150 
^/>e RURAi. NEW-YORKER 
February 2 , 1918 
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McQuay-Norris Piston Rings have led the field 
for seven years. Their supremacy has been established by 
consistently efficient performance. 
They stop compression leakage — cut down cost of opera¬ 
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Your dealer can get you any size or over-size quickly. Over 300 jobbing 
and supply houses in all parts of the country carry complete size assort¬ 
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McQUAY-NORRIS 
RINGS 
A special ring for engines that pump oil. Used in top groove only of 
pistons to control excess oil, with McQuay-Norris \ Rings in 
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SEND FOR FREE BOOKLET 
“To Have and to Hold Power” — a simple, clear explanation of 
piston rings, their construction and oneration. 
Mfd. by McQuay-Norris Mfg. Co., 2878 Locust St., St. Louis, Mo. 
Copyriirbt 1917, McQuay-lxorria Mfff* Co, 
The BEEMAN 
GARDEN TRACTOR 
Price $285 F.O.B. Factory 
With this Tractor! 
you can go astride onions, 
carrots, beets and other 
crops grown in narrow rows and cultivate one or three 
rows at a time, closer, faster and better than is possible 
with hand wheel hoes. 
You can use it to take the place of a horse or mule in 
cultivating, plowing and harrowing. 
An All Purpose Walking Power Plant 
You can run your cream separator, washing machine, 
pumps, churn, feed grinder, grindstone, lighting plant 
milking machine, etc. It trots from job to job on its own 
power. A boy, girl, or woman can operate it. Catalog 
FREE. Address 
THE CONSOLIDATED GAS & GASOLINE ENGINE COMPANY 
202 Fulton Street, New York, N. Y. Distributors 
THE BEEMAN GARDEN TRACTOR COMPANY 
334 Sixth Avenue, South, Minneapolis, Minn., Manufacturers 
This ci~.k CiLBERT“NINE 
Never Forgets 
CL-OCK 
and for nine 
even if yon do.—Set it once 
days your memory isn’t needed. 
When it rouses you in gentle tones, just 
a tap of the finger — and it is ready for 
next day—and so resets itself daily 
for 9 days with one winding. 
Sturdily made — fine big engraved hour 
figures — and a comforting soft tick. 
Have your dealer show you this Nine Day 
Clock. Write us direct, givinn his name should 
he not have them in stock. 
Booklet "I Speak for Myself”, sent upon 
request to yourself and friends. 
Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co. 
Good Clockmakcra Since 1807 at 314 Main St. 
Winsted, Connecticut 
f]0 
CIHfdT ■*««£'■ 
24 Hour 
► Alacrm 
D i a.1. 
^7 4 sjj 
Farm Mechanics 
Picking Over Beans 
T liavp nofieod in The R. X.-Y". how to 
raise and tlirash beans, but there is one 
tiling more. What is the best way to 
liiek tliein ovi'r? Some say a tahh' with 
a hole in it. How is this table worked? 
Can yon give a quick and simple method 
of picking over beans? G. r. 
Yaphank. X. Y'. 
Under home conditions and lack of 
necessary accommodations I should con¬ 
sider 10 bushels of beans a pretty big 
job when it comes to picking them over. 
W'heia? beans are raised in any quantity 
they are .sold to the beaneries for a stated 
])rice per pound, and pick deducted. At 
these houses the beans are handh'd and 
gi’aded by sp<‘cial macdiinery which does 
away with much picking, but they are 
fiimlly picked over by hand b.v Italian 
women and children. I have often seen 
r»0 at this work. When we have raised 
only a f<*w bu.shels and pick them at 
home, the beans are generally placed in 
a pile in the center of a table, the pick¬ 
ers sitting around the tiible. and spi’ead- 
iiig a few beans from the jdle before them. 
The dirt and poor beans are then picked 
out, and the good ones either scraped off 
into a i)an or dish held in the lai> of the 
o])(‘rator, or a slot is made in the table 
about six inches from the edge through 
which the good beans are allow<*d to di’o)) 
into a hag or box placed underneath the 
table. ’Phis slot or lade is about six 
inches long and one inch wide. "The table 
should be .so placed that it will he in a 
good light, as the work is rather strenu¬ 
ous on the eyes where the light is poor. 
Last Winter I jjicki'd over onr se('(l jdot 
he.ans, about 40 pounds. ’I his took me 
quite a long time, as I was very particu¬ 
lar in this, and felt <iuite pleased when 
the job was finished. In tlie caidic'r days 
of onr bean growing we picked over a 
good many beans for market during the 
long cold Winter days, when it was too 
stormy to go to the woods, where getting 
out the yeai''s supi>!y "f fuel was a j*di 
annually awaiting us. n. K. cox. 
Success of a Homemade Tractor 
I,ast Fall a <iuestion was ask('d about 
small tractor.s. While I have mwer used 
a commercial tractor I have for the jiast 
•three years used a light homemade outfit 
assembled by mysrdf which giv(>s good sat¬ 
isfaction. This outfit weighs about 2.200 
pounds, has a two-cylindcr IS TT. V. op¬ 
posed motor and is geaia'd down about 
40 to one. so that T always start and woik 
it oil high. The tractor Avas made from 
an old discarded automobile given me to 
experiment with, so there was no expense 
for this part. Steel wheels and necessary 
sprockets were-made to order and when 
ready to work the outfit had cost me about 
.$00.* Should it be necessary to purchase 
an old auto, hire the niMtor thoroughly 
overhauled and have the tractor assembled 
by an expert from the garage the cost 
would sound difl’crent. Such jiarts as I 
had to buy would cost nearly double to¬ 
day. It might be best to say that I had 
worked most of the time for 12 years with 
gasolene motors at factory, repairing, etc., 
which gave me some experience. 
Yly idea woul 1 be that on fairly level 
land the success of a tractor, if well de¬ 
signed and made, would depend largely 
on the ability of the user. If care was 
used same as a good team should haA'e 
and he was handy and liked machinery 
his troubles would he very sm.'ill. T do 
not'think my outfit could pull what a good 
team could pull for a fc'w feet or yards at 
i a time without adding weight to it. hut 
it will pull a load steadily that would 
ruin a three-horse team in a short time. 
When I jnade it T only diojx'd that it 
would do the woi-k of a go<id horse on my 
land, as the land is not level in all i>laces. 
This tractor will ])ull a plow in sod 
ground and give* the ];low its full limit and 
go as fast as a ma’i would walk, using 
three-quarters of a gallon of gasolene per 
hour. With spring-tooth harrow well set 
down it uses one gallon per hour, which 
sliows that it could handle the idow even 
if it pnlh'd harder. It walks ofl with an 
SxS brooder house same as with a plow. 
WYth this make of motor I soon found 
that if working the harrow when very dry 
in orchard it was necessary to thoroughly 
wash out the crank case each day (I ns:i 
kerosene) and add new oil. Even though 
it has a pump-feed oiler furnishing new 
oil steadily the du.st works in around the 
valve push-rods enough to make the oil 
thick with grit. This type of motor cre¬ 
ates a vacuum in the crank case and dust 
is sucked in any possible opening. On 
most motors this would, or could be. elim¬ 
inated. Were I to make another tractor, 
and I shall if war conditions change for 
the best, it will weigh about 3,000 pounds, 
the extra weight in the drivers; motor 
will be a four-cylinder; chains will be 
heavier and thoroughly protected from 
dirt; crank case and push-rod chamber 
will be dustproof. 
As you will notice, I am in a way a 
hack-to-the-landcr. When I purchased 
the farm a few years ago I hoped to grow 
fruit and keep poultry and grow some 
other crops. One could get help at that 
time. Times changed rapidly and team 
work could not he had, only now and then 
a da.v, while day help was ju.st as bad. 
and as I was not able to keep a team for 
the amount of work I had to do I con¬ 
cluded to try power, and now I would not 
take a team as a gift and care for it. Yly 
hopes were to work at anto work part 
time and hire to help me out on the farm. 
I find it would take an investment of 
about $0,000 in the way of farm, hni’d- 
ings and equipment, and 10 hours’ work 
a da.v to earn The mone.v I could* eaim 
Avith $10 worth of tools and eight hours’ 
work. If taken sick or disabled and no 
help to be had on the farm yon are hard 
hit. .\s a mechanic you put your tools 
away and simply think how rich the 
farmer is getting. I find it requires more 
skill to work a farm successfully than to 
handle a balky motor, and just why a 
faimer should not make as good wage.s 
foi- the .some hours I don’t know. I refer 
to the farmer who really tries to make a 
success. .TOJIN F. MAXSON. 
lUiode I.shiml. 
The Left-hand Plow 
On page .5 I noticed Parlin & Oren- 
dorlls f’o.'s reasons for a di.scontinuance 
of making the left-hand plow. They say 
the use of the left-hand plow is confined 
to Indiana. Ohio, with some of the busi¬ 
ness extending into Pennsylv.ania and Illi¬ 
nois. hat about Keiitnck.v and Ten¬ 
nessee and the other States? I know 
farm after farm that hasn’t anv other 
kind f.f ))low except a left-hand one. Then 
they say those who use the left-hand plow 
do .so because the.v were brought np that 
way. Maybe so. in Indiana and Ohio, 
but tliat is not the reason' here. I iH'Vf'i* 
heard of a left-hand jilow until I w;is 
grown. Xow the right-hand plow is the 
e.xceiition here. 
, because they do not make 
left-hand tractors, therefore they have to 
stop making left-hand plows. There ai-o 
thousands of farms that will never use a 
tractor of any kind. Why take the left- 
luind plow from these? It is said the 
cost of making the left-hand templets, 
.ligs. dies and patterns is so great. Whv? 
Haven’t they already got the dies, pat¬ 
terns, etc., that they have been making 
them by? Any man who has ever plowed 
a day knows he can do more plowing and 
better plowing with a left-hand plow than 
he can with a right-hand one, simply he- 
cau.se with the left-hand plow his lead 
horse walks in the furrow, and the iilow 
cuts an even, width and depth all the time, 
whereas with a right-hand plow tlie lead 
horse walks on the land side and is con¬ 
tinually hearing into the furrow, which 
makes the plow cut less and unevenly. 
A stoppage of making left-hand plows 
would work a hardship to many farmers in 
Kentucky and Tennos.see and other States. 
T.ots of fni'incrs would be left with left- 
hand ploAvs on their hands, both walking 
and riding plows, perfectly useless unless 
they could get repairs. It looks to me 
like a ruse of tlie •manufacturers to unload 
their .stock of right-hand plows on the 
farmers. I hope the factories in Ken¬ 
tucky will continue to make the IcH-liand 
walking and riding plow, and repair.s fiir 
.same. kk.xtucky FAintEii. 
Xo more swivel plows. The idea I I 
would not use any other on level even. 
When I can’t turn the furrow all the 
same way. then I will anchor the farm. 
It's the plowing for me. c. J. it. 
Southhury, (’onn. 
The note about idows does not refer to 
the swivel or turning plow. They will 
still be made. The manufacturers have 
agreed to give up the left-hand plow. 
That is the same as the ordinary plow, 
(‘xceiit that the furrow is thrown to the 
left hand instead of to the right. In 
other respects it is the same as any other 
plow. The swivel plow is different, as 
the share may be turned over .so as to 
tlirow the furrow jn either direction. The 
(Continued on j)age 152) 
