i89o 
TIIH RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
283 
SHARPENING POSTS. 
In most sections of the country the setting of fence and 
other small posts is nearly^done away with, for the reason 
that they are and can be more quickly driven. In soil sub¬ 
ject to heaving by action of frost, heaved posts are also 
easily redriven to their original depth, which cannot be 
done with posts that are set and have blunt ends. Farmers 
also have learned that, nine times in ten, posts rot away a 
little below and at the surface of the ground; hence a 
cumbersome piece of wood placed two feet or more below 
the surface is comparatively useless. 
A simple arrangement for holding posts while they are 
sharpened, is shown at Figure 87. A pole about 20 feet in 
length is split at one end and supported by wooden legs 
six feet in length set in a bracing position, as shown. One 
end of the post rests upon a block, the other is supported 
and held firmly in the V-shaped split in the end of the pole. 
This is a cheap holder and one readily moved about as 
desired. L . D . s. 
Yates Co., N. Y. 
A CONVENIENT FARM WAGON. 
The wagon shown at Figure 88 is the handiest that I 
have ever used. The running gear is the same as that in 
any farm wagon; but the coupling pole is longer. I got 
the idea of the long and wide platform from a Pennsyl¬ 
vania farmer, and used it without the hinged side boards 
for several years ; but having need of a wagon to haul hay 
to market and briug back a load of stable manure, I made 
an improvement by battening the boards that rested on 
the three-by-three inch chestnut cross-pieces and hinged 
them to the same pieces, using 14-inch strap hinges. A 
front board is hinged to, and lies on the floor when the 
wagon is not in use, and a tail-board slips behind two cleats 
nailed on the inside of the body and rests against the hind 
stakes. The hind wheels being very high, a little boxing 
was necessary to allow the side-boads to clear the wheels. 
In hauling manure or any kind 
of short stuff, the sideboards are 
turned up perpendicularly and 
hooked to the front and tail¬ 
boards ; if the load is of a “ spread¬ 
ing” character, two pieces of chain 
are hooked to the top of the side¬ 
boards over the two middle cross¬ 
pieces. The lower part of the 
body is made of two two-by-12-inch 
white pine boards 16 feet long. 
The four cross-pieces are seven 
feet long, but could be made a foot 
longer if desirable, and are fast¬ 
ened to the side-pieces by six-inch 
bolts In putting in these bolts I 
bored one inch and a-half holes In 
the side-pieces, two inches from 
the top: the bolts going through 
cross-pieces, enter these holes and 
the nuts are turned up tight with 
a cold chisel and hammer. I did 
this to avoid the use of such lrng 
bolts as would have been neces¬ 
sary to go clear through the 12- 
inch side-pieces. These side-pieces 
are cut into below to allow the 
front wheels to run under the 
body ; this made it necessary cor¬ 
respondingly to raise the floor in 
front. The same pieces are cut 
runner shape at the front ends for 
the same reason; this lets the body come that much 
further forward. In the picture one side-board is raised, 
as both would be in hauling manure, etc. With the 
side and end-boards up we'have a body 16 feet long, three 
feet four inches wide and 33 inches deep. 
The only improvement that I want in this body is to 
have hinged angle-irons instead of the cross-pieces which 
are in the way if short manure, corn or anything needing 
shoveling is hauled. 
In hauling hay or grain in the straw, this wide platform 
saves all high pitching; it would be just the thing to use 
with a hay-loader. In hauling ensilage corn, take out the 
hind stakes and replace them with short ones, say to come 
two feet above the platform ; then pivot one end of a two 
by 12-inch plank 14 feet long to the floor, letting the other 
end drag on the ground ; put a few cleats on it and walk 
up the plank with the corn, placing it at first against the 
front stakes and so on back to the rear of the platform. 
A. L. CROSBY. 
NEW THINGS ABOUT ENSILAGE LEARNED THE 
PAST SEASON. 
What do you know about ensilage in any of its details 
that you did not know one year ago t 
FROM E. W. STANCLIFT. 
Keeping Sweet Corn Fodder.— If you have a silo and 
like sour feed, put the corn in the silo as soon as the ears 
are picked ; but if you are not a lover of fermented food or 
drink, put it in in my way. As soon as the ears are picked 
cut the fodder with the reaper, cradle or cutter, as most 
convenient, lay it in long gavels, set it around a wooden 
horse in large “ stouts ” ; let it stand until it is about as 
dry as clover hay should be when put in the barn; on a 
good day have force enough to fill the larger barn ; pack 
the stover as closely and solidly as possible; then in one or 
two days put on top of it dry straw two to four feet thick, 
to absorb the steam. It will emit steam for some time and 
be bright, sweet fodder, much better than acid silage; at 
least mine has beeu so for two years past, and last July a 
Held of clover having been cut in catching weather, was 
put in before it had dried ; it was just wilted ; in fact the 
under side of the swath had not yet wilted. It stood in 
cocks one day ; then we filled a hay barn with it in one 
day, and the next we put on a load of dry Timothy hay. 
The men Baid it would rot, but this winter they both 
bought some of it for their own cow and horse, and I fed 
it to my horses. There was no mold or dust about it. If 
people would go to one-half the expense in making tight 
barns for fodder, that they incur in making a good silo, I 
fancy they would be better pleased. Not one-half the 
silos in this vicinity are a success: one owner of a silo says 
that if the silage does not keep better next winter, he will 
abandon the use of the silo. Another said he lost $100 by 
putting in his silo 10 acres of corn that would have husked 
100 bushels of ears per acre. Then we read such wild 
statements about the cost of ensiloing the corn. One says 
that he cut his corn into his silo at the cost of 60 cents per 
acre. I heard one man say he had ensiloed his corn for less 
than it would have cost him to shock it: only think, he 
drew 20 tons of stover in a wagon to his silo; ran it through 
the cutter and packed it in the silo for less than it would 
have cost to set it up in a field! Now, the cheapest rate at 
which I have known any one to do the work, was four 
dollars per acre, ’in that case the corn was cut and bound 
by a twine-binder, and 16 acres were put in the silo in four 
days, 130 tons having been handled in that time. Then, but 
a few farmers have silos or warm barns in which they can 
feed the green, wet stuff in cold weather; but all can have 
green sweet com, millet, oats or clover, by packing it in 
the right way. 
Erie County, N. Y. 
FROM W. F. TABER. 
On page 220, under the date of April 5th and under the 
head of “Brevities,” I notice an item in reference to utiliz¬ 
ing the nubbins and stalks of sweet corn where the crop 
has been used for canning, and those who had utilized them 
were invited to tell how they did it. Years ago, when the 
ensilage craze took form under the lead of Dr. Bailey, I was 
raising sweet corn for market in its green state, and as 
much of it was of the very early kinds the stalks, being sub¬ 
jected to the heavy showers and burning suns of mid¬ 
summer, became almost worthless for fodder, and it oc¬ 
curred to me that the silo would be the best place in which 
to put them. Accordingly I built three small siloes, holding 
10 to 12 tons each, in the basement of my barn, so as to be 
able to ensilo the crops maturing at different times. As 
soon as the marketable ears had beeu used—which would 
be within a week of the first picking—I cleaned the piece 
of nubbins and stalks and put them in the silo. They 
made sweet silage, and I was surprised when the report 
came from the Ensilage Congress held that winter that all 
the samples exhibited were sour. I learnt why my silage 
was sweet next winter, when one of my silos was filled 
with Southern corn which grew nine to 11 feet high, and 
was put into the silo according to the Bailey system—in its 
green state. Though nice and bright, the silage was quite 
sour and imparted a bad flavor to the milk and butter, 
while the nubbins and stalks in the other siloes were sweet 
and good. Thus the force of circumstances imparted to 
me the knowledge that the corn should be in that condition 
of ripeness in which it is found when ready for marketing 
green. As it was years before this condition of maturity 
was accepted as necessaryitothe highest state of perfection 
in the food product, I claim to have been the first dis¬ 
coverer. The same results were obtained by others where 
they followed my instructions in allowing the corntocome 
into the doughy state before it was put into the silo. I have 
continued this practice every year, sometimes cutting the 
early corn, but latterly putting it into the silo whole. The 
stalks being short, there is no difficulty in getting it out, 
and the nubbins keep better with the husks on than when 
cut, and there is but.little expense in putting it in. Dur¬ 
ing the winter I kept four cows which gave milk for two 
months while they were fed on the nubbins and stalks 
from two acres of Cory Corn which, being a small kind, 
would be worth but little if dried. Since that time I have 
been feeding Concord and Evergreen put into the silo 
whole, although if I had a cutter and the necessary power 
it would have been better to cut it. One thing I have fully 
demonstrated—that the nubbins and stalks from well 
grown sweet corn, put into the silo immediately after the 
marketable ears have been taken off, will make sw T eet 
silage, from which when properly fed and supplemented 
with proper grain rations, good milk'and butter will be pro¬ 
duced more cheaply than from any other product of the 
farm, and the man who neglects to utilize the stover in 
this way must suffer a loss. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
FROM H. 8. WEEK8. 
Varieties, Planting, Breeding.— Contrary to my ex¬ 
pectations, the past season has added nothing to my ex¬ 
perience in siloing other crops than corn, the late summer 
and autumn having been so dry that all of the clover and 
millet which I had intended, in part, for the silo, was re¬ 
quired for daily feed to keep up the flow of milk. But I 
had a good crop of corn, half Southern white and half 
Northern dent. According to my usual custom, I cut 
across the field so that it went into the pits in about equal 
proportions. I adopt this plan for two reasons: first, be¬ 
cause the large Southern corn gives a greater amount of 
fodder to the acre, which is an important point on a small 
farm; and, second, because, though not maturing ears 
very often in this latitude, there is in it more succulence 
than our Northern varieties contain at the glazing stage, 
especially in a droughty fall such as we have had three 
years in succession, and the two kinds together have as 
much ear corn as I care to feed to milch cows. I think the 
tendency with many is to discontinue planting the South¬ 
ern corn and to fill their silos with Northern varieties pro¬ 
ducing a large amount of ears in a very mature state. This 
I believe to be a mistake for a dairyman, while a good 
practice for a stock feeder. It is said in some quarters that 
too much has been claimed for the silo, that silage is not 
a perfect feed and should be used only as a part of a ration, 
supplemented with hay or other dry fodder. This is doubt¬ 
less true, “on general principles,” as variety in diet is 
good for man or beast; but actual experience on my farm 
for the past 10 years has proven that cows will thrive and 
be productive without running any risks of evil effects if 
fed on silage exclusively as roughage during six or eight 
months of the year, the necessary variety and “balance” 
being maintained with different 
kinds of grain feed, wheat bran 
being the staple, but ground 
barley, oats, oil meal and cotton¬ 
seed meal forming a part of the 
ration. I shall, however, again 
endeavor to ensilo different crops 
this season, so as to have some 
variety in the contents of the silo. 
Oconomowoc, Wis. 
FROM JOHN GOULD. 
Silage and Silo Knowledge. 
—I have learned that a cheap 
silo can be durable, strong, and a 
perfect preserver of silage. I have 
learned that a wooden silo need not 
be built of expensive lumber, and 
that this need not be of any special 
kind. A silo built of single sur¬ 
face hemlock lumber costing eight 
dollars per 1,000 feet, will do as 
good service as one built of Nor¬ 
way spruce or Georgia pine. I 
have learned that a stone founda¬ 
tion in silo building on naturally 
dry ground, is unnecessary. A sill, 
well painted with gas-tar and w r ell 
tamped into a trench just its size, 
makes a perfectly secure founda¬ 
tion. I have found that a grout 
or cement floor in a silo pos¬ 
sesses no advantages over a well 
tamped clay floor, and that of the two the latter is rather 
the better. I have learned that the floor of a silo is far 
better if concave—of a kettle bottom form—being at least 
15 or 18 inches deepest in the center, so that the weight of 
the silage rests chiefly in this depression, and a corres¬ 
ponding pressure upon the sills and foundation is avoided. 
I have learned that the best and most satisfactory paint is 
made of gas-tar, two gallons, and gasoline, one gallon, to 
be put on cold with a white-wash brush. It is superior to 
gas-tar and resin applied hot, and makes a surface that is 
not affected by the silage. 
I have learned that matched lumber should not be used 
in building silos, if the walls are to be made double. The 
matching holds moisture, while the edgesof the unmatched 
boards put on horizontally, are filled with the thick paint 
and make a close wall, thoroughly air-tight, and there 
will be no danger of the matching being slivered by swell¬ 
ing. With this paint, the walls become smooth and glossy, 
the silage settles readily, the paint does not peel or slough 
off, and, therefore, imparts no bad quality to the silage. 
I have learned that with a wooden silo, and—in my opinion, 
a stone one as well—the less tramping the better. Only 
as much tramping should be done as will keep the silage 
settling at the walls as fast as in the center. Treading 
tends to expel the air, and so the sides do not become 
heated as readily as the center. Where there is little heat, 
there can be no perfect expulsion of the air, and the results 
are lack of uniformity and damage along the sides and 
corners and more or less mold, caused by the agency of the 
uuexpelled air. In my silos in which very little treading 
is done, there is no loss at the sides or corners. In filling 
the silage, if possible, is kept three feet higher along the 
walls than in the center, and this extra depth there, helps 
to make it settle by its own increased weight in those parts 
of the silo. 
I have learned that a big meal-sack filled half full of 
sawdust and suspended by a rope in the middle of the fall¬ 
ing silage wiiere it pours from the end of the carrier, dis¬ 
tributes the silage very nearly all over the pit and saves a 
great deal of labor, so that the engineer can find plenty 
of time to look after the engine and keep the silage 
“banked up” in the pits, and save the labor of a man 
whose entire occupation in the pit was to tread the silage 
