4r64r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[December, 
1650 for the eleven acres. This included every¬ 
thing—opening ditches, cartage, tile, laying tile, and 
superintendence. As the fall was good, there was 
a complete drainage of the lot, the water passing 
off into the ditch in an adjoining field. These 
drains were put down seven years ago. The first 
year after the drainage, the laud was plowed, ma¬ 
nured with 350 loads of stable and yard-manure, 
and sowed with corn for fodder, and seeded with 
timothy in the fall. The crop of hay the first year 
was two tons to the acre. Allowing it to be worth 
?10 a ton standing, there is seven per cent interest 
on the §55 invested in laud and drains, and some re¬ 
turn of capital. There has been no manure applied 
to the land, except that on a few small patches, 
where the seed failed to catch, there was one appli¬ 
cation of liquid manure. There has been a steady 
increase of grass until this year, when 39 tons, or 
3i tons to the acre, were taken 
from the field. The hay was 
well cured, and weighed on 
platform scales, so there is no 
guess-work about the yield. 
With the same estimate for 
the hay, this is a return of $35 
upon the original cost of $55 
for land and drainage. As there 
has been no outlay for manure 
in six years, with a steady in¬ 
crease of productiveness, it 
follows that the drainage has been gradually improv 
ing the land. A layer of soil and subsoil some two 
feet in thickness,formerly so saturated with water as 
to be useless, is now penetrated by the air, by the 
rams, and by the roots of grasses in search of their 
appropriate food. As the experiment shows, rich 
stores of plant food became available every year,' 
and with proper handling may prove inexhaustible. 
In such a heavy growth of grass, there must be a 
corresponding increase of roots, and the sod must 
be growing richer. The experiment is a strong argu¬ 
ment for the draining of swales. Connecticut. 
[Our correspondent writes that the aftermath has 
not been cut from this field, or the meadow grazed, 
since the drainage, and infers that this has con 
siderable to do with the large crops obtained. But 
he wisely adds that it is uncertain how much of the 
gain is due to the improved condition of the soil 
from drainage, and how much to the non-cutting 
of the aftermath. We have in mind a hill farm 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 2. — TROUGH FOR WEANING CARVES. 
that cuts 250 tons of hay per year from only 80 acres 
in grass. Two crops are removed from nearly or 
quite all of this area, aud three crops from a con¬ 
siderable portion. The owner asserts that he could 
not obtain so much from a single cutting, and he 
had to begin, cf course, with one crop. In the ex¬ 
periment described above by “Connecticut,” we 
declare in favor of the drainage as being the 
factor which gave the increase.— Editors.] 
Hints and Helps for Farmers. 
Shoe for Interfering Horses. — 1 “A Subscriber” 
sends a sketch (from which we have made the en¬ 
graving, fig. 1) of a shoe which he has devised and 
tried successfully to prevent horses from interfer¬ 
ing. It is made twice as wide and heavy on the 
outside as on the inside. To equalize the wear, the 
inner and lighter portion of the shoe is made of steel. 
A Calf-feeding Trough.— “B. S.,” Washing¬ 
ton, Ind., sends a plan of an old device, but none 
the less valuable, for feeding milk to calves, and 
for teaching them to drink milk while they are be¬ 
ing weaned. It consists of a wooden trough (fig. 2), 
at the bottom of which is fastened a loop of leather 
Fig. 4.—TO PROTECT THE EYES. 
■AN OPEN FEEDING SHED. 
one inch wide and six inches long, fl'he calf learns 
to suck at this piece of leather, and will soon 
leave, it and drink the milk. Calves three days old 
will use this device. It is worth trying. 
An Open Shed for Feeding. —A feeding trough 
in a yard, which can be covered to keep out snow 
or rain, is a desirable tiling, and many devices have 
been contrived 
for the purpose, 
most of which are 
too costly. We 
give herewith a 
method of con¬ 
structing a cov¬ 
ered feeding 
trough, whicli 
may be made very 
cheaply of the 
rough materials 
to he had on every 
farm. A suffici¬ 
ent number of 
stout posts are set 
firmly in the 
ground, extend¬ 
ing about 10 
feet above the surface. They should be about 6 
feet apart aud in a straight line, and a plate fastened 
to their tops. A pair of rafters supported by braces, 
as shown in figure 3, is fitted to each post. A light 
roof of laths is laid, and covered with bark, straw, 
corn-stalks, or coarse hay. Strips are fastened 
from one brace to another, and laths or split poles 
nailed to Lhem, about 6 inches apart, to make a 
feed-rack. A feed-trough for grain or roots is 
built upon each side. For sheep, the shed and rack 
may be made only 8 feet high at the peak, and the 
eaves 4feet from the ground, — giving better shelter. 
A Shade for Horses’ Eyes.— The most frequent 
cause of weak eyes in horses is a badly arranged 
stable. Foul gases irritate and inflame the tender 
membranes of the eye and head, and horses brought 
from dark stables into bright sun-light, or on to 
glittering snow, are dazzled and blinded. The ex¬ 
isting weakness or irritation is intensified, and the 
poor animal suffers unsuspected torments. The 
remedy is to purify the stable aud give it sufficient 
light, shaded by blinds, from before and behind the 
horse, or from 
both sides, avoid¬ 
ing a light from 
only the front, 
rear, or one side 
light. A shade 
for weak or in¬ 
flamed eyes may 
be constructed 
by fastening 
wires to the bri¬ 
dle and covering 
it with oiled 
cloth in the man¬ 
ner represented 
at figure 4. Thus 
a soft, subdued light reaches the eyes, while the 
horse can still see the ground immediately be¬ 
fore him. It will be a timely job to prepare 
such a shade now, for use when the snow comes. 
Fig. 1.—CHARCOAL KILN. 
Fig. 2. 
Kilns for Burning Charcoal. 
“ Charcoal iron ” is a valued product in the mar¬ 
ket, because the metal is free from sulphur and 
other impurities which are imparted by mineral 
coal and render the iron brittle and difficult to 
work ; charcoal iron is tough, and furnishes the best 
material for fine manu¬ 
factures. Car wheels aud 
similar parts of heavy 
machinery, which are 
subjected to a like strain, 
are made from this iron. 
Thus it is that charcoal burning is usually connected 
with iron-working where there is abundance of 
wood. The “pit” manufacture of charcoal was 
described in the American Agriculturist, Feb., 1860, 
but it is more economical to make it iu permanent, 
kilns, even for sale in the market, the cost of the 
kiln coal being 50 per cent cheaper than the pit 
coal, and the waste much less. The kilns may be 
conical, or in the shape of an elongated parallelo¬ 
gram, and are built of common hard brick. A round 
kiln (fig. 1) 12 feet across, would be 16 feet to the 
top of the dome. The wall is built up perpendicu¬ 
larly for about Half the bight, when it is drawn in 
gradually, requiring no supporting centers, until 
the opening is about 4 feet in diameter. This is 
closed by a cast-iron plate. The kiln is strengthened 
by broad iron half bands, or two tiers of them 
drawn up tightly by screws working in flanges, as 
shown at figure 2. Several bricks are left loose in 
Fig. 3.— FOR BURNING CHARCOAL ON LARGE SCALE. 
the lower courses, and others near the top, to be 
removed to make openings to admit air for draft, 
and for ventilation. There is a cast-iron, double 
door on the ground level, and one at the upper 
part for putting in the wood. Figure 3 shows a 
long kiln of greater capacity, whicli has plain 
brick walls, covered with alight arch of brick, and 
supported by a frame of timber posts, which are 
set in tlie ground. The doors and ventilating 
hole6 are similar to those of the conical kiln. 
Boys on tlie Farm. 
It is a proud day when the average boy gets on 
his first pair of boots and trudges to sciiool by the 
side of his older sister. He does not care any longer 
to take her hand. The leading strings are cut. But 
this early ambition to bo a man is entirely eclipsed, 
when he has taken charge of his first pair of 
steers, and started for the fair. Has he not 
raised them from their mother’s milk up, broken 
them to the yoke and to the cart, taught them to 
pull and to back, to haw and to gee, aud to obey 
his word of command ? They are his workmanship, 
the evidence of his skill in subduing brute muscle, 
and making it do his bidding. He is going up to 
the exhibition to display the fruits of his triumph, 
and, as he hopes, to wear the laurels of victory. 
He is no longer merely a spectator upon the fair 
grounds, but an exhibitor of stock and an enter¬ 
tainer of spectators. There is unquestionably a 
difference of native tastes in boys. Some have a 
natural aptitude to one calling and some to another, 
but most men have their callings determined by 
