•iO-i 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NOVEMBER, 
few drops of Chloride of Iron in the water, 
occasionally, has a beneficial tonic effect. 
In case there is the least suspicion of lice, we 
advise to tab; out the fowls, and dust thern 
thoroughly with the " Persian Insect Powder," 
holding them each by the legs, and sprinkling 
it in among the feathers. We have found this 
cheap, innoevious, and efficient, in removing lice 
from nests s.nd sitting hens, and presume it 
would be equally efficacious in other cases. 
Thus treated, in general, all poultry will fat- 
ten very fast. The fatness of a fowl may be as- 
certained, generally, by feeling the rump, and 
judging of its general plumpness and weight. 
When killed for one's own table, it makes little 
difference how it is done, provided it be well 
done. The bird must be fasted 8 to 12 hours ; 
the head may be chopped off, and the fowl 
hung up to bleed, or the throat may be cut from 
the outside, passing a narrow, sharp blade 
through the neck crosswise, just below the 
chaps. The blade being pressed backward, and 
moved a little, will sever the veins. This is the 
common New York market practice. It is poor 
policy to wring the necks, for, though the most 
agreeable way, there being no spirting and 
splashing of blood, nevertheless the bleeding is 
not so perfect, and the bird will not keep so 
long. When killing for market, the neatest 
way is to take a straight, sharp, knife, pass it 
into the mouth, and cut across the back of the 
throat on either side. This quickly severs the 
large veius and arteries, and if the fowl be tied 
by the legs, and hung on a peg, the feathers 
even will not be much besmeared with blood. 
When plucked, a fowl, so killed, shows no mark 
of the knife. Pick dry, while still warm, then 
dip in scalding water, just enough to shrink 
the skin tight all over the body. This gives 
a very plump look, and secures a better price 
or quicker sale, while it is of no injury to the 
keeping, unless the fat is melted. 
Draining Facilitated and Cheapened. 
The cost of underdraining lies chiefly in the 
necessarily great amount of skilled labor re- 
quired to do good work. If any common hand 
could be economically employed to dig trench- 
es, it would be a great saving. Many of us 
have been forced to try the experiment, and 
know if such labor is paid by the day, as it usu- 
ally must be, the draining is very expensive. 
Unless digging the trenches can be done by con- 
tract, the work must be overseen by the proprie- 
tor himself, or by a very trustworthy foreman. 
When the digging is done by the rod, the fin- 
ishing must be under the immediate inspec- 
tion of the foreman, and to this end it should 
be understood that the last inch or two of 
the ditch should not be dug until he directs. 
As soon as the bottom is graded ready for the 
tiles, (which operation, as it requires care and 
time, will not be done by common trench dig- 
gers on a contract, without compensation by the 
hour), the tiles must be laid and the trench 
partly filled. The care requisite in the first 
rilling of the ditch prevents the employment of 
scoops or scrapers worked by horse-power; 
tut as soon as about 18 inches have been filled 
with clay or stiff loam, and rammed down hard, 
some form of scraper will come into play. 
More real farm drainage is done in the au- 
tumn than at any other time of the year, and 
the present season is a peculiarly favorable one 
for this work. We of the seaboard have had 
much wet, and that followed by an autumn, dry 
in jts beginning, and yery Jikelv to be so in its 
continuance, and so long as real winter weath- 
er holds off, draining may profitably be done. 
Some time since, at a time when subjects more 
appropriate to the season crowded our columns, 
we received a communication from Asa Engle, 
of Gloucester Co.,N. J., containing useful hints 
and a description of his own practice. He writes : 
" In return for valuable ideas from the Agri- 
culturist, I suggest an idea or two that I have 
proved to be advantageous in underdraining. 
"My manner of laying tiles is to begin by 
breaking a plastering lath in half, and laying it 
in the bottom of the ditch. Then take whole 
laths and place them side by side upon the 
so as to break joints, laying the tiles immedi- 
ately upon them. In this section drain tiles are 
all made with flat bottoms. The laths cause the 
tiles to settle on a line, and by the time the laths 
decay , the tiles are so firmly bedded that they are 
not likely to get out of place. After the tiles are 
BITCH-FILLING SCRAPER. 
laid, I shovel in a few inches of earth, treading 
it down firmly as I proceed. I then take a 
scraper or reversed " suow plow," made by 
bolting two planks to the inside of an A harrow, 
(see figure,) long enough to extend outside the 
ditch on both sides. Ihitcu a quiet horse to each 
end, and start the "plow" backward astride 
of the ditch, having a rope attached to the point 
by which to guide the machine and keep the 
open space between the ends of the planks im- 
mediately over the ditch. After passing a few 
times back and forth, it will expedite matters 
to take a horse and plow and loosen the 
earth on the bank, as by this operation it 
will have become somewhat packed." 
Convenient Farm Hooks. 
Fig. 1. — CLEVIS HOOK. 
The difference between what "will do well 
enough," and what is really convenient and 
exactly adapted to its use, may be measured by 
hours and days even of useless labors, and miles 
of travel on many farms eveiy year. We were 
struck with the simplicity of a hook for use as 
a clevis attached to a harrow, cultivator, stone 
boat, or any such thing. It is a strong flat hook, 
(Pig. 1,) having a flat eye with a small hole for 
a bolt with a large flat 
head, to attach it to the 
implement. The point 
of the hook is drawn 
out, bent back, and 
welded fast, enclosing a harness ring of such a 
size that, when it lies in the bend of the hook, 
it cannot be brought out. - This is well seen in 
the little engraving. When the hook is put on, 
it is, of course, turned upward, and it will lie 
seen that the ring of the whiffletree, or ox-chain, 
will easily slip in, but of itself cannot slip out 
again. This hook may be attached to many ar- 
ticles, and used for sundry purposes, but is espe- 
cially convenient for the use suggested, for it 
takes a good deal of time to undo a clevis every 
time the team is attached to, or taken from, the 
harrows and other tools. Then, too, the clevis 
is in, two independent parts, and often three, 
(clevis, bolt, and ring,) either of which is liable 
in careless hands to be lost or out of the way. 
The almost universal custom of using hooks 
upon the end of farm whiffletrecs indicates some 
superiority to other contrivances for attaching 
the traces. Still, going down rough roads, in 
the woods, and on other uneven ground, there 
is a liability of the traces 
getting unhooked, accom- 
panied, at times, by no 
little danger. Figure 3 
represents ail unpatented 
hook which we have at- 
tached to a new whiffle' 
tree that is now on probation ; the hook, how- 
ever, proves itself. As clearly shown in the 
cut, the eye is large and open, the bend short, 
the point coming back nearly opposite the mid- 
dle of the eye, where it is bent at right angles 
towards it, and left just so close to the eye that 
a ring or trace-ej r e of the usual size will slip, 
when held at right angles, into the hook. It ap- 
pears to be impossible for a trace to become de- 
tached of itself from this simple contrivance. 
' Fig. ! 
■WHIFFLETREE 
HOOK. 
Fences Across Streams. 
Among the mauy minor perplexities which 
in the aggregate are serious hinderances to the 
farmer's peace of mind, are fences across streams. 
When a brook is so large that a single length of 
fence will not span it, and especially if at times 
this 12-foot " creek " becomes a torrent, bearing 
large trees and logs upon its turbid tide, then 
the problem how to put a fence across becomes 
a formidable one. Cattle must not pass it at 
low water, and it must not be swept away at 
any time. Mr. Matthew M. Campbell appeals 
to the editors and readers of the Agriculturist 
in his perplexities A large creek flows through 
his farm, which will be greatly increased in value 
to him if he can fence it across. He describes 
the "Kentucky crossing," which is thus made : 
" One, two, or three, large logs are laid on the 
bottom of the creek, and the ends made fast in 
the banks on either side, and weighted down 
with stones. Rails, with sharpened ends, are 
then driven into the bottom of the creek above 
the logs, and project above them from 12 to 
18 inches. This, if three feet high, or less, is a 
good fence so long as it can be kept from float- 
ing." Another plan suggested is that of stretch- 
ing a three-quarter inch iron rod across the 
creek between two trees, and suspending there- 
on a succession of light gates reaching down to 
the water at ordinary stages. Yet another plan 
is to stretch the rod across close to the surface 
of the water, and hang battoned planks upon 
the rod, just so that they will touch the water 
at its lowest stage, but be floated when the 
water is high enough to bring down much flood- 
wood. We quite agree with our correspondent 
that " neither hog, horse, nor cattle, would be 
likely either to jump over, or dive under, such a 
fence,"— but think it would be subject to a 
strain, when the water is high, to which it 
would assuredly succumb after a short time. 
Some time since, an acquaintance, in follow- 
ing a suggestion of ours, stretched a rod across 
a small stream which annoyed him by carrying 
off the poles which were placed across it as a 
fence. To this rod, which was of about three- 
quarter inch iron, as we judge, he suspended 
three small trees, the smaller branches and 
twigs of which had been cut off and the boughs 
sharpened with a drawing knife. The trees 
were hung so that a natural curve in them caus- 
ed the limbs to point down strenm, and any that 
