140 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
A Windlass for Drawing Water. 
Mr. “W. A.,” Gardener Co., Mo., sends 
sketches and a description. of a device for 
drawing water, which he finds is both cheap 
and convenient. He writes : “It is so far 
superior to the old-fashioned windlass, or 
even to most pumps, that I am astonished 
that it is not more in use. I came upon the 
idea by accident. I 
was using an old 
fashioned windlass 
in a well 52 feet 
deep, when the 
bucket dropped and 
I failed to recover 
it. A new bucket was bought, and when 
afterwards the well was cleaned I had two 
buckets. The windlass roller was large, and 
in the center I cut a groove about an inch 
deep, encircling the roller, as shown in figure 
1. I then placed the extra bucket on the 
end of the chain, which was before fastened 
to the windlass, putting the chain in the 
groove. By turning the crank one bucket 
goes up while the other goes down, making 
an easy and rapid method of drawing water. 
A few headless nails are driven in the groove 
which catch in the links and keep the chain 
from slipping. With this method there is 
1.—THE ROLLER. 
Fig. 2.—WELL CURB, WITH CHAIN WHEEL. 
no handling of a wet or frozen chain, as with 
the two-bucket and pulley process, besides be¬ 
ing veiy much easier.”—A small roller with 
a chain-wheel in the center, as shown in 
figure 2, may be used in the same way. 
Oi'itpe Stakes and Trellis I’osls. 
—Several have asked how trellis-posts and 
stakes for grape vines can be prevented from 
decaying in the ground. Of course the bet¬ 
ter plan is to use wood of a durable kind. If 
Locust posts can not be had, short pieces of 
this wood to go in the ground, and project 
high enough above the surface to allow up¬ 
rights of more perishable wood to be spiked 
to them, will answer. Chestnut in some - soils 
lasts well, and the enduring quality of Catalpa 
will recommend that for such uses. Among 
the methods of preserving perishable wood, 
our experience extends only to two, namely: 
thoroughly charring the lower ends, and to 
soaking them in a strong solution of Blue 
Vitriol (Sulphate ©f Copperas). A pound of 
this in two quarts of water makes a saturated 
solution or nearly so. The ends of the posts 
are soaked in this until it has well penetrated. 
For small pine stakes we once followed a 
German method: After they had been well 
soaked in the Blue Vitriol solution and dried, 
they were placed in Lime Water over night, 
and when again dried were ready for use. 
The stakes thus treated lasted well for two 
seasons, when they were no longer needed. 
A Good Corn Ground, 
Indian Com is the great cereal crop of the 
northern United States, and it is important 
to know what are the conditions most favor¬ 
able for its growth. The extensive experi¬ 
ments made under the direction of Professor 
Atwater teach us, already, some lessons as to 
the best conditions for the growth of the 
corn plant. It is evident that the plant must 
have an abundance of food, and that this 
food must be in the most acceptable form. 
We do not know to a certainty how much of 
any one element of food is the proper amount, 
and as yet we fail to discover the best forms 
for them all to be presented to the plant. 
But we do know some general principles, and 
should apply them as far as possible to the cul¬ 
ture of the crop. It is known that corn has 
a semi-tropical nature—it loves the warm 
months—and therefore its season of growth 
must be limited. “About corn-planting 
rime ” is when settled weather comes, and 
the soil is beginning to warm up with the 
heat of long days and a high sun. With the 
short season before it the grain should be in 
the soil just as soon as it will grow vigorous¬ 
ly. The good corn ground is then one that 
is warm early. This will depend somewhat 
upon the season, and very largely upon loca¬ 
tion and the soil. Passing season and loca¬ 
tion as beyond control, the soil should be 
made as warm as it can be by thorough un¬ 
derdraining, and the best of tillage. While 
it is very important to have the soil deep, 
warm, moist, and mellow, that is not all—it 
must be rich. The soil is not simply the 
place where the grains of corn are planted 
that they may grow—a mere inactive seed¬ 
bed—but the substance from which the young 
com plants must derive a large part of their 
food, from the time they germinate until the 
com is ripe in the ear. If this food is pres¬ 
ent and in an available form, there is good 
reason to hope for a fine crop. Such a soil is 
“ a good com ground.” This definition does 
not include any previous crop ; it does not 
say a turned sod is the ground for corn. In 
many systems of crop rotation it may follow 
best after grass, and do better there than any 
of the other crops in the rotation, but thou¬ 
sands of experiments show that com follows 
com with success, provided you have the 
essential elements of food present and the 
condition right for their being used at once. 
8Jir«Is nnd Seeds. —The English gar¬ 
deners use Red Lead upon those seeds which 
birds are fond of making “comeup” before 
their time. It is said to even diminish the 
appetite of the pigeon for early peas. The 
seeds are placed in a vessel and a little water 
put with them; so little that when well 
stirred, the seeds will be merely dampened— 
not wet—on their surface. When the seeds 
are merely moistened, a little dry Red Lead, 
about a teaspoonful to a pint of seed, is added ; 
the seeds are again thoroughly stirred, so that 
each one will be evenly and thinly coated 
with the paint. Spread to dry and then sow. 
Conveniences in the Cow Barn. 
Mr. P. W. Casler, Herkimer Co., N. Y., 
writes : “ I inclose a rude sketch to illustrate 
my method of feeding grain to the stock in 
winter. We keep a dairy of 60 cows ; they 
are stabled in a basement, 100 feet long, fac¬ 
ing away from each other, so that there are 
80 cows on each side, with an alley-way in 
front to feed from. In these alleys I have 
made large feed-bins as shown in figure 1.” 
These bins are each provided with a slide at 
Fig. 1.—A LARGE FEED BIN. 
the bottom of the front, which, when raised, 
allows the feed to be shovelled into the feed- 
barrow, shown in figure 2. The barrow is 
wheeled along in front of the cows, and each 
cow given from 4 to 6 quarts of a mixture of 
equal parts of ground oats and bran. The 
barrow, while it holds more than a basket, is 
preferable on account of being tight, and the 
Fig. 2.—A FEED BARROW. 
feed will not sift through. It can be made in 
a very short time from an old barrow-wlieel, 
a few boards, and two strips for handles. 
Tagging- Sheep.—This is an operation 
that ought not to be left undone, or even put 
off until the wool gets very long and dirty. 
Sheep should be tagged before they are turned 
out to grass, and if done thoroughly, there 
will be no more trouble with them in this re¬ 
spect. A pair of old shears should be used, 
but they will need to be ground sharp. It is 
more handy to have a rack to hold the sheep 
somewhat above the floor. A wood-sled, with 
the stakes removed, and a clean floor of 
boards put on, makes an excellent tagging ta¬ 
ble for holding the sheep, and will also do ex¬ 
cellent service upon the barn floor at shearing 
time. Racks are made especially for holding 
sheep while being tagged, and when the flock 
is of considerable size, it is a saving of labor 
to make one. The most common form is 
somewhat like an enlarged “ saw-buck ” with 
the upper part made large, and strong enough 
to hold a sheep. Whether any holder is used 
or not, the tagging of the sheep should not 
be neglected, as a matter of both comfort 
to the animals and economy to the owner. 
