1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
15 
with horses getting their fore-feet over the halter 
strap, I employ a simple remedy. The tie-line 
is of rope instead of leather, with the end well 
wipped (wound with twine, to prevent the 
strands untwisting). This is passed through the 
hole and a figure-eight knot made a little dis- 
tance from the end ; the hole in the manger be- 
ing made smooth, and slanting up and down ; 
the rope runs freely in and out, just as the horse 
moves his head, thereby leaving no "bight" or 
bend to hang down. This prevents any possibil- 
ity of the horses' leg being caught over it; which 
before was a frequent occurrence. Not only did 
it take time and trouble to extricate him ; but 
there was also the liability of breaking the halter, 
and endangering his limbs. Aside from the 
above, less time is lost in tieing and untieing, 
and there is no danger of the horse getting loose ; 
having tried this plan nearly two years, I am 
convinced of its efficacy." 
Fig. 1.— ICE PLOW. 
Gathering the Ice. 
In gathering the ice for filling the home ice- 
house, all the tools that are really necessary are 
an ax, a shovel, one or two pike-poles, a stone- 
boat, ox-sled, or wagon of some kind, and a few 
Fig. 2.— ICE PLANE.' 
boards. With the shovel, the ice is cleared of 
snow and broken pieces frozen on ; with the 
edge of a board for a guide, the ice is marked 
off into strips of the desirable width, 
say 2, 2'|a or 3 feet wide, using any 
iron point to scratch with. Then 
with the ax, a long, narrow gutter is 
cut so that a start can be made, and 
the lines marked off are deepened so 
that long, narrow cakes may be de- 
tached from the main field. These 
are then, or previously, measured ofF 
into cakes of uniform size, and then 
striking blows with the ax, at first 
gently, to start cracks, and finally 
splitting blows, they are divided up 
into cakes of a size to be handled. It 
requires some judgment to get the 
best sized cakes, for they must be as 
large as can be handled easily, and yet 
be of a size to pack evenly in the 
house. Much, of course, depends up- 
on the thickness. When the cakes 
are separated, the next thing is to get 
them out of the water. This may be 
done either by making "ways" or skids of boards, 
of about the width of the cakes. This should 
consist of 2 or 3 bottom boards and 2 side strips 
fastened together by cross-ties or cleats upon 
the bottom. It is shoved partly into the water, 
the cakes one after another floated over its sub- 
3. 
-A, ICE AX J -B, SPLITTING 
C, PIKE ; D, HAND TON/IS. 
merged end, and then shoved out by pike poles. 
The same thing is used to load with subse- 
quently. It is 
best to set the 
ice on edge and. 
leave it until the 
next morning 
early, when the 
temperature of 
the air is the 
lowest ; for then 
ice is as dry as 
wood, and not 
only those who 
handle it do not 
get wet, but it is 
much better for 
the ice to be 
packed at a low 
temperature. If 
the whole of the 
ice could be 
packed at zero, ^. ^ 
the probability is BA ^ 
that no thawing 
would take place for months. Hard woodT/edges 
are sometimes useful in making the long strips 
of ice first cut, split off evenly. Several of these 
are driven into holes started by the ax on the 
line, and tapped smartly, one after the other. 
The hand ice saw, fig. 3, is very useful in gather- 
ing ice in a small way even. It is simply run 
through a hole in the ice, and operated - by a 
man standing. The cakes cut with it in both 
directions are as true and even as possible. 
If much ice is to be gathered, other tools ex- 
pedite matters greatly. Then, ice gatherers 
can not choose what time of the day to do their 
work, and they must handle the ice cakes when 
wet and dripping, as well as when cold and dry. 
Instead of lining off the field ice with axes, 
after the first scratch is made as a guide, the 
ice plow is used. This instrument works on the 
principle of a dozen narrow planes in a line, 
each cutting its way a little deeper, and so mak- 
ing, in once or twice passing, a groove so deep 
that a crack will follow it when once started. 
Attached to this is a guide which will run in one 
furrow and guide the plow in 
making the next. To free the 
ice from snow, and broken 
pieces, making the surface un- 
even, or from soft bubbly ice, an 
ice plane (fig. 2) is used. It con- 
sists of plate iron guides in a 
frame, and a blade which may be 
raised or lowered, crossing at 
right angles near the middle be- 
tween the guides. This is little 
used in this country, the com- j>j„ 5._ HO rse 
mon road scraper being employ tongs. 
ed, before the plow is used, to throw the snow 
into ridges, and to scrape it off into the water, 
or out of the way. The strips are cut up into 
accurately equal-sized cakes by the hand saio, 
or better by running the plow at right angles 
to its former furrows. This divides the ice into 
perfectly square cakes. Splitting is accomplished 
by the broad-ended iron bar, fig. 4, called the 
splitting bar. The pike poles are much employed, 
and in cases where the ice-houses are close by the 
shore of the lake or river, canals are cut through 
the ice so that the cakes may be floated close to 
shore, and upon the long tresseled ways up 
which the cakes are slid by horse-power, either 
upon cars or sliding directly upon the ways. 
Tongs for lifting ice cakes are shown in D, 
fig. 4, and fig. 5, and arc of different sizes, some 
intended simply for use in the hands, or for 
horse-power, where large cakes or two at a time 
are drawn up into the tops of the ice-houses. 
The approved style of ax is shown in fig. 4, 
A. B is a splitting bar for use on the pond or 
in the house, and C is a convenient form of pike 
pole. With these implements adapted especially 
to the purpose, the work goes on very rapidly. 
They may be obtained in all the cities we be- 
lieve. The drawings were made from the tools , 
of B. H. Allen & Co., 189 Water-st., New York. 
Agricultural Schools. 
[This subject is one attracting the serious at- 
tention of many good men in our country, and 
the following article is from a valued correspon- 
dent. In one particular, at least, he is surely 
wrong, namely, in supposing that several hours 
of work will interfere with the most efficient 
study. We will state as one incontrovertible 
proof, that at the Michigan Agricultural College 
the boys all work three hours a day, and those 
who are reported by the farmer as the best in 
the field, are uniformly the best scholars. — Ed.] 
It is a noteworthy fact, that agricultural col- 
leges and schools, as thus far organized and 
conducted in this countiy, have, with a single 
exception perhaps, proved practical failures. 
Students in law schools become lawyers, medi- 
cal students become physicians, and so on, but 
the students in our agricultural schools do not 
distinguish themselves as farmers, and time 
enough has passed for them to have done so if 
they would. How is this to be accounted for? 
We may not be able fully to explain it, but 
may point out some of the defects in. the plans 
of the institutions thus far established. 
It is a mistake to make an agricultural school . 
a school also for general education. Our com- - 
mon schools and academies teach the rudiments 
of geography, grammar, arithmetic, etc. ; why 
burden an agricultural school with these ele- 
mentary and common branches ? They cannot 
teach them any better or more economically 
than it is now already done elsewhere, and it 
only wastes time and clogs the working of the 
professional' school to bring them into their 
courses of stud} r . It not only takes up the time 
which should be devoted to studies strictly pro- 
fessional, but it lowers the standard of attain- 
ment. It tends to make a young man's educa- 
tion superficial, and hurries him into practical 
life at too early an age. The growing tendency 
in our country to shorten the period devoted to 
education, is hurtful, and should be resisted. 
As the country grows older, the tendency should 
be in the other direction. 
Again, it is a mistake to connect the study of 
agriculture with a regular classical college, and 
make it a part of a course of general and clas- 
sical education. This would lend to divert the 
mind too much from the regular studies. If a 
young man who iutends to be a doctor, should 
have the science of medicine taught him in the 
midst of his college course, he would be very 
apt to neglect the other studies and give his 
chief thoughts to medicine. It might, in some 
cases, be wise to have an agricultural school in 
the same town with the classical college, but 
they should be separate institutions. In this 
respect, they should be organized just as our 
existing schools of medicine, law, theology, ami 
practical science are — separate and independent. 
It is a mistake, also, to make an agricultural 
school a manual labor school. The student in 
any and every department of knowledge should 
have daily exercise in the open air, for the pre- 
