1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
799 
ravia one local dealer handled half a million dollars 
worth of produce last season. I have seen 50 teams 
loaded with hay, 20 teams loaded with potatoes, stand¬ 
ing around his storehouses waiting to unload. To-day, 
as I write in his office, three helpers are kept busy 
weighing and paying for potatoes, apples, grain, hay, 
straw and vegetables, onions, cabbages and sugar 
beets. Some days one man is kept busy all day just 
weighing. A small army of laborers are busy loading 
cars, etc. Such a man is a great aid to a community. 
Prices always range higher at such a point. He is 
filling cellars with potatoes at 40 cents per bushel, 
while they will not bring over 30 to 35 at other 
nearby points. One advantage of a good home mar¬ 
ket is the fact that all grades of produce can be dis¬ 
posed of. For example, 1 sorted out one extra fine 
barrel of Alexander apples and sent it to a Philadel¬ 
phia commission man. He returned'me $1.80 net for 
it, but what will I do with the seconds and culls? It 
will not pay to ship them at a cost of 70 cents per 
barrel for freight and commission. But the local 
dealer barrels the best, ships to the canning factory 
the seconds, and sends the remainder to the evapora¬ 
tors. Everything goes. c. e. chapman. 
THE SELLING PRICE OF SILAGE. 
Where Sold at Auction. 
I have attended two public sales where the whole 
or part of a silo full was sold. One in the Spring of 
1899, when other feed was plentiful, where the silage 
sold at 50 cents per ton, with privilege of feeding it 
in barn where sold, manure to be left on farm. A ton 
was estimated to be 40 cubic feet. The other sale oc¬ 
curred this Fall, other feed being scarce and high. 
The silo was estimated to contain 50 tons at 40 feet 
to the ton, and was sold as a whole, with privilege 
of feeding in the barn, manure to be left on the farm. 
It brougnt $112.50, or near $2.25 per ton. At che same 
sale, and largely to men who bid on the silage, Tim¬ 
othy hay brought $9 per ton, mixed clover $9.50, wheat 
straw $3, all in the mow, corn fodder in shocks in the 
field, 12 cents for a shock containing 100 hills, mak¬ 
ing about 33 shocks per acre. This silage is now be¬ 
ing moved by the purchaser a distance of near 314 
miles, hauling about a ton at a load, going every day 
when the weather is warm; and taking two wagons, 
and going every other day when it is cooler. 
Belmont Co., O. e. w. sears. 
Price of Cannery Silage. 
Some of the canning factories of New York State 
have built silos for the preservation and subsequent 
sale of some of their waste products—chiefly pea vines 
and corn-husks. This silage is fed during the Winter 
by farmers living within a radius of five or six miles, 
and is drawn to the farms as needed, enough for two 
or three days’ use being usually drawn at one time. 
The price varies somewhat with the price of hay, and 
also with supply anti demand. During the Winter of 
1899-1900 $1.50 a ton, at the factory, was the usual 
price. The writer visited the canning lactory at Can- 
astota, N. Y., in the early part of July. At that time 
a silo 24 feet in diameter by 26 feet nigh was being 
filled with pea vines. These vines are rather badly 
mashed in passing through the viners, but, it is said, 
make silage that is relished by stock, and that can 
be profitably fed when bought at the above price. 
Prbf. Henry, in Feeds and Feeding, gives one analysis 
of field-pea silage as follows, to which is added an 
analysis of corn silage for comparison: 
Pro- Carbo- Other 
Water, tein, hydrates, Ex- 
per ct. per ct. per ct. tract. 
Yield peavine silage.50.1 5.9 39. 1.6 
Corn silage .79.1 1.7 17. .8 
The silaged husks and corn waste are probably not 
nearly as valuable as the pea vines, but are usually 
sold for the same price. j. a. ford. 
SETTING PEACH TREES IN FALL 
I notice that S. H. W., on page 752 of Tiie R. N.-Y.. 
asks question relative to setting peach trees in the 
Fall. I have had experience along this line, and have 
set peach trees in the Fall which made a most excel¬ 
lent growth the next season. Out of a lot of about 
200 trees, not more than two were damaged. The 
Winter after setting these trees was a mild one, but 
if it had been the Fall previous to the great freeze in 
February, 1899, it would have been a failure. When 
setting peach trees in the Fall 1 prefer to draw a 
mound of earth about 10 to 12 inches above the sur¬ 
face of the soil which will protect the lower part of 
the tree; then in case that the Winter should happen 
to be extremely severe the damaged trees can be cut 
down to the second live bud below the frozen trunk, 
and the bud near where the cut is made will start 
early in the Spring, and by Fall make about as fine 
a top as though it had never been frozen. In throw¬ 
ing up the soil for the mound it is best to take it about 
three feet from the tree, so that no shovel-holes will 
be left at the bottom of the mound to let the frost 
penetrate tue soil too near the roots. After the mound 
is thus thrown up, it pays in the extra growth of the 
tree the next season, and as a protection to uhe roots, 
to scatter five or six forkfuls of coarse manure around 
the bottom of the mounds which gives an additional 
protection, thus allowing the roots to callus at the 
broken ends ready for a vigorous growth as soon as 
the Spring rains come. In setting peach trees either 
Fall or Spring I prefer to set deep enough to cover 
the junction of the bud and seedling stock, c. c. n. 
Three Rivers, Mich. 
FRUIT NOTES OF ALL SORTS. 
After using an ordinary spray pump for the preven¬ 
tion of fungus diseases and the attacks of insects on 
our fruits, we discarded the old one last year, and de¬ 
cided to buy the best we could get. We sold the old 
one to a neighbor who has less work to do. We find 
that we can do the spraying with the new pump in 
less than half the time it took with the old. We got 
a Handy wagon, built a tank of seasoned oak staves 
and -walnut heads (it was the only good lumber for 
the purpose we had on hand), which holds 180 gal¬ 
lons, fastened the pump to the top head, attached two 
25-foot sections of best hose and 10-foot brass-lined 
bamboo rods with double Vermorel nozzles, and had 
a complete outfit for less than $90. We can do the 
work in time if the weather is favorable, and save 
more in one year than the cost of the whole outfit by 
having 30 days’ work to do with it, not taking into 
consideration the gain in the fruit. We live on the 
hills, nearly 1,000 feet above the sea, and most of the 
land stands on edge, so we have more surface to go 
over tnan farmers on level ground. There is water 
in nearly every field, and by digging large holes where 
there are springs we get water to spray with. In 
BOXES OF ROME BEAUTY APPLES. Fig. 309. 
making the Bordeaux Mixture we put 50 pounds blue 
vitriol in a sack, hung it in the top of a 50-gallon 
barrel the night before using it, and filled it with 
water, and it was all dissolved before morning. The 
lime was slaked the night before and covered with 
water. We used eight pounds blue vitriol and 10 of 
lime to the 100 gallons and added arsenite of soda at 
the rate of one pound arsenic to 200 water. The first 
spraying was just before the trees bloomed, the sec¬ 
ond just after the blossoms fell, and the third and 
fourth at intervals of about two weeks. We finished 
early in July. In August the weather was very hot 
and dry, and some of the oldest leaves began to turn 
yellow, and dropped off later. It looked for a time as 
though the spraying caused it, by being too strong a 
mixture, or not enough lime, but I have since come to 
the conclusion that it was the weather, or lack of 
moisture and fertility, or both, as the thriftiest trees, 
those that stood in good ground, were not affected 
like those that grew in poor soil where the moisture 
was not sufficient for the trees loaded with fruit. 
As we had a good cFop of apples last year many of 
the trees had little or no bloom this year, but where 
there was bloom there were apples, and good ones, 
too. Trees that were cultivated last year, and trees 
that grew in good soil were the only ones that pro¬ 
duced good crops both years. Is it not the lack of 
thrift that we have too many apples one year and no 
bloom the next? it looks to me as though we can cul¬ 
tivate our orchards and pui fertility in the soil when 
necessary for the trees, and they would bear nearly 
every year, instead of overbearing one year and rest¬ 
ing the next. Probably if we give good culture to our 
trees the fruit will not need thinning. What say our 
best horticulturists? Apples will not color so well in 
cultivated orchards as in those not cultivated. In 
picking our apples we just take the largest and ripest, 
leaving the small and green ones to grow and color 
up, and pick them in about two weeks from the first 
picking, and we lino them nearly as good as those 
picked at first. They would have been nearly worth¬ 
less if gathered at first, and if all had been left till 
they got ripe a great many would have dropped off. 
We are satisfied that the spraying increased our crop 
100 per cent or more, and the net receipts will show 
up still more. The spraying cost about five per cent 
of the present worth of the apples, and there could 
have been nearly three times as many on the trees. 
Lawrence Co., O. u. t. cox. 
THE DRY SIDE OF CORN FODDER. 
With me, as probably with most farmers in the lake 
counties of western New York, the fodder question is 
not considered under the statement of dry fodder ver¬ 
sus silage. We separate them, and say, “How can we 
best use our dry fodder and to what extent can we 
make silage profitable; We must have corn—the 
grain—and along with it come the dry stalks. Corn 
is indispensable on the farm. If the farmer does not 
grow it he will buy it, and after one or two trials of 
buying he usually returns to the practice of growing 
it. Then he has the stalks for fodder. In a late num¬ 
ber of The R. N.-Y., H. S. Wright handled the sub¬ 
ject of disposing of the stalks in a very practical way; 
by cutting and crushing (not grinding), or shredding 
they are placed in condition which results in less 
waste in feeding and much more convenient and use¬ 
ful disposal of the waste. It makes good bedding for 
the stock and fine manure. The uncut waste of corn 
stalks does not do this. These are the main reasons 
why I like to cut and crush dry stalks. 
Corn-husking machines with shredder attachment, 
driven uy thrashing traction engines, are making an 
appearance. They can husk several hundred bushels 
per day, shred the stalks fine and pack them in a mow 
in barn, or in stack. The work is well done, but how 
well will the shredded stalks keep? We don’t know. 
There appears to be a lot of risk there, in dry sea¬ 
sons and with the stalks very thoroughly cured and 
handled rather late in the Autumn they may keep; 
under less favorable conditions they may spoil. The 
mow or stack will surely heat. In a year or two we 
shall know more about this. But the farmer who nas 
hfs own power and cuts and crushes his stalks as fast 
as required for feed is safe, and probably has all the 
advantages of the shredded fodder, and he can put 
shredder attachment to his power cutter if he wishes. 
A reasonable amount of silage for stock is, I be¬ 
lieve, a good thing on any farm. So are roots. Silage 
is probably cheaper than roots. But who can prove 
that 10 acres of corn silage will make more pounds of 
meat, milk or wool than 10 acres of corn with its dry 
fodder and ripe grain? ±he stock which fills the 
world’s markets with animal products has not yet 
oeen grown on silage. Its use is, I believe, of most 
profit to the dairyman. He may find good profit in 
using it in large quantities, but ihe farmer whose 
chief products are grain, potatoes and hay, whose live 
stock consists of horses, cows, sheep, hogs and poul¬ 
try, may have a little silage, but he must have a lot 
of ripe corn and dry stalks, otherwise he will not 
sleep well all Winter. g. f. wilcox. 
Fairport, N. i. 
SKIM-MILK PAINT.—I have just painted two 
barns with water lime and skim-milk; am pleased 
with the job so far. Trimmed corners with brown oil 
paint. That main barn was built a year ago, siding 
planed and priming coat of oil and ochre put on at 
that time. The color now is light slate with brown 
trimming, making a good color. I do not know how 
well it will last, but I can afford to paint again soon, 
if needed. I used common Jamestown cement; it cost 
80 cents for four bags. The skim-milk I nave, anu 
put the paint on myself with small whitewash brush. 
Total money cost $2; barn 40x60x24 high. 
McDonough, N. Y. g. a. p. 
PAINTING FARM BUILDINGS.—Since 1854 I have 
had the care of farm and city buildings, and have in 
that time tried many kinds of mixed paints, but have 
discarded all for pure lead and oil, with perhaps an 
admixture of 25 per cent of zinc. The only objection 
to lead used pure, is that after a few years it will 
chalk off, the zinc, I think, prevents this. My uuild- 
ings are all white, so there are no colors to fade. If 
the surface to be covered is very dry or rough I would 
first go over it with crude petroleum, which can be 
quickly done with a large brush, and the painter can 
follow at once, as it quickly penetrates the wood, and 
for at least one year it alone would protect the sur 
face from the weather. I think it the best protection 
I can apply to a shingle roof, for the oil spreads from 
every crack or crevice farther than water can go, and 
the roof is always comparatively dry, as the water 
leaves It, as it does a duck’s back. c. e. p. 
Massachusetts. 
