73o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 5, 
combinations found in the audience were no less re¬ 
markable. There were elderly men who, without doubt, 
have seen GO crops of fruit grow from trees of their 
own planting. Capital, skill and labor—the three strong 
elements that are to make New England’s fruit grow¬ 
ing rank with her manufacturing, were gathered around 
A PATIENT WAITER. Fig. 357. 
that rock. Shrewd, white-haired men who had in¬ 
vested their savings wisely, strong men in the prime 
of life with clear brain and tried courage, and touch¬ 
ing elbows with them, Italians and others from South¬ 
ern Europe who had come to this country with hope 
and ambition and love of home ready to do the hand 
work. It was a remarkable combination, and I think 
what it represented is well worth a careful study, since 
it is to play a vital part in the future history of New 
England. 
The eastern part of this country must look largely 
to its waste lands for future increase of natural 
wealth. The lumber cut in the past from the New 
England forests proved a vast source of revenue. We 
now easily understand that if, at the close of the Civil 
War, the cleared land not needed for cultivation could 
have been planted in pine and other timber trees, the 
natural wealth would be greatly increased, while the 
water powers, which are the backbone of New Eng¬ 
land manufacturing, would be much superior. There 
is every reason why the hill lands should be covered 
with trees. Forestry will provide future wealth for 
domestic trade, while fruit orchards will furnish ex¬ 
port material. Twenty years ago expqrts of Ameri¬ 
can fruits and nuts amounted to less than $1,500,000. 
Last year the total ran to nearly $18,000,000, nearly 
half of this being apples, both green and dried. This 
export trade is rapidly growing, and it is not a mere 
figure of speech to say that 20 years hence the or¬ 
chards which supply Europe with apples will be very 
largely located on the New England hills. The value 
of Baldwin and McIntosh Red apples sent abroad will 
exceed that of any other New England product, and 
will rank with exports of wheat or meat. Hale is not 
conducting a crazy or visionary scheme when he re¬ 
plants these old pastures, any more than were those 
men in the cld days who planted little factories at the 
valley water powers. There may be a fair chance for 
argument as to whether he is doing the work in the 
way best suited to the means of the average farmer 
or grower. 
The ground, as Hale takes it, is covered with a thick 
growth of White birch and other trees which naturally 
come in such soils. Along the walls and scattered 
through the fields are larger trees—evidently left when 
the ground was first cleared. In some places the 
ledges crop out, and large rocks are embedded in the 
surface. On parts of the field I should say that this 
rock covers at least half the space. I noticed a number 
of seedling apple trees growing in these fields—almost 
the surest indication that it is good apple soil. The 
first thing on Hale’s programme is to cut everything 
off with ax and brush hook. Some large White oaks 
or chestnuts may be left, but a clean job is made of 
the rest. When I was a boy use was found for every¬ 
thing thus cut down. The large trees were cut into 
firewood, and even the chips were picked up for fuel. 
In many cases even the brush was picked up and car¬ 
ried away. Hale pays no attention to this timber. I 
saw a few logs which would make fair joist or boards 
while hundreds of cords of wood could be cut. At 
the right time when the wood is dry the whole thing 
is burned over—nothing saved and nothing left but the 
blackened stumps. A man with moderate capital and 
obliged to do much of his own work could not afford 
to burn all this waste. I have used brush to mulch 
young trees, but always in fear of the results should a 
fire start in the orchard. In favor of Hale’s plan is 
the fact that there is no danger of fire after the trees 
are planted, while without doubt this burning is a 
good thing for the soil. A thin layer of wood ashes 
is left on the soil and this and the action of the fire 
itself helps sweeten the soil. I was not surprised after 
seeing what the fire did to the soil to learn that lime 
had not been found necessary, though these old hillsides 
are reputed to be usually sour. Around stumps and 
under clumps of brush w'here fire had burned fiercely, 
1 noticed new kinds of plants starting up. After 
clearing and burning off the land the work of fitting 
the soil begins, and in this the Italian foreman, Louis 
Pero, plays a lively part. As we shall see, Hale has 
little use for the “mulch system,” but plans to fit this 
rough land for culture as rapidly as possible. By 
planting trees once, he makes the smoothing of the 
soil a part of the culture. h. w. c. 
WHOLE CORN IN THE SILO. 
You ask for different ways of handling the corn 
crop, so I will give my way, which I have used several 
years with good success. I put the corn in the silo 
whole. I have a basement barn with the silo on the 
back, so that the level of the driveway is about 10 
feet higher than the bottom of the silo; there is prac¬ 
tically no high lifting. If I had to stand on a wagon 
and raise my corn to the top of a 30-foot silo, I doubt 
if I should fill it this way. As it is, I am not obliged 
to have half the neighborhood around to feed and pay, 
and an engine and cutter at $12.50 per day, with always 
too much or too little help, and have to wait at that 
until my corn is cut with frost and whipped to death for 
my turn with the machine. I simply go out when my 
corn is ready, cut in the morning and draw in the after¬ 
noon. I prefer to have the wagon box on the wagon 
to having the hay rack, as one man alone in unloading 
can get a better hold on the corn, and if properly loaded 
A COUPLE OF PORK PARTNERS. Fig. 358. 
one man can unload and carry it to the silo as fast 
as the other can properly place it. I have upright stakes 
nailed to the back of the box, slanting backward; then 
I pile four or five armfuls against the stakes and on 
top of each other; then four or five more'in front of 
these, and so on until the load is complete. In unload¬ 
ing they come off in the reverse order. As I said be¬ 
fore, I put it in the silo whole, and lay it all one way; 
that is, I lay half with butts to the north and the other 
half with butts to the south, but none with the butts 
to the east or west. Of course it would be just as well 
if it were all laid east and west, and none north and 
south, but some of my neighbors reported poor success 
by putting it in crossed, and I never tried it. 
First we place two planks from floor of the barn 
driveway to one of the ribs of the silo, thus making a 
bridge. My silo is a square one, and the door is oppo¬ 
site the back door of the barn. I get into the silo and 
the man takes the corn from the wagon and passes it 
down to me, and I lay it butts one way, say to the 
south, and about one armful thick all across that side. 
The next layer will depend on the length of the corn. 
If it is long corn and a medium-sized silo, you will 
have to bend this layer a little above the middle of the 
stalk, and tread it down next to the edge of the silo, 
taking care to tread the corners full and tread them 
hard. If the corn is short or the silo wide of course 
this tier will be laid straight, with the butts resting 
about on the middle of the tier under, and the 
next tier bent. The main thing is to have 
no serious humps or depressions, and to have 
the sides and corners tramped hard, and by sides 
and corners I mean the first six inches in; the rest 
will probably get tramped enough. Next you put in a 
layer of butts to the north, and butts near the north 
side; then bend the tops of the second or third layer 
as the case may warrant; then another layer, butts to 
the south, and so on to the end of the chapter. After 
each load tramp your silo all over, and tramp the ends 
where the butts and tops are just a little more than 
you think there is any need of, and particularly the 
first six inches out from the edge of the silo. I repeat 
this, for it is practically the whole thing. When the silo 
is full I let it settle three or four days, and you will 
be surprised how much more you can put in. 
When it comes time to feed I clean off the spoiled 
silage, which is about the same as it is on any silo; then 
with a common ax T cut a line crossways of the corn, 
and two or three feet from the end, after which I 
handle the corn with a common pitchfork, cutting two 
or three feet more next day. Here are some questions 
often asked me: Does it spoil worse than if cut in 
with a cutter? I think not, if well tramped in. Doesn’t 
it take a lot of time to put it in? My team will work 
as fast for me as for anyone else, and if I pay my 
neighbors in work I guess it would take as long time 
before I got them all paid up. Isn’t it a big job to cut 
so much silage with the ax? No, five minutes will cut 
three times that number of bushels. In cutting I only 
cut about half the width of the ax bit at a blow, so 
as to be sure to cut it all; an ordinary blow will bury 
the ax bit entirely. Do the cows eat the silage clean? 
Yes, up to a bushel at a feed. What are the advan¬ 
tages of my way? First, I do not have to pay $1 to 
$1.25 per hour for a machine. Second, I can fill my silo 
any time I can get a man to help. Do I advise every¬ 
one to do my way? No, only those who can do it to 
advantage. I think I can save several dollars and have 
just as good silage. f. b. 
Hamilton, N. Y._ 
" TOPPING” CORNSTALKS II y THE SOUTH. 
I am told that farmers below Philadelphia cut off the 
blades and tops of the cornstalks, leaving the ears to 
ripen on the stalks. What is the reason for doing this, at 
what period of growth is it done and how? header. 
New Britain, Pa. 
It has long been a practice from Maryland south¬ 
ward to strip the blades below the ear of the corn 
and tie them in bundles, and then to top the corn above 
the ear. This practice arose from the fact that little 
hay was produced, and the stripped leaves made an 
excellent forage, especially for horses, while the top 
fodder was used mainly for cattle. The practice is 
gradually being abandoned with the introduction of 
corn harvesters that make the cutting of the corn less 
laborious. There is another reason for the practice in 
the South Atlantic States. This is the humidity of 
the climate at the season when corn should be cut to 
cure in shocks, and unless the shocks are very care¬ 
fully made there is often danger of the whole decaying. 
But the corn harvester is making it more easy to shock 
so that the shocks will be ventilated. It has been 
abundantly shown by experiments in the southern ex¬ 
periment stations that the corn grain loses by the strip¬ 
ping and topping practice enough to pay the cost of 
the stripping and topping, and that the fodder saved 
in this way is at the expense of the grain. The practice 
is a very expensive one, and came about when labor 
was plentiful in the South. The scarcity of labor will 
compel its abandonment. In a large section of fine 
reclaimed swamp land east of tbe Dismal Swamp in 
Virginia and North Carolina they seem to Lave adopted 
the western plan of letting the corn completely ripen, 
and then gathering the ears only, and turning cattle 
into the field to glean the almost worthless fodder. 
This is a worse waste than the other, for not only is 
the dead fodder poor, but the tramping of the cattle in 
wet weather is a damage to the soil. By degrees the 
corn harvester and the shredder will cure all this. 
A IIAY LOADER AT WORK. Fig. 359. 
There is fodder enough wasted in that rich area near 
Norfolk to feed thousands of export cattle right at a 
port from which they can be sent abroad. If the whole 
stalk and blades could be utilized they have a theoreti¬ 
cal value for feeding equal to that of the grain, but 
even when shredded it is not all consumed. Stripping 
and topping corn is an old practice that improving 
farmers are rapidly abandoning. w. F. massey. 
