416 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
ing she could liave bad but about half a piut of 
milk iu her bag ; yet this received so much taste 
from the turnips that it spoiled the milk of four 
other cows in full flow. To make the test com- 
plete, he had her milked twice a day, when the 
difficult}* at once ceased, and did not recur. 
Evidently a very small amount of milk in the 
udder will suffice to do the mischief, and if 
dryiug-off cows are milked only once a day 
while on turnip feed their milk should not be 
mixed with that from the rest of the herd. 
A Lock for Sleds. 
The engraving below shows a simple and 
effectual lock, or drag, or hold-back for a sled. 
There are many cases in which such an attach- 
ment to the sled would be a saving of labor to 
both teams and driver, who in descending hiils 
LOCK FOK SLEDS. 
are worried and tired by efforts to hold back 
the sled and load. Many serious accidents 
might be averted by the use of them. They 
should be made of good iron, and consist of a 
lever pivoted to the hinder post of the sled- 
frame, which when raised by means of the han- 
dle at the forward extremity, or a cord attached 
thereto to be used when a tall load is being 
drawn, depresses the tooth or catch, which is 
pivoted to the hinder arm of the lever, below 
the level of the runner, and causes the sled to 
drag in the snow, and so enables a team to 
make the descent of a steep hill quite safely. 
Movable Manger for Stalls or Stables. 
When it is desirable that the inside of a stall 
or stable should present no projecting points or 
furniture — a very necessary thing where valuable 
stock is kept, and a very neat and useful arrauge- 
A ROCK1NO MANOEtt. 
ment atall times— the manger aud hay-rack may 
be made movable on the principle shown in the 
annexed engraving. It represents a manger for a 
horse-stable, so arranged that it may be swung 
into the feed passage aud fastened there when 
not in use, leaving the front of the stall inside 
with a smooth flush surface, and when needed 
for use may be filled and swung into the stall. 
The partition between the stall and the passage 
is represented at a, the hooks (b, b) hold the 
manger iu place, aud e shows the position of 
the manger when in use inside of the stall. A 
break in the partition shows the position inside. 
On the same principle the mangers for cows or 
other stock might be constructed; also hay- 
racks where long hay is fed, as well as troughs for 
pig-pens. The manger vibrates ou pins, either 
of wood or iron, let into the ends at the lower 
part and into the frame of the stall. 
Winter-Feeding of Sheep. 
We are requested by many of our readers to 
give them information respecting the fall and 
winter out-door feeding of sheep. Most of 
these inquiries come from Virginia, where the 
climate — as in many other of the Southern 
States — is well adapted to this method of sheep 
culture. It is a favorable sign of an improving 
condition of agriculture when the desire is be- 
coming prevalent to raise 
crops to be cateu off from 
the ground by sheep folded 
thereon. It is one of the 
more advanced arts of ag- 
riculture, which so far 
has been considered — but 
H erroneously so — as not 
V -I * T| ■ adapted to our climate. 
It is, wherever practica- 
ble, a great economy of 
feed aud a saving of labor, both iu harvesting 
and storing the crops eaten, and in caring for 
and hauling aud spreading the manure made. 
Sheep are better spreaders of manure than most 
farmers or farm hands, and very easily accom- 
modate themselves to and readily understand 
the system of folding. 
The crops which may be eaten off the ground 
by lambs or sheep are of considerable variety. 
Clover, blue-grass which has been kept for win- 
ter pasture, rape, mustard, turnips, or any other 
roots may be used. The roots may be gathered 
aud sliced and fed in troughs or scattered on 
the ground, or if shallow-rooted, as the white 
or yellow turnips or the rut a-baga, may be fed as 
the}' grow in the drills. The means of inclosing 
the sheep are the main difficulty, but it is easily 
met. Where small timber abounds, light hurdles 
may be made as described and figured iu the A gn- 
culturist of November, 1871, page 418. Where 
this is not readily available, nearly as cheap 
a material may be procured in the tarred twine 
or cocoauut-fiber netting, which may be pur- 
chased ready-made by machinery, or the twine 
maybe purchased aud made up into the netting 
at home during the long winter evenings or 
stormy winter days. The nets should be three 
feet in width, aud may be made or procured in 
rolls of any length desired. Two rolls of a 
hundred and ten yards each would stretch across 
a square field of ten acres, and such a field 
might be fed off iu strips by using two such 
rolls. Or the same lengths of netting would 
inclose a space of seventy yards by forty, which 
would be more than half an acre, and sufficient 
for a small flock of sheep. The nets should be 
huug on stakes driven into the ground, hooks 
being driven into the stakes, the lower edge of 
the net being six inches above the ground, aud 
if the sheep are wild, and need more restraint, 
a No. 9 wire may be stretched a foot above the 
net, and will effectually iuclose any flock, how- 
ever inclined to rove. In a few days, sheep thus 
inclosed in a net hurdle become habituated 
to it, aud of themselves come into the in- 
closure as soon as it is made ready for them. 
We give the following directions for making the 
net. If the peculiar stitch by which fish-nets are 
made is known, there is nothing easier than to 
weave the nets in that manner, but as iu inland 
localities this is rarely understood, and it is al- 
most impossible to describe it in print, we give a 
substitute, which answers the purpose iu every 
way, and is much easier to make. It is made 
as follows: The material is stout hempen or 
cocoauut-fiber twiue, about one eighth of an 
inch thick, which can be purchased at twenty 
cents per pound. A cord of thrice this thick- 
ness is used for tho border of the net, aud the 
meshes are attached to it by mcaus of a still 
finer twine, which is twisted or kuotted two or 
three times at the corner of each mesh by means 
of the needle shown at a, fig. 1. This needle 
1. — MAKING A KET. 
is whittled out of a piece of maple or oak wood, 
oue eighth of an inch thick aud an iuch aud a 
quarter broad. On this needle the knotting 
thread is wound. The square piece of wood 
shown at b is held against the rope, the netting 
twine is passed arouud it and fastened by two 
or three turns of the knottiug thread, and a fast 
knot is made. The thread is cut, the block 
withdrawn, aud replaced in position to make 
another mesh, and so the work proceeds until 
finished. In fig. 1 is shown this method of 
knotting the meshes. When a sufficient length 
of net is made, it should, before it is U3ed, 
Fig. 2.— THE MET POT UP. 
receive a thorough soaking with pine-tar, 
which will add very much to its durability. 
The stakes should be five feet long, about four 
inches thick, pointed at the foot, aud are to be 
driven iu the ground with a wooden mallet. 
Fig. 2 shows the net hooked on to the stake. 
