The RURAL. NEW.YORKER 
755 
Farm Mechanics 
More About Water Wheels 
On page 165 .1. D. (». asks for infor¬ 
mation about water wheels. He snems 
to have abundance of water to turn a 
current or tide wheel at 25 revolutions. 
He must have considerable fall. The ac¬ 
companying rough sketch of over-shot 
and breast wheels, shows the advantage 
of the breast wheel where so little fall 
is obtainable. lie can build a dam a 
little way ahead, running a tin me from 
the fop of the dam carrying the overflow 
water, as head is of little importance 
with this style of wheel. If he can by 
so doing get six feet, of fall, be can run 
a 10-foot breast wheel. 
Referring to sketch, the overshot wheel 
takes water at (1), discharges at (2). 
lie gets 100 per cent value from 5 to 4 
only, at only 2(4 feet leverage. All water 
in buckets above 5 is of little value, as the 
weight in buckets is too near centers. It 
does have the effect to add friction ou 
trunions. The breast wheel takes water 
at (5), discharges at (71, has approxi¬ 
mately 100 per cent value from (15 > to 
(0), at five feet leverage. Then, too, he 
has the advantage of the extra weight 
of water on the larger arc. 
This wheel can be made at home with 
Voni/mrison of Overshot and Hreast 
Water Wheels 
no cost except lumber. The bearings or 
boxes should be made of hard maple, 
about 0x0 or (5x8; uo caps needed. Roil 
the maple boxes in any fat oil, lard oil 
preferred, say for three hours. The oil 
will force the air out of all pores of the 
wood, tilling same with the oil. These 
boxes will run and last, for years, and 
he will never need to oil his hearings. 
Buckets four feet long, water-tight, are 
ample. This wheel will run a circular 
saw. and will cut more wood in one hour 
than a drag saw will in 10 hours. To 
build a flume and penstock airtight, pur¬ 
chase and install a turbine wheel, would 
he quite too expensive, to perform the 
work which .T. I). (1 seems to have in 
hand. n. l. b. 
Prices for Power Ditching 
The big power ditchers will be at work 
this season, and there is some discussion 
altout a fair price to be paid for their 
work. The Niagara County (N. Y.) 
Farm Kureun Yens states that the public 
ditcher operated in Niagara County last 
year was run at a loss of $450. Too much 
time was spent on the road, and too much 
stony land was encountered. It has now 
been decided to charge the following prices 
for the ditcher's work this season: 
Depth of Per Rod 
2 1 2 ft. ditch . $0.55 
2(o to 3 ft. ditch. .65 
3 to 514 ft. ditch. so 
3 1 2 t<> 4 ft. ditch. 1 00 
4 to 4% ft ditch. 1 25 
4L. to 5 ft. ditch. 1.50 
Fencing Against Hogs 
A man bought a place which joins 
mine. 11c storked up with hogs, keeps a 
hundred of them at the present time. 
They run all over his place, over mine, 
and several 1 other neighboring places. 
This is mostly a cow eouutry, s.> there 
is no fence that will -'top a hog. He says 
that i! we do not like his hogs in our 
fields we shall have to fence against 
them. Wiin must do rhe fencing, he or 
Us? We all have good fences against 
cattle, and he is the only naan around 
here w ho keeps more than a few hogs. 
New York. n. a. 
Coder such circumstances your neigh¬ 
bor will be obliged to fence in liis hogs. 
A reasonable fence is one which will hold 
the usual stock in the country. In your 
section this means cows, and it would be 
nonsense to expect you or other dairymen 
to go to the expense of putting up a hog- 
tight fence just to accommodate this hog 
raiser. He would be obliged to fence in 
his hogs or be responsible for the damage. 
A Pit Silo in Michigan 
A recent inquiry was made about, a 
cistern silo. L have one which has been 
giving satisfactory results for about 10 
years. It is 10V t x33 ft., and extends 
about 15 ft. below surface of ground; is 
built of concrete and cement blocks except 
about 6 ft. at bottom being merely plas¬ 
tered ou the ground. The inside was plas¬ 
tered, one part cement to two of sand, 
then given a coat of tar and kerosene, 
warmed sufficiently to spread well. The 
wall should be dry before tar is applied. 
This makes it impervious to air and mois¬ 
ture. The silage keeps perfectly, clear to 
bottom of silo, when protected by using 
tar ou walls and bottom. After tilling, I 
cover with litter, usually straw, then put 
on a ton or two of cobblestones or any¬ 
thing to settle the silage and hold it down. 
Then put on a plentiful supply of water. 
When settled in this way it keeps per¬ 
fectly, and no packing during tilling is 
necessary, more than to keep top leveled 
off. To elevate silage I use an elevator 
which holds three baskets, 1 y 2 bu. each, 
set into elevator one above another: use 
au old hay rope and four pulleys to handle 
the elevator. I consider the underground 
part of my silo most desirable. V. p. s. 
Allegan Co., Mich. 
Filtering Discolored Well Water 
On page 568 is the complaint of a man 
whose artesian well yields water of the 
same color as the rock through which the 
well is drilled, and he asks a remedy. At 
one time I was engaged for several years 
in drilling artesian wells, and I had a 
long experience right along this line. 
While the trouble may come from some 
Coloring matter held in solution, it prob¬ 
ably does come from an exceedingly line 
sediment held in suspension. In neither 
case is there any remedy, and other wells 
drilled through the same geological for¬ 
mation will present the same difficulty. 
However, usually in the latter, and some¬ 
times in the f rmer case, the well will 
eventually work itself clear, the time re¬ 
quired depending upon the size of the 
hole, the distance drilled through the rock, 
and the nature of the rock itself. In the 
latter case the solution of the problem of 
obtaining clear water immediately lies in 
a filter, similar to that shown in the illus¬ 
tration. This filter consists of two tanks, 
one above the other. The water enters 
near the bottom of the lower tank, rises 
through the successive layers of coarse 
gravel, tine gravel, sand and charcoal, and 
is stored in the upper tank, in which ice 
may be kept if desired. It is drawn off 
through the upper faucet as needed. When 
it is necessary to cleanse the filtering ma¬ 
terial. the upper tank is filled, the shut- 
Fifter for Well Water 
off closed, the lower faucet opened aud 
rhe escaping water flushes all filtratious 
through the faucet. Thus the material 
may be made to last indefinitely without 
renewal. If the trouble comes* from the 
presence of some coloring matter held in 
solution, relief may he had, in some cases, 
by the use of certain chemicals, the na¬ 
ture of which will depend upon the nature 
of the coloring matter, and. iu all cases, 
distillation will purify the water. 
P. O. ORMSBEK. 
Preventing Seepage from Ice Pond 
Iu 1016 we excavated a basin to hold 
water for ice cutting. Ice had to be 
hauled 2*2 miles over a bad road. It was 
a low spot where water lay in a wet time, 
but after exeavatiug it does uot hold 
water very well. In 1017 we had to haul; 
1018 got ice all right. This year it was a 
failure ou account of warm weather, bur 
I think if it had been a good bottom it 
would have been satisfactory, because in 
soaking away so fast it is the same as a 
running stream. By damming the brook 
we have 2 1 2 ft. of water. There has been 
plenty of water this Winter, hut in a dry 
Fall I am sure we would uot have the 
water. I have an icehouse, 500 tons ca¬ 
pacity, and it is a hard job to get ice 
. hauled, besides the added expense. Would 
it be practical to excavate about 6 iuclies 
more and coat with clay to make water¬ 
tight? Would it have to he a certain kind 
of day? How thick should the clay be? 
I cannot raise the dam any higher on ac¬ 
count of backing the water ou other prop¬ 
erty. The pond contains about 26.000 
sq. ft. R. H. 
Kiuderhook, N. Y. 
The seepage that you speak of can he 
lessened somewhat by hauling in clay 
1 blue clay if obtainable, but, if not. any 
day that will pack to a putty-like mass 
when wet I, and after first cleaning off the 
floor of the pond so that there are no 
grass roots or other organic matter left to 
decay and form holes through which the 
water may leak, spreading it in a layer 
about six inches deep over the floor aud 
hanks of the pond, wetting it and thor¬ 
oughly tamping and puddling it, so that a 
fairly watertight basin is formed. Your 
pond is so shallow and therefore exerting 
little pressure, a thinner coating of day 
might prove satisfactory. The point is to 
have this day layer wet and thoroughly 
mixed aud packed so that its structure is 
broken down and it. becomes a compact, 
watertight, mass. In the West this is ac¬ 
complished by keeping cattle in the pond 
for a time after applying the day. keeping 
the clay wet while the cattle are yarded 
there, and letting them tramp it. 
The banks are better with a clay core 
built up through their center, but with a 
pond as shallow as this (2(4 feet) it is 
probably that the day lining of the banks 
would lie satisfactory, provided they are 
kept covered with water to prevent crack¬ 
ing. The pond must not he allowed to 
dry out after putting in this lining, or 
the shrinkage cracks resulting will destroy 
its water-holding properties, and it will 
have to he again puddled Loss from sur¬ 
face evaporation may he lessened some¬ 
what by planting willows around the 
banks, which will shield the surface from 
wind, and if the banks are eroded by wave 
action, a boom made from old rails may 
he staked about three feet from the bank, 
which will break the force of the waves. 
A three-inch lining of concrete, reinforced 
with wire, is sometimes used, but is, of 
course, quite expensive. Methods of wa¬ 
terproofing are described iu California 
Station bulletin, which can be obtained 
on application to the director. T. F. 
Hunt, Berkeley. Oal. K. H. S. 
Power from Brook 
I have a brook that runs through my 
farm, with grist mill about a mile above. 
I have quite a good place to build a dam, 
and can get from nine to 10 feet fall from 
top of dam to a point 100 ft. below’; have 
plenty of water when they grindstream 
runs about a 10-in. pipe full when not 
grinding. What would be the best, a tur¬ 
bine. over or undershot wheel, and what 
horsepower could I get? I want power 
to grind feed aud give «4eetric light. 
Would 1 be able to get 12 or 15 horse¬ 
power? O. B. F. 
Oxford. N. J. 
Water does work by reason of its 
weight aud position, it does work by fall¬ 
ing. If passed through a perfect machine 
a weight of one ton of water falling 10 
feet would raise au equal weight of any 
other substance an equal distance, there¬ 
fore to he able to find the horsepower that 
a given stream will develop it is necessary 
to know the weight of water flowing past 
a given noiut in a given time, and the dis¬ 
tance through which it drops, or the 
"head,'’ as it is called. To find the 
weight discharged in a given time the 
volume must be known and to find the 
volume the velocity of the stream dis¬ 
charged as well as the area must be 
known. In the ease above the area of 
the stream discharged, or factors enabling 
the area to he’ determined, have been 
given. You say it will fill a 10-in. pipe, 
hut velocity is not given, leaving uo way 
to determine accurately the quantity of 
water supplied by the stream. There are 
several ways of doing this, one being to 
•lam the stream temporarily aud measure 
the depth of water flowing over an open¬ 
ing of known size, called a weir, and from 
these measurements the volume of the 
stream may be determined from tables 
which are gladly supplied by water-wheel 
companies. This method is applicable to 
small streams such as the above, or a 
section may he chosen wfiere the size of 
the stream bed is comparatively uniform, 
and a chip or other light object timed as 
it floats a known distance down the 
stream. This will give roughly the veloc¬ 
ity. and if multiplied by the area of cross 
section of the stream, obtained by approxi¬ 
mate measurements, the volume of water 
discharged in a given time may be roughly 
determined. 
As I understand your case you would 
have a widely varying amount of water 
for driving your wheel. At times when 
the mill above was running a good quan¬ 
tity would be available, and when that 
was shut down aud the water impounded, 
the supply would he much less. Under 
these conditions it is probable that an 
overshot wheel would he found the most 
satisfactory, as it adjusts itself best to 
such conditions The undershot wheel is 
very wasteful of power, and should uot 
be used where there is sufficient head for 
another type or where the saviug of water 
is any object. 
As to the power that might be secured 
I cannot say, because as stated I have 
not the amount of water available. If, 
however, the equipment put iu was equal¬ 
ly efficient with that In the mill above, 
the power developed at the two places, 
when both were running, should be near¬ 
ly proportional to the head at each place. 
Stated in the form of a proportion it 
would be as follows: Mill head, farm 
head; as mill power, farm power; or mul¬ 
tiplying the head obtainable at the farm 
by the horsepower developed at the mill 
and dividing the product by the head of 
water used at the mill would give the 
power that might be expected from the 
farm installation. This is, of course, go¬ 
ing on the assumption that there are no 
streams emptying into this brook between 
your proposed installation and the mill. 
It would seem that the power was well 
worth developing, if only for electric 
service alone, as water power where it 
can he utilized makes a very cheap de¬ 
pendable power. n. n, s. 
Barn Plan 
I have a barn 30x50 ft. which I wish 
to place on a basement. Would like it ar¬ 
ranged so as to tie up 12 cows and 12 
young stock, including calves and a bull. I 
would like room for five horses partitioned 
off from cows; can build on a bent 12 or 
15 ft. if need be. _ I would like it done in 
the most economical way. f. i,. rr. 
Holland, N. Y. 
The size of your barn does not corre¬ 
spond well with the number of cattle that 
you wish to house in it; assuming, how¬ 
ever, that you will have a clear space 28x 
48 ft. between walls and can build on a 
15x15 ft. addition, the following plan will 
give a convenient arrangement for 13 
S' Door 
head of mature stock, seven head of young 
cattle, and as many calves as you can 
tuck around in the corners. It would 
be better to extend the addition 2 ft. so as 
to permit of 6-in. partitions between horse 
stalls without reducing their indicated 
width in the clear. I should prefer, also, 
15-in. to 12-in. gutters, but the latter, if 
quite deep, will answer the purpose. I 
should dislike to reduce the width of 
either the 5-ft. feeding floor in front of the 
cattle stanchions or the S-ft. driveway be¬ 
hind them, or to dispense with at least 
one box stall. Neither should I like au 
alley behind the horses so narrow as to 
make it necessary to crowd the heels of 
other horses when leading one from his 
stall. Standing platforms for cows should 
be from 4 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. in length, ac¬ 
cording to size of cows, and from 3 to 4 ft. 
in width. Jerseys or young cattle of the 
larger breeds need less room than mature 
Holsteins. This plan permits access to 
all the cattle from the rear and the driv¬ 
ing of a manure spreader or wagon 
through the stable between gutters, au 
arrangement generally accepted as most 
convenient. m. b. d. 
Tobacco Following Corn 
It is a common belief that tobacco 
does not do well following corn. Can 
you tell me what corn takes out of the 
soil that tobacco needs, or what it leaves' 
in the soil that is detrimental to it? I 
have a piece of laud which was pasture 
until last Spriug (about 1 y 2 acres) wheu 
I planted to Hint corn, and grew a fine 
crop. Last October I plowed in about 
40 tons of horse manure and intend to 
plant to broadleaf tobacco this year. I 
use a commercial fertilizer without 
potash. Can you tell me how to over¬ 
come the trouble? f. g. s. 
Rockville, Conn. 
I have seen tobacco do exceptionally 
well after corn, and I should not let the 
mentioned tradition influence me. With 
40 tons of horse manure to the acre you 
will fully make up any deficiency iu 
plant food which the corn may have 
caused. You cannot, however, expect to 
raise the finest quality of tobacco on soil 
which lias been so recently iu old pasture. 
It needs several years of thorough tillage 
to bring land into the best condition for 
tobacco growing. s. u. 1 .. 
"Do vor favor a league of nations?’’ 
"Yes,’’ replied the baseball fan. “But I 
doubt whether all the nations can get 
into one league. There always has to be 
a few minor leagues for the development 
of talent.”—Washington Star. 
'Mamma, have I any children?” asked 
six-year-old Dorothy. “Of course not, 
dear. What do you mean?” “Well, the 
preacher. spoke in church this morning 
about children’s children, and I wondered 
if T had any.”—Dallas News. 
