iyio. 
1127 
HEATING THE COUNTRY HOUSE. 
The Advantages of Hot Water. 
The two pictures at Figs. 47 and 4S show an Illinois 
house with its overcoat on and again in Summer dress. 
The contrast is striking. When it comes to inside 
comfort the contrast narrows down so that Winter 
loses its terrors for the inmates. Mr. David Spiers of 
La Salle Co., Ill., gives this interesting story of the 
way he warms this house. It is as sensible an argu¬ 
ment for a hot-water heater as we have read. 
“We have been having some cold weather; I cannot 
remember when we had so much snow and such a 
long spell of cold weather. Since December i it has 
been hovering around zero; 15 below has been the 
coldest so far. It has seldom thawed any during that 
time and then only in sheltered places. This is the 
kind of weather when one appreciates a comfortable 
house; and for doing that hot water cannot be beaten. 
Those who depend on coal stoves for heating their 
homes know how hard it is to keep the house comfort¬ 
able during very cold weather; it is a roast or a freeze 
most of the time, and when it comes to getting out of 
bed in the morning when the house is about as cold as 
outdoors, there is no fun about it to say the least, but 
a hot-water heater properly installed does away with 
all such discomforts. I used to dread 
the Winters on account of the cold, but 
now I find it the most enjoyable time of 
the year. When I decided to put a heat¬ 
ing outfit of some kind in my house, I 
got what evidence I could as to the other 
methods of heating, and I finally decided 
on hot water as being the best, and I also 
decided that I would put it in the house 
myself. I sent the plan of my house to 
the people I bought the oufit from; they 
sent me a drawing showing where the 
radiators and pipes should be located 
and how placed, and by following the 
instructions I had no trouble in putting 
it together; I had to cut and thread the 
pipes; the hardest part about it was to 
get the pipes the proper length so they 
would fit right. It has worked perfectly 
from the first; it could not have been any 
better even if it had been put in by an 
expert, and, of course, I saved the plumb¬ 
er's fee. 
"I have now had it in use three Win¬ 
ters, and I like it better and get more 
enjoyment out of it every Winter; in 
fact when it comes to giving real com¬ 
fort it is the best investment that I ever 
made. It is a clean method of heating a 
home; there is no smoke nor dust get¬ 
ting into the rooms, which is usually the 
case with hot air. As the water retains 
the heat a long while the house is always 
comfortable even if the fire gets very 
low, which is sometimes the case in the 
morning. During the coldest weather we 
have ever had it has never frozen any¬ 
thing in the rooms where there are radi¬ 
ators, while before when we had stoves 
we could not keep things from freezing. 
Many a time we would have to wait until 
things got thawed out before we could 
get our breakfast. Every, person who 
owns his own home should install a hot- 
THE RURAL NEW-'* ORKER 
outsiders pay at the rate of 50 cents per hour, the cost 
of getting the machine to and from the church being 
paid by the person using it. When desired the janitor 
of the church takes the machine and does the work, 
charging his own price for his work. 
From my own experience I should recommend that 
in all ca.es the janitor be sent with the machine. 
\\ hile anyone can run the machine it, like all other 
machines, is not improved by being used by everyone 
who comes along. The janitor is allowed pay for 
cleaning and caring for the machine. In most cases 
where 80 to 100 feet of extra insulated cord will be 
needed I should get it in one 20 -foot length, one 30- 
foot length and one 50-foot, with couplers. Use coup¬ 
lers without switches. Of course it can be attached 
to any light socket; but where fuses are used, as in 
many houses, they will not carry the current and burn 
out, and a heavier fuse will have to be put in, and it 
will be necessary to do all your work from one socket. 
In some cases there will be no day current, and in 
rooms with only one light it will be necessary to use 
it for light, and the current for the machine must 
come from another room. Of course in most cities 
there are large machines that go from house to house 
that are run by gasoline engines, and it seems to me 
that there are many farming communities that could 
AN ILLINOIS HOME WITH ITS WINTER OVERCOAT Fig. 47 . 
water heating outfit; it will add 100 per cent to their 
comfort. Mine cost about $160, not counting my own 
labor. There is the furnace and five radiators, two 
laige ones downstairs and three smaller ones upstairs, 
with the necessary pipes and valves to connect them. 
Altogether I use about eight tons of soft coal during 
the Winter, which costs me $ 2.75 at the mine. Of 
course some of this coal is used in the cook-stove. 
It would take five stoves going all the time to do 
what my hot-water heater does—and even with the 
stoves it would be impossible to keep the house so 
comfortable, to say nothing of the dirt and dust and 
carrying in of coal and out of ashes.” 
•^' no * s - __ DAVID SPIERS. 
CO-OPERATION WITH HOUSE CLEANERS. 
I have wondered why The R. N.-Y. has never said 
anything about the vacuum cleaners for the help of the 
housewife. As to the hand machines I cannot speak, 
having only run one of the electric. Where one has 
electricity in the house they are certainly one of the 
most sanitary and satisfactory machines that can be 
had. My own experience has been largely in caring 
for a church which has over three hundred yards of 
carpet, and perhaps the plan adopted might be applica¬ 
ble to other communities with some modification. The 
Ladies’ Working Society purchased the machine at a 
cost of $125. \\ hen not needed at the church the 
members of the society are allowed to run the cleaner 
in their own homes at a charge of 25 cents per hour; 
AN ILLINOIS FIOME IN SUMMER DRESS. Fig. 
well afford to buy a machine that could be attached 
to some light portable gas engine and do the work. 
When one can afford it he should own a machine. 
As to the time necessary to clean a room, when the 
machine is used constantly I should say it would take 
about twice as long as with the broom and carpet 
sweeper, but as in many cases the dusting would be 
saved it would not take much more time. Practically 
in caring for the church I use it about once in three 
or four weeks. It will take up almost everything in the 
shape of dust and dirt: shaving and scraps of paper 
and heavier articles are sometimes too large to go 
into the mouth of the sweeper, and must be taken up 
before using the cleaner. s. t. w. 
Forest Grove, Oregon. 
R- N.-Y.—As many readers already know, these 
cleaners work on the principle of an air pump—suck¬ 
ing the dust and dirt out of the carpets. In the cities 
it is quite a common sight to see in the street an 
engine working on a wagon with air pipe running up 
to high buildings where the cleaners are at work. The 
above description of a cooperative use of the church 
cleaner is good. _ 
UTILIZING A ROUGH TRACT. 
I have a tract of flood fruit land on top of a small 
isolated mountain, or rather hill, about 700 or 800 feet high. 
A good wagon road will he expensive, and cannot be very 
direct on account of the bluffs and ledges. Is there any 
plan of a successful incline or tram-car working under 
such conditions? With hundreds of acres of wild brush 
land costing but the fencing, would Angora goats be a 
good proposition for me? With 200 to 300 acres of 
orchards to care for, too much care is required, and there 
are too many dogs to consider sheep. j. e. l. 
Cohutta, Ga. 
The elevation suggests a place for fruit that might 
be very fine, provided the laud on top of the hill lies 
even enough for good cultivation. If it is not cleared 
there would need to be.a road made to get the timber 
down, unless a chute was made, and even in that 
case teams would have to be taken there to do some 
of the hauling. An orchard without a wagon road to 
it would be almost an impossibility. For the handling 
of the fruit, that is, getting it down the incline, there 
could be two cables, side by side, down one of which 
there could be let run on a trolley a suspended cage 
that would carry a load, and by attaching a small 
cable or rope the empty ones could be pulled up at no 
cost for power. 1 his is done in many mining opera¬ 
tions with perfect success and it would work well for 
letting fruit down a steep mountain side. I once 
planned just such a thing to carry apples 
down an incline and across a river to a 
railroad, but the plan was made useless 
by the building of another railroad be¬ 
fore the orchard was ready to bear. 
About using goats to browse on wild, 
rough land and thus utilize it, there is 
no doubt of their value for this purpose. 
But there is another branch of stock- 
raising that would be even better, that is 
deer or elk farming. These animals 
would take care of themselves in a great 
measure, increase fast, and yield a good 
revenue. The main thing is to have the 
fence high and strong. It takes a lower 
fence to hold elk than deer and there 
would be less danger from poachers. 
The greatest obstacle is the unreasonable 
State laws as to allowing the sale of the 
animals alive or dead as other stock is 
sold. But this may be changed by put¬ 
ting the matter before the legislatures in 
a proper way and getting sensible laws 
enacted. Goats will work well in the en¬ 
closure with the elk or deer. What one 
eats the other may not. With the con¬ 
stantly increasing price of meat and the 
ease with which these browsing animals 
may be raised it is by no means a fool¬ 
ish or hairbrained scheme to turn brush, 
briars and weeds into good food, and 
especially when the cost is merely the 
fencing of the rough land and the breed¬ 
ing stock to start with. The U. S. De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has issued a 
pamphlet on this subject, ‘‘Deer Farm¬ 
ing,” that is well worth the most care¬ 
ful attention. Why not make these ani¬ 
mals serve us as well as the turkey, 
duck, goose, jungle fowl, wild boar and 
a few others that man has brought under 
subjection? Certainly they yield to do¬ 
mestication as easily. I only wish I had 
the chance to do it. The meat "can be 
48. 
You may think at times that life is giving you more 
hitter than sweet. Look it up and see if most of the 
bitterness he not in you rather than in life ! 
We surely have no objection to offer to the following, 
which accompanied a (rial subscription: “The trial sub¬ 
scription is for our local paper; they have been giving 
us the press matter that they call agricultural news, and 
I promise them a taste of the real thing.” 
produced as cheaply as beef, pork or mutton,” and it is 
good and brings a big price. There are localities where 
this is worth considering. h. e. van deman. 
THE VALUE OF COAL ASHES. 
I observe in your paper some inquiries about the 
value of coal ashes, with remarks upon their low 
analyses of fertilizing materials. After 40 years of 
farming I have learned to doubt the value of many 
of these so-called scientific dicta—such as analyses of 
soils, balanced rations, liming all soils, etc. I use 
sifted ashes behind cattle and believe I find value in 
them, not only as absorbents, but as possessing other 
valuable properties. I use my eyesight in farming, 
and I notice that where coal ashes are scattered on 
walks the edges are always lush and dark green. 
There is a difference in coal ashes, whether bituminous 
or anthracite, and even between the products of dif¬ 
ferent mines. As illustrating my well-founded in¬ 
credulity of analyses I can recall that when Nicholas 
Longworth, the founder of commercial viticulture in 
the West, began planting vines at Cincinnati, he hired 
a lot of boys to pick up and cut in small pieces all 
the leather boots and shoes they could find with which 
to fertilize his vines. By analysis he was justified, 
but the process of decay was so slow that he soon 
abandoned it. The fertilizer manufacturers know the 
value of ground leather in increasing the statement 
of phosphate. w. w. 
Rhode Island. 
