1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
287 
Feeding young Chicks,, 
to make a healthful and vigorous growth. 
Fully nine-tenths of the mortality amongst 
poultry, from sickness or disease, occurs 
while the chicks are still in the “downy” 
state, and the majority of this loss occurs 
from improper food, and careless or ignorant 
feeding. Corn-meal, which is far too gener¬ 
ally used, is unfit for young chicks, being too 
heating for their tender and immature diges¬ 
tive organs. Corn-meal has killed more 
young chicks than rats. The best food we 
have ever found for young birds is stale bread, 
either crumbled up and fed dry, scalded and 
fed when cool, or else merely moistened in 
fresh milk. Where milk is abundant, it should 
always be used, and if the young birds get 
plenty of milk, in some form, they will grow 
so rapidly as to astonish those who have 
never given milk liberally to their poultry. 
We know of one breeder, a large dairyman 
in Chester County, Pennsylvania, who feeds 
the principal part of his refuse milk to his 
poultry, old and young, and his birds are not 
only singularly free from disease, but large, 
and finely developed in body and feathering. 
This breeder gives milk the credit of it all, 
but it may be due in part to excellent care. 
A Farm Post-Driver. 
BT T. B. IRWIN, LUCAS CO., IOWA. 
Observing many useful labor-saving con¬ 
trivances in the American Agriculturist, to 
facilitate operations on the farm, I here con¬ 
tribute something that may be of use to some 
of its readers. In this part of the West 
(Iowa), the fence-posts to be set are usually 
roughly pointed, and then driven into the 
ground with a maul or heavy sledge, the 
operator standing on a stool, box, or barrel, 
or in a wagon, to get the 
necessary elevation. To swing 
a heavy maul or sledge all 
day is not an easy task, and it 
is often difficult to hire men 
willing to undertake such 
heavy labor, especially 
when a farmer has a mile 
or more of fence to build. 
This method is 
largely employed 
here, and posts so 
set are found to 
be much firmer. 
Fig. 1.— TEE POST-DRIVER. 
and are less affected by frost than if set 
in holes dug with spade or post-auger. 
When the frost is just out, in early 
spring, the posts are quite easily driven, but 
it is usually a muddy, disagreeable job at 
such a time, and the farmer cannot always 
be ready to do the work just when the 
ground is in best condition. Having a great 
many posts to set almost every season, I 
built a machine for driving them, and am 
well satisfied with its workings, for I can now 
drive posts when I am ready, and in any 
ground, even in an old solid road. The posts 
are not split and battered, as when driven by 
a sledge, and I do not have to employ extra 
strong help at extra wages. An axle, a, fig. 
1, of hard-wood, 
8 1 /2 ft. long (mine 
is made of a hick¬ 
ory sapling), has 
spindles shaved to 
fit the hind wheels 
of a common wag¬ 
on, which are fast¬ 
ened on by linch¬ 
pins, leaving about 
6 ft. space between 
the hubs. A coup¬ 
ling-pole, b, 13 ft. 
long, is framed 
in and strongly 
braced, c, at right 
angles with the 
axle, and connects 
at the front with 
the front axle of a 
common wagon. 
The main sill, d, is 
Fig. 2.— bottom part of one stick of timber, 
DRIVER. n , o * "U -t a ju. 
6 by 8 in. by 14 ft. 
long, and has a cross-piece, e, framed in the 
end. Two side-pieces, /, are 2 by 4 in. by 5 ft. 
long, are pinned or bolted to the main sill at 
g, and cross-pieces framed into them as shown 
in fig. 2, so framed that the lower edges of the 
side-pieces will be 2 in. from the axle, when 
the main sill rests on the axle. The side- 
pieces, /, should be 22 in. apart at the ends; 
the front end of the main sill rests on the 
front axle, in place of a bolster, and the 
“ king-bolt ” passes through it at h; the up¬ 
right guides, i, are 2 by 4 in. by 14 ft. long, 
bolted to the side-pieces, /, with a space 
of 14 in. between; a cap, j, 2 by 3 by 26 in. 
long, is framed on top. Two braces, k, 2 by 4 
in. by 16 ft. long, are bolted to upright guides, 
2 ft. below the cap, and connect at the bot¬ 
tom with a cross-piece, l, 2 by 8 by 22 in. long, 
between the braces. It has rounded ends pass¬ 
ed through 2-in. holes in the braces, and fast¬ 
ened by a pin outside, to form a loose joint. 
This cross-piece, l, is held down on the main 
sill by a strip, m, and steadied by cleats (fig. 
2); it is free to slide back or forward, and is 
held in place by a short pin; by moving 
this cross-piece, the upright guides, i, are 
kept perpendicular when going up or down 
hill. A small windlass, o, is placed under the 
axle, a, between hangers framed into the 
axle, close to the hubs. Two 
brace-ropes or wires, p, are fast¬ 
ened to this windlass at the ex¬ 
treme ends, and wound around 
it a turn or two, each in an op¬ 
posite direction, drawn tight and 
fastened to the main braces near 
the top. By turning the wind¬ 
lass, o, slightly, by means of a 
short bar, stuck in a hole, the 
machine may lean to either side, to con¬ 
form to sidling ground, thus being adjust¬ 
able in all directions. The maul, r, of tough 
oak, 14 by 18 in. by 2 ft. long, weighs about 
200 lbs., is grooved to fit smoothly between 
the guides; the follower, s, is more plainly 
shown in figs. 3 and 4, also the simple latch 
by which the follower and maul are con¬ 
nected and disconnected. The square clevis, 
t, is of 3 / 4 -inch iron, suspended from the 
same iron pin, u, on which the pulley, v, is 
placed. It is partly imbedded in the wooden 
casing, w, which is 8 by 18 in.; this casing 
serves to inclose the pulley, v, and also to 
trip the latch when brought together; the 
clevis, t, is caught under the hook fasten¬ 
ed in the maul, is pressed into place by a 
small hickory spring, y, acting on a small 
iron pin, z; when it reaches the top, the 
crotch, 1, suspended from the top, comes in 
contact with the pin, 2, and the clevis, t, is 
pressed back, and releases the hook, x, when 
the maul drops; the windlass, 3, has two 
cranks, and a ratchet for safety and conven¬ 
ience. The rope passes from the windlass 
over the pulley at the top, down and 
under the pulley, v, then up, and is fastened 
at 7, on the cap, 
j, wire braces at 
8. By releasing 
the cranks and 
ratchet, the fol¬ 
lower will run 
down the guides, 
and, striking 
the maul, will 
“click” the latch 
into place, ready 
for another 
hoist. For two 
men it is easy 
work, and can 
be handled quite 
rapidly. Drive 
astride the pro¬ 
posed line of 
fence; lay a 
measuring - pole 
on the ground Fig. 3.— the upper end of 
to mark the spot THE UPRIQH ' r - 
for the next post; drive forward with the 
post-driver, having the maul partly raised; 
set up a post, and “heave ahead,” 
Hair Balls in si Sheep.—Mr. J. Davis, 
Colman Co., Texas, sends us some balls, from 
l /i to 7 / e of an inch in diameter, found in the 
stomach of a sheep. They are popularly 
known as hair balls, a form of concretion 
frequently found in the intestinal canal of 
animals. These specimens are principally 
composed of fibres of wool, with some frag¬ 
ments of vegetable matter derived from the 
food and intestinal secretions. They could 
not have been the cause of death, as they 
are often found of considerable size in the 
particularly in the 
stomach, of heal¬ 
thy animals. When, 
from their form or 
size, they become a 
source of irritation 
they may produce 
disease, but under 
ordinary conditions 
they may be con¬ 
sidered as harmless. 
Intestinal concre¬ 
tions vary widely 
in composition, and 
they often have a 
distinct nucleus, around which the remain¬ 
der of the mass is formed. Hair balls sev¬ 
eral inches in diameter are not uncommon 
in the stomachs of cattle, and they are often 
quite hard, from the large proportion of min¬ 
eral matters they contain. An intestinal 
concretion, measuring 28 inches round, and 
weighing 19 lbs., is reported as having been 
found in a horse; the nucleus was composed 
of oats. In Scotland, where oat-meal is a 
common article of diet, intestinal concre- 
alimentary canal, and 
