832 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 2, 
out by clutch parts not desired to use. This line shaft 
is 50 feet long, and has 16 driving pulleys on it. In 
north end, addition to shop, I have a wood planer that 
will plane 24 inches wide and Jour inches thick. This 
stands crosswise; is driven direct from line shaft, and 
there is a door exactly in front and rear of planer, so 
can plane any desired length. Next a pulley carries a 
six-inch belt out of doors to a wood saw table, driving 
a 26-inch saw, making stove wood for self and neigh¬ 
bors. Next, with direct six-inch belt, a Bowsher grist¬ 
mill is located, and in this mill I have ground two 
bushels of corn in seven minutes, as fine as common 
“sale” meal. Then comes a wood-turning lathe, where 
I can swing 12 inches diameter and eight feet long, and 
this is a good place to manufacture hitching posts, po¬ 
tato mashers, chisel handles, etc. Pump comes next, 
and is set in cellar, driven by countershaft, and has one 
suction to a never-failing well outside, and another to 
cistern in cellar of house, 14 x 14 feet and 10 feet deep. 
Gate valves with rods running up to switch board, in 
shop, can be turned to pump from either source, and 
deliver either to thousand gallon tank in attic of house 
or to reservoir on hill, where a supply is kept, and piped 
out near barn, for running “idle” water wheels (first 
page, Fig. 881), washing wagons, etc. In this “idle” water 
wheel the upper small wheel forces the water down hill, 
while the larger wheel at the lower ground forces the 
water back to turn the upper one again. The inside 
barn supply comes from house tank. This pump was 
billed to pump 600 gallons an hour, and furnished by 
the Acrmotor people, who supplied the windmill. An 
adjustable splitting saw table, with 16-inch saw, and 
“port holes” through sides of shop allow of splitting 
up any length lumber. This is driven direct by 30-inch 
pulley and four-inch belt from main shaft. A “Merrian 
sticker” is driven by countershaft, and the machine 
will joint the edge of boards, up to 14 inches, and make 
small moldings and most any odd-shaped piece of lum¬ 
ber desired. A swing cut-off saw is hung from roof to 
table, and driven by countershaft, and upon this I can 
cross-cut boards, or joints, up to five inches thick. A 
Beach jig-saw is driven direct from main shaft, and 
upon this I can saw brackets or crooked work up to 
seven inches thick. A drilling machine with counter¬ 
shaft comes next, which is arranged for hand power 
also. Two grindstones, one coarse, one fine, are driven 
in the basement, also emery wheels, driven by counter¬ 
shafts and friction. Some of the machines mentioned 
require lots of power, and to determine if I was get¬ 
ting all I contracted for I purchased a Government 
anemometer, and affixed same to top of barn, and con¬ 
nected electrically to my office room in house with a 
self-registering wind machine. This records in office 
with ink just how many miles an hour the wind is 
blowing, and has demonstrated the statement of the 
manufacturers, that with 40 miles of wind I develop 
12 to 15 horse power with my windmill. I find on the 
coast here but few days when the mill will not do 
some work, and by arranging these things systematically 
I am rarely in trouble for lack of wind. Running this 
place alone, keeping up the repairs, both on land and 
water, gives a man a chance for some kind of a job 
most of the time, and without the help from my shop 
I could never do it. I have hot and cold water all over 
the house, cold water at barn. I light with acetylene 
gas, having 65 lights in the house, and after four years’ 
trial believe it the best and the cheapest light to be had. 
1 heat every room in the house with a modern hot-air 
system, have used both steam and hot water, and for 
conditions like my own am very sure hot air is the best 
of all. I have a perfect sewer system to the river, with 
closets, and bath on three floors. 
TOOLS AND FIXINGS.—In cleaning up my land 
and moving old walls and other stone I found a neces¬ 
sity for a different stone wagon than what I could find, 
so I made one that has proved a great success. To 
describe briefly, four large hubs without spokes 12 inches 
in diameter, band-iron boxes and hickory axles, plat¬ 
form very strong, 4x6 feet, on bolster forward, and 
bolted to reinforced axle behind, heavy thills, front 
wheels in turning swing under the platform. I can 
haul a ton of stone easily across mowing lots or any¬ 
where reasonable with one horse. I have a land roller, 
“homemade,” from a large iron drum 4y 2 feet in diam¬ 
eter, and about the same across. I built a frame around 
this with thills, fitted a spring seat, and as it weighs 
a thousand pounds, it is a great help to grass land in 
the Spring, besides rolling land when seeding down. I 
could not get along without it. In the south end addi¬ 
tion to shop (and this is of brick T laid myself) I have 
a five-horse power quick-firing boiler, and a Dean steam 
pump connected to unfailing well supply for fire pur¬ 
poses. This boiler is also connected to a small 2 l / 2 
horse power engine in shop, but is very rarely used. I 
have a small addition built on the southeast side of 
barn, running to the rear 40 feet, giving me, by using 
a narrow strip of barn floor, a bowling alley, with reg¬ 
ulation table of 65 feet, balls, etc. This furnishes recre¬ 
ation for family and visitors, when too rainy for other 
amusements. On northwest side of barn I have a story 
and a half shed, 18 x 40, with heavy wagons below and 
lumber piled above, as I find it very convenient to have 
a little lumber f various kinds always on hand to meet 
the ever-present necessity of repairs and improvements, 
MEASUREMENT OF STACK HAY. 
and then with seasoned hard and fancy woods it is 
very easy to make some special piece of furniture for 
the home that you feel too poor to buy, and besides, you 
get nearer the desired article. The mill gives me very 
little trouble, has been erected about 10 years, and I don’t 
FLORENCE FENNEL. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 387. 
See Ruralisms, Page 866. 
see why it is not good for as many more. I believe it 
is the cheapesj power there is, and it will do almost 
anything. I could not make electricity successfully with 
it, though I did light the house for a time with it. 
I have always been a Fourth of July man, and have 
collected a number of brass and iron cannon, which I 
have made carriages for (see Fig. 385) and generally 
the people about here realize their usefulness (?) at 
least once a year, though 1 never begin to celebrate 
until six o’clock A. M. I had this home built in 1890, 
and additions and new buildings 1 have made almost 
entirely myself; boat houses, docks and boats included. 
I have wintered in the cold Northwest, and the genial 
South, and to me New England is better than either. 
There is no section of the country that gives us wings 
and golden harps while we are able to carry them. The 
spirit most manifest to-day is one of dissatisfaction with 
surroundings, and a large proportion of those who are 
so anxious and ready to change make a failure, and go 
from bad to worse. Our fathers were willing to take 
up the battle of life where their fathers did, living fru¬ 
gally and economically, but the children of to-day insist 
on beginning where their fathers left off, and most of 
them carry their brains too low down to make success 
of the attempt. T f we all try to .farm as well as we 
know how, make the best of the opportunities that come 
to us, spend less time silting on cracker barrels in the 
store, and more time “sawing wood,” we shall all be in 
better shape for Christmas, and better ready to begin the 
New Year. chas. q. eldredge. 
Connecticut. 
MEASUREMENT OF HAY IN STACKS. 
A measures stack from the ground up to the ridge of the 
stack, t hence on down to the ground on the other side; 
measures the same way in the middle, also on the opposite 
end; then from the ridge down to the ground on each end; 
also the width and the length. B measures the width and 
tlie length on sides and ends of stack; then from the 
ground up to the square; thence up to the ridge; thence 
down to the square on the opposite side; thence down to the 
ground; the same in the middle and on the opposite end. 
Then he measures from the ground up to the square; thence 
up to the ridge on each end. I give measurements and 
wish you to give the contents of each stack, in cubic feet 
and in tons; also give rule for working each one out. 
Utah. E. B. M. F. 
Neither method of measurement will permit the com¬ 
putation by lower mathematics of the exact volume of 
a haystack except in special cases. The B method 
usually permits a rough approximation to be made, but 
even where the volume of a stack can be accurately 
determined only the roughest approximation to the 
weight of the hay can be calculated. Well-cured air- 
dry hay varies all the way from 300 to 900 cubic feet to 
the ton, according as it is coarse or fine, old or new, in a 
deep or shallow stack or bay, or whether it is taken from 
the top or near the bottom of the stack or bay in a barn, 
In measuring a stack it is not difficult to make allow¬ 
ance for the rounded contour and obtain measurements 
by the B method, which will give the volume suffi¬ 
ciently close. 
RULE.—Mean length, times mean width, times mean 
height to shoulder; plus length, times mean height of 
ridge above shoulder, times one-half the mean width at 
the shoulder equals the volume. 
FIRST STACK. 
Height 
Length Width to Shoulder 
38 x 22 x 10 8360 cu. ft. below shoulder. 
38 x 11 x 12 = 5016 cu. ft. above shoulder. 
13376 
SECOND STACK. 
57 x 25 x 10 = >4250 cu. ft. below shoulder. 
57 x 12.5 x 12.5 “ 8906 cu. ft. above shoulder. 
23156 
Where the stack has the inverted V-shaped top, with 
the shoulders well defined, it will be seen that the vol¬ 
ume above the shoulders is given by the product of the 
length into the height of the ridge above the shoulder 
multiplied by one-half the wjdth of the stack at the 
shoulder, because, as illustrated in the sketch, if the 
stack were cut down along the ridge to the shoulder 
and the hay built over on the other side there would 
be formed a flat-topped stack of half the width of the 
stack at the shoulder, as indicated in the drawing. If 
the height of the ridge of the stack above the shoulder 
is one-half the width of the stack at the shoulder and 
the top is very rounding, so that the contour of a cross- 
section is very nearly a half circle, as indicated by the 
dotted semi-circumference in the drawing, the volume, 
above the shoulder, will he more nearly given by mul¬ 
tiplying the volume computed the other way by 3.1416 
or by 3 1-7 and then dividing the result by two. As a 
matter of fact, the true volume usually lies between that 
given by the two methods, but nearer to the first, and 
as the top of the stack is loosest and often most dam¬ 
aged, the first method is usually the best to adopt. If 
this hay is rather coarse Alfalfa, and especially if it has 
not had long to settle, the mean volume of a ton is 
likely to be above rather than below 500 cubic feet, and 
hence less rather than more than 27 and 46 tons respec¬ 
tively. If the hay was stacked rather green it would 
pack closer than if stacked dry, and would weigh more 
per unit volume. _ f. h. king. 
A rich gravy may help out a poor roast. 
Better he high private in the rear rank than low officer 
in front. 
