4889 
577 
THE RURAL MEW-Y9RKER. 
Portage, Columbia County, August 13.— 
Grain is all harvested and mostly stacked i n 
this part of the country. Spring wheat is 
badly rusted, winter wheat and oats good-, 
corn is growing finely, but will need all of 
September without frost to give an average 
crop. Stock of all kinds, excepting sheep, very 
low; Stockers and feeders from $1.50 to $2.25 
per cwt.; this includes butchers’ cattle. 
Milch cows from $18 to $25 per head; hogs 
from #2.50 to $3 80 per cwt.; store sheep from 
$1.75 to $3.00 per head. a. e. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 
Every query must bo accompauled by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see if it is not answered in 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper. J 
WIDE-TIRED WAGONS. 
Several Subscribers. —What advantages are 
claimed for wide-tired wagons? What is the 
additional cost of the wide tires? For what 
purposes are the wide tires mainly used? 
Would it pay a farmer to have two sets of 
wheels, one wide and the other narrow-tired? 
Ans. —These questions have been referred 
to a number of manufacturers, and also to 
some farmers who have used the wide tires. 
The following answers give all the informa¬ 
tion we have obtained. If any of our readers 
have anything more to offer, we shall be 
pleased to have them send it along. 
FROM THE KING & HAMILTON CO. 
The difference in cost is from three to eight 
dollars according to the size of tire. Wido 
tires are good for sandy or soft roads. They 
don’t sink so deeply or rut so badly. On soft 
roads wide tires are the lightest draft; on 
hard roads or with empty wagons we consider 
narrow tires best. We consider narrow tires 
best on hillside. We do not consider wide 
tires suitable for all kinds of road. 
Ottawa, Ill. 
FROM S. W. CHAPMAN. 
I sell a three and a-half-inch tire, low¬ 
wheeled wagon, three feet two inch and 
three feet six inch wheels, which gives better 
satisfaction for farm use than any other 
wagon I sell for these reasons: They do not 
cut up the meadows or the roads, and are bet¬ 
ter adapted for uso on the farm, because they 
are lower and easier to load with hay, ma¬ 
nure, etc. They do not fail in any particular. 
It would not pay a farmer at the present low 
price of wagons to have two sets of wheels, 
for I am convinced no farmer would use an}- 
other wagon for farm purposes than these 
trucks if he once used them, unless he had 
teaming to do on bad, rutty roads. The prop¬ 
er thing for our supervisors to do would be 
to reduce every farmer’s road tax, who would 
use a three and a-half-inch tire on his wagons. 
Then we would have better roads in Illinois. 
Elgin, Ill. 
FROM THE MITCHELL & LEWIS CO. 
The difference in cost of broad tires is $5 
per inch. The advantage of broad tires: In 
sandy roads the wheels will not sink so deep¬ 
ly, making draft lighter. The draft on a 
hard road is about the same as a narrow one, 
possibly a trifle more, as they present a great¬ 
er surface for friction and resistance. Broad 
tires are better in sand, narrow on a hard, 
hill road; in mud a narrow felloe will hold 
less mud, therefore wo think it is preferable. 
The broad-tired wheels on wagons are getting 
into favor more and more every year They 
are certainly better for the roads as they do 
not cut up the road nearly as badly as the nar¬ 
row tires. Speaking from a manufacturer’s 
standpoint, we would prefer to make the reg¬ 
ular, narrow-tired wagon, as there is less de¬ 
tail about it, unless a certain width could be 
universally adopted all over the country. 
This would certainly t>e a great thing for 
keeping the couutry roads in good condition. 
Racine, VVis. 
FROM M.J. SNIVELY, 
Wide-tired wagons are mostly used as farm 
wagons and with three to four-iuch tire. A 
team can draw a heavy load over soft ground 
where a narrow tire would sink down with the 
same load and leave the ground in bad shape. 
In hauling hay, grain and manure a wide- 
tired wagon is preferable at all times. When 
a farmer has but one wagon, it will pay him 
to have two sets of wheels, as it takes but little 
time to change. Farmers in this section us¬ 
ually have two wagons: one with narrow, 
and one with wide tires; the narrow tires are 
used for road purposes, and the wide tires can 
be used on the road equally as well, provided 
all wagons have wide tires. As most of the 
road wagons are narrow-ttred, in the spring 
season when the roads are soft, they plow up 
the roads with deep furrows and make it 
harder for a wide tire. If all wagons were 
wide-tired we would have much better roads, 
and I think the day is not far distant when 
wide-tired wagons will be used exclusively. 
Stark County, Ohio. 
FROM THE E. D. CLAPP WAGON COMPANY. 
The difference in the cost between the wide- 
tires and the regular width is at the rate of 
§1.20 per 3 4 inch. The advantage claimed 
for wide tires is that In soft ground they do 
not cut down like narrow tires which, of 
course, makes a difference in the draft of the 
wagon. We should think the narrow-tired 
wagon would run easier in the mud and a wide- 
tired one would run easier in the sand. We 
do not think broad tires are used to any ex¬ 
tent on the roads unless the Jaws of the city 
or county where they are run compel it. 
Auburn, N. Y. 
FROM BRADLEY & CO. 
As we make light work exclusively, the sub¬ 
ject of the width of tire does not come up in 
our business. To give you an idea of what 
the people of Syracuse think on thW subject, 
we would say that there is an ordinance mak¬ 
ing it a misdemeanor subject to fine to draw 
heavy wagons over our paved streets with 
narrow tires. All wagons here used for de¬ 
livering building stone, brick, coal, ice, etc., 
have at least four-inch tires. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
FROM THE CHAMPION WAGON COMPANY. 
We find it a very difficult matter to answer 
your favor of recent date, in regard to width 
of tires. While we may have an opinion, yet 
it is based entirely on theory and may be very 
wide of the mark, and there is such a diver¬ 
sity of opinion among our customers, that it 
is a difficult matter to draw conclusions from 
our experience with the trade. The average 
width of tire for a lumber wagon is one and 
one-halt |inch. Our price for wagons is 
based on tire of this width. For tires wider 
than this, we charge at the rate of $5 00 per 
inch, for all in excess of one and one-half 
inch for four wheels. Our experience has been 
that most farmers use wide tires, because they 
do not cut up their meadows as badly as nar¬ 
row tires. In many localities, users of wagons 
are forced to use broad tires by the street 
commissioners, who will not allow heavy 
loads with narrow tires to be used on the 
highways. On good roads, the narrow-tired 
wagon is of lighter draught, as the wheels are 
not so heavy, and on muddy roads the draught 
is also in favor of the narrow tire, for the rea¬ 
son that the mud will pile up in front of the 
wide tires, while the narrow tires will cut 
through it. On meadow land, there is no 
question but that the wide tire has the lighter 
draft for reasons that are palpable. 
Owego, N. Y. 
FROM THE WEBER WAGON CO. 
The difference in cost between the narrow 
and broad tires on a three or Sj^-inch cast 
skein farm wagon, would be about $5.00. 
The advantages claimed for broad tires are 
that they will not sink into the ground as 
deoply as the narrow tires where it is soft or 
marshy; then, when running over meadows, 
they will not cut up the soil as much as the nar¬ 
row-tired wagons. The draft on soft or marshy 
ground is much lighter than with the narrow 
tire for the reason that it will not sink into 
the ground as deeply as the latter. The broad- 
tired wagon is the better of the two for either 
sandy or muddy roads. The only objection 
to it on black ground, is that most of the wag¬ 
ons which are used have narrow-tires and 
the ruts being correspondingly narrow, the 
broad tires are apt to wedge and draw heavier. 
If the broad tires were used generally, there is 
no question but what the roads would be bet¬ 
ter and the ruts not so deep. 
Chicago, Ill. 
FROM B. A. GARLINGER. 
Our customers prefer wide tires, because 
they are charged only one-half toll on our 
turnpikes. An additional advantage in favor 
of wide tires in hauling through the fields is 
that wide tires will not cut up the ground as 
much as narrow tires. I know of but 
oue place where they would fail, and that 
would be on a mud road in very wet weather; 
there the narrow tires would have a slight ad¬ 
vantage. I do not think it would pay here to 
have two sets of wheels. 
Hagerstown, Md. 
FROM W. H. WILCOX. 
For farmers wide tire3 are especially prefer¬ 
able, because they do not cut up the meadows 
like narrow tires; on soft or muddy ground or 
roads, a load draws easier as it does not cut 
down so deeply. They are preferable under 
all circumstances, except on hard, stony 
roads. I do not think it would pay a farmer 
to have two sets of wheels. Farmers are us¬ 
ing wide-tired wagons very extensively in 
this section now, and I think it will be only 
a few years before the narrow tire will go out 
of use almost entirely. 
St. Charles, Ill. 
FROM J. B. RUNKLES. 
Here are several reasons why we prefer the 
wide-tired wagons: Half toll on our pikes; 
they will not turn over on hillsides so easily 
as the narrow-tired; they will not plow up 
the ground so deeply. We do not want the 
narrow-tired wagon at any price. 
WATER PIPES FOR 40 RODS. 
E. D. O., Ashbumham, Mass. —I wish to 
bring water to my dwelling through a half¬ 
inch lead pipe from a distance of 40 rods, 
during which there is a fall of 18 feet. Is 
there any other kind of pipe equally good, but 
costing less? How deep in the ground should 
the pipe be laid, if the water run constantly 
in cold weather? Will water running through 
a half-inch pipe in frozen ground freeze if the 
stream is only one-eighth of an inch in di¬ 
ameter? Will pretty sharp angles in the pipe 
greatly affect the velocity of the flow? Is 
there any way of testing the purity of the 
water? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
Lead pipe is objectionable for the con¬ 
veyance of water, because of the injurious 
effect of the water upon the metal. All water 
contains more or les3 carbonic acid, and this 
acid acts on the lead all the more strongly as 
the purity of the water is greater. When the 
water contains lime—that is, when it is 
“hard” water—in time a coating of the lime 
is deposited in the pipe and protects the lead 
from this action. The rustless iron pipe, the 
inner and outer surfaces of which are changed 
by a chemical process into insoluble magnetic 
oxide of iron, is the only reallv safe pipe to 
use for conveying water for domestic use or 
for animals. This pipe, however, is rigid, and 
cannot be bent so easily as lead pipe, but it 
may be curved to a considerable extent when 
desired, or angle unions may be used to 
change the course to a right angle or less, as 
the case may be; 600 feet of this pipe or nearly 
40 rods in length have been laid by tho writer 
in a semi-circle around a hill without using 
these angular unions, the pipes bending suffi¬ 
ciently for the purpose. The cost is much less 
than that of lead pipe, and being free from 
rust, it is indestructible. A half-inch pipe i9 
too small to carry water 40 rods, as the flow is 
so much retarded by friction and adhesion of 
the water. If the pipe be protected by a 
covering of straw a few inches deep before 
the trench is filled in, there will be no danger 
of freezing although the ground may be 
frozen around the pipe, if it he laid two 
to three feet deep. The greatest trouble 
in a pipe laid nearer the surface is in the hot 
weather, when the ground being warmed ex¬ 
pands the free air in the pipe—the pipe al¬ 
ways contains more or less air as the water 
will not fill it because the flow is always 
retarded more or less in all small pipes—and 
this expansion of air at any vertical bend of 
the pipe, which cannot be avoided without 
very accurate laying or an exact plane, will 
reduce the flow or stop it unless the flow is 
occasionally re-enforced by forcing in water 
under pressure to drive out the air. This 
accumulation of air in pipes gives a great 
deal of trouble, the cause of which is not sus¬ 
pected, when the pipes are subjected to an 
increased temperature in the summer by be¬ 
ing laid near the surface. A high head, of 
course, by affording more pressure and a 
larger flow will prevent this, if the vertical 
bends are not much more than the diameter 
of the pipe. Sharp turns have a considerably 
retarding effect upon the flow and would be 
sufficient to stop it in a half-inch pipe 600 feet 
long. A chemical analysis is required to test 
the purity of water, especially for the pres¬ 
ence of lead in it. The soluoility of lead is so 
great, when exposed to the action of a cur¬ 
rent of spring water, as to render it certain 
that the water would be made unsafe in a 
short time. I would suggest that a one- 
inch rustless iron pipe should be used, and 
laid as evenly as possible in a carefully 
graded trench not less than two feet deep 
with a covering of leaves, straw, sawdust or 
of narrow boards, so as to leave an air space 
around the pipe. There will then be no diffi¬ 
culty in the conveyance of the water, and no 
injurious effect or even any taste of the iron. 
The pipe is frequently mentioned in'thejbusl- 
ness columns. 
GRAPES ON LIGHT BLACK DRIFT SOILS; A 
STRAWBERRY BED; RHUBARB WINE. 
P. T. N., Weston, Neb. —1. My 80-acre farm 
of creek-bottom land has two feet of black soil 
underlaid with 50 feet of yellow clay. It pro¬ 
duces good crops of corn and small grains, 
but grape-vines se* out two years ago have 
made only a poor growth. Would it be well 
to use gravel on the land ? The ground has 
been made rich with manure. 2. How shall 
I prepare land for strawberries to be set out 
next spring ? 3. How can I make wine out of 
rhubarb ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
1. On the black drift soils east of the Missouri 
divide there are patches of black, muck bot¬ 
tom land on which it is difficult to grow the 
grape or any other garden fruit. But even 
the bottom lands of the Missouri Valley and 
the creek valleys of Kansas and Nebraska 
have enough potash and other essentials of 
healthy plant growth. From past observa¬ 
tion I suspect the main trouble with these 
vines comes from too shallow planting. To 
illustrate: A large farmer on the Missouri 
bottom assured me that he had planted Con¬ 
cord vines repeatedly, but that they had 
dwindled away, and that he did not believe 
the vine could be profitably grown on such 
soil. I requested him to try once more by 
planting the vines 18 inches deep , filling in 
the soil gradually as they made growth. 
In the Spring of 1884, he put out 100 vines in 
this way, and he is now proud of his little 
vineyard. If planted shallow on such light 
porous soil, the roots are injured by the deep 
freezing during their first stages of growth. 
But on such soil, it is not best to apply stable 
manure, at least not while the vines are young. 
2. The ground should be plowed in the fall, 
the action of fro3t during the winter pulveri¬ 
zes and mellows the soil, and lessens the 
danger of the plants being destroyed by cut¬ 
worms. On such soil, no manure is needed. 
3. The juice from the rhubarb stems is man¬ 
aged in a small way precisely as we manage 
the juice of the grape, currant, gooseberry, 
etc., for home-made wines. The best variety 
for this use is the Linnaeus, but at best it is a 
poor substitute for well-made wine from the 
grape or from about any one of our garden 
fruits. 
CRYSTALLIZED AND GLACED FRUITS. 
Several Subscribers.— What is the process 
employed by California packers in preserving 
fruits, etc.? 
Ans. —The process employed in preserving 
fruits in a crystallized or glaced form is a 
French process, having been employed in 
that country for many years. The theory is 
to extract the juice from the fruit and replace 
it with sugar sirup, which hardens and pre¬ 
serves the fruit in its natural shape. The 
fruit should all be of one size and of a uniform 
degree of ripeness, such as is best for canning. 
Peaches, pears, and similar fruits are pared 
and cut in halves; plums, cherries, etc., are 
pitted. After being properly prepared, the 
fruit is put in a basket or bucket with a per¬ 
forated bottom, and immersed in boiling 
water to dilute and extract the juice. This 
is the most important part of the process, 
and requires great skill. If the fruit be 
left too long, it is over-cooked and becomes 
soft; if not long enough the juice is not suffi¬ 
ciently extracted, and this prevents perfect 
absorption of the sugar. After the fruit 
cools, it may again be assorted as to softness. 
The sirup is made of white sugar and water. 
The softer the fruit, the heavier the sirup re¬ 
quired. The fruit is placed in earthen pans, 
covered with sirup, and left about a 
week. Tnis is a critical stage, as fermenta¬ 
tion will soon take place, and when this has 
reached a certain stage the fruit and sirup 
are heated to the boiling-point, which checks 
the fermentation. This is repeated, as often 
as may be necessary, for about six weeks. 
The fruit is then taken out of the sirup, wash¬ 
ed in clean water and either glaced or crystall¬ 
ized, as desired. It is dipped in thick sugar 
sirup, and hardened quickly in the open air 
for glaciug, or left to harden slowly if to be 
crystallized. The fruit is now ready for 
packing, and is said to keep in any climate. 
The business should not be attempted by in¬ 
experienced persons except on a small scale. 
COLORING BUTTER. 
T. M., Randolph, Dak. —In coloring butter 
for shipment where there are several churn¬ 
ings in the tub, how cau butter color be used 
so that the butter will be all quite uniform in 
shade ! 
ANSWERED BY E. L. BASS, SECRETARY VER¬ 
MONT DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
I do not approve of packing more than one 
churning in a tub. The packages should be 
adapted to the size„of„the dairy so that one 
or more may be filled at each churning. ^ Much 
