1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



483 



lasting one-third longer by allowing the old 

 shingles to remain on, I think every practical 

 man will differ from Mr. Adams, for if the old 

 ones be left on in case of heavy rains, the old 

 shingles, as well as the new ones, will get satu- 

 rated with water. The old ones will retain the 

 water for a long time, consequently, they will 

 cause the new shingles and also the boards un- 

 derneath to decay. My method is to remove the 

 old shingles and replace them with new in a neat 

 and workmanlike manner ; and I believe it will 

 cost less and will look much neater than if the 

 old shingles should be allowed to remain on. 

 Henry Crowell. 

 Londonderry, N. H., 1858. 



BUILDINGS AND FIXTURES FOR A 100 



ACHE FARM. 



"What BuilJings and Fixtures are required for farming, prof- 

 itably, one hundred acres, including timber lot, managed in the 

 usual way of grain-growing and stock-raising combined r" 



There is required a pleasant and commodious 

 dwelling, with parlor, dining-room, sleeping- 

 rcoms, closets, kitchen, cheese-room, pantry,wood- 

 house, cellar, cistern and well — all constructed 

 in accordance with the best improved taste and 

 judgment of the proprietor. Also, a barn 42 by 

 52 feet, elevated two feet from the ground on the 

 upper side, having on one side of the barn floor 

 stalls for horses, each 4^ by 14 feet ; an apart- 

 ment joining, for a cistern, at the further end of 

 the stalls, 6 by 14 feet; and joining that, a gran- 

 ary, 10 by 14 feet; on the opposite side of the 

 floor, a corn-crib, 14 by 20 feet ; a mow for hay, 

 14 by 32 feet, and hay or Hungarian grass on the 

 scaflblds ; and a floor 14 feet in width. The 

 horses should stand on a ground floor, on the 

 upper side of the barn. The earth that is taken 

 out for a cistern should be used for that purpose, 

 and be covered with an abundance of sand to 

 within a foot of the sills of the barn. The floor 

 of the granary need be only one foot and a half 

 from the ground, and maybe let down below the 

 sills of the barn to that depth. There may be 

 under-sills, resting on shoulders in the under- 

 pinning, to lay the floor of the granary on. The 

 floor should be made of oak plank, two inches in 

 thickness, and the granary lined up to the sills 

 of the barn with similar plank, to keep rats from 

 intruding. The corn-crib, on the opposite side 

 of the barn floor, may be made in a similar man- 

 ner. If the corn is not sufficiently dry to keep 

 well in so deep a crib, dry rails should be laid 

 along, occasionally, through the middle of it, for 

 ventilators. But what would answer for cribbing 

 corn in Illinois, might be ruinous in the State of 

 New York. 



A wagon and carriage-house may be made on 

 the upper side of the barn ; and there should be 

 a building for a hog-house, some 30 feet by 16, 

 with a corn-crib and hen-house over the two 

 rooms for hogs — there being free access from 

 their feeding-room into a small adjoining yard. 



Perhaps as good a shelter for calves as any 

 other, is a rick of straw suitably built in a yard 

 for them — being brined, from time to time, 

 around, near and at the bottom of it. Sheep can 

 find a comfortable shelter under the floor of the 

 barn. — B. C. W., in Oenesee Farmer. 



TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS FOR A 100 

 ACRE FARM. 



"What Tools and Implements are necessary to farm it proSta- 

 bly on one hundred acres, including timber lot, m;inagud in the 

 usual way of grain-growing and stock-raising combined?" 



There would be wanted 1 two-horse scouring 

 plow, 1 one-horse scouring plow, 1 one-horse 

 three-shovel scouring plow, 1 harrow, 1 spade, 1 

 barn-shovel, 1 Avheelbarrow, 1 dung-fork, 2 pitch- 

 forks, 2 hoes, 1 wagon, 1 two-horse reaper and 

 mower combined, 1 horse-rake, 1 corn-slieller, 1 

 of the little cast iron grist-mills, provided they 

 are found to be durable and to do good business, 

 2 sets of harness, 1 saddle and 1 carriage. 



The best and most profitable way of planting 

 corn that I have noticed, is to drop with the hand 

 and cover with the hoe. "When thus planted, it 

 comes up enough better to more than pay for the 

 extra trouble. 



No person can raise grain cheaper, by cutting 

 and threshing it with machinery ; but tho same 

 help can grow much more with it than without it. 

 — B. C. W., in Genesee Farmer. 



MANURE MAXIMS. 



At a late meeting of the Farmers' Club of the 

 American Institute, Mr. T. W. Field read a pa- 

 per on manures, in which he said : 



The whole subject of manures may be stated 

 in this proposition : 



1. Manure does not waste so long as it is un- 

 fermented or undissolved, and these conditions 

 may be efl'ected by drying or saturation. 



2. Fresh manure is unflt for food for plants. 



3. Fermenting manure, in contact with inert 

 matter, has the power of neutralizing vicious 

 properties, such as the tannic acid of peats, and 

 making it a fertilizer. 



4. Manure wastes in two ways — the escape of 

 gas and the dissolving of its soluble salts. 



5. The creative power of manure, mixed with 

 other substances, is capable of multiplying its 

 value many times. 



6. The value of manure to crops is in propor- 

 tion to its divisibility through the soil. The 

 golden rule of farming should be small quantities 

 of manure thoroughly divided and intermingled 

 with the soil. — Country Gentleman. 



WATER. 



Potatoes contain 75 per cent, (by weight,) and 

 turnips no less than 90 per cent, of water. A 

 beafsteak, though pressed between blotting pa- 

 per, yields nearly four-fifths of its weight of wa- 

 ter. Of the human frame, bones included, only 

 about one-fourth is solid matter (chiefly carbon 

 and nitrogen,) the rest is water. If a man weigh- 

 ing one hundred and forty pounds was squeezed 

 flat under a hydraulic press, one hundred and 

 five pounds of water would run out, and only 

 thirty-five pounds of dry residue remain. A man 

 is, therefore, chemically speaking, forty-five lbs. 

 of carbon and nitrogen diflused through six buck- 

 ets of water. Berzelius, indeed, in recording the 

 fact, justly remarks that the "living organism is 

 to be regarded as a mass diff'used in water ;" and 

 Dalton, by a series of experiments tried on his 

 own person, found that of the food with which we 

 daily repair this water-built fabric, five-sixths are 

 also water. — Scientific American. 



