consistency was put on to the piaster coat with a 
brush to seal the pores and make a smoother wall. 
This was continued to the bottom, the stagings be¬ 
ing dropped as the work came down. 
When the bottom was reached a circular form was 
built around the outside of the silo and the floor 
laid, the plastering finished and this wall put in 
Splicing and Bracing the Studding. Fig. 7 55. 
all at one operation. A narrow opening was left 
around the bottom in boarding up so that really this 
outside wall is a continuation of the floor inside. 
By putting these in at one time a good union is se¬ 
cured and the usual crack where the plaster joins 
the floor is avoided. The studding is deeply an¬ 
chored in the cement bed, and altogether it makes a 
very strong construction. The outside of this silo 
was finished by clapboarding, many are left without 
any outside covering at all. I would advise, rather 
than clapboarding, filling in between the studs and 
boarding up and down. It is very difficult to get 
clapboards on and it would be impossible with any 
grade that had a tendency to split. Basswood was 
used in this case. 
As before stated one of the greatest advantages 
of these silos is their low cost, that is, where the 
material can all be obtained from the farm. In mak¬ 
ing out the following bill no account is taken of the 
material furnished from the farm or of the ordinary 
farm labor. Only those items in which there was an 
actual cash outlay are considered, such as saw 
bill, mason work, etc.: 
1000 ft*<'t of 2x4 for frame; 1500 feet of one-half 
inch elm for .skiing; 1200 feet of one-lmlf inch 
elm for lath ; 1500 feet of one inch basswood for 
clapboards, 5200 feet total, at $4.50 per M for 
sawing .$23.40 
Mill hill for making clapboards. 15.00 
4 rolls of roofing paper at $2. 8.00 
-00 pounds nails 6 D, SD, 121), at 3c per pound 0.00 
15 barrels of cement at $1.75 per barrel. 20.25 
5 sash, 4 light 10x12 at 75c each. 3.00 
Mason labor at $4 per day. 13.00 
Total cash outlay .$04.05 
The beveled lath used, the diagonal splices on the 
studding, and till of the sawing possible was done on 
a small circular rip saw driven by a gasoline engine. 
This was a great time saver and also resulted in sav¬ 
ing considerable lumber as much of the lath was 
made from edgings ripped off in truing up the 
boards. Aside from the ordinary farm labor the 
actual cash outlay for a silo of this kind and size is 
only about $ 00 —a very reasonable price when we 
consider the fact that the silo will hold about 02 
tons of fodder—a cost of about a dollar a ton for 
housing. ROHEKT II. SMITH. 
Canton. X. Y.. Agricultural School. 
Apples in Farm Storage. 
Part II. 
Experience from North Carolina. 
IIE R. N.-Y. asks for farm experiments in cold 
storage. I will tell of one without ice which 
has been very successful. It was built by Mr. 
Grabs, in the upper Piedmont section of North Car¬ 
olina, in Stokes County. It is a frame building with 
double walls packed with sawdust and ceiled over¬ 
head. and a cockloft stuffed with straw through 
which is a ventilator that can be opened and closed. 
At the base of the house terra-cotta pipes enter, and 
these are arranged for closing. Every night. Win¬ 
ter and Summer, these lower and the upper ventil¬ 
ators are open, and all are closed at sunrise. In 
this way the cold night air is retained, and going 
into the house in hot weather it feels actually 
chilly. Mr. Grabs gave me Bonurn apples, the 
noted North Carolina Fall apple, in good eating 
condition in May, and he gave me Baldwins in fine 
condition in August which he had brought from the 
North the previous Fall and stored. This house has 
been a perfect success, and the owner is very proud 
of it. In that elevated section they have near zero 
weather in Winter, but he keeps the house ventil¬ 
ated all the same, and the Summer nights are cool, 
so that the admission of air in Summer keeps the 
house cool. w. f. massey. 
THE RUR.-A.L, NEW-YORKER 
Common Storage of the Apple. 
Some form of storage is an important factor in 
commercial apple orcharding. At the harvest, the 
fruit cannot always be marketed at a profit—hence 
some means of extending the season is of prime im¬ 
portance. 
Experiments have demonstrated that apples keep 
best when stored at a temperature varying from 
30 to 40 degrees. With mechanical refrigeration a 
definite temperature is possible, while in handling 
a common storage plant a more variable tempera¬ 
ture is apparent, yet it is a very practical method 
of prolonging the season of the apple. The very best 
of storage houses cannot make number one apples 
out of inferior fruit. Its function is to check the 
natural process of deterioration and not to improve 
the grade and quality of the fruit. Therefore, ap¬ 
ples for storage purposes should be well grown, free 
from all insect and disease injuries. Careful hand¬ 
ling is essential. 
The following descriptions of common storage 
houses are taken from W. N. Hutt’s bulletin No. 
228. North Carolina Experiment Station. The speci¬ 
fications given are those of a practical air-cooled 
Silo Ready for Outside Finish. Fig. 356. 
apple storage house of Mr. J. R. Sams, Mars Hill, 
N. C.: 
“Built of first-class brick, tile drained around 
foundation. Double walls constructed of two lay¬ 
ers of two brick each, with dead-air space of two 
inches between walls. Storage chambers 32x16x8 
feet, capacity 400 barrels each. Three-foot double 
doors at east end of lower story. Four OxO-inch 
ventilators on north side. Ventilators are plugged 
in hot and very cold weather with paper-lined, saw¬ 
dust-filled plugs. Dirt floors with scantlings to 
support barrels. Upper story same dimensions as 
lower. Solid plank floor with slatted portions 15 
inches wide of lx 2 -ineh strips five-eighths of an 
inch apart to allow passage of air from lower story. 
Four flues below top joists with cover to regulate 
circulation of air connect with hooded flue at top of 
house. Small double windows at each end. Double 
door entrance from roadway on south side. Spaces 
between joists on top of second story packed with 
10 inches of sawdust.” 
Specifications of the apple storage house of Mr. 
R. N. Barber, Waynesville, N. C.: 
“A two-story structure, 80x30 feet inside measure¬ 
ment. built of rock masonry and plastered inside 
with cement. The walls are solid, 33 inches thick, 
the upper floor being designed for packing mate¬ 
rial and supplies, the basement being designed for 
fruit storage. The floor and ceiling of the apple 
storage chamber are of concrete five inches thick, 
the latter reinforced with railroad iron, rods and 
woven wire. The only entrance to the storage 
chamber is through an 8x7 feet sawdust-filled door. 
The south side of the house sits in a hill, the earth 
insulating the entire height of the lower story. The 
north wall of the apple storage chamber is pierced 
955 
with five windows. Each window has two sets of 
sash affording dead-air space between. A double 
boarded paper-lined shutter closes ti .fitly over each 
window. The ventilating system of this house eon 
sists of three parallel concrete air ducts runni :■' the 
length of the building. The intakes. 2x2x2 feet, 
constructed of brick, form vertical wells which con 
neet through the wall with the air ducts. The ducts 
are 12 x 12 inches inside measure and deliver the air 
through wire-screened openings 6 x 10 inches at in¬ 
tervals of five feet. The air passes to the chamber 
above through similar openings in overhead ducts. 
The flow of air through the house is controlled by 
plugs made to fit the openings. Capacity of apple 
storage chamber is 2,800 barrels.” 
The Delicious and Stay man Winesap keep in good 
condition until May, while it was possible to keep 
the Ben Davis and Gano satisfactorily until June. 
c. j. IXAYDEX. 
North Carolina Agricultural College. 
Fitting Soil for Strawberries. 
This Spring I plowed an acre of old meadow, broad¬ 
cast a good application of a 2-7-6 fertilizer, and plant¬ 
ed Stowell’s Evergreen corn, sowing both ways. I 
wish to set this land to strawberries in the Spring of 
1317. The soil is a dark colored, averagely fertile 
sandy loam, fairly well drained. How shall I care for 
this piece during the intervening period, keeping in 
mind that there is considerable quack grass and that 
I wish to use the Clark system to kill it out during 
part of July and August, 1916? J p k 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
HE plans for handling such a piece of ground 
will vary with the locality, the climate and va¬ 
rious farming considerations. This is what we 
should do in Northern New Jersey, and the plan 
with modifications will answer anywhere. The gen¬ 
eral plan is to put all the organic matter possible 
into that soil before the strawberries are planted, 
and to spend six weeks or two months of the hot 
Summer weather in thoroughly stirring up the soil 
to kill out grass and weeds. At the last cultivation 
of this Evergreen corn we should sow on the acre 
one bushel of clean rye seed, and 15 pounds of 
Hairy vetch seed, either the latter inoculated, or 
using soil from a successful vetch field. This cover 
crop would grow through the Fall. In early Spring 
we should plow it under, and sow oats and Canada 
peas thickly, using 400 pounds of about the same 
fertilizer you mention. By the latter part of June 
this crop would be of good size, and we should then 
decide what to do with it. If we needed the fodder 
on a farm, we should cut the oats and peas early 
in July, and either feed green or cure as hay. If 
the crop were not needed as fodder, the whole thing 
would be plowed promptly under. Then would be¬ 
gin the Clark system of preparing the ground. This 
means chopping or harrowing that soil every few 
days through July and August. We should use the 
Cutaway or disk, the spriug-tootli and the smooth 
ing harrow with good judgment again and again all 
through the hot weather, so as to tear out and kill 
all possible roots of grass and weeds. This culture 
would be kept up until the early part of September, 
and then we should sow a thin seeding of rye and 
Cow-horn turnips. The thorough culture through 
the hot weather would fill the soil with soluble ni¬ 
trates. and much of this would be lost through the 
The Completed Silo. Fig O i . 
Fall unless some cover crop occupied the land. In 
the Spring what was left of the rye and turnips 
would be plowed under, and the soil made ready for 
strawberry planting. In a general way this is our 
plan for fitting such a piece of ground for berries, 
and in Western New York a modification of the plan 
would give good results. 
