1880.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
469 
in France is therefore kix and two-thirds tons, and 
the maximum sixty-six tons per acre. A yield of 
twenty tons per acre is as much as could be reason 
ably expected, unless the soil has the'richness, 
mellowness, and depth of a time garden soil. 
How to Dress a Turkey. 
There is much practical wisdom among the 
poultry men, that does not get into the papers or 
books. A turkey raiser who prides himself on 
sending to market the handsomest lot of turkeys 
in his town, for the Christmas market, tells us how 
he dresses his birds. The turkeys are fed as usual 
the night before butchering, and in the morning 
are driven in upon the barn floor, as soon as they 
come from the roost, and are made secure. Their 
crops are empty, and they can be caught as they 
are wanted. Make a slip noose of strong cord for 
each turkey, in an adjoining stable or shed, put the 
turkey’s legs into the noose, and with a small 
pointed knife stick the bird as near the head as 
possible. As soon as the bird is dead, strip off the 
feathers, pinfeathers and all. Cut the neck off as 
near the head as possible, remove the wings and 
draw the entrails, before taking the bird down. 
The turkey is hung up alive, and taken down ready 
for market. Lay the bird on his breast or side, 
upon a clean board to cool. Turkeys should be 
carefully handled in dressing, to avoid breaking the 
skin, for it rubs off very easily when they are warm. 
Remove all the pinfeathers and pack the birds 
when sent to market, in clean straw, so that there 
will be no marks of blood upon them. Handsome, 
clean dressing will add a cent a pound, and often 
more, to the market price of all kinds of poultry. 
Pitting Corn Fodder. 
The good result which many persons obtained 
last year in pitting corn fodder, leads this year to 
the making of many pits, or silos, for this purpose, 
all over the country, So that if there is the least 
question as to the utility of the process, it will be 
soon set at rest by a thousand experimenters. 
We were much interested in witnessing the 
filling of the pits built by the Messrs. Buckley 
Brothers, of Port Jervis, N. Y., whom we visited 
about the middle of September. It has been their 
habit for many years to put in a large area of sowed 
com, which was cut and put up for curing in stooks, 
and afterwards housed or stacked near the barns. 
This year they have a larger area than usual, a large 
part of which they put down in pits for winter 
feeding. This matter of pitting or ensilaging corn 
fodder has been carefully investigated by them, 
and they have made, this year, two pits under the 
cow-barn floor. These pits (fig. 1) are 22 feet long, 
9 feet wide, and 15^ feet deep, side by side, with a 
two-foot wall between them. They are walled all 
around and cemented water-tight. They would 
answer well as cisterns. These two are just built, 
but there is an old one, 10 feet wide, 50 feet long, 
and 7 feet deep, which is under the feeding floor. 
The location of these pits is shown in the accom¬ 
panying plan, fig. 2. The cow-barn is 120 feet 
long, by 30 feet wide. The feeding floor is 10 feet 
wide, and the standing space for the cows is the 
same width on each side. There is room for 36 
-cows in this stable, up to the bam floor. The floor, 
the stalls and all from side to side, was taken up 
for the filling of the pits, but it will be relaid. 
At the time we were there the' work of filling 
was going on in full blast. A pair of powerful 
mules were at work in the horse power. The feed- 
cutter stood directly behind them, and cut the stalks 
in half-inch pieces, at the rate of two tons an hour. 
It required three men to tend the cutter, taking the 
com from the wagon, feeding it to the cutter, and 
seeing that it was properly shunted off into the 
pits, where one man spread it as evenly as possible, 
and tramped it down. At noon and evening half-a- 
dozen men got into the tanks, and tramped the 
fodder down as firmly as they could. One man and 
one team were required to haul the fodder from 
the field. As soon as a wagon load was brought in¬ 
to the bam, the team was ungeared and hitched to 
the empty wagon. In the field the teamster assisted 
in tlhe loading. There were three men in the field 
cutting up the corn and loading the wagon. Thus 
the labor required was as follows : Two teams and 
one driver, four men in the barn and three in the 
field—eight men in all. With this force they were 
putting in about twenty tons a day. 
The 6talks were rather dry; the juice did not 
squirt out of them when they went through the cut¬ 
ter, and the ehafifogs were not even moist to the 
touch. When packed in the pits, a strong fermen¬ 
tation sets in very soon. The corn that had been 
packed the day before was steaming hot, no doubt 
having a temperature of 110° to 120° Fahrenheit. 
It had a vinous odor which was very sweet and 
pleasant. Mr. Charles Buckley gave us the figures 
of the cost of these two pits, which is as follows : 
Digging, 112 days work at $1.$112.00 
Masons’ bill. 94.44 
Men to assist the masons, 12 days work... 12.00 
Bill for Lime and Cement. 78.10 
Total outlay.$296.54 
This does not include anything for stone, for the 
stones taken out of the pit were sufficient for the 
walls, and more too. Neither is any charge made 
for superintendence, and no doubt it would be fair 
to add fully ten per cent for the supervision, and 
actual labor, which at one time or another the far¬ 
mer himself gave, or say $325 in all. There were 50 
barrels of cement used, and about half as much 
lime, part of which, 8 bbls., was very good, and the 
rest, 50 bushels, cheap and of a low grade. The pro¬ 
portion of sand to cement and lime in the mortar 
with which the walls were laid up, was about two- 
thirds, but in coating over the surface to make the 
whole water-tight, near¬ 
ly pure cement was used. 
Thus the pits were filled, 
each one receiving its 
quota of ten tons, more or 
less, being well trodden 
down, allowed to settle 
over night and again trod¬ 
den down in the morning 
before work, all hands 
being engaged in the 
tramping. When full as 
possible, settled and 
tramped, and beginning 
to heat in the top layers, it is covered with six 
inches of long rye straw—any other straw will 
answer—and this, with a layer of planks, cut to fit 
crossways, but not so long as to bind. Stones are 
piled or rather laid upon the planks so that fully 
one hundred pounds to the square foot rests upon 
the fodder. Thus it is left for winter use. Filled 
full, one of these pits will hold sixty tons. That 
is, containing as they do over 3,000 cubic feet, or 
2,400 bushels—at fifty pounds to the bushel, which 
the compressed moist, and, almost solid fodder will 
weigh—this is equal to 120,000 lbs., or 60 tons. 
As to the keeping, there can be no question, if 
the work is properly done. A brisk fermentation 
comes on, as we have seen—as it dose in a tub of 
apple pulp for making cider. If the air has very 
slight access it will go on to ultimate decay; but 
if it is kept out, the little air at first present 
is driven off by the carbonic acid gas which is 
formed, and the mass ceases to ferment, and re¬ 
mains as if it were in an air tight case. There is, 
however, a slight access of air upon the surface 
and its action upon the juices in the 
straw and upper layer of fodder is just 
enough to maintain an atmosphere of 
carbonic acid gas over the mass—and 
in the straw which is like a rubber 
blanket, confined as it is beneath the 
planks. The stable will be replaced 
over the pits, and when the time comes 
for feeding there will be no going out 
in storms and “slush ” and ice to haul 
in the fodder from out-of-door pits, 
but the floor will be taken up over a 
sufficient space, and enough feed re¬ 
moved from one end for two days, 
when it will be packed down again and 
covered closely. We think rubber 
blankets, tarpaulins, canvas, or any 
coarse cloth painted with boiled oil,, 
would be excellent to pack close down 
upon the fodder to exclude the air. 
One thing strikes us as very impor¬ 
tant, and that is, to know for a certainty 
that there is no settling of carbonic 
acid gas in the pit, after a considerable 
opening is made. A man going into a 
place filled with this gas—as often 
in deep wells—is over-powered be¬ 
fore he knows it, falls and drowns as surely as 
if he were under water, and is even less likely 
to be resuscitated. The way to know whether 
a man can enter with safety, is to lower a lantern, 
which, if it burns freely, it shows that there is not 
a dangerous proportion of gas in the air of the pit. 
Selection of Breeding Stock.— The art of 
breeding may be summed up in the one word, 
selection, or it may be expressed in the com¬ 
mon rule of good breeding—“ Always select the 
best.” To be able to tell the best is the most 
difficult point in the breeding of farm stock. The 
successful breeder must have a clear idea of the 
qualities sought, and the quickest and best method 
by which such ends may be reached. He must 
necessarily be keen of sight to observe the good 
and bad points, and the causes by which they have 
been brought about. His judgment must be of the 
best to suggest remedies for defects, and new 
methods for bringing out valuable characteristics. 
“ He will prove himself the most successful breeder 
who can select with the most correct judgment.” 
Edward Hammond—whose breeding in sheep has 
been so successful, once said, when asked what pro¬ 
portion of the rams bred by himself he would 
willingly use in his own flock, answered, “ Not one 
in three hundred.” This is but an instance of the 
care, skill, judgment, and, we may add, present 
sacrifice exercised by the true breeder. We have 
said that in profitable breeding the selection must 
be for a distinct and well defined purpose. The 
first principle in stock breeding was the selection 
of animals adapted to the circumstances of the 
given farm, its size, quality of food, etc. The 
ancients knew that the breeds of animals that had 
lived for a long period of time on hard fare and a 
poor soil, would do better on moderate land than 
Fig. 1.— SECTIONAL VIEW OF STABLES AND FODDER PITS. 
