1910 . 
THE RURAL NEW«YORKER 
15*7 
TROUBLE WITH A WELL. 
L. J. IF., Corry, Pa .—I have been having 
trouble with a well, and thought perhaps 
I might get some suggestion through The 
R. X.-Y. About three weeks ago I had a 
well drilled aud got a fine flowing stream 
Oil water at a depth of 70 feet. We had 
the misfortune to get the sand pump fast 
in the casing, and had to pull same to get 
it out. When the casing was replaced, 
and driven on down, in a few days the 
water came up around the casing. We 
then drilled another well about 42 feet 
away, to take the pressure 'from the first 
well. We have tried every way we know 
to plug the first well, but still there is a 
small stream flowing. It is all blue clay 
mainly, and this keeps washing up. Can 
you find a remedy for this? I have let 
the second well flow an inch and a quar¬ 
ter stream and dare not open it up more, 
as it is washing some now. 
Ans.—I f the well is driven through a 
considerable thickness of blue clay be¬ 
fore reaching the water stratum, a 
pretty sure remedy would be found, I 
think, by withdrawing the present tube 
and driving down another having an 
inch greater diameter, providing this 
larger one with a point so that it enters 
the old hole all the way wedging. The 
shaping of the point should be such 
that no shoulder is formed, so as to 
wedge the clay back, making the hole 
larger than the pipe itself. It may be 
found that it would not be necessary to 
drive such a casing down its full length, 
to stop the flow. f.' h. icing. 
A LOG FLOAT. 
I saw the picture of a plank drag used 
by W. E. D.,. Hillsboro, O. We use 
plank drags or floats out here, but there 
is a better way than cutting logs, spend 
your time to draw them to mill, pay the 
saw bill,and draw the lumber back home to 
make a plank drag. Any man who can 
swing an ax and twist an auger can 
make what you call a float or clod crush- 
HOMEMADE LOG FLOAT. Fig. 235. 
er. It consists of three logs eight feet 
long, the first one being four inches in 
diameter, the second five inches, the 
third six inches, with two-inch holes 
through each log about a foot or so 
from each end. Then put a chain through 
each hole, *tie a knot in the chain be¬ 
tween each log. This keeps them from 
all drawing together. Have your chain 
long enough so that it is two or three 
feet longer than the logs require. This 
is left in a loop in front to hitch your 
team on; theli it is ready for use.. The 
logs thus fastened do not draw rigid, 
but what the first log does not do the 
second one helps, and after the third 
one passes over it leaves the ground in 
a fine shape. I know one farmer who 
never puts a harrow on his oat ground, 
hut uses one of these log floats. The 
float is shown in Fig. 235. f. a. c. 
Lestershire, N. Y. 
AN EXPERIENCE IN FARMING 
At the recent conference in New York 
lo consider plans for improving New York 
Slate farming, one of the most practical 
papers was read by Win. H. Switzer, of 
Utica, a manufacturer, who found it neces¬ 
sary to develop waste land in order to 
provide food for workmen. This paper fol¬ 
lows : 
In my own experience, covering a period 
of five years, I have learned much of great 
value in reclaiming several hundred acres 
of waste o.r abandoned lands in Herkimer 
County, located in the southwest foothills 
of the Adirondack section of the State. Ten 
years ago our company acquired by pur¬ 
chase about 2,000 acres of timber and 
mineral lands, which included several hun¬ 
dred acres of so-called farm lands that 
had not been worked for agricultural pur¬ 
poses, except in a haphazard way, for up¬ 
ward of 30 years, the greater portion of 
which had been abandoned entirely as un¬ 
profitable for farming purposes. 
As our industry developed and trans¬ 
portation was provided connecting us with 
the New York Central main line, and the 
families of our workmen began to locate 
on the properties, the purchase of farm 
and dairy products became a serious prob¬ 
lem. Our base of operations was several 
miles from a purchasing market; therefore, 
to supply this demand, I determined, five 
years ago, in a measure to provide the 
necessities of life in the way of farm and 
dairy - products for our operatives. In an 
effort to reclaim the abandoned land which 
had become grown over with a wild growth 
of weeds and brush, there having been no 
stock kept on these lands for many years, 
and no barnyard fertilizer available, we 
purchased a carload of so-called commer¬ 
cial fertilizer, engaged the services of a 
local farmer, and began breaking up the 
soil. Our first year's experience was far 
from satisfactory, the yield from a 30-acre 
field of oats being less lhan 20 bushels to 
the acre ; from a five-acre field of potatoes 
less than 50 bushels per acre; from a 10- 
acre field of silo corn less than 10 tons to 
the acre, and a five-acre field of yellow corn 
failed to mature; this was cut and put 
into the silo. It was then we realized 
the importance of personally taking up 
these matters of land cultivation. 
I at once procured State and Government 
bulletins on special crop cultivation, sub¬ 
scribing to several agricultural papers, and 
decided to stock the farm with live stock 
to the capacity of barn buildings available, 
about 100 head horses, cows, sheep and 
hogs, in order to procure an abundance 
of barnyard manure; purchasing the hay 
and grain to carry through the first Win¬ 
ter. Then I looked up the matter of 
chemical fertilizers, such as nitrate of soda, 
potash salts, basic slag, agricultural lime 
and Peruvian guanos, all of which were 
purchased in carload lots and were ju¬ 
diciously, yet freely, spread on these lands, 
with the result that last year the yield of 
oats was 56 bushels to the acre; potatoes, 
over 200 bushels to the acre; silo corn, 25 
tons to the acre; field corn, 46 bushels 
of ears to the acre, and 50 tons of sugar 
beets to the acre; furthermore, we cut three 
tons of hay per acre from a three-year 
seeding and iwo tons of hay per acre from 
an old meadow, the sod of which had not 
been turned in over 30 years. 
We now have, after five years of labor, 
over 300 acres of these lands under culti¬ 
vation, the result of which has enabled us 
to furnish our operatives with an abund¬ 
ance of farm foods and dairy products, in¬ 
cluding fresh and salt meats, which we 
prepare on the farm, and wc feel that we 
have, in a measure, solved the problem of 
land reclamation, which is by no means 
a complete result, having personally had no 
previous' experience in farm life, always 
having lived in the city, aud leading a 
strenuous life as a manufacturer and busi¬ 
ness man. 
As before stated, I do not, for a moment, 
consider that we have achieved the highest 
success; therefore, I desire to emphasize 
the suggestion that has been made by Pres¬ 
ident Brown, of the New York Central 
Lines, in one of his addresses on the reme¬ 
dies of the high cost of living, that the 
State or Federal Government establish, in 
every agricultural county, a model farm 
under expert supervision for the purpose of 
demonstrating the most modern scientific 
methods of farming, where the local farm¬ 
ers can, by personal observation, get relia¬ 
ble information of the scientific principles 
of progressive farming in order to insure 
greater yields per acre of the various crops 
adapted to soil and climatic conditions. J 
Ilad such a farm been established in Ilerki- j 
mer County live years ago, we would have 
gained four years’ time in arriving at the 
results achieved in our own experience. 
It is far different if a practical farmer can 
see for himself the modern processes of 
land preparation, crop cultivation and har¬ 
vesting, rather than to depend upon litera¬ 
ture and discussions of these vital ques¬ 
tions. The average farmer, as the old say¬ 
ing goes, “is from Missouri and must be 
shown” to impress upon his mind the great 
importance of greater yield per acre. From 
my observations during the past five years, 
the great problem in New York State farm¬ 
ing to be considered is not more acres, 
but a greater yield per acre; and in my 
judgment this cannot be obtained in any 
more positive way than by the establishing 
of model farms, particularly in those sec¬ 
tions that show the least results in crop 
yields. 
In referring to the admirable report of 
Commissioner Pearsou, of the New York 
State Agricultural Department, for 1909, 
it is surprising to note the great discre¬ 
pancy that exists in the various crop 
yields of the counties of New York State; 
and I think you will agree with me that 
this is largely due to the lack of knowledge 
of scientific methods of soil preparation 
and crop cultivation, except in so far as 
soil and climatic conditions prevail, all of 
which can be • overcome by the establish¬ 
ing of fnodel or demonstration farms, which 
should also be conducted along the lines 
of practical stock breeding, to enable the 
average farmer to get, at short range, the 
most reliable information relative to the 
best grades of live stock for the various 
sections in which these demonstration 
farms are located. For instance, in our 
early experience, we were told that the 
Holsteins were best adapted for our dairy¬ 
ing purposes, and we accordingly purchased 
a small herd, and to our regret found that 
they were not at all adapted to our section 
b.v reason of the short pasturage available. 
We found the Holstein, being a very hearty 
cow, giving a large yield of milk under 
good pasturage conditions. We were then 
advised to try the Jerseys, which we did. 
and found that the climatic conditions of 
the Adirondack section were too severe. 
Three years ago, while at the State Fair 
at Syracuse, I saw a fine herd of Brown 
Swiss cattle on exhibition. We looked into 
their merits and qualities and as we were 
particularly interested in a productive but¬ 
ter cow, we also desired to have stock 
suitable for beef consumption after its 
dairying qualities had been exhausted. We 
found the Brown Swiss cattle especially 
adapted for the mountainous section of 
our region, as they were good foragers and 
mountain climbers, giving a good yield of 
milk rich in butter fats. Ilad we been 
able to acquire the information at first 
hand, a large saving of time and experi¬ 
ence would have been had in the selection 
of not only our cattle, but swine, sheep and 
poultry as well. 
There is one other question that I think 
should firmly be considered in connection 
with the model farm proposition, and that 
is the matter of reforestation of the many 
thousands of acres of waste land that are 
not available for agricultural purposes, 
which, in a measure, would insure a future 
supply of lumber; also replace the deforest¬ 
ation that has been so excessively practiced 
during the past 25 years in this State. 
The State Agricultural Department could 
readily cooperate with the various fish and 
game commissions in a practical demonstra¬ 
tion of reforestation. In our own practice, 
we have recently taken up the subject, and 
now have an expert forester, a graduate of 
the Yale School of Forestry, in charge of 
our properties—setting out White pine aud 
spruce, furnished at a reasonable cost from 
the Stale nurseries. I expect to continue 
this work until we have reforested several 
hundred acres of wild and waste lands, 
adapted for no other purpose whatever, 
which, in a few years, should have several 
hundred thousand of these valuable trees 
growing. If for no other purpose, this 
would be a great benefit to the State in the 
preservation of (lie water supply, which 
in itself is of great importance to the 
State at large. 
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