458 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
A Simple Double-Gate. 
Gates and fences of some kinds .must always be 
wsed. An outside fence cannot well be dispensed 
with, and if one has a fence, gates become equally 
indispensable. However desirable in an economical 
point of view some sanguine persons may suppose 
it to be, there is no present probability that we can 
do without fences, of some sort, and no farmer can 
avoid having them around his barn-yard, his garden, 
and often his door-yard. To leave the way to the 
bam open to the public road, is a serious nuisance, 
to which no neat, careful farmer can submit. A 
neat road-way fence and gate add greatly to the 
appearance of a farm, and if a gate be used at all, 
we would have a neat strong, but light one. A 
neighbor, who had learned from experience the dis¬ 
comfort of having the lane to the barn-yard and 
house open to the road, in a locality where pigs, 
dogs, and cows, were permitted to run at large, ap¬ 
plied to us for the plan of a gate, which was c®n- 
structed as follows. The opening was closed up by 
a neat picket-fence, made of chestnut strips 2 inch¬ 
es wide, the posts of this were boxed in with 
boards, and capped as shown in figure 1, which 
represents one half of the gate. The gate was 
made of chestnut strips, bolted together, as shown, 
and in two halves. The foot-posts came together, 
when the gate was closed, upon a block set in the 
ground, and made slightly sloping, so that when 
closed there was no weight upon the heel-post, and 
the gate could not sag. A clevis was bolted to one 
of the foot-posts, in such a manner as t® be turned 
over the other post when the gate was closed, and 
to keep it closed. If desired, a bolt could be made 
to fit into the foot-block, 
and a latch could fee used 
to keep the gate closed. 
The use of the sloping 
foot block, shown in pro¬ 
file at figure 2, is of great 
advantage, as it takes all the strain off from the 
posts when the gate is shut, and thus makes it 
much more durable and satisfactory in use. The 
caps on the posts are made by nailing ou square 
pieces of board, one smaller than the other, and if 
a molding is nailed beneath the cap, and around the 
edge of the boxing, the appearance of the posts 
may be much improved at very small expense. 
---« ® |B—-*-*»-- 
A Self “Discharging Corn-Crib. 
Fig. 2. 
A corn-crib from which the com may be taken 
when wanted, without opening any part of the up¬ 
per portion, or without 
the use of a ladder or steps 
may be made as shown 
in the engraving. The 
floor slopes from one side 
to the other, and its 
lower margin projects be¬ 
yond the side of the crib 
sufficiently to permit of a 
box in which a scsop or 
shovel can be used. The 
projecting part of the floor 
is made the bottom of a 
section of crib. box, which is built up 
upon it, and which is open 
on the side next the crib, so that the corn will slide 
into it. A cover is hinged on to the box, so that it 
may be turned up when corn is to be taken out, as 
shown by the dotted lines. This cover should be 
kept locked for obvious reasons. To facilitate 
the use of- the shovel, the opening into the crib 
is closed for a space of two feet, either in the mid¬ 
dle or at each end; at these closed places there 
will be no corn upon the floor of the box, so that 
it will be easy to shovel out the corn. In one part 
of the West cribs of this kind are in common use, 
but we have not seen them elsewhere. 
'CT < n- i^iPaa-»-Ot -- 
A Wire-Fence Tightener. 
Having occasion recently to tighten some wires 
in a trellis, we made use of the following contri- 
wruE tightener. 
vance. Into a small piece of wood a few inches long, 
we put two screws about three inches apart, and 
near to one end one»otlicr screw, leaving the heads 
projecting about half an inch. By placing the wire 
between the two screws, and turning the piece of 
wood around, the wire was drawn tight; and by 
engaging the head of the single screw upon it, the 
tension was maintained. The operation of the con¬ 
trivance is shown in figure 1, and the method of 
arrangingthe screws or pins appears in figure 2. By 
using a strong piece of wood two feet long, and 
strong iron bolts, fastened with nuts upon the back 
side, this device may be used to tighten fence wires. 
Epidemic Rot in Sheep in Australia. 
fasten upon the herbage until they are swallowed 
with it by the sheep ; or the eggs are washed into 
the open drains or ponds by rains, where they are 
hatched, and the young either remain free in the 
water to be swallowed with it by the sheep, or un¬ 
dergo some other course of life at present not clear-' 
ly understood. Enough is known, however, of the 
history of the fluke, to establish the fact of the cer¬ 
tain danger that healthy sheep will become infected 
by an infested pasture or pond. It is the knowl¬ 
edge of this fact that renders it easy for us to pre¬ 
vent the occurrence of this fatal disease, if proper 
precautions are taken. These are to change the 
pasture annually; to avoid feeding sheep upon 
fields manured with sheeps’ dung, and to water the 
sheep only from wells. Localities or fields may 
easily become so much infested with the parasite, 
as to make them certainly fatal to sheep, and when 
this is known, tlieir use for sheep should be sus¬ 
pended for at least two years. So far, in this coun¬ 
try, we have been free from this pest in au epizo¬ 
otic, or rather, enzootic form, but as the practice of 
pasturing of large flocks on the plains of Texas, 
Colorado, and New Mexico, the prairies of Kansas 
and Nebraska, and the hills and valleys of Califor¬ 
nia, is increasing year by year, it is necessary that 
sheep owners be careful to prevent this danger. 
This may be easily done by avoiding the conditions 
which produce it. On farms there is more or less 
of this disease everywhere, especially amongst the 
larger long-wool sheep, which are most easily 
affected by it. The fluke is indigenous to our own 
soil, is widely distributed, and unless the owners of 
sheep are on the lookout for the trouble, and care¬ 
ful to prevent it, there is no security against an out¬ 
break in any locality, East or West, whenever 
the season is especially favorable for it. 
Another of those occasional epizootic outbreaks, 
which are frequent in Australia amongst sheep, 
seems to be just now imminent. It has commenced 
in the Colony of Victoria, where its effects already 
have been very serious, and the peculiar circum¬ 
stances from which it seems to have sprung, and 
from which it gathers force, are not without in¬ 
structive interest to sheep keepers in America. The 
sheep which have died are all affected similarly, 
the liver, the seat of the disease, being very much 
infested with flukes. The disease is undoubtedly 
that known as liver-rot, and is owing to the pres¬ 
ence in the mass of the liver and gall ducts, of 
numerous parasitic worms, commonly called flukes, 
or scientifically Distoma hepatica. There is no ques¬ 
tion that the presence of 
these parasites in injuri¬ 
ous numbers, is the 
cause of the disease. 
The circumstances un¬ 
der which the parasites 
are encouraged, and 
find their way into the 
stomachs and livers of 
the sheep being known 
to be present, in this 
case there is no diffi¬ 
culty in accounting for 
the fact. The disease 
has broken out most 
virulently on the ‘ runs ’ 
or ranges that have been 
drained, and the drain¬ 
age water has been col¬ 
lected in ponds from 
which the sheep have 
been supplied. No more 
certain measures for 
propagating the fluke 
could have been taken, 
and none more favor¬ 
able for its introduction 
to the stomachs of the 
sheep. The natural his¬ 
tory of the fluke com¬ 
menced with the eggs, 
which are discharged from infected sheep in the 
dung. The eggs remain upon the pastures un¬ 
til they are hatched, when the young creatures 
A Texan Sheep Corral. 
BY E. S. NICCOLLS, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 
The accompanying sketch is a plan of my corral 
for catching, dividing, or dipping my sheep ; it has 
advantages not often found in other corrals. It 
prevents more or less of the abuse incident to hand¬ 
ling the sheep in old-fashioned square pens. It also 
saves a large expenditure of human muscle, which, 
take it all in all, is about the most costly machinery 
we can use. I have built the pens, from which this 
sketch is taken, on a ranch belonging t© Messrs. 
Babcock & Marriner, of Fulton Co., Illinois, and 
located eight miles west of San Antonio, Texas. 
They are on a gravelly knoll, where a number of 
S -^a>- 
N 
PLAN OF TEXAS SHEEP CORRAL. 
very large live oak trees give a pleasant shade. 
The shearing floor is located under the wide spread¬ 
ing branches of one of these trees, and is well 
