268 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 8 
Stock Feeding Problems. 
Cause of Mold in Ensilage 
In April, 1887, I built a concrete silo in my barn 
14 x 14 feet, and 28 feet deep. The same Spring I 
planted about 18 acres of corn, tight acres of 
Stowell’s Evergreen, seven acres of the New 
Learning, and later three acres of common yel¬ 
low corn so as to have them all mature about 
one time for the silo. The early part of the 
season was unfavorable for the Evergreen, and 
it came up very uneven, but we went over it 
several times with the weeder. But it still looked 
discouraging, so I planted 1% bushel of Learning 
corn good and thick, the hills beiDg354 feet apart 
each way. The consequence was an enormous 
crop of corn, averaging in height all over the field 
about 11 feet, about 10 or 12 stalks to a hill, and 
very heavily eared, both varieties having about 
two ears to a stalk. I let it mature pretty well 
before putting in the 6ilo, so the eight acres 
nearly filled it. The next day after filling, I 
thrashed, put overlays over the silo, and covered 
with straw. I didn’t see it again until January, 
when we opened it, removed about 15 inches of 
rotten dirt on top, and the rest looked like a bin 
of yellow corn. There wasn’t a bad spot in it 
except a little in front of the doors, and we fed 
the last of that August 15 last. In 1898, 1 planted 
all the New Learning for the silo, and didn’t 
cover with overlays and straw as I did the year 
before. The Learning was well matured, yet the 
stalk and leaves were greener than the year be¬ 
fore. We opened the silo November 1, and found 
a lot of green mold in chunks all through, but 
as we are getting down nearly half it is some¬ 
what better. Do you suppose that Bmut would 
cause it, or would a mixture of the Evergreen be 
a benefit to it ? I was thinking of planting this 
year for the silo, say two parts of Learning and 
one part of the Evergreen mixed in the hills. I 
think it would give the well-matured corn moist¬ 
ure and keep better. J. m. l 
Ridgway, Ont. 
Ans. —The difficulty mentioned is one 
of which we have heard complaint from 
other sources. It is well known that, 
occasionally, these mold spots appear 
through the mass of the ensilage, and up 
to the present time, the cause of it has 
not been satisfactorily explained If the 
Learning corn had been somewhat dry, 
especially the ldwer leaves, so that the 
material would not have settled thor¬ 
oughly in the silo, then this might have 
caused the conditions mentioned. But 
as the leaves were still greener than the 
corn which was put in a year before, 
this could not have been the cause of 
the mold spots. The smut is so cut up 
and distributed through the ensilage 
that it is hardly probable it has caused 
the trouble. If you had covered the top 
of the ensilage with about one foot to 18 
inches of freshly-cut second-growth 
clover, you would have saved the top of 
it from spoiling. As a usual thing, the 
S to well’s Evergreen corn is more difficult 
to make keep well in the silo than are 
the other varieties of corn. Sweet corn 
possesses such a percentage of sugar 
that it is very likely to produce a sour 
ensilage; but this is not always the 
Case. L. A. CLINTON. 
Clover in the Silo. 
Can’t you get me some help on this clover en¬ 
silage question ? I have been watching for more 
than a year for some farmer to rise and say that 
he has a successful method of ensilaging it, but 
of no avail. Of course, some tell me that it can 
be done, but it does not keep well—much spoils. 
Well, why does it spoil ? Is it because the bac¬ 
teria get too much air ? If it is, can’t some 
shrewd Yankee find a way to keep the air out ? 
If it spoils on account of the relavively large 
amount of protein it contains, cannot our learned 
beacon lights tell us in what condition to put in 
the clover, or what we can add thereto to insure 
it keeping? Or perchance what mechanical 
means to use to smother the life out of our bac¬ 
terial friends? I have nine acres of Crimson 
clover, and about this I am mainly interested. 
Burton City, Ohio. a. h. 
Ans. —Our experience with clover en¬ 
silage is not very extensive. We have 
put clover into our silo twice only ; the 
first time, it was put in without cutting 
with our ensilage cutter. This came 
out pretty rank in odor, yet our stock 
ate it and did well on it. The past sea¬ 
son, we had a field of six acres of heavy 
clover ; this we cut and carted as fast as 
cut to our barn, and ran it through the 
ensilage cutter. It all packed into one 
silo, 15x16 feet, and 28 feet deep, not 
half filling it. When we cut our corn, 
the silo was then filled with corn. The 
clover ensilage comes out fairly well, 
yet it is quite black, and has a very 
strong odor. We do not feed it to our 
milch cows, for we thought it tasted 
in the milk. We feed it entirely to our 
oxen, young stock and dry cows. They 
eat it freely, and are doing well on it. 
A silo for clover ensilage needs to be 
very tight, and the ensilage to be cov¬ 
ered so that no air can get to it. We 
think it more difficult to keep clover en¬ 
silage so it will come out in good condi¬ 
tion than corn. If the weather is so 
that clover can be dried and cured, I be¬ 
lieve it preferable to making ensilage of 
it. If it was to be fed to steers or young 
stock, it will go further, and the stock 
will do well on it; but if milch cows are 
to be fed with it, we would say, cure the 
clover and house it dry. edwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
Tomatoes as Stock Food. 
Of what value are tomatoes to feed hogs and 
hens ? Will they stop hens laying ? I have 
heard that they will. t. p. 
Union, Me. 
Ans—H ere is a fair comparison of to¬ 
matoes with some other vegetables, some 
of which you have, doubtless, fed : 
Muscle- Fat- Pure 
Water, makers, formers, fat 
Tomatoes. 94.4 0.8 3.9 0.4 
Cabbage. 76 8 1.8 4.9 0.3 
Pumpkins. 46.6 0.5 2.6 
Turnips. 62.2 1.0 6.1 0.1 
Asparagus. 94.0 1.8 3.3 0.2 
Celery. 94.4 1.4 3.0 1.0 
Remember that the muscle-makers rep¬ 
resent the food that makes lean meat 
and muscle, while the fat and fat-form¬ 
ers make the animal fats. Tomatoes, by 
this standard, are inferior to cabbage or 
turnips as stock food, yet our own hens 
seem very fond of them. Let a hen get 
into the garden, and we notice that she 
Brewers’ Grains fob Hens.—I saw, on 
page 163, an inquiry about brewers’ 
grains for fowls. They would be all 
right as a side feed, if one do not expect 
to make much out of the hens. I have 
hauled grains for 12 years, but never 
fed much, as I kept my hens for the 
money that is in them, and I paid 10, 15. 
and 20 cents a barrel for my grains I 
would rather feed oa + s at 30 cents, or 
wheat at 80 cents per bushel, with wheat 
middlings and ground meat or scraps, 
than grains at 10 cents per barrel. I con¬ 
sider them worthless unless one gets 
them fresh every morning. G. w. B. 
Ohio. 
Rhode Island Reds. — Mr. Samuel 
Cushman is all right (see page 208 R 
N.-Y. of March 18), “ Warning Custom¬ 
ers.” Rhode Island Red fowls are a 
“ survival of the fittest ” They are the 
natural stock of a region east of Nar 
ragansett Bay, R. I., and may be all the 
way to Cape Cod. They have not been 
taken up by the fanciers, and bred to 
form and feather to any great extent, 
but they are hardy, prolific layers, good 
size, quiet disposition and good mothers. 
Tney, probably, are descended from the 
Puritans and Pilgrims of the hen tribe, 
i. e., from earliest importations, with 
later admixtures. So, although they 
may have characteristics of their own, 
they will not all come true, and an 
honest breeder cannot guarantee that 
they will. They are reds, or browns, or 
buffs. I have raised them for three years, 
and I like them. • R. k. s. 
Connecticut. 
will pick at the tomatoes first, with cab¬ 
bage or celery next to her taste. There 
is no danger that tomatoes will “ dry 
off ” a hen provided she has solid food 
enough to produce her eggs. It wou’d 
be a mistake to feed any animal on 
tomatoes alone. 
Two Hen Doctors. —Two years ago, I 
had a hen die from eating dry grass in 
the Spring of the year. I cut her craw 
open, and it was packed full of dry grass. 
So last week, when I saw one of my fine 
hens acting the same way as the one 
that died had done, I knew I would 
lose her unless she got relief. For three 
days, she couldn’t eat, and I saw that 
she had an immense craw. So I tied her 
feet, clipped the feathers off one side 
of her craw, took a sharp knife, cut a 
slit through the skin about 1% inch long, 
then cut through into her craw, and 
took out two big handfuls of dead grass. 
Wife and I sewed the craw together 
nicely with strong white thread, then 
did the same with the skin. We bathed 
the cut with witch hazel, put her down 
on the barn floor, and she commenced to 
scratch and eat corn immediately. She 
has never refused a meal since the opera¬ 
tion, and is as lively as a cricket, w r. 
Chickknhouse Floor. —On page 208, 
J. E. Stevenson gives some advice about 
a floor for a chickenhouse. I have tried 
board floors and earth floors, and am 
preparing to put a cement fljor in a hen¬ 
house just as A. M. C. did. On top of 
the cement, I shall put two or three 
inches of dry earth. From time to time, 
this earth, with hen manure well min¬ 
gled with it, will be put on to the gar¬ 
den or lawn, or wherever it will do most 
good, and fresh earth scattered again 
in the henhouse. I believe that is the 
Mrs. Axel Kjer, of Gordonville, Cape Girard¬ 
eau Co., Mo., writes : “ When I look at my little 
boy I feel it my duty to 
write you. Perhaps 
someone will see my 
testimony and be led to 
use Dr. Pierce’s Favor¬ 
ite Prescription and be 
blessed in the same 
way. This is my fifth 
child and the only one 
born alive: the others 
have died from lack of 
nourishment — so the 
doctor said. I was not 
sickly in any way and 
this time I just thought 
I would try your * Pre¬ 
scription.’ I took nine 
bottles and to my sur¬ 
prise it carried me 
through and gave us as 
fine a little boy as ever 
was. Weighed ten and 
one-lialf pounds. He 
is now five months old, 
has never been sick a 
day, and is so strong 
that everybody who 
sees him wonders at 
him. He is so playful and holds himself up so 
well. I would like to see this in print for so 
many have asked me, ‘ Do you think those are 
the testimonials of the people, or has Dr. Pierce 
just made them up and printed them ? ’ ” 
This is one of over two hundred and fifty 
thousand similar letters which prove 
DR. PIERCE’S 
FA VOR1TE 
PRESCRIPTION 
to be the greatest of all medicines for the 
cure of diseases and disorders of the organs 
distinctly feminine. It is the only prepara¬ 
tion of its kind devised by a regularly 
graduated physician—an experienced and 
skilled specialist in the diseases of women. 
It is a safe medicine in any condition of 
the system. It contains no whisky, alco¬ 
hol, opium or other narcotic, and therefore, 
does not cause a craving for stimulants. It 
is sold by medicine dealers everywhere, 
and any dealer who hasn’t it can get it. 
Don’t take a substitute. No counterfeit is 
.as good as the genuine and the druggist 
who says something else is “just as good 
as Dr. Pierce’s” is either mistaken or is 
trying to deceive you for his own selfish 
benefit. Such a man is not to be trusted. 
He is trifling with yeur most priceless 
possession—your health—maybe your life 
itself. See that you get what you ask for. 
right way to do. I can’t keep an ordinary 
earth floor in any kind of shape. There 
is no bottom when I hoe up the drop¬ 
pings. More or less earth must be re¬ 
moved anyway at every cleaning, so 
why not have a smooth cement bottom, 
shovel up clean and put in fresh earth 
for a new start ? R. k, s. 
R. N.-Y.—The great trouble with a 
cement floor as well as with an earth 
floor is its liability to dampness. Unless 
the ground be thoroughly drained, the 
cement floor will likely become damp, 
and dampness is fatal to fowls. Any 
kind of floor must be dry, and a board 
floor is best to secure this. 
Suits Everybody. 
We guarantee the Star 
Incubator to be perfectly 
satisfactory to every pur¬ 
chaser or return your 
money without question. 
No other incubator com¬ 
pany gives such a guaran¬ 
tee. They want their in¬ 
cubators to stay sold—we don’t, unless the 
buyer is satisfied that they are the best on 
earth and satisfactory in every way. 
NO MOISTURE to be supplied. Catalogue fret. 
STAR INCUBATOR & BROODER COMPANY, 
. Bound Brook, New Jersey. 
POULTRY 
♦ We keep everything in the POULTRY LINE, O 
♦ Fencing, Feed, Incubators, Live Stoek, ■Brooders ~~ 
♦ —anything—it’s our business. Call or let us ' 
♦ send you our illustrated catalogue—it’s free for < 
♦ the asking—it’s worth having. 
♦ Excelsior Wire and Poultry Supply Co., 
♦ 28 Vesey Street, New York City. 
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦< 
bfi&BAZON’S POULTRY-CATALOGUE 
rpCCV a beauty; over 50 colored plates. Ulus- 
■ n Efci t rates and describes fine Turkeys. Geese. 
> Ducks and chickens ; elves prices of fowls £ eggs. Ftaeei 
Jftuyer's Guide published. Inclose 10c. for poetafe. etc. 
J. 8. Brabazoa, Jr. & Co.. Box 57, Delavaa, wta 
WHITE WYANDOTTES and standard- 
bred. Hens prolific layers. None better. Low prices. 
Write for eggcir. Ralph Woodward, New Rochelle, N.Y 
200 
young Barred P. Rocks; also Eggs. Circula 
_free if you mention this paper. 
C. F. GIFFEN, Lock Box 85, St. Clairsvllle, Ohio. 
Plymouth Rocks —Buff and White. 
Eggs from prize-winners. 13, $1; 26, $2; express paid. 
Cnoice cockerels, $2. C. E. Poindexter, Hartford, Ct. 
Eggs—SI 50 and S2 per sitting, from 
Brown Leghorn stock that took Second Prize New 
York Show, 1899 Also, White Wyandottes. Both 
farm raised. SHETLAND FARM, Montgomery, N.Y. 
Q [■ PREMIUMS on 85 entries, Barred and White P. 
00 Rocks,Wyandottes Brown Leghorns, R. I. Reds, 
Javas and Minorcas. Some Boston Winners. Eggs, 
$1.50. Circular. GEO. A. CHAPIN, Hampden, Mass 
Barred Plymouth Rocks, White Hol¬ 
land Turkeys. Thoroughbreds. Eggs only. List 
free. FRED GRUNDY, Morrlsonvilie, Ill. 
EXHIBITION BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 
our specialty. Our stock direct strains of Thomp¬ 
son’s (Ringlet). Hawkins (Royal Blue), Bradley Bros. 
New York Champion and Light Blue pullet strain, 
having birds sired by New York Champion and King¬ 
let, the great first-prize males at Madison Square 
Garden Our stock equal to any, and prices reason- 
ab.e. Did you see our display pen on exhibition at 
Madison Square Garden Show? Eggs, $1 per 13; $3 per 
50; $5 per 1U0. Address RIVER BANK POULTRY 
YARDS, Catskill Station, N. Y. 
White Wyandottes —Send for circu¬ 
lar. Geo. R. Schauber, Box Y, Ballston Lake, N.Y. 
Best Fabm Bref-ds. —Buff Rocks, Buff 
Leghorns, Mammoth Bronze Turkeys. Eggs now. 
SAMUEL DDNBtR, Klkhorn, Wis. 
nnill TQV - Ten Leading; Varieties.— Larg- 
lUUL I VI I est practical breeder in Ohio. 
CHAS. McCLAVE, New London, O. Box 600. 
Selected Matings in Standard-bred 
Rocks, Leghorns. Wyandottes, Indian Games, Pekin 
Ducks. Eggs, $1.50. My hobby is to give what I 
promise. List free. BUN MORELAND, Pataskala, O. 
White Wyandottes Exclusively.— 
Write wants. Spencer’s Poultry Farm, Phenix, II. 1. 
F or Sale—200 W. & B. Rocks,W. Wyan. & B.Leg. Eggs. 
50c. per 13. Stamp. Mrs. J. P. Hellings, Dover, Del. 
Eggs for Hatching. — See Wixon's 
advertisement last week. 
LOUSY SITTING BENS 
will leave their next. at every op¬ 
portunity, grow thinner and thinner— 
often die before hatching time. 
Lambert’s Death to Lice 
will clean a hen, sitting or standing, the 
minute you put it on. It will not injure 
eggs or little chickens. Trial size lOe 
post paid. 64 -page POULTRY 
BOOK FREE. 
D. J. LAMBERT, 
Box 807 Apponaug, B. I. 
THEY HATCH MILLIONS 
J lucks. Turkeys 
s in every state 
Df Chickens, 
and other fow 
and territory in the Union and 
In many foreign countries— 
THE PRAIRIE STATE 
INCUBATORS. 
Used by the largest poultry | 
Srssders, duck and broiler farms 
•vsrywhere. H%ve taken over ' 
(.©© flret prizes in all kinds of competition. 
Ths easiest to handle, cheapest to operate, 
surest in results and most handsome and 
durable in construction, 168 p. catalog and supplement 
FREE. Prairie State lacubator Co., Homer City, Pa. 
’HICKEN MONEY 
Ana 
hovr 
___ 
ml to get It; how to mate, breed, feed and 
market poultry. Cuts and plana for 
building poultry houses and cost of sarne. 
■ nunu u ecuv * * cijui * 
is contained in our Poultry Guide. 
pSpSij. 
1 Circulars free. 
1 Send 6o. for 
■ Jllus. Catalog. | 
At HATCH CHICKENS 
§cif BY STEAM— 
mSk&. simple, perfect, seif regulating 
rf EXCELSIOR INCUBATOR 
1 Thousands In successful operation. 
1 Lowest priced lst-class hatcher made 
GEO. II. STAHL, 
[ 114 to 122 8. 6th St.. Quincy, XII. 
Ceti? 
logue 
4 ots. 
1 «i 
TJH.K 1MPR.O V ED 
VICTOR Incubator 
Hatches Chickens by Steam. Absolutely 
eelf-regulating. The simplest, most 
reliable, and cheapest first-class Hatcher 
in the market. Circular* FREE. 
EO. ERTEL CO., QUINCY, ILL. 
Special 60 Day Discount Sale 
on our Latest Improved Standard Incu 
bators and Brooders Large valuable 
Catalogue and Discount Sheet for 6c. 
Flower City Inc. Co., Rochester, N. Y 
