376 
AMERICAN AG-RICTJLTIJRIST. 
[OCTOBEB, 
openings, so that a wagon may be driven clear 
through. A further enlargement may be made by 
arranging the pit as shown at figure 4, which rep¬ 
resents a cross section of it. There are the retaining 
walls, a, «, as before, and the pit is sunk to a con¬ 
venient depth beneath the level of the ground, the 
floor being cemented and sloping to the rear, where 
the cistern is placed. The cistern is arched over, 
and an opening, seen at/, fig. 4, to be covered with 
an iron grating, is made in the arch, and the floor 
of the pit over this cistern, slopes each way to the 
grating, as seen at /, in figure 5. This figure is a 
ground plan of the manure pit, the open space 
shown at the front being the gateway or entrance. 
A point for serious consideration is the covering 
of the yards or manure pits. The excellent designs 
here given, were made by Mr. R. Scott Burns, the 
eminent English agricultural engineer, and were re¬ 
cently published in “ The Country,” an English 
rural journal. Although originally intended for the 
circumstances of English farmers, there are no 
points in which they are not equally applicable to 
our own necessities. With regard to the covering 
of the manure, we consider that if English farmers 
find this needful or economical, it should be much 
more so with us. As a protection against the rain¬ 
fall, we need it much more than they do, for the 
average rain-fall in England is but 30 inches, against 
45 to 50 here, and our rain descends sometimes in 
torrents, while their’s consists mostly of frequent 
showers. If, as a protection against drying and 
baking by the sun, a cover is needed, then with our 
more ardent summer’s heat, we should require it 
the more. The frequent adoption of manure cel¬ 
lars beneath the barn or stable is a substitute for 
covered yards or pits, the wisdom of which is cer¬ 
tainly questionable on the score of healthfulness 
and cleanliness, and many farmers may have reason 
to charge the loss of valuable animals by unexpect¬ 
ed and unexplained disease, to their manure cellars. 
The covering of the manure pit may then be con¬ 
sidered as advisable whenever or wherever it can be 
afforded. This may be done iu as simple a manner 
as possible, by a plain board roof, supported upon 
posts, or by a more costly building, which may be 
Fig. 5.— GROUND PLAN OP FIGURE 4. 
made to serve at times the purpose of an open feed¬ 
ing shed as well. The roof should in any case be 
provided with caves-troughs and waste pipes, the 
flow from which could be turned upon the manure, 
if desired, or conveyed away by drains when not 
needed to moisten the heap, or to dilute the liquid 
manure. At figure 6 is given a cross section of a 
covered pit, suitable for a large farm, where every¬ 
thing is carried on with ample means, and a view 
to the greatest economy and profit. In farming 
there can be no profit without outlay; seed must 
be sown and the soil fertilized before a harvest is 
returned; and one of the greatest drawbacks of 
American farming, is inadequate capital to invest 
in the enriching of the soil. Therefore we do not 
believe the cost of such a structure as this to be at 
all an extravagant or unnecessary outlay upon any 
otherwise well appointed farm. At any rate the 
plan may be modified to suit a slender purse, or the 
ideas of a cautious farmer, who likes to feel his 
way at first. The pit and cistern differ in no way 
from those last described, except in form. Upon 
the retaining walls timber sills are laid, into which 
the posts are framed. The structure of the frame 
at the end is clearly shown in the engraving. The 
dotted lines are intended to indicate a method of 
framing differing from that shown by the unbroken 
lines. These latter serve to give a stiff and strong 
Eig. 6.— SECTION OF FIT, SHED, AND CISTERN. 
frame with a high elevation, sufficient to admit a 
load of straw beneath the collar beam. The en¬ 
trances, of which there are or may be six, are closed 
by gates. At figure 7 the side 
view of the shed is given; the 
dotted line representing the floor 
of the manure pit. The dotted 
lines in figure 6 show the position 
of the drains from the stables and 
feed-sheds, by which the liquid 
manure is carried off. It is ob¬ 
vious that these plans are in¬ 
tended to be used in connection 
with a system of saving and 
using the liquid manure. In regard to this we can 
now only say that any farm carried on under a sys¬ 
tem in which the saving of liquid manure is neg¬ 
lected, can realize only a part of the profit it might 
be made to yield, and that its owner ignores one of 
his most valuable resources. 
The Manufacture and Use of Flour Paste. 
The manufacture of paste consumes a considerable 
quantity of flour, which must be of at least fair 
quality. In the city of New York alone 150,000 
barrels" of paste are made and used yearly. The 
paste is made by sifting the flour and passing the 
lumps between rollers until the whole is fine. It is 
then mixed with water and boiled in steam-jacket¬ 
ed vats which hold about three barrels each. The 
paste is used by makers of pasteboard, some of 
whom consume six barrels per day. Bookbinders 
and machine-folders of periodicals and pamphlets 
use a paste of extra good quality specially prepared 
for the purpose. Shoemakers and bill-posters use 
a very inferior quality. Paste is also used in the 
manufacture of rope, twine, carpets, suspenders, 
pocket-books, and a very large quantity is used as 
“size” in various textile manufactures. On the 
whole the consumption of flour in the ails and 
manufactures, in the United States only, amounts to 
considerably more than a million barrels yearly, re¬ 
quiring 5,000,000 bushelsof wheat for its production. 
A Method ot Hanging Hogs. 
An easy method of hanging a hog or a beef, is by 
Fig. 3 — TRIPOD SET UP. 
the use of the tripod 
shown in the accompany¬ 
ing engravings. It is made 
of three pieces of 3 x 3 oak 
scantling, 6 feet long, con¬ 
nected at one end, in the 
manner shown, by means 
of an iron bar one inch 
thick, passed through a 
hole bored in each piece. 
The two outside pieces 
are fastened together by 
two cross pieces, bolted Fig. 1.— tripod. 
to them, so that they are 
spread at the bottom sufficiently, which would be 
about 3 feet. A hook is fastened to the lower 
cross-piece, upon which the hog is suspended. To 
hang the hog the frame is laid upon the ground 
with the hog between the outside legs, the third leg 
being drawn backwards, as shown in figure 1. The 
hog being hooked by the gambrel stick to the cross¬ 
piece, the frame is lifted up, and the hinder leg is 
spread out so as to support it, as shown at figure 3. 
The frame may be lowered easily when the hog has 
to be taken down, and as the frames are cheaply 
made, and occupy little room, it will be well to have 
several of them. They may be made to serve 
other useful purposes. 
Bins for Storing Potatoes, 
There is always more or less loss of potatoes 
when they are stored upon the cellar floor. The 
dampness of the floor, and the impossibility of ven¬ 
tilating the bottom of the heap, cause decay, 
which spreads through the mass, and it gives off a 
disagreeable odor. Potatoes are not necessarily of¬ 
fensive, when kept in a cellar, but are frequently 
made so by want of care in storing them. We have 
seen a plan of putting them in bins, made of strips 
of wood with spaces between them, in which they 
were kept in perfect order, without any loss by rot, 
or any moldy, earthy 6mell arising from them. The 
bins are of two kinds. One, shown at figure 1, is 
suitable for storing a 6mall quantity, and may be 
Fig. 7.— SIDE VIEW OF PIT IVITH SHED. 
