8 i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 3 
should always be secured. If the drains run up and 
down an incline, as they should, a silt basin should 
be placed at the foot of the hill. A vitrified sewer 
pipe a foot or more in diameter placed endwise in the 
ground, and furnished with a cover, forms a most ex¬ 
cellent silt basin. If the drains are deep, two will 
have to be used, one placed upon the other. This pre¬ 
supposes that the drain must be extended across a 
level plain or valley, a greater or less distance, before 
it reaches its final outlet. The outlet of the silt 
basin should be at a lower level than the inlet, and 
larger, because the water on the hillside is under 
pressure, and two-inch tile will usually suffice for the 
water drained off each side of the drain, that is, if no 
overflow water is allowed to enter them. Larger tile 
must be used on the level land, since there will be 
little or no pressure, therefore not so great an amount 
of water will be discharged as on the hillside from 
the same sized tile. Two holes are made with a sharp 
instrument, as a tile pick, in the side of the vitrified 
pipe used for the silt basin, for the insertion of the in¬ 
let and outlet tiles. The object of the silt basin is to 
allow the water from the hillside to deposit the silt 
which it carries, in the silt basin, which, if not de¬ 
posited, might settle in the tiles on the low land 
where the water was moving comparatively slowly. It 
is only in rare cases that the silt basins will be 
required. 
Perhaps the best advice to give this man is to put a 
strip of tarred building paper over each joint, which 
will encircle about two-thirds of it, and then fill in 
the ditch for six or eight inches with small stones or 
gravel, and place the ditches either relatively deep or 
shallow according to the source of the water and the 
character of the soil. I. p. Roberts. 
Cornell Experiment Station. 
Draining a Clay Farm. 
Any soil that will become water-soaked, will allow 
water to escape from it into tile. Water enters tile 
from below. The water-line in soil that is tile-drained 
is at the bottom of the tile; hence this water-line 
must be raised by water soaking down through the 
soil. Our soil is a light, hard yellow clay, of such a 
nature that we could not finish the grading for the 
tile by walking in the ditch, but, starting at the out¬ 
let, we prepared the surface as far as we could push 
the scoop, then laid two or three tile, stepping on 
these to continue the work. Before leaving the work 
each day we laid the tile where the drain was spaded 
out and ready for the finishing work, as the tile was 
put down. Twice we were caught by heavy rains 
that caused the ditches in which the spading was fin¬ 
ished, to cave in, causing more difficult work to clean 
out than to cut at first. 
In grading the ditch before laying the tile, a push 
scoop should be used that will cut a groove in which 
the tile will fit accurately. This need not be more 
than 3^-inch deep. This depth will keep the tile from 
slipping out of place. Round tile are best, and when 
laying them they should be turned till they fit on the 
top—the open space between them on the lower side 
will work no harm unless large enough for frogs to 
enter. Even then, I doubt whether the frogs will 
do any injury. The best covering that can be found 
for the tile, is the clay that comes out of the bottom 
of the ditch. 
Our plan in covering the tile is to walk on the tile, 
after it is laid and displacements lined up, cutting 
with the spade from the sides of the ditch, for a foot 
or 15 inches above the tile, allowing this to fall over, 
or on, the tile. We walk on this clay, but do not 
make any effort to pack it tight over the tile. In our 
case, as proved by experience, this packing would be 
unnecessary labor. With this covering, we have 
allowed the ditches to remain for days and weeks, till 
they would be half filled above the tile, by the action 
of the frost and rains. In cutting the ditches, the 
first t padeful is thrown to one side, the second to the 
other, and as close to the edge of the ditch as prac¬ 
ticable. Then, when we have the tile laid, and its 
first covering put on, as described above, we take one 
horse and the breaking plow to fill the ditch. Turn 
the beam clevis to the opposite side from the mold- 
• boards, and lead the horse on top of the last spadeful 
thrown out, as this clay should go back first. One 
good furrow will be all the clay required to go in 
first. Then go back on the other side of the ditch 
in the same way ; one or two rounds will fill in the 
ditch so well, that the work can be finished by using 
two horses to the plow. We find the one horse more 
convenient than two horses with the long double tree. 
The covering of the tile with broken stone and 
gravel, can be of no particular advantage, and will by 
no means pay its cost. Before filling in the ditches, 
we often throw in such small stones as we gather off 
the fields—not to improve the working of the tile, but 
because this is the best way we know of to get the 
stones out of sight and out of the way of tools. 
Ohio. JOHN M. JAMISON. 
HOW TO UTILIZE SWAMP MUCK. 
FOOD WANTED FOR FRUIT TREKS. 
We grow a general assortment of nursery stock, including fruit 
trees, small fruits, ornamental plants and roses, but more roses 
tban anything else. We have used stable manure almost exclu¬ 
sively, heretofore, but it is quite expensive and hard to get, and 
growing still more so every year. We have lately acquired a new 
farm upon which there are about six acres of muck, running, say 
eight to twenty inches deep. Has this muck, by itself, any fertiliz¬ 
ing value ? I have thought that a good plan would be to get out 
several hundred loads of it, and put it into a hogyard, keeping 20 
to 30 hogs to root it over. I thought I would let the hogs work it 
over for a year, getting it out in the Fall of one year and apply¬ 
ing it during the Winter of the year following. About how do 
you think it would then compare in fertilizing value with stable 
manure ? Under most of this six acres of muck there is quite a 
thick layer of shell marl. Would this have any fertilizing value, 
and if so, should I use it separately or in connection with the 
muck, or in connection with some other material ? Is there any 
chemical that we could use with the muck to good advantage (or 
with the marl) and make at low cost a nitrogenous fertilizer of 
as much value as stable manure ? What we want is, of course, 
to produce the largest amount possible of nitrogenous fertilizer 
with the least expenditure of money and, with the muck, marl and 
hogs as material, I thought we had good facilities for doing so. 
Wayne County, N. Y. c. h. P. 
Compost the Muck. —We have had considerable 
experience in the use of muck. Its value depends 
upon its chemical qualities, there being a great dif¬ 
ference in the different beds, and we would there¬ 
fore advise the correspondent to send a sample to the 
State Experiment Station for analysis. Our usual 
method has been to haul the muck in large quantities 
in the Summer, when dry, and to compost it with 
vegetable matter of any kind we could get hold of, 
such as weeds, straw, poor hay and sods, and in some 
instances we have mixed it with quicklime, in order 
that we might heat and ripen it. We have then spread 
it upon clay land, and think that the results have 
been quite beneficial, although, as you ask the ques¬ 
tion, we will say that we never yet have found any 
substitute for stable manure, or any other fertilizer 
that would give us as good results. 
We have, in some instances, hauled muck into our 
barnyards to be trampled over by the cattle, but this 
method has not been satisfactory, as the stock would 
become filthy and badly stained in so doing. We have 
also used it in the drops in our stable, but this has not 
been satisfactory. We think well of C. H. P.’s method 
of putting it in the hogyard to be rooted over and 
worked in with other manure. We have never been 
able to get satisfactory results from using shell marl 
as a fertilizer. smiths & powell co. 
New York. 
Drain the Field. — ii I had a swamp with the 
soil or muck only from eight to 20 inches deep, I would 
drain it, and make a good rich field out of it. It will 
not pay to cart the soil for m„nure. If the muck is 
several feet deep, I do not believe it will pay to cart 
it out for manure. The only way I would advise its 
use, would be to haul it out and let it lie over one 
Winter, then use it as an absorbent in the stable, or 
to compost with stable manure. When stable manure 
is to remain in the yard in a pile over Winter before 
it is used, to become dry and fine, it will add to the 
value of both the muck and manure to compost it, but 
the question arises, will it make the manure and muck 
so much better as to pay for the labor expended in 
hauling the muck out, and again carting it to the 
stables and mixing with the manure ? I doubt very 
much whether it will pay, especially if the men have 
other work to do. 
The marl may be of some value for the lime it con¬ 
tains. I would, however, send a sample to the ex¬ 
periment station and have it analyzed, to learn what 
it contains, before carting much. I believe there are 
much cheaper ways of adding vegetable matter or 
plant food to the soil, than by doing so through 
swamp muck. If I were in C. H. P.’s place, I would 
drain that swamp (if the fall is sufficient to drain 
it) and not cart out the muck. kdwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
No Substitute for Stable Manure.— Our experi¬ 
ence with muck has been somewhat limited ; still, we 
have handled several thousand loads of it, but not in 
recent years. Muck varies very muGh in quality, but 
as a rule its chief value, when used directly from the 
swamp, is to furnish humus. C. H. P.’s idea to use it 
as an absorbent is sound, providing that he has ma¬ 
terial to absorb that would otherwise go to waste; 
but 20 or 30 hogs to several hundred loads would not 
impart value enough to it to pay for the handling. 
When we were using it we could buy all the fish and 
fish offal that could be hauled, for from SI. 50 to S3 a 
load, which was composted with the muck until thor¬ 
oughly rotted, and it made a very rich manure, as the 
fish alone would have been too much of a good thing. 
Had we such land as described, and outlet could be 
obtained for underdraining, it would be done thor¬ 
oughly, and we would get what-value there may be in 
it, right where it is. 
You ask if we have ever been able to find a substi¬ 
tute for stable manure. No, we do not claim that we 
have, but as the quantity of stable manure that we can 
purchase is limited, we must do something in the way 
of a substitute to keep our 1,000 acres in condition to 
produce the best results, and so far we have failed to 
find any chemical fertilizer applied directly to growir g 
trees that apparently paid, so we try to get the land 
in good enough condition before planting, to carry the 
crop of trees through to salable size. To accomplish 
this we use clover or cow peas to obtain nitrogen 
and humus, bone meal, Carolina rock or odorless phos¬ 
phate for phosphoric acid, and muriate for potash. 
We do not claim that we are doing the best that could 
be done, but are doing the best for our land that we 
know how, and with fairly satisfactory results. 
Ohio. THE STORRS & nARRISON CO. 
FARMERS’ TELEPHONE LINES. 
HOW THEY are organized. 
A large number of sparsely-settled towns in Ver¬ 
mont now have telephone systems of their own. The 
way these enterprises start is usually something like 
this : A few of the leading men of the community get 
together and organize a more or less formal associa¬ 
tion, and determine in a general way the extent of 
territory and the probable routes they intend to 
cover. Each subscriber is expected to buy his own 
instruments, and contribute more or less toward build¬ 
ing and equipping the lines. The largest item of cost 
is for poles, except in wooded districts where native 
timber can be had for the cutting and hauling. A 
neighborhood telephone system is supposed to benefit 
not only those who subscribe for telephones, but their 
neighbors as well, therefore every property owner in 
the vicinity of the routes contemplated is expected 
to share in the expense of establishing the system. 
Aside from the instruments and poles, there is usu¬ 
ally not much cash outlay required. It is mostly a 
matter of labor in which all can help. Poles can 
usually be secured by voluntary contribution, some 
giving the trees on the stump, others performing the 
labor of cutting, hauling and setting. If this enter¬ 
prise is commenced in the Fall of the year when 
farmers are about through with their rush of work, 
no trouble will be found in getting all the help that 
is needed ; in fact, it is regarded as a privilege to help. 
The cost of wire, insulation and brackets should not 
be over $5 to $6 per mile, and any man who is handy 
with tools and can climb a pole, can put the brackets 
on, and stretch the wire. 
For a neighborhood system, the single-wire or 
“grounded’’ system will work satisfactorily unless it 
parallels an electric-light line, in which case there 
would, probably, be so much induction on the tele¬ 
phone wire as to make it noisy and unsatisfactory. 
In localities where there is an electric light or power 
plant in operation, I would advise putting on a two- 
wire or “ metallic ” system which would require the 
services of a practical lineman to construct. Complete 
sets of instruments can be bought for $10 to $18. I 
think it is economy in the long run to buy the best 
instruments on the market. If not more than six or 
eight instruments are to be connected, they can all 
be put on one circuit; but if the number is much in 
excess of that limit, more line will be needed. Where 
more than one circuit is required, connection can be 
made by means of a switch, thereby giving direct 
communication between stations on different circuits. 
It frequently happens that several lines can be 
made to meet at some crossroad center, and a switch 
put into the residence nearest the intersection. The 
subscriber tending the switch usually gets about $2 
per year from each of the other subscribers that is 
benefited by the connection. In cases where the sub¬ 
scribers buy their own instruments, and build their 
own line, there will still be an annual expense for 
wear and tear. The instruments are very sensitive, 
and require occasional repair, the batteries run down 
and require occasional strengthening, the poles and 
lines are out of doors, exposed to all kinds of weather 
and they also require more or less repairs from time 
to time, especially after a few years’ wear. I would 
consider $3 for a year little enough for maintenance 
of instruments and line, or $5 per year, including ser¬ 
vices for switching where that is necessary. 
Another plan of starting a small system is for one 
or more persons to construct and own it. They fre¬ 
quently rent instruments to subscribers along the 
route of their lines at from $10 to $12 per year, which 
is really less than first-class service can be sold for. 
Many make the mistake of buying the cheapest in¬ 
struments, and connecting on the lightest possible 
lines. In two or three years, the system is all to pieces, 
and the patrons discouraged. Buy the best, and do 
your work well, and the longer you use your tele¬ 
phone, the better you will like it c. 
It is predicted that more beet sugar will be pro¬ 
duced in California during the coming year than in 
any previous 12 months. Six factories in the sugar- 
beet districts represent a capacity of 7,000 tons of 
beets per day. 
