1900 
737 
Husked Cornstalks in Silo. 
C. A., New Britain, Conn.— I wish to ask 
of your readers who have had experience 
enough with silos to judge, whether they 
are willing to solve this conundrum: I 
have a fine lot of corn of the Improved 
Canada variety grown on four acres, well 
eared, which I am husking. The stalks 
are well cured and half already stored in 
barn. Would it be safe or advisable for 
me to erect at once a round wood silo, say 
10x22 feet, outside of barn, cut these 
stalks into half-inch sizes and store in silo? 
Would the natural heating and sweating 
of the stalks be sufficient to warrant the 
safety of their keeping and sweetness and 
add to their feeding value? 
Ans. —We shall be glad to hear from 
any who have tried this, but our own 
advice would be against it. We would 
rather cut and crush the stalks, as re¬ 
cently described by Mr. Wright. Several 
years ago there was much talk about 
using the silo for dry stalks. The plan 
was to pour water in as the stalks were 
cut. Finally the talk all died out, and 
we do not know of anyone who is now 
doing it, though several started. 
Pea-Lice in New York State. 
It. D. L., Penn Yan, N. Y.— August 11 I 
sowed about an acre of field peas to plow 
under. We have had a big drought; never 
before saw it so dry. The floodgates were 
opened last night, and we are very wet 
to-day. The peas made a slow growth, not 
over six inches. About 10 days ago they 
began to turn yellow, and upon exami¬ 
nation 1 found them literally alive with 
what I suppose is the Green pea-louse. 
Peas are not grown here except in the gar¬ 
den. Where could so many have come 
from so suddenly? Have sown Crimson 
clover for past two years, but only suc¬ 
ceeded in getting a dozen or so plants to 
live to blossom. 
Ans. —Some farmers think it possible 
that the eggs of this insect may be 
brought to the farm on the seed. This 
would be impossible owing to the habits 
and nature of these insects. Prof. W. G. 
Johnson says that no eggs are deposited 
■—at least none have ever been found— 
in fact, no male insects have been seen 
by him. He concludes that the insect 
winters as an adult in some common 
plant—probably clover. It is barely pos¬ 
sible that in the Northern States eggs 
are produced late in the Fall, as is the 
case with some other plant lice, but this 
has not been demonstrated. To show 
how rapidly this pea-louse increases 
Prof. Johnson instances one female born 
March 4. It reached maturity in 12 days. 
At 15 days old it produced young and in 
23 days became the mother of 111, then 
dying. Her first daughter began giving 
birth to young at 11 days and in 12 days 
produced 120. This will show how rapid 
the increase may be under right condi¬ 
tions. 
Kerosene Oil in Paints. 
It. D. L. Penn Yan, N. Y.— Can you tell me 
what is the best paint for Neponset roofing? 
I have used oil with white lead and lamp¬ 
black for color. I had not quite enough oil 
to finish, so cleaned out the pail with kero¬ 
sene and used on a small roof. So far as 
I can see it is all right. Would it be advis¬ 
able to use it extensively? Is there any¬ 
thing about the kerosene which would in¬ 
jure the paper? 
Ans. —Kerosene oil should be kept 
away from paints. It cannot be used 
successfully to mix with paints, and if 
used it soon evaporates, and the paint¬ 
ing is a poor job. In all mixing of paints 
use only the best linseed oil. While 
many different oils have been used none 
has yet been found which serves the pur¬ 
pose as well as linseed oil. The first 
coat applied should be thin, as the ob¬ 
ject is to fill the pores of the paper with 
oil, and thus make it impervious to 
water. For this purpose an oil should 
be used which will not, like kerosene, 
quickly evaporate. Very much depends 
upon the first coat. It should be made 
of pure white lead mixed with oil, and 
tinted any color desired. In applying it 
the brush should be thoroughly used, 
and the paint well rubbed into the pores 
of the paper. Raw linseed oil should be 
used, unless the weather is threatening 
and it Is desired to hasten the drying of 
the paint, in which case boiled linseed 
oil should be used. In case extreme 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKERJ 
haste in drying is desired a drier (lith¬ 
arge) is used. Slow drying is prefer¬ 
able. Not less than two coats should be 
applied, and three coats, each one made 
thin with oil, are preferable. l. a. c. 
A TALK ABOUT THE GROUT BILL. 
What is this Grout bill that The R. 
N.-Y. keeps talking about? 
It is a bill now before Congress to pre¬ 
vent the illegal sale of oleo. You will 
find it on page 741. 
What is oleomargarine? 
A mixture of lard, beef fat, cotton oil 
and a little milk. It is intended to be 
used as a substitute for butter. 
Would the Grout bill interfere with 
the sale of this mixture? 
Not if it were sold for just what it is, 
or if it had a characteristic color of its 
own. The present tax is two cents a 
pound. You will see that the bill re¬ 
duces this tax to one-quarter of a cent 
on the uncolored oleo. 
Why do the makers want to color it 
yellow? 
Because by so doing they change it 
from a substitute into a counterfeit. Yel¬ 
low is tbs color by which butter has 
been known 'or centuries. That is one 
of the things which distinguished it 
from other animal fats. By using cheap 
and inferior fats the oleo maker pre¬ 
pares a mixture at one-third of the cost 
of good butter. He then colors it to ap¬ 
pear like honest butter, and sells it at a 
price which will give him a tremendous 
profit, and scale down the price of real 
butter. 
The Grout bill, then, is aimed at the 
fraudulent part of the business. 
Exactly! The present law has not 
proved adequate, since this counterfeiting 
is largely none. The heavy tax on the 
product which may be fraudulently sold 
seems the surest way to stop the evil. 
This plan has been endorsed by practic¬ 
ally all the dairy associations in the 
country, and by produce dealers and 
boards of trade. 
Have other farmers any interest in it? 
Yes, for many good reasons. Every 
pound of oleo fraudulently sold displaces 
a certain amount of milk for which a 
market would otherwise be found. Give 
the oleo men unlimited chances to make 
counterfeit butter, and thousands of 
dairymen will be driven out of busi¬ 
ness. They will go to raising fruit, hay, 
grain, potatoes or other crops, thus in¬ 
creasing the competition in these lines 
of farming. One of the greatest business 
evils of the age is food adulteration. 
Cheap and nasty substitutes for food are 
being sold everywhere. The defeat of 
the Grout bill will be hailed by all the 
adulteration rogues as a decision in their 
favor. It will establish a precedent 
against pure food. 
What can a plain farmer do about it? 
Understand first that this question is 
of more direct importance to him just 
now than any other public issue now 
discussed. Vote dead against the Con¬ 
gressmen who refuse to support this bill. 
Defeat them if possible, but at any rate 
cut down their majority. Two men who 
especially deserve this treatment are J. 
W. Wadsworth and S. E. Payne, of New 
York bcate. 
COLD STORAGE AND FEVERS. 
We recently reported the case of a 
man afflicted with hay fever, who tried 
to cure his disease by spending several 
hours in a cold storage room. The Na¬ 
tional Provisioner has this to say about 
the cold cure: 
The treatment of disease by cold stor¬ 
age is fast getting into the experimen¬ 
tal stage, and will go into general use, 
surely, before another five years. The 
great effort of physicians and of spe¬ 
cialists in certain cases of fever is to 
lower the temperature of the body, and 
thus to allay the intensity of the heat 
which burns out its organism. To do 
this drugs are mercilessly put into the 
system. These assault the kidneys, 
heart, lungs and every vital agent of 
life within the corpus. The purpose of 
all of this drugging and weakening is to 
lower the burning fever and put out 
its devastating fires. Why cannot the 
heat of the body be reduced and the tem¬ 
perature lowered by dry cold storage in 
human beings as well as by aconite and 
other medicinal agents? Dr. Llewellyn 
P. Hobbs in a refractory fever case in 
Florida, as far back as 1868, demon¬ 
strated that when all medicines and 
medical skill, after the conventional 
treatment, had failed, a fever could be 
controlled and a life saved by the con¬ 
tinuous and persistent application of 
cold water. The case was that of a Mrs. 
Jeffords near Ocala. The consulting 
physicians had dismissed the case, and 
ordered the funeral. The cold water 
bath was tried as a last desperate means 
of saving the patient. A line of negroes 
was strung from the house to the well 
of cold water, and buckets set in mo¬ 
tion. A sheet was spread over the body. 
Then this bucket brigade passed up a 
ceaseless stream of water, which was 
dashed upon the fevered body to put out 
its fatal fires just as a friendly village 
band would extinguish the flames of a 
burning building. In time the tempera¬ 
ture of the body was lowered and the 
malady finally brought under control. It 
was not the treatment given in the 
books, but Dr. Hobbs had seen it suc¬ 
cessfully given at Jefferson, in Philadel¬ 
phia, and he fell back upon the daring 
experiment. The patient revived, got 
well and may be living at this time. We 
recite this medical experience as a di¬ 
rect pointer to the fact that fevered 
bodies of human beings and of infected 
cattle mignt be more effectively cooled 
by cold storage than by the long, ex¬ 
pensive, weakening and wearisome pro¬ 
cess of drugs and chemicals. Of course, 
refrigeration kills no germs. But it 
stops their multiplication, and the fur¬ 
ther irritation and fever caused by the 
increased myriads with which prolonged 
fevers infest the body to fire, and to de¬ 
stroy its life and energy; also its recu¬ 
perative power. 
Prohibiting Cigarettes. —The pack¬ 
inghouse of Swift & Co. will not employ 
cigarette smokers. The National Pro¬ 
visioner says about this: 
This is the second large corporation in 
this country which has put its ban upon 
the mind-eating cigarette. The first to ex¬ 
clude this poison and its user was a large 
Southern railway company. The decision 
of the big packinghouse firm above doing 
$160,000,000 worth of business per year is, 
doubtless, a forerunner of others who will 
follow. The cigarette is only another form 
of dope. It unfits a man or boy mentally 
and physically for honest work. Besides, 
the habit of smoking cigarettes is a filthy 
one. It produces slouches, cranks and de¬ 
generates. In prohibiting the employment 
of cigarette smokers upon its staff or in 
its force, Swift & Company will earn the 
gratitude of thousands of wives and 
mothers, and set a standard for meritori¬ 
ous boys and men who are abstemious that 
they might be stronger morally, mentally 
and physically, as well as be more fit for 
intelligent work. Brawn, brains and stam¬ 
ina, not opium lethargy, are needed. 
Killing Insects In Stored Grain.— 
Every year we receive numerous requests 
for advice regarding the killing of insects 
in stored grain. The Maryland Agricul¬ 
tural College (College Park) has published 
a timely circular on this subject, giving 
Instructions in the use of bisulphide of 
carbon, which is the best substance for 
the purpose. It is very foul-smelling, 
volatile liquid, as clear as water, the 
fumes of which are several times heavier 
than air. They create a death atmos¬ 
phere in which no animal life can survive. 
The material can be placed directly upon 
grain without the least deleterious effect, 
so far as injury to the germ is concerned 
and does not hurt its edible properties. 
From one to two pounds of the material 
is all that is necessary for every hundred 
bushels of grain in store, or the same 
amount for every thousand cubic feet of 
space, the amount used depending upon 
the tightness of the building or bin and 
the intensity of the attack. If the bin is 
very tight, one pound of bisulphide to 
every hundred bushels will be sufficient. 
If open use two pounds. In applying the 
chemical, after the capacity of the bln 
or house has been determined, it should 
be placed in tin pans, soup plates, or any 
vessel with a large evaporating surface 
and set around directly on top of the 
grain. The room or bin should be closed 
as tightly as possible and left for at least 
24 hours. It must be borne in mind that 
this material is a very explosive one, when 
the fumes are mechanically mixed with 
air; therefore it must be handled with 
caution during the fumigation of a house 
or bin. Especial care should be taken that 
no lights or persons with a light of any 
kind, even a cigar or pipe, are allowed 
around the room or building. 
LEGGETT’S WHALE-OIL SOAP. 
FOR SPRAYING TREES. 
Destroys San ,Ios6 Scale, etc. Guaranteed Rest 
Quality. Write for Prices. 
LEGGETT & BROTHER, 301 Pearl St., New York. 
CHARTER 
Gasoline Engine 
Any Place 
Ky Any One 
For Any Purpose 
Sta t io nar ies, Porta hies, Png ines 
and Pumps, Jloisters 
State your Power Needs. 
Charter Gas Engine Co., Box 26, Sterling, III. 
THE MIETZ & WEISS 
Kerosene Engines 
Cheapest and Safest 
Power known. For 
Pumping water, grinding 
corn, separating cream, 
sawing wood, and all power 
purposes. Send far Catalog. 
A. MIETZ, 
128 Mott Street, New York 
FARMERS. 
We have a small Gasoline Engine 
with power enough te saw Wood, 
Pump Water, run your Ensilage Cut¬ 
ter, grind Feed, run Churn Separator, 
etc., and it can be bought for $140.26. 
We also make larger sizes up to 20 
H. P.; we sell you direct, and save 
you from $35 to $100 on an Engine 
R.N. Dlrigo Eng. Wks., Portland,Me 
STEEL 
ROOflW 
THE ONLY 
TOOLS YOU 
MEED. 
J 
5000 Squares 
BRAND NEW STEEL ROOFING 
Bought at Receivers Sales, sheets either flat, 
corrugated or “ V ” crimped. f “7 CZ 
Price per square of 10 x 10 feet I _ / 
or 100 square feet. 
No other tool than a hatchet or hammer is re¬ 
quired to lay this roofing. Wefurnish FREE 
with each order sufficient paint to cover, and 
nails to lay it. Write fur Free Catalogue No. 57 
of general merchandise bought by us at 
SHERIFF’S and_ REOEIVER^S SALKS. 
“Our Prices are ON E' HAL] 
CHICAGO HOUSE WRECKIN 
West 35th and Iron Sts, 
of others.” 
Chkmgo. 
Pat B 
Ruberoid Roofing 
is the best covering made for the roofs, sides and floors of your 
poultry houses, being air tight and proof against weather, 
water, heat, cold, acids, vermin, draughts, etc. It will not 
crack or rot. No tar to melt, no paper to tear. For durability 
it is unequaled. Use it on your house, barns and outbuildings. 
THE STANDARD PAINT COMPANY, 
83-85 John Street, New York. 
