1884.] 
AMEBICA]^ AGBIOULTUBIST. 
63 
it. It would be better to have the manure made 
and kept under eover, always well protected from 
rains and melting snows. Only enough moisture 
should be present to keep it from fermenting too 
rapidly. An old farmer who let his manure take 
care of itself, ouce kept some of his sheep under 
cover and was greatly surprised at the increased 
value of the manure thus made. In fact, it was so 
“strong” that when scattered as thickly as the 
leached dung of the yard, it made a distinct belt of 
better grain in the field. The testimony was so 
much in favor of the stall-made manure, that this 
farmer is now keeping all his live stock under cover, 
and the farm is yielding larger crops and growing 
richer year by year. If it pays to stop any leak in 
the granary, it is all the more important to look 
well to the manure that furnishes the food, that 
feeds the plants, that grow the grain, that fills the 
grain bin. At this season the living mills are all 
grinding the bay and grain, and yielding the by¬ 
products of the manure heap. Much may be saved 
in spring work by letting this heap be as small as 
out-door yard feeding and the wdnds and rains can 
make it, but such saving is like that of the economic 
sportsman who went out with the idea of using as 
little powder and lead as possible. In farming, 
grow the largest possible crops, even though it 
takes a week or more of steady hard work to get 
the rich, heavy, well-prepared manure upon the 
fields More than this, enrich the land by throw¬ 
ing e 'ery stream of fertility back upon the acres 
whicii have yielded it. Watch the manure heap as 
you would a mine of gold. 
Farming Does Pay. 
BT A NEW-PANGLBD PAEMEK. 
“ Does Farming Pay ?” is an old, dried-up ques¬ 
tion. As an honest farmer of my own school, I 
answer that it will, without doubt, where more at¬ 
tention is paid to the saving of time, which has a 
great value in the market. Too much time is al¬ 
lowed to be wasted in small lots ; “ every minute 
saved is two minutes earned”—please make a 
minute of it. Put your foot > u it, and do not let a 
minute get away. Be always doing, or get your 
boys to do so. 
Besides money, there is nothing like saving time. 
Since I first followed the plow when a boy (for fish 
worms) I have always made it my object to make 
the most out of every minute, and I can assure you 
that my style of farming has paid, from the fact 
that at my present time of life there are not more 
than one or two mortgages on my farm, and they 
could easily be removed by the money. In agri¬ 
cultural economy there is nothing like doing 
two things at once, and my most distant relatives 
and friends say that I am a humane, easy farmer, 
and I lay claim to being industrious. Now you 
know every farmer loses a great deal of time just 
in grinding his axes and knives. I have changed 
aU this. By a slight contrivance on the other side 
of the grind-stone, I have attached a self-feeding 
straw-cutter ; so when the boy turns the grind¬ 
stone, the straw-cutter goes at the same rate, and 
thus two objects are accomplished at the same 
.time—if the boy does growl, and growling doesn’t 
make it any easier, goodness knows. I can’t see 
how it could. 
In seeding time one of my boys goes into the 
field and scatters the grain broad-cast with ease at 
the same time he pulls behind him a light harrow 
of my own construction, and the seed is harrowed 
in. Thus you readily see the expense of a drill and 
several horses is saved. I am trying to study out a 
plan for attaching a clod-rolier behind the harrow 
to save the boy the time and the trouble of going 
over the field the second time, at which he might 
growl. Hoeing corn and potatoes is slow work ; so 
I furnish my boys with handles that have two 
hoes on them, and of course they do double the 
work that one does, as you will allow ; and in har¬ 
vest my cradles have a back blade as w'ell as a front 
one, so they cut backward as well as forward; 
and as the old wood-saw only cuts as it goes down 
through a/ stick, 1 have had one made for my boys 
that also cuts coming back, and thus it saves half the 
time. When “ agents ” of any kind call on me, or 
even my neighbors, I invite them to the barn and 
get them to help me husk corn, while I listen to 
their talk ; and you see I get a good deal of work 
done while I am getting a good deal of valuable in¬ 
formation, and nobody loses any time—but them. 
To assist the women-folks in their work and fa¬ 
cilitate it, 1 have attached the chum to the wash¬ 
ing-machine, and one girl can wash and churn at 
the same time, while another can be devoting her 
attention to something else equally necessary; and 
with the same end in view, I have attached the 
cradle for the twins to the sewing machine, so that 
my wife, who does most of the sewing for the fam¬ 
ily, can save the extra work of one of the girls 
tending the cradle, which would be pretty much all 
the time. Domestic economy is one of my most 
favorite studies, and without it no farmer can get 
along successfully. In cold weather. If one of my 
girls must have a beau and a fire in the front room, 
I place a kettle of apple butter on the parlor stove, 
so that she can stir the apple butter and do her 
courting at the same time. I regret that several 
kettles have not turned out good this winter; I 
don’t know why. When our relatives come out 
from town to visit us, it is kind of a relief to me to 
get them to assist me at something about the farm, 
as it seems to shorten my own work, and they gen¬ 
erally work as long as they remain ; but urgent 
business at home too often shortens their stay. 
You know that it generally takes one man to run a 
clover-huller, and one to run the fanning-mill. 
Now 1 philosophized, and found out that if I placed 
the two machines close together, and one of the 
boys between them with the left hand on one 
crank and the right hand on the other, both of 
them would go, and so I do not have to hire an ex¬ 
tra hand. Many a farmer would never think of 
this, simple as it is ; and it was with a great deal of 
hu-d study that even I arrived at it, and I had noth¬ 
ing but a good common school education either. 
I have shown our girls the efficacy of knitting while 
they are going to town iii the wagon, and by this 
plan, so far, our family are alt pretty well supplied 
with socks for the winter, and no time lost! 
Another thmg we have done without losing time 
this winter ; the mud that the hands and ourselves 
have brought up to the house on our boots, with¬ 
out any trouble, has been used to fill up around the 
back porch, and you would hardly imagine how 
much has been done, and no extra work. For my 
own part, I cannot see why farming does not pay 
by my plan. I make it a rule also, to come away 
from town with more money than I leave in it, 
which again is in my favor; and while some far¬ 
mers take the worst of their produce to market and 
foolishly eat the best, I would never do it, for I 
argue that town people want something good as 
well as anybody else, and will pay for it. We have, 
so far, managed to live on what we knew other 
people wouldn’t pay for. 
his 
ABNER -I- APPLEBLOSSOM. 
Witness, A. W. Bellaw. mark. 
A Light, Strong Double-Tree. 
Mr. F. Grundy sends us a sketch and brief de¬ 
scription, suggesting an idea for so dividing the 
strain or leverage on a double-tree as to allow it to 
be much lighter than usual. In the ordinary dou¬ 
ble-tree each end is the long arm of a lever, its 
short arm being only half the width of the band 
encircling the center, to which the draft ring or 
hook is attached. His idea is to substitute for the 
center band or ring, two iron rods, one a little dis¬ 
tance on each side of the center; carry these back 
a foot or so, where they unite in a ring. From this 
ring and welded to it, an iron rod on each side ex¬ 
tends to the end of the double-tree, passes through 
a groove sufficiently deep to hold it, and is turned 
in a hook in front to catch the ring in the center of 
the whiffle-tree. The rod is held in its place at the 
end of the double-tree by an iron strap riveted over 
it. His idea is that the draft is thus distributed 
along the double-tree, or at least to four points on 
it. This plan properly adjusted would allow a 
much lighter tinrber to be used. The details for 
length aird distance apart of the central rods, the 
mode of bringing the four rods together and form¬ 
ing the bar ring, etc., can probably be readily ad¬ 
justed by a blacksmith.—As described, the arrange¬ 
ment will answer for occasional use, but for hard 
wear the angular rods would need a stronger at¬ 
tachment to the end of the double-tree than simply 
lying in a groove with an iron strap over it, and 
they would soon wear into the wood. 
Cross-bars for Mangers and Troughs. 
BY PICKET. 
This device is intended as a convenient arrange¬ 
ment to prevent animals eating at mangers or 
troughs from throwing out the food, and yet allow 
these receptacles to be fully opened for cleaning. 
mauger bars. 
etc.,which cannot be done if the cross-bars are fixed. 
A strong frame is made to fit the top of the man¬ 
ger, as seen in the engraving. It is hinged at the 
back so as to bo turned up against the wall when¬ 
ever desired, and is held down in front by a spring 
hasp. Cross-bars are run across from front to rear, 
just wide enough apart to allow the animal to clean 
the bottom of the manger. This width will depend 
upon its depth, and whether used for cattle, horses, 
or sheep. The same arrangement is convenient for 
hog-troughs, as cross-bars are essential not only to 
prevent their getting their feet into the trough, or 
throwing out food, but to give the smaller swine 
and pigs a chance for their due share. These, and 
in fact all other feed-troughs needfrequent cleaning. 
A Home-Made Chicken Brooder. 
Many of the difficulties in raising young chicks, 
arise from improper ventilation. To secure pure 
air and warmth at the same time, has troubled 
many poultry breeders, not because of its impossi¬ 
bility, but on account of the large expense involved. 
The recommendations to use sheep skins for the 
young chicks to nestle under, or water tanks for 
them to retire under for warmth, are not bad ideas, 
but recent experiments have demonstrated that 
they are freer from disease, thrive better, and are 
less liable to danger from overcrowding, when 
surrounded by a constant current of pure air. A 
cheap apparatus for warming a brooder may be 
made with a coil of a few feet of half-inch lead- 
pipe. Thin pipe is best, as it is more quickly heat¬ 
ed, is not soon injured by water, is comparatively 
secure from leaks, and is cheap. One end of the 
coil is lower than the other, that cold air may enter 
it in making the circuits of the coil, and it becomes 
warmer by the time it emerges from the higher end. 
The coil is set in a small boiler filled with water, and 
placed on an ordinary, single-burner, coal-oil stove, 
taking care to have the ends of the coil free from ob¬ 
struction. Make a box large enough to accommo¬ 
date the desired number of chieks, of any preferred 
form, and attach a rubber tube to the coil, and 
conduct the heated air into the brooder through 
the top, thus bringing it directly over and upon 
the chicks, and crowding down all impurities by 
forcing the cold air out at the openings for egress 
and ingress of the chieks. The cold air, being 
entirely pure when it enters the coil, is heated as 
