176 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[May, 
A Hay Spout for Horse Stables. 
Hay racks, which are elevated above the horse’s 
SPOUT FOB HAY. 
head, are both injurious and wasteful. Even the 
best hay is not free from dust, and some of this is 
so acrid, and irritating to the bronchial tubes and 
lungs, when inhaled, as to cause the disease known 
as heaves; the dust falls from such racks directly 
into the horse’s nostrils, and the animal cannot 
help inhaling it. In such a rack the hay is breathed 
upon, and is picked over, much being then rejected 
and wasted, and left to fall upon the floor of the 
stall. To avoid these troubles the hay may be 
passed down from the floor above by a spout, which 
is made slightly larger at the bottom than at the 
top, so that nothing can lodge in it. This is shown 
iu the annexed engraving. The spout comes down 
at one corner of the stall to the manger, where 
there is a small opening at which the hay is ex¬ 
posed, and from which the horse can draw a mouth¬ 
ful at a time. Until some is withdrawn no more 
hay will come down, and as the horse cannot pick 
and choose there is no waste. At the other end of 
the manger is the usual box for grain or cut feed. 
Where, there is more than one stall, the spout may 
servefbv two. It should then be placed between the 
stalls, v r ith an opening on each side for each horse. 
-.. --■ ® =---- 
Convenient Butter Packages—Molds. 
The tendency of the fancy butter business is evi¬ 
dently towards such packages, and such a form of 
product as shall enable the retailer to deal it out to 
his customers in a neater and more presentablo 
shape for the table, than bas been possible hitherto. 
Quality is of course the first desideratum, but ap¬ 
pearance, with the majority of consumers, will have 
more weight than quality in deciding a purchase. 
Frequently, those dairymen who make a choice ar¬ 
ticle of butter, by reason of their instinctive neat¬ 
ness and better taste, 
send their product to 
market in very hand¬ 
some and attractive 
form. What the mar¬ 
ket wants is good but¬ 
ter, in such a shape 
that it can be cut up 
neatly into small pieces 
for the table. We have 
heretofore made many 
suggestions to this end, 
and have described and 
illustrated many meth¬ 
ods of putting up butter 
in attractive shapes. We 
here illustrate another 
method, which will be 
found useful and convenient, not only for the dairy¬ 
man and consumer, but also for the retailer, upon 
whom the difficult task of properly handling the 
butter falls most severely, when he is called to cut 
it up into pounds and half pounds for his custom¬ 
ers. The mold here illustrated consists of a box 
made with loose ends, and with sides which fall 
apart when required ; this is intended to make well- 
formed cakes, of four or five pounds in weight, 
which may be divided into pounds or half pounds 
without weighing. Figure 1 shows the bottom and 
sides binged together, and figure 2 the mold with 
one end fitted on. The ends are made to slip over 
the sides into a groove, as shown in the engraving. 
A pound of butter is weighed and packed into the 
end of the mold by means of the stamps, one of 
which presses the side, and the other the top, the 
latter having the impression of the packer’s initials 
or trade-mark. Then another pound is weighed 
and packed in the same manner, and so on until the 
mold is filled. In the packing, grooves are left iu 
the butter, marking the divisions between the 
pounds, by which the retailer may cut it up into 
pieces of exact weight; each of the pieces having 
been weighed previously to the packing. These 
grooves may be made by small, loose pieces of 
wood placed in the mold during the packing, and 
by a permanent mark lengthwise of the mold. 
When the whole is packed, the mold is taken apart, 
and a cake of butter is left shaped as iu figure 3. 
These may be set away to cool and harden, and 
afterwards wrapped in muslin cloths dipped in 
clear cold brine, and packed in a refrigerating box 
to be shipped to market. The box should be so 
arranged that the front may fall down when it is 
opened, and the shelves upon which the butter is 
packed be drawn out one by one ; each layer of 
cakes being placed 
upon a separate shelf. 
To keep the butter 
cool, ice chambers are 
to be made at each 
end of the box, and 
filled with a freezing 
mixture of pounded ice 
and salt, which will 
help to maintain a low 
temperature for a con¬ 
siderable time. Not 
more than 60 pounds 
Tlg.B.-CAHE OF BUTTER. fee pacted in 
one box, or it will be too heavy for convenience 
and safety in handling it in transportation. 
--- »!«■» --- 
Hints and Helps for Farmers. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y., 
Tlie Construction of Culverts and Sluices, &c« 
In the northern states June is the most conveni¬ 
ent month for the making and repairing of roads, 
as farm work is less pressing than at other times in 
the summer. But there are some preliminary oper- 
Fig. 1.— CULVEKT. Fig. 3.— LOG CULVERT. 
ations that demand earlier attention—the most im¬ 
portant of which is to keep the water from leaving 
Fig. 1. —THE SIDES OF 
THE MOLD. 
the side gutters and running upon, washing, and 
cutting up the roadway. A little attention to this 
Fig. 2.—FOUNDATION OF BRIDGE. 
matter in spring will frequently save many hours’ 
labor at the annual repairing. Should the freshets 
loosen or misplace a plank, or otherwise render a 
Fig. 4. —LARGE CULVERT. 
bridge dangerous, it should be repaired at once. 
Along bill-sides, and at other points where small 
bridges are constructed, a rapid current of water 
soon washes away the soil about the foundation, 
making frequent repairing necessary, while if the 
work had been properly done at the first, it would 
not require attention for many years. For a small 
stream, that will flow through a tube 7 or 8 inches 
square, a conductor, as shown in figure 1, may be 
constructed. The planks a, a, are 2 in, thick, a foot 
or more wide, and 14 feet long, firmly nailed to¬ 
gether at the lower edge, and connected at the up¬ 
per edges by several strips of plank, d, of 2 feet or 
more in length. A Y-shaped trench is then dug 
across the roadway, in which is placed the 3-sided 
box ; earth is firmly pressed under the sides, when 
plank are laid on, and the whole covered with earth 
as shown. This wooden conductor may incline at 
the rate of 1 foot in 6 if need be ; owing to the 
smoothness of the water course it will not fill up 
and choke with sand, neither will the foundation 
be washed away. It will be found useful for cheap 
small bridges along sluggish streams. To prevent 
the walls of large bridges from injury by the wash¬ 
ing away of the foundation, planking may be used 
as shown in figure 2. The planks, c, should be firm¬ 
ly fitted between the walls of the culvert, and pro¬ 
ject at each end about 1 foot beyond them. At the 
upper end, a plank, 6, rests upon the end of the 
bottom planks, and is pinned to the ground, or 
Fig. 5.— SIMPLE FLOOD-GATE. 
heavy stones placed upon each end to keep it in po¬ 
sition. Flagging, or paving the'water courses of 
bridges with stone is economical, especially for 
rapidly running streams. 
In figure 3 is shown the manner of constructing 
a small culvert from split logs and poles. Figure 
4 illustrates the construction of the upper part of a 
large culvert; e, e, are planks laid upon the foun¬ 
dation walls; /, are connecting planks placed 
about 2 feet apart; g, g, are quartered pieces of a 
log about 1 foot in diameter, which project below 
both the surface plank, and connecting plank, /, 
holding them firmly in position; it also serves as a 
