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VOL. LXIV INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 7, 1909. NO. 31 Some Sun Studies. By Walter S. Smith. 1. To Aid in Comprehending the Di- ameter—I stood once on a lumber pile ;it Michigan City and watched a sunset. There were great swells rolling south- wvstward on the surface of the lake, which I had been studying quite a while. They would have measured twenty-five feet from crest to crest; und at the moment when the sun was half submerged, I counted six of these waves very clearly outlined on its diameter. This was very surprising to me; for it showed me the real length of that diameter to be 150 feet at the distance of three miles from the place of observation. The well-known proportion came to my mind, relative to similar triangles. "Similar triangles have all their like parts proportional." So the perpendicular three miles Is to the perpendicular 95,000,000 miles as 150 feet ls to the number of feet in the sun's diameter; Stated in this way, 3 is to 95,000,- 000 as 150 is to the diameter. Making the calculation, we find the diameter is 4,750,000,000 feet. As there are 5,280 feet in a mile, this number of feet will make as many miles as 5,280 is contained times in 4,750,000,000. This is 897,443. To the mathematical boys this will be very interesting and very surprising, as it is within 30,000 miles of the diameter estimated by astronomical instruments. 2. To Aid in Appreciating the Sun's Heat—I once examined the fourteen-foot telescope of Dr. Fitch, an old teacher whose home was in Morristown. On the end containing the great lens he had fitted a brass cap having in the middle of its crown a hole three- quarters of an inch, or so, in diameter, I asked him what that cap was for, and he answered: "It is necessary as a protection against the heat. When studying sun *ln>ts, if I allowed the full surface of my lens tq be exposed, the heat, focalized on the smaller lens, would melt 'he glass of which it is composed. Tliat is there Is heat enough spread on a. twelve-inch surface to melt glass." This reminded me of my own tests. The common little botany glass, which gathers together the rays of one square inch or less will make heat enough to ignite gun-powder; to burn a hole in "asssls-n cloth; to make a blister on the Kkin. Suppose then we were able to 1_ some sort of unit of heat, for the »mare inch. Then the 144 square inches of the square foot would collect 144 such units; and the heat of the sun OB an acre of ground would be be- > "ini our power of imagination. 1 'ur whole earth does not receive more than a triliipnth part of the sun's heat; so how hot is the orb? God only is able to comprehend it. 3- To Study the Sun's Light—Take a ripe buckeye from the tree, before 'he bursting of the hull, and you will be stiipris.,1 to find the hull covering a white, <)r rather a cream-colored nut. "old the newly-stripped nut in your hand ai I'.-w sieonds, and you can watch the change of color to the characteristic beautiful chocolate shade. Blanching cabbage or celery is no more than cutting off the sun's light. And the greening of the potato is no more than exposing it for a few hours to that influence. Apples are painted by the light. Mr. Thomas Newby of Carthage, showed me an apple with his initials on it, painted by the sun, which had been allowed to strike the skin through rifts he had made in the paper cover. This is not true of all colorings of fruits; for grapes tied in a'paper bag will take their own prop- er color, as they ripen, in the dark. 4. To Study the Sun's Motion—It is ty. It is a gri'at University, and one of the greatest booms to progressive farming the State has ever afforded. Purdue has been seriously handicapped by not having financial aid, and the support it should have had years ago to carry on its good work, but thanks to our last legislature the appropriation it gave will help to put it on its Is s-t and make it one of the greatest in our land. Purdue does for us what it - would take years of toil, discourag- ments and capital to accomplish. We have a few farmers here in Cass Co. that think of Purdue as the above mentioned gentlemen do, but if you will visit their farms you will find their CONSKRVATION OF THE MANURE SUPPLY. \ Concrete Tank for Liquid Manure i'lml Also Serves as a Barn Drain. By A. A. Houghton. Farm Home of W. E. Harton, Rush County. now known that the sun rotates on its axis just as the planets do. As Its diameter is almost a million miles, Its circumference is a little over three millions; and as it rotates in ten of our days, any spot on its equator must move at the rate of three million miles in ten days, or 300,000 miles a day. This is more than 12 thousand miles an hour, 200 miles a minute, or more than 3% miles in a second. Of course, the motion of the sun which we see is in reality the motion of tne earth. It used to be supposed thai the sun came up every morning and traveled entirely around the earth each day. This would be a motion so rapid tha* no account of it would be possibli-. It was very puzzling to great thinkers; and a wonderful relief was experienced when the fact became known that the real motion is in the earth and not in the sun and stars. A Word for Purdue. Editors Indiana Farmer: I have read two articles in your valuable paper one from Mr. J. H. Haynes of Carroll Co., June 6th, the other from J. F. Fensel of Blackford Co., July 10. I do not agree with either of the genT tl.-nu-n in regard to Purdue Universl- fence rows overgrown with weeds and briers, their buildings unpainted; tney want no public improvement, want no farmers' institutes and are always complaining about hard times and the weather. I get many good practical lessons from the bulletins we receive from Purdue as well as from the Indiana Farmer, and I do not want to do without either. We have three boys and I want them to be farmers and we want them to get a good practical course at Purdue. Now my advice to friends Haynes and Fensel would be for them to take the Farmers' Short Course at Purdue this winter and get an inspiration, and go home resolved to do better farming and help a good catiss-. Cass Co. C. M. Harness. Lightning tore down a trolley wire of the traction line Thursday during the storm, at Elwood, the wire wrapped around the stove pipe on the car, the current communicated to the woodwork and the car was set on fire. The tiames were put out with chemicals but ths- line was put out of commisison for several hours. The progressive farmer willingly concedes that the loss of plant food constituents from the ordinary barnyard manure is enormous, when allowed to be scattered over the entire yard. The constant leaching of the most valuable portion of this fertilizer, when left exposed to the elements is in a measure a direct loss of money to the farmer as there are today very- few farms where the soil is so rich that the use of manure can be dispensed with. There are thousands of farms whereupon the barn and stock yards are exposed to the weather; the manure is thrown out in large heaps and then littered over the entire yard by the stock trampling on same, with each rain the most valuable portion is leached Into the soil and wasted, while the straw and coarser part is drawn to the fit-Ids. I have found some farmers who believed, to their loss, that the lower layers were of/ no value so left them in the yard year after year. The fact is so apparent that it hardly seems possible that any farmer would neglect to stop this loss of a valuable and needful adjunct to good crops. As water leaching through ashes produces lye, so rain and snow leaching through the manure heap absorbs the greater portion of the plant food properties of same and in turn they are absorbed by the soil of the yard—an absolute loss to the farmer and one that could be easily avoided. The concrete manure pit and barn drain illustrated in this article is only one of several methods whereby this leak in profits could be stopped. To construct the pit, as illustrated, excavate to the depth and size required; a pit 10x10 or 12x12 feet would be ample for the average small farm and for either size would be constructed as follows: Have the sides of excavation straight down so as to form one side of mold; for the inside form of walls, set 2x4 inch uprights 6 feet high, with boards laterally on these to mold the wall; the side walls must not be less than G inches thick fora pit ofl2 feet square, this will be strong enough if the concrete is tamped thoroly when placed in forms. After the walls are built to the ground level or nearly so, which will be six feet, allow them to "set" before removing forms, and build the two supporting posts in center; these are built 8 inches square and 24 inches apart, as illustrated, a plain box form five feet three Inches high and 8x8 inches on the inside is the best method of construction, this box must be so it can be easily taken down so as not to Injure the concrete by pulling or pounding, hooks and eyelets on two sides would be the most simple and easiest made. In 36 or 48 hours after walls and Continued on page 4.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1909, v. 64, no. 31 (Aug. 7) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6431 |
Date of Original | 1909 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-03-23 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | VOL. LXIV INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 7, 1909. NO. 31 Some Sun Studies. By Walter S. Smith. 1. To Aid in Comprehending the Di- ameter—I stood once on a lumber pile ;it Michigan City and watched a sunset. There were great swells rolling south- wvstward on the surface of the lake, which I had been studying quite a while. They would have measured twenty-five feet from crest to crest; und at the moment when the sun was half submerged, I counted six of these waves very clearly outlined on its diameter. This was very surprising to me; for it showed me the real length of that diameter to be 150 feet at the distance of three miles from the place of observation. The well-known proportion came to my mind, relative to similar triangles. "Similar triangles have all their like parts proportional." So the perpendicular three miles Is to the perpendicular 95,000,000 miles as 150 feet ls to the number of feet in the sun's diameter; Stated in this way, 3 is to 95,000,- 000 as 150 is to the diameter. Making the calculation, we find the diameter is 4,750,000,000 feet. As there are 5,280 feet in a mile, this number of feet will make as many miles as 5,280 is contained times in 4,750,000,000. This is 897,443. To the mathematical boys this will be very interesting and very surprising, as it is within 30,000 miles of the diameter estimated by astronomical instruments. 2. To Aid in Appreciating the Sun's Heat—I once examined the fourteen-foot telescope of Dr. Fitch, an old teacher whose home was in Morristown. On the end containing the great lens he had fitted a brass cap having in the middle of its crown a hole three- quarters of an inch, or so, in diameter, I asked him what that cap was for, and he answered: "It is necessary as a protection against the heat. When studying sun *ln>ts, if I allowed the full surface of my lens tq be exposed, the heat, focalized on the smaller lens, would melt 'he glass of which it is composed. Tliat is there Is heat enough spread on a. twelve-inch surface to melt glass." This reminded me of my own tests. The common little botany glass, which gathers together the rays of one square inch or less will make heat enough to ignite gun-powder; to burn a hole in "asssls-n cloth; to make a blister on the Kkin. Suppose then we were able to 1_ some sort of unit of heat, for the »mare inch. Then the 144 square inches of the square foot would collect 144 such units; and the heat of the sun OB an acre of ground would be be- > "ini our power of imagination. 1 'ur whole earth does not receive more than a triliipnth part of the sun's heat; so how hot is the orb? God only is able to comprehend it. 3- To Study the Sun's Light—Take a ripe buckeye from the tree, before 'he bursting of the hull, and you will be stiipris.,1 to find the hull covering a white, <)r rather a cream-colored nut. "old the newly-stripped nut in your hand ai I'.-w sieonds, and you can watch the change of color to the characteristic beautiful chocolate shade. Blanching cabbage or celery is no more than cutting off the sun's light. And the greening of the potato is no more than exposing it for a few hours to that influence. Apples are painted by the light. Mr. Thomas Newby of Carthage, showed me an apple with his initials on it, painted by the sun, which had been allowed to strike the skin through rifts he had made in the paper cover. This is not true of all colorings of fruits; for grapes tied in a'paper bag will take their own prop- er color, as they ripen, in the dark. 4. To Study the Sun's Motion—It is ty. It is a gri'at University, and one of the greatest booms to progressive farming the State has ever afforded. Purdue has been seriously handicapped by not having financial aid, and the support it should have had years ago to carry on its good work, but thanks to our last legislature the appropriation it gave will help to put it on its Is s-t and make it one of the greatest in our land. Purdue does for us what it - would take years of toil, discourag- ments and capital to accomplish. We have a few farmers here in Cass Co. that think of Purdue as the above mentioned gentlemen do, but if you will visit their farms you will find their CONSKRVATION OF THE MANURE SUPPLY. \ Concrete Tank for Liquid Manure i'lml Also Serves as a Barn Drain. By A. A. Houghton. Farm Home of W. E. Harton, Rush County. now known that the sun rotates on its axis just as the planets do. As Its diameter is almost a million miles, Its circumference is a little over three millions; and as it rotates in ten of our days, any spot on its equator must move at the rate of three million miles in ten days, or 300,000 miles a day. This is more than 12 thousand miles an hour, 200 miles a minute, or more than 3% miles in a second. Of course, the motion of the sun which we see is in reality the motion of tne earth. It used to be supposed thai the sun came up every morning and traveled entirely around the earth each day. This would be a motion so rapid tha* no account of it would be possibli-. It was very puzzling to great thinkers; and a wonderful relief was experienced when the fact became known that the real motion is in the earth and not in the sun and stars. A Word for Purdue. Editors Indiana Farmer: I have read two articles in your valuable paper one from Mr. J. H. Haynes of Carroll Co., June 6th, the other from J. F. Fensel of Blackford Co., July 10. I do not agree with either of the genT tl.-nu-n in regard to Purdue Universl- fence rows overgrown with weeds and briers, their buildings unpainted; tney want no public improvement, want no farmers' institutes and are always complaining about hard times and the weather. I get many good practical lessons from the bulletins we receive from Purdue as well as from the Indiana Farmer, and I do not want to do without either. We have three boys and I want them to be farmers and we want them to get a good practical course at Purdue. Now my advice to friends Haynes and Fensel would be for them to take the Farmers' Short Course at Purdue this winter and get an inspiration, and go home resolved to do better farming and help a good catiss-. Cass Co. C. M. Harness. Lightning tore down a trolley wire of the traction line Thursday during the storm, at Elwood, the wire wrapped around the stove pipe on the car, the current communicated to the woodwork and the car was set on fire. The tiames were put out with chemicals but ths- line was put out of commisison for several hours. The progressive farmer willingly concedes that the loss of plant food constituents from the ordinary barnyard manure is enormous, when allowed to be scattered over the entire yard. The constant leaching of the most valuable portion of this fertilizer, when left exposed to the elements is in a measure a direct loss of money to the farmer as there are today very- few farms where the soil is so rich that the use of manure can be dispensed with. There are thousands of farms whereupon the barn and stock yards are exposed to the weather; the manure is thrown out in large heaps and then littered over the entire yard by the stock trampling on same, with each rain the most valuable portion is leached Into the soil and wasted, while the straw and coarser part is drawn to the fit-Ids. I have found some farmers who believed, to their loss, that the lower layers were of/ no value so left them in the yard year after year. The fact is so apparent that it hardly seems possible that any farmer would neglect to stop this loss of a valuable and needful adjunct to good crops. As water leaching through ashes produces lye, so rain and snow leaching through the manure heap absorbs the greater portion of the plant food properties of same and in turn they are absorbed by the soil of the yard—an absolute loss to the farmer and one that could be easily avoided. The concrete manure pit and barn drain illustrated in this article is only one of several methods whereby this leak in profits could be stopped. To construct the pit, as illustrated, excavate to the depth and size required; a pit 10x10 or 12x12 feet would be ample for the average small farm and for either size would be constructed as follows: Have the sides of excavation straight down so as to form one side of mold; for the inside form of walls, set 2x4 inch uprights 6 feet high, with boards laterally on these to mold the wall; the side walls must not be less than G inches thick fora pit ofl2 feet square, this will be strong enough if the concrete is tamped thoroly when placed in forms. After the walls are built to the ground level or nearly so, which will be six feet, allow them to "set" before removing forms, and build the two supporting posts in center; these are built 8 inches square and 24 inches apart, as illustrated, a plain box form five feet three Inches high and 8x8 inches on the inside is the best method of construction, this box must be so it can be easily taken down so as not to Injure the concrete by pulling or pounding, hooks and eyelets on two sides would be the most simple and easiest made. In 36 or 48 hours after walls and Continued on page 4. |
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