490 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
loop down between the top slats, just over the 
hog’s head, and with a stick put one side of 
the loop into his mouth, getting it above the 
tusks. Draw the snout up and out between 
the top slats, and hold it firmly against the 
slat, insert the ring, loosen the rope, raise 
the board, when the animal will back out, 
and the box will be ready for another. 
Is the Pig a Nuisance ? 
Is the pig a nuisance in the„village ? He 
is, and he is not, just as he is managed. On 
the farm, he has his place yet, as an indis- 
pensible worker, and cheap source of food 
and fertilizers. But in the village, where 
esthetics sometimes interfere with profits, 
people are getting fastidious, and avoid the 
pig pen as a nuisance. It would be a nui¬ 
sance perhaps, under the eaves of the dwell¬ 
ing, managed in almost any way. But at 
the back end of the village lot, where the 
barn, if there is one, is located, there the sty 
may be safely placed without offence to eye, 
ear, or nostril, and with decided profit. It 
is the cheapest source of good pork, ham, 
shoulder, sausage, head-cheese, and lard, that 
a villager can have. As a manufacturer of 
. fertilizers for the village garden, the pig can 
not be beaten. He turns every weed, sod, 
vegetable, fruit, and all kitchen waste into 
gold. “Ah! but he squeals!” Then feed 
him more, and he will be quiet as a lamb, all 
day and all night. “Ah! but the pen is un¬ 
sightly !” That is your fault, not his. Even 
the sty has its esthetics, and it may be made 
‘ ‘ a thing of beauty and a joy forever ” if you 
like. “ Well, he smells badly, any way.” No, 
sir. Not if you take proper care of him. 
Give him a sheltered bower for his nest, and 
plenty of straw or leaves, and he will keep 
his bed as clean as a parlor. Give him plenty 
of muck or peat, garden soil, head lands, or 
absorbents of any kind, and he will so thor¬ 
oughly observe the Mosaic law in regard to 
animal wastes, that no neighbor of yours 
shall mistrust that a pig is within a mile of 
your premises. The health committee of 
the village will never smell you out, or enter 
complaint against your sty. Do not lay your 
sins of omission at the door of the dumb 
beast. He has his esthetic side, and only re¬ 
quires a fair share of attention to be made 
ornamental, as well as useful. Please take 
particular notice that we raise our own pork, 
eat home-cured hams, and know the woman 
who makes our sausage meat. 
Levels and Leveling. 
It is often desirable to determine levels, as, 
for instance, to know which way a field 
slopes, or the level of 
a spring which may 
be conducted to a 
neighboring pasture 
if its elevation is suf¬ 
ficient, etc. For such 
purposes we may 
sight across a car¬ 
penter’s spirit-level, 
if one is at hand, or 
set an iron square by 
a plumb line held 
against its downward 
arm, or even use a surveyor’s compass, or a 
clinometer, always provided you have one. 
But, with only a string and a jack-knife, what 
Fig. 1. —TOP OF TRIPOD. 
are you going to do? Set up a tripod made 
of three forked sticks, as shown in fig. 1, and 
tie them if necessary. Cut a long slender 
wand, and after beating it to flexibility, bend 
it into a hoop (fig. 2.) To one side tie a string 
with a loop, in all a foot or more in length, 
and to the opposite side, attach a stone 
as large as two fists. Suspend the hoop 
by the loop slipped over one of the forks, so 
that it will hang in the middle under the tri¬ 
pod, fig. 3. When the hoop hangs perfectly 
plumb and still, the twist being out of the 
strings, set two pins at opposite sides of the 
hoop, as at a and b, as nearly level as possi- 
Fig. 2.— THE WAND-HOOP, 
ble. (They may be dress pins or thorns.) 
Now, arresting any tendency to twirl by 
holding a twig or pencil against the hoop 
when it is at rest, sight across the pins, 
Fig. 3. —THE LEVEL COMPLETE. 
say from a to b, at some object in the dis¬ 
tance, then turn the hoop around and sight 
from b to a. If the same object falls in the 
line of vision, the points a, and b, are level, 
if not, either one or the other maybe shifted; 
or one of the strings may be slipped a little, 
one way or the other. Test the level again, 
and when the same object comes in line, 
looking from a to b, and b to a, after turn¬ 
ing the hoop, the line is accurately hori¬ 
zontal : The instrument has to be tested 
every time it is set up, if only carried a few 
rods, but any man or boy who can sight 
across a fowling piece, can get useful results, 
approximating to correctness with this device. 
Tile I>raining-.— Do not forget that 
swales, swamps, and any wet land with hard 
pan near the surface, pays very small inter¬ 
est, if any, in their present condition. If 
drained three feet deep with tile, they will 
pay a very large interest on the original cost, 
and on the drainage besides. It is not unus¬ 
ual to get back the cost of drainage in two 
crops, after the tiles are laid. Where tiles 
can be had near, or at a cost for freight, not 
exceeding their price at the kiln, it is cheaper 
to drain with tile than with stone. If tiles 
are not available, and stones are upon the 
ground, use these. Draining will open a new 
world to the farmer who has never tried it. 
Put down the “ crockery ” this fall, and make 
your capital in land draw a good interest. 
Protect the Manure. 
An English farmer on using, for the first 
time, manure that had been made under eov- 
er, had his crops ruined by luxuriant growth. 
He used the same amount as he was accus¬ 
tomed to of the open-yard manure, and the 
grain was lodged before it was ready to har¬ 
vest. This is a strong argument in favor of 
a protection for manure. On most soils it is 
very important to have it well decom¬ 
posed, so that the plants may obtain an abun¬ 
dant supply of food from it at once; but 
during the fermentation process, to render 
its insoluble compounds available, serious 
losses of fertilizing materials are very often 
sustained. If the fermentation of the heap 
is rapid, there is danger of losing the very 
valuable nitrogen as volatile ammonia, which, 
passing into the air, is as likely to aid a neigh¬ 
bor’s crop as our own. On the other hand, 
decomposition may go on so slowly that the 
manure is unfit for immediate use when 
wanted. It is no easy matter to conduct the 
decomposition so that the most good manure 
may be made with the least loss. It is, how¬ 
ever, demonstrated that hot sun, winds, and 
rains, are to be kept from the heap, and that 
is, the best manure is made under cover. 
A method of box-feeding has been adopted 
by many, which allows the manure to accu¬ 
mulate under the animals for months. It is 
found that this system does not imply offen¬ 
sive stalls, and that there is little loss of ni¬ 
trogen—the element of greatest value, and 
most likely to escape. It is only necessary 
to use enough litter to absorb all the liquids. 
Covered yards would secure much the same 
conditions for the manure by protecting it 
from the drenching rains, and the exclusion 
of air by compact treading, which prevents 
a too hasty fermentation. It is certainly 
worth while for every farmer who contem¬ 
plates the use of commercial fertilizers, to 
see that he is making the most of the 
manure which his animals are giving him 
daily. Preserve and protect it diligently. 
Confining' a Cow’s Swiitch at 
Milking'.—Most milkers are acquainted 
with the annoyance of the cow’s switch while 
milking, which is intolerable in dog days, 
and a serious inconvenience even when there 
are no flies to be scared away. Not only aie 
the sides of the animal perpetually lashed, 
but the face and eyes of the milker, and the 
milking is seriously interrupted. Had the 
animal been trained to the work, she could 
not plump her switch more accurately into 
the middle of the milk pail, which contami¬ 
nates the butter, and sours the temper of the 
dairy maid. Various devices are resorted 
to, to abate this nuisance, with partial suc¬ 
cess. Tying the switch around the leg ans¬ 
wers well, but there is loss of time in the ty¬ 
ing, and untying, though we use a portion of 
the switch for the fastening. A long loop of 
rope thrown over the hip-joints, and falling 
