AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
249 
1882.] 
both winter and summer, with a veiy desir¬ 
able shade during the warm months. 
There should be plenty of light admitted 
in front, through a large swinging or mov¬ 
able sash. These should be so well fitted as 
to keep out wind and rain whenever desired. 
In summer, the sash should be entirely re¬ 
moved and the space filled either with a 
slatted frame, made with ordinary ceiling- 
lath, or else with a neatly-fitting frame cov¬ 
ered with cheap, strong muslin. I have 
found this latter more desirable than the 
slatted frame, as it admits air and light, but 
keeps out draughts which might injure the 
fowls while at roost, especially during the 
night. The white muslin does not attract 
the heat, and thus keeps the house comfort¬ 
ably cool. Some breeders use wire netting, 
but this has the same objection as the slatted 
frames, with no especially desirable feature. 
Where additional security is required, some¬ 
thing may be placed back of the muslin. 
A ground floor in the poultry house, if 
made about six or eight inches higher than 
the surface outside, to insure drainage, is the 
very best that can be had, and is better for 
the fowls every way than any other kind of 
floor; it is cool in summer without being 
damp and unhealthy at any season. A well- 
made ground floor soon becomes firm and 
compact, and is as easy to clean as a board, 
plank, or cemented one. Clayey soil alone 
can be used for such a floor, or, if this can¬ 
not be had readily, fill in first with 4 or 5 
inches of clay, after which put on a layer of 
stiff or fair soil 2 or 3 inches deep, packing 
down both (separately) with a stout rammer 
before letting in the fowls. Some poultry 
keepers put a coating of sand on this earth 
floor, but it is entirely unnecessaiy if the 
clay and soil have been properly laid. 
The sides of the poultiy house should be 
made rain and wind proof, slatting or strip¬ 
ping the joints, outside, and lining the house 
with tarred paper or cheap building felt. 
This felt, being of close texture and well 
tarred, not only keeps out wind and water, 
but it is exceedingly distasteful to lice, mites, 
and other parasites which are troublesome to 
the fowls. To secure a freer circulation and 
admit plenty of fresh air, it is not necessary 
to have the damp night air blowing directly 
On the fowls, which would be the case when 
the windows and doors were left standing- 
open, but have movable panels or slatted 
openings made at the ends or sides of the 
buildings, near the roof, unless a small ven¬ 
tilating cupola be built at the center of the 
roof, which, while it may be made very or¬ 
namental, is also much more expensive with¬ 
out being any more effective. 
The Yards. —It is desirable to have in¬ 
closed runs or yards for poultiy, especially 
where small fruits and vegetables are grown, 
for a chicken cannot discriminate between 
gleaning and stealing, and the hens are far 
better scavengers than gardeners. It is sel¬ 
dom advisable to keep the yard in one place 
more than a couple of years, for by that time 
the soil will have been packed down as hard 
as a plank floor, and be equally as free from 
grass. The cheapest and neatest kind of a 
fence is made with common ceiling lath. 
Good posts, of chestnut or heart cedar, are 
planted firmly, and two rails, of 2 by 3 hem¬ 
lock, each 16 feet long, nailed near the bot¬ 
tom and top, are firmly nailed to the posts, 
about 3 feet apart. Before putting these 
rails on the post, nail two 6-inch common 
boards at the bottom, to keep the chicks in, 
to stiffen the fence, and to add to its higlit. 
This will, with the lath, make a fence a little 
over 5 feet high, which will be enough to 
keep in most breeds that are well fed, and 
if it does not, clipping one wing of each 
fowl, or covering the yard with tarred twine 
netting (which can usually be bought cheaply 
at junk shops, or of any dealer in poultiy 
supplies), will insure their keeping within 
bounds. Just before nailing on the lath, give 
the posts, rails, and the bottom boards a good 
coat of whitewash, and, when it is dry, nail 
on' the lath, evenly and neatly, about two 
inches apart, after which the lath should be 
given a good coat of whitewash. 
Harness for a Bull. 
In answer to an accumulation of inquiries 
as to the best method of harnessing a bull, 
we give engravings of plans heretofore re- 
Fig. 1.— SINGLE YOKE FOR BULL. 
commended by us. As oxen are commonly 
yoked in pairs, they draw the load mostly by 
the top of the neck, in front of their shoul¬ 
ders, which is the “drawing point,” and 
when a bull is yoked singly, the harness 
needs to be arranged that he may draw from 
this point. A bull cannot work comfortably 
in a “breast collar,” that is, by a heavy strap 
passing horizontally under the neck; it 
would interfere with breathing, and soon 
Fig. 2. —BULL HARNESSED TO A CART. 
gall the throat. Figure 1 represents a single 
wooden yoke made very much like half a 
common yoke. The ends project, and are 
provided with strong bolts with hooks or 
rings for attaching traces. A bull in a cart¬ 
horse harness, is shown in figure 2, the collar 
and hames being simply inverted. For 
large bulls an ordinary horse collar is not 
large enough. When the bull is worked 
before a plow or similar implement, other 
parts of the harness, except the yoke or col¬ 
lar, and the traces, may be dispensed with. 
It is well, however, to retain the girtli-band, 
as this will hold the traces in place. 
Some Facts About Cutting Hay.—II. 
BY \V. H. JORDAN-, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, PENN¬ 
SYLVANIA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
(i Concluded from page 204, May Number.) 
In the table already given, it was shown 
that there is an increase of dry substance in 
hay up to full ripening ; that from blossom¬ 
ing onward, there is a decrease of protein, of 
fat, and of ash; that from the first to the 
last stage of growth there is an increase of 
carbohydrates, and an apparent decrease in 
total quantity of the ash and albuminoids. 
The decrease of ash can be accounted for by 
the fact that in some of the experiments 
given, the water was calculated only, which 
would tend to a moderate over-estimate 
of the dry matter in the earliest stage of 
growth. This may also account for the ap¬ 
parent decrease of nitrogenous material. 
Lack of uniformity of plots may have caused 
an error, but among so many experiments it 
would hardly seem probable that the error 
from this or all other sources had been so 
uniformly one way as to cause the dry mate¬ 
rial to seem 500 lbs. more per acre at the first 
cutting than the real facts would show. It 
would be necessary to have an error of 500 
lbs. to account for the apparent loss of albu¬ 
minoids in passing from the first to the second 
stage of growth. There seems to be a loss 
of albuminoids incurred also by letting, the 
grass stand until considerably after bloom, 
instead of cutting while in bloom. This 
rather anomalous showing may be explained 
in part by the loss or decay of the finer 
parts of the grass plant as it advances in age. 
It should be mentioned that in some of 
these experiments, at least, more or less clover 
was mixed with the Timothy, and as the 
clover matured sooner than the other, it be¬ 
came so dead before cutting as to cause a 
large loss of the leaves. Every farmer knows 
that the lower leaves of Timothy often decay 
from rust and other causes some time before 
cutting, especially when done late. 
So that while there may have been con¬ 
siderable error in various ways tending to 
augment the apparent yield of dry substance, 
at the first cutting, and while there 
is probably a small growth of ni¬ 
trogenous material in the plant 
even after the period of bloom, 
there is sufficient reason for trust¬ 
ing the figures given above to make 
it questionable whether there is 
very much total gain in the nitro¬ 
genous ingredients of hay because 
of the late harvesting of the grass. 
On the other hand, where grass is 
mixed with very much clover 
there is great danger of loss by 
standing until near ripeness. 
Experiments the past season, 
not included in the tables, with 
Timothy of unusual uniformity and under 
conditions of a good degree of accuracy, 
show no gain, at least of nitrogenous ma¬ 
terial, in the late cuttings. The results 
may vary with the season. 
The influence of age upon the kind of nitro¬ 
gen compounds found in the plant is a mat¬ 
ter of great interest, and one much discussed 
of late. The customary method of deter¬ 
mining the percentage of protein of cattle 
foods has been to find out the total percent¬ 
age of Nitrogen, and multiply this by 6.25, 
on the assumption that no appreciable amount 
of Nitrogen exists in any other than the 
