7ht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1539 
“  Breaking”  Roads  In  Winter 
[It  may  or  may  not  be  a  “hard  Winter,”  but  most 
country  people  are  likely  to  see  plenty  of  snow.  It  is 
a  hard  job  in  some  sections  to  keep  the  roads  open,  and 
we  want  to  know  how  people,  do  it.  In  the  towns, 
where  travel  has  come  to  depend  on  the  car,  clearing 
the  roads  is  an  expensive  job.  In  the  country,  where 
the  cars  have  a  rest  during  much  of  the  Winter,  the 
road  must  be  kept  open  for  runners.  This  is  the  way 
some  of  our  people  do  it.] 
E  find  the  heavy  snow  roller  to  be  the  best 
and  roads  should  be  rolled  immediately  after 
every  snowstorm.  We  use  from  four  to  six  horses 
on  the  rollers.  This  is  for  the  country  roads  and 
works  out  the  best  with  the  least  expense.  In  the 
village  where  autos  run  they  use  scrapers  a  good 
deal,  which  carries  a  portion  of  the  snow  back  to 
the  side  of  the  street.  n.  h.  Morgan. 
Vermont. 
In  this  section  we  break  roads  with  a  log  under 
the  hind  set  of  sleds;  the  log  is  nearly  a  foot 
through  and  about  10  ft.  long.  Usually  there  are 
two  pairs  of  horses  and  from  three  to  ten  men  ride 
after  the  biggest  drifts  are  shoveled  through.  A 
man  in  each  school  district  is  appointed  to  look  after 
his  section  and  keep  the  men’s  time.  We  do  not 
usually  work  during  the  storm,  but  as  soon  as  pos¬ 
sible  after.  Rollers  have  been  tried  and  make  a 
very  good  road,  but  understand  it  takes  more 
horses.  w.  g.  small. 
Maine. 
The  first  thing  I  remember  as  a  device  to  keep  the 
snow-i’oads  open  was  a  couple  of  wooden  stove- 
wood  blocks,  one  tied  behind  each  sleigh  runner, 
dragging  in  the  track.  It  kept  a  good  track  for  the 
horses.  A  common  plow  with  wooden  extension  on 
side  is  good  for  sleighs,  but  when  you  want  to  run 
automobiles  all  Winter  the  road  scraper,  cutting 
from  the  center  out  each  way,  is  the  best  thing  I 
have  used.  In  heavy  snow  it  takes  two  good  teams 
to  handle  it,  but  it  does  the  work.  Tills  is  the 
road  grader  used  by  the  town  to  grade  dirt  roads. 
Of  course  the  big  drifts  need  the  man  with  the 
snow  shovel.  To  open  a  road  when  it  is  blowing 
and  drifting  much  means  do  it  over  again  when  it 
slops.  However  some  of  our  roads  must  be  opened 
storm  or  no  storm,  so  we  do  it  and  do  it  again. 
New  York.  John  r.  empson. 
In  this  section  of  Eastern  Ontario  we  use  the 
horse-drawn  snow  plow  to  keep  the  roads  open  in 
the  Winter.  The  plows  are  not  operated  during  a 
heavy  storm,  but  start  out  as  soon  as  they  will  do 
some  good.  To  prevent  the  drifting  of  snow,  the 
leading  roads  have  been  widened,  hedges  and  other 
obstacles  removed,  and  a  bonus  of  25c  a  rod  is  paid 
farmers  who  replace  wooden  road  fences  with  wire 
fences.  The  Provincial  Highway  is  supposed  to  be 
kept  open  for  the  use  of  autos  during  the  Winter, 
and  the  snow  plow  is  so  efficient  on  the  main  county 
and  township  roads  that  it  is  very  seldom  the  rural 
mail  fails  to  get  through  daily.  Little  used  side 
roads,  serving  only  a  few  people,  are  kept  open  by 
the  shovels  and  teams  of  farmers  who  use  those 
roads,  and  who  are  allowed  to  work  out  their  road 
tax  in  that  way.  w.  d.  file. 
Ontario,  Canada. 
We  certainly  have  some  snow  here,  and  we  keep 
a  road  open  most  of  the  time.  Here  in  this  town 
we  use  what  is  called  the  Holly  scraper.  That  is  a 
plank  about  20  to  24  in.  wide,  and  10  and  12  ft. 
long  which  is  ironed  on  the  front  and  bottom  of 
the  plank.  This  is  made  fast  to  a  long  sled.  Then 
on  the  bottom  are  two  iron  runners  about  1  ft.  long 
fastened  to  a  pole  which  runs  back 
the  length  of  the  sled.  A  man 
stands  on  the  sled  and  steers  it  with 
this  pole  to  the  right  or  left  as  he 
wishes.  If  the  drifts  are  sidling  he 
stands  on  the  high  side  and  pulls  the 
pole  that  way  to  run  the  sled  to  the 
high  side.  We  generally  break  after 
a  storm  if  it  is  not  too  long.  Some¬ 
times  we  break  every  day  for  two  or 
three  days.  We  plan  to  keep  on  top 
of  the  snow  as  much  as  possible.  We 
sometimes  have  from  3  ft.  to  5  ft.  of 
snow  on  a  level.  I  do  not  like  a  roller 
as  well  as  a  scraper.  This  scraper 
requires  four  or  six  horses  or  oxen. 
The  sketch,  Fig.  679,  shows  the  Holly 
scraper.  f.  h.  thorp. 
Maine. 
Object  Lesson  in  Potatoes 
MONG  the  many  instances  of 
good  work  in  growing  potatoes 
the  following  is  a  good  story  to  keep 
in  mind.  From  3 y2  rows  15  rods  long 
Construction  of  Large  Filter.  Fig.  680 
Potatoes  Growing  Above  Ground.  Fig.  681 
Elbridge  Thompson  of  Monmouth,  Maine,  harvested 
‘26  bushels  of  choice  specimens,  with  only  one-half 
bushel  of  seconds.  The  ground  was  old  garden  soil, 
well  worked,  where  sulphur  at  the  rate  of  300  lbs. 
to  the  acre  was  harrowed  in,  with  fertilizer  at  the 
rate  of  one-half  ton  to  the  acre  being  added  at  the 
same  time.  The  variety  planted  is  known  as  Wel¬ 
lington,  the  seed  coming  from  Aroostook,  an  oval 
flattisli  potato  of  superior  quality.  When  ready  for 
planting  fertilizer  at  the  rate  of  500  lbs  to  the  acre 
was  scattered  along  the  drill,  and  when  the  plants 
were  10  in.  tall  the  same  amount  was  sowed  be¬ 
tween  the  rows  and  immediately  cultivated  in. 
Total  fertilizer  used  at  the  rate  of  one  ton  per 
acre.  This  fertilizer  was  made  as  follows:  Nitrate 
of  soda,  200  lbs. ;  fish  tankage,  200  lbs. ;  meat  tank¬ 
age,  200  lbs. ;  sulphate  of  ammonia,  100  lbs. ;  bone- 
meal,  200  lbs. ;  acid  phosphate,  300  lbs.,  and  muriate 
potash,  200  lbs.  This  gave-  a  total  of  714-14-7,  made 
from  the  very  best  material.  The  rows  were  cul¬ 
tivated  four  times,  and  hoed  once  after  hilling. 
They  were  dusted  four  times,  the  last  two  for 
protection  against  blight,  and  the  vines,  when  dug, 
about  the  middle  of  October,  were  green  and 
thrifty.  The  potatoes  were  planted  the  very  last 
of  May.  Here  was  a  yield  considerably  over  400 
bushels  to  the  acre.  g.  m.  twitciiell. 
Maine. 
Freak  Potatoes 
I  am  enclosing  a  photograph  (see  Fig.  681)  of  a 
potato  raised  by  the  Dow  Bros.,  Rutland  Co.,  Yt.,  that 
I  think  will  be  of  interest  to  some  of  your  readers.  It 
is  the  result  that  came  from  planting  potato  seed  balls 
three  years  ago.  This  year  they  got  a  fair  crop  of 
market  potatoes  with  a  large  number  of  different  va¬ 
rieties,  and  among  them  was  this  freak  hill  of  potatoes 
of  which  I  am  enclosing  a  photograph.  As  you  will 
see  from  that,  there  is  a  full-grown  potato  hanging 
from  the  stalk  about  4  in.  from  the  ground,  in  addition 
to  a  smaller  one  just  a  little  higher  up  on  the  vine.  We 
are  curious  to  see  what  we  will  get  from  planting  this 
potato  next  Spring.  j.  A.  D0W. 
MALL  tubers  growing  on  the  stem  of  potatoes 
above  ground  are  usually  the  result  of  rhizoc- 
tonia  or  black  scurf  disease,  although  I  have  never 
seen  such  large  tubers  as  shown  in  the  photograph. 
The  usual  symptoms  of  this  disease  which  affect  the 
plants  are  stiff  stems,  particularly  at  the  tip.  It  is 
quite  possible,  however,  that  this  is  a  seedling  varia¬ 
tion.  and  if  so  it  might  come  true  from  the  tubers. 
I  have  never  seen  or  heard  of  any  persistent  varia¬ 
tions  of  this  kind,  and  it  is  indeed  curious,  although 
probably  of  no  economical  importance.  Picking  po¬ 
tatoes  like  tomatoes  might  simplify  harvesting,  but 
the  exposure  to  the  sun  would  certainly  not  improve 
their  quality.  D.  F.  jones. 
Building  a  Large  Filter 
In  your  issue  for  May  19,  1923,  we  remarked  an 
article  on  the  construction  of  a  filtering  plant,  (page 
<39)  and  as  we  are  about  to  build  such  a  plant,  we  would 
like  to  have  your  advice  on  a  few  matters  pertaining 
to  the  same.  I  irst  of  all,  we  have  a  fairly  good  water 
system  excepting  in  very  dry  seasons,  such  as  we  had 
last  I  all.  Me  propose  to  have  a  filtering  plant  to 
tide  us  over  such  seasons.  This  system  must  be  large 
enough  to  supply  about  200  people,  as  this  is  an  in¬ 
stitution  for  boys.  On  our  property  we  have  a  pond, 
the  water  of  which  is  always  available,  and  it  is  this 
water  which  we  intend  to  utilize  in  dry  seasons.  We 
wish  to  know  therefore  how  large  a  plant  we  should 
build  and  what  the  thickness  of  the  sand,  charcoal  and 
gravel  should  be.  In  the  place  of  a  cistern  we  have 
tanks  in  the  upper  part  of  the  building;  moreover  we 
have  a  pump  that  can  supply  water  to  the  tanks  at  the 
rate  of  a  ’gallon  per  minute,  which  is  fast  enough  to 
answer  our  wants.  F  t, 
Callicoon,  N.  Y. 
SHALL  assume  that  you  wish  to  filter  this 
amount  in  about  12  hours  each  day.  To  do  this 
properly  the  filter  should  have  a  surface  area  of 
about  180  sq.  ft.  The  filter  may  be  made  lOxlS  ft. 
or  8x2214  ft.  The  latter  dimensions 
are  more  conveniently  used.  You  will 
require  about  6,000  gallons  per  day. 
If  an  upward  filter  like  the  one  de¬ 
scribed  on  page  739  is  used  then  the 
gravel  should  be  about  2  ft.  thick, 
charcoal  6  in.  thick  and  sand  1  ft. 
thick.  The  charcoal  is  not  necessary, 
and  the  filter  may  be  made  of  sand 
and  gravel  only.  In  such  a  case  the 
downward  filter  is  used.  The  water 
is  drawn  off  at  the  bottom  with  two 
rows  of  4-in.  tile  laid  along  the  con¬ 
crete  bottom.  The  tile  should  be  sur¬ 
rounded  with  stone  varying  from  2  in. 
to  6  in.  in  diameter.  Above  the  stone 
place  2  ft.  of  good  clean  coarse  gravel. 
Then  above  this  place  3  ft.  of  clean, 
screened  sand.  The  water  should  be 
distributed  over  the  top  by  pipe  lines 
with  holes  in  the  pipe.  The  whole 
filter  bed  should  be  enclosed  with 
screen,  but  open  to  air  and  sunlight. 
The  top  layer  of  sand  should  be  raked 
at  least  once  or  twice  a  week.  e.  a.  s. 
A  Fine  Yield  of  Maine  Potatoes.  Fig.  682 
