“Pff R l' R A L NEW-YORKER 
^iir. but t<> ii pale. greenish .yellow taste- 
Fly Poison 
How is liy poison made t'l-om formal¬ 
dehyde? i*. m. it. 
Marathon. X. V. 
Add to slightly sweetened water about 
three drops per teaspoonfnl of the <-om- 
mereial formaldehyde and let il stand 
where the flies can drink, taking cave 
that there is no other liquid standing 
around for them. They drink and die. 
and tin' stall' is quite harmless to ani¬ 
mals. including mankind. Hut the flies 
do not die at once; this is the only weak 
point. They die indefinitely and drop 
wherever they happen to be. so you are 
likely to have casual dead flies dropping 
here and there for the next day or so. 
Hu I it is one of the best fly exterminators 
nevertheless. 
Traps in Soil Pipe 
The closet bowl and sink drain leading 
lo my septic tank both have traps. AVi 11 
if be necessary to put a trap in the soil 
pipe also? F. A. s. 
Brookton. N. Y. 
Perhaps not absolutely necessary, but 
this is generally done, and required in 
towns having building rules, so that there 
seems to be good reason for it. The pur¬ 
pose is to insure a large water seal ; the 
smaller ones you mention may go dry or 
he sucked out at times. 
Perpetual Motion 
What is meant by ‘’perpetual motion?" 
Has a reward ever been offered for a 
solution of flu* problem? w. ( . t.. 
Leroy. X. Y. 
It is a little hard to define the non¬ 
existent. and a recent mathematical visi¬ 
tor has been trying to tell us that, after 
all. time may he merely relative speed, 
so we will begin by sidestepping the term 
‘‘perpetual.” In general, this phrase has 
been used to indicate a motion which did 
not show any signs of lessening while 
under the observation of a competent in¬ 
vestigator and to which no outside mo¬ 
tion was added. The simplest case, and 
the case which must be solved first, is 
that of a pendulum, which, started, con¬ 
tinues to swing at the same rate through 
the same space. 
Hut even in Ibis case we assume that 
the force we call “gravity” is a constant ; 
if if lessened, the pendulum will quit, 
anyhow: if it increased, it will sneed up. 
The reason that no scheme of this sort 
will or possibly can work is that, starting 
with an initial amount of force, we can¬ 
not avo : d expending some of it in unre¬ 
coverable ways. The main loss is what 
we name, without understanding it. 
“friction.” A pendulum, to stick to our 
simplest case, must have something to 
swing on. even if we could swing it in a 
perfect vacuum (never yet obtained on 
a large scale), and the points, or knife 
edges of the bearing, are going to use up. 
as friction, or as heat, which is the form 
in which friction uses motion, just a little 
of rile force of the swing at every beat. It 
may be very little indeed, but if it is any 
at all it will finally stop the swing. In 
practice, however, it is the air resistance 
which is the main source of stoppage. 
And the more complex the machine, the 
sooner it will quit, no matter how pretty 
it looks on paper. The case is hopeless, 
but there is one born every minute who 
thinks, at some time in his life, that it 
is not. We do not know if a reward has 
ever been offered : maybe there has been : 
the money is quite safe. The best, thing 
for an experimenter along this line to 
begin ou is to go out in the back yard 
and practice lifting himself by his own 
bootstraps. 
Gray Whitewash 
I wish to .color whitewash light gray 
with lampblack, for use on the outside of 
farm buildings. How can I mix in the 
lampblack? n. v. w. 
Poultney. Vt. 
By damping the lampblack slightly but 
thoroughly with denatured alcohol. It 
will only take a little alcohol, but that 
little must be well mixed in : better let 
the mixture stand over night well covered, 
so the alcohol penetrates every particle. 
You will find that you will only need a 
trace of lampblack to get a marked dark¬ 
ening. Better try the first lot you mix 
on the field side of the buildings. 
Ill-flavored Salt Park 
Last Fall we put some pork down in 
salt, hv advice of a friend, and we now 
find that, while it looks all right, there 
is a bad taste when we cook it. What 
can be done to bring it back? 
MRS. m. tj s. 
Nothing. Throw if away. You evi¬ 
dently failed to kill some sort of putre¬ 
factive germ, and you stand a good 
chance of being very sick if you try to 
eat it. 
Cider Fails to Form Vinegar 
Cider which we and others put aside for 
vinegar last Fall has not turned to vine¬ 
less liquid. Wlmt can be done for it? 
r. j. 
There is no cure, as some stray germ 
has got in there and eaten up your sugar, 
alcohol and yeast also, no doubt. Don't 
use the barrels for cider this Fall without 
thorough sterilization by sulphur fumes. 
Cleaning Marble Tombstones 
Would you give a good way to clean 
marble tombstones—those that have been 
somewhat weather stained? mks. i.. o. 
Calais. Me. 
Just as we have recently advised for 
granite ones, use a rather strong lye and 
plenty of elbow grease and patience. Of 
course an acid, diluted, can be used on 
marble, but that takes off the upper layer 
of the stone and leaves it all the more 
ready to discolor. A cheap scrub brush 
can be used in the lye solution, if you 
cannot get a wire brush, and it will last 
for a time. A very good brush, if you 
have the patience to make it. can be 
made from a half-inch hickory stick, one 
end of which is split repeatedly about - 
in. down. Have at hand plenty < f fresh 
water, in case some of the lye splashes 
on your skin. 
Wallpaper Blisters When Varnished 
I put a paper of good quality on my 
kitchen wall, let it dry. sized it with glue, 
let it dry. varnished it with dammar, two 
coats. Now it appears blistered and 
pitted. What i« the trouble? w. s. it. 
Wilkinsburg. )*a. 
The paper you used already had a 
w a ter-in soluble, water-impervious coat. 
Over this you put a water-soluble, water- 
pervious coat. glue, -and over that another 
water-insoluble but hot-water impervious 
coat, dammar. The result was that even 
traces of moisture entered the glue coat 
and swelled it. and then evaporated, and 
this process was no doubt often repeated. 
The last state of that paper is beyond 
hope. Better take ii off. get another good 
kitchen paper, and put it on as best you 
can. Then leave it alone, and it should 
last several years. Xo paper can possihl,'. 
last forever in the kitchen. If you must 
“do something" give the new paper a coal 
of one of the water-resisting varnishes 
now so widely advertised. 
Welding 
In reply to M.. who wishes for in¬ 
formation. I would say use common borax 
for welding. Iron and "machine steel" 
(low carbon steel) can be welded with 
care. Tool steel is difficult to weld, even 
by an expert. Many repairs can be better 
done by brazing than by welding. Broken 
parts of iron or steel may be wired to¬ 
gether with iron wire, including a strip 
of sheet brass, or brass wire may be 
wrapped around to supply the “mending" 
stuff. Sprinkle thick with borax, lay on 
a clear forge fire, and when the borax 
fluffs up and melts into clear drops the 
brass will soon melt and run. A large 
farm can well afford to own or rent an 
oxy-acetylene welding outfit, by which 
many repair jobs can be done, oven in the 
field, often without taking down the parts 
to be repaired. engineer. 
Gravity of Storage Battery 
Why do tin- directions for a storage 
battery give the gravity as 1.2<> at 100 
degrees, 1 .‘2.1 at 70 degrees, and Li? 4 at 
40 degrees? i„ m. 
Shelton. Wash. 
Probably to allow for the increased 
solubility of the lead salts in the dilute 
acid at higher temperatures. The bat¬ 
tery men about here also ignore the tem- 
peratu res. 
Mr. Hiram Fusser on Farm Papers 
This letter is a bare recital of facts, not 
of fancies and opinions. It is now 17 
years that I have been reading Tut: 
lU’itvi. New-Yorker, owing to the insti¬ 
gation of Mr. Hi wood Robinson, my neigh¬ 
bor. I swear that the facts as stated be¬ 
low are not to be tak“n ,-is an impeach¬ 
ment of Mr. Robinson, who is a country 
gentleman and an excellent farmer. 
I remember well the first day Tin: R. 
N.-Y. came into our household and my 
perusal of if before the family fireside. 
I recall the exact words 1 said to my wife. 
They were: “My dear, this is a farming 
journal, but it reminds me of the play of 
‘Hamlet’ with the part of Ham el left 
out. because one of the actors has a cold. 
There is not a ‘Wild West’ story in it 
from start to finish. I have looked care¬ 
fully in it for matters relating to farming, 
and I do not find a single piece of melo¬ 
dramatic fiction from cover to cover, not 
a serial, not even a short story. I had 
hoped to be enlightened about agricul¬ 
tural practices, but 1 do not find in its 
pages a single article booming the re¬ 
sources of Patagonia and setting forth 
the progress of real estate speculation in 
that territory. I have studied its pages 
for items of interest to the farmer, and 
there is not even a joke column in it. 
< >ne would think that if the editor is, too 
busy to furnish a joke column he might 
at least equip tin' office hoy with shears 
and toll him to make a joke column. 1 
have a notion to write to the editor about 
if." 
"Don’t you do it." -aid my wife. “You 
might hurt his feelings." 
Well, to make a long story short, it Inis 
gone on that way now for 17 years. Fvert 
week I have examined The it. X.-Y. for 
advice in farmin' 1, and never once in all 
that time have I run across any letters 
of a retired banker to his niece in Aus¬ 
tralia. I have looked to its illustrations 
in particular to help in the understanding 
of its descriptive matter, and I never yet 
have found a single picture showing me 
how to wear hay in my hair. 
Now I would not write to you about 
this if I did not have positive orders from 
my physician. Day before yesterday he 
gave me a thorough overhauling. He said 
to me: “It is not enough for you to run 
this farm. Y'ou must reach out into the 
universe more, or I cannot tell what your 
health will become.” 
That is why I have taken up the pen 
for the first time to write to you in 17 
years. 
_ When I first began reading The R. 
X.-Y. I did not have a hair on the top 
of my head. You can imagine my ex¬ 
treme mortification at the fact, that in 
these li years an entire crop of hair has 
grown on my scalp. The agony, I suffer 
when compelled to raise my hat and ex¬ 
pose my hair to the public only one can 
imagine who has endured such a mortifi¬ 
cation as I have. I can lay it to nothing 
hut enforced abstinence from tin* wear and 
tear of hair-lifting fiction. 
One last word of remonstrance and I 
am done. Like other farmers. I have 
added in my holdings of agricultural land 
from time to time and I now own all told 
17!) acres, but never once have I read in 
your columns how an up-to-date 100.000 
acre farm is conducted. Hoping that you 
will not construe my remarks as in any 
way a reflection on Mr. Robinson, wlio 
urged me to subscribe. I am. yours very 
truly. HIRAM ET7SSKR. 
Virginia. 
“'I’ll ere." said an old crony to a friend 
whom he was showing the sights of a 
Scottish town, “that is the statue of 
I’aillie Blank.” “Is it no’ a guid hit big¬ 
ger than life-size, though?" queried the 
other. “< )h ! ay, it’s a’ that, hut it’s no’ 
a hit bigger than the Baillic thoelit liim- 
sel\" Tit Bits. 
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Town , beat* . 1 
