136 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
dressed weight was 1,346 lbs., giving over 72 lbs. 
dressed to the 100 lbs. live weight. Perhaps there 
is no other animal than a very good Shorthorn, 
that would dress so well, and an instance so well 
authenticated as this, shows the value not only of 
the breed, but of good feeding as well. 
--—mo -»—a g . 
A Cheap Poultry House. 
Mr. “ W. A. B.,” Caroline Co., Md., sends the 
following description of his poultry house, suitable 
for those who need a cheap building, and can do 
the greater part of the work themselves. The plan 
is given in figure 1. The center building is 10 x 10 
feet, and is 0 ft. to the eaves. The wings are each 
coops on each side, in each wing, twenty in all, 
(18 x 18 x 20 inches). These are closed inside with 
slats, and each one is 
independent, and enter¬ 
ed from the outside, as 
shown in figures 2 and 
4. The entrances to the 
nests are in the doors, 
as in figure 2. Figure 4 
is an inside view of one 
of the wings, showing 
the interior arrange- 4 .— section 
ment of one side. The 
two windowsin front, one in each wing, three doors, 
and twenty-three entrances for the fowls, will give 
sufficient ventilation, but if more is needed, small 
Fig. 1.— GROUND PLAN OF POULTRY HOUSE. 
8x6x4 feet. Either of the three parts may be 
built first, and the others may be added from time 
to time. No posts are used in building it. The 
sills, 3 x 4 in., an'd 10 ft. long, are mortised and put 
together in place ; the plates, 3x3 in., and 10 feet 
long, are put on the sills; theu eight boards are 
cut six feet long, four of them with the angle at 
the top to correspond with the pitch of the roof. 
These are nailed to the sills, and those in front and 
back nailed to the edges of those on the ends. Then 
four sticks are cut each five feet six inches long, 
doors or windows, 18x18 
in., can be put above 
the plates, in the ends 
of the center building. 
The cupola is not ne- 
cessaiy, but it allows 
the foul air to escape ; 
it costs about a day’s 
work for a handy man, 
and is built of scraps. 
The cost is for 875 ft. of 
lumber, $14; shingles, 
laths, and strips, $16 75; 
nails, hinges, glass, 
screws, and putty, 
$3.75. Total, $34.50, 
for materials. The roof need not, of necessity, 
be shingled, but it will be found the cheapest 
in the end, and at the same time it looks better. 
Goat Keeping for Profit. 
The number of goats kept in the United States is 
rapidly increasing. Large flocks exist in parts of 
California and Texas, and many persons are turning 
their attention to the keeping of these animals as a 
profitable occupation 
In some localities, goats 
are kept for their milk, 
and for this purpose 
they may be doubtless 
made still more widely 
useful. But goats can 
not be kept in large 
flocks for milking, nor 
is the flesh at present 
marketable. The profit 
from the goat can come 
only from the skin and 
the hair. A large quan¬ 
tity of goat skins is 
yearly imported for 
tanning, to produce 
morocco leather, and 
the plate is raised up, a stick put under it on the sill, 
in each corner; the boards are then nailed to it, and 
the frame is raised, boarded, and battened, and it is 
strong enough. The roosts are arranged as in figure 
1; the piece, C, rests on the plates, and is held in 
place by cleats, and acts as a hinge. The pieces, 
D, are secured to it, and the roosts, B, to them. 
At A is a ring 
bolt, and over 
head a hook. 
When the 
house is to be 
cleaned out, the 
roostsare raised 
and hooked up, 
and are six feet 
high, so there 
is no trouble 
working under 
them. The 
door, if, is 6x3 
ft. In each wing 
there are two 
rows of nests, 
each nest 18 x 18 x 12 inches, 12 in a row, 24 in each 
wing, and 48 in all; the bottom of the lower row 
is two feet from the ground, and under it are five 
Fig 3.— END ELEVATION. 
the hair of the common goat is valued for the plas¬ 
terer’s use. The Angora goat bears a fleece of 
“mohair” that is valuable for several different 
manufactures, and the Cashmere goat has an 
undergrowth of fine wool, from which the most 
costly shawls are made. By crossing with the 
Angora males, the common goat can soon be bred 
up to a point where the fleece is worth as much as 
that of the pure bred, and it is evident that if the 
largest profit is desired, the best animals should be 
kept. The goat will thrive where the poorest sheep 
would starve, and it better enjoys the rough fare 
of rough places than the sweetest pastures of grass. 
There are many rocky and half-barren localities 
that might be put to good use by being turned into 
goat pastures, and there are many better pastures, 
ill-fitted for the less hardy sheep, upon »hich goats 
could be successfully kept. While much hardier 
than sheep, and less subject to destruction by dogs 
and wolves, goats have yet some diseases of their 
own to contend with. Of these, foot-rot is the 
worst, and diarrhoea and dysentery are sometimes 
troublesome. Of parasites, the louse is the only one 
that is seriously injurious, and this is not at all dif¬ 
ficult to deal with. Foot-rot, and the other ailments 
of this animal, are to be prevented, or treated, pre¬ 
cisely as those of the sheep; and precautions to 
avoid damp and close confinement during the kid¬ 
ding season, are necessary. In general, the manage¬ 
ment of a flock of goats differs in no material respect 
from that of a flock of sheep, the rules for feeding, 
breeding, etc., of the one, apply equally to the other. 
--—-- 
Scoops for Sowing. 
In sowing fertilizers or plaster, it is disagreeable 
to use the hands. A convenient implement for this 
purpose may be made of a piece of tin plate (a fruit 
can, which has served its first use, will furnish the 
material), cut in the shape shown 
at figure 1. This is then bent 
around a circular piece of board, 
and nailed with a few tacks or 
shingle nails. A handle is then 
inserted as sho wn at figure 2, and 
the scoop is complete. Various 
sizes may be made, one that will 
hold a quarter of a pound, will 
sow as near as need be, 100 lbs. Fig. 1.— tin. 
per acre, each cast covering a 
space 16 feet long by 8 broad ; 350 of these casts 
will cover an acre, and will use nearly 90 pounds of 
material. If double this quantity is to be sown, 
and great evenness is desired, it would be best to 
use the quarter-pound scoop and sow both ways. 
The same sized scoop 
would sow 6 pecks of 
wheat per acre. In 
using these scoops, it is 
necessary to give them 
a sudden slight twist, 
just as the contents 
are thrown out; this spreads the material in abroad 
sheet which covers the space mentioned, or may be 
made to do so by a little practice. Great skill in 
using these may be gained by practising with a 
pailful of sand, dry ashes, or lime, upon plowed 
ground. The sown material is then easily seen. 
Fig. 2.— scoop. 
A Hoad Leveler. 
We recently saw a machine in use to level some 
ground that had been graded down, which operated x 
very effectively, and would serve a good purpose in 
smoothing roads. As this work will soon be neces¬ 
sary, we give an engraving and description of this 
implement. It consists of a frame of 3x6 inch 
hard-wood timber, made as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing, with the ends rounded, so that it will slide 
over the ground easily. Near the center, the 
scraper is pivoted on two one-inch iron bolts. The 
scraper is made of a plank, a foot or more in width, 
with a slightly curved steel edge, bolted in the 
front. It is connected with the frame by two side- 
pieces of hard-wood plank, strongly bolted to it, 
as seen in the illustration. A pair of plow-handles 
SCRAPER FOR LEVELING ROADS. 
is fixed to the back of the scraper. The machine 
is drawn by an ordinary clevis, fixed to the front 
bar, and a short chain. It should be about 10 feet 
long, and 6 feet wide, to be used with a pair of 
stout horses or a yoke of oxen. 
A Cheap Drain. 
Where neither tiles nor stones can be easily pro¬ 
cured, a good, useful drain may be made of hem¬ 
lock lumber. In soil always wet, such as swampy 
meadows, or where springs abound, hemlock will 
last many years. The drain, of which the engrav- 
