RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
257 
Silo  and  Forage  Notes 
Silo  Construction  Alfalfa  in  Maryland 
I  am  going  to  build  a  silo  10  foot  by  IS 
feet  of  2x4’s  planed  on  two  sides.  Should 
the  edges  be  beveled  ?  Some  say  uot  to 
plane  them.  1  must  place  silo  on  north¬ 
west  corner  of  barn — sun  strikes  it  in  the 
afternoon.  Will  that  side  be  all  right V 
Is  there  a  concern  that,  manufactures  a 
metal  roof  ready  to  put  up?  What  corn 
do  you  recommend  for  this  latitude? 
New  Hampshire.  c,  B.  B. 
After  watching  the  “lives'*  of  some  of 
the  silos  made  of  2xl’s.  and  seeing  them 
later  on  pulled  over  and  cut  up  into  sec¬ 
tions  for  henhouses,  and  small  pig  pens,  I 
am  not  very  pronounced  in  their  favor, 
and  should  much  prefer  some  of  the  other 
styles  of  construction.  It  is  pretty  diffi¬ 
cult  to  spike  the  layers,  one  on  to  an¬ 
other,  sufficiently  close  to  make  them  air¬ 
proof.  The  only  way  to  do  it  is  to  put  on 
a  liberal  coating  of  gas  tar  with  a  saw¬ 
dust  filler  in  it,  on  each  layer  before  spik¬ 
ing  ou  the  next.  It  is  quite  as  important 
that  the  inside  edges  of  the  2x4’s  be  made 
smooth,  and  built,  up  true,  as  to  have  the 
two  sides  planed.  It  needs  a  very  true, 
smooth  wall  inside,  so  as  to  offer  no  re¬ 
sistance  to  the  settling  silage,  else  air 
pockets  will  he  found  along  the  walls, 
with  more  or  less  streaks  of  mold.  I  take 
it  that  your  silo  is  to  be  a  square  one 
outside  the  born,  and  if  so,  tbe  sun  in 
New  Hampshire  would  have  small  effect 
in  tbe  Winter,  as  I  remember  such  at¬ 
tacks  on  zero.  There  is  a  metal  roof 
made  for  silos  advertised  in  Tiie  It.  N.- 
Y..  hut  I  doubt  if  you  will  find  it  supe¬ 
rior  to  a  common  roof.  In  your  some¬ 
what  severe  Winter  weather,  I  would 
have  the  roof  so  it  could  be  closed  in  some 
way  at  the  tpp,  a  false  lid.  with  some 
straw  between  it  and  the  roof,  to  prevent 
the  extreme  cold  from  “falling”  into  the 
pit.  Possibly  a  heavy  canvas  that  would 
cover  the  surface  of  the  silage  would  an¬ 
swer  the  same  purpose,  and  save  the 
silage  somewhat  front  chilling  between 
feedings. 
As  to  what  corn  is  the  best  for  silage 
in  your  locality,  you  would  best  be  gov¬ 
erned  by  circumstances.  Our  great  “P.lne 
Ridge”  that  is  best  for  us,  would  be  a 
failure  with  you.  Your  best  growing  and 
maturing  corn  adapted  to  Now  Hamp¬ 
shire  in  the  kind  you  want.  J.  0. 
Lespedeza  in  Ohio 
Will  it  pay  us  in  Northern  Ohio  to 
sow  tbe  Southern  clover  known  as  “Les¬ 
pedeza?”  I  have  a  bulletin  from  the 
Louisiana  Station  which  tells  great 
things  about  this  Lespedeza,  and  if  it 
would  grow  here  in  Ohio  as  it  does  in 
Louisiana,  it  would  certainly  be  a  won¬ 
derful  help  to  us.  Will  it  pay  to  sow 
this  clover  here?  s.  J. 
The  bulletin  from  the  Louisiana  Sta¬ 
tion  gives  a  fine  account  of  the  way  Les¬ 
pedeza  behaves  in  the  lower  Mississippi 
Valley.  Down  in  that,  country  it  is  a 
remarkably  useful  plant,  as  the  climate 
and  soil  are  well  adapted  to  it.  Yrou 
must  not  think,  however,  that  because  a 
plant  will  do  well  in  the  Gulf  States,  it 
will  also  thrive  and  prove  profitable  in  a 
Northern  situation.  The  following  report 
is  sent  from  the  Ohio  Experiment  Sta¬ 
tion  at  Wooster,  and  is  a  fair  statement 
of  the  case.  Lespedeza  is  not  suited  to 
Northern  Ohio  condition.  An  experi¬ 
ment  with  it  would  prove  interesting, 
but  do  not  spend  any  large  sum  of  money 
on  the  experiment. 
Lespedeza  is  a  hot  weather  annual 
which  can  survive  hut  little  frost,  hence 
the  field  of  its  greatest  usefulness  in  this 
country  seems  to  be  in  the  Southern 
States.  The  chief  factor  in  determining 
the  northern  boundary  of  its  successful 
culture  appears  to  be  the  length  of  hot 
season  required  to  mature  its  seed.  Gen¬ 
erally  speaking  this  line  coincides  with 
the  Ohio  River.  Only  in  the  Southern 
part  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  the 
amount  of  growth  sufficient  to  make  a 
profitable  hay  crop.  Farther  north, 
where  the  seasons  are  shorter  but  where 
they  are  still  of  sufficient  length  for  it 
to  mature  seed,  Lespedeza  is  held  in  high 
esteem  as  a  pasture  plant,  mixtures  of  it 
with  Bermuda  grass  or  Red-top  being  es¬ 
pecially  desirable. 
In  Ohio  its  occurrence,  so  far  as  the 
writer  knows,  is  rare.  In  the  experi¬ 
mental  plots  cm  the  Station  farm,  Lespe¬ 
deza  has  been  seeded  annually  for  many 
years,  hut  the  amount  of  growth  has  nev¬ 
er  been  sufficient  to  warrant  its  culture 
in  this  latitude  as  hay;  and,  since  the 
seasons  here  are  seemingly  too  short  for 
it  In  mature  seed,  if  is  impracticable  as 
a  pasture  plant.  f.  a.  welton. 
Ohio  Experiment  Station. 
I  wish  to  put  20  acres  good  high  clay 
loam  iu  Alfalfa  iu  the  early  Spring. 
My  plan  is  to  plow  land  (now  in  corn 
stubble)  as  early  as  possible,  plowing 
nine  inches  deep,  sow  30  bushels  burnt 
stone  lime  per  acre,  then  put  land  in  line 
condition  for  Alfalfa;  sow  20  pounds 
seed  with  1*4  bushel  wheat  or  beardless 
Spring  barley  ns  a  catch  crop.  Will  use 
200  pounds  inoculated  soil  and  300 
pounds  fertilizer  containing  2 '/<  ammonia 
and  12  phosphoric  acid.  I  do  not  want 
to  wait  for  late  Summer  or  early  Fall, 
or  would  first  sow  eow  peas  or  Soy  beaus. 
Can  you  suggest  a  better  method? 
Maryland.  T.  c. 
Here  I  would  sow  the  land  to  cow 
peas  the  first  of  June.  Then  the  middle 
of  August  I  would  disk  down  the  peas, 
goiug  both  ways,  and  then  turn  them 
under  so  as  to  have  them  well  mixed  in 
the  soil,  and  not.  a  solid  layer  of  peas  to 
cut  off  the  rise  of  the  soil  moisture.  Then 
harrow  in  .30  bushels  of  slaked  lime  an 
acre.  I  would  greatly  prefer  to  sow  25 
bushels  of  Alfalfa  seed  an  acre  and  no 
nurse  crop  at  all.  Give  the  Alfalfa  400 
pounds  of  acid  phosphate  an  acre,  or  500 
pounds  of  pulverized  raw  rock  phosphate. 
If  you  use  wheat  or  barley  they  will  uot 
do  well  sown  as  early  as  the  Alfalfa 
should  be  sown,  for  I  would  get  the  Al¬ 
falfa  in  by  last  of  August.  We  have  a 
good  many  fine  plots  of  Alfalfa  here,  and 
none  sown  with  a  nurse  crop.  Wheat 
sown  at  that  time  would  be  full  of  fly 
and  of  little  value,  and  it  is  f;u*  better  to 
get  an  early  start  with  the  Alfalfa.  In 
this  part  of  the  State  Fall  oats  would 
make  the  best  nurse  crop,  as  they  should 
be  sown  curly.  The  Virginia  Grey  Turf 
oats  are  best  for  this  latitude. 
Wicomico  Co.,  Mil.  w.  v.  massey. 
Mulch  for  Alfalfa 
In  the  Fall  of  1914,  just  before  first 
snow,  we  covered  a  small  portion  (about 
onc-sixlcenth )  of  one-lialf  acre  of  Alfalfa 
to  the  depth  of  four  to  six  inches,  using 
buckwheat  straw,  hoping  to  prevent,  win¬ 
ter-killing.  The  previous  Winter  it  was 
necessary  to  reseed.  We  had  a  good  catch, 
grew  about  six  inches  high,  did  not  cut 
it.  In  the  Spring  of  1915  we  removed 
the  straw  and  soon  found  that  the  Alfal¬ 
fa  had  winter- killed  much  more  under 
the  straw  than  elsewhere.  We  obtained 
two  cuttings,  the  straw-covered  por¬ 
tion  showing  plainly  the  injurious  effect 
6f  mulch.  ,t.  d. 
Hampshire  Co.,  Mass. 
Sweet  Corn  Silage 
Could  we  put  sweet  coru  in  a  silo  and 
secure  the  same  advantages  as  with  fod¬ 
der  corn?  I.  W.  B. 
New  York. 
Sweet  corn  silage  analyzes  practically 
the  same  as  silage  from  silage  corn  varie¬ 
ties.  Sweet  corn  grown  solely  for  silage  is 
not  practical,  as  the  yield  per  acre  is  too 
small,  compared  to  the  yield  from  regular 
silage  corn.  When  sweet  corn  is  grown 
for  the  canning  factory,  it  is  common 
practice  to  put  the  green  stover  as  soon 
as  ears  are  removed  into  the  silo.  This 
is  entirely  practical,  since  it  preserves 
the  stalks  in  a  form  that  enables  tbe  cat¬ 
tle  to  get  the  maximum  gotxl  out  of  them. 
The  silage  would  not,  of  course,  have  as 
high  feeding  value  as  heavily  eared  dent 
corn  silage.  n.  F.  J. 
Seed  or  “Rape.” — So  much  has  been 
said  about  the  use  of  Dwarf  Essex  rape 
for  cover  cropping  and  pasturing  that 
great  quantities  of  the  seed  have  been 
purchased  and  used.  Now  comes  the  De¬ 
partment  of  Agriculture  to  tell  us  that  n 
considerable  quantity  of  turnip  rape  has 
been  sold  or  substituted  for  the  true  ar¬ 
ticle.  This  turnip  or  garden  rape  is 
really  a  turnip,  and  is  cultivated  for  its 
oil-bearing  seed.  It  would  have  very 
little  value  for  feeding,  although  it  might 
have  some  place  as  a  cover  crop  on  poor 
soil.  At  any  rate  it  Is  not  the  true  rape 
which  farmers  have  boon  advised  to  seed, 
and  it  ought  not  to  be  used.  There  have 
been  some  curious  mistakes  made  in  the 
use  of  rape.  In  one  case  one  of  our 
readers  thought  he  would  like  to  try  this 
rape,  and  so  he  sent  to  the  local  seed 
store  and  bought  enough  to  seed  several 
acres.  When  it  came  up  it  did  not  look 
natural,  and  finally  developed  a  flower 
exactly  like  mustard.  The  Experiment 
Station  identified  it  as  common  wild 
mustard,  but  a  botanist  finally  decided 
that  it  was  a  bird  mustard  seed  used  to 
some  extent  for  feeding  canary  birds.  It 
had  been  sold  for  the  pure  rape,  and 
neither  the  local  dealer  nor  the  whole¬ 
saler  could  identify  it.  and  neither  one 
seemed  to  know  what  ho  was  offering  or 
what  it  was  good  for. 
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