1871. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
339 
venient jiiiices, the crib may be emptied, or near- 
ly so, without taking a shovel or seoop iuto it. 
We have found that rata may be excluded from 
the crib by a peculiar form of post, turned smooth- 
ly in the lathe. The shape is somewhat like a 
mushroom, the stalk smallest at the bottom. 
The blocks (sunk iu the ground) are of wood, 
with holes made to receive the posts, which en- 
ter four or five inches and fit tightly. This causes 
the crib to stand firmly. When the posts are 
made smooth with sandpaper, no rats or mice 
will mount them. 
Large ts. Small Pigs. — Mr. Hinman, of 
Connecticut, writes : " Pigs with us this year 
sell at about six dollars each at weaning time. 
Last year my neighbor,who keeps a large breed, 
had pigs which weighed at nine months old, 424, 
431, and 450 lbs., respectively, while mine at the 
same age weighed only about half as much, and 
were very nice pork indeed. I think I fattened 
two pigs as cheaply as my neighbor fattened 
one, but is it your opinion that I did so enough 
cheaper to make the difference in the first cost, 
my two pigs being worth twelve dollars, and 
his one only six dollars?" — If the two pigs ate 
as much as the one, and sell for no more per lb., 
evidently the man who bought the small pigs 
loses three dollars per head. In other words, 
lie pays three dollars per head too much for 
them. In such circumstances the feeder had bet- 
ter buy the large breed. But how is it, with 
the man who raises the pigs to sell ? If the 
large breed, as our correspondent asserts, eat 
twice as much as the small breed, it is evident 
that two sows of the latter could be kept as 
cheaply as one of the former, and consequently 
the little pigs could be sold at half-price. If 
they bring as much as the others when ready to 
wean, the small breed is the most profitable 
to the farmer who raises them for this pur- 
pose. If he both raises and fattens them, 
there would be, according to the state- 
ment of uur correspondent, no difference. One 
breed would be as profitable as the other. 
Pumps for Liquid Manure. 
A reader of the American Agriculturist iu 
Kossuth, Ind., asks information 
about square or box pumps for 
liquid manure — one that he can 
construct for himself. We give an 
engraving of a pump (fig. 1) that 
has worked well in our hands, and 
one that can be readily made with 
such tools as a saw, hammer, and 
nails. The size may be made to 
suit any circumstances. The box 
must be fitted tightly together, so 
that it does not leak. The valves 
(fig. 2) are of wood, covered with 
sole-leather, which projects a 
quarter of an inch over the edge, 
so as to insure a light fit. They 
are hinged with a pair of common 
butt hinges to the 
pump rod, so that 
they will open the 
full width, to per- 
mit any solid mat- 
ter that may be in 
the manure to pass 
up without chok- 
■ing. The pump Fig. 2. 
rod is a strip three or four inches wide ; at the 
bottom of it is fastened a hemispherical piece of 
? 
Fig. 1. 
* 
wood, which supports the valves, when working 
We also reproduce an engraving (fig. 3) of an- 
other kind of valve, which was figured iu these 
columns several years 
ago. A valve of this kind 
may be used in any com- 
mon box [mnip. It will 
work where much coarse 
matter is mixed iu the 
liquid manure, as the sides 
of the valve are capable 
of being pressed closely 
together, affording room 
for the solid matter to 
pass beyond them, when, 
on being drawn up, they 
open again, and every 
tiling is lifted and dis- 
charged. When it is neces- 
sary to use a long pump, 
as where the manure 
cistern is deep, and a pump 
of 12 feet or more is need- 
ed, we would put a sta- 
tionary valve at a con- 
venient distance, say four 
or five feet from the bot- 
tom. The pump rod need not then be so long, and 
the pump will work more easily. A. discharge 
spout should be made iu the pump, which renders 
the work more cleanly than when the manure is 
permitted to flow over the top, as is sometimes 
done, causing splashing that might be avoided. 
Fig. 3. 
Early Lambs for Market. 
— ■ 
Where it is possible to get lambs to market 
early iu the spring, a very profitable business 
may be made of raising them. Common native 
ewes put to a South-Down buck iu August, will 
bring a lamb iu the mouth of January that will 
fatten more readily (though it may not gaiu so 
great a size) thau the Cotswold cross. A lamb 
dropped during the middle of winter sometimes 
requires attention duriug the first few hours of 
its existence to prevent its becoming chilled, 
after which it will need no extra care, and will 
thrive apace, if the ewe is properly fed. As the 
sale of fat lambs iu May at 25 cents per pound 
is a profitable operation, it is worth while to 
give attention to producing them. Allow no old 
ewes to be coupled, as they can not raise a lamb 
so well as a young and hearty one. Select the 
best of the young ewes, and commence feeding 
them something extra from the day the buck is 
turned iu with them. A little wheat bran is 
good, changed occasionally for a haudful of rye, 
oats, or buckwheat. See that these ewes don't 
waut water, and a trough containing a quart of 
salt with the fourth of a pint of sulphur mixed 
iu, should be placed where they can get to it 
at any time. With good care most of the ewes 
will produce twin lambs. A good, full bite of 
aftermath, if it can be had, should be given ; if 
not, rather than injure the meadows, turnips 
may bo pulled, or a few green corn-stalks cut 
for them ; and when these fail, clover hay 
should be supplied freely. Excellent care from 
the earliest periods of gestation will make the 
lamb, more thau any after care could do, with 
neglect now. The sheep will also keep iu good 
condition, and when the lamb is taken away in 
May or June, will fatten quickly, if desired, on 
the early grass, and can be turned off profitably 
as inuttou. A small but well-selected flock 
of sheep may thus be made the most profitable 
investment of the farm, but it is undoubtedly 
true that the flock should he no larger thau 
can be properly handled and cared for. 
Putting in Wheat. 
A crop of wheat is often ouly half as large 
as it should be, from the faulty preparation of 
the ground. Manure aud lime are supplied as 
abundantly as may be, but the laud is plowed 
iu such a manner that the surface water is al- 
ways about the roots of the wheat, and the first 
frost heaves out the plants. It is too common- 
ly the case that fields are plowed from the out- 
side to the center, leaving, as the consequence 
of a few years' plowing, a high bank around the 
fence, and a hollow in the center of the field, 
with four diagonal hollows meeting there. This 
gives no chance for the water to get away ; it 
lies and saturates the surface. Now let the 
field be plowed iu lauds, say 11 paces or 23 
feet wide; there will be a dead-furrow, causing 
drainage at least G inches deep at eacli of these 
spaces, which will bring the surface-water at 
least below the level of the roots of the wheat. 
Besides, there wiil be a number of watercourses 
which will carry off the surplus water, and by 
means of a connecting furrow it may be gener- 
ally conducted away from the field altogether. 
However much it may be advantageous to uu- 
derdrain laud, iu many cases, from want of the 
necessary capital, it can not be undertaken. 
Then the best possible substitute must be found. 
Surface-draining by means of ridges and open 
furrows is the best substitute, and if this style 
of plowing is properly performed, where the 
subsoil is not remarkably retentive, the ground 
may be kept dry enough to prevent throwing 
out during winter. Above all things, the fash- 
ion of plowing around fields should be aban- 
doned when wheat is to be sown. It may an- 
swer for spring crops, but a better and neater 
plan of plowing, and one leaving the ground in 
a belter condition, could be easily substituted. 
Generally, it may be concluded that the ridge 
and furrow system of plowing is in all cases 
better on uudrained laud than the fiat system. 
Where the land is uuderdraiued, a swivel plow 
makes handsome work, and entirely avoids the 
bad effects of plowing around the field. 
Dry Earth in Veterinary Surgery 
BT GEORGE E. WAKING, JR., OGDEN FARX. 
Perhaps I should say " Cow-Doctoring," for 
such a thing as Veterinary Surgery is unknown 
on this islaud of Rhode Island. I found, one 
afternoon late in May, that two of my men had 
been called to attend a sick cow belonging to a 
neighbor who was then absent. The animal 
had recently calved ; had been allowed to stand 
on a sand floor in which her hind feet had worn 
a deep depression ; and in "cleansing," the ef- 
fort at expulsion, added to the low position of 
the hind-quarters, had forced out the eulire 
uterus, and in frequent lying down aud rising 
she had bruised aud soiled the parts so that the 
whole was covered with sand, manure, and 
blood. When I arrived on the ground the parts 
had been only imperfectly washed, and had 
been returned by main force — so far as I could 
learn, with more clotted blood aud filth than 
would have been left on them by a more skill- 
ful practitioner. The cow was in an extreme 
state of exhaustion, aud we none of us thought 
it possible that she could live. The usual 
remedies were resorted to, and every thing that 
the very limited knowledge of the neighbor- 
hood could suggest, was done to make the ani- 
mal more comfortable— all to no purpose. She 
grew worse from day to day, aud finally her 
