256 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
tying change in our business relations with foreign 
nations, which must, in a very short period, free 
ns from our financial and business difficulties. 
Hints and Helps for Farmers. 
Feed-Rack for Sheep.— S. S. B.,” South Bend, 
Ind., sends the following description, with sketch, 
Fig. 1.— FEED-RACK FOE SHEEP, 
of a feed-rack for sheep. The rack (fig. 1) is 
made of poles for the bottom and top, and cross¬ 
bars fitted into them, as shown in the engraving. 
The bottom bar slides loosely in brackets, which 
are fixed to the wall of the shed, and the upper 
bar is secured by a cord, which passes over a small 
pulley in a hole in the wall above the rack; a 
weight being attached to the outside end of the 
rope, serves to keep the rack always against the 
wall. When hay is put into the rack, that is drawn 
down, and when filled, is pushed back against the 
wall, holding the hay closely, and being kept in 
place by the weight. This prevents the hay from 
being pulled out too freely by the sheep or cattle. 
It is recommended that the grain-trough be placed 
beneath a rack of this kind, so that the chaff which 
falls from it, may be caught in the trough and 
saved for use, instead of being trampled under foot. 
Equalizing the Teeth of a Cross-cut Saw is 
done by a contrivance proposed by S. S. B., and 
shown at figures 2 and 3. At A, fig. 2, is represent¬ 
ed a piece of inch board, cut to an arc of a circle, 
equal to that described by the teeth of the saw, 
when in proper condition. The usual form of the 
saw is that of an arc of a circle of 20 feet radius, or 
40 feet diameter. To form the curve, a piece of 
cord, 20 feet long, is fastened at one end to a nail 
on a barn floor, or to a peg stuck in the ground. 
Then with a pencil fastened to the other end, the 
proper curve is marked upon a piece of board, 
Fig. 2.— SETTING CROSS-CUT SAW. 
placed 20 feet from the nail or peg. The board cut 
to this line is laid upon the saw, as shown in the 
illustration, and is clamped to it with thumb-screws. 
Then a file-holder and guide is made, as shown in 
fig. 3 ; the piece B being cut to fit the curve of the 
board, A. A piece, C, is screwed to B, to which a 
file is fastened by three screws, two at the shank, 
and one at the toe • and a handle, _£>, is also fasten¬ 
ed to it. The position of the file is shown by the 
dotted line on B. The board A (fig.2)is clamped to 
the saw, with the curved edge properly placed with 
regard to the desired 
line of the teeth; the 
0 curved line of the guide 
for the file is placed on 
the edge of the board, 
and is pushed back¬ 
wards and forwards, 
until every tooth is 
brought to an equal 
length. Until this is done, the saw will not work 
well, it will either jump when used, or run to one 
side or the other, as a tooth longer than the other 
may be set to one side or the other. The board A 
should be one inch, and the piece B five-eighths of 
an inch thick ; the difference being the proper al¬ 
lowance for the set of the saw-teeth. 
A Cheap Portable Crane. —Mr. L. D. Snook, 
Yates Co., N. Y., sends drawings of an arrange¬ 
ment for raising or unloading boxes, barrels, bales, 
stone, etc., which is illustrated in figure 4. The 
apparatus can be made of any size desirable for the 
work to be done. The manner of connecting the 
lever to the upper piece of the frame is shown in 
fig. 5. From the short end of the lever a rope passes 
under a pulley, and thence around a windlass, 
which is secured by wooden boxes. When the 
windlass is turned, the rope is wound about it, 
gradually pulling the short end of thd lever toward 
the ground, and elevating the opposite end. For 
most purposes a ratchet should be attached to the 
windlass, that the weight may be held at any point 
desired, and for raising heavy articles, the frame 
should be staked to the ground or floor, at or near 
the pulley. The iron staple, in fig. 5, should fit the 
frame very loosely, so that the end of the lever 
may be moved laterally several degrees if desired. 
Building and Staking Stone-walls on Wet 
Soils. ByL. D. Snook.—When stone-walls are built 
upon wet soils they are injured each spring by un¬ 
equal settling, as the frost leaves the ground. If 
some plan of underdraining be adopted to carry off 
the water from underneath and at the side of the 
wall, this trouble will be avoided. Walls already 
constructed, may be thus protected by an under¬ 
drain located six feet on each side of the wall, run¬ 
ning parallel to it. This plan not only saves the 
wall, but is beneficial to the soil, for at least twenty- 
five feet upon each side. However, if a wall is to 
be built, a tile drain may be placed two to two-and-. 
a-half feet under the wall, as shown in figure 6 , 
but it should be well and thoroughly done, for 
should it become stopped up, its location would 
prevent repairing it. In figure 7 is shown a method 
of staking walls in localities where the soil is not 
readily drained ; also as an economical and less 
troublesome method of keeping stakes in posi¬ 
tion, free from decaying, etc. When building the 
wall, there is placed crosswise, near the bottom, a 
piece of wood, 4 inches wide and about 2 inches 
thick ; pine or oak slabs from the saw-mill will an¬ 
swer. This projects from the wall one foot on 
each side. Holes an inch and-a-half in diame¬ 
ter are bored, about three inches from each end, 
for the reception of the stakes, as shown in the 
engraving. The smaller and shorter stakes used 
are never thrown out by the action of frost, and 
Fig. 7. 
the lower end will resist decay three times as long 
as those of stakes placed in the ground. 
Automatic Tide Water Sluice-Gate. 
In the drainage of tide-water marshes, much dif¬ 
ficulty is frequently encountered in procuring a 
sufficiently tight closure of the sluice-way against 
Fig. 1.— GATE FOR TIDE WATER SLUICE. 
the rising tide. As the in-flowing current of the 
tide is relied upon to close the gate, this is not, and 
can not always be effective so soon as may be need¬ 
ed ; for until the tide has risen sufficiently to press 
with considerable force against the gate, the in-flow 
is not stopped, and the water enters the sluice and 
rises upon the marsh. To have some automatic 
arrangement then, by which the gate can be effec¬ 
tively closed before the tide 
reaches it, will be very valua¬ 
ble.' Having been engaged in 
the drainage of a tide-water 
marsh, to meet the difficulty 
here referred to, we applied 
the contrivance illustrated in 
figure 1. A tight door was 
fitted to the sluice, and hung 
upon- hinges, as shown in 
figure 3, the bar upon which 
the hinges turned being pass¬ 
ed through the eyed straps 
and fastened by a nut and 
washer, so as to move easily. 
A bent arm, made of either 
light strap-iron or of stiff 
wood, is attached to the bot¬ 
tom of the sluice, as shown, 
and is connected to the gate 
by a strap ; it is furnished with 
a ball or float of light pine wood, the weight of which 
opens the gate when no longer supported by the 
water above the level of the bottom of the sluice; 
Fig. 2.— GATE FOR TIDE WATER SLUICE. 
and the bouyancy of which closes the gate when it 
is lifted by the rising tide. This is made clear by 
the dotted lines in the figure, which show the posi¬ 
tion of the float and gate at high water, and the 
dark lines show its position at low water. 
Another kind of float is shown at figure 2. This 
is made on precisely the 
same principle as the 
one before mentioned, 
but its mode of opera¬ 
tion is different; A gate 
is made to fit the sloping 
mouth of the sluice, 
which, when not closed 
by the pressure of the 
water, or the buoyancy 
of the float, drops in¬ 
to a perpendicular position by its own weight, and 
opens the sluice. The position of the gate is then 
seen by the dotted lines. When the tide rises, the 
Fig. 4.— PORTABLE CRANE. 
