416 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
is well harvested and well stacked after thrash- 
ing, is at least as good if not better feed than 
late-cut hay that is badly stacked afterwards. 
A Portable Food Steamer. 
It is needless to say anything in favor of 
feeding cooked food to pigs. The economy 
and advantage of the practice are undisputed. 
A PORTABLE STEAMEE. 
The only consideration is as to its convenience 
or practicability. Where a large number of hogs 
are kept, every facility will be provided for 
cooking as a necessity that cannot be avoided. 
Where a few only are kept, the outlay for an 
apparatus is usually too great for profit. In 
these cases the cheap method here illustrated 
may be adopted. A sheet-iron boiler is made 
as here shows, with a small fire-box beneath 
it ; the smoke pipe passes through the "ooiler 
and through the water contained in it. This 
economizes all the heating power and requires 
but a very little fuel to heat the water and make 
steam. At the rear of the boiler is placed the 
s.t aside to cool, and each steamer should be 
large enough to cook food for one da}'. Roots, 
corn, oats, or coarse meal, may be cooked in 
this steamer; but fine feed rnaj- be cooked in 
the boiler shown separately. The feed mixed 
with hot water is placed in the boiler. This 
being conical, is partly immersed in the boil- 
ing water, and the heat of the feed is thus 
maintained until it is thoroughly cooked. 
A few small fragments of coal, charcoal, 
rough wood or corn cobs may be used for fuel. 
Any tin-worker can make a steamer of this 
kind from the description and engraving here 
given. We don't know of any person who 
makes them, but if some enterprising mechanic 
would undertake it, and let people know the 
fact, they would doubtless be largely used. 
Temporary Dam for Ice Ponds. 
6 
A correspondent wishes to make a temporary 
ponel from which he may cut ice in the winter, 
and afterwards draw off the water, leaving the 
stream and its banks in their usual condition. 
This may be done by erecting a temporary 
dam in the following manner. Select a part 
of the slream where the largest space may be 
flooded with the^hortest dam. A place where 
the banks slope rapidly and above which they 
recede from the stream shoulel be chosen. In a 
direct line across this place set some strong 
fence posts not more than 8 feet apart. They 
should be set at least 4 feet deep, and bedded 
with lime mortar and stone or cement con- 
crete to make them perfectly solid. If the dam 
is not more than 4 feet high these precautions 
are not necessary, but if of a greater hight 
they will be needed to resist the pressure of the 
water and that of the ice when its surface is 
acted upon by the wind. The posts should be 
strongly braced — the braces being set in the 
same manner as the posts. These posts may 
remain always in their position ready for use, 
and will occupy very little room or occasion 
very little inconvenience at any time. If they 
can be set up in a fence row so much the bet- 
ter. All that is needed then is to provide some 
hemlock planks of equal width and 16 feet 
TEMPORARY DAM FOR ARTIFICIAL IOE-POND. 
steamer in 
■well to have 
which the feed is cooked. It is 
two steamers, bo that one can be, 
long, jointed and tongued and grooved upon 
their edges. These are fastened to the posts by 
carriage bolts, the nuts of which are exposed on 
the outer side of the dam. The middle panel 
of the dam is made of planks 8 feet long, so 
that when it is desired the bolts may be taken 
out and the planks removed one by one, and 
the pond drained off gradually. The other 
planks are made to break joints, the ends being 
bolted to alternate posts, which will help to 
strengthen the dam. The lower planks must 
be made to fit the surface of the ground, and 
should be sunk three or four inches in it, and 
the ground well rammed around them. If any 
leaks occur as the water is raised, which should 
be done graelually by putting in one plank of 
the center panel at a time, they should be 
stopped by throwing in sawdust, tan bark, or 
leaves, or swamp muck. When the whole is 
up, the upper plank of the middle panel shoidd 
be hollowed out sufficiently to allow the waste 
water to escape, as is shown in the illustration. 
If there is any danger of the falling water 
washing the soil away, a sloping apron of 
boards should be made to receive it. A pond 
with a surface of half an acre frozen 6 inches 
thick will furnish 000 tons of ice. Where the 
ground is favorable, a pond of this size may 
easily be made at an expense of $25, and the 
fixtures will not need renewing for 20 years. 
The main point is to be sure that the posts and 
braces are properly set, and that the planks fit 
tightly ; then there will be no dauger of the 
dam breaking or the w T ater leaking away. If 
the water flows back into other fields, there is 
no need to remove the fences, even if they are 
of rails, if they are well staked and such riders 
as are likely to be covered with water are 
wired down to the top rails. 
BASKET FOR GATHERING LEAVES. 
Gathering Leaves. 
Before the ground is covered with snow as 
many leaves as possible should be gathered 
from wood lots and woods. Leaves are soft, 
warm, clean bedding, and absorb a large quan- 
tity of liquid manure. They are excellent in 
the cow stable, in the pens where the ewes are 
turned to yean, and for bedding brood sows 
with young pigs the}- are better in every way 
than straw. No young pigs are strangled in 
leaves as they often are in straw, and leaves 
harbor no vermin. Besides, they contain much 
more fertilizing matter than straw, being rich 
in potash and phosphoric acid. For these rea- 
sons the work of gathering leaves should be 
made one of the indispensable duties of the 
present season. Woodlands that are used for 
pasture should by all means be cleared, lest the 
heavy covering of leaves should smother the 
grass. Neither these nor other woodlands lose 
anything by this annual clearing off of leaves. 
The surface of woodlands is not exhausted by 
a growth of trees. The roots penetrate deeply 
and bring food from far below the surface 
soil. There need be no fear of injuring 
such lands by removing the leaves every 
year. Besides, in most cases the leaves do 
not stay beneath the trees, but are blown hither 
and thither, and finally rest in fence corners 
and lanes where they do no good. The small 
