1881.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
199 
hired man. He desires that the wages he 
pays shall be earned, and when sure of this 
he is too frequently satisfied with his help. 
A man that works upon the farm is not a 
mere machine ; he has a moral influence, and 
when surrounded by children may be dear at 
any price. The hired man should not only 
be able to earn his wages, but also to exert a 
good influence upon the young, with whom 
he is likely to be more or less associated. 
Pay good wages, and have only whole-souled, 
honest, upright men upon the farm, if you 
would raise the best crop that the farm can 
produce—a family of noble boys and girls. 
Handling a Well Bucket. 
Mr. “ J. J. J.,” Easton, Md., writes: “ Many 
persons have been drawing water with a 
bucket in the old-fashioned way all their 
lives, and continue to 
do it in as awkward a 
way as if the last 
bucketful was the 
first.” The accom¬ 
panying engraving, 
made from a sketch 
sent by Mr. J., shows 
the method he em¬ 
ploys in filling the 
bucket. “ Sink the 
bucket into the well, 
and just before it 
touches the water 
grasp the hand-pole 
firmly with both 
hands. Push the pole 
directly away from 
you as indicated by 
the dotted line, and 
at the same time 
give it a circular 
motion as shown by the arrow. Let the 
bucket sink into the water, as it is brought 
towards you, and it is quickly filled and 
ready to draw to the top. It is so easy and 
simple that a person doing it for the first 
time will wish he had known how before.” 
Slanting Gate Post. 
The greatest trouble with hinged gates is 
their sagging, owing largely to the leaning 
inwards of the supporting post. Mr. G. W. 
Everhart, Parsons Co., Kans., has a remedy 
for this, in setting the post in a slanting posi¬ 
tion as shown in the engraving. He writes : 
“ If the post is square I chamfer the edge so 
that the bolt can go through the post from 
comer to corner. The upper bolt should be 
considerably longer than the lower one, and 
allow of being screwed up at any time when 
the gate has sagged. A gate hung in this 
way will rise until it is swung half way round, 
and then descend again, and remain open of 
it own weight.”—We would suggest that, 
should the space be too large between the 
slanting post and gate, a piece of board could 
be fitted in; it might improve the appear¬ 
ance also of the attachment of gate and post. 
A Grain Bag Holder. 
Mr. A. E. Knight, Saratoga Co., N. Y., in¬ 
closes drawings of a grain bag holder, from 
which the engraving is made. Basswood, 
boards, s / s -inch thick, and 9 inches wide, are 
used for the hopper. “ Each side is 23 inches 
across the top, and 9 inches along the bottom; 
the corners are stayed with hard-wood posts. 
The legs are 3 / a -inch round iron, 3‘/ a ft. long, 
flattened at the top to go into slots, a, on the 
sides of the hopper. These slots are made by 
fastening a hard-wood block to the hopper, 
with a piece turned out on the underside. 
The bag is hung 
upon three little 
hooks, which are 
made by passing 
three wrought nails 
through the comer 
posts, and sharpen¬ 
ing and curving the 
points. One side of 
the hopper is cut 
down to receive the 
half bushel.”—Mr. 
K. writes that this 
holder has, as he 
thinks, the follow¬ 
ing points of su¬ 
periority : It stands 
firmly everywhere, 
is easy to make, 
very fight, and takes up but little room when 
not in use. The legs can be slipped off and 
laid upon two pins put in the side of the gra¬ 
nary, and the hopper can hang on another. 
How to Increase Vegetable Matter in 
the Soil. 
The amount of vegetable matter in the soil 
may be increased by various methods ; one is, 
by large applications of barn-yard manure, 
say 50 cords to the acre. But this would be 
very expensive, and is out of the question in 
common farming. It may be done by put¬ 
ting on peat or muck, when these are near to 
the fields. But this involves a considerable 
outlay for labor in digging the peat, and a 
still larger expense in carting it, whether it 
first pass through the yards and stables, 
or be carted to the fields for composting or 
spreading upon the surface to be plowed in. 
On some farms this may be the cheaper 
method of supplying vegetable matter to the 
soil. But on others the most economical 
method is the raising of clover, to be fed off 
upon the land, or to be turned in. If a ton 
of clover may be worth .$9, as a fertilizer, the 
growing of the plant is a cheap method of 
improving the land. Two tons for the first 
crop and a ton for the second is not an un¬ 
common yield for land in good heart. The 
roots of clover also add largely to the vege¬ 
table matter in the soil. The first crop may 
be pastured, waiting until the crop is in blos¬ 
som, and then turning in cattle enough to 
feed it off in three or four weeks. They 
should be kept constantly upon the field, that 
the whole crop may be returned to the soil. 
This will of course help the second crop, 
which may be turned in with the plow soon 
after it is in blossom. If the equivalent of 
three tons of dried clover hay, and one ton 
of roots have been grown to the acre, about 
$36 worth of manure h#,ve been added to the 
soil, and it has been distributed more evenly 
than would have been possible by any me¬ 
chanical process. There has been no expense 
for carting and spreading peat, or for com¬ 
posting. On the contrary there has been the 
equivalent of two tons of clover-hay consum¬ 
ed upon the field, worth, as fodder, $24. This 
will more than pay the cost of seed, of plow¬ 
ing twice, and other labor. This is generally 
admitted to be the cheapest method of in¬ 
creasing the vegetable matter and the fer¬ 
tility of soils in common farming. And this 
it will be seen requires some little capital. 
Dog and Sheep Power for Churning, 
Where there is much churning to be done, 
the labor, which usually falls upon women, is 
more than they should be called upon to 
perform, and the number of inquiries we 
have had show that some relief from this 
labor is eagerly sought. Among the most 
available devices of this kind are those in 
which a dog or sheep is the power, and 
several kinds of these machines offered for 
sale at the agricultural implement stores. 
One of the best is the “tread power,” the 
same in principle with, but smaller than the 
two-horse tread powers for running thrash¬ 
ing machines, circular saws, etc. These are 
rather costly, and can not be afforded by 
many who could use a dog to advantage in 
churning. Mr. Elmer Beasley, Albany Co., 
N. Y., gives a detailed description of a home¬ 
made dog-power, aided by drawings, from 
which the accompanying engraving is made. 
The large ‘ ‘ tread wheel ” is constructed of 
two wheels placed 18 inches apart, with half¬ 
inch boards running between them nailed to 
the circumference. An iron shaft, 2 feet 
long, passes through the center of the wheels 
and into the standards on each side. Another 
shaft passes through the standards near the 
top, and projects six inches on one side so as 
to form a crank head. The attachment of 
this, with the churn, which stands by the 
side of one of the standards, is easily seen in 
the engraving. The standards should be not 
A DOG POWER FOR CHURNING, ETC. 
far from 6 feet in length, and the large wheel 
a little less than this in diameter. The dog is 
placed within the large wheel and fastened 
by a cord to a “leading stick.” Mr. B. has 
used his dog-power for two years, and it gives 
