1911. 
\L r~i Jtu iNCy 
A TEST ORCHARD OF ONE-YEAR TREES. 
A Story of Apple Growth. 
On page 919, under the heading “What Age of 
Tree?” it is asked: “In planting trees, particularly 
apple, what age do you prefer? Would you select a 
yearling or a two-year-old, and why ?” In the Spring 
of 1865 I began work on my father’s farm, under the 
instruction of an Englishman who had served seven 
years under bond in England at agriculture and hor¬ 
ticulture. He said to me: “You can see me do 
things and you will forget. I can tell you how to do 
and you will forget. You must do things and I will 
keep you going right and then you will never forget.” 
He kept me doing right for four years. It included 
instruction in apple culture. In 1869 my father sold 
his farm and moved into town. I began behind the 
counter May 1, 1869, and am there yet. In the Fall 
of 1909 I decided to plant some apple trees during 
the Spring of 1910. I sent to 21 nurserymen for 
catalogues, and read them all carefully during the 
Winter. In the Spring of 1910 I sent $30 
in cash with order for 101 apple trees, one 
year from the bud. They sent me 20 
extra trees as a premium for cash with 
order, making 121 trees in all. I planted 
them myself, April 18 and 19, 1910. A 
German who had served 18 years in a nur¬ 
sery at Geneva, N. Y., shoveled the dirt 
for me. I cut every tree to a whip 42 
inches in height. Ever> tree lived, and 
made the following growths the first sea¬ 
son : 
Fifteen King David made an average 
growth of 18^3 inches; two Ensee aver¬ 
aged 24 7-11 inches; two Charmaloff aver¬ 
aged 19 inches; one Benoni and one Pear- 
main averaged 18)4 inches; 16 Delicious 
averaged 15)4 inches; one Talman Sweet 
and one Arkansas Black averaged 13)4 
inches; five Champion averaged 13)4 
inches; five Black Ben averaged 12J4 
inches; five Grimes Golden averaged 14)4 
inches; one Liveland Raspberry averaged 
13 1-6 inches; 16 Delicious averaged 13)4 
inches; five Senator averaged 6j)4 inches; 
five Magnet averaged 18J4 inches; five 
Stayman averaged 11J4 inches; 13 Delic¬ 
ious, four rows beyond the first lot, aver¬ 
aged 14)4 inches; another row containing 
one each of Paragon, Rome Beauty, Stark 
and Star averaged 6)4 inches; two Wealthy 
averaged seven inches'; two Bayard aver¬ 
aged eight inches; one Jonathan averaged 
20)4 inches; two Red June averaged 19)4 
inches; one Duchess, 8)4 inches; one Yel¬ 
low Transparent, 26 inches; one York Im¬ 
perial, 10 inches; one Henry Clay, 15)4 
inches; one Mammoth Grimes Golden, 
13)4 inches; two Grimes Golden averaged 
9/4 inches; one McIntosh, 12 inches; one 
Fameuse, 1414 inches; one Newtown Pip¬ 
pin, 8 Yz inches; one Wagener, 14*4 inches. 
The whole number of growths made was 
464; whole number of inches grown 6869, 
or an average growth of 14 4-5 inches. 
The growth this year is very remarkable, 
and people are coming from 20 miles 
around to see our 121 apple trees, that 
were planted when one year old from bud¬ 
ding. I have cut eight branches in all 
from these trees during the two seasons, 
and have not cut any branches back at all. 
I was taught not to murder young trees of 
any kind. I can show and prove that it is 
a great mistake to cut back young apple 
trees. The more you cut the more you 
have to cut. Just try not cutting once 
and see what good old nature will do. Of course we 
must guide and help the trees in many ways, as they 
are under our care, but while you are doing this do it 
right. I can show you an 11-year-old apple orchard 
where only the cross limbs have been removed. This 
orchard is a marvel, and trees are loaded, the very 
best trees in this section of the State; Greenings, 
Fameuse, McIntosh, etc.; the Greenings, many of 
them, have three or more barrels of perfect fruit; 
mulch system; sprayed four times. I can say the 
same in regard to pruning cherry, pear, plum; also I 
do not cut peach until after good fruiting is estab¬ 
lished. Of course you may laugh, but these trees 
are an object lesson that many are looking at, and 
you will soon hear these correct methods strongly 
advocated. 
My 121 apple trees are a test orchard on many 
comparatively new varieties, preparatory to planting 
100 acres to the very best apples. While some other 
varieties will be used in the large planting, these 121 
trees are to test out some kinds new to this section. 
My trees are showing a good number of fruit buds, 
and I surely will let them produce what they will for 
their coming third season, because I have them pre¬ 
pared to do it, by letting nature do her full part and 
I doing my part. 
I can show you a tree top-grafted to Tompkins 
King known to be over 103 years old, and grafted 
over 80 years ago, that bore last season 4)4 barrels of 
perfect Kings. Come and see. a. c. peterson. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHEESE. 
The largest cheese ever made was completed at 
Appleton, Wisconsin, recently, by Nicholas Simon, a 
noted American cheese expert, assisted by Dairy and 
Food Commissioners John D. Cannon, of Wisconsin, 
and A. W. Parkins, of Minnesota, and 40 expert 
cheesemakers. It weighed 12,361 pounds, and con¬ 
tained exactly 12,000 pounds of curd, 330 pounds of 
salt, and 31 pounds of rennet, but not an ounce of 
coloring. The cost of building the cheese was be- 
DUTCH BELTED COW AT PASTURE. Fig. 429. 
PAN-AMERICAN STRAWBERRY. NATURAL SIZE FALL 
BERRIES. Fig. 430. (See Ruralisms, Page 1075.) 
tween $5,500 and $6,000, and as the risk is so great it 
is probable no one will ever again take the chance of 
making one so large. 
To manufacture this gigantic cheese successfully 
it was necessary for the 1200 model dairies to do 
the milking of 8,000 registered Holstein and Guern¬ 
sey cows at the same hour; the milk had to be cooled 
to the same temperature; and the 32 sanitary cheese 
factories wliitsh manufactured the curd had to fol¬ 
low the same process to make the curd uniform. 
Every tool or implement which came into contact 
with the curd was sterilized. It required 144,100 
pounds (72 tons) or 18.000 gallons of milk to produce 
the 12,000 pounds of curd, which was delivered in 
cans, each containing 125 to 130 pounds of curd. 
The curd was mixed in two large troughs, each 
10 feet long, four feet wide and three feet deep, and 
the mixture then poured into a mammoth cask, five 
feet in diameter and five feet deep, which was braced 
with iron hoops. A team of eight horses was re¬ 
quired to draw the cheese to the railroad for ship¬ 
ment, and a huge derrick was used to get it on 
board an open freight car. The cheese will be on ex¬ 
hibition at the National Dairy Show, to be held in 
Chicago from October 26 to November 4. President 
Taft will visit the show the morning of Monday, 
October 30, and following his address he will be in¬ 
vited to cut the big cheese, after which it will be dis¬ 
tributed in small lots to the visitors at the show. 
R. H. M. 
IRRIGATION OF ALFALFA. 
It has been pretty well demonstrated that it will 
pay a successful market gardener to irrigate, if cir¬ 
cumstances make it possible to do it thoroughly. It 
has not been so well proved that it will pay to irrigate 
general farm crops. For this reason an experience 
with Alfalfa irrigation in southern New Jersey may 
be of interest. 
The Society for Farming Demonstration, with 
headquarters at Vineland, N. J., has received valu¬ 
able advice in its irrigation of Alfalfa from the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 
The New Jersey Training School for the 
Mentally Deficient has a large farm for 
Vineland, and keeps a dairy to supply its 
400 people with milk. Alfalfa has been 
grown here since 1904 as a crop constantly 
increasing in importance. Last year 25 
acres yielded over 100 tons of field-cured 
hay. Considering the difficulty of growing 
hay on this sandy land, this is a good show¬ 
ing. 
About two acres of land was prepared in 
borders in 1910 after a crop of early pota¬ 
toes had been taken off. The border 
method and other methods of distributing 
water for irrigation are described in Farm¬ 
ers’ Bulletin 373, entitled “Irrigation of 
Alfalfa.” This bulletin can be had for the 
asking by addressing the Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture, Washington, D. C. In preparing 
these two acres the ground was packed 
very hard by the scraping. It was loosened- 
up with a cultivator, but probably should 
have been plowed, although it is not usually 
considered advisable to plow land in South¬ 
ern New Jersey just before sowing Alfalfa. 
The result was an unsatisfactory growth, 
even with irrigation, until the third cutting. 
The third cutting was a fairly good one 
where irrigated, but almost nothing where 
not irrigated. 
An adjoining field of eight acres was 
seeded to Alfalfa in 1909. About two acres 
of this was irrigated this Summer by flood¬ 
ing, Los Angeles irrigation pipe being used 
to distribute the water. This pipe is eight 
inches in diameter and in 10-foot lengths 
that fit into each other. The water was 
taken from the tank that supplies the insti¬ 
tution, 40,000 to 50,000 gallons being ap¬ 
plied in 1*4 hours. This irrigating was 
done after each cutting, about four inches 
of water being applied each time; that is, 
enough water to cover the ground four 
inches in depth if none soaked in; 27,000 
gallons of water will cover one acre one 
inch deep. The increase of yield was as 
follows: A small plot flooded eight days 
before the first cutting yielded at the rate 
of 2,800 pounds field-cured hay per acre, as 
against one ton where not irrigated. Sec¬ 
ond cutting, irrigated, 1,900 pounds per 
acre; unirrigated, 4,050 pounds. Third cut¬ 
ting, irrigated, 2,770 pounds; unirrigated, 
570 pounds. Fourth cutting, the irrigated 
did much better than the unirrigated. There was 
considerable difference in the growth for two weeks, 
then the heavy rains came, and when cut the fourth 
time no difference was visible. The yield of both 
irrigated and unirrigated was about 1)4 tons per acre. 
In order to determine more exactly the amount of 
water used, one-quarter acre of a field seeded to 
Alfalfa August, 1910, was measured off and two 
inches of water applied through fire hose after the 
first cutting; 13 days later 2)4 inches of water was 
sprinkled on. The second cutting on this field was, 
irrigated, 2,300 pounds hay per acre; unirrigated, 500 
pounds per acre. This Summer’s experience with 
these various methods of irrigation convinced the 
officers of the training school that a method of apply¬ 
ing the water involving less labor was highly desir¬ 
able. Consequently five acres have been equipped 
with the Skinner system of irrigation. Next Sum¬ 
mer we snould be able to get at the cost of irriga¬ 
tion and by getting yields from irrigated and unir¬ 
rigated Alfalfa for two or three years, some valuable 
information will be secured. geo. a. mitchell. 
New Jersey. 
