ais 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 18, 
FOUNDATION FOR WOODEN SILO. 
S. I’., Colchester, Conn .—I wish to put 
up a wooden silo 14 by 32 feet, the founda¬ 
tion to be about 10 feet in the ground. The 
wall of' the barn is stone and at times is 
wet. For this reason I fear that if I should 
make the silo foundation of stone, it might 
also be found wet on the inside of the 
silo wall, which would admit air and would 
spoil the silage. Please advise me as to 
this matter. If I should put the staves of 
the silo on the foundation about one foot 
from the inside edge would the silage settle 
at this point so as to make good silage? 
Axs. —It is not quite clear from this 
statement whether the moisture which 
appears at times on the walls - of the 
basement of the barn is seepage water 
that comes through from the soil in wet 
periods, or whether it may be dampness 
that results from insufficient ventilation. 
If the trouble is seepage water it would 
be well to lay the wall up in cement 
mortar, or make it of concrete with 
large stone bedded in it. When plas¬ 
tered on the inside and the bottom of 
the silo cemented, as it should be, it 
would be essentially waterproof and 
air tight. There would be no danger of 
injury from the entering of air through 
the wall, the only question being whether 
there would be sufficient seepage water 
to collect and stand in the bottom of 
the silo, injuring the silage in this way. 
If desired, there is no serious objection 
to beveling the wall on the inside, back 
six or eight inches, allowing the upper 
portion of the silo to stand near the 
outer edge of the wall. Many silos are 
constructed in this way with no danger 
of injury from lack of settling. Many 
prefer to make the level on the outside 
of the wall and, wherever this is of con¬ 
crete, there is no danger of injury to 
the wall from the penetration of mois¬ 
ture and freezing, as there might be with 
an ordinary lime-mortar wall. If the 
silo wall is laid up in lime mortar it 
must of course be finished on the in¬ 
side with a heavy coat of rich cement, to 
make it air-tight. If there is trouble 
from seepage water the danger is that 
the mortar might be crowded off by the 
water pressure. F. h. icing. 
WAIT FOR THE HENS- 
Our hens' combs are ashy in color and 
their legs .somewhat bloodless as to looks, 
and they do not lay except an occasional 
egg. Seem to eat all right. We give them 
dry mash, whole corn, oats and wheat, mak¬ 
ing them scratch for their grain, besides 
grit and oyster shells; cabbage or apples for 
green stuff; water fresh two or three times 
■a day, warmed in the cold weather; meat 
scraps. Our hens’ legs were clean, but we 
• had some-liens sent us that were put with 
•ours; those sent had scaly legs so that our 
own are getting a trifle scaly, though wo 
are lighting it with kerosene and liusei d 
oil mixture on legs and kerosene on roosts. 
We are feeding same as when hens laid 
well. j. e. p. 
So. Framingham, Mass. 
Probably these hens laid in the Fall 
and did not molt until late. The “ashy 
hue” of the comb is quite common in 
old lieus during the molting season, and 
for quite a period after. It takes about 
three months on an average for hens to 
molt and get the new set of feathers, 
and during this time the fowls act 
dumpy, sit around in corners, and act 
spiritless and dejected. Where the 
molting.takes place in cold weather, the 
liens must be decidedly uncomfortable, 
and that alone is fatal to good laying. 
The laying hen must, in addition to 
being well fed, be contented, happy, 
pleased with her surroundings, and com¬ 
fortable. J. E. P. does not state what 
breed of liens he has, or whether they 
are young or old, or what amount of 
the different kinds of grain are fed. So 
it is impossible to tell whether they are 
underfed or not. But I think it safe to 
assume that the man who takes the 
trouble to warm the water for his liens 
to drink will give them plenty of food 
to eat. Probably in a month or six 
weeks most of them will be laying 
again. It is no unusual thing for hens 
to stop laying at the beginning of Win¬ 
ter, especially if they are late in molt¬ 
ing, and not lay again until Spring. 
That is the reason eggs are so scarce 
and high priced in Winter. Poultrymen 
have long ago found out that the only 
way to get eggs in Winter is to hatch 
pullets early enough so that they will 
begin laying in October or November, 
and then by proper feeding and housing 
to keep them at it. I have 30 R. I. Reds 
that last Winter when pullets gave me 
16 to 20 eggs a day; this Winter, as 
year-old liens, they have not laid over 
six eggs any day. But I am not dis¬ 
turbed ; after their Winter rest I shall 
expect stronger eggs for setting in the 
Spring than if they had laid well all 
Winter. Many of my White Wyandotte 
hens “have combs ashy in hue,” and are 
not expected to lay until Spring, and 
the same thing applies to them. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
SKUNK FARMS ILLEGAL. 
On page 1203, December 31, in an¬ 
swer to R. W. K., you state that there 
is no general law on keeping skunks! 
I enclose clipping from the “Argus,” 
Albany, of December 29, showing that 
it is unlawful to keep skunks in New 
York State between March 31 and No¬ 
vember 1. 
Agents of the State Forest, Fish and 
(lame Department, it was announced yes¬ 
terday, have just nipped in the hud a 
thriving industry in skunk furs which was 
undertaken, by an enterprising farmer’s 
family at Canaan, Columbia County. Re¬ 
ports came to the State Department re¬ 
cently from Cyro E. Cadalso, a special 
game protector, that he had discovered a 
violation of the game laws in the pos¬ 
session of skunks in the close season by a 
family of farmers in Columbia County. The 
matter was turned over to Game I’rotec- 
tor James A. Colloton, of Albany, who 
went over to Canaan to the farm pointed 
out by Cadalso and found there .Tesse 
Goodrich with a pen filled with 2i> skunks. 
Goodrich admitted to- Colloton that he and 
his son had been gathering the skunks and 
fattening them up in order to kill them 
later for their skins. The open season for 
skunks is only from November 1 to March 
15, and Colloton's visit to Goodrich was 
made about the mitldle of October. Skunk 
skins of considerable value were found, 
and it was determined that Goodrich must 
be shown that he could not arbitrarily 
violate the law. Goodrich was brought to 
Albany and then offered to make a settle¬ 
ment to avoid prosecution. Chief Protector 
Leggo agreed to compromise the case and 
Goodrich paid the State a line of 8100 and 
agreed to keep out of the skunk industry 
hereafter in the closed season. 
Gansevoort, N. Y. \v. A. o. 
Under such a decision the business 
of skunk farming in New York will be 
worse off than ever. In order to obtain 
the exact facts we wrote the Forest, 
Fish and Game Commission and re¬ 
ceived the following reply: 
Mr. Goodrich, of Columbia County, paid 
8100 for possessing skunks during the 
close season. Section 84 provides that the 
open season on skunks is from November 1 
to March 15, both inclusive, and that they 
shall not be possessed or killed at any other 
time. It was proven that Mr. Goodrich 
possessed skunks during the close season; 
therefore ho made a settlement with the 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission as 
stat< d above. The department is in receipt 
of a great many requests from people ask¬ 
ing permission allowing them to start a 
skunk farm, but you can readily see that 
Section 84 prohibits the possession of 
skunks during a certain period of the 
year, and it is not within the jurisdiction 
of the Forst, Fish and Game .Department 
to grant permission for the possession of 
skunks during that period. 
LLEWELLYN LEOG$. 
Chief Game Protector. 
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