410 
AMERICA]^ AGEIOIJLTIJRIST. 
[October, 
A Florida Barn, 
In a semi-tropical climate, the out-bnildings are 
made as open as possible for free ventilation. The 
Fig. 2.— EXTERIOR OF A FLORIDA BARN, 
barn shown in the engravings, is suited to the far¬ 
mers of Florida and other Southern States. The 
ends of the barn are boarded up close, to prevent 
rain from beating in, but the sides and the partition 
between the shed and main 
floor are made of three- 
inch slats, with one inch 
space between, admitting 
plenty of air and light. 
A door leads from tlie 
shed into the stable ; tlie 
latter is divided into two 
stalls, or left in one. At 
the South, an earth floor 
for stable is usually pre¬ 
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Fig. 2.— GROUND PLAN. 
ferred to plank. Figure 1 shows the exterior of 
the building, and figure- 2 gives the ground plan. 
Proper Testing of Butter Cows. 
Great stress is laid upon the amount of butter a 
cow will make in a trial of seven days or a month. 
The milking, weighing of the milk, the salting and 
working of the butter are under supervision, as if 
the quantity and quality of the butter, decided the 
profitableness of the cow, and the price she ought 
to bring in the market. We have many registered 
COW'S that produce fourteen pounds of butter in a 
w'eek, and a few go up into the twenties. A very 
few are stated to have produced twenty-five pounds 
in a week. It is thought to be within the range of 
probability that a cow will yet make nine hundred 
pounds of butter in a year. These large figures 
have set the old heads upon the farm to serious 
thinking, which is a very good thing, and started 
some doubts, which is better. They begin to 
question, wdiether fourteen pounds of butter in a 
week on selected rations, in addition to grass, pays 
any better than seven or eight -pounds on grass 
alone. They want a cow that will make the most 
butter upon a given value of food. It is the ex¬ 
ception rather than the rule in the record of these 
large yields of butter, that we have any fair state¬ 
ment of the ralious or the result of these large 
yields upon the condition of the cow. They wish 
to know what a pound of the tested butter yield 
costs. There is a demand for a trial of these cows 
upon grass alone. That would not fully decide 
the comparative merits of cows. One amimal 
might weigh a thousand pounds, and another but 
five hundred, and of course it would take a much 
larger portion of the rations to keep up the condi¬ 
tion of the former than of the latter. One cow 
might have an accumulation of fat, while the 
other was in poor condition. There might be as 
much difference in the condition of the pastures as 
in the flesh of the cows, or if the grass was equally 
flush, pasture might be worth twenty-five cents a 
W'eek in a rural district, and a dollar a week near a 
city. The cry for a trial “ on grass alone,” will 
not give us the light we want. "We desire to know 
just what it costs Mr. Bonanza to get a hundred 
pounds of butler out of his four thousand dollar 
cow, “ Magnificat.” There is the interest on the 
investment during the butter trial—the cost of 
pasturage in his vicinity, the quantity of the addi¬ 
tional rations, and their value, and finally the cost of 
manufacture and marketing the butter. “Magni¬ 
ficat ” is a splendid looking animal, and Mr. Bo¬ 
na.nza may find jileacure and profit, from an a3s- 
thetic point of view, in owning her. It pays to buy 
pictures. But if it costs fifty one cents to get a 
pound of butter, which will sell for only fifty 
cents, the old heads are not able to see where the 
profit comes in. If there is a profit it can be shown 
by the record, and it ought to be. No better card 
can be made for Mr. Bonanza’s registered herd, 
than to show that he can get more butter out of a 
hundred dollars’ worth of rations, than it is possi¬ 
ble to get out of any other breed or their grades 
on the same value of fodder. But what of the 
profit from the sale of calvesand registered stock ? 
It is very good now, but what will it be, if they 
are not proved by satisfactory tests to be the 
best machines for extracting butter from fodder ? 
Raising Onion Seed. 
For two years onion seed has been very cheap. 
If we may judge from past experience it will sooner 
or later be high again. It is a good time for those 
who have had the experience in raising seed, 
and wish to engage in the business, to set out a 
few bushels of onions. Let them select the very 
best onions, and especially avoid all those with 
thick' necks. It does not pay to grow your onion 
seed unless you grow the very best. You can 
buy plenty of poor seed—and lose money by it. 
Onions for seed can be set out in the autumn or 
in the spi'iug. If proper precautions are taken, 
autumn is the better time. The land must be 
moderately rich, and thoroughly worked. Onion 
roots run down deep into the subsoil, and it is 
therefore essential that the sub soil should be free 
from stagnant water. Low, mucky land that will 
produce good crops of onions, will not always pro¬ 
duce onion seed. Dry upland is better and more 
certain—or rather it is less uncertain, for at best, 
onion seed growing is rather an uncertain business. 
You may get a good crop of seed and a good price, 
and the crop may bring you in one thousand dol¬ 
lars per acre—or it may all “ blast.” IVe mark out 
the rows three and a half feet apart. Make a fur- 
I'ow three or four inches deep. Set out the onions 
in the rows so thick tiiat they will almost touch 
each other, and cover carefully and well two or 
three inches deep. If heavy rains wash the soil 
away from the onions, they must be covered again 
before winter sets it. If they cannot be well 
covered with earth, draw out some manure or 
straw, and spread it two or three inches thick over 
the rows, or over the whole surface of' the land. 
There is no danger of the onions being injured by 
the frost, provided they are well covered, but if 
this precaution is not taken, and we have little 
snow for a cover, many of the onions will be killed. 
The same remarks apply to onion sets. These can 
be safely set in the autumn, but they must be 
carefully covered with earth, or with earth and 
manure or straw. When proper care is used, we 
would much prefer setting them out in the autumn. 
A Movable Pasture Pen. 
We had a field this year, on which many rank 
weeds grew, and desiring to prevent them from 
going to seed, we made a movable pen, and pas¬ 
tured the ground with pigs. Four panels,like the one 
shown in the illustration, were set in a square, and 
secured by wires at each upper corner. This pro¬ 
vides a strong, secure pen, which can be moved 
about easily as often ns the pigs root up all the 
weeds in the enclosure. By means of this con¬ 
trivance, we kept the weeds in cheek until the field 
was plowed. Aside from eating the weeds, the 
pigs destroyed many injurious insects found in the 
soil. A calf can be kept in such an enclosure in a 
corner of a meadow or other field, where it could 
not be let loose. By making the panel sections of 
pickets, a goose-pen is provided. If the sections 
are used in a row, let the braces on every alternate 
one stand in an opposite direction from those next 
to t|iem. In this way they firmly brace the fence. 
A Combined Hinge and Sliding Gate. 
J. R. L. Dean, Greene County, Ohio, sends us 
sketches of a gate especially suited for barn-yards. 
It is fourteen feet wide for ordinary use, and has 
three short posts. The middle one is movable. A 
box of two-inch boards made to fit the post is 
planted in the ground ; in this the post is set, and 
can be removed at pleasure. This post is placed 
three feet from the outside one. The hinge is 
made of hard-wood, with a wheel six inches in 
Fig. 1.— THE GATE OPEN. 
diameter, as shown in figure 1. It should be so 
constructed that the gate will move freely, but not 
too loosely. It is supported at the top by a cap 
placed diagonally across, and at the bottom by a 
block of locust or cedar under it. The middle up¬ 
rights of the gate should be placed a little to one 
side of the center, so that the gate can be balanced 
upon the roller. Wooden catches are placed in 
the middle ]50st, upon which the gate rests. To 
open the gate, push it back to the middle post, 
elevate the gate slightly, and it will roll down to 
the center, where it can be readily opened. Figure 
I shows the gate open, and in figure 2 it is seen 
Fig. 3.— THE GATE CLOSED. 
closed. This gate has no latch. A barn-yard gate 
is not usually opened wide. A space large enough 
to admit a man or horse is all that is necessary in 
most cases. It is more easily opened than the 
ordinary gate, and will stay where it is placed. By 
cutting a notch in the third board, and elevating it 
to the upper catch on the middle post, a passage is 
made for hogs and sheep, excluding larger animals, 
Northwest Winds Kill the Peaches. 
Mr. Josiah Iloopes, author of “ Book of Ever¬ 
greens,” and an experienced horticulturist, has ob¬ 
served for several years that excessive northwest 
winds invariably affect peach trees disastrously, 
while those of a lower temiierature coming from any 
other quarter, are not serious. Extreme dryness, 
along with the high northwest winds, accompanied 
by very cold weather, most affect the health of the 
peaeh tree. If the air can be filled with moisture, 
there is much less dtinger from the winds and cold. 
With these observed facts in mind, the peach 
grower should take all possible precautions. An 
evergreen or other wind-break upon the northwest 
side of a peach orchard, may make all the diffei- 
ence between an abundant crop and no fruit. 
