272 
[July, 
AMERICAN AGRICU JLTU ifclW i\ 
A Baker’s Oven. 
- o . 
The following designs, figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, repre¬ 
sent a“baker’s oven, suitable for a village of from 
twelve to fifteen hundred inhabitants. It is built 
under ground, and usually placed below the side¬ 
walk in front of, and adjoining the basement, or 
baker’s work-room, towards which the openings 
arc made to face. This position is preferred be¬ 
cause of its accessibility in building and repairing. 
Figure 1 shows the position of the oven openings 
and doors, as they appear on the inside of the base¬ 
ment wall. The hight of this wall is 8 feet. If the 
general depth of the basement is less, then a pit is 
made in the bottom, immediately surrounding the 
oven front, with a marginal step of brick work. 
The doors and their frames are of cast iron, and are 
set in the brick-work when building. The upper 
double doors open from the oven’s mouth ; below 
it is the door of the ash pit. The round opening 
above the double doors has an 8-inch iron collar, 
to which a smoke pipe is attached, leading to a 
chimney. The niche at the side, and on a level 
with the oven mouth, is for a yeast kettle, below 
which is also a grate, and ash-pit doors.Figure 
2 is a plan of the oven floor, and the surrounding 
walls ; A, floor, “ pear-shaped,” and measuring an 
average of 9 feet iu diameter; B, iron grate bars, 
and frame ; C, C, openings to the smoke flues ; I), 
yeast kettle (16 quarts); E, E, foundations of 
stone-work : 1\ mouth of oven ; G, G, front wall. 
-Figure 3 is a cross section showing the con¬ 
struction of the foundations, ash-pit, oven arch or 
Fig. 1.— FRONT OF OVEN. 
Figure 4 represents the top of the completed oven, 
and the course of the smoke flues, the latter lead¬ 
ing from 0, C, in fig. 2, to the smoke-pipe opening 
shown in figure 1.....In building it is important 
that the foundations shall be solidly constructed 
of the best material, at least 2 feet thick, and 
13 feet square, with a perfectly level surface. 
The shape of the floor is then described on the sur¬ 
face, the grate set, the floor laid of fire-brick, and 
the surrounding brick-work started to a hight of 4 
inches. The interior mold or form of the dome is 
then made of sand, raising the center 18 inches. 
The dome is laid upon this mold, the first course 
being of fire-brick and the balance of ordinary hard 
brick. Over the dome the smoke flues are laid, 
also of hard brick, and the whole covered with a 
coat of hydraulic cement mortar, and finally en¬ 
closed with earth. In laying the flues, care must 
be taken to make the interior smooth with straight 
sides converging at the pipe opening from which 
they may be cleaned as required. A damper is re¬ 
quired in the smoke-pipe to regulate the draught. 
The smoke flue from the kettle grate may be built 
in the wall or by pipe leading to the chimney, as 
shall be most convenient. At completion the sand 
may be immediately removed from within the oven 
through the mouth, and the whole allowed to dry 
out for at least eight days, after which a slow fire 
may be started on the grate, and increased gradu¬ 
ally until the required degrees of heat are ob¬ 
tained, and the oven is then ready for baking. 
Sawdust for Bedding 1 . 
One of our most valued correspondents writes : 
We have tried for two years dry sawdust in the 
cows’ stable, and on the whole like it better than 
any bedding we have ever tried. It makes a more 
comfortable bed, completely absorbs the urine, and 
the cow is kept clean with less labor than when any 
other is used. The objection to salt marsh sods, 
dried, or to headlands, and dry muck, is, that they 
soil the cow, and make it necessary to wash the 
bag before milking. Straw, of all sorts, soon be¬ 
comes foul, and, without more care than the ordi¬ 
nary hired man is likely to bestow, soils the cow’s 
bag also. Dry sawdust is clean, and makes a soft 
spongy bed, and is an excellent absorbent. The 
bag is kept clean with the aid of a coarse brush 
without washing. A charge of 15 bushels in a com¬ 
mon box stall, or cow stable, will last a month, if 
r ig. 3.— CROSS SECTION OF OVEN. 
the manure, dropped upon the surface, is removed 
daily. The porous nature of the material admits of 
perfect drainage, and of rapid evaporation, of the 
liquid part of the manure. The sawdust is not so 
perfect an absorbent of ammonia as muck, but is a 
much better one than straw, that needs to be dried 
daily, in the sun and wind, to keep it in comforta¬ 
ble condition for the animals. In the vicinity of 
saw and shingle mills, and of ship yards, the saw¬ 
dust accumulates rapidly, and is a troublesome 
waste that mill-owners are glad to be rid of. It can 
be had for the carting. But even where it is sold at 
one or two cents a bushel, a common price, it makes 
a very cheap and substantial bedding. The satu¬ 
rated sawdust makes an excellent manure, and is so 
fine that it can be used to advantage in drills. It is 
valuble to loosen compact clay soils, and will help 
to retain moisture on thin sandy and gravelly soils. 
There is a choice in the varieties of sawdust for 
manure, but not much for bedding. The hard¬ 
woods make a much better fertilizer than the resin¬ 
ous timber. To keep a milch cow in clean, com¬ 
fortable condition, we have not found its equal. * 
Shocking Grain. 
One of the greatest sources of loss in the grain 
field arises from the imperfect putting together of 
the bundles in shocks for curing. The common- 
practice of shocking gram in a careless and hurried, 
manner is, in a literal sense, “ shocking.” It mat-' 
ters not how perfectly all the other operations of 
the grain field are done, if the bundles are not prop ¬ 
erly set and secured from the wind 
and rain, the grain can not be, in 
“ catching weather,” above second 
class. If the shock becomes once 
wet through, as, if not well made, 
it is sure to be during a rain, the 
grain is very apt to grow in the Fig. p 
shock, and poor flour, and con¬ 
sequently an inferior quality of bread, is the result. 
There is no trouble in making the shocks in the 
right way, if one determines to do it, and will use 
a little common sense. It is a common way to cut 
down and bind up, all the day through, and just as 
night is coming on, all hands turn to and set the 
sheaves up in the most rapid manner possible. 
Should a strong wind arise there are few shocks 
thus hastily thrown together, but will be whisked 
and tumbled into a confused heap. Hurried work 
like this is all wrong. If any farm-work should 
be done with care, it is the shocking of the grain. 
The number of bundles in the shock may vary 
somewhat, 16 is sufficient. Each bundle should be¬ 
set firmly upon the ground, and this can be best 
done by taking one in each hand at the same time,, 
bringing their heads closely together. After three 
pairs have thus 
been placed in 
two rows, two 
more are to be 
put upon each 
side, thus mak- 
ingr.noval shock, 
shown in outline 
in figure 1. The 
heads of all the- 
bundles are then 
to be pressed to¬ 
gether, and the- 
cap-sheaf adjusted. This is done by taking an 
ordinary sheaf, with the band shoved down to with¬ 
in eight inches of the butt, and the top bent out into 
the shape of a funnel—this done, the sheaf is 
placed on the shock as shown in figure 2. A sec¬ 
ond form of shock, which may 
be considered a double form of 
the one just described, is shown 
in outline in figure 3, and con¬ 
sists of 16 bundles, including 
the two top-sheaves. Four pairs 
of bundles are first firmly set 
together, and three placed on 
each side. The cap-sheaves are 
made as in the first case, only one side of the 
“funnel” is left open, each sheaf forming one- 
half of the shock-cap, as shown in figure 4. Grain 
that is shocked in either of these methods, and is- 
done by a man who cares for the quality of his 
work, will stand and be perfectly safe and sound,, 
when the piles made by boys too small to set the 
bundles firmly down, 
or worse, by careless,, 
wasteful men, will be 
wet through and ap¬ 
proaching the state 
of a pile of litter. 
Tliere Is Work, 
in America. — A 
writer in “The 
Farm” (Dublin), tells 
his countrymen that 
Fig. 4.-DOUBLE CAP-SHOCK. Amer?ca is nQ place 
for the idler, but a country where work is wanted,, 
and where it is always well awarded. “ If 
our laborers were equally diligent at home, cur 
farmers would be able to give better wages, and: 
more employment.” — “ Thousands of laborers 
think that they have only to go to America, make 
money, and live happy all their days.” 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 2.— SINGLE CAP-SHOCK. 
