B94 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
8 
Mr. Cook told us kow he was going to build another 
silo next year on his own farm which would be round, 
air tight, 35 feet in height and would cost him §150, 
The reason for the round silo was very apparent; he 
showed that in silos with square corners, the ensilage 
was quite liable to spoil, whereas in the round silos it 
kept pure and sweet all the time. Then he gave us 
another idea about the corn for ensilage. Hi said he 
would plant, in preference to all other corn, the large 
eight rowed yellow flint; this h3 would plant, if on 
weedy land, three feet each way or on clean land in 
drills three feet apart and would not cut the corn 
until it was ready to be cut for the crop ; that is, when 
the ears were glazed. Then he would put it ia the 
silo, and there would be more feed mg value to it than 
if it were cut at any other time. I have never been 
an enthusiast on the silo business, as I had no faith in 
the rank growing, large varieties of corn that were 
cut when in a green state, and analyzed an enormous 
amount of water. In preference to using that kind of 
ensilage, I would allow my cows 95 pounds of water 
and then give them five pounds of bran; but this 
ensilage with matured corn ears, the stalks and leaves 
put in at the glazing'period cannot fail to be the best 
kind of feed. i 
A Potato Talk. —Probably the most satisfactory 
an”best appre¬ 
ciated address 
of the institute 
was that given 
by C. E. Chap¬ 
man on potato 
culture. Mr. C., 
though a young 
man, seems to 
have solved the 
problem of 
growing pota¬ 
toes cheaply, on 
his land at 
least. His plan 
is to plow the 
field that he in¬ 
tends for pota¬ 
toes, in the fall 
about nine 
inches deep. 
During the 
winter he draws 
what manure 
he has directly 
to the field, and 
spreads it on 
thick. In the 
spring he bar- 
rows carefully, 
gets the land in 
good tilth, 
marks it three 
feet each way, 
goes through 
with a two- 
horse plow and 
plows out fur¬ 
rows as deep as 
the land was 
plowed befoie. 
Then he drags 
the land with 
the smoothing 
harrow, throw¬ 
ing back into the bottom of his furrows two or three 
inches of loose soil, drops the potatoes from a foot to 
17 inches apart in the row, and covers them with a 
spring-tooth harrow run crosswise of the furro ws. He 
tries to harrow his crop at least once a week before it 
comes up, and when the potatoes do break through, 
they cannot fail to be clean, having had such careful 
preliminary treatment. Mr. Chapman illustrated his 
talk by well-drawn charts and interspersed his re¬ 
marks with facts about the use of the Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture, Paris-green, etc. 
Without question Mr. Chapman’s method of growing 
potatoes is the best for him on the steep hillsides that 
go to make up his farm, but for me, on my level land 
or sandy loam, I prefer the Aspinwall planter and 
Hoover digger, and believe that I could grow potatoes 
at far less expense per acre. The crops on my own 
farms in 1893, every tuber being placed in my storage 
cellars, cost me, $14 80 per acre. This was all the ex¬ 
pense, save that of manure. When I use farm manure 
on the crop, I divide its cost into four equal parts, and 
charge each crop grown in the next four years with a 
fourth 'of the cost. 
□Institutes Impkoving —As a last token of apprecia¬ 
tion of the work done by the instructors, a gentleman 
said, “All those in favor of having an institute at 
East Bloomfield in 1895 manifest it by saying aye,” 
and the ayes>went forth in a deafening roar. H iring 
the past few years it has been my privilege to attend 
30 or 40 of the institutes of the State, and I believe 
that on the whole they are improving. I find that the 
speakers have given very careful attention to their 
EU 'jicts, are well informed, more fluent in speech, and 
are better prepared to answer any and all questions in 
connection with their subjects, I take the opportunity 
to speak a good word for the way in which the insti- 
t ites are conducted at the present time, for at the 
time when the institute work was thrown over to the 
machine that has been running our State politics, I 
had but a small amount of faith in the good that would 
come from our institute work hereafter, but when I 
am at fault I am very glad to admit my error, and 
what I thought would come to pass did not. The in¬ 
stitutes at the present time are admirably conducted 
ia every sense of the word, anl I would advise all 
farmers who have the opportunity of attending them 
to be sure to be there during every session. 
EDWAKD F. DIBBLE. 
CLOVER HAY FOR HORSES. 
Some authorities say that clover hay Causes heaves or broken wind 
In horses. That In localities where clover hay and kindred plants are 
not used for horse feed, the disease Is practically unknown. What 
has been your experience? Do vou consider bright, well made clover 
hay worse for h 'rses than hav from Timothy or other grasses? Why? 
I inclose a clipping from The R. N.-Y. which I 
would like to have answered by Mr. J. S, Woodward. 
I understand that hq, uses clover hay for his horses. 
If so, when does he cut it, and what is his manner of 
curing, handling, etc. ? In short, I would like to see 
a general article giving his experience with clover 
and clover hay. A. j. 
Grape Creek, Ill. 
It is true that I do feed clover hay to my horses. I 
would never raise a spire of Timothy hay on my farm 
except to sell. I would rather have two tons of clover 
hay for my horses than three tons of Timothy. Still 
it is undoubtedly true that the improper use of clover 
hay is more likely to cause heaves than the use of 
Timothy. I say the improper use, the abuse, rather. 
The chief value of the horse is in his strong muscles 
and powers of endurance, and these come from those 
foods rich in the albuminoids, as it is well known that 
these only furnish the material for muscular growth. 
Clover bay is rich in these elements and hence its high 
value as horse food. The reason why clover hay, 
when fed in unlimited quantities to the driving horse, 
produces the injury, is no fault of the clover, but 
because of its superior excellence. When the horse is 
allowed to eat his fill, the clover is so palatable that 
he will gorge himself, even when having an abundance 
of oats or other grain, and if driven fast or worked too 
hard while the stomach is overloaded, is in great 
danger of being made wind broken. The remedy, or, 
rather, preventive, is to give the horse no more hay 
than it should have and when this is eaten let it stand 
without, or give some straw to pick over and keep 
busy. When fed in this way no other forage is eq lal 
to it. Horses not at work and growing colts will 
keep in a thrifty condition on no other food than 
clover hay. 
Of course, no set rules can be laid down for the cut¬ 
ting of clover and making of hay, owing to the great 
variableness of the seasons. But the following is 
my method as nearly as I can follow it. Since we have 
had the midge, I am very careful not to be deceived 
and let it get too much advanced. As the midge eats 
the bloom so that it does not show, there is great dan¬ 
ger of this I prefer to cut it just as the field is filled * 
with the red plumes and bef jre there is a single brown 
head. I consider this the best stage of growth, but, 
as I cannot cut the whole of my clover in a single day 
or week, I prefer to cut some before it arrives at this 
stage, rather than let too much of it get so ripe as to 
be woody, and thus lose much of its digestibility and 
feeding value. 
If I have he’p enough to get it in so that I can keep 
the machine running, I would begin to cut as soon as 
the dew is off and cut until night. I would then put 
into large cocks each night as much as was fairly 
wilted, and let these stand from one to three days, or 
until sufficient¬ 
ly cured so that 
it might be 
drawn directly 
to the mow 
from the cock. 
If the day were 
not quite bright 
enough for 
that, it might 
be drawn after 
the cocks had 
been slightly 
opened. 
If my help 
were limited, I 
would cut from 
the time dew 
was off until 
1 p. M , and then 
put into cocks 
and draw as be¬ 
fore mentioned. 
It may be cut 
after dinner, 
turned over 
with the tedder 
or horse rake 
j ist at night be¬ 
fore the dew 
has fallen, and 
be got into the 
mow the next 
day, and make 
bright, sweet 
hay. In fact, 
this will give 
greener hay 
than to cure in 
cocks, but the 
latter will be 
more like the 
English hay, 
than which I 
have n3ver seen 
better. The chief thing to be looked after in making 
clover hay is to have the mows tight, the nearer air¬ 
tight the better, and then get the hay into them with¬ 
out external moisture. It is not the juice of the plant 
that causes the hay to become musty and dusty, but the 
dew or rain which goes into the mow with it. Hay 
perfectly dry outside may be put in quite green with¬ 
out fear. J. s. woodward. 
What Rye Did.—A few years ago I bought a piece 
of land adjoining mine. It had been in cultivation for 
about 20 years without manure of any kind, Not hav¬ 
ing much manure to spare, I concluded to sow about 
an acre of it to rye, plow it under in spring, and plant 
sweet potatoes on it. The remaining 43^ acres I put 
in clover in the spring following. But the soil was so 
poor that the rye made a very feeble growth, so, when 
the ground was frozen, I had it mulched very thinly 
with fresh horse manure. This mulch gave the rye a 
great stimulus after the frost was out of the ground. 
It was plowed under in the latter part of April, and 
the land planted to sweet potatoes about May 20. I 
never raised finer sweet potatoes before or since. This 
shows that in order to raise a crop on poor land, green 
manuring needs an addition of something else. The 
manure alone could not make a crop of fine potatoes, 
because there was not enough of it put on the land. 
Afton, Mo. s. B. 
Double Crops. Early Peas and Squashes from the Same Field. Fig. 31 
