534 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
only relieved. Spavins are often very sensi¬ 
tive, and cause great pain. They cause the 
horse to tread upon the toe of the foot for 
relief ; this changes the growth of the foot, 
and of the muscles and tendons of the leg 
more or less. The hoof grows high at the 
heel, and contracts. Now this condition of 
things can not be cured in the ordinary sense 
of the word, and any seller of a liniment or 
other article who claims to cure spavin, is a 
humbug. Nevertheless, the liniment may 
be valuable as affording relief to the horse, 
either by benumbing the muscles, or by al¬ 
laying the inflammation and irritability of 
the parts, so that the animal may cease to go 
lame for a time, if not permanently. 
-- 
A Few Nesting Boxes. 
Many farmers and other persons who keep 
poultry fail to provide nests for their hens, 
and then grumble because they seek their 
nests about 
been put up 
at convenient points the hens would have 
used them, and would not “steal” their nests. 
A very good size for a nest-box is one foot 
square, and nine or ten inches in higlit. They 
should be well made, and if planed and paint¬ 
ed all the better. Apply kerosene freely to 
the inside, where the boards are nailed to¬ 
gether. This should be applied early in 
spring and again about the first of July; it 
will at once kill hen lice, and also prevent 
their getting a foothold about the boxes. 
Nesting boxes should never be perma¬ 
nently attached to buildings, but placed upon 
Fig. 2.—SLIDING BOXES. 
a floor, or hung to the side of a hennery or 
other convenient place to both fowls and at¬ 
tendant. An excellent plan for thus secur¬ 
ing the boxes is shown in fig. 1. At one side 
of the box, near the top, is bored an inch 
hole, through which loosely passes a wooden 
or iron pin, driven in the side of the build¬ 
ing. Considerable annoyance is often exper¬ 
ienced by laying hens interfering with those 
that are setting; often a whole setting of 
eggs are broken, or are so disturbed that they 
will not hatch. This trouble is readily 
avoided by those who have a poultry house 
with two rooms, by the use of sliding boxes, 
as shown in fig. 2. A hole is cut through 
the partition about two feet from the floor, 
Fig. 3. —A MOVING BOX. 
to the bottom of which is firmly nailed a 
shelf or platform, e, e, about two feet in 
length and nearly one foot in width. Upon 
this board rests the nesting boxes, made so 
that they can be easily slid back and forth. 
The ends are made one inch higher than the 
sides that they may not slide clear through 
or fall down. At b one box is shown pulled 
out in the room, while at a the box is seen 
pushed through into the adjoining room. As 
fast as hens manifest a desire to set they may 
be furnished with eggs and put in the nest 
room, in which laying fowls are not allowed. 
As all do not have poultry houses, a box 
similar to the one shown in fig. 3 may be 
adopted. A light frame work of lath is 
placed over the box before moving. L. D. S. 
Two Errors in Draining. 
The first error in draining is that too many 
farmers never get at it. The representations 
of the profitableness of thorough draining 
are abundant in our agricultural journals, 
and in the reports of our State and County 
Agricultural Societies. Tiles are advertised, 
far and wide, at very reasonable rates, and 
tile-making machines are in the market, so 
that if a farmer be too far from a tile fac¬ 
tory he can make and burn his own tiles, if he 
has a bed of clay upon his farm, or is 
within easy reach of one. Thorough drain¬ 
age is said to pay for itself in one, two, or 
three crops after the tiles are laid. It is a per¬ 
manent investment, and lasts for a hundred 
years or more, making the best grass lands in 
the world. Farmers without exception are 
enthusiastic in praise of tile draining, after 
they have once tried it, and rarely rest until 
every square rod upon the farm that needs it 
is underlaid with them. Yet the average tiller 
of the soil is slow to receive these statements, 
and still slower to open his first drain. He 
has plenty of wet lands, rich in ferns, mosses, 
flags, poke root, skunk cabbage, hard-hack, 
rushes, elders, wild roses, and all that coarse 
herbage that tells of water upon the sur¬ 
face, but he does not seem to see it. He has 
not the capital to drain with, or thinks he has 
hot, which is quite as bad. He has money 
enough, or sufficient credit to buy more land, 
railroad stock, to lend on bond and mort¬ 
gage, but none to put into “ crockery,” as he 
facetiously calls the tiles. The wretched quag¬ 
mires, bogs, and swales, now an offence to 
the eye, and a drain on the purse, might be 
made to blossom as the rose, but he dies 
without the sight. The next error is that 
when he ventures upon draining it is not 
thoroughly done. It is merely a surface job, 
which does not effectually relieve the land of 
its water and remedy its defects. The roots 
of all cultivated crops will penetrate the soil 
three or more feet in search of food if they 
have the opportunity. He drains a foot or 
eighteen inches, if he does not strike hard 
pan nearer the surface, and calls his job fin¬ 
ished. There is, of course, some advantage 
in this surface draining, but it is slight in 
comparison with thorough draining, which 
should never be less than three feet, in all 
soils, where there is fall enough to allow it. 
This makes fewer drains necessary, and gives 
a much larger feeding ground for the roots 
of plants. As the water goes out in the 
drains the air penetrates to the depth of three 
feet, and is continually working healthful 
changes in the soil, transmuting inert matter 
into plant food. The rains of summer and 
the frosts and snows of winter are continually 
enriching a deep-drained soil. The hard pan, 
commonly found in' these clayey soils that 
need draining, is gradually disintegrated, and 
the crops are wonderfully increased. It is 
somewhat expensive to penetrate the hard 
pan with pick, crow-bar and spade, but no 
labor in the process of draining pays better. 
A job of this kind, well done, maybe classed 
among the investment securities. It will 
pay good interest promptly for a hundred 
years and more. Connecticut. 
Winter Rations for Poultry. 
e 
As staple food, nothing is better and 
nothing is so cheap as good Indian corn, 
and one meal a day may safely be of this 
grain, either ground or whole. Grinding is 
of less consequence for poultry than for the 
larger animals, as every bird carries a com¬ 
plete mill for this purpose, and puts in a new 
run of stones as often as it can get to the 
ground. A variety of grain is always ac¬ 
ceptable ; wheat screenings, buckwheat, oats, 
and rye, the last rather sparingly. Cooked 
food is highly relished—potatoes or turnips, 
boiled and mashed with Indian meal, scalded 
and fed warm, especially on frosty morn¬ 
ings. Fowls are very fond of vegetables, 
eaten raw, and if sugar-beets or mangels or 
turnips are put within reach, they will help 
themselves. For an appetizer, nothing is 
better than cabbage or the tops of turnips. 
Hens never tire of cabbage, and a good sup¬ 
ply for winter should always be laid in. 
Animal food in some shape must be fur¬ 
nished, if you want plenty of eggs. Shore 
farmers can get fish offal from the markets, 
clams from the banks, or minnows from 
the ditches. Skimmed milk is always in 
order, and meat scraps from fat trying estab¬ 
lishments, sold in large cakes, and placed 
where the hens have free access to them, are 
a cheap and excellent food for laying poultry. 
IFire- Wood for summer use need not be 
altogether of the best. In almost all woods 
there are trees growing which are veritable 
rubbish, and should be cleared away as they 
only take up room, and make drafts upon 
the soil to the injury of better trees. In a 
wood, where whitfe oak, hickory, beech, 
maple, chestnut, etc., grow, the poorer 
trees are birch, white and black basswood, 
pepperidge, tupelo, or sweet gum, red oak, 
etc. These should be cut off and kept 
down. With few exceptions they make toler¬ 
able fire-wood. Some of the red-oaks are wa¬ 
tery; pepperidge is hard to split; white birch 
soon gets “ dozy,” but they all burn, and even 
the worst of them may be used to advantage 
with other wood in keeping a slow fire, which 
is often desirable during the summer months. 
