1915. 
i'ti 10 KUKAL NEW-YUKKKK 
289 
SILAGE CROPS FOR THE NORTH. 
Millet, Oats, Peas and Vetch. 
OULD you give me some information in regard 
to silage that is not corn? We are on the uplands, 
where corn is not a sure crop every year, especial¬ 
ly on the heavy clay soils. What crops could I use 
as a substitute? Would oats and peas with some buck¬ 
wheat do? Do you know whether this has ever been 
tried by anyone? c. w. u. 
Franklinville, N. Y. 
In reply to your Northern New York correspond¬ 
ent. C. W. H., who says he is located “on the up¬ 
lands at 2.000 feet elevation,’’ and who has had dif¬ 
ficulty in getting good crops of silage corn on ac¬ 
count of short seasons, I would suggest that he try 
cats and peas or millet and peas. Either of these 
crops can he successfully grown in the North, for 
silage. In general oats and Canada peas are to be 
preferred, but the season for silo filling is not the 
best, because the crop needs to be harvested, as a 
rule, just when the haying is rushing. As far north 
as C. W. II. is located, however, oats and peas will 
do well if sown rather late—from May 15 to 25. 
This ought to place the harvest as late as the last of 
July or early in August after the haying is com¬ 
pleted. Two bushels of a large growing oats with 
one bushel of the peas, has been found to give about 
the right proportion. Fifteen pounds of Hairy 
vetch might be substituted for the peas and the 
quality of silage would be fully as good as from 
peas and oats. The price of Hairy vetch is high 
this year, but even at present prices (about $8 per 
bushel) the mixture will be about the same expense 
as where one bushel of peas is used. 
The vetch or the peas can also be grown with 
Japanese millet, and this crop can be sown as bite 
us the first week in June. Not over eight quarts 
of the millet seed should be used, and as a rule it 
will be found that the millet will support the vetch 
better than it will the 
peas. Fifteen pounds 
per acre of vetch is as 
much as it is advisable 
to use in this case. 
If C. W. II. can feel 
safe against killing 
frosts until the first 
week in September, and 
can give the crop a nat¬ 
urally warm, loamy soil, 
he might be able to 
grow an early flint corn 
and Medium Green Soy 
beans. Many farmers 
in St. Lawrence Coun¬ 
ty have grown this com¬ 
bination with success. 
Even where the corn will not mature ears before 
frost, the beans improve the quality of silage so 
much that the lack of well-developed ears is not 
very serious. Care should be taken not to plant the 
corn and beans until the soil is well warmed, and 
not to cover more than an inch. Tt would pay C. 
W. II. to get in touch with the Farm Bureau man¬ 
ager of his county and to arrange to test out these 
crops in a small way. before growing them exten¬ 
sively. The oats and vetch and the oats and peas, 
however, have been sufficiently tested in the North¬ 
ern counties, so that no risk will he run about get¬ 
ting a good crop. chas. s. phelps. 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
PRICE AND COST OF APPLES. 
Small Returns for Hard Work. 
F the New York Experiment Station records are 
correct there is no royal road to wealth in grow¬ 
ing apples. Strawberries or other small fruits 
leave the apple business far in the rear. For 10 
years records were kept in a orchard valued at $500 
per acre. It was found that for the past 10 years 
the average net profit per acre has been $05.60, and 
this in an orchard that has been well cared for and 
rightly managed. Figures from the Federal Office 
of Farm Management show the total cost of a 15- 
acre orchard of 527 trees 40 to 50 years old. mainly 
Baldwins and Greenings, to be as follows: Per acre 
$144.21; per tree $4.03; per barrel $1.01. This is 
summarized under the heading of labor costs, cash 
costs and fixed costs. Labor costs include, pruning, 
spraying, cultivating harvesting, packing, etc. Cash 
costs include spray material, manure, seeds, barrels, 
storage, freight, etc. Fixed costs embrace taxes, in¬ 
surance, interest and other fixed expenses. Thus it 
takes capital as well as brains to make the apple 
business profitable. My own records are even high¬ 
er than this, and I find that $1.31 is the total cash 
outlay for a barrel of apples out of storage deliv¬ 
ered to the consumer’s doors. This cost can be 
easily increased to $1.50 per barrel by adding one 
more spraying to the crop, a little longer haul to 
market and shrinkage loss. I would not be far 
wrong in saying that about 50% of the barrelled 
stock put on the market costs the grower 50 cents 
per bushel or $1.50 per barrel. Accurate statistics 
are wanting on this subject but they would be in¬ 
teresting as well as valuable. Little items like oil. 
gasoline or axle grease all add to the final cost of 
a bushel of apples, and it takes a lot of “figuring” to 
make the credit side of the ledger show a profit 
after the crop is all sold. 
There is no question that the apple business is 
one of the most highly specialized branches of agri¬ 
culture, and requires scientific training, skill and 
good business ability to make it a success. I am 
not one of your “two blades of grass” enthusiasts 
and believe that we have reached the limit of con- 
FitESii Eggs In a Neat Package. Fig. 79. 
sumption at profitable prices in apple production. 
The past season’s crop was the largest on record; 
prices have been extremely low and yet the apples 
still last to keep prices down, while consumption 
has been above the average owing to cheaper ap¬ 
ples. That we have reached the limit of our pro¬ 
duction at profitable prices to the grower is a prob¬ 
lem we do not like to conjure with, yet we must 
look facts squarely in the face and reckon the cost. 
With fancy sprayed apples selling at $2.50 per bar¬ 
rel and carrying an overhead charge of $1.50 per 
barrel, no grower is going to stay in the business 
long. Either the price of apples will have to in¬ 
crease or production decrease. At the above figures 
of selling price this nets the grower 33 1-3 cents per 
bushel for fancy sprayed fruit, which is less than 
he formerly sold culls for. The war has been a 
very limited factor in curtailing consumption, the ex- 
One Dozen Eggs And The Protein Content. Fig. 81. 
port being about up to the average, and although 
disturbed industrial conditions have cheapened 
prices we are not able to sell all the apples we have 
raised at profitable prices. When climatic condi¬ 
tions favor the growing of apples over a large part 
of the United States, and we get bumper crops like 
last year, we can expect a glut in the market and 
disastrous prices. Tt is only by the failure of some 
other person that we profit, however, hard that may 
seem. When you see apples selling at “two for a 
nick" at the fruit stand don’t get the idea that 
the fruit grower is getting rich. Probably one half 
a cent out of that nickel is the producer’s share. 
Indiana. s. H. burton. 
TREATING THE HIRED MAN “WHITE.” 
Good Returns from Good Help. 
E hear a great deal nowadays about the scar¬ 
city of farm labor, but as I am not trou¬ 
bled that way I thought it might be of in¬ 
terest to tell how I do it. In the first place, 1 insist 
on good help. We do not tolerate bums or rowdies. 
As we have to take our help into our family as one 
of us. we insist that they be clean, decent, and sober. 
In order to get that kind of a man we pay a little 
more than the market price; then we endeavor to 
keep him interested in our work, and contented. 
Our day’s work is short (for a farmer), from 5 a. in. 
to 6 p. m. We are always through with the day’s 
work and ready for supper at six o’clock. I might, 
say that we do not quit work at that time to please 
any hired man, but that we have had enough our 
selves, and like to spend the rest of the day in some 
other manner. 
In my opinion, the long days of work on most 
farms is the main reason for the scarcity of farm 
labor. I know that our work is always done on 
time, and our crops are as good as those who work 
several hours a day more than we do, and I fancy 
we enjoy our life just a little more than those who 
work many more hours a day. We have lots of 
good things to read; weekly and monthly magazines 
and papers and books. Now, while they are not 
bought for the purpose of keeping the hired man 
contented. I observe that he reads them as much as 
we do. We live only 
four miles from a city, 
but I have frequently 
known our men not to 
visit the city for two or 
three weeks at a time. 
Of course, I have had 
some men who were bet 
ter than others, but I 
have never had one that 
did not stay his time 
out. Some years ago a 
man applied to me for 
work who had worked 
the previous year for a 
neighbor. The neighbor 
said he was slow, “aw¬ 
fully slow,” in fact, but 
I had taken a fancy to him. so hired him. At first, 
I myself began to think he was “awfully slow”; 
so I began to watch him a little. It seemed to me 
he was taking an extra long time to get himself 
and team to work in the morning, but after I 
watched I found he was working on the horses; 
grooming them, cleaning the collars, etc. In a lit¬ 
tle while I found my horses looking better than 
they had looked in a good while. I might say that 
he proved to be the best man I have ever had; 
worked for me two years. During his first year 
I planned to build my second silo, and was telling 
him about it one day. “Huh!” says he, “the neigh¬ 
bors say they don’t see what you want to build an¬ 
other one for when you didn’t fill the one you’ve 
got last year.” 
“Well,” I said, “we’ll try to fill another one any¬ 
way,” I believe he was as anxious to have those 
two silos filled as I was. After the corn was up and 
growing he said to me one day: 
“We will show those fellows whether we can fill 
two silos or not.” If I didn’t tell him to cultivate 
that corn about every week he would ask me if it 
was not about time to go after it again. We tilled 
both silos all right, and “then some.” The neigh¬ 
bors say that I “spoil all the hired men in the neigh¬ 
borhood.” I can’t help it if I do. The problem of 
hired help is no problem at all with us. A few days 
ago the man who worked for me last year applied 
for work, but I had already hired a man who 
worked in our neighborhood last year. I am paying 
him four dollars per month more than he got last 
year, and he knows lie won’t have to work nearly 
so many hours a day. I suppose that is the way 
I spoil them. It has been my way of getting good 
help, and I don’t believe I shall stop it until I am 
through farming. 
Don’t turn a man down just because some one 
says he is “awfully slow.” The slow fellows are 
apt to be painstaking—not always, as I know from 
experience—but usually. Get a man interested in 
your work; advise with him; ask him what he 
STANDARD PROTEIN FOODS. (See Page 2S9.) Fig. SO. 
