1 905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
t>47 
WHAT BECOMES OF CARBONIC ACID? 
Good Ventilation Necessary. 
I wish to kuow what becomes of carbonic acid in a collar 
(under a living room) seven feet in the clay, with a good 
hardhead well ; no cement bottom, but clay. If carbonic 
acid is heavier than air, how do tall trees imbibe it? 
Fayette, Ohio. it. e. r. 
All gaseous substances which have the physical prop¬ 
erties of air, under ordinary pressure and temperature 
conditions, when produced or liberated in a given 
place, tend to expand and diffuse in all directions under 
the energy of motion resident in every molecule of the 
gas, and which is greater or less according as the 
temperature is high or low. The pressure which air 
exerts when it is compressed in a confined space is only 
an expression or measure of the effort of the molecules 
to escape in all directions through the confining walls. 
But when an opening is made in the confining wall 
which allows the air to escape, until the pressure is 
equalized through the escape of a part of the confined 
air, the escape of air does not cease when the pressure 
becomes equalized. The real condition is that some air 
is all the time continuing to escape through the opening, 
but an equal amount of the outside air enters, thus 
maintaining an equal pressure outside, and this gives 
the appearance that no interchange is taking place at 
all, which, however, is never true unless the surrounding 
walls are of the most impervious nature. 
The fact that carbonic acid is heavier than air and 
can be carried in pails through the air as water is car¬ 
ried, and poured from one vessel to another, leads to 
the impression that if the pail is only set down and left 
undisturbed the carbonic acid should remain in the 
pail permanently as we ordinarily think of water doing. 
But when we recall our experience critically we know 
that the pail filled with water and set anywhere open to 
the air gradually loses its water by evaporation, until 
in the end the pail becomes dry. We 
realize that this would have happened, in 
due time, if the pail had been set on the 
bottom of the cellar. So, too, with the 
cellar bottom completely impervious and 
covered with water, we readily concede 
that it would only be a matter of time 
when the water would have all disap¬ 
peared by evaporation, and in some man¬ 
ner escaped from the cellar to the outside 
air. At the surface of water, even when 
frozen, some of it is all the time being 
converted into the gaseous form, and in 
this form it diffuses away into the sur¬ 
rounding space, and this we call, for 
liquids like water, evaporation; but the 
escape, after evaporation has taken place, 
is in no sense different from the diffusion 
of carbonic acid gas away from any place 
where it may have been produced- 
Another illustration will, perhaps, make 
the case more clear. Maple syrup is heav¬ 
ier than water, but if a cup of it were 
carefully lowered to the bottom of a pail 
of water and allowed to remain there en¬ 
tirely undisturbed, in due time the syrup 
would rise, molecule by molecule, and diffuse itself, with 
almost absolute uniformity, through the entire volume of 
water, leaving the solution in the cup no sweeter than that 
to be found in any other part of the pail. If another cup 
were set loosely over the one containing the syrup, which 
would then be in the relation of the cellar containing 
carbonic acid, it is clear that it would only be a matter 
of a longer time before complete diffusion would take 
place, and the syrup would have found its way to all 
portions of the surrounding water. 
When carbonic acid is generated in a cellar, or in a 
well, through the decomposition of organic matter, as 
happens most of the time in the soil when the tempera¬ 
ture is high enough, if it forms faster than the rate 
of diffusion aided by wind pressure and wind suction, 
then there is an accumulation of the carbonic acid in 
the air of the cellar above that which is normal or 
healthful. So, in the silo during the early stages of 
filling when the carbonic acid is forming rapidly, it not 
infrequently accumulates faster than diffusion is able 
to remove it, and the air may become so charged as 
to endanger life. It is sometimes said that we are need¬ 
lessly solicitous about ventilation ; that in the good old 
days little thought was given to it, and yet people seldom 
suffered from poor ventilation. To this it must be re¬ 
plied that great changes have come over the methods 
both of construction and of heating of dwellings. The 
oM-fashioned fireplace sucked an immense volume of 
air through every available opening in wall, door or 
window, and sent it hurrying in an endless stream out 
through the great chimney. Then there was ventila¬ 
tion and to spare. The introduction of stoves and closer 
construction of walls did not alter the principle, but it 
did reduce the volume of air drawn into and sent out 
of the apartments in a given time. With the introduc¬ 
tion of steam, hot water and electric heating; and with 
the adoption of gasoline, kerosene, and gas ranges and 
stoves for the kitchen, laundry and sometimes for sit¬ 
ting and sleeping rooms, there is the widest possible 
departure from the old conditions. Under the new con¬ 
ditions referred to the apartments become the tightest 
boxes which can .well be constructed, with closed lids, 
and with the chimney and all other means for the 
change of air absent, The lamps, the stoves and the 
people, under these conditions, render the air unfit for 
breathing at far more than double the old rate, because 
not only are the apartments tighter, but the oxygen of 
the air in the room is consumed and the entire waste 
product thrown back to pollute and dilute the oxygen 
that remains, Because these new devices do not smoke 
and the products of combustion are invisible it does not 
follow that they have not vitiated the air for purposes 
of respiration. 
In the dairy barn, in the poultry house and in other 
apartments, closely constructed, where considerable 
numbers of animals are housed together during the 
Winter, we have conditions which are identical with a 
tightly closed kitchen without chimney and the prod¬ 
ucts of combustion thrown back into the room. Not 
only does each animal use the oxygen of the air in the 
stable, but it throws back into the air a corresponding 
amount of the heavy carbonic acid, and with it large 
quantities of moisture, together with other products 
which pollute the air and render it extremely unwhole¬ 
some if allowed to accumulate beyond a certain per¬ 
centage amount. In the wholly unventilated stables 
closed tightly on cold Winter nights, it is only by the 
slow process of diffusion which has been described, 
aided by wind suction and pressure, with a little con¬ 
vection taking place through openings we have tried, 
without succeeding, to close, that the interchange of 
fresh and impure air takes place. Such conditions are 
neither healthful nor do they lead to an economical con¬ 
sumption of hay or grain in the production of growth, 
milk, meat or eggs. The process of diffusion alone is 
sufficient to carry the heavy carbonic acid well up 
through the main body of the atmosphere just as it is 
able to keep the heavy sea salts distributed through 
the greatest depths of the ocean, but convection and 
other currents assist in carrying the carbonic acid up¬ 
ward from the earth’s surface, where much is being con¬ 
tinually liberated as well as fixed. Trees, therefore, 
find always an abundance of carbonic acid about their 
uppermost branches, no matter how tall they may be. 
_[prof.] f. h. king. 
OXEN ON THE FARM. 
The day of the ox team on the farm is nearly over 
in this country, for the reason that they are too slow 
to keep up with the procession. There is not one man 
in 10 who knows how to drive them; still there are a 
few yokes of oxen in the country yet. Most of them 
are raised and trained or “broken” (as the case may 
be) in the lower Adirondack region, where they can 
be bought for from $100 to $125 per yoke. The one 
shown in Fig. 275, with his mate, was raised and par¬ 
tially trained near Warrensburgh, N. Y. After we got 
them their education was continued, till they under¬ 
stood quite a little of the English language, and I 
often said they knew more than some men. In the 
picture old Buck is doing his part toward entertaining 
the city cousin who visits us- I have raked hay with 
this ox, and have run the mowing machine with him 
and his mate, and I alone, with them and hay loader, 
have put a ton of hay on the wagon in less than 15 min¬ 
utes. An ox team is a handy thing to have; they hardly 
ever get lame, never get the heaves, and their harness 
will last a lifetime with no special care. When they 
get old you can fatten them and sell them for more 
than they were worth when they were young, c. v. D. 
Schuylerville, N. Y. 
A SILO IN THE BARN. 
A New York Man Makes “Sweet” Silage. 
I notice that Edward Van Alstyne, at page 583, takes 
a long step towards assisting the farmers who must 
economize in building silos, and I will try to take an¬ 
other one. 1 have two silos that have been making 
‘‘sweet silage” for a number of years, to the great satis¬ 
faction of the cows, and in building them I did not use 
cement or stones. One rainy day we dug the holes in 
the bays of the old Dutch barn 17 x 19 feet, and six 
feet deep, and placed sills 6 x 8 in them, notching and 
pinning them together at the corners and on them 
stood 2x8 pieces 2/ feet apart and 22 feet long, on 
which we toe-nailed 2x8 pieces 16 feet 4 inches and 
18 feet 4 inches long—two of each—and pinned them 
together at the corners. The uprights were also well 
toe-nailed to the sills, and we added no other girths 
or ties to keep the sides together. There has never 
been any apparent necessity for such; the corners have 
never opened, nor the sides bulged in the slightest. 
Still, I cut my corn after it gets in the dough state, 
when there is little juice or water in the stalks, hence 
the silage has no tendency to spread in settling. After 
we nailed on the first set of boards we sawed 4x4 
scantling cornerwise and nailed the half pieces in the 
corners of the silos, which made it better to turn the 
corners with the tarred paper, and to insure the corners 
we tacked on pieces of tarred paper cut eight inches 
long before putting on the long paper; also tacked on 
pieces over any holes or tears in the long paper; then 
nailed on the second set of boards. The doorways are 
between two of the uprights, and open all the way to 
the 2x8 piece on top, and on their faces are two 
strips nailed \/ inch apart to hold the door boards in 
place, which are narrow flooring, tongued and grooved, 
and cut a little short to allow their being raised at one 
end when slipped into the slots. Inside are placed 
pieces of tarred paper cut three feet long 
across the doors, against which the silage 
is banked and well trodden, all of which 
is done thoroughly. 
My soil being sandy loam, and porous, 
we put in clay in the bottom wetted and 
pounded down, which must be done care¬ 
fully, or the silo will prove a failure. A 
farmer in Dutchess County built an ex¬ 
pensive silo, and to perfect it, as he 
thought, dug a drain from the center out, 
and covered it with a grating. But Mas, 
when he opened his silo to feed he found 
a big box full of corn manure! Tbe drain 
had let the silage preserver—carbonic 
acid gas—ywhich is heavier than the air, 
flow away, which allowed the air to fol¬ 
low in, and keep up the fermentation until 
the silage rotted- It is not only import¬ 
ant to make the silo absolutely tight, but 
also to close the doorway higher than the 
silage while filling. One evening we cut 
so late that I had to take a lantern into 
the silo to fit the tarred paper, and to 
make a good lap I dug away the silage 
about two feet, and placed the lantern 
in the bottom, but to my surprise the light went out 
in a few moments, proving that the carbonic acid gas 
is set free very soon after the corn is cut, for this silage 
had not been cut two hours. A few days after my man 
hurried to me, saying; “I guess there will be an ex¬ 
plosion or something at the silo, for when I was cut¬ 
ting the door boards I dropped tbe saw down between 
the uprights below the barn floor, and every time I let 
the lantern down it goes out,” showing that the car¬ 
bonic acid gas had flowed down and filled the space. 
On going to the house my sister asked me to drown 
some .mice in the wire trap, but instead of using water 
I took them to the silo, and in two minutes they were 
dead. 
The way I effect “sweet silage” is to cut into one 
silo one day and into the other the next, which allows 
the first to heat up very high, or ferment longer, from 
which the silage when taken out is sweet and smells 
like wine and prunes, instead of pickles, as when silage 
is rushed in. We keep the silage level, but do not 
tread it down until the second day, just before begin¬ 
ning to cut, when we do it thoroughly. 
I think Mr. Van Alstyne has made a mistake in the 
size necessary for 20 cows. A round silo 15 x 25 feet 
would hold only 90 tons, while 20 cows require 140 
tons. “Reader” would better build 12 x 24 and 24 
feet high, with a partition in the center. The doors 
should be near each other, so as to fill both without 
moving the cutter, unless he uses a carrier, which is 
far better. A great saving can be effected by taking 
logs to the mill and having the lumber cut. costing but 
$4 per 1,000, instead of $24. j. v. henry nott, 
Ulster Co., N. Y. 
The Iowa Homestead tells of a fanner who asked the 
price of a eow over the telephone. When lie went for the 
cow he found that she had been bought by a neighbor who 
hud an ear at the phone during the conversation! 
AN ADIRONDACK TROTTER—SLOW BUT SURE. Fig. 275. 
