412 
THE RURAb N RCW-YORKER 
March 23, 
PRACTICAL ENGINEERING TALKS. 
Substitutes for Linseed Oil. 
M. A., Burt, N. Y .—Can you give me 
any information as to a substitute for lin¬ 
seed oil for painting barns or other out¬ 
buildings? Is there any petroleum oil that 
will give good service for dark colored 
work? 
Ans. —The use of any substitute for 
linseed oil in paints is very unsatisfac¬ 
tory and, in the end, is more expensive 
than if good oil paints are used. At 
the present time, linseed oil of very 
good quality should not cost more than 
&) to 85 cents per gallon in small 
quantities at retail, and even less in 
large amounts. The linseed oil in a 
paint is used as a carrier for the lead 
or zinc base, and enables the paint to 
spread well, dry hard and opaque and 
leave a protective skin over the ma¬ 
terial painted. As a rule, commercial 
linseed oil (which is the oil squeezed 
from flaxseed) is adulterated to some 
extent with mineral oils and resin oils. 
The mineral oils lower the specific 
gravity or weight and the resin oils 
raise it so a mixture of the two pro¬ 
perly proportioned does not change the 
specific gravity but, if any considerable 
amount is present the paint remains 
a long time sticky and never properly 
hardens and dries. Unrefined or “hard” 
resin oils are often used alone in dark 
paints and dry well in a few hours, but at 
the end of 10 days or two weeks they 
become soft and sticky and cannot be 
made to dry again. When mixed with 
linseed oil these defects become les¬ 
sened. Various coal tar products of 
the nature of asphaltum are used as 
substitutes in paints of dark color. 
There are a great many substitutes on 
the market from paraffin oil at about 
25 cents a gallon up to the most com¬ 
mon substitute—fish oil, which is about 
10 cents a gallon less than linseed oil. 
None of the substitutes for linseed 
oil will dry with the durability of an 
oil paint and most of them will either 
remain sticky or will crack and peel 
or rub off. If a low priced paint must 
be used, it is probably as cheap and 
satisfactory to buy the best ready- 
mixed paints in bulk from a thoroughly 
reliable firm who will tell you the in¬ 
gredients of their paints and give you 
an estimate of their lasting power. A 
comparison of that statement and the 
price of the paint with a similar state¬ 
ment and the price of good oil paint 
will be the best guide you can get. 
R. p. c. 
What to Do With Hard Water. 
J. S.j New York, N. Y .—I have a well 
near my house, but the water Is so hard 
that the women folks complain they cannot 
use it. Could you tell me of some way to 
remedy It? 
Ans. —Certain substances, particularly 
the carbonate of lime, the carbonate of 
magnesia, and the sulphates of lime and 
magnesia, when present in water prod¬ 
uce the effect known as “hardness.” 
This term merely applies to the fitness 
of water for washing purposes; that is, 
to the difficulty of obtaining a lather 
with soap. The “hardness” in the case 
of well water is due usually to the 
chalky or limy character of the soil 
through which the water flows, the 
water dissolving the various substances 
from the soil. It manifests itself by 
the fact that the salts of lime and mag¬ 
nesia decompose the soap and form a 
sort of curds in place of a lather. If 
more soap is added, after a time all the 
lime and magnesia will be thrown out 
of the water in the form of curds and 
when this occurs the addition of more 
soap will result in the desired lather. 
In other words, by using enough soap 
the water may be softened. The “hard¬ 
ness” of the water may be removed, too, 
by boiling it for a length of time, if the 
“hardness” is caused by the carbonates 
spoken of above. After a short time, 
the carbonic acid is driven off with the 
steam and the carbonate of lime is pre¬ 
cipitated, and may be filtered off by 
straining the water through a cloth. 
Another way of remedying the tem¬ 
porary “hardness” is to add either lime 
water (which is merely quicklime dis¬ 
solved in water) or a small amount of 
lime to the water. A precipitate will be 
formed and can be removed as before. 
It seems very queer that, in order to 
get; rid of the lime in the water, more 
lime is added, but the fact is that the 
lime in the water is held dissolved be¬ 
cause of an excess of carbonic anhy¬ 
dride in the water. If more lime is 
added this anhydride is taken up and 
all of the lime thereupon becomes insol¬ 
uble, and is precipitated in 15 or 20 
minutes, so that it may be strained or 
filtered off. Another way, and perhaps 
the most commonly used, of softening 
water is by the addition thereto of car¬ 
bonate of soda, often called washing 
soda. This has been found very satis¬ 
factory. Under some conditions, too, 
borax has been successful and so has 
ammonia. 
The distinction between “permanent” 
and “temporary” hardness is that the 
“permanent” hardness cannot be re¬ 
moved by boiling the water. It is due 
to various salts, but those which it is 
most desirable to take out are the sul¬ 
phates of lime and magnesia. These are 
removed by the addition of carbonate 
of soda, which causes the formation of 
the carbonates of lime and magnesia in 
place of the sulphates. The carbonates 
may then be removed as described 
above. r. p. c. 
Rye as a Forage Crop. 
Previous to last year rye was an almost 
unknown crop in tills section, but the crop 
failure of 1910 owing to the dry season 
showed the farmers the desirability of hav¬ 
ing one crop that they could depend on in 
any season, and the majority of them 
sowed a patch of rye in the Fall of that 
year, and probably will do in the future. 
It has undoubtedly added much to the value 
of the farms in this county, as it enables 
the farmers to carry more live stock, and no 
farm is too dry to grow a fair crop of it 
any year in a country like this, where not 
many cultivated crops are grown, and 
Summer-fallowing is not much practiced, 
it is a desirable crop to grow to kill off 
weeds and mustard. It is ready to cut the 
first time about June 15 and again about 
August 1, so no weeds have time to ripen 
on moist soil. It can be cut again about 
October 1 or pastured off and continues to 
grow until the ground freezes if cut just 
before the bloom comes on, and well 
saved it appears to be about as good as 
any hay as a milk producer, and is appar¬ 
ently very palatable to the cows. In the 
Spring of 1911 I sowed some Spring rye 
which proved to be a mixture of Spring and 
Fall rye. I got a light crop of Spring rye. 
I allowed the Fall rye to remain and ex¬ 
pect to get a couple of crops off it next 
season. In the Spring it makes a fine pas¬ 
ture and I have no doubt it would be a 
good practice to sow it with all Spring 
grain to be used as pasture when the crop 
is taken off. Some sow it in the Fall and 
cut the first crop for hay and let the second 
ripen and thrash it. Where one has a 
rather thin stand of Alfalfa it is a good 
plan to sow rye in it in the Fall, disking 
it in. THOS. HALFORD. 
Ferry Co., Wash. 
Don’t be pestered and made out 
of sorts by having a spreader that 
clogs. You don’t have to. Get one 
that spreads wider, evener, car¬ 
ries a bigger load and has a score of 
other advantages—the New Idea. 
Send for Book and Special Circulars 
telling all about the 24 points of superior¬ 
ity, and an account of the great spreader 
contest on the Hartman farm, where 
the New Idea put other spreaders on the 
scrap heap. Don’t think of buying until 
you know about the spreader that is 
always ready to give a test of its merits. 
24 Points 
of Supe¬ 
riority 
Catalog 
Free 
Write today 
and get the facts. 
New Idea Spreader Co. 
119 Sycamore St., Cold water, Ohio 
Get More Wool 
Get Longer Wool 
Get More Money 
for your wool by shearing^ with a Stewart machine because 
such wool has a longer fibre. Wool buyers pay more for 
long staple—and you get the longest by shearing with a 
Stewart No. 9 Bali Bearing 
Shearing Machine 
This is, without question, the most perfect hand 
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Price of machine, 
all complete, including 
4 combs and 4 cutters 
of the celeb rated 
Stewart quality is 
Only 
Get one from 
your dealer, or 
send $2.00 and we 
will ship C.O. D. 
for balance. 
Money and 
, transportation 
* charges back if 
o \ not pleased. 
Chicago Flexible Shaft Company 
143 La Salle Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 
Write for big new catalogue showing the most complete and 
modern line of Horse Clipping and Sheep Shearing 
Machines on earth. 
A Twin Automobile Seat Top Buggy 
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on 
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This is just 
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SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO., CHICAGO, ILL. 
NEW BASEBALL GRAN0 STAND 
POLO GROUNDS.NEW YORK 
COVERED WITH 100.000 SQ.F 
J-M ASBESTO 
ROOFING 
md 
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':.vA' vA 
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The Largest Baseball Buildings 
in America are Covered with 
J-M Asbestos Roofing 
The importance of fire-proof construction was so vividly 
demonstrated to the owners of the baseball grandstand at the 
Polo Grounds in New York by the disastrous fire which de¬ 
stroyed their $200,000.00 structure last year that they decided 
to take no chances of a repetition. They therefore built the 
new grandstand, shown above, of materials approved by the 
highest authorities on fire-proof construction—steel, concrete 
and J-M Asbestos Roofing. 
Being made from Asbestos rock fibres and Trinidad Lake 
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J-M Asbestos Roofing is suitable for any type of building, any¬ 
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Manufacturers of Asbestos 
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1582 
