples can be 
grown in Vermont as were ever grown in Oregon, 
and while just as high-colored and shapely they will 
be as full of flavor and fragrance as spice. Remem¬ 
ber, too, that while these Oregon apples must be 
shipped thousands of miles to market those from 
Vermont are within a few hundred! The history 
of Vermont .is full of “ifs.” For instance, if the 
money earned in the State and sent to develop the 
West had been kept at home to build roads and 
develop forests and farms! Or if at the time Oregon 
and Washington began to develop this apple business 
Vermont had done the same and stuck to it with 
equal energy! You see we are right in calling Ver¬ 
mont “bashful.” She hardly recognizes her own 
good things. We shall see that the world knows 
some of them at least. 
THE OSWEGO APPLE. Fig. 478. 
orchards, all picked and packed as suited the individual 
owners. They were selected and packed by experts 
who went from -farm to farm writing their names on 
the boxes they packed, with the same responsibility 
that would go with signing a check. 
Soil, climate, culture and care all go to make these 
apples what they are. Some of them are grown under 
irrigation, so the trees never suffer from lack of 
moisture. Of course the freedom from worm holes 
proves that the trees were sprayed with arsenic to 
kill the worms. The clear skin is partly due to the 
clear air where these apples were grown, and to the 
spraying with Bordeaux. Some of this fruit was 
kept “copper plated” through the season. We are 
GLADIOLUS SALMONEUS. MUCH REDUCED. Fig. 479. 
See Ruralisms, Page 990. 
finding out more and more each year that certain 
spots or tracts of land scattered through the country 
are best adapted to growing high-class apples. The 
grape growers along the Rhine in Germany know that 
certain varieties of grapes will do best on certain 
small spots of land. By knowing this they grow 
wonderful crops. It is much the same with apples. 
The Pacific coast growers have learned where these 
beauties will grow, and the knowledge has not only 
given them their market, but advertised their State. 
They have not been bashful about presenting their 
opportunities. 
But Vermont has been bashful. She has in the 
Champlain Valley and other sections the soil for 
WORK OF THE GASOLINE ENGINE. 
Gasoline engines are getting very numerous each 
year. We use a 15 horse-power portable for our 
own work, including grinding all feed, and operate 
it for local work in a radius of three miles. We 
thrash 8,000 bushels grain, bale about 400 tons hay 
and straw, shred 25,000 bundles fodder, fill six 
silos and other miscellaneous work per season. We 
have made quite a “hit” thrashing and baling straw 
at the same time with one engine, using a clutch 
pulley on each fly wheel. Our average work per 
hour at this is 50 bushels wheat, and two tons 
straw. All the above work is done in connection 
with working a farm of 110 acres, all tilled but 
pasture for 18 cows. We have a silo; raised 27 
acres corn, 23 acres wheat, 10 acres oats, 40 tons 
Timothy hay, and 25 tons clover hay. At the 
present writing we have the hay to *feed or sell, lots 
of straw for bedding, sufficient silage to feed until 
next May, 350 bushels oats, 40 bushels wheat, 1,600 
bushels ear corn, 3,000 bundles fodder. Again the 
question comes up, shall we sell some of this feed 
at the prevailing lower prices from last season, or 
buy more cows to use it? Probably this same ques¬ 
tion is puzzling more readers, especially those who 
keep a record of all sales and expenses, and figure, 
as the writer does, at the end of the year what the 
progress has been financially—a very important item 
too often overlooked by farmers generally. 
Chester Co., Pa. h;. s. d. 
Compared With Steam. 
I have in use a 20 horse-power gasoline traction 
engine and have done different kinds of work with 
it. I have done a full season’s thrashing and it 
handled my separator with ease. My thrasher is 
a 32-inch cylinder and 54-inch rear, with self feeder, 
weigher and blower, with combination stacker, and 
thrashed as much grain as any of them did with 
steam rigs. I have done some grubbing with it. I 
grubbed 160 rods of hedge fence; the hedge had not 
been trimmed for 45 years, so you may think the 
trees were large ones; they were from 18 to 23 
feet high and some of them were 16 inches in 
diameter at the bottom, or above the stump. I just 
put the chain or cable around them and pulled them 
out without using pulleys or anything else, for I 
can pull more than any steam engine of the same 
rated horsepower on such short pulls, and everyone 
that saw me pull said that it was the best pulling 
they had seen. I am using my engine on a corn 
husker and shredder, a 10-roll, which takes two men 
to feed, and the engine handles it easily. I have not 
tried plowing with it yet, for the engine has always 
been busy all the time that I have had it, but I 
intend to try plowing if it is not frozen up when I 
get through shredding this Fall. I do not know how 
it will go, or if it can be done cheaper with engine 
than with horses, for the fields are not very large 
here; the longest rounds are from 80 to 120 rods, 
and some are still shorter, and plowing with engines 
is a new thing here. As to power as compared with 
steam, the gasoline engine will produce as much 
power as rated at and a little more, and as to steam, 
most of them are underrated so much that a person 
does not really know how many horse power they 
will produce unless applying some kind of a test. 
I am well pleased with the gasoline engine, for it is 
much handier; a person does not have to put in two 
or three hours of work to get up steam and get 
ready for a day’s work, and burn fuel for that length 
of time. With the gasoline engine it is oil your 
machine and you are ready to go, and also saves 
a man and team for the water that is used with a 
steam engine. If the gasoline engine is cooled with 
water ;t requires only a few pails, which can be got 
very handy almost any place, and when you stop 
the engine the expense also stops, for there is no heat 
in the firebox and no great pressure on the boiler 
as with steam engine. I do not want to go back 
to use steam again as long as I can have gasoline 
engines to use. h. f. b. 
Indiana. 
