1913. 
313 
FARM ENGINEERING. 
Cedar or Cypress Shingles. 
I have a house that I wish to shingle 
soon. The water from the roof runs into 
a cistern that we use for washing pur¬ 
poses. Red cedar shingles would discolor 
the water. Which is the better to use, 
White cedar or cypress? Would cypress 
discolor water? N. c. n. 
East Berlin, Conn. 
Cypress shingles are extensively used 
and are to be recommended where the 
rain water from the roof is used for do¬ 
mestic purposes. Good quality shingles 
will not discolor the water. r. p. c. 
Cement Tile and Frost. 
Will cement tile be broken with the 
frost? G. b. w. 
Vermont. 
Cement tile will not ordinarily break 
from the effects of the frost, but con¬ 
tinued thawing and freezing will break it 
up. The water gets in the pores of the 
cement and upon freezing, it expands so 
that the tile is cracked. A good glaze or 
asphaltum paint protecting the surface 
will prevent this. r. p. c. 
Trouble With Engine. 
I have an engine, four-cycle. I have 
great trouble to start it; it runs well 
when it is started. Will you tell me the 
simple plan of testing the spark? It is 
a jump spark. It is peculiar; has no 
governor. c. j. T. 
Oregon. 
To test the spark plug, unscrew it from 
the engine and just lay it on the engine 
outside, holding the threads against the 
metal of the engine body. Then turn 
the engine so that the timer will operate. 
The plug will spark just as it does inside 
of the cylinder. To test the wiring, bat¬ 
teries, coil, etc., without removing the 
plug, hold one end of a piece of metal 
against the part of the plug where the 
wire is connected, and bring the other 
end near to the engine body. A spark 
should jump between the end of the 
metal and the engine. The chances are 
very slight that anything is the matter 
with the spark, from your description. 
The trouble is probably with the supply 
of gasoline or with the carburetor. It is 
very possible that the carburetor is flood¬ 
ed with gasoline when you start so that 
you have to work off the surplus before 
you get the right mixture. R. P. c. 
Trouble With Ram. 
I am having trouble with my ram. I 
have plenty of fall and a large enough 
ram for my work, but find that when the 
stream is muddy, or rather when it is 
full of small twigs and silt, the ram will 
not work steadily, as these get in the 
valves and cause it to stick. I would 
like to remedy this in some way, and 
would like your advice on the matter. I 
already have a quarter-inch screen over 
the inlet, and put a piece of cheesecloth 
over this, but found that the cheesecloth 
began to clog with dirt and would not let 
the ram work but a few hours, until the 
cloth had to be changed. M. a. k. 
Utah. 
A sand or gravel filter for the water 
would probably be satisfactory. To con¬ 
struct this satisfactorily the water from 
the stream must pass through the filter 
into a catch basin of some kind. From 
that it may be allowed to flow to the 
ram. Designs for sand filters have been 
given in The R. N.-Y. several times in 
recent issues. A good scheme is shown 
on page 30 of the issue of January 11. 
If this is too expensive for your purpose, 
try making a gravel dam in front of your 
screen with the cheesecloth on it. That 
is, make the water flow through a heap 
of gravel before reaching the screen. In 
this way most of the sediment and twigs 
will be removed. B. p. c. 
Reflectors for Burning Out Stumps. 
I wrote you in the Winter relative t> 
the feasibility of a reflector for burning 
out stumps, and received your printed re¬ 
ply later. Permit me to say that I don’t 
think your conclusions logical. I sent 
your letter and printed slip to the man 
who originated the idea. I have heard 
nothing from him since. I don’t remem¬ 
ber all the slip, but you stated that the 
practicability of the six-foot reflector 
could be demonstrated by using a small 
reflector; that if a six-foot reflector 
would burn off an 18-inch tap-root in a 
certain time a three-foot reflector would 
burn off a nine-inch tap-root in the same 
time, and a one-foot reflector would burn 
oil a three-inch tap-root in the same time, 
because they had the same relative pro¬ 
portions. This is not a quotation from 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
the slip sent, but has the same meaning 
as I remember it and understood it. This 
surely is not logical. All the heat is re¬ 
flected to a focal point and the intensity 
of that heat is as the square of the diam¬ 
eter of the reflector. We know a reflec¬ 
tor a foot in diameter will create a flame, 
but it is not supposible that a reflector 
a half inch in diameter could be made to 
burn a fibre of wood as thick as a hair. 
I am not as enthusiastic over the reflec¬ 
tor proposition since having seen more 
stumps burned, but I would like to see 
the thing demonstrated. g. g. gibbs. 
It is true that a reflector one-half inch 
in diameter might not burn a “fibre of 
wood as thick as a hair,” but the previous 
reply did not carry the statement that it 
would. Almost any statement may be 
continued to an illogical conclusion if 
you go far enough. You would not hesi¬ 
tate to say that a one-inch pipe would 
conduct approximately one-fourth of the 
amount of water of a two-inch pipe 
under the same conditions, yet a pipe 
only a few thousandths of an inch in 
diameter might not allow water to flow 
through it under the same conditions. In 
the same way, a sieve of fine enough 
mesh will hold water or mercury (“quick¬ 
silver”) as well as a solid pan, yet you 
could not reason that all sieves will hold 
water. The statement that a one-foot 
reflector will demonstrate the practicabil¬ 
ity of a six-foot reflector was made ad¬ 
visedly and is adhered to. Particularly 
will this prove true if comparative tests 
are made with this and with a much 
smaller reflector. r. p. c. 
HISTORY OF THE TENT CATERPILLAR. 
I think the life history of the tent 
caterpillar (Clisiocampa americana) 
would be instructive reading, and cer¬ 
tainly" clear up some points for me. 
Smith’s Entomology says: “The belt of 
eggs on the small twigs hatch and the 
a. Female Moth of Apple Tent Cater¬ 
pillar. b. Egg Ring. c. Cocoon. 
caterpillars form a tent in the nearest 
fork ; later it abandons the nest—crawls 
to some convenient shelter and spins a 
thin cocoon.” “The moth is a dull red¬ 
dish color.” I>oes Smith mean that the 
moths lay" this “belt of eggs on the twigs” 
after emerging from cocoon? Three 
years ago ice formed 34 inches in thick- 
mess and the following Spring I did not 
find a tent-caterpillar in the Hudson 
Valley. The next Spring there were a 
few. Last Winter was very open, only 
eight inches of ice, and caterpillars were 
never as thick as this year. a. m. w. 
Several times during the past Fall and 
Winter the writer has predicted that, 
barring parasites, a serious outbreak of 
the apple-tree tent-caterpillar would oc¬ 
cur this Spring. My prediction was based 
upon the great numbers of eggs of this 
insect to be found during the Winter 
upon cherry and apple trees. In one 
instance the author destroyed over 30 
egg-rings on one medium-sized cherry 
tree. These rings probably represented 
a potential caterpillar population of three 
to six thousand individuals, on the basis 
of there being 100 to 200 eggs in each 
ring. If the numbers of caterpillars 
now present upon trees are not destroyed 
by parasites or disease or other unfav¬ 
orable condition, we shall have a much 
worse infestation during 1914. More¬ 
over, it is already getting late to de¬ 
stroy the caterpillars this year, as the 
great majority of them are nearly full- 
grown, and will soon be seeking for 
nooks and crannies In which to spin 
their cocoons. 
A glance at the life history of these 
insects will show, at least, two vulner¬ 
able points at which they may be fought. 
The eggs of the apple-tree tent-cater¬ 
pillars are laid by the parent moths in 
June and July in rings (Fig. b), encir¬ 
cling the small twigs of the cherry, apple 
and a few other trees. After depositing 
her eggs the moth covers them with a 
viscid fluid which hardens and resem¬ 
bles a coat of varnish. Here the eggs 
remain for nearly 10 months or until 
the next April, for happily there is but 
one brood a year. After laying her eggs 
the moth dies. In April then, of the 
next season, the tiny eggs hatch, and 
the young caterpillars, after feeding for 
a short time, begin to make white silken 
tents in the forks of the branches. They 
are gregarious and live and feed in 
colonies. The nest is the gathering 
place for the colony of caterpillars and 
from it they sally forth to forage upon 
the surrounding leaves. Wherever they 
go they spin a soft silken web for a 
path upon which to crawl. It is inter¬ 
esting to see them crawling sedately 
along this silken path one after the 
other, in “Indian file.” 
After the caterpillars complete their 
growth, they begin crawling down the 
trees and wandering around in search of 
nooks and crannies in which to spin 
their thick silken cocoons (Fig. c.) The 
cocoons are spun of white silk but they 
are covered with a yellowish powdery- 
substance. They are about one inch 
long and are hidden away under boards, 
rails, pieces of bark, and similar objects. 
The caterpillars undergo most remark¬ 
able changes within their hidden re¬ 
treats and in about ten days to two 
weeks the parent moths emerge from the 
cocoons. The moths fly mostly at night 
and are dull reddish-brown in color. 
Across each forewing are two whitish, 
nearly parallel lines (Fig. a). Soon 
after the moths emerge from the cocoons 
they lay their eggs, say the last of June 
or the first of July. The eggs remain 
on the twigs until April of the next 
year, thus completing the life cycle. 
The two vulnerable stages in the life 
history of this insect are the eggs anil 
the caterpillars. In the first place the 
egg-rings are easily found on the twigs 
of the trees, especially after the foliage 
is off. They may be cut off and burned 
during the Fall, Winter and Spring. In 
cities where the forest tent-caterpillar, 
a closely related and similar insect, often 
occurs on shade trees in great numbers 
the school children may be paid for col¬ 
lecting the egg-rings. Such a crusade 
against this insect was carried on in 
the city of Rochester some years ago 
and proved very successful. The other 
vulnerable stage in the life history of 
this insect, is the caterpillars, and these 
are subject to warfare in several ways. 
One method of killing the caterpillars is 
to burn them on dark, cloudy days while 
they are in the nests. A torch for this 
purpose can be made by wiring rags 
on the end of a pole and then thoroughly 
soaking them with kerosene oil. It is 
best to burn out the nests while the 
caterpillars are small. It takes much 
less heat and there is not so much danger 
of injuring the tree with the flame. If 
one waits until the nests are large and 
are made in the forks of large branches 
the flame will have to be held so long in 
one place that the bark is liable to be 
injured. Again the nests may be cut 
out to advantage if done while the cater¬ 
pillars are young and before they have 
built big nests in the forks of the large 
branches. 
On the whole, however, probably the 
most effective way of killing the cater¬ 
pillars is to spray the trees when the 
caterpillars are young and small, with 
arsenate of lead at the rate of 2% to 
three pounds to 50 gallons of water. "The 
poison should be applied early in the 
life of the caterpillars because they are 
harder to kill when two-thirds or three- 
fourths grown. Besides, much of the 
injury will be avoided if they are killed 
while young. The successful apple- 
growers of Western New York who spray 
their orchards thoroughly are seldom 
troubled with apple-tree tent-caterpillars. 
Finally, the favorite Trees of these in¬ 
sects, the wild cherry and seedling apples, 
might, in many cases, be cut down and 
destroyed without any disadvantage to 
the scenery or the general appearance of 
the farm. This would greatly reduce 
the numbers of the pest by destroying 
their favorite food plants. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
(° This Whip ^ 
has a Red Rawhide Center 
from Snap through Cap 
Red Rawhide gives spring and wear 
to a buggy whip. It is the perfec¬ 
tion of whip centers. Do not 
confuse it with ordinary domestic 
rawhide. Red Rawhide comes from 
the East Indian Water Buffalo, and 
is treated by a process which makes 
it practically moisture-proof. This 
process, which is our trade secret, 
is only one detail that makes 
Red Rawhide 
Center Whips 
give longest and most satisfactory service. 
In workmanship, style and appearance they 
are unapproachable. Yet, notwithstand¬ 
ing their high quality, they are moder-, 
ately priced. 
Red Rawhide Center Whips are made in 
the largest whip factory in the United 
States by workmen who have aliietime 
of experience as whip makers. 
Let Us Send You Proof 
of Their Quality 
If you want to know more about 
whips write us to-day for the 
famous “Westfield Test.” It is 
conclusive proof that Red Raw- 
hide Centers are the kind you , 
should buy. ! 
MARTIN'S ANIMAL MATTER FERTILIZERS 
are the old reliable unexcelled crop producers and 
soil enriehers. Manufactured chiefly from mate¬ 
rials from our own abattoirs and stockyards. One 
customer, ordering 225 tons this Spring, found 
every sack in perfect mechanical condition and 
count correct. (His name and others furnished upon 
request). We want reliable agents in unoccupied 
territory. D. B. MARTIN CO., 70G Penn Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CUTAWAY 
DISK 
HARROWS 
Do better work, last longer and 
often cost less than other harrows. 
You need at least one of them. 
Ask your dealer to show you a 
Cut&W&V 
If he can’.t, write us, giving the name 
■of your dealer, and we will send 
you, free, our new 48-page book, 
“The Soil and Intensive Tillage." 
The Cutaway Harrow Co. 
839 Main St. Higganum, Conn. 
ktcteSSu* 
No Transmission Gears! 
Think of a car without the ten or twelve compli¬ 
cated transmission gears! And the Cartercar does 
not even have a clutch. This is why it gives such 
perfect service over bad roads—is so easy to 
drive—and absolutely reliable. 
The Trouble - Proof Car! 
There is nothing to cause trouble. The Cartercar has no 
weak points. You can climb 50% hills—go through sand and 
mud with perfect ease—and there are no jerks nor jars in 
starting and changing speeds. You get about twice the usual 
tire mileage. This is the car for service—continual service. 
Send for big Catalog and find out about it. 
Cartercar Company, Pontiac, Mich. 
