16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[Januakt, 
useful. It is not probable that the ranks of veter¬ 
inary medicine and surgery will for many years to 
come be even fairly filled—much less crowded— 
which can hardly be said of any other profession. 
[We are glad that Doct. Liautard has presented 
the pecuniary advantages of veterinary practice in 
this manner, for we have often advised young men 
who proposed studying medicine to learn all they 
could at a medical college, and then give their at¬ 
tention to veterinary medicine. This presentation, 
however, calls for a word of caution. If a youug 
man enters the veterinary profession merely because 
it promises to be profitable, he will surely fail. It 
is still less than the medical profession, an occupa¬ 
tion for those who are fit for nothing else, and too 
lazy for manual labor. Unless a young man feels 
attracted to this profession more strongly than to 
any other, the chances of success are small. It is 
to encourage those who feel thus inclined, but are 
deterred by doubts as to the future, that Doct. 
Liautard has presented the above article.— Eds.] 
-- 
Saif Acting Ferry Boat. 
A correspondent sends a sketch of a self-pro¬ 
pelling ferry boat, to be used in crossing streams 
in which there is a strong current. The boat is a 
common flat bottomed scow, but it would be more 
TERRY PROPELLED BY CURRENT. 
effective with a side-board to be let down the same 
as the center-board of a sailing boat. The boat 
is attached to the guide rope, stretched across the 
stream, by pulleys and tackles as represented in the 
engraving. When the boat is parallel with the 
guide rope, it is stationary ; when one of the tackles 
is let out, the boat takes a diagonal position, and 
the current striking the side of it, pushes it across 
the stream. By having long ends to the tackle 
which can-be fastened to the posts on the banks of 
of the stream, the tackle may be drawn up, even 
when the boat is on the opposite side of the stream, 
and be brought over for use without much labor. 
Winter Milk Profitable. 
The average farmer in the Northern States only 
plans for milk during the grazing season, from May 
until October. His cows drop their calves as near 
the first of April as possible, the calves are killed or 
weaned by May 1st, the milking season follows, 
and the cows are dried off in October or early 
November. For four or five months in the year the 
cows yield no profit, but make a heavy bill of ex¬ 
pense for food and labor. That a good flow of 
mtlk can be secured through the winter, is demon¬ 
strated by the abundant supplies that our large 
cities receive from the milk dairy districts. These 
districts lie mainly within 150 miles of the city, and 
the milk supply of the preceding day is distributed 
to customers in the morning. Farmers are turning 
their attention more and more not only to the sup¬ 
ply of this traffic in milk for the large cities, but to 
the supply of fresh butter for the local markets. 
If three months or more of milk production can be 
added to the year, it will make a very important 
addition to^ the income of the farm. The interest 
on the money invested in the herd has to be paid, 
whether we get milk from them for six months or 
ten. To secure the best results from a milking 
herd, three important matters are to be looked 
after: the stock, shelter, and fodder. These things 
are grievously neglected by old style farmers. “ A 
cow is a cow,” is their proverb, and “the breed is 
all in the trough ” is its twin adage. Experi¬ 
ence teaches observing farmers that both proverbs 
are false. In many herds there is a great difference 
in the average yield and quality of milk. Not in¬ 
frequently there is a difference of one-third or oue- 
half between the best and the poorest cow. This 
difference can be greatly reduced by the introduc¬ 
tion of thoroughbred stock. If a farmer wants to 
make winter butter, the use of a thoroughbred 
Jersey and Guernsey bull of good butter pedigree, 
will enable him to raise cows for this purpose. 
They will be of a more uniform good quality, and 
will give richer milk for ten months in the year. 
Then as to shelter ; cows will not give milk in win¬ 
ter if fed at the stack-yard in zero nights. They 
must have warm bams, so tight that the manure 
will not freeze much, and yet be well ventilated; 
and the barn should be not only a shelter, but a 
manufactory of fertilizer as well, which involves a 
cellar underneath. A variety of fodder is also 
necessary. Those who cater for the milk market, 
use in addition to early cut hay, brewer’s grains, 
corn-stalks, corn-meal, shorts, apples, beets, car¬ 
rots, turnips and cabbages. I have found sugar- 
beets and mangels to be cheaply raised, and an ex¬ 
cellent ration for producing milk. Connecticut. 
A Log Tram-Way. 
A roughly constructed but effective railroad has 
recently come into use in lumbering regions, which 
is worthy of notice for its applicability to agri¬ 
culture and other industries where the moving 
of coarse heavy matters, such as manure, produce, 
earth, stODe, etc., is often necessary. Such a road 
was constructed and used by the writer several 
years ago for the purpose of moving a large quan¬ 
tity of earth in making a long and deep cutting 
through a hill. It was then found that earth could 
be moved a distance of S00 to 1,000'feet, by means 
of roughly constructed cars with wooden wheels, 
drawn by horses, upon a portable wooden road, at 
a fourth of the expense of carts or wagons. A 
similar experience has resulted from the use of the 
same kind of road 
in the great north- 
western pineries, 
where the rapid con- 
sumption of timber 
has driven the lum- /W 
berrndn to localities 
remote from water kh 
transportation. The Fi L—farm r. r. curve. 
rails are logs, either 
in their natural shape, or squared, or rounded, which 
are mortised or spliced together at the ends, and are 
held in place by cross-ties into which they are sunk 
and pinned. Or stakes may be driven into the 
ground on either side to hold the rails in position, 
as there is little possibility of their spreading; in 
this case the cross-ties, if used, are simply laid on 
the ground, which is leveled as may be necessary to 
make a satisfactory bed. Six feet apart is a con¬ 
venient distance for the rails, as then a double team 
may be driven between them. A 3 or 4 feet gauge 
is sufficient when but one horse is used. To form 
curves, saw-cuts are made on both sides of the 
rails, which are then bent and held in place by 
stout stakes (fig. 3). The wheels, fig. 2, are cast 
with a wide face, sometimes 14 inches across, and 
with deep flanges—4 inches for large wheels—to 
keep the wheel from mounting the rail. The axle is 
of iron, from 1 to 3 inches thick, as may be neces¬ 
sary. At figure 4 is shown the manner of joining 
the rails by means of a dovetailed mortise and a bolt. 
For light work, such as drawing in crops, mov¬ 
ing manure, sanding cranberry marshes, or moving 
earth in grading, a tram-way may be made in sec¬ 
tions, of light scantling, 2 x 4 or 3 x 5, with the ends 
halved together. For curves the rails may be made 
of strips of board, bent to the desired shape and held 
in place by cross-ties and iron bolts. Wheels, with 
flanges, may be constructed of hard-wood plank, 
•with axles of 11-inch round iron. There are many 
cases where tram-ways of this de¬ 
scription would be more economical 
than wagons drawn by horses or oxen, 
as when a great deal of manure is to 
be carted to the fields each year, and 
especially where lumber is cheap or 
grows upon the farm. The laying of 
the track is easily done by putting 
down a few sections, loading a car 
with other sections, which in turn are 
laid as the car is moved along. Sev¬ 
eral hundred feet may thus be laid 
in an hour, and the road taken up 
and put down in another place in 
the same manner. Roads of this kind have 
been in use for some time on French farms where 
beets are grown for sugar making, and heavy 
crops of fodder are produced for feeding cattle. 
Useful Hints for Gold Weather. 
Popular Errors. 
A common error, one often injurious to health 
and not infrequently fatal to human life, and one 
greatly unprofitable in the care of stock, is illus¬ 
trated by the practice of some farmers we remem¬ 
ber in our boyhood days on a western farm. The 
error is quite prevalent still. These farmers kept 
their sheep especially, and sometimes other stock, 
in open fields, or at best, in exposed yards and sheds, 
allowing them to feed from the sides of open hay 
stacks. Hay was cheap, and the sheep ate it vora¬ 
ciously. This large consumption of food was con¬ 
sidered a mark of vigor, and of health even. (We do 
not forget that these farmers were accustomed to 
apply pine-tar freely to the noses of their sheep in 
spring, to cure a sort of catarrhal discharge always 
prevalent, but attributed to something outside of 
the real cause.)—Many parents, alas ! believe, and 
practice upon the belief, that thin clothing, sleep¬ 
ing cold, and bare legs and arms, harden children 
and make them vigorous. What are the facts? 
Our bodies are warmed precisely the same as our 1 
rooms are warmed. In burning wood, coal, com, 
wheat, oil, etc., the oxygen of the air unites with , 
the carbon (coal) of these substances, producing j 
carbonic acid which escapes unseen. In thus com- 1 
bining, heat, before insensible, is given out in a \ 
sensible condition. (Scientists will excuse this 
form of illustration.) When we eat the corn, wheat, i 
flour, meat, or other food, it is worked up or di- j 
gested in the stomach, goes into the blood, and 
there meets with oxygen from the air absorbed into 
the blood through the delicate membranes of the 
lungs. Each atom of food that unites with an atom 
of this oxygen in the blood, produces carbonic acid, 
and gives out heat which warms the blood, and 
through it the body. (The carbonic acid is breathed 
out through the lungs, and escapes invisible, just 
Fig. 4. 
