814 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 12, 
gauge on either of these drills is entirely shut off it 
will sow exactly 50 pounds per acre. 
For plowing under in the Spring 40 pounds per 
acre is sufficient. On very thin soil some use 50 
pounds. For haj' uses when sown with oats or with 
rye 30 pounds is ample, with one peck of rye added. 
For seed it is best to shut off every other feed in the 
drill and add one peck rye per acre for the support 
of the vetch. This will require 20 pounds vetch seed 
per acre. Its endurance of either heat or cold is great. 
The severe drought now prevailing has no effect on 
either Alfalfa or vetch. Its early start in growth in 
the Spring before any other plants shows signs o£ 
starting makes it all the more valuable as a forage 
plant. In fact the plant remains green all Winter 
where not too much exposed. My estimate of it for 
reclaiming purposes is that it has no equal, the same 
that Alfalfa holds as a forage plant. No farmer 
should lose the opportunity of sowing freely of it this 
Fall. It will repay him manifold and help save other 
feeds for Winter uses. I do not know the standard 
weight of a bushel of vetch seed, but think it is 50 
pounds. 
Go at it like our friend Smith did. He said: “Win 
or lose I am going to venture.” And he did venture, 
and won. He has had as high as 100 acres in vetch. 
Sow 10 acres in the corn for turning under in April 
next and then sow the field in Alfalfa in June, and 
you will have an Alfalfa Field that will astonish every¬ 
one. Sow a few acres next Spring in oats and vetch, 
half and half, and you will have a hay crop that will 
make the dairy doubly valuable. Or try a pasture 
field for the cows and calves, and you will learn what 
vetch is worth for a forage plant. j. H. haynes. 
Indiana. _ 
A CONNECTICUT STONE WALL. 
On page 701 is a cut of stone wall on southern 
New York farm. I have about 400 feet of wide 
well laid stone fence on my place, and thought I 
would compare measurements. I find that mine meas¬ 
ures seven to 7j4 feet on top and 8Ya to nine feet at 
bottom, as compared to 5j4 and seven, so took picture 
of it, shown in Fig. 310. N. M. higrie. 
Connecticut. 
R. N.-Y.—While we are hunting for champion hens 
and cows we might as well include stone walls. The 
one here mentioned has the record thus far and is a 
great monument to labor. 
“THE LAND OF HEART’S DELIGHT.” 
A Sucker in Southwest Texas. 
Part III. 
SELLING THE CROP.—That Fall I hired Mexi¬ 
can labor and planted 2j4 acres. I had fair success in 
raising then and I gathered about 830 crates of very 
nice onions, and shipped a car of about 650 crates and 
11 sacks, to a commission house of good commercial 
rating on South Water Street, Chicago. Their agent 
paid me 60 cents per crate, in the shape of a sight 
draft, as an inducement to ship to their house. The 
agent examined the onions, bossed the loading and 
assured me that the sight draft would be paid if the 
onions arrived in good condition. When the onions 
arrived the firm wired that they found no fault with 
the goods, but the market would not justify that 
amount, if I would reduce the draft 15 cents per crate 
they would pay it. I wired “Your agent examined the 
car and issued the draft assuring me it would be paid. 
If not paid will turn car over to other parties,” which 
I did through the bank that held the bill of lading but, 
when the second party called for the car the railway 
agent said they had turned it over to the first party. 
This delayed the delivery of the car so that I only 
received $64.25 net for the car. I tried to get attor¬ 
neys at Chicago to undertake the collection of dam¬ 
ages, for a contingent fee, but could not get them to 
undertake it without a cash fee. Through the advice 
of a friend I placed the matter in the care of The 
R. N.Y., and in about a year from the time of ship¬ 
ment they sent me $276 damages, from the railway 
company that did not turn over the car promptly to 
the second commission firm. I had sold about $36 
worth besides this car, so I realized about $376 
for the crop, which netted me above expenses about 
$126. 
IRRIGATION TROUBLES.—This country is 
boomed as an artesian well country and to read most 
of the real estate boomers’ literature and see the pic¬ 
tures of the flowing wells, one would think that when 
the well was drilled and cased the troubles for water 
would all cease. Now that is just what the authors 
of said literature designed people should think, but the 
trouble has only commenced. My well flowed about 
five gallons per minute, about the same as most of 
them flow here, when first drilled. I have seen one 
well about 25 miles from here when first drilled that 
flowed about 250 gallons per minute. There is one 
near here that probably flowed 150 gallons per minute 
at first and is still flowing a nice stream. It seems 
to be the history of all artesian countries, that the first 
wells tapping the artesian covering of the water strata, 
have greater flows than they do after the covering is 
repeatedly tapped by other wells. But few wells flow 
here now sufficient to irrigate more than an acre or 
two, and most of them not that much. When a well 
is finished the next thing in order is to buy pumping 
machinery for pumping sufficient for irrigating pur¬ 
poses. The first wells furnished excellent subjects 
for photographs to adorn real-estate literature, for 
A CONNECTICUT STONE WALL. Fig. 310. 
sucker bait. My well drilling cost me about $505, it 
being 608 feet deep. The casing cost $300, gasoline 
engine $330. A centrifugal pump that was rejected by 
the machinist who installed my machinery, cost $60. 
At his instigation I bought another pump that he in¬ 
stalled, cost $55, and when tested it did no better than 
the first one, and then he found a defective joint be¬ 
low the pump that caused tl first one to fail. As I 
had no valid excuse for returning either of them I 
have an extra pump on hand. I did not know one 
end of the gasoline engine from the other, and that 
thing would stop, it seemed to me, without cause or 
provocation; then I would rush off to town for a 
gasoline engineer to come and show me what the 
trouble was, and he would come and monkey with it 
awhile and tell me some things about it and charge 
me 75 cents per hour for his time, just to impress it on 
my memory, I suppose. Well, after paying several of 
those bills I learned enough to run the thing most of 
the time, and when it stopped I could most always 
find out in a day or two what was the matter with it. 
PUMPING TROUBLES.—By the time I had 
learned to run the engine some, I made the valuable 
discovery that there was lots of surplus wind in this 
country, and as one kind had got me stuck I thought 
the other might be utilized to enable me to stay. I 
THREE-YEAR-OLD MAINE ALFALEA. Fig. 311. 
then bought a 16-foot power windmill with some 
necessary and some other unnecessary wheels, belts 
and pulleys. I erected the mill on a 40-foot tower and 
proceeded to run the same centrifugal pump with it 
that was run by the engine. When the wind was just 
the right speed it would pump as much water as the 
engine, but that right speed was so seldom that about 
90 per cent of the time, the mill ran and the pump 
ran, hut the water did not. Then it dawned on my 
intellect that most centrifugal pumps require to be 
run at a speed of from 600 to 900 revolutions per min¬ 
ute or they don’t bring any water. The next thing 
to do was to dig a well around the casing about 30 
feet deep, and unscrew the casing, put on a check 
valve, to cut the water off when necessary, and on 
top of that put on a tee and an elbow, for a place to 
put the cylinder for the windmill pump. Now that 
job is easier described than executed. When one 
of these wells is turned loose 30 feet below the sur¬ 
face the water rushes out at the rate of from 200 
to 300 gallons per minute. The instant the casing 
is unscrewed two men must be ready to place and 
screw on the check valve. If this is not a good fit, 
or the threads get crossed so they are delayed in 
getting it on, they are very soon in water up to their 
necks. I gave an experienced man five dollars to 
put mine on. I then put on an eight-inch cylinder, 
cost $50. The check valve cost $11, extra piping and 
fittings about $20 more, curbing for the pit $30, dig¬ 
ging the pit about $20, so this part of the well job 
took about $120. When everything was put in place 
it worked, and with a good pumping wind it supplied 
about 50 gallons per minute, but oh, what a noise it 
makes! If I don't shut it off nights it keeps my wife 
and the nearest neighbors awake, endangering me to 
prosecution for maintaining a public nuisance, also of 
being defendant in a divorce case. By having to 
climb down a ladder 30 feet to oil the centrifugal 
pump and up a ladder 40 feet to oil the windmill my 
old legs get plenty of exercise. I had to build a 
house over the well and engine machinery, costing 
about $75, build an earthen storage reservoir to pump 
into, that cost $50. Then I erected a steel tank on a 
tower and laid about 1,200 feet of piping to conduct 
the water to house and barn; this cost $85 besides the 
work. My land is about two feet higher at the north 
and south edges than at the middle. I laid 600 feet 
of five-inch tiling from the earth reservoir to the 
other side, so I could irrigate from both sides to the 
middle. I cemented the joints together; this part of 
the job cost another hundred. I have now over $2,000 
invested in this glorious irrigating enterprise, and 
have got more value for the investment than some of 
my neighbors. It would require volumes to describe 
the vexations and labor that this pet enterprise has 
brought me, but I will not afflict my readers with a 
description of them in detail. I am confident that Job 
never had a gasoline engine and windmill pumping 
outfit to contend with, or his reputation for patience 
would have been ruined. But with enough gasoline, 
grease, sweat and patience, I can irrigate 15 acres 
nicely with this outfit. A victim. 
(To be contimicd.) 
HOW TO STOP A GULLY. 
Can you please advise me how to stop a washout on 
my land? The soil is light, sandy loam. About two 
years ago, when soil was prepared for corn planting, we 
had a heavy shower, and my land being rolling, with a 
hollow leading towards a broolc, the loose earth on top 
was washed away into the brook. A deep rut was formed, 
and it is getting worse after every rain; all top soil 
drifts with the rain water. 1 have been unable to stop it. 
I tried to stop it by putting boards across the rut, which 
is now two feet deep in some places and about four feet 
wide. The ground is so loose that it washes through 
underneath everything I put in to hold it. Last Fall I 
so-wed Crimson clover, very heavy, thinking the roots 
would hold it, but this Spring after the first heavy rain 
the clover was carried away with the earth. u. R. 
New Brunswick, N. J. 
Stopping a gully under such conditions is rather a 
difficult matter. I have had such gullies on the steep 
hills of the Virginia Piedmont, and there I found in 
addition to dams in the gully the best thing was very 
deep plowing and subsoiling up to the edge of the 
gully, but leaving a hard rim around it. The deep 
subsoiling gave the water a place to sink into, and it 
was kept out of the gully by the hard rim. Then at 
intervals I drove stakes across the gully closely to¬ 
gether and banked sods on the upper side of these. 
These dams checked the water and deposited the 
silt and the dams were Raised as the space back of 
them filled up. I have found that the best way to stop 
the formation of gullies is deep breaking and subsoil¬ 
ing, and then always leaving a sod on the hills to 
turn when we were going to plant a hoed crop, and 
then get the land back in grass as soon as possible. 
I have in this way cultivated as steep hills as a 
horse could plow, and never made a new gully. If 
you could get some Bermuda grass sods in that gully 
they would hold it better than anything else, or even 
the northern quack grass. In the cotton country 
they try to prevent washes by what are called terraces. 
That is, they run banks around the contour of the 
hills with a very gentle fall. The old plan was to run 
a ditch along the upper side of the terrace bank, but 
the improved method is to make the banks broad with 
plow and scoop and make a broad level space above 
the bank to spread out the water and let it go slowly 
down hill. The banks are run with a fall of about 
one inch in 10 feet and the rows for cultivation are 
run at an acute angle over the banks. These banks 
do check the water to a great extent, but the real pre¬ 
ventive of washing is deep breaking and a sod on 
the land as much as practicable. Soil that is kept in 
clean cultivation all the time does not get fibrous ma¬ 
terial to hold the soil together, and shallow plowing 
soon fills with water and becomes semi-liquid, and 
runs down on the hard bottom. w. r. massey. 
