^/»e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
619 
Farm Mechanics 
Alcohol from Wood 
Now “grain alcohol” is to be made 
from sawdust and waste lumber. The 
Wisconsin University Press Bulletin 
says: 
“Grain or ethyl alcohol, although or¬ 
dinarily produced from grain, molasses, 
potatoes, etc., may also be produced from 
sawdust. The sawdust or grain is cooked 
with dilute acid to produce sugars from 
the wood substances. These sugars are 
leached out and the liquor is fermented 
and distilled. The resulting grain or 
ethyl alcohol is the same whatever the 
original material was. Both processes 
are being studied at the laboratory.” 
Syphoning from a 50-ft, Well 
I am contemplating sinking a well on 
an elevation of land 700 feet from my 
barn. Would the weight and sucti' n of 
the water, in a 700-foot pipe, with an 
foot drop, draw or syphon the water from 
the bottom of a 50-foot well? ij. i.. 
Three Bridges, N. J. 
A syphon cannot work unless the water 
in well is higher than the discharge. And 
the water in well cannot be over about 25 
or at most 28 feet below highest part of 
the pipe line. The weight of water in the 
700-ft. of pipe adds nothing to the suc¬ 
tion, and is a hindrance due to the fric¬ 
tion of water in pipe. This was well ex¬ 
plained in The R. N.-Y. a few weeks ago. 
A. G K. 
A Cotton-picking Machine 
I read with a great deal of interest 
the suggestion thrown out by you in a 
recent issue for the development of a 
practical and successful way of mechan¬ 
ically picking cotton. I have been as¬ 
sociated with a small ^roup of men who 
have for the past 30 years been en¬ 
deavoring to perfect a mechanical cotton 
picker. Your suggestion that the cotton 
be cut down at the end of the season and 
that the cotton be thrashed therefrom 
is hardly feasible at this time. 8ome 40 
years ago, in some of the localities in 
the South, they were accustomed to 
practice a method very similar to that 
suggested by you, namely, at the end of 
the season, after frost had killed the fur¬ 
ther development of the plant, the farm 
hands would strip the stalk with rakes, 
gathering in the twigs with ripe cotton 
on them and then run the cotton that 
was thus collected through a beater or 
cleaner, which w’ould separate the seed 
cotton fi’om the stalks and twigs. This 
was merely an emergency method to in¬ 
sure gathering in the cotton where there 
was a lack of labor to handle it in the 
regular and usual manner. The trouble 
with that method was that the grade of 
cotton obtained was considerably lower 
than that obtained by regular hand 
picking. You mu.st remember that cot¬ 
ton develops continually until killed by 
frost; that the letter limbs have ripe 
cotton on them early in the season, and 
as the plant grows upward, blossoms ap¬ 
pear which take about six weeks to de¬ 
velop into ripe cotton.* The result is 
that cotton is picked more than once a 
season; the early maturing crop is gath¬ 
ered first. Subsequently, and after frost 
ha« stopped further growth there is an¬ 
other picking, the object being to get 
cotton from the plant as soon as it is 
ripe for picking, for otherwise rain 
storms and windstorms drive sand and 
mud into the fibre, beat a great deal 
of the ripe cotton to the ground, and 
there is a tendency for the cotton itself 
to turn yellowish. As a result of this, 
a lower grade of cotton is gathered than 
that obtained when cotton is picked 
shortly after it has rip.ned. 
You will see from the foregoing that 
it would be impracticable for the grow¬ 
ers to wait until the season is over be¬ 
fore they did their picking. Fully one- 
Iialf of the crop is picked before frost 
strikes the plants. The result is that 
any machine to be practicable must be 
one which is able to take off the early 
maturing crop without interfering with 
the development in ripening of the later 
crop. Such a machine, undoubtedly, will 
shortly be on the market. If it is not 
our machine, it will be some other, b.it 
numerous tests have convinced us that 
the making of such a machine is entirely 
practicable and only a question of time. 
New York. henry m. wise. 
Keeping Water Out of Cellar 
It has been our experience that the best 
way to keep water out of a cellar is to 
give it some other place to go. When 
preparing for a foundation wall we dig 
down a foot or more deeper than we want 
the bottom of the wall, put in a good tile 
drain, then fill up carefully with small 
stones until the tile is w’ell protected. A 
good tile drain should run away from this 
to a permanent outlet. In some places 
springs might be found inside of the cel¬ 
lar, so that it would be necessary to have 
a porous layer (cinders, sand or gravel) 
under the cement bottom. a. c. w*. 
Wind Power for Electricity 
For many years before the develop¬ 
ment of gasoline engines efforts were 
made to utilize wind power for develop¬ 
ing electricity. Over 25 years ago we 
corresponded with Mr. Ilalliday of iNIas- 
sachusetts, who worked out a device for 
doing this work. It did not give prac¬ 
tical results, owing to the intermittent 
power of the wind. In South Dakota an 
attachment was introduced which did 
well on the windy plains, but seemed to 
fail in the East, Avhere winds are less 
steady. Now* the Kansas Agricultural 
College states that wind power has be(>n 
found practical. I’rof. Reid, professor 
of electrical engineering, says : 
“I’reliniinary tests were made on this 
proposition, three years ago. and eiKUgh 
success was had to make it seem desir¬ 
able to continue the tests. In these test.s 
the generator was belted to the windmill 
at the foot of the tower. Friction losses 
were enormous. It took .‘i nine-mile wind" 
to start the mill, and the noise was dis¬ 
tracting. 
“With the first series of tests the total 
cost of the plant was .$77.5, whereas a 
gasoline engine plant of the same power 
and storage capacity would have cost 
$500. One-sixteenth of the time lights 
would be cut off because the wind veloc¬ 
ity was too small to run the mill. To 
overcome this disadvantage a large bat¬ 
tery is nccessar.v to store up enough cur¬ 
rent to last during the calm spells. 
“Ill the tests now* being conducted, 
the generator is mounted on the head and 
geared direct to the mill. Ball and roller 
bearings are used throughout so that a 
six-mile wind or less will start the mill. 
cost of this plant is estimated at 
.$750, but improvements in the windmills 
would reduce this to .$500. 
“The present objection to the u.se of 
wind power for developing electrical en¬ 
ergy is the first cost of the outfit. Until 
it is possible to get windmills wbich will 
run on light winds the co.st will not be 
cut down on account of the size of bat¬ 
tery necessary to store up current for 
use when the mill does not run. With 
a windmill designed for higher speeds 
than are used in present mills ihere 
would be little time during the year that 
the winds would not be sufficient to op¬ 
erate it, at least, a part of the clay.” 
Steam Sterilization of Seed Beds—How 
Introduced in Pennsylvania 
In a paper read by Otto Olsen, of 
Ephrata, at a meeting of the Lancaster 
Count.v, Pa.. Tobacco Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion on March 12. the following state¬ 
ment occurs: “This method was origi¬ 
nated by A. D. 8hamel, of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, and 
was introduced in this State five years 
ago in connection with tobacco e.xperi- 
ments conducted by the Pennsylvania 
State College Agricultural Experiment 
Station, in co-operation with the United 
States Department of Agriculture.” The 
first part of this statement is true. It 
was originated by A. D. Shamel, but the 
rest of the statement is not correct as far 
as Lancaster County is concerned. Steam 
sterilization _ was introduced a year 
earlier, and in a far different manner. In 
March, 1911, The R. N.-Y. printed an ar¬ 
ticle by A. D._ Shamel, explaining the 
method. The editor urged a trial b.v some 
tobacco grower. The writer at once went 
to P, E. Shirk, of Blue Ball, and had a 
steaming pan made—doubtless the first 
of its kind in this State. It was a sne- 
ce.ss from the start. During the' latter 
part of 1911 or early part of 1912, M. W. 
Taylor,_ of Reidenbach, made inquiries of 
the writer for Hon. Geo. Ilibshman, of 
Ephrata (Mr. Taylor having previously 
called the attention of the Tobacco Grow¬ 
ers’ Association to the novel method) re¬ 
garding the method and size of pan. The 
writer suggested the size which he con¬ 
sidered as best, and on a visit to Mr. 
Ilibshman in the Fall of 1912 by Mr. 
Taylor and the writer they found he had 
made the pan ,.s suggested. His son, E. K. 
Tlib-shman. is connected with the State 
Department of Agriculture, and he prob¬ 
ably made them acquainted with what 
had been done, but during the season of 
1912 Isaac M. Nolt and John F. Shirk, 
of New Holland, both had steaming pans, 
and were doing a lot of custom work, and 
there were probably others. These facts 
clearly show that the farmers introduced 
the method to the State I)epartment in¬ 
stead of the Department to the farmers. 
This, however, is no reflection, nor a dis¬ 
credit to the Department, svhich is doing 
good work. c. R. martin. 
Bull Power for Farm Machines 
Do any R. N.-Y readers use bull 
power to run any farm machinery such 
as feed grinder, wood saw, etc,? j. B. L, 
Seneca Co., N, Y, 
Now and then ■we hear of such a power, 
but they seem to be few—since gasoline 
engines came to be popular. In theory, 
Inill power is ideal—giving exercise to an 
otherwise lazy animal and doing it at low 
cost. Are there manv left? 
A Pair that Wins 
9-18 Tractor 
20x28 Thresher 
The yearly sales of Case threshing 
outfits exceed those of the next three 
concerns combined. Inthisdayofkeen 
competition, this overwhelming popu¬ 
larity is the best proof of Case merits. 
Case has held top place for many years. 
For 75 years they have set the pace—a pace 
that other concerns have tried in vain to 
maintain. Today our Case Tractors and 
Threshers, simple, powerful, efficient, 
economical, can’t be beat. They are 
known by the work they do. 
Write today for the 1917 
Case album. Describes 
Case Kerosene and Gas 
Tractors, Case Steam 
Engines, Case Thresh¬ 
ing Machines, and every 
Case product. No farmer 
should be without one. 
Write today for your 
copy. It is free. 
J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, lac. 
419 Erie Street, RACINE, WIS. 
If you are figuring on 
buying an outfit—buy 
Case. Better be safe 
than sorry. If you have 
a Case outfit you’ll be 
money ahead. A size 
Thresher and a size 
Tractor suitable for 
every farm. 
WELL WELL 
©■wn a machine of your own. Cash or easy 
terms. Many styles and sizes for all purposes. 
Write for Circular 
WILLIAMS BROS., 432 W. State St., Ithaca, N. Y. 
STANDARD LIVE STOCK BOOKS 
Types and Breeds of Farfn Animals, 
riumb . 2.00 
Diseases of Animals Mayo. 1.60 
The Rural Ke'w-Yorkei. 333 "W, 30th St., N. Y. 
Ask lor Cat* 
alog No. 274. 
The special 
shape teeth cut 
the weeds close 
to the hill and 
do not cover 
the crop with 
earth. 40 years 
actual service, 
iteal wheel furnished if desired 
CUP YOUR WEEDS 
with a COLT 
Wood Beam 
Cultivator 
BATAVIA CLAMP COMPANY, 215 Center St., BaUvia, N.Y. 
Gives You A Giants Power 
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, on stump. This tremendous power is developed by double 
leverage. No lost motion, every stroke counts. New idea ir» 
speed control—use high power to loosen stump—-fast speed to 
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A. J. KIRSTIN CO., 6048 Lndington Street Escauaba, Miebigao 
1719 
One Man 
Stump Puller 
