96 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Smoothing Drags and Pulverizers. 
The success of any crop depends greatly upon 
the proper preparation of the soil, which should be 
made fine aud mellow, but yet compact and firm 
about the seed. It is better to spend two days 
work than one in preparatory fitting of the soil for 
a crop, because the extra labor will be liberally re¬ 
paid by the better growth, from the first sprouting 
of the seed and the lighter labor of cultivating 
afterwards. We have recently examined an excel¬ 
lent implement for this work,the “Acme Pulverizing 
Harrow, Clod Crusher and Leveler.” This consists 
of an adjustable bar in the frout (see fig 1), which 
is moved by the lever so as to ride over the clods in 
Fig. 1.— THE ACME PULVERIZER AND LEVELER. 
rough ground and crush and break them by means 
of a number of teeth fitted into it. Behind this is 
a second bar furnished with steel blades, which cut 
the soil, pulverize it, and turn it in small furrows, 
leaving it in the best possible condition, covering 
weeds or sod perfectly. We find this machine to 
be adapted for other uses than are claimed for it by 
the makers. There is no better implement for cov¬ 
ering seed, especially peas, which are difficult to 
cover by the common harrow ; and the ground is 
left in the best condition for sowing grass or clover 
seed, after the seed grain is covered. By adding 
markers behind it it may be made very effective in 
marking out rows for planting corn, or drills for 
sowing beets. A coverer for grass seed sown after 
this implement is shown at figure 2. This may also 
be used for packing the soil in place of a roller, and 
on light soils will be found far more useful than that 
Fig. 2.— -COVERER FOR GRASS SEED. 
implement. It consists of a number of rails or poles 
fastened together by means of two light chains. 
If desirable, markers maybe attached to this imple¬ 
ment in a manner shown in the above engraving. 
Milk— What is It ?—The natural food for the 
young of all mammals is milk—a rather complex 
fluid, the physical properties of which it is not 
necessary to describe.—The principal constituents 
are water, sugar, caseine, albumin, fat, and several 
salts. The sugar, when separated, looks much like 
the ordinary kind from the cane, but is much less 
sweet. Caseine is one of the leading constituents, 
and is the part which, when removed from the milk, 
becomes the cheese. The caseine exists in small 
particles in the milk, and is contracted or gathered 
into large masses by the action of acids or rennet. 
The albumin remains in solution after the caseine is 
removed, and is separated by boiling, when it ap¬ 
pears as white curds, somewhat resembling the 
white of eggs in appearance, as it does also in com¬ 
position. The fat is not dissolved in the milk, but 
suspended as little globules with thin coverings. 
In the process of churniDg, these globules are 
broken, and the fat collects in lumps of various 
sizes. This fat, when worked, salted, etc., is the 
butter of the market and table. The ash is but a 
small part of the milk, and consists of a number of 
substances, which are left behind when the milk is 
dried down and burned. There are many things to 
influence the percentage of these various ingredients 
of milk. It is far from the same in different species, 
and among cows, the breed, feed, general treatment, 
age of animals, etc., all have a modifying influence. 
Ventilation of Barns and Stables. 
The moist air of barns, and the foul air of stables, 
should be carried off in the most direct manner. 
Ventilation depends upon the fact that warm air 
rises and will escape from the upper part of a build¬ 
ing, if cold air is admitted at the lower part. But 
if no openings are made below, the air remains 
stagnant, and cannot escape at the upper openings. 
In all arrangements for ventilation, these require¬ 
ments must be met, and a neglect of them has often 
prevented the successful operation of costly, but 
faulty methods. In barns, a want of adequate ven¬ 
tilation encourages mildew, sweating and moulding 
of the contents, and in some cases over-heating, 
and spontaneous combustion of hay that has been 
stored in too moist a condition. The usual method 
of ventilating barns by means of one central cupola, 
or by a window in one or both gables, is dangerous, 
because it con¬ 
fines theeseaping 
air, which is al¬ 
ways charged 
with moisture in 
the summer 
time, to one con¬ 
siderable stream, 
and moist air, 
being an excel¬ 
lent conductor 
of electricity, 
serves to make 
Fig. 1. ventilator for barn, most danger¬ 
eaves; one shown at figure 2, consists of a wooden 
frame, set in- the wall near the ceiling or floor, in 
the manner of a window frame ; the upper half of 
this frame is furnished with blind slats, so placed, 
as to facilitate an upward and outward current, the 
lower half has two sliding windows, or panels, 
which admit fresh air, while the foul hot air flows 
outward. This fresh, cool 
airdrops down to the floor 
and makes a circuit, forc¬ 
ing out the foul air, and 
purifying the whole build¬ 
ing. This arrangement 
has the advantage of dis¬ 
tributing the fresh air, and 
more effectively, if the 
panels are fitted with slats 
set on end, and each half 
reversed, so as to force 
the air in different direc¬ 
tions. Another ventila¬ 
tor, figure 3, set in the 
eaves of a stable, consists 
of a falling door, so 
hinged, that it closes of 
its own weight, and is 
opened by a cord arranged VVHEEL ventilator.. 
as shown in the engraving. The same kind of a 
side ventilator door may be held open by a piece 
of wire spring, figure 4, A, and closed by a cord,, 
fastened at £. Another ventilator may be made 
by sawing out holes in the board, and pivot¬ 
ing on a cover with similar openings; this cover 
being moved by cords, to open or close the spaces. 
This ventilator, shown in figure 5, is one easily 
made and operated. The matter of thorough ven¬ 
tilation of barns and stables can not be too strongly 
insisted upon, as it determines in great measure 
the health and therefore the value of the stock 
contained in them. Pure air is as essential as pure 
food, and can only be secured to confined animals 
by a proper circulation through ventilators. 
ous lightning-rod—so to speak—to bring the light¬ 
ning into the barn, and so set it on fire. This 
explains the cause of the frequent destruction 
of barns by lightning, during the season of harvest 
or soon after. It is wise, therefore, to break up the 
stream of air which escapes, both by having several 
ventilators, and to ar¬ 
range these with slatted 
work on each side, to 
conduct the escaping 
air in downward or hori¬ 
zontal currents, which 
will spread laterally 
in a sheet rather than pass upward in a column. 
A useful ventilator for a barn is shown at figure 1. 
This is a tube of sufficient capacity, which starts at 
the ceiling or floor of the lower story, and passes 
through the upper one. If the upper part passes 
through hay or grain mows, it will be advisable to 
make several openings in the tube at that portion, 
that it may carry off any heat or moisture, which 
may exist in the hay or straw, soon after it is 
Among the Farmers.—No. 50. 
BY ONE OF THEM. 
One of my good neighbors met me at the store 
with anew pair of sheep shears. “Well,” said I, 
“isn’t that rather forcing the season, you don’t 
shear sheep in January, do you?”—“No,” said he,. 
“ but we use the shears to clip the horses’ fetlocks. 
They are getting long now, aud hard to keep clean. 
I always clip them about the time they are fully 
grown out. The horses look much neater for it.” 
Grease ("Scratches") in Horses. 
My friend’s stable contains some ten or twelve 
work and road horses and colts, several of them 
of great excellence, and he has been almost every 
season more or less troubled with grease , or 
“scratches,” as it is vulgarly called. No horses 
could have more attentive and careful grooming than 
his, and why he should have Grease in his stable l 
have, until now, been utterly at a loss to surmise. 
Many years ago 1 read that the fetlocks consti¬ 
tuted a protection to the skin on the pastern and 
above the heels, where it is especially sensitive, and 
as I had found that on horses deprived of this pro¬ 
tection, that they might be more easily cleaned and 
kept clean in muddy weather, those parts often be¬ 
came red and irritated, if not drusy, I stopped the- 
practice at once, and we have never since had 
chapped heels, or any trouble approaching Grease 
in our stable. Besides, I have taken some pains 
to inquire and observe, and have not yet found 
“scratches” originating in a stable where the fet¬ 
locks were left on, and where when the horses 
came in wet and muddy were simply rubbed off 
with a wisp or two of straw, and thoroughly' 
cleaned with a good brush when dry. 
Prevention is better than cure—and I think the. 
sweeping assertions of the books that the disease 
is found only in neglected stables, and is always a 
disgrace, notoriously erroneous. Wrong care can 
just as well produce it as neglect. 
put away in the barn. Where this form of venti¬ 
lator is not suitable, others may be provided in the 
Road Taxes 
are certainly a great burden in this country, consid- 
