306 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
[October, 
through the bight (which makes a “ half-hitch,”) 
and then “ seize,” as shown in the figure. This 
is done by binding the end securely to the 
standing part by rope yarn, or a stout cord. 
When a strain is put upon such an eye, it comes 
almost altogether upon the hitch and not upon 
the “ seizing.” In case the rope is to be sub¬ 
jected to very heavy and continuous strains, it 
is well to make two half-hitches instead of one. 
-•-< —«-•--— 
How to Make a Good Barnyard. 
Several things are essential to render a barn¬ 
yard a good one. It must be so constructed that 
water from any source will not accumulate in it. 
It must not be uncomfortably wet or disagreea¬ 
bly muddy for stock. The surface must also be 
firm, so that coarse manure will not be pressed 
down into the soft earth, and thus make 
hard pitching. These are the main requisites. 
Now, the first thing is to provide for carrying 
off the surplus water that will be liable to find 
its way among the manure. Cut a good ditch 
entirely around the yard, not less than 30 inch¬ 
es deep, and fill it with tiles if they can be ob¬ 
tained, or with plank, as illustrated on another 
page. Stones will be just as good to drain the 
soil and carry off the water; but the drains are 
more liable to be filled up by rats. This drain 
will keep the ground dry on each side of it, and 
will not carry off the liquid manure. Conduct 
all the water by eave-troughs from the roof of 
the barn and sheds into this underdrain. 
The next step is to grade the yard, either by 
hauling earth away, leveling off the knolls, or 
by drawing in compact earth to fill up the de¬ 
pressions. The surface of the yard should al¬ 
ways descend gradually from the barn and 
sheds. There ought also to be buildings, or 
cheap sheds on every side of the yard. Exca¬ 
vate at the lowest part so that liquid from all 
parts of the yard will descend to that place, 
and there sink a sugar hogshead, and cover 
it with plank, so that nothing can fall into it. 
Then, set a cheap pump (see page 213, July 
Agriculturist^ in this hogshead, pump up the 
liquid, and send it in board or bark troughs 
among the solid manure in any part of the 
yard. This will be a perfect security against 
its heating and becoming “ fire-fanged.” 
The next job will be to pave the whole, or a 
portion of it. Stones of various sizes and forms 
may be used. Flat stones three or four feet 
square are objectionable, for heavy cattle are 
liable to slip on large stones so as to in¬ 
jure themselves. Were they to slip not more 
than two feet, there would be little danger of 
harm. Some parts may be paved with boul¬ 
ders of a certain size, and then those of anoth¬ 
er size may be used in,another place. Large 
stones and small ones may be placed side by 
side, by excavating a little for the large ones, 
so that the surfaces of each will be of equal 
bight. Stretch a line across the yard and lay 
the top of each row of stones even with the 
line. In this way there will be little or no diffi¬ 
culty in making the surface of the pavement 
even. When laying the stones, the workman 
needs a trowel to place sand, or fine gravel be¬ 
neath thin or small stones, to raise them up to 
the line, and a rammer made of a billet of hard 
wood with an iron ring like that of a beetle on 
the bottom of it, to drive those stones that 
are too high, down even with the line. 
After the paving is finished, spread sand, 
gravel, or finely-pulverized clay all over the pave¬ 
ment and work it into the interstices. This will 
make a barnyard that every good farmer will 1 
be proud of. On many farms there are loose 
stones enough lying in the fields to pave several 
yards. Where stones are scarce, the sur¬ 
face may be covered with gravel or clay, or 
compact earth, instead of stones. Where tim¬ 
ber is cheap, a yard can be paved with wood, 
by sawing off logs, five or six inches long, with 
a drag saw, and placing them on the end. 
This would make a pavement that could not 
fail to please the most incorrigible faultfinder 
or grumbler. Hemlock, pine, oak of all kinds, 
and many other kinds of wood sawed into pav¬ 
ing blocks and well tarred on the lower ends 
with coal tar, would last many years, always 
making a very smooth and agreeable surface to 
work on, and not slippery for animals. It 
would also hold liquid manure weH. 
How to Increase the Manure Pile. 
The soil unmanured, will often produce good 
crops for a year, or two, or more, and then it 
demands rest, in order to recuperate, and gain 
soluble, ash ingredients enough for another se¬ 
ries of crops. This period of rest it was early 
found might be much shortened by frequently 
stirring the soil by the plow and harrow; and 
moreover, it became known that the addition 
of certain substances to the soil, such as the 
dung of animals, the ashes of trees and plants, 
etc., not only operated in the same way, but en¬ 
tirely did away with the necessity of fallowing. 
Thus, long in advance of the philosophy which 
we now recognise as accounting for these facts, 
farmers knew what would restore lost fertility, 
and what course of treatment would keep up 
their land. Man, indeed, does nothing without 
some kind of a reason, and so in old times the 
farmers had a philosophy which answered as 
well for them as ours does for us, so long as it 
did not conflict with known facts. Now-a-days 
we have so many facts, and they are so well sys¬ 
tematized, that our philosophy must be very 
nearly right in the main, though still there are 
many points upon which the Doctors disagree. 
Manures supply to the soil what the plants 
require as food, and that which other crops may 
have removed. They also cause chemical action 
to take place, by means of which plant-food, in 
the soil but not available to the plant, becomes 
soluble, or otherwise available. Besides, they 
produce other desirable effects, such as making 
the soil more friable, porous, absorbent of moist¬ 
ure, and more tenacious, or less so, etc. Good 
tillage without manure may produce several of 
these effects, especially in conjunction with the 
action of the air, rains, sunshine, frosts, etc., and 
it always greatly assists the action of manure. 
In all civilized countries in which the soil has 
been long enough under cultivation to show a 
decline in fertility, manure is valued for all 
the reasons just enumerated. The questions 
of “ Inquirer,” of Barrysburg, Pa., whose letter 
we quote, are to the point. He says: 
“ I am anxious to know in what way to in¬ 
crease my manure heap. I have only some 30 
acres of land, and am working every foot of it. 
Of straw, I have not even enough to bed my 
stock with. I keep five horses, two cows, and 
generally feed two oxen through the winter. 
My manure heap is nearly always smoking, be¬ 
ing so hot, and turns gray, or looks mouldy in¬ 
side. How shall I proceed to prevent it, and 
what shall I do for materials ? Spent tan-bark 
I can get three miles off; sawdust none about 
here; I can get but a veiy small quantity of 
leaves, and for these I have to pay very high; 
muck I have none on my land, and have noth¬ 
ing indeed, but gravelly soil. Will some one 
please give me advice as to what I am to do ?” 
It is now autumn, and our friend will not do 
well to collect much, if any, vegetable matter 
which can contain weed seeds in any consider¬ 
able quantity. Still it is probable that a good 
deal of such things, potato tops, swamp grass, 
rushes, reeds, bogs, etc., may be obtained. His 
soil is gravelly; were it not for this, we would 
recommend him to use good loamy, or even 
sandy soil, for bedding for his stock. Nothing 
is better to bed cattle, or horses upon, than 
about a barrowful of soft loam, free from stones 
and sticks, covered with a very slight spreading 
of straw or other litter. The litter may be 
renewed daily and raked off, with the dung and 
the soil as often as it becomes saturated with 
urine, or otherwise defiled or wasted—say once 
a week for cows, and twice for all male animals. 
This will not only increase the bulk of the ma¬ 
nure heap, and check the fire-fanging, but it 
will greatly improve its quality, really more 
than our philosophy with present data can ac¬ 
count for. If it is possible for Inquirer to get 
such soil, we say by all means use it; if not, let 
him go out into the highways and hedges, and 
trim off the sods, pare off the turf, clean out the 
roadside ditches, pools, etc., and cart it all in to 
swell the manure heap. The best way to use 
it is, having it dry, to mingle it daily with 
the manure in the stall; if this cannot be 
done, then make the mixture when the stables 
are cleaned out, using uniform quantities daily 
in proportion to the amount of manure made. 
As for the heap, mouldy, heated, and fire-fanged, 
as it is described, the only thing to do with that 
is to work it all over, repiling it with uniform 
square sides and a flat top. It should be sup¬ 
ported on rails, or any other contrivance for 
good drainage, so that water may be pumped 
over it and run through into a sunk hogshead, 
or tank of some kind. When piling up such a 
heap, mix in soil, muck, straw, or something of 
the kind, and tread it down hard on the edges, 
that they may not diy so much as otherwise. 
— ■——I »- 
Collecting and Grinding Bones. 
Thousands of tons of bones are collected 
every year in Chicago, Buffalo, and other large 
cities, and forwarded to New York, and other 
seaports where the hardest ones are picked out 
to be cut into buttons, knife handles, etc., and 
the rest are ground and exported to Europe, to 
increase the productiveness of foreign soils, so 
that they will raise more grain and not need to 
buy ours. Why not apply the bones to our 
soil and sell them the corn ? If it will pay to 
transport bones from our Western cities to Eu¬ 
rope, surely those farmers near such places can 
make it profitable to collect, grind, and apply 
them to their soils, as they have no freight to pay. 
Formerly the expense of dissolving bones or 
grinding them was so great as to deter most 
farmers from attempting to make any use of 
them as a fertilizer. But as they can now be 
reduced to dust at a trifling expense, every farm¬ 
er should be careful to save bones and grind 
them, for keeping his soil in a good state of fer- 
tilitJ^ Those bones that have not been much 
boiled are more valuable than those which have 
been boiled for a long time to extract all the 
grease. The large bones and joints are full of 
marrowy, nitrogenous matter, which is valuable 
to apply to the soil. If therefore, farmers will 
grind bones themselves, or have them ground, 
they will be sure of a much better article of ma¬ 
nure than can generally be obtained in market. 
