I 
754 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. October 31 , 
would not undertake to grow them without it. Where 
it was omitted, in one or two cases, there is a very 
marked deficiency in the size of the trees. I have 
given these trees no fertilizer up to the present time, 
but I expect to use some good fertilizer, ashes or some¬ 
thing else equally good, during this Winter, and then 
if I can keep the rabbits down, I look fo? 'some very 
fine little trees. About half of my trees are what I 
call first-class, that is from two to three feet high. I 
rate them not by their height, but by the character 
and size of the foliage and its condition. A few 
trees, perhaps five or ten, which escaped the rab¬ 
bits, are in remarkably beautiful condition; well 
formed, healthy and over three feet high. Baldwins. 
Russets and Greenings are my varieties, to which I 
am going to add King. I make it a rule never to 
plant any apple which I have not eaten and like, ex¬ 
cepting possibly in some experimental orchard out¬ 
side, The Baldwins are the toughest and the Russets 
are the weakest, I find. I have tied builders’ black 
tar paper around these trees for about foot from 
the ground. I have no certainty that rabbits have 
caused the damage, but I merely assume it to be 
rabbits. If I had the time, I would expect to plant 
apple trees freely by this method, and I believe that 
it is far superior to the old-fashioned method for ap¬ 
ples in Rhode Island. 
Now, as to peaches. It is quite possible that if 
one were with his peaches all the year, he might 
make a success of them in light land, but I have 
given it up. I planted about 160 of them and they 
will not grow, although they were treated the same 
as the apples. As to grapes, I planted 150 in this 
method in the Fall of the year: Diamond, Brighton 
and Worden. I lost a great many, perhaps 30 per 
cent. I think it is pretty hard on grapes; however, 
our man forgot to mulch them with tanbark, and 
so I replanted the dead ones with Isabella and Eaton 
this Spring. The whole plantation is now living, and 
I shall have it mulched with tanbark and fertilized 
this coming Winter, and I rather expect to make it 
work out, but I am not as confident with grapes as I 
am with apples. As to pears, the Kieffer will stand 
anything, and I consider it quite safe to plant 
Kieffer by this method and graft over to good eating 
varieties at leisure. I planted a lot of Kieffer pears, 
about 50, last Fall, with whole roots without mulch. 
The rabbits seem to prefer the bark of these trees to 
that of any other. The trees were one year old when 
planted, and they actually girdled and ate the bark to 
such an extent that I found nice large red Kieffer pears 
in some cases on the trees this Fall. In all cases and 
in all varieties of fruit stated above, I also plant some 
with whole roots at the same time while I am plant¬ 
ing the Stringfellow trees for a check. The whole 
root trees or vines generally grow as well as or a lit¬ 
tle better than the others, but when it comes to a very 
healthy condition of foliage, with large stocky rich 
green leaves and a healthy constitution, the String- 
fellow trees, provided they survive the first shock, I 
find, are far ahead of the trees with whole roots. We 
do not cultivate any of these plantings excepting pos¬ 
sibly, if a few weeds are near by I kill them with a 
hoe, and no one goes near the trees from one year's 
end to the other, excepting myself, and that only for 
a few hours from day to day during a Summer vaca¬ 
tion, saving, of course, that the wagon with the tan¬ 
bark mulch goes there in Winter. 
We planted 5,000 White pine seedings, one year old. 
about two years ago, most of them in clean white 
driven sand, and actually 90 per cent of them to-day 
are living and doing well. They were just stuck in 
the ground without mulch or care. I believe that it 
would be perfectly safe for us to plant the same num¬ 
ber of apple trees by the Stringfellow method, with 
tanbark at first and fertilizer the second year, if we 
did not have the rabbits to contend with. I planted 
these apples at 50x50 feet because we have more room 
than we know what to do with. 
W. HREXTOX WELI.IXG. 
fkm POWER FOR SMALL SILOS. 
There seem to be few farmers in the United States 
who will own up to filling silo with a one-horse 
tread power; yet it is not a thing to be ashamed of. 
if it can be done cheaper in that way than in any 
other. If one lives in a neighborhood where there are 
10 other silos, and consequently no neighbors with 
whom he can join forces and machinery; if his corn 
ripens in rotation over the period of a month; if he 
has the one-horse equipment which he uses in other 
work and washes to use his regular farm help. Such 
are our conditions, and we have filled in this way for 
seven years. 
Our silage cutter has two knives cutting 14 inches. 
The knife-h»ad is seven inches in diameter, the feed 
rolls four inches. It has been in constant use since 
1895, driven by a one-horse tread power, and has had 
few repairs. The diameter of kfiife-head and feed 
roll is small compared with many standard cutters. 
This fact makes it an easy-running machine, but a 
hard feeder. As I understand it, the smaller the 
diameter of the knife-head the greater the leverage 
of the pulley, and consequently less power is required. 
But feed rolls of small diameter give less grasping 
power, and the feed is pulled in less powerfully. The 
feeder is not sure of saying “good bye” to a bundle of 
corn until the ears have passed the rollers and time 
to catch the next handful is lessened. This therefore 
makes harder feeding than in machines whose feed 
rolls are of larger diameter. How'ever, if a man has 
limited power the former machines will do more work 
for the pow'er required. 
This year, the corn all being very late, and wishing 
10 defer silo filling as long as possible, it was de- 
A BASKETFUL OF PUPPIES. Fig. 282. 
termined to experiment with heavier power. A 
townsman had a two-horse kerosene engine, which 
saw'ed w^ood for him satisfactorily. Our cutter cata¬ 
logue calls for twm-horse power for our sized cutter, 
so in the interest of education he came and set it up 
for us. The engine weighed 700 pounds. It burned 
six gallons of kerosene in less than five running 
hours. It carried 90 pounds of steam, blowing off at 
100 , and did. just as much work, no more, than our 
one-horse tread power, with a 1,200-pound horse. The 
engine was nearly new and in good condition. The 
owner had never tried it at such work. It was in the 
nature of an experiment for both of us. We agreed 
that it was not powerful enough for the work, and 
at the end of the day I carted his rig home. He has 
since told me that he will use the engine as part of a 
mounted spraying outfit, utilizing the steam not only 
to pump, but also to cook some emulsion which he 
will use. He is in an extensive peach growing sec¬ 
tion, and one man alone has offered him $150 to spray 
his orchards for a season. 
Another wood-sawing acquaintance has a six-horse 
gasoline engine, and before bedtime of the night of 
the first experiment he was engaged to come and hitch 
to our cutter. This engine weighed 500 pounds, 200 
less than the kerosene steam engine. It ran nicely; 
and iiroved too big for our cutter. We put in SO tons. 
THE DUCHESS PEAK. Fig. 28:1. 
three-fourUis-inch in length, in four days, with five 
men and one pair of horses. This filied our silo, 
which by our usual method of slow filling holds 90 
to 100 tons. We cracked a knife-head and a clutch 
pinion on the machine, and the fact that the whole 
outfit could do no more than the cutter illusU’ates 
the desirability of having a weii-balauced outfit, with 
the “weakest spot just as strong as the rest.” The 
gasoline engine used eight gallons of oil in a day of 
nine hours’ running time. A six-celi dry battery was 
used, and this needed renewing once in three months 
at a cost of 30 cents per cell. My experience with 
engines is too limited to draw conclusions. I am 
simply putting down here experience as it came to 
me. This will not interest the farmer who has no 
use for anything less than 10 horse-powmr, but it is 
written for that large class of small farmers who 
should use some power to interest the boys in wmod 
sawing, fodder and bedding cutting, etc. 
Thorough farming on a cattle farm demands more 
attention to chaffing fodder and bedding. A neigh¬ 
bor this Summer, had a three-acre pasture field run 
over with goldenrod, barberry bushes, all sorts of 
grasses, blackberries, etc. Knowing our proclivities 
for absorbents, he offered us the stuff for the cutting 
in order to improve his grazing. Being smooth wm 
mowed it with the machine, raked and drew it into 
loose piles with the horse-rake, throwing the black¬ 
berries into separate piles for burning. We carted it 
home and ran it through the cutter. It made a good 
pile of fine dry absorbent. Any bush up to one-half 
inch is better treated in this wmy than put upon the 
bonfire. There is much roadside w'aste that should 
be utilized in this waj’. Straw cut in inch lengths is 
a much better absorbent than long straw. It is more 
fun to handle it and it is more fun to handle the 
manure made from it. e. c. bikge. 
Connecticut. ^ _ 
CONCRETE FOR A HOGPEN FLOOR. 
Give directions for concrete hogpen 20x30; also, what 
would be the cheapest and best cement. Rosendale at 
$1.15 and Portland at $2.35; best a little higher? The floor 
has been filled up with stones. I had thought of level¬ 
ing up with Portland cement, gravel and coarse sand, 
one to 10, leaving two inches, this to be one part of best 
Portland to three of coarse sand, the first to be mixed 
stiff and the last just so it will trowel and float the top. 
I had figured on 13 to 15 of cement and three yards cf 
sand; is this correct? w'. t. l. 
Xew'burgh, N. Y. 
Your idea is all right. I am putting down a hog¬ 
pen floor; in fact building a new house complete. 
After leveling the dirt we placed hand laid, small 
round cobblestones from three to five inches in diame¬ 
ter, leveled with a straight edge. This is being filled 
with sand six parts, Portland one part, and the finish¬ 
ing coat of 1^4 inch thick of sand two parts and 
Portland one part. The surface is roughened some- 
■what to prevent slipping. I am putting down 2x4 
scantling, beveled, wdth wide side down, so that the 
surface will be even with top of finished floor. Upon 
these plank will be laid, if desirable, for a nesting 
place. I am also using concrete for feeding troughs 
and partitions. Everything, sides and bottom, to 
which the hogs have access will be non-perishable and 
fireproof. The feeding troughs w’ill project under 
the front wall into the feeding alley about four 
inches, enough to make easy feeding without contact 
with the animals. The inside of the trough will 
slant towards the larger portion of it, which will be 
in the pen, so that the animals will be able to reach 
all of the feed. The floors slant into a gutter near 
the doors in each pen, wiilch will be 2'y feet wide, 
four inches deep near the door or cleaning-out place, 
and slanting back to the level of the floor line. This 
will hold the liquids and solids, including bedding, 
and be easily handled in a manure carrier that will 
run upon a track the length of the building, dumping 
the manure outside into a wagon or sleigh. The 
building will be ceiled inside and outside and over¬ 
head lined with tar paper and stuffed with straw, with 
double window's. 1 anticipate very closely approxi¬ 
mating a frost-proof building. . 
There is perhaps no greater drawback in this cold 
northern climate to the swine industry than a lack 
of warm Winter quarters. Everyone knows how 
easily pigs make grow’th in the Summer and how 
slow and unprofitable in the Winter, and surely the 
hog industry in the East is bound to be a good busi¬ 
ness in the near future as it is to-day. I must say I 
have never seen a warm hogpen which was light and 
every way sanitary. Some darK foul basement or hole 
in a wall can often be made warm, while a most un¬ 
healthful place for a pig. I have not as yet planned 
for ventilation. The number of animals or the total 
live weight in any pigpen is very small in proportion 
to space occupied, and I shall watch results and put 
in the King system of veutilacion if occasion de¬ 
mands. 1 have yet to see a hoghouse, if built above 
ground, that did not have cold air to spare; they 
needed ventilation only during a warm spell. I have 
succeeded in building a cow stable that is sanitary 
and a wholesome place for man or beast, and I am 
making an attempt to duplicate the effort in a hog¬ 
house. I shall take occasion to say more about it in 
the future. 
I might say that Portland is so cheap, $2 to $2.25, 
in our markets, that I do not think one can afford to 
use Rosendale, surely not at $1.15. Rosendale is very 
unsatisfactory on account of its varying quality. 
Some of it will be good and some poor, out of a single 
shipment. It can be used for grouting, but never for 
surface work. Nothing is so trying as to repair a 
broken, crumbling concrete. We shO’.;ld therefore 
run no risk, but use only the best. ii. e. cook. 
