third pointed board can now l>e arranged to slide 
freely up and down between these strips and in this 
way the scantling kept level while the point follows 
the surface of the ground. Fig. 34S shows both the 
construction and use of this device. The scantling 
is kept in a true horizontal position while in use by 
means of a level held on top. When one circle is 
completed the concentric circle is drawn by cliang- 
Nine Reasons for Having a Silo. Fig. 346. 
ing the moveable board to the other side of the slot 
and proceeding as before. 
The earth between these two lines is now dug 
out and the space tilled with rubble concrete, making 
sure that the trench is deep enough to extend be¬ 
low frost. Probably 50 per cent, of large stones can 
be used in this mass. When within four to six inch¬ 
es of the top of the trench use no more large stones 
as the bottoms of the studding set into this part of 
the wall. 
The studding is placed 16 inches from center to 
center. Two by four studding is used and they are 
placed with the flat side next to the inside of the 
silo. At first thought this seems wrong but there 
is practically no outward strain on them as the 
boarding and lath, both of which are essentially 
hoops, take care of this, and it gives just twice the 
surface to nail to making a rounder, smoother job 
inside. 
To place the studding correctly, sockets are cast in 
the wall, no sill being used, and the studding set up 
and braced after the concrete has hardened. Ar¬ 
range a device somewhat similar to the one used 
in laying out the foundation, having an arm pro¬ 
jecting downward from it at right angles. The dis¬ 
tance from this piece to the center must be equal 
to the desired distance from the inside of the stud¬ 
ding to the center of the silo. This device must 
also be kept level while in use and hinged legs are 
provided for that purpose at the outer end of the 
scantling that is used for the top piece. As the stud¬ 
ding is set 16 inches on centers it will be just 12 
inches between them, so a measure is cut to that 
length. Short blocks of 2x4 about 12 inches long 
are cut to serve as molds for casting the sockets 
and as many of them must be provided as there 
will be studs in the wall. These are set in the soft 
concrete at the top of the wall by keeping the device 
before mentioned level and setting a block flat 
against the lower end of the projecting leg. The 
proper distance to the next is laid off by means of 
the measure, this is placed and so on until the cir¬ 
cle is completed beginning with the studs that ex¬ 
tend up beside the doors. In this way the wall of 
the silo is made a true circle with the face of each 
studding tangent or flat against its circumference 
and all of the studding evenly placed. Both the 
method of use and the device itself are shown in 
I ig. .140. Note the level on top and the support at 
the other end for holding it in position while the 
block is being put in place. Robert h. smith. 
How Farmer’s Use Their Cars. 
iiT I>I1> not buy a machine because autos are the 
1 style, but I bought it to use,” a farmer re¬ 
marked as lie pointed to his load piled in the rear 
seat space of his touring car. The machine is one 
of the well known low priced cars, and this farmer 
had nearly a half dozen sacks of fertilizer in his 
machine. “I have carried such loads, I drive care¬ 
fully, have some hilly road, but I find I can make 
two or three trips and do it more quickly and cheap¬ 
ly than with a team,” the farmer said. ‘ In fact 
there is one disadvantage in using the auto for a 
truck, the farmer makes such speed with his load, 
that his horses can’t travel fast enough to satisfy 
him. He keeps urging them on, and he can’t realize 
there is a limit to the ground they can cover.” 
‘ I used my auto to unload hay,” another farmer 
said. “I hitched the hay rope to the rear axle of 
the machine, and by driving the machine carefully 
I was able to do the work as efficiently as with a 
team.” 
I use a trailer," a Pennsylvania fruit man re¬ 
marked. “My machine delivers the goods. I had an 
' ■'I phaeton, which I made over in a trailer. I cut 
<'«' the tongue to about three or four feet in length, 
had a blacksmith iron the tongue, and by placing 
bait through the iron and through a board at the 
hack of the machine a little above the axle, I am 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
able to attach or detach my trailer as I wish. I 
have carted sixteen bushels of berries in my trailer 
and hauled seven Italians in the machine. I have 
used my machine for three years, putting it to hard 
work, and it has paid. I am a lover of a horse, 
and am satisfied no machine will take the place of 
a horse, but wisely handled, the automobile has be¬ 
come a necessity in my fruit business.” 
“I bought this large touring car, second hand. I 
have used it almost daily for three years, and it has 
more than doubled my business,” a market gardner 
told me. “I live a dozen miles from the city, my 
work is largely wholesale, and I make as many as 
three trips daily. I load my machine the evening 
before, have material for one or two more loads in 
the packinghouse ready, and I am able to make the 
three trips before noon.” 
“We have 25 cows; we live back about six and 
one-half miles among the hills,” another farmer 
{3otr**</rr?g 
A/at /t nd 
inch 
I 
nj ^ffeve/ec/ 
sjjy Z.q/A 
rCerncryi 
faster 
.on} 
y3-<V<P J' 4 . 
■‘4'4'4 <1 
Iav-w .4:4 0 
"V “o' 4.*d 
4 A> 
boarding 
d£CT/OA/ 
of 
<J/ LO W/) L L 
fo<S rr, 
Corrcnctv 
/-rojf; 
Plan of Silo Wall. Fig. 347. 
said. ‘ I also haul the milk for one of my neighbors. 
We are shipping to a city about 100 miles away, and 
the auto has made it possible. We use the machine 
o' er the roads nearly every day from seven to nine 
months in the year, and aside from tires, oil, and 
gasoline, our expenses have been small. It would 
have required the larger part of the forenoon to 
have made the trip, and we can do it now nicely 
after breakfast, in about an hour.” 
“I have three farms,” another auto owner said,” 
and I am able to keep in touch with what is doing 
on these farms each day. There were, at times, 
two or three weeks during which I would not see 
more than one of these farms. To have made the 
trips it would have required a half a day at least, 
and now I make daily visits to one or both farms. 
It pays me to keep in touch with what is doing.” 
“I am thoroughly familiar with the machine,” a 
woman said, as siie tugged at the tfre. “I have; just 
had a blowout and am going to vulcanize the break, 
and put on that new outer casing.” The woman ex¬ 
plained her husband's business: “We have’ a small 
farm and we market our products in a small city 
eight miles from home. We find that we can supply 
our trade quickly and the expense is much less than 
with horses. We have developed an egg business 
of some proportions. My husband goes to inland 
towns regularly, secures the supply of country mer¬ 
chants, and wholesales them to grocers in the city. 
He finds that he can do this business with profit on 
a margin of a cent a dozen. We buy considerable 
fruit and vegetables to supply our trade, and the 
machine has made all of this business possible and 
profitable. I found no trouble in learning to drive 
the machine, and now I do more than half the driv¬ 
ing, while my husband is busy on the little farm. 
Our machine has beeii out three years, and we have 
just had the motor down once.” w. j. 
“Cultivating” Sea Weed With Stones. 
W ORD comes from one of the U. S. Consular 
agents that seaweed containing 15 per cent, 
of potash in its ashes has been found in the ocean 
oft' one of the Philippine Islands. Along the Pacific 
coast great quantities of kelp and rockweed are be¬ 
ing taken from the ocean and dried and ground as 
potash fertilizers. Along the Atlantic coast are sev¬ 
eral places where kelp and seaweed are used in 
place of manure. All these things show how man 
is coining to regard the ocean for what it is—a vast 
storehouse of food and fertilizer. For ages man 
has bemoaned the loss of plantfood which is washed 
out of the soil and sent through drains and brooks 
and sewers down to the ocean. We now come to 
understand that this plant food is not lost, but sim¬ 
ply kept in storage for us in the-ocean’s depths. It 
is all there—from lime to nitrogen, in clamshells 
and coral and in fish—in seaweeds and in the water 
solutions. Nature is holding it there for future gen¬ 
erations who will feel the need of it so keenly that 
they will think out plans for obtaining it from the 
ocean. The present shortage of potash makes us 
think more of these ocean supplies than ever be¬ 
fore, and new things are being learned about it. 
For example, how few of 11 s realize that there 
are places in the world where seaweed is “culti¬ 
vated’ like hay or corn! In the Journal of gricul- 
ture for Ireland we are told that the forms of sea¬ 
weed most useful for plant food all grow attached 
to rocks—like our rockweed and kelp. They are ab¬ 
sent on sandy lines of coast where there are no 
rocks and stones, yet these sandy places usually 
have greatest need of this plant food. English 
Farm and Home tells how such valuable seaweed is 
“cultivated” by providing suitable “anchors.” 
. By the / cultivation of seaweed” is meant the provis- 
lon of suitable anchorages, generally large stones, be¬ 
tween tide marks. There are several places round the 
coast of Ireland where seaweed is cultivated in this 
way. At Mill Bay, between Greencastle and Ivillowen 
in Go. Down, the right to use a certain area of sand 
or bed m this manner was granted by the landlord at 
a nominal rent. Boundaries are marked by arranging 
the stones on the margins of the beds in straight lines 
and sub-divisions of the beds are marked by pegs. Some 
of these beds are situated fully a mile and a half from 
higli-water mark, i’he first of them was formed, many 
years ago, by bringing granite stones from the adja¬ 
cent Mourne Mountains, and placing them—one to 
about each square yard—out on the sands below high- 
water mark. Quantities of these stones, which vary 
111 size from that of a man’s head to three times as 
big, are still being carted out to the sands, and there 
are now hundreds of acres devoted to the cultivation of 
seaweed in that district. 
The stones become covered by the sea at each in- 
coming tide, and they soon become coated with a growth 
of seedling seaweed plants. The growth of the weed 
is most rapid on those stones which remain longest sub- 
merged—i.e., those nearest low-water mark and the most 
valuable beds are therefore so situated. While from 
the beds near low-water a cutting can be made once in 
two years, this can only be done with advantage once 
every three years from the beds higher up. 
In the district mentioned, and also in the Achill area 
where relatively little farm stock is kept, the weed 
is used principally as a manure for potatoes, and is 
placed directly in the drills in the condition in which 
it is cut. In some cases it is carted from the shore 
to a instance of from eight to nine miles inland. 
I he price per ton load of the weed “on foot” aver¬ 
aged in 1.113 about 15 to 16 shillings. In 1!)14, owing 
probably to the smaller demand for the weed, conse- 
Quent on the diminished area devoted to potatoes in 
the distnct, the price per ton was only about eight 
shillings, exclusive of cutting and carting. 
The right to these seaweed beds is bought and 
sold like other property rights. This use of rocks 
to compel the sea to give up its potash may be com¬ 
pared with the use of clover or beans to induce the 
aii to give up its nitrogen. Not long ago one of our 
readers on a rocky point of the New England coast 
proposed scraping rockweed from the ledges and 
selling it in barrels as a fertilizer. The public was 
hardly ready for it at the time, but we have no 
doubt, that in the future, this' seawaste w r ill be util¬ 
ized as plant food. The ocean contains uncounted 
tons of nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid and lime. In 
Setting Blocks for Studding Molds. Fig. 349. 
the future science will learn how to trap this plan 
food and bring it back to the earth. 
One of the things which have changed the quality 
of the present young mau or woman is the passim 
away of the "chores”—the little home jobs which boy! 
and girls of an older generation had to do. 
