1914. 
THE RURAIi NEW-YORKER 
eei 
Farm Engineering. 
Locating a Well. 
I T may be hard for some of us to be¬ 
lieve it, but the geologists have the 
upper crust of this old earth well 
mapped out, both as to minerals and 
water. Most men seem to believe that 
all they need do is to dig a hole in the 
earth and take the water out. 
The geologists and engineers of the 
Geological Survey know of many wells 
that have been drilled from 600 to 2,000 
feet in depth in places where an expert 
could have foretold with certainty that 
little or no water would result. Not in¬ 
frequently people write to the Survey 
that they have spent hundreds or per¬ 
haps thousands of dollars in drilling to 
great depths and inquire whether they 
shall go deeper. An examination of the 
geologic maps or data at hand has more 
than once brought the reply that the for¬ 
mation being drilled was not water-bear¬ 
ing. 
Some “water witch” will probably 
claim that he can beat the geologists in 
locating water; but at any rate some 
soils and locations are better supplied 
than others and it is worth money for us 
to know about it before we start. 
pipe full of water to exclude the air. 
Then open up your faucet and the water 
will flow. The pipe must be kept full of 
water. If it is airtight, it will remain so 
of its own accord. To fill the pipes at 
first, a suction pump at the faucet or a 
force pump at the well will do the work. 
If these cannot be obtained, you can pour 
enough water in to fill the pipes by stop- 
ing up the well end and opening up a 
joint at the well curb, putting in a tee 
and raising a standpipe up a foot or so. 
In this standpipe place a valve. Open 
the valve, fill the pipes, close the valve, 
open a faucet at the buildings, and then 
open the well end of the pipe line without 
lifting it above the water surface. Be 
careful, after filling the pipes with water, 
to allow no air to enter the pipes. A big 
siphon like this acts just the same as a 
small siphon made of rubber hose and 
used to empty a pail or jar of water. 
You have to fill the hose, stop up both 
ends, put one end beneath the surface and 
the other end below the level, but on the 
outside of the pail. Then when you let 
go of the ends the water will climb up 
over the rim of the pail and run out with¬ 
out pumping. k. p. c. 
Keeping Stone Wall Dry. 
O N page 924, C. P. asks how to protect 
wall from damp. Fifteen years 
ago I put a basement under my 
barn, built of field stone much like the 
drawing shown, taking pains first that 
no stone went clear through the wall from 
outside to inside, and second, taking pains 
that the stones lapped onto each other, 
this for strength to bind the wall to¬ 
gether. Third, I only put the mortar 
about three to five inches in from the 
outdoor side of the wall, and also from the 
indoors side of the wall, leaving the in¬ 
side or center of the wall without mortar 
OUT - 
SIDE 
//VS/DE 
for six to 10 inches. When the wall is 
properly pointed it will be warm as re¬ 
gards wind coming through. If the stones 
lap properly it will be strong if it has a 
proper foundation, and if no stones go 
clear through you will find no frost to 
speak of on the inside of wall; at least 
that has been my experience, but in one 
place in my basement a large round stone 
goes clear through, and that is always 
covered with frost in cold weather. 
The cellar wall to my house on the 
east side bothered me by getting frosty 
on the inside in spite of a dirt banking. 
I wished to build a piazza on that side, 
and knew a dirt banking would be al¬ 
most impossible to keep in order, and I 
tried the experiment of building a wall 
outside the cellar wall. Before the piazza 
was built I mortared the outside and top 
of the new wall but did not put any 
mortar between the two walls, thus leav¬ 
ing a dead air space between the two 
walls. It was a success; that dead air 
space did the trick. F. L. B. 
Hamilton, N. Y. 
Lifting Water With Siphon. 
I AM digging a well and wish to ask 
some questions concerning it. How 
high would a siphon lift water from 
a well? The distance from the buildings 
is about 550 feet; the level from top of 
the well is about 65 feet. b. f. l. 
West Leesport, Pa. 
A siphon, if every condition is perfect, 
will lift water about 34 feet over an ob¬ 
struction or hill to a lower level on the 
other side. That is, it will not raise 
water to a tank or something of that kind, 
but, rather, the delivery pipe must be be¬ 
low the source of the water. If a spring 
is on one side of a hill and you want 
water in a valley on the other side, a 
siphon will raise the water over the hill 
and down into the valley without pump¬ 
ing. It will lift water out of a well, over 
the curb and down to buildings at a lower 
level. This appears to be your case. 
Practically, the surface of the water must 
not be more than about 32 feet below the 
curb. Then, all that is necessary is to 
run a pipe from below the surface of the 
water in well to the buildings and fill the 
Running Water Up Hill. 
I HAVE a 20-acre field which slopes 
generally to the north. The highest 
part of the field is about 25 feet 
above the lowest, which is a meadow. I 
wish to bring water to the highest part, 
but am in doubt as to the best and most 
economical way to do it. I would use 
this water for domestic purposes and also 
to irrigate the upland if possible. I am 
engaged in large and small fruit, and the 
high land suffers badly after two weeks 
of dry weather. j. p. c. 
Salem, Mass. 
You do not state where you will obtain 
the water supply you desire to use. If it 
is from a well or spring on the hillside I 
should say that a hydraulic ram is the 
thing to use. Put the ram below the well 
one foot for every 10 feet you want to 
elevate the water. Raise the water to a 
storage tank on the crest of the hill and 
let it run by gravity down to the house, 
as well as about the field. If the ram is 
high enough above the field to be irri¬ 
gated, the waste water from the ram will 
do for irrigation purposes. If this is not 
advisable, pumping from wells or springs 
on the low lands to a concrete reservoir 
on the hill may be the best thing to do. 
It is hard to give details where so little 
information regarding your farm is fur¬ 
nished. Rams are cheap and reliable, 
will work day and night without care or 
attention and without cost excepting wear 
and the waste water. A pump would re¬ 
quire power, probably a gasoline or kero¬ 
sene engine. B. P. c. 
Deepening Old Ditch. 
A N old ditch is to be re-dredged. It 
contains some water. Shall I take 
the levels along the edge of the 
water? Will figuring the amount of ex¬ 
cavation be the same as for new work? 
Havana, Ill. h. 
In re-dredging an old ditch it is neces¬ 
sary to resort to cross-sectioning for com¬ 
puting the yardage of excavation, in or¬ 
der that deduction may be made for the 
existing channel. After the center line 
has been run and elevation of grade line 
determined at each station, set up where 
the instrument will command a view of 
several stations, send the rodman an es¬ 
timated distance out. for setting slope 
stake, obtain the elevation of this trial 
point, from which subtract grade line. 
The result, half the bottom width of ditch, 
will be correct distance out from center 
to set the slope stake if a slope of one to 
one is desired. In any case the distance 
out will be half the bottom width plus the 
product of depth by rate of slope. After 
the slope stakes are set. levels should be 
taken between them and the center stake, 
that the end area of the section may be 
computed. The mean area of a given sec¬ 
tion will be one-half the sum of its two 
end areas; this multiplied by the length 
and divided by 27 will be the cubic yards 
in the section. j. F. v. s. 
Raking Up Stone. —Allow me to 
tell how I do it. I take a potato 
hook and rake in windrows, and do 
not make over three rakings in a row ; take 
a team and manure fork, six tines, and 
fork them up into cart. Half an acre 
is a day’s work if done well. I do it after 
seeding, then roll. It will be a pleasure 
to cut the grass on such a lot. 
Vermont. J. A. beeks. 
THE MAIL BAG, 
Corn Doing Poorly. 
L AST harvest I had a field of Timothy 
and plowed it under intending to 
put it in wheat, but did not do it. 
This Spring I plowed it and planted 
White Cap corn, but it is not doing well. 
I have yellow corn planted in the same 
field which is doing nicely. Is plowing 
Timothy under a fertilizer or is it in¬ 
jurious to the soil? w. B. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
There is nothing about a Timothy sod 
which should injure corn. Part of the 
field may have been badly infested with 
grubs or wireworms or perhaps part was 
not as well fitted as the rest. Probably 
the difference in the corn is due to in¬ 
ferior seed of the White Cap. 
Bone or Tankage for Grass. 
I N seeding down with Timothy and Red- 
top, would there be any advantage in 
using bone dust with tankage? 
Would the nitrogen in the bone last long¬ 
er than in the tankage? f. c. C. 
Maine. 
The bone dust would help dry out the 
tankage, make a better mixture for dis¬ 
tribution and add needed phosphoric acid. 
Of course neither bone nor tankage con¬ 
tain any potash. The nitrogen in the 
bone is less available than that in the 
tankage, and would “last longer.” 
Thickening New Seeding. 
I HAVE recently moved on to a little 
place here. I find the meadows very 
light, even the new seeded. Would 
it be wise to sow more seed on the new 
seeding to get a better stand for an¬ 
other year? e. a. w. 
Rhode Island. 
It is doubtful if scattering seed on 
these old meadows will thicken the grass. 
Fertilizing will make what grass there is 
grow better, but we have not been able to 
thicken the sod without Ireaking up and 
reseeding. 
Runners from Non-bearing Strawberries. 
I HAVE a small patch of the Marshall 
strawberry which is giving me very 
good returns. I noticed this year 
that a few of the plants bore no fruit at 
all. but started in early to send out run¬ 
ners. These plants were two years old 
this Spring. I am told that runners from 
these plants will not be suitable to trans¬ 
plant, but must use runners from plants 
that bore fruit. Can you give me any 
information in regard to this? G. F. H. 
Orleans, Mass. 
In our own experience we have found 
little difference in the runners from such 
plants and those from fruiting plants. 
Usually the lack of fruit is due to some 
injury, and not to any natural habit of 
the plant. Many experiments have been 
made, and they usually show that these 
strong runners from non-bearing plants 
yield fruit the following season. Various 
opinions have been expressed but exper¬ 
ience seems to be against the theory that 
runners from such plants are unproduc¬ 
tive. We would like to have actual ex¬ 
perience from growers. 
Time for Planting Cover Crops. 
W HEN is the proper time to plant the 
Fall or Winter cover crops, such 
as Cow-horn turnips, rye, rape 
and vetch? If these are planted in July 
or August will they winter-kill? How 
early is it safe to plant and not winter- 
kill? S. J. E. 
Fairport, N. Y. 
About the middle of August is a good 
time to seed rye and vetch or turnips. 
After September 1 will be rather late for 
vetch seeding, but rye can be seeded up to j 
October. 
Damage from Muskrats. 
I S there any practical and legal way of 
preventing muskrats from destroying 
crops? I have some very fertile land 
along a creek, and muskrats destroy a 
large part of the crops every year. Just 
now they are biting off lots of field corn 
that is about a foot high, and carrying it 
into the creek. M. F. 
Waterford, N. Y. 
Section 158 of the Conservation Law 
of the State of New York for 1913, which 
I understand has not been changed, pro¬ 
vides : “In the event that any species of 
birds protected by the provisions of Sec¬ 
tion 219 of this article, or quadrupeds 
protected by law, shall at any time, in 
any locality, become destructive of public 
or private property the Commission shall 
have power in its discretion to direct any 
game protector, or issue a permit to any 
citizen of the State, to take such species 
of birds or quadrupeds and dispose of the 
same in such manner as the Commission 
may provide. Such permit shall expire 
within four months after the date of is¬ 
suance.” 
Under such a permit the muskrats 
could be trapped or dug out of their holes 
so as to drive them away. If you do not 
own both sides of the creek it would be 
necessary to get the consent of the ad¬ 
joining owner or owners. 
Poison might be used but the State law 
in regard to the exposing of poisoned 
substances is rather vague, and might be 
construed to prohibit even the poisoning 
of rats or mice within a building. 
A. C. W. 
.. again set the pace, I again prove my conti-\ 
aence in Galloway goods by extending credit to« 
the farmer. Five different plans, one of which \ 
is sure to suit yoa. Don't let the lack of ready! 
cash stand in your way. Yoa can get manure! 
spreaders, gasoline engines, cream separators or 1 
other farm equipment from Galloway at factory to 1 
farm prices on the basis of Buy now. Fay later. 
5 H. P. $99.50T~ 
One of my big en, 
gine bargains. 4 
cycle, water-cool-/' 
ed. Hit and 
miss governor#^ 
Machine fin¬ 
ished cylin¬ 
ders. Other 
from 1 3-4 to 15 H. P, 
Cream Separator Bargain 
Gears run in continuous bath of oil. 
Skima cleaner, works better than any other. 
I send you this separator on 30 to 90 days trial 
at a pnce that will surprise you. 
S 5 HEW 
—All cash. 2--Bank 
deposit till you examine 
the goods. 3—Part cash, balance notes. 4—AH 
notes. 6—Small sum down, balance monthly pay¬ 
ments. Just get in touch with me. See my low 
prices, and read my $25000 guarantee. Write now 
and let me send you my big free catalog. 
Wm. Galioway, President 
The Wm. Galloway Co. 
277Galloway Sta. Waterloo, Iowa 
E TSsitiM -JalAtJ 
CORN HARVESTER 
Sold Direct $!9S° 
Works in any 
kind of soil. Cuts 
stalk*—doesn’t pull like 
other cutters. Absolutely no danger. 
Cuts Four to Seven Acres a Day 
with one man and one horse. Here is what one 
farmer says: Leraysville, Pa., Nov. 18,1913. 
, Gen tlemen: Your Corn Harvester was very sat¬ 
isfactory. I cut 3% acres after9 a.m. of Silo Corn, 
averaging 10-ft. tall and rowed one way. Much ad¬ 
mired by neighbors. Yours, A. E. JOHNSON. 
SOLD DIRECT TO THE FARMER 
Send for booklet and circulars telling all about this 
labor-saving machine: also containing testimonials 
ol many users. Send for this circular matter today. 
love manufacturing company 
uepl - 3 Lincoln, Illinois 
CORN HARVESTER 
That beats them all. One horse cuts two rows. Carries 
to the shock. Worked by 1, 2 or three men. No danger. 
No twine. Free Trial. We also make Stump Puller* 
and Tile Ditcher*. Catalog Free. Agents Wanted. 
C. D. BENNETT «fc C O., Westerville, Ohio 
BINDER 
- -- — ■ ■ ■ WIU 
harvester cuts and throws in 
piles on harvesterorin win- 
rows Manandhorsecut and 
, _ ... — -- -— shock equal with a corn bin¬ 
der Sold in every state. Price only $20,00with f odderbinder. 
J. D. Borne,Haswell, Colo., writes: “Yourcorn harvea- 
tarla all you claim for it; cut, tied and shocked ©O 
•eras milo, cane and corn last year.” Testimonials and 
catalog free, showing pictures of harvester. Address 
PROCESS MANUFACTURING CO., Salina, Kansas. 
A WONDER. 
For nearly 50 years I have !ed in inventing and selling farm 
scales at a saving to the buyer. Now, I have a new "WONDER’ • 
scale which is the last word in economy and utility. My price 
includes freight and lumber. Send a postal for facts to 
“JONES, He Pays the Freight." 
Binghamton, N. Y. 
THE GASOLINE ENGINE ON THE 
FARM. Its operation, repair and uses. 
By Xeno W. Putnam. 
This is the kind 
of a book everv 
farmer will appre’- 
eiate and every 
farm home ought 
to have. Includes 
selecting the most 
suitable engine for 
farm work, its 
most convenient 
a n d efficient In¬ 
stallation, with 
chapters on trou¬ 
bles, their reme¬ 
dies, and how to 
avoid them. The 
care and manage¬ 
ment of the farm 
tractor in plowing, 
harrowing, har¬ 
vesting and road 
grading are fully 
covered; also plain 
directions are 
given for handling the tractor on the road. 
530 pages. Nearly ISO engravings. 
This book will be sent to any address prepaid for 
TWO NEW YEARLY SUBSCRIPTIONS 
or Twenty Ten-week Trial Subscriptions 
or Four Yearly Renewal Subscriptions 
or One New Yearly Subscription and Two 
Renewal Subscriptions. 
The Rural New Yorker. 333 West 30th St., N. Y. 
