164 
THR RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
MARKETING SILAGE. 
A question is asked as to the possibility of market¬ 
ing silage. The proposition is to build large silos and 
sell silage to dairymen and feeders as other fodders 
are sold. I have never heard of silage being handled 
in that way. The only sales of silage that I have ever 
known have been where farms have changed hands, 
the purchaser buying the silage in the silo to feed upon 
the farm. In such cases it has brought from $2.50 to 
$3 per estimated ton. There is at present no market 
here for silage to be moved from one farm to another, 
and I doubt very much if it will ever be a marketable 
commodity in the sense that dry feeds are marketable 
products. Silage is a very perishable product. It 
must be taken fresh from the silo each day. In this 
respect it would be like brewers’ grains. This is a 
product extensively used, dairymen and cattle feeders 
buying the wet mash and feeding it fresh each day. 
But brewers’, grains is a much more valuable product 
than corn silage, and would better justify the expense 
and inconvenience of daily delivery. A study of the 
following table of the digestable composition and pro¬ 
duction value of a few of the common rough feeds, in¬ 
cluding wet brewers’ grains, will show that silage 
must have a low' valuation in the silo to justify daily 
delivery: 
Production values per 100 pounds of substance: 
Dry matter 
IToteid 
Carbo¬ 
hydrates 
Fat 
pounds 
pounds 
pounds 
pounds 
Torn silage 
. 25.(50 
1.21 
14.56 
0.88 
Wet brewers’ 
grains. 24.30 
3.81 
9.37 
1.38 
Clover bay.. 
. 84.70 
5.41 
38.15 
1.81 
Timothy hay 
. 86.8(5 
2.05 
48.72 
1.43 
Corn stover 
. 59.50 
1.80 
33.16 
6.57 
When the dairyman buys feed the thing he should 
look to most of all is the digestible protein content. 
The other elements are always in abundance in the 
farm-grown feeds and are cheap. One seldom needs 
to buy them, but often does need to buy the element 
protein to balance the home-grown feeds. A study of 
A BREEDING HOUSE ON POSTS. Fig. 43. 
the table with this thought in mind will show that wet 
brewers’ grains is worth more than three times as 
much per ton as silage. Clover hay is 4 l / 2 times as 
valuable, Timothy nearly twice as valuable and corn 
stover \y 2 times as valuable. Of course there is the 
succulence and palatability of silage—very valuable 
qualities—to offset the expense and inconvenience of 
daily delivery, and there may be situations where the 
proposition could be successfully carried out, but I 
should not want to make the experiment. 
Ohio. F. L. ALLEN. 
WHO GUARANTEES THE GROWER? 
Commenting on the article on page 1211, The R. 
N.-Y. says, “What have the nurserymen to say to the 
proposition to pay double for guaranteed trees?” For 
years we have, in some instances, sold trees at a slight 
advance over the market price entirely on our reputa¬ 
tion, and we would be willing to guarantee the trees 
we grow as to varieties being true at double prices if 
some system could be devised which would insure us 
against fraud after they leave our hands. It must be 
admitted that there are dishonest fruit growers who 
would take advantage of any opportunity to trick the 
nurseryman into paying for trees which he didn’t 
grow, as well as there are dishonest nurserymen. For 
instance, they might buy trees from another firm the 
same year and in the event of their proving untrue to 
name, represent them as our guaranteed trees. In the 
Spring of 1910 we sold some 200 trees to a customer 
which were used for replacing dead trees in three dif¬ 
ferent orchards, and the same Spring he bought from 
another firm another lot which were also used for re¬ 
placing dead trees in these same orchards. Now, how 
is he going to prove to our satisfaction which are our 
trees and wihch the other firm’s? 
It should also be necessary to have some amount 
agreed upon to be paid in the event of the trees not 
proving true to lavel. How is this sum to be deter¬ 
mined? In other words, what is a man’s loss if he 
buys Elberta peach trees and in four years he finds 
half of them are Early Crawfords, or if he buys early 
Crawford and they turn out to be a little fuzzy Cling¬ 
stone? We would like to hear from The R. N.-Y. or 
THE ICE CROP REMOVES NO PLANT FOOD. Fig. 44. 
any of its many readers in regard to any practical sys¬ 
tem that would protect the nurseryman. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. Gregory nursery co. 
R. N.-Y.—That’s a good question. We are frank to 
admit that there are two sides to this question. We 
think it doubtful, however, if men who would pay 
double price would be likely to prove dishonest in 
planting. On a large order the nurseryman could 
afford to have some representative go and see the trees 
planted. He could also use a seal with a wire around 
the tree large enough to contain the growth for five 
or six years at least. 
PECAN GROWING ON LIGHT LAND. 
On page 36 Prof. Van Deman makes a positive state¬ 
ment as to worthlessness of the sandy piny woods 
regions of the South for pecan culture. I must say 
that he is biased; he has but one idea on this subject, 
and that is alluvial soil. At Fig. 47 is a picture of 
my oldest young trees (my oldest trees are 30 years 
old). I have a grove of 15 acres, planted in 1904, with 
one-year-old grafts on three-year-old roots, that have 
not cost one cent since planted, the crops, mainly cow 
peas and Velvet beans, made into hay, have paid more 
than expenses, and left the trees in such a shape that 
at Mr. S. H. James’ visit here last Sum..:er he told me 
frankly that he had but few trees of that age to com- 
pare with mine. Two miles from here a civil engineer 
just from Government work at Chicago bought a place 
eight years ago and planted most to pecan trees. 
Knowing nothing about field or orchard work and 
having no income, he and his wife have to-day as cosy 
a home as anyone could wish for, and his pecan trees, 
15-20 acres, are as fine as anyone’s around here. If 
you are willing to work, this poor piny woods section 
of the South is superior to the alluvial soils for pecan 
growing, if you judge by results. I have been engaged 
in this business for 30 years, experimenting and travel¬ 
ing through most of the cotton and sugar belt for my 
own information, and would not change this poor soil 
for the richest soil in Louisiana or Mississippi for 
pecan growing. chas. e. pabst. 
Mississippi. 
Remarks by Van Deman. 
I have never said that pecan growing cannot be 
made a success in the piny woods regions of the 
A CEMENT INCUBATOR CELLAR. Fig. 45. 
South, but I have said and say now that it cannot be 
done without a large outlay for fertilizers. I have 
traveled all over the South, that is, in many parts of 
every Southern State, and I have seen pecan trees 
growing in all of them and under all conditions, from 
absolute neglect to those with the best of care. That 
February 10, 
there are good, paying pecan orchards on the poor, 
sandy soils is true, but they have all cost a lot of out¬ 
lay for fertilizers. I have seen the orchard of Mr. 
Pabst and many others about Ocean Springs and else¬ 
where along the Gulf coast that were in good, thrifty 
condition, as was the case with his trees when I saw 
them last, and I have no doubt that they look better 
now, for they are older. But I am sure that every 
tree has had fertilizers applied to it, and our good 
friend Pabst will surely say so. The growing of cow 
peas and other manurial crops has been a great benefit 
to them, of course, but I venture to say these alone 
did not make the trees grow luxuriantly, as all pecan 
trees should do to be profitable. That the hay from 
the forage crops have paid the expenses is very good 
and there is little or no doubt that the nuts will far 
more than pay the expenses from now on. I think 
that in the sandy regions, where it is a matter of 
necessity to apply fertilizers to the soil to grow pecans 
or any other crop, that the trees will begin to bear 
earlier than in the alluvial lands, where we do not 
manure the soil. Our tree roots go deeper and the 
trees do not start off so quickly as in the regions 
where the roots are nearer the surface and take up the 
fertility at once that is given them. But our trees do 
not require that expense and they have staying quali¬ 
ties. We have native pecan trees in our forests and 
fields that are centuries old and more than 100 feet 
high and as broad in spread of branches. One tree 
that I know has borne, so a reliable man told me, 14 
barrels of shelled pecans in one year, and it has never 
been manured but stands beside a public road and is 
yet in fair condition, except for the damage done it 
by a heavy growth of mistletoe. 
I have never said or believed that the piny woods 
land is “worthless” for pecan growing, but that it is 
not naturally adapted to it is true, for the soil must 
be fertilized before they will flourish in it. This is 
A RAT-PROOF FEED HOUSE. Fig 46. 
not necessary in the alluvial lands, as thousands of 
flourishing pecan trees bear mute evidence all over the 
Mississippi Delta and many of the upper valleys. I 
am glad to see the other sections succeeding with the 
pecan, but I am glad that fertilizer bills are not a 
necessity in the alluvial lands, where my trees are 
planted. h. e. van deman. 
WHITEWASHING WITH CACTUS. 
The latest Burbank discovery reported by the daily 
press is that the spineless cactus will revolutionize^ 
the paint and whitewash business. This information 
was given out to a gathering of California horticul¬ 
turists. 
“One leaf,” said Mr. Burbank, “will make 10 gallons of 
paint. The mucilage of the cactus leaf will not dissolve 
in water, but It will dissolve in alcohol. This mucilage 
will readily take oil colors and Is easily handled. I am 
not as far advanced In my experiments with the cactus 
leaf as a paint product as I am with Its possible use 
as a whitewash, but nevertheless I am sure of its prac- 
tlcal value.” 
This discovery really seems providential on the part 
of Mr, Burbank, as he can now use his cactus white¬ 
wash to renovate the reputation of the Wonderberry. 
John Lewis Childs probably used the paint when he 
introduced that plant. However, we are told that this 
use for cactus juice is not confined to the wizard’s 
spineless wonder, but that such paints and whitewash 
have long been used in Paraguay, Uruguay and 
Argentina. Mr. Burbank should give himself a rest. 
Magnesite is found in California—$74,658 worth were 
mined last year. There is no other deposit in this coun¬ 
try. It is used largely for fireproof materials and covering 
steam pipes. The crushed ore is used as grit on California 
chicken ranches, while the cement was used to cover a 
large building in San Francisco. Opening the Panama 
Canal will boom California trade in magnesite as the 
Eastern States import large quantities from Europe. 
