1912. 
lS!i3 
FARM ENGINEERING. 
Purifying a Cistern. 
Can you inform me if a pyrifier can be 
put into a cistern to preserve the water 
in a pure state? My cistern water has 
always been clear and without any odor 
until I had it pumped out and cleaned last 
year, and ever since then the water has 
had a disagreeable odor and is yellow. I 
think by cleaning I may have removed a 
purifier placed in it by the former owner. 
IIow can I restore it to is former purity 
and cleanliness? m. t. s. 
New Jersey. 
There is no purifier which may be placed 
in a cistern to remove the odor and re¬ 
store the water to its former clear condi¬ 
tion. The impurity of the water may be 
caused by any one of a multitude of things. 
The soil through which the water passes 
may have been changed by your having 
built new outbuildings or having moved old 
ones. Or the run-way for the animals may 
have been changed to a new location, and 
thus the soil through which the water 
flows made impure. The water as it flows 
along catches all the impurities of the 
soil. The fact that the water is discolored, 
however, seems to point to a disturbance 
in the well. It may be that when the well 
was cleaned all the sand bottom was re¬ 
moved. If this is so, either the well or 
cistern must be dug deeper until another 
sand stratum is found, or the cistern must 
have a new sand bottom put In. 
E. p. c. 
Concrete Ice Box 
I have a place on the north, side of my 
milk-room where I would like to place an 
ice-box built like a meat-box, only I would 
like to build of concrete. One side and 
end will be under ground, one side next to 
milk-room and one end open to the weather. 
A friend of mine, also in the milk business, 
has been writing and talking with several 
meat box manufacturers who claim that a 
concrete box would be damp, and anything 
kept in it would be slimy after a while, 
while their boxes would be dry and keep 
Ice longer. I do not want to build unless 
it is going to be practical. What advice 
can you give? . c. F. j. 
Connecticut. 
A concrete Icebox built as you suggest 
would be perfectly practicable if put up 
by experienced workmen in a first-class 
manner. I would advise a rich, close mix¬ 
ture and double walls, with about six 
inches absolutely dead air space. Unless 
it can be erected in this manner I would 
not advise it. If these directions are fol¬ 
lowed it will be expensive, of course. 
it. p. c. 
Area of Furnace Pipes. 
1. Will you inform me whether the area 
of the intake pipe of a hot-air furnace must 
be equal to the combined area of the outlet 
pipes? It is not so in my furnace, and it 
doesn’t work well, as I can heat only two 
or three rooms regardless of the wind or 
the amount of coal I burn. A friend sug¬ 
gests that unless the area of the intake 
pipe (area of cross section) equals the 
combined areas of thd outlet pipes, the air 
cannot enter fast enough to keep the out¬ 
let pipes all working. 2. Could you tell me 
how much one can afford to pay for coal 
when one can buy dry hard wood for $5 
per cord? H. s. h. 
Maine. 
1. The intake of a hot-air furnace does 
not need to be equal in cross-section to the 
combined areas of the outlet pipes. That 
is, the area of the cold air pipe need not 
be as great as the total area of all the hot¬ 
air pipes. This is because the total fric¬ 
tion of the many small pipes is much 
greater than the friction of the one large 
cold air pipe, so that, in proportion to the 
area, one large pipe will supply much more 
air than a lot of small pipes whose total 
area ‘equals the large pipe. A hot-air fi*- 
nace is very often poorly installed and 
will give constant trouble. Many times 
the pipe from furnace to one room is much 
shorter than from the furnace to another 
room, so that the first “robs” the second. 
That is, the nearer room is heated while 
the other is not. The hot-air pipes should 
all be of about the same length. If it is 
hard to heat some particular room, it is 
possible many times to overcome the diffi¬ 
culty by creating a draft by opening the 
fireplace in the room, for example, or by 
opening a window in the room on the op¬ 
posite side from the hot-air register. This 
may be made more effective by closing up 
all the other registers until the draft is 
established in this one room. Then open 
the other registers. 
2. The relative values of coal and wood 
at certain prices has been the subject of 
much investigation and discussion, and no¬ 
body can say much about it with any cer¬ 
tainty. There are many, many factors en¬ 
tering into the calculation. For a man 
somewhat familiar with a furnace and 
using a furnace built for coal, provided the 
coal is good, clean anthracite, I should say 
that the hard coal at $8 or $9 a ton 
would be much cheaper than hard wood at 
$5 a cord, in a hot-air furnace. The cal¬ 
orific power of coal, that is, its heating 
value per ton is about 14,000 heat units 
for good hard coal, while for good hard 
wood such as hickory and White oak, the 
calorific value of a cord is about the same 
as for a ton of coal, because a cord of such 
wood weighs two tons and over and the 
calorific value of most woods is about half 
as much as for coal, per pound. Spruce, 
pine, maple, etc., are lighter, weighing from 
a ton to a ton and a half per cord, and 
their heating value is that much less. 
e. p. c. 
THE RURAh NEW-YORKER 
THE WORK OF JERSEY “SPORTS." 
“Miss Helen McCracken, the 14-year-old 
daughter of James McCracken, proprietor 
of the McCracken Dairy Co., Inc., was 
standing in the door of the cow b'arn on 
her father’s farm at Middlebush yester¬ 
day morning, when she was suddenly 
struck with several grains of shot, fired 
by some gunner close by, but because of 
the position in which she was standing the 
shot just grazed her face, enough to tear 
the skin. 
“There were several gunners about at 
the time, but the McCrackens could not 
find out who had fired the shot. Within 
the past week many farmers have com¬ 
plained of gunners taking too much liberty 
in tramping over their farms and coming 
up about their barns and shooting every 
which way without taking any precau¬ 
tion. 
“Mrs. William Latham, whose husband 
is one of the veteran letter carriers of the 
New Brunswick post office, was shot in the 
back about 4:30 yesterday afternoon near 
her home at Lindenau, by an Italian, who 
was practicing at a mark with a repeat¬ 
ing rifle. Mrs. Latham received a bad 
flesh wound, which, while not fatal in it¬ 
self, might lead to serious conditions, in¬ 
asmuch as a portion of the clothing was 
carried into the flesh. 
“It is only about two weeke ago that 
Mrs. Theodore V. Seaman, whose husband 
is employed at Buttler’s sash and blind 
factory in this city, and who lives at Lin¬ 
denau, narrowly escaped death in a some¬ 
what similar accident. Mrs. Seaman was 
strolling through the woods near her home 
when a foreigner, who was shooting at a 
target, discharged his revolver, the bullet 
passing so closely above Mrs. Seaman’s 
head that a portion of her hair was cut 
through. A fraction of an inch lower and 
the bullet must have caused instant death. 
Mrs. Seaman has not yet fully recovered 
from the shock of the occurrence.” 
1 notice rou are after the gunners. You 
can’t get after them hard enough. Per¬ 
haps no one has had more trouble with 
them than I have. As you say on page 
1142, nothing could be finer in theory than 
the law which says you can arrest the 
sport and drag him to the lock-up. Pos¬ 
sibly he would allow you to tie a string 
to his wrist and be led away. One year 
ago I started suit against five men. At 
the first trial the jury gave the verdict in 
my favor, and two of them paid their fines. 
The other three were not satisfied and at 
the second trial the jury again, without 
leaving their seats, gave me the verdict. 
They appealed and the case has been de¬ 
layed from time to time. Their only de¬ 
fense was that they did not know whose 
land they were on, also that they saw no 
notices posted—notwithstanding they were 
warned off three times and there were at 
least a dozen notices. It Is merely a case 
of delay by lawyers. I will let you know 
how the case ends. c a j 
Bradwell, N. J. 
More power to The R. N.-Y. in its war 
fare on “sports.” Remembering the power 
ful help it gave to parcels post, we fee 
that The R. N.-Y. will find some way t< 
protect the farmer from loafer hunters, 
suggest a way to give them one black eye 
That is, to make persistent warfare agains 
Sunday hunters. Elect a game constabh 
who will get every Sunday hunter. Yoi 
Ere light about individual effort beint 
fruitless to afford help; we must have 
united action. Three years ago I had 20( 
legal signs prepared. I gave them to th< 
tanners in our town; about c na in three 
actually posted them. I somet’mes thinl 
that we farmers deserve all we get fron 
loafer hunters.’ If a community won’t pro 
tect its property, who is at' fault? A1 
hunters are not loafers; as fine gentlemei 
as we know like to go afield. They woul< 
gladly pay one dollar per bird, r 'heasant oi 
quail, to the farmer for the privilege o: 
shooting on his farm. I like the Alabanu 
game laws as quoted by a writer in Thi 
R. N.-Y. 0> 
Oswego, N. Y. 
I am glad to find you are going to tr; 
to help us to protect ourselves against tli 
sports and pot hunters, for we certainl 
need it. I personally know of where the; 
shot turkeys and ducks, and have carrie< 
away my produce time after time, am 
certainly I think it is time we had law 
that would protect our property and rights 
►stony Ford, N. Y. j. A . v . 
You ask readers to give their experienci 
with hunters. A neighbor of ours ha< 
his driving horse shot in the breast an< 
severely wounded. The horse was out ii 
pasture when shot, but came running t< 
the house. The owner of the horse am 
a friend started to hunt the “hunters,” bu 
they made good their escape. The farmer 
around here have organized, and the mem 
bers of the association post their land I 
has been pretty effective, but, of course 
does not stop hunting altogether. 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. A . a. l. 
A Productive Half Acre.— On half ai 
acre in bashful old Vermont, one-half acn 
of red loam meadow, I put 30 tons goo< 
cow and horse manure, plowed it under 
dragged and planted May 15, 1912, culti 
vated and hoed twice. Result, 30 bushel! 
potatoes, 20 bushels eight-rowed flint corn 
20 bushels pop and sweet corn, two tons o 
good early-cut stover, four tons good pump 
kins, five bushels shelled beans, 150 cab 
bage, o0 cauliflower, 10 bushels ripe toma 
toes, 20 bushels turnips, 10 bushels ripe 
cucumbers, 10 bushels carrots, 20 bushels 
beets, five bushels onions, lettuce, peppei 
grass, string beans, etc. ; four in family 
in fact, over .$100 worth of produce fron 
one-haif acre of fair Vermont land. Cosi 
of cultivating, $15. I used no commercia 
fertilizer on any crops. a. l. b. 
So. Dorset, Vt. 
The new 1913 Mitchell is beyond 
all question the best automo¬ 
bile for you to buy! 
Y OU know pretty well what you 
want, and we have learned by 78 
years’ experience that you want 
the best vehicles that money will buy, 
without wasting a dollar of the money. 
That’s a Mitchell car for you. 
The 1913 Mitchell is the wonder of the year ; 
a marvelous combination of the handsomely 
finished city cars, the swift and powerful cars for 
tourists, and as easy to manage as the simplest 
electric. (Prices $1500, $1850, $2500—worth 
double !) 
Electric lights and electric self-starter! 
These are great advantages, the electric lights 
are tremendously powerful ; show up every bad 
spot in the road for five hundred feet ahead. 
Battery kept charged by generator. The electric 
self-starter saves all the labor and annoyance of 
cranking the engine, and adds greatly to your 
comfort and safety, keeps you out of the cold, 
wet, and mud, and makes it possible for the 
women and boys to start the motor and drive 
the car. 
All Mitchells, like most of the very high- 
priced cars for 1913, have the new long 
stroke, T-head motor; the newest thing 
for increased power and high efficiency. 
Powerful—all the horse-power claimed for 
them. Simple—you and your boys will easily 
understand the entire “works” very quickly. 
Economical—they don’t cost much to run. 
Handsome—nothing has been spared that would 
add to their appearance. 
There’s nothing too good to be used in the Mitchell; it has 
all the new improvements, everyone of them. Also the same 
high-grade workmanship and material that have gone into 
Mitchell vehicles throughout the past 78 years. 
You won’t find any other medium-priced car that offers any¬ 
thing like the advantages of the Mitchell— a $1,500 car in the 
$5,000 class. You can’t beat it at any price. You can’t 
equal it at anything like the price. 
All with T-head motor and 36-inch wheels 
Price F. O. B. 
Wheel Base Stroke Racine 
7 passenger Six 60 H.P. 144 in. 4/4x7 in. $2,500 
2 or 5 passenger Six 50 H.P. 132 in. 3^4x6 in. 1,850 
2 or 5 passenger Four 40 H.P. 120 in. 4/4x7 in. 1,500 
DEALERS EVERYWHERE 
Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company 
Racine, Wisconsin 
Mitchell Motor Co. of New York, 61st St. and Broadway, 
New York City, N. Y. 
