1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
T27 
Salt-marsh hay is probably no more nourishing 
than that from fresh marshes, but is relished better 
by cattle because of its saltness. If farmers can 
readily get salt hay, or even that from the fresh 
marshes, they should do so, and if cut early it may 
be fed with an addition of meal or other strong food. 
The gain in manure for cultivated fields will com¬ 
pensate for the trouble in getting it in most cases. 
Wayside Fountains. 
On a recent trip, visiting farms in Tolland Coun¬ 
ty, Conn., we found several fountains by the road¬ 
side for the convenience of travellers. One was fed 
by a copious spring on the hill side near the line of 
the road. It was conducted by a narrow trough 
and bit of inch-iron pipe, into a large iron-bound 
hogshead placed near the road-bed, and so high that 
horses could drink from it without loosening the 
check rein. The overflow passes off into the gutter, 
and after watering the thirsty traveller and his 
beast, blesses the adjacent meadow with many extra 
blades of grass. There is a fall of two or three 
feet as the water plunges from the spout into the 
cask, which is pleasant to the eye and music to the 
ear. This fountain, which never runs dry in sum¬ 
mer and never freezes in winter, is a great con¬ 
venience to the neighboring village and to all who 
have to go thither to mill and to meeting, to the 
store and to the post office. With very little loss 
of time the teams are watered. Unlike brook 
water, it is always at the palatable temperature, 
and never frozen. The whole expense of this 
public convenience could not have exceeded five 
dollars, and the cost of annual repairs is too small 
to be noticed. One other fountain was by a lovely 
road side nearly a half mile from the house of the 
farmer who put it up, on the road he had most 
occasion to travel. He had found that his horse 
might drink safely all the water he wanted if he 
travelled a half mile after drinking. It saved an 
extra trip to the stable after he reached home. All 
the money outlay for this public convenience was 
about eight rods of half-inch lead pipe, which 
brought the water from a spring into the trough. 
The labor upon the ditch and upon the chestnut 
log of which the trough was made would not bring 
the whole cost to more than ten dollars. In auother 
ease the water was brought from a brook in an 
open ditch, and turned into a half hogshead at the 
road side by a narrow trough. Not more than a 
day’s labor was expended upon the job. The man 
who establishes such fountains as these is a public 
benefactor. He who makes a spring by the way- 
side, where none was before, has the charity which 
is twice blessed; it blesses the giver and all his 
beasts with perpetual refreshment, and the way¬ 
farers of the present and coming generations will 
sing his praise. The statutes of this Common¬ 
wealth provide that any one who will construct 
such a fountain and keep supplied with water with 
the approval of the selectmen, shall receive three 
dollars annually. Oftentimes it would be a good 
investment for the farmer to provide this much 
needed public convenience, and draw the premium. 
Connecticut. 
Gapes in Cliicltens.— “ J. C. T.,” Queens Co., 
N. Y., sends his experience with gapes, which is 
certainly very encouraging and illustrates the value 
of keeping the poultry, the coops, etc., in a clean 
state. “ I have raised chickens for thirty years, 
and never lost one with the gapes. The disease 
appeared as soon as I began, but I had seen that 
wheat dampened and rolled in sulphur would cure 
it, and I tried it with entire success. Soon after, I 
had occasion to use a watering pot, kept in the hen 
bouse, and I became so covered with vermin, that 
I was obliged to take a bath immediately, and 
change my clothes. I set about a reform forthwith 
—white-washing the hen-house thoroughly, includ¬ 
ing perches, and nests, and sprinkling the floor 
with clean sand. When the chicks are hatched I 
burn the hay of the nest, and whitewash the nests 
again, which should always he movable—move 
the coops, which are also white-washed inside, to 
a new spot every day, keeping the hen cooped a 
few days, then let them run, shutting them up at 
night. I had no idea of preventing the gapes ; my 
efforts were only to secure cleanliness, since then, 
no chicken has gaped on these premises, and, of 
course, the older chickens are much improved in 
health and vigor, so that there has never been any 
kind of sickness among them. It cannot too often 
be repeated, and emphasized, white-wash— white¬ 
wash, in every nook and cranny, and clean out and 
put dry earth or sifted coal ashes under the perches 
frequently. I do not say there is not a worm in 
the throat, I have had no occasion to examine a 
chicken killed by the gapes, but I do say, no chicken 
kept free from lice ever had the gapes with me.” 
Among the Farmers.—No. 57. 
BT ONE OP THEM. 
The labor market has been overstocked, in this 
section at least, for some months past, yet so far as 
I see, few of my neighbors have taken any advan¬ 
tage of it except to pay lower wages, which they 
are not slow to find out maybe done. Very fair 
farm hands, good to work with others, and under a 
foreman, might have been hired at $10, except just 
during the pressure of haying. I hired a very ac¬ 
tive Hungarian Slavach, or Slavonian, for those 
Fig. 1.— MAKING A WITHE. 
wages, and found him an excellent plowman and 
mower, and the handiest man with an axe I ever 
had on the place. He was discontented and rest¬ 
less, and needed constant driving and watching. 
The Use of Withes. 
The use this fellow made of withes was remark¬ 
able. He had evidently been accustomed to bind¬ 
ing faggots, and would take any green branch, 
straight or crooked, entire or branched, and placing 
it beneath his foot, as in fig. 1, twist and manipu¬ 
late it until it made, in a very short time, a com¬ 
plete rope. (See fig. 2.) He would combine several 
withes by knotting them, and so make a rope 15 or 
20 feet long, and strong enough to bear the pull of 
two men, or even of a horse. 
This making and use of withes is not new to me, 
but the extreme facility with which the man made 
more flexible and tougher ones than I ever saw be¬ 
fore, out of all sorts of woody growths, set me at 
imitating him. 
I have a great stock of Ozier Willows, which 
we use from preference, but when in the woods, or 
fields, white birch, hazel, witch-hazel, alder, and 
even cedar and wild cherry make excellent withes. 
The only “trick” is to get a uniform twist, which 
breaks up the integrity of the fibres of the wood. 
It may be twisted too little, and then will be brittle 
Fig. 2. — THE FIBRES TWISTED. 
and perhaps break, or be twisted too much, in 
which case it will be weakened by the breaking of 
the fibres. 1 had a lot of corn fodder which I 
bound with withes with great satisfaction. 
There is a “ trick ” or two about the handling of 
these withe-bands that I was glad to know. Figure 
3 shows a common twist given to the ends of the 
withes. The extreme butt end, it will be noticed, 
is bent at right angle to the twist, and this gives a 
powerful leverage, by which the band may be very 
tightly drawn. In most instances there will be very 
little twisting of the butt end, but the smaller end 
will wind itself around 
the other. It does not 
matter if only at last, 
when the withe is fast- | 
ened, we bend the butt 
end upon itself, and 
tuck as shown in figure 
5. This will hold any or¬ 
dinary strain, but when 
a very secure fastening 
is needed, the small 
end of the withe—very 
likely terminating in a 
bunch of twigs—is laid 
in after making one or two twists, as in figure 4, 
and caught in, when other turns are given. Then 
the end is tucked as in the other case. 
Willows. 
I am very glad I have plenty of Willows. My 
land is moist, a portion of it, and they grow ram¬ 
pantly, and they are very useful not only as withes, 
but for many other purposes. Were they more 
commonly cultivated, I think we would soon learn 
to make them as useful as do the Dutch and French 
and Germans. It is no unusual thing to see wagon 
bodies made of Oziers plaited together. Four 
pieces, having holes left where they may be fas¬ 
tened together, and to the stakes of the wagon, con¬ 
stitute the whole affair, durable, cheap, and capaci¬ 
ous, for these wagon bodies are usually employed 
for light loads, as for leaves and for litter 
A Question in Breeding 
has lately interested me, and I have discussed it 
with some of my friends. Ought a breeder of im¬ 
proved stock of any kind, whose aim is to benefit 
himself, his herd, and the breed, to breed for the 
perfection of individuals or for the establishment 
of a family or families ? We breed individuals of 
course, and every breeder’s aim is to produce the 
best individuals possible. The question is, whether 
he shall be satisfied with immediate results, or 
only with the results in the long run. Outside a 
select list of Shorthorn breeders, there are very 
few breeders of any class of animals in this coun¬ 
try, unless we include a group of game-fowl breed¬ 
ers, and perhaps some breeders of Light Brahmas, 
too, who have not been, judging by the pedigrees 
of their animals, per¬ 
fectly willing to ignore 
the family in their ef¬ 
forts to produce supe¬ 
rior excellence in the 
individual by hap-ha- 
zard crossing. All cross¬ 
ing of diverse strains is 
hap-hazard. No one can 
tell how the cross will 
“knick.” To be sure, 
the crossing of two to¬ 
tally distinct strains of 
blood, especially if they have strong good points 
which are inherited, almost always results favorably 
in the first generation. And the fact that still better 
results are usually gained by breeding the second 
generation back to the first, provided there is a 
fair foundation of constitutional vigor, indicates 
too clearly to be overlooked that great success in 
the future will be gained by breeding families. 
What is a family ? 1 regard it as a group of ani¬ 
mals of closely related 
blood, and having sim¬ 
ilar characteristics. 
The animals look alike, 
possess similar quali¬ 
ties, have similar dis¬ 
positions, and have 
similar constitutional 
tendencies. Of course 
the closer a family is bred the more these similari¬ 
ties prevail, and the more surely will they be propa¬ 
gated. In breeding neat stock and studying pedi¬ 
grees, with reference to families, we encounter on 
the threshold a problem for which I have never 
met a solution : Which is the most potent, the in* 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 5.— TIE COMPLETE. 
