522 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July s, 
which seemed reasonable was that the break in the pipe 
must have rusted together, making it tight again. It 
was a new experience and seemed peculiar, r. c. c. 
Maine. 
AN ORGANIZATION OF FRUIT GROWERS. 
One of our readers in Utah, N. C. Anderson, sends 
us an account of £ new organization which fruit grow¬ 
ers near Salt Lake City have formed. The following 
note from the Inter-Mountain Republican tells the 
story: 
The company will build two fruit packing sheds, one at 
Holliday and another in East Mill Creek. The fruit grower 
wil take his fruit directly from the orchard to one of these 
sheds, where it will be packed for shipment. In the mean¬ 
time a manager and solicitors for the company will be in 
Salt Lake City placing the fruit and taking orders for 
future loads. The company will have teams whose special 
duty will be to bring the fruit from the packing sheds to 
the city and make deliveries where the solicitors have placed 
orders. The company will also establish a storeroom in 
this city, perhaps on First South street, where all fruit not 
placed by the. solicitors will be sold at retail to the shoppers 
who visit market row. Samuel Cornwall of Mill Creek has 
been appointed general manager of the company. The com¬ 
pany intends at some time in the future to build a store 
at Holliday or in WInderward, where it will conduct a 
general merchandise business. 
One trouble with such companies is that after a time 
the stock gets into the hands of a controlling few 
who dictate the management. In this case there are 
20,000 shares of stock at one dollar per share. No onp 
is permitted to own or control over 500 shares. About 
100 farmers have thus far bought stock. Under such 
a plan the middleman will not have much chance to 
“corner” a crop. There ou f dit to be thousands of just 
such organizations in this country selling produce in 
every large city. Farmers must do their own organiz¬ 
ing—for if other interests do it for them the lion’s 
share will be taken for the service. The western men 
A AGGIE CORNUCOPIA PAULINE COUNT 29G.40. Ifia. 252. 
See Page 534. 
have two advantages. They are in a country where 
farming is the chief business and where there is little 
competition from the outside. 
EXPERIENCE WITH A ROAD. 
On page ,432 you quote a portion of my letter in 
which I gave expression of the deplorable condition of 
the roads and the regrettable fact that this condition 
exists because of the total indifference of the men re¬ 
siding and owning farms along this road. You ask: 
“Do we mean to say that dragging this road would 
have changed all this? Would it have changed the 
weather or lessened the rainfall?” No, it would have 
done neither; it seems to rain on good roads as well as 
on bad, just as it rains on the just and unjust alike, but 
a well-kept road, where no water is allowed to stand 
any length of time, never gets so bad—almost impassa¬ 
ble. It is probable that I feel a little sore about this 
section of road for various reasons; the principal one 
that as supervisor three years ago I turnpiked and 
graded it, leaving it as fine as a race track—a road 30 
feet wide about three feet higher in the center than the 
sides, perfectly curved so as to turn water quickly. How 
did I find this road when chosen as supervisor? Well, 
I saw a strip of land about 60 feet wide from fence to 
fence—a State road that resembled an Indian trail as 
much as anything else, only that it was rutted up worse. 
The real track would be along the west side of fence, 
when all at once it would cross abruptly to the east 
side (to escape a sink hole or some obstruction of an¬ 
other nature), then it would veer to the center and stav 
there a few rods, when it would split and form two 
tracks, one along each side of the fence, leaving, as it 
looked like, a small island in the center. Some farmers 
had their front door yards—the greens—run out into 
this road, and woe to the supervisor who attempted to, 
open up a ditch here to let the water pass on. 
I first found the center of the road and staked it; 
from these stakes I measured nine feet on either side, 
thus giving me a track of 18 feet. My first furrow T 
took somewhat shallow, turning towards the center out¬ 
side of the 18 feet, going down one way and coming up 
the other; the next and subsequent furrows (five on 
each side) a little deeper each one, and finally with road 
machine worked this ground towards the center. I 
levelled, cut up with Cutaway harrow and rolled until I 
had a road as stated above, perfectly curved, 30 feet 
wide; to-day it is the most dangerous thoroughfare, 
with deep ruts and sink holes; a number of serious ac¬ 
cidents have occurred on it lately, liable to plunge the 
township into lawsuits. During the three years since I 
completed this work there has never been any work 
done on this road. My successors never looked at it, 
but as a testimonial for reasonable care of a road, and 
SEGU3 INKA McKINLEY 62411. Fig. 253. 
See Page 534. 
as an accuser for unpardonable negligence, stands out 
a portion of this road in front of my farm (which I 
cared for) as fine to-day as three years ago, never a 
hole or rut on it, always passable for any load without 
much work but always at the proper time. Does it pay 
to do good work that costs money and then totally 
neglect it? Can anyone outside of a farmer afford such 
a luxury? Will cursing road laws and trusts, monopo¬ 
lies and combines improve matters? Why not lick a 
stamp and stick it on the farmer? j. h. bollinger. 
Ohio. _ 
LEAD PIPE AND LEAD POISONING. 
No Bad Effects Here. 
S. H. R., page 443, seems to think my advice all wrong 
about the using of lead pipe for the purpose of convey¬ 
ing water. In the first place I should feel very sorry 
indeed to give anyone advice that if followed would 
work an injury to the parties concerned, and I think 
those who read this article will be fully convinced that 
the water in Worcester Co., Mass., and the water in 
Delaware Co., N. Y., must be of an entirely different 
composition. First, water running through an iron 
pipe in Worcester County will not rust the pipe, and in 
Delaware County, N. Y., the same pipe would be filled 
with rust in from six to 10 years. If the water runs 
through lead pipe in Worcester County, Mass., and 
is used by a family, it poisons them, while in Delaware 
Co., N. Y.. the poisoning is unknown. Below is the 
result of a trip 13 miles long. There are 40 farms, 36 
MATILDIA CORNUCOPIA DE KOL. Fig. 254. 
See Page 534. 
of them are supplied at the house with running spring 
water that conies through lead pipe. The length of 
pipe varies from 12 rods to 190 rods. Three tenant 
houses have running water, and one schoolhouse. In 
nearly every case the overflow at the house supplies the 
cow yards with running water. There are on the above 
farms 1,100 cows. As a cow will drink at least 12 
gallons each day from November to May, it would seem 
as if every cow would be poisoned during the Winter, 
if our water was poisoned by running through lead 
pipe. I met a neighbor a few days ago with some drain¬ 
age tile in his wagon, and he was going to use it for the 
overflow, as his two-inch iron pipe had filled with rust 
in seven years, so it must seem evident to the reader that 
iron pipe for Delaware County is of but very little use, 
and if I could not get lead I should get pine pump logs, 
3^2 inches through with an inch bore. They are cer¬ 
tainly very nice and will last in dry ground about 14 
years, and in wet ground 20 or more years, and they 
cost about 75 cents per rod. E. e. s. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
A Good Age on Lead Water. 
Several of your correspondents under this head write 
of the dire effects of water so conducted. I live in a 
hilly county abounding in springs of pure soft water. 
It is the rule rather than the exception that the farm 
buildings are supplied by water conveyed by lead pipe. 
I never knew of a case of lead poisoning from such 
water, or ever had evidence that would be heard in a 
court that where there was continuous flow water would 
absorb lead enough to endanger life or health. In the 
old homestead where I was raised my father made and 
laid a pipe of sheet lead conveying water some 50 rods 
to supply two farm homesteads in 1816. This has been 
running ever since, in good order to-day. I am 80 years 
old, one of 13 children; two died at about 40 from 
known causes, not lead poison, none others at less than 
70, several at over 80; my mother at 90. The other 
family, several died over 80, one living at 87 now, one 
died at 96. The old homestead is occupied by my 
younger brother, aged 78. I live on the farm of my 
wife’s ancestors, the first settlers. The lead pipe was 
laid more than 60 years ago. My wife died recently 
at 79; her aunt, who lived here all her life, at 90. There 
is some use for common sense in considering such ques¬ 
tions. Of the millions of gallons passing through a 
lead pipe in a series of years absorbing lead enough, 
STAR FARM AAGGIE CORNUCOPIA 91445. Fig. 255. 
See Page 534. 
so from an infinitesimal portion used by anyone the 
result is poison and sickness and death; how long would 
such pipe last? It must be all absorbed within a few 
years at most. Wherever I have had occasion to exam¬ 
ine my pipe laid more than 60 years apparently there 
has been no absorption. On laying pipe for water 
supply, in many places there are no springs available. 
On one farm near the summit of a hill where no water 
was available in a dry time a piece of land higher than 
the buildings was situated*too wet at times for culti¬ 
vation. By my advice holes were dug and at some 
four or five feet water was found. A ditch was dug 
of sufficient length, tile laid to a prepared reservoir, 
lead pipe laid to the buildings, and water brought, 
worth hundreds of dollars to the farm, at very little 
expense. This has been in operation some 25 years, 
never failing. There are some soils which have some 
corrosive action on lead pipe, and not universal through 
the soil. I have such on my premises, where holes 
would be eaten through from outside, no internal action, 
in a few years, making it necessary to lay a new pipe. 
I laid it in cement. I mixed in the usual manner, laid 
a trowelful at bottom of ditch, pressed the pipe into it, 
another trowel on top, and had my pipe encased in 
stone. This has stood for many years, a most effectual 
remedy. Ralph Buckingham. 
Connecticut._ 
A DRILL MAGNET.—We put down a six-inch 
drilled well 175 feet, and then broke off a bit of drill 
weighing about two pounds. After all manner of 
schemes, including dynamiting, we hit upon a big elec¬ 
tric dynamo and specially contrived magnet, and suc¬ 
ceeded in pulling up and out the broken bits of steel. 
It worked finely. First we sent down a lot of shingle 
nails and dirt mixed, tamped that well in and then 
applied the magnet. It pulled out the whole business, 
and luckily included the broken drill fragments, some 
of them three inches through. I quote this experience 
in case some reader wants to know how to recover a 
bit of drill at that great depth. Now we are going 
after the water again, and hope we will strike it inside 
of two hundred feet A. s. Alexander. 
