1881.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
361 
very important bearing on the production of 
milk. Any excitement in the herd that dis¬ 
turbs their quiet always lessens the flow of 
milk. My pastures are provided with shade 
trees, where the cattle can lie down in sum¬ 
mer during the day, and at night they are 
turned into the pasture, where they always 
have the choice of a dry, clean bed. In the 
winter they have a bedded stall to sleep in, 
and after their evening rations are given 
them the bam is kept as quiet as the house. 
Sheep suffer very much from want of quiet, 
but the dog law has helped that matter very 
much in thinning out the worthless curs that 
used to chase them. It is quite possible now, 
in the towns where the law is enforced, to 
raise mutton, lamb, and wool, and recuperate 
our pastures. In making pork cheaply, a 
good deal depends upon clean, dry quarters 
for the swine. The common proverb, ‘the 
breed is in the trough,’ is only a half truth. 
The other half is in the blood and in the sty. 
The common notion that any place is good 
enough for swine is a very expensive heresy. 
The pig takes a mud bath in summer to keep 
cool and to get rid of vermin, it may be ; but 
give him a clean, dry place, and plenty of 
straw, and he will keep himself as clean as 
any other animal. If well fed, he will sleep 
a large part of the time by day as well as by 
night. The more sleep you can induce in the 
sty, the cheaper you can make pork.” 
This tea-table talk at the parsonage has a 
fair amount of common-sense in it. A per¬ 
ceptible change has come over our New Eng¬ 
land farms, in the last thirty years, in making 
provision for the comfort of our domestic 
animals. The old-style accommodations, fod¬ 
dering cattle at the stack-yard, which used to 
be severely handled in the American Agri¬ 
culturist in the early days, though still in ex¬ 
istence, has greatly diminished. Sleep was a 
difficult problem on the frozen ground, with 
the thermometer down to zero, and it took at 
least a third more fodder to keep the animal 
in good condition. As a matter of fact, all 
stock thus wintered fell off in weight. It 
deteriorated the stock, while it brutalized the 
owner. Now the model barn, and such are 
multiplying quite rapidly, is a tight struc¬ 
ture, almost frost-proof, well ventilated, built 
over a manure cellar, where all the droppings 
of the cattle are composted with muck, peat, 
leaves, and straw, and turned to the best ac¬ 
count. There is a large root apartment, or 
vault, on the stall floor, and roots furnish a 
part of the daily rations. The stalls are kept 
well littered ; and abundant rations, comfort¬ 
able temperature, and quiet, favor sleep. 
Milk production in such a barn is a possi¬ 
bility throughout the season, and occasionally 
a farmer is experimenting in making winter 
butter. On the whole, we concede the value 
of sleep as a farm crop. 
Ilookertown, Ct., I Yours to command, 
August 1,1881. ) Timothy Bunker, Esq 
Death of “The Jersey ISelle of 
Scitiiate.”—D. D. Bishop, Stock Editor of 
the “New York Pet Stock Bulletin,” for¬ 
wards us a letter from C. O. Ellms, the owner 
of this noted cow, announcing her death, on 
July 11th last, of milk fever. In June, 1880, 
we gave a remarkably fine portrait of this 
animal, with her pedigree, and asserted her 
claim to be the most famous butter cow then 
living. We are not surprised to learn from 
Mr. Ellms’ letter that her death has caused 
general regret in the town of Scituate; he 
concludes by saying : “ Of course I feel badly 
enough, and it is little comfort to know that 
she has left a fine calf by Sharpless’ bull.” 
A Cheap and Convenient Corn House. 
BY W. I). NORTON, LAPEER CO., MICH. 
In return for many valuable hints received 
from the American Agriculturist in the past, 
I send you a drawing and description of a 
cheap and convenient corn house for a farm 
of average size. I think it was in 1857 that 
my double crib with “ air-holes ” in the mid¬ 
dle was erected, and afterwards described 
with an engraving in the American Agricul¬ 
turist. Your readers are welcome to this plan 
also. The old crib was still in good order last 
fall, but was too small for my use, so I took 
the two halves apart, and made a room 8 by 
12 feet between them, and put up another 
crib on the back ends of the two. The corn 
house is 14 by 15 feet at the bottom, and flares 
12 inches at the eaves. The posts are eight 
feet high on the outside, the cribs three feet 
wide at the bottom, and four feet wide at the 
top. There are four doors upon the outside 
through which the corn is shovelled from the 
wagon. The doors need merely to be shoved 
up to the top, and then dropped half an inch, 
when the projecting cleats will hold them in 
place. To fill the crib thoroughly, a few 
baskets of corn can be carried inside of the 
door and emptied over the partition. The 
interior of the corn house has a smooth floor, 
and close sides to the hight of 22 inches, above 
which are slats, the same as on the outside of 
the cribs. There is a door left in the inner 
side of each of the cribs which may be closed 
with short slats set in place as the com is 
filled in, and can be slipped out as the com is 
wanted. These doors are 22 inches wide, and 
are large enough for one to step readily into 
the cribs when the slats are removed. The 
inside studs (shown by the dotted lines in 
the engraving) are fastened to, and support 
the rafters. The studs and rafters consist of 
2 by 4-inch scantling. The corn house is set 
upon logs, and is high enough to let the fowls 
pass under it freely, 
so that no grain is lost. 
The collar-beams are 
handy for suspending 
traces of seed com. 
This corn house has 
a capacity of over 
six hundred bushels. 
[We find the original 
com house was pub¬ 
lished in the Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist for 
December, 1864. The 
engraving is repro¬ 
duced here, in which 
it should be said an 
amendment was made 
at the time by putting 
posts under the house, 
with tin pans bottom- 
side up over their tops, to keep the rats and 
mice from getting into the com house.—E d.] 
Saving Corn Fodder. 
BY MASON C. WELD. 
It matters not whether it be com fodder or 
fodder com which we desire to save, Sep¬ 
tember in the Northern States is the month 
when it must be done. Frosts are likely to 
come any time after the tenth, and any that 
come after the fifteenth are likely to be 
“ killing.” We can usually trust com out 
until the latter date, but then—look out. 
It is a wonderful, if not inexplicable change 
which takes place. The plants stand at even¬ 
ing strong and vigorous; the leaves green 
—only the lower ones turning yellow a little, 
and the whole plant looking substantial and 
surely as capable of withstanding a little frost 
as the grass, or the turnip or cabbage leaves. 
Yet one single hard frost—a “black frost.” as 
the farmers say, changes the internal struc¬ 
ture of the plant. The first warm airs of the 
morning change its color to a dull, dark green. 
The leaves lose their stiffness and droop; as 
soon as the sun strikes them they become 
flabby and watery, and soon shrivel away. 
Their nutritive value is gone ; if dried, cattle 
will not eat them, and they crumble at a 
touch. If they do not dry, they soon rot. 
When frost threatens—when the wind is in 
the west or north-west and the day is clear, 
promising a clear night, after rainy weather 
or after rain has threatened—it is time and 
high time to bestir ones-self to save the com 
fodder. Corn will often stand a light frost, 
and we generally get one or two of these be¬ 
fore one comes that does real damage. So 
the amount of corn left standing and in 
danger ought not to be very great. There are 
to the experienced observer (and every farmer 
has an eye to the weather which should en¬ 
title him to that designation), premonitions 
of an approaching black frost which rarely 
mislead. Before it comes eveiy spear of corn 
should be cut. It is best, of course, to cut and 
stook the com at the same operation, but if 
worst comes to worst, it is enough simply to 
cut it up and drop it in convenient heaps for 
Fig. THE CORN HOUSE AS REMODELLED. 
