1305. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
8o7 
AIR IN A WATER PIPE. 
One of the most frequent causes of trouble with water 
pipes is the air which is always contained cither in solu¬ 
tion in the water, or simply mixed with it. In either 
way there may be trouble when the water is passing 
through 'pipes. The water before it enters the pipes 
always has more or less air in it, more in running 
water, and the more disturbed the water is the more 
air it will take up. Thus swiftly flowing water takes 
up a very large quantity of air, and as the water moves 
less slowly this water is released and escapes. One 
may see this occurrence taking place at any time where 
there is a fall of the water, or more conspicuously when 
pouring water from one vessel to another. It' is this 
fact which accounts for the foam which occurs in all 
falling water, or other liquids, when one is poured 
from one vessel to another. This occurrence gives 
much trouble to persons who have water running 
through pipes for the supply of a house, for if the pipes 
.are not straight, but have bends in them vertically, the 
air which liberates itself from the water when this 
comes to rest, of course becomes entangled in the bends, 
and being thus irremovable it stops the flow of water 
and the current stops. 
This behavior of the water, and the air in it, of 
course, is due to the greater lightness of the air which 
forces it above the water, and prevents it from escaping. 
Thus pipes may be stopped as effectually as if they 
were plugged with lead, by air gathering in the bends. 
As it is almost impossible, under the most favorable 
circumstances, to lay pipes on an accurate line, and 
without bends, at least 
as small as the diam¬ 
eter of the pipes, there 
is very rarely any work 
of this kind done with¬ 
out risk, or even cer¬ 
tainty, of bends occur¬ 
ring in them in a ver¬ 
tical direction, and thus 
the very common oc¬ 
currence of stoppage 
of water in th$ pipes, 
especially in the warm¬ 
er part of the Sum¬ 
mer. In warm weather 
the air expands, that is 
it increases in bulk, 
and takes up more 
room or space. Thus 
when warm air is col¬ 
lected in the pipe, it 
increases in bulk, and 
it also escapes most 
freely from the water, 
so that there is much 
more danger of this 
trouble with the flow 
of water in the Sum¬ 
mer than in the Win¬ 
ter. 
One most useful pre¬ 
caution is to make a 
small hole in the top of 
the bend of a pipe, if 
water is constantly 
flowing, and furnish an escape for this imprisoned air. 
Another is to fit a small force pump to the upper end, 
or inflow of the pipe and (occasionally or in case of 
any trouble) so increase the flow of water as to force 
the air which may be collecting in the pipe, past all 
these bends, and so clear the pipe of all gathered air 
completely. The fact is that due care is rarely ever 
taken in doing this work, even by practical mechanics; 
few of whom know anything about this matter. So 
that the owner of any such pipe should see for him¬ 
self, that, in the first place, the pipe should be accurate¬ 
ly straightened of all vertical bends (horizontal bends 
are harmless) and in places where the pipe must be 
carried over hills, or vertical bends cannot be avoided, 
these should be made carefully so as not to flatten the 
pipe, as will surely happen unless proper care is taken 
to avoid them. 
Another suggestion may be made. This is to keep 
a small force pump which may be screwed on to the 
end of the upper part of the pipe, and in case of any 
stoppage of the water this pump is fitted to the pipe at 
the inlet, or head of it. and water is forced through; 
taking any stagnant air along with it; and thus remov¬ 
ing the difficulty in a few minutes. This is the best 
and safest, simplest, and most effective remedy for this 
difficulty. Or if it is too far to go to the head of the 
pipe, a similar pump may be fitted to the lower end, 
and the stream drawn through. Rut as one can force 
water more easily than it can be drawn, the former way 
is preferable. 
There is quite a common belief that water running from 
a large pipe will exercise as much greater force in the 
small pipe as the size of the pipe exceeds, that of the 
smaller one. Now the size of the pipe in this connec¬ 
tion has nothing to do with the flow of water through 
a pipe smaller in size. Three inches of water in the 
upper part of a pipe does not exert any more pressure 
on the rest of the pipe than as much as the diameter of 
the smaller pipe. The water in the larger pipe will 
exert only as much pressure on the water below as the 
size of the lower pipe; that is, one inch. h. stewart. 
AN IOWA YANKEE “LOOKS BACK.” 
As you are giving place to the recapitulation of New 
England possibilities for the benefit of your readers, 
perhaps the retrospect of one born and reared on a 
New England farm might be of interest. At the age 
of 25 years I found myself in possession of the best 
girl I could find, and the best education possible to 
obtain under the environments in which destiny had 
placed me. together with $65 in coin. I located in 
George’s Valley, on one of the foothills overlooking 
the waters of the beautiful Kennebec, Knox County, 
Maine. I ran in debt for a 50-acre farm, a horse, a 
pig and a cow; rolled up my sleeves and went to work. 
At the end of three years I sold out and found I had 
added to my possessions $2,200 cash. For another 
year I personated “the stone that kept rolling” and 
“gathered no moss.” Thinking to better my fortune, 
I took Horace Greeley’s advice and came West. Thirty- 
seven years ago I located in Grundy County, Iowa, 
where I have since resided. I now find myself in pos¬ 
session of a 400-acre farm, worth $125 per acre, six 
children and nine grandchildren who have been raised 
ed their farms, went fishing and met with “fishermen’s 
luck.” Were I young again I would not hesitate to 
look in the East for profitable investments rather than 
pay the prices of western land. But now at my ad¬ 
vanced years, having learned that money is not all there 
is to be desired, I expect to make the land of the 
“Laughing Water,” which has been so good to me, the 
sunset scene of my life, satisfied that all has been well. 
I still love the old “Pine Tree State” for the young 
manhood she gave to me, and for the young life she 
has contributed to the development of the West. Once 
while riding over some of the rock-ridged hills of 
Maine in an old stage-coach, a young tenderfoot from 
the West, looking out over the landscape, sneeringly 
remarked: “I should like to know what they can raise 
here.” A quaint old lady with a twinkle in her eye 
made answer: “I can tell you, young man, they can 
raise men.” All honor to New England and all honor 
to New England’s yeomanry. 
“Stay on your farms and you’ll suffer no loss 
For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss.” 
Iowa. s. E. D. 
COW PEAS, SORGHUM AND CRIMSON CLOVER IN A NURSERY. Fig. 346. 
up to call us (wife and I) blessed; all good produc¬ 
tions of western life, and all well supplied with happy 
homes. What I want to say, however, is that a man 
with a little mental acumen, good health and energy, 
and not afraid of hard work, can make some line of 
agriculture profitable either in the East or the West. 
A few years ago 1 visited a man in Massachusetts 
who had 13 acres of the poorest patch of scrub brush 
and gravelly soil seemingly to be found, making more 
money raising poultry than could be made on one of 
Iowa’s fertile farms of 160 acres raising corn. In my 
youthful days I saw men grow gray-headed and die 
on New England farms, with scarcely enough saved 
through life to give them decent burial, while others 
grew rich, all in agricultural pursuits. The conclusion 
was that the “man with the hoe” possessing sufficient 
brains to grasp present conditions and future possibili¬ 
ties, could almost anywhere (and on many of the farms 
then being abandoned in New England), make a success 
in some line of agriculture, if disposed to adapt him¬ 
self to his immediate surroundings sufficiently to bring 
the comforts and luxuries of life and make a happy 
home. As an instance of what I myself once did with 
one of those abandoned fields, I received for the ex¬ 
penditure of 15 days’ labor of myself and a boy, to 
whom I was paying $12 per month, the sum of $150, 
that being only one-half of the production. 1 he mis¬ 
take that many New England farmers made was in 
adopting the “skinning policy,” trying to get some¬ 
thing for nothing, robbing the soil of its fertility and 
putting nothing back. To many of them it did not look 
as easy to use the “hoe” as riding on a sulky plow with 
a shade over their heads, out 'West, and they abandon¬ 
ADVANTAGE OF HOT WATER HEAT. 
I have been much interested in reading the articles in 
The R. N.-Y. concerning the heating of farm and sub¬ 
urban dwellings. In this immediate neighborhood, dur¬ 
ing the last few years, many have installed hot water 
heat in their dwellings, and I have as yet to hear of one 
who regrets doing so. All arc unanimous in declaring 
it to be the best heat for a dwelling. I am confident 
that for the average 
farmhouse hot water is 
by far the best heat. 
Steam and hot air are 
sure to be driven by 
the wind, especially so 
with steam. When the 
weather is mild, one 
only needs a little heat, 
and if the wind is 
blowing the heat will 
be forced by the wind 
to the opposite part of 
the house, and the en¬ 
tire house cannot be 
warmed. The same 
with hot air; many 
days during the Win¬ 
ter certain rooms can¬ 
not be heated with hot 
air; no matter how 
strong the fire, the 
wind will keep the heat 
back. Many here have 
taken out hot air and 
put in hot water. We 
had hot water put in 
our house three years 
ago, and are more than 
pleased with it. It is 
perfectly satisfactory, 
and works so well that 
I have frequently re 
marked it almost runs 
itself, in that it re- 
The fire is only raked 
M. coal put on and draft 
in l l /2 hour after firing, 
quires so little attention, 
once a day; about 5.30 A. 
opened, and by seven, or 
the temperature in the living and sitting rooms is about 
70, when the mercury outside is at or about zero. We 
put more coal on as needed, and when we get up in 
the morning it is seldom below 60, and often 70, after 
being left about nine hours during the night. We have 
'eight rooms heated; have eight radiators, and use about 
eight tons of coal during the Winter, two tons of egg or 
large stove mixed with six tons of pea coal. In putting 
in a hot water plant be sure to put in a boiler large 
enough to do the work easily without crowding or 
forcing it, with sufficient feet of radiation space put 
in properly, and you will not have any trouble in keep¬ 
ing warm, no matter how cold the weather is outside. 
I had one size larger boiler and more feet of radiation 
put in than were considered necessary; that is where 
I have the advantage, and why my plant runs so 
smoothly. Our house stands on high ground, without 
any wind-break or protection of any kind, in the open 
country. w. H. williams. 
Pennsylvania. 
GOATS’ MILK.—Two things just now are attracting 
attention in dairy circles—the milch goat and a milking 
machine. A pretty good combination of the two is 
shown in Fig. 345, page 806. The Angora goat is 
making life a dream for the young Collie dog on a 
California mountain ranch. We have seen a number of 
pictures in which pigs and other animals were caught 
help themselves to a milk dinner in Nature’s way, but 
this one is genuine at least. Some of the others we 
know were “fakes/ 
