222 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 18, 
after purposes, I think it in favor of the house, and 
as far as economy of space goes that also is in favor 
of the greenhouse. Anyone who has handled any 
number of seed hotbeds knows that at least three or 
four inches along the back, and from eight to nine 
inches along the front, or low side, never grow ideal 
plants. This, taken in connection with the thickness 
A SMALL LANDSCAPE GARDENER. Fig. 93. 
of the lumber used for frames, practically reduces the 
inside area 20 per cent. 
From watching those who grow their seedling plants 
in greenhouses I am confident that a harder plant can 
be secured. If one makes a hotbed and uses manure 
enough to insure against such weather as we are having 
now, and had last season, or in fact to create heat that 
will last three weeks, the inside of such a bed will always 
be too moist; the air is laden with vapor rising through 
the soil, even though the soil in which plants are 
growing is too dry. If you attempt raising the sash too 
much you let in cold air and damage the young plant, 
which is very tender at this stage of its life. On the 
other hand, in a house the moisture is never in that 
condition. Conditions of heat can be controlled by 
the grower much better. Ventilation, if provided for 
in building, can always be used without injuring the 
plants, as no drafts of cold air come in direct contact 
with them. This may not line up altogether with what 
I have said some time previous, but I am always ready 
to jump down from any rule or hobby and get astride 
of anything that I feel is better. In western Gloucester 
County, where every farmer grows early vegetable 
plants, you will find no manure hotbeds; they all have 
small houses for growing their seedling plants. These 
houses are so built that regular hotbed sashes are 
used, and when the season is over they are taken off 
and stored away, leaving nothing but the frames for 
hail or wind to wreak its vengeance on. Nearly all these 
small houses are heated by flues running the whole 
circuit of the house, and entering chimney over furnace, 
and wood is mostly used for fuel. I have visited this 
section, and have seen the plants ready to be trans¬ 
planted, and I know they stand up better, require less 
shading, and strike root and begin growth sooner than 
the average plant grown in a manure hotbed. 
New Jersey. c. c. hulsart. 
In “Small Greenhouses vs- Hotbeds,” page 147, the 
hotbeds seem to have it all their own way. I have 
tried both, and the greenhouse has to me at least several 
distinct advantages. In this climate in March we are 
liable to cold weather that often checks or kills the 
tender plants in the hotbeds if the heat is nearly gone. 
With the greenhouse it is only a matter of more fuel, 
and the plants are all right. Weeding and transplanting 
in the hotbed is done in a very cramped and tiring 
position. In the greenhouse one sits in a comfortable 
attitude, or stands as the case may be. With the 
hotbeds rough weather induces as little attention as 
possible; with the greenhouse we spend all our time 
there to avoid being out of doors, and the plants get 
all possible attention. Use hotbed sash for the green¬ 
house, and draw them entirely off when it comes 
hardening time. If you are any way handy with tools 
put up you own greenhouse, and one 25 x 8 feet will 
cost less than $50. If you have a brick flue, give the 
flue a slight rise, and have your smokestack high, or 
else it will smoke very badly. p. b. crosby. 
Maryland. _ 
ACETYLENE GAS FOR HOUSE LIGHTING. 
In a recent number of The R. N.-Y. was an inquiry 
as to best methods of lighting a country home. Before 
the inquirer adopts' any plan let him investigate the 
merits of acetylene gas. I have had it in use for nearly 
three years, and would not exchange it for any other 
light if the other was furnished free of cost. In quality 
it is the best light known. Diffusive—that is, it lights 
up the far corners of the room; does not vary or waver; 
is strong, yet the flame is not painful to look upon; 
shows colors naturally, as sunlight does, and is the best 
light for reading purposes, better than electricity in 
every way except in convenience; you have to strike a 
match to light it. I think it as safe as electricity, far 
safer than coal oil lamps, or gasoline gas. The calcium 
carbide comes in 100-pound canisters, and looks like 
crushed granite, and is as inert and harmless while kept 
dry. But pour water upon it and a gas is evolved which 
if lighted would make trouble. It is not nearly as dan¬ 
gerous in the house as city gas, for, as the amount used 
at each burner is less than one-fifth as much as city gas, 
it would take five times as long to fill a room with it. 
Besides, city gas is stupefying, while acetylene is irri¬ 
tating, and would arouse the sleeper by causing him to 
cough. A guest of mine turned out the light and then 
thoughtlessly turned the gas on, and left it flow all night 
in a small bedroom without harm, or even knowing it, 
but the window was open an inch. Twice a burner 
five feet from the cook stove was opened by brushing a 
cloth against it, and left open an hour or more until the 
pungent odor of the gas attracted attention, with no 
harm resulting. 
The generator, piping, burners, etc., all ready for light¬ 
ing, cost me for a ]5-room house $110. In three rooms, 
parlor, living room and dining room, I put two burners 
each, making 18 burners in all. My generator holds 35 
pounds carbide. It does not pay to put in a small one, 
as it has to be refilled too often. The generator should 
be put in some outhouse or cellar, or in a place built 
for it, but must be protected from freezing. Mine is 
under my water tank, with two feet of sawdust around 
it, and with double doors, between which I stuff a tick 
filled with straw in zero weather. The room is 4 x 4, 
six feet high inside; might be all or partly in the ground 
if cheaper. Calcium carbide costs here $6.25 per 100 
pounds; can be bought East from $3.25 to $3.75. It is 
far cheaper than electricity to use, and is cheaper than 
coal oil for the same quantity of light. The burners are 
WELL-BLOOMED HARDY HYDRANGEAS. Fig. 94. 
numbered *4 foot, Y foot and one foot, meaning the 
number of cubic feet of gas they will burn in an hour. 
The %-foot gives a light about equal to a 16-candle 
electric bulb, and is the size for pantry, bathroom or 
small bedroom. A one-foot burner gives light equal to 
a Rochester coal oil lamp. I have two one-foot burners 
in my dining room and parlor also, but seldom use but 
one of them. One pound of carbide produces five cubic 
feet of gas, so anyone can figure how far it will go, and 
what the cost will be. The generating plant is entirely 
automatic and has only to be refilled with carbide and 
the water tank emptied of the slime and refilled with 
water once a month or so. It takes me about 10 minutes 
to do it, as I have a water pipe from tank overhead, and 
the slime is simply drawn off into a drain. The slime 
or refuse is excellent whitewash and a good disinfectant. 
Montana. _ w. b. harlan. 
A HOME MARKET FOR BUTTERMILK , 
I notice an article on page 606 “An Old Man on An Old 
Farm in giving us what he received from his 50-acre farm, 
he says he received for butter .$182.22; for buttermilk 
$169.33. Will he tell us where he disposed of his buttermilk, 
at what price per gallon or quart, etc.? What kind of 
package did he put it up in, if he shipped it to some city or 
sold it to local trade? I would like to know if any readers 
of The R. N.-Y. know of a market in the cities for butter¬ 
milk and what price it would be likely to bring. I am send¬ 
ing my milk, about 200 pounds per day, to a butter factory 
that is making 600 to 800 pounds of butter per day, that 
is now bringing 32 cents per pound. The buttermilk is put 
in with the skimmed milk, and the farmers feed it to their 
hogs. If we could sell this buttermilk as the old man did 
his it would add materially to our dividends. R. f. 
I usually go to market, eight miles distant, from once 
to three times per week, peddling all sorts of produce 
grown upon the farm, always taking along what butter¬ 
milk happens to be on hand, selling direct to the con¬ 
sumer at 10 cents per gallon' the year round. During the 
Winter we hardly ever have anywhere near enough to 
supply the demand. It is used during the Summer sea¬ 
son for drinking and making “flannel cakes,” and during 
cold weather mainly for making buckwheat'cakes. We 
are careful to have it good, especially during warm 
weather. Physicians prescribe it for their patients fre¬ 
quently, and several .of them use it in their own families. 
We do not separate or skim our milk, but churn the 
whole. Some people churn the cream only, and then mix 
the skim-milk with the buttermilk, churning the mixture 
enough thoroughly to mix, and sell it for buttermilk; 
such is poor stuff to drink, but may answer to make 
cakes. We use the old style of butter firkins, holding 
about 13 gallons each in place of cans, using muslin 
under the covers to make them fit tight. It is surpris¬ 
ing how much buttermilk some families will use if the 
article is "ood and fresh. I have frequently sold from 
three to five gallons per week to a family. 
__ OLD LUZERNE. 
PUMPING WATER FROM A DISTANCE. 
I wish to pipe water from my well, which is 30 feet dis¬ 
tant from my house, into the same. I would like to do 
a good job, one that will be the most effective and cheap¬ 
est in the end. The well is 19 feet deep, and the lowest 
point to which the water recedes during a dry time is 
about four feet deep. The depth of trench in which pipe 
will be laid is four feet, making a lift of 11 feet out of 
well at low water. Besides this there will be a lift of 
11 feet from cellar to pump spout, pump to be in kitchen. 
It will require 60 feet of pipe and five elbows to convey 
the water according to programme laid out. What size 
and quality of pipe would I better use? Would it lie ad¬ 
visable to give it a coat of paint or coal tar to keep it 
from rusting? What kind, size and make of pump will do 
the work effectively, and at the same time easily? Will a 
common cistern pump do it? How best manage pump and 
its connections to accomplish these results? Would the 
water be affected by contact with the pipe? d. h. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
What D. J. H. seeks to do is entirely practicable, but 
he must get the cylinder of the pump not over 20 feet 
above the low-water level in the well. He may use 
here an ordinary lift pump of any good make with a 
set length of four feet; that is, the cylinder is four feet 
below the platform of the pump. The main obstacle to 
be overcome in drawing water from a distance is the 
friction of the water in passing through the suction 
pipe. If the distance is great, say several hundred feet, 
and the pipe is small, it cannot be done even where the 
vertical elevation is not great. There will be no diffi¬ 
culty here, however, but it will be well to use lj/ 2 -inch 
pipe and place a foot valve at the water in the well, 
which is to keep the pipe filled with water. He says he 
will use five elbows. This will not be prohibitory, but 
it will be better if he can get along with two, as it 
will make the water pump more easily than if there are 
five right angles. A pump with a two and one-half to 
three inch cylinder will be about what is required. Gal¬ 
vanized pipe should be used, and it will need no painting. 
It is well to place it at the depth underground men¬ 
tioned, as it will be out of the way of frost, and as 
the cylinder will be in the cellar, there should be no 
difficulty in Winter on account of freezing. A house 
or cistern pump with the cylinder close to the 
spout would be a little risky in this case, and a 
lift pump with four-foot set length, as stated 
above, will be surest. A foot valve should be got with 
a strainer, and this will keep out leaves, dirt, etc. The 
water will not be affected by the pipe, but whether or 
not the water in the well would need aeration or not I 
am not able to say. It would depend somewhat upon 
the water itself and the amount used. The Myers 
pumps are fitted with an aerator, which is simply a 
small return pipe which may be laid by the suction pipe, 
and terminating low down in the well. Air is forced 
through this, and passes out through the water. It is an 
excellent device, especially for cisterns which have no 
filters. 
It is strange that more people do not take advan¬ 
tage of this method of getting water in the kitchen, 
where it is constantly used for different purposes. 
Wells, and especially springs, are often some little dis- 
MOLD FOR CONCRETE WALL. Fig. 95, 
tance from the farmhouse, and the labor and time re¬ 
quired in carrying water from them in a year are large 
items if taken in account. If their water level is not 
over 20 feet below where a pump cylinder can be placed 
beneath the kitchen sink, and the distance from the 
house is not over 300 or 400 feet, water can be pumped 
from them, more easily than from some deep wells. 
G. D, 
