1 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
259 ‘ 
Water Supply Question*. 
J UAVE an apple tree standing within 
10 or 1- feet of a well 17 feet deep 
. (dug and walled with stone and 
upper five feet cemented) which fur¬ 
nishes a supply of fine water for several 
families. I would like to fertilize this 
apple tree, as it bears heavily alternate 
years. What can I use and how apply 
it, without affecting the waterV Most 
■ f the water and perhaps all of it. comes 
in on the rock at bottom of well. 2. I 
have a Summer cottage on a sloping loca¬ 
tion below a canal and about 40 feet 
from it. If I dig a well there, say 40 
feet from water in canal will the water 
be sufficiently filtered in seeping from 
canal through 50 feet of soil to be fit 
for drinking purposes? It is so situated 
that I do not care to expend very much 
on it. w. w. f. 
Waterville. Ohio. 
1. In the case of the tree we should 
use soluble chemicals like nitrate of 
soda, acid phosphate and sulphate of pot¬ 
ash, and make several applications, a 
small quantity at a time. In this way 
the tree will take up the plant food 
about as fast as it is given and there 
would be but little leached into the well. 
2. We will pass the second question on to 
• >ur readers. 
Steel Bars for Icebox. 
O UR refrigerator has an ice rack made 
of pine boards %-iueh thick. 30 
inches long and three inches apart. 
I wish to replace them with steel bars, 
die same width, so they will drop into 
he spaces made for the %-inch boards. 
IIow thick must I have the steel? The 
cakes of ice average 100 to 125 pounds, 
about one foot thick and 16 inches wide. 
Maine. f. c. c. 
As I understand the situation, the re¬ 
frigerator rack has been floored with 
pine bars %-inch thick and 30 inches 
long. These were placed up edgewise like 
the joists in the floor of a house and 
spaced three inches apart from center to 
center. The depth was not given, but 
was presumably from three to four inches. 
F. C. C. wishes to change these bars for 
steel bars which are to lie %-inch wide, 
so as to fit into the places formerly oc¬ 
cupied by the pine bars, and wishes to 
know the necessary thickness to support 
the load. lie neglects to say. however, 
what the load will be, giving the weight 
of a cake of ice but not saying to what 
depth it will be piled. Probably though 
it will be only one cake deep. A bar of 
steel %x% inches will be rigid under 
these conditions and would even support 
a much greater load. Why not use 30- 
inch lengths of %-inch galvanized iron 
pipe? Its outside diameter is only a 
very little under %-inch and it would be 
amply strong to carry the load outlined 
above. It would also have the advan¬ 
tages of being easily obtained, easily cut 
to length, and of being rust resistant, an 
important point in this place. 
ROBERT II. SMITH. 
readers who have had experience 
concrete blocks will please tell us. 
Notes About Woodchucks. 
T NOTICE in The R. N.-Y. an article 
1 claiming to give a description of the 
woodchuck, which does not give suf¬ 
ficient detail. Vermont is the home of 
the coarse-haired quinchhog, but he is 
not as common as 60 years ago. He lives 
mainly on clover, and will go miles to 
find a good clover field, dig a hole in it, 
and live there. He is all colors, from 
white, yellow, gray, brown to black, and 
weighs from five to 30 pounds. lie dens 
up before the ground freezes, like the 
bear. The young ai" born early in the 
Spring, from four to eight at a time. A 
family will eat as much clover as three 
sheep, and wallow down what they do 
not eat. They are hard to kill, like the 
grizzly bear. Unless you hit the heart 
or puncture the brain you do not kill 
them. The skin is tough and makes good 
leather. As raw hide it is tough and 
flabby. In the Fall, if in good clover, 
they are very fat, a thick coat of blub¬ 
ber under the skin. This is the best 
of oil for all purposes, being soft and 
clean for greasing boots, hames, or any 
use where a soft oil is wanted. A large 
woodchuck will produce two quarts of 
oil. The flesh is good to eat if properly 
dressed, and some poor people salt it 
for Winter use. The story that the 
woodchuck comes out Candlemas Day 
and looks for his. c, badow is called a 
myth, but I have seen them out in Febru¬ 
ary, when they had to dig out through 
two feet of snow, but usually they stay 
in until the leaves come out. 
Vermont. a. l. bowex. 
For a good while past I have seen in 
The R. N.-Y. how to get rid of wood¬ 
chucks, but nobody seems to answer 
the question just right. I went to live 
on a farm where I never have seen so 
many “chucks" before. It did not take 
long to get rid of them. I take an empty 
shell, push the cap out, push a piece 
of fuse into it. leave tb* fuse about one 
foot long; fill the shell about two-thirds 
full of powder, fill the rest of the shell 
with sulphur. ‘ Press tight, put in the 
hole, leave just enough fuse out that it 
can he lit. Shut the hole up tight, touch 
it off. The air pressure with the fumes 
of the sulphur does the work every time. 
This has been tried on foxes and skunks; 
has never failed. No others will ever 
live in the holes again, the holes have 
been dug out. The beast was found 
limp and dead every time. If you have 
nut the old shell a small bottle will do. 
Put the sulphur in first when using the 
bottle. j. s. m. 
Westboro, Mass. 
Destroying Woodchucks. —As you 
are often discussing the question of ex¬ 
terminating woodchucks, I will give your 
readers my method. If they will mix salt 
and pari^ gree v r>/,r , ‘"'haps one-fifth of the 
latter, together'anc).. drop a tablespoonful 
or two in the holes^ in Summer or when 
not hibernating, there will be no more 
chucks in those holes. They are very 
fond of salt. H. F O. 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
A House of Concrete Blocks - 
B ELIEVIN'*! you can answer all ques¬ 
tions if ton know what the question 
is, there is one thing I would like to 
have discussed. I am thinking of build¬ 
ing a house of concrete or concrete blocks. 
I am close to sand and gravel that is free. 
Does such a house prove a success? Some 
say they draw and hold moisture. Which 
would be better and easier, concrete 
solid or concrete blocks? What propor¬ 
tion to make? How thick walls? How 
many square feet would a sack of ce¬ 
ment make? If solid concrete, would 
there be any trouble in making joint3 
if allowed to dry? For blocks could the 
molds be made of wood, or better get 
plaster molds? i\ E. w. 
California. 
R. N.-Y.—We fear that you give us 
too high a reputation for wisdom. How¬ 
ever, what we cannot answer our readers 
usually can and do take care of. This is 
one of the cases where accurate exper¬ 
ience, fairly reported from different lo¬ 
calities will give the best answer. Those 
wirh 
Manure Storage. 
I AM contemplating the building of a 
new barn. Would you recommend rhe 
placing of a basement underneath for 
the storing of manure, or a special ma¬ 
nure shod some distance from the barn? 
Would you recommend the silo to be 
placed in or outside of the barn? 
Ashland, N. H. l. d. m. 
It will depend somewhat upon the lo¬ 
cation. If it is a “bank barn" built on 
a side hill the manure pit may be put 
below the stable. On level ground we 
should prefer a manure shed outside— 
reached by means of a carrier. As a 
general proposition the silo is better on 
rhe outside. 
That's my slogan. That's all 
the profit I want for making you the finest 
buggy iu the world. I’ll make you one of 
my famous Split Hickory buggies on that 
basis—make it of second growth hickory—split, 
not sawed. That means lower prices than ever on 
my famous 
Split Hickory Vehicles 
Get the book and see. The biggest book 
■ever. Over 200 illustrations, 142 pages 
vehicles, 70 pages harness bargains. My 
30 day road test and 2 years’ iron bond 
guarantee make you safe. I want to 
tell you at first hand the biggest price 
reducing story you ever heard of. 
Cel the Book 
H. C. Phelps, Pres. 
Tbe Ohio Carriage IVflg. Co 
Station 224, Columbus, Ohio 
Only *39— 
Prepares a Perfect Seed Bed 
On Fall or Spring Plowing 
T HE Coulters cut, crush and pulverize lumps and clods, 
leaving a leveled surface finely mulched to seeding depth, 
with a compact undersoil. The air spaces are eliminated, in¬ 
suring plant roots a proper medium for healthy and vigorous 
growth. Manure and stubble plowed under are left underneath 
to nourish plant roots. Sizes from 3 to 17/4 ft. in cutting width. 
For one to four horses. 
Mo. ' 
23 __ 
e%F* 
AH Steel- 
Light 
Draft 
Wkfa 
Write for free catalog and 
name of nearest dealer. 
DUANE H. NASH, Inc. 
379 Division Avenue 
Millington, N. I. 
THE AUTO-OILED WINDMILL WITH iNC| T fN°O*|T 8 " 
Every bearing is constantly flooded with oil. Two quarts of oil in the gear case of this 
8-foot auto-oiled windmill will keep the gears and every bearing flooded with oil for a 
year or more. 
The galvanized steel helmet covers the gears, keeps out rain, keeps out dust, keeps 
in oil. The mill needs oiling but once a year. 
There is a windmill, known the world over as “the windmill which runs when all 
others stand still.” This new windmill with gears and bearings flooded with oil runs in 
much less wind than that well known windmill. 
The two jarge gears, which lift the load straight up, are each independent of the other and each 
is driven by its own pinion on the main shaft and must take its half of the load at all times. 
The auto-oiled windmill, with itsduplicate gears and two pitmen lifting the load straight up, is un¬ 
breakable. Every 8-foot mill is tested under a pumping load of 3000 pounds on the pump. 
rod. For the larger sizes the load is proportionately greater. We know that [ 
very one of these windmills is unbreakable. We venture the assertion 
.that this is the most nearly perfect, best made, best tested, 
best oiled, most nearly perpetual, automatic and self- | 
sufficient of any machine of any kind ever made 
for farm work and the most nearly fool-proof. 
There is no friction on any part of the furl¬ 
ing device when the mill is running and very 
little when 1 the wheel is f 
immmmiimmmiwuuwufflminiUMiMHil 
A small 
child can easilyifurl this 
windmill or an automatic regulator can 
take care Of it. One of these mills has been furled 
10,000 times in one day by a man on our premises—more 
times than it would ordinarily be furled in 30 years of service. 
A band brake, of the automobile type, is used, and it always holds. 
The gear case contains two pairs of gears and the supply of oil. From this 
gear case the oil circulates to every bearing in a constant stream. It flows out 
through the friction washers in the hub of the wheel and is automatically returned to 
the gear case. Not a drop of oil can escape. It is used over and over. So long as 
there is any oil in the gear case the gears and every bearing will be flooded with oil. 
If you are tired of climbing a windmill tower; if you are tired of buying repairs 
and having them put on; or, if you are tired of waiting for a big wind, let us fur¬ 
nish you an unbreakable, self-oiling, ever-going mill to go on any old tower. It 
costs but little and you will get the difference between no water in a light wind 
and an abundance of water in almost no wind. The flooding of all the working 
parts with oil, the perfect balance of the wheel and vane on the tower, the very small 
turntable on which the mill pivots and the outside furling device make this difference. 
Now there is no objection to a high tower. Have as high a tower as you need to 
get wind. You don’t have to climb it. Your dealer can come once a year and put 
in oil, if needed, and inspect the mill. 
Running water purifies itself—stagnant water, standing water, collects and retains impur¬ 
ities. If you pump from your well constantly all the water it!can spare, the water that comes 
in to take its place will be pure. If the water in your well stands until you happen to want some, 
and you pump but little, then it is likely that surface water will flow into it and carry in im¬ 
purities. The unsafe well is the one that has standing water. A flowing stream is the thing to be desired. 
The auto-oiled windmill makes all this possible as it can runfrr~< one year’s end to the other with 
practically no wear and no cost. If interested, write Aermotor Co. 46 So. Campbell Ave., Chicago. 
Why not have flowing water, cool in summer and warm in w er, always fresh and pure? It 
will cost next to nothing. It will give health to your family r ock. Let the water run into a 
good size reservoir and raise all the fish of the choice kinds your t can eat, and have water to irrigate 
your garden and make it raise many times as much as it would otheiwise. Water costs nothing. Use it. To let It stand Is to abase it 
We need and must have the best dealers everywhere. They need us if they are going to remain In the windmill business. Write right aoxv. 
A pall to# 
50 lb». on 
this wire 
i'urlii the 
mill. 
