1881.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
153 
ertown ought to be profitable to some of 
your readers. I suppose it is a fact that 
not one farmer in fifty ever thinks of ad¬ 
vertising any thing that he raises to 
sell. He might advertise his farm, if he 
wanted to sell it, but he is satisfied 
to sell all products at the most con¬ 
venient market, at the best price he can 
get. Many of those who do advertise patron¬ 
ize the nearest paper, without much regard 
to its circulation, or the wants of its readers. 
Advertising in the right paper is quite as im¬ 
portant as advertising at all. Jake Frink’s 
venture in the Hookertown “Gazette” did 
not pay, for this, among other reasons, that 
no man in this region wanted black cat 
skins. It is of little use to advertise farm 
products in a paper that makes a specialty of 
the fashions, of tales and romance, of the¬ 
ology, medicine, or law. These papers may 
have numerous readers, but very few of 
them want a Jersey bull, Toulouse geese, 
Cotswold sheep, or thoroughbred stock of any 
kind. The sectarian and religious papers are 
often recommended for their large circula¬ 
tion and the reliable character of the people 
that patronize them. So far as they circu¬ 
late among fanners, they are a good medium 
for advertising. But a large part of their 
circulation is in cities and villages, among 
people who do not cultivate the soil. Agri¬ 
cultural papers circulate almost exclusively 
among people who are interested in cultiva¬ 
tion. An advertisement of thoroughbred 
stock, or of any kind of vegetable seed, or 
tuber of extra quality, is sure to find interest¬ 
ed readers and purchasers. Every dollar 
paid for advertising a really good article in 
the farmer’s line, in agricultural papers, is 
sure to come back again, and it generally 
comes early. Fine stock raised in New Eng¬ 
land is sent by express, or by rail, as freight, 
all over the country, and into the British 
Provinces, and even across the Atlantic. The 
gobble of Hookertown turkeys is heard to¬ 
day in California, and in Scotland, across 
the sea. Deacon Smith knows how to put 
his goods on the market. 
One thing more about farmers advertising. 
When you begin to raise a specialty, no mat¬ 
ter what the good thing may be—thorough¬ 
bred stock, Suffolks, Berkshires, Jerseys, 
Devons, gilt-edged butter, fine fruit, maple 
6Ugar, keep up its quality and keep it in the 
papers. Many are faint-hearted in their 
ventures, and fail for want of pluck. If you 
are sure you have a good thing, you are cer¬ 
tain to win by sticking to it, and keeping it 
before the public. Deacon Smith says he is 
getting orders from advertisements sent out 
many years ago. The reputation of a good 
thing spreads year by year, as long as it is 
kept before the people ; customers come from 
unexpected quarters, and the skillful adver¬ 
tiser generally has to answer letters of in¬ 
quiry, long after his available stock is sold. 
A paper like the American Agriculturist goes 
to all parts of the country, and to all civil¬ 
ized lands. It is read when fresh from the 
Post-office. It is put upon file, bound up, 
advertisements and all, consulted for special 
information, and read again, rainy days 
and winter even in gs, by a great company of 
cultivators, and live men and women. If 
you have got a good thing to sell, adver¬ 
tise here. But please don’t come here with 
humbugs, or black cat skins. 
Eookertown, Ct I Youvs to command, 
March 10,1881. ) Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
A Bail for a Water Jug. 
Water will keep cool much longer in an 
earthern or “stone” jar than in a tin or 
wooden vessel, and for this reason a jug or 
crock is very gener¬ 
ally used for hold¬ 
ing drinking water 
in the field. Mr. 
W. H. McDonough, 
“ears.” Allegheny Co., Pa., 
sends a sketch of a home-made handle for 
an “ earthen bucket.” A piece of stout wire 
is selected to go around the crock just below 
the “lip” or flaring top. Loops or “ears” 
of small wire are put on this as shown in 
figure 1. A bail from an old pail can be 
fitted into the ears. This recalls a case 
which came under 
notice not long ago, 
in which a jug, hav¬ 
ing lost its handle, 
was provided with a 
substitute in the 
form of a bail, as 
follows: Two wire 
“ rings ” were made, 
one to go below the 
largest part of the 
jug, and the other 
and smaller one near 
neck. These were 
i together by four 
passing be- 
them. “Ears” 
were put on opposite sides of the upper ring, 
and a stout wire bail attached ; this bail was 
provided with a wooden handle through 
which the wire passed. The jug thus fitted 
is shown in figure 2. From experience we 
can say it is more convenient to carry than 
a jug with the ordinary, one-sided handle. 
Fig. 1. —WIRE WITH 
Barrel Chicken-Coop. 
Any old barrel, that would otherwise be 
thrown away, may be put to good use in 
making a comfortable place for a hen and 
chickens. Brace the barrel on the two sides 
with bricks or stones to keep it from rolling ; 
raise the rear enough to bring the lower edge 
of the open end close to the ground ; drive a 
few stakes in front and the coop is complete. 
It is best to put the barrel near a fence, that 
A BARREL CHICKEN-COOP. 
it may be all the more secure and out of the 
way. We used to make nests for the tur¬ 
keys in the same way, in out-of-the-way 
places, omitting the stakes, and putting in 
a good supply of straw to make the nest. 
New Use for Sawdust _We hesitate 
in these days of wonders to assert that any¬ 
thing is impossible. Sawdust is now coming 
to the front and seems to possess elements of 
usefulness hitherto unsuspected. Sawdust 
brick, sawdust fence posts, sawdust door¬ 
frames, mouldings, etc., are beginning to ap¬ 
pear, but the latest is the sawdust car wheel 
for railroad trains. These wheels, it is 
claimed, are superior in many ways to the 
ordinary ones of iron. The sawdust fills 
the space between the non rim and hub. 
A Useful Home-made Harrow. 
There is no more important work upon the 
farm than harrowing, and many of our read¬ 
ers will be interested in the cheap home-made 
harrow here presented. It is engraved from 
a sketch sent by Mr. James Rice, Akron Co., 
Ill., who writes as follows : “ I made this har¬ 
row four years ago, and it has done me great 
service. It consists of ten string-pieces, four 
cross-pieces, and a single long head-piece. 
Four short pieces of chain are needed, be¬ 
sides the farm log-chain, to which the whif- 
fletrees are attached. The teeth are set 14 
inches from each other, each way. The whole 
cost of my harrow was something less than 
five dollars, I doing my own wood-work.”— 
This harrow will cover a strip 12 feet wide, 
and ought to have three horses, unless the 
team be an unusually strong one. The har¬ 
row can be made for 10 feet spread upon the 
same plan. But unless it is made to run 
diagonally, by having the attaching chains of 
unequal length, the teeth of each bar will 
follow each other in the same track. 
Breeding Disease. 
Attention to sanitary matters upon the farm 
is of the utmost importance during the hot 
season, and they should be considered in 
time. Although statistics show that farmers 
are longer lived than any other class in the 
community, still there is a large amount of 
disease, and premature deaths among them, 
from preventible causes. Much ignorance 
prevails, and there is need of line upon line 
in the science of health. Nothing is more 
common about the farm house than the 
breeding of disease. The cellar, the cess¬ 
pool, the privy, the well, and the pig-sty are 
not infrequently so managed that they bring 
disease and death into the household. The 
cellar, where fruits and vegetables have been 
stored during the winter, is sometimes left 
uncleaned and unventilated all through the 
summer, and the odors of rotten apples, de¬ 
cayed vegetables, unsavory meat barrels, and 
dead rats is diffused through all the house 
from cellar to garret. The family breathe 
the vitiated atmosphere by day and night, 
while they are in the house, and nothing but 
the out-of-door life most of them lead, save* 
them from sickness and death. We eennot 
have pure air in the house without a clean 
