SUBSTITUTES FOB. A SHORT IIAY CROP.-THE STABLE. 
269 
Q. In what form do plants take in organic food 
from the air ? 
A. In the form chiefly of carbonic,acid gas. 
Q. What is carbonic acid gas ? 
A. It is a kind of air which has no color, but has a 
peculiar smell. Burning bodies are extinguished in 
it, and animals die, and it is heavier than common 
air. It causes the boiling up of soda water, and the 
frothing of beer, and forms nearly half the weight of 
all limestone rocks. 
Q. If plants always draw this organic matter from 
the soil, will the soil not become gradually poorer 
and less productive ? 
A. It will, if badly managed and constantly 
cropped. 
Q. Then how can you keep up this supply ? 
A. By plowing in green crops, — by growing 
clovers and other plants which leave long roots in 
the soil,—by restoring ail the hay and straw to the 
land in the form of manure,—or by laying down to 
pasture. 
The teacher may illustrate this answer beneficially, 
by referring to the practice in his own or the 
neighboring towns, and pointing out its advan¬ 
tages or defects.— Professor Johnston. 
SUBSTITUTES FOR A SHORT HAY CROP. 
We again advert to this subject; but as the sea¬ 
son is so late, it will be more for the benefit of the 
southern than the northern farmer, as the time has 
passed by, this season, to sow or plant anything for 
fall or winter food in this latitude. Farther south, 
however, turnips may be sown and grow to a good 
size before being injured by the frost. Rye also can 
be sown for winter pasture. Hay is now worth from 
$15 to $20 per ton here ; if we had any to spare to 
ship to the south, it would arrive there charged at so 
high a price that few could afford to buy. We hope 
the planters will take care that their townspeople are 
not in want, for we have little desire to see fodder 
going from mouths which can ill spare it, to sustain 
those which have the ability, as we hope they may 
exercise the will, to cater from their own fertile lands 
and in their more genial climate for themselves. 
We should like to know if this point is settled; 
floes the Bermuda grass of the south make hay equal 
to the timothy and red-top of the north ? We have 
heard some enthusiastically assert that it does; but 
we have our doubts in this matter. Certain it is, it 
may be greatly improved by judicious top-dressings, 
and paying due attention to the time and manner of 
curing. Will some of our southern friends speak 
out authoritatively on this subject ? 
THE STABLE. 
Hay-Racks. —In stables the hay-rack is of great 
importance. In a good stable we would rank in the 
order of necessity, 1st Thorough, ventilation and 
lighting. . 2d. Cleanliness , which can only be effected 
by proper floors, gutters, and facility for removal of 
flung. 3d. Size of stalls ; and in this we include the 
length as well as width of the stall, for the stall 
should be at least nine feet long, with its floor ten 
feet. 4th. Hay-racks. 
Racks have much to do with the comfort of a 
horse, and especially with a tired one. If the rack 
be a proper one he can easily fill himself and go to 
rest; if a bad one he is much longer in doing this, 
and his rest delayed; and if he be a strong feeder, he 
feeds and does not rest; if a poor feeder (that should 
always be urged to eat) he goes to rest hungry. The 
strong feeder obtains the food but not the rest to ena¬ 
ble him to do his work the next day; the poor feed¬ 
er the rest, but not the food. Both are sufferers, and, 
if the work be long continued, lose condition and are 
used up. 
Hay-racks seem almost universally constructed 
with a view to render them hard to be filled ; to blind 
the horse by falling seeds; to foul the hay with the 
breath of the horse; to prevent the horse getting the 
hay ; in short to economise labor and waste labor ; 
to economise hay and waste hay; but never to save 
the horse trouble and labor, and secure him food in 
abundance, readily got. A rack should present the 
reverse of all this : it should be easy for the groom to 
fill; easy for the horse to empty ; it should not ad¬ 
mit the hay to be fouled by the breath of the horse, 
nor the hay-seed to blind the horse. 
Stalls are usually constructed on the sides of the 
stable, with the hay-loft over-head. The heads of 
the horses stand to the sides of the stable. The racks 
are in front on the sides, and open to the loft. The 
racks slant in front from the bottom up, are perpen¬ 
dicular behind, narrow at the bottom, wide at the top, 
and project over the horse’s head. Such racks have 
no one excellence or convenience. Being on one 
side they are hard to fill; the roof being rarely more 
than two or three feet above the mouth of the rack- 
hole, access to the rack is not easy. The rack being 
wide above and narrow below, the hay gets wedged 
in, and is difficult to be eaten out, and when eaten ou! 
below does not fall from above. The projection of 
the rack occasions the seed and dust of the hay to fall 
into the eyes and ears of the horse ; and also places 
the hay just in the most convenient place to be made 
foul and disgusting by the ascending breath of the 
horse. 
Now, what are the requisites of a good rack ? The 
opening of the rack into the hay-loft should be above, 
or higher than the floor of the loft. If on a level, the 
dust and seed which get shaken out of the hay on to 
the loft floor, will be pushed into the rack-hole, 
and fall into the rack, to fill the eyes, the ears, and 
the nose, to the injury of sight, hearing and breath¬ 
ing. The opening from the loft into the rack should 
be wide, to admit the hay easily; for a lazy groom 
will not fill the rack if it cost him much labor. The 
front and back of the rack should be perpendicular, 
and it should be at least two feet wide—far better it 
it be three. The bottom of the rack should be some 
little below the level of the horse’s mouth when held 
naturally; and should have an inclination forward of 
one foot in three, and be .perfectly smooth. This de¬ 
scent and the smoothness will bring all the hay to 
the front of the rack at the rungs or slats. The rungs 
or slats should not be more than two feet long, and 
the space above them should be boarded up tight all 
the way to the ceiling. The rungs should be round, 
just wide enough, and no wider, to admit the 
nose of the horse, and should not go quite to the bot¬ 
tom of the rack. There should be an opening with 
a door in the bottom, on the front, near the bottom of 
the rack to let out the seed and dust. Such a racK 
as here described is free from all the objections to 
which ordinary racks are liable. 
