1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
187 
Fastenings for Cows. 
Although stanchions are really the safest fasten¬ 
ing for cows, yet some persons object to them be¬ 
cause the animals are held in a too confined posi¬ 
tion, and one which is supposed to be painful, or 
otherwise objectionable to the cows. Most owners 
of valuable cows consider safety to be the first 
requisite in their management, and the question as 
to what the cow would like as of minor importance. 
Stanchions have the valuable recommendation that 
one always finds his cows in the morning just where 
they were left at night, if they have been properly 
secured. Nevertheless, for those who dislike 
stanchions, there are other safe ways of fastening 
cows. For some years we used the method shown 
in figures 1 and 2. In the first a strong smooth 
pole was inserted through the floor and “ stepped ” • 
into the beam beneath and into the floor above. It 
was also fastened by an iron strap bolted through 
the front of the trough. A steel ring to which a 
6teel chain was attached was made to slide up and 
down upon the post, and a leather neck strap, or, in 
6ome cases, a leather head stall was attached to the 
chain by a suitable ring or loop. The ring could 
Fig. 1. —FASTENING BY SLIDING KING ON A POLE. 
not fall so low as the floor, being held by the edge 
of the feed trough, and the cow’s feet could not, 
therefore, be entangled in the chain by getting over 
it. This is the chief danger in the use of neck 
straps and chains, but it may be avoided in this 
way. Another plan is to have an iron rod bolted 
to the feed trough, upon which the ring may slide. 
This is equally secure, and gives more room for 
movement to the cow. With these ring-ties it is 
best to have short stalls to prevent the cows inter¬ 
Fig. 2.— FASTENING ATTACHED TO FEED-TROUGH. 
fering with each other, else one of them may step 
on to another as it is lying down. The teats are 
sometimes injured even when stanchions are used, 
but the danger of this is greater with chain ties. 
A Convenient Bin for Oats. 
The usual receptable for oats, com, or mill 
feed, or other grain for domestic animals, is a com¬ 
mon bin or box about four feet in hight. It is 
difficult to get the grain out of such a place when 
the quantity is half or more exhausted. To obviate 
this inconvenience, there may be affixed, about one 
foot from the bottom on one side of the bin, a 
board (-B). This is nailed so as to project into the 
bin at an angle sufficient to allow the filling of a 
measure between the lower edge of board B and top 
edge of the opening at M. The opposite lower side 
of the bin is covered with boards, as indicated by 
the dotted line at R, for the purpose of placing the 
contents within easy reach. The top can be com- 
A BIN FOR OATS OR OTHER FEED. 
pleted with hinged cover as well as the delivery 
space. By using a bin of this form, the last bushel 
is as easily removed as the first one. 
Hints for the Workshop. 
How to drive a noRSE-snoE nail. —Most farm¬ 
ers hesitate to attempt to fasten on a loose shoe for 
fear of injuring the foot by driving the nail in a 
wrong direction. It is such a saving of time and 
money to be able to put a shoe upon a horse in a 
hurried busy time, that every farmer ought to learn 
how to do it. He may practice upon a 
piece of soft pine wood in a rough way, 
when he will find how easy it is, by pro¬ 
perly preparing the nails, to make the 
point come out in exactly the proper 
place. To prepare the nail it should be 
laid upon the anvil (which every work¬ 
shop should have for such work as this), 
or a smooth iron block, and beaten out 
straight; the point should then be beveled 
slightly upon one of the flat sides, and 
the point also bent a very little from the 
side which is beveled. It will then be of 
the shape shown at figure 1. In driving 
such a nail into a piece of soft wood, or a y. 
horse’s hoof which is penetrated easily nail. 
in any direction, if the beveled side is placed 
towards the center of the hoof and away from the 
crust, the point will be bent outward, and will 
come out lower or higher on the crust as the bevel 
and curve may be more or less. A little practice 
will enable one to cause 
the point to protrude pre¬ 
cisely at the right place. 
By turning the bevel out¬ 
wards, in driving the nail, 
the course will be towards 
the center of the foot 
as shown by the line 6, 
in figure 2. The nail is 
sometimes started in the 
wrong direction by care- j 
less blacksmiths, and the 
horse is lamed in conse- _. ~T 
,, ,, ... . Fig. 2.— DRIVING NAILS, 
quenee. If the mistake is ° 
discovered, and an attempt made to draw out the 
nail, a piece of it may be broken off, and at every 
concussion of the foot, the fragment will penetrate 
further, until it reaches the sensitive parts, and 
great suffering will follow. Many a horse is sup¬ 
posed to have navicular disease, (because that hap¬ 
pens to be one of those obscure affections of the 
foot which has no outward sign,) when the trouble 
is a fragment of nail broken off by a bungling shoer. 
We have examined the foot of a horse which was 
killed because of an incurable lameness, and found 
a piece of a nail thus bedded in the center of the 
foot, surrounded with an abscess which had eaten 
into the bone. The torture suffered by this horse 
must have been intense, and it was supposed to be 
a case of navicular disease, while the real cause was 
unsuspected. In driving nails into the hoof great 
caution should be exercised. The hand, or the 
thumb, should be held over the spot where the 
point of the nail is expected to come out, and if it 
does not appear when it should do so, the nail must 
be withdrawn. Use no split or imperfect nail, and 
have the point very carefully prepared. The course 
taken by a nail properly pointed and driven, is 
shown by the lines curved outwards at a, a, in fig. 2. 
Screw-Drivers.— To drive a screw with, a screw¬ 
driver, as it is usually pointed and 
handled, is a disagreeable task. If 
the screw goes in with difiiculty, 
the driver slips out of the groove, 
or it cuts the edges of the groove 
so that the screw is useless. T his 
is because the point of the tool is 
not ground properly. It should 
be ground with an even and long 
bevel, at least an inch long in small 
tools, and two inches in large ones. 
The sides of the bit should be kept 
straight, and not tapered off nor 
the corners ground off or rounded. 
There should be no sharp edge 
ground upon the end of the tool, 
and the grinding should be length¬ 
wise, or from handle to point, and 
not cross-wise. The edge should 
be slightly rounded. The degree 
of roundness given may be such as 
would make it equal to an arc of a 
circle ten to twelve inches in dia¬ 
meter ; for small tools this may be 
lessened considerably. The shape 
of a well pointed screw-driver is 
shown at figure 3. Flat handles 
should be abolished as a nuisance; 
after an hour’s use of a driver with 
such a handle, the hand will be 
stiff and sore. The handle should 
be a round one, as shown in figure 
4, and it will pay every one who 
uses the tool to provide one with¬ 
out delay. Screw-drivers are used more frequently 
than necessary. We have driven hundreds of 
screws in all sorts of timber, hard white oak even, 
with the hammer, just as nails are driven, without 
the use of a screw-driver, and found them hold per¬ 
fectly well. This, of course, can be done only with 
the sharp taper-pointed screws, and if any one uses 
the old blunt pointed kind, he is too far behind the 
times to be much of a mechanic or farmer either. 
Fig. 3. screw¬ 
driver. 
To Prevent Cows Sucking Themselves. 
In the American Agriculturist for November last, 
two devices are given to prevent cows from sucking 
themselves; a corre¬ 
spondent thinks his 
contrivance of a spiked 
leather halter quite as 
effective, and attended 
with less expense and 
troubli. The manner 
of wearing the halter 
is shown in figure 1, 
one buckle at the up¬ 
per part, behind the 
ears, makes it quite 
easy to attach or detach it. Figure 2 shows how 
the spikes are secured. The spikes should not be 
over two inches in length. They are best made 
of wrought nails, which 
are sold at the hard¬ 
ware stores. They are 
placed in an iron vise 
and the heads flattened 
as much as possible by 
pounding with a ham¬ 
mer ; they are then 
driven into a piece of 
Fig.2. MAKING THE HALTER. tMck and 
cured by sewing or riveting it upon another piece 
of leather, as shown at B in figure 2. 
Fig. 1.— SPIKED HALTER. 
Navicular Disease in Horses. —That this dis¬ 
ease is prevalent, is a serious reflection upon the 
wisdom of owners of horses. When a horse is shod 
the frog is cut away and the sole pared, and that 
portion of the foot which should act as an elastic 
cushion or spring to the bones of the foot, is re- • 
