1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



5233 



WINTER WOEK, &o 



Messrs. Editors : — It is a good maxim and a just 

 rule, that every one ought to contribute something 

 for favors received, and especially agriculturists, who 

 are very much dependant upon the experience of oth- 

 ers, as set forth in the various agricultural works 

 among us, for a judicious improvement of their own 

 means. And now that winter is about setting in, 

 farmers are called upon to make a change in their 

 business ; instead of hauling manure, ploughing and 

 making under-drains, &lc., we are to turn our atten- 

 tion to the stock, to see that all have good fare, 

 warm shelter, plenty of straw for beds, salt in their 

 troughs, and many other matters that seem small, 

 but by spring will amount to much. 



My method of doing up the winter work is this : 

 I stable all my neat stock, nights and stormy weather, 

 from the begining to the end of winter. My sheep, 

 about one hundred and twenty-five, are furnished with 

 sheep-barns, the lower story of which is made of good 

 mason work, from four to five feet high, with hay- 

 loft above and gangway through the center, through 

 which fodder is conveyed into boxes made after the 

 most approved plan — the boxes making a division of 

 the flock, say twenty-five in a pen, with a yard at- 

 tached for each flock, with plenty of water, which 

 makes it very pleasant caring for the flock, with a 

 great saving of fodder. Thus situated, lambs can be 

 raised at any time of the year. Mine are dropped about 

 the 20th of March, the yearning season being over 

 with and the lambs all smart before turning to grass. 

 No running out in a cold storm in May to gather them 

 up — no soaking in warm water and rolling them up 

 in flannel, &c. We keep two span of horses. The 

 large span is not put up winters at all, but run loose 

 in the yard and under sheds, with coarse feed until 

 near s])ring, when they are fed right and are new 

 again for spring and summer work. By the way, the 

 wood is all got up when it is good wheeling in the 

 summer, and the boys go to school in the winter — 

 that is all. 



My farm consists of one hundred and fifty acres, 

 all surveyed off into lots, with a map of the whole, 

 by H. L. Smith, surveyor. All the lots, with the 

 exception of the orchard, are more or less under- 

 drained, with the very best results. In the December 

 number of the Farmer, I noticed a communicatin from 

 C. W., Lake Grove, giving it as his opinion that 

 filling up the ditch within one foot of the surface 

 with small sized stones is the best way of making 

 under-drains, giving as reasons : 1st, That it is 

 cheaper. 2d, That it is not so liable to be filled up 

 by rats and mice. 



In the first place, very much depends on the scar- 

 city or abundance of the material ; for myself, how- 

 ever, I am not convinced of its truth under any cir- 

 circumstance. In the second place, that rats and 

 mice are not as likely to fill it up as they are throat 

 drains ; I am not a convert to any such theory, hav- 

 ing had too much practice in maldng under drains to 

 believe that rats and mice will dig two feet below the 

 surface to fill up a throat four inches square where 

 there is a good current of water, and not dig one foot 

 and fill in earth so as to stop the water where it must 

 run very sluggishly, to say the least. Another objec- 

 tion to having the stone so near the surface is, my 

 plow would come within one or two inches of the 

 stones and make it liable to wash through, and then 

 an end to the drain ; and subsoiling would be out of 



the question. My experience in draining, brought 

 me to the conclusion that a drain three feet deep, 

 with sloping sides ten inches at the bottom, with a 

 throat from four to six inches, covered as it should 

 be, is the best. A.«^anley.— CZarA:so?i, JY. Y, 



The following interesting article on Sewerage was 

 sent us by a friend, with a request to publish. It is 

 taken from a London paper. 



A Sewerage Experiment.— Lately, Mr. Richard Dover, 

 of 29 New Street, Spring-gardens, exhibited to a party of 

 gentlemen at the Essex wharf, Temple pier, his proposed 

 plan of deputrifying and rendering available for agricultural 

 purposes the sewerage of the metropolis and of large towns. 

 Mr. Dover's apparatus is exceedingly simple. In this onse a 

 large tank capable of holding 300 gallons was erected over 

 the Essex street sewer, just where it Hows into the river ; 

 and this, by means of a hand pump, was rapidly tilled with 

 water of the filthiest description, and of u most loathsome 

 smell. The deputrifying ingredients (which cost, it was 

 said only Gd.) had been already placed in the tank, and the 

 sewerage, as fast as it flowed into it., was deprived of its oftcn- 

 sive, but, agriculturally speaking, its valuable panicles, 

 which were at once precipitiited at the bottom. A stop cook 

 was then turned, and the fluid making its way through a fil- 

 tering medium placed in a second tank beneath the first, 

 was exhibited, in a somewhat turbid state, it was true, but 

 perfectly void of the unpleasant odour which it had possess- 

 ed a minute before, Another filtration rendered the water 

 perfectly clear and limpid. The deposit which had been 

 left at the bottom of the first tank was removable by with- 

 drawing a plug, and by a process, also proposed by Mr. Do- 

 ver, who explained, to be convertible in tliree days into a 

 black powder as portable and inoxious as soot or lime, 

 whilst its fertilizing power was said to be little inferior to 

 the Peruvian guano. The experiment appeared to be per- 

 fectly satisfactory, and the plan feasible enough. The plan 

 appears to solve the question of what shall be done with 

 the sewerage of London, without resorting to the costly and 

 difficult expedients which are component features of other 

 schemes. Mr. Dover calculates that by his plan a hand- 

 some revenue would be derivable to the different munici- 

 palities. He proposes that they should let off the works to 

 private speculators by public auction ; and he estimates 

 that the profits from the twelve sewers in the late West- 

 minister commission would be £200,000 per annum. He rates 

 the value of the manure arising from the population of the 

 United Kingdom at £52,000,000 a year, most of which is at 

 present wasted, but might be saved by the adoption of his 

 proposals : and he thinks that the government might derive 

 a revenue of more than £8,000,000 from this source. But 

 this would seem to be the least advantages of the plan. — 

 With "British guano'' at £.5 per ton, the farmer of this 

 country could, in the opinion of the highest authorities, 

 grow wheat at a profit for 40j. per quarter and the crop 

 doubled. Here, then, is affording ''relief to British agri- 

 culture,"' by which a most important step would also be ta- 

 ken to improve the sanitary condition of our large towns ; 

 and all without costing the rate-payers a single shilling, or 

 advancing the price of a poor man's loaf, a single penny. 



Gapes in Chicke.ns. — Messrs. Editors : — A cor- 

 respondent writes from Pennsylvania, asking hov/ to 

 prevent gapes in chickens. I have kept fowls for 

 28 years, I raise from 12 to 60 chickens a year, and 

 keep from 22 to 60 fowls over winter, and never have 

 had any have the gapes. Last fall my son exchanged 

 some chickens with a neighbor, and in a few days 

 one was attacked with the gapes. I used Cnyenne 

 pepper ground fine, with lard, but with no eflect — it 

 died in three or four days. Last fall I inquired of 

 my neighbor's son whether they had raised many 

 chickens. He said he could raise but few, for they 

 died of the gapes. 



When the chicken is hatched I remove it from the 

 nest, and with my thumb nail I pinch oft' the little 

 shell on the point of its beak. Let them eat anything 

 that they will — Indian meal wet with water, I con- 

 sider best. J. S. C. — Bentonville, J\\ Y., 1851. 



