1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
6o5 
cows  in  milk  as  regards  the  effect  of  cold  on  the  cows 
when  ensilage  is  being  fed  as  compared  with  dry  food. 
GEORGE  C.  WATSON. 
Soup  for  a  Cold  Weather  Diet. 
I  have  no  practical  proof  that  animals  fed  ensilage 
or  other  food  with  a  considerable  percentage  of  water 
are  more  susceptible  to  cold  than  those  fed  drier  food. 
I  think  it  probable  there  is  some  effect  in  this  direc¬ 
tion,  but  I  would  not  think  it  great,  probably  scarcely 
perceptible  with  ensilage-fed  cattle.  In  an  experi¬ 
ment  with  two  lots  of  young  cattle  tried  in  the  winter 
of  1889-90  at  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  here 
it  was  found  that  cattle  of  about  equal  weights  took 
more  water,  in  all,  when  fed  ensilage  than  when  fed 
corn  fodder.  The  ensilage-fed  heifers  drank  about 
nine  pounds  less  per  day,  but  took  over  16  pounds 
more  per  day  in  their  food.  Horses  fed  green  grass 
perspire  much  more  and  do  not  endure  hard  labor  so 
well  as  those  fed  drier  food.  I  do  not  think  men  ex¬ 
posed  to  extreme  cold  would  choose  thin  soups  as  their 
chief  foods.  Practically,  however,  I  do  not  think 
ensilage  feeding  would  have  such  influence  in  increas¬ 
ing  susceptibility  to  cold  as  to  be  an  important  factor 
in  deciding  whether  or  not  to  use  it.  G.  e.  morrow. 
Ensilage  Prevents  Drinking  too  Much  Cold  Water. 
I  have  now  fed  ensilage  extensively  for  several 
winters,  and  have  yet  to  see  the  least  harm  from  its 
use.  Practically  I  can  discover  no  harm  in  feeding 
such  succulent  food.  Nothing  succeeds  like  success, 
and  the  feeding  of  ensilage  is  big  with  success.  Theor¬ 
etically  ensilage  has  much  to  recommend  it.  The  fact 
that  it  contains  so  much  water  prevents  our  stock  from 
drinking  so  much  cold  water  and  so  I  would  expect 
better  results  in  this  respect.  I  do  not  believe  that  in 
feeding  ensilage  we  would  get  any  benefit  at  all  from 
heating  the  water  for  the  stock  to  drink.  We  find  that 
even  with  the  prevailing  low  prices,  we  can  feed  cattle 
and  sheep  ensilage  in  winter,  and  sell  for  beef  and 
mutton  at  a  profit.  We  wish  also  to  feed  our  horses 
ensilage,  and  I  am  sure  if  it  is  good  that  we  shall  be 
pleased  with  results.  Good  ensilage — and  I  have  no 
other — never  hurts  horses  on  my  farm.  Of  course  we 
should  feed  it  to  horses  more  cautiously.  A.  j.  cook. 
Gain  of  Ensilage-Fed  Steers. 
I  have  fed  ensilage  for  10  years  and  have  never  yet 
made  any  such  discovery.  When  I  first  built  my  silo  I 
put  in  the  corn  much  greener  than  I  do  now,  in  fact, 
before  any  ears  were  formed.  Of  course  it  was  much 
more  watery  than  the  ensilage  I  now  feed  and  also 
much  more  acid.  At  that  time  many  of  our  cattle  fed 
upon  ensilage  would  drink  no  water ;  the  ensilage  con¬ 
tained  all  they  needed.  During  that  first  year  of  feed¬ 
ing  it  I  made  a  trial  in  feeding  steers  to  ascertain 
whether  good  hay  or  ensilage  was  the  better.  The  lot 
was  equally  divided  and  weighed.  Each  lot  were  fed 
the  same  amount  of  grain ;  one  lot  had  all  the  ensilage 
they  would  eat  while  the  other  had  all  the  hay  they 
would  eat.  At  the  end  of  30  days  they  were  weighed 
and  the  ensilage-fed  steers  showed  about  20  per  cent 
more  gain  than  the  hay-fed.  They  were  in  the  same 
barn  and  the  steers  that  thrived  the  best  certainly 
needed  no  warmer  quarters  than  the  others. 
W.  DEVEREUX. 
How  Much  Water  Does  a  Steer  Drink  ? 
Here  at  the  Kansas  Agricultural  College  we  feed 
ensilage  every  winter  to  a  herd  of  60  animals,  con¬ 
sisting  of  Short-horns,  Herefords,  Aberdeen-Angus, 
Holstein-Friesians  and  Jerseys.  They  get  all  they 
will  eat,  and  I  have  never  noticed  any  deleterious 
effect  whatever  from  its  use.  In  fact,  the  herd  has 
been  more  uniformly  healthy  during  the  period  when 
ensilage  is  fed  than  during  the  summer  on  pasture 
when  cases  of  impaction  or  other  digestive  troubles 
occasionally  have  occurred.  Whether  the  cattle  suffer 
more  from  the  cold  if  fed  on  ensilage  than  they  do 
when  fed  on  dry  feed  is  a  difficult  matter  to  test,  and 
no  experiment  with  that  end  in  view  has  ever  been  at¬ 
tempted  here.  Our  cattle  are  stabled  in  the  basement 
of  a  good  stone  bank  barn  and  never  suffer  from  cold. 
I  have  therefore  no  evidence,  whatever  against  the 
use  of  “  watery  food.”  On  the  contrary  I  believe 
ensilage  to  be  a  most  healthful  and  economical  feed 
for  use  during  the  winter.  The  theory  that  ensilage, 
mangels,  pumpkins  and  like  feeds  compel  the  animal 
to  dispose  of  more  water  than  is  normally  disposed  of 
when  fed  on  dry  feeds  has  in  my  opinion  little  or  no 
foundation  in  fact.  How  much  water  does  a  grown 
ox  consume  daily  when  fed  on  dry  feed  ?  I  am  for¬ 
tunately  in  position  to  answer  this  because  all  the 
water  drank  by  each  steer  during  last  winter’s  steer 
feeding  experiment  was  carefully  weighefi.  Steer  No. 
20  represents  an  average  case.  He  was  fed  exclusively 
on  corn  meal  and  hay,  all  he  would  eat,  with  all  the 
water  he  would  drink..  From  the  1st  of  March  to  the 
1st  of  April,  31  days,  he  ate  621.5  pounds  of  corn 
meal,  173  pounds  of  hay  and  drank  1,538  pounds  of 
water  ;  or  on  an  average  he  ate  20  pounds  of  corn 
meal,  5.6  pounds  of  hay  and  drank  49.6  pounds  of 
water  daily.  The  corn  meal  and  hay  contained 
about  12  per  cent  of  water,  so  that  in  these  feeds  he 
consumed  about  3.7  pounds  of  water,  which  added  to 
what  he  drank  makes  a  total  of  53.3  pounds  of  water 
consumed  daily. 
How  does  this  compare  with  the  water  consumed  in 
ensilage  ?  Fifty  pounds  of  ensilage  daily  is  a  heavy 
feed.  Few  cattle,  unless  it  be  large  dairy  cows,  will 
eat  that  much.  Our  beef  cattle  average  only  about  40 
pounds  daily  each.  But  suppose  a  cow  eats  50  pounds. 
If  of  normal  composition  it  will  contain  about  40 
pounds  of  water  and  the  grain  and  hay  eaten  in  addi¬ 
tion  will  probably  contain  two  pounds  more,  making 
the  total  42  pounds.  But  this  still  falls  11  pounds 
short  of  the  water  consumed  daily  by  an  average  steer 
while  tied  up  in  his  stall  at  his  ordinary  task  of  quietly 
eating  his  feed  for  the  purpose  of  laying  on  flesh.  If 
the  50  pounds  of  ensilage  were  fed  to  adairy  cow  giving 
five  or  six  gallons  of  milk  a  day,  about  87  per  cent  of 
which  would  be  water,  and  assuming  that  the  same 
quantities  of  water  would  be  eliminated  through  the 
kidneys  and  skin  as  was  the  case  with  the  steer,  she 
would  still  have  to  drink  about  50  pounds  of  water 
daily  on  her  ensilage  diet  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
system.  This,  I  think,  is  fatal  to  the  theory  that 
“  watery  food”  is  objectionable.  c.  c.  georgeson. 
No  Valid  Objection  Against  Ensilage. 
It  has  not  been  our  experience  here,  at  the  Michigan 
Agricultural  College,  that  animals  fed  on  ensilage  are 
more  susceptible  to  cold  than  those  fed  on  dry  food, 
so-called.  Ensilage  is  a  starchy  food  furnishing  in 
abundance  those  elements  which  go  to  produce  animal 
heat  in  the  body.  It  does  not  follow  that  because  a 
food  is  succulent,  it  is  necessarily  less  valuable  for 
supporting  the  bodily  functions.  Silage  being  bulky 
and  less  concentrated  than  dry  grain  food,  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  that  the  expenditure  of  animal  heat  necessary  to 
raise  this  larger  bulk  to  the  normal  temperature  may 
have  some  influence,  indirectly,  on  the  ability  of  the 
animal  to  withstand  cold.  It  is  also  possible  that 
animals  fed  exclusively  on  a  succulent  diet  may  take 
an  excess  of  water  into  the  system.  This  water  is 
eliminated  not  only  through  the  kidneys  but 
through  the  pores  of  the  skin.  This  is  a  cool¬ 
ing  process  and  may  have  a  slight  influence 
on  the  temperature  of  the  animal.  Both  of  the 
above  mentioned  possible  influences  are  so  slight,  if 
present  at  all,  as  to  be,  in  our  opinion,  scarcely  worthy 
of  consideration  in  this  discussion.  I  do  not  consider 
that  this  objection  against  silage  as  a  winter  food  is 
valid.  F.  B.  MUMFORD. 
No  Support  for  the  Opinion. 
That  an  animal  is  more  susceptible  to  the  effects  of 
cold  weather  that  is  fed  an  ensilage  ration,  is  in  my 
opinion  a  theory  that  has  little  to  support  it.  There 
is  only  one  theory,  in  my  opinion,  in  favor  of  it,  and 
that  is  a  guess  at  the  best,  and  it  is  that  the  juice  of  a 
plant  has  the  effect  of  imparting  to  the  system  of  the 
cow  a  more  relaxed  condition,  and  that  she  would 
therefore  be  more  liable  to  feel  the  cold,  which  is  to 
say,  that  the  sap  of  the  grasses  is  not  as  good  a  fluid  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  digestion  and  assimilation  of  food 
as  water  from  some  brook  or  cistern.  In  this  matter  I 
have  little  proof  to  offer  that  ensilage  does  or  does  not 
have  the  effect  that  is  attributed  to  it,  for  my  cows  are 
not  out  in  the  winter  from  their  stables  long  enough 
to  be  affected  at  the  period  that  would  be  supposed  to 
afford  evidence  of  the  deficiency  of  the  cold-resisting 
influence  of  green  food,  but  if  such  is  the  case,  I  have 
not  noticed  it,  even  in  a  limited  way,  in  the  six  winters 
that  I  have  had  the  silo  in  practical  use  all  the  time. 
Cows  that  are  in  milk  and  have  a  50-pound  ensilage 
ration  daily,  drink  somewhat  less  water  than  those  on 
dry  food,  and  I  cannot  see  why  eating  less  than  two 
pails  of  moisture  and  the  incorporation  of  it  into  their 
system  by  the  more  slow  process,  would  cause  them  to 
feel  the  cold  more  than  would  the  more  sudden  introduc¬ 
tion  of  two  or  three  pails  of  cold  water  at  once.  Under 
the  older  plan  of  feeding  roots,  this  claim  was  never 
made  to  my  knowledge,  and  in  my  opinion  the  query 
will  soon  be  numbered  with  the  objection  once  as  for¬ 
midable,  that  “  the  feeding  of  green  food  in  the  winter 
was  against  Nature,”  and  that  the  silo  would  conse¬ 
quently  have  to  go.  When  it  comes  down  to  the 
difference  in  water  content  of  fairly  well  dried  corn 
fodder  and  the  ensilage  of  mature-grown  corn,  the 
difference  is  so  small  that  one  must  be  fortified  with 
well  substantiated  facts  to  show  that  stock  feeding 
on  the  ensilage  would  feel  the  cold  to  a  greater  degree 
than  the  others  not  so  fed.  Then  why  should  any 
sensible  man  want  his  stock  out  ’n  the  cold  in  the 
winter  unless  to  see  how  much  water  they  will  drink 
without  getting  frozen  solid.  john  goulp. 
Keeping:  Potatoes  in  North  Carolina. 
E.  R.  M.,  Flat  Rock,  N.  C. — What  plan  do  good  farm¬ 
ers  adopt  to  keep  Irish  potatoes  when  dug  in  time  to 
be  followed  by  wheat?  Would  it  be  safe  to  put  them 
in  pits  and  cover  with  earth  as  early  as  the  end  of 
August  or  the  first  week  in  September  ? 
Ans. — The  keeping  of  an  early  crop  of  Irish  potatoes 
in  the  South  is  rather  a  difficult  matter,  and  they  can 
rarely  be  kept  in  good  condition  for  table  use  later 
than  Christmas.  The  late  crop  raised  from  these 
potatoes  planted  in  August  can  be  very  easily  kept.  I 
have  had  the  best  success  in  keeping  the  summer  dug 
crop  by  putting  them  thinly  on  slatted  shelving,  in  a 
totally  dark  cellar.  They  must  be  kept  from  the  sun 
as  much  as  possible  when  digging.  Soon  after  putting- 
them  in  the  cellar,  take  advantage  of  a  rainy  day  anti 
overhaul  them,  picking  out  all  that  have  begun  to 
decay.  Then  spread  them  on  the  shelving  not  over  a 
foot  deep  and  scatter  air-slaked  lime  liberally  among 
them.  In  this  way  they  can  be  kept  in  good  order 
until  Christmas  or  a  little  later,  but  then  they  begin 
to  sprout  so  persistently  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
keep  them  properly.  In  fact,  it  is  so  easy  to  grow  a 
good  late  crop  to  be  dug  the  last  of  November  that  I 
do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  try  to  keep  the  early 
ones.  The  late  crop,  put  into  barrels  and  kept  in  a 
cool  out  house,  will  in  this  climate  keep  easily  until 
the  following  summer.  w.  f.  massey. 
Removing-  Smut  From  Seed  Wheat. 
J.  R.  Mc.G.,  Dublin,  Virginia. — What  is  a  good  and 
inexpensive  method  of  removing  smut  from  wheat  ? 
All  the  smooth  wheat  in  this  section  is  affected  by  smut, 
and  I  wish  to  treat  about  40  bushels  for  seed. 
Ans. — If  the  trouble  spoken  of  is  a  true  smut  the 
following  method  of  treating  the  seed  may  be  followed: 
Provide  two  large  vessels  as  boilers  or  kettles,  over  a 
cook  stove  or  elsewhere,  the  first  to  contain  water 
heated  to  110  degrees  to  130  degrees  Fahrenheit,  and 
the  other  with  water  at  132.5  degrees  Fahrenheit. 
Place  the  seed  in  a  basket  or  frame  of  wire  netting  so 
that  the  water  may  reach  all  parts  of  it.  After  dipping 
the  basket  of  seed  into  the  first  kettle  a  few  times, 
plunge  it  into  the  second  for  10  minutes  and  remove 
and  dry  the  grain.  With  a  thermometer  the  temper¬ 
ature  of  the  water  may  be  determined  and  regulated. 
This  treatment  of  smut  has  proved  uniformly  effect¬ 
ive  and  is  inexpensive.  [prof.]  b.  d.  iialstead. 
Some  Diseased  Pears. 
II.  A.  C.,  Gaines,  N.  Y. — My  Seckel  pears  are  small 
with  black  spots  on  them,  some  dry  and  some  crack 
open.  They  bore  well  and  were  all  right  last  year. 
What  is  the  matter  with  them  ?  My  Bartletts,  Clapp’s 
Favorite  and  Flemish  Beauty  were  never  finer.  I 
have  a  nice  and  thrifty  dwarf  pear  tree  that  has 
bloomed  freely  each  year  for  three  years  past,  but  has 
never  fruited.  Had  I  better  graft  it  from  a  bearing 
tree  or  try  it  a  while  longer  ? 
Ans. — The  black  scab  on  the  pears  is  of  a  fungoid 
character  and  might  perhaps  have  been  kept  off  by 
spraying  with  some  of  the  copper  solutions.  Cut  back 
dwarf  tree  pretty  severely  next  spring  and  try  it  again. 
Grafting  from  a  bearing  tree  would  be  of  no  use. 
Miscellaneous. 
“Poison Cherry,”  Sumac. — E.  W.  M.,  Hillsboro  County, 
N.  H. — 1.  No  ;  it  is  not  true  “  that  the  leaves  of  the 
black  cherry  (Prtinus  serotina)  are  poisonous  to  cattle 
when  wilted.”  2.  There  is  always  a  market  for  the 
dried  leaves  of  sumac,  which  are  used  largely  in  tan¬ 
ning.  The  leaves  are  simply  gathered  in  the  summer, 
dried  and  bagged.  The  twigs  and  limbs  are  broken 
off  with  leaves  adhering  and  after  they  have  dried 
under  cover,  are  thrashed  off  on  the  thrashing  floor. 
Separating  Seed.— G.  W.  D.,  Iludsonville,  Mich.— It  is 
quite  an  easy  matter  to  “separate  cucumber  and 
tomato  seeds  from  the  pulp  so  they  will  be  clean  and 
loose.”  Put  the  cucumbers  or  tomatoes  in  a  pail  or 
barrel — let  them  ferment.  The  seeds  will  sink.  Wash 
out  the  seeds  through  a  sieve  and  dry  them.  It  is 
better  to  cut  up  the  cucumbers  or  tomatoes  before 
they  are  placed  in  the  barrel.  Dry  the  seeds  thinly 
spread  out  on  sheets  or  a  clean  floor  that  gets  the  sun. 
For  Potato  Blight. — C.  D.,  Nunda,  N.  Y. — The  R. 
N.-Y.  has  tried  the  following  formula  and  found  it 
effective  in  preventing  potato  blight :  One  ounce  of 
copper  sulphate  to  every  gallon  of  water.  Three- 
quarters  of  an  ounce  of  lime  to  every  gallon  of  water. 
Potatoes,  Salt  and  Ashes. — D.  C.  O.,  Southampton,  L. 
I. — 1.  The  White  Mercer,  Chenango  and  Nesliannock 
Potatoes  are  much  alike,  perhaps  the  same.  From 
them  we  have  such  varieties  as  Purple  Mercer,  Red 
Jacket,  Blue  Mercer,  etc.  We  do  not  know  who  offers 
them  for  sale  now.  2.  The  muriate  of  potash  furnishes 
magnesia,  and  ashes  give  one  per  cent  or  so  of  phos¬ 
phoric  acid  and  potash  in  the  form  of  carbonate.  Wood 
ashes  and  salt  would  give  of  equal  parts  less  potash 
and  more  phosphoric  acid.  Used  in  a  compost,  the 
mixture  would  probably  be  cheaper  and  as  effective. 
