5 02 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Care of the Feet of Sheep. 
Sheep that have been pasturing in low meadows 
or on soft, turfy pastures, may be found to have 
overgrown hoofs. The hoof of a sheep has a pe¬ 
culiar manner of growth. If neglected, the horn 
of the hoof grows over the sole, turns under at the 
side and up at the toes ; in turning under, the horn 
gathers under it 
sand, gravel, 
dung, or other 
foreign and in¬ 
jurious matter. 
The horn of the 
sole thus cover¬ 
ed is kept moist, 
grows soft, de¬ 
cays, and in its 
decay carries 
poisonous mat¬ 
ter into the vas¬ 
cular tissues of 
the foot. In¬ 
flammation oc¬ 
curs,and the pus caused by it,beingbound in the foot 
by the diseased hoof, can not escape, and the inflam¬ 
mation spreads through the tissues, until the entire 
foot is involved, and sometimes drops off. When 
this condition happens, the matter secreted is high¬ 
ly poisonous, and may be communicated by the soil 
to the feet of healthy sheep ; or at least those, which 
by neglect offer a breeding place for the infectious 
matter. This is malignant Foot-Rot, and it is the 
inevitable result of the foregoing sequence of 
neglect. By timely care this evil may be avoided. 
The present season is pe¬ 
culiarly one for caution. 
Every sheep should be 
closely examined. Surplus 
or loose horn should be 
pared off, and the toes, if 
too long, shortened by 
the use of a pair of toe- 
nippers, or a pair of com¬ 
mon, carpenter’s nippers 
with the blades sharpen¬ 
ed. If any diseased hom 
is found, that should be 
scraped away until the un¬ 
healthy granulations un¬ 
der it are exposed, the 
foot washed with Carbolic 
Soap, and dressed with a 
paste made of Pine Tar 
and powdered Sulphate of 
Copper (Blue Vitriol). The 
affected sheep should be 
kept separated from the healthy ones, and the feet 
should be dressed at least once a day. If they 
are kept on a clean board or clay floor, and this 
sprinkled with air-slaked quicklime, the improve¬ 
ment will be the more rapid. But no recovery 
need be expected if the feet are exposed to mud 
or filth in wet yards or unclean sheds and stables. 
The Herefords in America. 
--<3*-- 
That old fashioned and excellent breed, “the 
Hereford,” so well known by its white faces and 
breasts, and its general dull reddish-brown color, 
Fig. 2.— EXTEBIOR OF HOUSE. 
and so favorably considered by breeders and butch¬ 
ers, for its good feeding and meat producing qual¬ 
ities, has recently become very popular in parts of 
the West. There are among the western graziers, 
very different ideas, preferences, or prejudices, as 
to the best cattle to cross with their long-horned 
native herds. The aristocratic Shorthorn has so 
far had the preference, and bulls of this race have 
been extensively introduced into all the grazing re¬ 
gions of the West, from the Rio Grande and Texas, 
to the Yellowstone, and Dakota, and Montana. 
But the Herefords are now pushing their more pop¬ 
ular rivals in a very brisk manner, and the demand 
for Hereford bulls, now largely exceeds the supply. 
But the supply is gradually increasing, and to en¬ 
able breeders to add to their herds, many importa¬ 
tions have been made from England, from the 
county of the same name as that by which the 
breed is designated. Illinois may be regarded as the 
home of the Herefords in America, and the town of 
Beecher, in Will County, is the center of the rapidly 
increasing business of breeding them. In the neigh¬ 
borhood of that town, which has of late become 
well known among stock breeders, there are numer¬ 
ous well established herds, and several newly be¬ 
gun. Besides this, an Englishman, now a resident 
of Will County, has started the business of import¬ 
ing these cattle, and has already brought over 13 
head. A Nevada stock man has also imported some 
Herefords, and a large importation is on its way from 
Australia, to California. Thus the “Red White- 
faces,” will soon be in a position to test the claims 
of their admirers ; that they are equal in character, 
and more economical in breeding than Shorthorns. 
Ice Houses and Filling Them. 
-^.- 
Perhaps no subject is more frequently inquired 
about, at this season, than Ice-Houses. Various 
styles to meet different requirements, are to be 
found in earlier volumes, as follows : In October, 
1870.—Nov., 1871.—Oct., 1874.—Dec., 1875.—Dec. 
1877.—Nov., 1878. These are all illustrated ar¬ 
ticles, and describe a great variety of structures, 
from a temporary shed, to a house so large as to 
contain a “ cool-room surrounded by ice.” It may 
be well to consult all of these numbers, and select 
such a form or construction of house as will best 
meet the circumstances and wants in each case.— 
[Mem. Any of these numbers may be obtained, 
post-paid, from this office, at 15 cents per num¬ 
ber, or $1.50 for the yearly volume unbound, or 
$2.80 if bound.]—A small ice-house needs more 
care in construction than a large one. The larger 
the body of ice, in an ice-house, the better is its 
temperature preserved, and a small quantity re¬ 
quires very careful packing to keep it from melting. 
A house for storing ice to be sold, or where the 
consumption is large, should have good walls, made 
air-tight by packing and lining; the ice within 
needs no sawdust or other packing about it, ex¬ 
cepting on the top. A house of this kind, 24 feet 
square, or larger, requires walls with at least 12 
inches of packing between them. The walls are 
usually built with separate studding and posts, the 
studs being joined by cross strips every few feet to 
strengthen the walls. One plan is given at figure 1. 
The space between the walls is packed with saw¬ 
dust, and the absence of continuous studding from 
wall to wall, prevents the conveyance of outside 
heat to the interior. The inside is closely boarded, 
and the ice may be packed against the wall without 
any filling, except pounded or broken ice. The 
outside appearance of the house may be as shown 
at figure 2, in which the front is represented with a 
lower and upper door for removing the ice, and a 
“cat-head” for hoisting out the blocks. The 
upper door is used until the ice is taken out down 
to the lower door, when that is used. The rear of 
the house is shown at figure 3. This is used for 
filling the house. For this purpose a shoot is made 
to reach from the pond or stream to the house, as 
shown in the engraving, and the blocks are drawn 
up by means of a rope and a pair of grip tongs. 
The floor is covered with an ample bed of sawdust, 
and as the ice is filled in, the cracks between the 
blocks, and the spaces 
around the walls are com¬ 
pactly filled with broken 
ice and all made solid. 
While this is being done, 
the doors are to be thrown 
open, so that the ice may 
be dry and become solid¬ 
ly frozen; to secure this, 
filling is to be done 
during cold, dry weather. 
The cutting of the ice is 
a simple busiuess when 
properly managed. For a 
small supply, for a farm or 
dairy, all the tools needed 
are an axe, a cross-cut 
saw with one thimble and 
handle removed, or an ice 
saw (fig. 4), made speci¬ 
ally for the purpose, and 
an ice pole (fig. 5). This 
pole has two sharp points, one to push and one to 
draw with. As the ice is to be cut into square 
even-sized blocks, these should be marked out 16 
inches each way by means of a long line stretched 
as a guide to the saw. Ice can not be kept well, 
even in a good ice-house, unless it is cut in regular 
sized blocks and is close¬ 
ly packed without holes 
or empty spaces between 
the pieces. For a large 
quantity, horse markers 
and cutters are used. 
These are shown at work 
in figure 6. A line is first 
cut out with the saw, 
in the front, and the 
marker attached to the 
cutter running in this line 
keeps the latter in its 
place. The ice is thus cut 
half through in squares, 
as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing, and these are broken 
apart in large sections, 
and pushed,as seen on the 
left of the picture, to the 
ice-house. For a family 
supply, ice may be stored 
in a corner of the barn ; an apartment can be built 
up as shown at a, in the plan given at figure 7, with 
double walls 8 inches apart and filled in between 
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Fig. 1.— PLAN OF IOE-HOUSE. 
Fig. 6 .— HORSE CUTTER AT WORK. 
Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 
