-468 
THE: RURAL NEW-YORKER 
from Phillips Brooks, in handling their organization: 
“0, do not pray for easier lives, pray to be stronger 
men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, 
piay for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing 
of your work will be no miracle.” c. R. white. 
A CIDER TRAP FOR CODLING MOTH. 
What Science Has to Say. 
Take your left-over apples (if they are partly rotten 
they will do) and press the cider out of them. Put the 
cider in gallon crocks or milkpans. about two quarts in 
each vessel, and put them around through the orchard 
with two narrow strips on the edge of the vessel, and 
then a square board on top of the strips wide enough to 
cover the top of the vessel. Put them in the orchard 
about sundown, when the trees are in full bloom. That is 
the time the Codling moth begins work in the trees. Visit 
the vessels every morning and skim the moths out of the 
cider, and put the boards down tight on the vessels through 
the day or you will have as many honey bees at night as 
you had moths in the morning. Keep this up as long as 
you can catch the moths; it is best to take stakes about 
three feet long and drive them in the ground where you 
want your vessels and nail a board on top of them about 
six inches square to sit the vessels on to keep the dogs 
or rabbits from knocking the covers off. The Codling 
moths simply crawl down in the cider and drown them¬ 
selves. PERRY NIXON. 
Kansas. 
In regard to the cider trap for the Codling moth, I 
would say that many kinds of traps have been recom¬ 
mended for this moth. Chief among these are lights 
or so-called trap-lanterns. The results of these lan¬ 
tern experiments seem to show that the Codling 
moth is either an adept in avoiding traps and snares, 
or else it does not visit them at all. In 1889 six trap- 
lanterns were run at Cornell University from May 1 
until October 15, or five and one-half months. Nearly 
13,000 insects were taken in these lanterns, but not 
one Codling moth was recognized among them. In 
Canada two so-called moth-catchers were run in a 
garden containing apple trees and other fruit trees 
for three months and no Codling moths were caught. 
The results obtained by several other experiments 
with moth-catchers tally with the foregoing. 
Regarding the use of cider as a trap, it is natural 
for most of us, in the light of the foregoing experi¬ 
ments, to be rather sceptical. Probably the writer of 
the letter thought that since the Codling moth lays its 
egg on the apple fruit and leaves that it would take 
to cider. Unfortunately for this theory, the moth it¬ 
self eats almost nothing, probably nothing in most 
cases; and when it does take food it prefers sweet¬ 
ened material, such as syrup and nectar of flowers. 
It must he remembered that there are hundreds of 
small moths flying at night that resemble Codling 
moths and are apt to be mistaken for them. We are 
inclined to think that such has been the case with 
the writer of the letter. Some of the moths caught 
should be sent to an entomologist for examination. If 
the moths can be caught in so simple a way and in 
such numbers, fruit growers ought to know of it. 
GI.ENN W. HERRICK. 
AN UNPROFITABLE COW. 
Two months and more ago I bought a little runt of a 
cow, said to be about half or more Jersey, which 1 was 
informed had dropped a calf four or five weeks previ¬ 
ously. The cow was poor as a crow, but it was claimed 
that she was giving 12 quarts of milk a day. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact she has given me not over six quarts a day, 
and more often not over four, and the milk is of mighty 
poor quality at that. Personally, I know no more about 
feeding a cow than I do about Sanskrit, but I have a 
man on the place wlio comes from Yoik State and who, if 
he was not born in a stable, has spent the biggest part 
of bis life in one, and claims to be capable of getting 
milk out of any cow that makes it. He told me what to 
buy in the way of feed and I sailed in, getting anything 
and everything he suggested, believing that after awhile 
he would hit on a combination that would produce milk, 
but it is all wasted money. If I keep my health and work 
hard enough I can probably pay for the cow’s feed awhile 
longer, but I really would like a little good, rich milk for 
the expenditure. Can you suggest anything to help? She 
is four years old, and has had two calves. She is putting 
on flesh and looks like an entirely different animal from 
the one 1 bought, but what does she do with her milk? 
I have fed her Timothy hay, which she wouldn’t touch 
(she used to get cow-pea hay at her old home), clover 
hay, Alfalfa, mixed hay, bovita, middlings, wheat bran, 
cotton-seed meal, beet pulp and one meal a day of apple 
and potato parings from the kitchen. Yesterday I weighed 
her feed, which is just what she has been getting for the 
last three weeks. Here is the schedule for the evening 
meal: Clover hay and Alfalfa, mixed and run through 
the cutting box, 3% pounds; beet pulp, two pounds; wheat 
bran, 1% pounds; cotton-seed meal, % pound. She gets 
the same for a morning meal and has her parings at noon. 
She has no pasturage, but between meals she is offered 
a little hay which she rarely eats. She weighs perhaps 
600 pounds, hut I wouldn't want to bet on her weighing 
much over 500. She gets fine water to drink and plenty 
of it. AYhat would you do with her? Cut her throat? 
It doesn’t seem to me that I am feeding her enough, but 
this farm sharp of mine says she is getting all she needs. 
l’ine Bluff, N. C. F. N. B. 
Your success in the dairy business on a small scale 
corresponds very favorably with my chances for suc¬ 
cess if I should start a boarding house or some other 
business which I know nothing about. Contrary to 
the ideas of many people who have not had practical 
farming experience, the dairy business, the poultry 
business and other lines of agricultural endeavor have 
been reduced to a science which is just as broad and 
intricate in its teachings as any other trade or pro¬ 
fession. Anyone who doubts this statement and 
proceeds to invest good money in live stock of any 
kind without mature deliberation and a thorough 
study of the subject, will pay dearly for his experience 
practically every time. 
Like everything else, a mistake in the beginning 
can seldom be overcome. Your first mistake was in 
purchasing a poor, undersized cow. Any cow that is 
worth keeping at all is worth feeding properly. The 
fact that she ^ was “poor as a crow” when you pur¬ 
chased her should have given j r ou the impression that 
she was not considered a very valuable animal by her 
former owner,- or he would have supplied her with 
the necessities of life at least. A cow that has been 
kept so poor that her vital energy has been impaired 
will never fully recover. The best advice I can give 
you is to sell or beef the cow, as she will never be 
any better than she is now. The feed you have been 
giving her ought to produce a satisfactory flow of 
milk when the proper quantity is fed to a good cow. 
While the amount fed is only enough for a good- 
sized woodchuck it compares favorably with the size 
of the cow and the amount of milk she is giving. The 
BAMBOO AT CULEBRA, CANAL ZONE. Fig. 154. 
fact that she has gained in flesh since coming into 
your possession shows that she has not been under¬ 
fed. If you could get a good fresh cow to start with 
your chances for the successful production of a sup¬ 
ply of milk would be greatly improved. c. S. g. 
THE CULL IN THE PACKAGE. 
Every year our people come complaining about the 
quality of the apple they find in the package. This 
year there have been even more than usual, and this 
has come to a climax in the following letter: 
In reading the account of the New York Fruit Growers’ 
meeting at Rochester, I noticed that a woman took up the 
cudgels for Wayne County fruit, denying the cull in the 
package as it were. Being in want of a good barrel of 
Baldwins, this prompted me to buy a barrel from that 
county accordingly. I searched through the commission 
district until I found some from there. The commission 
man assured me they were packed honestly, saying he had 
sold hundreds of barrels for the man, without complaint. 
As they looked good on top I bought a barrel. Between 
the two ends were about half a bushel of such apples as I 
am sending you, of which they are a fair sample, lots of 
them being smaller, greener and more bruised. If they are 
not culls, to what grade do they belong? c. e. w. 
On looking the matter up we find that Mrs. Flor¬ 
ence Cornwall made one of the best speeches at the 
New York State Fruit Growers’ meeting at Roches¬ 
ter. She took up this subject of the cull in the pack¬ 
age, and in describing the way business is done, made 
the following statement: 
In Wayne County 95 per cent of the apples are bought 
by dealers, operators, speculators. He buys them orchard 
run. He does much of the packing and oversees the rest 
himself. Ho labels the fruit. It is just like this : Last 
year a dealer offered us 80 cents a bushel orchard run. 
April 8, 
When we said .$3 a baarel he laughed and went away. 
But he bought our neighbors’ apples, took them to stor¬ 
age. During the Winter he repacked them with the co¬ 
operation of a New York commission man, packed them 
so loosely that he made about 20 extra barrels out of his 
8,000 barrels, put in two bushels of fairly good ‘apples, 
one bushel on the bottom, one bushel on top, filled in the 
middle with cider apples. Some of these which we brought 
home as a curiosity were the size of cherries. He said: 
“In New York City they only pay for two bushels of good 
apples. What is the use of putting in three?’’ 
He shipped his first carload to his friend in New York 
City, got $3.75 a barrel, while we and others who packed 
their own fruit and packed it fair and honest got $5.50. 
His second car dropped 50 cents a barrel, the third 25 cents 
more, in spite of the efforts of his friend to keep up the 
price. In the end he lost a great deal of money. He also 
lost incidentally or did his best to lose the reputation of 
the western New York State apple. It went into the middle 
of the barrel with the culls. 
The probability is that our correspondents got hold 
of just that kind of a barrel, and it needs no argu¬ 
ment to show the damage that is done by such a per¬ 
formance. Every honest packer in Wayne County is 
hurt when such stuff comes out of the barrel. We 
took fair samples of the apples that were sent us by 
this correspondent and had them photographed, show¬ 
ing the exact size and appearance. The pictures are 
at big. 157, where all may see them. This inn i says 
he paid $4.50 for the barrel of apples, and it must 
have been a great satisfaction to him when he picked 
out these specimens in the center of the package. 
There is no joke whatever about this matter. It is 
one of the most serious problems which confronts the 
Eastern fruit grower to-day. With the millions of 
apple trees that are being planted in other sections 
where the growers will learn to pick and pack care¬ 
fully and honestly, such apples on the inside of a 
package bearing the name of New York State are a 
worse enemy to the fruit industry than the San Jose 
scale. They are more dangerous, because we can put 
lime and sulphur on the scale, while unhappily we 
are forbidden by law to duck the “stove-pipers” and 
ihe cull men in a strong solution of this mixture. 
DO APPLE ORCHARDS PAY? 
Having had 65 years’ experience in the business, 
and having observed the experience of others, I will 
make figures which others can consider, taking 10 
acres as the basis. 
10 acres land, $75 per acre. $750.00 
Trees, 500, 50 cents each. 250.00 
Flowing . 50.00 
Harrowing. 25.00 
Phosphate . 50.00 
Setting trees . 50.00 
First year .$1,175.00 
Brought over first year.$1,175.00 
Second year, 50 trees. 50 cents each. 25.00 
Flowing and harrowing . 45.00 
Phosphate . 40.00 
Setting trees . 5.00 
Interest . 77.40 
End of second year.$1,367.40 
Third year, 10 trees set out. $6.00 
Harrowing . 20.00 
Trimming . 5.00 
Phosphate . 40.00 
Interest . 86.38 
$1,524.78 
Fourth year, plowing and harrowing. $40.00 
Trimming . 5.00 
Phosphate . 40.00 
Interest . 96.58 
$1,706.36 
Fourth year brought forward.$1,706.36 
Fifth year, expenses. 80.00 
Interest . 107.78 
$1,894.14 
Sixth year, expenses and interest. $198.44 
$2,092.58 
Seventh year, expense and interest.$2,302.93 
Eighth year, expense and interest. 2,544.00 
Ninth year, expense and interest. 2,802.64 
Tenth year, expense and interest. 3,080.59 
This orchard is 10 years old and has cost $3,080. 
Two or three years more are to be added to the ex¬ 
pense before anything can be received from the or¬ 
chard. I have known orchards of this age that would 
not sell for $1,540. My advice is not to invest in 
apple orchards unless you want to set up a monument 
to your memory, to be appreciated by the next gen¬ 
eration. If held by your children no doubt they would 
profit by your labor; if sold, the buyer would get the 
benefit. Seeing by The R. N.-Y. that many people 
have lax ideas of apple growing, I would like to have 
^me facts by men of experience. The public wants 
actual figures. c. e. b. 
Lowell, Mass. 
R. N.-Y.—Let us have facts by all means. Why 
does C. E. B. pay 50 cents each for apple trees? He 
can buy at 20 cents or less. Why does he use one dol¬ 
lar’s worth of fertilizer on each tree the year it is 
set out? Why does he not grow some crop be¬ 
tween the trees while they are coming on ? This 
might not be practical in a large orchard, but on 
10 acres it could easily be done. The idea of spend¬ 
ing $45 for plowing and harrowing without growing 
any crop among the trees does not fit in with the 
practice of modern growers. We met a successful 
peach grower last week who told how he developed 
a new orchard. The old trees were dug out and the 
field seeded to clover. The first crop of clover was 
cut for hay. Then six foot wide strips were plowed 
and the new trees planted in these strips and well 
cultivated. The middles were left in clover, well 
cultivated and cut for hay. As the trees grew the 
plowed strips were made wider and wider. As a 
lesult of this the trees made a fine growth and the 
clover nearly paid all cost of working. 
