1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
217 
on the whole was all that could be desired. 
The roosting-bouse had ventilators cut at the 
upper part, and by not allowing any nests to 
be made on the ground, skunks and other ver- 
min were not encouraged, and committed no 
depredations. The size of these buildings may 
be changed to suit the needs of a flock of any 
PORTABLE FEED-BOX. 
smaller number, or another set of buildings 
might be added if the flock should be increased. 
A Portable Feed-Box. 
J. A. Flory, Cass Co., Ind., sends us a sketch 
of a feed-box which he uses when at work in 
the fields, and which may be hung on to a 
board fence. It consists, as shown in the ac- 
companying engraving, of a box of any desired 
size, to which side-pieces are fastened which 
project in front for a few inches, and which are 
notched to fit the fence-boards on which it may 
be hung. Between these side-pieces there is a 
shelf or sloping bench nailed, which serves to 
enable the feed or grain to be poured into the 
box from the other side of the fence to that on 
which it may be hung, if it is ever needed to 
do so. It is very probable that many of our 
readers will be grateful to our young correspon- 
dent for this hint, from which they may malic 
for themselves a very useful and handy feed- 
box. With such a one there will be no need to 
feed oats to a horse on the ground, as we have 
seen done occasionally. or in a loose pail, which 
is overset and possibly trampled on and spoiled. 
An Improved Farm Gate. 
"A Correspondent " sends us his method of 
making gates, which is an improvement in 
A GOOD FARM GATE. 
several respects over those iu common use. 
The posts are set iu the usual manner, but a 
round log is laid between them just beneath 
the surface of the ground, which prevents dogs 
or hogs from the road forcing a passage by 
scratching or rooting the earth away. The 
latch-post is notched, and the catch is sunk 
within the notch, so that there is nothing to 
project to interfere with passing cattle, horses, 
or carriages, or to be interfered with by them. 
The gate is made of strips of three-quarter-inch 
or inch boards, and is very light. The upright 
pieces are nailed on each side of the bars with 
wrought nails, or bolted with light carriage 
bolts ; the diagonal brace is also fastened in the 
same manner. The latch is made with a slop- 
ing slot, so that when it is pushed back it is 
raised, and when released falls of its own weight 
into its usual position. It may be made either 
to rise and fall into the catch or to slip back 
and forth into it. A small roller is fitted to the 
lower part of the foot of the gate which, as the 
gate swings shut, strikes a half-circular piece of 
board fastened on to the surface of the ground, 
on which it revolves, and thus supports the 
weight of the gate. The gate therefore can not 
sag in the least ; and if the heel-post leans si ightly 
forward, or the upper hinge is slightly longer 
than the lower one, the gate swings to of itself. 
Such a gate as this should receive two coats of 
crude petroleum, which, if it is made of dressed 
chestnut or pine lumber, gives it a dark surface 
in which the grain appears very distinctly. "We 
give an engraving of this gate as it appears 
when complete. 
How to Make a Rain-Gauge. 
" S. P.," Medina Co., Texas, wishes to know 
how to make a rain-gauge. A rain-gauge is 
used to mark the amount of rain-fall. It is, 
therefore, only necessary to procure a proper 
receptacle to receive the rain, and another in 
which the rain gathered may be measured and 
preserved from loss by evaporation. The an- 
nexed engraving shows how one of a very sim- 
ple character may be made. It consists of a 
glass jar with parallel sides and of a regular 
cylindrical form. A cork is cemented closely 
into the neck, and the side of the jar is marked 
with a file, so as to show inches, halves, quar- 
ters, or, preferably, inches and tenths of inches 
when possible to do so. A porcelain or metal 
funnel, the inner edge of which is exactly the 
same circumference as the inside of the jar, is 
fitted into the cork, and the joint sealed with 
cement so as to be air-tight. Although this 
gauge will not be exactly accurate, it will be so 
nearly correct that it 
will serve the pur- 
poses of an ordinary 
observer, and its con- 
struction and use will 
be found of interest 
to many of our read- 
ers, more especially 
to young ones of an 
inquiring disposition, 
who may learn by its 
use a habit of observ- 
ing closely those 
things which are oc- 
I curriug hourly around 
them, but which are 
now often passed 
unnoticed. Nothing 
is more interesting 
than the study of the 
natural sciences, and the means and appliances 
for much of this study are, like this simple con- 
trivance, readily procured and easily used. One 
thing, for instance, learned in a very short time 
by the use of such a rain-gauge and by observ- 
ing the rain-fall, will be that the idea that drops* 
RAIX-GAUGE. 
of rain falling directly downwards are nearer 
together than when they fall in a sloping 
direction, forced into such 
direction by a strong 
breeze, is incorrect. On 
the contrary, it will be 
found that exactly as 
many drops will fall into 
the funnel when the rain 
falls in a slanting direc- 
tion as when it falls di- 
rectly downwards. The 
explanation of this fact, 
which to some seems 
improbable, we leave to 
our young readers to 
study out. The position 
of the rain-gauge should 
be such that the rain-fall 
is not interfered with by 
sheltering trees or eddies 
or irregular currents of 
wind. A clear, open space 
should be chosen, and the jar should be inclosed 
in a wooden box, leaving tho funnel projecting 
above the cover. 
Board Buildings. 
— • — 
The weight of material put into such farm 
buildings as stables, sheep-sheds, hog-pens, 
poultry houses, wagon sheds, or tool houses, is 
generally very much greater than necessary. 
Now that lumber is becoming more costly, and 
it is found that light, board buildings are equally 
serviceable as heavy-framed timber ones, the 
principle of balloon frames for farm buildings 
is becoming more commonly adopted, and they 
are becoming continually lighter. A few years 
ago the writer built a stable for cows and calves 
in which there was not a piece of timber thick- 
er than one inch above the floors, excepting the 
stalls and stanchions. The sills were 8 x 10 the 
joists 2 x 10 the floors 2 inches thick, and the 
rest was all of inch or half-inch boards. The 
roof was of half-inch spruce boards eight inches 
wide, with the joints broken by four-inch strips 
Fig. 1 — A FRAME OF BOARDS. 
of the same thickness. The roof was supported 
by trusses made of strips six inches wide put to- 
gether as shown in figure 1, and were much 
lighter and easier to handle and put up than 
ordinary rafters, and having no tendency to 
spread, enabled the building below to be made 
very much lighter than would otherwise have 
been necessary. A board six inches wide 
(fig. 2) was nailed to the floor joist, and to that 
part of tho end of the roof truss which came 
within the walls. This board was gained in 
order to receive strips which were used as girts, 
and the wall boards were nailed to these girts 
and to the first mentioned board, which 
stood at right angles to them. This stiffened 
