8i4 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Dec.  10 
J.  S.  Harris,  Minn. — On  page  741,  C. 
1.  F.  asks  why  are  there  hard  places  in 
sweet  and  sour  apples,  making  them  very 
poor  for  cooking  or  eating?  If  he  were 
located  in  this  Western  region,  without 
first  seeing  the  affected  fruit  he  would 
attribute  the  injury  to  one  of  two  causes: 
first,  a  fungus  in  the  nature  of  scab 
which  develops  in  neglected  orchards, 
and  on  worn  out  soils.  Wherever  it  gets 
a  hold  upon  the  growing  fruit  the  spot 
affected  is  stunted  and  never  will  become 
mellow  and  melting.  The  remedy  would 
be  manuring,  pruning  and  cultivation  or 
thorough  renovation,  or,  better  yet, 
planting  a  new  orchard  on  new  ground. 
2.  Here  in  Minnesota  many  orchards  are 
infested  with  an  insect  called  the  apple 
curculio  or  apple  gouger  (Anthonomus 
quadrigibbus)  which  does  considerable 
injury  by  puncturing  the  apples  both  for 
food  and  for  the  reception  of  the  eggs. 
The  spot  where  the  fruit  has  been  punc¬ 
tured  ceases  to  grow  and  becomes  hard 
and  woody.  One  or  two  of  the  spots  on 
an  apple  will  not  be  much  noticed  ex¬ 
cept  as  they  appear  as  depressions  on  the 
surface,  but  a  number  of  them  give  the 
fruit  a  very  knotty  appearance  and  ren¬ 
der  it  unfit  for  use.  Such  fruit  is  always 
the  worst  and  most  numerous  in  uncul¬ 
tivated  and  neglected  orchards.  The 
pest  can  be  kept  in  check  by  jarring  it 
from  the  tree  and  catching  and  destroy¬ 
ing  it  like  the  plum  curculio,  and,  most 
likely,  continuous  spraying  with  Paris- 
green  might  effect  the  same  result.  The 
presence  of  pigs  in  the  orchard  is  the 
best  remedy  that  has  come  under  my 
notice,  but  it  takes  two  or  three  seasons 
to  get  entirely  rid  of  the  nuisances. 
J.  B.  G.,  Wheeling,  W.  Va. — If  C.  I.  F. 
will  closely  observe  the  apple  trees  from 
the  time  the  fruit  begins  to  form  until  it 
is  full-grown,  he  will  find  that  the  cur¬ 
culio  is  the  cause  of  nearly  all  the  trou¬ 
ble.  It  begins  to  sting  the  apple  before 
it  gets  to  be  the  size  of  a  common  cherry, 
and  somehow  it  sometimes  happens  that 
the  eggs  will  not  hatch,  perhaps  because 
the  rapid  growth  of  the  fruit  injures  them. 
After  inserting  its  beak,  the  pest  often 
fails  to  deposit  the  egg.  As  the  apple 
increases  in  size,  the  sting  mark  be¬ 
comes  less  visible,  and,  when  it  gets  to 
be  of  full  size,  the  skin  may  be  as  smooth 
as  any  other  part  of  the  fruit.  The  point 
of  injury  is  readily  located  by  the  depres¬ 
sion,  which  may  be  as  distinctly  marked 
as  the  calyx.  This  goes  to  show  that  the 
curculio  sting  is  very  injurious,  whether 
the  egg  is  deposited  or  not.  It  almost 
retards  any  further  development  of  the 
fruit  at  that  particular  point,  and  the 
flesh  is  very  much  condensed  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  remainder  of  the  apple. 
Depend  upon  it,  if  the  flesh  of  fruit  is  not 
uniform  throughout,  it  has  been  in¬ 
jured  in  some  way,  and  all  the  healthy 
nutrition  that  can  be  made  available, 
will  not  develop  the  injured  part.  The 
only  thing  to  do  is  to  prevent  injury. 
Neglected.  Farms. 
Farmers’  Girt.,  Ohio. — Much  has  been 
written  about  poor,  abandoned  farms, 
but  who  can  estimate  the  number  of  good 
farms  that  are  daily  neglected?  In  the 
spring  we  moved  from  southern  Ohio  from 
a  well  improved  farm  consisting  of  rather 
poor  soil  to  an  unimproved  farm  contain¬ 
ing  some  of  the  best  land  in  central  Ohio, 
but  such  a  neglected  farm  was  never 
seen!  No  fences,  no  buildings,  not  even 
a  single  field  or  lot  on  the  place  that 
would  hold  stock,  and  yet  it  had  formerly 
been  a  dairy  farm  and  20  cows  had  been 
kept  there.  A  rotting  sill  caused  by  letting 
the  water  from  the  eaves  seep  under  it 
had  been  neglected  until  the  barn  was 
ready  to  fall,  The  granary  was  in  the 
same  condition,  and  the  chickens  were 
sheltered  under  a  roof  made  of  corn  fod¬ 
der  ;  yet  the  land  is  worth  $100  an  acre. 
A  hill  of  about  an  acre  above  the  house 
has  20  springs  on  it  and  yet  the  water 
was  allowed  to  run  to  waste,  while  those 
20  cows  were  “hustled  ”  out  every  day  in 
winter  and  driven  into  the  public  road  to 
drink  from  a  public  watering  trough, 
while  that  water  could  have  been  carried 
to  the  top  of  the  bank  barn  without  reach¬ 
ing  its  level.  To  obtain  water  for  the 
house  a  trip  was  made  clear  across  the 
back  yard  to  the  milk  house,  a  boarded 
up  structure  built  ages  ago.  A  little 
money  and  work  would  have  run  that 
water  into  every  room  in  the  house.  No 
wonder  the  former  owner  broke  up,  and 
the  farm  was  sold  at  sheriff’s  sale  ! 
Neglect ! 
Our  new  neighbors  very  kindly  told  us 
how  to  run  this  farm.  One  field  should 
not  be  put  to  corn  because  the  ground 
was  so  rich  the  weeds  would  take  the 
crop.  We  couldn’t  raise  garden  truck  on 
the  garden  spot  because  joint  grass  had 
gained  possession  there,  but  we  put  the 
field  in  corn  and  will  have  100  bushels  to 
the  acre,  and  not  a  weed  over  six  inches 
high  could  be  seen  when  the  ground  was 
harrowed  for  wheat,  and  we  raised  good 
vegetables  on  that  garden  spot,  but  we 
first  spaded  out,  dried  and  burnt  over  two 
barrels  of  joint  grass  roots.  Surely  the 
former  owners  had  tried  to  smother  the 
life  out  of  the  stuff  by  simply  spading  it 
under.  Why,  a  piece  of  joint  grass  an 
inch  long  if  left  in  mellow  ground  will 
send  up  a  dozen  shoots  and  soon  form  a 
bunch  of  tangled  joint  roots  larger  than 
a  pint  cup. 
Many  farmers  try  to  own  and  farm  too 
much  land.  Ground  that  should  and 
would  bring  100  bushels  of  corn  to  the 
acre,  only  yields  from  60  to  70,  and  a  lux¬ 
uriant  crop  of  weeds. 
Flow  of  Water  In  Pipes. 
H.  S.,  Macon  County,  N.  C. — The  trou¬ 
ble  with  the  water  flowing  through  his 
pipes,  mentioned  by  G.  A.  P.,  on  page 
726,  is  not  due  to  the  evaporation,  as  he 
thinks.  This  could  hardly  affect  the 
water  in  the  pipes  or  the  behavior  of  the 
spring.  I  have  made  some  discoveries 'n 
this  respect  the  past  few  years,  during 
which  I  have  been  using  the  water  from 
a  spring  brought  about  600  feet  in  pipes. 
During  the  nights  and  cool  days,  and  all 
through  the  winter,  the  flow  is  all  right, 
but  in  the  hot  days  of  summer  it  almost 
stops,  although  there  is  sufficient  head 
to  give  a  good  stream.  After  studying 
this  out,  I  came  to  this  conclusion  :  in 
laying  any  pipe  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  per¬ 
fect  grade  without  enough  deflection 
vertically  to  equal  the  thickness  of  the 
pipe.  When  the  pipe  “sags”  down 
in  this  way,  it  is  quite  easy  for  any 
one  who  understands  the  manner  in 
which  air  is  expanded  or  contracted 
under  changes  of  temperature,  and 
what  a  quantity  of  air  is  contained 
in  spring  water,  to  realize  these  re¬ 
sults  of  the  great  changes  of  tempera¬ 
ture  in  the  pipe,  which  occur  in  hot  days 
and  cool  niglits.  There  is  always  more 
air  than  water  in  the  pipe,  for  the  reason 
that,  as  the  velocity  of  the  flow  increases 
on  account  of  the  fall,  and  the  volume  of 
the  stream  is  diminished  by  this  in¬ 
creased  velocity,  a  smaller  bulk  of 
water  escapes  from  the  outlet  than  flows 
in  at  the  head.  The  pipe  is  full  at  the 
head,  but  may  not  run  half  full  at  the 
outlet,  or  possibly  not  a  quarter  full  in 
a  long  pipe.  Then  it  is  inevitable  that 
the  space  in  the  pipe  not  occupied  by 
the  water  is  filled  with  air.  This  air, 
condensed  by  the  coolness  of  the  night, 
occupies  less  space  than  in  the  heat  of 
the  day,  when  the  ground  at  times  is 
very  warm.  I  have  found  it  to  be  of  a 
temperature  of  125  degrees  at  noon  in 
the  hottest  weather.  This  air  occupies 
the  bends,  either  wholly  or  partially, 
and,  if  these  are  more  than  the  diameter 
of  the  pipe,  the  water  may  be  wholly  ex¬ 
cluded  from  those  parts  of  the  latter, 
and  then  the  flow  stops,  or,  if  only  partly 
so,  the  flow  is  diminished  in  proportion. 
When  under  the  effects  of  heat,  this  air 
expands,  the  pipe  is  closed  to  the  water, 
to  a  varying  extent,  or  it  may  be  quite 
closed.  When  the  air  condenses  in  the 
night,  or  in  the  cold  weather,  this  does 
not  occur ;  the  condensation  makes  a 
partial  vacuum,  and  the  pressure  at  the 
head  starts  the  flow  again.  It  is  pre¬ 
cisely  like  what  are  known  as  intermit¬ 
tent  springs  that  flow  and  stop  as  the 
weather  changes  from  hot  to  cold. 
I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  forcing  out 
this  gathered  air  from  the  pipe  by  screw¬ 
ing  on  an  additional  length,  with  a  bend, 
so  as  to  make  a  head  of  six  or  eight  feet 
more,  and  pouring  water  into  this  by 
means  of  a  funnel  (a  force  pump  would  be 
better)  and  this  extra  pressure  forces  out 
the  air,  and  the  stream  runs  again  for  a 
few  days.  This  has  never  been  needed 
in  the  winter. 
The  explanation  of  the  alleged  rising 
of  the  stream  because  of  evaporation  of 
the  water  in  dry  weather  and  the  satura¬ 
tion  of  the  atmosphere,  seems  to  me  to 
be  quite  insufficient ;  for  one  reason, 
how  can  this  evaporated  water  be  re¬ 
turned  to  the  stream  again,  when,  in  the 
form  of  vapor,  it  must  be  carried  miles 
away  from  it  ?  and,  moreover,  it  cannot 
be  in  any  case  more  in  amount  than  a 
heavy  dew.  We  have  heard  of  steam¬ 
boats  of  such  light  draft  on  the  Upper 
Missouri  that  they  ran  over  to  the  Red 
River  of  the  North  on  nights  when  the 
dew  was  unusually  heavy,  but  this  is  the 
first  time  a  mill  has  been  run  by  the  dew. 
I  have  been  running  water  mills  most  of 
the  time  for  40  years  or  so,  but  have 
never  discovered  any  indication  of  this 
alleged  rise  of  the  water,  and  never  found 
that  one  foot  more  of  lumber  was  ever 
cut  in  a  night  than  in  a  day.  The  sup¬ 
posed  excess  of  power  is  nothing  but  the 
increase  in  the  noise  and  rattle  heard 
“  oft  in  the  stilly  night.” 
(Continued  on  next  page.) 
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