336 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
How to Catch Down an Ox-Cart Body. 
There are a number of simple ways to fasten 
down the front end of the body of an ox-cart. 
We have never found one more simple and 
FASTENING DOWN AN OX-CABT BODY. 
effective than that shown in (ho engraving — 
which is simply a short chain passing loosely 
under the tongue. It is long enough lo allow 
an up-and-down play of five or six inches in 
the front end of the cart-body. This enables 
us to fasten the free end to the body with a long 
hook which can not rattle out of its place; and 
it prevents every little movement of the load 
from throwing up the tongue in the yoke-ring, 
thus avoiding a very serious annoyance to the 
team. The cart should be so loaded that it will 
bear but lightly on the yoke, and llien it will 
play up and down without disturbing the pole. 
A Simple Stump-Puller. 
Mr. J. H. Morse, of Morse's Mills, Mo., has 
kindly sent us a sketch of a contrivance for 
pulling stumps, which he has successfully used 
to clear forty acres of land very cheaply. It 
consists of a hook, a chain of more or less links, 
as may be needed for large or small slumps, and 
a ring twelve inches inside diameter, made of the 
best and toughest iron. Mr. M. makes his ling 
of two-inch round-iron, and the links of one- 
and-lhree-quarter-inch iron, but as it is an axiom 
passed through the ring, a team attached 
to its other end, and the stump twisted out 
by driving around it. Willi two yoke of oxen, 
white-oak stumps of three or four feet diameter 
may be taken out with ease. If the roots are 
very fresh and tough, 
a man with an ax 
should stand near by 
to sever with a blow 
any one of the roots 
which offers great 
resistance. One acre 
per day can be clear- 
ed with this machine, 
worked by two or 
three men and a pair 
of stout oxen or a 
heavy pair of mules. 
In case very large 
stumps are to be 
taken out, it would be 
better to leave them to 
the last, and bring an extra team to finish them. 
Saving Corn-Fodder. 
A ton of well-saved corn-fodder is worth, if 
well used, the price of a ton of hay ; yet how 
rarely is it well saved or well spent! Exposed, 
after husking, to all the 
storms of October, it 
is tardily stacked or 
housed in November, 
and, musty and mildew- 
ed, washed and weather- 
beaten, it is not only the 
poorest fodder but ab- 
solutely injurious to 
stock, to which it is 
thrown in the roughest 
and most careless way in 
the barn-yard. Then it is trampled down in the 
snow and mire, and next spring is cursed as the 
greatest nuisance a farmer has to contend with. 
But let corn-stalks be shocked up carefully, 
spread well at the butts of the shock, and tied 
closely at the top until the corn is husked, and 
then put up in convenient bundles, and again 
set up, so that the rain 
can not penetrate the 
shocks, and as soon as 
cured be carefully 
stacked or put away 
beneath a tight roof, 
and it becomes agree- 
able-looking, sweet- 
smelling, nutritious 
fodder, which will be 
readily eaten by all 
sorts of stock. If it. 
is cut up with any 
oncof the various fod- 
der-cutters into short 
lengths, or even chop- 
ped up with an ax on 
the barn-floor, wetted 
in mechanics that the strength of a chain can [ and sprinkled with a little sail and a handful of 
A Hay-Knife. 
Where hay is stacked, much waste occurs in 
using it during the winter season. Generally 
the hay is removed from the top of the stack as 
it may be needed for feeding, and thus the slack 
is exposed to snow and rain, and much hay be- 
comes damaged, lo say nothing of what is lost 
by being thrown down, scattered, and trodden 
under foot. This may be partly avoided by 
A HAT-KNIFE. 
having room in the barn to stow away one 
stack at a time, but still loss occurs in the re- 
moval, and very often the needed space is not 
to be found. Then the use of the hay-knife, as 
figured on this page, comes in as a very conve- 
nient means of preventing any waste. It may 
be made of a worn-out cross-cut saw, cut to a 
proper length, four feet or thereabouts, fixed to 
a handle, and ground to a sharp edge and point. 
This is to be thrust into the slack with a down- 
ward motion, and slices of the hay cut off of 
one side, sufficient to supply the needs of the 
HORSE FOR SHOCKING CORN. 
stock for a clay or two. The hay can then be 
removed in a compact state, and the stack gra- 
dually cut up and used without the waste 
of a pound. Like all other cutting tools, a 
hay-knife cuts very much better when kept 
sharp and bright than when dull and rusty; it 
should therefore not be left out, exposed to the 
weather, leaning against the stack, but be 
brought into the tool-room when out of use. 
A SIMrLE AND EFFECTIVE STCMF-PULLER. 
not be greater than that of iis weakest part, the 
riiur need not be of any heavier material than the 
links The hook should be flattened on the 
sides, at I he bend, to resist as much as possible 
the tendency to straighten out. when the strain 
is brought to bear upon it. To remove the 
stump.- :f ilicy -ire large and gvoew, the roots 
sh u i he partly uncovered, and ihe hook placed 
■ si rone of iheni. The bu4.(-end of a 
■<■ i uoii'jh i.i sushi in the strain is 
btin, it will be entirely consumed ; and the 
manure pile in the spring will be altogether freed 
from the objectionable, unrotted, and tangled 
stalks, while it will be equally enriched by their 
fertilizing remains. In this way the supply of 
feed will be economized, often leaving hay to 
spare for sale or permining the number of feed- 
ing stock lo be. doubled, and besides what is 
often a source of trouble and annoyance maybe 
turned to good account and money made t>3' it. 
A Shocking Horse. 
P. M. McClure, Minn., sends us his method 
of shocking up corn, which is, he says, the sim- 
plest and quickest method he knows of. He 
uses a horse made of a small pole three inches 
in diameter and ten feet long, furnished with a 
pair of legs to elevate the end sufficiently, as 
shown in the illustration. A hole an inch and 
a quarter in diameter is bored through the pole, 
and a rod four feet long is so fitted as to slip in 
and out easily. The horse is placed where a 
shock is to be set up, the corn is leaned against 
the pole and the rod by which it is sustained 
until the shock is bound, when the rod is slipped 
out, the end of the pole picked up, and the horse 
drawn along to where another shock is needed. 
Fall Treatment of Grass Lands. 
A fellow-feeling, as it were, teaches us that it 
is inconsistent with the comfort and well-being 
of our live-stock to permit them to go unpro- 
tected through Hie winter, and exposed to cold 
and frost and the rigors of the weather. But 
