98 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
floor there ia a root-cellar, and under the prin- 
cipal hay-bay a storage room for plows, har- 
rows, etc. The general arrangement of the cat- 
lie floor and hay-room is shown ia fig. 3. The 
os and horse stables open into a small yard, 
separated from the cow-yard. The animals 
have access to the latter through Hie doors at 
the end of the building. The feeding passage 
is Dot wide enough for a cart, but it is wide 
incloses the manger on this side. Eighteen 
inches in front of it is a board four inches high, 
nailed to beveled blocks at intervals of three or 
four feet. These blocks support a shutter.which 
may be turned back against them for putting in 
cut feed or meal ; or turned up straight and 
closed with a button against a three-by-four 
timber which supports the bay-rack. This rack 
consists of strips of Georgia pine2£ in.wide and 
-gQft 
tf, 
-> 
HAY 
BAY 
^0 
Cp 
STALL 
FOR 13 COWS 
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S 
j 
FEEDING PASSAGE 
threshing; floor 
cm J 
HAY BAY 
L_ 
L_ 
lo 
sfALLS rDR7CQWS 
C3 
STALLS FOR 4 OXEN 
□ 
i 
TAIL FOR 
1 
2.H0RSES 
Fig. 3. 
enough for a team alone when unhitched from 
a loaded cart or wagon left standing upon the 
thrashing floor. 
The features of this stable to which we espe- 
cially wish to call attention, are the arched floor 
and the arrangements for tying and feeding. 
The main timbers supporting the floor are 28 ft. 
long, running across the building. There are 
two of them, one about one third the distance 
from either end of the cow-room. TLfese are 
supported each by two 10-inch chestnut tim- 
bers, resting on foundation stones, and standing 
Tinder the lines of the upright posts to which 
the cattle are tied. Before these were put in, 
and after the outside of the building was fin- 
ished, the cross-timbers were screwed up in the 
middle as much as they would bear, having a 
" crown " of about six inches, giving an arch- 
like form to the floor,'the middle of the feeding 
passage being six inches higher than the outside 
of the passage behind the cattle. The floor- 
joists were then notched in to these timbers and 
to the end sills to a uniform depth as far back 
as the rear of the floor on whick the cattle 
stand. At this point a drop of four inches is 
given by spiking a scantling against the floor 
joist. From this point the passage floor rises to 
the side of the building. This gives good drain- 
age, great simplicity, and great strength. The 
construction of this floor and of the feeding ap- 
paratus is shown in fig. 2, 
the details being more 
clearly set forth in fig. 4. 
There are do partitions 
between the cattle, save the 
fears which separate the oxen 
from the cows. At the left 
side of each cow's ueck, on 
one side of the barn and 
at the right side on the 
other, stands a turned post of chestnut, three 
inches in diameter at the bottom and two inches 
at the top. To these the cows are tied, by ropes 
arranged with a running l»op fastened around 
Jhe posts, and with buttons and eyes to fasten 
around their necks. A board six inches high 
PLAN OF FLOOR OF BAHN. 
one inch thick. In front of it there is a shutter 
3 ft. wide, hinged at the bottom, which may be 
turned flat against the slats when hay is not be- 
ing fed, or may be dropped back the length of 
the chain which supports it when necessary. 
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of this barn from 
the down-hill side. 
« i ■ «■ ' » 
The Story of a Good Cow. 
BT GEORGE E. WAKING, JR., OF OGDEN FARM. 
She is a Jersey, of course — not that there are 
not good cows of other breeds, but then I am a 
Jersey man, and my interest in this breed leads 
me to learn more of the good qualities of this 
family than of others. Her sire and dam were 
imported from the island of Jersey by Col. God- 
dard, of Provi- 
dence ; and her 
name is " Theresa." 
She belongs to Mr. 
E. B.Perry, of Pro- 
vidence, and I had 
heard enough of her 
to induce me to pay 
her a visit. She 
lives on a little farm 
about two miles 
north of the city, 
Fig. 4. — SECTION OF STALL. 
and has all the care that it is possible for a 
man who is fond of her to give. 
I have seen haudsomer cows — indeed, she has 
few of what are known as "fancy points," be- 
ing large, raw-boned, crumple-horned, and big- 
bellied. She is far from being solid-colored, 
and she has not the "black points" of which, 
we read so much in the agricultural papers and 
see so little in the best Jersey cows. She is of 
"the real old Taiuter kind." If handsome is 
that handsome does, then " Theresa" is a beauty 
of the first order. She is eleven years old, and 
had her last calf March 18th, 1871, and is to 
calve again March 16th, 1872. 
The account given below is made up to the 
last day of 1871—275 days from April 1st (13 
days after calving). The family she supplies is 
a large one, and aside from the milk required 
for other purposes, much fresh milk is used in 
cooking. Mr. Perry estimates the value of the 
milk used in his family at $50 — say 17 l f, cents 
per day. Fresh milk and cream were sold to 
neighbors for $12. Probably these items repre- 
sent nearly 1,000 quarts of fresh milk tuat was 
not used for butter-making. In spite of this, 
there were made from this cow alone in the 275 
days 301 s /« lbs. of as fine butter as I have ever 
seen, which is sold to a gentleman in Newport 
for 75 cents per pound. The value of the butter 
at this price is $226.31. Value of shimmed 
milk fed to pigs and poultry, $20. 
The product of butter averaged for Slay, her 
best month, 9 T %\ per week, a yield which many 
a common cow could beat under the same cir- 
cumstances ; but then she averaged about 7 '/< 
lbs. per week for the whole 39 weeks — a feat 
that, so far as my information goes, has rarely 
been equaled. 
The regularity of her production is surprising, 
especially when we remember that she was with 
calf for more than two thirds of the time, and 
that in December she was milked but once a 
day, in the hope of drying her off. She pro- 
duced in April 38 s /i ' us - > May, 44 lbs. ; June, 
(all the milk being sold for three days), 32 */, 
lbs.; July, 34 1 /, lbs.; August, 34 V, lbs.; Sept., 
35 lbs. ; October, 33 '/„ lbs. ; November, 28 '/, 
lbs. ; December (milked but once a day), 20 '/= 
lbs. A better illustration of what is meant 
when it is said that a good Jersey is the best 
family cow I do not know where to find. 
The total value of the produce of the 288 
days after calving, supposing all the butter to 
have been sold (as it might have been) for 75 
cents per pound, and including $35 for which 
the calf was sold, was $343.31— an average of 
$1.19 per day. Allowing about $20 for the 
remaining 2 % months, she will ftave produced 
one dollar per day the year round. 
Caponizing. 
The object of caponizing is to improve the 
quality and increase the quantity of the flesh of 
fowls. A ca>pon will outgrow a cock of the 
same age, just as an ox will exceed a bull in 
weight, and for the same reasons, which are 
that castration makes an animal less restless 
and quarrelsome, and less of the nutriment it di- 
gests is diverted from flesh-forming. 
The operation is not difficult, and is so quick- 
ly performed after a little practice, that opera- 
tors earn high wages by caponizing cockerels at 
$5 or $6 per hundred. There are sets of instru- 
ments for the purpose, which arc advertised by 
the "Poultry Woild" in our columns, and we be- 
lieve are sold by several other parties. To save 
expense an ordinary pocket-knife and tweezers 
can be used instead of those made especially 
for the business, and the remaining instruments, 
which are illustrated in fig. 1, may be made to 
order by amy jobber in metals, a is a tube 
with the end (b) flattened to an oval about one 
third of an inch in ils greatest diameter. 
