1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
291 
Carelessness in the management of a barn 
cellar is productive of three serious evils — no 
proportionate increase in the quantity and value 
of the manure, a loss through unchecked fer- 
mentation of the manure itself, and damage to 
the cattle and fodder kept above the reeking 
mass of decaying matter. Care is naturally and 
easily given, and demands less labor than 
the clearing out of the old-fashioned stables. 
Hog* in Barn Cellars. — While we advocate 
barn cellars as the best means of increasing the 
quantity and value of manure, it i3 no incon- 
siderable advantage that lmg3 may be kept in 
them, and add greatly to the value of the com- 
post. They are perfectly healthy jf the cellar 
is kept properly supplied with absorbents, and 
arc ordinarily much cleaner than when confined 
in filial 1 pens more or less exposed to the weather. 
How tite Track was Mended. — The fa- 
miliar story of Columbus and the egg has many 
THE MENDED TKAC'E. 
au application in every day life. How many 
things are absurd!}' simple — " easy enough if 
you only think of it," — yet not thought of at the 
right time! John H. Simonson, of Brookvale, 
L. I., was unfortunate enough to have the tug- 
eye tear out of one of his leathern traces when 
far from home with a heavy load. If he had 
cut a hole in the trace for the hook it would 
probably have torn out. He did better. Shift- 
ing the tug, end for end, he put the eye end in 
the buckle, and in the more flexible buckle end 
cut a hole and slit, as shown in the engraving, 
slipped the eye in, and went on with a strong 
trace. But very little strain is thus brought 
upon the leather at the hole, on account of the 
two bearings the trace has upon the bars. 
A Grass Doctor— Scuffle Hoes. 
A letter too long for a "basket" item, too 
good to make several of, and too spicy to 
keep to ourselves, if it be " personal," comes 
from Down East, and from a lover of grass, 
and greens, and clean farming. He writes: 
"Well — I learned something in L . Its 
climate is not suited to pine-apples. Some very 
nice people are raising Durham cattle in that 
section. Rob themselves of milk, and lie awake 
o' nights to raise bulls and heifers. No wonder 
beef is high. There might be some fun in 
raising grass there if one did rot feci the need 
of spending ten times the value of the land in 
draining. I have thought of offering my servi- 
ces to the public as a grass doctor. Why not ? 
Our present science, or no-science, teaches us 
if we want a fine sod to use 1 per cent of 
the seed which makes it, smothered with 99 
per cent of something we don't want, (and 
which, luckily, is short-lived.) and wait five or 
ten years for the natives to come in the good 
old way of nature. How much better the sod 
looks where cattle run in the street, by the road- 
side, than in our "improved " meadows! Send 
me somebody who has his money yet to spend, 
and wants to improve old pastures, meadows, 
aud fields — some one who has not his hands 
more than full trying to raise pine-apples in the 
open air! Yes — I think I ought to be a grass 
doctor. Put my card in the Agriculturist, if 
you think it best, and send me the bill. 
I am exercised on the subject of Scuffle Hoes, 
and think of coming down to see you, and 
bring the implements, and make a show at a 
public trial. Have you got some roots 
just coming up — or anything weedy? 
If I had the hoes and could get at the 
people that need them, and by some 
electric process flash into their minds 
what I know of the good of 'em, I 
could sell a million within a month. 
No patent hoc either. The people's 
own — the old pattern a little improv- 
ed, and well handled. With it, weed- 
killing becomes a pastime like bil- 
liards. Set the day for me to come 
down. I am trying to get a few tools 
made up North, in the hoe and handle 
country. Who knows but I can. divide 
the affections of the nation with Gen- 
eral Grant ! Win or no win he'll go 
out of fashion in time; but I think 9 
Scuffle Hoes more durable. Say the 
word. I don't wish to wander about 
Sew York in summer, but if you want to see me 
kill weeds, or hear me talk about grass, I'll give 
you a visit soon. My diet is bread and milk. 
If you have a calf that takes all the milk of 
three cows I shan't come. That is a species of 
calf-worship worse than that of the Hebrews." 
How to Make Hogs Extra Fat. 
Hogs well fed and kept clean will fatten rap- 
idly. If true economy lie consulted the grain 
will be ground aud cooked. Hogs have good 
appetites and a powerful digestive apparatus. 
It is a well known fact that the appetite will 
Perfectly Safe Whiffletrees. 
It is his own self-control that renders a horse 
manageable. When anything happens to dis- 
turb this, and a horse becomes frightened, tbor- 
oughly frightened, in his frantic struggles or 
dashes he may quickly ruin himself, destroy 
precious lives, and much property. One of 
the most frequent causes of fright to horses 
is the breaking or displacement of some part of 
the harness. Hence every careful man is always 
sure that nothing about it can possibly go 
wrong. A correspondent of the Agriculturist, 
saved, providentially, from imminent danger, 
caused by the trace becoming unhooked from 
the whiffletree, asks us what style of attach- 
ment of the. trace to the whiffletree is perfectly 
secure? There is very little danger of most of 
the common fastenings unhooking, yet we think 
that all those which require that the eye should 
be held simply in an unusual position in order 
to be inserted in the 
hook, are liable to the 
danger of having the 
s ' eye accidentally rat- 
tled out the same way. The following engrav- 
ings, figs. 1 and 2, show a combination of hook 
and spring which holds the eye until it is un- 
hooked by human hands. Fig. 1 is the simplest, 
strongest, and most convenient — in fact, the only 
one we have ever used or seen ; still we can 
imagine an accidental pressure to be brought 
upon the trace eye in such a way as to cause it 
to press down the spring and slip out, as we do 
in unfastening it. 
Such a case can hard- 
ly be imagined, how- 
ever, with reference 
to the arrangement shown in fig. 2, for here the 
end of the spring being bent at a right angle, and 
sinking into a slot in the cap, makes it necessary 
to bend down the spring from outside the hook 
in order that the eye may be disengaged. The 
same end may be accomplished by a stiff spring. 
JEALOUST AS A TONIC IN FATTENING nOOS. 
usually fail long before the hog's ability to digest 
well is impaired by surfeiting. Though swine 
in thin flesh fatten very rapidly, fat liosrs in- 
crease in weight slowly, often greatly to the dis- 
appointment of their feeders. This is due usu- 
ally to the failure of the appetite, and in case 
we want hogs very fat, we seek to remedy the 
difficulty by varying the food and stimulating a 
desire to eat, in various ways, feeding little and 
often, in order to make the animals eat as much 
as possible. A good story was lately told us of 
several neighbors who year after year vied with 
one another in trying to produce the fattest 
hog, each taking a pig from the same litter, or in 
some way starting fair and square with pigs of 
the same age and size, and doing his best to 
make it as fat as possible before Christmas. 
One of the farmers invariably beat the others 
out and out, so thoroughly that his good luck 
could never be accounted for as accidental. The 
secret he kept to himself, but being watched by 
some one determined to find it out, the discov- 
ery was made that jealousy is a grand appetizer 
for hogs. First the pet monster was allowed to 
fill himself to his heart's content, and when his 
appetite was satiated, a half-starved shoat was 
let in to the pen by a side door. The fat one 
would at once begin to fight it off, aud mean- 
while, to gorge himself, simply to prevent the 
poor squealing victim of unsatisfied cravings 
getting any food. This was a daily programme, 
and the result was as stated. The fact is worth 
bearing in mind, for in preparing hogs for ex- 
hibition, or for some reason, we are often 
desirous of expediting the fattening process. 
Peat and Muck as Fertilizers. 
The season when the swamps are usually 
driest leads us to call attention to the muck 
mines. There has been a very great change in 
the use of peat and muck during the last twen- 
ty years, but it is still not half appreciated. 
Multitudes who have these mines upon their 
farms never work them. There is a great differ- 
ence in the character of the peat and muck 
found in our swamps, but it is rare to find one 
that does not afford a fertilizer that will pay 
largely for carting and composting. A few bogs 
have been found containing soluble sails of iron 
(copperas or green vitriol), in such qti entities as 
