the: rural new-york:er 
1078 
THE DENATURED ALCOHOL SITUATION. 
ELL that Hope Farm man to cnt his philanthropy 
talk and tell us how to make denatured alcohol. 
You told us a year or so ago that if the tax was 
only removed we could use all our wastes and 
run a gas-engine for less than nothing. But since the 
tax has been removed you have forgotten it all. 
New York. T. w. rogers. 
The Hope Farm man will do almost anything to 
help things along, but this is a little too much for 
him. We have told a dozen times all there is to tell 
about this alcohol tax matter. Some years ago a 
group of manufacturers worked up a nice little 
scheme to remove the tax on denatured alcohol; that 
is, grain alcohol to which wood alcohol is added. 
They were not strong enough to induce Congress to 
do this so, as is usual, they worked “the dear old 
farmer” for the job. Certain lobbyists connected 
with the National Grange got busy and worked up 
a great sentiment for denatured alcohol. The money 
used in working this up evidently came from these 
manufacturers, and it was a good investment 1 The 
papers were full of articles, showing how this cheap 
alcohol was to revolutionize methods of heating and 
lighting. A farmer could use his small pototoes, rot¬ 
ten apples and surplus corn fodder for providing 
alcohol and thus save coal and kerosene bills. 
Didn’t they do all this in Germany and France? 
No one could deny it! Are we to admit that Euro¬ 
peans are smarter than we are? Perish the thought! 
All we had to do was to “lick a stamp” and make 
Congress pass the denatured alcohol bill. The far¬ 
mer followed these Grange “leaders,” and did it, and 
the bill was passed. We have been waiting ever 
since for cheap alcohol for lighting and heating. It 
has never come, but those manufacturers got what 
they wanted for their manufacturing purposes. We 
pay as much or more for the goods which they make 
with the cheaper alcohol, and now see that the 
farmers simply acted as the cat’s-paw to pull the 
chestnuts out of the fire. 
Now why cannot farmers in this country make 
alcohol in small lots as is done in France and Ger¬ 
many? This Government lias spent considerable 
money in trying to find out, and the following reply 
by the Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry tells the 
story as we understand it: 
Cheap Alcohol from Small Stills. 
Referring to your letter requesting information as 
to how to make alcohol on a small scale out of farm 
refuse, and pointing out the fact that this has been 
more successfully worked out in France and Ger¬ 
many than in America, you are informed that it un¬ 
doubtedly is true that alcohol is being sold cheaper 
in Germany than in America in spite of the fact that 
it is made there in plants of small capacity. The 
difference between German and American prices is 
plainly due to various causes. 
1. In the first place, the low price in Germany is 
partly due to the German system of governmental 
regulation of the alcohol industry, which by means 
of a kind of preferential bounty favors the agricul¬ 
tural distilleries, and especially those which use 
potatoes for a raw material at the expense of the 
commercial distilleries and such as use other raw 
materials. 
2. Iu addition, the low price in Germany is due in 
part to the operation of the Centrale fur Spiritus 
Verwertbung, which distributes about 90 per cent, of 
all the spirit made in Germany, and secures to the 
consumer a low price in that country in consequence 
of minimum distributing expenses. 
3. A further explanation of the differences be¬ 
tween the cost of producing alcohol in Germany and 
this country is to be found in the fact that labor is 
lower paid abroad than here, in consequence of 
which (lie initial expense of the distillery, the cost 
of raw material, and the operating expenses all are 
lower in Germany than in the United States. It is 
well recognized in all lines of manufacture that with 
equally good business management the cost of man¬ 
ufacture or production is always less in a large 
plant than in a small one. In Germany, however, 
the small distillery has this disadvantage very ma¬ 
terially offset by the fact that the governmental reg¬ 
ulations favor the small distiller at the expense of 
the larger one. 
4. The manufacture of alcohol requires the use 
of ferment organisms, known as yeasts, which in 
order to produce satisfactory results must be used 
iu fairly pure cultures. These organisms turn 
sugars, present in the fruits and other waste pro¬ 
ducts, into alcohol. In order to succeed with this 
project, the farmer would be obliged to carry on fer¬ 
mentation processes under favorable conditions of 
temperature to give the yeast its opportunity to 
transform the sugar into alcohol. Any starchy ma¬ 
terial in the farm refuse could not be fermented 
without the prior change of these starches into 
sugars. This change is brought about by the use 
of malt, which the farmer would certainly find diffi¬ 
culty in preparing for himself, and which he might 
perhaps find difficulty in purchasing. Assuming an 
abundance of refuse containing starches and sugars, 
and assuming that the farmer could have access to 
malt and yeast, he would have to carry on the fer¬ 
mentation under favorable temperature conditions. 
He would then be obliged to distill the fermented 
material. If a cheap still were used the alcohol ob¬ 
tained would run about 50 i>er cent, strength, being 
too low to use for light, heat or power. If he were 
to obtain alcohol of the necessary commercial 
strength (90 to 95 per cent.), it would be necessary 
to have a much more complicated distilling appar¬ 
atus, which would cost several hundred dollars, and 
which, being very complicated, would require a 
skilled man to assume responsibility for its opera¬ 
tion and care. c. h. alsberg, Chief. 
A CROP OF MANGELS. 
T UTS mangel (shown at Fig. 475), is one from a 
small lot raised on my farm in Massachusetts. 
I do not claim to be a mangel expert—in fact 
these are the first I ever raised. But I am trying 
another lot this year, and hope to raise larger and 
better ones as I gain experience. I did not raise 
mangels because of the nutritious qualities of the 
roots, for men of science tell us they are lacking. 
They can tell us how much of this or that ingre¬ 
dient a mangel or other feed contains, and also what 
sort of matter is required to make milk, eggs, etc., 
hut I believe that they cannot tell us just how a 
A MASSACHUSETTS MANGEL. Fig. 475. 
cow's stomach or a hen’s gizzard work on different 
articles of feed. It has seemed to me that these crea¬ 
tures require some kind of green feed in the Win¬ 
ter along with their hay or other dry fodder, aud 
that a variety of feed is as desirable for them as for 
people. It was this notion that prompted me to try 
mangels in a small way, and if the experience gained 
can be made of benefit to others I shall be very glad 
of it. 
The laud on which this mangel grew was a deep 
light loam sloping to the south. Previous to this 
crop I had raised potatoes on it one year. I had 
then owned the land only one year, and it had not 
been plowed or fertilized for several years, and bore 
only a small crop of grass arid a very fair crop of 
weeds. I plowed this piece deep, one Fall, and in 
the Spring I planted potatoes after harrowing, fer¬ 
tilizing and plowing again. The next Spring I 
plowed again just as deep as I could get down with 
the biggest plow and the heaviest team I could 
hitch ii]), disk-harrowed it lengthways, crossways, 
coruerwa.vs and every other way that would seem to 
work it up fine. I believe in grinding things up for 
any crop, and especially for mangels. Then I spread 
on a liberal dressing of barnyard fertilizer from the 
cow department. After that I harrowed some more. 
I presume the harrow went over this piece at least 
a dozen times all told. Next I limed the piece well 
and worked in with the smoothing harrow. It was 
planted in rows about two and one-half feet apart, a 
liberal amount of seed being used. Later on it was 
thinned out so that the mangels were at least IS 
inches apart in the rows. Unfavorable weather soon 
after planting prevented many of the seed from 
coming up, so that there was much irregularity as 
August li'J, 
to spacing in the rows, but I intended that no man¬ 
gel should be nearer than IS or 20 inches to any 
other mangel, and some were farther apart. The 
largest ones were the farthest apart, and I believe 
that I can raise more tons to the acre two feet apart 
than IS inchas. So many of this lot failed to come 
up that a second planting was made, causing uneven¬ 
ness. 
The cultivator was kept running and the weeds 
were pulled out until the mangels were well along, 
when the cultivator alone was sufficient to keep them 
clean. Some experience in raising other root crops, 
as parsnips, for instance, had convinced me that 
plenty of room sideways as well as up and down was 
necessary in order to get size and length, and I be¬ 
lieve that more weight to the acre will be had by 
giving it to them than by crowding. The entire crop 
was not weighed, which I now regret, but estimates 
by men more competent than myself place the 
weight at about 30 tons to the acre. But for unfa¬ 
vorable weather early in the Spring, the yield would 
have been much larger. These mangels were all very 
smooth, which I attribute to the lime. The mangel 
shown in the picture was one of the largest grown, 
but not larger than many others. It did, however, 
set down into the ground more than most of them, 
which depth may be seen by the rim in the illustra¬ 
tion. F. B. DODGE. 
Massachusetts. 
THE MOON AND WEATHER CHANGES. 
A T least one of your readers does not think that 
the question of the moon and the weather changes 
is finally settled, even though the Agricultural 
Department has settled it. One who has lived on 
the seashore and has seen the powerful influences of the 
moon on the water of the ocean, as shown in the va¬ 
rious phases of the tides, cannot think it unreasonable 
to suppose that some influence may be exerted by the 
moon on the water in the earth’s atmosphere. If the 
inoon can attract a certain amount of sea water to a 
certain place at a certain time, it may also attract a 
sufficient amount of atmospheric water to a certain 
place at a certain time to combine with other neces¬ 
sary conditions to produce a rainfall. The varying rela¬ 
tive positions of the earth, sun and moon which pro¬ 
duce the varying phases of the moon and of the tides 
may produce varying effects on the water in the atmos¬ 
phere. Even the slightly varying relative positions 
which produce the varying slant of the new moon may 
havp sufficient influence on the sensitive vapor in the 
air to affect in some way the precipitation of rain. The 
moon’s influence on the weather is still a “superstition” 
because it has not been reduced to a science. 
Cuba. ELMER E. HUBBARD. 
As to the above from Mr. Elmer E. Hubbard, in 
which the writer suggests a possible tidal effect upon 
the moisture in the atmosphere as a factor in deter¬ 
mining the weather, atmospheric moisture occurs in 
two forms, viz.: (1) water vapor, which is an in¬ 
visible gas. and (2) minute drops of water and crys¬ 
tals of ice, constituting clouds, haze, fog, rain, and 
snow. 
Water, in a gaseous form is, like everything else 
upon the earth, and like the earth itself, subject to 
the laws of gravitation. The atmosphere, of which 
water vapor is one of the constituents, undergoes the 
tidal effect of the varying directions of the sun and 
moon. Atmospheric tides exist, but both theory and 
observation show them to be excessively minute. It 
should, moreover, be understood that a tide does not 
involve any considerable transportation either of 
water or air in a horizontal direction, but merely a 
gentle rise and fall. Thus, although the semi-diur¬ 
nal tidal wave in the open sea, in the equatorial re¬ 
gions, moves westward at the rate of about 1,000 
miles an hour, the speed of vessels traveling east 
or west is not affected thereby. Hence, the atmos¬ 
pheric tide could not, as Mr. Hubbard seems to sug¬ 
gest, cause a displacement of the water vapor in the 
atmosphere horizontally from one part of the world 
to another. On the other hand, the vertical displace¬ 
ment of the water vapor and other atmospheric 
gases, due to the atmospheric tide, is not only too 
small to have any appreciable effect on the weather, 
but—what is much more important—it is insignifi¬ 
cant in comparison with the vertical movements of 
the atmosphere, due to the temperature contrasts 
such as those between night and day, and between 
clear and cloudy weather. The barometer, espe¬ 
cially within the trollies, shows a very marked semi¬ 
diurnal rise and fall, which, in appearance only, is 
analogous to the tides, but is really the result of the 
diurnal contrasts of temperature. 
The same considerations apply to the movements 
of the particles of water, in solid or liquid form, oc¬ 
curring as clouds, etc., since these particles partake 
of the motion of the atmosphere in which they are 
suspended. In a perfectly still atmosphere they fall 
•—very slowly, on account of the resistance of the 
air—but a slight upward component in the move¬ 
ment of the atmosphere suffices to buoy them up. 
As a rule their movement is mainly horizontal, un¬ 
der the effects of air currents, and these currents are 
