1913 . 
THE R URAL WE W-YORKEB 
13126 
NATURAL POWER ON THE FARM. 
Part II. 
I remember seeing a “home-made” 
power plant in Vermont which furnished 
power for running a separator, churn, 
grindstone, washing machinery, etc. The 
dam was somewhat of a crude affair, 
built across a ravine. The conductors and 
bulkhead were made of wood ; the wheel, 
which was also made of wood, was a 
simple affair about 12 inches in diameter, 
having four fans. The scroll was also 
made of wood, about 14 inches deep. The 
opening in the bottom of the scroll for the 
admission of water to drive the wheel 
was about three by four inches square. 
The chute that carried the water from the 
bulkhead to the scroll was so placed as to 
direct the stream against the fans near 
the ends. There was no outlet in the 
scroll, the water flying out at the top in 
a funnel-shaped sheet. The power gener¬ 
ated by this wheel was carried one-fourth 
mile or more to the house by means of 
long strips or slats of wood, attached at 
their ends to perpendicular arms which 
were attached to posts by means of wood¬ 
en pins through the center of each arm, 
on which they moved. At the house the 
last slot was made to do duty as a piston, 
being attached to a wooden wheel on the 
end of a short shaft, on the other end of 
which was a discarded mowing machine 
wheel, which served as a driving wheel, 
from which to belt, and also as a balance 
wheel to carry the crank just dead center, 
when in motion. The water wheel was 
started aud stopped from the house by 
means of two wires, one of which opened 
the gate; the other closed it. Cut below 
HOME-MADE POWER PLANT. 
illustrates description of home-made 
power plant in Vermont: (a) bulkhead; 
(b) conductor leading water from dam to 
bulkhead; (c) chute leading water from 
bulkhead to waterwheel; (e) scroll; (f) 
bevel gearing reducing speed; (g) wires 
operating gate; (d) passing over pulleys 
at top of bulkhead. Of course this was a 
very crude affair, and many improvements 
may be suggested. For instance, a large 
percentage of the power was required to 
move all the levers, while with a wire or 
• able the friction and lost motion would 
have been greatly reduced. 
There are a great many types of water 
wheels, of which the iron turbine is per¬ 
haps the most popular, and perhaps as 
good as any, if not the best for general 
use. Of course there are wheels of other 
types which might give better service in 
IMPROVEMENT ON ABOVE PLAN. 
Some locations and for some particular 
work. The old overshot wheel is not 
much in use at the present time. With 
this wheel we cannot utilize much more 
than two-thirds of our head or fall; still, 
where there is plenty of water they give 
a steady, substantial motion. One point 
which has made this type of wheel popu¬ 
lar in home-made power plants is the fact 
that they require no bulkhead, the wheel 
taking the water direct from the dam. 
However, in Winter they have a habit of 
accumulating large quantities of ice and 
becoming cumbersome if not useless. Cut 
above is a drawing in which I have at¬ 
tempted to illustrate my idea of improve¬ 
ments that might be made in the Vermont 
plant: (d) the part of the gate to which 
the wire is attached; (a) the rod on which 
the gate swings. The pressure being 
greater on the end (d) would make the 
gate self-closing; 3 and 4 are the cables 
<>r wires showing their simple arrange¬ 
ment and method of suspending them. 
A. J. HILL. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Tell your Eastern Shore correspondent 
to let rye alone in the silo. I tried it 
years ago for silage. I had a large area 
in rye which I had been cutting for soil¬ 
ing in the stables, and having more than 
needed for this purpose I cut it into a 
silo, filling it half full. Later the silo 
was finished with corn. When I fed from 
that silo and reached the rye, every cow 
turned up her nose at the rye, and would 
not eat it at all. Fortunately I had two 
other silos filled with corn, and only lost 
the labor of filling in the rye, which was 
all used as bedding and went into the 
manure. Rye is poor feed in any shape 
and certainly does not pay to make sil¬ 
age of. 
The Greening, as you say, certainly 
makes the best pie, but the city buyer 
buys red apples. Put Ben Davis on a 
stand along side of Grimes Golden, and 
nine out of ten city buyers will take the 
red apple instead of the far better yel¬ 
low one. 
To your correspondent on page 1253 I 
would say that I have a stove in my 
dining room which heats the bedroom 
above perfectly. It is an ordinary cylin¬ 
der coal stove made with a sheet-iron flue 
from the top to a register in the floor 
of the bedroom, which can be closed after 
retiring, and it operates perfectly, heating 
the dining room by turning off a damper 
from the room above in daytime. Where 
one has to depend on stoves it is a very 
good thing. In my living room I use 
a gas heater made with a copper re¬ 
flector like an open fireplace, and I find 
that the gas is about as cheap as hard 
coal at present prices. 
S. L. J. thinks that the parcel post 
has not helped him. Perhaps he has not 
given it a chance. I get a certain pack¬ 
age the first of every month. When it 
was brought by express it cost me 35 
cents. Now it comes by parcel post for 
seven cents. Certainly the parcel post 
has helped me in this respect, and in 
many others, for I can send garden pro¬ 
ducts with ease and cheapness that I 
could not send before, and as I am a 
bulb grower I find that packages of bulbs 
go to the purchaser far more cheaply than 
formerly. w. f. massey. 
Maryland. 
Keeping Salsify. 
How can I keep salsify roots during 
the Winter for Spring use? Would the 
roots freeze and spoil if we leave them in 
the ground over Winter, the same as 
parsnips, or should we store them in the 
cellar safe from frost? l. k. o. 
Budd Lake, N. J. 
This root vegetable is entirely hardy 
aud may be treated in all respects, like } 
the parsnip. It may be left in the ground 
where it grows, or it may be taken up and 
stored for Winter use. either in the root 
cellar or in a pit. The ordinary house 
cellar is as a rule too warm and dry for 
the storage of such cold-blooded roots as 
the parsnip and salsify; a temperature 
of 50 degrees will induce growth, which 
is not desirable, nor good for the roots, 
as they soon become withered and unfit 
for use. I have for a number of years 
used a cold frame for the storage, of 
parsnips, beets, carrots and salsify with 
very good success. The frame should be 
excavated to a depth of a foot or more 
below the outside surface of the ground, 
much depending on the natural drainage, 
which must be .good, as water lying 
around the roots would soon destroy 
them. With twelve inch boards the frame 
should be divided into as many compart¬ 
ments as there are kinds of roots to store, 
and large enough to hold the quantity 
of each kind on hand. They should be 
placed in a few at a time, sifting soil 
among them so that practically all come 
in contact with the soil. The heaps of 
roots and soil should not extend above 
the outside soil surface. Put about three 
inches of soil over them, after which they 
should have a covering of forest leaves, 
straw or hay to a depth of six to 12 
inches, according to the severity of the 
Winter. The sash may now be put on 
to keep out rain and if shutters or other 
convenient means of shading is not at 
haud the sash must be blocked up in the 
rear to a height of about four inches and 
so kept until severe freezing sets in. when 
they are to be lowered for the Winter. 
Roots so stored will keep in perfect con¬ 
dition and be easy to get out when want¬ 
ed for use during the Winter months. 
We Buy It By The Box 
—for Christmas! 
—for 85 cents! 
])5<; 
M 
fv* 
The clean, pure, 
healthful 
WRIGLEYSi 
\\ 
uj 
t 
nr* 
SPEARMINT 
can now be had of 
most any dealer for 
85 cents a box of 
twenty packages. 
Get this long- 
lasting goody 
that helps ch¬ 
i' gest other 
_ goodies. It 
/ costs less than 
a cent a stick 
by the box! 
Be SURE it's 
Wrigley’s 
'W'i 
N 
% 
% 
CAUTION! 
The great popularity of the clean, 
pure healthful Wrigtey’s E5ZE2Z^- 
% 
is causing unscrupulous persons to wrap rank 
imitations that are not even real chewing gum so 
they resemble genuine WRIGLEY’S. The better class 
of stores will not try to fool you with these imitations. They 
will be offered to you principally by street fakirs, peddlers and the 
candy departments of some 5 and 10 cent stores. These imitations 
Hull Big Stumps Quick 
SSHBrf $1280 from 40 acres the 
sttiJMtN first year stumps are outm 
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grow crops instead of paying taxes on land that yields 
nothing;. ^4 HERCULES 
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More power than a traetor. 60 per cent 
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^ Centerville, Iowa 
From Michigan 
ah 
Steel 
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Weatherproof is expense-proof 
Tilniaad Lake asphalt makes roofing lastingly tight against ram. 
Sun, wind, snow, heat and cold. 
This is the everlasting waterproofer of Nature. We use it to make 
.THE TRINIDAD-LAKE-ASPHALT 
Because it gives absolute protection Genasco is economical roofing— 
it costs less in the end. 
tradlm Jrk” Thi* f ° ♦ ? .^ !neraI or smooth surface. Look for the hemisphere 
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K. 
