4,66 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
Pig-Pen, Hen-House, and Corn-Crib 
Combined. 
BY WH. B. WIGGINS, HINTON, W. VA. 
In order to make the most out of farm land in 
"West Virginia, it is found necessary to economize 
space in erecting the buildings required for suc¬ 
cessful farming. The accompanying sketches may 
serve to give the reader tbe plan for erecting in a 
hill side, under one roof, the three important 
farm buildings named at the head of this article. 
Figure 1 is a side view ; fig. 2, a front view, and 
fig. 3, a floor plan of a Pig-pen; fig. 4, is a floor 
Fig. 1.— SIDE ELEVATION OF BUILDING. 
plan of the Hen-house; and figure 5, shows a 
longitudinal section of the whole building. 
The Pig-pen is constructed of stout framing, and 
where it comes in contact with the hill side, is pro¬ 
tected by dry stone walls. The roof of the sleeping 
room, B, (fig. 3) forms the floor of the Hen-house. 
Q. To prevent the dirt from one room being thrown 
into the other, the door of communication between 
them, 0, is raised six inches from the floor and an 
inclined plane with a cleat is placed on either side 
to make it easy of ingress and egress. The feed¬ 
ing room, A, is protected from the weather by the 
com-loft floor and the overhanging eaves. The 
Hen-house, fig. 1, is situated immediately over the 
sleeping room of the Pig-pen. It is ventilated by 
a wire-sash window at H, provided with perches (i?, 
B, fig. 4) 18 inches from the floor at the lowest point, 
Fig. 2.— FRONT VIEW OF PIG-PEN, ETC. 
and nest boxes on two sides, which are reached by 
doors on the outside, each door being a hinged 
plank the entire width of the building, as shown at 
/S, figure 1. By this arrangement of the nests, the 
room need not be entered in quest of eggs. As 
will be seen by the section, fig. 5, the roof of the 
Hen-house forms an angle of about forty degrees; 
this being also the floor of the rear of the Corn- 
crib, it aids by its slope in readily filling the crib. 
The Corn-crib, Z> } is approached at the rear where a 
slatted door, corresponding with the large slatted 
front window, give sufficient ventilation for the 
corn. At F, is the platform from which to fill the 
crib. The building is 10 feet wide by fifteen feet in 
length, but may be increased in size as desired. 
Sheep Husbandry vs. Dog Raising. 
Since the illustration of a remarkable sheep con¬ 
vention in these pages, a number of years ago, at 
which a dog was publicly executed as a malefactor, 
sheep raising has made marked progress, in almost 
all parts of this country. There has been a steady 
increase in the number of sheep, and improvement 
in the quality of the wool and mutton. In 
the latter respect, the change has been quite re¬ 
markable in the Northern and older States. We can 
remember that mutton was looked upon with dis¬ 
favor iu the rural districts, and was seldom seen 
upon the farmer’s table, from autumn until spring. 
In the smaller local markets, outside of the large 
cities, it was hardly possible to get sight of a mut¬ 
ton leg, after the new year came in, until the time 
of lambs and green peas. For half the year, at 
least, a man of well educated appetite, must needs 
go to the city, if he wanted a taste of boiled mut¬ 
ton and caper sauce. We'are glad to say it is not 
so now. Though mutton is by no means as com¬ 
mon as beef, or veal, in the spring months, the 
butcher almost always knows of an intelligent 
farmer, who has a 
few fat wethers, 
that have been 
grained during 
the winter, which 
he will dispose of 
for a considera¬ 
tion. The butch¬ 
er has customers 
who know a good 
thing when they 
see it, and will 
not stand on the 
price of a South- 
down loin, or leg. 
Mutton is not as 
cheap as it ought 
to be, but still it 
can be had, every Fig. 3.— the ground plan. 
week in the year, 
if one is able to pay the price. Intelligent farmers, 
who study the markets, find it profitable to raise 
the mutton breeds of sheep. A South-down or 
Cotswold ram, running with their flocks, secures 
larger and better lambs, which pay well whether 
sold the first season, or kept two or three years for 
wool, and mutton. They are not only profitable 
for their wool, and carcasses, but they improve the 
pastures where they feed, more than other stock, 
by the closer grazing, and the more equal distri¬ 
bution of manure. Farmers are taking much bet¬ 
ter views of sheep husbandry, and in many of the 
Northern States have secured effective legislation 
to protect their flocks against dogs, which have 
always been the great hindrance to sheep raising. 
Connecticut has an admirable law, which is gradu¬ 
ally restraining the dog nuisance. Hog property is 
heavily taxed, and the thriftless citizen, who in¬ 
clines to the chase, has to pay for his indulgence. 
For the male dog, he is taxed two dollars, annu¬ 
ally, and for the female six (16 !), so that puppy 
raising is a rather expensive luxury. The money 
collected from the dog-tax, goes to pay for the 
damages inflicted upon the flocks by dogs. We 
are glad to say, that this law is not only upon the 
statute book, but is executed with commendable 
vigilance. Every sheep owner is a spy upon his 
neighbor, who cultivates dog flesh, and it is diffi¬ 
cult to hide any cur of high or low degree from 
the tax-gatherer. Unregistered dogs are dispatched 
without mercy. Farmers, as a rule, recover the 
full value of the sheep killed, or maimed by dogs. 
The law works most kindly upon the sheep inter¬ 
est, and we shall soon have lamb, and mutton 
as cheap, and plenty, as veal, and beef. In all parts 
of the country, there is a steady growth of this 
interest, as capital becomes invested in flocks that 
are made secure. Connecticut. 
Rocky Pastures—What to do With Them. 
In many o! the Eastern States there are rocky 
pastures in great abundance that have been grazed 
for a hundred years or more, and do not now yield 
grass enough to pay the taxes upon them. The 
stones and boulders 
are so thick that 
they cannot be 
plowed. It would 
cost from one to 
four hundred dol¬ 
lars an acre to clear 
them of rocks by 
the most economi¬ 
cal methods, and it 
will not pay to do 
this until there is a 
great increase of 
population and a 
large advance in the 
price of land. They 
do not pay as pas¬ 
tures, for the cat- pjg 4 .—plan of hen roost. 
tie have so far to 
travel for their food, that they are about as hollow 
at night as in the morning. If trees start in them 
they are dwarfed by the perpetual cropping of the 
cattle. Though poor in grass, these pastures are 
not necessarily poor land. They may have all the 
material needed to grow forests, and were probably 
once covered with a heavy growth of timber. The 
best thing that can be done with these old pastures- 
in the districts remote from good markets, is to turn 
them into woodlands. Many of them are already 
covered with patches of brush and briars, and if 
cattle and sheep were kept out of them, they would 
be in a few years covered with young trees. The 
process may be greatly hastened by sowing the seeds 
of timber trees, or by planting the young trees. 
This crop, once started, requires no labor except 
to keep out cattle by fencing. The value of the 
capital invested in such lands is small. The growth 
of the timber for twenty-five or thirty years would 
be a large interest on the investment. If oak or 
hickory were planted, there would be several har¬ 
vests of hoop poles before the final clearing of the 
main growth of timber. No investment of capital 
can be more secure than this, and no property more 
certain to rise in value. Patches of woodland in 
the midst of cultivated farms are in little danger 
from fires, for help is always near to extinguish 
them. The demand upon our forests for fuel and 
for timber is so steady and persistent, that nothing 
can be more certain than higher prices for lumber 
in the next generation. All buildings and struc¬ 
tures of wood are short lived, and must be renewed. 
Fig. 5.— sectional vtew of building. 
Railroads consume ties by the million annually. In 
most farming districts wood will be used for fuel 
and fencing for generations to come. It fills so 
many places in the economy of farm life, and in the 
arts, that we shall never be able to dispense with it. 
Forests have an appreciable influence upon climate, 
and in summer drouths and spring floods warn us 
