6i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 20, 
MANY USES FOR LIVE STEAM. 
There are some advantages worthy of consideration in 
heating a house with steam. If the water tank is located 
in the top of the barn it can be enclosed by a single 
partition of %-inch matched boards, and tbe pipes sup¬ 
plying the tank and dwelling can be boxed with the 
same material. The steam pipes, flow and return in the 
box will prevent the water pipes freezing, and the steam 
pipes passing around the tank room perform the same 
good office. This obviates the necessity of packing the 
pipes. In heating by this method care should be taken 
to keep the tank as nearly full of water as possible, as 
the heat will soon cause the tank to shrink if empty. 
Then a steam pump can be used for filling the tank dur¬ 
ing the periods of calm weather, when the mill is idle. 
It can be constructed with larger steam cylinder and 
reduced water end, so five to seven pounds pressure will 
operate it, and the cost is not great. We saved our 
dwelling a few years ago during a great fire near us, 
our pump washing off the sparks as they dropped upon 
the shingles. No other aid was available. The water 
service was broken, and engines had more than they 
could do. We have a deep affection for that pump. 
Another convenience is cooking vegetables for poultry 
and swine with live steam. There is no burning or 
sticking to the kettle. A light pressure only is required, 
and after the proper amount of steam is gauged no 
further attention is necessary. A plentiful supply of hot 
water is something to be appreciated, and by having 
openings in the steam pipes at convenient locations and 
at a height to allow the placing of a pail under them, a 
turn of the valve quickly gives the required temperature. 
The drop pipe which carries the steam to the pail swings 
on a loose ell. For killing hogs the pipe could be ex¬ 
tended to the tub and the water maintained at the desired 
degree of heat, and save heating the water on the kitchen 
stove. I think perhaps we appreciate it for warming 
water for the poultry as much as anything, as it saves 
a great deal of time in the short Winter days. 
Maine. f. c. curtis. 
THE HOP OUTLOOK IN OTSEGO CO., N. Y. 
In June the writer took pains to look over the growth 
of the hop, and photograph the best average yard in the 
hop section. At Fig. 274 is shown one of the yards that 
yielded last year a good crop, but at the time the yard 
was photographed it had not done more than half as 
well as last year at this time. L. Hopkins had other 
yards to the amount of seven acres that were in the 
same condition. The grub and Hop worm worked into 
tbe root, and then the whole vine took on a yellow cast 
and died. Some yards are fully one-third spoiled, while 
others are better. Some of the growers will not get 
more than half a crop, while others will exceed that of 
last year. The writer learned that the owner tried to 
fight the plague hard in putting a 
fire shovel full of hard-wood ashes 
to each hill, but the rains had not 
fallen for 10 days, so the ashes had 
done no good. The season opened 
up with fair prospects for the greater 
portion of the growers, but some, 
however, had hills winter-killed. In 
1902 the hop product stood, number¬ 
ing 25,000 bales; last year it jumped 
out the ditch back to 40,000 bales, 
and of fine quality. This year bids 
fair to see the production equal if 
not exceeding last year’s crop. 
While it is looked upon with inter¬ 
est, it is hard to tell when so many 
yards run so uneven. The heavy 
rainfall for the last few days has 
of course lent a helping hand to¬ 
ward the heavy clustering of the 
hop, and perhaps will help keep 
away the enemy. 
Since the year 1886, when the lice 
plague ruined the hop crop com¬ 
pletely, there has been a gradual de¬ 
cline in acreage, until to-day the 
once foremost county in central 
New York for quality and quantity 
of hops is mostly heard of in qual¬ 
ity only. There are a number of 
hop growers, but most of them have cut their acreage 
and put in more stock, due greatly to the fact that the 
farmer of to-day is favored with excellent facilities in 
reaching the New York markets with milk. The great 
demand for the product has a tendency to keep up the 
by-products of the dairy. Thus the great inducement is 
the cause in a large measure of the decline in the hop 
acreage. The writer set out one-half acre of straw¬ 
berries, which looked fine until after the first and second 
hoeing; then some of the strongest as well as the weakest 
plants wilted and died. Upon examination it was found 
that the Hop worm had discovered a new root to feed 
upon. Two years previous tnere was a hop yard on 
the same spot, but it was not run last year, growing up 
to Quack and Timothy; whether this is the cause or not 
is a question. w. w. c. 
A BUNCH OF SAND VETCH. 
Pig. 276 shows a bunch of Sand or Hairy vetch. This 
was a bunch of about a dozen stalks that came up be¬ 
tween the hills of raspberries. I straightened it out the 
best I could, but it leaves il quite bunchy in the center; 
however, there is enough of it straightened out to show 
the length of it. Picture was taken July 11. I am ex¬ 
perimenting with the vetch on my farm in southern Mis¬ 
souri, both for forage and Winter cover. Vetch had 
been sown on the land where this volunteer bunch was 
cut seven years ago. The first year we cut it for seed, 
and enough seed scattered to reseed it for the next year; 
second year it was cut for hay, there being enough vines 
left on the ground to raise seed for next year's crop, 
which was turned under in the Fall and raspberries 
planted the next Spring. They keep coming in the hills 
and between them every year, and a few are left for the 
blossoms and to pick a few seed pods if we need them. 
It is my practice to plow up the strawberry beds after 
the season's picking, and sow to buckwheat to plow 
under just before frost. One year we ran short of the 
buckwheat, and I sowed about half an acre with vetch. 
This came up nicely, and was left on the land until the 
next year anc^ cut for hay, so 1 think it will make a 
good Winter covering in an orchard. w. s. w. 
Minnesota. 
VALUE OF IRRIGATION WATER. 
Would it be ol’ benefit to meadow and grazing land to 
flood il with water during Winter, letting il recede in Spring? 
Goshen, N. Y. i. m. ii. 
THE FERTILIZING VALUE OF WATER.—This 
will depend upon circumstances, such as the character 
of the water, the soil, and tbe method of applying the 
water. To flood pasture and meadow land and hold it 
under water during a large part of the Winter would 
result in killing the grass. Not only this, but the 
A HOP YARD INJURED BY IN5ECTS. Fig. 274. 
advantages to be derived from the application of large 
amounts of water to land could be only partially secured 
by such an application. In traveling from place to place 
in Europe during an investigation of the practice of 
using water on pastures and meadows we were sur¬ 
prised to find that the nearly unanimous opinion among 
the actual users of the water was that the chief advan¬ 
tage was derived through the fertilizing value of the 
water used. It is held by men of practical experience 
along these lines that like amounts of all or of any 
waters are not equally effective when applied to 
meadows or pastures; that some soils are more benefited 
by tbe same water than others, and that water, after 
having flowed over one piece of land, has lost, in some 
measure, its fertilizing power for an adjacent and sim¬ 
ilar piece of land. The renters of the famous water 
meadows outside of Edinburgh—and who^pay, and have 
for more than 100 years, from £15 to £22 sterling per 
acre for the green grass per annum—are very particular 
to specify, as a condition oi their contract, that their 
grass shall be watered with the day sewage, which con¬ 
tains a higher per cent of soluble and suspended plant 
food material than the night sewage; and they are also 
particular to specify that they shall have the first rather 
than the second or third use ot the water, knowing that 
water which has passed once over a meadow has lost in 
fertilizing value. Tt is also claimed by the owners and 
renters of the ordinary water-meadows in the south of 
England, where the irrigation is directly from the 
streams, that the land whten receives the first water 
generally derives the most benefit from it. Exception¬ 
ally pure and clear river water may carry in solution as 
much as 33 pounds of potash salts and 26 pounds of phos¬ 
phates, with 117 pounds of organic matter in each 24 
inches in depth per acre, while the more turbid waters, 
such as those of the Rio Grande of Texas, may carry, 
as sediment and in solution, 1,075 pounds of potash, 116 
pounds of phosphoric acid and 107 pounds of nitrogen 
in the same volume of water. 
APPLICATION OF WATER TO MEADOWS.— 
In the application of water to meadows in the humid 
climates of Europe very large volumes are used, so large, 
indeed, as often to represent a sheet of water 300 feet 
deep covering the meadow. The meadows, however, 
are always so laid out that the water may be kept stead¬ 
ily flowing over the surface in a thin veil. On some of 
the water-meadows of Italy it has been customary to 
turn the water on even as early as September and to 
keep it running steadily, night and day, until March. 
In southern France and in the Vosges so much water 
is sometimes applied as to be the equivalent of even 
1,400 feet of water on the level, and of such' Winter 
irrigations careful estimates indicate that as much as 
160 feet may percolate into the soil. 
ABSORPTION OF PLANT FOOD BY SOILS.— 
It is not yet possible to explain satisfactorily tbe man¬ 
ner by which such large applications of water prove 
beneficial to meadows, but it has been abundantly proved 
that many, and perhaps most soils, have the power of 
removing from solutions large amounts of both potash 
and phosphoric acid, and it is, perhaps, not impossible 
that during the long and continuous flow of the thin 
sheets of potash and phosphate-bearing waters the sur¬ 
face soil may become more highly charged with pecu¬ 
liarly available forms of these salts, and possibly with 
the forms of other plant food materials as well. 
F. II. KING. 
THE CITY MAN IN THE COUNTRY. 
1 am not a farmer, but am very much interested in 
farming. 1 am a hardware and agricultural implement 
dealer, and am writing many farm¬ 
ers every day in the year. Some 
years ago 1 bought a farm and 
started to set out an orchard. I 
soon found I could not hire any¬ 
one who knew a thing about fruit 
trees, and having no time to at¬ 
tend to it myself, I set out a 
few trees now and then, and sell the 
grass and let the rest go. Some 
wealthy men buy farms about here 
and run them for a longer or short¬ 
er time; without exception they are 
expensive luxuries. Farms arc very 
cheap, and good fair places can be 
bought for less than the cheapest 
buildings can be put up. My idea 
is that the enterprising and intelli¬ 
gent men left this section years ago 
for the cheap farms of the West and 
the opportunity of the city. There 
is no more beautiful county, so ex¬ 
perienced travelers say, than this, 
but the Winters are long and se¬ 
vere and the snow deep. But any¬ 
one who settles here has good soft 
running water and wood free. If I 
was a city man and wanted to change 
to a farm, and make few mistakes, 1 
should get a leave of absence for as 
long as 1 could and go to that section of country where 
the chief industry was what I wished to follow; dairy¬ 
ing, market gardening or fruit growing. Then I would 
hire out to a good farmer with a love for his kind, and 
tell him that I wished to learn all about farming I 
could in the time I had at rnv disposal, In the mean¬ 
time I would absorb all I could in regard to the soil of 
different farms in the neighborhood. Then 1 should 
get my family out and give them as near a taste as pos¬ 
sible of the life they will lead when the change comes. 
1 should locate near neighbors, near a railroad station 
and near a big market, and start with the things to feed 
my family and next to give a quick return, and be very 
careful about putting out money unless absolutely nec¬ 
essary until experience tells you what is best. There are 
swindlers in the country as well as in the city. Do not 
let them work you. As in other affairs it is more in the 
man than anything else. f. h. 
Windsor Co., Vt. 
