1901 
867 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NA TURAL GAS ON THE FARM. 
How a Kansas Farmer Uses It. 
Part II. 
My house is L-shaped, has 10 rooms, 19 incandescent 
lights and five stoves. The gas leaves the main in a 
114-inch pipe at a pressure of 290 pounds. There is 
a cut-off at the main, also in the main to guard against 
accidents. The gas passes through a large regulator 
that cost $7.50, and always gives just four pounds 
pressure. This pressure can be increased or decreased 
by setting the set screw. The turning on or off of all 
five stoves never affects the 19 lights in the least, so 
well does the regulator do its work assisted by the 
large volume of gas held in the pipes in the house. 
The plumbing of the house cost $106, and of the yard 
as much more. The incubator is in the cellar under 
the house, and is run by one gas lamp, and it never 
changes at all. The brooders are back of the house, 
and are warmed by gas taken from the pipe outside 
of the regulator. They can be kept at the same tem¬ 
perature all the time with scarcely any trouble. There 
is no blowing out of the lights and filling and trim¬ 
ming them; it is the same hot dry heat all the time. 
The big torch in the dooryard draws gas from out¬ 
side the regulator, and any amount of light can be had 
without affecting the gas in the house. 
My blacksmith and woodwork shop is lighted up 
and hearted by gas, also my feed or cook room, which 
is built on to the end of the shop. This room contains 
all the varieties of feed necessary to feed the hogs 
two months or more, and they are fed from the in¬ 
side of this room without my having to go out. I 
have a heater or cooker 3x6 feet with inch iron straps 
across the bottom inside of it, and inside of this pan 
is another one with a sieve bottom that rests on the 
iron cross straps. I do not cook any feed but corn, 
and feed it three times a day. One-half bushel of corn 
makes 1% bushel boiled feed, and with each half 
bushel shelled corn I use one pint of salt. The corn 
is put in the inside pan and water turned on, from 
the tank that sits above it, until the corn is covered 
so deep that it can boil 12 hours without getting dry. 
light ligthts the room and a furnace burner is un¬ 
der the cooker. When the corn is ready to feed the 
fire is turned out and the hot water drawn off into 
the slop tank, which is high enough up to run the slop 
through two-inch pipes to the hog troughs in the yard 
outside the building. Cold water is then turned on to 
the corn and allowed to stand while the hogs are 
drinking their warm swill. I run the slop into two 
troughs by the aid of pipes and valves. The slop is 
made rich by the addition of shorts and milk. The 
hogs are called to drink by a whistle blown by gas 
pressure, and they drink and eat in a shed out of the 
weather. When the corn is cooled off the pan is 
hoisted up by ropes and pulleys and set over the feed 
mixer, where the c^rn is dumped, then sprinkled over 
with shorts and shoveled over until it is ary instead 
of wet and sloppy. It is salted to taste, warm, soft 
and very palatable and eagerly eaten. One-half the 
troughs are inside the building so the feed can be 
shoveled in to them without the hogs getting in the 
way. These hogs are the sows and gilts. The boars 
are kept across the yard below the orchard, and slop 
and feed is transported to them in a barrel on wheels. 
The hogs are fed three times a day, besides having 
roughness. The hoghouse that the sows sleep in has 
a plank floor over a foot of shale and in the shale 
under the floor are three six-inch gas mains that run 
the whole length of the birlding and return again, 
then pass up through the roof into a stand pipe. The 
house is eight feet wide and the six pipes run close 
together. A small jet of gas is burned in each pipe, 
and they get hot their entire length, thoroughly 
warming up’ the shale around the pipes and always 
keeping the plank floor just warm enougn to be com¬ 
fortable. No bedding is used, and the hogs and pigs 
do not pile np to sleep, but stretch out separately and 
enjoy life immensely. A single valve controls the 
heat in all three pipes and is turned up or down as 
the weather demands. The house has plenty of light 
and ventilation. The tank of water in the feed build¬ 
ing supplies the sheep, cattle and horses in their re¬ 
spective yards, and is pumped from the well by the 
gas engine that runs my corn thrasher outfit. 
In the hogyard I have pipes laid to burn trash with, 
and ashes and charcoal are thus always on hand, and 
the same pipes run the big traveling thrasher during 
our annual thrashing. The sheep shed, cow barn, 
thrasher building and horse stable are well supplied 
with gas jets, and I can thrash out an acre of corn 
after dark just as well .as in day time, even though 
a great storm is raging, as beside the thrasher build¬ 
ing is another one that always is kept full of bound 
corn, I have a stove in the long henhouse, and the 
only things that are not supplied with light and heat 
are the two herd boars and their numerous sons 
that are kept below the orchard, and about 200 yards 
away from the sows. If they needed it 1 should sup¬ 
ply them with it. 1 have a wrapped hose that has a 
patent touch valve and it is usea to blow up bicycle 
and automobile tires with gas, which does not injure 
the rubber. My boys have rooms of their own that 
are well lighted up, but they prefer to go out to the 
shop at night and parch corn and eat apples. They 
are fond of lighting up the thrasher room,_ starting 
the gas engine and pumping the tank full of water 
from the sheet water well 160 feet deep. We can 
thrash corn and grind it all at once, or do either sep¬ 
arately. This cold, stormy morning is harsh outside, 
but inside the house and buildings ’tis like a “mid¬ 
summer night’s dream.” J- c. Norton. 
Allen Co., Kan.^_ 
OLD FRENCH ORCHARD TREES. 
Conspicuous objects in the scenery of the Straits 
country between Lake Erie and Lake Huron are the 
old French orchard trees. Some of these trees for 
size and productiveness are truly remarkable. A 
girth of eight and a height of 100 feet are not un¬ 
common, and crops of 100 bushels to the tree have 
been known. The illustration. Fig. 393, shows one of 
these monarchs, an apple tree, the oldest and largest 
in the region, now growing in the pretty little city 
of Monroe, south of Detroit, famous for Its nurseries. 
These magnificent trees, the crowning glory of the old 
French farm and orchard, are fast disappearing; part¬ 
ly from neglect, partly from old age, but more often 
swept away in the relentless march of modern im¬ 
provement. From these trees, now nearly fruitless, 
and hoary wiiu the moss of age, once came the 
golden, crimson and russet fruits that made the De- 
A VETERAN APPLE TREE. Fie. 393. 
troit and the Rouge and Raisin River sections famous 
for their orchards. Here originated the Detroit Red, 
the Roseau of the natives; the Detroit Black, more 
famous; and some others of lesser note. From here 
were disseminated the Reinettes, Calvilles, Bellefleurs, 
Etoiles, the Drap d’Or. and the many strains of the 
Pomme de Neige, our delicious Snow. Downing has 
over a hundred of these Gallic names. Few pomolo- 
gi&ts appreciate the work done by the French colo¬ 
nists in Americanizing European apples. 
Quite as interesting are the pears. The French 
farms were in strips, each of which possessed several 
of these fine pear trees. One specimen must surely 
have satisfied the wants of a family, however, as 50 
bushels weve a not unusual crop. Unlike the apples, 
there seems to have been but one well-markea variety. 
The fruit of this is of medium size, lemon yellow with 
a lively blush cheek, pyriform; with a crisp, break¬ 
ing, juicy flesh, and a sweet, rich spicy flavor. Not 
the best for dessert, but unsurpassed for canning, dry¬ 
ing and preserving. This truly deserving pear seems 
destined not to be perpetuated. Attempts have been 
made to grow and to sell the young trees, but all have 
failed, chiefly because it takes 20 years to come into 
hearing. The leisure-loving French fruit grower 
could wait; the impatient Yankee will not. Another 
quarter century will see the last of these noble trees, 
illustrious memorials of early western fruit growing 
—trees unsurpassed the world over—^and we shall have 
not even a distinctive name to commemorate them 
in our annals of horticulture. The origin of the old 
orchards is shrouded in mystery. Records show that 
some of them were planted more than 125 yeais ago. 
Tradition says that the trees were brought from 
France to Monti-eal; thence to the Straits. But young 
plants could hardly have withstood the long sea voy¬ 
age and the subsequent trip in canoe or batteau. It 
is scarcely probable that the trees were grafted, for 
that art could have been but little understood by a 
people skilled only in trapping and boating. It is 
more probable that the seeds were brought from 
France. True varieties are supposed not to come 
from seed, but the sorts named are fairly fixed as to 
type in the seed and their not coming exactly true 
would account cfor the great number of strains. 
Michigan Agricultural College. w. r. iikduick. 
CEMENT STABLE FLOOBS. 
Part I. 
Much interest is now manifest over the use of ce¬ 
ment in stable floors. How does it compare with 
plank in cost, safety and durability? How may it be 
built most cheaply, and at the same time permanently, 
is a question of daily occurrence. It seems to me 
fortunate at this time that lumber is comparatively 
high and cement comparatively cheap, while formerly 
the reverse was true, and farmers were slow to make 
changes when hemlock plank could be purchased for 
$6 to $10 per 1,000 feet, and imported Portland cement 
cosit $4 a barrel. Such prices made the comparative 
cost of cement nearly or quite double as much as a 
plank floor ordinarily built. Its durability therefore 
was secondary in consideration. The actual cost of 
the permanent floor will depend somewhat, upon the 
nicety with which the work is done, and whecher or 
not the labor is all performed by skilled men. One 
skilled man with cheaper labor to follow will do well, 
or if the farmer himself can take the lead the work 
will be even cheaper than a plank floor. A perfect 
job done by a skilled man w*!!! cost nearly twice as 
much. Much prejudice exists against its use because 
it is cold; sure enough, cement, metals and stone are 
good conductors oif heat, not that they are in and of 
themselves cold. We place the hand upon these sub¬ 
stances and it feels cold until the heat of the hand has 
warmed the block through, ’while against wood or 
paper, non-conductors of heat, the feeling is soon 
warm, and we say wood is warm. Cement is also 
slippery. Yes, thalt is true if improperly finished. So, 
let us consider the methods of construction which will 
lead to a permanent and satisfactory floor. 
In many localities drift stones are found; small 
“hard-heads,” so-called, that will make a good foun¬ 
dation. After leveling the earth, and if it is a loamy 
soil treading or tamping it solid, a coating of these 
small stones may be hand placed about five to six 
inch^ thick. Hand placing seems necessary rather 
than shoveling them off without regard to location, 
for the reason that if the location of one to the other 
is not solid and firm we shall have a cracked surface 
eventually. They should also be laid to a line on 
top, so that 'When the cement is run into these crev¬ 
ices we shall have a smooth siu'face upon which to 
spread the finishing coat. The cheaper grades of ce¬ 
ment, water lime, and the like, are just as good for 
the grouting mixed about one part cement to tour or 
five parts sand made thin enough to run into every 
space and adhere to every portion of the surface of 
these small stones. Of course the grout can be placed 
directly upon the earth and be equally as good, but it 
will need be as thick as stone and cement together, 
aifd hence much more expensive. Where crushed 
stone or clean large gravel is easily and cheaply 
found, a good foundation, saving much cement, may 
be made of one part cheap cement, five parts coarse 
sand and five parts gravel or crushed stone, thorough¬ 
ly mixed and spread to a depth* of four inches; at 
least that depth wherever animals stand or walk. Of 
course walks and floors of light work may be if neces¬ 
sary more cheaply built. The finish coat of Portland 
is added to the surface in this case as noted when the 
large stones are used for grouting. 
Many otherwise well-done jobs are ruined by dirty 
sand. Make no mistake, even if necessary to haul 
long distances in order to get a clean, sharp sand. 
This trouble has in my observation been most fre¬ 
quent when the work was done by an amateur. There 
is no reason why one may not do the work himself 
if he knows how. Otherwise get a competent man 
v/ho will positively refuse to use any but a coarse, 
sharp, clean sand. Better use a sand so coarse that 
sifting is necessary to free it from coarse gravel than 
to use the fine salvy stuff so often found in the sec¬ 
tions where the clay formations border on the sandy, 
loamy soils. Probably it will always pay to sift the 
sand; it will run better in the grouting, and finish 
much better in the last or surface coat. it. e. cook. 
PLOWING cow PE.4S.—1 notice W. t,. M’s. letter on 
page 770 about cow peas. Here we wait till after vines 
are dead, when with one horse they may be plowed, or 
if too heavy, broken with harrow first. If cows or horses 
do not like green vines, let them wilt all day after being 
cut. and soon they will be eaten, even if freshly cut. 
They have a strong flavor when green (I have tasted 
them), which leaves them as they wilt, but animals soon 
learn to like them. u- i- f- 
Pomona, Fla. 
