18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
as a feed-room. In front of the feeding floor are 
pens for calves, d,d,d\ a shed for yearlings is made 
out of the old cow-shed, at e, in which the young 
animals may be tied with chains, and taught some¬ 
thing of the discipline to which they will be sub¬ 
jected hereafter. At/is an open shed for the year¬ 
lings ; at g is the pen for pigs ; at h is the horse- 
stable for four horses, with a harness-room at the 
Fig. 2.— PLAN OF BUILDINGS AS AT PRESENT. 
end ; at i, i, are two loose boxes for in-coming cows, 
or mares and colts, and at j is a stall for a bull. In 
front of the calf pens are two sheds for implements, 
■wagons, etc. The barn-yard is in the center, and a 
wide gateway is placed in the front of it. Paving 
cobble-stones will keep the yard dry and clean, and 
no manure should be piled in it. There are doors 
opening out of some of the buildings, by which 
manure may be carted away, to be piled or spread. 
An isometrical plan, showing the elevation of the 
buildings, is given at figure 1. The plan may be 
modified to suit either the kind of buildings exist¬ 
ing, or the necessities of any peculiar case, and 
while it is applicable to this particular farm, as far 
Fig. 3.— PLAN FOR REMODELING. 
as possible, it is intended to be suggestive of what 
may be done in many other cases which are con¬ 
tinually occurring. Before any old buildings, which 
may be sound, or good enough for repair, are torn 
down to be replaced with others, it will be well to 
study all practicable methods of remodeling them. 
Division of Farms. 
One of the wastes of the farm, from which much 
loss results, consists in having a number of small 
fields. No field, even upon a small farm, ought to 
be less than ten acres in extent. It is not necessary 
that the whole of this should be in one crop, for it 
may be apportioned into as many as may be found 
desirable. It is not only the ground occupied by 
the fences that is lost, but the margin of the field 
near the fence cannot be cultivated, and more 
ground is wasted there. The loss is greatly in¬ 
creased when the fences are crooked, and when 
weeds are allowed to grow up about them. In such 
cases it is well worth while to remove all the inner 
fences of the farm, and remodel the whole arrange¬ 
ment of them. The outer fence should be made 
perfectly safe and substantial, and if there is a pas¬ 
ture, a safe fence should be made between this and 
the plowed ground. The latter needs no division 
by fences, simple furrows or lines are quite suffici¬ 
ent to divide one plot or crop from another; then 
all the ground is used and none wasted. If at any 
time one of these plots is to be pastured, or stock 
is to be turned into it, a temporary fence should be 
used. Many kinds of temporary and portable 
fences have been described and illustrated from 
time to time in the American Agriculturist , any one 
of which would be found useful for this purpose. 
The saving of ground by removing useless fences 
is very important. The smaller the fields, of 
course the greater the saving in proportion. For 
instance, a common worm-fence around a square 
field of three acres, occupies 8,280 square feet— 
about one-fifth of an acre—or about 7 per cent of 
the space enclosed. A similar fence around twelve 
acres, being four times the space, occupies only 
double the room; a saving of 50 per cent in the 
ground occupied. If the space enclosed is 48 acres, 
the ground occupied by the fence is only four times 
that required for 3 acres, while the area of the 
ground is increased sixteen times. This explains 
the great waste occasioned by fencing a number of 
small fields, and the saving pointed out in having 
only a few, or one large field. Division fences are 
an enormous tax upon farmers, the cost of main¬ 
taining them, and the loss of ground occupied by 
them, and of the yearly produce which might other¬ 
wise be taken from this ground, is even more than 
the original cost. It is time something should be 
done to avoid this waste, and there is no better sea¬ 
son for moviug fences than the present one. 
Poke for Preachy Animals. 
The natural sagacity of a breachy animal will of¬ 
ten enable it to overcome any ordinary restraint we 
may put upon it, and it becomes a strife between it 
and its owner, as to which is the most fertile in expe¬ 
dients. If we watch the efforts of a breachy animal 
to avoid the means used to keep it within bounds, 
they will go far to induce us to believe that it pos¬ 
sesses powers of reasoning. It is necessary, there¬ 
fore, that pokes, hobbles, or other devices for re¬ 
straint, should be perfect¬ 
ly effective, and not such 
as may be circumvented 
by the animal, lest it learn 
new tricks and become 
worse than ever. Most of 
the pokes in use are either 
in the way when the ani¬ 
mal is grazing, or if 
not dangerous, ineffective. 
One that seems to be all 
that can be desired in the 
way of a poke is here il¬ 
lustrated. It is made of 
horse-shoe bar-iron, and is 
provided at one end with 
arms and rings by which it is fastened to the ani¬ 
mal’s head, and at the other end with a hook. The 
poke is curved forwards so that when the animal 
approaches a fence, the end of the hook becomes 
entangled with the lower rail, and holds fast to it. 
When the animal is grazing, the curved form of the 
bar causes it to slip forward and remain out of the 
way. The hook should not be sharp, but simply 
a portion of the bar turned up but not pointed. 
Carrier Pigeons On the Police Force.— Mr. 
W. B. Tegetmeier, the well known poultry fancier 
and writer on matters relating to domestic birds, 
.describes a new use to which carrier pigeons have 
been put in England. Their instinctive habits have 
there been made available for the assistance of the 
police in carrying messages from out-stations io the 
central office, or to the stations from any locality 
to which detectives have been dispatched. The 
utility of pigeons in this respect may be turned to 
good account when there is no telegraph sta¬ 
tion at hand, as a message may be conveyed to 
headquarters from some miles distance in a few 
minutes. It is not at all improbable that we may 
see this idea put in practice for detective pur¬ 
poses, and for conveying messages, in this country. 
Tim Bunker on the Evils of Agricultural 
Fairs. 
Mr. Editor : Things are getting awfully mixed 
up here in Hookertown, and half of the time I can 
hardly tell whether I am in the “ land of steady 
habits ” or not. The last County Fair in Hooker- 
town was not in good old style at all, if I am any 
judge. Joseph’s coat of many colors was a very 
poor thing in comparison with the variety show 
they had up here. You see things have been get¬ 
ting worse and worse for several years.—After we 
cleaned out Col. Lawson who got up “the gal hoss 
race ” just afore the war, we had decent times for 
several years.—That picture in the paper of the 
“ set-to ” between the “gals ” with the ribbins and 
calico flying did the business for the Colonel and 
his style of Agricultural Fairs. He fell flat as a 
pancake, and Deacon Smith was put in President 
of the Society, and cattle, sheep, poultry, fruits 
and vegetables had a fair chance for several years. 
The fairs were well attended by farmers and their 
families, the Society got out of debt, and got money 
ahead to buy land and buildings for a permanent 
home. Several thousand dollars were distributed 
in premiums every year, and the horses did not get 
more than their share of attention. It was flush 
times after the war—money was plenty, and Seth 
Twiggs said the noses of people in Hookertown 
were getting elevated. Colonel Lawson came home 
from the war a Brigadier General, run for Con¬ 
gress, got elected for one term, and was elected to 
stay at home next time. The General grew uneasy, 
and by the aid of the livery stables and grog shops 
got in President of the County Agricultural Socie¬ 
ty once more. We were going to hav" several re¬ 
forms introduced. There were to b_ greater at¬ 
tractions at the fairs—greater multitudes were to 
come out, the finances were to be improved, the 
grounds enlarged, and new buildings were to be put 
up for the accommodation of animals, so that the 
finest stock in the County would come to the fair. 
The new attractions centered the first year in a 
balloon ascension which emptied every grog-shop 
in Hookertown, left Smithtown with nothing but 
cripples and babies to keep house, and depopulated 
the White Oaks, so that there was not a dog left on 
the street. There was a big crowd, and a good 
deal of money taken at the gates, but a good many 
of the farmers could not see exactly “how a bal¬ 
loon raisin’ was gwine to help farming.” They 
were ready enough to admit that the machine was 
a big thing, the gas wonderful, and the fellow 
smart that went up like Elijah into the clouds, but 
the puzzle was to know what that had to do with 
farming. The next year the General wanted the 
track worked so that it should be as smooth as a 
house floor. The cattle would appear so much bet¬ 
ter as they passed round before the judges. The 
track was enlarged, thoroughly worked, and the 
judges saw the grand cavalcade. The next year 
the premiums offered on horse-flesh were greatly 
increased, and a little trotting was allowed against 
time. The competition was confined to horses 
raised in the County, and no outsiders were invited. 
Side shows began to come in—bearded women, 
dwarfs, hair-seals, devil-fish—monstrosities and 
peddlers of various wares. Every year the fair ran 
more and more to horse-flesh. The premiums for 
trials of speed were greatly enlarged. Outsiders 
came in with their fast nags. The General’s style 
of Agricultural Fair culminated this year in a regu¬ 
lar race course, with all its attendant evils of drunk¬ 
enness, gambling, and fighting. About all the 
loose cash in the White Oaks was staked upon Kier 
Frink’s stallion, a broken down race-horse, that 
has run in his coal cart for the last five years. He 
was fast once, faster than anything the White Oak- 
ers had ever seen. Shadtown smelt the battle afar 
off, and sent up its sample of five-year-olds, that had 
never run a race before. Hookertown livery stable 
had kept several horses in training several months for 
the various races that were put upon the programme. 
