1424 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 4, 1920 
a 
NEPONSET ROOFS 
In the long run Bird’s 
Neponset Paroid is the cheapest 
roofing to use 
Twenty years without a single repair 
is not an unusual record for a Paroid 
Roof. • 
That’s why we say that Paroid is 
the cheapest roofing to use. 
Paroid comes in natural gray. Every 
roll complete, with nails and cement. 
If your dealer does not carry Paroid we 
will ship direct to you. 
Bird & Son, inc. (Established 1795) East Walpole, Mass. 
It is EASY 
to BLAST stumps 
Atlas Farm Powder is prepared especially for 
the use of inexperienced farmers who wish to do 
their own blasting. It is as easy to use as the 
ordinary “gas” engine. Theodore Drake, 
Prattsburg, N. Y., writes regarding his first ex¬ 
perience with it: 4 
"After readine your book. ‘Better I-'armine,’ 1 am fully 
convinced of the value of explosives for farm work. I blew 
out some old apple tree stumps and smashed a rock with 
Atlas Farm Powder, though I had never shot any dynamite 
before.” 
You, too, will be able to use Atlas Farm Powder 
successfully after you read the directions in 
“Better Farming with Atlas Farm Powder.” 
It tells how to remove stumps, blast ditches, 
smash boulders, plant trees and increase yields 
by subsoiling. Write for this book. It is free. 
Atlas Powder Company 
Division RN1, Philadelphia, Penna. 
Dealers everywhere Magazine near you 
Farm Mechanics 
Trouble with Ram 
We have a hydraulic ram which has 
been furnishing water for two households 
and some farm stock for 10 years. It 
still runs, but throws a very little water. 
We get no satisfaction in talking to deal¬ 
ers or in writing to the manufacturer. 
The water is taken from a stream, and 
more or less roily water passes through 
it, and has worn it some. N. w. B. 
West Shokan, N. Y. 
As no particulars are given as to the 
make and its performance other than the 
statement that it furnishes very little 
water, only general directions concerning 
the location of the trouble can be given. 
1. See that the drive pine is perfectly 
free and clear, so that it has as large an 
opening through it as it did at the time 
of installation. Under some conditions a 
growth or deposit takes place within the 
pipe, incrusting it so that the effective 
diameter is lessened and the flow of water 
through it retarded. The same effect is 
sometimes brought about by the collection 
of debris, or a growth over the strainer 
at the intake of the drive pine, where 
such a strainer is used. The condition 
of the interior of the drive pipe can be 
judged somewhat by holding the "im¬ 
petus” valve—the valve .where the water 
gushes out—open and noting whether the 
water spurts out in the quantity that it 
would were the pipe clean. A long, stiff 
wire may be used in cleaning the pipe if 
such a cleaning is found necessary. 
2. The “impetus” valve may be worn 
or defective, not seating tightly or bind¬ 
ing in the guides. Test it by holding it 
closed and noting whether the water still 
escapes around it when closed. Test to 
see that it works freely. To work prop¬ 
erly it should close tightly and quickly—■ 
it should close with a snap. Due to the 
roily condition of the water noted, this 
valve may be worn, and if it does not 
meet the above conditions, it should be 
replaced with a new one or repaired until 
it functions properly. It is also possible 
that the adjustment of this valve has 
been changed or tampered with, and its 
stroke shortened. This would cause it to 
make rapid pulsations, at the same time 
using less water and delivering a smaller 
quantity at the house.. Adjust until it 
makes long, regular pulsations, if there is 
plenty of water to drive it. 
3. The check valve beneath the air-bell 
may be worn, or a small piece of foreign 
material lodged under it. preventing its 
complete closing, and permitting the es¬ 
cape of some of the water in the bell back 
into the ramming chamber. The con¬ 
dition of this valve may be determined by 
removing the air-bell. 
4. The service pipe leading from the 
ram to the house may be eaten through 
by rust, permitting the escape of some 
of the water pumped before it reaches the 
house. This condition would be indicated 
by a wet section along the line of the 
service pipe. 
The above points are mentioned as pos¬ 
sible locations of trouble, and in search¬ 
ing for trouble in this particular case they 
would be taken up in the order given. 
B. H. S. 
Wood Preservatives 
What kind of wood preservative should 
be used for the sills of icehouse, and how 
should it be applied? G. B. 
New York. 
So-called decay of wood is the result 
of a low form of plant growth which takes 
place within the timber as a result of 
infection from some exterior source. This 
growth, which feeds upon the fibers of 
the timber and weakens them, like other 
plants, has to have certain congenial 
conditions in order that it may live and 
grow. Warmth, moisture and food must 
he present to induce the growth of the 
decay-producing organisms. Wood that 
is kept dry or wood that is constantly 
saturated does not furnish a suitable 
feeding ground, and is. therefore, prac¬ 
tically immune from decay. This fact is 
evidenced by the life of timber when kept 
dry, as in the interior of a house, or 
where kept saturated, as in a bridge foun¬ 
dation. Another condition that prevents 
the growth of this organism is a poison¬ 
ing of its food supply. 
From the above has been evolved two 
general methods of combating wood de¬ 
cay. One is to so protect the wood by 
saturating it with oil or covering it with 
paint or varnish-like material, that it is 
impervious to water and does not, there¬ 
fore. furnish sufficient moisture to permit 
the growth of the decay-producing fungi, 
and the other is to impregnate the wood 
fibers with a strong chemical which is 
noisonous to it. Unless the second method 
uses a poison in the nature of an oil if 
is likely to be dissolved from the wood 
in a short time, and leave it subject to 
infection from the fungi. The creosote 
oils have been found to make perhaps the 
most satisfactory preservatives for wood. 
Being in the nature of an oil. they pro¬ 
tect in both of the ways mentioned—they 
act as a waterproof filler for the wood 
and are also poisonous to the fungi. 
Moreover, they are very penetrative, and 
are not easily washed out, so that their 
effect is quite lasting. An oil of this na¬ 
ture is used extensively by the govern¬ 
ment. 
As to method of application, about the 
oiriy method open to the farmer is by 
means of a brush. Have the preservative 
hot. the timber dry and apply freely, 
working it well into all cracks and checks 
Companies using quantities of the pre¬ 
servative apply it by means of combined 
pressure and vacuum processes, which se¬ 
cure much greater depth of penertation 
than is possible with a brush. K. ii. s. 
Construction of Icehouse 
This Summer I wish to build an ice¬ 
house measuring 10 ft. high. 20 ft. long 
and 16 ft. wide. The soil is well drained, 
with gravel subsoil. How should the 
floor and foundations be constructed? 
Would you advise me in using stone 
to save concrete? IIow thick should the 
walls be? Is barb-wire a good reinforce¬ 
ment, or what should be used? Would a 
1-4-6 mixture of concrete be too high? 
Is a dead-air space a good factor in a 
wall? How should the door front be 
constructed? r, 
As all that is really required of an ice¬ 
house is that it shall be a structure 
capable of holding an insulating layer of 
sawdust against a mass of ice, it may be 
of the simplest possible construction.’ If 
built of concrete, it need be only a con¬ 
tinuous wall from below the frost line in 
the ground to any desired height. Un¬ 
less roofed this wall supports no other 
pressure than its own weight, and it will 
not be improved by dead-air spaces. A 
thickness of 10 in. in your case will prob¬ 
ably be sufficient, and barbed-wire about 
the corners the only reinforcement needed, 
except in the case of a doorway, which 
should have an iron bar placed in the 
concrete above it. 
The proper proportioning of the con¬ 
crete will depend upon the quality of the 
materials used. A 1-4-6 mixture would 
be very lean and inadvisable unless other 
structures built of the same material's in 
this proportion had demonstrated its suf¬ 
ficiency. In my own vicinity, a 1-2-6 
mixture of cement and bank run sand and 
gravel is commonly used for walls and 
makes a solid structure. Stones freely 
used in such walls save cement. 
A plank frame may be set in the wall 
to form a doorway, or the latter may be 
a continuous opening to the full height 
of the wall, and loose boards put across 
it to retain the sawdust. Unless natur¬ 
ally well drained, the floor should have 
a layer of cinders, gravel or other open 
material placed to carry off the water 
from the melting ice as fast as it forms. 
A roof is unnecessary, but, if used, should 
have open gables to permit of free circu¬ 
lation of air above the ice. m. b. d. 
Motor for Pump 
We have an artesian well 140 ft. deep 
and wish to pump the water with an elec¬ 
tric motor. The jack is backgeared 6 to 1, 
9-in. stroke. The pump cylinder is 2 in. 
in diameter. How strong should the mo¬ 
tor be? w. S. S. 
Palm, Pa. 
The exact power requirement for oper¬ 
ating a pump depends upon a number of 
factors. Among these are the speed at 
which the pump is to be operated (strokes 
per minute), the height to which the 
water is to be lifted above the permanent 
water level in the well, the size and 
length of the horizontal piping through 
which the water is to be forced, as well 
as many other minor factors that need not 
be mentioned here. 
Supposing, however, that your puinp 
jack has a pulley of the proper size to 
give the pump a speed of 40 strokes per 
minute, which is a satisfactory speed, 
and that you are raising the water 110 
ft. While pumping at this rate with a 
2-in. cylinder and a 9-in. stroke it will 
mean that about five gallons, or approxi¬ 
mately 10 lbs., will be lifted to this height 
each minute. Lifting water or any other 
weight at this rate would require an ex¬ 
penditure of about .2 horse power if the 
lifting device were perfect. However, due 
to friction, the slippage of water past 
the valves, etc., it is usual to provide for 
at least double the load, or about one-half 
horse power in this case ; a three-quarter 
horse power motor would be still better. 
If you hove any other use for power, why 
not install a larger motor or engine, and 
use the same motor for all work by means 
of a line shaft? 
When ordering a motor, find ont. the 
voltage of your current supply. whether 
alternating or direct current is furnished, 
and if alternating current is supplied, 
find out the number of cycles per minute 
to insure getting a motor that w r ill oper¬ 
ate satisfactorily. Ir> s - 
f itttt.it. Betty went to visit her grand- 
ther in the country. Just before din- 
• time she discovered that chicken was 
be the principal attraction. Oh. 
ore’d you get the chicken, grandrnoth- 
>” Betty asked, excitedly. 1 11 ttie 
cken yard,” the grandmother replied, 
ou remember the chickens you saw tins 
timing, don’t you?” “Do you mean the 
»s T fed?” “Certainly. Well, we killed 
3 of them.” "Oh, did you? We buy 
r chickens ready made ”—Indianapolis 
