Soiling, ensilage, and stable construction; being a revised edition of Soiling, summer and winter

Front matter

STABLE and SILO CONSTRUCTidH FRANK SHERMAN PEER

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Dedication

To the farmers' sons of America this boolc is dedicated, with the best wishes of the author, and with the hope that within its pages they may find encouragement to pursjc agriculture as a business, instead of leaving the farm for some so-called higher pursuit

Introduction To The First Edition

There is little need of a formal introduction to the subject of soiling-. Most farmers and dairymen are more or less familiar with the subject through inquiries and articles that from time to time appear in the agricultural papers. To others who may chance to peruse these pages, I may say that the work is designed to answer the following perplexing questions, i.e.^ How can a farmer enrich his soil in a sure and economical manner? how supply his farm stock with the most nutritious food at the least cost? how obtain a full flow of milk from his cows during the entire season independently of parched pastures? how increase the number of farm stock or the acreage of the farm without buying more land? how may the Eastern farmers successfully compete with the immigrant farmers of the West?

An attempted solution to these and kindred questions will be found in the following pages.

In relating my own experience in conducting this system of feeding, and the wonderful results obtained, I hope my readers will not accuse me of boasting of what / have done, or of what / can do.

viii Introduction to the First Edition.

Nearly every farmer may practise the system with the same or even better results. Each vear's experience reveals many new advantages of the system.

I do not pretend that my conclusions will be found infallible under all circumstances, but I hope to show how the system was applied to my own farm, that the reader may obtain a clear view of its workings, and be enabled to carry on the system with such alterations as the different conditions under which he is placed shall suggest.

I am not farming for pleasure, although I find a good deal of pleasure in farming. I follow farming for my daily bread, and the profit there is in the business. My farm operations are not supported by a profitable business or profession in town.

I mention this that my readers will clearly understand that although this work contains some radical departures from "General Farming," they are not to be entertained bj^ the experiences of a " fancy farmer," a " book farmer," or a " city farmer."

I have no apology for presenting this subject in book form. I humbly acknowledge that it is not written at " the earnest solicitation of numerous friends," but because I am very. much interested in farming as a business or profession, and I would be pleased to see more of our intelligent young men engaged in this pursuit.

As a literary writer, I make no pretensions. If this work is well received, it must be entirely on its merits as a record of the personal, practical experi-

Introduction to the First Edition. ix

ence of a farmer; and if the reader finds as much pleasure in perusing these pages as it has given me to write them, I shall feel that my labor has not been spent in vain, nor the reader's attention claimed for naught.

Maple Lane Farm,

East Palmyra, N. Y., i88i.

Introduction To Second Edition

The first edition of " Soiling, Summer and Winter " has been exhausted since 1885. I have been trying- to find time ever since to go over the ground again and present the work in better form, but the convenient season has ever seemed to be to-morrow, so that between business cares on the one hand, and the thief of time on the other, weeks have stolen into months, and months into years, leaving the work unfinished.

There was another reason (but I never liked to let myself admit it) . I felt that my work on soiling was a little premature, and I have been waiting for a sign that would indicate that it was wanted.

I published the 1880 edition myself, because no publisher could be found who had the courage to undertake it. In the mean time, the Farmers' Institutes were inaugurated throughout the country, and Experimental Stations in nearly every State are delving into every possible nook and corner in a legitimate strife among themselves to be the first to master and give to the public the latest ideas in regard to every known subject pertaining to agriculture. So that, in a great measure, they robbed one of that

Introduction to Second Edition. xi

zest and force necessary to sit down to a task of writing- a book on any agricultural subject.

I was subjected to much ridicule for my early endeavors to introduce soiling, which was called " book farming " and " fancy farming," etc. And when, late in 1878, I built a silo, and came out strongly in favor of ensilage, it was thought by many to be the climax of folly, while others suggested that I " might have gone wrong in the upper story." In these days (1875 to 1880) I went about the State visiting farmers' clubs, and discussing soiling and ensilage. I was quite young at the time, just out of my teens, and my views — however reasonable they appeared while I was before my audience — lost much of their force, I fear, on account of my youthful appearance. However, I kept on talking soiling, in season and out, until the Farmers' Institutes were established and ensilage at least became a popular theme.

Ensilage has produced quite a revolution in farming, but that is only "winter soiling," and has not accomplished half of what may be done by pursuing the method all the year round, for, as I have always claimed, summer soiling has many advantages over winter soiling, as will be shown further on, so that, although ensilage has made such wonderful strides, it by no means represents the best half of the system.

"Why then," it may be asked, "has ensilage preceded soiling? " Principally, I believe, because it was a new and startling discovery, and required an outlay of capital to begin with. Soon after ensilage xii Introduction to Second Edition.

made its appearance, manufacturers of feed cutters sent catalogues and circulars (advertising their machines) broadcast over the country, agents canvassed towns, exhibited their machines at fairs, and told exaggerated stories of the advantages to be gained by ensilaging corn fodder. They said that ensilage was a good thing, and that their particular machine was the only thing. Ensilage being a new departure, a new discovery, the agricultural papers were full of it, and later it became a popular theme for discussion at the Farmers' Institutes, where it was listened to because it was new and sensational.

Soiling, on the other hand, was a question that every farmer was familiar with. Few could be found but that had practised it to the extent of cutting clover green, and feeding it to their workhorses in the barns, or had sown a patch of corn for their cows to be fed over the fence in the pasture field to help out the pasture in a dry season. In doing this they never discovered anything very wonderful, or striking, or sensational, as was the case in the introduction of ensilage.

No one talked soiling, and altogether it had little to force itself upon the attention of the public.

Soiling has been unfortunate in not being properly introduced. No one in all the country has a farthing to gain out of the farmer by advocating the system or encouraging its adoption.

I have lived long enough to discover that people will listen to good advice, and admit that it is good advice, but if they can obtain it for nothing, it is

Introduction to Second Edition, xiii

seldom appreciated, and rarely made use of. I believe that if it required an investment of a thousand dollars in patent machinery, the soiling system would long ago have been adopted on thousands of farms, where to-day it is not practised at all, or only done by halves. People appreciate everything by what it costs.

Soiling costs absolutely nothing by way of new machinery or buildings, other than can be found on any well-equipped farm. I repeat that ensilage — winter soiling— has produced quite a revolution in agriculture, but summer soiling is as much more desirable and beneficial than winter soiling or ensilage as ensilage is better and more economical than hay and dried cornstalks.

Another hindrance in America to the adoption of soiling is that our farms, as a rule, are too large, and the rather mistaken notion that if a person can make money on a hundred acres, he can make seven times as much on seven hundred acres. The farmers and dairymen with small farms will be more easily convinced of the practicability of soiling than the owners of large farms. Nevertheless, soiling is coming. I have watched its advancement with great interest, although it has not yet become a fashionable question for discussion at Farmers' Institutes; and although the experimental stations have hardly touched upon it, there are unmistakable signs that farmers of the Eastern States are ready for it. Last year I had the pleasure of attending quite a number of Farmers' Institutes in different xiv Introduction to Second Edition.

parts of the State, and I noticed there was hardly a question box opened but that contained one or more questions bearing directly on the subject.

I came home from attending these meetings, and have since taken up the pen with renewed courage, and feel sure that now I shall have the pleasure of telling the good news to thousands who, a few years ago, had little or no interest in the subject.

In revising this work, I have made but little alteration in the text and main features of the first edition. I am able, however, to bring to this work more extensive experience with certain soiling crops, which at that time I knew little about. I refer to sorghum and lucern for cattle and rape for sheep. These I have enlarged upon considerably also a few new plants are mentioned, such as crimson clover, etc.

In winter soiling the principal changes are in handling the crop and the construction of the silo.

I believe I have given due credit to the agricultural press and agricultural writers whom I have freely called upon throughout the work.

I have found that re-writing a book is a more difficult task than producing the original. I have been obliged to do this work at odd times while travelling by rail, stopping at uncomfortable hotels, or while making a winter's trip across the Atlantic. I feel, therefore, as the manuscript leaves my hand, that it somewhat resembles a clock that the great temperance lecturer, John B. Gough, was fond of telling about, to the effect that when its hands

Introduction to Second Edition. xv

pointed to twenty-five minutes past four, and it struck seven, he knew it was just one o'clock. So with this work, it matters little how the hands point or how it strikes, if you only understand that it always strikes for soiling.

I hope this work will prove a handbook and guide to soiling. I have dwelt quite at length upon subjects leading up to the work, that the fundamental principles of the system and its advantages may be firmly established. This I hold to be more essential than the methods of soiling themselves, because if the reader has a foundation that is safe and to which he can always return, although the conditions under which he may find himself may differ materially from my own, he will be able to cut a new line for himself.

This work is, so far as the details are concerned, but a row of blazed trees through the forest. My effort has been, therefore, more to present the principles and advantages of the soiling system so they shall be clear, unmistakable, and undeniable, and if I shall be so fortunate as to accomplish this in the following pages and impart to my reader the will, my purpose shall have been accomplished, and his own good judgment may be depended upon to find the way. In that case he may make mistakes and meet with disappointments. He may stumble and even fall, but in getting up he will always be getting on in the right direction.

Many have started soiling, but in a half-hearted way, and have given it up on account of some little xvi Introduction to Second Edition.

hitch in the management. They have become discouraged simply because they failed to see the great benefits to be gained. Others have tried partial soiling; in this they have experienced nearly all the disadvantages and not over a quarter of the benefits. Others are convinced that it is the thing to do, but are afraid of what their neighbors will say if they should branch out in any new line. I have been through all this ; the lions in the way are not half as ferocious as they look at a distance, and although there is always a rod in pickle for any man who would be wiser than his generation, the reward is more than ample compensation for all such cuts. " He laughs best, who laughs last."

Squawkie Hill Farm,

Mt. Morris, N. Y., 1899.

CHAPTER II. Our Plants

How to Feed Them, 8

Comparative Tables 12

Barn-yard Manure, 13

Green Manure, 17

Liquid Manure, 22

Saving Manure (Plaster), 25

Commercial Fertilizer, 25

Oil Cake and Cotton-Seed Meal, 30

CHAPTER in.

Our Animals.

How to Feed Them Economically, . . . .33

The Cow as a Machine, 33

When Insufficiently Fed, 35

CHAPTER IV. Soiling

My First Lesson in Agriculture, 38

How I Happened to Adopt Soiling, .... 44 xviii Contents.

PAGE

CHAPTER V. Advantages of Soiling

Saving of Land, . -49

Saving of Fences, 54

Saving of Food, 56

Better Condition and Greater Comfort of Farm Stock, 58 Greater Production of Beef, Milk, and Butter, . . 63 The Increased Quantity and Quality of Manure, ". 68 The Increased Productiveness of the Soil, . . .69 The Increased Acreage, 69

CHAPTER XI. Barn Construction

General Plan, 103

Objections to Masonry Basements, .... 105

Ventilation, 109

Handling the Manure, 121

Manure Shed, . 126

Liquid Manure, 127

The Mangers, 128

Cattle Ties, 131

CHAPTER Xn.

Stable Management.

In Winter, 134

In Summer; 136

CHAPTER XIII. Wheat, 138

Barley, 138

Oats and Peas, 139

Corn, 141

Sorghum, 144

Sorghum Bulletin Reports, 146

Non-Saccharine Sorghums, 148

Kaffir Corn = 149

Millet 152

Lucern, r . . 154

XX Contents.

PAGE

Lucern Bulletin Reports, 156

Crimson Clover, 164

Cow Peas, i68

Soja Bean, 170

Prickly Comfrey, 171

CHAPTER XXI. Growing Ensilage

Amount of Land Required, 226

Preparing the Ground 226

Variety of Corn, 227

Harvesting, 227

Filling the Silo, 229

Pressing, 230

Time to Harvest . . . 232

Covering, 233

CHAPTER XXIL Feeding Ensilage.

Amount of Ration, ....... 235

Cost of Production, 237

Chapter XXIII

Soiling 7/s. Ensilage,

Comparative Value, ...,,.. 239 xxii Contents.

CHAPTER XXIV. Conclusion. page

System, o . . 241

Education, 244

Farmer's Sons, . 247

SOILING, ENSILAGE, AND STABLE CONSTRUCTION.

Chapter I. Our Soils

The great problem of feeding and clothing the millions depends upon the success of agriculture. The day has gone by, in the Eastern States at least, when a man can "farm it," because he does not know enough to do anything else. There is no business or profession in which a man is obliged to have such a diversity of knowledge as in farming. Every day brings him face to face with widely different questions. There are his cows, their management, breeding, care, feeding, the disposal of their product. Likewise his sheep, horses, swine, poultry, bees. Then there are his fruit trees, different varieties, requiring special care and attention, and special knowledge. There is, as I said before, not a trade or profession requiring such a widely diversified knowledge as general farming.

Our predecessors who, through ignorance, robbed the soil of its fertility, left us little — in these days of keen competition — but a legacy of unprofitable labor. We ought to profit by their mistakes, and find some way, if possible, to make our land more productive.

Any fool can rob the soil of its fertility, but it takes a wise man, a professional agriculturist, to win it back to productiveness. If we do not succeed in doing- this, we shall leave to our children a legacy which they will spurn, instead of one they could receive with rejoicing, and that one must be capable of supplying their increasing numbers and their increasing wants.

Farming on an Exhausted Soil.*

I regret to say that the history of agriculture in America is any but one to which we may point with pride. What, may I ask, has become of the many farmers throughout the New England States who once lived comfortabl}^, if not luxuriously? Why are their farms deserted, their houses unoccupied? We have not far to look for the answer — the fertility of the soil has been exhausted, sold in the markets of New York and Boston by the pound, by the bushel, and by the ton. Their owners, failing to find their toil longer remunerative, have gone West, many of them, where I presume they have gone on systematically robbing the soil, leaving to their descendants a heritage of unremitting toil. Still more lamentable is the condition of thousands of farms in Virginia and other parts of the sunny South. Here, but a few years ago, lived a people who boasted of their wealth, their refinement, their culture, and their chivalry. Why are their once beautiful fields

* Extract from an address delivered by the author at Albany, N. Y., before the County Agricultural Society in 1S90.

Our Soils 2

now fenceless and deserted? The land remains, the climate remains, the slaves remain, but the owners are not. The fertility of the soil went before them ; they baled it with their cotton, barreled it with their sugar, until naught remains but the barren soil.

A few years ago the term "out West " was synonymous with bounty and fertility. We were told that one had but to "tickle the soil with a hoe, and it laughed a harvest." All this has changed. Their average yield per acre during the last ten years has declined twenty-five per cent.

Farming on Productive Soil.

Happily, however, this state of things, with a proper knowledge of agriculture, is unnecessary. There is a way, not only to maintain the fertility of the soil, but to increase it. England has been under the plow for centuries, still her average yield of wheat has increased to over thirty-one bushels per acre, while the average yield in this country has steadily declined until it is only about thirteen bushels per acre. China, one of the oldest countries in the world has increased the agricultural resources of the empire to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. It is a fact that the heathen Chinee knows better than we how to preserve and increase the fertility of the soil. If America would close her eastern gates to emigrants who come here, to rob our soil, and let a few Chinamen farmers in at the western gate, we might learn some valuable lessons in farming. Fertility means prosperity.

There is not a fertile spot on the face of the earth but that is a prosperous one and a desirable one in which to live.

The Condition of Farming at the Present Day.

The problem that confronts the present-day farmer is how to compete with the foreigners who come to this country annually by the tens of thousands, and who, on their arrival, our Government sets up in the farming business, offering to each one hundred and sixty acres of land. The only alternative we have in competing with these Government farmers is to do one of two things. We must either get down to their level, and work as they work, our wives and children constituting our hired help on the farm and in the house, live as they live, half fed and half clothed, go without books and papers, without recreation for ourselves or an education for our children. That is one way, but even then we cannot hope to compete with them on farms that cost us a hundred dollars an acre, and on which we are taxed to support all sorts of charitable institutions, to say nothing of (as in this State) building state capitols and digging canals to benefit the adopted children of our Government, while at the same time they have their farms given to them.

Farming on Government Lands.

A foreigner comes to this country with money enough to pay his fare to some of the Western States. Uncle Sam gives him a farm,, then he finds

Our Soils. ^

plenty of men ready to take a mortgage on it for enough to enable him to purchase the necessary tools, and there you see him a full-fledged American farmer. It is, indeed, a most serious predicament in which the public land policy of our Government has placed the farmers of the Eastern States. They are not only made to sell their products at cost and less, but their lands have depreciated in value fifty to seventy-five per cent., until many farmers in the Eastern States have been driven to bankruptcy, all for the sake of keeping up that boastful, useless, wasteful practice by the Government " that Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm," and of setting up thousands of foreigners annually in the farming business until competition is so keen that there is nothing left the farmers in the older States but unremitting toil. Their sons and daughters are thereby driven from the farm, and their places are being filled by foreigners, until we are fast becoming reduced to the condition of the peasant farmer of the old world. Farmers they are not. They are, more properly speaking, a lot of land pirates.

They have a good farm given them, and immediately they begin to live on its fertility like a lot of highwaymen. Have I overdrawn the picture? I wish you might say I had. If you think so, look about and see how many one hundred, one hundred and fifty, or two hundred acre farms there are in your county, where the hired man gets about all the yearly profits, while the owner, with a ten or twenty thousand dollar investment, and his wife as well, work for their board and clothes. Farmers themselves are largely to blame for this state of things. They should demand through their representatives at Washington that the Government put a stop to the giving away any more of the public dom^ain, until there is a demand for it at $io or $15 per acre.

No other business men would put up with such an infringement. The United Workmen said prison labor must cease, because the State was setting up laborers in competition with them, which it had no right to do, and prison labor ceased. The United Workmen said to the United States Government, " Put a stop to the contract laborers coming to this coimtry to compete with us," and the law was passed. If an immigrant is engaged to come to this country to dig a sewer, the Government at Washington sends him back to the country from which he came. The same United States Government says to the same immigrant and to every other foreigner, " You come over here, and Unde Sam will give you one hundred and sixty acres of land ; that is to say, will set you up in the farming business."

" Come from any nation, Come from any way.

Come along, come along, Don't be alarmed : For Uncle Sam is rich enough To give you all a farm."

So goes the old song. When the country was new, this could be done without injury to any one.

Our Soils. 7

But that day has long since passed. These Government farmers have increased so rapidly that agriculture in the Eastern States has been reduced nearly to a level with immigrant farming.

This, in short, is the present condition of agriculture in the Eastern States. There is left us but one alternative, either to live as the immigrant farmers live, work as they work, or to cheapen our production by making one acre produce what now comes from four or five.

I offer you this solution : I bring you in this volume a ray of hope. Try soiling.

Chapter II. Our Plants

How TO Feed Them.

Our plants, like our animals, live, feed, grow, and die. It is only by feeding them alike liberally that we can hope to make them produce bountifully.

Until a person comes to consider his growing plants as if they were his growing animals, claiming his care and attention, and looking to him to supply them, largely, with the food they must consume, then, and not till then, is he in possession of the principles that constitute successful farming. At first glance it would seem that the above statement was so self-evident that there was little use of mentioning it, but when we look about a little and notice the way that many farmers starve their growing plants, even when they do not starve their cattle, it shows that they have never looked at their growing plants in this light.

What has this to do with soiling? It is the principal thing, as a celebrated English general once said in reply to the War Department, which said to him : " General, it seems to the War Department that the thing that most concerned you in India was the growing of forage for bullocks. " "Yes, sir; that's the principal things in carrying on a successful warfare in India or any other country. If we have the forage, we shall have the bullocks ; if we have the bullocks, we shall be able to support the men, and if our men are well supported, we shall have no trouble to conquer the enemy." That's the whole story. If we will give our greatest concern to our growing plants, we need not worry ourselves about the rest. The animals to eat it will come along easily enough. If you see it in that light, you will find, by the adoption of the soiling system, that you are able to provide an abundance of food for your growing plants in a sure and economical way, i.e.^ by the greater production of barnyard manure, plowing under green crops for manure, soiling your plants as well as your animals. But before we proceed to discuss the value of barnyard, liquid and green manuring as compared with commercial fertilizer, let us first consider the comparative value of the ordinary grain and forage crops, both as a forage (manure) for our plants and as feed for our animals. This will help to explain some important questions in regard to producing the most economical plant food and clinch several strong arguments in favor of soiling.

"Good farming," says Lockhardt, "consists in taking large crops from the soil, while at the same time you leave the soil in better condition for succeeding crops." This strikes me as being the best definition of what constitutes good farming I have ever seen. It is the very science of farming.

Good crops make good manure, good manure produces good crops.

The value of grain and forage crops for plant food consists in the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash that they contain, while the value of forage crops and grains for animal food depends chiefly upon the amount of albuminoids, carbohydrates and fat they contain.

Animals, in the consumption of foods, take from them but a small proportion of their value for plant food, while the plants consume little or none of the elements that the animals require. Thus, if a ton of feed, say cotton-seed meal, should be plowed under as a fertilizer, as is often done in the Southern States, it would be of no more value to the land than if it had been first fed to the stock, providing none of its value as a plant food had been allowed to waste in the manure pile. Some plants or grains are very rich or valuable as plant food, while others are richer in animal food, and again others are valuable for both purposes.

The following tables will furnish the reader some curious and interesting facts, and some information which will assist him, it is hoped, in making a most economical selection.

The analysis from which the values of the different foods are estimated was taken from the work of Dr. Emil Wolff of the Royal Academy of Agriculture, Wurtemburg, Germany. I believe these extended tables, as prepared by myself, were the first of the kind to appear in print in this coun-

Our Plants. ii

try. They represent the average results of numerous analyses, and are sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes. The original analysis represented only the comparative proportions of different foods as given in loo and i,ooo lb. With these figures as a basis, I have estimated the number of parts or pounds found in one ton (2,000 lb.) and computed the animal food value per ton, estimating albuminoids at $4, carbohydrates at 80 cents, fat at $4 per hundred pounds.

These estimated values are obtained from the average prices of the different grains in market, but as the prices vary in different localities and in different seasons, they cannot be said to be absolutely correct at all times. But they may serve to show the relative values of the different kinds of feed and forage. For instance, if the value of any one article is too high or too low, then all the others are correspondingly so.