lt>13. 
GOOD OLD SWEET-APPLE DAYS. 
Value of the Fruit in Home Use. 
On page 1)<>2 our editors have apparently settled 
the question of why sweet apples were planted. The 
pigs eat sweet apples; the markets do not want 
them, therefore they were for the pigs. Perhaps his¬ 
torical information is often gleam'd in this way. 
Tiie R. N.-Y. goes to many homes where the gray¬ 
haired grandparents will laugh at Ihe idea that they 
were planted for pigs. No, indeed, they were for 
the humans. The wisdom of to-day is the folly of 
to-morrow. Possibly the man who planted the 
sweets was not behind his times. The writer’s hair 
Is not. yet gray, hut when I was a child the Pound 
Sweets were used on every farm about us for dry¬ 
ing. At great-grandfather’s home a 
“dry-house” stood very near the dwell¬ 
ing. It was a small building of one 
room, about eight or 10 feet square. A 
small stove stood in the middle. The 
walls were covered with shelves of 
open slats, or lath, to facilitate the 
drying of apples for market. At that 
time all country stores bought them 
each Fall and Winter. In ordinary 
households some apples were peeled 
each evening in late August and Sep¬ 
tember by the women of the house¬ 
hold, helped, at times, by the men 
folks. I remember father would peel 
apples very neatly, hut laid them all 
up for mother to core. We had a small 
machine to screw fast to a table which 
peeled apples very well when they 
were uniform, medium size. Young 
brother loved to operate this, but also 
loved to overload it with a big apple, 
which invariably rolled across the 
floor when nearly pared. It is a great 
offense against etiquette to drop apples 
which are being pared. Tt is equal to 
dropping your plate at table—or spill¬ 
ing your coffee. Decorum was not ob¬ 
solete, so brother’s assistance was not 
appreciated. We dried only good ripe 
sweet apples for our own use. They 
were cored, the larger ones cut in 
eighths, then spread neatly on large 
pans and platters and dried around 
the kitchen stove. They were set 
away, and carefully covered, while we 
swept. They would dry in less than 
two days. Then we placed them in 
paper flour sacks or hags of new mus¬ 
lin, and then laid them away for Win¬ 
ter. At that time, we also canned 
1 niIt in glass jars, hut we used some 
dried apples for variety. We soaked 
them over night, and then cooked them 
slowly for two or three hours, adding 
a handful of raisins or currants, and 
sugar to taste. 
The sweet apples were used for our 
own barrel of cider. Most of it was 
boiled down the day after it came 
home. That evening we all gathered 
about the task of cutting apple butter 
apples. They were sweet ones. Often 
a neighbor or two dropped in, and we 
"'ere quite as sociable as present-day 
whist players, bridge players, and the 
like. Some of the boiled cider was 
saved for whole sauce. More of the 
largest sweet apples were used for 
this, with whole cloves and hits of 
cinnamon bark. It was simmered with 
great care lest the quarters break into a mush. 
Fvery old farm around us had many varieties of 
sweet apples. Each housewife had her favorite 
' a riely for each kind of sauce, preserves or spiced 
apples. 'I lie apple butter and dried apples were in 
suindent quantity so that they were used at nearly 
every meal, with other fruit, jams and jellies. As a 
country teaefier I have often seen three, four and 
live kinds of sauce on the table. (But we rated the 
id lh as vulgar display.) Whole sauce, spiced apples 
and preserved apples were reserved for company, 
and they were plenty good enough for any com¬ 
pany, too. 
" by don’t you make an apple cut. mother?” we 
"ould ask, when father grew reminiscent. “Oh, the 
,'oung folks would muss up tin* kitchen, and waste 
more apples than they would peel." An old auntie 
t"ld us that there was once an apple cut at the home 
"I a very thrifty neighbor. She provided more 
apples than the young men thought proper. When 
ihe baskets were emptied there would be games 
and refreshments, so the impatient youths hid the 
apples, when the hostess left the room. The games 
THB RURAL NEW-YORKER 
were progressing nicely when the oven door opened 
and the hidden apples rolled about the floor. 
1 would like to pose the Hope Farm family in the 
act of cutting real sweet apples, with the Redheads 
stringing them to dry around the fireplace, and on 
poles suspended over the kitchen stove. But, oh, 
to go into grandfather’s cellar on a Winter day, and 
find the little yellow Sugar Sweets, and the spicy, 
juicy Royal Sweets! If the Redheads did not pre¬ 
fer these to bananas we should feel sorry for their 
“bringing up.” Perhaps the Hope Farm orchard and 
stone house have come down from the days when 
planting was done for the family first, and not for 
markets. The colonial home was quite self-support¬ 
ing. Perhaps the Hope Farmer may write an essay 
contrasting the different products of the farm now, 
V FAMILIAR THRASHING SCENE IN NEW YORK. Fig. 308 
1036 
seeding of grain (baney preferable). We have a 
held of about nine acres thus seeded the past Spring, 
where we harvested a very satisfactory crop of 
barley from the seeding of about \y 2 bushel per 
acre, and where the Alfalfa seeding is a surprise to 
many; its even stand, luxuriant growth and absence 
of weeds promises a generous crop of this excel¬ 
lent forage crop the coming year. Another field of 
five acres where Alfalfa is being grown under the 
same conditions, this past season’s crop, being the 
second since its seeding, has given us an abundant 
harvest with favorable prospects for the future. Of 
course in both of these fields nature has been largely 
assisted in doing this work. Both seedings followed 
where potatoes were grown the year previous, and 
where a liberal amount of barnyard manure had 
been applied, which, with the tile 
drainage where necessary, has had 
much weight in our success. 
So I would say sow Alfalfa, sow as 
early in the Spring as possible profit¬ 
ably, with a light seeding of barley 
sown with a drill; immediately after 
sow 20 pounds of Alfalfa seed per acre, 
following with a light drag or weeder. 
In this connection it may he worthy 
of remark that during the past season’s 
extreme drought in the earlier part 
of the Summer, when other farm 
crops, especially clover, were seriously 
injured, our first cutting of Alfalfa 
from the live acres referred to was 
the heaviest we ever harvested. 
Summary: Sow as early in the 
Spring as possible, thus enabling the 
plant to attain a growth to withstand 
injury from extreme drought or frost 
during its first season. If unnecessary 
avoid the labor and expense of apply¬ 
ing. as one writer recommends, one ton 
of burned lime and two tons of ground 
limestone per acre, also the application 
of soil containing bacteria from some 
far-off field already growing Alfalfa. 
Also the possible value o t a grain crop, 
which may be harvested with the first 
year's seeding of Alfalfa, is another 
factor worth considering, as well as 
tin' almost entire absence of weeds 
when this system is followed. As com¬ 
pared with the experience of many in 
their attempt to grow this plant, it 
would l>e well for -anyone located 
where lime in the soil naturally pre¬ 
vails to adopt this simple process by 
testing at least a small plot to decide 
the matter. In this connection it may 
he said that a most favorable feature 
in tin's work would be that wherever 
lime is found to collect on the inside of 
the teakettle it would be sufficient 
proof that the conditions are favorable 
for the growth of this plant. 
New York. iuving u. cook. 
THE GASOLINE TRUCK ON A FRUIT FARM. Fig. Mi);) 
and one hundred years ago. I mean the human 
characters, not the pigs—nor the apples. 
A NUTMEG YANKEE. 
A SIMPLE WAY TO START ALFALFA. 
Perhaps there is no farm crop grown at the pres¬ 
ent time that is attracting more attention and is 
more favorably considered by the farming public, 
than is that of Alfalfa. At the same time farmers, 
as a rule, owing largely to the impression generally 
prevailing, that certain conditions must he complied 
with before success can lie attained, are consequently 
reluctant to attempt the cultivation of a plant that 
is proving more and more of superior value as a 
forage crop. After several years’ experience with 
Alia I fa we have learned that especially here on the 
limestone soil of Western New York, lime is not an 
essential, though it may do no harm, neither is soil 
containing bacteria secured from a field already 
growing Alfalfa necessary for a favorable growth of 
this plant. It has also been learned that while quite 
opposite to the advice of many, good success has fol¬ 
lowed the practice of starting this plant with a light 
WHAT TO DO WITH MUCK. 
I have a basin several acres in extent, 
which for a depth of five feet looks like 
decomposed leaves. What is the value 
tor fertilizer, provided something else is 
mixed with it? Is there any chemical 
"lie could put into fresh hardwood saw¬ 
dust that would make fertilizer? g. b. g. 
(Memo. Pa. 
Send to the Vermont Experiment 
Station at Burlington for their bulle¬ 
tin on peat or muck. Some muck has 
three or four times as much nitrogen 
as ordinary manure, while other only 
half as much. You cannot judge from its ap¬ 
pearance. You will find the muck valuable chiefly 
for its nitrogen—there is very little potash or 
phosphoric acid in it. The nitrogen as it stands 
is not ready to feed plants, and must be fermented 
or “cooked.” Slaked or ground quicklime will start 
this muck Into action. Haul the muck to a well- 
drained place, and put in a narrow low pile. As the 
muck is thrown off the wagon mix lime with it by 
dusting it on, so as to have it worked through. A 
quantity of manure thrown in from time to time will 
quicken the chemical action, which will go on until 
the muck is well broken down and "sweetened.” 
After six months of such "cooking” the muck will 
provide a good substitute for the nitrogen in manure. 
By. adding bone and potash you will have a good 
mixture for most farm crops. Fresh sawdust eon- 
tains an acid which is likely to sour the land. Well 
rotted sawdust will answer as fertilizer, though 
there is but little plant food in it. You can mix tin' 
sawdust in with muck or manure and lime and fer¬ 
ment it or mix it with quicklime alone, hut it is not 
worth enough to pay for expensive handling. 
