180 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
the 'wisdom of the advice of an excellent breed- 
er, not to -winter a sheep again, that has once 
fallen off badly. The appearance of a chronic 
catarrh is often the result of grubs, producing 
a constant inflammation of the membrane lining 
the cavities of the head. If sheep are seen to 
droop or show other symptoms of failing vigor, 
they should be put on the ' pension list ' at once, 
and receive, in company with others of their 
class, the most palatable and nourishing food at 
command. This treatment, if seasonably at- 
tended to, ■will cure the 'grub,' if the sheep is not 
one that has become obnoxious to the disease, 
by former attacks, through 'which the ani- 
mals constitution was weakened by its efforts 
to expel the enemy. A sheep once on the 
'pension list' should never be wintered again." 
Home-made Tools. 
A farmer ought to be a tolerable mechanic, 
and make, as well as mend, a great many 
things. Rainy day work is often advantageous- 
ly that of the jack-plane and drawing-knife. 
Harrows are frequently home-made — and we 
have seen some very good ones cheaply made 
and outlasting two or three of those made at the 
factory. The temptation on the farm is to 
make tools too heavy. In purchasing, the temp- 
tation is to spend little, and so not secure a first- 
rate article. The harrows made of a natural 
crotch are rarely seen nowadays, but still in 
their day were not to be despised. Good crotch- 
es for an "A" harrow are hard to find. Mr. 
R. T. Smith, of Ulster Co., N. Y., sends us a 
drawing of a harrow without the cross beam. 
The construction is obvious from the figure. 
The bolts are both necessary, not only to 
prevent the head opening, but to stop any 
tendency to twist. They are five-eighths iron 
Fig. 1. — harrow witnouT the cross beam. 
bolts with nuts. The shorter and front one 
passes through the strap-staple, on which is the 
draft ring. The teeth may be of iron or of 
wood; if the latter, l'| ■ inch oak pins are best. 
Holes should be bored diagonally in the ends of 
the harrow, to receive the ends of a bent pole 
reaching conveniently high for the plowman to 
lift the harrow by without stooping. Harrows 
are much used nowadays for giving potatoes 
and corn the first one or two hoeings. The 
cross piece in an "A" harrow is iu the way in 
Fig. 2.— WHrFFLETREE. 
hoeing corn, the front part of the implement 
running usually high enough to clear the plants. 
In the one figured this difficulty is obviated. In 
hoeing corn the front tooth is always removed. 
Whifflctrces. — It is usually quite as well to buy 
whiffletrees as to make them ; but very good 
ones may be very easily made altogether of 
wood, except the clevis. The one shown in fig. 2 
is of 1 '54-inch ash, with a s |i-inch hole near each 
end to take a rope trace. A form more con- 
venient, because adapted either to leather or 
Fig. 3.— WTUFFLETREE. 
chain traces, is shown in fig. 3, the trace hooks 
being attached to iron bands. Fig. 4 represents 
a very strong whiffletree. Eyes in which to 
fasten trace hooks are made iu the ends of an 
iron rod of suitable length and strength, an eye 
or loop is made iu the centre, and the rod riveted, 
as shown. The ends of the rod are either bent 
a little and braced apart by a stout piece of 
oak wood, being let into grooves in the wood 
and held by staples, or made with eyes to 
receive the ends of the wooden brace. In the 
former case, shown in the cut, the brace should 
have a bolt through each end, to prevent splitting. 
In this form lightness is consistent with great 
Fig. 4. — WHIFFLETREE. 
strength. The size of both iron and brace must 
be proportioned to the draft likely to be applied. 
Faots in Shad Hatching. 
■ — • — 
The experiment of Seth Green, in hatching 
shad at Hadley Falls, last season, brought out 
several very interesting facts in regard to the 
ova of this fish. First: The eggs need river 
water to hatch iu. He first tried his experiment 
in a brook, where the water was 13° too cold, 
and failed. Second : In the river, where the 
temperature was about 70", the eggs hatched in 
60 hours. Eggs have been hatched in a bottle, in 
a warmer temperature, in 48 hours. Third : By 
tilting his boxes, so as to expose only the wire 
gauze bottom to the current, he hatched almost 
every egg; only seven failing to hatch in one 
lot of 10,000. Fourth : With the utmost care, 
he could hatch on the natural river-bed only 
two percent of the eggs — a fact most significant 
of the enormous loss in the natural method. 
Fifth : The young fry make directly for the 
maiu current of the river. Young trout, much 
more hardy than shad in after life, skulk under 
rocks and banks, helpless and almost too weak 
to move for forty days. Sixth : Young shad 
are armed with teeth and devour one another, 
although the adults have smooth jaws. This 
fact has been relied upon to prove that " sea 
shad," a fish caught with the hook along the 
mouths of creeks and coves of L. I. Sound, in 
the fall, are a distinct variety. They weigh 
from one to three pounds, and, to the careless 
observer, look like the river fish. Are they the 
yearling shad ? Who can tell us ? The brief pe- 
riod of incubation required for the eggs of this 
fish would indicate its rapid development and 
early decay. It is disputed at what age the 
shad matures its spawn, and returns to the 
rivers to breed. If the " sea shad," that take 
the hook, are identical with the river species, 
they are probably the fish in their second year, 
about half grown. At two years old, they reach 
maturity, and begin to breed. With the inter- 
est that is awakened by these experiments, it can- 
not be long before these questions are settled. 
These facts, established in the operations of 
last year, demonstrate the entire success and 
economy of the efforts made in New England 
to restock their rivers with fish. Fish of any 
variety can be artificially bred in any desirable 
quantity, and turned into the streams where 
they are to grow. Man has in a measure control 
of these migratory fish, and with suitable legis- 
lation can make their enormous fecundity tribu- 
tary to his support. The economy of the 
artificial over the natural method is much 
greater than we had supposed. It is nearly as 
fifty to one. Every river can be stocked with 
fish, at small cost, to the extreme limit of its 
capacity to nourish them. It will not cost so 
much to hatch a million of salmon in the upper 
waters of the Connecticut as it does to raise a 
single calf upon its banks. The finest varieties 
of fish ought to be the cheapest food in the 
market, and cannot fail to be, if all our States 
will follow the example of the New Eng- 
land States, and encourage artificial breeding. 
Thatching with Straw. 
Thatch makes a very serviceable and eco- 
nomical roof when well put on. It is highly pic- 
turesque, easily repaired, and usually requires 
no outlay of money, which with many farmers 
is a great advantage. The mode of making a 
thatch roof followed in the vicinity of New York 
is very simple. 1 inch x l'| a inch strips of wood 
(a, a, a, figs. 1 and 2,) are nailed upon the raft- 
ers about 12 to 14 inches apart, one strip being 
at the very end of the rafters at the eaves. Rye 
straw is ordinarily used, because it is long and 
stiff. It is sprinkled and turned, to become 
uniformly moist ; long, straight armfuls are se- 
lected by handfuls, and the first course is laid, 
beginning at the eaves. The huts rest upon the 
lowermost strip, and project over it. A set of 
light poles (b, b, b, figs, land 2,) are provided, 
one of which is placed upon the course of straw, 
and when enough has been laid, the pole is 
bound down to the strip beneath it at short 
intervals, according to the stiffness of the 
pole. This binding is usually done with split 
oak withes about 30 inches long, three-eightks 
of an inch wide, and a scant eighth of an inch 
thick, well soaked before using. These withes 
have one end sharpened, and an assistant passes 
each one up through the thatch from below ; fte 
thatcher turns it, and puttiug it over the pole, 
Fig. 1. — THATCHING. 
passes it back again,when it is drawn tight, aided 
by pressure from above, twisted and one end 
tucked. The top layersare lapped, and the upper 
poles exposed to the weather ; these should be 
bound with "galvanized" iron or copper wire. It 
has been customary of late years to depart from 
the old-fashioned practice of using oak strips 
for binding thatch, and to employ tarred rope 
yarn, which is drawn back and forth through 
the straw with a wooden needle, but time proves 
this to be unreliable, as it rots long before the 
withes do. We are inclined to think that wire 
