698 
T H E RUR A L N EW- YORKER 
October 21 
let or drip pipe at b. All these pipes are perforated 
on their underside with one-fourth-inch holes. Fig. 2 
shows the upper governor in place. It shows how 
both governors connect with the top part of the silo 
through the pipes m and y. Fig. 3 shows an enlarged 
section of pipe, as does Fig. 5, while Fig. 4 shows the 
strainer at the top of the drip pipe. [The numerous 
other letters given in the different figures refer to the 
manner of joining the pipes.— Eds.] These governors 
commence to remove the air as soon as the corn 
covers them, and while the silo is being filled, and 
for two months while the forage is under pressure.” 
“You press the ensilage then ?” 
“ Yes, we apply a powerful pressure by means of 
strong jack-screws at the top of the silo. You can 
see bow it works. We fill the silo and put on the 
pressure. The air and gases are forced out through 
the pipes, and as the silo is absolutely air-tight, it is 
as impossible for fermentation to set in as in the case 
of canning fruits or vegetables: capillary attraction is 
set up; if there is any carbonic acid in the silo it is 
absorbed, under pressure, and the same with acetic 
acid. Both these acids are healthy and benefich.l to 
cattle, and tend to form a vacuum by reason of their 
absorption, which with the capillary attraction car¬ 
ries the free juice to the very top of the mass, where 
it is equally distributed through the governors; all the 
air is displaced by the juice, and we have a solid, wet 
mass of preserved forage that we can cut down verti¬ 
cally from top to bottom, without the juice coming 
out of the face of the cut, or the air getting in.” 
“ This gives a uniform product, does it ? ” 
“Yes, we can absolutely control its fermentation, 
and the retult is a sweet and perfect food closer in 
composition to the green, growing corn, than canned 
sweet corn is to the natural ear. Everybody knows 
what a difference there is between corn as it is cut 
in the field and when taken from the silo. Another 
point is that there is absolutely no waste about this 
ensilage. We do not have to caution about taking 
off but a few inches at a lime for fear it will spoil; 
we cut right down one side without any spoiling or 
injury. I feed it nine months of the year—right 
through the summer if need be. How can it spoil 
when we have all the agencies that might spoil it 
absolutely under control ? ” 
“ Is your silo different from others ? ” 
“ The one I have is very strongly built cf concrete 
and stone. It must be absolutely air-tight and strong 
enough to stand a powerful pressure. The walls must 
be exactly vertical so that the cover or press will fit 
all the way down. 1 have since devised a plan for 
making such a silo of wood, thus removing the great 
objection to the system, viz., that of extra cost.” 
LONG ISLAND FRUIT NOTES. 
For several years we have tried to grow plums for 
home use. The Chickasaw type, eight or more kinds, 
refused to bear, and the domestic sorts neither bloomed 
nor bore fruit to any extent. The cureulios did not 
harm them, or but very little and the black knot was 
scarcely seen. We planted as a last resort three trees 
in the chicken yard, one Richland and two Smith’s 
Orleans, and they have borne finely every year. 
Allured by the laudations of the Simon’s plum, 
Prunus Simonii, we planted a few and they bore 
beautiful fruit, but finding that even the small boy 
would reject them, we grafted with the Abundance. 
The graft made a fine growth, but with such large and 
abundant foliage the winds played havoc with them 
the first year. The Abundance and Burbank are so 
good and choice to eat, that we have not canned them; 
we could not spare them for that purpose. 
Our Champion quinces give us satisfaction; they 
far exceed the Orange in earliness in bearing and 
prolificacy. True they ripen late and have not so 
marked a quince flavor, but they are so beautiful, the 
limbs bendiDg with their weight, that it is a sweet 
satisfaction to behold them. No trouble to ripen 
them here. 
Our Cottage, Worden, Herbert and Moore’s Early 
grapes, ripen near together. All are very good early 
black grapes and are better with us and ripen sooner 
than the Concord. Herbert has the advantage of 
blooming and setting grapes before the rosebug visits 
us and this insures a crop. 
No pear trees here grow so luxuriantly as the Keif- 
fer,. Garber’s Hybrid and Le Conte. Really they are 
quite ornamental. What a pity the fruit is not perfect 
in flavor ! Garber and Le Conte are about ripe at this 
time. They are beautiful, but lacking in quality, but 
we use them for cooking, and it is a pleasure to possess 
such pretty fruit when so many better pears fail. 
I picked the last Ward’s Late peach yesterday, Octo¬ 
ber 7; they are pretty and good white peaches. 
Lovett’s White bore this season for the first time, and 
we find it a large, juicy peach, the best late white 
peach that ripens here which we have tried. Also St, 
John bore for the first time, and we were delighted 
with its sweet, high flavor; it is quite early. If that 
is its habit after this we shall plant more for home use. 
We have gathered the last of the Wonderful, the most 
worthless late peach we have ; a wonder indeed ! 
Queens County, N. Y. Isaac hicks. 
AN END TO POTATO SCAB. 
THE CORROSIVE 8UHLIMATK TREATMENT A SUCCESS 
THE It N.-Y. SAVES 15 YEARS’ READING MATTER. 
How the Work was Done. 
I have tried the corrosive sublimate treatment this 
season, and here is the result: I used a wooden tank 
four feet wide and 14 feet long, with a platform 16 
feet square at one side, upon which to 6hovel the pota¬ 
toes to be cut after soaking. I made the mixture by 
placing 225 gallons of water and two pounds of cor¬ 
rosive sublimate in the tank, and this amount nicely 
covered 30 bushels of potatoes at once. We filled the 
tank with potatoes about every four hours, or as often 
as was needed to keep potatoes ahead to cut. It took 
one man about 12 minutes to shovel out the 30 
bushels with a screen potato shovel. Home water, of 
course, came out with the potatoes, and in the soaking 
of 560 bushels of seed, we had to add 100 gallons of 
water and one pound of corrosi?e sublimate, a small 
amount at each filling. We let the potatoes re¬ 
main in the mixture from 1% to two hours A few 
potatoes that were left in eight hours, were cut and 
planted, and every one rotted. I tried soaking a few 
cut pieces, but the solution turned the cut surface 
black, and about one piece in 10 rotted. 
Hardly a Pimple on the Crop ! 
The result so far, is the cleanest lot of potatoes I 
every dug. I planted 140 bushels of untreated seed, 
A New Pear, Macomber No. 6. Fig 227. 
and although the product is good, there are at least nine 
scabby potatoes to every smooth one ; in fact it is hard 
to find a potato entirely free from scab. My rows are 
130 rods long, and the first row of soaked seed is 33 
inches from the last row of untreated seed. The 
product of the soaked seed is at least 95 per cent 
absolutely clear of blemish, while not over 10 per cent 
of the product of the untreated seed is free from scab, 
and this is not all. The total product of the first acre 
of treated seed was 12 bushels more than the untreated 
lying next to it, other things, such as quality of seed, 
land, cultivation, and time of planting were the same, 
in every respect as far as it was in my power to make 
it. And again : the last acre of untreated seed gave 
eight bushels more of small potatoes, fit only for 
starch, than the first acre of soaked seed. The entire 
ground planted, was heavily manured, with green 
manure, direct from the barns during fall and winter 
and plowed under in the spring. My brother planted 
both treated and untreated seed, on old land, where 
potatoes were grown two years ago. The product of 
the untreated seed was almost unsalable; in fact if 
potatoes were plenty they would not sell for shipping. 
I he product of the treated seed is a good shipping 
potato, which sells for smooth stock, although, if 
closely examined, almost every potato will show a few 
small spots, but not a circumstance to the rough, dirty 
tubers of the untreated seed. He planted very scabby 
seed. 
Gives THE R. N.-Y. Full Credit. 
The experiment has proven to me that scab on pota¬ 
toes can be handled, and held in check, as easily as 
potato bugs, and at less expense. In fact, I consider 
both to be a means of profit to the potato grower who 
attends strictly to the needs of his crop, because four- 
fifths of the potato growers will consider it too much 
trouble, and be content with one-half of a crop. 
Fifteen to twenty cents per acre each year will keep 
down the scab, and, with my spraying machine, of my 
own make, I can easily kill 25 acres of bugs in one day. 
My seed, last spring, h d more than the usual amount 
of scab, and I did not look for such good results the 
first year. I consider that I increased the value of my 
crop at least §8 per acre, and, as I obtained my in¬ 
formation in regard to the matter through The 
Rural New-Yorker, I shall have to give the paper 
credit, but I hope you won’t charge me with the 
amount, as it figures up just about enough on 40 acres 
to pay for all mv papers and magazines for the next 15 
years. Of course, I should have found it out sooner or 
later, but out of 17 different papers that I take The 
Rural was the only one that gave the proper instruc¬ 
tions. 
In the above I have made comparisons with the last 
acre of untreated and the first acre of treated seed. 
There was no perceptible difference in the yield or 
quality of different parts of the untreated, but there 
is a big difference in quality in different parts of the 
treated. The first e’ght acres grown from the treated 
seed are as nearly perfect as I ever expect to raise 
them, but from that on they commence to show some 
scab, and, although I haven’t dug them all yet, I have 
dug the last five rows for comparison, and I found only 
about 50 per cent free from scab, but still none of them 
had enough scab to injure their sale. The only way 
I can possibly account for this is that the corrosive sub¬ 
limate may have gradually lost its strength, as we 
were 10 days planting the potatoes, on account of rain, 
and used the same solution for the whole 40 acres, by 
adding just enough of the mixture to make up for the 
waste. 
With the exception of a few bushels soaked by my 
brother, I was the only one in this part of the country 
who tried the experiment, although large quantities 
of potatoes are raised here, as we have a splendid 
shipping market and two starch factories of 4,000 
bushels’ dai’y capacity. I want to say in closing that 
every bushel of seed that I plant next year will be 
treated to a bath of 50 minutes in the corrosive subli¬ 
mate solution. e. h currier. 
River Falls, Wis. 
A NEW PEAR, MACOMBER NO. 6. 
In April of 1886, J. T. Macomber of Grand Isle, Ver¬ 
mont, sent us a number of his seedling pears. Among 
them was his No. 6 The tree was again transplanted 
a year or so after it t\as received. The past season it 
bore for the first. It is now scarcely seven feet high, 
the branches spreading widely. It bore 30 pears all 
of which averaged larger than the largest Seckels, as 
may be seen by the illustration, Fig. 227. In shape it 
is not far from Anjou. The surface is smooth, rarely 
furrowed or irregular. The stalk is an inch long, set 
obliquely in a pronounced, rather narrow cavity. 
The basin is shallow, smooth and round. The skin is 
green, often with a dark red or bronze cheek. The 
pears ripen on the tree about September 15, and should 
be gathered a week before and ripened in a dark, cool 
cellar. In quality it is very juicy, sprightly, subacid, 
aromatic. There is a slight astringency about the 
skin and flesh underneath that may harm it in general 
estimation. The flesh is about as tender and buttery 
as that of Anjou, and nearly white. It comes in use 
with Seckel and Bose, and though of a quality dis¬ 
tinctly its own, the difference is not so marked as to 
insure for it an early popularity. Mr. Macomber fur¬ 
nishes its history as follows : 
“ The history of Macomber seedling pear No. 6 is 
short. Many years ago when my father dug some 
trees to fill an order there was one that came up with 
so few roots that he was unwilling to give it to a cus¬ 
tomer, and so kept it and planted it himself and gave 
it his own care. It grew well and after some years a 
sprout came out below the graft which was allowed 
to grow. After a time this sprout bore fruit and 
proved to be a very prolific bearer of large pears. Of 
the quality, you must judge yourself. I think much 
of it. You will perceive that it is a chance seedling. 
The tree is a vigorous grower and very healthy and 
hardy and comes into bearing early. The original 
tree or sprout is dead—killed by blight. The tree 
from which it sprouted, Louise Bonne of Jersey, tcok 
the blight and died and of course the sprout went 
with it, but my young trees, which have been in bear¬ 
ing three or four years have not been affected at all 
by blight. The pear has not been named. 
Adams, Vt. j. t. macomber 
Another Big Niagara. —I notice one of your cor¬ 
respondents reports having grown over 80 bunches of 
grapes on a Niagara vine the fourth year. This was 
very good, but my farm boi k shows that my oldest 
Niagara produced 131 bunches in 1891, the third year 
after planting. This was probably the result of a 
wheelbarrow load of bones buried under it. It has 
not done more than half as wgll since that large crop. 
Bergen County, N. J. a c. worth. 
