1879 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
501 
milk to New York at li to 2 cents a quart, and 
are conscientious to send only good milk at that, 
could only see what is actually sold, and could go 
from house to house and see the poor children who 
live upon it, and compare them with their own 
healthy rollicking babies, they would, I believe, 
cheerfully submit—nay, would welcome an Inspec¬ 
tor of milk-farms and stables, and court the most 
rigid scrutiny of all milk shipped in sealed cans. 
A Wooden Pump for Barn-Yards. 
For ordinary uses of the barn-yard, either for 
drawing water from cisterns, or liquid manure out 
of tanks, pumps made of boards or plank may be 
used. It is necessary to 
make the joints tight, which 
may be done by laying strips 
of thick paper, well steeped 
iu tar, between the joints, 
also smearing the joints with 
tar. The joints are then 
clamped with screw-clamps, 
and well fastened with bolts check-valve. 
passing completely through the sides, and screwed 
tight with washers and nuts. Strips of good pine, 
or spruce, one inch thick, and 6 inches wide, will 
serve for the barrel of the 
pump. A check-valve of 
wood or sole-leather, or of 
both, should be fastened 
at the bottom of the 
pump, as shown in figure 
1. This valve is made of 
a square of sole-leather, 
which sits upon a small 
cleat all around the inside 
of the pump-barrel, and 
a square piece of hard¬ 
wood is fastened upon the 
upper side of the leather, 
to stiffen it. The valve is 
nailed at one side to the 
cleat as shown at figure 1. 
This is all to be fitted be¬ 
fore the barrel is put to¬ 
gether, or that may be put 
together and the valve in¬ 
serted and nailed to its 
place at the bottom of 
the barrel, (A, fig. 2), 
after the latter is made. 
The draw-valve is made 
in precisely the same man¬ 
ner as the check-valve, 
and is fitted in a box made a little narrower at the 
top than at the bottom to cause it to work easily. 
The bottom of this box may be 
finished with a strip of leather around 
it to make it tight if thought proper. 
The valve-box is connected with the 
rod by an iron strap ; the rod passes 
through a hole in the strap, and is 
fastened by means of two nuts 
screwed on as shown at figure 3. 
For a portable pump, the spout is 
fitted as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing ; for a fixed pump, a handle Fig. 3. 
may be fitted to the top in the usual manner. 
The Value of a Pure-bred It a in. —It j s not 
difficult to estimate the value of a pure-bred ram in 
a flock. A ram will serve a flock of 50 ewes. The 
most close-calculating farmer will give a dollar for 
the service of a choice ram for one of his ewes, as 
he knows that the dollar is well expended. There¬ 
fore the benefit of a pure-bred ram, to the owner of 
a flock of 50 ewes, is at least $50 yearly for the life¬ 
time of the ram, which may be expected to con¬ 
tinue at least 6 or 8 years, if 2 years old when 
bought. Just now, when it is the business of every 
farmer to take advantage of the rising tide of pros¬ 
perity, for which we have been waiting so anxious¬ 
ly, it is opportune to study over this matter and 
figure up how much could be made by procuring 
the service of a first-class ram while such animals 
are still to be purchased at reasonable prices. 
Fig. 2. 
To Split Thin Wooden Slips. 
Every one has frequent occasion to separate a 
thin piece of wood into two or more equal pieces 
by splitting it, aud all know how liable it is to 
“runoff to one side.” The expert river of split 
shingles or staves, or barrel hoops, knows how to 
readily avoid this ; he 
can easily divide into 
two equal parts a piece 
of wood only half an 
inch thick, though it 
may be 6 to 10 inches 
wide, and 3 or 4 feet or 
more in length. Any 
one can quickly learn 
and apply the principle, 
even to splittiuga tooth¬ 
pick, or a match. The 
fibres of the wood lie 
nearly, not quite paral¬ 
lel in almost all wood. 
Here is the secret of 
making the split run 
down the middle, or to 
one side or the other, 
as desired. Start the 
openingas in figure 1. If 
it runs to the side, a, as 
the swamp is wet, and water flows in the excava¬ 
tion, the digging may still be done with the horse- 
scraper by adding to the length of the handles and 
using planks upon each side for the man to stand 
upon, and planks upon the inner side of the dig¬ 
ging for the scraper to slide upon with its load of 
muck. The muck may be thrown iu heaps on the 
THE HORSE-SHOVEL AT WORK. 
in figure 2, hold that side of the stick firmly straight, 
and bend the side, b , out more or less as needed, as 
shown in figure 3. If this is done the ends of some 
of the fibres will break from the side, b, and adhere 
to a. If the opening turns too much towards the 
side, b, reverse the operation, and bend the a side 
out a little. With a little care in thus bending one 
or the other side out, the split can be readily made 
to follow through the center any length of straight 
grained wood, even though only the thickness of 
paste-board. Watch the shingle worker, and you 
will see him turn his shingle over and over, bend¬ 
ing the lever handle of his splitting tool now here 
and now there, almost every second. 
Clearing Slough Land. 
In clearing up land that is covered with tussocks 
of coarse grass and a tough sod, and digging out 
ditches to drain such laud, much useless labor may 
be given that could be spared by skillful work. 
The spade is commonly used for this purpose, but 
as in digging dry ground this slow tool may be re¬ 
placed to very great advantage by the plow and the 
horse-shovel. In working in swamps these more 
effective tools may be made available in many cases. 
To cut off the tussocks with grub-hoes, while they 
are tough in the summer time, is very hard and slow 
work; but if a common horse-scraper is used they 
can be tom up, or cut off, with the greatest ease. 
The scraper should be furnished with a sharp steel¬ 
cutting blade in the front, which may be riveted 
on, or fastened with bolts, 60 that it may be taken 
off and ground sharp. If there are wet and soft 
places the scraper may be drawn by a chain of suf¬ 
ficient length to keep the horses upon dry ground, 
as shown in the illustration. This plan has been 
tried by the writer with success, and with a great 
saving of time and expense ; the digging of a pond 
20 feet wide along the edge of a swamp, was per¬ 
formed with one man, a boy, a team, and a horse- 
shovel, as quickly as ten men could have done it 
with spades. In cutting tough swamp the plow 
may be used to break up the surface when the 
horse-shovel will remove the muck very fast. If 
side of the pond or ditches, and it will be found 
convenient to leave it upon one side instead of 
in a continuous heap, as this will greatly facili¬ 
tate its final disposal in whatever way that may be. 
A Measuring- Grain Bin. 
Mr. Thomas Griswold, Ashtabula Co., O., sends 
a drawing and description of a Grain Bin, with an 
attachment for measuring, which he considers a 
great improvement over the old way, of using a 
half bushel. He says : “ There can be no waste, as 
the bag or sack can be hooked upon the lower end 
of the spout, and when filled is easily removed. 
The spout requires the bin to be elevated suf¬ 
ficiently for the bag, when attached to the spout, 
to just clear the floor or a box placed for it to rest 
upon. In drawing from the bin, the slide marked 
A is closed, and the slide B is opened long enough 
for space G to fill, when B is closed, and A opened, 
and the grain passes into the bag. The size of the 
measuring chamber in the spout is 10 by 10 inches 
square, and 211 inches 
high. This holds just 
one Winchester bush¬ 
el ; but if a half bushel 
chamber is preferred, 
then the proper size 
would be 10 by 10 inch¬ 
es square, and lOf inch¬ 
es high. Of course, 
these measurements 
are for the inside of the 
chamber. By inserting 
a pane of glass in the 
face of the bin, or in 
the 6pout at D, one 
could always tell the 
quantity of grain in the 
bin. In constructing a 
bin like this, the hot-- TTcToA^ 
tom should have a rise A MEASU bing grain bin. 
of 5 inches to the foot. 
For example, a bin 6 feet from front to back, the 
bottom for wheat or corn should have a rise of 30 
inches to secure a flow ; oats require more. I do 
not know that anything of the kind is patented.” 
Periods of milking.—A cow that is milked 
three times a day will give more milk and yield 
more cream than one that is milked at intervals of 
twelve hours. When the udder is filled a process 
of absorption goes on and part of the milk secreted 
is thus lost. It will pay to take the milk from 
copious milkers at intervals of eight hours as nearly 
as possible. A cow that is milked at five in the 
morning, one in the afternoon, and nine at night, 
will yield from ten to twenty per cent more milk 
and more cream than if milked twice a day. 
