654 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 29 
CORN AND HELP IN MINNESOTA. 
One Plenty, the Other Scarce. 
On page 547 the Hope Farm man pats himself on 
the back with such a self-satisfied air over his corn 
crop. “Six feet high on the first day of August,” he 
says. I had always supposed that corn was in its na¬ 
tive element on New Jersey soil. Here in Minnesota 
where, according to New York tradition, icebergs are 
supposed to be indigenous to the soil, and where, un¬ 
til within a few years, corn and oranges were . :ced 
in the same category, so far as agricultural possi¬ 
bilities were concerned, six-foot corn August 1, is 
looked upon as a very modest and unassuming 
growth. I have a 10-acre field of yellow dent that 
stood nine feet strong on August 1, and,when ready 
for cutting September 1, averaged over 12 feet with 
a larger portion of the stalks measuring 14 feet to 
tip of tassel. In walking through it I have counted 
seven ears on one stalk in many places, and several 
corn experts in the neighborhcod have 
estimated the yield at 100 to 120 bush¬ 
els per acre. 1 Of ears, we assume.— 
Eds.] The land is a rather light, loamy 
soil, seeded to Timothy and clover in 
1897 and 1898. The Winter or 1898-1899 
killed all the clover; the Timothy was 
thin and the land quite foul. Last year 
we put in potatoes with only moderate 
results. This year all the available 
manure was hauled out early (about 
100 loads) and the land plowed as soon 
as fit to work. The harrow was run 
over the piece three times between 
plowing and planting, once after plant¬ 
ing before corn was up, and once when 
corn was about two inches high. This, 
in spite of tne excited protests of the 
Frenchman, who was doing the work, 
that it “will spoil ze crop,” “tear it all 
up by the roots,” etc. The cultivator 
was then started and kept steadily at 
work as long as we could get through 
the rows. 
I planted the corn with many mis¬ 
givings. The ground was very dry—no 
snow all Winter, and no rains made 
the ground at planting time like an 
ash heap. We used a hand planter, 
setting it pretty deep. It took the corn 
nearly two weeks to show its head 
at least above ground, but from that 
time on, in spite of the fact that we 
had no rain whatever until July 2, it 
made a steady, rapid growth, and now 
bids fair to show, for this section of 
the country, a phenomenal yield of 
large, well-matured ears, with a quan¬ 
tity of fodder that almost staggers me. 
All this goes to prove what has been 
said many times before, that thorough 
preparation of the soil and the free use 
of the harrow and cultivator will cover 
a multitude of sins of omission on the 
part of the weather man. This being- 
true, and the process so simple, why 
should there not be better crops, both 
in quantity and quality? 
The question of help is becoming a 
serious problem in the Northwest. The 
better class of farm laborers are rap¬ 
idly drifting into the newer sections, 
where land is plentiful and cheap, to 
make homes for themselves, leaving 
only the shiftless, never-do-weels for 
the farmers to rely (Heaven save the mark) upon. 
These fellows want and get $25 to $30 per month, 
with board, room and washing thrown m. Most of 
them demand three hot, hearty meals per day, and 
perhaps they need them, but it is death to the wom¬ 
en of the household. Indoor help is impossible to get 
at any price. Where I live, five miles from the cen¬ 
ter of a large city, and but one mile from the limits 
and good street-car service, girls refuse $3 and $4 per 
week—even those who are not competent for any¬ 
thing but the roughest work. Is it any wonder that 
the boys and girls, seeing Father and Mother driven 
like galley slaves 14 to 16 nours out every 24 the year 
round, growing prematurely old in body, with their 
mental activities dwarfed and smothered by the 
ceaseless grind, hate the farm and bend every energy 
toward getting away from it? If our boys and girls 
are to be kept where they might under proper con¬ 
ditions, be infinitely happier than in our already over¬ 
crowded cities, some way must be devised to lessen 
in some degree the killing work that now seems an 
inseparable part of farm life. Who will be the Moses 
to lead our farmers and their devoted families out of 
the wilderness of constant, grinding brain and nerve¬ 
killing ton into the promised land of peace, content¬ 
ment and that mental and spiritual growth which is 
their rightful portion? w. s. wingate. 
Hennepin Co., Minn. 
BUILDING AN ICE HOUSE. 
How Best to Keep Ice. 
Part I. 
I have a small place in the country, 15 acres and im¬ 
provements. I need a small ice house. Will you give in¬ 
formation regarding the same? I expect‘it to cost me 
from $100 to $150. M. E. r. 
Baltimore, Md. 
RELATIVE COLD AND HEAT.—Ice is a cold thing 
and it is really much colder than we are apt to think 
ic to be. When it first forms its temperature is 32 
degrees, out as it is exposed to greater cold it of 
course becomes colder in proportion to the degree of 
cold it is exposed to, as any other substance is. What 
we have to consider just now is its actual tempera¬ 
ture when we are about to use it as the most con¬ 
venient cooling agent we have. This temperature is 
32 degrees, which is that at which the water it con¬ 
sists of changes into the solid form. Water, we think, 
is a liquid, but it is a soliu as well, and it also may 
exist in the form of a very elastic vapor which we 
call steam. Heat is a mode of motion of the particles 
of substances. You may take a bar of iron and ham¬ 
mer it on any anvil, and so make it so hot that it 
cannot be held in the hand, it is the motion of the 
particles of the iron which mattes the heat. And the 
source of the heat is the force by which the muscles 
of the person has m ved the hammer. 
FORMATION OF ICE.—When water freezes the 
particles of it take up a very curious motion. They 
form themselves int crystals of a hexagonal or six- 
sided shape, as we may say of a six-rayed star, some¬ 
times beautifully complicated by subordinate rays, as 
we may see by examining a snowflake as it may be 
caught on the coat sleeve any Winter’s day when it 
is snowing. And when ice is forming we may see 
this going on as we watch it. It is a very interesting 
thing to do, and all the more so as it has a very close 
application to our subject. Now this motion of the 
particles of water is accompanied by escape of heat 
from the water. As much as 142 degrees of heat are 
given out by the water while it is freezing. It is as 
we know a slow process, and it is well for us that it 
is, for if water were to change suddenly into ice at 
the temperature of 32 degrees, which we call the freez¬ 
ing point, everything in the world would suddenly 
go to smash. Everything which has water in it would 
expand so suddenly as to burst it into fragments, as 
by a vehement explosion. And in this cnange of 
water into ice there is an expansion of ninth in bulk. 
Let us watch some water as it gradually freezes. First 
we shall see a slender needle shoot out on the sur¬ 
face. Let us just here say that water first freezes on 
the surface, for after it reaches the low temperature 
of about 40 degrees u begins to expand and, of course 
becomes lighter and so floats on the surface. This is 
a fortunate thing for us, for if ice were neavier than 
water all the water on the globe would be solid from 
tne bottom up, and the earth would be uninnabitable. 
But these ice crystals form on the surface, and float 
because they are lighter than water. Then we should 
see other needle-like crystals darting 
out from this one, but all of them at 
an angle of 60 degrees, never more or 
less, for this is what we call the angle 
of crystallization of water. By and by 
these crystals form a solid mass and 
are lost in the general substance which 
floats on the water because it is lighter 
than the water is. 
LATENT HEAT.—Now in thus 
forming ice the water has parted with 
342 degrees of heat, which has escaped 
into the air. This is commonly called 
the latent heat of water, because it is 
not felt by the hand, and latent means 
hidden. It has gone off and mixed 
with the general heat of the atmos¬ 
phere. So that in this solid ice we 
have something that at its ordinary 
temperature of 32 degrees has the cold¬ 
ness—we may say—equal to 174 de¬ 
grees, that is, in the process of melt¬ 
ing it will take up 142 degrees of heat 
from the air or water or anything 
which may come in contact with it. 
This is what the cooling power of ice 
depends upon, and then the tempera¬ 
ture will be 32 degrees. This is al¬ 
ways so. It is one of the laws of na¬ 
ture and never varies. The result of 
it is that in tne melting of any quan¬ 
tity of ice the ice will take from any¬ 
thing in contact with it, the air, or wa¬ 
ter, or milk, this 142 degrees, until it 
has been all exhausted, and both are 
exactly equal in temperature, down to 
32 degrees, when the ice will be water 
of 32 degrees, and so will the substance 
in contact with it if the proportions 
of the two are accurately gauged. 
COOLING POWER OF ICE.—One 
pound of ice in the act of melting alone 
will cool one pound of water or milk 
or anything else 142 degrees; that is, 
it will cool a pound of water at 174 
degrees down to 32 degrees, taking 
from it 142 degrees. This effect is al¬ 
ways proportionate, and twice as much 
water or milk will be cooled half as 
much, and so on. This, it should be 
observed, is in the melting alone, and 
after mat it will cool an equal quan¬ 
tity of water as of itself, degree for 
degree. It thus becomes a very sim¬ 
ple matter of figuring to find how 
much ice will be needed to cool a certain quantity of 
milk. Thus the quantity of ice to be put up may be 
very easily figured out, and then the only thing left 
to think of is how to cut and save the ice. We have 
been talking of pounds, but now we want the mea¬ 
sure, and this we get by taking the weight of one 
cubic foot of ice at as one-ninth less than me weight 
of water, or 52 pounds. From this it is an easy mat¬ 
ter to calculate how much ice will be needed in a 
dairy for the time it will be used. 
ICE FOR DAIRY USE.—A little good management 
may greatly reduce the quantity of ice needed in a 
dairy. For instance, if tne milk is set in the pails in 
a tank of cold water it may be reduced to a tempera¬ 
ture of 60 degrees quite easily. Then, if it is put into 
ice-cold water an equal quantity of this will cool an 
equal quantity of milk down to the medium between 
the two temperatures, which will be cool enough and 
about the best for the separation of the cream in the 
best manner. But ice need cost very little and, in¬ 
deed, if one has the water handy it will cost nothing 
but the cutting and storing it, so that it may be quite 
desirable to make the ice house big enough, and to 
spare for one’s neigi.bors, perhaps, who might like to 
purchase the surplus, not having the conveniences 
themselves for procuring a supply. h. s. 
DWARF TOMATOES. Fig. 241. See Ruralisms. Page 658. 
Less than One-Third Natural Size. 
