1010. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
897 
CUTTING CORN BY HAND. 
We commence cutting corn as soon as 
the kernels are well dented and well out 
of the doughy stage. As corn usually 
ripens more or less unevenly, ripening 
sooner on the higher ground and lighter 
soil, we are often able to commence cut¬ 
ting a few days before the whole field is 
ready. We make our shocks 10 hills 
square (100 hills to the shock) and by 
using a certain corner of the field as a 
base with a reasonable amount of care in 
counting rows from that corner we can 
cut out patches here and there and still 
have the shocks in perfect rows each 
way when the cutting is finished. First 
make the four central hills of a shock 
into a “saddle,” bending them over to 
about the height of the waist and wrap¬ 
ping securely together, so that they form 
a support for the shock, intersecting in 
the exact center with an angle for each 
quarter. 
F F E E D D LLLL 
F F E E D D LLLL 
F K E E D D K K K K 
G G G G B B I 
I I 
nHHH B B JJJ J 
HIIHH B B JJJ J 
Cut in order as numbered in the^dia- 
gram hills 1 to 8 and place them against 
the saddle at A. If you are left- 
handed cut from 8 to 1. In this way you 
cut four hills, turn between 4 and 5 and 
cut four back without walking around 
two hills at the turn. In like manner cut 
hills b, b, b, etc., and set up at B, the 
c’s at C and the d’s at D. If the saddle 
hills were weak or some of them missing 
it may be well to bind this center shock 
around the top, though in straight corn it 
is seldom necessary. You now have a 
good sound foundation for a shock, and 
the remainder of the corn is divided into 
four equal parts of two bunches each. 
Now cut the eight e’s and place at E, the 
f’s at F. Proceed to the next corner and 
cut the eight hills g, placing them at G, 
being careful that they lap well around 
F, leaving the outer surface of the shock 
smooth and unbroken. Proceed in the 
same manner around the shock until it is 
finished. If you have exercised care in 
setting up the bunches you now have a 
neat, compact shock, easily divided into 
four equal parts at husking time. Draw 
up the shock with rope and pulley or strap 
and ring just below -the tassels, being 
careful not to twist the shock, and tie 
with binder twine before releasing the 
compressor. Time is so valuable nowa¬ 
days that one can hardly afford to tie 
with a stalk, as in the old custom. 
So much depends on the condition of 
the corn that no rule can be used as to 
a day’s work and price per shock for 
cutting. We cut from 35 to 50 shocks 
a day, and pay on average about five 
cents per shock. The usual procedure is 
for a man to examine the field or cut a 
half day before agreeing on the price 
per shock. He then estimates so as to 
make about 20 cents an hour and board. 
Eight hills makes a good armful for the 
average man in average corn. If corn is 
very heavy so that eight hills cannot he 
handled to advantage would advise mak¬ 
ing shocks eight hills square, thus mak¬ 
ing six hills an armful. 
Michigan. w. h. arney. 
Bobby : “Honest, is there twins at your 
house?” Tommy: “Honest! An’ they're 
just alike.” Bobby: “Built jest the 
same way, or they rights and lefts?”— 
Toledo Blade. 
A Light Making Machine 
with a Strange Ap petite 
d St¬ 
one «w\Vater 
Once a Month 
A LEAKING TANK. 
C. P. C., Aryenta, Kan.—A few weeks 
ago our 1965-gallon elevated wooden water 
tank began leaking badly. Tightening the 
hoops, it still leaked, and on the advice 
of a neighbor we put two quarts of wheat 
bran in. The leaking lessened, but did not 
stop. Shortly after the water got a green¬ 
ish color and smelled badly. What can we 
do to remedy the leak, and is there some¬ 
thing we can put in the water to purify it? 
Would the water be injurious for bathing? 
Would we better empty it and refill? As it 
is 28 feet high and pumped by hand, it is a 
big job to fill it, especially as I must do 
most of it myself at odd times. 
Ans. —While there would be little 
danger in using the water for bathing 
purposes, it would he better to empty 
the tank than to try to add anything to 
the water to stop the fermentation of 
the bran. If the tank is sound and is 
well hooped with lugs provided for 
tightening the hoops, it is probable that 
if the tank is emptied and allowed to 
dry the hoops may be sufficiently tight¬ 
ened so that the leaking will be stopped. 
It sometimes happens with wooden 
tanks, where the staves contain sap- 
wood in one portion and heart-wood in 
another, after they have been in service 
for a time and are then allowed to dry, 
that the sap-wood docs not swell suffi- 
cientlly to make entirely tight joints. If 
this has been the trouble, allowing the 
tank to dry and tightening the hoops 
might not completely stop leaking, but 
an inspection after drying would show 
whether or not this is the trouble. If 
the staves have become irregular so that, 
they cannot he tightened, probably the 
best plan is to have the irregular staves 
removed and new ones substituted, or 
their edges straightened. To let the 
tank become thoroughly dry and tighten 
the hoops as well as possible, caulking 
any seams which cannot be closed by 
tightening the hoops, and then painting 
the inside of the tank with a heavy coat 
of hot asphalt, painting the sides first 
and then flooding the bottom with the 
asphalt, pouring it in in the hot, melted 
condition, would make the tank per¬ 
manently tight. If there are irregulari¬ 
ties in the staves or in the bottom pieces 
and these are not closed by caulking, 
the pressure of the water on the asphalt 
would gradually force the asphalt 
through so as to permit leaking after a 
little. If there is no danger of freezing 
in the Winter, another remedy would be 
to lath the tank with metal lath and 
plaster with a good heavy coat of cement 
mortar. If such a treatment were 
adopted the tank should be dried thor¬ 
oughly first and the hoops tightened so 
that no shrinking could occur later to 
crack the cement. If the leaking has re¬ 
sulted from the rotting of the wood in 
any place, a new tank is the best remedy. 
F. H. KING. 
Limestone Dust. 
J. Q. K., Cincinnati, O .—Would pike dust 
(limestone) fie worth scraping up aud ap¬ 
plying to land instead of lime in the same 
way and for the same purpose? 
Ans. —In traveling through Brown 
County in southern Ohio have seen the 
effect of limestone dust oi the clover 
growing on the side of the turnpike from 
the wind, extending for a considerable 
distance into adjoining fields. This dust 
is practically the raw limestone which we 
are using in a part of our experiments, 
and the results from which we are not 
able to distinguish from those obtained 
from burnt lime, provided we use the 
same quantity of actual lime per acre; 
that is, the raw limestone contains only 
about one-half as much actual lime as the 
burnt lime, hence we use at least twice 
as much of the raw stone as we would 
of burnt lime. chas. E. thorne. 
Ohio Exp. Station. 
R. N.-Y.—On the Delaware peninsula 
large quantities of oyster shells were used 
for road making. They were spread 
thickly on the road and crushed down by 
passing teams into a powder. As a re¬ 
sult of this fine lime has spread on each 
side of the roads, gradually extending, 
Blue grass comes in and many crops have 
improved. 
and it will supply you with enough 
home-made gas to run thirty-five 
lights. Just the thing for a farm 
or a country place of any sort. 
Makes a cheap exceptionally bril¬ 
liant light—more economical than 
kerosene and quite as convenient as 
electricity. Already there are 185,- 
000 of these machines furnishing 
light for as many homes. 
★ ★ ★ 
You can set one in one corner 
of your cellar or in an out-building. 
Then all you need to do is to feed it 
the curious crushed stone known as 
“Union Carbide,”—a few pounds 
once a month. 
The machine does the rest—auto¬ 
matically it brings the carbide a lit¬ 
tle at a time in contact with plain 
water. 
The water liberates genuine acet¬ 
ylene gas stored in the carbide. 
This it does only when the lights 
are burning. Makes j-ust enough 
acetylene to supply the lights in use 
and stops working when the lights 
are shut off. 
★ ★ ★ 
You can have a cluster of lights 
in every room in the house—one in 
the cellar,—one in the attic,—one 
on the front porch,—one at the back 
door,—one in the shed,—one in the 
barn yard,— two in the horse barn 
(or garage, if you have one), and 
four in the cow barn. 
With an installation of this kind, 
You would have positively the most 
efficient and safest light equipment 
money can buy. 
The “Union Carbide” which 
comes to you in sheet steel hundred 
pound drums won’t burn and can’t 
explode. 
The fixtures are permanently at¬ 
tached to walls and ceilings—the 
light flame is so stiff, wind does 
not affect it. 
Every burner can be equipped to 
light with the pull of a chain—no 
matches required; and in addition 
to all this, the gas is not poisonous. 
—You -could sleep all night in a 
room with an open burner and 
suffer no harm. 
★ ★ ★ 
Considering these advantages, is 
it any wonder that the engineers of 
the National Board of Fire Insur¬ 
ance Underwriters have pronounced 
modern Acetylene Light Safer than 
any of the illuminants it is displac¬ 
ing? 
The cost of a plant depends upon 
the number of rooms, barns and 
buildings you wish to light. 
Write us how many and we will 
send you an estimate free, together 
with an intensely interesting booklet 
telling all about the light for home 
use and how it has been used suc¬ 
cessfully by Cornell University to 
grow plants—same as sunlight. 
Just address Union Carbide Sales 
Co., 157 Michigan avenue, Chicago, 
Ill., Dept. 0 - 38 . 
P ) The Furnace That Pays For Itself! 
When you fiuy a FURNACE you want one that yields the 
greatest heat at the least fuel cost and with the lowest repair- 
cost and the least labor to operate. 
^»The Heart of a Furnace is the Fire-Pot 
THE XXth CENTURY FURNACE 
lias demonstrated for years itwill gi ve you these very features. 
It will soon pay for itself in what it saves you compared to 
others. Double Casings—Self-Cleaning Radiator—Automatic 
Damper— Burns Own Gas and Soot—Indestructible Fire-Pot— 
Burns Fuel Evenly—Patent Regulator—Drop Front Cate, etc. 
Try a XXth Century Furnace on our guarantee. 
WRITE FOR HANDSOME BOOKLET-FREE. 
The XXth Century Heating & Ventilating Co., 
37 Ira Avenue, Akron, Ohio, 
SEEDS FOR FALL PLANTING 
Catalogue Free. 
Choice varieties seed wheat, rye, winter 
vetches and grass seeds; also spring 
flowering bulbs for fall planting. 
HENItX A. DREER, Philadelphia, Pa. 
CLARK’S “CUTAWAY” 
extension HEAD ORCHARD HARROWS 
Every orchardist and fruit grower should have one or more of 
these labor savers and fruit makers. 
Thorough cultivation makes large crops. Stirring the soil lets 
jn the air. sunshine and new life and kills foul vegetation. The 
‘CUTAWAY” disk slices, stirs, lifts, twists and aerates the soil. 
These harrows are made in 20 sizes to extend beyond team under low 
limbs of trees. The double levers give the driver full control of the tool 
,. _ at all times. Clark’s Cutaway Tools ___ 
run lighter and do bettor work than any other machine, • ^ 
either harrow or plough, and when properly used are guar- 
anteed to produce 25 to 50st more crops. Will 
last a lifetime. -W B 
Send today for FREE Booklet describing 
120 sizes and styles. 
Cutaway Harrow Company 
839 Main Street, HIGGANUM, CONN. 
