e»c  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
713 
Essential \ 
THE  claims  made  for  motor 
cars  are  varied  and  many. 
You  have  been  told  of  the 
speed  of  one  engine;  you  have 
read  reams  of  oratory  on  the 
great  power  of  another  engine; 
you  have  observed  the  stress 
laid  on  the  virtues  of  multi¬ 
cylinder  construction;  else¬ 
where  you  have  been  con¬ 
fronted  with  a  wide  sweeping 
array  of  superlatives  carefully 
substituted  for  concrete  and 
pertinent  facts. 
To  make  a  thoughtful  and 
intelligent  selection,  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  to  sift  the  essentials  from 
the  non-essentials,  because  there 
are  a  lot  of  things  said  that  are 
not  important,  even  if  true. 
Deciding  on  a  motor  car  for 
your  particular  needs  is  just  the 
same  as  making  any  other  kind 
of  a  decision.  You  must  dis¬ 
regard  the  unimportant  ele¬ 
ments  and  weigh  the  remaining 
facts  against  your  individual 
requirements. 
If  you  are  interested  in  a  car 
that  is  inexpensive  in  first  cost 
and  after-cost,  you  will  want  to 
investigate  the  Maxwell.  If  you 
attach  importance  to  sturdiness 
and  reliability,  you  should  know 
that  the  Maxwell  is  the  World’s 
Champion  Endurance  Car — it 
having  traveled  22,000  miles 
last  January  without  repairs,  re¬ 
adjustments  or  without  a  single 
motor  stop. 
If  you  are  concerned  with 
gasoline  and  tire  mileage,  you 
will  recall  that  on  this  22,000- 
mile  endurance  run  the  Maxwell 
stock  touring  car  averaged  al¬ 
most  22  miles  to  the  gallon  and 
over  9,000  miles  per  tire. 
In  the  end  you  must  be  the 
judge,  but  just  remember  that 
there  must  be  a  definite  reason 
for  a  production  approaching 
80,000  Maxwell  cars  this  year, 
and  for  40,000  having  been  sold 
last  year  in  American  farming 
districts  alone. 
Brief  Specification* 
engine,  *£  floating  rca 
1,960  pounds.  Eauic 
.  ~  r  -  _ - — —  —•>»>.  ..wuu'M^UV0  ywikit  \ 
°i?-e’ij*an  mo*ia,r  t°l>  with  envelope  and  quicfc-Bcijustable 
shield;  speedometer ;  spare  tire  carrier;  demountable 
service  stations,  51  district  branches, 
secured  anywhere  within  12  hours, 
other  body  styles. 
Four  cylinder  motor;  cone  clutch  running  in  oil 
*Ie;  left-hand  ttrerir.-,  50'  AWt  w 
;nf  Electric  head-ligbta  (with  dimmer)  and  tail-light 
fr>  /mu  nn  ri  _ .  .  t  1  .  .  •  .  ° 
— - ri  unit  transmission  (3  speeds')  bolted  tn 
:  tread’  103'  wheelbase;  30  x  3  tires;  weight 
head.lu.ht,  fw,th  - - ^  stortlge  battery-3;  electric  horn; 
storm  c:u rt tuns;  clear  vision,  double- ventilating  wind* 
.-,r|ms;  pump,  jack,  wrenches  and  tools.  Service— 16  complete 
wer  2,500  dea.crs  and  agents — arranged  and  organized  that  service  can  be 
Price*  2-Pavsengcr  Roadster,  ?63o;  5-Passenger  Touring  Car,  $655.  Three 
MOTOR  COMPANY,  DETROIT,  MICHIGAN 
Write  to  Dept.  25  for  our  catalog  giving  detailed  specifications  and  our  booklet 
“22,000  Miles  Without  Stopping.” 
Draining  a  Muck  Pasture 
IIow  can  I  improve  a  piece  of  muck 
pasture  that  is  too  wet  to  plow,  drainage 
not  practical  on  account,  of  poor  outlet? 
There  is  about  18  inches  of  black  muck 
on  top  of  hard  pan.  Years  ago  this  land 
raised  good  crops  of  hay,  but  now  there 
is  nothing  but  bog  grass  and  ferns. 
Would  Red-top  and  Alsiko  or  Sweet,  clo¬ 
ver  get  a  start  if  sown  on -this  land  when 
ground  has  frost  cracks  in  Spring,  and 
would  top-dressing  of  lime  help?  f. 
Highland,  N.  Y. 
You  should  have  some  expert  or  some 
one  familiar  with  drainage  problems  to 
look  at  that  pasture.  Some  of  these  low 
places  where  there  is  a  poor  outlet  may 
be  relieved  by  what  is  known  as  “vertical 
drainage.”  In  such  cases  the  muck  is 
underlaid  by  a  very  tough  bard  pan  soil 
through  which  the  water  cannot  soak 
away  readily.  The  result  is  that  the 
water  remains  in  the  muck,  and  having 
no  surface  outlet  stagnates  and  will  not 
run  off.  If  this  hardpan  or  tough  soil  is 
in  its  turn  underlaid  by  gravel  or  sand, 
the  water  can  be  made  to  run  down 
through  the  subsoil,  enter  the  sand  or 
gravel,  and  thus  pass  off.  This  has  fre¬ 
quently  been  dony  with  good  success.  The 
way  to  do  it  is  to  bore  or  dig  a  well  down 
through  the  hardpan  into  the  gravel,  stop¬ 
ping  before  the  regular  water  level  is 
reached.  A  large  tile  may  be  placed  in 
this  well  or  the  bottom  of  it  may  be  filled 
with  stone.  In  very  wet  swamps,  drains 
of  tile  or  stones  are  run,  emptying  into 
this  well.  Thus  the  water  is  drained 
away  from  the  soil  into  these  surface 
drains.  It  runs  into  the  well,  and  fol¬ 
lowing  to  the  bottom  passes  off  through 
the  strata  of  gravel  and  sand.  Of  course 
this  plan  would  he  only  practical  where 
there  is  such  open  soil  below  the  liard- 
pan.  In  case  the  water  level  in  the  soil 
is  closed  up  in  the  hardpan  this  plan 
would  not  work  to  advantage,  but  there 
are  many  situations  where  it  would  work 
well,  and  in  fact  about  the  only  plan  for 
drying  out  such  a  swamp.  No  one  of 
course  can  guarantee  the  success  of  such 
an  experiment,  and  it  would  pay  you  to 
have  some  man  familiar  with  soils  look 
over  the  land  and  give  his  opinion  about 
it.  This  ought  to  be  a  good  job  for  the 
agent  of  your  Country  Farm  Bureau, 
who  can  be  reached  at  Kingston,  N.  Y. 
It  is  not  likely  that  lime  would  benefit 
this  pasture  very  much  unless  there  is 
a  good  system  of  drainage.  Alsiko  clo¬ 
ver  and  Red-top  do  well  in  some  damp 
places,  but  not  in  sour  and  stagnant  soil. 
Stone  Ditches 
We  have  a  strip  of  land  which  is  very 
low.  wet  and  soggy.  It  has  three  or  four 
ditches  to  drain  to,  but  it  is  too  wet  to 
cultivate  well.  If  we  should  dig  ditches 
three  or  four  feet  deep  and  fill  them  with 
stone,  would  it  be  better  than  the  plain 
ditches?  W.  H.  A, 
Worcester,  Mass. 
We  have  been  through  this  draining 
proposition  fully.  If  open  ditches  are 
kept  cleaned  out  thoroughly,  aud  dug  out 
now  and  then,  they  will  give  fair  satisfac¬ 
tion,  except  tli at  it  becomes  a  nuisance  to 
plow  around  them,  and  you  will  lose  the 
use  of  much  soil.  For  a  covered  ditch, 
drain  tile  does  the  best  tvork,  and  it 
usually  pays  to  spend  money  for  them. 
Some  stone  ditches  are  quite  satisfactory, 
but  the  plan  of  throwing  loose  stones 
right  into  the  ditch,  filling  it  in  this  way, 
will  not  prove  satisfactory.  Sooner  or 
later  such  a  ditch  will  fill  up,  as  there  is 
not  enough  flow  through  the  stones  to 
carry  the  sediment  fully  away.  The  best 
way  to  use  stone  is  to  make  a  good-sized 
throat  at  the  bottom  of  the  ditch.  This  is 
done  by  setting  up  three  large  stones  at 
the  bottom,  one  on  each  side,  and  one 
across  the  top.  It  would  be  better  to 
have  these  stoues  flat  if  possible,  though 
this  is  not  entirely  necessary.  The  object 
is  to  make  a  good-sized  open  passage  on 
the  bottom  of  the  ditch,  and  give  it  a  good 
grade  so  that  the  water  will  run  freely 
away.  When  this  throat  of  stone  is  care¬ 
fully  made,  field  stones  may  be  raked  and 
piled  into  the  ditch,  the  smaller  ones  just 
above  the  throat,  and  the  larger  ones  up 
within  a  foot  or  15  inches  of  the  top. 
Such  drains  well  made  will  run  freely  for 
years,  and  in  some  circumstances  give 
good  results,  but  you  cauuot  expect  long 
service  where  the  stones  are  simply  dump¬ 
ed  into  the  ditch  without  any  throat  and 
left  in  that  way. 
