C»e R U R AL N EW-YO R K E R 
811 
Draft Horses in Pennsylvania 
Clydesdales at the State College 
N all this talk about tractors and gasoline powers 
for tearing up the earth and carrying the pro¬ 
ducts thereof please remember that our old friend 
the horse is still on band—or foot. He has not re¬ 
signed his job yet, and is not likely to do so. The 
little fellows and the slim, nervous trottfers we used 
to see so frequently have mostly passed off the stage, 
luit the big, powei’ful workers are still with us in 
increasing numbers—and they deserve to he. The 
Pennsylvania State College makes the following an¬ 
nouncement of a birth notice: 
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE 
announces the arrival of 
I.ORD ALBERT 2nd 
on March 28, 1917. 
(Weight 150 pounds) 
Sire: Lord Albert 15145 
Dam : Bonnie Princess 159.37 
The demand for good, sizable draft horses for 
city as well as farm work, has held 
the price on such animals at a 
steady or advanced figure. Draft 
colts can be produced in Pennsyl¬ 
vania at a profit. The I’ennsyl- 
vania market for draft horses is 
higlier than Chicago or St. Louis, 
due to the extra express or freight 
from the INIiddle West to Eastern 
points, and also because of the difli- 
culty experienced the last few years 
with “shipping fever’ in Western 
horses. With a vie^' of establishing 
a Clydesdale breeding stud of 
woi'th and merit, the Pennsylvania 
State College School of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station recently 
purchased four mature Clydesdale 
brood mares, two fillies and a stal¬ 
lion colt. The.se animals arrived in 
Fel)ruary and have been pronounced 
the right and serviceable kind by all 
horsemen who have examined them. 
Prince Albert, 2nd, was foaled by 
one of these mares. 
Cotton Stalks in the Silo 
wo of the most remarkable 
things in modern agriculture 
have been the development of the 
cotton plant and the silo. By this 
Ave mean the discovery of new uses 
in food values for the cotton, and 
the foods which may be preserved 
as silage. It is an old story how 
before the Civil War tlie cotton crop 
Avas groAvn for Its fibre. Small 
quantities of the seeds Avere Aised for 
various purposes, but a good share 
of the crop Avas burned or dumped 
into the rivers in order to get it 
out of the AA'ay. Since that time 
the development of the cotton oil 
and cottonseed meal industries have 
really made the seeds about as val¬ 
uable as the lint, so that every part 
of the plant except the leaA’es and 
stalks is noAV being utilized. 
In something of the same Avay, 
Avhen the'silo was first introduced, 
it Avas considered merely as an in¬ 
strument for preserving the corn 
crop. Many of us can remember 
the first crude silos, and the .sour, 
eA'il-smelling stuff which came out of them. In 
those days many experiments Avere made Avith salt, 
charcoal, and various chemicals to preserve the sil¬ 
age. It Avas not until the Chemistry of silage was 
studied that Ave began to get anything like real 
returns from the silo. In the modern silo almo.st 
every kind of food crop has been preserved. Corn 
alone in diffex’ent stages of ripening, green rye, oats, 
bai'ley or Avheat, either alone or Avith other crops, 
clover. Alfalfa, bean vine.s, in fact almost anything 
AVhich Avas recognized as ordinary cattle food has 
been successfully kept in an airtight silo. We knoAV 
of several cases Avhere mangels have been put into 
the silo along Avith Soy beans, clover or corn. In 
.such cases the roots are simply throAvn into the 
cutter or .shredder, ground into a pulp, and blown 
damp and diupping into the silo AA'ith the other 
crops. Noav ^ve liaA’e a ucav silo crop in the form 
of cotton. 
The Mississippi Experiment Station recently ad¬ 
vised the farmers of that State to build silos, if 
possible, this year, on much the same principle that 
the Avomen folks are adA'ised to can or evaporate 
their vegetables and fruit. Among other crops rec¬ 
ommended for the silo was the crop of cotton stalks, 
and it .seemed remai-kable that this product should 
be used for feeding. It seems, hoAvever, that last 
year four or five silos in the State Avere filled AA’ith 
cotton stalk.s. The silage thus made Avas very .sat¬ 
isfactory. 
Director E. R. I.loyd of the Mississippi Experi¬ 
ment Station tells us that the edible part of the 
cotton stalks is about ns rich in protein as clover 
hay. They filled one silo Avith the cotton stalks 
alone, and another Avith these stalk.s and sorghum 
half and half. Both feeds gave good result.s, the 
cattle eating them Avell. There Avas about 20% 
AA'aste in the cotton-stalk silage on account of the 
hard, undigestlble Avood. As a further experiment, 
about 20 tons of hay from green cotton stalks were 
cured. It Avas found that 00% of this Avas edible, 
and about 40% Avasted. The cattle did as Avell on 
this as upon rough hay. 
These are merely po.ssibilities. Do not for an 
instant understand that the Mississippi College Avill 
recommend cotton stalks for cattle feeding under 
anything like ordinary conditions. It seems that 
last year Avas all out of the ordinary season. It 
rained constantly from the Fourth of July to the 
latter part yf the month every day. Thus cotton 
took on a second growth, and Avas as green on the 
first of October as it Avas in May. Thaler those con¬ 
ditions farmers Avere advised to cut the cotton stalks 
for either silage or hay, and thus starve out the boll 
Aveevil or cotton insect. The average farmer could 
not or AA’ould not plow these stalks under, and thus 
fight the insect. IMost of them were short of cattle 
feed anyAA'ay, and thus under advice a good many of 
them did u.se the stalks either for hay or in the 
.silo. It may be some years before such conditions 
AA-ill exist again, but this experiment has demon¬ 
strated the posible A’alue of cotton as cattle food, 
and also shoAvs hoAV to put up a fight against the 
bolt AveeA-il. The Mis.sissippi Station does not ad¬ 
vocate such a feeding under ordinary conditions, 
but this is simply a di.scoA’ory of Avhat can be done 
Avhen it becomes necessary to .save feed. 
How the State Steals Farm Labor 
Conditions in New York 
ODR WORKERS FOR GOOD WORK.—The 
farmer is doing the greatest work of the na¬ 
tion Avith the A'ery lowest class of help available. 
One might say, “Why not get better help?” IIoav 
can a farmer afford to Avhen any man can step out 
and get $2.50 for an eight-hour day? Anybody Avho 
knoAA’s anj-thing about farming knoAA’-s that it can¬ 
not be done on the eight-hour plan; horses, coavs 
and other stock have to be fed at six o’clock in the 
morning and the same at night, therefore making 
at least a 12-hour day, and I think the average farm 
hand Avorks more than 12 hour.s. The average 
price paid is $40 per month or $35 and a house, and 
as thei’e is much to do on Sundays this AAmuld make 
but little more than $1.25 a day. These same men 
can go in the city or on public work.s and get $2..50 
for eight hours. Then by taking one-half hour at 
noon they get through at 4 :.30. They have the bal- 
auce of the day to themselves Avhile 
the farm hand is SAveating in the 
coAA' .stable. If the farmer has to 
p:iy at the rate of $2.50 per day for 
eight hours the farm hand .should 
got $3.75 for his 12-hour day. 
COMPARISONS OF VALUE.—I 
was brought up to the old saying 
that “a bushel of AA’heat AA'ould pay 
a man’s day’s Avork.” If a farmer 
pays $3.75 for his day’s Avork he 
should get $3.75 for his wheat and 
other things accordingly. Noav as 
Ave all knoAA' there is a big short¬ 
age of foodstuffs, and a great many 
p(' 0 ])le do not stop to think that 
food is produced only by labor. If 
this country can place the labor 
where iit belongs It can raise all the 
food Avanted and lots to spare. I’lie 
State and cities seem anxious to help 
in this labor question, but do they? 
The State has a job to do, they ad¬ 
vertise for men or let to a con¬ 
tractor Avho advertises for men at 
$2.50 a day for eight hours. They 
start the job near your fainn. Y> ar 
men are Avorking 12 hours for $1.25 
and the State men eight hours for 
$2..50. Do you blame your men for 
leaving you and going over to the 
State? They are sure of their 
money and of shorter hours. If 
you can find a man on a State job 
AA’ho isn’t ge/tting tAvice what the 
farm hand is I’d like to see him. 
There Avere tAvo patrol men Avorking 
on the State road by my farm to¬ 
day. I don’t belicA’e the tAA’o of them 
did three hours’ AA’ork, and they get 
more than tAvice what my men do, 
Avho Avorked ju.st over the fence. If 
you should .say anything about the 
price this State help is getting they 
AA'ould say they can’t live on less 
pay. Perhaps they couldn’t, but 
then let them work overtime same 
as the farm hand has to. The cities 
I understand are paying their 
teamsters .$3 for eight hours. If I 
could pay my teamsters ,$3 per day 
1 could get all the teamster’s I Avant, 
but Avill say right here I wouldn’.t 
dare do it, neither do I knoAA' a 
farmer aa’Iio Avould. 
AN UNCERTAIN BUSINESS.—Farming is too 
uncertain, one must- take a chance on getting a 
crop, then another chance on getting a living price 
on it. If I should advertise “Teamsters Avanted on 
a farm, $.3 per day eight hours,” and my creditors 
heard of it, I knoAV they Avould think me crazy, and 
close in as soon as possible. The State pretends to 
Avant to help the farmer, they offer adA’ice, money 
and seeds, but Avhat good are these with no ex¬ 
perienced help to take care of them? They seem to 
Avant to help, but then they deliberately step in 
and hire the help away. The railroad companies 
make their men AA'ork and I don’t knoAV a single 
man leaving the farm to work on a railroad sec¬ 
tion, and I have farmed near a railroad for a 
good many year.s. The farm help are all looking 
for a State or toAvn job. 
TOWN ROADS.—Another source that takes our 
farm help is the tOAvn roads, they pay $2 and 
$2.50 for eight hours. The toAvu superintendent 
keei)s a gang of men. about three times AA’hat he 
really need.s, to do AA'hat? Nothing much of the 
time. The man Avho Avorks at tOAvn meetings and 
Method of Staking Tomatoes. Fig. 328. See page 812 
Clydesdale Mare Bonnie Princess and Her Foal Lord Albert. Fig. 329 
