1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FAmiER. 



239 



For the Netr England Farmer. 

 PIPE FOK CONDUCTING "WATEB. 



Messrs. Editors : — I see there is considerable 

 inquiry as to Avhat kind of pipe to use. As I fol- 

 low the business of laying pipe, I will give my 

 opinion. First see Mhat kind of land it is to be 

 laid in. If it is brimstone land, it will eat the 

 pipe. There is some water that eats boxes of com- 

 position, and will not eat lead. Block tin is the 

 best for running water ; but for pumps it is worth- 

 less, because it is brittle, and will not hold its 

 own shape. I have taken out most all in this vi- 

 cinity, and put in lead. Where lead will stand I 

 should use it. Wood is good where the land is 

 notheav}'. Your correspondent from jMaiue asks 

 for answers to four questions. 1. What kind of 

 wood to use ? I should use pine, if I could get 

 it. I have known spruce to do good service. 2. 

 What size ? Anywhere from five to eight inches 

 in diameter. 3. What size bore ? For logs 4^ 

 inch bore ; for pumps, three inch. 4. Bark on, or 

 off.'' I think it will not make any odds in the 

 ground ; but for weils I should peel the logs ; but 

 in all cases they should be laid below frost. There 

 should be iron rings drove round the head ends 

 of the logs to keep them from chicking. 



If water or land works on the pipe, which you 

 can learn by others in the vicinity, I should aban- 

 don it at all events. I know of one case where lead 

 was used, the pipe was consumed, and it was tak- 

 en out, and iron put in ; and the iron soon rusted 

 so as to scale, and fiUid it full; this was taken 

 out, and last fall, I put in lead, lined with block 

 tin, at a great cost, and I fear it will not be last- 

 ing; it seems to be tender. The new article of 

 pipe, made of glass, I know nothing about ; if it 

 could be used, I doubt there being any alkali that 

 would operate on the glass. There is one other 

 way in which it is said you can tell v>'hether water 

 will affect lead pipe; it is to take a tumbler of 

 water, and put in lead, and let it stand several 

 days, and you can see if the lead corrodes or not; 

 it is said if it does, you can see it visibly. If 

 block tin cracks, it is impossible to repair it ; 

 therefore, I should not use it only in running wa- 

 ter. I think your correspondent from Maine is a 

 little mistaken about soft water afl'ecting lead ; in 

 all cases where I have repaired eaten pipe and 

 boxes, the women complain of hard water ; at any 

 rate it is so in this vicinity. A Subscriber. 



Foitersville, N. H., 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ASHES AS A MANUKE. 



Wood ashes are good, on sandy or gravelly 

 soils, where the sub-soil is open, anil the surface 

 soil is not heavy and inclined to bake, as the say- 

 ing is. The more open, sandy and loose the soil 

 is, the more ashes will benefit it. They will make 

 grass grow for a few crops on heavy soil, but they 

 will tend to make the soil heavier, and run into 

 moss. Sand is better for clayey soils than ashes. 

 Leached ashes may as well be spread on grass 

 lands clear ; but unleached, they should be mixed 

 with two or three times their bulk of some heavy 

 eoil, the more clayey the better, and lie in a heap 

 until the whole mass becomes leavened with the 

 ashes, though not leached through to waste. If salt 

 «an be obtained quite cheap, I think it would pay 



to put in a bushel to ten of ashes. Fifty bushels of 

 ashes, properly applied, is enough for an acre ; and 

 on ground to which they are suited, they will ordi- 

 narily produce near an extra ton of hay to the 

 acre, for three years, and leave the ground in bet- 

 ter condition, than at the time of the application 

 of the ashes. They will in fact produce a i)evma- 

 nent change for the better, in sandy soils ; but on 

 heavy land to which they are not suited, though 

 they may make a few crops grow better, they are, 

 in the end, an injury. They may be advantageously 

 applied to grain crops, potatoes and corn ; but I 

 think, as a general thing, more benefit will be de- 

 rived from them applied on grass, than any other 

 crop. C. Whiting. 



Johnso7i, Vt., 1860. 



REiViARKS. — The seed sent with this is, un- 

 doubtedly, Hungarian grass seed. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE CATTLE DISEASE. 



Mr. Editor: — In your valuable journal, (the 

 N. E. Farmer,) of the 17th ult., I have been shown 

 a communication on the "cattle disease." I have 

 read it attentively. It is not my custom, sir, to 

 reply to any newspaper articles, unless the name 

 of the writer is affixed. My signature appears to 

 all my communications. When writers, like "Rus- 

 ticus," who animadvert on my communications, 

 make themselves known, I am always ready to 

 reply, if the case requires it. My reason for 

 being silent, at other times, is so apparent, that it 

 is hardly necessary to say that if I should adopt 

 a different course, I should probably have more 

 business on my hands than time to attend to it. 

 If your correspondent wishes to discuss the sub- 

 ject with me, he can do so, when I am informed 

 l)y his signature with whom the discussion is 

 carried on. And this I shall do, not for the pur- 

 pose of exalting myself, or of gaining notoriety ; 

 but only for the "common good," and so eluci- 

 date truth. "Rusticus" has, as it appears by his 

 communication, mistaken the meaning of my ar- 

 ticle in the Daily Advertiser, by writing about 

 the healtht/ function of the lungs, which I de- 

 scribed as in a diseased condition. I should be 

 pleased to continue this subject, provided it can 

 be done in a fair and gentlemanly way ; and that 

 my meaning may xvolhe purposely misunderstood. 



March 27, 1860. Chas. M. Wood, V. S. 



First Agricultural School. — The New 

 American Cyclopaedia states as a historical fact 

 that the first agricultural school was established 

 in 1790, near Berne, in Switzerland, by Emanuel 

 von Fellenberg ; that it is to his "illustrious ex- 

 ample and enthusiastic labors, that the civilized 

 world owes the present advanced state of agricul- 

 tural information. The benevolent enterprise of 

 Fellenberg was duo to the impulse given to his 

 mind in early youth by his mother, a lady of en- 

 larged sympathy, active, religious principle, and 

 intellectual ability." 



Scions. — Mr. A. G. Sheldon, of Wilmington, 

 thinks he has. such scions of the Red Astrachan 

 a])ples as are inquired for by "G. J.," of Somer- 

 viUe. 



