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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
Improvement in Horse Stables. 
Level floors are a great desideratum, and as 
intimated in a letter from a correspondent of 
the Agriculturist in Washington Territory, (last 
volume, p. 335,) it is not only unnatural, but 
cruel and injurious to animals to force them to 
stand with the fore feet higher than the hind 
Fig. 2— METHOD OF SAWING SPARS. 
feet, especially upon wet and slippery places. 
The item alluded to has elicited from a gentle- 
man of Rhode Island, information concerning a 
style of stable floors more or less in vogue in 
and near Providence, and which is to be com- 
mended in the main. This consists primarily of 
a tight floor, sloping to the rear, falling 4 inches 
in 10 feet, the length of the stall. Upon this lie 
spars measuring 4x5 inches at the rear end, and 
tapering to 4x1 inches 
at the head of the stall. 
These spars are placed 
three quarters of an 
inch apart, and form a 
level surface for the 
horse to stand upon. 
This is shown in the en- 
graving of the stable: 
(we follow the sketch 
Tig. 3— MANURE DROP. 
of our friend in representing the floor-boards (B) 
as running cross-wise the stall, but with our 
present views, in building or altering our stables, 
we would contrive to have them run with 
the slope.) Fig. 2 shows how a 4x6 piece may 
be sawed to make two 
spars, each 4x5 at one end, 
and 4x1 at the other. The 
sloping floor conducts to 
the rear the urine flowing- 
down between the spars, 
which is discharged into a 
gutter which is made in a 
3x6, or 4x8 inch piece, ex- 
actly as eaves-troughs are 
made, being cut shallow 
at one end and deep at 
me other. At the lowest 
ooint, where two gutter- 
oieces meet, a 2-inch auger- 
iiole is bored to let the liquid through into the 
cellar beneath, where it is caught in a vat or 
tank, or is conveyed off upon the manure heap. 
Behind the stall proper is the passage-way, 6 
feet in width, (assuming 16 feet to be the least 
width of a good stable,) and out of this, close to 
Fig. 4 — CLEANER. 
the back wall, 
is taken a space 
for a manure 
drop, 8 inches 
in the clear. 
This is shown 
in the perspec- 
tive view, and 
also in fig. 3. 
The dotted 
lines indicate 
the opening of 
le lid, and 
iow it rests 
when opened. 
It will be ob- 
served that, 
while open, no 
animal can get 
its foot into the 
hole easily, un- 
less he happens to slip or fall down, and even 
then, that no damage can possibly result. It is 
also evident that, instead of packing a mass of 
dung upon the edge, as the common trap-door 
or lifting floor-board does, this lid will clean 
the edge every time it drops. The opening is 9 
inches high, and the lid is hung on strong hinges. 
Fig. 4 represents a contrivance for clearing 
the spaces between the spars, and for cleaning 
out the gutter. It is a rounded hoe-blade which 
fits the 4-inch groove. On the back of the hoe 
is a spur of iron i inch wide, to clean between 
the spars. The handle projects beyond, and is 
used to poke straws and dirt through the hole 
in the gutter. 
Potatoes versus Tobacco— an Experiment. 
Mr. Daniel Steck of Lycoming Co., Penn., 
sends us the statistics of an experiment made 
this season, which are of sufficient interest to pre- 
sent to our readers. He says : " Last SpriDg I 
read an article in the Agriculturist which stated 
that 'other crops probably, might be quite as 
profitable as tobacco, if for their production the 
same amount of labor and expense were em- 
ployed.' Now, this rather damped my ardor, 
for, aloug with many of my neighbors, I had the 
' tobacco fever.' However, I commenced the 
preparation of a piece of land for a trial of this 
valuable crop, but all the while the labor was 
progressing, that ' other crops, etc' kept sound- 
ing in my ears, so that I at last concluded to try 
a part of my tobacco patch with some ' other 
crops,' and fixed upon the potato for experi- 
ment, with the following results : 
Tobacco Patch. Dr. 
To plowing I acre $2 00 
" 24 loads of manure 18 00 
" Cross-plowing 2 00 
" Marking and preparing 2 00 
" 4,200 plants 10 50 
" Setting plants 2 50 
" Hoeing 10 00 
" Topping and manuring 5 00 
" Hauling and hanging 5 00 
" Stripping 4 00 
" Packing Boxes 5 00 
" Hauling to market 2 00— $68 00 
Cn. 
By 984 lbs. Tobacco, at 18 cents per lb $177 12 
Profit on one acre of Tobacco $109 12 
Potato Patch. Dr. 
To plowing half an acre $1 00 
" 12 loads of manure 9 00 
" Harrowing 33 
" 12 bushel seed 9 00 
" Marking and planting 2 00 
" Cnllivaling and hoeing 2 50 
" Digging 5 00 
" Hauling to market 10 00— $38 83 
Cs. 
By 130 bushels potatoes, at SI $130 00 
Profit on K acre of potatoes — $91 17 
Equal to, for one acre $182 34 
Deduct profit on 1 acre of tobacco 109 12 
Balance in favor of potatoes $73 22 
Mr. Steck used small-sized tubers for seed, 
cut them in two and planted them six or eight 
inches apart in the rows, covering them by driv- 
ing a double corn plow astride of the furrow." 
He\remarks that, though a dollar a bushel 
may seem a high price for the potatoes, it was 
what they readily brought in the market at Wil- 
liamsport. But at 75 cents per bushel there 
would be $8.22 in favor of the potatoes. If we 
admit this tobacco crop to be an average one, 
the experiment would indicate that potatoes 
are more profitable at the East, where they 
command so high a price; for any soil fit for to- 
bacco can be depended upon to average 260 
bushels of potatoes, with the culture and ma- 
nure here described. The case is different at 
the West, and wherever potatoes can not be 
readily taken to market, owing to their bulk 
and weight, as compared with tobacco. All 
such matters must be taken into account in 
making comparisons. It is an undoubted fact, 
that high culture applied to other crops will very 
frequently, if not most frequently, show marked 
results in their favor, when their profits are 
compared with that of tobacco. 
Improved Pin for Ox-Bows. 
A correspondent of the American Agriculturist, 
J. Eager, sends the accompanying sketch and 
description of a convenient bow-pin. It re- 
sembles the wire spring by which an umbrella 
is held open, only, of course, being made of 
larger wire. Two of 
these are fastened on 
the top of one side of 
the bow, by means of 
a narrow iron band, 
as shown in the en- 
graving. An opening 
in the bow receives 
the ends of the springs when they are pressed 
together by being pushed up through the yoke. 
The bow is easily withdrawn, by pressing the 
springs together with one hand, and pulling it 
down with the other. A small iron plate insert- 
ed or screwed on the yoke where the springs 
rest, prevents wearing the wood. 
OX-BOW PIN. 
The Profit of Keeping Poor Cows. 
There must be some great profit in keeping 
poor milkers, or else the majority of farmers do 
not know where their profit lies. Shrewd men 
do not maintain cows that give little and poor 
milk, in preference to those that give much and 
rich milk, unless they see advantage in it. 
Many such animals are raised and grow old 
upon the farms. If there be no profit, then 
these farmers are not men of sense, but we 
know they are sensible men, so there must be, 
as we conclude, some decided profit in this 
way of stocking a dairy farm. We shall be 
much obliged if some one will show to the 
Agriculturist exactly wherein this profit lies. In 
all our observation we never knew a farmer 
who set out to stock his farm with first-rate 
milch-stock, that did not succeed. With proper 
care in selecting, every herd of cows in the 
country may average, on good feed, 500 gal- 
lons of milk each per annum. Isolated cases of 
cows that give 1,000 gallons are not very rare. 
In a letter recently received from Mr. A. 
Niles, of Hampshire Co., Mass., he says; "I 
became convinced, years ago, that it was poor 
economy for a farmer to keep poor cows." - 
This may seem strange to some farmers, but 
Mr Niles asserts it without naming the reasons 
which influenced him, and proceeds to give the 
