122 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 16, 
WOODEN WATER PIPE. 
I'he troubles with rusted water pipe mentioned in re¬ 
cent numbers of The R. N.-Y. suggests the telling of 
some experience with wooden pipe. In 1873 my father 
had a system of waterworks put in on his farm in 
southern Minnesota. A well was dug on a side hill, 
from which water was pumped by a windmill into a 
cistern holding about 100 barrels. From the bottom of 
this cistern a pipe line made of white pine pump logs 
was laid to a trough in the barnyard, something like 
20 rods down the hill. The cistern was more than 
THE AMATEUR CARPENTER. Fig. 45. 
10 feet deep. The lower end of the pipe (next the 
trough) had to be renewed every few years, as it would 
rot away, but farther up underground where the air 
could not get to it it remained sound. In 1889 we 
built a new barn, and planned to pipe the water from 
the cistern to the basement of the new barn. I thought 
we would dig out the old wooden logs and put in gal¬ 
vanized iron pipe. When we had dug back to where 
the old pipe was about five feet under the surface 
we found it to be perfectly sound, so connected our 
new pipe to it and turned on the water. I visited the 
old place last May (1906), and asked the present owner 
of the place what he had done about that old pipe. He 
said it was still in use, and so far as he knew it was 
all right. In fact, he had never known that any part 
of the pipe was wooden, as he had never seen any 
of it but the end that came into the barn. The subsoil 
in that section is stiff, yellow clay. We used to dig 
cisterns in the clay and arch them over with brick and 
then plaster the whole inside with Portland cement and 
sand, and finish with a wash of clear cement and water, 
and we would have a perfectly tight jug underground. 
Later the natives of that neighborhood learned that 
they could dig cisterns jug-shaped in the clay by be¬ 
ginning with a hole just large enough for a man to 
work in and then enlarge it in the shape of a jug so 
that no brick arch was needed. After coating the whole 
inside with a thick layer of cement there was no danger 
of it caving in. A young farmer friend of mine last 
year built a cistern in what was to me an entirely new 
way. Instead of digging the cistern and then arching 
it over he “arched” it first; that is, he built the cover 
first. This cover he made of concrete by simply digging 
out a place eight inches deep and a little larger than 
the desired cistern, but leaving a round lump of earth 
in the middle about two feet in diameter for a manhole. 
The space dug out was filled with concrete and allowed 
AN OLD BUGGY MADE OVER. Fig. 46. 
to harden, then the cistern was dug and the earth 
hoisted out through the manhole in the center. 
Minnesota. _____________ . j. m. drew. ' 
CONCRETE BLOCKS AND HOUSE HEATING. 
In resrtonse to the invitation extended by C. E. Chap¬ 
man, page 17, to discuss his ideas of using the hollow 
walls of a concrete house for heat flues, I want to say 
that such a system would be about the poorest that 
could be devised. Mr. Chapman says that the frost 
penetrates the outer wall, but is stopped by the air space. 
In other words he proposes to send warm air up through 
a wall in contact with ice. This would be a fine plan 
if heating all outdoors were the object, but you could 
never heat the second story in cold weather. The air 
from a furnace rises through pipes because warm air is 
lighter than cold air. B.ut as soon as the warm air 
came in contact with the cold outer wall it would be 
chilled, and if anv circulation at all could be maintained, 
the air would be cold before it reached the second floor. 
1 know of a costly brick school building, the heating 
system of which is a failure because the steam pipes 
were imbedded in the outer wall, in order that they 
might not be an eyesore in the interiors of the rooms. 
The cold walls chill the steam pipes and condense the 
steam, so that none of it reaches the rooms on the sec¬ 
ond floor, which cannot be used in cold weather. All 
pipes for hot air should be placed in interior partitions, 
so that any heat radiated from th m to the partitions is 
not lost to the outside air, but helps to heat the rooms 
divided by the partitions. f. a. k. 
Scranton, Pa. 
GREAT PREPARATIONS FOR ONIONS. 
Sitting by the fire in a comfortable Horris chair, my 
tablet on its arms, a furious snowstorm from the north 
raging out of doors, and looking from a south window 
to the southwest, I can see a piece of newly plowed 
ground, in extent about an acre, slowly but surely dis¬ 
appearing from sight, buried beneath a beautiful carpet 
of snow. From this ground we harvested, the first 
week of July last, as large a crop of fine Red clover hay 
as it was ever my privilege to look upon. Immediately 
after we hauled, and evenly spread over it, 15 loads of 
well-rotted manure, a heavy shower the next day 
washed a portion of it down to the roots; you should 
have seen this clover shoot up again. This second 
growth was simply a glorious sight to behold. We 
never cut it—it fell over and that big snowstorm early 
October last, pressed it down flat to the ground, but 
up through it slowly, but surely, a third growth pushed 
its way, trying hard to outdo both of its predecessors. 
Walking over this carpet of verdure, it felt as though 
one was walking on feather pillows, but the job of 
plowing this mass down I will never attempt to describe. 
A pair of tired horses and a man back of the plow that 
evening might have told some tales. 
Well, what about this acre of clover? Other folks 
have grown as good and more acres of it. Yes, but 
have they grown as large and fine a crop of Prizetaker 
onions as I am going to grow on this acre (provided 
I live until then) ? This is going to be the banner crop 
of onions of my life and I may say in all modesty that 
I have grown some big crops in the past. I am sure 1 
have laid a good foundation upon which to build up my 
1907 onion crop. Why do I select a clover sod, when 
all other growers and writers advise and agree that 
land occupied previously by a hoed crop and kept clean 
is the best fot the onion crop? I have grown two crops 
now on clover sod, and have had the largest and finest 
onions I ever grew, and the most bushels per acre. But 
what is of the greatest importance we produced them 
and did the work with less than half the amount of 
hand weeding, down on your hands and knees, as com¬ 
pared with former years. The first crop on a plowed- 
down sod is always the easiest to keep clean. If I 
am compelled to fight an enemy, coming at me in full 
force, I do not want to meet him on my hands and 
knees, but standing like a man, with horse power to 
assist me, and the chances of victory are much better. 
As soon as this ground can be worked next Spring 1 
shall cut it up deep with a spading harrow; over it 
will spread about two tons of hard-wood ashes evenly. 
Besides this I shall sow broadcast 500 pounds of dis¬ 
solved bone, and with smoothing harrow incorporate it 
with che soil, at the same time fining and preparing a 
proper seed bed. Frost is already busy engaged doing 
the preliminary part of it. 
The onion crop is a heavy feeder and must have 
plenty of available plant food from start to finish; the - 
manure and clover plowed down with the addition of 
ashes and dissolved bone will furnish plenty of potash 
and phosphorus. There is plenty of nitrogen for the 
crop in the clover and the manure, but this is organic 
nitrogen and will not be available early, while the ground 
is as yet cold. For that reason immediately after sow¬ 
ing the seed I shall sow broadcast 100 pounds of nitrate 
of soda and 100 pounds more after the first weeding. 
This will be enough until warm weather sets in, when 
there will be plenty of plant food available to carry the 
cron through. Mv method of planting onions is sow¬ 
ing the seed with a Planet, Jr., drill in rows one foot 
apart. I have tried the “new onion culture” of sowing 
the seed under glass and transplanting the seedlings— 
I prefer the former; it is quite a job growing the seed¬ 
lings properly, and the job of transplanting them. I 
prefer the first weeding of my crop to the transplanting 
of the seedlings. But now comes the all-important part, 
the factor that means either success or failure—the 
seed. I do not care how well you have filled your soil 
with plain food, how carefully you have prepared your 
seed bed, it does not signify how propitious the weather 
and season, unless you have live, plump, pure and true 
to name seed your crop will be a partial failure. 
Ohio. j. H. BOLLINGER. 
A HOME-MADE WAGON. 
No farm is complete without its workshop well sup¬ 
plied with tools. Here a part of the farmer’s idle time 
during the Winter and Spring may be profitably spent. 
Everything is made and repaired on Pleasant View 
Farm that possibly can be attended to. Fig 46 illus¬ 
trates a small spring wagon made over from an old 
side-bar buggy. The buggy and side bars were first re- 
BUGGY TURNED INTO WAGON. Fig. 47. 
moved. A new coupling pole was made 60 inches long, 
thus making the axles of the wagon 64 inches apart. 
New side bars were made 84 inches long by two inches 
square, and rounded and shaped like the old bars. The 
two springs that were fastened to the buggy body were 
fastened to the side bars, one four inches from the front 
spring and the other four inches in front of the rear 
spring. This throws more of the weight of the load 
close to the end of the side bars, and thus makes them 
stronger. A bed w'as next made 27 inches wide and 
84 inches long. The old dashboard and seat were used. 
The seat was placed high enough to allow room for 
a 24-quart crate of berries. A three by four piece was 
securely bolted to the two center springs. The bed 
was bolted to t'’ese pieces. 1 his allows a free move¬ 
ment of the springs with a light load, and in case of an 
extra heavy load the bed settles down to the second 
springs and there is no danger of breaking the springs. 
A set of good wheels were bought and the entire wagon 
given a coat of paint, with the result shown in Fig. 46. 
Thus we have a light-running, easy-riding w'agoti, yet 
one that will carry heavy loa.ds when needed. The 
wagon cost $13 besides the work of making, and has 
been in use 11 years in marketing small loads of fruits 
and vegetables in the local market. It often carries 
over half a ton at a load. Side boards were made to 
increase its capacity in hauling cabbage. Fig. 47 shows 
s 
i 
1 
f 
A WINTRY PEDESTAL. Fig. 48. 
the side boards, and a load of cabbage for the local 
market. elmer g. tufts. 
Indiana. 
The Boston Transcript recently reported that rabies or 
hydrophobia existed December 1 in 12 counties of Massa¬ 
chusetts, more than 1,000 dogs in the State being infected. 
There have been a number of cases in the vicinity of New 
York. Our correspondent who refers to infected cows on 
page 92 lias lost three fine cows and two dogs within 14 
months from this cause. 
It is announced that the Milwaukee health officials have 
learned how to exterminate mice and rats by inoculating 
them with pneumonia, the disease being contagious among 
rodents, but not transmissible to other creatures. Per¬ 
haps this is one of the items to be described as interesting 
if true; it must be remembered, however, that diseased 
rodents have been regarded as dangerous carriers of con¬ 
tagious disease. 
