Vol. LXII. No. 2803. 
TRAINING A ROSE BASKET, 
Novel Use for Climbing Roses. 
Over a year ago I wrote you regarding 
the wonderful growth of my Ruby Queen 
rose, and you expressed a wish for a pic¬ 
ture of it when in bloom. This year I 
mail you two photographs of it. One 
was taken about the last of March, before 
the new leaves came out last Spring, and 
the other about June 20, when in bloom. 
In my first statement I said I would call 
it a bowl, but later developments decided 
that a basket would be a more appropri¬ 
ate name, as a plant of Crimson Rambler 
was growing about three feet from it 
which started a branch which persisted 
in growing directly over the top of the 
Queen, so it occurred to me that the two 
roses would form a complete handle bas¬ 
ket, the Queen forming the body and the 
Rambler the handle. The result is clearly 
shown in Fig. 269. To form the body of 
the basket I made four wire hoops of suit¬ 
able sizes, and fastened them by stakes 
at proper spaces apart; then raised the 
branches of the Queen and tied at each 
intersection to the wires, and any that 
reached more than to the top wire were 
bent over and fastened to the same so 
as to form a finish or rim to the basket; 
then the Rambler was sprung over the 
top and fastened at each edge. The 
stakes before spoken of were removed, 
and it stands wholly self-supporting, see 
Fig. 268. As I live on a main road lead¬ 
ing out of the city of Cleveland, and it 
stands in the front yard, it attracts much 
notice and no end of admiration from 
people passing by. The combined growth 
of the Queen for last year by actual 
measure was 175 feet, and this year it is 
so interwoven with new wood that it is 
practically impossible to get anywhere 
near to a correct measurement, but it will 
far exceed that of last year. 
The one direct branch of the Rambler 
of last year was 13 feet two inches, and 
some lateral branches from the one cen¬ 
ter added to that made 21 feet. This sea¬ 
son it started a new one at the ground 
which I have trained side by side of the 
old one that now has three inches to 
spare after forming the complete handle. 
This season, with a couple of accidents, 
did not do justice to the specimen in the 
way of bloom. First, when the Rambler 
handle was buried under the snow last 
Winter the mice ate off almost half the 
buds from the handle part, which of 
course reduced the clusters of bloom. 
Next in the Spring I set fire to a bunch 
of rubbish a few feet distant, and the 
wind took the smoke and heat directly 
against the bush and singed quite a spot 
on one side; then the new shoots were 
frozen back two or three times by late 
frosts. That reduced the amount of 
bloom quite materiallj". When the second 
picture was taken the Queen had passed 
its prime in bloom, as the Rambler was 
about a week behind time. I waited so 
as to get the best show possible of the 
handle. 
I have made this description fully long 
enough, but will here add that by hring- 
ihg out tjjjs specimen I have blundergd 
PREPARING THE ROSE BASKET. HOW IT LOOKED IN 
WINTER. Fig. 268. 
A JJASKET OP RUBY QUEEN AND CRIMSON RAMBLEI^ 
IN PULL BLOOM. Pig. 269. 
on to a method of getting two years’ 
growth in one year’s time in a climbing 
rose, and have just reason to believe that 
I shall get two years’ blOom in one year’s 
time, and will continue to do so as long 
as the plant lives, and if the readers of 
TirK R. N.-Y. are enough interested I 
will write it up at some future time. 
Ohio. A. A. FRADENBUKG. 
DRY FODDER IN THE SILO. 
How Much Wafer Needed? 
I have 30 acres of field corn which I am 
going to cut and put in shocks and leave in 
the field until cured; then I am going to 
run it through a husker and shredder and 
put the shredded part into a silo, but not 
the corn. Of course this shredded part will 
be very dry. How much water should I 
turn on it? I do not want it too wet or 
too dry. e. d. h. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
It would be Interesting to know why a 
man with a silo and 30 acres of corn does 
not put the corn into the silo in the first 
place, instead of stacking it. If it is 
cured ears he is after it is feasible to pull 
off the ears and cure them on the ground. 
Howeve:*, that is not the question. W. H. 
Geer, of Lebanon, Conn., Mr. McCall, and 
others of his neighbors having no silos, 
are stacking their corn, and at husking 
time will run the crop through a husker 
and shredder operated by a 10-horse 
engine and blow into mows for dry stor¬ 
age. They have confidence that a depth 
of four feet on top of hay mows will keep 
perfectly. Mr. McCall has even filled a 
barn floor six or seven years with good 
success. Now, if this querist has dried 
out the natural juices of his corn crop, 
would he not better be satisfied to mow 
the shredded stalks on the silo as a dry 
fodder, and would it not be safer, than 
to undertake the perilous procedure of 
wetting it again? e.c.birge. 
Connecticut. 
We should put it all in the silo when 
first cut, thus saving a lot of work and 
also saving perfectly every part of the 
corn plant, which is never done any other 
way. But if we did not do that way, and 
the stover was perfectly cured when 
shredded we should use the silo only as 
a storehouse for the dry fodder, and feed 
it as such, or possibly moisten with hot 
water or steam a few hours before feed¬ 
ing. Shredded fodder contains so much 
air, that is, it is so light and porous that it 
is difficult to pack it in the silo so that 
it will not spoil. It is quite apt to 
firefang and be anything but a satisfac¬ 
tory feed. It is possible to make a fairly 
decent quality of silage by perfect pack¬ 
ing and putting on about twice as much 
water as one would think necessary. 
That is, add about as much water as would 
have been in the plant had you at first cut 
it and put immediately in the silo. The 
chances are against success this way. 
We have thrown away considerable 
firefanged silage, and it doesn’t pay. 
Connecticut. h. o. Manchester. 
Fairly well matured corn will contain 
about 80 per cent water. Silage will 
keep all right with that amount of water. 
In fact 10 per cent or perhaps 20 per cent 
could be taken out without danger of loss. 
OCTOEEK 17, 1903. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
