AMERICAN AGKRICULT CJRIST. 
1 r 
2879. J 
as it does from the fire.) When no food is taken 
for some time, the reserved supply of fat and flesh 
stored in the body is consumed to supply the heat 
needed to keep the body alive. Let it be fixed in 
the mind that all the heat of the body must come 
from food actually burned in the blood, or, in the 
absence of food, from burning some of the substance 
of the body itself. We do not see the burning,, 
simply because only very small atoms are burned 
at any one point; but the facts are just as stated. 
But heat is always escaping from the surface of 
the body, and the more there is escaping, the more 
fuel (food) must there be supplied, or more of the 
fat and flesh of the body will be consumed and 
wasted, and the body decreases in weight and sub¬ 
stance. If just enough food is supplied, there will 
be no change. If there is supplied and digested 
more than enough food to meet this heating re¬ 
quirement and the other wastes, flesh and fat will 
accumulate in the body. Is it not clear that if, by 
warm clothes, by warm rooms, and warm barns, we 
stop some of the heat from escaping from the sur¬ 
face of our bodies and those of our animals, less 
fuel (less food) wil' be needed for producing heat 
in the blood '? Those sheep referred to above were 
obliged to eat much hay to keep from freezing to 
death A good shelter to ward ofi the driving 
winds and showers that so rapidly carried away 
their heat, would have saved a great deal of food. 
A warm bam or enclosure would have saved more. 
They crowded 
close together 
to catch from 
each other the 
escaping heat, 
which helped 
some. Bees, by 
clustering close¬ 
ly in winter, 
save a good deal 
of heat. — This 
explains why 
animals take on 
flesh fasterfrom 
the same food 
in warmer than 
in colder weather. They use up less in supply¬ 
ing heat. Cows, in warm quarters, and in warm 
weather, secrete and furnish us with carbonaceous 
butter, which they must burn to supply loss of 
heat in cold weather, when not warmly sheltered. 
Fig. 2. MOULD FOR BONE-CRUSHER 
Another Important Point .—If we wish a certain 
amount of heat from a steam boiler, that furnace will 
give it with the least amount of fuel which is pro¬ 
tected from loss of heat in other directions. If the 
furnace have a poor covering, or if much of its heat 
escapes in the chimney, you must pile on the fuel, 
often to the gradual or even rapid burning out and 
destruction of the furnace itself. Now all our food 
that is to be of any use must be worked over 
into proper form in the stomach. It does not, get 
into the blood until it is dissolved in the gastrie 
juice, and has made a draft upon the liver and other 
organs for certain fluids to change it into a form 
which the blood will absorb. The more food the 
stomach has to work up to supply heat wasted 
through insufficient outside protection, the greater 
is the labor needlessly put upon it, always exhaust¬ 
ing, and resulting in debilitation, if not disease. 
There is no questioning of the fact, that multitudes 
destroy the furnace (the stomach), or injure it, and 
over tax the other digestive organs, and bring on 
disease, consumption, etc., simply by the fatal error 
of supposing that exposure to cold promotes vigor. 
Simple Water Fountain for CJlielseas. 
—“A. R. P.,” Philadel 
phia, referring to the 
water fountain for 
chickens, described on 
page 336, September 
number, suggests an 
improvement Instead 
of cutting several high 
notches, as there illus¬ 
trated, he would cut or 
file but one, and that a triangular notch, only 
i inch high for a saucer or pan in which water 
would stand 4 to 1 inch deep, as indicated in 
the engraving. Fill the can with water, place the 
saucer on top, and quickly reverse it, and you have 
a “ pneumatic ” fountain holding about one quart, 
which the chickens can not foul. As the water is 
drunk or evaporates, more runs out of the can, keep¬ 
ing the saucer always full to the hight of the notch. 
A Water and Feed Trough, 
A supply of water in the cow-stable is a great 
convenience; a simple arrangement for furnishing 
WATER AND FEED TROUGH COMBINED. 
it to the cows in their stalls may be made as fol¬ 
lows: Sheets of galvanized iron are bent to form 
a trough, and fitted into the floor joists under 
the feed-box, as indicated in the engraving, mak¬ 
ing a trough 3 inches deep and 16 inches wide. 
The flanges on each side are nailed to the joists, 
and the sheets of iron riveted together at the ends, 
and made water-tight by cement. The trough runs 
the entire length of the feed floor, and is supplied 
with water from a pipe, pump, or hose ; a pipe at 
the other end carries away the surplus water and 
prevents overflow, and another pipe with a faucet 
is provided for emptying the trough. The feed- 
box is built over the water trough, a part of its 
floor being a trap—indicated by dotted lines in the 
engraving—by which admission to the water is 
gained. Before opening this trap, the manger is 
swept clean; and if there were no other advantage 
than this compulsory cleansing of the mangers after 
each feeding, it would be sufficient to pay for the 
cost of constructing such a watering arrangement. 
It does not Pay to Cut Corn Fodder. 
Every hour saved, even in winter, is an hour 
gained, the product of which may be added to the 
profit side of the balance sheet. When corn-fod¬ 
der is properly cured, there is no more need of run¬ 
ning it through the hay-cutter, than for rowen hay 
to be so treated, as is shown by the experience of 
many practical farmers. One experimenter found 
that his cows ate all but ten per cent of the whole 
stalks, while they ate no more when the stalks were 
cut fine. These stalks were from the regular corn 
field,but had been harvested and cured in such excel¬ 
lent condition that the cows were fed on them and 
corn meal and bran, receivingno hay, without reduc¬ 
ing the milk yield. The com-stalk orts were run 
through the hay-cutter, and then spread behind the 
cows for bedding, so that thus no long stalks got 
into the manure, while nine-tenths of the labor of 
cutting the stalks was saved. Other farmers report 
like results from similar experiments. Of course 
if the corn-stalks have been carelessly allowed to 
become dry and bard in the field, it pays to cut and 
steam them, but the cutting alone can not make 
them any more digestible or nutritious. 
This matter of cutting the coarse material which 
goes into the manure is important. ‘ Mr. Mechi,the 
great English farmer, who is very successful pecu¬ 
niarily, and wrote that instructive book, “ How to 
Farm Profitably,” cuts ail the straw and coarse lit¬ 
ter used for bedding in his stables, and finds it a 
profitable practice, as do many others who have 
followed his example. The resulting manure is 
easy to handle, being fine and friable, and mixes 
well in the compost, thus decomposing more readily. 
A Mill for Crushing Bones, 
To save the expense of a purchased bone-mill, 
one may be made as described below, which will 
crush them into a condition much more valuable 
for manure than the whole bones, if not quite as 
good as if finely ground. Make a circular mould of 
boards, 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep. Hoops of 
broad band-iron are fitted to the inside of the mould, 
and secured to it about one inch apart. The mould 
is then filled with a concrete of Portland cement, 
sand, and broken stone (the method of making 
is described in the American Agriculturist for De¬ 
cember, 1874). Place in the concrete when filling, 
binding pieces of flat bar-iron shaped as in fig. 2, to 
prevent the mass from cracking when in use. In 
the center, place squares of band-iron, as a lining 
for a shaft by which the crusher is turned. When 
the concrete is set and hardened, the frame may be 
taken apart; and, as in setting the concrete will ex¬ 
pand somewhat, the iron bands around the mass will 
be found to have become a tight solid facing to the 
wheel. The wheel is then set up on edge, and a 
square shaft of yellow pine, 6 inches thick,is wedged 
into the central space. This shaft is fitted to an 
upright post by a loose band of iron and a swivel 
joint, so that the wheel may be made to revolve 
around it. Any other suitable connection may be 
used for this purpose. A hollow trough of broken 
stone and well rammed concrete is then laid in the 
Fig. 1.— HOME-MADE BONE MILL. 
track of the wheel as it revolves, and the crusher is 
complete and ready for a pair of horses to be at¬ 
tached to it, see fig. 1. A crusher of this kind may 
be put up at a country mill or as a joint affair by a 
few farmers uniting their efforts, and thus utiliz¬ 
ing a valuable fertilizing material, which is now 
wasted for want of means to render it available. 
Cheese in the Army. 
The efforts of ex-Governor Seymour to introduce 
cheese into the army as a regular ration, are likely 
to prove successful, as a special commission has 
given the subject favorable consideration. Samples 
have been ordered with which to test the question 
in its various lights, and the prospects are all in 
favor of the cheese, save the element of cost, which, 
when viewed in its true light, will not be found a 
difficult objection to overcome. If the War De¬ 
partment can find a grade of good cheese that will 
keep a long time under the various changes of 
climate to which it would be subjected, and can be 
had at a price which will not raise the cost of the 
regular ration, it is probable that it will be adopted. 
The present rations for the soldiers of the U. S, 
Army on the march, are chiefly canned corned beef 
and beans, ready cooked. An experiment was re¬ 
cently made on the plains, substituting cheese for 
the beans every other day; the soldiers liked the 
cheese, but wanted the beans as well. Beans are 
very nourishing, but also have bulk, which is neces¬ 
sary to the soldier, who is a very hearty eater. 
Beans cost only four cents a pound, baked, ready 
to eat, while cheese costs eight or nine. To over¬ 
come this objection it is proposed to include corn- 
meal in the ration, which is bulky, nutritious, cheap, 
