Plan of frame 
Cross section through center. 
food, and also that the butter made from the 
milk contains that nice flavor and color which 
have only beeu obtainable when cows have 
been turned out in fresh, green grass.” In 
this country C. W. W., Roadville, Mass , some 
time ago said: "I have, at various times, seen 
inquiries as to the elTect Of feeding ensilage ou 
the flutter product. I have been feeding siuce 
December 0 to my dairy cows, which are 
mostly Ayrshire®, 50 pounds daily of ensilaged 
fodder corn and millet (about 1U per cent, of 
the latter), with one quart of cotton-seed meal 
and two pecks of pulped beets. I find a gain 
of about 10 per cent, in milk am! five per cent, 
in butter over t.hnt produced when feeding 
hay and corn meal. The quality of the butter 
is very fine; the grain is perfect, the color 
good, and the aroma ami flavor almost like 
those of June butter. Before I sold my small 
dairy of Jerseys, I was making butter, and 
Messrs. Smiths & Powell are doing the same, 
ou ensilage; and we should agree with these 
two witnesses as to the quality of the milk 
and butter.” 
2. There is a very general agreement, among 
feeders of ensilage, that cubic foot of it 
is sufficient for one day’s feed, and that 
amount takes the place of not less than 20 
pounds of hay, which, at 512 cubic feet to the 
ton of solid hay, would occupy 5.12 cubic feet 
of space, something more than three times as 
much as the eusiluge. U. M., of Essex, Vt., 
has utilized a poitiou of his barn for a silo, a 
space 15x19 feet, at a cost of $30, and one 
week’s work of himself; its capacity is 60 
tons, or 8,660 cubic feet, which will furnish 
feed for 10 cows six months, while huy to feed 
the same time would fill a space of 9,108 cubic 
feet. This use of a part of a barn already 
built, would be a very economical one. But 
if that cannot bo spared, a good wooden silo 
cau be built across one end of a 20x40 feet 
barn, to hold 75 tons of ensilage, which would 
have a feeding value equul to that of hay 
completely filling two bays of a 30x40 foot barn, 
with 14-foot posts, which would cost 8100, if all 
built above ground. 
8. I shall leave it for the farmers themselves 
to determine the cost of raising one acre of 
Pa? sage-way. 
Floor. 5 feet above horse stable floor 
iron rods down into it, to see if there was any 
evidence of its spoiling, and this state of mind 
added 50 per cent, to the cost of my silo; but 
now, for n man to argue that, buttercunnotbe 
made from cow's milk, would appear just as 
reasonable as that this method of suving fodder 
is not the best, of any other one now known, 
especially for New York and New' England. 
We must, in some way, get more from one 
acre than we now get from two, in order to 
compete with the Great West. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. k. t. hayden. 
BENEFIT OF UNDER DRAINING. 
I am glad to see the attention given in the 
Rural to under-draining; it is a matter of 
great moment to th < farmers. My soil Is a 
strong, gravelly clay loam, not especially wet 
but owing to springs and the retentive 
will they be to those of us who have no such 
soil ! I know you are mnkingthesc tests largely, 
if not wholly, in the interest of your subscrib¬ 
ers; therefore, why spend your time and 
money on what will not be likely to help us? 
Now the potato, as 1 understand it, is com¬ 
posed principally of starch (excepting water), 
and starch is a combination of carbon, hydro¬ 
gen and oxygen, 
It seems to me that the question is, What is 
the source of these elements in the case of the 
potato, aud by what means in the potato plant, 
itself, or in the action of the various fertil¬ 
izers, are these elements combined in the right 
proportion to make the starch we are after 
when w'e plant, potatoes? We know thut car¬ 
bon exists in the atmosphere, combined with 
oxygen, in the form of carbonic acid gas. It. 
also exists in most soils, in old vegetable matter 
as carbon; for examplo, it is a valuable (?) 
Jn e of e arth. 
Fig. 183. 
character of the soil, the farm was often 
more or less wet in the Spring. Joining farms 
with my father-in-law, the late John Johnson, 
and having long observed the beneficial 
effects of drainage on his farm, in 1850 I com¬ 
menced a thorough system of under draining, 
and put down over 75 miles of tiles. ! con¬ 
sider it money well invested, and have beeu 
many times repaid for the entire cost of the 
work, and my land was never in better con¬ 
dition than now. I am often asked how long 
tile will last. 1 had a post, hole dug the other 
day, and in digging it the man came down to 
a tile drain; it was as sound as when laid 33 
years ago. There was a considerable stream 
of water running through it, and every thing 
in the best of order. If good, well burned 
tiles are properly laid, they, are practically 
everlasting. Farmers cannot lay too many 
tiles on all soils, if only occasionally, wet. 
Geneva, N. Y. rouert j. swan. 
farm (Topics. 
OBJECTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH 
POTATOES. 
I read, with much interest, the particulars 
of the series of experiments to be made ou 
the Rural Grounds this season, upon the po¬ 
tato, as related on page 285. I am sure you 
constituent of muck. But I believe this car¬ 
bon is useless to plants until it has become 
oxidized into carbonic acid Hydrogen may 
be obtained from water, which is ouo of its 
compounds with oxygen, or from ummonia, 
which is a compound with nitrogen. Oxygen 
tuny be obtained from the atmosphere in 
which it exists free, or from water, its combi¬ 
nation with hydrogen; or from lime, the acids, 
or from a thousand sources. 
Now we know that potash, bone dust, aud 
some form of nitrogenous manure, applied to 
any soil, will aid in the manufacture of starch 
in the potato; that is, it will aid the potato 
plant to store up starch in the tuber. Ob¬ 
viously the plant does the work. The potash, 
phosphate of lime and nitric acid are not 
starch, and cannot become such, any more 
than a hen’s egg can, by hatching, produce a 
turkey. And, right here, let mo ask, is it not 
absurd to call these fertilizers -'plant-food?” 
They certainly do not constitute, in the least 
degree, the food of the potato; and I have 
serious doubts whether the same result might 
not be reached in reasoning out the case of 
every other crop. 
Well, Mr. Editor, can you tell ns how all 
this thing comes about? We ought to know 
it, surely. And your series of experiments 
are not going to throw one ray of light upon 
the subject. r. ferris. 
REMARKS. 
The questions asked are rather extraordi- 
Fig. 184, 
already rich, why use fertilizers at all, with a 
view to ascertaining what his soil needs? It 
needs no food, whatever, except to supply 
what is carried off in crops, But the major¬ 
ity of our readers are not so fortunately 
placed, ami experiments which will show what 
the Rural's poor soil needs may, if used in the 
same way, prove equally valuable to them. 
The dry matter of the potato is composed of 
about 80 per oeut.. of starch, and it is true 
that starch is composed of carbon, hydrogen 
and oxygen. We have nothing to do with 
these. All plants are, for the most part, com - 
posed of the same, in varying proportions. 
We have to do, in the matter of fertilization, 
with the ash eontitueuts, not with the volatile 
parts. The ash of potatoes contains about 60 
percent, of potash; that of carrots about 37; 
and that of turnips about 89, Sec. Hence it is, 
that potash should prove n suitable food for 
potatoes in a soil not rich in jKitash. “The 
sources” of starch are the air and the soil, both 
of which will furnish to plants all the hydro¬ 
gen, oxygen ami carbon they need, without 
human airl. Wheat, corn, and grain of all 
kinds, us well as potatoes, contain starch in 
large quantities. What we are concerned 
about is to furnish the potash, the phosphoric 
add and the nitrogen in sufficient quantities 
to cause the potatoes to make the most vigor¬ 
ous and healthy growth, so that they may be 
able, as it were, to forage after starch for 
themselves. It is not absurd to call these 
plant foods, and they do constitute the food of 
the potato, aud if we were to furnish every 
element, necessary for a crop of 1,000 bushels 
of potatoes per acre, locking ouly the potash, 
or the phosphoric acid, or the nitrogen, we 
should ouly get such a crop as the amount of 
this one element was sufficient to produce, and 
were it entirely absent,, we should meet an 
utter failure. As a rule, if these three ele¬ 
ments of plant-food are present in abundance, 
we shall obtain a good crop; it mutters little 
about, nuythiug farther except, of course, 
pleuty of water. We fear you are like Felix 
in some respects, and would advise that you 
drink deeper at the Pierian spring. ^ 
Fig. 186. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Rural, May 3. —It seems to me that noth¬ 
ing could tie more absurd than the argument 
against American thoroughbreds, made by O. 
C. W., p. 282. History records thut the Col- 
lings actually made the Short-horns, consid¬ 
ered us thoroughbreds, from common stock of 
very little value, while Bates differentiated 
the milkers and Booth the beef branch from 
the Ceilings’ foundation in a few years. The 
Ayrshires were made in one lifetime from the 
most inferior stock. The improved Polls, red 
and black, have been produced since 1 was a 
young man. The history of the improved 
Herefords is but a Bhort one. The Devons as 
a race are old, but as an improved breed do 
not go back of this century. The ouly diffi¬ 
culty in making good A raorican breeds is in 
the lack of stability in all thingB agricultural 
here. We do make sheep breeds and hog 
breeds, even in the short time one man lives on 
one farm. 
Fig. 185. 
“ Pedagogue's” notes on grapes (p. 283) are 
good for Pennsylvania, and for Northern 
New England, Northeastern New York and 
the lower provinces of the Dominion, except 
that both Concord and Worden are too late 
for these localities. Moore’s Early and Lady 
for those who like the Concord, and Brighton 
and Balem for those who are more particular 
will not think me impudent [Not at all.— Eds.] 
if I ask, in all earnestness. “What do you ex¬ 
pect to find out by them ?’ What can you find 
out, but the effects of the various fertilizers 
used, for potatoes, on the “worn-out, sandy 
loam” upon the Rural Grounds? These results 
will be interesting; but of what special use 
nary. What we may learn through experi¬ 
ments for our soil, any farmer may learn for 
his. It is useless to attempt to experiment 
with concentrated fertilizers upon rich soils. 
It would lie necessary to exhaust them, par¬ 
tially, l.efore the effects of specific fertilizers 
could be ascertained. If our friend’s soil is 
rye (2)4 bushels seed), aud after that is har¬ 
vested. following with a crop of corn fodder 
(one bushel seed); ensilaging a crop, if proper¬ 
ly douo, will cost from 50 to 75 cents per ton, 
including all expenses from the time it stood 
in the field, until in the silo and weighted. 
I sowed a field of rye in September, 1882. 
Before the middle of May, 1883, it was har¬ 
vested, aud yielded 19 tons. The same field 
was then plowed end sowed to Early Minne¬ 
sota aud Mexican Sweet Corn in drills three 
feet apart, aud yielded L7 tons. Had it been 
Stowell’s Evergreen, T should probably have 
had 2.» tons—20 tons I have had on land no 
better. The weight of the crops was deter¬ 
mined by measuring accurately a small por¬ 
tion of the average crop, and weighing it 
carefully, Messrs. Smiths & Powell reported 
to our Farmers’ Club one field of oats, which, 
when in the milk, weighed 20 tons per acre, 
and i». field of very stout clover which yielded 
24 tens per acre by weight aud measure; so 
that the two crops (rye and corn) ou good 
land ought not to yield less than 35 tons per 
acre in the silo. 
Now, if we put the feeding ration, including 
loss of moisture, at 75 pounds, this amount 
would keep three cows a whole year; but sup¬ 
pose we discount this oue-haif for the “ensi¬ 
lage craze,” failure of crops aud shrinkage in 
reducing figures to practice, the crops ou one 
acre feed one cow and a-half one year; and 
can any farmer, with only the same amount 
of manure, do any better than this by the old 
system, on three acres of good land, or do it 
much cheaper? 
When my attention was first called to this 
subject, I confess that it was a severe strain 
on my faith to believe that the fodder would 
not come out in even worse condition than 
“swill,” and I often went to my silo and thrust 
Shod. 
r Hay 
Shed. 
r * 
■ 
Manger 
