J06 
AMERICAN AG-RIOULTUKIST. 
[UCTOBEK, 
through the bight (which maliaTa "half-hitch,") 
and then " seize," as sliown in tlie figure. This 
is done l)y bindiui; tlio cud securely to the 
standing part by rope yarn, or a stout cord. 
AVIion a strain is put upon such an eye, it comes 
almost altogether upon the hitch and not upon 
tlie "seizing." In case the rope is to be sub- 
jected to very heavy and continuous strains, it 
is well to make two half-hitches instead of one. 
How to Make a Good Barnyard, 
Several things arc essential to render a barn- 
yard a good one. It must be so constructed that 
water from any source will not accumulate in it. 
It must not be uucomforlably wet or disagreea- 
bly muddy for stock. The surface must also be 
firm, so that coarse manure will not bo pressed 
down into the soft earth, and thus make 
hard pitching. These are the main requisites. 
Now, the first thing is to provide for carrying 
off the surplus water that will be liable to find 
its way among the manure. Cut a good ditch 
entirely around the yard, not loss than 30 inch- 
es deep, and fill it with tiles if they can be ob- 
tained, or witli plank, as illustrated on another 
page. Stones will be just as good to drain the 
soil and carry off the water ; but the drains are 
more liable to bo filled up by rats. Tliis drain 
will keep the ground di'y on each side of it, and 
will not carry off the liquid manure. Conduct 
all the water by eave-troughs from the roof of 
tho barn and sheds into this underdrain. 
Tho next step is to grade the yard, either by 
hauling earth away, leveling off the knolls, or 
by drawing in compact earth to fill up the de- 
pressions. The surface of tho yard sliould al- 
wiiy.s descend gradually from the barn and 
sheds. Thero ought also to bo buildings, or 
cheap sheds on every side of the yard. E-xca- 
vato at the lowest part so that liquid from all 
parts of the yard will descend to that place, 
and there sink a sugar hogshead, and cover 
it with plank, so that notliiug can fall into it. 
Then, set a cheap pump (see page 213, July 
Agriculturist,) in this hogshead, pump up tlTe 
liquid, and send it in board or bark troughs 
among the solid manure in any part of the 
yard. This will be a perfect security against 
its heating and becoming " flre-fanged." 
The next job will be to pave the whole, or a 
portion of it. Stones of various sizes and forms 
may bo used. Flat stones three or four feet 
square are objectionable, for heavy cattle are 
liable to slip on large stones so as to in- 
jure themselves. Were they to slip not more 
than two feet, there would bo little danger of 
harm. Some parts may be paved with boul- 
ders of a certain size, and then those of anoth- 
er size may be used in 'another place. Largo 
stones and small ones may be placed side by 
side, by excavating a little for the large ones, 
so that tho surfaces of each will be of equal 
hight. Stretch a line across the yard and lay 
the top of each row of stones even with the 
line. In this way there will be little or no diffi- 
culty in making the surface of the pavement 
even. When laying the stones, the workman 
needs a trowel to place sand, or fine gravel be- 
neath thin or small stones, to raise them up to 
the line, and a rammer made of a billet of hard 
wood with an iron ring like that of a beetle on 
the bottom of it, to drive those stones that 
are too high, down even with the lino. 
After the paving is finished, spread sand, 
gravel, or finely-pulverized clay all over the pave- 
ment and work it into the interstices. This will 
make a barnyard that every good farmer will 
be proud of On many farms there are loose 
stones enough lying in the fields to pave several 
yards. Where stones are scarce, the sur- 
fiice may be covered with gravel or clay, or 
compact earth, instead of stones. Where tim- 
ber is cheap, a yard can be paved with wood, 
by sawing off logs, five or six inches long, with 
a drag saw, and placing them on the end. 
Tills would make a pavement that could not 
fail to please the most incorrigible faultfinder 
or grumbler. Hemlock, pine, oak of all kinds, 
and many other kinds of wood sawed into pav- 
ing blocks and well tarred on the lower ends 
with coal tar, would last many years, always 
making a very smooth and agreeable surface to 
work on, and not slippery for animals. It 
would also hold liquid manure woM. 
m t I ■ — ■ Ml ►-•• . 
How to Increase the Manure Pile. 
The soil unmanured, will often produce good 
crops for a year, or two, or more, and then it 
demands rest, in order to recuperate, and gain 
soluble, ash ingredients enough for another se- 
ries of crops. This period of rest it was early 
found miglit bo much shortened by frequently 
stirring the soil by the plow and harrow ; and 
moreover, it became known that the addition 
of certain substances to the soil, such as the 
dung of animals, the ashes of trees and plants, 
etc., not only operated in the same way, but en- 
tirely did away witli the necessity of fallowing. 
Thus, long iu advance of the philosophy which 
wo now recognise as accounting for these facts, 
farmers knew what would restore lost fertilit}'-, 
and what course of treatment would keep up 
their laud. Man, indeed, does nothing without 
some kind of a reason, and so in old times the 
farmers had. a philosophy whicli answered as 
well for them as ours does for us, so long as it 
did not conflict with known fiicts. Now-a-days 
we have so many facts, and they are so well sys- 
tematized, that our philosophy must be very 
nearly right in the main, though still thero arc 
many points upon which tho Doctors disagree. 
Manures supply to the soil ^vhat the plants 
require as food, and that which other crops may 
have removed. They also cause chemical action 
to take place, by means of wliich plant-food, in 
tho soil but not available to the plant, becomes 
soluble, or otherwise available. Besides, they 
produce other desirable effects, such as making 
tho soil more friable, porous, absorbent of moist- 
ure, and more tenacious, or less so, etc. Good 
tillage without manure may produce several of 
these effects, especially in conjunction with the 
action of the air, rains, sunshine, frosts, etc., and 
it always greatly assists the action of manure. 
In all civilized countries in which tho soil has 
been long enough under cultivation to show a 
decline in fertility, manure is valued for all 
the reasons just enumerated. Tho questions 
of " Inquirer," of Barrysburg, Pa., whoso letter 
wo quote, are to the point. He says : 
" I am anxious to know in what way to in- 
crease my manure heap. I have only some 30 
acres of land, and am working every foot of it. 
Of straw, I have not even enough to bed my 
stock with. I keep five horses, two cows, and 
generally feed two oxen through tho winter. 
My manure heap is nearly always smoking, be- 
ing so hot, and turns gray, or looks mouldy in- 
side. How shall I proceed to prevent it, and 
what shall I do for materials ? Spent tan-bark 
I can get three miles off; sawdust none about 
here ; I can get but a very small quantity of 
leaves, and for these I have to pay very high ; 
muck I have none on my laud, and have notli- 
ing indeed, but gravelly soil. Will some one 
please give me advice as to what I am to do ?" 
It is now autumn, and our friend -will not do 
well to collect much, if any, vegetable matter 
which can contain weed seeds in any consider- 
able quantity. Still it is probable that a good 
deal of such things, potato tops, swamp grass, 
rushes, reeds, bogs, etc., may be obtained. His 
soil is gravelly ; were it not for this, wo would 
recommend him to use good loamy, or even 
sandy soil, for bedding for his stock. Nothing 
is better to bed cattle, or horses upon, than 
about a barrowful of soft loam, free from stones 
and sticks, covered with a very slight spreading 
of straw or other litter. The litter may bo 
renewed daily and raked off, with the dung and 
tho soil as often as it becomes saturated with 
urine, or otherwise defiled or wasted — say once 
a week for cows, and twice for all male animals. 
This will not only increase the bulk of tho ma- 
nure heap, and check the fire-fangmg, but it 
will greatly improve its quality, really more 
than our philosophy with present data can ac- 
count for. If it is possible for Inquirer to get 
such soil, wc say by all means use it ; if not, let 
him go out into the highwaj's and hedges, and 
trim off tho sods, pare off tho turf, clean out the 
roadside ditches, pools, etc., and cart it all in to 
swell the manure heap. The best way to use 
it is, having it dry, to mingle it daily with 
the manure in the stall; if this cannot be 
done, then make the mixtm'e when the stables 
are clc-aned out, using uniform quantities daily 
in proportion to the amount of manure made. 
As for the heap, mouldy, heated, and fire-fanged, 
as it is described, the only thing to do with that 
is to work it all over, repiling it with uniform 
square sides and a flat top. It should be sup- 
ported on rails, or any other contrivance for 
good drainage, so that water may be pumped 
over it and run through into a sunk hogshead, 
or tank of some kind. When piling up such a 
heap, mix in soil, muck, straw, or something of 
the kind, and tread it down hard on the edges, 
that they may not diy so much as otherwise. 
Collecting and Grinding Bones. 
Thousands of tons of bones are collected 
every year in Chicago, Bufiiilo, and other large 
cities, and forwarded to New York, and other 
seaports where tho hardest ones are picked out 
to be cut into buttons, knife handles, etc., and 
the rest are ground and exported to Europe, to 
increase the productiveness of foreign soils, so 
that they will raise more grain and not need to 
buy oui'S. Why not appl}' tho bones to our 
soil and sell them the corn ? If it will pay to 
transport bones from our Western cities to Eu- 
rope, surely those farmers near such places can 
make it profitable to collect, grind, and apply 
them to their soils, as they have no freight to pay. 
Formerly tho expense of dissolving bones or 
grinding them was so great as to deter most 
farmers from attempting to make any use of 
them as a fertilizer. But as they can now be 
reduced to dust at a trifling expense, every farm- 
er should be careful to save bones and grind 
them, for keeping his soil in a good state of fer- 
tility. Those bones that have not been much 
boiled are more valualjle than those which have 
been boiled for a long time to extract all the 
grease. The large bones and joints are full of 
marrowy, nitrogenous matter, which is valuable 
to apply to the soil. If therefore, farmers will 
grind boues themselves, or have them ground, 
they will be sure of a much better article of ma- 
nure than can generally be obtained in market. 
