CKe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
109 
Cost of Wood Acid Factory 
We have about 2,000 or 3.000 cords acid 
wood, and can buy a large quantity of 
wood suitable for making acetic acid. I 
would like to know how much an acid 
factory would cost, one that would use 
about 25 cords of wood daily? Where 
can I sell the products and by-products? 
What are they worth? What size plant 
would we neer? How many men would 
it take to operate a 25-cord plant? 
What would be the cost of operating? 
Bovina, N. Y. M. A. i). 
The smallest possible chemical wood 
plant, to work economically, is one re¬ 
quiring 24 cords per day, six days per 
week, .so you would need something like 
7.0()0 cords per year. At pre.sent this 
plant would cost, roughly, abfuit $72,00(1, 
or .$3,000 per cord, and it would not 
pay to put it up unless there was a 
pretty good stock of wood in sight, 
enough for, say, five or six years. In 
particular, a plant of this sort must 
haA’C a plentiful supply of good water 
and railway facilities, the shorter the 
haul for the wood the cheaper you can 
operate the plant. 
The daily Labor co.st of such a plant 
would be about $35, and the raw mate¬ 
rial bought and cut, would perhaps bo 
$5 or $() a cord. The yield from a plant 
of this nature per day per cerd would be 
about 11 gallons of alcohol. 210 pounds 
of acetate of lime and 52 busluds of 
charcoal. Prices at present are changing 
so rapidly th.at we will wait till you 
are sure there is a chance of your go¬ 
ing ahead before we figure them or look 
for an outlet. But there is a lively d •- 
mand for all those products now. The 
main thing is to have enough wood to 
justify a good plant, Ihuf will pay. a 
che.Mji one will never pay anyway. 
F. 1 ). c. 
_ ^ 
Cherry Pits for Hens or Stock 
We have some cherry pits on hand from 
our factory. Could they be cracked and 
used for hen feed or some other use? 
Manlius, N. Y’. n. u. p. 
No, they contain hydrocyanic (prussic) 
acid tied up as a glucoside, with a natural 
ferment waiting to set the acid, one of 
the very poisonous ones, free as soon as 
the pit i.s cracked. The oil is expressed 
in some places and used for various pur¬ 
poses for which its prussic acid content 
does not unfit it. The dangerous acid can 
be driven off by boiling the crushed seeds. 
When the '“bitter almond smell” goes it 
has all gone, and the resulting mush 
might have some value Jis feed, whether 
enough to pay for the trouble would have 
to be decided by trial. f. d. c. 
Protecting Roses from Mice 
We have used whitewash with Paris 
green and lime-sulphur to jii-otect rose 
bushes from mice, but both wash off. 
Have tried mixing with glue also. Is 
there any binder? w. c. P. 
New York. 
\ little bichromate of potash, or soda, 
in the glue, mixed in small lots and keid 
dark till used, will .set it as soon as it 
dries in the sunlight so it will be per¬ 
manently insoluble in water, but it will 
not work with the lime or lime-sulphur. 
Paris green could probably be vorked 
in, but whether the bichromate would 
hurt the rose bark we do not kimw. so 
much depends on the thickness of the 
bark. We prefer mechanical protection 
to any sort of wash, but that is rather 
out of the question with roses, so the 
Paris green with bichromated glue is 
perhaps worth trying. f. d. c. 
.V.e.t, v/,o< • JL' x.r—ti' - WW C.-A'.v.-' ■ 
1912 
1913 
1914 
1915 
1916 
pA. 
i*t*)*» 
(4 
Let’s see—if a scuttle of coal 
5? 
costs a quarter 
*‘npHAT same quarter buys about two 
-1 gallons of SOGONY Kerosene, which 
will keep a Perfection Oil Heater going full 
blast for twenty hours. And not a cent’s 
worth of fuel is wasted. The Perfection is on 
when you need it and off when you don’t.” 
STANDARD 0ILC0.5ENX 
Save money and keep warm. Burn 
SOGONY KEROSENE 
t 
Remember it*8 SOGONY Kerosene, 
the Standard Oil Company of New 
York’s best grade of refined Oil. Say 
SOGONY to the grocer’s boy. Look 
for the SOGONY Sign at your dealer’s. 
STANDARD OIL GO. of NEW YORK 
(Principal Offices) 
NEW YORK 
BUFFALO 
ALBANY 
BOSTON 
SX2S2 
Retarding Wood Combustion 
I have a coal-burning colony brooder. 
It has given .satisfaction, using coal for 
fuel, but the price is exorbitant. I am 
able to obtain what i.s called wbiiebutt 
waste of liard wood at a very reasonable 
figure. The piece.s are perhaps three 
feet long and i)osslbly three-quarters 
square. Could I cut this waste into 
two-inch pieces and then dip them in 
.Some chemical, to retard their too rapid 
combustion .so as to avoid considerable 
watching? It .seems to me that there 
must be something which would retard 
the burning. D. "Nt. k. 
New York. 
We fear this will not work. fV>al 
burns more slowly than wood, not so 
much because of the ash present as on 
account of the much greater density, in 
fact carbon, crystallized, is veiy dense 
and burns only with difficulty, but is 
free from ash. Then too. in wood the 
carbon is more or less united with oxy¬ 
gen and hydrogen, and in coal this com¬ 
bination has been almost wholly de¬ 
stroyed. Packing in closely and regu¬ 
lating the draft may help some, and 
soaking in strong brine and burning 
dami) might help. Wood is more or less 
fire-proofed by treating with various 
salts in air-tight vats under vacuum and 
pressure, but the.se processes would not 
pay you. F. u. c. 
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