92 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
demands a quick and certain supply of nutri- 
tive materials, ami in the case of domesticated 
species the young are obliged at the same time 
Fig. 1.— QUARTERS FOR BARLT CHICKENS 
to nourish the growth of bodies which, owing 
to the artificial treatment man has subjected 
their parents to for many generations, tend to 
an abnormal size. The fledging period is a 
critical one, and the feeding from the time of 
incubation until the wing and tail feathers are 
Fig. 2. — PEN FOR MOVING FOWLS. 
fairly developed, should all be contrived with a 
view to assist the digestive organs in changing 
just as much easily assimilated material as pos- 
sible, into an abundance of good, rich blood. It 
will not do to wait umtil the time of the most 
rapid feathering, and then begin to allow a gen- 
erous diet, but the systems of the young chicks 
must be prepared in advance, by being stored 
with nutriment in every cell and tissue. For 
the first few days after incubation feed the yolks 
of eggs slightly cooked by being dropped in hot- 
water, not spoiled by being hard-boiled. Mix 
these with an equal quantity of the crumbs of 
corn-cake, made by baking a dough of Indian 
meal and milk. As soon as the chicks are a 
week old, begin gradually to substitute boiled 
plucks and livers, run through a meat-cutter, in 
place of the egg-yolks, and the Indian meal may 
be cooked as a thick mush, and to stimulate 
appetite by variety, add sometimes wheat-bran 
and ground oats. Also, cracked corn and wheat 
screenings, raw, may be introduced. All they 
will cat of tender grass, chopped fine, and boiled 
potatoes, nicely mashed, should be given. The 
grass may, of course, be discontinued when the 
birds are strong enough to pluck it for them- 
selves. Skimmed milk should be the sole drink 
until the birds are two months old, at least. 
There is nothing that will so promote thrift. It 
contains just the elements needed, and in a 
very available form. 
The adult fowls designed for breeders should 
be fed sparingly, and forced to literally scratch 
hard for a living. The sitters must be fed a 
stimulating diet in winter and a rather low one 
in summer, and the fowls of the main laying stock 
should be crowd- 
ed all their lives 
without any inter- 
mission by plying 
them with a diet 
growing richer and 
more stimulating, 
because contain- 
ing a greater pro- 
portion of chand- 
lers' scrap?, the 
older they become. 
Cayenne pepper 
is the cheapest 
and best stimulant, 
with ground mus- 
tard and ginger for 
a change. Begin 
with a very little, 
and increase the 
quantity gradually. 
The chickens of the classes of breeders and 
sitters, which should be reared under the most 
favorable auspices possible, are housed at scat- 
tered stations in the cellars vacated in early 
spring by the early-hatched pullets (p. 12, fig. 2), 
and so have the advantage of a wide range. 
The cellars are covered 
by the earth platforms, a 
glazed sash being temporari- 
ly hinged to one, for a door. 
The platforms are laid two 
deep, to make sufficient pitch. 
"When the chicks are old 
enough to run in and out of the 
underground passage, they 
are confined at first in a lath 
pen, until they have learn- 
ed the way, and afterwards 
allowed to go where the}' 
choose, the hen being confined 
to the cellar. Figure 2 re- 
presents a pen used in moving 
fowls. When it is put in the place occupied by 
the feed-room at the end of the passage (see fig. 
1, fourth article, and fig.l, ninth article), the fowls 
are baited into it, the door A corresponding to 
an opening in the side of the end of the passage. 
The partitions in the pen separate the flock 
into squads, to pre- 
vent too many fowls 
huddling together 
and trampling each 
other during mov- 
ing, at which time 
a covering should 
exclude the light. Chains may be passed around 
the ends of the cross-piece at B B for draught. 
any change in its shape; and in its operative 
parts, the teeth, there has b«en none at all until 
lately. But within two or three years past an 
ingenious improvement in the shape of the 
teeth has been introduced, by which the cutting 
capacity of the saw is doubled or trebled. This 
improvement is the invention of Mr. E. M. 
Boynton, of 80 Beekman street, New York, and 
has been found of such utility that large uum- 
N 
Fig. 1. — FORM OF SAW TEETH. 
bers of these improved saws are now in use. 
These saws possess several great advantages 
over the old V-tooth saws, among which the 
most important are speed and ease of cutting, 
and perfect self-clearing from the sawdust. After 
an experience of two years in using one of these 
saws, we can speak confidently of their great 
value, both in cutting wood for household use, 
and in the heaviest lumbering. Not only is 
time saved, but the work is rendered easier, and 
a saving of wood is gained ; and that nuisance 
Fig. 2. — IMPROVED BUCK-SAW. 
in man}' a farmer's yard — viz., the pile of chips 
which accumulates when an ax is used — is ren- 
dered unnecessary and impossible. 
The form of the teeth in the Boynton saw is 
such that as much cutting is done in the back 
stroke as in the forward one j the cutting is more 
rapid, inasmuch as the cutting face of the tooth 
is at right angles, or perpeudieular to the sur- 
face of the wood to be cut, while the old V- 
tooth is of such a shape that it has a tendency 
Improved Saws. 
There is probably no mechanical tool with 
which we could less easily dispense than the 
saw. It has been in use from the earliest ages. 
When we con- 
sider the ancient 
origin of this tool, 
it is rather surpris- 
ing that it should 
not have been 
long before this 
greatly improved in 
form, as it has been in the material of which it 
is made. "With the exception, however, of giv- 
ing to it a circular form, there has been little if 
Fig. 3.— SINGLE-HANDED CROSS-CUT SAW. 
to rise and jump over it. A log of button wood, 
twelve inches in diameter, has been cut through 
with one of these saws in eight seconds, and two 
men with one saw, once filed, have cut 26 cords 
of hard wood — beech, maple, elm, and hickory 
— in eight hours. The illustrations given show 
the shape of the teeth (as iu fig. 1), and some of 
the forms in which the improved saws are made. 
Fig 2 is the common bucksaw. Fie. 3 is a sin- 
WrtiiHliEiita^ 
Fiir. 4.— DOUBLE-HANDED CROSS-CUT SAW. 
gle-handled cross-cut, to be worked by one man 
in cutting down trees or sawing logs; and fig. 4 
the ordinary double-handled cross-cut saw. 
