1870. 



XEW ENGLAND FAIi:\IER. 



213 



Barns, Outbuildings and Fences, by Geo. E. Har- 

 ney, a notice of which appeared in our last paper, 

 the outlines of a poultry house that Mr. Harney 

 recently built for a gentleman near the village of 

 Cold Spring, N. Y., where he resides. Our prin- 

 ter's rules fail to reproduce the beauty and com- 

 pleteness of the fine lithographic plan from which 

 we copy, and we make no attempt to print the 

 pretty picture in which the building itself is pre- 

 sented. This you will find in book referred to. 

 North. 



South. 

 The following is an abridgement of Mr. Har- 

 ney's description of this building. The southern 

 front is nearly all glass. The entrance is on the 

 north side, the door openirg into an entry seven 

 by nine feet. On the right is a room, seven by 

 twelve, for sitting hens, and on the left a closet for 

 fe'ed, fitted up with rat-proof boxes or bins. The 

 roosting-room is ten by nineteen, and has inclined 

 roosts, placed about twenty inches apart, and 

 room in front for feeding. The laying room is ten 

 by twelve feet, and has thirty-two laying boxes 

 placed on wide shelves in two tiers and has shel- 

 tered entrances on the side towards the glass front. 

 There are doors at the rear of them for taking 

 away the eggs. In one corner of the building is a 

 privy belonging to the dwelling-house. This 

 building is frame, battened, and has a slated roof. 

 The walls are filled with bricks and mortar, and 

 are lathed and plastered, as are also the ceilings. 

 The floor is grouted-up and cemented. The yard 

 embraces about an acre of land, and is surrounded 

 by a picket fence eight feet high. 



PINE SAWDUST FOR BEDDING — A SLEEPING HOESE. 



Friend, please give through the columns of the 

 Farmer, the best information with regard to pine 

 sawdust as bedding for horses and cattle, and its 

 effect on the manure and soil. It causes the ma- 

 nure to heat very quick, which I fear is a damage. 



And whether anything can be done to a valua- 

 ble horse, in his seventeenth year, that sleeps in 

 the harness, whenever stopped. This sleepiness 

 has come upon him mostly during the last year. 



James West. 



Abington, Mass., 2d mo. 2\st, 1870. 



Remarks. — We regard sawdust as a good bed- 

 ding ; but probably pine dust, aside from its power 

 of absorption, is about the poorest of all the woods. 

 Pine wood makes but little ashes, and what it does 



make is worth but little for lye, as it contains only 

 15 per cent of potash, while elm contains 30 per 

 cent., according to analysis. We are aware that 

 it has been thought by some that manure contain- 

 ing sawdust is more infested by noxious insects 

 than other manures, and some have even claimed 

 that it was injurious to the soil, but we have seen 

 little evidence of the correctness of such con- 

 clusions. Our correspondent is correct as to its 

 causing the manure to heat. An old correspon- 

 dent of the New England Farmer, who used 

 100 cords in nine months, prevented fire-fang by 

 turning water enough upon it to keep it moist and 

 cool, and keeping it in as solid a body as possible 

 until he drew it out, when it was put in fiat heaps, 

 two or three cords in a place, and a foot thick 

 after being well trodden down. Mr. Moses H. Hus- 

 sey, of North Berwick, whose potatoes and other 

 crops we noticed a few weeks since, informs us 

 that he has used the manure from a horse stable 

 bedded with sawdust, on which about as many 

 hogs are kept as there are horses in the stable. 

 He says that he is well satisfied with this manure ; 

 prefering it to manure from horses bedded with 

 straw, especially for heavy soils. 



For your sleepy old horse we have a "fellow 

 feeling." We, too, are growing old, and some- 

 times find ourselves "sleeping in the harness." 

 Our sleepiness has come upon us, as upon your 

 horse, recently. When younger we almost envied 

 the ability of the older people to take a nap as we 

 rested a bit after a luncheon in the shade of the 

 old elm. But now, when we stop for a few mo- 

 ments after dinner, we often feel the presence of 

 "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." A 

 little bite of something to eat, while stopping, may 

 have a tendency to keep your horse awake. We 

 hope some reader of the Farmer will give you a 

 more satiofactory reply. 



THE WEST TUB PLACE FOR FARMING. 



Some of the Eastern papers represent many of the 

 farmers of the West as homesick. After farming 

 it five years at Watertown, Mass., I came to 

 Northwestern Iowa. I do not wish to go back, 

 nor is there one in fifty of the farmers here who 

 could be induced to return. The West is far 

 ahead of the East for farming. I came here in 

 1866, dug a hole into the side of a blulfand put up 

 a shelter. In two years' time I had as good a 

 house as there is in Harrison county. I have 

 2o0 head of cattle, 80 sheep, 40 hogs, 8 good work 

 horses, 5 colts, 4 oxen, 90 hens, carts, wagons, &c. 

 Planted 50 acres to corn and 90 acres to wheat. 

 Corn 60 to 70 bushels per acre ; wheat 70, [ .'] 

 though put back by the wet season last summer. 

 Land can be bought at $2 50 per acre; cultivate 

 it two or three years and sell it for $'20 an acre. 

 It costs little to raise stock here. Turn them out 

 in the spring to run till fall, then put them to 

 your haystacks or stalkfield. That's the way we 

 make our money. We are only sixteen hundred 

 miles from Boston — time four days, fare #42 to 

 Council Bluffs. I have three brothers here, who 

 are doing well, though they came with nothing to 

 start with. We have a good market for every- 

 thing we raise. I can make much more money 

 here than at the East with half the hard work. 



