14 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 5, 1924 
Water Supply from Distant Spring 
1. Could I, with a lift pump, secure 
water at the house from a spring that is 
about 20 ft. below the level of the house, 
140 paces away? The spring is at the 
foot of a bank ; no way of getting suffi¬ 
cient fall for a ram. 2. Could 1 use a 
centrifugal pump? What horsepower 
motor would be needed to run it? Elec¬ 
tricity is available. Would %-in. pipe 
be sufficiently large for a small family? 
No stock to speak of, except perhaps 
chickens. Digging well is a very costly 
matter in this section, and I would like 
to get water from spring to house with 
as little expense as possible. F. N. N. 
Mitchellville, Md. 
1. Your statement that the spring is 
“about 20 ft. below the house” does not 
permit giving a definite answer to your 
question. Twenty feet is getting pretty 
near the suction limit for a pump placed 
so far from the source of water, and 
should the distance be greater than you 
expect, as is many times the case when 
estimating a slope, the pump will fail to 
work. However, if you find by the use 
of a level that the spring is not more than 
20 ft. below the place where the pump 
would be placed, you should be able to 
use a suction pump in the house. 
2. The centrifugal or rotary pump 
would not be as satisfactory-for a house 
water supply as one of the reciprocating 
type, as they are not adapted to the in¬ 
termittent service required of a house 
pump. As you have electric current 
available, and only a limited quantity of 
water is needed, I would suggest the use 
of one of the-automatic systems driven 
by an electric motor. These are so ar¬ 
ranged that a switch is closed when the 
pressure on the water line is released by 
the opening of a faucet. This starts the 
motor and pumps water fresh from the 
spring or well as long as the faucet is 
kept open. When the faucet is closed 
and pressure in the water pipe again re¬ 
stored, the switch is again opened and 
the motor and pump stopped. This makes 
a very satisfactorw outfit for home use. 
A %-in. pipe would doubtless furnish you 
with sufficient water, but because of the 
distance from the spring to the house it 
would be better to use a larger one to 
reduce the resistance to flow to the lowest 
point possible. The size of the suction 
pipe on the pump used would guide you 
in this. Because of the distance it might 
be better to use a pipe at least size 
larger than the suction coupling on the 
pump. 
Keeping Ice Without an Icehouse 
Can ice be kept other than in a special¬ 
ly built icehouse? I shall need about six 
tons of ice next Summer, and I have no 
way to store it. I cannot build an ice¬ 
house this year. 1 have a hole in the 
ground about 14x14, 4 ft. deep in the 
back and 2 ft. deep in the front, with the 
earth from this hole thrown up around 
the edge. I have several dozen poles and 
about three tons of hay. (Hay has been 
spoiled and cannot be used for anything 
but bedding or packing.) Do you think 
I can use this material to keep ice over 
the Winter? The hole is in a grove of 
trees on a side hill. J. v. l). 
Copake Falls, N. Y. 
Ice can be kept in almost any kind of 
a place, the only condition, of course, be¬ 
ing the prevention of the entrance of 
heat. Heat is carried to the ice pile by 
means of air and water, as well as by 
the sun’s rays, so the storage should pre¬ 
vent to a certain extent the entrance of 
rain water from the top and sides of the 
pile, or the passage of air currents down 
through it. Of the common materials, 
dry planer shavings and sawdust make 
the best packing for ice, as they make a 
porous covering which entraps much air, 
an excellent non-conductor of heat when 
circulation is prevented, and at the same 
time this covering does not permit the 
passage of air to the pile to circulate 
through it. Marsh hay, straw, evergreen 
branches, etc., can also be used, but a 
thicker covering is needed. 
It is doubtful if the ice will keep any 
better in the hole that you speak of than 
it would properly protected on the sur¬ 
face. Prepare a level surface in a shady, 
well-drained location, and lay down a 
mat of marsh hay 2 ft. or more thick. 
Sawdust or shavings should be used if ob¬ 
tainable. and need not be laid so deep. 
Pile the ice tightly in the form of a cube, 
and pack chinks with snow and water as 
the pile is made, so that there are no air 
passages through the pile. With the 
poles build a pen around the ice pile, and 
cover over the top and sides with the 
hay. Be particularly careful to see that 
the hay is well packed at the bottom, 
around the sides, to prevent an air leak 
here. The top should be covered suffi¬ 
ciently thick to cause the rain to run off. 
If a rough roof of old boards can be add¬ 
ed, so much the better. While not very 
convenient to get ice from, it can be kept 
in this arrangement very well, the whole 
secret being the use of plenty of insulat¬ 
ing material to keep the heat out. 
Cement for Cellar Floor 
I understand that lime, cement, sand 
and salt will make a waterproof floor for 
a cellar. Can you inform me of exact 
proportions for mixing the above? Also 
information about mixing concrete prop¬ 
erly would be greatly appreciated. F. N. 
Cape May Court House, N. J. 
I am not familiar with the formula 
that you send for a watertight mixture, 
but would not recommend it. Water- 
tightness in concrete is secured by mak¬ 
ing a dense concrete with the least pos¬ 
sible proportion of voids or pore spaces 
in it. It is through these that the water 
passes. The addition of a greater pro¬ 
portion of cement when making up the 
concrete is one of the best waterproofing 
materials. The Portland Cement Asso¬ 
ciation recommends for a single course 
cellar floor a 4-in. slab of concrete mixed 
in the proportion of one bag of cement, 
2 cu. ft. of clean, well-graded sand, and 
3 cu. ft. of clean gravel which has been 
run over a %-in. mesh screen and the 
sand removed. The sand and cement are 
mixed thoroughly dry until of an even 
gray color, showing no bands or streaks, 
which denote uneven mixing. The re¬ 
quired quantity of stone is then added 
and mixed with the sand and cement. 
Finally the water is added slowly in 
known quantities, and the material mixed 
with shovel or hoes until it has a mud 
pie consistency and will stand in a mound 
when piled up. but water^(11 flush to the 
surface slightly when the mound is pat¬ 
ted. By measuring the quantity of water 
needed to bring the first batch to the re¬ 
quired consistency, following batches can 
be made the same. The concrete is then 
shoveled into the floor forms and worked 
with a garden rake to compact it and 
make it as dense as possible. The top is 
finished with a wood float or trowel. If 
there is likelihood of water rising above 
the floor, the floor should be sealed to the 
side walls with a tar joint. This can be 
done by using a wedge-shaped strip of 
wood as two or more clapboards, between 
the floor and the wall, and removing 
them before the concrete hardens. The 
space left is then filled with hot tar or 
asphalt. Where there is no danger from 
water a lighter floqr and one made from 
a leaner mixture, one carrying less ce¬ 
ment, can be used. 
Electric Motor for Churn 
I have an eight-gallon barrel churn. 
What size electric motor, using 25-cycle, 
110-volt, is required for operating this 
churn? Is it necessary to have a variable 
speed motor? This churn is pivoted in a 
frame and run by reciprocal pump handle 
connected to wanks on churn. How can 
I best connect motor to this churn? At 
what speed should the churn be run? 
What would a proper motor cost? 
Hulberton. N. Y. butter-maker. 
A % to % horsepower motor is suffi¬ 
ciently large for running your churn. 
The churn can best be operated by belting 
from the motor to a pulley placed on the 
churn. It would probably be necessary 
to place a countershaft between the motor 
and the churn to reduce the speed suffi¬ 
ciently. No doubt the motor will run 
somewhere around 2,000 r.p.m., while the 
churn should be run from 40 to 60 turns 
per minute. A motor with a variable 
speed is not necessary, as the belt can be 
arranged to slip when starting the churn. 
A small motor can be purchased for 
about $20. There is, however, on the 
market a utility motor mounted on a 
three-legged base, and carrying a back- 
geared belt wheel which is designed for 
just such work, churning, turning the 
grindstone, fanning mill or washing ma¬ 
chine. This outfit sells for about $35, 
depending upon location. 
Governor for Ford Engine 
Is there any way of putting a throttle 
governor on a Ford engine? I want to 
use one to saw wood. h. k. 
Kingston, N. Y. 
If the governor is wanted for the trac¬ 
tor engine there are a number of them on 
the market that are easily put in place 
and control the speed well. If the gov¬ 
ernor is desired for the regular Ford en¬ 
gine I do not know of any on the market 
at the present time, although inquiry from 
the factory might bring one to light. A 
fly ball type of governor could be ar¬ 
ranged to operate from the fan belt and 
control the speed by means of a light rod 
extending to the throttle in the manifold. 
As far as use for wood sawing goes, you 
can arrange a coil spring on the throttle 
to close it, the throttle being held open 
by a cord attached to a light lever, corre¬ 
sponding to the throttle on the wheel, 
placed near the operator. With this ar¬ 
rangement the engine’s speed can be con¬ 
trolled, as rhe cord can be run to any 
point most convenient. 
Countrywide Produce Situation 
POTATOES AND SWEET POTATOES ; GIVING 
OUT THE CROP REPORT 
While potatoes have been going down, 
sweet potatoes have been going up. The 
lightness of the name means little in the 
market. At several times in the past half- 
dozen years the sweets have been lower 
than the whites for a considerable part of 
the season. Sometimes they went down 
while the others were going up. Just now 
it is the other way around. Sweets were 
rather short; only a three-quarter crop 
in the four or five States which ship most 
of the city .supply. 
It used to be said that the two classes 
of potatoes move together in the market. 
The facts show that the connection is 
not close. There is enough switching of the 
demand from one to the other to influence 
the market somewhat, but not enough to 
control it. The public will consume some 
sweets even at double the price of the 
others. It wants more of them when they 
are cheap, but will not use sweets only, 
at any price, however low. Southern 
farmers are scoring well in sweet potatoes, 
their fifth great money crop. Sweet 
potatoes are adding to the returns from 
the profitable cotton, tobacco, ‘sugar and 
peanut crops. 
CROP REPORT DAY 
Once a month, the Division of Crop 
Estimates at Washington directs a short 
but lively little play called by jokers, 
“Giving Out the Dope.” The visitor who 
happens along at the l'ight time may look 
into the large room where things happen. 
There a dozen or so reporters stand poised 
ready to spring for one of the telephones 
hung along the sides of the room. The 
newspaper men are surrounded by a chalk 
line which they must not cross before 
2:15. precisely, when the signal is given. 
Each man is handed a typewritten copy 
of the production estimate in cotton, 
wheat or whatever it may be. “Stand 
back of the line!” calls the assistants. 
“Now, go!” snaps the man in charge. 
Each reporter rushes to a phone and tries 
to get central office ahead of the rest, 
“bang!” goes the flashlight of some news 
photographer. 
In a few minutes the papers in New 
York, Boston and Chicago have the figures 
ready to print. Almost as soon some of 
the radio stations are shooting out the 
news to thousands of radio families and 
radio-owning farmers in the back country. 
There is small chance these days for deal¬ 
ers to get ahead of growers so far as the 
market is based on official crop reports. 
After the last cotton report which showed 
quite an increase in production, the mar¬ 
kets declined sharply, having apparently 
been taken by surprise. Yet, if the 
dealers had studied the official semi¬ 
monthly crop notes and the reports is¬ 
sued by the various cotton States, it would 
have been easy to foretell just about 
what the monthly report would be. But 
the dealers watch for these monthly esti¬ 
mates. and the idea of all these precau¬ 
tions is to prevent some speculator getting 
the news in advance of the rest of the 
public. 
The surprise of the final crop estimate 
in December was the shrinkage in the 
potato total by over 4.000,000 bushels. 
The price went up a little in Maine when 
the news came out, and the general tone 
of the market became a trifle better. The 
tremendous increase of existing boxed 
apples in cold storage during the month 
was not very happy news for the apple 
trade. G. B. f. 
The Panama Canal Record states that 
many large shipments of fresh fruit are 
being dispatched from North Pacific Coast 
ports to Europe through the Panama 
Canal, practically all vessels in this serv¬ 
ice equipped with refrigerating installa- 
lations being loaded to their capacity. 
What is reported as the largest single 
shipment of apples from any Northern 
Pacific Coast port was carried by the 
steamship Narenta of the Royal Mail 
Steam Packet Company, which transited 
the canal on December 19 with 125,000 
boxes of apples laden at Portland, Ore., 
for discharge at British ports. The Na¬ 
renta carried a carge of 4,854 tons, in 
which were 3.732 tons of fresh fruits and 
640 tons of canned fruits. The steamship 
has 25 insulated cargo chambers, with a 
total refrigerated capacity of 436,000 
cubic feet. 
The Story of the Kieffer Pear 
It seems natural enough that in America, the “melting pot of civilizations,” 
there should have been fused the blood of two distinct species of pears into 
a hybrid pear, the Kieffer. The one, the European pear, is familiar to all 
as the pear commonly cultivated for dessert use, and which includes Bart¬ 
lett, Seckel, Clapp Favorite, and a thousand more. The other species, the 
Chinese Sand pear, so-called from the coarse, gritty nature of its flesh, is of 
Oriental origin, arriving on these shores some hundred years ago. Whether 
it first reached this country by way of Europe, or directly and in a more 
romantic way through seed found in the returned trunk of a boy who never 
reached home alive from a trip through the Orient, will never be known. 
Suffice it to say that in America these two species of pears are found and 
that about 1855 Peter Kieffer of Roxborough, Pa., planted seed from a 
Chinese Sand pear tree growing in his yard and generally considered to have 
been pollinated by a Bartlett tree nearby, from which the original Kieffer 
tree sprang. Thus it is that in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, credited 
as the birthplace of the Seckel pear, the quintessence of delicacy, originated 
the Kieffer pear, considered by some as a Judas among pears. 
Possibly no other pear has been so loudly praised and yet so roundly 
cursed. For years after its introduction there were bitter battles waged 
over the blight-proof character of the tree and the high quality of the fruit. 
But now that the smoke has cleared away and the issue is less befogged by 
violent discussion, the virtues and faults of the Kieffer can be more intelli¬ 
gently discussed. 
The large-sized, symmetrical, oval fruits, clear yellow in color, and often 
blushed on the side next the sun, are attractive to the eye, but the coarse, 
granular, though juicy, yellowish-white flesh is so lacking in flavor that it is 
rated by the palate as “poor in quality.” For culinary use, however, Kieffer 
has virtues often forgotten or overlooked, for when canned its firm, white 
flesh is attractive and pleasing. There are rumors from time to time of 
Kieffer pears shipped to other countries to return in cans marked “Bart¬ 
lett,” so that perhaps the very man who decries the Kieffer the loudest is 
this moment loud in his praise of a canned Kieffer under the guise of 
“Bartlett.” 
There is no “blight-proof” pear. Kieffer is as blight-resistant as any, 
which amounts in some sections to the same thing as being blight-proof. 
Nurserymen delight in the free, vigorous growth of the trees, a habit that it 
does not cease when in the orchard. It comes into bearing young, is resist¬ 
ant to scale, and bears annually and abundantly. In fact, it is necessary 
to guard against the danger of overbearing, or the reward will be nothing 
but small-sized fruit. 
Because of the vigor of the tree and its tendency to overbear, it has come 
to be the system in sections to stub the trees every year. While this seems 
to be a necessary practice as the tree gets older, it will be found that the 
tree will come into bearing much earlier if it can be left to grow more to 
itself the first few years of its life and then be taken into hand before it gets 
beyond control. As for top-working the Kieffer, generally speaking the 
operation is a failure. Most success has been with very young trees. 
Possibly the chief virtue of the Kieffer pear is its adaptability to a wide 
range, and especially to the warm, dry sections of America, such as the 
South and the Middle West, where the European pear, adapted as it is to 
cool, moist regions, will not thrive. The nature of its seed parent exerts 
itself in its offspring, and the range of pear growing is thereby greatly 
extended. 
In some years, Ivieffers are a glut on the market, but it is noticeable that 
the producer of large-sized, well-matured fruits is neither worried nor 
affected by low markets. Blight has taken a heavy toll from Eastern pear 
orchards in recent years, so that the time may be approaching when a higher 
price will prevai-P generally.' Yet it must be affirmed that where the better 
varieties can be grown it is a mistake to plant the Kieffer. H. B. T. 
