1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
213 
can not pitch hay will haul a ton to the barn or 
stack, 20 or 30 rods, quicker tlian two men will 
be able to cio it with a wagon; cocks can be 
dra^rn from a lawn or orchard, where there is 
not room for a loaded wagon to move; and 
when a whole cock is taken up by a liorse fork, 
and placed on a mow, or stack, it may be spread 
around with much less labor, than when a large 
wad is torn from a loaded wagon. When stack¬ 
ing liay, two boys and one horse will haul it to 
the stack faster than an active man can pitch it 
by hand, thus saving all the hard labor of pitch¬ 
ing tlie hay on a wagon. When hay is stored 
in barns in or near the meadow, two hundred 
pounds may be put in each cock, after it is well 
cured, if they are hauled with a rope, as a horse 
will draw a large one as w'ell as a small one. 
- — --- - - 
The Buck Rake. 
The illustration herewith given represents a 
eery convenient and useful rake, for raking 
light hay or for gathering the scattering hay 
while a load is being put on the cart or wagon. 
The sketch was sent by Trevor Yates, Otsego 
Co., N. Y., who calls it a “ shoulder rake,” 
who says that an active boy or girl, 10 or 12 
years old, will do more with it than a man with 
an ordinary hand rake. He thus describes it: 
Tlie head of the rake is 6 feet long, made of 
good timber, 2 inches -wide and an inch and a 
iialf thick. There are 23 teeth in it, about 3 
inches apart from centre to centre. The teeth 
are 9 inches long, made flat, with a f-inch 
tenon on one side, and sharpened on the under 
side. Tlie tongue is crooked at the rake end 
and sawed apart about 2i feet, then spread 
about twenty inches to operate as braces. A 
pin sliould be put through the handle about 2 
feet from the rake, and the handle should be 
longer than represented by the engraving. 
When the rake lies flat on the floor, bore the 
holes in the head for the prongs of the handle 
so that the end of the handle will be about 3 
feet 8 inches high when the rake is finished. 
The boy or girl can then take hold of the pin 
with one hand, place the other on the under side 
of the tongue and draw it over the meadow. 
When the rake fills up, push it back a little, so 
that the teeth will take a new hold under the 
hay more readily; it will thus carry a big load. 
This kind of rake may be used advantageous¬ 
ly for raking hay into windrows where it is 
fight, as well as raking up the scatterings after 
hay has been put in cock. The ordinary hand 
rakes are quite too small and short for raking 
up scattering hay. For this reason, every 
farmer should have at least one buck rake. A 
mechanic of common abilities can make one in 
a few hours. Such a rake will save much time 
and labor in haying. 
Liquid Manure and Pump for Raising it. 
Although a large per centage of liquid man¬ 
ure is water, it is yet very valuable for promot¬ 
ing the growth of all kinds of crops, and often 
more so than the solid^ portions. Of course its 
value diminishes in proportion as it is dilut¬ 
ed with water. When animals are fed grain, 
the liquid which leaches from their droppings, 
or is collected beneath the stables, abounds in 
more fertilizing matter than that which flows 
from a pile of strawy manure. In the Old 
World the liquid manure of animals is saved 
with far more care than in America; and it has 
been stated by reliable authority, that in Bel¬ 
gium, liquid manure is 
valued so highly that the 
urine of a single cow com¬ 
mands over eight dollars 
per annum. Parties pur¬ 
chase it expressly for in¬ 
creasing the productive¬ 
ness of their soils. If it 
is so valuable in other 
parts of the world, it cer¬ 
tainly is worth saving in 
America. The great dif¬ 
ficulty in collecting liquid 
manure is, a suitable 
pump. There is usually 
more or less sediment 
among it, wdiich would 
clog an ordinary water 
pump. Wegive heicwith 
an illustration of a por¬ 
tion of a very cheap liquid 
manure pump, which we 
Fig. 1.— PISTON. have found to be very 
convenient and effective. Any one who can 
joint a board straight and square, will be able 
to make one with little or no difficulty. Four 
pieces of thick board are required, from 6 to 10 
feet long. Two of them must be just 4 inches 
wide, and two others 6 inches wide. The latter 
two are nailed firmly on the edges of the oth¬ 
ers. This will make a penstock whose calibre 
is four inches square, from end to end. Now 
fit a block in the lower end, and bore a 2-inch 
hole through it, and fasten a valve over the hole 
to open upwards, and nail the block in place. 
The larger the hole the better, if the valve 
closes it well. The next thing is to make the 
piston, which is represented by the accompany¬ 
ing illustration, fig. 1. This should be of hard 
wood, 31 inches wide, and 1 thick at the lower 
end, fitting well but working easily. This 
will allow a piece of leather i of an inch thick 
to be nailed on each edge of the piston rod. 
Procure two pieces of leather, in the form shown 
in fig. 2, 8 inches long from F, to e, 6 inches 
broad at F, and 5 inches 
wide at e. These two 
pieces are shown nailed 
to the piston rod, fig. 1, 
c, c. At A, the rod is 
shown in two pieces, to 
indicate an indefinite 
length. B, is the handle 
to pump with. After 
the narrow ends of the 
Fig. 2. —LEATHER. 
leather have been nailed securely to the lower 
end of the rod. A, place the edges of the leath¬ 
er together, on the edge of the piston rod, and 
nail them firmly with lath nails. As the pis¬ 
ton is thrust downwai’d, the leather will fold 
together, as represented by the angular lines, 
c, c, and allow the liquid to rise above it. 
But as soon as the piston rod is lifted, the 
leather spreads out to the sides and corners, and 
raises all the liquid above it, and the liquid 
rushes through the valve in the lower end of the 
penstock, following the piston upwards. A 
spout can be made near the top to conduct the 
liquid where it is desired. Pieces of cobs, blocks 
of wood, or chafi' will not obstruct the free 
woi’king of this kind of pump. Such a pump 
will be found useful for pumping sediment from 
cesspools, or for emptying the vaults of privies, 
where most of the fecal matter is in a fluid and 
semi-fluid state. Paper will not obstruct the 
valve, or piston. Such a pump will draw water 
out of a shallow well very fast. The deeper the 
well, the more power will be required to work it. 
— . t<n I ^ ■ 
Improved Shackles for Bulls and Backs. 
The illustration herewith given, represents an 
improved pair of shackles fastened to the for¬ 
ward legs of a bull. Two strong leather straps, 
about 2i inches wide, are buckled one around 
each leg, and held together by a piece of trace 
chain, from 12 to IG inches long. In the middle 
of the chain is a swivel to keep it from being 
twisted into kinks, which will occur when there 
is no swivel, by the animal’s throwing either 
foot over the chain. An iron link in the form 
of the letter D is welded to each end of the 
chain, through which the leather straps pass; 
and a piece of thin, firm leather is sewed over 
the iron to prevent chafing the legs. Instead of 
having one large buckle to each strap, it is bet¬ 
ter to attach two buckles to one strap, by sewing 
them on the outside of main strap, with sepa¬ 
rate pieces of leather. Then sew on firmly two 
straps to enter the buckles. By this means it 
will be seen, that the main strap is just long 
enough to permit the ends to meet, while the 
buckles and stl’aps are sewed on the outside. 
This prevents the buckles rubbing the legs. 
The length of the chain should of course be 
varied according to the size of the animal. 
Such shackles for a buck should be made of 
much lighter leather and smaller chain, having 
a swivel in the middle that will work easily. 
Small chains for this purpose may be obtained 
at most hardware stores, much cheaper and bet¬ 
ter than can be made by ordinary blacksmiths. 
The swivel and a few links can be taken from a 
light trace chain. The chain for a buck’s shackle 
should not be over 7 or 8 inches long. When 
the writer was accustomed to keep sheep, the 
bucks were never separated from the ewes. 
Such shackles were put on the fore-legs of 
buck’s in the spring, or fore-part of summer, and 
removed the 1st of December, and an untimely 
lamb was never seen in the flock. 
Sometimes a farmer has a young heifer or a 
cow which he does not desire to have with 
calf until some future period; and in some 
parts of the country the service of a bull at pas¬ 
ture is often stolen in the night, or when the 
proprietor may not be at hand. To prevent 
any thing of the kind it is only necessary to 
buckle on the shackles. When the bull is need¬ 
ed for service, any one who can handle him can 
take them oflf at pleasiue. The leather should 
be kept well oiled to render it soft for the legs. 
