1390 
SOY BEANS AND SILAGE CORN. 
TIE growing of Soy beans with silage corn is 
one of the happy combinations whereby a 
leguminous and a non-ieguminous crop may be 
grown together with considerable advantage to the 
dairyman. It is rapidly becoming a very common 
practice to grow these two crops together. Owing to 
a considerable amount of impractical or prejudiced 
advice or lack of experience on the part of some men 
who have made a half-hearted attempt to grow this 
crop, much misinformation has been spread abroad. 
There are three ways that these two crops may be 
planted, cared for, and worked into the silo together 
each of which may be satisfactory. 
1. The crop of Soy beans may be planted separate¬ 
ly from the corn and cultivated as commonly prac¬ 
ticed with ordinary field beans. At the time of fill¬ 
ing silo the corn and Soy beans may be cut into the 
silo alternately using one load of beans to three of 
corn, or 
2. The corn and Soy beans may be planted in al¬ 
ternate rows of two rows of corn to one of beans. 
This method might mean extra labor at the time of 
planting though it would not be any extra labor to 
harvest the crop. 
3. The better way and perhaps the most commonly 
practiced is to mix the Soy beans and seed corn to¬ 
gether, using the regular amount of corn and supple¬ 
ment this with three to four quarts of Soy beans per 
acre. In this method the planting is done at one op¬ 
eration. The two crops are cared for as one, and at 
harvest time the mixture is harvested with a corn 
binder and the corn and Soy beans cut together into 
the silo with no extra labor involved. 
The presence of the Soy beans in the silage natur¬ 
ally tends to increase tlie amount of protein in the 
silage, an important point for the dairyman to con¬ 
sider. The two crops grow together to no disadvan¬ 
tage. What few plants the binder would fail to pick 
up would be greedily eaten by tlie cattle pasturing 
on the stubble. At planting time it has been noticed 
that when planting the mixture the Soy beans being 
somewhat smaller than the corn, tend to run out of 
the hopper more freely than the corn. Thus at the 
end of the bout the proportion of corn to Soy bean 
seed might be varied unless a few extra beans were 
carried to throw into the hopper. For the Northern 
States doubtless the variety known as the Medium 
Early Green, having a green seed, is best suited and 
most commonly grown. If planted early tlie Early 
Green variety will mature seed in northern New 
York before killing frosts. 
Dairymen should not hesitate to try growing Soy 
beans with their silage corn. The beans will grow 
well anywhere that corn will grow well. The mix¬ 
ture is a good one and no one should get discouraged 
or draw conclusions from the experience of one year. 
Soy beans enrich the soil and tlie silage. 
F. E. ROBERTSON. 
It. N.-Y.—We have many reports from farmers 
who say the Soy beans are good, but not for the silo. 
These men fill the silo with corn and dry the Soy 
beans for hay. 
GUARANTEEING EGGS FOR HATCHING. 
AST year there were many complaints from pur¬ 
chasers of eggs for incubation. The per cent of 
fertile eggs was often low, and some of the breed¬ 
ers who sold the eggs felt sure that their stock was 
vigorous and that the eggs were right. Is thpre any 
way of marking such eggs so they can be returned and 
identified if not right, and should the ’ reeder guarantee 
a fair per cent, of fertility? 
Undoubtedly your inquiry is due to tbe poor 
hatches which were so general during the early part 
of our last hatching season. This condition was 
caused by the severity of the preceding Winter, 
probably'. It is very difficult to obtain good hatches 
during the late Winter and early' Spring months, es¬ 
pecially if the eggs are shipped quite a distance and 
are exposed to extremes in temperature. There is 
bound to be much dissatisfaction over results obtain¬ 
ed from early hatches. The producer cannot prevent 
this. Nevertheless, if he cares to guarantee bis eggs, 
it is quite imperative that he mark them in some 
way' so that there will be no question as to their 
identity. The simplest method for small producers 
is to write their name in pencil on the shell of the 
egg. Where eggs are shipped in large quantities, 
and the time required to mark the eggs becomes an 
important factor, then a rubber stamp with slightly 
concave surface, and bearing his name or trademark 
can be used to mark the eggs quickly after they are 
placed in their carrier. I refer to a stamp such as 
commonly used in marking eggs for a special market 
trade. If it is sufficient merely to insure tbe delivery 
of the eggs, then sealed packages can be used, or a 
common egg case can be sealed with a ribbon of 
gummed paper which bears some private mark, to 
prevent duplication. 
TL'I-ilS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Under some conditions, especially if tbe eggs are 
hatched by hens, the ink ordinarily used for stamp¬ 
ing will rub off. This is not the case with pencil 
marks. Frequently breeders trap-nest their hens, 
and write tbe number of the ben’s leg-band on the 
egg, together with the pen number. This is the 
method practiced at Cornell, and it serves to identify 
the egg whether it be marketed or incubated. 
In my opinion the best way to protect the buyer 
against low fertility and hatching power in eggs, is 
to advise him to purchase during the natural and 
normal hatching season (April and May) when eggs 
are running high in fertility and strong in genii, 
rather than to follow the present practice and fad of 
hatching in tbe abnormal season of February and 
March. During these months it is very difficult to 
get satisfactory hatches, except in our warmer 
States, and at this time a breeder is very foolish to 
guarantee good results, and the purchaser is 
equally foolish to expect them. At the present 
time the big demand for eggs comes very early in 
the season, and naturally the breeder endeavors to 
supply that demand. Conditions are liable to re¬ 
main as they are until we are able to change the de¬ 
mand for eggs to the normal hatching season. 
C. A. ROGERS. 
BE FAIR IN PARCEL POST PRICES. 
HAVE been interested in tbe parcel post since the 
beginning of the agitation in its favor, and I 
had hoped that the passage of the bill would be 
a positive and material benefit to both the consumer 
and the farmer, but I find that in practice this result 
has not been accomplished, at least, in this part of 
the country. After tbe passage of the act, I had 
some correspondence with farmers not very remote 
from the city where I live, and in every instance I 
found that the attitude of the farmer and his theory 
of the benefits of the parcel post system were direct¬ 
ly opposed to that of the consumer. For instance, 
tbe consumer said: “ Now that thr parcel pout act is 
in effect, we can get from the farmer our fruits , veg¬ 
etables, dressed fowls, eggs, etc., with the middle¬ 
man's profit eliminated, the onlg expense being the 
postage, which the farmer ought to be willing to 
pay." 
Endeavoring to apply this theory personally I 
found to my surprise the farmer’s theory was as 
follows: “ Now that the parcel post act is in effect, 
we, the farmers, may reap for ourselves the profit 
which the middleman has heretofore enjoyed. The 
consumer ought to be willing to pay us as much as 
he has been paying the middleman right along." 
In the neighboring city of Providence there are 
many wholesale fruit and vegetable dealers. In ob¬ 
taining prices for quite a variety of ordinary fruits 
and vegetables from fanners within 25 miles of 
where I live, I found in almost every instance I 
could purchase the same articles at a lower price 
from the wholesale dealer and commission house 
than I could from the* farmer. Add to this the fact 
that the consumer has no selection of the articles 
shipped, that being done by the farmer himself, and 
you can readily see chat the parcel post is at least 
a partial failure so far as the elimination of the 
middleman is concerned. Until some modification or 
compromise of these conflicting theories of the far¬ 
mer and the consumer takes place, I see very little 
to be gained by either one through the introduction 
of the parcel post. j. n. jenks. 
Rhode Island. 
R. N.-Y.—We have heard the same arguments 
from consumers and from farmers. Roth are wrong. 
There is no reason why a consumer should expect 
a farmer to sell at retail and charge no more than 
the wholesalers pay him. Nor can anyone give a 
reason why the consumer should pay the farmer what 
he now pays to the middleman. As he now buys the 
consumer can make some? selection and can hold the 
dealer personally responsible. He cannot do this 
with a distant farmer. There must be a.fair com¬ 
promise between the two. We have found that 75 
per cent, of what the retailers charge gives us at 
least 30 per cent, more for our goods than we could 
obtain at wholesale. We have no sympathy with any 
disposition to “hold up” the consumer to high retail 
prices. There must be a fair compromise, or there 
can be no fair argument for using parcel post. These 
things will come in time. We cannot expect perfec¬ 
tion at once. 
ARE THE TREES WORTH WHILE? 
ERE is rather a new case—at least we have 
not had it presented in just this form before. 
One of our readers bought a farm largely be¬ 
cause it carried an orchard of about SO trees. They 
were good-sized trees of Winter varieties, and Ibis 
man, who knows little about farming, was told that 
November 28, 
tbe fruit from those trees wovrtd more than pay the 
interest on bis mortgage, and practically take care 
of tbe place for him. After buying the place with 
this idea in mind, he was told by neighbors that the 
orchard had been badly injured by careless spray¬ 
ing, putting on tbe spray solution so strong that it 
had scorched or destroyed the buds. In Spring these 
trees made but a poor, feeble appearance, the foliage 
yellow and scant. They made a puny growth, and 
gave little or no fruit. Now this man thinks he has 
been cheated on the same principle as if he had 
bought a horse which he supposed was sound, only to 
find him wind-broken or lame when he got him 
home. This man expected to pay for the farm, or, 
at least, to take care of the mortgage, out of the in¬ 
come from this orchard, and if the orchard is good 
for nothing, as be fears, he is prepared to give the 
farm up rather than lose any more money on it. He 
wants us to advise him what to do, and whether it 
is likely that these trees have been permanently in¬ 
jured, or whether it is possible for them to come 
back. It is easy to see that no one could give even a 
guess at the matter without a careful examination 
of tbe trees. If the trunks are in good condition, and 
the soil is reasonably suited to them, such trees can 
usually be revived by pruning, cultivation and spray¬ 
ing. It does not seem probable that the heavy spray¬ 
ing reported has ruined the trees, but the thing for 
this man to do is to get some expert to study those 
trees and give him a fair opinion. This is work for 
the County Adviser or the inspectors from the State 
Department of Agriculture, and either office would 
be willing to help. Our advice is to apply to the 
County Adviser, and also to the Commissioner of 
Agriculture, at Albany, and ask for expert advice. 
Agents will come on a request, look these trees over, 
and give a fair report. This is the kind of service 
which the Bureau or tlie Department ought to give, 
and our friend may be guided by their advice. 
A WOMAN AND A FARM. 
WOULD like to get your advice, as I am a woman 
alone with child 11 years old. I have very little 
money to work with, but want to live the outdoor 
life. Could you give me an idea where to buy and 
what to start with that would be apt to make a sure liv¬ 
ing? I am healthy and strong; can do any kind of 
work; am fond of animals and gardening. MRS. F. c. 
Long Island. 
Think for a moment what a responsibility a stran¬ 
ger takes in giving definite advice in a case of this 
kind. e know nothing about this woman, and have 
no means of telling definitely just how she would be 
likely to succeed on a farm. We do not know 
whether she has had any experience in farming or 
gardening, whether she has ever kept poultry or 
knows of the limitations of country living. No one 
should take the responsibility of giving direct ad¬ 
vice in a case of this kind without further knowl¬ 
edge. It would be a wicked thing to tell such a 
woman that she is sure to make a good living and 
more by taking her child out into the country and 
buying a piece of land. It would be no more than 
an even chance at best, that she could ever do this. 
Until we learn more about the exact situation or 
until we could personally investigate the case, our 
advice to such a woman would be to try to get a 
place in the country on some farm or garden, where 
she could work with her child, and learn something 
about the business, and also about country living. 
A strong, healthy woman, as she describes herself to 
be, ought to be able to get this kind of a position, for 
good help in the house is hard to obtain in tbe coun¬ 
try. We think it would be i>ossible for her to locate 
on some fruit or poultry farm, or with some strong 
gardener, help in the house through the Winter, 
and in the Spring work more or less out doors with 
the poultry or crops until she learns enough about 
the business to know whether she wanted to carry it 
on or not. In this way she would learn the practical 
side of the business and probably earn something 
too. This experience would be a good asset later on. 
Possibly such actual experience would show her that 
she did not want to follow country life. On the 
other hand, it might show her the possibilities of a 
small farm, and open the way for her to buy or rent 
one to advantage. Our general advice to those who 
want to run a farm is to go out first and work as 
laborers, unless they have already done so. and this 
advice is offered to all, from the clerk in the store to 
the graduate of an agricultural college. 
The Agricultural Department Forest Service says: 
“Ranee cattle need from eight to 10 gallons of water 
a day, and sheep from one-half to two gallons, unless 
there is heavy dew and an abundance of succulent feed. 
No matter how good the forage on a given area may 
l)o, animals must have all the water they need or they 
will not thrive.” This is true of all stock, including 
humans. Many a man “feels bad” because he does not 
drink enough pure water. 
