1912. 
847 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
POINTS ON FILLING SILOS. 
I have long been a believer in the value of the silo, 
and have two on my place. I think there is no safer 
investment than a good lot of green corn stored in 
AN AUTO TRUCK FOR A FARMER. 
For several years I have been considering the idea 
of getting an auto truck to go to market, as I have to 
go 16 miles. When I was hauling potatoes to market 
the silo. It is not so likely to burn as is hay, and it took me about eight hours going and coming with 
will keep for years without deteriorating. In fact the my three horses in the large top spring wagon. Last 
older it becomes the better it is for feeding purposes, Summer when I saw so many auto trucks in the city 
for it undergoes a ripening process. The time for I thought surely that's the thing for me, and finally, 
filling the silo is here, and I wish to give a few after deep consideration, I purchased a ton truck of 
words of caution. One is not to fill the silo with corn the high-wheeled kind. I have used it now for 
that is too green. There is sometimes a great temp- several months, and I am delighted with it. It gives 
tation to do this, as the work on the farm may run satisfaction beyond my expectations. So far I have 
in such a way that it would make filling more con- used it quite freely for conveying people to distant 
venient at one time than another. Sometimes one 
feels that he cannot take advantage of changes in 
the weather to do work that would naturally be done 
at another time. But one should by all means wait 
till the corn is at its best for cutting for silage. The 
best time is when the corn kernels are out of the 
milk stage and are glazed and are quite hard. This 
is my practice, though I find that some farmers put 
their corn in when the kernels are just a little out of 
the milk. I like the corn at that stage of ripeness at 
which it will keep out the air. That is the difficult 
thing about it when it is a little too ripe at cutting 
time. It does not pack close and the air gets in and 
that produces mold. The corn should be cut when 
the lower leaves are still green, but are beginning to 
show the effects of the Summer’s heat. If I have corn 
that is a little too ripe, and some that is not so much 
so, I put in the ripest first, so that it will come at the 
bottom of the silo. The result is that the enormous 
pressure above it keeps it packed tight and keeps out 
the air while if it were on top much air would work 
into it for some feet in the middle and for a long 
distance down the sides. In the filling of the silo a 
man can easily lose quite a lot of money. He should 
plan his work so that the men who are running the 
silage cutter will not be standing idle but will be 
able to keep things moving. This will have to be 
regulated according to the distance the cornfield is 
from the silo, for there will be more lost time if the 
cornfield is half a mile from the silo than if it is 
close by. If the hauling is a slow job then it is bet¬ 
ter to put the binder in early and let the hauling get 
a good start of the silage cutter. 
There are many things about the filling of a silo 
that must be learned by experience. One of these is 
to set the blower as nearly perpendicular as possible, 
so that the wind will come from below and push the 
silage up. If the blower is allowed to slant the silage 
will settle on the lower side and the wind will blow 
over it without disturbing it. In order to have the 
silo properly filled the silage must settle evenly. 
The leaves must not be in one place and the coarser 
parts of the stalks in another. It must be thoroughly 
mixed, and nothing will do this mixing so well as a 
man. The silage must 
also be tamped thor¬ 
oughly next the sides of 
the silo, as that is where 
it is likely to lie so light 
that it will permit the 
air to enter. The top of 
the silage should b e 
composed of corn that is 
as green as possible, as 
this will decay and seal 
the whole, thus keeping 
out the air. Too dry 
silage can be helped 
somewhat by running 
water into the top after 
the silo is filled, and 
tamping the silage hard. 
The idea is to get a 
hard wet surface that 
will decay and keep the 
rest of the silage from 
decaying. In localities 
where there are many 
silos they can be filled 
cheaper than where 
there are few. The iso¬ 
lated farmer who has a 
silo has to have more money invested in silage ma¬ 
chinery of various kinds than does the farmer in a 
community where silos are numerous. In such a 
community the planting of the seed for silage corn 
can be so timed that the silage crop of one farmer 
will be suitable for the silo at a time a little later or 
earlier than that of another farmer. This makes it 
possible to use the same machinery on more than one 
farm thus saving considerable expense. Therefore 
preach the building of silos as profitable farm prac¬ 
tice. WILLIAM HARDY. 
Illinois. __ 
CUTTING SUGAR CANE. Fig. 398. 
places. The seating capacity is 12 persons, but have 
had 13 large passengers on it for a 40-mile drive. 
I make an average speed of about 10 miles an hour, 
and so far everybody who was on it enjoyed it very 
much. For a trip of 20 miles distant—40 miles both 
ways—I usually get $1 to $1.25 per head. I had $3 
per head (11 passengers) for the longest trip, which 
was to York, Pa., about 60 miles distant. This trip 
I made in six hours or a little over in going. Next 
Saturday I shall take a party over the mountains to 
the coal regions—about 20 miles distant. It is a 
great pleasure to me, my family and all who go along 
are solid rubber. The box is six feet long behind the 
seat and 44 inches wide with six-inch flare boards 
on top. I purchased the truck without a top and got 
the top made at home for $25. I usually have from 
seven to nine horses, but now I can do with two less 
as none are needed on the road. I have to go about 
twice a week to market from now on till late in the 
Fall. I can easily make two trips a day when I sell 
wholesale. Next year I expect a large peach crop, 
and the machine is indispensable. c. R. bashore. 
Bucks Co., Pa. 
CORN HARVESTING WITH MODERN MACHINERY. Fig. 399. 
The duckling cannot stand concentrated food, 
have roughage. 
to stroll through the country, see what other people 
are doing, and the scenery, get back again the same 
day and have no tired horses. On Sunday morning 
we can sleep an hour longer than we could when 
we had to get horses ready to hitch up to go to 
church. After the services we are home half an hour 
sooner than with horses. The expenses of running 
are not large, gasoline being the greatest factor. It 
takes me about 10 gallons for 50 miles when I have 
a load. It is an air-cooled engine, which I prefer to 
a water cooled engine. You save a lot of bother with 
water, especially in Winter. The transmission is of 
It must the planetary type. I have two speeds forward and 
one reversed. The tires are puncture-proof, as they 
KILLING SPROUTS FROM STUMPS. 
A correspondent from Maine writes to know of the 
best method of clearing off brush which has sprouted 
from stumps, and to prevent the spread of roots of 
such trees as willow into tile drains, etc. A number 
of methods of killing sprouts upon stumps have 
been suggested from time to time, and some of these 
methods have proven effective because fully carried 
out, where others have given very poor results. 
Sprouts. come from the cambium layer, which is a 
very delicate tissue of living cells just between the 
inner bark and the wood. When the tree is cut, 
these living cells seek to reproduce the tree, and 
form sprouts which are often rather difficult to get 
rid of. The killing of the cambium layer is necessary 
before sprouting from the stump will be prevented. 
With many species of trees, the killing of the 
cambium on the stump will simply force shoots to 
come from the roots. The only really effective way, 
therefore, is to destroy the stump by burning or by 
the use of dynamite, and then the dragging out of 
the surface roots by the use of a cable attached to 
the drum of a portable engine, or with chain and a 
slow, reliable team of oxen or horses. 
Numerous salts have been recommended, and in 
the case of single stumps in lawns or in fields these 
methods are often satisfactory. A layer of plain salt 
over the sap wood covering the cambium and inner 
bark will often be effective in preventing sprouts 
from the cut surface of the stump. Such salts as 
saltpetre have been used, but general results seem to 
indicate that common salt is just as effective as salt¬ 
petre. Very satisfactory results have been secured 
from the use of carbon bisulphide, which can be 
purchased in any drug store in the form of a liquid 
which becomes a gas as soon as exposed to the air. 
The gas is very heavy and very deadly to both animal 
and plant life, and as it is also very explosive, great 
care must be taken in its use, and a lighted cigar or 
pipe may cause the man to be removed in place of 
the stump. Experiments have been tried in killing 
sassafras stumps, which are very troublesome both 
as to stump sprouts and root shoots. Mattocks were 
used to lay back the sod and earth for from six to 
12 inches from the 
larger roots. This was 
done merely to loosen 
the old surface layer of 
dirt so that the gas 
could penetrate along 
the roots. A small por¬ 
tion of the liquid carbon 
bisulphide was then 
poured directiy on the 
root, the amount de¬ 
pending upon the size of 
stump and root, but 
varying from one-eighth 
to one-half pint. The 
sod is then laid back 
over the exposed portion 
and the heavy gas will 
work its way down along 
the root, killing root 
hairs and the root itself 
by suffocation. 
As stated above, for 
the general removing of 
stumps and the prevent¬ 
ing of sprouts, especially 
where land is to be 
cleared for agricultural 
purposes, dynamite, though dangerous, is effective, and 
there are several stump pullers which are more or less 
effective. Several of the State Experiment Stations 
have put out bulletins on the use of dynamite in the 
clearing of land and I suggest that those interested 
write to the Director of the State Agricultural Sta¬ 
tion, Ames, Iowa, for their bulletin upon this subject. 
It is very difficult to kill and remove roots of willow, 
cottonwood and other trees from tile drains without 
digging up and cleaning out the drain. If the stump 
and roots are killed, as suggested above, of course 
the rootlets in the drain will be destroyed but will 
remain there, and in dead form may be almost as ob¬ 
structive as in live form. HUGH P. baker. 
New York State College of Forestry. 
