1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
683 
and the number of cattle quite large. In such a case 
enough could be taken daily from the entire top to 
prevent its spoiling. But if there is not stock enough 
to eat what can be taken from the entire surface of 
the silo, it should be kept covered. This will make 
extra work, but it will prevent loss. 
I like to cut the corn a few days before I put it into 
the silo. This gives it an opportunity to dry some¬ 
what. If it is allowed to get too dry, it will spoil. 
Also it is best to fill slowly so that the ensilage can get 
settled a good bit before one finishes filling. When 
filled quite rapidly, it settles about one-third. 
Why do not the stations tell us whether it pays to 
feed clover hay and ensilage without other grain ? 
We are looking to them for light on this matter, and 
hope they will tell us as to it before long. We want 
to grow our own co v feeds if we can. and want them 
to tell us what to grow. J. w. xewtox. 
MAXIMUM EGGS; MINIMUM EXPENSE. 
HEXS EARX THEIR BREAD AXD BUTTER. 
[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.] 
In the September issue of The R N.-Y. I told about 
hogs kept by Mr. Roessle, of Albany, N, Y., upon the 
swill gathered from hotels and other institutions in 
the city. Mr. R. has in the past made a specialty of 
hogs, and the hens have figured only incidentally ; 
but the losses among his hogs last year discouraged 
him, and as the hens kept have proved extremely 
profitable, he intends to devote more atttention to 
these, and, as he expressed it, “ make the hogs a side 
show.” His soil is of the right kind 
for poultry, sandy with an undulating 
surface, and as he has sufficient to give ((1 j\ I 
the hens almost unlimited range, the jl -.(• 
situation seems favorable for successful [ ,'j 1 ^ 
poultry keeping. At the time of my visit 
he was contemplating the erection of 
extensive buildings to accommodate sev- 
eral thousand hens. 
“ I know there is money in hens,” said • 
Mr. R., “forthe few I have here, though \ 
not given any special care, and fed but 
once a day during summer, have paid 
me well. All the buildings I have are 1 'M|j 
not suited to hens. They were stables, , | 
and we have fitted them up with roosts 'Ml 
and nests. Still I think the plan upon j||| 
which they are arranged is a good one. ' ' ||| 
You see the south side is open, being lj % i|l 
covered only by wire netting. In win¬ 
ter these sashes are put on and the house 
is all snug and warm. There is noth- ' ; 
ing unusual in the inside arrangement, - 
but this feature I consider particularly 
valuable. It gives the hens an abun¬ 
dance of fresh air.” 
“ Do you ever have any disease ? ” 
“ Very seldom. Occasionally there is a f 
case of roup, but not often.” 
“ Do you believe it pays to doctor fowls when they 
get sick ? ” 
“ No, not as a general thing. If a fowl once gets 
the toup, I don’t believe she ever recovers. There is a 
rooster now that was affected slightly, and we kept 
him, but he never has been just right. Sometimes 
they apparently recover, but sooner or later they will 
droop and die. If the roup once gets hold of them, 
the best way is to cure it with the ax.” 
“ I suppose your hens are swill-fed the same as the 
hogs ? ” 
“Yes, we feed them mostly on the bread from the 
refuse. This is put in barrels by itself and so is kept 
dry. We soak it up in cold water, mix some of 
Spratt’s food and middlings with it, and feed once a 
day.” 
“ Do you feed any grain ? ” 
“ Not much in summer. A little small grain is scat¬ 
tered around, and in winter corn occasionally. Wheat 
and oats are better egg foods, but in winter a little 
corn is needed.” 
“ How about feeding them meat ?” 
“ We use the bones and scraps from the soup kettles. 
These make excellent food for the hens, giving them 
an occasional feed.” 
“Of course you don’t have to feed green food so long 
as they are • unning at large ? ” 
“ No; the grass they pick is better than anything 
that can be fed them. I had quite a controversy with 
one of these cranks who think that there is nothing 
equal to clover chopped up and steamed or soaked and 
fed to hens. That may do in winter as a substitute, 
or when nothing better is to be had, but it cannot 
equal the natural grass just as it grows. This man 
claimed that hens would do better kept confined and 
fed, but I told him that they wanted free range, and 
that the grass that they would pick was just the 
young, tender shoots, and that it was far better than 
anything that was fed them in a trough.” 
“Can you tell how much your hens have paid you 
during the year ? ” 
“No, for, as I said, they haven’t received any par¬ 
ticular attention, and I haven’t kept a strict account 
with them. I know that they haven’t cost much for 
feed and that they have laid a lot of eggs.” 
“ When you get the larger flock started, where will 
you market your eggs ? ” 
“ In New York.” 
“Couldn’t you get good prices in Albany at the 
hotels and first-class restaurants ? ” 
“ No, Albany is no good for high prices for fancy 
products. I tried to make a bargain with one grocer 
to supply him with eggs at a good price, and agreed 
to give him $5 for every stale one he found ; not rotten 
or bad. mind you, but for every one not perfectly 
fresh. But he could get Western eggs, or case eggs, 
or some other kind of eggs, and his customers didn’t 
know any better.” 
“ Do you raise much grain ?” 
“ A few hundred bushels each of rye and oats. We 
are thrashing now as you see ; just look at those oats, 
and see how plump and heavy they are. They are 
good enough for anybody’s horse to eat ” 
Here is a man whose poultry cost him little for 
feed, but have plenty of range ; whose buildings were 
not designed for the use to which they are put; who 
doesn’t put in any fancy fixings, or clean his houses 
every day, or make any great fuss over his chickens, 
but who secures a good supply of eggs cheaply. The 
secret seems to be that the hens have an abundance of 
pure air, pure water, a grassy range, and a variety of 
AiflERICft I PAYS MILLIONS 
OR jEGpS J 
I WANT THAT JOB- 
A-BUSINESS-HEN- 
:'L '(»A''■f|) ,i. vA/W v/ki.j 
Latest Bulletix from the Hex-House Statiox. Fig. 225. 
y food These are, after all, the necessary conditions, c 
and if they are secured, it matters little how. f. h v. s 
WHITEWASHING TREES IN THE FALL. 
I agree with the correctness of the answer to B. D. 
S., as to the expediency of whitewash on fruit trees 
in the fall, but do not think it covers the entire ground. 
It is nearly 20 years since I began to apply lime to 
trees, and in this time all phases of the question have 
suggested themselves. My first practice was to 
darken the lime with soot so that the stems might not 
look so gairish. This destroyed insect and vegetable 
life, but why not let the white lime reflect the hot 
sun also ? So the soot was discontinued. In Kentucky 
one of the most prolific causes of the loss of peach, 
apple and cherry trees is’the bursting of the bark on 
the southwest side, because of the intensity of the 
summer sun and the unequal expansion in winter 
when the stems thaw on that side while the shaded 
portions remain frozen. The loss is especially severe 
on slopes to the east, south and southwest. Lime 
applied in May is washed off during the summer and 
I now repeat the operation in September. Since this 
practice has been adopted hardly a tree has been 
injured where heretofore I lost hundreds. In this 
connection a peculiar fact as applying to the peach 
crop, was this year noted. I have not the best site for 
peaches in the vicinity by far, but my crop was the 
most satisfactory in the entire county. The winter 
was especially severe, with the thermometer ranging 
from 10 to 16 degrees below zero for days at a time 
and yet my trees were heavily laden, while the gen¬ 
eral crop was either a total loss or quite sparse. The 
lime may not have given me immunity, but my trees 
are whitewashed and the crotches where a brush can¬ 
not be used shall be coated with a sprayer. Lime is 
cheap and let B. D. S. put it on now, and do his own 
thinking and watching, h. f. h. 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Rural Trench System vs. Ordinary Culture 
of Potatoes. 
We have taken for granted that the Trench System 
would yield much larger crops of potatoes than either 
the old drill or hill method. We have taken it for 
granted, without any proof derived from careful and 
repeated experiments in which both methods were 
carried on side bv side, in dry seasons, in wet seasons; 
on dry land, on moist land. Our yields of potatoes by 
the Trench System for many years have been far 
greater than those of neighbors who used the ordinary 
method. That seemed proof enough, and it did not 
occur to us until last spring to try to ascertain just 
what the difference might be. 
The R. N.-Y. has assumed since it began its experi 
ments in potato culture, both as to the preparation of 
the soil and the economic use of fertilizers and man¬ 
ure, that the soil sh uld be mellowed by the plow and 
harrow to a greater depth than has usually been 
deemed necessary. It reasoned that while the roots 
could more readily find plant food, the forming tubers 
would find less resistance to their growth ; that the 
mellower soil of the trench would conserve moisture 
and minimize the effects of drought, much as a suit¬ 
able mulch would tend in the same direction. It 
reasoned that fertilizers could more easily and evenly 
be distributed just where the roots would find them. 
These were the main reasons for our faith in the 
trench. The minor reasons need not again be given now. 
We are now enabled to give the results of our first 
season’s endeavors to prove whether the 
I inuC trench pays or does not. 
LIU IN J The trial plot was on rather low, moist 
land—a retentive soil—drained naturally , 
HtNO though not thoroughly, by a slight de¬ 
cline from the east towards the west, 
the last row being within 10 feet of a 
deep, wide ditch. 
T JOB’ On account of excessive rainfall and 
a cold spring, the potatoas were not 
S' HEN’ planted until May 15. Cold, rainy 
weather continued for about two weeks, 
followed by a severe drought. The 
III drought, though greatly injuring upland 
I * crops, did not seem to harm the vines or 
lessen the yield of ti.is lowland experi¬ 
ment plot. 
The trenches (about a foot wide by 
eight inches deep) alternated with the 
drills or furrows made by plowing a 
furrow both ways. The trenchei and 
furrows were each 33 feet long. Thres 
pounds of the Mapes potato fertilizer 
were spread very evenly over the bot¬ 
toms of the trenches and for the same 
breadth upon the furrows. This was 
at the rate of 1,320 pounds to the acre. 
25. The variety of potato was Rural Blush, 
The seed (medium-sized potatoes) was 
cut to two or three strong eyes, making 2% pounds of 
seed to each trench and furrow. 
On June 6 the tops of the furrow potatoes were 
from three to six inches tall, while the sprouts of the 
trench potatoes had not appeared above ground, ex¬ 
cept here and there. 
On June 25 the tops of the trench potatoes were 
notably smaller than those of the furrows. It seemed 
as if the seed pieces of the deep ;r, cold, wet trenches, 
though few rotted, had been weakened more than 
those of the furrows. 
July 14 most of the trench plants had caught up to 
the others in size and vigor. A few trenches were 
still behind the furrows. 
July 24 the trench vines were fully as large as those 
of the furrows, and they were of a somewhat darker 
green. The drought at that time was terrible. On 
higher land grass was burnt and corn leaves were 
badly curled. 
On August 1 the drought was broken by a copious 
rainfall of 20 minutes’ duration and the rest of the 
season was favorable enough. Taere was then no 
conspicuous difference either in the vigor or color of 
the vines. 
Results. 
Trexch 1. —Total yield, 76% pounds. 
Large tubers. 211 
Small tubers. 89 
Furrow 1.—Total yield, 59% pounds. 
Large tubers. 234 
Small tubers. 89 
Trench 2.—Total yield, 58% pounds. 
Large tubers. 190 
Small tubers.., . 80 
68 pounds. 
8% pounds. 
76% pounds. 
51% pounds. 
8 pounds. 
59% pounds. 
51% pounds. 
7 pounds. 
58% pounds. 
