1344 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seems to get worse as the larva grows between the 
layers of the leaf where sprays do not reach. 
Much of its work is mistaken for spray injury. 
There are few of the apple aphis, and I can find no 
appreciable injury from plant bugs or curculio. 
FUNGI'S DISEASES.—These are not so bad as 
iu some other sections. Apple blotch and sooty 
fungus were worse than usual because of the ex¬ 
cessive rain. Both yield so gracefully to the argu¬ 
ments of Bordeaux that no one need be concerned 
about them. Unsprayed Ben Davis were worth¬ 
less from blotch, while Winesap and Aiken were 
hardly affected. Scab is not prevalent and yields to 
cue or two Summer sprays of dilute lime-sulphur. 
Bitter rot is worst in Grimes Golden and 
Aiken, but is controlled by Bordeaux if the cankers 
are cut out of the tree. Early picked fruit which 
is not quickly chilled will suffer more from bitter 
rot than when on the tree. It is often observed 
that a vigorous young orchard is much less sus¬ 
ceptible to all fungus than one which is weakened 
by scale, age or starvation. The progressive and 
resourceful orchardist does not need to worry over 
any of the fungus diseases, since all yield to spray¬ 
ing. 
MARKETING.—Not much use is made of de¬ 
fective apples. The seconds are often shipped in 
bulk to Southern cities, and there are some evapora¬ 
tors. but every large crop like the present sees many 
thousands of bushels of low grade fruit left to rot 
or fed to live stock. There is a great opportunity 
in the manufacture of apple syrup, apple butter, 
apple jelly, vinegar and other products. Most years 
find an abundant cold storage in nearby towns, the 
Ebener Ice & Cold Storage Company having a 
capacity of 125,000 barrels in its several plants and 
others increase the total to over a half-million bar- 
rels. Such a year as the present one the crop is 
so enormous that some must be stored in Eastern 
warehouses. 
ORCHARD VALUES.—These are as variable as 
the care given, blit compared with New York or 
Virginia they are generally low. A few of the best, 
as the Simpson or Dunlap, are worth from .$125 up 
to $250 an acre, while many well-cared-for orchards 
with a good record of production may he bought for 
around $100 an acre, and much of the neglected or- 
ehard may be purchased for $50 to $75 an acre. 
H. F. BUTTON. 
Good Silage from Alfalfa. 
E VERY year there is some discussion regarding 
the profit or wisdom of putting Alfalfa into 
the silo. The general advice is not to do it, as most 
silage from Alfalfa or clover is dark and offensive. 
Yet there are often wet seasons when it is almost 
impossible to cure Alfalfa into hay, and there would 
he good profit if it could be made into silage. In 
Northern Mississippi Alfalfa grows luxuriantly, but 
it is practically impossible to save the first cutting, 
as it reaches full size during the rainy season. In 
the silo properly kept, it would have great feeding 
value. A recent bulletin from the Nebraska Sta¬ 
tion shows why Alfalfa goes bad in the silo: 
During the fermentation process, which takes place 
immediately after the silo is filled, the sugar in the 
green crop is converted by bacterial processes into a 
mixture of acids. The most important acids formed in 
silage are lactic acid, the same acid which develops in 
the' souring of milk, and acetic acid, the same acid 
which gives to vinegar its sour taste. Several other 
acids are also formed in lesser amounts, but they are 
of little importance in normal silage. The acids serve 
to preserve the silage mixture from further decomposi¬ 
tion. The silage fermentation is similar to the fermen¬ 
tation which takes place when cabbage is converted into 
sauerkraut. 
The Alfalfa plant is deficient in fermentable sugars. 
For this reason, Alfalfa alone does not make silage 
which will “keep.” Acid is not produced in sufficient 
quantities to preserve the silage. Because of this de¬ 
ficiency of acid, putrefactive processes set up. and the 
silage acquires a disgusting taste and an odor some¬ 
what resembling the odor of decaying meat. 
It has been found that when green oats, rye or 
Timothy were cut into the silo with Alfalfa the 
mixture kept well. These other crops furnished the 
needed sugar for the proper fermentation. It was 
also found that cornmeal or a molasses mixed with 
the Alfalfa made good silage. One part of molasses 
to 40 of Alfalfa gave good silage, as both the corn- 
meal and the molasses furnished the needed sugar. 
This discovery led to experiments at the Nebraska 
Station in mixing green corn or sorghum with the 
green Alfalfa in filling the silo. When two parts of 
Alfalfa and one of green sorghum were cut to¬ 
gether, there resulted a good silage with a little 
less water than corn silage, and not so acid. The 
sugar in the sorghum saved the Alfalfa. There may 
not be great practical value in this, but it suggests 
a way for saving a crop of Soy beans or the late 
crop of Alfalfa by cutting into the silo along with 
green corn or sorghum. 
A Simple Colony House. 
T IIE acompanying sketch shows a simple, mov¬ 
able colony house much used on poultry plants. 
Tt is easily built by anyone ordinarily handy with 
saw and hammer, and comparatively inexpensive. 
There is nothing original in the plan but it is one 
that is frequently called for by amateurs and will, 
therefore, be of interest to them. 
Such a house should be eight feet deep and from 
eight to 12 feet in length; if made larger, it will 
bother a team to draw it over soft ground. To give 
necessary head room, it should be at least 6^ feet 
A Cow-Horn Turnip from Hope Farm. The top to tip 
measured 23 inches. Fig. 505. 
high in front and four or 4' l /> feet in rear.. The 
sills of the house are made from two-inch hardwood 
plank, 10 or 12 inches in width. These being cham¬ 
fered on the lower corners form runners upon which 
the building may be drawn. 2x4 inch scantlings are 
framed into these sills to form the floor joists; 
they are, of course, eight feet long. Upon these, a 
A 30-Bushel Tree in Simpson Orchard. Fig. 506. 
single or double floor of matched stuff is laid. The 
walls are of a single thickness of matched flooring, 
the boards being placed vertically to obviate the 
need for studs; below, they are nailed to the edge 
of the floor platform, above, to plates made from 
2x4 inch scantlings. The roof is tight boarded and 
covered with prepared roofing. A door, 2 y 2 feet by 
six feet, is placed in the centre of the front and, on 
November 13, 1915. 
either side, is a window about two by four feet in 
size. This may be of double sash, but is most con¬ 
venient if made in a single sash hinged at the side 
to swing inward against the wall. One or more 
openings in the rear which may be closed, or covered 
with poultry netting and left open in hot weather, 
add much to the comfort of the house. Wire poul¬ 
try netting over the front window's will permit of 
their being left open in the Summer time. The in¬ 
terior fittings vary with the use to which the house 
is put. A coal-burning brooder stove may be used 
in such a house and when the chicks are large 
enough to dispense with artificial heat, the stove 
may be removed and perches placed across the rear 
to accommodate the pullets, at least, until time for 
them to go into Winter quarters. A dozen uses for 
such a house may be found on a large poultry plant, 
and it will serve the villager who keeps a small 
flock and wishes a building that he can move when 
necessary. m. b. d. 
How Large is a Cow-Horn Turnip? 
I HAVE been much interested from time to time 
to note the Hope Farm man’s references in The 
R. N.-Y. to a cover crop composed of rye, Winter 
vetch and Cow-horn turnips. I have tried this crop 
for a number of years. For two years the land 
has been so dry that only an indifferent growth has 
been secured. The past year the growth has been 
very much better. The turnips and the rye, how¬ 
ever. seem to have crowded out the vetch, the tur¬ 
nips especially growing vigorously. I find, however, 
even as vigorously as they have grown they have 
only penetrated to a depth of eight inches by the 
first of October, and the diameter of the crown 
of the root is scarcely more than three-eighths of an 
inch. I am wondering how large a growth you se¬ 
cured in New Jersey, and especially how deep the 
turnip penetrates before Winter sets in. You laid 
particular stress upon the ability of this variety of 
turnip to penetrate deeply and break up the subsoil 
and gather potash. I wonder if this was in your 
imagination, or if the turnip really did make a large 
and deep growth. [prop.] ,t. b. lindsey. 
Massachusetts. 
R. N.-Y.—There is only one way to prove anything 
—that is to show it. The Hope Farm man took a 
spade and went to the cornfield and dug a turnip. A 
picture of it is shown at Fig. 505. The measure be¬ 
side the turnip shows the size. We do not pretend 
that we dug the first root we came to. or that we 
tried to find the smallest. Prof. Lindsey wanted 
to see a good-sized Cow-horn—and here it is! There 
were a few larger than this, but most of them are 
much smaller. This seed was mixed with Alsike 
and Sweet clover and seeded early in August. This 
turnip grew on a part of the field where vetch and 
clover always made a good growth. In the same 
field—on a dry, sandy strip—the turnips are very 
much smaller. This particular turnip seems to have 
struck a flat stone underground, and so instead 
of working further down its roots spread out 
and it pushed a large growth above ground. When 
we sent Prof. Lindsey a sample turnip—smaller 
than the one pictured—he wrote that it took his 
breath away. “If the farmers in New Jersey can 
tell as large stories as they can grow turnips, we in 
Massachusetts have no show whatever.” We have 
known Massachusetts men who did very well at 
story-telling. If we are not mistaken the promoter 
of the Luther Burbank Society is a Massachusetts 
man. Then we are told that Longfellow’s first poem 
was about a turnip: 
“Mr. Finney had a turnip, 
And it grow behind the barn 
And it grew and grew— 
Till it couldn’t get no bigger.” 
Jerseymen are naturally conservative. As for 
this turnip all we can say is what Webster said of 
Massachusetts years ago. “There it stands! Look 
at it!” We do not pretend that the entire crop is 
like this one, but this is what a Cow-horn can do 
when it tries. As for imagination, the turnips dig 
down into the yellow soil—and we have to believe 
what the chemists tell us about potash! 
No—green corn will not bring hog cholera into a 
herd, but if you feed too much of it the hogs will be 
less able to resist the disease. 
Still another warning—do not feed millet hay to 
horses! It will do for cattle, but keep it away from the 
horses! 
On August 21 in Berlin potatoes sold at $1.02 a 
bushel, eggs at 46 cents a dozen, butter at 4S cents 
and lard at 46 cents per pound. 
Some farmers use the Crimson clover in the cornfield 
as pasture. In a wet Fall there is good growth of 
clover, but the cattle injure the land by stamping and 
packing it. 
