1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
535 
depends upon the anoount of travel on the road, say, 
from two to five years, if the road is properly made in 
the first place. 6 It’s hard to answer without seeinif 
the road. If the road is hollowing and grassy, I com¬ 
mence at the inner edge, next to the road, and cut the 
sod narrow and shallow to where I want the ditch, 
then scrape it very lightly ii to the center of the road, 
grinding it up all that is possible. Then I go back to 
where I commenced, and scrape deeper where the sod 
has been removed, until I get the road to suit me for 
height and shape, always leaving the road a natural 
curve from the bottom of one gutter to the other. 
Road machines are condemned in some places for the 
rea on that parties handling them don’t know the 
shape a road should be made. Such parties should 
not undertake to handle a road machine. j d a. 
Dennysville, Maine. 
the other draws, using two wagons. My neighbor 
uses a two-horse power sweep, draws a load to the 
barn, takes off the team and cuts. He does very satis¬ 
factory work filling two silos, putting in about eight 
acres each year. 
Cutters Not All Satisfactory. —The cutter I pre¬ 
fer, is one with four knives attached to the main shaft 
by cutter heads. This gives a continuous cut and 
steady motion ; there is not the jar that there is to 
knives hung on a balance wheel and not near the 
danger in case an obstruction gets into the machine. 
A safety fiy wheel should be on every cutter. Buy a 
down cut, it runs much steadier and does not have to 
be bolted or screwed to some solid foundation to keep 
it in place. I have owned and run both an up and 
down cut, and very much prefer the latter. The feed¬ 
ing device on some machines is defective and uses too 
inch is preferred. When put into the silo, the corn 
should be well mixed, and evenly spread, with the 
sides and corners well tramped by a good, live man ; 
do not put a drone at this place, better put him at the 
cutter as the machinery will wake him up a little. Do 
not spend extra money on patent processes, or to build 
a round silo, unless it be more convenient to do so. 
Make it as deep as possible, provided it may be easily 
emptied. Two 10x18 silos will give better satisfaction 
than one 10x24. Put in the corn as fast as it can be 
done profitably, and the sooner put on, and the more 
air-tight the covering, the less waste and the better 
ensilage. Be sure the silo is air-tight and will stay so. 
There are other matters which locality or other cir¬ 
cumstances will control, such as manner of covering, 
variety of corn raised ; if for bulk, or quality, etc. 
Here with rye straw 816 to .818 per ton, and no other 
POINTS ABOUT SILO FILLING. 
Half a Dozen Suggestions. 
HOW TO START THE SILO RIGHT. 
Shall Not Have Much Tramping. 
I do not know that I shall vary, to any great ex¬ 
tent, the practices of the past two or three years, ex¬ 
cept in some trivial points, which would probably not 
change the results in dollars. So long as I can get 
my corn hand-cut and laid in nice gavels for handling 
for 80 cents an acre, I shall not introduce machinery 
for the purpose, or do I know of any one in this 
vicinity who has any intention of a change in this re¬ 
spect. 
At the silo, I shall make only one change, I think, 
that of putting a hood upon the top end of the carrier, 
and attaching a canvas conductor to it, to conduct the 
ensilage to any part of the silo—the thing to be worked 
by a boy and string. Possibly this may be better than 
the distributor ; if not, we shall go back in five min¬ 
utes to the older plan, and throw the ensilage to the 
much power. I am now using a No. 13 Ohio, with 26- 
foot carrier. I can cut a ton in 15 minutes easily. 
Too Much Feeding Surface. —If the silo has more 
than 10 square feet of feeding surface to each cow, I 
would put in a dividing wall, making two parts. Com¬ 
mence filling as soon as the corn is ripe enough to cut 
and shock in the old way. If corn is heavily eared, as it 
should always be for ensilage, it makes very strong 
feed. A part of the ears, if one chooses, may be snap¬ 
ped off, thrown into a cart or wheelbarrow and 
dumped under cover out of the way. The husking 
may be done while the dew is on in the morning or in 
rainy weather when the help would be doing nothing 
else. Ours is handled this way, the corn taken off 
being disposed of for seed the next spring. 
Thorough Mixing Necessary; Water.—As filling 
advances, the surface should be kept nearly level. I 
prefer to keep the edges thoroughly packed down. I 
do not leave the heavier portions in the center and 
throw the leaves to the outside to spoil. I mix thor¬ 
oughly to insure its settling evenly. After the en- 
to be had, we mostly use a small amount of swale hay, 
with boards or planks on top. In the grain regions, 
it would be different, but the putting on of heavy 
weights has not paid for the trouble in my own experi¬ 
ence. In localities where it does not pay to raise corn 
or grain to feed, or on small farms, the larger growing 
varieties of corn will give the best satisfaction. Under 
other circumstances, a larger proportion of ears might 
pay better, but those points and many others can 
be best decided by the man who understands his own 
circumstances It is points he needs, and not to be 
told how to run his affairs. Here, with our small 
farms, and many silos of 20 to 40 tons, filled in a day 
or less, it would not pay to rig up a wagon expressly 
to carry the corn, even if it were possible to improve 
upon our custom, which is to use common tip-carts, of 
which nearly every farm has at least one. The front 
pair of wheels very often belongs to the farm wagon, 
the corn is loaded butts behind, then tipped up beside 
the table, which is usually extended 10 or 12 feet from 
the cutter, and three or four men are employed to put 
it on the table and feed the cutter. We cut on the 
average, four or five tons per hour; as 
many of our silos are filled so quickly, 
there is more or less exchanging of work 
and teams. Where the corn is all cut be¬ 
fore filling, the amount of help can be 
made exactly to fit the work to be done. 
Lunenburg, Mass. h o. mead. 
LESSONS TAUGHT BY DROUGHT. 
The severe drought in southern Ohio, 
exceeding in extent of damage that of 
some other districts in this droughty 
year, leads one to study some of the les¬ 
sons taught by it. 
Early planting of spring crops is 
safest in this latitude. When cold 
rains follow early planting of pota¬ 
toes, farmers are likely to say, “I 
prefer to have the seed in the cellar. 
It is better to wait until settled 
weather comes ; then plants can grow.” I remember 
having planted potatoes a number of times when snow 
was falling. One year snow came too deep to permit 
work. Another year a heavy snow lay on the planted 
field for 48 hours. Last spring, after planting, the 
mercury fell to 12 degrees above zero, and the cold 
weather continued for days. And yet a record of all 
the fields would convince any doubting Thomas that 
this early planting pays best four years out of five, as 
heat and drought are almost certain to do damage to 
crops, and check growth in the middle of the summer. 
This yelar, while some fields will not pay for digging, 
the earliest planted will make a good half crop or 
more. It is the same with corn—the early planted 
gets the best start and keeps it throughout the season. 
The seed-bed must be as good as possible. Early 
plowing and thorough fining of the soil increase the 
ability to hold moisture, and to draw it up from be¬ 
neath. This truth is demonstrated in fields side by 
side this year. The one that was roughly prepared 
for planting, holds no such store of moisture now as 
the thoroughly pulverized one. The actual amount of 
water in the top 12 inches of the latter, is perceptibly 
greater than in the case of the former. Ridging rows 
of corn or potatoes hastens evaporation. More sur¬ 
face is exposed to action of the air and sun. The corn 
or potatoes that stand on a ridge, see nothing to live 
for in this hot, dry weather. Then, too, ridging 
usually goes with deep culture and root pruuing, and 
now our plants need all their roots. Frequent cultiva¬ 
tion is an aid, if it is shallow. Some doubt this, but I 
cannot, provided the cultivation after showers is not 
neglected for days. Then it may do more harm than 
good. In my nutmeg field, there was a mulch of fine 
earth two inches or more deep all over the field. The 
vines stood up against the drought nobly for weeks, 
but finally began to droop. When stirring with hoes, 
we could tell after dinner just where we had stopped, 
by the condition of the vines The ones just hoed 
were much the freshest. No stronger projf could be 
the cutter, and with a rose sprinkler 
spraying on three gallons of water to 
each load of fodder, that I shall repeat it 
aga’n this fall; and then, it is no damage 
to the ensilage to now and then dash a 
pail of water into each of the silo corners. 
We shall not again cover the silos after 
filling. The place for the cover is above 
and over the silo—some loose boards sup¬ 
ported by a couple of cross poles, and on 
this a load of straw, in no way in contact 
with the ensilage. Then ensilage is better off with¬ 
out any “ follower.” When it is all in, tramp it down s 
half hour for three days, and then sprinkle on about 50 
gallons of water, and then tramp once more, and leave 
it. In a few days, a blanket of mold will gather about 
two inches thick, and not often even that, and the 
sealing of the ensilage from the air is more perfect 
than the covering of boards can be, and cheaper 
than is possible by any other plan. Last year, the 
loss on the 15x15 foot silo was 20 bushels of mold, and 
the ensilage was good right up to the thin cover of 
mold, nor were there any moldy “pockets” of ensilage. 
A second trial of cutting one-half and one inch has 
settled me to adhere to the one-half-inch cut in the 
future. JOHN GOULD. 
Must Have Plenty of Water. 
A Good Silo Indispensable.— The first requisite is 
a properly constructed silo. If built inside of the 
barn, where it will not freeze, it should be of matched 
fiooring nailed on perpendicular to a frame that there 
may be no chance of its giving at the corners. As the 
filling advances, the walls become self-tightening from 
the moisture in the ensilage, and there is no chance 
for any air to work its way into the ensilage. No 
paper is needed except to keep out the cold ; then it 
should be used outside of a dead-air space. No paint 
or coal-tar is needed on the inside; the boards will 
swell sooner and dry out better without them. 
Power for Running Cutter —The power is what 
puzzles the average beginner, and is the stumbling 
block over which many have taken a fall. Own your 
own outfit complete ; partnership ensilage machinery 
has caused a great deal of trouble. Jack Frost happens 
around about corn-cutting time, and somebody’s corn 
gets frosted. If less than 200 tons are to be put up, I 
would recommend a two-horse power, either sweep or 
tread. I have been using a two-horse tread power 
for 10 years. I have had no trouble to break horses 
to work on it, and have been to no expense except for 
new lags I keep two span of horses, one team cuts, 
Dwarf Rocky Mountain Cherry. From Nature. Fig. 140. 
silage commences to heat, a large amount of moisture 
will be expelled if there is any chance for it to get 
away. If cutting is continued each day, there is not 
much loss at the top, but at the sides there is a loss 
by absorption into the boards. If the corn is imma¬ 
ture and full of juice, and the silo well built, not 
much damage will come from it. But should the corn 
be ripe, moisture must be supplied by adding water. 
Two of my neighbors filled their silos last fall after 
the corn had been frosted. One of them followed my 
directions and used two or three pails of water to each 
load, turning it around the edges, putting some on 
top occasionally. When he finished filling, the top 
was thoroughly soaked and packed ; about six inches 
