266 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
APRIL 4 
ALL ABOUT SOME CHEAP SILOS. 
The Cheapest Yet: An Axe For a 
Cutter. 
R. H., Abington, Mass.—The Rural 
asks for information about cheap silos. I 
think mine is as cheap as any ever made. 
These are the items of expense : 
280 feet of plank for framework at $18.$ 5.01 
705 feet of spruce boards planed and matched 
at $18 50. 18.04 
8 pounds of spikes at 4 cents.82 
15 pounds ot s’d nails at 3 cents.45 
Carting lumber . "50 
Carpenter work. 5.50 
Totai. $2t.58 
The silo is 10 x 15 feet and 12 feet high. 
and built in a corner of my barn. The 
framing was made to come flush with the 
girts on the inside. There is but one thick¬ 
ness of boards, and I used no paper. The 
door is three feet wide, in three sections, 
and extends from the top to within three 
feet of the floor. 
I had about an acre of corn and began 
cutting and putting it in the silo on Sep¬ 
tember 28, finishing the next day. I put 
it in whole to the depth of about six 
inches and then cut it in foot lengths with 
an axe, laying down a plank for a guide. 
There were three men in the silo cutting 
and tramping it. I filled the pit to within 
a foot of the top, and the day after spread 
on about a foot of fresh hay, planked it 
over closely, and weighted it with five or 
six tons of stone. It settled till it was 
about seven feet deep. I began using the 
ensilage on November 25, and there are 
about two feet left—March 19. It comes 
out nearly as green as it went in, and 
shows no signs of having heated. There 
was considerable damage at the top, and 
a little at the sides, the least on the sides 
best protected from changes in tempera¬ 
ture. I have given a bushel a day apiece 
to five cows. They eat it with great relish, 
but reject the stalks to the amount of 
about a fifth of the whole. The variety of 
corn was Blount’s Prolific. It grew very 
rank, a great deal of it being 12 feet high, 
and the stalks 2 inches through at the 
butts. The ears were not matured, but the 
risk of frost was too great to leave it out 
longer. I think a smaller-growing variety 
would have been better, and I am inclined 
to favor cutting before putting in the silo. 
A neighbor has put his in whole for several 
years, holding that the loss from rotting 
was less than the cost of cutting, but last 
fall he bought a cutter and cut his corn in 
two-inch lengths. 
I should like to know if the sour smell 
of ensilage is due to putting it in green. 
What is the B. & W. Corn ? 
R. N.-Y.—Green, immature corn always 
makes poorer ensilage than the well-cured 
plant, particularly when putin a silo where 
there is a chance for the air to circulate. 
The B. & W. Corn was named with the 
initials of the firm which introduced it for 
sale. It is a large Southern variety giving 
a large growth of stalk and leaf. Now so 
many kinds of corn are sold as B. & W. 
that it is hard to tell which is genuine. 
One Dollar Per Ton of Ensilage. 
“ Cornstalk,” Gilbertsvillk, N. Y.™ 
I did most of the work upon my silo my¬ 
self and, counting that at $1.50 per day and 
the lumber at $10 per 1,000 feet, the cost of 
the silo did not vary many cents from $1 
per ton capacity. In size it is 16x18 feet 
outside measurement and 24 feet high, and 
is built entirely outside, as follows: In 
shape it resembles two bents of a common 
barn frame, with girts three feet apart, 
and at 50 pounds per cubit foot, will hold 
about 120 tons. The floor is earth thor¬ 
oughly dry ; no need of cement. One much 
smaller would probably cost more per ton 
of capacity. Mine is boarded on the out¬ 
side with rough, unmatched boards, bat¬ 
tened with half inch boards put under, so 
that they answer the double purpose of 
keeping out storms and securing ventila¬ 
tion between the outside and the lining, 
which consists of two thicknesses of rough 
hemlock boards—joints broken—with tar¬ 
red paper between them. (In answer to 
the gentleman’s question on page 212, this 
is abundantly sufficient). If part of a bay 
Is used, the expense is very much lessened. 
The lateral pressure of whole ensilage is 
very slight indeed—much less, I think, 
than that of cut ensilage. Any good barn 
frame is abundantly strong enough to re¬ 
sist it. 
Whole Corn Used.—I have filled my 
silo twice with whole corn, and if properly 
packed in a good silo it will come out all 
right; but defects in either of these particu¬ 
lars will produce the same effects on whole 
as on cut ensilage. To get it out, chop 
across the silo with a broadaxe, making 
the lengths about two feet, and handle with 
a manure fork. It is bright, sweet and 
succulent, and eaten up clean. Ensiloing 
corn whole is a perfectly practicable way of 
saving corn fodder, and many farmers can 
avail themselves of its benefits who could 
not afford a power and cutter. I could not 
think of doing without the silo. 
How to Pack.—T he most difficult thing 
is to pack properly. My way is as follows: 
Commencing at one end I lay the tops 
against the side and lap each course about 
half upon the preceding one, and so ar¬ 
range that the butts will be about one foot 
from the opposite side ; then fill the space 
left with corn laid lengthwise against the 
side, folding the tops in the corners and 
treading all as solid as possible around the 
sides and in the corners, and I extend this 
last course about a foot upon the butts of 
the regular course. Then I reverse and 
place the tops upon this against the wall. 
No butts should be put against the walls, 
as they will not pack close enough to ex¬ 
clude the air. 
Built In One End of the Bay. 
Daniel Gordon, Schoharie County, 
N. Y.—My silo is built in one end of the 
bay in my barn. It is 10 x 13 feet inside 
and 21 feet deep. The frame is made of 
hemlock planks 2x8 inches. These are 
placed horizontally and lapped at the 
corners, and dovetailed together, making 
it very strong. These 2 x 8-inch pieces 
should not be over 12 inches apart, except 
near the top, where they may be twice that 
distance. The boarding is put on perpen¬ 
dicularly, and consists of three-quarter- 
inch unplaned hemlock boards, there being 
two courses on the inside with tarred paper 
between them. On the outside I use only 
the paper and one thickness of boards. 
Half of the outside—that is, one side and 
one end of the silo next to the barn floor— 
is not boarded up at all. I used not quite 
4,000 feet of lumber, board measure, 100 
pounds of wire nails, and 250 pounds of 
tarred paper at 2% cents per pound. The 
silo is painted inside with coal-tar and 
kerosene oil with some spirits of turpentine 
and paint-oil as a last coat to make a smooth 
finish. The paint cost $2.50. I have given 
the cost very nearly correct, except that of 
the work I did myself on rainy days; but 
I don’t think I spent over 15 days’ work on 
it. It is a success with me. The ensilage 
has kept perfectly, the cattle preferring it 
to the best of hay. 
In filling, I use a cutter and carrier only 
going into the silo once for every three or 
four loads, to level it. I tramp it but very 
little and use no weights. It is covered 
with about a foot of cut straw. I have 
no doubt that whole corn will make as 
good ensilage as cut; but that it can be 
put in or taken out with as little trouble I 
do not believe. The alley in front of my 
cows runs alongside of the silo, and on the 
floor is laid a track on which a box on 
wheels runs. I can pitch the ensilage from 
the top of the silo and all the way down, as 
I feed it out, directly into the box, and 
then run the latter along and give each 
cow her part, thus saving the heavy work 
done by many who carry the ensilage to 
the cows in a basket. 
$500 From One Acre. 
H. A. M., Hyde Park, N. Y.—I see in 
The R. N.-Y., page 206, that “J. H. G.,” 
Bristol, Ind., doubts the practicability of 
growing $500 worth of strawberries on one 
acre of land in one year. Please allow me 
to explain the modus operandt, even at 
the extremely low price of five cents per 
quart. The first thing necessary is good 
upland loam, the deeper the better. It is 
presumed that the land has had a generous 
amount of stable manure applied in the 
spring and has been cropped with some 
early vegetable which is removed by the 
first week in July, then that swamp muck 
or leaf mold has been spread on it to the 
depth of three or four inches and incor¬ 
porated thoroughly by deep plowing with 
narrow furrows. Then the grower should 
harrow in from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of 
bone meal per acre and secure some stand¬ 
ard variety of strawberry adapted to his 
locality and let him then plant it as soon 
as strong runners can be procured In July, 
in rows two feet apart, and 12 inches apart 
in the row. He should water the bed 
thoroughly every alternate day for a week, 
if the weather proves dry, and use a scuffle 
hoe at least once a week, and remove all 
runners and weeds around the plants by 
hand Remember, “what is worth doing 
at all is worth doing well.” He should 
never use a horse to cultivate, and should 
keep off the land when it is wet and con¬ 
tinue clean cultivation during September 
and October and give frequent applications 
of unleached wood ashes, sowing them 
broadcast before showers, taking care not 
to drop too much on the foliage. This 
treatment will give plants 10 to 12 inches 
in diameter by November with all the 
strength in the crowns for a full crop the 
next June. When the ground freezes hard 
enough to bear a team, cover lightly with 
the bedding from the horse stable, shaking 
out a part of the manure. This will also 
serve as a mulch the next season. The 
next spring as early as the ground can be 
worked, give another dressing of ashes and 
spade under the width and depth of a 
spade. Roughly estimated, an acre will 
contain over 20,000 plants which will average 
at least one pint per plant or 10,000 quarts, 
which, at five cents, will amount to $500. 
For field cultivation I would prepare the 
ground in the autumn and set the plants in 
April in rows four feet apart and 18 inches 
in the row. They should be kept free from 
weeds and cultivated with a horse, the cul¬ 
tivator being gradually narrowed as the 
runners grow. The treatment should be 
the same as in the other mode, except that 
the runners should be allowed to root, 
and they will completely cover the land by 
autumn. The next spring the grower 
should take young plants out one foot wide 
between the rows, to t et another field with 
them and also to facilitate picking. It is 
best to set a new lot every year, as doing so 
is cheaper than to try to keep the field 
clean the second year. By this plan I have 
picked one quart from every four feet of 
row at one picking, and as there are 10,000 
feet of rows in an acre anybody can figure 
out the result for himself. It must be re 
membered that the strawberry is a gross 
feeder and requires an abundance of water, 
especially in the fruiting season. When 
everything is favorable $500 worth of 
berries per acre is only an average crop, 
even at the above low price of five cents 
per quart. 
Good and Poor Shipping Straw¬ 
berries. 
E - E. S., Niagara County, N. Y.—I have 
found the Warfield to be a berry that ships, 
for short distances, • nearly as well as the 
Wilson, and if the soil suits it, it is very 
productive, and an attractive berry. Last 
summer, at stores where I sold Bubachs, 
I found some of this variety which had 
been shipped in ordinary 32 quart crates to 
commission men, which were in such a 
poor condition as to appearance that the 
grocer was able to get them almost at his 
own price; so the grower got but little, if 
any, more than if he had had Wilsons. The 
grocer, however, understood his business, 
as he picked the berries over very carefully, 
putting them in new baskets, getting about 
25 quarts out of the 32, and selling them 
for 20 cents per quart, and Wilsons for 12% 
cents. At the same time my Bubachs 
were being sold for about 35 cents per 
quart, because I did not send them to mar¬ 
ket in that shape, not having so far to go. 
(Continued on next page.) 
Pltetclluttcou# gUmlijSing. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
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Is so important that 
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BEST-.COUGH-MEDICIN E A 
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Sold by Druggists. 
m=s' for - consumption m 
PAINLESS ........ EFFECTUAL. 
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Price 25 cents per Box. 
Prepared only by Til OS. It KKCIIAM, I 
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