216 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
up. With a little painstaking it is quite easy to 
breed to any desired shade of plumage. 
Mr. Crozie.r’s Pig-pens- 
Mr. Wm. Crozier, of Beacon Stock-Farm, 
Northport, L. I., has a range of pig-pens seventy 
feet long, and he is so well pleased with the 
plan that he proposes to enlarge it to two hun¬ 
dred feet. The elevation (fig. 1), the ground plan 
(fig. 2), and a view of the interior of the building 
(fig. 3), show the simple arrangement. The 
building is placed against a bank, which has a 
brick retaining wall that answers as the rear 
wall of the building, and is 9 feet high. The 
building is 16 feet wide, with the front side 6'| 2 
feet high. The pens (see fig. 2) are 12 x 10 feet, 
and 3 feet high, with a 4-foot walk at the rear 
of them. The doors, of which each pen has 
one opening into the yard, are in halves. The 
upper half may be left open to admit light and 
air, while the lower one is kept closed, if it be 
desired, to prevent egress. At one end of the 
building is a room furnished with apparatus for 
steaming food. The feeding is done from the 
walk, the food being placed in small portable 
troughs, which can be readily cleaned. 
Blue-grass.—(Aa pratensis). 
I have been so often asked about this grass, 
that I say a word about its history and propa¬ 
gation. In the latitude of Virginia, say from 
thirty-five to thirty-eight degrees north, the 
Poa Pratensid, English “ Green-sward,” or Ken¬ 
tucky “Blue-grass,” assumes so dark a hue, 
that it has been named Blue-grass. The soil of 
Kentucky is so well adapted to its culture, that 
it has been supposed to be a species peculiar to 
that State, where I have seen it from two to 
three feet high in the seed-stalks, with long 
parallel, sided blades two-thirds as tall. I 
sent a specimen to a competent 
botanist, but he pronounced it 
the same as that bearing all the 
above names. It is very wide¬ 
ly diffused over the northern 
parts of the world. I have 
seen it at St. Paul, in Min¬ 
nesota, in Cleveland, Ohio, in 
England, all Northern Europe, 
and as far as St. Petersburg, 
Russia, sixty degrees north lati¬ 
tude. In Tennessee and Ar¬ 
kansas, and further south, it 
grows poorly, and is soon 
killed out by grasses better 
suited to the soil and climate. 
It is highly nutritious and adapted to grazing 
and ornament; but it is hard to cut, and diffi¬ 
cult to cure as hay. It is said to pass uninjured 
in its seeds through the stomachs of cattle; and 
thus it has gone, it is said, west with civilization. 
In Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of Missouri, 
upon limestone, clay, and loam, it is self-propa¬ 
gating, and masters all other plants and grasses. 
I have in Kentucky frequently 
wintered stock upon it with¬ 
out other feed. But where it 
is designed for winter use, it 
should be allowed to grow 
uudist.urbed from midsummer 
until cold weather. As its 
culture is not so well known 
further north, I will give some hints about it. 
Seed .— The seeds are very small, and securely 
covered with husks; but when rubbed hard be¬ 
tween the palms of the hands, appear of a long 
oval shape, "wax color, and hard. The seeds are 
easily injured by heating in bulk; and it is surest 
to buy those in the cut-up seed-stalks, which 
are thus better aired. Good seed, when thrown 
upon live coals, makes a 
sharp, crackling noise. 
Sowing .—In woodlands, after 
the fallen leaves are burned or 
removed, the seed may be 
sown broadcast upon the snow 
any time after February, or 
sooner; the freezing of the 
ground and its thawing in 
early spring will sufficiently 
imbed the seed. The brush¬ 
wood and weeds should be 
kept down until the seed is ripe, 
in the second year, wheu the 
lands may be safely grazed. 
Lawns .—In making lawns, 
the ground, if clayey, should 
be well underdrained, deeply 
plowed, or spaded, all large 
stones, stumps, etc., removed, 
and the surface made level and clear of clods 
by the harrow or other means. The Blue- 
grass seed, mixed with timothy, clover, or 
other grasses, in small quantities to shade the 
tender shoots, should then be sowed broadcast 
with the hand ; and then the ground should be 
smoothed with a heavy roller. In the Middle 
States the fall is the best time to sow, on account 
of the hot spring-time; but in New York, and 
further north, perhaps, early spring is better. 
I say nothing about the quantity of seed, as 
it is marketed in a clean state, in the chaff, 
beaten from dew-rotted stalks, and cut-up stalks 
and all, in a feed-box, and also stripped by ma¬ 
chinery or the hand from the standing grass. 
Other things equal, the more seed the better; 
but as this grass spreads readily from the roots, 
it will soon fill the whole surface of the ground. 
Culture .—In sandy soils, there should be a 
heavy top-dressing of lime, clay, and vegetable 
manure, before plowing; stable and other hot 
manures should not be put on until the 
grass is well sodded; and then only in the late 
fall, winter, or early spring. The grasses 
sowed with the Blue, should be cut off with the 
scythe; but the lawn should not be grazed until 
after the Blue-grass seed are ripe, the second 
year, when it may be cut or grazed. After this, 
the sward may be kept down smoothly with a 
scythe or mowing machine; but I would rec¬ 
ommend the suspension of that operation during 
a drouth and the late fall, so that the blades 
may better protect the roots during the summer 
heat, and give the sod an earlier start in the 
spring. White clover being a low plant and of 
similar habits with this grass, may be sown with 
it—but to me no green-sward is so beautiful 
as the unmixed Blue-grass. C. M. C. 
— *-« n i a -s-tB—-* o-. 
Apparatus for Cooling Cream.— Much of 
the ease of butter-making depends upon having 
the cream at the proper temperature. If the 
cream is shown by the ther¬ 
mometer to be warmer than 62° 
or 63°, it should be cooled to 
that point. The cooling is usu¬ 
ally accomplished by setting the 
vessel containing the cream in 
cold spring-water or ice-water. 
A very rapid and effective me¬ 
thod of cooling a large quan¬ 
tity of cream, is to use a vessel 
like that shown in the engraving. 
It is a tin can, about 3‘ | 2 inches 
in diameter and 20-inches long. 
This, being filled with broken 
ice, is moved about in the 
cream until the temperature is 
sufficiently reduced. As the 
cooling medium is moved 
through the cream, not only 
does the cooling take place 
rapidly, but the agitation causes 
the cream to be of a uniform 
temperature throughout the 
whole. It is not a slight advan¬ 
tage that this cooler is merely 
a plain cylinder, and as its ex¬ 
terior surface only requires 
cleaning, it is likely to be kept 
sweet. In cold weather, when it is necessary 
to warm the cream, the same implement is used, 
but in this case, hot water takes the place of ice. 
■--— 
A Bottle for Dosing Animals.—T he en¬ 
graving represents a tin bottle with a curved 
neck, made for 
the purpose of 
administering a 
dose of medicine 
to a horse. A 
glass bottle is 
commonly em¬ 
ployed for this 
purpose; but 
one made of 
tin is altogether 
safer, being not liable to be broken, and more 
convenient, and, being kept for this purpose 
alone, it is always at hand, when required for use. 
Fig. 1.— elevation of piggery. 
Walk 
Steaming mm. 
Pen 
Pen 
Pm 
Pen 
Pen 
Fig. 2.— PLAN OF PIGGERY. 
Fig. 3.— INTERIOR OF PIGGERY. 
