376 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
[October, 
way ! And this is a great point gained. Our dairy¬ 
men know the importance of having something to 
keep up the flow of milk when the pastures fail. 
They know that, if the cows are allowed to shrink 
in their milk, good after-feed will do little to re¬ 
store the flow. And they can afford to pay an ex¬ 
tra price for a little extra food for a few weeks, un¬ 
til the fall rains restore the pastures. And what is 
true of cows,” continued the Doctor, “is equally 
true of well-bred sheep and lambs. Common Me¬ 
rino sheep, kept principally for their wool, will suf¬ 
fer comparatively little from a few weeks’ scanty 
supply of food. They grow slowly, and can live 
on their fat. But if you have a lot of lambs that 
you want to average 100 pounds each at five months 
old, there must be no falling off in the supply of 
food. It is the weakest link that determines the 
strength of the whole chain. And when -you are. 
trying to improve a breed of animals, the measure 
of your success will be determined by the rapidity 
of growth during the greatest period of scarcity.” 
“ That, Doctor,” said I, “is pushing the idea to 
Fig. 1.—SOUTH CAROLINA STANCHION. 
an extreme, but there is much truth in what you 
say. And I am satisfied that one of the principal 
aids of a good breeder must be to keep up a steady 
supply of nutritious food. He can not depend on 
‘nature,’ or, as the Doctor puts it, on sailing ves¬ 
sels. He will have to use steam occasionally, and not 
trust solely to the wind. He will need more or less 
green food in winter and early spring, and he will 
have to provide against a scarcity of grass during 
the drouth of summer. He will raise mangel-wur- 
zels and cabbages, and have some pasture so rich 
that the severest drouth hardly affects it. To do 
this, he must use manure liberally.” 
“ Yes,” said the Doctor, “ and then he will make 
more money in a bad season than in a good season. 
I once had a friend, who sailed from New York to 
Liverpool in the ‘Dreadnought.’ The sails were 
never changed, and the passage was made in 12 
days and 12 hours. Now, if we could be sure of 
such steady wind and weather, the steamers would 
not pay; and if we had always favorable seasons, 
there would be no profit in high farming. But the 
good seasons are the exceptions, and the bad sea¬ 
sons the rule. This has always been so, and always 
will be so. The climate does not change. And he 
Is the wise farmer, who fully realizes the fact, and 
makes provision accordingly.” 
Hints and Helps for Farmers. 
Cattle Stanchions. —“ W. W. L.,” Charleston, 
S. C., sends a drawing of stanchions for fastening 
cows. He writes, “lam now milking sixty head, 
and not one has ever got loose. I hope it will be 
Fig. 2.—WISCONSIN stanchion." 
of use to some one. My farm is on . James Is! and. j 
The device shown by my sketch, (fig. 1), consists 
of wedges hung by cords to the upper beam over 
the stanchions. When the stanchions are shut, 
they are held by the wedges ; when they are open, 
the wedges hang down, as shown in the engraving.” 
“F. J.,” Greenfield, Wis., also sends a drawing 
Fig. 3.—ARRANGEMENT FOR OPENING STANCHIONS. 
of stanchions and latch, figure 2, which is in use in 
his part of the country. He says “ It seems to be 
preferable to that of T. G., described in July Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist , being less expensive and more se¬ 
cure. The latch, A, is simply a piece of board fast¬ 
ened at one end with a pin or bolt, while the other 
end is free, and drops down when the movable bar, 
B, is swung to an upright position, as shown at C. 
In order to prevent the possibility of any animal be¬ 
ing burned alive in case of a fire, I have invented an 
affair (fig. 3) by which I can loosen all of the cattle 
in my stable at once. I find it is a great conveni¬ 
ence in doing the every day chores, as well as being 
a protection in case of a fire. The attachment is 
the cord, A, which passes over the pulleys, B, C, D, 
and is fastened to the weight, F. From the end 
of each latch there is a small cord, F, which is at¬ 
tached to the cord, A. To loosen the cattle, take 
hold of the cord at A, and pull it down about six 
inches. This lifts all the latches, and the stanch¬ 
ions are so hung that their own weight swings them 
open. The weight, F, draws the cord back to its 
original position, and each stanchion may be closed 
separately. The only use of the pulley, C, is to 
prevent too much sag in the cord.—I have lately 
put up an anti-tail switcher, such as was described 
in the columns of the American Agriculturist several 
years ago, and I find it very effective in use.” 
Method of Tethering Animals. —“F. S. C.,” 
Painesville, Ohio, wants 
a plan of tethering ani¬ 
mals safely, so that the 
rope or chain will not 
lap around the post. 
We give an illustration 
of a very simple one, 
that may be made of a 
short post and a piece 
of plank. Take a piece 
of hard wood plank, 
bore a hole at each 
end, and a two or three 
inch hole in the mid- 
Fig. 4.—tether pin. die. Procure a stout 
post three inches thick; 
cut down six inches of the top to two inches 
thick, put an iron ring around the top, and bore an 
inch hole three inches from the shoulder. Make a 
pin to fit this hole. When used, drive the stake or 
post in the ground; put the swivel plank on to the 
top of the post, and fasten it by inserting the pin 
into its proper hole. Then fasten the tether to one 
of the holes in the swivel, which is moved round 
as the animal travels. The contrivance is shown at 
figure 4. Some other tether fastenings were de¬ 
scribed in the American Agriculturist for Aug., 1876. 
Post-Hole Digger. —“R. F. W.,” Galesburg, 
Ill., sends an illustration (fig. 5) and description of 
a post-hole digger. He writes, “ I have now in my 
tool house a post-hole digger made for me ten or 
eleven years ago, similar to the one described in the 
American Agriculturist for May, 1877, except that 
the handles cross each other, instead of being 
brought together to close the blades. This I think 
is better. It is my own invention, and is free to 
everybody so far as I am concerned.” 
The Value of Leaves. —When the trees are 
shedding their leaves, it is time to consider the 
many uses to which the litter of the woods may be 
applied. Everybody knows the value of what is 
called “ woods earth ” ; how plants flourish, and 
how the flowers bloom in it, and how 
wheat, com, and potatoes thrive in 
newly cleared ground. “ Woods 
earth ” consists largely of rotted 
leaves, and one use of the leaves, 
which are spread here and there by 
every October blast, is to make a most 
valuable fertilizer. In reducing these 
leaves to a proper condition for ma¬ 
nure, we can turn them to another 
useful purpose. Nothing makes bet¬ 
ter litter than leaves. They may be 
used in the horse-stable, the cow 
sheds, pig pens, and poultry-houses. 
For calves and brood sows they are 
very valuable. There is no danger 
that the young animals may become 
entangled in. them, as there is with 
straw. Leaves may be gathered very 
quickly in open woods, or upon roads, 
or the borders of woods, by means 
of a hay rake. When gathered into 
heaps they may be loaded on to a 
wagon very easily, by using a large basket made 
by sewing sackcloth upon a hoop of a hogshead. A 
correspondent sends a 
hint in this direction, 
which will be useful 
just now. He takes two 
light, strong rods, some 
six feet long, and sews 
gunny cloth to each of 
them, as shown in figure 
6. This sheet is turned 
down over a pile of 
leaves, which is picked 
up by drawing the rods 
close together beneath 
the pile, and the leaves 
may then readily drop- 
Fig. 6.— leaf-gatherer. P ed into a cart or 
wagon. A hay rake, 
with a few light fence hoards fastened to the 
sides, is an excellent vehicle for drawing the leaves 
home. To keep them in good condition for use, 
they should be put under cover. 
The Cooley System of Setting Milk. 
For some time past different modifications of 
what is known as the Swedish plan of setting milk 
for cream, have been introduced into this country. 
Some time ago we described the Hardin apparatus, 
which consists of an ordinary tightly closed re¬ 
frigerator, containing an ice shelf in the upper 
part, and a space beneath for deep cans for the 
milk. The melting ice not only cools the air in the 
closet, but the dripping cold water falls upon the 
Fig. 1.—COOLEY’S MILK CHEST. 
cans and increases the cooling effect. In the meth¬ 
od known as the Cooley system, a water chest, 
(shown at figure 1), and covered deep cans, (fig. 2), 
are used. The cans, twenty inches deep and eight 
and one-half inches in diameter,are quite submerged 
