766 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 1 
pened in 1900, and much of the grain harvested in 
July is not at the present time worth thrashing. It 
is absolutely useless for milling purposes, and in 
places not even in condition to feed to stock. 
Can this condition of affairs be in any way modified 
or avoided? Certainly, provided the farmer will not 
expect to have his grain reinstated this year and will 
be willing to modify his practice a little next year, 
so as to anticipate the moths. In the first place all 
mowed grain should be thrashed as soon as at all 
possible. The grain, such as it is, should be placed in 
tight bins, and should be cleared of insects by using 
bisulphide of carbon. Use one dram for every cubic 
foot of space in the bin; roughly about one pound 
(one pint) to 250 cubic feet. Put this in shallow 
dishes on top of the grain, cover the bin well and let 
it stand 24 hours at least. If not intended to use as 
seed, let it stand 48 hours. The vapor of the bisul¬ 
phide is heavy, and sinus through the grain slowly, 
killing all the insects in its way down. Then use 
up all the grain and all the straw, and clean the barn 
thoroughly before next May. In this way the supply 
of moths that might infest the standing grain will be 
materially lessened. 
Next Summer, thrash just as soon after harvest as 
it is possible to do so, and bulk the grain in bags or 
bins. If put in bags fill as completely as possible and 
use close bagging. If the grain is infested the larvae 
will come to maturity, the moths will emerge, will 
be unable to make their way out and will die. This 
will end the trouble, and the grain will remain with¬ 
out further deterioration until used. If put in bins, 
cover with close sacking on the surface of the grain 
and test occasionally by plunging an arm into the 
mass. If the grain heats at all, it is probably infested, 
and bisulphide of carbon may be used as already sug¬ 
gested. If the rise in temperature is not marked a 
few moths may develop, but will be unable to get to 
the surface, and will die without being able to repro¬ 
duce. An inch or two of the top layer may contain 
some infestation, but that will be all. Briefly, to 
check present injury, thrash at once and use bisul¬ 
phide of carbon; to avoid future injury thrash out of 
the field and bag or bulk. The insects will breed 
continually so long as the grain remains in mow, and 
will take every kernel long before Spring if left to 
themselves. Bisulphide of carbon is very inflammable 
and no light—not even on a pipe or cigar—must be 
brought into contact with its vapor. The “Fuma” bi¬ 
sulphide, advertised in The R. N.-Y. by Mr. Edward 
R. Taylor will answer every purpose and is the cheap¬ 
est article obtainable. [Prof.] John b. smith. 
N. J. Exp. Station. 
HOW TO BUILD A STONE ROAD. 
I would like to know how deep stone has to be spread, 
the size it is to be broken, and how it is firmed or 
packed so as to fit it for travel. We have a street in 
town that is a “terror”; it is heavily shaded one-half 
mile by maples, and one can imagine that we have a 
veritable canal in Spring and Fall, and in Summer when¬ 
ever it rains. The property owners cannot go to the ex¬ 
pense of paving. We also have some country roads that 
are in about the same circumstances. What is wanted 
is information on cost of applying the broken stone, how 
thick, etc. The problem of the stone itself is easy. The 
native rock here is all soft soapstone, but on the hill¬ 
sides there are thousands of tons of bowlders, glacial 
drift, from 10 pounds to 10 tons weight, hard flinty rock. 
This could be easily reduced to size wanted by steam- 
power ore or rock crushers. The road is all down hill 
and three to four tons would be an easy load. The haul 
would be two to four miles. A', i. l. 
North East, Pa. 
In making a macadam road, the street roadbed 
should be well graded and drained, brought to a 
curvature of one-half, three-quarters or one inch to 
a foot, according to the width of the street and the 
amount of traffic thereon; then rolled until all de¬ 
pressions are discovered and brought to a level by 
filling, and all vegetable, spongy and soft material 
removed. A course of loose stone, broken to 2 y 2 or 
three-inch size, should be evenly spread four inches 
thick over this surface, and rolled until the stones 
begin to bind together. Over this a course of coarse 
sand or stone screenings can be spread, and the 
whole roiled to about three inches in thickness or 
until the stone is well compacted. Over this should 
be spread four inches of loose stone, broken to 1V 2 - 
inch size. This should be slightly rolled, then stone 
screenings applied to the surface. The whole should 
then be thoroughly wetted and rolled until a set is 
secured and the surface becomes so hard that a stone 
would break under the weight of the roller, or until 
the compacted depth will be about six inches. Over 
this one-half to one inch of %-inch stone and 
screenings could be placed and thoroughly wetted 
and rolled. Some apply coarse sand, others, loamy 
gravel. I prefer plenty of stone screenings, as the 
binding qualities of these, when wet, are greater 
than any other material, making, as a rule, a more 
solid and enduring roadbed. 
The building of such a road as I have named, six 
inches deep and 10 feet wide, will require in round 
numbers about 1,700 tons of stone; 12 feet wide, 
2,000 tons; 14 feet wide, 2,300 tons; 16 feet wide, 
2,600 tons; 18 feet wide, 3,000 tons; 20 feet wide, 
3,300 tons. To crush the stone will cost about 50 
cents a ton; to cart the same, 25 cents; to spread 
and roll, 25 cents, altogether about $1 per ton. Hence, 
the cost of making a 10-foot road would be about 
$1,700 per mile; a 12-foot road about $2,000 per mile; 
a 14-foot road about $2,300 per mile; a 16-foot road 
about $2,600 per mile; an 18-foot road $3,000 per 
mile, and a 20-foot road $3,300 per mile. 
If the bowlders, of which you have thousands of 
tons on the hillside, are of hard, flinty rock, you 
have material that will make a very solid and good 
MCCLELLAN’S TOWER, ANTIETAM. Fig. 293. 
wearing roadbed, and I would advise their use. But 
our experience with bowlders from glacial drift is 
that they represent many varieties of rock, some 
hard and some so soft that they crush to sand and 
powder. They generally represent many formations 
which the glaciers have denuded in their passage 
south, but by very careful selection you could prob¬ 
ably obtain from them a very fair road material. 
H. I. BUDD, 
New Jersey State Commissioner of Public Roads. 
THE MARKET VALUE OF SILAGE. 
I am unable to refer you to any actual sales of corn 
silage. Well-cured Timothy hay contains about 15 
per cent of moisture and 85 per cent of dry matter; 
good, well-cured silage put in when the corn is at the 
right stage should contain 28 to 30 per cent of dry 
matter. If we were to count the feeding value of corn 
silage equal to the feeding value of good Timothy hay, 
making the comparison on the basis of the amount 
of dry matter per ton in each case, and calling Tim¬ 
othy hay worth $7 per ton, the silage would be worth 
28-85 of $7, or $2.30. It is my judgment that good, 
well-eared and properly-matured corn, when made in¬ 
to silage, is worth more, pound for pound of dry mat¬ 
ter, than the best Timothy hay for milch cows, and 
I have been in the habit of thinking good corn silage 
as worth at least $2 per ton, but it is my judgment 
that this is an underestimate of its value. You can, 
of course, make various comparisons from the data 
of feeding tables. Such comparisons, however, are 
never very close to the actual case in hand. 
F. II. KINO. 
Owing to the fact that silage is bought or sold but 
very little, it is difficult to give it a market value 
based on the demands of the market. Based on the 
cost of production, it is usually given a value in New 
England of from $2.50 to $3.50 per ton. The value 
based on cost will vary according to the amount 
raised and the amount of hand labor employed. From 
my experience in growing the crop, I should not care 
to put the value below $2.50 to $2.75 per ton if a 
profit is to be realized. The actual cost of raising 150 
tons on our college farm in 1899 was $2.40 per ton. 
Another method of valuation would be to compare the 
total amount of digestible nutrients in a ton of silage 
with that of a ton of good stock hay. Silage that is 
allowed to become well glazed before cutting, should 
contain about 24 per cent of dry matter (free from 
water), while well-dried hay would contain 87 per 
cent. Based on these figures one ton of silage should 
furnish 480 pounds, and one ton of hay 1,740 pounds 
of dry substance. When the digestibility of these two 
materials is calculated, we find that the ton of silage 
will furnish 336 pounds of digestible food nutrients, 
while the hay will supply about 1,000 pounds. Based 
on these figures alone, the silage would be worth one- 
third less than the hay. But the total food nutrients 
of the hay contain more protein than do the total 
nutrients of the silage, while on the other hand the 
cow must expend more energy in making the nutri¬ 
ents of the hay available. The protein is relatively 
more valuable than the other food constituents, but 
its higher value is offset, in part at least, by the extra 
expenditure of energy in making it available. Based 
then on the total available food constituents, we would 
consider silage for feeding dairy stock worth from 
one-fourth to one-third as much as a good quality of 
stock hay (f"ee from clover). When good, market¬ 
able hay is worth over $12 per ton at the farm, silage 
fed with the cheaper grades of hay or with corn 
stover is a far more economical coarse feed to use. 
Connecticut. [Prof.] c. s. phelps. 
WHITENING TREES AGAINST FROST. 
Several years ago The R. N.-Y. described some experi¬ 
ments in Missouri in which whitewash was sprayed on 
peach and plum trees in the Fall. The theory was that 
the white color reflected heat and retarded the bud de¬ 
velopment on warm days, thus lessening the danger from 
a late frost. Has this plan been found to be practical? 
The whitening with any substance, like lime, 
which will reflect rather than absorb heat, will do 
much toward keeping the buds dormant on warm 
Winter days, and will also retard blossoming in 
Spring, thus favoring the safety of the buds. While 
the principle is sound it is doubtful whether, at the 
present time, we have any method of whitening that 
will successfully accomplish the work in a rainy 
climate, without too much expense in frequently ap¬ 
plying the wash. We have received letters from 
several growers in California, in Colorado and occa¬ 
sionally from other States, who say that they have 
been successful, commercially, in using this method 
of retarding the buds and saving the crop when un¬ 
treated trees failed on account of the killing of 
swollen buds. It seems to be simply a question of 
getting an efficient wash that will stick and do the 
work without too frequently applying after rains. I 
believe we will eventually accomplish this, and that 
when we do the method will come into general use 
where winterkilling is frequently due to premature 
swelling of the fruit buds. 
We are just now in the midst of an experiment to 
see whether whitening in Autumn, while the trees 
are ripening their wood, and when the purple color¬ 
ing matter of the trees is just being formed in the 
twigs, will prevent the formation of the purple color, 
thus leaving the twigs light-colored as they go into 
Winter. At present the indication is that we can 
avoid the formation of the purple color if we whiten 
to reflect the heat just before the twigs begin to take 
on this dark color. The purple color forms quite 
quickly in bright Autumn sunlight, just as the leaves 
are shedding, and is not forming in those trees that 
are well covered with lime. If these trees go dor¬ 
mant without developing this purple it seems to me 
they will be practically as safe as whitened trees. 
The matter has not gone far enough for me to 
recommend this Autumn whitening commercially. 
While the best I can say now is that the whole mat¬ 
ter is still in its experimental stage, I look for even¬ 
tual results from the utilization of the principle in¬ 
volved, whether it comes from the discovery of a 
wash that will stick and require but one application, 
from Autumn whitening to prevent the formation of 
the purple color of the twig, or from some other 
scheme which we have not yet thought of. 
Columbia, Mo. __ J. c. written. 
Tobacco has nearly all been taken from the sheds the 
past damp weather, and most sold at prices from 18 to 
23 cents In bundle. The American Tobacoo Company, of 
New York, has a large warehouse here, and expects to 
employ about 100 men sorting. They open November 10. 
Tobacco is our money crop. m. h. 
Windsor, Conn. 
