452 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
stove, or if preferred with a grate or open fire- 
place, and cacli with fine closets. The hall 
bedroom or Prophet's chamber, as sometimes 
called, is a good-sized room, and being connect- 
ed with the rooms on either side is convenient 
for a child's sleeping-room. The bath-room is 
accessible from the principal bedroom and from 
the rear. To warm it, it would be necessary to 
cany a pipe through the maid's 
room to the chimney, or to 
make in the attic a horizontal 
flue of earthen pipe, laid in 
mortar upon brick, connecting 
with the same chimney. The 
servants' rooms may be warm- 
ed in case of sickness, and ven- 
tilated by the chimney at night, 
the ventilators being closed by 
day, in case fires are needed in 
the rooms below. There is a 
large linen closet near the head 
of the stairs, and a roomy gar- 
ret over the main house. The 
house is to be well built in ev- 
ery respect, and plainly finish- 
ed throughout. It is to be 
double boarded ; first diagonal- 
ly boarded with hemlock, this ^ '•*«*".■* ■*** 
first covering of boards is to be sheathed with 
roofing felt; then the weather boarding put on. 
General specifications of materials and cost 
in the vicinity of New York are as follows: 
Blinds and Shutters $ 150 
Carpenter Work... . 1600 
D° OT3 ' 'l40! 
Grates 50, 
Hardware. Nails, etc . . ^25 
Lumber . .| . ....'...'.'.."..'.'. '.'.'.'. i,60o! 
Labor, Draining and Digging 185 
Mason Work and Materials 1 700. 
Mouldings, etc '300. 
Paints and Painting.'. .'.'.'.'...'.'. .'.' '.'..'.'. 600 
Tinning, (Gutters, Leaders, etc.) 90. 
Sashes 175, 
Sundries \\\ V.Y.Y. ',".'. ..!..."". ',! '. !! 500.' 
Total cost $7,855. 
The Pig-House at Ogden Farm. 
— ■ 
Tlie accompanying illustrations are taken from 
the working drawings of a pig-house which has 
just been built at Ogden Farm, (Newport, R. I.). 
It is submitted to those of our readers who may 
contemplate improvements of this sort. The 
building is 24x32 feet, and cost (built of rough 
Fig. 1. — GRAND PLAN OF PIGGERT. 
; c,c, pens;d.d, troughs; e,e, bins of dry earth; /,/, flap doors. 
pine battened, with cedar shingles on the roof) 
only $425, including the excavation of the ma- 
nure pits and the boarding up of their sides. 
Fig. 1, is the ground plan. There are four 
pens 8x10, two 6x10, and two 6x12. The 
troughs all open into the center area, and are 
opened by swing posts which expose them to 
Farm Hay Scales. 
— • — 
Very few farmers in America are provided 
with the means for weighing hay, live-stock, 
grain, coal, etc. Yet no one can question that 
the ability to substitute accurate weighing from 
rule-of-thumb guessing, would be a great advant- 
age, and we are convinced that no farmer who 
had once realized this advantage would will- 
ingly do without it. Grain and roots, as well 
as hay and straw, are now, in many localities, 
sold entirely by weight; while the ability to 
know, accurately, the weight of every animal 
bought and sold would be a great safeguard, 
especially to the inexperienced ; and it is of no 
small benefit to the stock grower to be able to 
know the rate at which his fattening animals 
are converting a given weight of food into 
flesh. We are led to make these remarks by 
the fact that we have just had a Fairbank's 
scale put into our own barn. The platform of 
the scale is a part of the barn floor, cut out and 
supported on the levers, which are immediately 
below the timbers. The weigh-box is in the 
wall, at the side of the gangway, out of the 
way, and out of danger. The interest on the 
cost of the scale, including setting, is a tax on 
the farm of about $10 a year, and it will last a9 
long as the barn will, and longer. It is sensi- 
tive to a half-pound weight, and it will weigh up 
to the amount of three tons, so that everything 
produced upon the farm, from a pair of fowl's 
for market to a load of hay can be accurately 
weighed in a moment. The platform is so se- 
cure, that the ordinary use of a barn floor, includ- 
ing heavy teaming, can have no effect upon it. 
dry manure mixed with earth. In the centre 
of the open floor, stands a Prindle steamer, 
whose 7-inch smoke-pipe discharges into the 
middle of a 12-inch galvanized iron ventilator, 
whereby efficient ventilation is secured. The 
food is cooked in pork-barrels, which may be 
moved about at pleasure; the flexible steam hose 
with au iron nozzle conveying the steam to the 
bottom of the barrel. Fig. 2 is a cross section, 
showing the manure pits, pens, etc. More than 
15 cords of manure can be stored in the pits, 
which are to be emptied through shuttered 
windows. Fig. 3 is the front elevation of the 
building, which is to have small yards at the 
sides, communicating with the pens by slopes 
from the outer doors. This house will ac- 
commodate from thirty to forty shoats, or a 
corresponding number of breeding animals. 
Coloring Butter in Winter. 
Fig. 3. — CROSS SECTION OF PIGGERT. 
fl, a, groitnd line; b.b, posts; c.c. manure pits; d.d y stone slopes to yards; e,e, 
flap doors; /, ventilator. 
the attendant for cleansing or filling, or to the 
swine for feeding, as may be desired. The two 
large bins at the sides of the entrance door are 
filled with dry earth, with which the pigs are 
treated to the luxury of the earth closet— to the 
Fig. 3. — FRONT ELEVATION OF PIGGERT. 
a, wooden steps ; b, battened door; c.c, windows of SxlO glass; d, ventilator. 
great improvement of the air of the building, 
and of the manure. The floors of the pens are 
made of 2-inch planks, 6 inches wide, hud with 
1-iucU openings between them, which secures 
the immediate passage of the urine to the pits 
below, and the gradual working through of the 
After severe frosts, when cattle have to be fed 
on cured fodder, eveu though roots form a larce 
part of their food, the butter loses the rich 
color the grass has given it, and is but little 
more attractive in appearance than so much 
tallow. There are various artificial means for 
coloring it, A carrot, grated into the churn, 
will communicate a light golden hue, and ex- 
tract of annatto, mixed with hot water, and 
left twelve hours to steep, will make a still 
richer tint. Annatto applied directly to the 
butter itself, is much more effective, and is 
chiefly used as a coloring agent of both butter 
and cheese. A slight admixture 
of Turmeric, however, heightens 
the color very much, but it must 
be used most sparingly, as too 
much of it produces a brimstone 
color that is anything but attrac- 
tive. We have found the fol- 
lowing plan very satisfactory: 
Take a quarter of a pound of 
annatto, and a half-ounce of tur- 
meric, and steep them together 
in a pound of melted butter, 
keeping them over a slow fire 
for some hours. Then strain 
through a fine cloth into a jar, 
add a little salt, and keep in a 
cool place. When the butter is 
half worked, take a small quan- 
tity of this mixture (experience 
will teach the proportion), melt it, and pour it 
in a depression in the lump of butter, working 
it in as it cools with the butter that surrounds 
it. This will assume a deep reddish color as 
the added matter combines with it. Then work 
this thoroughly through the 
mass until it is all of the same 
shade. The color, after a little 
practice, may be made equal to 
the richest gold of the June 
dairy, and the flavor will be 
sliglitly heightened. The butter 
will, in fact, be much more sale- 
able, and really somewhat bet- 
ter. The most celebrated butter 
makers about Philadelphia, ex- 
cept those who have Jersey 
cows, color their butter with 
pure annatto, which gives it a 
deep orange color. In order that their city cus- 
tomers may not know any difference, they use 
annatto in summer as well as in winter, and the 
rich color of the crack Philadelphia butter 
which is fondly ascribed to some peculiar quali- 
ty of Brandywine grass, is really the effect of 
