334 
AMERICAN AGRICULTUEIST. 
[September, 
No. 6 wires, go across these frames tlie short- 
est way, and are placed about an inch and a 
quarter apart. Tlie bottom is of light, clean 
pine stuff, five-eighths of an inch thick, tongued 
and grooved, and having four-inch cleats let in 
flush, to prevent warping. The sides are made 
in the same way, or may be paneled. The 
drawer is an inch deep, inside measure, and a 
space is left in the front or in both the front and 
the back, to put it in and pull it out. These 
pieces are put together by pins and hooks, and 
if well made the cage will be a strong one. 
The drawer should be kept filled with dry sand 
Fig. 2.— FRONT, REAR, TOP, AND BOTTOM. 
or gravel, covered with a little short, clean straw. 
In case it is undesirable to have the top open, 
the top and bottom, as shown in the engraving, 
may be reversed, and each one used in place 
of the other. The fowls may be put in by lift- 
ing the top, or by lifting the top, shoving it back 
an inch, and then rais- 
ing some of the wires in 
the front. Should the 
fowls be exposed to 
drafts, the cage may be 
covered with canvas or 
baize on one or more of 
■i the open sides. Packed 
for transportation these 
lig. a. — sides of coop. r , , 
cages would occupy on- 
ly G inches in thickness. The dimensions of the 
cage may vary considerably ; the size represent- 
ed in the illustrations is 3 feet high, 2 feet deep, 
and 2'|i feet long. 
A low roost, 5 inches high, to relieve the 
fowls from constantly standing upon a flat bot- 
Fig. 4. — roost. 
torn, may be made of a half round piece of 
wood, two inches in diameter, (one inch radius) 
having two triangular blocks with 5-inch bases 
for feet. When not in use, if simply turned 
over against tlie back of the coop, the roost will 
be entirely out of the way. 
Impure Drinking-water. 
It is said that a man's palate is like a police- 
man, stationed at the door of his stomach to 
prevent the entrance of improper company. 
To a certain extent this is true, but our safety 
requires that the aid of the reason be called iu 
to exercise a wiser discrimination than our tast- 
ing faculty can do. Many articles, more or less 
injurious, are either of agreeable taste, or are 
tasteless. For instance, it is not unlikely that 
cholera, typhoid fever, and epidemic diarrhoea, 
. are propagated by means of fresh and sweet-tast- 
ing drinking-water, more than in any other way. 
It is not positively proven, but it is undoubtedly 
true, that the presence in the water of wells 
and springs of matter emanating from the excre- 
ment of persons sick with the above diseases, and 
perhaps some others, is a sure means of dissem- 
inating them. It is also generally believed 
among those who have paid the most attention 
to the subject, that any excrcmentitious matter 
in drinking water is not only highly injurious, 
but is often a cause of the outbreak of diseases. 
There is good reason to suppose that these dis- 
eases are also communicated by a contamina- 
tion of the atmosphere (especially of sleeping- 
rooms), but the weight of authority seems to 
attach even greater importance to pure drinking- 
water than to pure air. As an instance in point, 
we refer to the fact that in the summer of 1854 
a sudden and most violent outbreak of 
cholera (reaching a mortality of 131 in 
a single day, within a circle of about 
200 yards radius), which occurred iu 
London, was distinctly traced to a well 
in the center of the fatal area, that re- 
ceived the leakage of a house-drain 
through which the evacuations of a 
cholera patient passed immediately be- 
i, fore the outbreak of the pestilence. The 
water of this well (as is often the case 
with water containing organic impu- 
rities) was peculiarly .fresh and palat- 
able. On the removal of the handle of 
the pump by order of the vestry of the parish, the 
disease rapidly diminished. It seems perfectly 
clear, in this instance, that the cholera poison 
contained in the evacuations of a single invalid 
was distributed by means of this well throughout 
the whole district, dealing death on every hand. 
It is stated that, a few years since, the over- 
flowing of the filth-vat of the Atlantic House, 
at Newport, R. I., — sending a poisoned stream 
through, the gravel stratum that connects the 
wells of a large part of the town — gave rise to 
what was known as the John Street Fever, 
which proved of the most fatal character. 
Sufficient evidence has also shown that the 
leachings of barn-yards are, as a cause of 
typhoid fever infection, hardly less dangerous 
than are the exudations of privy vaults. 
Now is the season when we should guard with 
the utmost care against every possible contami- 
nation of our wells and springs. During the 
winter, spring, and early Summer, the amount 
of water in the soil is sufficient to keep any 
slight impurity so far diluted as to be compara- 
tively unimportant, but during this and the suc- 
ceeding months, when the springs are low, 
when most of the water-bearing strata of the 
soil have run dry, the virus is so concentrated 
as to tell, with often fatal effect, on all who use 
the water. This season of low wells is peculiar- 
ly the season of typhoid fever, epidemic dysen- 
tery, etc., and it stands every sensible man in 
hand to provide at once for the purification of 
the source from which the drinking-water of his 
family is taken. A single cup of clear water, 
fresh from the spring, may carry the seeds of a 
fatal disease,and typhoid or dysentery may come, 
like a thief in the night, and carry away the pride 
of the house:— then there will be lamentations 
over the inscrutable decrees of Providence. 
If no well or spring is at hand which is surely 
free from contamination, — which has no streak 
of gravel connecting it with a privy-vault, a 
cess-pool, or a barn-yard, — then, by all means, 
commence by providing a good supply of rain 
water, and end by so arranging the establish- 
ment that no atom of the waste of the house 
or barn shall find its way into the lower soil. 
Plowing Under Crops for Manure. — An 
old farmer in Missouri writes us that he has 
'' tried buckwheat, oats, corn, and clover, plowed 
under as manure," and has come to the conclu- 
sion that nothing is so good as clover. He has 
not tried peas, and asks whether they are good 
for this purpose. Next to clover there is no 
crop better than peas to plow under for ma- 
nure. But peas contain a good quantity of 
matter that can be turned into pork, and the 
manure that is left will be nearly as valuable as 
the peas themselves. Grow all the peas you 
can, but do not plow them under. There is no 
better feed for pigs, and sheep do well on them. 
How to Save Corn Fodder. 
Much of the value of corn stover is destroyed 
by careless handling, even in the districts where 
they store it for feed. This is especially true of 
the corn that is cut up by the ground, and put 
in shocks to cure. The curing process goes on 
safely while it remains in the shock, but the 
husking begins while the stalks are yet green at 
the bottom, and the fodder is immediately 
stacked or carried to the barn, and stored 
in bulk. It soon heats and moulds. If, after 
husking, the stalks are bound immediately in 
bundles, of convenient size for handling, and 
put into large shocks of thirty or forty bundles, 
set up endwise, and capped with straw, they 
will cure without moulding, and make excel- 
lent fodder. Or the bundles may be taken di- 
rectly to the barn, or to an open shed, and 
stored in the same way. The air has free cir- 
culation through the interstices of the bundles, 
and the moisture is carried off. Well-cured corn 
fodder is nearly equal in value to hay, and the 
extra labor of making into bundles will pay. 
•-• — ■■« i » 
Draining Large Swamps. 
Those of our readers whose farms run on to 
large swamps, which can be drained only by the 
concurrent action of all their proprietors, will be 
interested to know what is being done on a sim- 
ilar swamp near New York. The swamp is a 
long and narrow one, and winding through it in 
the most tortuous course is a brook of consider- 
able size, which, owing to its many curves, to the 
obstruction of trees that have fallen into it, and 
to a profuse growth of water-cresses, is always 
so sluggish that at ordinary stages of the water 
it runs bank-full ; and after heavy rains, the 
whole swamp is overflowed and is kept con- 
stantly in such a condition as to be worthless 
even for pasture. The plan for its improve- 
ment consists chiefly in a project for straighten- 
ing and deepening the course of the brook. It 
is estimated that by striking a bee-line from the 
lower to the upper end of the swamp, the length 
of the stream will be reduced more than one- 
half; aud it is in contemplation to make the ex- 
cavation to a depth of four feet below the level 
of the banks, at which depth, almost through- 
out the whole course, the bottom of the brook 
will be, not in muck, but in the hard subsoil. 
In order to prevent the washing away of the 
banks, the bottom of the brook will be but three 
feet wide, the width at the surface being four- 
teen feet. This will give a very gradual slope, to 
be sodded immediately, and on which grass will 
grow down to the ordinary level of the water. 
At the upper end of the cutting a pond of con- 
siderable size is to be made, with a sluice-way 
through the bottom of its dam communicating 
directly with the head of the brook. Ordinari- 
ly, this pond will be full, and its overflow 
will pass through a curved wooden "shute" 
by a very easy descent to the level of the 
bottom of the new ditch ; so that there will 
