11 7S* 
THE 1< IJ KAL NEW-VOKWEK 
October 
tain to be late Fall and Winter layers that I long 
ago adopted the slogan: “Take care to get eggs in 
late Fall and Winter, and the rest of the year can 
safely be left to take care of itself.’’ This is a para¬ 
phrase of the familiar saying: “Take care of the 
cents and the dollars will take care of themselves”: 
and both sayings are eminently true. 
ADVANTAGE OF THE PLAN.—A great advan¬ 
tage of the six or seven months’ trap-nesting is that 
it exactly fits the busy farmer-poultryman's need. 
The five extra-busy months on the farm are May. 
.Tune, July, August and September, and those are the 
months in which trap-nesting can best be foregone; 
the other seven months the farmer-poultry man can 
find the half-hours four or five times a day to give 
to the trap-nests and keeping the records, and great 
will be his reward. We urge the use of trap-nests 
for seven months instead of six months, because it 
is essential to the best late Fall and Winter egg 
yield that the birds come to laying maturity early in 
October, and they will then be in fairly full lay in 
November and December. It is the November and 
December eggs that fetch the greatest prices, so that 
the best profit comes from those eggs, but the vital 
point is that if the birds do not come to maturity 
until later they are overtaken by the cold weather, 
are slow in beginning to lay and do not get into the 
full flood of laying until well towards Spring! Jus: 
here the egg-contest people have slipped a cog. in 
that they do not have the contests begin until No¬ 
vember first; the contests should begin October 
first, then they would be really valuable. True, that 
would throw out the birds of people who hatch 
their chicks so late that their pullets do not come 
to laying maturity till late Fall or Winter. Never 
mind that! What the contests should teach is the 
method of making the best profit from egg produc¬ 
tion, and that method unquestionably is to have the 
' hicks batched out sufficiently early that the pullet- 
may be brought to laying maturity early in October, 
and then kept steadily laying. That is the keynote 
to profitable egg production, ns was strongly empha¬ 
sized by Mr. Barron at Storrs. 
A THIRD METHOD.—The third method of se¬ 
lecting the best layers for breeders would be the ex 
umining of each bird, as Mr. Barron demonstrated 
to us. This examination would tell us the probably 
good layers. Mr. Barron’s method of selecting was 
much like the examination a score-card judge gives 
to birds he is judging. It is noteworthy that Mr. 
Barron gives little importance to the familiar pelvic- 
bone method of determining a good layer, although 
he does estimate the probable time of a bird's begin¬ 
ning to lay by the position of the pelvic bones. Ilis 
method might not apply to all pullets, and the evi¬ 
dent bodily maturity of a bird would need to be con¬ 
sidered. We need to keep in mind the fact that Mr. 
Barron is used to estimating pullets that have been 
bred for egg production for many generations, and 
have the laying habit bred into them, and such birds 
could be depended upon to lay at once they have 
reached maturity. With such pullets the pelvic 
bones being one finger’s width apart, indicates that 
rhe bird will lay in about six weeks' time, two fin¬ 
gers’ width apart indicates that she will lay in about 
four weeks, three fingers’ width apart indicates that 
-be will lay directly, if not already laying: and that 
is all the importance that be gives to these bones. 
LAYING POINTS.—In taking a bird in his hands 
to examine her the first attention was given to the 
head and comb. The head should be full and broad, 
the beak should be short and stout, the eye should 
be full, clear and bright, and the comb should be of 
fine texture; it should be soft, smooth and fine to the 
touch, not feel coarse and hard. The hack should 
have good breadth and be long; the great layers are 
long-bodied. The breast should be full, round and 
deep. There should be good width between the legs, 
to allow plenty of room for the digestive organs, and 
the rear part of the body should be full (but not 
’ baggy”), and the general shape of the bird should 
be of good size, not small and thin; there must he 
"a good understanding” for the active, vigorous, 
great-laying bird. Mr. Barron desired to see the 
birds on the ground and walking around, so that he 
could better estimate their appearance; an erect car¬ 
riage, and the look of being “up-to-and-good-for-any- 
rhing” is essential. And the great-laying hen. he 
said, “will not he clean and tidy looking: she will be 
rather dirty looking, and ragged, and her shanks 
will he white—not yellow !” 
WHEN TO JUDGE.—These points would be de¬ 
cidedly helpful to the busy farmer-poultryman in se¬ 
lecting bis best layers for breeders, but they should 
be applied in late Fall and Winter, not in the early 
Spring, when all the birds are laying if they have 
any lay in them! These points are not much like 
those Mr. Mapes suggests, but they would be much 
easier to apply. I confess to being puzzled as to how 
Mr. Mapes would apply bis points; bow mark (or 
catch for leg-banding) the birds lie notes as having 
the desired points. Apparently he would depend 
upon glancing at the birds as lie is with them in the 
pen. No. Mr. Mapes, I think your rule-of-thumb 
method of selecting the best layers to be used for 
breeders won’t do! It would be better than not 
selecting at all. would be better than the hit-or-miss 
breeding followed by the great majority of farmer- 
poultrymen. but when a really good selection can be 
made In going a step farther, why not take that 
added step? a. f. hunter. 
W HEN TO KILL BRUSH. 
J AM told that there are two months bite in the sea¬ 
son (August and November. I believe), when, if 
brush is cut off. it will not sprout or grow. Far¬ 
mers cut in the dormant season to prevent: regrowth. 
Is this method reliable? w. w. 
Litchfield. Conn. 
The best time to cut brush and small trees in clear¬ 
ing a field is during August and September, or before 
cold weather fully sets in. Many farmers will tell 
you that this is due to certain changes in the moon, 
but the moon lias little if anything to do with it. 
You attack the brush at this season for much the 
same reason that you would from choice tackle a 
good-sized man when be was completely tired out, 
rather than wait until lie was thoroughly rested and 
bad just bad a good-sized meal. The shrubs and 
Fori: Months' Growth of Apple Graft. Fig. 520. 
trees grow fast during the Summer. A great deal of 
this growth comes directly from the large, fleshy 
roots, which feed the plant somewhat like the roots 
of the asparagus plants. At the close of the season 
these shrubs and trees stop growing, and their roots 
are well nigh exhausted by the growth they have 
made through the Summer. The plant then, if left 
to itself, will make no further growth above ground, 
but spends the rest of the season in replenishing its 
root system, storing up the food and energy for next 
year's growth. Now if the plant is cut off above 
ground while in this weakened condition at the end 
of the season, nature drives it into making a new 
growth to repair the damage; thus instead of refit¬ 
ting and strengthening the root system, these shrubs 
or trees proceed to send up a new growth above 
ground. It will be weak and feeble, as the roots are 
exhausted, but it leaves the root without power to 
strengthen itself, and the chances are that it will die 
through tlie Winter, or come out in the Spring badly 
exhausted. This is the theory upon which the de¬ 
struction of brush is based. Trying to kill out the 
brush in Spring or Summer makes a very much 
harder job, because then such cutting acts like prun¬ 
ing a tree during the growing season, as this drives 
it into extra growth. 
The best tool that we have found for chopping up 
such brush land, after if has been cut over in this 
way. is a disk plow, which is a large disk, either 
plain or with cutaway edges, mounted on wheels, so 
that it can he put down into the soil for a reasonable 
depth. This works better than a plow, as it chops 
and turns the roots over, while the plow catches un¬ 
der them and is often unable fo break them off. 
MODIFIED CULTURE FOR ORCHARDS. 
EARNING from Dr. Bailey’s book on “Fruit Cul¬ 
ture” that the roots of pear trees extend much 
farther than the branches, would it be a good waj 
to plow, cultivate, fertilize or sow a cover crop iii 
the center of the space between the rows, leaving sod 
next to the trees, this sod to be cut and used as mulch 
around the trees? s. f,. t. 
Cornwall. N. Y. 
We follow this plan with most of our own or¬ 
chards. A strip five or six feet wide is left un- 
plowed along the rows of trees, while the middles or 
centers are plowed north and south one year and 
east and west the next. In young orchards we grow 
a variety of Hint corn in these centers, using a small 
quantity of fertilizer, and sowing a cover crop at 
the last cultivation of the corn. Tills cover crop is 
left to grow until the early part of May. and then 
plowed under, repeating the plan of planting the 
corn. This has given us a good orchard, while the 
corn practically pays the expense of cultivation and 
fertilizing. If it was not your desire to raise corn 
or other crops, these cultivated middles should be 
kept thoroughly harrowed through the season and a 
cover crop put on in August. This crop should be 
plowed under thoroughly the next year, and the oper¬ 
ation repeated. The plan is a sensible one in many 
localities, and lias given us good results. There area 
number of modifications which can be worked out. 
FOUR MONTHS’ GROWTH OF APPLE GRAFT 
LIVELY GRAFT.—We often have reports 
showing remarkable growth of grafted fruits. 
The picture at Fig. 520. shows what came from 
an apple scion in about 10 weeks. Mr. John N. 
Emery sends us this note about it: 
“The scion was Fall Pippin; the tree was Sum¬ 
mer Transparent of very vigorous growth. The 
graft was made about the 15th of May. and the 
actual time was about, sixteen weeks when photo¬ 
graphed. The owner, who appears in the picture, is 
Mr. E. B. Dunkerton. of Syracuse. When photo¬ 
graphed the graft was three feet, three inches in 
lenirt h.” _ 
FRUITS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK. 
UR representative recently ran upon Grant 
fii tellings, of Onondaga Co., N. Y. Mr. Hitch - 
ings would hardly like to be called an “Apple 
king.'' but be lias travelled the royal road to sue 
i'ess. This is the way he talks: 
“If you are to command the best prices for an arfci 
He. that article must be good. If you wish to de¬ 
stroy the appetite of customers for a product, just, 
mix in a few culls in your package, and you will see 
the popularity of your brand slip away. Do any¬ 
thing with your No. “ and No. 4 fruit and your culls, 
lmt don't sell them under your own label for good 
fruit, don’t sell them at all. let them go to the cider 
mill, to the hogyard or anywhere, but don't hurt tin* 
business of growing and marketing good fruit by 
shattering the confidence of buyers with an inferior 
article sandwiched in with attractive fruit. There 
are men who are growing high-grade goods for the 
market: these men are in a class by themselves. 
People are becoming acquainted with their quality 
as the people are becoming acquainted with the 
high-grade article of merchandise. The good buy 
ers are calling for the products of these growers, and 
they will not be satisfied without their fruit These 
producers who appeal and bold the high-class trade 
have good varieties, produce good fruit, and high 
quality. 
“I would advise succession in fruit, as follows: 
Red Astrachan, Williams Favorite. Oldenburg. Gra 
venstein. Wealthy. Twenty Ounce. King. McIntosh. 
Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty, 
and if yon want any more plant McIntosh. There is 
no limit to its demand. The more of these which are 
grown the better will be the appetite of the con¬ 
sumer. These are good yielders, and satisfy the 
trade. In addition they cover the season from early 
season. The Spy and McIntosh are good yielders. 
and the more planted the better. 
“The Eastern man is not harmed by the adver¬ 
tising of the Western grower. There are thousands 
and thousands of orchards coming in bearing. The 
products of these orchards do not glut the markets 
of the Middle West and the East: they are stimulat¬ 
ing the market, continuing the taste for apples, and 
have demanded of the Eastern grower the good pack. 
We must do as the Western grower is doing, educate 
the customer up to the point that to enjoy good fruit 
lie must pay a good price for it. We must have this 
price, for there is interest on investment to be fig¬ 
ured against our orchards, the cost of maintenance, 
of fighting insects and scale, the harvesting and 
marketing of the crop. All Ibis demands that we 
have good prices. The time lias gone by when 
things just grow, and all that is necessary to secure 
returns is to pick the fruit and hand it over to the 
buyer :it any price.” 
