1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
14r5 
500 pounds to the acre, annually. It is evident 
that the small quantities of potash, magnesia, and 
phosphoric acid contained in such doses of oyster- 
shell lime can have no sensible effect upon crops. 
Fig. 1.— A HINGED GUABD. 
It is the lime alone, therefore, to which any benefit 
must be ascribed. A consideration of the modes 
of action of hydrate of lime, when applied as a 
fertilizer, will make evident that it is one of the 
most valuable aids to the farmer and deserves more 
attention from land owners than it has received. 
“ Our cultivated crops contain on the average as 
much lime as potash. The necessity for the ap¬ 
plication of potash salts is fully recognized, but 
probably the lack of lime is as common a cause of 
unfruitfulness; for while potash seldom wastes 
from the soil to any serious extent, and is found in 
Fig. 2.— WOODEN FIXED GUABD. 
spring, well, and river waters, in extremely small 
quantities, lime freely dissolves in water and rapid¬ 
ly wastes from the soil, so that other things being 
equal, there is more need for its restoration.” 
The three samples of Peat or Swamp Muck, the 
analyses of which are given in a later Bulletin, 
contain 2 to 3 per cent of Nitrogen, which, when 
the muck is acted upon by an alkali, like lime, be¬ 
comes available plant food. 
“ There can be no doubt that the application of 
this swamp muck, especially to poor, light soils, 
would be very serviceable. Evidently, however, 
the large proportion of water which the fresh muck 
contains makes it a nice point to decide how much 
can be spent upon its handling without consuming 
the profit of its application. The proper mode of 
using swamp muck is to throw it out where it will 
drain and dry for some months, during frosty 
weather, and to employ the weathered muck as an 
absorbent in the stables or barn yard, or to com- 
Fig. 3.— GUABD FOB GKAIN-BOX. 
post it with lime, fish, or any other animal mat¬ 
ters yielding ammonia by their decomposition.” 
Guards for Peed Troughs. 
To prevent the feed or hay from being thrown 
out of the mangers or feed-boxes, a practice which 
some horses indulge in very freely; it is customary 
to use guards, which may be either hinged so as to 
be raised up as shown at figure 1, or fixed across 
the manger as at figure 2. The guard, like figure 1, 
may be made of strong wire, or light bar-iron, riv¬ 
eted together, or it may be merely a wooden 
frame. The guards shown in figure 2 are simply 
wooden cross-bars, so 
fixed by means of nails, 
that the horse or cow 
cannot throw out the 
feed with its nose. For 
feed-boxes the guard 
may be made by nailing 
pieces across the cor¬ 
ners, as shown at figure 
3, if the box is not large 
enough to allow them 
to be nailed lengthwise. 
Some such device as 
shown in the engrav¬ 
ings, should be pro¬ 
vided, whenever there 
is a disposition on the 
part of the animal to waste its feed. A few min¬ 
utes in making a guard of some kind, will save 
many times its cost in the course of a few weeks. 
Poultry Farming. 
There is no other branch of stock keeping that 
seems to be so popular or promise so favorably as 
poultry raising. The general idea is that the busi¬ 
ness consists of throwing out com to a flock of 
hens with one hand and gathering eggs with the 
other. But while this may be true in some cases, 
it is very different in others. It is very interesting 
for a novice to watch an expert performing some 
intricate operation with the greatest ease and cool¬ 
ness and with perfect success, and he may think it 
is a very simple matter. It is the same in regard 
to poultry keeping; the expert poultry fancier 
meets with no difficulty and ail goes on smoothly, 
but the novice is in trouble from the first; the eggs 
are few, the chicks die, vermin and disease destroy 
the flock, and the attempt ends in disaster. Prob¬ 
ably the reason is, that too much has been at¬ 
tempted and failurehas resulted as much from this 
as from want of attention. One may very easily 
keep 10 or 12 fowls with profit, who could not 
easily double or treble this number successfully, 
because with a large number, all the difficulties 
which arise, such as want of cleanliness, the pres¬ 
ence of vermin, impure air and risk of infection 
increase in a much larger ratio than does the num¬ 
ber in the flock. But if one has succeeded with a 
small flock there is no reason why he should not be 
able to do so with several flocks, if each is kept 
in just the same manner as the original one. 
Afterwards the flocks may be enlarged* but as this 
is the very point on which most of the younger 
poultry fanciers fail, the greatest caution should be 
observed in adding to the number of fowls kept in 
each coop or house and yard. An inquiry is made 
by one who is desirous of keeping fowls upon a 
farm of thirty acres which has a stream passing 
through the middle of it, as shown in the plan in 
tig. 1, which is given as a good method of dividing 
it and arranging the yards and houses. From con¬ 
siderable experience with a similar plot of ground, 
we would suggest that the thirty acres be laid out 
in lots of two acres each as shown. The dwelling 
and orchard lots in the center would contain two 
acres, and each of the acre lots on either side of 
the stream would have a yard or “run” fenced 
off and kept in grass for grazing. The houses 
would be ranged, each in its yard, on both sides of 
the stream, as shown, and a plentiful supply of 
water would be always at hand. A yard is behind 
each house ; the yards behind the dwelling may 
be used for brood coops in which the young chicks 
would be near at hand. The fences between the 
yards may be of pickets or wire ; the latter would 
be preferable if it could be afforded. A very com¬ 
plete arrangement of wire fence is shown in figure 
2, and one for a small coop and covered yard in 
figure 3; a range of houses of very convenient 
shape and size, which may be left open or enclosed 
with yards, is shown in figure 4. It would be proper 
to keep each lot securely fenced, so that the flocks 
could not mix, and not to keep more than fifty or 
sixty fowls in each plot. It would be better to 
begin with twenty-five at first, which would be 
enough until it was found safe by experience to 
gradually increase the number in the flocks. 
Milk as Poultry Food.—We have been try¬ 
ing milk as poultry food during the winter and 
can confidently recommend it to villagers and farm¬ 
ers who keep one or more cows for family use. 
Where butter is made and skim milk is plenty, it is 
a very valuable addition to the fare of the poultry 
yard. One main difference between winter and 
spring laying is owing to the absence of animal food 
in winter. The milk supplies this, and is devoured 
with eagerness. The skim and buttermilk may be 
poured into the feeding trough, and kept constant¬ 
ly by the fowls, or it may be mixed with scalded 
meal of various grains. Indian meal is a good ra¬ 
tion once a day, but it should be varied with oat or 
rye meal, and with whole grain of wheat, buck¬ 
wheat, or barley. In a warm room with a good 
southern exposure, and plenty of light, there is no 
difficulty in getting plenty of eggs from early pul¬ 
lets, and this is the time when eggs are of great 
market value. Later in the season, when the broods 
Fig. 4. —BANGE OF POULTBY HOUSES. 
come off, milk, which will then be more abundant, 
will be an excellent feed for chickens, turkeys, 
and all kinds of young poultry, and will give 
quite as good returns as when fed to pigs. 
