1330 
Fighting Witch Grass in Nova Scotia" 7 " 1 
R. ORMSBEE’S description of killing witch 
grass, or couch grass, as it is known here, 
given on page 1123. was interesting to me, as I have 
had to fight this pest hand to hand. It may he of 
some benefit to others in our latitude to know how 
we have been able to kill out this weed completely 
on our farm. For years everyone in our community 
has used the old way of cultivating, pulling, har¬ 
rowing, raking up and burning, only to give up 
finally on the bad places and seed down. We broke 
up one acre of greensward and planted potatoes in 
order to give a thorough cultivation. Result, we 
hoed and cultivated our hearts out, and at digging 
time you could hardly find the rows, and dug just 
60 bushels of potatoes on that acre. 
Something else evidently had to be done. That 
Fall we plowed it under and next Spring disked it 
twice, then put the spring-tooth harrow on every 
time we saw it start until July 1, when we sowed 
swede turnips in hills. On account of the large 
quantity of dead and dry roots the furrows had to 
be carefully raked off so the seeder would work. 
One hoeing and three cultivations with spike-tooth 
cultivator and the leaves had covered the rows, light 
was excluded, and the couch grass never got started. 
We took GOO bushels off this acre, and today, two 
years after, one cannot find a couch root on this 
plot. We might say rows were put as closely together 
as they could be with a horse, so as to make a close, 
dense covering. Fertilizer was barnyard manure. 
Mr. Ormsbee says roots seldom go below two inches. 
On our soil, a clay loam, it easily goes down four 
inches, but deep plowing, a spring-tooth harrow and 
light exclusion will easily kill it. g. a. holmes. 
Nova Scotia. 
A Feed That Helps Other Feeds 
Absolutely the Best Feed in the World. 
Because: • 
1. It’s a fine feed in itself. 
2. It helps other feeds tremendously. 
3. It keeps stock in good condition. 
Ills starts out a whole lot like an advertise¬ 
ment. but it isn't, because this mysterious feed 
is nothing note. It has been used for years by almost 
everybody, especially by farmers. It can be had from 
hundreds of different sources, and I would not be 
surprised that a great many of the people who are 
reading this are making it, or at least have it on 
hand ready, and some are feeding it. 
Now I'm making this start mysterious because I 
want you to read it. and I know you will not be 
satisfied until you find out. what it is and how it 
can do all this. 
We have all sometime in our life started a fire in 
the kitchen stove, and in doing it we have all seen 
how it helped if we had a little kerosene to put on 
the kindling wood; how it would start our fire 
quicker and with less kindling. Now this kerosene 
to this fire is just the same as this feed to the ration. 
Kerosene is good to burn in itself, and gives a lot 
of heat, but its principal value in starting fires is 
because it helps to burn the other stuff which is less 
combustible, or which it takes longer to start and 
burn. In other words, it’s a good burner itself, and 
it helps other stuff to burn. So does this feed. 
Now here is the secret: This great and wonderful 
feed is nothing but sour milk or buttermilk. Now 
you see that I'm not advertising anything, because 
it's a universal feed, and nobody lias a control over 
it. any more than anyone has a control over corn, 
wheat or any other stock feed. When I say that 
sour or buttermilk to the ration is just the same as 
kerosene to a fire, I mean it—every word of it. They 
are just as much alike in their respective place as 
two peas in a pod. Just as much as kerosene burns 
well and helps burn other stuff, so sour or butter¬ 
milk is an excellent feed in itself, having high feed¬ 
ing compounds, and it actually helps the other feeds 
such as corn, oats and all of them to burn up or to 
digest easier and more thoroughly, so that it makes 
them a more valuable feed. That is not only theory. 
It’s actual facts. Anybody who has fed it knows 
it. if he has fed it properly. 
Here is another thing that will interest you in 
this comparison. When you burn kerosene it all 
burns up. There is but very little left in the way 
of ashes. When sour or buttermilk is digested, there 
is but very little waste. In other words, just as 
kerosene burns up about 100 per cent, so this milk 
digests about 100 per cent, and kerosene at twice or 
three times or more in price per weight is really 
worth a whole lot more than wood or the like, be¬ 
cause you use it all. So it is with milk in feeding. 
You know that in a hot fire things buru u wfiole 
Qht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
lot more thoroughly than in a fire that is just smoul¬ 
dering. Take a log that is only smouldering and 
half the wood is wasted. Get a hot fire then with 
kerosene or something and it leaves but few ashes. 
Sour milk and buttermilk does the same thing in the 
ration. 
Now what do you think of the comparison? But 
there is still another thing: You know that doctors 
often prescribe buttermilk or sour milk for many 
ailments of the digestive tract, and those of us who 
can drink buttermilk know how it helps our diges¬ 
tion. Now why doesn't it help your stock? It. does, 
and a whole lot, too. In just this way: the lactic 
acid in sour or buttermilk helps to clean the digestive 
tract and checks the harmful bacteria in this tract 
from being active in a milder way, just as an anti¬ 
septic such as creolin or iodine does on a sore or 
wound. 
Have I made good my claim that sour or butter¬ 
milk is the one best feed for stockmen, and can the 
stockmen go to too much trouble to get this feed? 
In some places, of course, the price of skim or 
straight buttermilk is almost prohibitive, and in 
others it can’t be had at any price. But more and 
more by-products of this kind of milk are becoming 
available. Some of them of course are no good, or 
at least too much is asked for them in comparison 
to the original material, but a feeder can often get 
good ones reasonable, and he can’t take too much 
trouble to find them. Usually the one that comes 
the nearest to the original stuff is the best, if at the 
right price. 
Buttermilk or sour milk is usually the best fed as 
a beverage, because a more even distribution ' all 
is realized. But it al • mixes well in a wet mash 
or wet feed. The principal thing is to get all you 
can, as cheap as you can. victor g. agbry. 
New Jersey. 
A Few Cider Problems 
I have a waterwl iam< turbine, 
I fixed up last Winter to cut Borne wood and rip. up 
planks and such work. I st.-i ied to fix up mv cider 
mill, and someone ss d pa; 
license. I have a gooi cut vycr to 
it ami a hand press, four good screws. Tuc .frame of 
tlio press is made of timbers about 12x32 inches, ab t 
six foot each way inside. How many bushels of apples 
do you think it would press, and how many gallons of 
cider should a bushel of apples make? How many 
pressings should two men put out in a day? If I can 
press enough with my outfit to be worth while starting, 
would it be possible to go to the farmers and make some 
agreement to bring their apples to me? Could you sug¬ 
gest any other business I could do with my mill to make 
work for myself? I think I can get 10 or 12 horse¬ 
power. My shop is about 30x00 feet, plenty of light, 
lots of hardwood timber close by. w. b. 
Connecticut. 
HERE are questions on the legal status of cider 
that do not seem especially clear, even in the 
minds of our legislators. With the possibility that 
a new ruling or reversal may come in before this is 
published, let me say that I know of no $50 license 
fee for the manufacture of cider. Also that a farmer 
is the judge of what cider he may put away for his 
own use to age into vinegar. No one knows how 
long the present situation will continue. Undoubt¬ 
edly some regulation will take hold of the cider and 
vinegar business. Congress seems reluctant to enact 
any legislation that will fall before the judges. The 
ban on booze will bring near hard cider into the 
limelight, and of course it is an easy certainty that 
some regulation and enforcement will have to be 
made. At the present time I see no obstacle in the 
way of operating a cider mill. 
However, when it comes to selling the product I 
can see many difficulties. In pasteurized sweet Cider 
one will always he perfectly safe, and at the same 
time he will he putting out a most palatable health 
drink, a tonic as well as a nutrient, containing salts 
and acids of special value in the correcting of 
stomach complaints and liver and kidney trouble. 
I predict a great future for pasteurized cider. In 
selling the product simply as eider, not pasteurized, 
there will loom the question of alcoholic content, and 
Ibis brings one in likely contact with the Federal 
prohibition act. In selling the product as vinegar 
it must pass certain standards in order to be legal 
vinegar. These regulations to the layman are so 
obscure'that few merchants care to handle farm 
vinegar, there being a penalty for selling vinegar 
under the legal standard. If the farmer adopts im¬ 
proved devices and installs a generator, insuring 
legal vinegar quickly after the first, fermentation is 
completed, he has nothing to fear, and may bid for 
vinegar patronage in any direction. I mention the 
generator because few farmers are familiar with it, 
their outfit consisting principally of grinder and 
press. As to the equipment in question, two men 
could probably handle 300 bushels of apples per day, 
working off two presses of 50 bushels to the cheese. 
September 13, 1‘J19 
With such equipment the yield would likely he 
around 3 y 2 gallons to the bushel. 
Considered as a commercial venture, the handicap, 
it seems to me, lies in the antiquated press. If the 
operator lias “lots of power” in his water turbine 
it would seem the practical course to put in a modern 
Press. Then, with one extra man, two to take care 
of the cheese and one to look after matters in gen¬ 
eral, it will be possible to increase the capacity from 
three to five times over what can he done with the 
old hand press. At most but two pressings per day 
can be done on an average with two men and the 
old hand press. Ten or 12 horsepower should he 
ample to operate a modern power press. I am not 
saying that headway cannot be made with the 
present outfit, but the newer machines enable one to 
do so much more in a given time that often it is not 
economy to be without them. A most important 
saving in this case is that free power is related to 
the plant, thus making it seem like an ideal spot for 
such equipment. 
A good way to draw trade would be to advertise 
custom grinding, and no doubt your share of the 
business would follow. As to other uses for the mill 
and its power, this would seem to depend largely 
upon a set of local conditions. Apple boxes or 
“shooks” are often bought in carlots by big packers, 
who exact a close price. In good apple districts 
there is a lively demand for bushel crates, three- 
legged stepladders and tall ladders. Crates are also 
a big seller to vegetable growers. a. it. i*. 
Deep Wells; the Earth’s Heat 
S OME months ago we referred to the extreme heat 
at the center of the earth, and the possible use 
which may be made of it in the future. The United 
States Geological Survey gives some figures about 
deep wells. It seems that the deepest wells in the 
world are located in this country. The “Luke” well, 
eight, miles from Fairmont, W. Va., is 7,57!) feet deep, 
while the Goff well, near Clarksburg, in the same 
State, is 7,380 feet. The deepest mine in the world 
is in Houghton County, Mich., where a shaft lias 
been sank 5,200 feet. There are several others more 
than 4,000 feet deep. In regard to sinking these deep 
wells the Geological Survey says: 
The depth to which a mining shaft can be sunk is 
limited by the heat of the rocks, as the temperature at 
a depth of a mile in nearly all parts of the earth is so 
high that workmen cannot live in it, even with ventila¬ 
tion. The depth to which a well six inches in diameter 
can be drilled seems to depend chiefly on skill in drilling 
and strength of cable. The cable itself is heavy, and 
besides carrying its own weight and the weight of a 
drill, which weighs one or two tons, it must bear strains 
produced by vertical movements of the drill, which may 
ho so great as to break it at any moment, so that the 
drill and a part of the cable may he lodged in the well 
in such a way that they cannot he removed. Excep¬ 
tional skill is required, therefore, in operating the pon¬ 
derous machinery used in drilling a well. The drill, 
which is a column of steel about five inches in diameter 
and 40 or 50 feet long, beveled to a V-shaped edge at 
the lower end, is attached to one end of the cable, and 
at some other point, determined by the driller, the cable 
is attached to a long beam, which is operated in the 
same manner as the walking beam of a steamboat. 
Merely to lift the drill through the height determined 
b.v the swing of the end of the walking 'beam and to let 
it drop repeatedly would do no drilling. In order to 
drill, oscillations must be induced in the cable, such as 
those set up by attaching a light weight to a suspended 
rubber band. A slight oscillation properly induced by 
the finger at the upper end of the rubber band wiil 
produce a very large oscillation of the weight attached 
to its lower end. In some such way as this the skillful 
driller produces oscillations in the drill bit. which throw 
the sharp beveled edge of tin* drill on to the rock with 
high velocity. The only means that the driller has of 
knowing the behavior of the drill is the general behavior 
of the machinery and the slight impulses or tremors in 
the cable, which he detects by his hand alone. 
As is well known,- heat increases as we go down 
deeper into the soil, and the following statements 
are made about this: 
The materials and the conditions in the interior of the 
earth have long been a favorite subject of speculation 
among scientific men. According to the modern mathe¬ 
matical theory of the propogation of earthquake 
waves through the earth the outer rocky shell of the 
earth, which is about two and one-half times as heavy 
as water, extends to a depth of less thn 1,000 miles. 
Inside of this shell is some material, probably metallic, 
which is more than five times as heavy as water. 
Estimates of the temperature at the center of this 
nucleus range from 3.000 degrees to 180.000 degrees F., 
but these figures have little or no value, for mathe¬ 
maticians have not yet found the law of the distribution 
of temperature from the surface to the center of the 
earth. The temperature evidently increases with the 
depth a fact again confirmed by an elaborate series of 
observations of temperature made in each of the three 
deep wells, the Geary, the Goff and the Lake, by C. E. 
Van Orstrand. of the United States Geological Survey, 
Department of the Interior. In earn of the wells the 
temperature at a depth of 100 feet is about 55 degrees 
F. and gradually rises with increase in depth. 
The source of the enormous quantity of heat stored in 
the interior of the earth is not known. Some writers 
think this heat is due to the disintegration of radium 
in the rocks, others think that the earth is a cooling 
globe, radiating heat, developed during condensation 
from the original nebula, and others think that it is 
due to various causes, such as radioactivity, chemical 
reactions, impacts from meteorites, or condensation from 
nebulous material. 
