3 08 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 2, 
horn eggs have been held in storage, so they do not 
come strongly in competition with the average storage 
eggs. He' says the art of holding eggs in cold stor¬ 
age is very much better understood than it was jlO 
years ago. That musty taste to storage egg's that 
was such a “dead giveaway” then has largely been 
eliminated by the best storage plants. He says they 
should not be washed, as warm water opens the pores 
of the shell and renders them more liable to shrink by 
evaporation. As an additional precaution I have re¬ 
moved all roosters except from breeding pens, so as 
to have sterile eggs. Most of the reliable commis¬ 
sion houses make a practice of storing goods sub¬ 
ject to shipper’s orders, and I see no reason why 
producers should not thus hold surplus for a better 
market. Acting on the advice of G. Furman & Co., 
who figured in the Publishers’ Desk column recently, 
I had them store for me a shipment of canned 
raspberries, for a more favorable season to sell, 
with highly satisfactory results, a number of years 
ago. o. w. MAPES. 
VALUE OF A “ RIGHT OF WAY.” 
One of our readers in New York has a farm which lies 
in the track of a proposed electric power line. This farm 
is our reader's home, and he would like to have full and 
free control of it. The power company claim the right to 
condemn the property if need be in order to erect their 
towers, and they are estimating the damage to the farm. 
This is what our reader says: 
A representative of the company was here last 
Thursday trying to get a settlement for the right of 
way. He said the towers were to be 7 feet across 
the base, and about 75 feet high. They are to stand 
from 500 to over 600 feet apart. He said that three 
of those towers would stand on my land. They have 
paid $50 a tower for the right of way, which he con¬ 
siders is very liberal indeed. This price has been paid 
for brush land on the back part of very poor farms, 
but he considers it treating people alike to pay the 
same price on all kinds of land. He figures the pos¬ 
sible damage done by a foot path, or a driveway, by 
the acre; says just as much will grow where the 
tower stands as any place else; figures that the time 
required in turning while plowing and cultivating 
around one of those towers could not possibly exceed 
50 cents a year. In fact, he says it is practically no 
damage at all. and if we force them to settle by con¬ 
demnation we cannot get any more than we can prove 
the damage to be, and that the expense is not a matter 
of hundreds of dollars, but runs into the thousands. 
He cited a case where a man would not settle with 
him, and it was taken to the courts, and it cost the 
man $2,200, and all he got was $5 for the privilege 
of their crossing his place where they wished to. 
Now, how can we figure what damage a flock of tur¬ 
keys will dc in a field of buckwheat? Can we get 
no damage except what we can prove in advance be¬ 
fore we can tell what the damage will be? My farm 
here contains 75 acres, with some wood on it. I kept 
one hired man during the Summer, but none during 
the Winter. Carpenters were working on my house 
nearly all last Summer, and it took a large part of 
my time to wait on them, yet the produce of the farm 
has sold for over $1,700 since the first of April a 
year ago. I do not think the farm is producing more 
than one-half of what it can be made to produce 
when we can get it in proper condition for doing so. 
The value of the buildings runs up into the thousands 
of dollars and this line is to cross through some of 
my best land. 
I find it pays me to spend considerable time and 
money to remove small obstacles and to drain wet 
places, so the most rapid work can be done in a hurry¬ 
ing time and when the ground is in condition to work. 
I have a most excellent work horse that I do not be¬ 
lieve could be driven within 50 feet of one of those 
towers with safety. Do you consider it fair for them 
to cross our farms for just what we can prove the 
damages will be to our cropsJ* Nothing for the 
annoyance of the employees crossing the farm every 
day in the year, and for all time to come if -they 
choose to have them do so; nothing for the unsightly 
road they might put through the farm and the crops. 
This line crosses the public highway that goes through 
the center of my farm. Nothing for the danger of 
falling wires or other causes, because we cannot prove 
that such a thing will happen until we are dead. Only 
a short time ago a wire broke at night in full view 
of our house, and the burning pole, where the wire 
touched it, lighted the country for miles around, and 
the span was much less than it is to be on this line. 
Who can estimate a man’s home property? The rights 
and privileges are worth far more to him than to a 
disinterested man. Put three such lines through this 
farm and who would buy it, or if they did what would 
they pay for it? I would not want it, yet I might get 
$450 out of the companies that paid me so liberally 
for their right of way. One hundred and fifty dollars 
may look like full payment to some, but to us it looks 
like a gift of the right of way, and we are not the 
only ones where the line crosses who think the same. 
M. F. 
R. N.Y.—Now we want a discussion of this question 
by readers of The R. N.-Y. That will help more 
than a legal opinion. If anyone has had an experi¬ 
ence of this sort will he tell us what damages were 
paid? What is your idea of the damage done to a 
farm by such towers ? 
ECONOMY OF HEAT. 
1. Has anyone ever made tests to determine how the 
most heat can be generated and retained in a building from 
a stove or furnace with a certain amount of fuel. first, 
by giving the fire free draft until the fuel is all con¬ 
sumed, or second, by letting the fire get a good start and 
then closing the drafts? Of course the first would make 
the fiercest heat but of shorter duration. 2. Could a sheet 
of tent or sail cloth be stretched above the tee in an ice¬ 
house in a manner to cut off the heat that strikes through 
the roof, and not interfere with proper circulation and 
ventilation, but help keep the sawdust and ice cool and 
prevent loss? llow should it be arranged? w. s. s. 
Illinois. 
1. The highest efficiency in beating effect is ob¬ 
tained from fuel in a furnace or heating stove when 
the rate of combustion is just great enough to keep 
the radiating surface of the stove and furnace at the 
minimum temperature which will permit it to throw 
sufficient heat into the space to be warmed to main¬ 
tain it at the temperature desired. The fundamental 
principle underlying economic house heating is followed 
when t’.ie heating surface is made so large and of 
such form that without reaching a high temperature 
itself it is able to absorb from the fire, and from 
the products of combustion on their way to the chim¬ 
ney, the highest practicable per cent of the heat gen¬ 
erated. In burning hard coal it requires some 11 tons 
of air to pass through the stove or furnace and out 
through the chimney simply to carry to the coal the 
AS IT WENT TO THE SILO. HlG. ICS. 
amount of oxygen which is necessary to convert the 
coal into carbon dioxide and moisture. More than 
this, not nearly all of the oxygen carried by the air 
in passing through a stove or furnace can be utilized 
by the fuel, and hence more air than the amount 
stated must pass through the stove or furnace per ton 
of hard coal. It requires some five tons of air per 
ton of dry wood to carry the amount of oxjrgen 
needed to convert the wood into gaseous products, 
and hence more than five tons of air must be heated 
and passed out of the chimney for each of wood burned. 
When the stove or furnace is crowded to its highest 
capacity, so that its surface which conveys the heat 
to the space to be heated is maintained at a very high 
temperature, the air which goes out through the chim¬ 
ney must escape with a correspondingly higher tempera¬ 
ture, and hence must be wasting heat by throwing it 
out of doors. From these considerations it is clear 
that a moderate, steady rate of combustion in the fur¬ 
nace or stove is certain to waste less heat, not simply 
through the chimney, but also by overheating the 
house at times and causing in that way unnecessary 
loss. Where complete combustion takes place in the 
furnace the total amount of heat produced is the same 
whether the burning is rapid or slow. 
2. Any arrangement which effectually cuts off the 
heat of the roof of an icehouse, preventing it from 
being radiated down upon the ice or upon the sawdust 
which covers it, materially reduces the melting of the 
ice and is of advantage. A sheet of canvas used as 
W. S. S. suggests would help in this way, but it 
would not be as efficient as a thoroughly tight floor 
which would stop the circulation of air in the space 
between it and the sawdust or ice beneath. A layer 
of loose boards in place of the suggested canvas, cov¬ 
ered with a foot of marsh bay or chaff thoroughly 
packed under the eaves and well tramped, would be 
much more effective than the canvas, or than a tight 
matched floor alone. Such a shield would be nearly 
as portable as the canvas itself, as the hay could be 
thrown out and the other parts could lie arranged 
so as to be portable. With such an arrangement the 
only ventilation needed would be secured through 
small gable windows above the hay, as the only pur¬ 
pose of ventilation in this case is to carry off the 
excess of heat from under the roof. Any ventilation 
which occurs between the suggested canvas and the 
ice below means loss of heat and the objection to the 
canvas is that since it is more or less porous and open 
it cannot wholly prevent a change of air below. It 
would of course remain dry on account of its porosity, 
and so would tend to keep the lining of the icehouse 
drier and less liable to decay. This, however, would 
be at the expense of ice. f. h. king. 
GREAT VALUE OF VETCH. 
I remember reading, in “Hope Farm Notes,” last 
Fall that you were trying Winter or Harry vetch. 
I also sowed some last Fall, and I am sending you 
a few plants, pulled at random, as a sample of what 
it will do here. The field from which these plants 
were taken is completely covered with a thick, solid 
mat, and I think that, where the vetch will succeed, 
there is no crop, as yet tried, that will excel it as a 
Winter cover crop and nitrogen gatherer. That it 
will not succeed in all cases, however, I am satisfied, 
as I have another field in another part of the farm 
where it failed entirely, but I think, where Crimson 
clover will do well, so will vetch, as I had a small 
field alongside both fields of vetch, and where the 
vetch succeeded so did the clover, and vice versa. 
I think probably the cause of failure was lack of the 
proper bacteria, and perhaps also a lack of lime, as 
the field had been an old asparagus bed up to two 
years ago. We are truck farmers here and have 
to plow too early to get anything like the full benefit 
from any of the leguminous cover crops, but I am 
satisfied that the crop of vetches I am now turning 
under is worth a good deal, and if it could grow till 
the middle of May I think it would take a pretty 
good coat of manure to equal it. The vetch was 
sown about August 12, about a half bushel to the acre, 
mixed with an equal amount of oats. The oats grew 
up quickly, affording protection to the young vetches 
through the Fall and, of course, died down in Winter. 
I used the oats in preference to rye, as I do not like 
too much bulk to turn under for truck crops. 
Burlington Co., N. J. a. g. donald. 
R .N.-Y.—The plants seut by Mr. Donald measured 
17 inches from tip of root to top of plant. We have 
no doubt the crop as it stands is worth 10 good loads 
of manure per acre at least. Prof. Penny, of Dela¬ 
ware, estimated that the plant food in an acre of 
vetch cut on November 16 was worth $19.64. There 
certainly is no cheaper way for a farmer to obtain or¬ 
ganic nitrogen. The crop at Hope Farm has proved 
nearly a failure—with only a few scattering plants 
here and there. It was seeded with rye last Fall. 
RESOURCES OF JAPAN. 
Rumors of possible trouble with Japan have led to 
careful studies of the resources of that remarkable coun¬ 
try. Kirst of all. where does the food supply of the 
Japanese come from? The total area of the country in¬ 
cludes about 96.000,000 acres. Of this 58,000,000 acres 
are classed as forests and mountains, ponds and other 
unavailable land leave only about 15.000.000 acres suitable 
for cultivation. While population has increased 14 per 
cent in the last 10 years land under cultivation has in¬ 
creased only 2 per cent, and in spite of what most Amer¬ 
icans have believed soil culture in Japan is not as well 
conducted as in many parts of Europe. The New York 
Sun expresses it in this way: 
“Japan thus stands for the present, and perhaps must 
stand for the future, in a somewhat remarkable position 
in the matter of her supply of foodstuffs. Her present 
imports in that line, although showing increase, amount 
only to the small matter of about 75 cents per capita for 
the year. Dropping that from consideration, it seems that 
only 15.000,000 acres are in use for the feeding of nearly 
50.000,000 people. The United States, with less than 
twice Japan's population, plants 96,000,000 acres in 
corn alone, nearly 50.000.000 acres in wheat, 30,- 
000.000 acres in oats, 30,000.000 acres in cotton, 
besides the millions after millions of acres used for 
other crops. Japan's problem of supplying food for her 
people would still be serious if she could double her present 
area of production. It would not he entirely solved if on 
doubled acreage she were to double the output per acre. 
“Japan’s farm land under cultivation is equal to about 
one-half of the State of Pennsylvania. On that basis a 
farm the size of the State of New York, similarly culti¬ 
vated, would furnish the entire population of the United 
States with a more abundant living than that now se¬ 
cured by the Japanese. Upon such a basis a farm the 
size of Texas would support more than 500.000,000 people. 
It is fortunate for Japan that only a small area is re¬ 
quired for pasturage. Of the reported acreage used for 
productive purposes only about 100,000 acres appear as 
devoted to that use. There are in the entire country only 
about 1.200.000 cattle, 1,400,000 horses, 3,600 sheep, 
72,000 goats and 228,000 swine.” 
It seems well nigh impossible to buy large numbers of 
dwarf apple trees. Probably this is a good thing for some 
who think they would like to plant them largely for com¬ 
mercial orchards. Our advice is to use them for pets if 
preferred, but to plant standards for business. 
