1000. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
883 
POSSIBILITIES OF THE SILO IN MAINE. 
I have noted with much rdeasure the consistent ef¬ 
forts of The R. N.-Y. to push the feeding value of 
corn and its products. It seems to me more and more 
every year, that the true value of this most remark¬ 
able fodder plant is not understood, or its possibilities 
appreciated. With the prevailing high prices of corn, 
and the continued tendency for soil products to rise 
GROWTH OF MAINE CORN. Fig. 491. 
in price, it well behooves every feeder of live stock 
to produce, as far as possible, his own feed, and it 
now appears that for by far the largest proportion 
of this country, certainly all through the Eastern and 
Central-Western portions, the corn plant stands pre¬ 
eminently as the one from which he should procure 
half of his roughage and much of his grain. 
When our dairy was running with its largest num¬ 
ber of cows, we fed corn from the silo, or from the 
field, every day in the year. For a Summer soiling 
crop, or for the Summer silo, there is nothing animals 
will eat for so long a time without tiring of it, or 
produce at the pail so freely as they will with a large 
daily ration of corn. In Winter, the succulence of 
silage, coqpled with its high feeding value in propor¬ 
tion to cost and ease of feeding, renders it invaluable 
for the growing animal or the dairy cow. It has 
sometimes been supposed that corn growing was only 
for large, easily-tilled areas, and that the broken fields 
of our upland farms were unadapted to its growth, 
but when its capacity for producing large quantities 
of food on small areas is considered, the reverse is 
true. If land handles hard, if there are rocks to 
remove, if labor is scarce, it is certainly good planning 
to put it to the growing of some crop that will give 
the largest possible returns. We have this in corn. 
A little experience at “The Pines’’ this season 
seems to be a case in point, and il'ustrates the possi¬ 
bilities of corn and the silo very nicely. A piece of 
clav-loam pasture land, containing It; square rods, 
was planted to North King flint corn, from seed that 
ripened in Maine in 1908. A liberal coat of barn 
manure was plowed in, the land was well fitted for 
the seed, and 100 pounds of 4-ll-T chemicals applied 
broadcast. The land was checked three feet apart 
each way, and selected kernels were dropped by hand, 
only four in each hill, then covered with a hoe. The 
planting was done June 5. The cold and dry season 
apparently did not retard the growth of stem and 
leaf, but interfered seriously with the maturing of 
the cars. Then, to crown these disasters with the 
plot, the severe frost which hit Maine so hard on the 
night of August 30 did not pass it by, nipping quite 
severely the upper leaves. This hindered using the 
corn for the original purpose, so on September 5 an 
average hill was cut and weighed. The weight was 
IT.8 pounds, which figured to the per acre yield, is 
13 tons 976 pounds. Had this plot been planted two 
weeks earlier and the season proved to be a good 
one for corn, the weight would have been more, as 
the kernels were just beginning to form, when cut. 
Hut let us compare this yield, using only the even 
tons, with hay. First the average composition. 
Per Cent Digestible Matter. 
* Carboliy- 
Protein. drates. Fat. 
<m-n silage . 1.2 IIS .6 
Mixed hay . 3.0 42.7 1.0 
I his shows three tons of silage to be equal to 
one ton of mixed hay in digestible protein; 3.(5 tons 
equal to one ton in digestible carbohydrates, while in 
fat l.G tons equals one ton of hay. 
Considering its effect upon the ease of digestion 
of dry foods, its excess of fat, and its slightly nar¬ 
rowing the ration from a mixed hay ration, it is 
safe to assume three tons of silage fully equal to 
one ton of the hay, in actual feeding value. Then, 
if three tons of mixed hay, with soiling crops and 
pastures, will carry one cow a year, one acre in 
corn has a per year capacity of four and one-third 
cows. Two tons of mixed hay with small grain 
rations will winter a full grown steer. We can, 
therefore, winter six and one-half steers on our 
acre of corn silage. Concluding, we have the value 
of 13 tons of mixed hay, or the equivalent of nine 
acres, according to the last ten-year average hay 
productions in the United States. The accompanying 
picture, Fig. 491, shows the leaf growth and the many 
branches of the hill, which stood S'/ 2 feet high. 
_ B. W ALKER m’KEEN. 
A WOMAN AS GAME WARDEN. 
Mrs. B. R. Buffham, of New Mexico, secured an 
appointment as deputy game warden. So far as we 
know, Mrs. Buffham is the only woman in America 
occupying such a position. If there are others, our 
readers will surely know of them. Mrs. Buffham 
is working to stop the destruction of song birds— 
thus far with great success. She is after the “sports¬ 
men” who", even in the mountains of New Mexico, 
kill or maim all sorts of game. As she says: “I am 
going to stop the cruel wounding of deer by long 
range, small bore rifles, such as 30-40, 30-30. Many 
A DEPUTY GAME WARDEN. Fig. 402. 
cattle are found wounded and suffering its cruel work 
so badly New Mexico prohibits their use, so many 
ranchers petitioned the Governor.” We wish Mrs. 
Buffham well in her work. We advise her to get after 
these “sports” as she is represented in her picture, 
which we show at Fig. 492. The average “sport,” as 
we have seen him, would drop his weapon and run 
faster than the deer he tries to kill from a determined 
looking woman with a gun. 
FRUITS FOR CLEARFIELD COUNTY, PA. 
Will you advise what kind ol’ apples, pears, poaches, 
plums, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries could be 
most profitably grown here? I would like to have of all 
those mentioned, early, medium and late varieties, some¬ 
thing for home use. We have just bought this farm, 
and what trees are on it are old, high-headed, mostly 
wild fruit so high that I do not think they could be top- 
worked. s. D. TT. 
Clearfield Co., Pa. 
S. I). H. does not say what kind of soil he has to 
plant his trees and berry plants in ; so it is not easy 
to tell him what will do best for him. The very best 
source of information on the subject would be from 
the growers right around‘him, or from the State ex¬ 
periment station or horticultural society. What va¬ 
riety to plant depends so much upon locality and soil 
that only experience with varieties in a certain loca¬ 
tion can satisfactorily advise what to plant. Flon. 
Win. T. Creasy, in an address on apple growing before 
the Pennsylvania State Horticultural Society in 1907, 
said if he was planting an orchard of 500 apple trees 
he would put in 499 Baldwins and one Northern Spy, 
which he would top-graft with a Baldwin. To that 
Dr. Gump replied that he was advised 25 years before 
to plant an orchard of 500 trees with Baldwin, and 
did so, but if his 500 Baldwin trees had been York 
Imperial he would have been $10,000 better off. Dr. 
Gump, located in Bedford Co., in the southern part of 
the State, was not in Baldwin territory, while Mr. 
Creasy, being farther up on the eastern part of the 
State, found Baldwin the best variety. S. D. H., liv¬ 
ing in Clearfield Co., which is about in the central part 
of the State, and almost directly west of Columbia 
Co., should be in a locality where Baldwin might suc¬ 
ceed. 1 he above illustrates the whole question as to 
what varieties to plant and at the same time decides 
the question about planting Baldwin—one of the best 
and most popular varieties of apple where it succeeds, 
and this applies as well to the R. I. Greening as to 
the Baldwin. 
One of the very earliest varieties of apple is the 
Yellow Transparent; it blights some, but is a good' 
family apple. Duchess of Oldenburg, Red Astrachan, 
Golden Sweet, Williams’ Early Red, and Jeffcris—the 
last two varieties should be top-grafted on some 
strong-growing stock. Maiden’s Blush, Wealthy, Sum¬ 
mer Rambo, Alexander, Twenty Ounce, Fall Pippin, 
and Grimes Golden make a good list of Summer and 
Fall apples to choose from; Baldwin, Jonathan, Rome 
Beauty, Stayman, Roxbury Russet, Winesap, Banana 
and York Imperial for Winter. Plant Kieffer pear on 
light land; Clapp’s Favorite, Bartlett, Scckel, Sheldon, 
and Anjou. Japan plums, Red June, Abundance, and 
Chabot. European plums, Lombard, German Prune, 
and Imperial Gage. Peaches, Greensboro, Carman, 
Champion, Belle of Georgia, Stump, Elberta, Chairs 
Choice, Reeves Favorite, Fox Seedling. Red raspber¬ 
ries, Cuthbert, Welsh. Black raspberries, Cumberland, 
Kansas. Purple raspberries, Columbian or Shaffer. 
Blackberries, Ward and Eldorado. Strawberries, Suc¬ 
cess, Glen Mary, Win. Belt, Gandy, Chesapeake, and 
Waldorf. _ e. s. black. 
SHEEP IN VIRGINIA. 
We keep sheep in Virginia primarily for the money 
that we realize out of the business, experience having 
taught us that they are the most profitable live stock 
for the money invested that we have. Secondly, we 
keep them as a means to keep down waste. The 
farms in our section are not large, and hence we do 
not keep sheep in large numbers, but we run a small, 
good flock along with other stock necessary on the 
farm, and when our horses and cows have eaten down 
the grass we turn on the sheep, and they destroy lots 
of trash. They will eat the tender parts of almost 
anything, and arc especially fond of low briars and 
the seed balls on sand briars. They search for these 
balls as a horse does for apples, and keep them from 
seeding. But some people take up the idea they will 
live and thrive on trash alone. This is not true. 
Sheep should have good shelter and a liberal allow¬ 
ance «of grain during Winter. They should not be 
kept in tight stable, but in good sheds, open above. 
When it comes to breeds, it is a matter of choice. 
The Shropshire is the most popular, but my prefer¬ 
ence is the Hampshire. We breed our ewes early so as 
to have them lamb in February and March as much 
as we can, and sell the lambs at 60 pounds or over, 
which most of them weigh by June 1, and often they 
will weigh 75 or 80 pounds by this time. We there¬ 
fore want a breed that will lay on fat at an early 
age, so as to catch the best market price. I believe 
the Hampshires do this equal to any of the breeds, 
and as they are very large when matured, I get the 
extra pounds when disposing of them. Moreover, 
they are very hardy and gentle. I will say in addi¬ 
tion, if anyone should be inclined to launch out into 
A HAMPSHIRE RAM. Fig. 493. 
the business, he should consider his conditions and 
work out a plan to suit. If for early lambs, this means 
good sheds, good stock, good care and good feed, or 
the mortality will be large. If a man does not have 
and give these conditions, he would better not have 
the lamb crop arrive until open weather comes. The 
feed should be a large part nitrogenous for ewes. 
The grain for lambs may be mostly corn. 
Virginia. r. s. showalter. 
