1466 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
December  1,  192S 
This  matter  of  peat  fuel  is  of  great  importance  to 
our  people,  especially  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
country  where  there  are  no  deposits  of  coal  and 
little  or  no  oil.  In  New  England  particularly  some 
new  source  of  fuel  is  needed.  That  section  has  no 
coal  mines  and  its  industrial  life  depends  on  an 
abundant  supply  of  fuel.  There  are  great  beds  of 
peat  in  New  England  which,  if  left  alone  for  some 
thousands  of  years,  would  slowly  change  into  va¬ 
rious  forms  of  coal.  Can  man  hasten  nature’s  pro¬ 
cess  and  turns  the  peat  promptly  into  available 
fuel?  We  have  been  using  samples  of  a  peat  fuel 
sent  us  by  Mr.  C.  A.  Willmarth  of  Michigan,  who  is 
operating  a  machine  at  a  peat  bog  or  marsh.  This 
fuel  burns  freely  and  gives  out  good  heat.  When 
mixed  with  coal  it  will  maintain  a  fire  for  hours, 
and  on  the  whole  it  seems  to  be  a  very  promising 
form  of  fuel.  Mr.  Willmarth  has  written  us  the 
following  brief  statement  about  his  machine  and 
what  it  does  to  the  peat: 
*‘l  have  spent  36  years  experimenting  and  building 
machines  for  the  manufacture  of  peat  fuel,  and  after 
spending  a  large  amount  of  money  in  this  way,  I  found 
it  necessary  to  study  more  closely  the  nature  of  peat 
if  anything  of  value  was  to  be  accomplished.  To  be 
sure,  we  could  make  fuel,  but  to  make  a  fuel  suitable 
for  use  in  this  country,  it  was  necessary  to  produce 
a  higher  grade.  I  believed  this  could  be  done  with 
peat,  taking  it  for  granted  that  if  peat  were  old  enough, 
it  would  be  coal.  The  first  thing  to  be  considered  was 
what  did  nature  do  to  it?  It  first  changed  it  to  lignite, 
then  bituminous,  anthracite  and  graphite.  In  lignite 
we  found  only  from  one-third  to  one-half  the  number 
of  water  cells  that  peat  contained  and  of  course,  in 
bituminous,  they  were  entirely  destroyed.  Therefore, 
if  we  were  to  accomplish  what  we  desired,  we  must 
construct  machinery  that  would  destroy  these  water 
cells ;  and  1  have^been  16  years  accomplishing  this. 
These  cells  are  very  small  and  their  destruction  re¬ 
quires  some  fine  work.  The  peat  must  first  be  very 
finely  disintegrated,  then  ground  between  smooth  rolls 
with  the  proper  differential  speed,  the  same  as  we 
would  make  flour,  except  the  peat  must  be  ground  wet, 
just  as  it  comes  from  the  bog.  If  it  is  even  partially 
dried  out,  the  desired  results  will|not  be  obtained,  as  it 
would  be  impossible  to  destroy  all  the  water  cells.  You 
are  no  doubt  aware  that  peat,  in  its  naturally  dried 
state,  will  absorb  a  large  quantity  of  water  very  rapidly, 
the  water  cells  being  its  absorbent  medium,  and  when 
these  are  destroyed  it  appears  to  have  no  more  ab¬ 
sorbing  qualities,  as  you  will  note  by  submerging  a  piece 
of  this  fuel  in  water.  It  will  not  become  swollen  as  the 
natural  peat  would.  Therefore,  we  have  transformed 
ir  into  a  kind  of  coal.” 
Another  Woman  School  Trustee  Talks 
THE  suggestions  offered  on  page  1391  by  the 
“Rural  School  Trustee”  are  first-class,  and  I  be¬ 
lieve  come  nearer  to  solving  the  troubles  of  the  one- 
room  rural  school  than  anything  yet.  It  has  been 
very  enlightening  to  me,  for  the  question  with  us  has 
been,  why  all  this  discussion  anyway?  Our  school 
is  all  right.  Probably  ours  would  come  under  the 
head  of  village  school  as  it  is  a  two-room  school  and 
in  a  small  place  of  about  200  •  inhabitants.  Two 
other  districts  have  joined  ours  and  there  are 
about  30  pupils  in  each  room.  It  is  not  perfect,  of 
course,  but  we  have  good  teachers  usually,  the  better 
one  applying,  as  the  smaller  schools  get  teachers 
just  starting  and  then  come  to  us  as  we  give  a  little 
more  per  week.  They  would  much  rather  teach 
where  the  grades  are  fewer  and  larger. 
The  children  make  their  grades  well  and  their 
work  compares  favorably  with  the  city  scholars 
when  entering  the  high  school.  Most  of  the  children 
are  able  to  walk  to  and  from  the  school — a  few  hav¬ 
ing  to  drive  or  be  taken  by  their  people.  Our  equip¬ 
ment  is  better  and  more  complete.  We  hire  a  janitor 
and  our  rules  are  necessarily  more  rigid  than  where 
there  are  fewer  scholars.  The  teachers  say  that  the 
standings  of  our  pupils  are  higher  than  most  of 
pupils  who  come  here  from  surrounding  districts  to 
try  the  regents  examination. 
The  tax  rate  is  less  in  our  district  than  adjoining 
districts ;  the  greater  number  of  taxpayers  offset  the 
added  expense.  I  believe  we  can  better  conditions 
in  our  schools  by  paying  the  trustee  a  small  sum, 
perhaps  not  more  than  $50  but  enough  to  pay  partly, 
at  least,  him  or  her  for  their  time  supervising  the 
school  as  it  should  be  done  and  as  it  will  never  be 
done  without  some  remuneration.  There  are  women 
in  every  district  who  are  entirely  capable  of  this 
work  and  would  have  more  time  to  take  care  of  it 
than  the  busy  men.  It  is  easier  for  a  woman  teacher 
to  go  to  a  woman  trustee  with  small  troubles  that 
arise  and  reach  a  satisfactory  settlement. 
I  have  talked  with  several  over  this  article  by  the 
“Rural  School  Trustee,”  and  all  agree  they  believe 
he  has  "hit  the  nail  squarely  on  the  head.” 
Many  thanks  to  The  R.  N.-Y.  for  keeping  alive 
this  discussion  and  for  making  the  report  of  the 
Committee  of  Twenty-one  as  clearly  as  possible  to 
us>  another  school  trustee. 
Sennett,  N.  Y. 
A  Farm  Hot- Water  System 
IN  regard  to  the  knocking  in  the  hot  water  tank 
mentioned  on  page  1251,  I  will  suggest  that  the 
cause  of  the  trouble  is  the  condensation  of  steam 
A  simple  water  system  for  a  farm  home.  Note  the  con¬ 
nection  of  the  water  tank  to  the  heating  coil  in  the 
kitchen  range.  Fig  654. 
in  the  water.  This  will  always  happen  to  hot-water 
boilers  when  the  hot-water  pipes  from  the  stove  are 
connected  to  the  side  of  the  boiler,  if  the  water  in 
the  tank  becomes  hot  enough  so  that  as  it  re-circu- 
lates  through  the  heating  coil  in  the  stove  its 
temperature  reaches  boiling.  1  note  in  the  letter 
Ilot  water  connected  correctly  at  left  side  to  small 
heater,  but  incorrectly  at  right  side  to  water  front  in 
stove.  Fig.  655. 
from  A.  H.  M.  he  states  that  the  “whole  system 
works  nicely  only  in  the  Winter  when  we  have  to 
keep  a  fire  all  the  time,  it  bothers.”  This  one  sen¬ 
tence  is  the  keynote  to  his  trouble.  I  am  sending 
you  with  this  letter  a  picture  of  the  installation  of 
a  hot-water  tank.  Fig.  655.  The  installation  shows 
the  hot-water  tank  connected  to  the  liot-water  coil 
in  a  stove  at  the  right.  It  also  shows  a  liot-water 
tank  connected  to  a  small  kerosene  hot-water  heater 
such  as  many  of  our  farmers  use,  on  the  left  side 
of  the  tank.  This  picture  is  shown  to  give  both  the 
correct  and  the  incorrect  method  of  connecting  liot- 
water  heating  coils  to  the  hot-water  tank.  The  con¬ 
nection  on  the  right  that  is  made  to  the  stove  is 
probably  the  method  that  is  used  for  the  hot-water 
tank  in  the  home  of  A.  FI.  M.  This  connection  is 
incorrect.  The  proper  way  to  connect  it  is  like  the 
connection  shown  on  the  left.  I  am  sending  you 
also  a  copy  of  a  chart  that  we  use  to  show  a  simple 
water  system  for  farm  home  in  which  a  supply  tank 
is  used  in  the  room  above  the  kitchen.  You  will 
note  in  this  diagram  how  the  hot-water  is  connected 
to  the  hot-water  tank.  If  A.  H.  M.  will  have  his 
hot-water  tank  connected  from  the  coil  in  the  kitchen 
stove  changed  so  that  it  will  be  connected  at  the  top 
of  the  tank  as  shown  in  the  diagram  he  will  have  no 
further  trouble  with  knocking.  In  addition  he  will 
have  this  advantage,  that  during  the  Spring,  Sum¬ 
mer  and  Fall,  when  they  have  a  light  fire  in  the 
kitchen  stove  only,  they  will  have  hot  water  in¬ 
stead  of  warm  water  as  they  have  at  present.  Fie 
will  not  be  troubled  with  the  hot  water  clogging 
with  sediment  nearly  as  much  as  does  happen  if 
haz’d  water  is  used  when  the  pipes  are  connected 
as  I  assume  that  his  are.  e.  a.  stewart. 
University  of  Minnesota. 
Making  Over  a  Horse  Barn 
I  have  a  barn  that  was  built  by  the  previous  owner 
of  my  farm  for  a  driving  horse  stable,  which  is  finished 
in  varnished  hard  pine  ceiling.  I  want  to  convert  this 
into  a  dairy.  The  barn  is  29x50  ft.  inside  dimensions, 
and  has  no  posts  or  other  obstructions  to  consider  in 
making  the  changes  planned.  I  wish  to  put  in  stanch¬ 
ions  for  eight  cows,  building  so  I  can  add  moi-e  as  my 
herd  increases.  I  do  not  expect  ever  to  use  the  entire 
space  of  29x50  ft.  for  cows,  but  also  keep  four  horses 
in  this  barn.  The  horse  stalls  being  of  secondary  im¬ 
portance,  can  be  put  in  after  the  cow  stable  is  planned. 
With  the  space  given  would  you  face  the  stanchions 
in  or  out,  running  the  long  way  of  the  barn  or  how? 
The  barn  has  at  present  only  one  big  door.  Hay  is 
put  into  the  mow  by  driving  the  wagon  between  the 
icehouse  and  the  barn,  and  the  house  is  east  of  the 
barn,  making  it  desirable  to  have  the  cows  at  the  west 
end  of  the  barn.  The  barn  sets  up  on  a  foundation  IS 
in.  from  the  ground,  but  filling  up  at  the  cow  stable 
door  would  be  simple  at  whatever  side  the  door  was 
placed.  The  placing  of  stanchions  involves  the  future 
construction  of  a  silo.  For  that  reason  I  have  shown 
a  large  elm  tree’s  location.  This  tree  is  a  beautiful 
one  and  I  want  to  preserve  it.  Give  me  the  layout  you 
think  the  best,  and  the  dimensions  for  the  alleys,  stand¬ 
ing  platform  (Holstein),  feed  troughs,  etc.  The  barn¬ 
yard  will  be  on  the  south  of  the  barn,  with  a  high  board 
fence  to  the  west,  and  have  a  gate  closing  the  opening 
between  the  barn  and  icehouse  at  the  north.  If  30  ft. 
is  sufficient  for  a  double  row  of  stanchions  with  feed 
alley  and  alley  in  back  of  cows,  I  propose  laying  the 
barn  out  with  stanchions  facing  north  and  south,  and 
in  or  out  as  practice  has  doubtless  proved  most  efficient, 
and  would  offer  the  best  chance  of  enlargement. 
Chatham  Center,  N.  Y.  r.  it.  a. 
AS  you  know  the  standard  width  for  double  row 
dairy  barns  is  34  ft.  to  36  ft.  This  makes  your 
stable  of  29  ft.  wide  rather  narrow  for  this  arrange¬ 
ment,  a  double  row  lengthwise.  From  a  standpoint 
of  lighting  and  convenience,  however,  it  is  better  to 
have  the  cows  arranged  in  this  way.  The  width  can 
be  divided  up  as  follows :  3  ft.  6  in.  for  feeding  alley, 
2  ft.  for  manger,  4  in.  for  stanchion  ledge,  4  ft.  8  in. 
for  standing  platform,  16  in.  for  gutter  and  5  ft.  4 
in.  for  cleaning  out  alley  between  the  cows.  You 
will  notice  that  I  have  planned  to  face  the  cows  out. 
There  are  probably  as  many  arguments  one  way  as 
the  other.  For  general  farm  practice,  however,  I 
would  prefer  to  have  the  cattle  face  out  for  conven¬ 
ience  in  milking  and  cleaning.  In  this  case  in  par¬ 
ticular  I  would  have  them  face  out  to  avoid  the 
spattering  of  manure  that  would  be  sure  to  take 
place  against  the  walls  because  of  the  extreme  nar¬ 
rowness  necessary  in  the  cleaning  and  feeding  pas¬ 
sages.  Where  the  cows  face  out  the  two  cleaning- 
out  passages  are  brought  together,  doubling  the 
width.  This  prevents  spattering  across'.  With  this 
arrangement  the  cows  are  more  easily  cleaned  out 
and  milked  also,  the  major  jobs  in  dairying. 
It  is  probable  that  your  stable  is  rather  high.  If 
it  is  to  be  kept  warm  with  so  few  cattle  it  seems 
that  a  partition  will  be  required.  This  may  be 
temporary,  and  later  used  to  divide  the  horse  and 
cow  stable,  as  these  animals  should  not  be  stabled 
together. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  your  barn  stands  as  it  does. 
For  most  efficient  lighting  the  long  dimension  should 
be  north  and  south.  Every  advantage  should  be 
taken  of  the  lighting  possibilities  now  present,  being 
careful  to  place  the  silo  when  built  where  it  will  in¬ 
terfere  with  the  lighting  least  probably  at  the  north¬ 
west  corner  if  the  location  of  the  tree  and  icehouse 
permit  it.  With  the  cows  arranged  to  face  out,  the 
doors  should  be  placed  in  the  ends  of  the  barn. 
r.  ir.  smith. 
