THE: RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1376 
3913. 
CONNECTIONS FOR AN ELECTRIC ALARM. 
Will you give with diagram of connections a scheme 
for wiring a barn so as to set off an electric bell in house 
il doors, etc., are opened at night? The plan would 
doubtless appeal to many farmers where trains go by. 
Connecticut. j. s. bkown. 
It is often convenient to have some such arrange¬ 
ment as you mention whereby the opening of a door 
to any outbuilding sets off an alarm in the house. 
The simplest scheme is shown in Fig. 553, where a 
projecting piece (b) on the door hits against a piece 
of spring brass (a) and keep it away from another 
piece of brass (e), thus keeping the circuit open. 
Now when the door is opened, the piece (b) comes 
away from (a), and allows the piece (a) to come 
in contact with the piece (e), thus closing the cir¬ 
cuit and allowing the current from the battery (B) 
to pass through the bell and ring it. The battery 
and bell are placed in the house and connected, as 
shown by the dotted lines. Unless the wires between 
the outbuilding and the house are hidden by being 
buried in a pipe in the ground, they may be cut by 
the person wishing to enter the building. By using 
a large gong inside of the building to be protected, 
the alarm will be given just the same and there are 
rc wires exposed. In each case use dry batteries or 
the common carbon-zinc-sal-ammoniac door-bell bat¬ 
tery. Two cells will be needed. The dry cells should 
not cost over 35 cents each, and when worn out must 
be thrown away. The carbon wet cells cost about 75 
cents, and when run down may be renewed by buying 
a new zinc pencil, costing 10 cents, and a new pack¬ 
age of sal-ammoniac, costing five cents 
A scheme whereby the bell may be in the house 
and an alarm sounded if either the outbuilding door 
opens or the wire is cut is shown in Fig. 555. With 
this arrangement a closed circuit battery must be 
used. None other will do. Dry batteries will be 
A BAD MUCK EYESORE. 
I have recently read articles in The R. N.-Y. on peat 
muck. They interest me very much, as I have such a 
deposit. A depression cuts into two-thirds of a 20-acre 
field, nearly a round hole, making it difficult to farm 
around. As I take it, this is a genuine peat marsh. 
Muck is decidedly brown and very light when dry; 
burns like tinder. For 20 years or more it has been an 
eyesore. Years ago it was said huckleberries and cran¬ 
berries grew well; at this time no drainage, and kept 
wet most of the year. Cattle used to get mired and it 
was very soft. Bushes resembling huckleberry bushes 
covered the ground. These had red berries, and were 
called pigeonberry bushes. I decided 25 years ago to 
clean up the piece and drain it. Bushes were pulled 
CONNECTION OF ELECTRIC ALARM Fig 553. 
and hauled off and burned; good drainage found. I had 
great hopes of growing good crops, but was very much 
disappointed. It never produced a bushel of anything 
For 10 years I kept trying, stacked straw and rotted 
down by placing lime on it. This, scattered, never 
made an impression. At one time I scraped dirt in 
from hill; did no good that I could notice. No crop 
ever grew, Corn would sprout and grow a few inches 
high, and turn yellow and grow no more. In a few 
years common horse sorrel took possession and nearly 
covered the piece. This was a greater eyesore than ever. 
About 15 years ago red raspberries and wild blackberry 
bushes took possession. It seems the more I cultivated 
them, trying to kill them, the stronger they grew. 
Finally I abandoned the piece and farmed around. 
Let berry bushes do as they pleased; consequently the 
worst briar patch possible, and no berries did they" ever 
acid to produce most farm crops. Plowing and cul¬ 
tivating with drainage will help it somewhat, but 
a coat of lime is needed. One ton to the acre of air- 
slaked lime put on after plowing will sweeten the 
soil and make the nitrogen available. Such soils 
are always very low in potash. They are high in 
nitrogen, have some phosphoric acid, but sometimes 
hardly a trace of potash, and that is the essential 
thing for corn. In “The Story of the Soil,” by Hop¬ 
kins, is a statement about an experiment at the 
Illinois Experiment Station. Corn was planted on 
black muck soil with various chemicals. Potash 
made a remarkable showing. One day there came 
a poor, discouraged farmer with his wife and chil¬ 
dren to look over these experiments. The soil was 
much like that on which this man had struggled and 
failed Most,of the corn looked like the ci’ops which 
had kept this man a slave, but at last he came to 
where the potash had been used. A few pounds of 
this element—just what the corn needed—had given 
a wonderfu* crop. This man asked about it, and 
when he learned what made the difference he broke 
down and cried. It came to him that all these long 
years he had toiled on what he thought was rich 
land and failed, because he did not know what that 
soil needed to make it produce! Such land as you 
describe always needs lime and potash. The lime 
is necessary to sweeten the soil and to make the 
nitrogen available The potash must be supplied be 
cause that kind of soil lacks this element. It is not 
likely that manure will do much good. Better use 
the manure on the higher land, lime this piece, and 
use potash or potash and phosphate with the corn. 
RESEEDING AN OLD MEADOW. 
I plowed up 15 acres of meadow (two years old) 
limed and worked up as best I could without tearing 
THE PEN OF MONGREL IIENS ENTERED BY HOPE FARM AT THE EGG LAYING CONTEST, Fig 554. 
useless. The best battery to use is the Daniel cell 
of the gravity type such as are used in telegraph 
offices. They cost SI each, and two will be needed 
for the main circuit, while one dry battery may be 
used for the separate circuit in the house, as indi¬ 
cated on the diagram. As many buildings may be 
protected as you wish to run wires to by taking off 
branches as shown in the diagram. 
In Fig. 555 the three doors are (A), (B) and (C) 
to each of which a brass piece (c) is fastened in 
such a manner that while the door is shut the piece 
(c- is firmly in contact with another brass piece (d) 
A wire connected to one of the pieces (c) then runs 
to the copper part of one of the Daniel cells. The 
zinc part of the same cell is connected with the cop¬ 
per part of the next cell, and the zinc of that is con¬ 
nected with one of the wires of a small magnet such 
as the magnet on an electric bell The other wire of 
the magnet is connected with the piece (d) of the 
third door. Then the piece (c) of the third door 
connects with the piece (c) of the second, and the 
piece (d) of the second connects with the piece (d) 
of the first. In this way the current of the Daniel 
batteries flows through the magnet all the time when 
the doors are closed. There is a piece (n) pivoted 
loosely so that the magnet attracts it while the cur¬ 
rent Hows, but when the circuit is broken, as by 
cutting the wire or opening a door, the magnet re¬ 
leases the piece (n) and allows it to fall, striking 
the piece (k) and closing the circuit through the 
dry battery and the bell, thus ringing the latter 
The piece (n) must be of iron or steel, and the piece 
(k) should be of brass. A switch (S) should be 
placed in the bell circuit so that during the day it 
may be turned off so that the bell will not ring every 
time a door is opened. Remember, however, to close 
this switch at night. Windows as well as doors may 
be protected with this system by arranging two 
pieces on the windows like the pieces (c) and (d), 
opening the window breaks circuit. b. f. c. 
bear. It became such an eyesore that I began mak¬ 
ing an effort to reclaim. 
A year ago I took mower and mowed down one 
round; took fork and threw them aside so as to make 
another round. Made four rounds this way, a big job, 
so quit. Along in .Tune I went at it again Mowed 
them all as above stated. Then hauled all off onto hard 
ground and burned. Did not dare burn them on piece, 
for it would have set- marsh on fire and burned out to 
clay bottom, 10 feet deep. This made a great change 
in looks, nothing more. In four weeks a new green 
crop had started. When about six inches to one foot 
high I again ran mower over them and clipped closely. 
This clipping required no hauling off. Four times last 
Summer I mowed the piece This all takes time and 
does not help matters much, only looks I have in past 
hauled loads of this muck onto the high land but never 
shoved any results. I am planning to plow all in the 
Spring for corn. Am manuring a strip with verv heavy 
manure, but doubt if this will do any ♦good. I feel I 
am wasting the manure The high land needs it badly 
The plowing will be a big job. The briar roots are 
thick. About the only way to do is to pull roots and 
plow each furrow as I did in mowing—a slow process. 
I would like to kill out the briars if possible. Ilow can 
1 make this marsh produce something of value—I care 
not what it is, just something? j. p. m’c. 
Indiana. 
No one could give exact advice without examining 
this ground. As a rule the greatest needs of such 
soils are drainage, lime and potash. The fact that 
this peat has not decayed shows that the place has 
been waterlogged so the air could not work in. If 
you have drained the piece so you can plow it that 
trouble is provided for. Muck soils are usually very 
sour. The crop of sorrel shows that this piece is too 
up the sod too much; sowed Timothy and Alsike clover, 
six quarts Timothy, four quarts Alsike to acre. The 
clover did not come up well; a fairly good stand of 
Timothy, but much water-cress and wild onions (gar¬ 
lic), also sheep sorrel. Do you think piowing up a 
meadow in this way and putting right back in grass 
for meadow again a good plan? Last Spring I thought 
the water-cress and other weeds would take a piece 
of meadow that was put in last Fall, but I put a 
mowing machine on this ground and cut it off twice 
fairly close. Some places one could scarcely see any 
stand of Timothy or clover. After I cut off the second 
time the grass started, and a prettier stand of Tim¬ 
othy I never saw. I cut 2 1 / i tons to the acre and now 
there does not appear any water-cress or other weeds. 
I never have been able to understand where this grass 
came from. Now it is fine sod of Timothy and clover. 
How do you advise getting rid of wild onions or gar¬ 
lic? My land is high, well-drained, some sand with a 
little gravel, well subsoiled with a red clay, and all 
works up nicely. w. v. a. 
We never knew a satisfactory reseeding of an 
old meadow by such a method as you followed. You 
must in some way kill out the weeds and old grass 
in the meadow, or they will surely take possession. 
This was the theory of the "Clark” system of grass 
culture. Instead of plowing Clark used a disk or 
Cutaway which chopped and tossed up the old sod. 
By thorough working in this way the sun and air 
killed out the old growth and then the new seeding 
had a chance. You turned the sod over and worked 
up the bottom of the furrow slice for a seed bed. 
The old grass and weeds were not killed. After a 
time they grew up and being stronger than the young 
grass plants mastered them. This always happens, 
under such conditions. The only practical way to 
kill out wild onion and similar weeds is to keep 
tops continuously cut off or dig out the roots. This 
is what Clark did with his "intense culture.” A 
much better plan than the one you adopted is to 
plow the sod and plant to potatoes or corn in hills 
and give thorough culture both ways This will 
clean out the Fall seeding. Your grass may turn out 
better than you think next Spring. We think It 
will pay to cut once and then the sod may be well 
fitted for Alfalfa. 
