338 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Septemeee, 
share to pay, by a voluntary friendly act on his part. 
This lease, which almost any intelligent man could 
draw up, the farmer or his landlord is forbidden by 
law to write himself under a penalty of S100, which 
he would be obliged to pay if he neglected or re¬ 
fused to employ a lawyer to do the unnecessary 
service. Considering the relative positions of the 
two farmers, an American farmer who grumbles at 
his free and independent position, owning his farm, 
and being subject to no restrictions whatever, sim¬ 
ply does not know when he is well off. 
Substitute for Hay. 
The great drouth along the sea coast has made 
a very short hay crop, and raised the price of that 
article. Hay is selling in many places at twenty 
dollars a ton from the field, which indicates thirty 
or more as the winter and spring price. Meanwhile 
corn is quoted at fifty to fifty-five cents in the city, 
and is delivered in bulk at the sea-ports for about 
sixty cents a bushel. This is but a little over twen¬ 
ty dollars a ton, and is much more profitable for 
feeding than hay. It is very largely used when hay 
is under twenty dollars a ton, and the use should 
be increased as the price of hay rises. The reports 
of the corn crop in the prairie States are highly 
favorable, and prices are likely to rule low. With 
cheap corn there is no need of paying high prices 
for hay. Straw, corn-fodder, swale, and salt hay, 
may all be used to advantage in preparing cut feed 
with Indian meal. We have no doubt of the 
economy of using more meal in winter feeding, 
especially in districts where the hay crop is short. 
Sled for Eemoving’ Corn-Sboaks. 
-O- 
Mr. Thomas H. Speakman, who is tiie inventor 
and patentee of an excellent farm and garden fence 
of posts, wires, and pickets described in the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist for March, 1873,sends an illustration 
and description of his sled which he uses for mov¬ 
ing the corn-shocks from a field which is to be sown 
with winter grain. This sled is not patented, and 
whatever it may possess of value to the readers of 
the America.n Agriculturist , is freely given by Mr. 
Speakman. He writes as follows: “The machine 
which 1 use for transporting the corn from the 
ground, is simply a sled of the most ordinary con¬ 
struction, and which any farmer can make. It is 
made of two joists or planks ; mine are of hemlock, 
though oak might be better ; say three inches thick 
(two inches thick would be sufficiently strong and 
lighter), a foot wide, and 14 to 1(3 feet long, round¬ 
ed at one end and connected by three strong cross 
pieces, being in form just such a sled as a farmer 
boy would make to use in the snow, with the addi¬ 
tion of cross braces before and behind; the under 
edge of the runners should be rounded off to the 
extent of li to 2 inches to turn more easily. There 
should he also short standards before and behind. 
The runners may be 4 to 5 feet apart, according to 
the length of the corn. A side view of the runner 
with the standards is given in figure 1, and a top 
view of the complete sled at figure 2. I first cut 
off the corn and put it in shock in the usual way, 
making the shock smaller than usual. I let it 
stand thus a few days to dry, then a pair of horses 
are hitched to the sled, which is driven along side 
the shock. The shock is pushed over on to the 
sled, and so one shock after another until the sled 
is full. The load is then driven to an adjoining 
field, where the shocks are set up on end again, and 
about four of them made into one and tied at the 
top, or reared against a fence. 
“The particular advantages of this plan are: 
First, that by use of the sled and method of load¬ 
ing and unloading the shocks, all actual lifting of 
the corn is avoided, and the labor and expense re¬ 
duced more than half. Second, by permitting it to 
dry a few days, its weight is greatly reduced, and 
the handling much lighter. Third, the corn being 
partially dried, it can be put together in larger 
shocks the second time, and will keep better. By 
this method one man can clear two acres or more 
a day, according to the weight of the crop.” 
Eeed-Eack for the Yard. 
“A Subscriber to the American Agriculturist," 
sends a description of the kind of feed-rack which 
he uses when feeding hay or corn-fodder, either in 
the yard or the field. To make the description per¬ 
ron DER-RACK. 
fectly plain, we have prepared an illustration of the 
rack. It is made by setting four posts in the 
ground, or more, if the rack is to accommodate a 
large number of cattle ; but in this ease we would 
recommend two or more separate racks, in prefer¬ 
ence to one large one, as more conducive to quietness 
and order amongst the cattle. To these posts there 
are nailed boards two high all around ; then a space 
of one foot, and then other boards close together, 
up to a height the cattle cannot reach. The fodder 
is thrown into this rack until it is full, and the cat¬ 
tle draw it out as they need it, from the open space 
between the boards. The fodder is not wasted by 
being trampled upon, and the stock do not fight 
over the feed as when it is thrown upon the ground. 
Farm Villages. 
There is no necessity that fanners should be 
isolated so much as they generally are, nor any 
need that the farm buildings should be in the cen¬ 
ter of each farm. It is simply a matter of figures 
and calculation, as to whether the saving of a few 
hours’ labor—or a few days in the aggregate—year¬ 
ly, in hauling the crops to the barn, with the barn 
and house in the center of the farm, and a mile 
away from the nearest neighbor, is cf more value 
or more convenient than to have one’s neighbors 
closer and one’s fields farther off. There are many 
advantages in having three or four homesteads con¬ 
tiguous aud forming a hamlet, or with a few tenant 
houses or cottages, a small village. This is especial¬ 
ly desirable in the West, where the land was origi¬ 
nally so divided that four farms necessarily meet at 
one corner, where two roads cross. AVhere farms 
are 160 acres in extent, there would then be four 
houses together at every mile ; four sets of farm 
buildings; four orchards, and four plantations, 
which would condense the shelter provided by 
these, and make it much more effective than when 
scattered half-a-mile apart. At or near one of these 
corners the blacksmith’s shop and other conve¬ 
niences would naturally be located, and in time a 
farm village would be built up. There would he 
far better social opportunities than farmers now 
enjoy, and many more opportunities for combining 
labor and capital in joint enterprises. The scatter¬ 
ed appearance of the houses in the early settlement 
of a new western country, and even of the more 
substantial homesteads of an older one, is one of 
the most conspicuous disadvantages which strike a 
visitor from a more populous part of the country. 
Neither does it improve upon acquaintance, and 
the necessary isolation is much felt by the new 
comers. It is convenient to be in the center of 
one’s farm, but it is a question worth considering 
when a new house is to be built, if it would not be 
better to build nearer to one’s next door neighbor. 
--- 
Caps for the Posts of Corn-Cribs. 
A correspondent who placed inverted tin-pans 
upon the foundation 
posts of his corn-crib 
to prevent access by 
rats, now that the pans 
have rusted so as to be 
useless, asks for some 
substitute for them. 
We here describe a 
simple method of mak¬ 
ing this. Take a piece 
of galvanized sheet-iron 
or zinc, and cut it into . 
’ . . Fig. 1.— CAP ON POST, 
the form shown at 
figure 2, having first measured the post of the 
corn-crib to find the length that will be needed. 
This is bent around 
the post in the 
manner shown in 
figure 1, and fast¬ 
ened with two or 
three small nails. 
When made of the Fj 2 .-tin FQR CAp _ 
material mention¬ 
ed,they will outlast several pans, and cost much less, 
and will be equally effective in keeping out vermin. 
Is Grass Intoxicating ?—It appears that the 
genuine good name of the Grass family for inno¬ 
cence aud sobriety does not extend to all its mem¬ 
bers. There is a “ drunk-grass,” so called by the 
Dutch colonists, a species of Melica , which in some 
parts of South Africa “intoxicates” cattle to an 
alarming extent, and the evil is spreading with the 
increase of sheep-farming; the sheep, we believe, 
sorting out the other grasses, while they totally ab¬ 
stain from this. The account is given by Dr. John 
Shaw, in the Journal of the Linnaean Society, vol. 
14. In Trimen’s Journal of Botany for July last. 
Dr. Hance—a well known botanist resident in Chi¬ 
na—describes another grass, a new species of iStipa, 
from Mongolia, which intoxicates horses. A French 
Roman Catholic Missionary and his party, making 
an excursion into the Aladian Mountains, north of 
the Great Wall, one morning found their horses 
dreadfully debauched—indeed quite hors du combat 
—through partaking freely of this grass.. On ap¬ 
pealing to a family of Mongols encamped in the 
neighborhood, the missionary was told that the 
proper antidote was vinegar, followed by a broth 
made of a goat’s head. No vinegar being at hand, 
the missionary administered sour milk as a substi¬ 
tute, while the goat’s head was cooking, the broth 
completed the cure, and the party returned safe and 
sober to Peking, bringing some of the grass, which 
Dr. Hance christened Stipa inebrians. The intoxi¬ 
cation and poisoning of cattle horses, and sheep, in 
California and Nevada, is said to be caused by some 
species of the Pulse family, wlriffi generally is 
thought to he as harmless as grass. 
Increasing Value op Black Walnut.— Black 
Walnut timber has become so firmly established as 
a desirable material for furniture and cabinet work, 
that it is not probable that its present high valuer 
will be lessened, more especially as the visible sup¬ 
ply is rapidly becoming exhausted. Ten years age, 
