1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DAIRY AND FARM NOTES. 
Facts About Si/os and Silage. 
Silage Corn. —I wish there was a 
sure and easy way to tell just when corn 
contains the right amount of water 
for the silo. Formerly the plan was to 
get the corn in as soon as cut, without 
I'egarcl to its water content. I am con¬ 
vinced that this method is not a safe 
one for our locality. Five or six years 
ago we unfortunately put a hammer 
wj-ench through our cutter, with the re¬ 
sult that a delay in cutting of four days 
followed. Ten acres of corn were al¬ 
ready cut, and the weather was exceed¬ 
ingly hot and dry. One can easily im¬ 
agine how the leaves would rattle and 
have every appearance of being too dry. 
I felt much anxiety and uncertainty 
about the result without wetting, but 
it was inconvenient to wet the stuff, 
and we took the chances. To our sur¬ 
prise the following Winter we had no 
better silage anywhere in four silos than 
this same apparently overdried com. I 
was rather shy about giving the ex¬ 
perience until the following Winter, 
which gave an opportunity to repeat 
the experiment, without the expense 
and bother of a smashup. The results 
were the same. I then felt quite free 
to advise it in institute work, that is in 
years like the present, when corn did 
not fully dry out before cutting. In 
many meetings men would indorse the 
idea, not usually from a well-planned 
experiment, but from feeding corn that 
had for one cause or another become 
dry to the eye. I do not suppose out¬ 
side of our more northern latitudes that 
this scheme will have any value, but 
for the parallels of central New York 
and north of them, the problem is cer¬ 
tainly worth studying. Even here one 
must take the advice with good judg¬ 
ment (not unlike all advice). In 1899 
and 1900 corn was sufficiently dry for 
best results, and often the addition of 
water was advantageous. 
kiGiiTEii Stalks. —I find another ad¬ 
vantage aside from better silage, the 
corn is much lighter to handle, and our 
men appreciate the change. We have 
approximated odorless silage since 
adopting the drying method, which we 
did not get before with certainty. I 
have repeatedly said that one could not 
tell whether we fed silage or not, except 
at feeding time. The corn plant is un¬ 
like other forage plants, in that the 
stalk retains its water a long time. Al¬ 
though the leaves may be dry and rattle 
when the whole is mixed together and 
trodden down it feels wet to the touch. 
We are fast approaching a certainty of 
producing good silage without having 
“good luck.” Air-tight pits, or nearly 
so, and fine cutting are largely respon¬ 
sible. We have practiced the extreme 
of weighting and tramping, even put¬ 
ting horses into the pit, and the other 
extreme of neither weights nor tread¬ 
ing. It is my experience that we need 
a bit of Samantha’s “mejumne.ss,” which 
means fine cutting and even distribution 
and some treading, not on the sides 
alone, but over every part alike. The 
excessive treading near the walls means 
putting more corn there; when the cen¬ 
ter settles most, as it will, the silage is 
consequently drawn from the sides, al¬ 
lowing just enough air to produce a 
white mold and a sticking together of 
the fodder. No silo question so often 
comes into the institute question box as 
this one. I do not now remember work¬ 
ing out a single case in which the side 
walls were tight without finding this 
excessive treading the acknowledged 
cause. I have changed my mind in re¬ 
gard to a fine cut. The quality of si¬ 
lage, all other things being equal, is due 
to our ability to keep out the air and 
stop fermentation, and coarse fodder 
will not do it. 
Silo Temperature. —Our scientific 
friends have not given us sufficient data 
on silo fermentation. By the time they 
get it worked out, I am in hopes we shall 
have succeeded in putting the corn away 
so free from air contamination that 
there will be no ferments at work to 
break down and destroy the feeding 
value. I observe that our good silage of 
recent years is cool. I had to confess 
ignorance last Winter to a question as 
to what degree the thermometer wili 
register in a silo in the Winter a foot 
below the feeding surface. I answered 
by saying it should feel cool, much to 
the discredit of institute work as then 
determined, but I know our silos were 
not near to blood heat. The next morn¬ 
ing a man came to me very quietly and 
said his silo registered 72 degrees. I 
went home the following Saturday and 
found in three silos then opened a tem¬ 
perature ranging from 62 to 75 degrees. 
These silos were filled with corn fairly 
dry, cut very fine, and packed as pre¬ 
viously mentioned. We used last year 
a cutter with blower attachment 
and liked it so well that we shall use 
a similar machine again. The power 
required to elevate a ton during the 
same period of time is fully one-half 
more. Of course this latter statement 
is guesswork, because I had no means 
of accurate measurement, but the saving 
in bother with a chain carrier would 
more than balance the extra cost of 
power. One year’s experience often fails 
fully to establish the right or wrong of 
a plan, and I shall take the liberty of 
giving the experience again after silo 
filling, which is so near at hand. With 
a good harvester, 12 willing men, and 
good power and machinery, silo filling 
has lost its dread of former years. 
ALFAi.ii’A vs. Cr-ovER. —We have again 
changed feed from Alfalfa, all they 
would eat, to Red clover all they will 
eat. For the first few days the milk 
showed a gain, the last three days a 
shrinkage. I am not quite able to ac¬ 
count for it. I don’t know that they are 
getting enough dry matter. The growth 
is very rank. We had measured off a 
piece which was to be weighed Augu-t 
15. While I don’t care to exaggerate, our 
foreman says it will cure out two tons 
of hay to the acre, and he is a man who 
is always conservative. 
Essential Things. —“Do you always 
do the things most necessary to be 
done?” I find that to answer the above 
question in actual work is not easy. I 
like to see things nicely done, but a 
man can easily spend too much time 
oiling his harness or blacking his shoes. 
I know a farmer who would in plowing 
strike out his lands by stake, so straight 
and true that the last furrow in a land 
always had full even width through its 
whole length, but the amount of culti¬ 
vation done was so meagre that he 
never grew a maximum crop. I have 
heard long arguments about milking, 
should the front teats be milked to¬ 
gether and the hind teats the same, or 
should the milker cross, one front and 
one hind teat, when I knew by observa¬ 
tion that the cows on their farms had 
never been fully and judiciously fed. I 
have spent time and money working for 
a fancy trade for our butter and cheese, 
and then taken milk into the factory 
that injured the quality of the whole 
day’s output. I have always been op¬ 
posed to job work in construction of 
buildings because of the great tendency 
to ignore this question. We built a 
large barn in 1888 and found it quite 
expensive, about $3,000. A year after a 
barn was built near us, smaller in size, 
yet at one-half the cost. I felt some¬ 
what chagrined at our inability to get 
a good deal. To-day the difference is 
apparent—in more than one simt, the 
essentials were not attended to. There 
is a foundation wall to everything we 
do, but it requires a good mechanical 
eye to build it and have no cracks ap¬ 
pear when the strain comes. The 
strain, the wear and test come sooner 
or later to every piece of work we do, 
and while we may “cut and cover” for 
a time, eventually the “paint and putty” 
will crop out in field or home, in con¬ 
structive work, animal breeding, or 
plant growth. p. e. cook. 
Building a Round Silo. 
I have a square silo, but will build a 
round one in Spring. Will you give me 
I)lan of best silo (round) to hold 125 tons? 
I would like to know how much lumber 
and hoops and what kind of foundation 
—if any—and anything else regarding the 
construction. j. h. M’d. 
No. Bridgewater, N. Y. 
Without doubt the best form of silo 
for ^ou to construct is the round stave 
silo. If you desire a silo large enough 
to hold 125 tons of settled silage it will 
be necessary to construct one which will 
have a total capacity for about 150 tons. 
This is necessary because of the fact 
that the silage settles considerably, and 
the 150-ton silo would have a capacity 
for only about 126 tons of settled silage. 
It 'is noit possible to fill a silo with set¬ 
tled silage. The silo should be 30 feet 
high and 18 feet in diameter. If it is 
desired to have silage for Summer feed¬ 
ing it will be better to construct two 
silos, 24 feet high and 14 feet in diam¬ 
eter. In making the foundation for a 
stave silo many have made the mistake 
of constructing expensive stone walls 
upon which to set the staves. A stone 
wall is unnecessary, and better not con¬ 
structed. All that is necessary in the 
way of foundation is to scoop away the 
surface soil to a depth of six or eight 
inches over a space a little larger in 
diameter than the proposed diameter of 
the silo. Begin the foundation by pav¬ 
ing this space excavated. Place at the 
bottom the larger stones, and work in 
smaller stones near the top, and top 
with a layer of coarse gravel. Make a 
thin mortar, using water lime one part 
to four parts of sand. Make this mor¬ 
tar so thin that when poured over the 
stones it will run down between the 
stones, filling all the interspaces. With 
a maul or pestle pound the stones firm¬ 
ly down, so there shall be no open air 
spaces in the foundation. Much of the 
success depends upon the thoroughness 
of the pounding. After the water lime 
has become fixed finish off the top with 
a layer one inch thick made of Port¬ 
land cement one part, good sand three 
parts. This will give a firm solid foun¬ 
dation, and the staves may be set di¬ 
rectly upon the Portland cement that 
forms the topping. 
To construct a silo 30 feet high and 18 
feet in diameter there will be required 
108 staves six inches wide, two inches 
thick and 30 feet long, or they may be 
used in lengths of 20 feet, making 
joints at 10 and 20 feet from base. Eight 
hoops will be needed to hold the staves 
together. They should be of %-inch 
round steel, and be joined by cast iron 
lugs. It would be cheaper to use some 
form of woven wire in place of the steel 
hoops. The Page Woven Wire Fence 
Co., Adrian, Mich., makes a wire on pur¬ 
pose for use on stave silos. In Bulletin 
No. 167 of the Cornell University Ex¬ 
periment Station, Ithaca, N. Y., you will 
find many valuable hints about the con¬ 
struction of stave silos. The bulletin 
will be sent you free upon request. 
L. A. CLINTON. 
Should Horses Face the Light?— 
When I built my barn I made boxstalls 
for my horses, and on the one side there 
is a window to every stall, on the oppo¬ 
site is the feeding alley and no windows. 
The horses are loose in the stalls at all 
times, and whenever they are not eating 
they face the light or stand sideways to 
the light. It hardly ever happens that 
I see them facing away from the light. 
As a rule, they face the windows, but, of 
course, the sun does not shine in their 
eyes. It would be cruel to hitch a horse 
so as to compel him to face the glare of 
the sun, but were I to build a stable I 
would face to the light if I could avoid 
the direct sunshine because that is the 
verdict of my horses, and that I call 
“horse sense.” l. w. eighty. 
Pennsylvania. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
“asquare deal.” Seeour guarantee 8th page. 
591 
Leg and Body Wash. 
Race horses of ten become soi ‘0 
and stiff from contintled si rain 
on the hard tracks. Nothirt?? tdafeS 
pUt this stifTHesa and gorcnCsS 
liked Wdshcrthipoilndcd otdlUiten 
Tattlers Elixif 
aW’iy to the Ic^sdnd put on liKht 
banrtaBee.SpnnKethehod.vandpUt 
on iiftht blanket. Uiiaranteed trt 
btoduce desired results or Iiioubt 
__ back. 
^ ItendvUle Trotting Park, Maas., March 23,1906. 
hr. S; A. tiitlle, V. 6. 
Pear Sit;—t have Used ymir Elhtlr for the past ten years, In Iho 
thluted form for a leg and body wash. 1 cooslder It the beat wash 
tor keeping horees from aniing nn. Horses done np with this wash 
are much less liable to take cold than when done up with witch haael 
or any other wash I ever used. J. II. N A V. 
OurlOO-pago book, “Veterinary Experience,’’ FREE. 
Dr. S. A. TUTTLE, 30 Beverly Sf., Boston, Mass. 
Bewftre of sc>caUed Elixirs—none {genuine bnt 
Avoid all bllat«r8 j they offer only temporary relief If any. 
wstaer# diaiicnion 
-MisisrawJiniproTMixenSo'vor 
IBmlth’st 
fvieksst, lajast rwtsij 
Haaalaellatslt aad 
iloek. jSwe«4« atatiHiEary vAoa 
p pm . AalauleWKMdtanltbhoMk'. 
Mad**fk49t»>aiMcevl]ka£d 
■wood. Piiial(orfaat«atBgwitI>s':’«7 
■Unehtoa. Bead for tootluiOiijJia, 
J. I WILDER A SOWS, 
XXa OKAIK-HANQINO 
Cattle Stanchioo 
Tbs most prftotloal and humane Fasteneir eves' ia- 
vented. Gives perfect freedom of the head, lllnstvated 
Circular and Price free on applloation. Mannf aotTfrod 
by O. H, ROBERTSON, Forestvllle, Conn. 
Sharpies “Tubular” 
Dairy Separators. 
Sreafest Step Ever Made in Ad¬ 
vanced Cream Separator 
Construction. 
If costmore.are worth double, 
for they produce enough 
more butter than the best 
competing separator to ^my 
fully 6 per cent intere.st on 
whole first cost of machine. 
Wo Absolutely Warrant It and Give 
Free Trial to Prove It. 
Also very light running,a 6001b. machine 
turningea.sier than other300 lb machines. 
No disks to bother with and get out of 
orvier. No complications. 
If you want to know about all different 
separators,send usfora copy of “TheSep- 
arator,’’ containing an expert opinion on 
them, together with free Catalog No. 163. 
Sharpies Co., P. M. Sharpies, 
Chicago, III. West Chester, Pa. 
CR 
U5.BUT 
WES 
THE LEADING 
EAM SEPARATOR 
CATAl_aC3UE FREE 
TER EXTRACTOR CO..BLOOMFIELD.N.J. 
TERN OFFICE FISHER BLDG.CHICAGO. 
Save$ 10 perCow 
HrVEBY YEAR OF USE. 
De Laval Cream Separators 
Prioee, $50 to $800. 
'"Alpha" and "Baby"style8. Send for Catalogue 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO.. 
Bandolph and Canal Streets, I 74 Cortlandt Streep 
CHICAGO. I NEW YOBK. 
i 
