1096 
have beeu turned the clover .vill soon he ready to 
cock. Here some men fall down badly. The only 
reason for cocking is to put the clover in shape to 
Withstand rain. Therefore it always pays to build 
a careful cock that will shed water. Bunches won’t 
do. The size of the cock will depend somewhat on 
the condition of the clover. The drier it is the larger 
% 
and more carefully built the cock needs to be. Once 
in the cock the chief worry over the crop should be 
over. If the cocking method is followed it is really 
the objective point, just as the barn is in the first 
method outlined. Hauling can await a pleasant day, 
when the cocks should be opened three or four hours 
in advance of loading, and should yield a good qual¬ 
ity of hay except for that on the outside. 
New York. h. e. babcock. 
Seeding Rye in Orchards 
Is it injurious to an apple orchard to sow rye through 
the centers of rows, and, if so, why? J. s. 
Highland, N. Y. 
E hardly know how to answer such a question. 
Rye is commonly used as a part of a cover 
crop in orchards, and has some excellent qualities. 
It is a hardy plant, and will grow under rough con¬ 
ditions. It is easy to start, and the seed is not ex¬ 
pensive. In the Spring it makes a heavy growth, and 
provides a large amount of organic matter for plow¬ 
ing under. There are several ways in which, if rye 
were not properly used, it might injure the orchard. 
It is a mistake to seed rye in a young orchard and 
leave it too long in the Spring. The rye plant is a 
vigorous grower and takes much moisture out of the 
soil. When left too long, especially in a dry Spring, 
it will drain the ground of moisture and rob the 
trees. We have had young orchards badly injured 
by leaving rye to grow until it made a full head. In 
the case of a wet Spring there would not be this dan¬ 
ger. If you use rye it is better to plow it under 
early, before the bloom starts on the plant. Another 
way in which rye may possibly injure the soil is to' 
plow it under loosely and leave the furrows without 
packing or harrowing down. When left in that way 
the air works in and either dries out (he rye prompt¬ 
ly or starts fermentation, which may help to sour 
the ground. We have had complaints from farmers 
who say they plowed under rye and planted corn, 
with the result that the latter crop was a failure. 
With such reports we generally find that a heavy 
growth of rye was simply turned under and lightly 
harrowed down, then corn was planted. The result 
was that the rye just below the surface of the 
ground admitted warm air so that the moisture was 
taken completely out of the soil. Then this loose 
mass of rye prevented most of the rise of moisture 
from lower soil, with the result that the ground dried 
out and the corn crop failed. This was not the fault 
of the rye, but of the way it was handled. When 
rye is plowed under in this way it is better to pack 
it hard with a heavy harrow or roller. This crushes 
the soil down, compacts the rye under ground, and 
prevents the great loss of moisture. When handled 
in this way there is no danger from the rye, and we 
consider it a good plan to seed a cover crop during 
late Summer, so as to cover the soil of the orchard. 
Rye alone, however, is not the best cover crop. South 
of Philadelphia, Crimson clover may be seeded with 
the rye. In Northern New Jersey and north of that 
latitude, we find Alsike clover and turnips good 
companions for the rye. 
Building an Illinois Silo 
EMENT BLOCKS.—Wo have in this section 
silos of all kinds of which 1 know anything. 
After investigating the matter thoroughly, seeing all 
kinds and getting all the information from the own¬ 
ers, I decided in favor of the cement block. Having 
lived in a house built of cement blocks for 111 years, I 
felt that I was well qualified to judge of their suit¬ 
ability for building purposes generally. It is quite 
astonishing the amount of misinformation that is 
abroad concerning cement blocks as a building ma¬ 
terial. My house is built of them from the bottom 
of the cellar to the roof, and I am sure there could 
be no drier house and cellar than I have. 1 have an 
old friend who is an expert woodworker, and T per¬ 
mit him to keep a bench in one room of the cellar, 
where he also keeps a small stock of costly lumber, 
and he says he always finds his lumber in prime 
condition for perfect work. 
SATISFACTORY RESULTS.—Now, when we de¬ 
cided to use cement blocks for the silo, the question 
came up as to the necessity of coating the inside of 
the silo after it had been plastered with a strong 
cement mortar, with a sure waterproof coat of a 
material which my neighbor, the silo builder, always 
keeps and uses when required to do so. He said it 
was not necessary, but he would and did use it any- 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
way. My brother-in-law, whose farm is directly 
across the public highway from ours, some three or 
four years ago built a large silo with these blocks. 
It is 18 ft. in diameter and 53 ft. high. It has been 
filled with silage each year except that two years 
ago he filled it, and not needing the silage for feed 
last year it stands today with silage two years old, 
and the owner says it is as perfect for feed as it was 
last year. This silo is built of the same kind of 
blocks as mine, but has never been plastered with 
any waterproof material, believing that a good 
strong cement plaster was sufficient, which he says 
has proved to be true. 
COST OF FILLING.—I am sending you a picture 
of our silo, Fig. 321, which shows up just how it 
looks. It is 14 ft. in diameter, and the walls are 40 
ft. high. The roof adds some 7 or 8 ft. more to its 
height, which enables men to stand up straight after 
the silo is full up to the top of the wall. This holds 
about 120 tons of silage. Because of this kind of 
roof there is no loss of real silage room, as there 
would be if it had a flat roof, and besides it looks 
better. Wages are high. Last Fall it cost $20 per 
day for the use of the machine and the men who ran 
it. Besides this it took about 10 wagons and as 
many men to manage the wagons, and three or four 
men to tramp down the silage, as it must be put in 
compactly. This made it cost almost $2 per ton for 
cutting, hauling the corn from the field, running it 
through the machine and elevating the silage and 
tramping it down. Men doing such work are de¬ 
manding $5 per day, and getting it. 
TRAMPING THE SILAGE.—Let me say right 
here that some mechanism is badly needed to stamp 
or compress the silage in the silo, as with the best 
that can be done tramping the silage, it will settle 
until it will be 5 or 6 ft. below the top of the wall. 
Some farmers near here have used a flock of 10 or 12 
Silo of Cement Blockn. Fiy. -1.11 
goats, which are put in the silo and are constantly 
chased around, and in this way the silage is tramped 
down in pretty good shape. But contemplate the sit¬ 
uation. These goats are kept in the silo from the 
start to the finish, and of course the silage is satu¬ 
rated more or less with their excrements. Men who 
have used these methods say it does not matter, as 
the stock eat it just the same. But this does not 
sound good to me. Our silo cost us $900, finished 
ready to fill. a. w. foreman. 
A Study in Soils 
A CERTAIN field under my observation was seed¬ 
ed to clover and Timothy in the Spring of 1919 
in the wheat. The surface is what is termed roll¬ 
ing, but level enough for easy tillage, and no danger 
from erosion. On the greater part of this field the 
clover is showing a heavy stand, while on the rest of 
the field there is no clover showing at all, and even 
the Timothy is not thrifty. I am naturally inquisi¬ 
tive; they tell me that as a kid I cut a hole in the 
head of my little toy drum to see what made the 
noise. Well, a few days ago I shouldered my soil 
auger and began an investigation; at least this is in 
keeping with the times. I found that wherfe the 
clover was showing well the subsoil was of a clayey 
nature; that is, retentive; but in every instance on 
the parts where the clover faded the subsoil was a 
yellow, leachy sand, and there was more or less sor¬ 
rel showing. Again, I noticed one strip right down 
through this field carrying both conditions of the 
grass stand, where the clover was good nearly the 
whole distance across the lot, and was told that a 
few years ago a load of wood ashes was spread on 
this strip, and there was not quite enough to go 
June 19, J !)‘J() 
clear across. The field is near the barn, and the soil 
runs from a sandy loam to a heavier, stony loam, 
gets plenty of manure in the rotation of crops, and 
while crop returns are generally good, still there is 
marked evidence of the need of lime. On most of our 
fields here, where there are big straw stacks, and 
plenty of manure is applied, the 1<> per cent, acid 
phosphate gives very satisfactory results, but, in ad¬ 
dition to this, most of these fields would be greatly 
benefited by an application of lime. We cannot 
afford, at least under present conditions, to overlook 
or omit those tilings that make for an increased pro¬ 
duction, and the successful farmer of today is a life¬ 
long student. H. k. cox. 
“ Electrifiers ” in Orchard and Gardens 
N regard to these lightning rods in our orchard 
(you publish’d something about them a year or 
so ago), would say that last year's results only 
showed that the three rows down our orchard, of 
which the rodded row formed the middle row, had 
more fruit on than any other rows in the orchard. 
We did not pay so much attention to that, as the 
results had not come quite up to my expectations, but 
my father reports this morning that these rows show 
more sets per tree than others, and that their fruits 
are decidedly larger than others at this date, taking 
into consideration the varieties affected. There is 
one thing about it, and that is that these rods are 
cheap enough for one easily to afford them, even for 
small results. I have certainly seen them bring big 
results in the garden, and if they will bring yearly 
results in an orchard of, say, an equivalent of a 5-lb. 
application of nitrate of soda per tree per year, they 
are cheap enough for anyone. 
Orange Co., N. Y. h. t. demarest. 
Two years ago Mr. Demarest wrote us about his 
plan for electrifying his orchard. Among other 
things at that time he made the following statement: 
I made one “electrifier” out of a common 15-ft. benn 
pole, to which I tied on some stranded clothesline wire 
frayed out at. the top, and attached to the zinc of a worn- 
out dry cell for a ground . This I stood up in the center 
of a popcorn patch about one rod square in which I 
planted four varieties of popcorn—red, blue, white and 
yellow. It just happened that I stood my “electrifier” 
under a telephone wire, which may have helped (I don’t 
know), but I do know that I grew some of the biggest 
popcorn that year around the pole that w f e ever saw. 
Some of the white and yellow ears were 8 and 9 in. 
long. The effect of the pole on the whole patch was very 
marked, diminishing with the distance from the pole, 
and the general appearance of the whole patch was like 
a tent; the outside rows of corn being the usual popcorn 
height. That in the center became nearly as high as the 
pole, 10 or 12 ft. high, but you probably will not believe 
this, so I suppose discretion should have prompted me to 
shut up on this point. Before the stalks were thor¬ 
oughly mature, however, a big windstorm flattened the 
patch. 
Last Winter I shocked the local merchant by buying 
50 %-in. iron rods, to which I had sharpened copper 
wires soldered on at the top and spread out in a cluster. 
These I set up in a young apple orchard, but I cannot 
say that I got such effect from the use of them that I 
could actually prove them a benefit, but the trees near 
them certainly bore fine and highly colored fruit. I shall 
consider the experiment pretty thoroughly proved next 
Fall, but I am expecting these trees to bear more heav¬ 
ily, to have larger and better colored fruit than their 
neighbors. Reports on European experiments lead me to 
expect this, at least, and also that these trees will 
ripen their fruit earlier. I hope they will. If the ex¬ 
periment proves worth while, one could Avell afford to 
give each tree in the orchard its “lightning rod.” 
There is another phase to this also, you know. France 
uses great lightning rods in its fields to ward off hail. 
Hail doesn’t go well with fruit. If these “electrifiers” 
would accomplish both purposes they would prove a 
wonderful adjunct to our Eastern orchards. 
These electrifiers are set up in the ground 10 or 
12 ft. high, with the tops open, or spread out, and 
bottom well grounded. Two years ago we had a 
statement of some experiments tried at tin* Missouri 
Botanical Garden. An experiment was made with 
an electrifier imported from France. The picture of 
the electrifier is slmwn at Fig. 825, page 1098. This 
device was described as follows: 
The apparatus consists of a so-called “electrifier” con¬ 
structed of bronze with five prongs of pure nickel, non- 
rustible and infusible, a copper wire attached to the bot¬ 
tom of the bronze part, a pole 15-35 ft. long, a switch, a 
galvanized iron pulley with an eye for fastening to the 
pole, a tarred rope for sliding the electrifier down to the 
base, and two porcelains for attaching the rope to the 
pole. The picture, Fig. 325, is reproduced from the 
Missouri bulletin. 
The apparatus was set. up in the following manner: 
The soil was removed to a depth of 1% ft., the radius of 
the plot being equal to the length of the pole; the pulley 
was affixed to the top of the pole, while the switch and 
the porcelains were placed near the base; the tarred 
rope was passed through the pulley in order to permit 
of lowering the electrifier to examine tin* points occa¬ 
sionally ; the pole was then placed in the ground deep 
enough to be absolutely stable; %-in. galvanized iron 
wire was stretched every 3 ft. at the base of the pole 
and connected with the copper wire attached to the elec- 
trifier; finally the soil wns moved back over the wires, 
the plot being ready for planting. 
As used in Missouri the electrifier certainly showed 
results, and indicated that it possessed considerable 
merit. Just how much this plan of taking electricity 
from the air can he relied upon remains to be seen, 
but we think that the experiment has shown enough 
merit in tin? system to warrant full experiment by 
our scientific men. 
