1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
189 
mit these things to be true, what of it ? Is there 
any necessity for having a barn-cellar, without ven¬ 
tilation ? If you leave one end open toward the 
south, you certainly have ventilation enough—and 
the gases that are evolved from fermenting manure 
are not going through two-inch stable plank and 
the tight siding of the barn when they have the 
wind to carry them off. If a barn cellar is properly 
managed, and seasonably furnished with absorb¬ 
ents, the ammonia will be absorbed as fast as it is 
formed. There will be no odor of ammonia that 
the nostrils can detect. If the pigs do not do the 
mixing fast enough, the shovel and the fork, the 
plow and the harrow, can be added. The making of 
compost under the barn is nice work for rainy days 
in winter, and is more likely to pay than any work 
exposed to the storm. The keeping of pigs under 
the barn is a question of two sides, and however 
we may decide it, barn cellars will stand upon their 
own merits. Any farmer who makes a business of 
raising pork for the market will find a well- 
appointed pig-stye, with conveniences for storing 
and cooking food, a paying investment. If he sees 
fit to utilize the labor of his pigs, by making com¬ 
post in a well-ventilated barn-cellar, their health is 
not likely to suffer from the wholesome exercise, 
or that of his family from the use of the flesh. 
Swine, furnished with a dry sleeping apartment 
and plenty of litter for a bed, will keep comfort¬ 
ably clean, and not suffer from overwork in the 
compost heap. If anything is settled in the ex¬ 
perience of the last thirty years, it is the economy 
of the barn-cellar. Our most intelligent farmers, 
who can command the capital, invest in them. A 
nice appendage to them is a watering trough fed 
by a spring or a large cistern in the embankment, 
to catch all the water, and bring it out by a faucet 
upon the stable floor above. This works admirably. 
Any farmer who reads the American Agriculturist 
will learn how to use the bam-cellai and not abuse 
it. • C. 
Road Ilaking. 
The rush and hurry of getting in spring crops 
closes with planting corn. A week or so of com¬ 
parative leisure then follows, that may well be 
filled by working out the road tax. The kind of 
labor to be done on the highway depends much 
upon circumstances. If in a new country, the aim 
usually is to make the whole length of the road as 
passable as the allotted tax will permit. In older 
CROSS-SECTION OF GOOD ROAD. 
districts it is best to mend bad places, and do 
the work so thoroughly, as to be a permanent im¬ 
provement. It is better to do only a small part 
well each year, than to distribute time and expense 
over the whole length of the highway doing noth¬ 
ing thoroughly, and repeating this year after year. 
When all the road bed has been properly made, 
the main work thereafter is to keep the surface 
hard, smooth, and of the right slope (see figure), 
that water may be carried off rapidly after a rain. 
A large > -scraper, drawn by four horses, passed 
over the road now and then as needed, will do much 
to make the old country roads what they should be. 
Disposal of Rubbish. 
In the course of years there will accumulate on 
every farm and in every garden, a quantity of un¬ 
sightly stuff. Broken crockery and glassware, old 
fruit and tomato cans, worn out sauce-pans, and 
other wastes of the household. These can not be 
composted or turned to any useful purpose, and if 
allowed to be scattered about, make the surround¬ 
ings unsightly. One of the best methods of getting 
rid of such stuff, is to dig a dry well, and provide it 
with a cover too heavy for children to displace, and 
deposit all such rubbish in this. When filled to 
within three feet of the top, take a piece of timber 
and pound down the contents as compactly as possi¬ 
ble, and fill up with earth. The well thus covered 
can be planted over, and it will answer a good 
purpose as a local drain, while another receptacle 
can be made for future accumulations. 
Eu the Poullfy Yard, 
The young chicks will thrive best when kept clean 
and dry. Those hatched this month, if of the best 
breeds, usually begin to lay early in the fall, and if 
kept warm and well fed, will give a supply of eggs 
through the winter. If the coops are placed in, or 
adjoining the garden, to allow the chicks to wander 
freely through it, they will do little harm, until 
large enough to scratch up the beds, and nibble at 
the plants, while they will destroy many insects. 
Let them have an abundance of pure water and 
wholesome food; these, with good housing from 
the wet and cold, will secure health and a profitable 
growth. See the fall treatment of the rearing of 
Turkeys, on page 301. 
’JTIie Slaeop aeid. E,a.ml»s. 
Fatten and market dry ewes as soon as possible. 
Some ewes which have lost their lambs, or from 
which they have been taken, will need to have the 
milk partially removed from their full udders for a 
few days. Neglect not to remove filthy tags. It is 
well also to clip the wool from about the udders, as 
much disease in the lambs is often caused by filth 
from the. ewe’s wool. There is but little in favor 
of washing wool on the sheep’s back, and for old 
and feeble animals it is a positive injury. The prac¬ 
tice is unnecessary, disagreeable, and dangerous to 
the health of both men and sheep, and may well be 
abolished. Sheep ought to be so kept, that the 
unwashed wool may be clean enough for market. 
Newly shorn sheep need protection during storms. 
If this be looked after properly, early shearing is 
not objectionable. After shearing, the ticks gather 
on the lambs, and may be destroyed by dipping 
them in tobacco water, with sulphur added, or some 
one of the various effective “Sheep Dips.” 
Cave of tBie EEovses. 
Flies are a source of much discomfort and fretful¬ 
ness. Nettings are now sold quite cheaply, and 
much more than pay their cost every year. In the 
absence of these, an easily made good protection is 
a thin cotton sheet fitted to the neck with holes for 
the ears, and buckled under the throat, or even tied 
therewith straps of the same material. Let it cover 
1 the back and hang loose at the sides, to give free 
access of air; this may be held in place by a 
crupper-band passing under the tail.—When horses 
are not driven on hard stony roads, or used in stony 
fields, the shoes may be removed for a time with 
benefit to the feet.—A quantity of green fodder, as 
rye, etc., is very acceptable to mix with the dry 
feed. This keeps the system in good order, and 
saves the use of medicines. Ordinary light farm 
work seldom injures mares nearing their foal¬ 
ing time. They should be kept in good health. It 
may be necessary to give a gentle laxative, as bran 
or linseed-oil cake. If a purgative is needed, ad¬ 
minister a pint of raw linseed oil. 
ADoiit §weet Corn, 
Strange as may seem to those accustomed to 
sweet corn, there are parts of the country where it 
is yet unknown. In many places in the West and 
South people still content themselves with the 
“ roasting ears ” of the common field corn. The 
history of sweet corn is obscure, but there are facts 
which point to its origin with the Narragansett 
Indians in Rhode Island. There is the same differ¬ 
ence between sweet and field corn that there is be¬ 
tween wrinkled and common peas. The conver¬ 
sion of the contents of the grain into starch is 
arrested, and the seed in both remains much wrink¬ 
led. The writer can recollect when a Massachusetts 
man living in Rhode Island, sent annually by stage, 
as an acceptable present to his friends in Boston, a 
basket of sweet corn. It is within comparatively 
recent times that sweet corn has become common. 
The Americam Agriculturist no doubt reaches many 
who are not familiar with the varieties of com 
known as “sweet,” and we do a good service to 
these when we call attention to its superiority to 
any common kind of corn. The mail now allows 
every one to procure seeds from dealers anywhere 
at a mere trifle for postage, and the seed are within 
reach of all. Among the earliest varieties, “ Early 
Minnesota” is one of the best; for the main crop, 
we have used “Triumph,” and “ Excelsior,” and 
consider whichever one of these happens to be on 
the table at the time as the best. Besides these, 
there are a dozen or more varieties, all good, and 
vastly better than any kind of field corn. 
Projecting- Melon and Dflicr Vines. 
Every one at all conversant with raising melons, 
cucumbers, or squashes, knows well the propensity 
of the bugs to eat both 
leaves and stalks.They 
often appear by thou¬ 
sands,and unless hand 
picked, or poisoned, 
quickly destroy a large 
patch of promising 
vines. Some years Fig.l.— box protector. 
they are worse than in 
others, and it is necessary to be always prepared 
for them, and this is best done by preventing their 
reaching the growing vine with some sort of screen 
or covering. Our usual practice, as soon as the vines 
appear, is to cut old newspapers into pieces about 
Figs. 2 and 3. —wire supporters. 
twenty inches square, and place one over each hill, 
covering the border with earth. This effectually 
keeps off the bugs. The plants raise the paper as 
they grow. But during a rain or heavy dew the 
paper breaks and the plants are at the mercy of the 
bugs. This plan does not answer well for the 
larger squash or pumpkin plants. A good protec¬ 
tor is shown in figure 1, consisting of a box 12 inches 
square, and 5 or (5 inches high, with a piece of mos¬ 
quito netting nailed 
across the top. Wire 
netting is more dura¬ 
ble, and if painted 
such “boxes” will 
last a lifetime. Make 
the boxes bevelling, Fl ^ 4 ~ W00D supporter. 
that is, wider at the bottom, for close packing in 
nests when not in use. An effective and cheap plan 
is to soak mosquito netting in oil,and when dry place 
it upon a frame over the vines. One method of 
doing this is shown in figure 2. The ends of two 
bent wires are placed in the earth to support the 
netting. A modification of this plan is shown in 
figure 3. Still another plan is given in figure 4, in 
which the supports are of wood. The netting- 
should be cut about 24 inches square, and when 
placed over the frame, cover the edges with earth. 
Vines thus protected are safe, and will attain quite 
a growth before the covering need be removed. 
Sweet I*«tatoes. 
The sweet potato may be cultivated much farther 
north tliau is generally supposed. Indeed there is 
scarcely any locality where a crop of Indian corn 
can be grown, in which there may not be raised 
a crop of sweet potatoes, unless the soil is heavy 
aud cold. In such soils success cannot be expected. 
Of course it is now too late to speak of starting 
the plants, but several advertise them every year, 
aud there is no difficulty in getting them by mail, 
or in large quantities by express. Though the 
sweet potato is very sensitive to frost, there are few 
plants that will stand so much abuse in travel as 
this. If the plants at the start are well rooted, 
and no reputable grower will send out any others, 
