1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
83 
SOME SCENES FROM IDAHO. 
The pictures shown in Figs. 35, 36 and 37, give us 
some idea of the recreations enjoyed when the day’s 
work is over among some R. N.-Y. readers in Idaho. 
The scene of these pictures is the Snake River Val¬ 
ley, on the border of Washington. It is a rich and 
fertile country, and the fruit interests are growing 
rapidly. The young people shown in Figs. 35 and 37 
are students from the Washington Agricultural Col¬ 
lege at Pullman. During their vacation they are help¬ 
ing to pick and pack fruit, finding this work both 
pleasant and profitable. The group of water lilies 
shown in Fig. 36 is taking another form of recrea¬ 
tion—a very pleasant one for a hot day. These stu¬ 
dent fruit pickers often lodge in tents, doing their 
own housekeeping, and thus turn their work into a 
camping-out picnic. 
THE ICEHOUSE AGAIN. 
I have read the recent articles in The R. N.-Y. on 
ice houses and ice keeping with a good deal of inter¬ 
est. A year ago I put water on the ice as suggested 
by C. E. C., page 851, last volume, but I would not do 
it again. The ice was frozen together so I did not get 
one cake out whole. Aside from this his sug¬ 
gestions are certainly helpful. When I built 
my ice house I followed the suggestions of a 
local dealer, and placed the studding two inches 
over (outside) the sill, leaving the outer space open 
as an air space; then lined the inside with boards, 
covered with paper, and then again with boards. This 
double lining with paper between covers sides and 
ceiling. In the ceiling a hole is cut just beneath a 
ventilating pipe in the roof. The ice was carefully 
packed as outlined by C. E. C. with six to 10 inches 
of sawdust between it and the wall. When I opened 
the house in the Summer I found there was consider¬ 
able loss by melting on the sides and top. It had 
been left flat on top, but had melted to the shape of 
a cone or sugar loaf. Now can any of the doctors tell 
me why it melted in this shape? I am now placing 
six-inch studding inside, and shall line again, fill the 
space with sawdust, then adopt the suggestion of S. 
J. B., page 35, and place the ice against the wall with¬ 
out sawdust between. I would like to ask S. J. B. 
whether his third or ideal plan has the air space open 
or closed at the bottom? I mistrust that the open 
bottom air space in my house is not just the thing. 
Berrien Co., Mich. l. w. ruth. 
POWDER FIRE EXTINGUISHER. 
I received very flattering propositions from a Arm sell¬ 
ing a dry powder fire extinguisher. Is this a good thing? 
If it is as represented I could sell it. t . j. t. 
Pittstown, N. J. 
We have not been able to get much information from 
the firm mentioned. They would not give us a sam¬ 
ple of their powder for analysis, and seem to prefer 
to sell through agents. It would, we think, be safe to 
sell the powder, but we would not buy any large quan¬ 
tity of it nor sign any agreement. Can such a powder 
put out a fire? Yes—we have seen it done. A man 
gave an exhibition in this city. He built a small 
house of light wood, poured kerosene over it and set 
it on fire. He let it get into a fierce blaze, and then 
dusted on a brown powder which he shook out of a 
tube. This powder actually stopped the blaze, and 
finally put it out. As to the way these extinguishers 
do their work the following expert opinions give a 
good idea of it: 
I should suppose the chemicals most likely to be 
found in a fire extinguisher would be bicarbonate of 
soda and salt. These, as I understand it, are the chief 
ingredients in the solutions used for extinguishing 
fire. The theory of their action is that these salts 
melt on a fire and coat over the inflammable ma¬ 
terial, keeping out the air and checking the flames. 
As to their relative efficiency, all depends on how 
much can be thrown on the fire. In some cases the 
solids and others the liquids would be most effective. 
As a rule, however, I think the liquid fire extinguish¬ 
ers are most prompt, for they not only supply these 
salts, but reduce the heat by the evaporation of the 
water and by soaking the material, keeping out the 
air. [Dr.] e. h. jenkins. 
Connecticut. 
I see no reason why powders should not be as ef¬ 
fective as liquids as fire extinguishers. The action of 
chemicals as fire extinguishers is to smother the 
flames by the generation of large volumes of a non- 
inflammable gas. It is evident therefore that it mat¬ 
ters not whether the substance is a liquid or a solid, 
provided it will produce such a gas when it comes in 
contact with the heat of the fire. Of course I cannot 
tell what the composition of the powder, which you 
refer to, Is without subjecting it to an analysis, but 
should judge it to be some substance like sodium bi¬ 
carbonate, which will give up carbonic acid gas read¬ 
ily on heating. [Prof.] v. l. leighton. 
Rhode Island. 
SOW WHITE AND ALS/KE CLOVER. 
From careful observation and inquiry I find that 
honey-bees kept in anything like a primitive way are 
practically extinct, and that the up-to-date bee keeper 
has to resort to feeding and careful breeding to keep 
his little friends from going the same way. The 
droughts of the past three seasons have killed nearly 
PLAYTIME ON SNAKE RIVER. Fia. 35. 
all the White clover, assisted by the present popular 
method of clean culture and crop rotation practiced. 
The result is the bees have few blossoms to work on 
in the Spring and early Summer except fruit blos¬ 
soms, and therefore have to resort to overripe and 
decayed fruit, which is entirely unfit to feed their 
babies, and they therefore prove an easy mark for 
disease. A few years ago, bees stored largely for 
" * ' • 4 
IDAHO WATER LILIES. Flo. 36. 
Winter use of White clover or in some sections linden 
honey, which by Winter was well ripened and proved 
excellent food, but that is changed now, and in Penn¬ 
sylvania at least they must depend largely for Winter 
stores on buckwheat, which comes late and In uncer¬ 
tain quantities, and does not make ideal food for win¬ 
tering, as it usually produces what is known as dysen¬ 
tery, and dysentery can be relied on to destroy more 
STUDENT FRUIT PICKERS AT HOME. Fie. 37. 
bees than all other diseases put together. If this 
state of things continue it must soon reach the prac¬ 
tical bee keeper who uses all his ingenuity and skill 
to avoid this tendency, and whose profits have reached 
the low-water mark. When the practical bee keeper 
gives up in despair the pomologist must suffer, for 
it is an undisputed fact that bee keeping and pomology 
go hand in hand, and if the bees fail the early blos¬ 
soming fruits would fail also, for there are no in¬ 
sects so active in early Spring as Italian bees in 
strong healthy colonies, well located and properly 
sheltered. 
We have a small truck and fruit farm near Dan¬ 
ville, Pa. We also keep a few bees, in which I am 
much interested. In rotating crops we usually sow 
three or four acres of Red clover each season, and by 
way of experiment extending through several seasons 
have mixed 10 or 12 pounds White and Alsike clover 
seed to 40 pounds Red. This on good ground often 
gives blossoms on which the bees work the first sea¬ 
son, and the second season, when mown or pastured, 
will yield food for bees almost continually from June 
to October. In a few days after the clover is mown 
the White clover heads begin to appear, and before 
the clover is cut the Alsike clover heads extend above 
the Red clover and expose their blossoms, laden with 
the choicest honey. Alsike clover is a good forage 
plant, and could be profitably grown alone in the same 
manner as Red clover. If those Interested can be 
made to see the importance of taking prompt action 
and reinstate White Clover with Alsike for a mate, 
this Important problem can be solved at small cost 
compared to good to be accomplished, for the White 
and Alsike clover will more than pay for themselves 
in hay, pasture and benefit to soil. When large areas 
of clover are sown good results could be obtained by 
using six or eight pounds of White and Alsike (in 
equal quantities) to one bushel Red clover seed. 
York, Pa. w. t. s. 
A PLEA FOR THE SILO. 
Facts and Figures. 
A few days ago I attended an Institute held at Theresa, 
N. Y., and among the good things said by Conductor 
Geo. Smith was this: “Have a silo; build it in any shape. 
Fill it with corn either cut or uncut, but have a silo.” 
It set me to thinking and figuring, helped by Bulletin 
No. 154, Cornell Station. I found that a ton of silage 
contains 276 pounds of digestible nutrients. If we can 
raise 15 tons per acre we would have 4,140 pounds. Com¬ 
pared with wheat bran at $28, the price charged by the 
dealers, we find the acre of silage to be worth $98; com¬ 
pared with gluten feed at $29 per ton it would be worth 
$72. Compared with Timothy hay at $12 per ton it is 
worth $50. Our hay crop will not average better than 
one ton per acre, and so I went a step further and 
found that at the same rate of 15 tons per acre, which 
maybe is pretty high, 10 acres of corn contain the same 
amount of digestible nutrients as 42 acres of the hay. 
What farmer, when presented with such facts as these, 
can avoid being convinced that the silo as an invest¬ 
ment is a most profitable one? If one acre of corn is as 
good as four acres of hay, the question of profit seems 
to me, solves itself. The present high prices for feed will 
ultimately be a benefit to the dairy farmers of the 
country. It will set them to thinking; thinking how they 
can get out of the clutches of the feed dealer, get rid of 
those feed bills, and naturally they will investigate the 
silo as they never did before. Here in our immediate 
section the farmers have been slow to adopt them; but 
this year has seen several erected, and those farmers 
are fortunate indeed. I think there will be a good num¬ 
ber built another year. What we farmers want are ob¬ 
ject lessons. We must see things. We have been taken 
in so many times that we have naturally become sus¬ 
picious of anything new; but are ready to accept when 
we feel sure that it is going to be a success. The silo 
has long since passed the experimental stage. It is now 
ranked as one of the fixtures of this generation, to be 
replaced by something more modern by the generations 
that will follow us. , 
The time will come when the farm that does not have 
a silo will be a rarity. I think every farmer should 
fortify himself against the midsummer drought by pro¬ 
viding a Summer silo. This Winter has surely been a 
great object lesson to the dairymen of New York State. 
It has sent the milk prices soaring higher and higher, 
in harmony with the price of feed, and questions, such 
as this: “Does it pay to feed grain at the present prices 
of feed and milk?” are being talked over whenever two 
farmers chance to meet. I presume that more good 
solid thinking is being done at this time among the farm¬ 
ers than ever before. This is one thing that is needed. 
I have written this idea so many times that I am almost 
ashamed to mention it; but it cannot help but be a 
benefit. No great radical change ever took place unless 
there was a corresponding necessity which compelled it. 
The need of a cheaper ration for our stock, so that we 
could produce dairy products at a profit, led to the silo, 
and still greater need will lead to other necessary ex¬ 
periments perhaps. The question that now is upper¬ 
most with me it whether we can raise Alfalfa. If we 
can do so successfully the concentrated feed bill can be 
almost eliminated. If this article should reach the eye 
of any farmer who has had any successful experience, 
or has even tried to raise it, T wish he would give his 
experience. Farmers, how would you like to see a ration 
like this? 
Pounds. Dry matter. Protein. Fat. 
Alfalfa . 18 16.56 1.98 7.614 
Silage . 30 6.30 .27 3.87 
Cornmeal . 2 1.78 G58 1.528 
Total . 24.64 2.408 13.012 
Cheap, isn’t it, yet Just about fits the need of the 
dairyman! If your cows won’t give a good milk flow 
on that ration, send them to the shambles; you have no 
use for them. We can raise those things (I hope). Who 
said that those who have silos are the ones who support 
the feed dealers? Why, those same dealers are the ones 
who are most opposed to the farmer’s silo. Build a silo, 
it need not cost very much, good tight walls, tight doors, 
in the barn: fill it with corn that is well eared (our na¬ 
tive corn is best), and you have made a good start on 
the road to prosperity! j. m. p. 
Pleasls, N. Y. 
