942 
December 22, 
THE R-ITRAL NEW-YORKER 
fruit and grading it carefully is found in the different 
prices for which the 5x8 and the 6x9 boxes sell. Al¬ 
though the 6x8 contains 28 more peaches than the 
other, it sells for 30 per cent less than the larger and 
finer product. It takes four boxes of the smaller size 
to bring as much as three of the larger, and yet there 
are nearly twice as many peaches. At the packing 
APPLES PACKED FOR SHIPMENT. Fig. 424. 
house this season the peaches were selling for 35 cents 
per box. The cost of picking, packing and of the 
package was about 1/ cents, which left the grower a 
net price of 81 cents per bushel. Even at this price a 
grower with a good six-year-old orchard could count 
upon $100 per acre. Many of the larger growers ship 
their own fruit, and then the profits are much larger 
as a $400 mark is reached by many of the best growers. 
The one great difficulty in shipping for oneself is to 
get enough fruit of one variety to ship in carload lots. 
If this can be done it not only ensures better, car 
service, but a better market, as the carload lots can be 
disposed of at a much better advantage than broken 
lots of everything under the sun. One man has for 
years been shipping to Michigan right into the heart 
of the peach country. So superior was the product 
he sent to the home-grown fruit, that a company of 
Michigan commission merchants has authorized the 
planting of a thousand acres of peaches which are to 
be handled solely by them. Yet much of this reputa¬ 
tion is due to careful and conscientious methods of 
packing and grading. There is no reason why our 
fruit should not be as carefully and attractively shipped 
as that from any other part of the country. Too 
many of our peaches are put up in the open peaclf 
basket, where the weight of the piled-up fruit helps to 
bruise the peach in its journey; it is exposed to the 
dust and the dirt of the country roads and the result 
is the partially spoiled product which comes from the 
groceries. Much of it has not been a week from the 
tree, instead of 30 days. 
Fig. 425 shows the box of peaches packed, stamped 
and nailed for shipping, and Fig. 424 apples, which 
are ready for eastern shipment. The peach boxes hold 
one-third of a bushel and the apples one bushel. 
P. B. FLETCHER. 
A VETERAN COW. 
The good old farm friend shown at Fig. 426 is thus 
described by one of our readers: 
Figure 426 shows a cow that is 22 years old, will he 
23 next Spring. She has dropped 20 calves, the last 12 
all heifers. Present owner does not know about sex of 
first eight. Cow was raised by George Van Valkenburg, 
a neighbor of the present owner, Isaac Van Valkenburg. 
There is no mistake about cow’s age; she is now with calf. 
Is rugged and hearty, has always run in pasture with rest 
of dairy, and is now yielding an income that averages with 
rest of dairy under same treatment. m. i>. Howard. 
Greene County, N. Y. 
This cow is old enough to vote, and if she had lived 
in the Thirty-fourth District we all know how she 
would have fixed her ballot. She has had good care— 
otherwise she could not have reached this ripe old age. 
AN EXPERIENCE IN PIPING WATER. 
In issue of October 20 I find two articles upon piping 
water for farm supply. E. J. H. writes (page 774) 
upon the use of a syphon and pronounces its use for 
the purpose a delusion and a snare. 1*. H. King, page 
776, replying to questions by C. P. A., gives statements 
as to rate of (low through pipes of different lengths, 
and recommends size of pipes which seem to me un¬ 
necessarily large. This subject of running water sup¬ 
ply is very important, and in my opinion much simpler 
and less expensive than one would be led to think by 
reading the two articles to which I have referred. 
Let me give my own experience in watdr supply. I 
bought this farm 26 years ago. The water supply then 
was one well 35 feet deep, situated about 150 feet 
from the house, and about 25 feet from the barn. Water 
was drawn with a bucket. When contemplating pur¬ 
chase the inconvenient water supply was an obstacle 
< - ..... } 
I did not like^anjd .if I had not felt sure I could im¬ 
prove it I should not have bought. My farm is on a 
slope of land with buildings on the lower part. The 
higher parts ar-c wet, though no real springs exist. I 
went part way up the slope to an elevation about 35 
feet higher than level at the house, and in a spot then 
quite wet 1 dug a well. The subsoil is an impervious 
hardpan, and the supply of water much less than I 
expected. I made the well about 18 feet deep and 
eight feet wide at bottom, so as to have a reservoir. 
From the well I laid a half-inch lead pipe to the house 
—1,700 feet distant. The pipe leaves well about six 
feet below surface of ground, so when water level is 
below that point the water has to be syphoned. At the 
PEACHES READY TO GO. Fig. 425. 
end of first season I found water deficient, and to 
increase supply I sunk a small well inside the large one 
five feet deep, thus making bottom of well 23 feet 
below surface. In Spring water is abundant, but in 
Autumn not a good supply. After a few years I dug 
another well about 850 feet farther up the slope, and 
connected the two wells by a half-inch lead pipe. At 
the lower well 1 have so connected the pipes that I 
can draw water from either well as I choose. Neither 
of my wells, nor even both of them, would supply a 
constant drain of half a gallon per minute in the dry 
season, yet I have an abundant supply of water for 
two families, and for watering 500 hens, three horses 
and 12 to 20 cows, which I formerly kept, but do not 
now. Also it supplies a closet and hot-water furnace. 
A 22-YEAR-OLD COW. Fig. 426. 
It is not necessary to have so large a supply of water 
as is often advised by writers. One-half gallon per 
minute would be 720 gallons per day, enough to supply 
two or three large farms. 
I have had this water supply by syphon in use now 
26 years, and would not part with it for $1,000. I have 
not found it a delusion and a snare, but a great con¬ 
venience. Now let me tell where E. J. H. made a 
mistake in installing his syphon. He arranged to fill 
his syphon by pouring in water at the highest point. 
A cheaper and better way, in that it eliminates danger 
of leaky joint at point of filling, is to fill syphon at 
lower end with a force pump, which will clear out all 
air pockets and leave the pipe solid full of water. Air 
will get into a syphon and cause trouble if provision 
is not made for getting it out; and it does not always 
get in through leaks either. Water, at ordinary tem¬ 
peratures always contains air in solution. The colder 
the water the more air it contains. Also, its capacity 
for holding air varies with the pressure to which it is 
subjected; removing pressure liberates air. In Spring 
and Summer, when soil through which syphon pipe 
runs is warmer than the water supply, the water in 
pipe will be gradually warmed, and will part with 
some of its air, which will adhere to inside of pipe in 
small bubbles, and gather into larger bubbles in pockets, 
if such there be Also the action of the syphon in lifting 
water by suction, thus lessening the pressure on water, 
liberates some air to help fill air pockets. If there 
is fall enough to secure a rapid flow by opening a faucet 
full size of pipe the air may be swept out of pipe. 
When water runs solid the flow may be checked. This 
sweeping out of the air by free running of the water 
should be repeated as often as the flow from faucet is 
noticeably lessened. If the flow cannot be restored by 
allowing water to run free, then fill the pipe from 
lower end with a force pump.' 
I wish to give to C. P. A. and others contemplating 
a water supply, some advice deduced from my own 
experience. Do not use a large, expensive pipe when 
a smaller and less expensive one will supply all the 
water needed. As the smaller pipe will hold less water 
it will be changed oftener in the pipe, thus reaching 
the faucet fresher, and be less likely to be contami¬ 
nated by the pipe which conveys it. Also, the air is 
more readily got out of a small pipe than out of a 
large one. For supplying two farms with water from 
a spring 850 feet distant, and having 26 feet elevation 
1 would not use pipe larger than five-eighths inch. I 
would not use galvanized iron, as I know from ex¬ 
perience that it is liable to cause trouble by nodules 
of rust forming at the joints where the threading of 
the pipe destroys the galvanizing. It might be well 
to have the water tested to see if it corroded lead, 
though with a constant flow through the pipe there 
would be little danger. If, however, danger is feared, 
use tin-lined lead pipe. Do not use branch supply 
pipes from the main pipe. Take the main pipe to each 
point where supply is wanted, and solder the faucet 
directly to it. At extreme end of pipe arrange for a 
waste-off, which may supply a watering tank. With 
such arrangements fresh water will always be drawn 
from each faucet, the waste-off keeping a continual 
slow flow through the pipe, securing fresh water and 
largely removing danger of freezing. At any point 
where there is a probability of water being wanted at 
times for use faster than the regular flow would 
supply, have a tank from which water may be dipped 
or drawn. I have a copper tank in my kitchen which 
holds about 30 gallons. To assure readers who may 
be afraid a five-eighths-inch pipe would not supply suffi¬ 
cient water, let me say that I have just now tried the 
flow of water through my 1,700 feet of half-inch pipe. 
I held my watch just five minutes while the water 
flowed into a large pail, which caught in that time 
26>/i pounds water, which would, roughly estimated, 
be about 40 gallons per hour or 960 gallons per day. 
A five-eighths-inch pipe would discharge more than 50 
per cent more water. When I draw water from the 
more distant well, which is 2,550 feet away, but at 
considerably more elevation, the flow is faster. My 
GROWTH OF CUTBACK PEACH TREES. Fig. 427. 
See Ruralisms, Page 946. 
present water supply is about 27 feet higher than 
faucet. The cost of all my water plant, including two 
wells, was, I think, about $500. The pipe I used is 
one pound to the foot. If five-eighths-inch is used 1J4 
or 1 y 2 pound to the foot would do very well. 
Massachusetts. M. morse, 
