■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
285 
Farm Mechanics 
Power from Three-inch Stream 
There is a stream of water flowing 
through my farm sufficient to supply a 
three-inch pipe and give a fall of about 
50 feet. I wish to light my house with 
electric lights, and saw wood and cut corn 
for silage and any other kind of light 
work. What horse power can I get from 
the fall of water? c. K. c. 
New York. 
A three-inch stream of water is a very 
uncertain quantity. Water weighs 8 l-.T 
lbs. to the gallon. The old rule, “a pint 
to the pound,” is nearly right. A dozen 
gallons to 100 lbs. is better. Perhaps the 
flow is very slow, say .50 ft. per minute. 
,50 ft. of ,‘1-in. pipe holds about 18 gallons 
or 152 lbs of water, and this falling .50 
ft. gives 7,000 foot pounds. This woukl 
not serve your purpose, as it takes .‘t.O.OOO 
to e(iual one horsepower. If the pipe 
goes down a steep hill, with 50 ft. drop 
it might flow 10 times as fast, or 70.000 
foot pounds. This should give over a 
horse power even with these wasteful 
small motors. If you can turn the stream 
into a barrel and see how many seconds it 
takes to fill it, you could determine the 
power available. Don’t try to bring the 
water in a .l-in. pipe, as nearly all the 
power would be lost in pipe friction, but 
use a 6-in. or S-in. pipe. Then the small 
stream would move slowly in the large 
pipe, eliminating most of the pipe friction 
and leaving most of the foot pounds avail¬ 
able for work. One horsepower should 
give 12 good lights or do (luite a bit of 
wood sawing. If you can have a dam and 
small pond at the sonrc*e. .so as to use the 
24-hour flow in, say four hours, the power 
would be at least six times as great. 
A. Q. K. 
Blue Clay ; Fireplace Radiator 
1. Seeking information let me a.sk if 
any analysis of blue clay, .so far as you 
know, indicates that it posse.sses value as 
a fertilizer for top-dressing? I have seen 
heavy clover growing upon it where taken 
from slides in a railroad cut, with no fer¬ 
tilizer and no top soil mixed with it. Its 
odor indicates decajing vegetable matter. 
If nobody knows about it, I have a mind 
to tr.v it, but unsatisfactory analysis 
alone would not convince me. In the 
large R. N.-Y. family some few may have 
tried it. 
2. Again, has anyone connected a coil 
in fireplace, where half the heat is 
wasted, with radiators in other rof)ms 
for heating by hot water? G. s. i*. 
Maine. 
1. Many sami)le.s of clay are rich in lime 
and potash—some of them might almost 
be called marl. When spread out and 
“weathered” or mixed with sand or loam 
they will promote the growth of clover, 
but they vary quite a little in composi¬ 
tion. 
2. Several readers have rej)orted success 
in using a coil or drum in the fireplace for 
providing hot water. The majority say it 
has not been successful. The theory 
set'ins good, but does not seem to work 
right. 
More About Concrete Tile 
On reading the letters from the 
Michigan reader.s, page 1416, I ex.imined 
the first tile that I made and sold. They 
have been in the ground 18 months, and 
are in perfect condition, harder than 
when first put in. The trouble with the 
tile in Michigan was in the manufactur¬ 
ing. They either were not properly pack¬ 
ed or not cui’ed right, as one of the 
Michigan readers says that they can put 
in foundation walls of cement. If the 
trouble was due to the soil, it would act 
the same on a foundation. A tile that 
is properly made and not cured right is 
of no use, nor is a tile that is not i)rop- 
erly made and rightly cured. To get a 
first-class tile it must be properly pack¬ 
ed from properly proportioned material, 
and then properly cured. II. S. R. of 
Mas.sachusetts can make good tile on the 
farm, but should be careful to get a ma¬ 
chine that will make a first-class tile 
which if properly cured will be more 
satisfactory than clay tile, and cheaper. 
Michigan. rai.pii bi'sh. 
Our experience with cement tile has 
been perfectly satisfactory. Some time 
previous to 1870 my father put a line 
of cement tile through a low spot in a 
meadow and it is still doing good work, 
cement used was Rosendale, as 
Portland in those days was too expen¬ 
sive. In putting down a drain at right 
angle to this one in lOlJ we found the 
tile to be as hard as the day they were 
put in. The frost apparently ha.«; no 
bad eflect on it, foi- in smite (thtces it is 
only about 20 inches beneath the sur¬ 
face. (HAS. E. WIC'KES. 
Dutche.ss Co., N. Y. 
In order to dritin eight acres of val¬ 
uable land I hiid to find an outlet 
through a deep biink of sand and gravel, 
which was over 1200 feet in length. I 
litid 400 feet of clay tile and remainder 
of cement mad<' by myself of the best 
aggregate, good, clean wash gravel and 
sand and three brands of cement, a mix¬ 
ture of 4 to 1, which made first-class 
cenumt. Tile two feet long 10 inches in 
diameter, the walls of the tile 1%-in. 
thick. I put them through the sand 
knoll fP/l> feet deep and the job cost me 
about .8500 and in two years the line 
commenced to sink and on investigating 
found the cement tile was just as soft 
in the bottom as gravel and sand would 
be without cement, utterly worthless. 
At this A-ery time I am replacing them 
with good hard-burnt clay tile. There are 
thousands of feet of cement tile in this 
location that have gone the same way. 
Madison. O. u. E. B. 
,w,. Sawdust on Cement Floor 
On page 1504 is an inquiry regarding 
cement floor for cow stables. While 
what I have to say is not in answer to 
that, the idea may be useful to you at 
some time. When we put in our con¬ 
crete floor, it Avas troAvelled too smooth, 
and the cows slipped. We tried Aarious 
plans, and finally used saAvdust. A thin 
layer is spread on the concrete under the 
regular litter, and it answers the purpose 
very Avell. We have used the discarded 
sawdust from the ice-house and from 
neighbors' ice-houses, Avhich costs us 
only the trouble of carting. This is 
better than iieAV sawdust, as it is Avell 
rotted and is not objectionable on the 
ground when it goes out on the manure. 
Of course, it is spread out to^dry before 
using. AVe usually have the heap back 
of the barn, and during the Summer 
months scrape off tAvo or three inches 
from the top as it dries, and store it in 
a bA>x stall for use as needed. 
Ncav .Tersey. il. E. deats. 
Whitewash or Lime Paint 
Every year there are dozens of calls 
for superior whitewash mixtures or 
“cold AA’ater paint.s.” 8o we print the 
folloAving—which should be kept for ref¬ 
erence. 
Goverxmext Whiteava.sti. Slake 
half a bushel of unslaked lime with boil¬ 
ing Avater, keeping it covered during the 
pro(^ss. Strain it and add a peck of 
salt, dissolved in Avarm Avater; three 
pounds of ground rice put in boiling 
water and boiled to a thin paste; half 
a pound of Spanhsh Avhiting and a pound 
of clear glue, dissoh-ed in warm water; 
mix these Avell together and let the mix¬ 
ture stand for several days. Keep the 
wash thus prepared in a kettle or por¬ 
table furnace; and when used, put it 
on as hot as possible, Avith paiuter-s’ or 
Avhitewash brushes. 
Factory AVuiteaa’-asii. — What is 
knoAvn as factory whitcAvash is made by 
slaking 62 pounds of quicklime in 15 
gallons of vA’ater. Keep this stirred while 
slaking. Take 2V^ pounds of rye flour, 
beat it up in half gallon of cold Avater 
and then add tAVo gallons of boiling 
water. Take 2l^ pounds of ctunmon salt 
and dissolve in 2^ gallons of hot Avater. 
Mix the rye flour and salt solution and 
add it to the lime Avash, aa-cII stirred. 
AYaterproof AV iteavash. —Take 62 
pounds of quicklime and slake Avith 12 
gallons of hot water. Take tAvo pounds 
of table salt and one pound of sulphate 
of zinc and di.ssolve together in tAvo gal¬ 
lons of boiling Avater. Mix the .salt and 
lime solution and then add tAvo gallons 
of .skimmed milk Avell mixed up together. 
In some cases I’ortland cement is addecl 
to the lime and salt mixture. A quantity 
of alum added to a lime AvhiteAvash, one 
ounce to the gallon, Avill prevent rubbing 
off. Molasses one pound to five gallons 
of AvhiteAvash makes lime more soluble 
and causes it to penetrate more deeply. 
In some cases Avater glass one part to 
10 is added to the AvhiteAvash to make a 
fireproof surface; one pound of cheap 
soap dissolved in boiling water and add- 
ded to five gallons of a thick Avhitewash 
will give it a gloss someAvhat like a paint. 
In applying Avhitewa.sh no attejniit should 
be made to rub it in, as Avith an oil 
paint, but simply brinsh it in lightly over 
the surface. 
