45J 
The Gasoline Ice Saw at Work. Fitf. 191 
The Gasoline Ice Saw at Rest. Fig. 192 
niiddlo of March, doix'iulin.i' on oiio'.s loc-ition. Ton 
inches of well-packed, freshl.v-fennentinir stable ma¬ 
nure should he phiced in the pit first. Then a (pian- 
tit.v of clean .sliarp sand sliould he obtained, the 
coar.ser and sharper the better. The soashon*. 
streams and sand jtit.s are .some of tlie more com¬ 
mon .sources of this material. A four-inclt la.ver of 
sand should he jilaced upon the manure in tlie hot¬ 
bed, smoothed off evenl.v, and upon it the .seed 
tubers are to he bedded. The tubers should I>o laid 
as clo.sel.v as jio.ssihle, liut taking care tliat the.v do 
not toucli each other at any point. Extra larixe or 
round tubers may he cut lengthwise and laid tlat 
side down on the sand. After all the tubers are 
laid, they should be covered evenly witli mon* of 
the .same sand as that u])on which the.v wen* laid, 
to a depth of at least two inches above the tops of 
tlie tubers. The bed .should he packiai h.v idanking. 
and then watered well. Tlie .sash should lie jilaoeil 
on at once, and a soil temperature of T-o de.g. main¬ 
tained in the bed until the .siirouts appear .above 
the surface, whicli will he about five weeks. ,\.s 
the plants approacli the .size for setting in the held, 
the.v should he liardened off h.v gradually removing 
the sash, and exposing them more and more to out¬ 
side condition.s, in order that the.v may hettiu- stand 
the shock of transplanting. No plants 
should he set out until danger of 
frost is over, and then onl.v stron.g 
plants over five inohivs long should 
he selected. The plants are si'par- 
ated from the mother tuber by imll- 
ing carefully with one hand while the 
tuber is held in place with the otluu* 
hand. The plants .should be placed 
in small hunches with all the rools 
the same wa.v. to f.acilitate handling 
in the field. After a drawing is made, 
the bed should receive a light coat 
of .sand and a good watering. Tin* 
sash .should then he ri'placed to force 
out anotluu* crop of plants. As many 
as six different drawings may be 
made, a week or .30 days apart. 
Formerly sweet potatoes w(>re 
bedded in ordinary soil, ;ind unfor- 
tunatel.v too many growers still ad¬ 
here to this practice. The u.se of 
clean sand a.s the bedding medium, 
however, is by far the best i)ractict^ 
The danger of spreading dlsea.se 
amon.g the crowded plants is large¬ 
ly eliminated, Avhich is a most im- 
l)ortant consideration both for the 
marketman .and the .amateur. Fur¬ 
thermore, the developtm'iit of tiie 
plants is more rapid and plants with 
larger and stronger root-.systems are 
obtained in .sand. The mother tuber 
contains all the noiiri.shment lu'ct's- 
sary for plant development within il- 
self. The small roots .sent out from 
the plants, however, .seek food .also, 
if they can obtain this nearby, as in 
ordinar.v .soil, they do not go furthei', 
and the result is a meagre root de¬ 
velopment. In sand, however, the 
rootlets are forced to ramify far and 
wide in search of food, hence tiie de- 
velo]iment of a large and strong root 
system, which enal)les the plants to 
grow off fast after the.v aj’e set in the field. 
'File i)roduction of sweet potato plants for .sale to 
the neighbors as well as for shii)ment to distant 
l)oints is a very profitable side line. At the current 
price of 40 cents per hundred for plants in small 
quantities, it will be seen from what has been said 
.above, that a neat sum may l)e realized from a sm.ill 
outlay by one or two persons in each community. 
.V seedsman at l>es Moim*.s. Iowa, has 2,0(X) sa.shes of 
st(*am-heated liotbeds devoted entirely to growing 
sweet potato plants every Spiang, largely for .sale 
in Iowa. .T. t. T!0S.\. .tr. 
Virginia. 
G A.'^OI.INE ICE-.SAWING machine.—S iucH* 
we asked for information regarding ice .saws 
run by gasoline ])Ower we have had m.any responses. 
'I'he ])ictures at Fig.s. 101 and 102 show such .i 
cutter made b.v E. 1.. Stone of Maine, and this is 
said to be a ver.v practical machine for doin.g the 
work. In rnns with a 214 oi‘ three horsepower en¬ 
gine and will do the work of five men using hand 
saws. The hlurr on the picture shows the '•ice- 
dust'’ from the saw. Fig. 101 .shows the machine 
in operation, while in Fig. 102 the saw is raised above 
ice surface for convenience in moving outfit. Scarcit.v 
of availal)Ie labor makes it necessary to consider 
every i)ossibility of mechanical help in rural work. 
Heating Small Greenhouse With Stove 
T have just built a small greenhouse 0 ft. b.v 12 ft., 
and wish to heat it. Wliat kind of a stove wouid you 
r(‘coininend? Would it be practical to run stovepipe 
under benches? Is there any form of heater that is 
jiarticularly good for keeping a fire all night? 
Stockbridge, M.a.ss. E. c. J. 
T Il'IS small hou.se can be easil.v and very eco¬ 
nomically heated with a small cast-iron stove 
of the cannon t.vpe. It is not ncce.ssar.v to run the 
stovepipe under the bench, nor would it he advisable 
to do so, as the fire hazard woiild be greatly in¬ 
creased, with but little gain in heating efficiency. 
The writer built a house 9x1fi feet two years 
ago, and as a matter of economy a No. 12 can¬ 
non ho.ater was purchased from a western mail 
<trder house to serve as the heating plant. While 
it was on the way, a ])lace for it to be set was 
11 repared b.v digging out the soil to a depth of about 
eight inches h.v three feet wide and extending from 
the north wall to the .south side of walk. On this 
s))ace a conert'le floor of cement and coal ashes, 
three inches thick, was laid, and a wall of the same 
material three inches thick and two feet high was 
put up at rear end and both side.s, the side walls 
extending to north side of ‘Walk, thus forming a 
three-sided fireproof enclosure that would jilways 
be absolutely safe. In the section of 
roof over the stove, sa.sh bars were 
used !iud spaced 12 inches apart. "We 
hrd made of galvanized iron what is 
commonly known as a roof flange or 
.pMket. This is made of a plate of 
slu'et iron 12 inches wide and IS 
inches long, to which is riveted and 
soldei-ed a section of slightly taper¬ 
ing six-inch pipe, for outside pipe 
(onnection, and as an extra .safe¬ 
guard against fire, we had rWeted to 
tlx* underside of the plate a short 
section of .seven-inch pipe. The pipe 
from the stove passes inside of thi.s, 
up into outside pijte connection, and 
the short section of seven-inch pipe 
being one inch larger than the .stov’e- 
pil)(‘, niiikes tlie sash bars to which 
the flange is attached absolutely safe 
from fire. 
'File expense of installing this heat¬ 
ing plant Wits as follows: Stove 
.'s.l.fis; freight HO cents; roof flange 
.S;i..■>(); four joints of galvanized pipe 
; lid one-half joint with canopy top 
: cement, one bag, 50 cents, mak¬ 
ing a total of ,$10.48. This outfit 
would probably cost 25 per cent, 
more at the present time. It has been 
v’er.v satisfactory in ever.v wa.y. The 
consumptioh of fuel has nev'er ex¬ 
ceeded one medium-sized hod of hard 
coal a day, tind even in the coldest 
weather it has been no trouble to 
maintain a night temperature ai'ound 
. 1(1 degrees. During ver.v cold, dull 
and cloud.v weather the fire will need 
alieiition thr(>e or four times a day. 
On bright sunshiny days the stove 
door is thrown open and the fire al- 
lowi'd to die out. In the evening all 
line ashes are shaken out of the fire- 
jiot. and if the weather is ipute cold, 
fire is rekindled about four o’clock, 
filling the fire-jiot half full of coal. As .soon as this 
gels well heated the clu'ck dampers in the pipe and 
stove door are adjusted and nothing more is done 
to the fire until about 10 o’clock, when tlie fire is 
.shaken down a little, and the fire-pot is filled with 
coal up to the door, which is then covered with 
ashes, the danqiers again adjusted and the stove 
left to run itself until about .seven o’clock the next 
morning. In mild weather the fire is not made 
anew until five or .six o’clock in the evening, and 
slacki'd for the night as .soon as it gets a good 
start, which is usually within a half hour after tlie 
fire has been kindled. If the weather the next day 
continues mild, but cloud.v', the fire verv often is 
nor touched until it is time to make it up anew for 
the night. Invariably there is .still enough fire re¬ 
maining after 24 hours to start a new fire with the 
aid of a little dry wood. 
East year an addition nine feet wide and 20 feet 
long was built to the west end of the first house; 
this gives me a house nine feet wide and .‘>0 feet 
long, with a glass partition nearl.v' in the middle. 
The door, etc., being left as it was originally con¬ 
structed, admits of the first house being run warm 
and the other can be brought into use later when 
it is needed. 
Seed sowing commences with me the middle of 
February, and usually by the first vv'eek in .Vpril the 
TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
heated end of the hou.se is crowded to overflowing 
with plants in various stages of growth. Tlie 
weather b.v that time has become much milder and 
the little stove will now suppl.v sufficient heat for 
both houses. The connecting door is now oi>ened 
to remain open to the end of the season. The lar¬ 
ger and hardier plants are transferred to the cooler 
hou.se. to make room for the many small plants of 
various kinds that must now be pricked olT into 
pots or flats. Eater on the new house is emptied 
of its many flats of plants into the cold frame, and 
refilled from the warm hou.se, and so on until jilant- 
ing out time, when the congestion is dail.v lessened 
until the completion of iilantin.g I'olieves it alto¬ 
gether. llv managing in this way I can not onl.v 
grow enough plants from seeds and cuttings to meet 
my own requirements, which run into the thou¬ 
sands, but last year sold enou.gh out of the sur¬ 
plus to pay the entire cost of construction of the 
house.s. 
During the Summer the houses are used to as 
great extent as possible for growing China asters 
for cut flowers. 'When the.v are out of the way the 
space they occupied is filled with Chrysanthemums, 
which have been coming on in pots and boxes out¬ 
side. When their .season is over, the houses are 
partly filled with small hardy plants in pots and 
flats, without heat, until seed sowing time comes 
again middle of February, when the fire is lighted 
and the work of another year is gotten under way. 
K. 
Production of Sweet Potato Plants 
T he offshoots from l)edded sweet potato tubers 
.are variously known as “.sprouts,” “draws” ami 
“slips.” From them practicall.v the whole .sweet 
jiotato crop is grown. This method of reproduction 
is ver.v economical, for b.v it a single tuber i)r()duces 
a large number of plants. From 7,0f>fi to Kf.OOo 
jilants are reipiired to set an acre, dei)ending on 
the jilanting distances in vo.gue. When three or 
four crops of plants or “drawings” are made from 
the bedded tubers, it re{iuires from three to four 
bushels of medium-sized sweet potato tubers to suj)- 
jily this number of'pbiRts. To bed a bushel of tubers 
for plant pi’oduction requires about 24 square feet 
of bed, though this varies with tlie size of the 
tubers used, being greater if the.v are small. 
Ordinaril.v manure-heated hotbeds are generally 
u.sed for bedding seed tu’oers, though ‘Tire-heated” 
beds are used extensively by .Tersoy growers, and 
open unheated beds are used in the far South. The 
bed should be prejiared in the ix'i'rhborhood of the 
