■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
basis for the fair valuation of manure or other 
materials to he used in orchard mulchinj:: or other 
farm i)ractiee.s. A. d. siiamel. 
The Storage of Apples on the Farm 
Taut II. 
oNTROI.LING TEMPERATITcZ.— The door of 
the cellar Ava.' k closed during the day, hut 
on cool or even cold nights it was allowed to stand 
Rome Beauty May 1—Wintered in Cellar. Fig. 260 
wide oiten. This gave us a iiuaiitity of cold air 
each night, and as a rule the ttuniierature held avoU 
during the succeeding day. At the hegimiing ol 
Winter we just reA’ersed this proeess. and closed the 
door at night and opened it in flie day time. On 
eery cold days Ave kept it closed all the time, hut 
it required zero Aveather or coldtu' to force us to 
do this. If the door Avas kejtt shut for a iteriod of 
scA-eral days, even in zero Aveatlu'r, the tempera¬ 
ture sloAvly climbed to a point Avhere it Avas ad¬ 
visable to let in still more air. In other Avords, our 
A'entilating drain tile Avas not <iulte large enough 
to overcome tlie heating tendency of tlie soil around 
the cellar. Tlie temiieratui’o of the earth a I'caa’ 
feet heloAv the .surface is nearly uniform the year 
around. I do not know exactly Avliat this tempera¬ 
ture Is under our conditions, hut T do know that 
rlie AVinter temiierature of the c;ive.s in Southern 
Indiana is too high to ki'cii apples in good condi¬ 
tion. f'onse<iuently the open door method described 
above Avas sati.sfactorily Avorked out. One other 
reason Ave desired plenty of moisture Avas to pre¬ 
vent the Avithering of the fruit. I know that the 
old theory in regard to the keeping of apples re- 
<iuired that they be kejit in a dry jilace. q'liis Ave 
find to be altogether Avrong if you are to hold your 
fruit in a satisfactory condition. You might be 
alile to keep fruit in a dry house and sell it to far¬ 
mers Avho Avore not fruit grower.s. but anyone Avho 
kiioAVS any tiling about apples Avill in.sist that his 
fruit must be juicy Avheii he eats it. Fruit kept 
dry Avill not be juicy, and it Avill have lost much 
of Its flavor. 
K.XPFRIFNCF AVITIl ROXFD APPLES.— In the 
Winter of lOlb-IO Ave exiierimented Avith 100 boxes 
of various .sorts. This Avas in our first experinuMital 
cellar, and Ave had much damage by rats and mice, 
and in addition the roof leaked. The Av.iter ran 
down over the boxe.s, streaking them Avith rusty 
stains, and even depositingauud on and in the boxes. 
In .sjiite of rejieated soaking the fruit kept Avell and 
remained in line condition until late in the .season. 
We had (piile a lot of boxed apple.s of the same 
sorts in cold storage in the city, and at frequent 
intervals I inspi'cted both lots to compare their 
keeiiing qualities. We had expected that some sorts 
like Delicious and .Tonatlian Avould not hold up as 
well ill the cellar as they did in cold storage, but 
in this Ave Avere badly fooled. The poorest keeper 
we had in the place Avas the Ren Davis, and in the 
past the chief virtue of this variety Avas its long- 
keejiing character. IIoAvever, Ave did not Idanie the 
cellar for the bad results Avith this sort, becau.se 
we IniA-e had lots of trouble Avith it in cidd storage 
during the jiast fcAv seasons. We have come to the 
conclusion that AA'e have been alloAving this variety 
to bang on the tree too long before haiwesting. In 
tlie jiast it has been the custom to pick the Ren 
Davis the last thing, and until recent years Ave 
have managed to “get aAvay AA'ith it,” but in the 
tutnre Ave shall probably have to speed up the har¬ 
vesting a bit. In our experimental cellar avo kept 
I'oth AVinesap and Stayman in fine condition until 
-'lay, and the Jonathans Avere still good to eat and 
Avere iierfect in appearance on the first of April. 
AA'ith the latter variety avo had even less Jonathan 
sjAot than avo had on the same fruit kept in cold 
storage. 
('OALAEERfTAL STORAGE.—During the Winter 
of 1910-17 Ave have used our ucav cellar in a com¬ 
mercial Avay. storing something over tAvo cars of 
boxed and barreled fruit. OAving to good demand 
Ave .shijiiied out most of this fruit early in the AA’in- 
ter, but retained enough thoroughly to test the ef¬ 
ficiency of the thing in case Ave ever Avanted to use 
it until late in the Si)ring. At the lu’esent Avriting, 
the middle of February, Ave have on hand Ren 
Davis, AA'ine.'jap, .Tonatlian, Dtdicious and Stayman, 
On the second of Feliruary I ate the last fiainbo, 
and found it firm and juicy. AVe Avould liaA'C some 
.still on hand had they not been stored in a A'ery 
small amount, and had they not proven .so tempting 
OA'cry time avc visited the cellar. 
FIRST PRIXOIl'LES.—AA'e have concluded that 
our experiment in storing fruit on the farm lias 
been a success but in trying to duitlicate AA-hat Ave 
have done the groAver or farmer .should net over¬ 
look the c;irdinal princiiiles whick I believe to un¬ 
derlie any successful undertaking of this soil. In 
the first ]tlace the cellar must be made r.-it and 
mouse jiroof. It must be built so that the roof is 
as dry as possible, but there must be ])lenty of 
moisture supplied through tiie Avails or fh»or. There 
lust !»(' good A'cntilatlon. and the temperature 
should l>o AvatcluMl each day. J'ein]»erature con¬ 
trol is simplified l>y tin* use of self-registering max- 
. Him and ininiimim thermonnders. AA'ith a little 
Fresh from Farm Storage. Fig. 261 
care in construction, and daily Avatchf illness to con¬ 
trol temperature during the AA'inter, anyone should 
be able to keep fruit on the farm either in small or 
couiinercial quantities, and keep it in a condition 
that Avill not only compare favorably Avith, but that 
Avill excel cold storage fruit. 
Indiana. i’.kx.ia.ah.v av. Dortin.xss. 
Experience With Transplanted Alfalfa 
RERARING TIIF SOIL.—I have been experi¬ 
menting a little along this line fur three or 
four yeans, and in 1915 I 'lu'came convinced that 
there Avore great po.ssibilities in using this method 
hero on land that is .soineAvhat .sandy or hilly. 1 
accordingly made arraiigeinents for enough plants 
to transplant about seven acres in the Spring of 
191G. A\’'e ])loAved the ground in the early .Spring 
and dragged it Avell, then markisl it crossAvise Avith 
a corn marker, making the checks three fc'et 
square. The plants Avere set three feet apart e.ich 
Avay, using about 5.000 plants to the acre. AA'e 
found that an ordinary farm hand could set out 
about a half acre a day and in all Ave transpl.inted 
six acres of Cossack and one Jicre of Semiiialatinsk. 
This Avas about the first of Alay, and the soil aa’us 
rather dry and loo.se. Four acres of this Avas on 
a A'erv samly and badly Avorn field, Avhich had been 
farmed for about liO years Avithout any fertilizer or 
nninure, until it Avas impo.ssible to get a stand of 
clover on it. The balance aa'us on sandy land Avhich 
had been cleared for tAvo or three years, and never 
fertilized. 
PROGRESS OF GROWTH.—Soon after the 
plants Avere set out there came a severe Avind. 
Avhich drifted the soil considerably, some of the 
ground being bloAvu aAvay until the furroAv bottoms 
669 
shoAved up. leaving the plants -sticking up out of 
the ground scA’eral inches and in other places they 
Avere covered Avith several inches of drift. AA’e used 
the hoe and cultivator, hilling up and digging out 
plants as best Ave wuld. and nearly all of them 
started groAving in a short time. Ry the Fourth of 
Juiy the plants Avere from tAVo to three feet high 
and began blo.ssoming. Although then* Avere only 
from .six to 12 stems from each croAvn. as a ruh‘, 
Ave let it go to seed, and cut it all Avith a hand 
sickk. It Avas loaded A'eiy heavily Avith ripe seed 
—that is the Co.s.sack Ava!<. It held the se(‘d in the 
pods for a month or more Avhile more ])lossoms 
Avere coming on and maturing seed, but the seed 
of the Semipalatinsk shattered almost as fast as 
it ripened. From the six acres of Coss.ick there 
Avas about a ton of straAv and Ave thraslu'd 201 
])ounds of .seed from it Avith a clover ludUu-. The 
acre of .Semipalatinsk made 14 pounds of seed. 
REPLANTING.—After the seed Avas harve.sted 
Ave replanted the field and it took lloo plants to 
replace those Avhich Avere missing out of 25.000, 
and most of this Avas on a side hill Avhere the Avind 
litei’.-illy blew them out before they could get start¬ 
ed. The croAvns spread out in fine shape for the 
second growth, many ucav rhizomes shooting out 
from the roots underground, and from Avhat I have 
seen of this Alfalfa under similar coinlitions I think 
this Avill be a grand field this coming season. It 
Avent int(» the Winter in fine condition and an ex¬ 
amination of the field this S])ring sIioavs the itlants 
rcad.v to send out masses of green shoots as soon 
as the ground gtds thaAA’ed out. 
THE .SEED CROP.—We exi)ect to set out .seA’eral 
acres more of the Cos.sack this Sitring and juon* 
next Fall. In fact AA'e avUI plant it that Avay ju.st 
as fast as Ave can get the ground cleared. We 
tried .some last year and tAvo .A'ears ago on iieAvl.v 
cleared land and it does ver.v Avell. 'there is a 
good local demand for the seed, as Avell as a Avlde- 
.spread demand from this and other .States, on ac¬ 
count of its sui»erior Winter hardiness. R.v groAv- 
ing the plants in check-roAvs Ave are able to keep 
the field quite clean, and tbe .seed is of superior 
(piality. .^o f;ir AA'e liaA'e good reason for believing 
that the lii'st crop, cut for hay, Avill average as 
heaA'A', if not heavier, than Avhere groAvn broadca.sf, 
and the .seed crop is much heavier. After the first 
yeai‘ the hay is not more stemmy on :iccount of th(‘ 
plants having room as might be expected, but the 
oi)posit(' is the case. This is accounted for by the 
fact that Mu' stems are much more numerous from 
each ci'oAA n. :ind that they carry many branches, 
each iilled Avith leaf cluster.s, Avhere the Alfalfa 
from bi’oadcast .soAving Avill haA'e most of the loAver 
branches smothered off from croAvding. 
ADVANTAGE,^ OF TRANSPLANT!NG.—I AVoiibl 
.say that. Avitli the Cossack variety. trans[)lanting 
can l)e made quite successful under many condi¬ 
tions Avbere the ordinary methods of groAving Al- 
Late-harvested Ben Davis Kept Poorly. Fig. 262 
falfa do not prove successful. Where the soil is 
dry, gravelly, or otherAvise unsuited for soAving the 
.seed, a perfect stand can be .secured by transidant- 
ing. Of course Ave figure on leaving a transplanted 
field in Alfalfa for several years, but Ave have good 
reason to believe, from personal ob-seiwation of the 
Cossack, that it Avill stand the climate and continue 
to groAV stronger each year for soA'eral years. This 
season Ave expect to cut the first crop for hay and 
leave the second for seed. harry a. rovsii. 
Wisconsin. 
