Ghe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
235 
I 
Simplified Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Value of Graphite 
I have graphite of a good grade to sell. 
Will sell either the property or the min- 
oral as mined. Could you assist me in 
doing so? About what price ought I 
have f. o. b. for crucible graphite? 
Virginia. n. T. n. 
We have investigated the graphite sit¬ 
uation, and find that since the supply of 
Ceylon graphite was greatly reduced on 
account of the war, there has been a gen¬ 
eral shortage, and attempts to use various 
sources if possible. The price, too, has 
been irregular, and depends wholly on the 
quality, from a cent a pound to ^10 a 
pound. If you really have a crucible 
graphite, you have a pretty good thing, 
but the party we inteniewed was quite 
sure that the geological conditions in this 
country have never been such as to pro¬ 
duce a crucible graphite. Still, we gjith- 
ered that the shortage was such that any 
of the graphite people who are still going, 
some having been wholly put out of busi¬ 
ness, were willing to try anything once. 
Our information was to the effect that if 
they could use it, they would gladly con¬ 
nect with new supplies, but you must re¬ 
member that the user is the judge of the 
value of your stuff. If they want it. we 
advise selling all you can w’hile the short¬ 
age lasts. Addresses have been given by 
mail. 
Paint for Water Barrel 
Will you tell me of some good paint or 
fluid, that can be easily applied to the in¬ 
side of wooden barrels, in which drinking 
water may be kept without being injured, 
or rendered unfit for drinking by the said 
paint? Some time ago I saw coal tar 
recommended, and I have beer .ising some 
of it; while I judge that it m.iy be good 
for many purposes, I find that it is very 
far short of what I am looking for; it 
blisters and the rains wash it off by far 
too quickly. I bought a barrel o. so- 
called asphaltum paint. The rain would 
wash it off mostly in one season; then I 
bought 10 gallons from another firm and 
paid double the price of the first, but it 
was not half as good as the first. Then 
I bought coal tar; this seems to be better 
than the others in proportion to the cost 
of it; but I want something far better. I 
have tried mineral paint which was sup¬ 
posed to be red lead and oil, but the clerk 
who got it for me, said it was Jersey clay, 
and I gue.ss he told me the truth; I paid 
90 cents per gallon for this last. 
New York. . o. G. 
As to a coating for the inside of drink¬ 
ing w'ater barrels, we would hardly sug¬ 
gest any paint. If the bare wood is un¬ 
pleasant, it will probably cease to affect 
the water after being emptied a tinm or 
two, and we would sooner take a chance 
with the taste of the wood than with any 
sort of paint. If you can get the barrel 
quite dry and can melt in paraffin, it will 
preserve the wood for a long time and 
will give practically no taste to the w..ter. 
F. D, C. 
Ice Cream Cones for Chickens 
It sounds like foolishness, or as if T am 
referring to that species of chicken that is 
clothed in silks and feathers instead of 
plain feathers. But I refer only to the 
plain feathered chicken and I am not 
talking foolishness. In the city near our 
home are several manufacturers of ice 
cream cones, and the infant mortality 
among the cones is very high. At least 
great numbers become crippled, ci’acked, 
and some entirely broken up by _ their 
treatment early in life. These crijjoles 
re, of course, not marketable as coees. 
The fragments are gathered up and 
packed in bags holding somewhat ov('r 
two bushels, and weighing about .‘50 
pounds, and sold. What price is asked at 
the factory I do not know. I do know, 
however, that we get tin* broken cones 
delivered at the door, 10 niiles froin town, 
at 40 cents per bag. Just what ingred¬ 
ients are used in making the cones I can¬ 
not say, but undoubtedly the pure food 
law sees to it that these ingredients are 
fairly decent. The main point is that 
chickens thrive amazingly on the stuff. 
In fact, every animal on the farm seems 
to relish the cones, even the dogs and 
oats come in for their share when the 
chickens are fed. When fed to young 
ducks in the form of a mash made by 
pouring water or separator milk over the 
broken cones, you can almost see the duck¬ 
lings grow. The chickens get a ration of 
cones once a day. In Summer they are 
fed in dry foimi, eing spread out in long 
troughs just as they come from the batr. 
without being broken up any further. A 
certain amount of exercise is furnished 
the fowls in breaking up the large frag¬ 
ments. In Winter each morning they are 
fed_ a ration composed of scalded oats, 
which have simmered all night on the 
back of the stove, bran, and a large por¬ 
tion of broken cones mixed up into a hot 
stiff mash. The use of this feed was un¬ 
dertaken as an experiment about three 
years ago, and the almost immediate in¬ 
crease in the production of eggs proved its 
value. Since that time it has been used 
regularly, to the extent of about one bag 
each %veek for every 75 chickens. It cer¬ 
tainly increases the laying qualities of th’ic 
hens, and is, after all, a very low-priced 
feed. w. E. C. 
Maryland. 
Some people tried making ice cream 
cones out of pasteboard and other indi¬ 
gestible stuff, but these have mostly been 
stopped under the food law, and the cones 
are a sort of pastry, a thin paste of flour, 
sugar and some gummy binder. Often 
milk or white of egg is beaten to a froth 
and very quickly cooked on a hot plate, 
after the manner of a “waffle.” In the 
making and after a certain proportion 
are broken or crushed, and, since you can 
get these cheap, you have a little chicken 
feed gold mine. Their one fault is that 
they are a little too fattening, that is, 
have too much sugar and flour in them. 
If you figure them as rather more fatten¬ 
ing than corn and balance your ration, 
you should be able to feed them all right. 
F. D. c. 
Keeping Automobile Tires Over Winter 
I would like to know the right way to 
keep automobile tires over Winter. I 
have heard so many different places to 
keep them; some say keep in the gar¬ 
ret, some in the cellar, wrapped in pa¬ 
per; some say leave them on the wheels 
and let the air partly out, with wheels 
jacked up. Tell us the proper and best 
way to preserve the tire. A. s. 
Amsterdam, N. Y". 
Rubber is a substance of complex com¬ 
position, which is not yet well under¬ 
stood, and the processes it goes through 
in being made into tires do not destroy 
the tendency to change to a brittle and 
inela.stie body which seems to be a part 
of the nature of the rubber itself. But 
we know that these changes are helped 
along by daylight, extremes of heat and 
cold, and changes in the moisture pres¬ 
ent in the air. So that you will have 
to be your own judge as to the exact 
place on your own premises to use, as a 
cellar in one house might be the best 
place, while the attic was better in an¬ 
other. A dark, moderately warm and not 
too damp place will keep them as well 
as they can be kept, but they will grow 
old anyway. As to the tires on the ma¬ 
chine, it is a convenience to have them 
there and the trouble of changing is 
probably worth more than the little they 
will spoil provided the weight is taken 
off and a little air let out. P. D. c. 
Soap From Cracklings 
IIow can I make soap with the crack¬ 
lings of rendered lard? F. w. D. 
Columbiana, O. 
The amount of soap you can make 
depends on the lard which is still in the 
cracklings, and this will vary so with 
each lot and evei-y maker that we can 
give you no general rule. Make a known 
solution of lye. take a small, definite 
weight of cracklings, and boil with a 
definite amount of the lye for a couple 
of hours, then, if red litmus paper turns 
blue, add a definite weight of cracklings 
and boil .avain til! you have hit the neu¬ 
tral point, and use these proportions on 
the lot, straining the remains of the 
cracklings fi-om the soap by squeezing 
through a coarse bag while hot. Run¬ 
ning a test lot first will also tell you 
whether it is worth while to run the 
whole amount, for, if the hot lard is 
well squeezed from the cracklings, it 
may be there is not enough fat left to 
pay for the bother. The above is a 
chemist’s way; there may be a practical, 
rule-of-thumb way known to some of 
our readers, which will work well on the 
average crackling; if so, we would be 
glad to have it. F. n. C. 
Ice Cakes Crack 
The ice I make in my galvanized iron 
ice-molds, 24x20x12, expands and ci'acks 
after it is taken from the molds. IIow 
can I stop it? E. D. F. 
New York. 
It is a bit difficult to stop the opera¬ 
tion of natural law and that is what you 
are up against. Water is one of the 
few liquids which expand as they turn 
solid, and the chances are that there is 
just a little liquid water left in the 
middle of the cake of solid water—ice-^ 
which you take from the mold. As this 
freezes it bursts the cake of ice around 
it just as it would burst a cake of glass 
around it, for instance. At any rate, 
that is a probable reason for your trou¬ 
ble. and another is that solid water like 
other solids expands and contracts just 
a little as its temperature changes, and 
so tends to crack itself. Pond and river 
ice has a chance to get settled before it 
is harvested, but even there as Winter 
goes on, crack*, will form, but in cutting 
they throw out the cracked pieces. You 
will find the ice so welcome next Summer 
that it is well worth a little extra trou¬ 
ble now. Stirring the water in your 
pans just before it freezes will help a 
lot, as it will tend to give an equally 
cold mass of water which will freeze 
evenly. F. D. C. 
Do You Grow 
Potatoes for Profit 
100 % 
YO Planting 
? 
Then, make eveiy ■''eed piece count, 
one in every space, and one only. 
You save at least a bushel per acre, often much 
more. Fertilize in the row where the 
plant food does the most good. Sju-ay 
often with a powerful fast-working 
sprayer—one with pressure enough to 
make a fine mist. Dig by machine 
quickly and safely and before the 
market sags. 
Potato Planters soon 
pay for themselves 
even on a small acre¬ 
age in seed saved and 
extra yield secured 
through 100 per cent po¬ 
tato planting. Made in 
two styles, with choice 
of furrow opencra. 
Riding and Walking 
Cultivators are thor¬ 
oughly adjustable to 
proper working of tiie 
potato crop at all 
stages, have high or 
low, pivot or fixed 
wheels, with dust proof 
grease cup hubs, par¬ 
allel motion of teeth 
when you shift, etc. 
Four, Six and Ten Row 
Sprayers. Our new 10 
Row Engine Sprayer 
covers 10 rows at 200 
lbs. pressure. Driven 
by 4% II. P. “New 
Way” Engine, (piickly inter¬ 
changeable for Iron Age Engine 
Digger. Takes practical orchard 
attachment. 
Diesers styles to suit your 
' conditions. Our Engine 
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for other work. You can stop the 
team and the engine will clear the 
niaeliine. Has automatic clutch 
throwout—prevents breakage. 
W^rite for free booklets 
They fully describe our large line 
of machinery for farm, orchard and 
garden. Send a postal today. 
Bateman M’f ’g Co* 
Box 2B, Grenloch, N. J. , 
Makers also of Spraying Machinery 
Carden Tools, etc. 
IBONASE 
Potato Machines 
are made with just 
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made by people who 
grow potatoes for pro¬ 
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without studjdug plant¬ 
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and digger—the selec¬ 
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or no profit. 
It costs no more to 
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and .spray a perfect 
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10 Row Engine Sprayer 
4y* H. P, 
Air-Cooled 
We shall 
be very 
glad to an¬ 
swer any 
que.«tions 
in regard 
t o potato 
growing or 
about the 
necessary 
machinery. 
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X Ught^ ^ 
^20 TO 60 
LIGHT 
iSYSTEM 
inited\ 
fSHTlMCPUNT/l 
At this wonderfully low price you 
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by merely puahinflT a button. 
USE YOUR OWN ENGINE. Slaves the cost of extra t>ower. 
usK luun u n Knuinta automatic to cause 
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IWAN 
POSTHOLE 
AUGER 
Digs post holes faster than the man be¬ 
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DIGS QUICK AND EASY 
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Hay Knives,Ditchin# ^ades. Drain (Meaner^ 
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1523 Praiil* Av«,. South Bend.laA 
CORN HAS A BIG APPETiTE 
It develops a thick mass of rootlets spreading out many feet 
in every direction in their search for food. Give them a properly 
balanced ration and they will do the rest. That’s why wc 
emphatically recommend that if you want a profitable Corn crop 
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Dept. A, MiUdletowii* Conn* 
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