1881.] 
AMERICAN AGrRICIJLTTJRIST. 
275 
A Double Gate Latch. 
Mr. “ W. W. B.,” Frederick Co., Md., sends 
a sketch of a double gate latch, or rather a 
latch and bolt com¬ 
bined, which he has 
found to be an 
excellent fastening 
against the hogs. 
“ When the latch 
is raised it draws 
the bolt from the 
staple, and likewise 
when the latch 
shuts the sloping 
hook raises the 
A double gate latch, latch, and draws the 
bolt back when it drops into the catch, the 
bolt at the same time going into the staple.” 
What Breed of Pigs to Raise? 
It is impossible to answer the question : 
“ which is the most profitable breed of pigs 
for a farmer to raise ?” Very much depends 
upon the system of management, nearness 
to market, individual taste or fancy, etc. 
But there are some general facts which 
should be understood in deciding what kind 
of pig to grow in any particular case. Pig 
farming may be profitable or a source of loss. 
A few pigs of almost any breed, can be grown 
on a dairy farm with profit, but when the 
number is increased, the piggery may become 
an expense. It is clearly determined by a 
long experience that pig pork is the pork that 
pays. Young hogs marketed when a year 
old are much more profitable than older ones. 
This being true—and it is especially so in 
the older States—a breed should be selected 
that matures early and fattens quickly. The 
best pig has the least amount of offal in 
dressing; is compact in its parts, and its 
flesh is of the very best quality. Of such are 
the Essex and Suffolk, and some other allied 
small breeds.” One can “go further and 
fare worse ” than to select the Essex for the 
piggery that is to make profitable returns. 
There is some prejudice against black pigs, 
but it should be remembered that the color 
is less than skin deep, and the blackest pig 
makes as white dressed pork, as any other. 
There is money in pigs if a good breed is 
chosen and properly managed. The value of 
full-blooded pigs over the ‘ ‘ grade ” is strik¬ 
ingly shown when a pair of the former is taken 
into a neighborhood where only the ‘ ‘ com¬ 
mon hog ” was before. In a few years the 
whole country round about has had its swine 
improved, and its pork interests greatly en¬ 
hanced. Grow young pigs rapidly and mar¬ 
ket them as pigs rather than keep them until 
they are old hogs. Pig pork pays. 
Notes upon Com Culture. 
A few years ago there was an impression 
that com could not be profitably raised in 
the older States, but that farmers should 
give attention to other crops and not try to 
compete with the West in corn raising. Re- 
cently eastern farmers have given more 
attention to com culture with a view to 
lessen the cost of production, and are learn¬ 
ing that it does pay. One of these is J. W. 
Rathbun, Oneida Co., N. Y., who gives his 
method as follows : “I read with much in¬ 
terest the articles in your valuable paper on 
Com Culture, as com is the only hoed crop 
I depend on for much profit. I raise from 
12 to 15 acres each year, and except thinning 
out and husking, the labor is all done with 
horses. I use a one-horse drill, planting two 
kernels to the foot, with 31 feet between the 
rows. As soon as the field is planted, I put 
on a Thomas Smoothing Harrow, which has 
three sections and will go over a large field in 
a short time, and continue to use it every few 
days as weather will permit, and the ground 
may require, until the corn is six inches high 
or higher; the slanting teeth of this harrow 
do not injure the young com at all—then I 
use a horse hoe and cultivator as long as I can 
drive through the rows. When fit to cut I 
let one of my men cut a row around the field 
setting the shocks back so as not to interfere 
with horses and machine. Then I start a 
Champion Reaper, raking off each alternate 
rake into gavels. After it it nicely wilted, 
tie up and set in large shocks like wheat, 
binding a large shock of ten or more small 
bundles firmly, with two or three good bands. 
The small bundles can be husked without un¬ 
tying, which is quite a saving. With the 
Thomas Harrow and the Reaper, corn can be 
cultivated and cut with very little expense. 
The “King” Wagon Jack. 
“A very useful and convenient wagon 
jack,” writesL. K. King, Tioga Co., Pa., “ can 
be easily made and at little expense by any 
one handy with tools. To make the jack, 
shown in the engraving, provide a bed plank, 
a, 16 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 3 inches 
thick, bevelled down to 2 inches on the edges. 
A three-inch mortise is made, 7 inches from 
one end of this bed plank. The standard, b, 
is 3‘/ 2 inches square, and is tapered on one side 
to 2 inches at the top, and is 26 inches long. 
It is made with a 3-inch tenon, to fit into the 
mortise in the bed plank. It is cut out l‘/ 4 
inch in the center, 20 inches long for the 
lever and latch, and five 5 / 8 -inch holes are 
bored through, the first two inches from the 
top, and the rest l'/ 2 inch apart. Five notches 
are made in the bevelled side for the latch to 
catch into. The lever, e, is l‘/e by 3 inches 
where the pin goes through ; the power arm, 
/, p, is 26 inches, or the same length as the 
standard, the weight arm, /, w, being 5 inches 
long. A catch, d, l*/ 4 inch thick and 18 inches 
long, is fastened to the lever at c, 8 inches 
from the fulcrum pin. The other end drops 
into notches cut part way across the sides 
of the standard. All parts of the “ jack ” are 
made of oak, ash, or elm, except the bed- 
plank, which may be of pine. When not in 
use, the lever drops down, thus occupying 
very little room. I have had a ‘‘ jack ” of this 
kind in use for the past ten years without re¬ 
pairs, and it is so satisfactory that many of 
my neighbors have adopted it, instead of 
paying from 3 to 5 dollars for a patented one. 
It is simple and can be quickly adjusted.” 
The Ailanthus in Towns and Cities. 
Probably no other tree can live and flourish 
under such adverse conditions as the Ailan¬ 
thus. Other trees have to be coaxed and 
favored while young, but this comes and is 
bound to stay, and such a trifle as suitable 
soil, or in fact any soil at all seems to be a 
matter of indifference to it. We have on 
two occasions known seeds from the Ailan¬ 
thus trees near by to find a lodgement upon 
the granite window caps of the Astor House, 
and finding there a little dust, the seeds have 
germinated, and the young trees grown to the 
hight of two feet or more before they were 
destroyed. The manner in which the tree 
flourishes in the streets, where its roots are 
in earth impregnated by street gas, while the 
pavement presses hard against the bark of 
the lower part of the trunk is remarkable. 
These qualities which go so far in making 
the Ailanthus, above all other trees, the one 
which will live in city streets, also to some 
extent make the tree undesirable. Give its 
seed a foot-hold, and there will be a tree, 
whether it starts upon a window cap,between 
the stones of a front yard, or between the 
underpinning of a building and the pave¬ 
ment, or in a cranny of the wall itself. In 
going about the city we see trees in these and 
other equally unfavorable localities. The 
first year or two, its tuft of foliage was 
pleasing to the owner or occupant of the 
house, and as the little tree was apparently 
making a struggle for life, it seemed cruel to 
disturb it; a few years later it was as large 
as one’s wrist, or larger, 6 to 10 feet high, and 
strong enough to resist all ordinary attempts 
at its removal. This springing up of the 
Ailahtlius in such places occurs in every 
town where there are seed-bearing trees, and 
from the ill effects of this that we have no¬ 
ticed in the city, we think it proper to warn 
property owners against them. In all such 
cases the tree should be removed while still 
young. What may be uprooted by the thumb 
and fingers, if left a few years can only be 
eradicated by much expense and labor. 
Those who have never witnessed the force a 
tree exercises in its increase in diameter, 
will be astonished at the way in which rocks 
may be split, heavy stones uplifted, and huge 
walls thrown out of the perpendicular. All 
these and other injuries come from allowing 
chance Ailanthus seedlings to get establish¬ 
ed, and could we know the damage to prop¬ 
erty from this cause in New York alone, the 
figures would be startling. It is no slight 
task to uproot an Ailanthus as large as one’s 
arm, for every piece of root must be taken 
out, or it will start anew ; still, it should be 
done whenever the trees have established 
themselves where they will cause damage, and 
especially should every young tree be removed 
from such places as soon as it is observed. 
The Ailanthus is not the only illustration 
of the fact that a plant that persists in 
growing where it is not wanted, is a weed. 
Clover in Georgia,. —It is a great mis¬ 
fortune to the agriculture of the Southern 
States that the belief that clover can not be 
grown in them should be so general, as the 
facts do not warrant it. In former years we 
have given examples of successful clover 
culture in the various Southern States, and 
