1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
49 
impair his work, but is of circular form, and stayed 
with 3-inch furring lath, on which the tiu is 
smoothly and easily laid. E, Bracket.constructed of 
'lx 4, with simple scroll, sawed from 4x6 timber. 
F .; Crown molding, of li x 3d, worked solid; <7, 
Barge board with the crown molding attached ; 
this closes the ends of the gutters to the bight of 
the dotted line at D. The stairs, interior trimmings, 
and the general painting, are intended to be similSl- 
to those described on page 334, September, 1875. 
In the estimate appended will be found a full 
schedule of the materials required to construct, and 
fully develope a house by these plans. The quan¬ 
tities given may be relied on as correct, and their 
cost is compiled from the prices now ruling in 
this vicinity. JEstinnute : 
69 yards Excavation, <a 25c. per yard.$ 17.25 
IS,500 lJriclc, (furnished and laid), @ $15 (? 1000. .. 217.50 
53 feet Stone Sills, Steps, and Coping, @ 30 c. per It. 15.90 
841 yards Plastering, complete.® 35c. per yard. 291.35 
250 yards Stucco Cornices, at 25c. per yard. 62.50 
4,903 feet Timber, @ 2c. per foot. 94.06 
viz. 2 Sills, 4x8 in. x 30 ft. long. Ties, 4x6 in. x 302 l't. long. 
2 Sills, 4x8 in. x 22 ft. long. Plates, 4x6 in. x 151 ft. long. 
3 Sills, 4x8 in. x 18 ft. long. 75 Beams, 3x8 in. x 18 ft. l’g. 
8 Posts, 4x7 in. x 22 ft. long. 54 Ratters, 3x4 in.x 13 ft. l’g. 
500 Wall Strips, 2x4x13, @ 13c. each. . 65.00 
320 Sheathing. 944 inches, at 25c. eacli. 80.00 
170 Bss. Tarred Paper, @ 3c. ft. . 5.10 
820 Siding Boards, 9>4 in. & 28c. each. 89.60 
Materials in outside dressing and Cornices. 80.00 
161 Hemlock Boards, principal roof, 10 in., (St 20c. eacli 32.20 
1444 squares of Slate. @ $9.00 per square. 130.50 
306 Flooring, 944 in. @ 28c. each.— 85.68 
2 Stoops, complete, @ $50 each. 100.00 
2 Bay Windows, complete, $150; Stairs, coiu’e, $100... 250.00 
21 Plain Windows, complete, @ $12 each. 252.00 
7 Cellar Windows, complete, @ $6. 42.00 
22 Do >rs, with base and trimming, complete,® $10ea. 220.00 
2 Marble Mantels and 3 Shelves, complete. 68.00 
1 Range, (with elevated oven and warm closet,) com’e 80.00 
Plumbing and Gas-pipes, complete. 175.00 
Coal-lift and Shelving.'complete . 25.00 
2 Rooms in Attic, finished, complete. 60.00 
Nails, $20 ; Bells, and Speaking Tubes, complete, $15.. 35.00 
Painting, $240; Cartage $10. 2S0.00 
Carpenter's labor not included above. 250.00 
Extra for Incidentals. 29.36 
Total cost, complete.$3,200.00 
Should it be desirable to reduce the cost of build¬ 
ing by this plan, it may be done without changing 
the principal outlines or arrangements, by the fol¬ 
lowing deductions and omissions, viz ; Saving. 
Foundations reduced in bight from 7 ft. to 6>4 ft.$20.00 
Five cellar windows instead of 7. 12.00 
Inclosing with single thickness siding.80.00 
Roof of shingles instead of slate. .60.00 
Four plain windows, instead of the two havs.86.00 
Deduct 1 window in each: dining-room, kitchen, b’h-r’m 36.00 
Reduce the cost of windows and doors, eacli $1.50. 61.50 
An ordinary range, instead of one witli an elevated oven 40.00 
Omit the finish in attic . 60.00 
Omit plumbing and gas-pipes.175.00 
Omit coal-lift, bells, and tubes. 30.00 
Total reductions.$663.50 
Making the cost. $2,530.50 
Science Applied to Farming—XIY. 
By Prof. \V. O. Atwater, Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Conn. 
Using Poor and Selling Belter Hay Prof. 
Storer’s Testimony_Cotton-Seed as Fod¬ 
der.—Facts for Farmers in tlie iVortli and 
Son til. 
One of the points urged in the last article was, 
that it might often he excellent economy to feed 
out the poorer hay to stock on the farm, mixing it 
with concentrated foods to make it equivalent to 
the best hay, and thus save the latter to be sold for 
cash, like any other marketable product. This was 
brought out, as it will he remembered, by compar¬ 
ing the chemical composition and feeding value of 
several varieties of fresh and salt-marsh hay, with 
the better qualities of upland hay, and with young 
grass. The marsh and bog hays are too poor for 
ordinary feeding; they lack digestible substance, 
and especially albuminoids and fats. To enable 
stock to thrive upon them, we must supply the 
lacking material. For this purpose, clover, or con¬ 
centrated foods like oil-cake, bran, grain, or roots, 
will suffice. The nitrogenous foods will be most 
economical, because they furnish the largest pro¬ 
portion of albuminoids. To the illustration given 
of the successful working of this plan in practice, 
I add the testimony of Prof. Storer, of the Bussey 
Institution, by whom the investigations of the 
marsh hags referred to were made. In speaking of 
their value as fodder, Prof. Storer remarks that: 
" Marsh Hays 
constitute one important resource of the farmers 
of New England, which will he doubtless availed 
of in the future as in the past, and the more 
fully, in proportion as their real significance is 
more clearly understood. There are few more 
interesting problems for the faimers of any region 
to work out, than those which relate to the judi¬ 
cious utilization of the, comparatively speaking, 
innutritious kinds of food that are produced upon 
the farm, and are too coarse and bulky to be mer¬ 
chantable. Such problems have lost much of their 
former difficulty iu these days of cheap transporta¬ 
tion, when, besides the old resoures of root crops, 
such foods as grain, bran, feed, cotton-seed meal, 
and other waste products may be bought almost 
everywhere ; and they are, of course, specially easy, 
when the rough forage itself is in itself fairly good, 
as the bog and salt hays appear to be when con¬ 
trasted with the straw that is so large a component 
of many of the fodder mixtures of Europe.” 
“ It would seem to be plain that there are many 
places in New England, where it would he not 
merely good practice, but really excellent farming, 
to feed out on the farm the hay from coarse natural 
herbage, with the addition of small quantities of 
some of the concentrated forms of food, and to 
send off the farm, in so far as might be practicable, 
the more costly upland hay, to be marketed like 
any other merchantable product. It must often be 
true, all things considered, that for home use the 
rough, low grade hays are actually better fodder 
than English hay.” 
Prof. Storer does not seek to deter farmers from 
draining their boggy meadows, or embanking their 
salt-marshes, for, as he says, “ there never has been 
any question, but the agricultural product of New 
England might be enormously increased, if but a 
fraction of the wild low land, that is susceptible of 
improvement, were subdued.” But, at the same 
time, “ the natural products of the wet lands are by 
no means wholly worthless, and whatever value 
they do really possess, be it large or small, should 
be clearly recognized, and allowed for, and put to 
use.”—Prof. Storer speaks here of New England, 
but his remarks apply equally well to other parts 
of the country, wherever there are poor hays to 
use and stock to feed. 
One of the great sius of the American people, is 
their wastefulness, and a deal of the blame for this 
lies at farmers’ doors, sparing as they are. What 
with the land that lies under weeds, manure that 
is leached away by rain, or carried off in decaying 
into the air, and fodder that is but partially utilized, 
it is no wonder that they complain of small gains 
and hard living. And in this case, judicious feed¬ 
ing of Tow-land hays, by which the good they con¬ 
tain may be digested and turned to the best ac¬ 
count, instead of being wasted, would save more 
than can be easily estimated. 
Cottoai-Sce*l for Fodder.—A Word to Cattle 
Kaisers in the Southern States. 
Mr. “A. W. K.,” of McKinney, Texas, writes 
that the farmers in that section know nothing of 
cotton-seed cake or meal , but have plenty of the 
seed in its natural state, and he inquires about its 
composition and proper use. The leathery hull of 
the cotton-seed consists chiefly of woody fiber, 
which is quite indigestible, and is said some¬ 
times to cause irritation of the stomach and intes¬ 
tines of horses and cattle, unless softened by boil¬ 
ing or soaking before it is used. The rest of the 
seed consists mainly of albuminoid substance and 
oil, both of which are in the highest degree nutri¬ 
tious. By great pressure a large part of the oil may 
be forced out, leaving a pomace which is called 
cotton-seed cake, or when finely ground, cotton¬ 
seed meal. When the hulls are removed from 
this, it is said to be “ decorticated.” 
I am not aware that the feeding value of the 
seeds in their natural form, has ever been tested 
by direct and accurate trial. But the digestibility of 
the cotton-seed cake by sheep, was tested not long 
since at one of the European Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Stations. The cake was only partially decor¬ 
ticated. Its composition, as compared with the 
seed from which it was made, was known, and 
other experiments indicate that the expressed oil 
would be almost wholly digestible. So, after find¬ 
ing what proportions of the cake the sheep digest¬ 
ed, the experimenters were able to calculate, with 
tolerable accuracy, how much they would have 
digested from whole seed. Here are the figures. 
The seeds are calculated to contain 7.7 per cent 
water, 7.8 per cent mineral matters, and 84.5 per 
cent of organic substance, (7.7 + 7.8 + 84.5=; 100). 
The organic substance alone is taken into account. 
Table 4J3. 
COTTON SEED. 
The Organic Substance 
consists of: 
Organic 
Substanct 
Albumi¬ 
noids. 
Crude 
Fiber. 
Fats, 
( Oils.) 
100 pounds contain. 
lbs. 
84.5 
lbs. 
22.8 
lbs. 
16.0 
lbs. 
15.4 
lbs. 
30.8 
Of this is digestible. 
56.0 
17.1 
11.6 
27.3 
So it seems that 100 pounds of cotton-seed-would 
furnish about 56 pounds of digestible, that is to 
say, actually nutritious material. And this would 
be of the very richest sort, for it would contain 17 
lbs. of albuminoids, and 271 lbs. of oil—both 
most valuable ingredieuts of the food. 
How (o Use Cotton-Seed, 
is a matter best learned by experience. Mr. K. 
reports that the farmers in his section “ consider it 
a valuable food for milch cows,” and that they 
“ mix it with corn or bran, or both, and feed with 
prairie-hay, wheat straw, or shucks.” He inquires 
“ whether this is the best disposition that can be 
made of the above enumerated foods ? ” I should 
say, quite decidedly, yes, so far as the question can 
be answered by chemistry. The cotton-seed fur¬ 
nishes just what is lacking in such kinds of forage 
as low grade hay, straw, corn-stalks, and husks, 
viz., albuminoids and fats. But I think the good 
effect of these coarse foods, and of the cotton-seed 
as well, would be increased by cutting or grinding, 
and boiling or steaming. Some definite reports of 
experience in the feeding of cotton-seed, by such 
men as Mr. Iv., would be very useful. The subject 
is an extremely important one. They must be good 
for fattening, but will they make “ prime ” butter ? 
Cotton-Seed and Manure. 
It must be borne in mind that cotton-seed is very 
valuable for the manure it makes, as well as for the 
nutriment it contains. The ingredients which give 
the chief value to our ordinary commercial fer¬ 
tilizers are, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. 
The manure which domestic animals would ordi¬ 
narily produce from a ton of cotton-seed, after 
utilizing all its nutritive matter, would contain more 
of these than exists in a ton of some of the pou- 
drettes, for which hundreds of farmers in this part 
of the country are deluded into paying $25 a ton. 
Mr. K.’s letter is one of a pleasant kind to receive. 
His statements and inquiries are squarely put and 
to the point. Among other things, he refers to 
some experiments with neat cattle, described in 
these articles, and inquires whether the results 
would be the same with horses and mules.—To this 
question I can give but a partial answer. The ex¬ 
periments, such as have been described, have been 
performed with horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, 
and swine, but not with mules. More have been 
made with neat cattle, sheep, and goats, than with 
horses or swine. As regards 
The Digest ivcCapacil ics of Different Animals, 
contrary to the common impression, different 
classes of ruminants seem to digest the crude fod¬ 
der in about the same proportions when they arc 
properly fed. That is to say, from a hundred pounds 
of a given food—as hay, clover, or straw—oxen, 
cows, sheep, and goats digest nearly the same num¬ 
ber of pounds of albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, 
crude fiber, etc. Horses seem to digest less of 
these foods than ruminants.—The following table 
gives the average results of a large number of ex¬ 
periments, byHeDneberg, Stohmann, Kuehn,Wolff, 
Hoffmeister, and others, on the digestibility of 
meadow hay, ordinary “ English grasses,” by differ¬ 
ent animals. Out of every 100 pounds of the follow¬ 
ing substances contained in the hay, the animals 
digested.the number of pounds set under each, viz : 
Table 24. 
Animals fed on meadow 
(UPLAND) HAY. 
Total Or- 
ga’ic sub 
stance. 
Albumi¬ 
noids. 
SjO 
Other 
Carbo¬ 
hydrates 
Fats. 
63.3 
63.6 
63.1 
60. 
60.7 
45. 
65.4 
51.9 
70.4 
63.5 
60.5 
62.1 
64.4 
45 
56.6 
53.5 
59.3 
61.2 
33.5 
Goat's. 
56.6 
57.6 
61.2 
48.8 
Horses. 
40.6 
46.2 
21.4 
53.5 
75.1 
It must be remembered, however, that different 
