98 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 17 
short a time ? The R. N.-Y. is at the bottom of it all. 
In 1891 I was about to give up in despair, when finally 
looking over some catalogues and various articles, I 
noticed that the introducers of new berries and fruits 
always gave The Rukal, New-Yorker’s opinion, which 
they seemed to consider as the best authority that 
could be had. Finally I began wondering who this 
great man Rural New-Yorker was and where he 
lived. It was quite a long time before I found him. 
At last, one day I got hold of a copy of Popular 
Gardening and there I found out. I sent him $2 ; I be¬ 
lieve it was to scrape an acquaintance, which he was 
ready to accept, and from that time to this I have 
studied the man every week from head to foot. I have 
also received many valuable books through The R. 
N.-Y., such as Farm Chemistry, Chemicals and Clover, 
Fertilizer Farming, the New Onion Culture and the 
New Potato Culture. I am now getting interested in 
farming. In fact I do not think any man can make a 
success of his business unless he gets really interested 
in his work. This article may not be very interesting 
to some of the more successful farmers. I have a 
great many things to learn, and as I am yet quite 
young—only a little past 30—I have something to 
hope for. I have been experimenting more than any¬ 
thing else the past two years, as I am simply renting 
the farm where I now reside, so I cannot do my best. 
I hope to buy this place or some other one before 
spring, when I shall begin operations in earnest o i a 
somewhat larger scale. Then I think I can make 
some of the above statements feel ashamed. When I 
hear farmers crying hard times, I tell them to take 
The R. N.-Y. one year as a medicine. It is easy to 
take and a sure and permanent cure for t hat terrible 
disease called poverty. geo. bittner. 
Erie County, Ohio. 
WHAT AILS THE SILO ? 
This question was asked on page 36 by a Connecticut 
man who complained of spoilei ensilage. Read his 
complaint in connection with the following notes ; 
Too Much Air Got In. 
If G. K. put his corn stover in uncut, it is not strange 
that it spoiled on the side. I never saw a silo filled 
with whole corn stover, but it spoiled for three or 
more inches all around. If it was cut into one-quarter, 
one-half or one inch lengths and properly tramped on 
the sides, the fault is the silo is not air-tight, either at 
the bottom or sides ; if it were there should not be an 
ounce of waste on the sides. If good sound tar paper 
was put between the siding and the lining and well 
lapped, the sides should be tight. Very often with a 
cement bottom the sides will shrink from the cement 
in places leaving a small air crack. The bottom 
should always be examined before filling; it does not 
take much air to make mischief. e. s. b. 
Canton, N. Y. 
Must be a Crack Somewhere. 
A silo to keep perfect ensilage must be absolutely 
air-tight; with those conditions no weighting or patent 
process will be needed. The present matching is 
probably too loose and not air-tight. To improve the 
silo, knock out the octagon corners, and line over this 
present boarding with pine boards tightly matched. 
A strip of resin-sized builders’ sheathing in each 
comer before boarding, or even over the whole sur¬ 
face, would make the job more perfect. With a little 
pains to keep the corners well trodden, and then the 
top, especially the sides, well tramped three or four 
times, each day for a couple of days, and then cov¬ 
ered with a close top, which will be free to settle, 
there should be no loss below a foot on the sides, and 
a very triflirg amount a little deeper in the corners. 
With a little hay and some rough boards or planks, 
there will be but little loss on top. I once covered a 
silo with two thicknesses of boards and paper be¬ 
tween, and there was not over one inch of waste over 
a large part of the top. This applies to cut ensilage, 
as I have had no experience with putting in whole, 
and I have never seen any with which I would be 
satisfied as compared with cut. . x. o. m. 
Lunenburg, Mass. 
The Best Silo Cover. 
G. K.’s silo simply is not air-tight. That is all the 
trouble. Ensilage will not keep unless all air is ex¬ 
cluded. I don’t take any stock in the advice to merely 
sheath up the inside of the silo with one thickness of 
lumber, painting the inside. It may keep the ensilage 
passably well the first year, but after the silo has 
stood one summer, and is refilled there will be many 
cracks to admit air. Then when the ensilage is being 
taken out, much will be found all around the sides 
and in the corners that is spoiled. Several years ago, 
I put in a new silo and thought it all right; but when 
filled the second time, much ensilage was worthless. 
In the corners and down the sides there was a lot of 
moldy,'rotten stuff. The following summer I put on 
a good coat of waterproof paper and over this a thick¬ 
ness of good, well-seasoned, matched pine, well nailed, 
and, when completed gave the whole inside two good 
coats of coal tar, giving the first coat plenty of time 
to dry before applying the second. Around the corners 
I doubled the paper. I was in that silo yesterday, and 
there is no spoiled ensilage ; not even in the corners. 
I believe the better way is to put on a good sheath¬ 
ing of well seasoned lumber, nailing it well. Over this 
put a coat of the best tarred felt, nailing it well; to 
this apply a coat of thick coal tar, or what would be 
better, take one-third roofing pitch and two thirds 
coal tar, mixing together by heating. While the coat¬ 
ing is green or freshly applied, put on a second thick¬ 
ness of the tarred felt and over the whole a lining of 
good, well-seasoned lumber, well matched and nail it 
firmly. To this give two good coats of coal tar, and 
there will be no danger but the ensilage will keep if 
properly matured and well trodden down about the 
sides and corners. 
I have noticed much that is said about putting in 
ensilage without treading, and I have fully tried the 
plan. I have used a distributor and have filled with¬ 
out, and I unhesitatingly condemn the whole thing as 
a delusion and a snare. If the corn be put in very 
green, and that which is grown so thickly as to have 
few or no ears, it will not hurt such ensilage as that 
any way. On the other hand, if the corn be planted 
so as to produce plenty of ears, and be allowed to 
stand until those ears are well toward maturity, then 
if not leveled and trodden constantly, the ears will 
fall and roll into bunches and in such quantities that 
there will not be sufficient leaves and stalks among 
them to have them pack closely enough. Thus much 
of the corn will be molded, and injured, if not wholly 
From the Voice. 
spoiled. I invariably put one of my best men into 
the silo, and I want him to be active and keep all well 
mixed, and the outside a little the highest, and packed 
down so as to be hard. 
For covering I have tried many things from felt and 
boards down to straw; and cut straw or grass or 
weeds please me the best. When the silos are filled, I 
cut straw and run it on the top about one foot thick. 
We attach the hose to the water tank and run a stream 
upon cut straw as it goes up the carrier. After it has 
laid two or three days, we then spray or sprinkle on 
the straw a pail of water to three square feet, enough 
to saturate the straw, after which it is thoroughly 
trodden down all over the silo, and then left alone. It 
will soon look like an old manure pile, covered with 
toadstools and fungus, and black and rotten, but when 
taken off, we always find the ensilage good clear to 
the top. J. S. WOODWARD. 
How to Improve the Silo. 
I formerly had the same trouble, and looked for the 
cause. The trouble does not occur so much with 
immature corn, but when corn is left until it is fit to 
husk and crib before filling the silo, it lacks the 
amount of moisture necessary to swell the boarding 
of the silo; or, in other words, the boarding of the 
silo absorbs so much of the moisture that it causes the 
ensilage to spoil as far as the moisture is drawn out 
by the boards. The corners spoil worse for the reason 
that absorption goes on from two ways. I reasoned 
that the necessary moisture must be supplied by 
water. In 1892, when filling, I kept the edges thor¬ 
oughly wet down with water—two to three pailfuls to 
each load. The result was perfect ensilage right up 
to the boarding. The corn was so dry that it rattled 
when put in the silo. 
I had a man with me through the winter of 1893 
that had had considerable experience with silos. He 
said that it was the most perfect ensilage he ever saw 
fed out. So well pleased was I with the experiment, 
that in the fall of 1893 each morning before starting 
up I put about one pailful of water to every 20 square 
feet over the surface of the silo. The result was 
that there were no moldy streaks in the ensilage this 
winter. If, in case of break-downs or shut-down 
on account of bad weather, the top is thoroughly wet 
down every morning, no harm will come to the ex¬ 
posed surface for several days, the water supplving 
the necessary moisture that is constantly being ex¬ 
pelled by the heating of the ensilage. When the silo 
is full, run on about six inches of cut straw, then put 
on about one pailful of water to every 15 square feet 
of surface, tramp thoroughly, continue this for three 
days, lessening the supply of water each time ; repeat 
two or three times at intervals of two or three days. 
When a silo thus treated is opened, a common wagon 
box will carry off all the waste from a silo 12x12. 
In the construction of silos nothing but single board¬ 
ing matched and jointed should be used, put on per¬ 
pendicularly. Why ? If the frame work is as strong 
as it should be, the silo becomes tighter the more the 
boarding swells. If put on cross-wise, as the silo is 
filled, the boards at the bottom expand, cro wding the 
next up and so on until by the third or fourth year, 
the tongue towards the bottom of the silo, when it 
shrinks, will pull apart. Use no paint or coal tar on 
the inside of a silo. It takes long for the painted 
siding to expand which means just so much more 
moisture wasted. One side of my silo is painted with 
coal tar ; I am glad I did not have time to finish the 
job. It has been built six years and I can see no signs 
of decay yet in the unpainted surface. I have visited 
several silos made of rough boards with paper between, 
but they are not generally satisfactory. i.. d. o. 
Stedman, N. Y. 
THE RUSSIAN THISTLE—A DANGEROUS PEST. 
Eastern readers have heard from time to time ac¬ 
counts of this new weed pest which threatens so much 
damage to Western farmers. We now show them at 
Fig. 33 (first page) a picture of the weed taken from 
an excellent bulletin by Prof. C. E. Bessey, of the 
Nebraska Experiment Station at Lincoln. This speci¬ 
men was found growing in the city of Lincoln; in fact, 
the chief damage from the weed is feared from the 
plants permitted to go to seed on vacant lots and other 
unused ground. 
The following popular description of this weed is 
given: 
More or less spherical In shape, and conststtnff of many elonRated 
branchtnc twles which trrnw outward and uDwa-d from the root. When 
not qn'te mature, the whole plant has a reddish color, but as its seeds 
ripen, It bleaches out and eventoally Is almost white. Well-trrown 
specimens are from two to three feet In diameter, but where crowded 
togetherthey may be much less. Each twly and branch Is coyered on 
a'l sides by hard, stout prickles, which are very sharp and yery Irri¬ 
tating to the touch. These prickles are In threes, that is. there are 
three together In a place and po'ntlng In different directions. At the 
upper side of the base of each three prickles there Is a seed, and, as 
there are about 10 of these to each Inch, It ts easily seen that the seeds 
produced by eyery well-grown plant must reach a great many thou¬ 
sands. 
In fact, on the plant pictured at Fig. 33 there were 
between 10.000 and 15.000 seeds. Late in the fall the 
plant breaks off and rolls away with the wind, scat¬ 
tering its seeds evervwhere. This weed entered Ne¬ 
braska from South Dakota, and has followed the regu¬ 
lar lines of travel to different parts of the State. Stock 
cars carry the seeds about, and the winds that roll the 
plants over the prairies seed vast areas. In fact, this 
pest promises to inflict a serious blow to Nebraska 
farming if something is not soon done to cheek its 
spread. 
What can be done ? Farmers and others must take 
organized action to destroy the plants before they go 
to seed. A law should be passed to compel non-resi¬ 
dent owners of lands, railroad companies, street and 
railroad commissioners, etc., to destroy the weed on 
the lands controlled by them. 
Prof. Bessey quotes the Wisconsin weed law and the 
Nebraska law against Canada thistles, and suggests 
that they should also be made to cover the Russian 
thistle. The Nebraska law is short enough to be 
quoted here: 
Sbcttox F,S'i7 (2"9). Eyery owner or possessor of land shall cut or 
mow down all Canada thistles growing thereon or In the highway ad¬ 
joining the same, so often as to preyent their going to seed, and if any 
owner or possessor of land knowlnglr shall suffer any such thistles to 
grow thereon or In any highway adjoining the same, and the seed to 
ripen so as to cause and endanger the spreading thereof, he shall for¬ 
feit and pay a tine not less than $10 and not more than $10; and any 
person may enter upon the land of arother, who shall neg'ect or re¬ 
fuse to cut or mow down such thistles, for the purpose of cutting or 
mowing down the same, and shall not be liable to be sued In an action 
for trespass therefor, 
SBC. 5.833 (240). If any person shall, knowingly, vend any grass or 
other seed In which there Is any seed of the Canada thistle, such per¬ 
son shall, for eyery such offense, be fined the sum of $20. (Consoli¬ 
date d^statutesof.Nebraska,] 1891.) 
