1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
429 
of them, B, B, about four feet long, and are driven 
firmly into the ground, four feet apart, alongside 
of the rail. The other stake, <7, is driven between 
these two, and in a slanting direction. A lock- 
stick, B, is placed above C, resting against the 
posts, B, B, by means of which the rail is held firm¬ 
ly in place. When the rail is to be removed, lift 
out the bar, B, withdraw the stake, 0, and the rail 
is loose and ready to be taken out. 
A Safe Gate Latch.— “T. J. M.,” sends a 
sketch of a gate latch, 
(figs. 9 and 10), which 
he has had in use for 
some years. It is very 
simple and is safe, as 
it cannot be pushed 
back without lifting, 
_. „ cannot be shaken loose 
.Fig. 9.— latch out. . . , .... 
6 by the wind rattling 
the gate, nor rubbed open by cattle or horses. 
A Home-made Level.— The accompanying en¬ 
graving shows a level made byL. W. Smith,Luzerne 
Co., Pa., to whom we are indebted fora sketch and 
description. It consists of two pieces of glass 
tubing each about 5£ 
feet in length, fasten¬ 
ed to registered strips 
of board, the whole re¬ 
sembling great ther¬ 
mometers. The lower 
ends of these two 
parts are connected 
by rubber tubing of 
any desired length. 
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Fig. 10.— LATCH IN. 
The whole is then filled with 
water up to the middle of the glass tubes. The 
figure represents the level placed on the top of two 
brick pillars. The hight of the 
column of water in the left-hand 
tube, as read off on the graduated 
scale is 4.10 feet, that in the right- 
hand tube is 0.80 ft. therefore the 
right hand pillar is 3.30 ft. higher 
than the left hand one. With this 
instrument the foundations of 
houses may he made exactly level. 
A HOME-MADE LEVEL. 
It will also be of use in arranging mill shafting, 
laying long beams, floors of buildings, etc., etc.” 
“Weathering.” — This term is often used 
among farmers, and is certainly a good one, as it 
expresses as much of the nature of the process as 
can be contained in a single word. When land is 
left without a crop, and is exposed to the action of 
the air and sunshine, the winds and rains, frosts 
and other natural agencies by which the original 
rocks, through long years, have been converted 
into rich soil, we say that it is “ weathering.” In 
other words, there is no crop to take up the nour¬ 
ishment as it is formed in the soil, and there is 
therefore an accumulation of these food materials 
in the soil, and it gradually improves by the pro¬ 
cess. The throwing up of the soil into ridges in 
the autumn, that there may be a greater surface 
exposed to the weather, is an instance of winter 
“weathering,” while fallows are the more common 
instances of “ weathering ” during the summer. 
A Spring Pen-Stock. 
“T. S. B.,” Schuyler County, N. Y., sends 
sketch and description of a method he has 
adopted for conducting water from a spring to a 
trough in the barn-yard. He writes as follows : 
“ Having occasion to drain off a piece of fiat land. 
DTAGKAM OF SPRING PEN-STOCK. 
overflowed from a spring, I dug a ditch from the 
spring which ended within a short distance of my 
barn. Before closing the ditch the thought struck 
me that I might provide for a constant supply of 
water for the stock in the barn-yard. I found the 
land so level that it would barely admit of getting 
the water into a trough above ground. I con¬ 
cluded to dig out the spring to a fair size and suffi¬ 
ciently deep to prevent the waste of water, and 
laid it up in cement, the water being allowed to 
escape only at the top. In the meantime I pro¬ 
cured pump-logs to reach to the barn. The end of 
one of the logs was cemented near the top of the 
spring and connected with the others, which were 
laid, with a slight decline, to the pen-stocks in the 
barn-yard, as shown in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ing. To prevent the overflow from the pen-stock 
from making a wet place in the yard, a hole was 
bored in the bottom of the trough and a pipe in¬ 
serted, the upper end of which reached nearly to 
the top of the trough. The excess of water thus 
flows off and directly into a closed drain below. I 
have a full supply of water, brought over a nearly 
level field, and no water standing around the 
trough in the yard. A screen of fine wire should 
be placed over the end of the log at the spring, to 
keep out the mice that might otherwise get in.” 
What is the Best Material for Drains? 
The very best material for drains is not yet dis¬ 
covered ; certainly it is not yet thoroughly tested. 
Many things have been tried in draining, both iu 
this country and in the British Isles, that have 
failed. Kails, brush, plank, and cobble-stones 
will not make a permanent drain. Wood rots in 
time, and stone, without a culvert at the bottom, 
soon clogs, and the work has to be done over again. 
The common clay or brick tiles, now so generally 
used in this country, where draining has been in¬ 
troduced, answer a very good purpose where every 
tile is thoroughly burned and laid below frost. We 
have noticed recently in a pile of these tiles left 
over from a job of draining, finished several years 
ago, that they have crumbled more or less where 
they have been exposed to the weather. At the 
outlet of drains where the water does not run con¬ 
tinually, the tile is disintegrated after a while, 
and becomes unserviceable. That waste which 
goes on at the mouth of the drain takes place more 
slowly under the soil, hut it is only a question of 
time when some of the softer will crumble, and the 
water-duct will he clogged. To make a drain as 
lasting as the soil itself, we want something harder 
than brick, and, if possible, lighter. One great 
drawback to the use of brick tiles is the great 
expense of transportation. Glazed pottery tile, 
hard burned, made of fire-clay, or the poorer kind 
of potter’s clay, affords a tile that is practically in¬ 
destructible, and much lighter than the common 
brick tile. It costs a little more to manufacture, 
but is sold at the same price. When the lessened 
cost of transportation is considered, the glazed tile 
comes much cheaper to the consumer. These tiles 
are made in Ohio, and shipped to Boston, and sell 
in competition with the common brick tile. Of 
course they can be made profitably iu any place 
where the raw material exists, if there is a demand 
for them. The objection which arises from their 
impervious character is found to be no objection at 
all in actual use. Water enters the drain at the 
joints altogether, as it does mainly in the common 
brick-tile drain. The only advantage of the porous 
brick tile would be in soils so wet as to keep the 
drains always full of running water. The remedy 
for this would be to bring the drains closer to¬ 
gether. The great advantage in the use of this 
glazed tile is that every tile is perfect, and practi¬ 
cally indestructible by 
the action of water, or 
of such freezing as oc¬ 
curs three feet below 
the surface. A field 
thus drained would be 
a permanent investment 
for all coming genera¬ 
tions. This material of 
which glazed ware is 
made, though as durable as any, may not possibly 
be the cheapest for the manufacture of tiles. A 
glass tile made of the impure silex from which 
common black bottles are made, would be thinner 
and lighter than the glazed ware, and would be 
quite as indestructible. The sea-shore is an inex¬ 
haustible storehouse of sand, and it is very widely 
distributed in all granite regions. In this connec¬ 
tion we have thought of the slag drawn off from 
the furnaces in a molten state, which is now mostly 
an encumbrance. If this could be run into proper 
molds as it is drawn from the furnace, it would 
utilize a generally worthless material, and make a 
tile as light and durable as glazed ware. C. 
A Smoke House and Ash Pit. 
For an ordinary farmer’s family a smoke house 
six feet square inside is large enough. If there is 
danger of frost heaving the walls, four oak or 
cedar fence posts may be hewed and halved to¬ 
gether, to be 
partly bedded 
in the ground 
and to support 
the superstruc¬ 
ture of bricks. 
Upon these 
foundation sills 
put walls seven 
feet high, cap¬ 
ped with plates 
of two - inch 
planks. The 
rafters, set 14 
inches apart, 
are notched in¬ 
to these and 
nailed to a 
ridge-pole sup¬ 
ported by the brick 
Fig. 1.—SECTIONAL VIEW OF 
SMOKE HOUSE. 
gables. Thus there is no 
tendency to spread even if heavily loaded. The 
Ventilator in the roof is more for ornament 
than use. Hooks in the rafters support the meat. 
A wall two and a half feet high is placed across 
the smoke house inside, dividing the space, so as 
to make an ash pit 
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Fig. 2 .—GROUND PLAN OF 
SMOKE HOUSE. 
four feet wide. This 
low wall is also cap¬ 
ped by a plank, which 
should be built into 
the side walls. This 
forms a convenient 
standing place for 
hanging the hams. 
The door may be in 
the middle or at the 
side, the fire-place is 
set in the narrow en- 
A flat stone, supported by two 
trance space, 
brick piers, makes as good a fire-place as anybody 
needs for smoking the meat hung to the roof above. 
Overfeeding for tlie Fairs.— The practice 
of stuffing animals for a number of weeks and 
even months, for the sake of making them over 
fat and out of Droportions for the Fail, is not only" 
