Tl'IE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
634 
(sea level). A similar pipe, except that this one leaves 
the bottom of the tank and is provided with a check 
valve, joins the other at the first convenient point below 
the tank. If the tank is placed in the attic and a float 
valve regulates its supply from an elevated spring or 
other source, hot and cold water may be had all over 
the house by slight modification. 
RETURN PIPES.—Being now safe from air bubbles, 
chance steam and water expansion, the heating of the 
air for use throughout the house is a simple matter. 
From the tees above mentioned we run our pipes, 
branching them into smaller ones generally, back and 
forth, close together till we have sufficient radiating 
surface for the rooms connected with that particular 
conductor, and then return them to the bottom of the 
boiler by a reverse system of branches. Each pile or 
run of pipes should have several unions, so they can be 
taken .apart more readily if ever necessary, and they 
should all be put together with lead and oil. 'I he one 
absolute necessity, however, is that they must at no 
point ascend in the entire run from the tee above re¬ 
ferred to. If they slightly descend throughout it is as 
well at least. The boxes that enclose and convey the 
heat from these runs of pipe to the registers in the sev¬ 
eral rooms above should be of full width boards if pos¬ 
sible, put together with screws and practically airtight. 
The boiler may be jacketed with double boards and 
paper between. Of course all conductors may be made 
of metal. All jackets should derive their fresh air sup¬ 
ply from a common source. c. t. sweet. 
Maryland. 
Hot Air the Best Heat. 
SATISFACTION SECURED—This is the fourth 
Winter since I built my house, and hot air has been so 
much of a success that I am emphatically in favor of 
the hot air—or rather warm air—furnace as the best 
method of heating a farmhouse. My house has large 
rooms, with many large windows, and and Sp 3 foot 
ceilings on first and second floors; yet on the coldest 
days of our past unusually cold Winter we have had no 
difficulty in keeping the thermometer up to 70 degrees 
without crowding the furnace in the least. The secret 
of my success with hot air is, I am sure, largely due 
to a large size of furnace, with heat pipes and registers 
properly placed, and a cold air box of suitable area. 
When mV house plans were ready I took them to the 
office of the makers of the furnace I intended to put in, 
and they gave me the size' of furnace to use, and laid 
out the pipes and registers, giving sizes and locations. 
They said that if the job was done according to their 
spccifications they would guarantee the house to be 
heated satisfactorily in any weather, and I have found 
it so. 
ADEQUATE FURNACE.—It happens that the build¬ 
er and several plumbers who figured on that part of 
the job thought it foolishness on my part to put in such 
a big furnace, some of them saying that one two sizes 
smaller would be plenty large enough. I am now con¬ 
vinced that the reason hot air furnaces are so unsatis¬ 
factory in many cases is that they are not large enough 
to do the work required of them, even when crowded 
to their utmost capacity. But the opposition to the size 
of the furnace was nothing compared to the opposition 
to the size of the cold air box called for. No one had 
ever heard of such a sized cold air box—somewhere 
about 18x34 inches if I remember rightly—but never¬ 
theless I had it built, to my everlasting satisfaction. 
The one great complaint with hot air has always been 
that it is hard to get heat into the side of the house 
against which the wind is blowing. It is sometimes sug¬ 
gested that two cold air boxes—the opening of second 
one on opposite side of the house from where cold air 
is generally taken in—would obviate this difficulty in 
a great degree. It seems to me, from my experience, 
that if the cold air box is large enough and opened and 
shut according to the wind and weather there will be 
little difficulty in heating all sides of the house at any 
time. 
PURE AIR SUPPEIED.—Another strong point in 
favor of hot air, and one that is often entirely lost sight 
of, is that we are all the time getting so much better air 
than would be secured with any other method of heating. 
There is a steady stream of pure fresh air taken from 
out of doors, warmed by the furnace and sent into our 
dwellings, while with steam or hot water we are simply 
warming the air already in the house, and, especially in 
cold weather, are not likely to ventilate enough. The 
head of a leading firm of heater manufacturers, making 
hot water or steam heaters as well as hot air furnaces, 
told me that he would never put anything but hot air 
into a house for himself on this account. For a hot air 
furnace to work satisfactorily and keep up the steady 
flow of pure warm air a house needs to be ventilated £ 
little in some way, preferably by a fireplace or two. All 
fireplaces should be fitted with dampers that can be partly 
closed, if need be, in very windy weather. These cast- 
iron chimney dampers are now made so cheaply that it 
is a grave mistake to build a fireplace flue without one. 
THE FUEL, QUESTION.—I have had no experience 
with steam or hot water heaters, but the claim that they 
are more economical of fuel than the hot air furnace 
is to a certain extent probably correct, but not to the 
extravagant degree claimed by the manufacturers. This 
slight saving in fuel is more than offset by the lower 
first cost of hot air and the better ventilation and purer 
air insured by it. The hot air furnace is simpler in 
every way, and if large enough, so that it does not have 
to be crowded to its utmost capacity to do the work 
expected of it, will last as long as the steam or hot 
water. I have burned wood considerably, and it works 
all right, except in very cold weather, when a wood fire 
requires too much attention. In moderate weather the 
furnace makes a capital place to get rid of the hard 
knots and everything that does not split reasonably easy. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. m. m. c. 
KEEPING A GOOD ROAD GOOD. 
Mapes, the Hen Man. Lays Down Rules. 
LOCAL ROAD WORK.—“What can be done by 
local action to secure better roads?” The above subject 
was recently announced by the National Grange as suit¬ 
able for discussion in Subordinate Granges. Our Sub¬ 
ordinate Grange took up the discussion, and as a result 
the Maple Dale Good Roads Club has been organized. 
1 spoke of the poor road leading past our farm to our 
market town about a year ago, and of an effort that was 
being made to improve a section of the worst of it. 
The town officials were induced to appropriate $50 for 
the purpose on condition that farmers using the road 
regularly would donate a like amount in labor. The 
half mile improved at that time has been an object lesson 
for those who use it daily, more effective than any 
amount of verbal or written argument. The road is 
about four miles long, and when this Good Roads Club 
was proposed it was easy to secure nearly every farmer 
who uses the road regularly as a member. 
RULES OF THE CLUB.—Here are some of the 
salient features of the constitution and by-laws: The 
object of the club shall be to obtain from the town ot 
-- the contract for placing and maintaining in 
good condition the road leading from - to 
-, and to attempt to furnish an object lesson of 
what may be done in the way of a good road without 
TIIE RETURN FROM THE GARDEN. Fig. 282. 
the expenditure of so much money as is used in the 
construction of State and county roads. Any person 
may become a member of the club by signing a copy of 
these articles and thereby agreeing to abide by its pro¬ 
visions. The money obtained from the town to be ap¬ 
plied towards maintaining in good order the road spec¬ 
ified shall be supplemented, when necessary, by an assess¬ 
ment upon the members of the club. Whenever an as¬ 
sessment is made, those members who do not own or 
occupy property abutting on said highway shall only 
be assessed one-half as much as those who do own or 
occupy farms along said highway. Assessments shall be 
payable either in cash or in acceptable labor. The offi¬ 
cers of the club shall be a president, a secretary and a 
treasurer, to be elected annually. These three officers 
shall constitute a board of managers, and shall have 
power to make assessments, enter into contract with the 
town for the care of said highway, and employ an over- 
August 27, 
seer to superintend all work undertaken by the club. 
Officers shall not be elected, nor shall subscriptions to 
these articles be binding, until at least 20 signatures 
shall have been obtained. The board of managers shall 
not make assessments amounting to more than $10 to 
resident members, and $5 to non-resident members in 
any one year, without the consent of two-thirds of the 
members in good standing present and voting at a reg¬ 
ular or special meeting of the club duly called and adver¬ 
tised. All members shall be deemed to be in good 
standing so long as they keep their assessments paid up. 
HOW IT WORKS.—It was an easy matter to get 
over 20 signers to these articles from among those who 
have had a chance to study the object lesson above 
spoken of, and witness daily the contrast between a poor 
road and a good one. Without such an object lesson 
it would have been much more difficult. Our officers 
have been elected and at the next meeting of our town 
board an effort is to be made to get the contract from 
the town for the care of this four miles of road. Ii 
they will appropriate a reasonable amount from the town 
funds the club will donate in this way enough to insure 
a first-class job now and hereafter. An opportunity will 
thus be afforded to see “what can be done by local 
action.” Our proposition to build as good a roadbed 
as is being done on most of the State roads, and at one- 
tenth of the cost or less, is creating a good deal of com¬ 
ment. Aside from the cutting down of grades we claim 
we can do this. How will we go about it? 
BEGINNING OPERATIONS.—The first step is to 
stake out the work, by making a light furrow on each 
side of the proposed work, 12 or 14 feet apart. If any 
part of these first furrows comes within the beaten 
track, where it is hard, it should be done just after a 
soaking rain, either with a plow or the point of a road 
machine. Next put the wheel of the road machine in 
this light furrow, hold the point of the blade firmly down 
in place, remove every stone which the point strikes and 
work down and out, until enough dirt is secured to bring 
a good crown to the center of the road and a good gutter 
on each side, making suitable outlets from all low points 
in these gutters. This is only a question of applying 
sufficient team power and removing all stones that inter¬ 
fere with making a good gutter. On portions of our 
road this alone will give us a good road with proper 
care in honing down after each heavy rain, and raking 
out all loose stones. Other portions will need a little 
gravel or shale along the crown of the road. '1'here are 
several hills where this can be secured, requiring only 
short hauls. A cubic yard hauled on a 12-foot wagon 
is enough for the worst places by dumping a full load 
in a place, and in other places a half or a third of a 
load in a place will finish the crown of the road. Grad¬ 
ing with the machine should not cost more than $25 per 
mile, nor drawing the gravel on the crown of the road 
more than 4(1 cents per cubic yard. This makes the 
cost only $200 per mile, were a "full load of gravel 
placed on the crown of the road all the way. 
KEEPING IN REPAIR.—How about the after-care 
of such a road? Here is the secret of success. When 
the first rain comes, passing teams and vehicles will 
puddle the material along the crown of the road in the 
beaten track, forming a hard crust as it dries, which 
will be somewhat rough and uneven. Before it becomes 
too dry and hard, hone the surface perfectly smooth and 
true with a light hone, about five or six feet long. One 
man and team can hone off a bunch of road in this way, 
if lie understands his business, at slight cost. He should 
stand on the hone, and guide it by stepping from one end 
of the hone to the other as the occasion requires. 'This 
is very inexpensive and should be repeated after every 
big rain, though it will never soften much after the first 
puddling. Novy rake off any loose stone and you have 
a beaten track on the crown of the road, over which a 
bicycle or an auto will roll as smoothly as on the best 
macadam road, and on which you can drive a clean 
buggy an hour after a Summer shower without having 
to avoid mud holes. 'The only other care needed on 
such a road will be to sprinkle a very little good gravel, 
shale or even hardpan, right in the center of the beaten 
track occasionally, according to the amount of wear 
on the road, and keep the gutters from filling, throwing 
the stuff scoured out of them away from the road instead 
of back into it. 
PRINCIPLES OF ROAD BUILDING.—What arc 
the scientific principles involved? The beaten track on 
the crown of the road is a hard crust almost imper¬ 
vious to water, while the soil beneath this crust, and at 
the side near the lower gutters, is porous and open. 1 
cannot illustrate better than by referring to a turtle’s 
back. Using the hone frequently keeps the upper sur¬ 
face of the crust so smooth that rain flows quickly into 
the gutters at the side, as it would from a turtle’s shell. 
Rain cannot saturate this crust from the under side 
any more than it could on the under side of a turtle’s 
shell. If any happens to work its way through the crust 
of the beaten track it falls away quickly through the 
more porous soil beneath, and into the gutters at the 
side, just as rain would run from the under side of the 
shell to a turtle’s back through the openings for his legs. 
At any rate, the sample which was built after this pat¬ 
tern and at this cost, has stood the test of a year’s ser¬ 
vice, and is still in almost perfect condition. The thaw¬ 
ing of last Winter’s heavy frost seemed to have no bad 
effect on it last Spring, though formerly it had often 
been almost impassable. We claim that it costs no 
more to keep a good road good than it does to keep a 
poor one poor, and that the first cost of a good road 
is thus within the means of most rural communities. 
o. w. MAPES. 
MILK PAIL HOLDER.— The illustration at Fig. 281 
shows a device for holding a pail of milk, patented by a 
New Jersey man. The curved arms hang over the 
milker’s legs above the knees, so that the weight is sup¬ 
ported without pinching the pail between the knees. 
The contrivance is adjustable to any size of pail, and 
can be arranged to tilt the pail at any desired angle. 
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