< lht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
659 
We Need Education 
If the wise men in your discussion of the milk situa¬ 
tion, get dairymen together, and I sincerely hope they 
do, who, except the Lord, can keep us together after 
the first referendum on any important question? Too 
many of us say we believe in “majority rule,” but what 
we mean is "my majority.” Anyway keep on educat¬ 
ing us, for we need it. a pooler. 
O UR dairy groups will get together because it is 
the right thing to do. The Lord is always a 
good partner, but He expects the other part of the 
firm to do its part too. Co-operation demands of 
farmers collectively the same degree of daily atten¬ 
tion and prudence and economies that each neces¬ 
sarily gives his other farm problems individually. 
This dairyman perhaps unconsciously hit on the key 
to co-operative unity. The first referendum brings 
unity. Then let us resort to the referendums fre¬ 
quent enough to make the unity permanent. Some 
think majorities'cannot be trusted. They are wrong. 
phosphorus? Dr. Thorne gives quite an elaborate 
answer to the question and goes through experi¬ 
ments which cover 20 years in the production of 
corn, wheat and clover. Briefly stated, the outcome 
shows that the raw phosphate has been used with 
profit, and if there was nothing better to use. it 
practice of adding about 40 lbs. of this acid phos¬ 
phate to each wagonload of manure as it is hauled 
out, is one of the best things which our eastern 
farmers can take up. These results are of peculiar 
interest to us because 10 years ago, we thought it 
very probable that the raw phosphate would prove 
better adapted to our eastern system of farming 
than the acid phosphate. The results obtained by 
Dr. Thorne however, seem to be conclusive. 
Short Stuff 
Cement Mortar for Brick 
Will you tell me how to mix a bucket of cement to 
lay a wall of brick in the windmill pit? I am a widow, 
and cannot hire men to do it, so will do it myself. 
David City, Neb. mrs. a. t. g. 
F you have had no experience as a bricklayer, I 
A California Brush Burner 
T HE pictures of a brush burner here shown are 
taken from Circular 209 of the California Ex¬ 
periment Station at Berkeley. These pictures show 
how the burner is made and how it is used in the 
orchard. As we see it is a fire pan. basket shape, 
mounted on skids and hauled through the orchaid 
with the pruners. Instead of hauling the brush to 
some central place for burning the 
primings are put directly into the 
•burner and thus burned as the outfit 
passes along. The horses are hitched 
to the burner with a long chain, so 
there is no danger of injuring them. 
All sorts of outfits are made for this 
purpose—old tanks, boilers, large pipes 
or culverts, or second-hand sheet iron 
of any sort. The main point is to have 
some fire pan which will hold fire rea¬ 
sonably well, and large enough to take 
in primings of fair size. It usually 
pays to cut the limbs up small enough 
to fit well into the pan. The rest is 
quite easy. 
Brush■ Burner in 
Operation, Burning Fig Prunings. 
Fig. 235 
would be advisable. In practically every case, how¬ 
ever, the net gain from the acid phosphate has been 
considerably greater than that from raw phosphate. 
It seems to be demonstrated that the use of the aci-1 
phosphate does not sour the land as has been 
Acid Phosphate Gives Good 
Results 
O UR older readers will remember 
the discussion 10 years ago or 
more, regarding the use of raw phos¬ 
phate rock as compared with qcid 
phosphate. What is meant by raw 
phosphate is the rock as it comes out 
of the soil, ground to a fine powder. 
This is variously known as floats or 
raw phosphate. What is known as acid 
phosphate is this ground phosphate 
treated with sulphuric acid. This cuts 
or dissolves the phosphate rock and 
makes the phosphate more available. 
It was claimed that when the raw phosphate was 
mixed with manure and plowed under with a crop 
of clover or other organic matter, the raw phos¬ 
phate became slowly available. That is, ferments 
in the manure or in the clover, act slowly to do 
some of the work accomplished by the sulphuric 
acid. On this theory a system of using raw phos¬ 
phate was devised in Illinois, and it attracted con¬ 
siderable attention. The theory was, that a farmer 
by using the ground phosphate might save the cost 
of manufacturing the acid phosphate. He could 
evidently obtain more pounds of phosphorus for $1 
in the ground raw rock, and if it could be made 
available by the processes of nature, a great saving 
would be made. The idea was popular with many, 
and received a very thorough trial, especially in Illi¬ 
nois, where it was strongly advocated by the late 
Professor Hopkins. Very little is heard about this 
now, although we believe that considerable quanti¬ 
ties of the raw rock are still used. Most farmers, 
however, now believe that the acid phosphate is on 
the whole, more profitable even though by modern 
methods it is possible to grind the raw rock finer 
than ever before. 
In a recent bulletin from the Ohio Experiment 
Station, Professor Clias. E. Thorne gives a very clear 
statement regarding this matter. He replies to a 
farmer who says that raw ground phosphate rock 
carrying 30 per cent of phosphoric acid can be 
bought in carlots at $9.50 per ton, while acid phos¬ 
phate containing 16 per cent of phosphoric acid will 
cost $21.25 per ton. This man wants to know what 
latest experiments have shown with regard to the 
matter. Will it pay our live stock farmers to buy 
the raw ground rock or acid goods for use on their 
dairv farms, for use with their manure to add 
This is our correspondent, 'Willet Randall, of the North Country—the friend of 
milk goats, dogs and birds. He says, “I love the birds and they trust nie. These 
birds are cedar waxwings and at perfect liberty to fly away.” 
claimed by some advocates of the raw phosphate. 
It is also shown that raw phosphate cannot be de¬ 
pended upon to correct an acid soil. In fact the 
answer from these long continued experiments is 
clear and it goes to show that the acid phosphate 
mixed with the manure has made a better showing 
than the raw phosphate. This is of peculiar inter¬ 
est to many farmers who have found that their 
soils are greatly in need of phosphorus. In fact, it 
Sketch of Orchard Brush Burner. Fig. 237 
is probable that there are few if any soils east of 
the Alleghany Mountains which have been in cul¬ 
tivation for 50 years or more that are not now 
lacking in available phosphorus, and this is par¬ 
ticularly true of grain and dairy farms. Perhaps 
the most important fertilizing process on such farms 
is the addition each year, of a quantity of phos¬ 
phorus to the manure. These experiments by Dr. 
Thorne certainly show that the acid phosphate give^ 
greater profit than the raw phosphate, and the 
am afraid that your attempt to lay a brick curb¬ 
ing in the well of your windmill pump will be more 
educative than entertaining. Still, you may aceorap 
lish it satisfactorily; there is little limit to a de¬ 
termined woman’s capacity for doing what needs to 
be done. Mortar for bricklaying may be made from 
Portland cement and sand, one part of cement to 
three parts of sand. A small quantity of lime putty, 
made by thoroughly slaking quicklime, is often added 
to this by masons to make the mortar work better. 
Do not mix up more mortar than you 
will use within a half hour, for cement 
mortar sets quickly. Perhaps a local 
mason can give you directions for 
using such materials for mortar as are 
at hand that will be equal or superior 
to the standard cement mixtures; I 
should really advise consulting with 
one before attempting such a job. 
School Quarantine 
In our school district there are only 
four children going to school; one six, 
two residents, 9 and 11, and one non-resi¬ 
dent of 14, who works for one of the 
patrons in this district. My two children 
were exposed to chicken pox. I kept out 
my children from the 6 to 14 days after 
exposure and then sent them back. The 
patron, who has the non-resident boy 
working for him, entered a complaint and 
had my children shut out for 21 days. He 
is not paying any tuition for the boy. 
Does the trustee have a right, under the 
circumstances, to shut out my two so one 
non-resident may be kept in school? 
New York. mrs. k. n. n. 
The Sanitary Code (health law) of 
New York State fixes 21 days as the 
period during which there is danger 
of a child coming down with chicken 
pox after exposure. It is necessary, 
therefore, to exclude exposed children 
from school for three weeks if danger 
of their “coming down” while mingling 
with the other children of the school 
is to be avoided. Statute laws do not, 
of course, have any influence over the 
laws of nature, and they cannot always be made to 
conform to the latter, but, as there must be a gen¬ 
erally agreed upon period of quarantine for safety, 
the statute law fixes one for each of the communi¬ 
cable diseases. In the case of chicken pox, this per¬ 
iod is fixed at 21 days, that being accepted as sub¬ 
stantially accurate by competent medical opinion. 
It is the duty of the trustee to obey the statute laws 
of the State, regardless of his personal opinions or 
choice in the matter. 
Poorly Drained Cesspool 
I have a cesspool in my yard, about 15 ft. deep, and 
I cannot get the water to seep out. I have had it 
cleaned and dynamited time after time, and it imme¬ 
diately fills again. There is no water coming in from 
bottom. All the water is from the house; bathroom, 
commode, sink bench, etc., drains into it. I had tin; 
roof water draining into it until about two years ago, 
when I discontinued it, thinking that the sediment de¬ 
posited on roof from a smokestack across the way 
may have had a tendency to cake the bottom of tin- 
pool, but it filled again at once. This place is situated 
on top of a fill-in of about 18 or 20 ft. ; used to be a 
meadow, and the ground that was used to fill in is a 
kind of clay; soapstone in it. o. E. w. 
York, Pa. 
Your statement that the ground in which your 
cesspool is dug is “a kind of clay” accounts for the 
trouble that you are having. A cesspool is not like¬ 
ly to be a permanent success unless in an open 
sandy or gravelly soil, where its liquid contents can 
leach away indefinitely without clogging the inter¬ 
stices between soil particles. Yours has evidently 
saturated the soil about it until water can no longer 
seep through; the strange thing is that, in a clay 
soil, it has served so long. There may have been 
open spaces caused by loose filling that have here¬ 
tofore carried the water off, these finally having be¬ 
come filled with sediment. I know of no remedy. 
