8oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 5 
Because they are well now and you can be thankful, 
do not become careless. You know that drain needs 
renovating. “She” has reminded you of it often 
enough ; women are cleaner than men, but they can 
have fevers. You did mean to fix it, but, but—didn’t. 
“The cistern does not need cleaning, for fresh 
water runs into it every time it rains,” said one well- 
meaning friend. A disagreeable odor and resolute 
wife compelled him to take off the somewhat dilapi¬ 
dated cover. A dead skunk explained the odor and 
confirmed the wife’s opinion that men “needed 
watching.” 
Wells are numerous, that from their position must 
receive drainage from barnyards and outhouses. It 
is said that water soaking through soil will purify 
itself in going 10 feet. If this is so, which I doubt, 
it must be fresh soil. After water has worked through 
unbroken soil until little passages have been formed, 
there is no purifying. Typhoid fever is produced by 
a germ. That germ can be carried any distance in 
water, and even oysters that feed in waters contain¬ 
ing the wastes of the city, become infected, and if 
eaten by man, produce fever. That germ, when dry, 
can be carried any distance, and if breathed in by any 
one who is weakened by care, work, exposure or a 
cold, will germinate at once. The chief danger is, 
however, that this floating germ will drop into that 
drain, cistern, rubbish pile or any other spot where 
there is decaying organic matter, and at once breed 
fever germs enough to produce an epidemic. Even 
that spring of cold, pure water of which you feel so 
secure may have some rotten leaves, or decaying 
sticks lodged in some crevice during high water, that 
offer a home to this terrible germ. 
Do not delay because cold weather is coming on. 
Cold and frost do not kill these germs. Cold water or 
cold air is not necessarily pure. Clean out that 
drain and give it a thorough priming of chloride of 
lime, or better still, fill it up and place a barrel on 
wheels in its place, only be sure if you do, that you 
empty it yourself. Clean out the cistern and white¬ 
wash it inside and out. Put a big chunk of stone 
lime in the spring after a careful cleaning, and let it 
soak for a day. If the well is on lower ground than 
the barnyard or outhouse, move one or the other. 
Have a bored well that goes down below the first 
seam of rocks ; it’s so small that nothing can get into 
it from the surface. Somewhere in my travels, I met 
one of these germs. My brother is a physician, and 
has had as many as 15 cases this fall at once. In 
some way, he has got one of these germs into his 
system. From the effects on myself and him, I am 
anxious to awaken interest in and watchfulness over 
the house supply of water, and disposal of wastes. 
_ C. E. CHAPMAN. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Cobn ob IIabd Wood —It was my fortune to live 
west of the Missouri River from 1880 to 1890, and I 
have frequently seen corn used as fuel. Dry corn 
makes an exceedingly hot fire, and lasts about as long 
as an equal bulk of wood or soft coal. At the com¬ 
parative prices of corn and coal in western Kansas 
and Nebraska, it is frequently good economy to burn 
corn. To a resident of the treeless plains, there is 
nothing repulsive in the thought of burning corn for 
fuel; custom sanctions many things that seem ex¬ 
travagant at first sight. In fact, the first years after 
I came east to live, I thought it positively wicked to 
cut down sound, healthy hardwood trees for fuel. 
Should the Nebraska man repent the burning of his 
corn, but few months will be required to refill his 
cribs ; but if the New England farmer put ax to his 
maples and birches, a half century will elapse before 
a new growth will have taken their places. It is a 
source of frequent regret with me that the pioneers 
of the East, in their zeal and haste to clear their 
farms, cut everything clean as they went, and now 
we see many farm homes in the open field, not a tree 
or a shrub within 40 rods of the house, as bleak as 
the homesteader’s cabin on the plains of the West. A 
little forethought and care might have left giant 
oaks, elms and maples to shield the home from the 
glaring sun in summer, and the howling winds in 
winter. Plant corn for present necessity, and plant 
trees for posterity. c. w. scarff. 
Vermont. 
Crimson Clover Hay for Stock. 
We have seen the little Government bulletin on this 
subject, and also your answer to W. W. H., page 753, 
both warning against feeding this hay when made 
from matured or nearly matured plants. That there 
is some danger we do not doubt, but that it may be 
minimized by some means, or that it is not so im¬ 
minent as to warrant withholding it from horse stock, 
I am sure. At this station, there has been raised more 
or less Crimson clover every year for six or seven 
years. For five years, some seed has been thrashed, 
and the straw and chaff fed mostly to a horse and pair 
of mules. Whenever there has been ensilage to feed, 
these three animals have been fed ensilage twice 
daily, and as long as the Crimson clover straw and 
chaff lasted, their last feed each day was of that 
material. It served the purpose admirably. It is 
better than the Timothy and mixed grasses hay we 
could buy at $17.50 to $21 per ton, and served to 
“ balance ” our ration of corn ensilage. 
We are so far from fearing any evil that we expect 
to feed, at least six months of 1897 on similar Crim¬ 
son clover straw, or earlier cut hay, but shall not be 
too sure until our clover escapes all the vicissitudes 
of the season. If the danger be very imminent, then 
the division of each day’s feed by the mass of heavy, 
damp ensilage was an effectual preventive of harm. 
A STRAW-BURNING STOVE. Fig. 263. 
We do not deny the danger, but if it exists, behold in 
ensilage a considerable portion of the ration, or per¬ 
haps, if the straw or late hay is soaked until limp be¬ 
fore being fed, the same effect may be attained. But 
we rather think of the one daily meal of straw and 
chaff or hay as carried past the possibility of clogging 
by the heavier mass of the next two meals of ensilage 
before another meal of hay or chaff is eaten. This it 
seems would prevent any accumulation of material 
which could clog in the stomach, frank e. emery. 
North Carolina Experiment Station. 
Some /Votes from the West. 
Straw-Burning Stoves —The notes about burning 
corn for fuel in Nebraska, have called out consider¬ 
able comment from our western readers. A friend in 
South Dakota sends an account of the stove pictured 
at Fig. 263. This is designed for burning straw or 
stalks, and is said to give good satisfaction, as it pro¬ 
duces a hot fire, or may be fixed so as to carry a mild 
heat for some hours. This stove will burn hay, straw, 
cobs, or other light materials, and, as the picture 
shows, may be used for cooking, if need be. 
Homemade Windmill —We are located on the 
Platte River bottom, which here is about nine miles 
wide. A more fertile country does not exist; the 
great drawback is lack of rainfall some seasons. That 
is being overcome in this (Dawson) County by irriga¬ 
tion ; many miles of ditch are now in successful 
operation. Some windmill plants are also doing good 
service on a small scale. We use sandpoints driven 
to the depth of 16 to 24 feet, where we get an endless 
supply of water. Windmills may be turned on and 
run the year around, and never affect the water sup- 
ply. A great many in this part of the country use 
homemade windmills, of which I send a drawing, see 
Fig. 264. An old buggy axle is used for the shaft, 
which is set in boxes at the top of the tower, which is 
a square box. Our prevailing winds are north and 
south, so the mill is set to face that way. It will run 
with any wind except a direct side wind. The cost 
of such a mill is about $6, and answers the same pur¬ 
pose as a high-priced mill. By using large tanks or 
reservoirs, water may be obtained for irrigating 
small areas at very little outlay of money, by using 
this device. e. o. b. 
Overton. Neb. 
R. N.-Y.—This form of windmill is called a “ go- 
devil” in some parts of the West. As will be seen 
from the picture,' it is a box without top or bottom 
set firmly on the ground. The “ windmill ” is made 
like an old-fashioned water wheel, and is set on the 
box so that the upper surface is exposed while the 
ends of the box protect the lower parts. The wind, 
blowing over the top of the box turns the wheel 
over and over, since the blades outside of the box are 
the only ones that feel the wind. 
Fuel in Nebraska.— Corn will be burned in this 
part of the State quite extensively, unless the price 
take a boom. In fact, I have already sold several 
bushels to parties to burn. It makes a very intense 
heat, but it is not exactly the best fuel for a new 
stove, since there is so much oil in it that it seems to 
burn out the inside grating. I think that your cor¬ 
respondent from Lincoln is in error when he states 
that shelled corn sells for one cent less per bushel 
than ear corn. It is the reverse here, as most parties 
who own shellers here will take the cobs for the 
shelling, and the farmer would hardly shell his corn 
at a loss. c. V. d. 
Tecumseh, Neb. 
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piece of paper.] 
The Life of the Peach Borer. 
J. 0. B. E ., Setauket, N. Y .—Wili you give a brief description of 
the Peach borer. At what time, and in what way, does it injure 
the trees ? How can its presence be detected ? 
ANSWERED BY M. V. SLINGERLANI). 
The Peach borer is a common name properly ap¬ 
plied to a white, grub-like caterpillar, about an inch 
in length when full grown, that is often found in a 
burrow which it has just eaten out just beneath the 
bark on the large roots, or base of the trunk below 
ground, of peach trees; a similar borer sometimes 
works on plum trees. When a healthy growing peach 
tree is injured it always exudes more or less sticky, 
mucilaginous gum at the point of injury. This fact 
renders it easy to determine whether a peach tree is 
infested with borers. Oftentimes so much of this 
gum exudes from the injury of the borer as to form a 
ring around the tree on the surface of the ground ; I 
have seen a large handful of gum exuded from the 
injury of one borer on a small peach tree. Sometimes 
the borers work so far below the surface on the roots 
that the gum does not come to the surface, but if a 
little of the soil be removed from around the base of 
the tree, this tell-tale mark of the enemy will soon be 
seen. No gum ever exudes from the work of the 
Apple borers, which are quite different insects and 
work farther into the solid parts of the wood of the 
trunk, only revealing their presence by throwing out 
sawdust from their back door or entrance holes. 
In the latter half of the last century, the Peach 
borer was recognized as the most destructive peach 
pest, and it has the same reputation to-day. People 
think that they can not grow peaches now in many 
localities in New York and other States where the 
finest crops of this delicious fruit were grown to per¬ 
fection years ago. In most cases, I believe, the fault 
is not with the supposed changed climate or the tree, 
but is with the man, for he fails to give the tree the 
proper care. “Timothy yellows,” as Prof. Roberts 
aptly puts it, meaning lack of cultivation, and allow¬ 
ing the orchard to grow up to weeds and grass, and 
the unchecked ravages of this Peach borer, are the 
principal reasons why the peaches won’t grow as 
they used to do in these localities. 
The white, grub-like caterpillars of this Peach borer 
may be found in the trees, almost always just below 
the surface of the soil, at any time during the year. 
In the fall and early spring, they will be small, rang¬ 
ing from one-fourth to one-half inch in length. Their 
small size, and the fact that their then slight injuries 
to the tree have caused but little gum to exude, 
render it more difficult to find them to dig them out 
at these seasons of the year. From the middle of 
