348 
MAY 25 
of boards. Care should be taken to break 
joints, which can be indicated by chalk marks 
on the paper. This double lining, with paper 
between, must reach from the top of the silo 
to the bottom of the sill. 
The floor of the silo need be nothing but the 
earth; as already mentioned, it is a good plan 
to fill in the silo until the floor is on a level 
with the top of the stone wall: a layer of straw 
spread on the bottom before commencing to 
fill with corn will prevent the loss of any sil¬ 
age. 
The silo should be tied across the top at two 
or three places with joists, or a cheap cable; 
this latter may be made by twisting three 
strands of galvanized wire which costs about 
three cents per pound; five pounds will make a 
cable sufficiently long to reach across an or¬ 
dinary silo. If the silo is more than 30 
feet long the sills should be secured at two or 
three places with a cable of this kind, which, 
as it rests on the ground, is entirely out of the 
way. The modern silo will not tolerate par¬ 
titions of any kind; they are relics of the past. 
There are several methods employed for cut¬ 
ting off the four corners of the silo. Perhaps 
the simplest plan is to bevel the two edges of 
a foot-wide plank and nail it securely in a 
vertical position in the corner. A dormer- 
window in the roof of the silo affords satis¬ 
factory means of getting the corn into the silo 
in the fall. 
HOW TO PAINT INSIDE WALLS. 
An examination of one of the Station’s silos 
that had been treated with a coat of coal-tar 
shows that one season’s exposure to the silage 
had not affected the wood in any manner. 
This coal-tar possesses another great advan¬ 
tage over ordinary oil paints, there being so 
much body to it that it readily fills up all 
cracks in the lining, and aids greatly to make 
the silo air-tight. It is one of the waste pro¬ 
ducts in the manufacture of gas, and can or¬ 
dinarily be obtained in any quantity at gas 
works at three or four dollars a barrel. 
As it comes from the gas works, it 
is a liquid of about the same consis¬ 
tency as molasses, and it is necessary to burn 
off considerable of the oil that it contains be¬ 
fore it is in a condition to apply to a wall. 
This burning is a simple process: pour a quan¬ 
tity of the liquid into an iron kettle, set fire 
to a handful of straw and throw it in the ket¬ 
tle. The tar at once flashes up and burns with 
great heat. In order to tell when it has be¬ 
come sufficiently reduced, thrust a stick into 
the blazing kettle, then take it out and plunge 
it into a pail of cold water; when the tar cling¬ 
ing to the stick has become sufficiently cool 
to handle, take a particle in the hand and pull 
it out; if it will string out in fine threads a foot 
or more long, it has burned long enough, and 
the fire can be put out by placing any tight 
covering over the kettle. It usually takes 
from one-half to three-quarters of an hour to 
reduce the tar to the proper consistency. 
This preparation must be applied hot, and it 
will be necessary to swing the kettle up from 
the ground and keep a fire under it until the 
work is done. The odor and smoke from the 
hot tar are very disagreeable, but by taking 
small quantities of the liquid and applying it 
very hot with mops or whitewash brushes, the 
surface can be gone over rapidly. 
HANDLING FODDER CORN. 
The cost of putting corn into the silo depends 
largely upon the advantage we take of all the 
little devices that are calculated to lighten and 
reduce the labor of harvesting and drawing to 
the silo. By the use of the old self-rake reap¬ 
er for cutting in the field, and conveniently 
equipped wagons for hauling, corn can be cut 
into the silo for from 50 to 75 cents per ton, 
and there will be no more hard work con¬ 
nected with it than there would be in harvest¬ 
ing a clover or grass crop. Many farms are 
supplied with low-wheeled wagons or trucks, 
but when silo-filling time comes there is us¬ 
ually a greater demand for vehicles of this 
kind than the ordinary farm can supply. A 
very simple and practical way of equipping 
the ordinary high-wheeled farm wagon is 
shown in Fig. 131. This rack was observed in 
use on the farm of Hon. Hiram Smith, in 
the fall of 1888. It is made of 2x8 inch plank, 16 
feet long, one end of each being placed on top 
of the forward bolster, the other ends pass 
under the rear axle and are chained or bolted 
up tightly to it; these two pieces make the 
foundation ot the rack. The wagon is coupled 
out as far as these planks will allow. On top 
of the plank are placed four cross-pieces, 
equally distant from each other, as shown in 
the figure. On these cross-pieces are laid inch 
boards parallel with the wagon. The load is, 
of oourse, placed wholly in front of the rear 
wheels, but the rack is sufficiently large, and 
low enough to enable a man to put on a ton 
of green corn from the ground without hav¬ 
ing to climb up on the load, or hand it to a 
Mcond person to deposit. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
RAFT WATER POWER. 
Some two years ago the R. N.-Y. gave an 
account of a machine, for raising water that 
is somewhat used in Europe. This account 
was called out by a request for information 
sent by one of our readers in Missouri. This 
reader owned a farm situated on a bluff be¬ 
low which ran a swift-flowing stream. He 
desired to utilize the force of the stream for 
pumping water to the top of the bluff where 
it was to be used for irrigation. We give, at 
Fig. 124, the very old picture of a machine used 
for this purpose in Servia; our picture is re- 
engraved from La Nature. The working of 
the machine will be readily understood. It is 
a large, open raft which is securely anchored 
in the stream. The paddles are made of 
strong planks and are arranged so that they 
run around the wheels like the planks on a 
horse-tread-power. The force of the current 
makes the paddles revolve and the force thus 
generated may be communicated to a pump 
on the bauk, which will lift water from the 
stream. 
PRIZE SILAGE. 
At the Ensilage Convention held at Cleve¬ 
land, Ohio, March 6 and 7, prizes w r ere offered 
for the best specimens of silage. We have re¬ 
ceived letters from the three gentlemen who 
won these prizes. These letters are given be¬ 
low. The R. N.-Y. feels confident that its 
readers will be interested in knowing how 
this prize silage was prepared. We may 
further state that Mr. W. H. Strong, who 
won the second prize on silage, also won the 
first prize 'on butter, while Mr. Finzel, who 
won the first prize on silage, won the second 
prize on butter. Both specimens of butter 
were made from the milk of cows that w r ere fed 
on silage. The R. N.-Y. has received samples 
of the silage from Mr. Strong and Mr. Finzel. 
Both were of excellent quality. 
FROM JOHN FINZEL, WINNER OF THE 
FIRST PRIZE. 
I built my silo and part of my barn last 
year. The silo is built of wood lined inside 
with two thicknesses of lumber with tarred 
paper between. My studdings are 2x8, 
18 feet long; but the building did not stand 
the pressure as it spread somewhat, conse¬ 
quently some of the silaze became spoiled 
around the outside; but, after all, it was the 
cheapest feed I ever fed. I shall strengthen 
my silo this year with timber on the outside. 
The corn that I took to the convention was 
Learning and was almost matured. It had been 
planted in drills from two to three stalks to 
the foot, 3 % fe et apart, cut about the middle 
of September with a Tornado cutter in %-inch 
lengths. Every load or every alternate load 
was leveled and tramped down. My silo 
is in two parts, 14x14 feet each, 18 feet 
deep. I put in 150 tons, covered it with tarred 
paper and about 18 inches of straw. I opened 
the first part on October 15, and fed 45 to 50 
bushels a day to 20 head of cows and eight 
head of yearlings and-two year olds—all they 
would eat, besides feeding some to horses and 
colts and the cows ate little else, except chop 
and bran (night and morning) mixed, and 
some poor hay at noon. The silage lasted to 
January 12, and then I fed dry feed one week, 
but the cows shrank about one-fourth in their 
milk’yield. 
I opened the second half of the silo on Jan¬ 
uary 19. More of the silage in this was 
spoiled around the sides and on top. 
I am going to strip, lath and plaster my silo 
this season with cement. A plan of my barn 
is shown at Fig. 123. 
Lucas County. 
FROM W. H. STRONG, WINNER OF THE 
SECOND PRIZE. 
I use Learning corn for my silage. It was cut 
when it had commenced to glaze. I use a Ro3S 
Cutter—No. 13 A.—driven by a three-horse, 
crude-coal-oil Shipman engine. I averaged 
18 loads per day, which was cut iu half-inch 
lengths. I have three pits: two are 14x16 feet 
and 20 feet deep; the other is 10x16 feet and 
16 feet deep. 1 fill about four feet, mix well 
while cutting, and tramp hard around the 
edges and corners. I let it stand until it warms 
up to 130 degrees, and follow this mode of fill¬ 
ing until all the corn is in. Then cover it 
about four Inches deep with green millet and 
tar paper, then with sawdust 10 inches deep. 
I opened the last pit at the end of February 
without much loss. 
My silos are of wood, plastered, with a 
dead-air space. This is the second time of fill¬ 
ing. It took two weeks to fill the pits, and as 
the com ripened it kept sweeter. We cut the 
corn and hauled it directly from the field. 
Lucas County. 
FROM O. T. BATTLES, WINNER OF THE THIRD 
PRIZE. 
Corn is the best crop for ensilage, produc¬ 
ing more to the acre, both in weight and feed¬ 
ing value, than any other forage plant, and 
maturing when the busy season is over with 
other farm work. Corn comes nearer to 
making a complete ration for cattle than any 
of the other crops used for silage. To make 
the best silage it should be matured enough 
for cutting and shocking, which will be when 
it is well glazed. My silage last year was 
made mostly from the Southern white corn, 
planted the middle of May and cut the last 
of September. It did not ear much.haviug been 
planted too thick; eight quarts of seed per acre 
are quite enough. If much more is used there 
will not be much grain. I intend to plant 
the common yellow corn on one-half my 
ground the present year. If planted the last 
half of May it will be ready for cutting-by the 
middle of September, and can be got out of 
the way before the time for commencing to 
cut the ensilage corn. It will not produce so 
much in bulk or weight to the acre as the 
Southern corn; but it will yield much more 
grain in this latitude. We aim to have.our 
corn ground fitted in the best possible manner, 
thoroughly pulverizing the soil. I use a hand 
planter for putting in the seed, harrowing 
with a Thomas smoothing harrow about the 
time the blades break through the'ground 
and until they are six inches high. The 
Southern corn will make a fair crop in 
a dry season if it be well tended. Two years 
ago I planted it in the same field and on the 
same day as the common yellow corn; it grew 
twice as high as the latter, but did not pro¬ 
duce one-fourth of the grain. We cut the big 
corn with sickles, throwing it on the ground 
in bundles of a convenient size to handle. 
Some of it was drawn directly to the cutter 
and a part lay on the ground several days. A 
truck wagon with a hay rack makes a good 
rig for drawing corn to the cutter. The latter 
should be set on a platform so that the table 
will be of the same hight as a hay-rack, and 
one should drive so that the stalks can be un¬ 
loaded directly upon the machine table. I 
used a No. 14 A Ross cutter with a 22-foot 
carrier, and for power a sweep that can be 
run with.two or four horses. The whole rig 
with some improvements in the power, cost 
about $175. It could probably.be bought for 
less at the present time. 
My silo is built of wood with a concrete 
bottom; dimensions, 18x34 feet outside, with 
a partition through the middle, making, when 
finished, two pits 16 feet square (or nearly so), 
and 16 feet deep. I use 8x8 stuff for the sills, 
posts and beams; 6x8 for the plates, with 
studding 2x8 16 inches apart. It is double- 
boarded inside with building or tar paper be¬ 
tween. For the inside I used cull pine 
lumber. The first boarding was put on hor¬ 
izontally and the inside perpendicularly, with 
two coats of gas tar put on hot to preserve the 
lumber from decay. The outside was covered 
with drop siding well painted. The whole 
building cost.$350. 
The corn was kept as nearly leveljas' possi¬ 
ble. After cutting in eight or 10 loads it was 
well trampled along the edges and in the 
corners, but not much attention was paid to 
the middle. Some of the corn was put in 
wet; but it did not seem to make any differ¬ 
ence in the quality of the silage. When feed¬ 
ing I noticed a moldy streak through the pit, 
caused by the silage being left exposed to the 
air for four or five days during a rainy spell 
in the fore part of October. It was not spoil¬ 
ed but was not premium silage. A pit should- 
not be left exposed more than three days 
when filling without adding fresh feed on the 
top, as there is a tendency to form a moldy 
crust on top, just as is sometimes seen in canned 
fruit. We cut about 100 loads of corn that 
would average about 2,500 pounds to the load, 
being about three weeks filling the silo. For 
covering I used a small two-horse load of 
straw to each pit, after running it through a 
cutter, and put some loose boards on top of the 
straw. I opened the last pit about January 
20, and fed the last of the contents on May 5, 
feeding 40 milch cows once per day from the 
first of November until the first of April, and 
after that 20 from feed raised on 10 acres. 
Cuyahoga County. 
fkltr €r0£)£. 
COST OF HARVESTING TIMOTHY HAY 
IN 1888. 
J. N. MUNCY. 
The following data will be sufficiently ac¬ 
curate so that readers may form some definite 
notion of the expense in putting up hay: The 
field was accurately measured and contained 
14 acres and four square rods. The hay was 
stacked on the ground in the center of the 
field. Only small loads were put on the wag¬ 
ons. The hay had been cut with a seven-foot 
broad-cut mower. All but about three loads 
was loaded with a hay-loader. An eight- 
foot bay-rake was used in connection with 
the loader, in consequence of the light yield 
per acre. The hay was not raked in light 
windrows as is so often practiced where hay- 
loaders are used. My loader will do about as 
good work whether the hay is in a swath, or 
light or heavy windrows. The raking was 
managed in this way: Rake on, say, swath 
No. 1 until a small amount has accumulated, 
then cross the adjoining swath at right angles 
and dump this as near the center as possible; 
then go back on No. 3 and dump on No. 4 and 
return. The raker will soon find the most 
economical way is to turn the rake horse. 
Hay yielding only 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per 
acre requires too long a time to take it out 
of the swath. 
Six men and two teams helped in the work 
of stacking. Chores interfered with a full 
day’s work, and hence I give the number of 
hours. Two men quit at four and the others 
at six P. M. The afternoon was very 
warm and so much was not accomplished as 
might have been under other conditions. 
The next forenoon from eight A. m. to 12 m. 
two men and one team were employed in 
gathering the scatterings, hauling in about 
two loads and putting on the “ hungers.” 
The teams were quite well-trained, and hence 
I used no driver on the wagon. The hay was 
taken from the stack in November, 1888, and 
weighed 21,400 pounds or 10 and seven-tenths 
tons. With these data the reader can assess 
any value for his own time and decide as to 
the cost of “ putting up ” a ton. Suppose we 
figure a team and man at the the usual price 
of 25 cents per hour. 
The cost of stacking is as follows:— 
34 hours of man 
12 K 
$4 25 
14 hours of team 
12 K 
1.75 
Total 
6.00 
According to this, the cost of putting one 
ton of Timothy hay in stack, when it is pitched 
off “ by hand,” and loaded on the wagons 
with a hay-loader is a trifle more than 55 
cents. If, now, you allow 40 cents per acre 
for mowing, the cost of harvesting these 14 
acres was at the rate of $1.08 per ton. As¬ 
sume, however, that the hay had been a good 
crop and yielded, say, three times as much as 
the field here given, the cost of harvesting 
would be greatly diminished. It would be 
about as follows* 
Cost of mowing 14 acres at 40 cents $5.00 
“ of stacking. 15.24 
Total $20.84 
Cost per ton 65 cents 
In this latter assumption 1 hav6 deducted 
the use of a man and rake aud horse, assum¬ 
ing that to be 92 cents in the first case. There 
then remain $5.08, which, multiplied by three 
give the assumed cost of $15.24. If hay yields 
4,500 pounds per acre it is a great loss in time 
to rake it in windrows, providing one has a 
good hay loader. If taken out of the swath it 
can be handled on the wagon much more 
easily. 
A “25-cents-a-day boy” aud myself put on 
five loads, weighing 6,720 pounds or 3.36 tons 
in 2\4 hours. The hay yielded at the rate of 
1.62 ton per acre and was taken out ot the 
swath. Allowing $1.25 per day for the uso 
of the hay loader and 25 cents per hour for 
man and team, the cost of loading is less than 
30 cents per ton under these conditions. 
C&lRAtkmjftl. 
WHAT ARE THE AGRICULTURAL COL¬ 
LEGES GOOD FOR? 
PROF. D. G. PORTER. 
Agriculture absolutely independent of agii- 
cultural colleges; apprenticeship and spec¬ 
ial training, indispensable in other voca¬ 
tions, unnecessary in farming; scientists 
and specialists confer benefits on agricul¬ 
ture but might make unsuccessf ul farmers; 
agricultural papers and reports of agricul¬ 
tural experiment stations tell farmers all 
they need to know about theoretical and 
scientific matters appertaining to agri¬ 
culture; strong tendency of agricultural 
colleges to divert from farming promising 
young men whowould otherwise be farmers; 
the chief value of an agiicultural college 
course is to enlarge the mind and increase 
• knowledge and culture; such colleges not 
designed for general culture ; and not nec¬ 
essary for the advancement of practical 
agriculture; suggested changes of a radi¬ 
cal nature; make them “ schools of general 
culture for the winter months, and “ farm 
schools ” and, practical experiment stations 
in summer; advantages of such a course ; 
special courses for specialists, 
} Tih£ question of the true value and use of 
our agricultural colleges is one which is likely 
to be much discussed in the near future. It 
is not a question whether or not they are 
good. It may be conceded at once that they 
