1430 
TUB KUKAb NEW-YORKER 
General Farm Topics 
Burning Lime. 
Peat Muck; Uses of Peat in Market. 
I wish to burn several tons of lime, 
20 or 30 tons if possible. I can get coal 
at 25c, mine run, by carload. Is mine 
run suitable for burning lime or is there 
too much fine coal? How much burnt 
lime can a man reasonably expect from a 
ton of soft coal? How is the fire started, 
that is how many places should I start 
it? H. J. E. 
Lancaster, N. Y. 
I would suppose that at the price for 
soft coal which you name you can burn 
lime profitably. I have had no experi¬ 
ence in commercial lime burning, but 
have burned lime from shells in the crude 
outdoor stack with wood and brush, and 
I have no doubt that the same method 
can be used with rock and coal. To 
make a lime stack, as shown in cut below, 
lay a platform of logs about 10 feet or 
more in diameter, leaving a space be¬ 
tween two logs to the centre as a sort 
of ash pit, and from the center make a 
Plan of Lime Stack. 
sort of chimney with four boards equal 
in length to the height of the proposed 
stack. Cover the logs with a layer of dry 
cut brush or other inflammable material, 
and on this place a layer of coal, then a 
good layer of the stone broken small, 
and carry up the stack with alternate 
layers of coal and rock, drawing in the 
layers so that finally the heap will be a 
rounded dome shape. Then cover the 
whole over with sods and earth except 
the chimney. Fill this loosely with in¬ 
flammable dry stuff, and also the ash pit, 
and start the fire. When the stack is all 
well afire cover it entirely over and let 
it burn slowly till the rock is burned. 
How much lime you can make from 
a ton of coal in this crude way I am un¬ 
able to say, for I have burned lime 
stacks with wood and brush only. Some 
in burning oyster shells make a rail pen 
in which the alternate layers of wood 
Every now and then some one appears 
in the agricultural papers with an argu¬ 
ment in favor of using peat or swamp 
muck as a stock food. This peat is now 
employed for a number of purposes. It 
is manufactured into a fertilizer, and also 
used as a fertilizer filler. In England 
great claims are made from time to time 
for what is known as “bacteria peat.” 
Certain scientists claim that they can in¬ 
troduce bacteria into ordinary peat, and 
in a comparatively short time make its 
nitrogen as available as that in well- 
rotted manure. Thus far this has not 
gone beyond a theory. The peat is also 
used for making paper, and great quanti¬ 
ties of it are used for mud baths. In 
Germany and Austria these peat baths 
are well-established institutions. People 
appear to go and wallow in a mud made 
by mixing this peat with water, becom¬ 
ing well plastered with it, and in that 
way apparently helping rheumatism and 
other complaints. The peat is also used 
somewhat for live stock feeding. Small 
quantities of the peat are mixed with 
the other grains, and it is reported that 
the peat acts as a tonic. Large quanti¬ 
ties of peat are used by mixing molasses. 
This form of feeding molasses is very 
popular, as it gives a dry feed which 
can be easily mixed with other forms of 
grain. In this country many efforts have 
been made to sell peat as a fertilizer 
under the name of various forms of hu¬ 
mus. There can be no objection to this, 
so long as a reasonable price is charged 
for the peat, and the claims made for 
it are not extravagant. The trouble is 
that most of those who offer this peat 
claim so much for it that their argu¬ 
ments are deceptive and calculated to 
deceive the public. 
j Experience With Hairy Vetch. 
I have grown Hairy vetch as a cover 
crop and as a seed crop (with rye) for 
the past five years. I have several dif¬ 
ferent kinds of soil and it does well on 
all of them without liming or inocula¬ 
tion. It can be sown early in the Spring 
with oats for pasture or hay. We har¬ 
vested 22 loads of rye and vetch 16 feet 
long by 14 feet wide, and as high as 
would go into the barn, from 5% acres. 
The loads were too wide to go through 
our gates. As an orchard cover crop, rye 
and vetch are hard to beat. As a hay 
crop they yield from three to five tons 
per acre. s. f. burton, 
j Niagara Co., N. Y. 
Stone 
Plan of Limekiln. 
and shells are placed, and do not cover 
with earth, but the burning is much 
more complete in the dome-shaped stack 
covered with earth. A regular limekiln 
is built of rock and lined with fire brick 
inside, see cut above. The inner shape 
is somewhat like an egg standing on the 
small end. It is commonly built against 
a bank, so that a platform above can be 
used for dumping in the rock and coal, 
and the grate occupies the cut-off smaller 
end of the egg.-shaped interior. With 
much rock to burn it will pay to build a 
kiln, as the burning is more effective than 
in a stack, and you do not have to keep 
building the stacks. Several years ago 
the State College of Pennsylvania pub¬ 
lished a report on the lime industry in 
Pennsylvania and gave cuts of limekilns 
and lime stacks too; perhaps you can 
still get a copy of this report by writing 
to Prof. K. L. Watts, Director, at State 
College, Pa. The report gives various 
plans for kilns. 5V. P. M. 
Dakota Vetch. —The South Dakota 
Experiment Station reports the following 
concerning a plant sometimes asked 
about: “Many inquiries have been re¬ 
ceived during the past year regarding the 
wild Dakota vetch, Ilosackia Americana, 
a valuable wild legume which seems to be 
increasing in abundance on our native 
ranges. The Dakota vetch is a plant 
somewhat resembling Alfalfa, both in 
blossom and leaf, but has finer and more 
wiry stems and does not attain as large 
a growth as Alfalfa. While it has a val¬ 
uable place in the native range, it is not 
at all likely that it would compete with 
Alfalfa or Sweet clover as a farm crop.” 
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