1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
309 
soaked in coal tar, wliich showed no signs of 
decay at all, after it had been in the ground 22 
years. When laying dry planks in the ditch, 
leave them temporarily about one fourth of an 
inch apart; they will soon swell and touch. 
If there is little danger that the earth will be 
washed away, 
excavate the 
bottom as re¬ 
presented in 
fig. 1, with off¬ 
sets on each 
side, laying the 
planks on these 
shoulders or 
offsets. The 
writer has laid 
within the last 
25 years hun¬ 
dreds of rods of 
plank drains, 
like fig. 1, with 
the channel 4to 
6 inches deep, 
the planks 10 
inches long; 
excellent satifaction 
Fig. 2.—PLANK DRAIN, 
and such drains give 
to this time. Some of them have carried for 
fifteen years a stream as large as a 3-inch pipe, 
without being obstructed in a single instance. 
If the earth, where the draining is done, is so 
shaky and loose that the water might wash it 
away, it is not wise to use planks, unless the 
sides are protected with wood, as represented in 
fig. 2. After the ditch is dug, say ten inches 
wide on the bottom, the corners must be dressed 
out true, so that a scantling will lie solidly and 
squarely. The size of the side strips should be 
somewhat in proportion to the amount of water 
to flow in the channel. We have used strips 
li X 2 inches square, and 2 x 3, 2 x 4, and 2x6. 
The bottom of the ditch should be pointed as 
shown in the figure, to give a current when 
there is ^but little water, and also to prevent it 
washing the earth from under the side pieces. 
The planks should always be assorted pre¬ 
vious to being laid. All the best ones should be 
placed by themselves towards the lower end of 
the drain. If there are any poor pieces, better 
burn them for fire wood, or lay them together 
at the upper end, or in short branches. One 
poor piece of plank will render a good drain 
useless, in a few years. If poor pieces be all 
kept together, when the ditch fails, they will all 
be decayed nearly alike. The same is true of 
good planks. Great care should be exercised 
in returning the first dirt into a ditch, lest some 
of the planks be displaced. Before using a 
plow or scraper to cover with, shovel in 
enough of the hard earth, to hold the planks in 
place. The earth that was thrown out last, 
should be returned first, especially if it is cold 
and unfertile. Every ditch should be filled 
heaping full, to keep surface water from wash¬ 
ing open holes and filling the drain with earth. 
Black Spanish Bowls. 
We have before us the modest request of a 
young poultry fancier, that we would “ print 
something about Black Spanish, Dorking, Brah¬ 
mas, or any other varieties of fowls.” We will. 
The beautiful engraving, which we place in the 
next column, is the portrait of a Spanish cock, 
very near perfection. It is taken from Saunder’s 
Domestic Poultry,—a good work recently pub¬ 
lished. A more beautiful bird can hardly be 
imagined, one of prouder carriage, 
greater gallantry,or of more genuine 
dignity and nobility of mien. The 
true Castilian is of the real aristo¬ 
cracy of the poultry yard, and such 
a cock seems to feel his blood as 
thoroughly as a Grandee of Spain. 
The points which determine excel¬ 
lence are: 1st, purity and intensity 
of the blackness of the plumage, 
in both cocks and hens, liightened 
by a glossy andgreenisli iridescence. 
2nd, the pure white face, which, 
including the ear-lobe, must extend 
distinctly from the beak, comb and 
wattles, back so as to surround the 
ear, which is that little depression 
on the side of the head filled with 
bristly hairs. 8d, the comb, large, 
single and perfectly erect in the 
cocks, and large but tbin and lop¬ 
ping or drooping in the hens. These 
points, if found combined with well 
formed bodies, steel colored legs, 
and the lofty carriage, we have 
described, are sufficient guarantees 
of fine birds of the genuine Spanish breed. 1 
They excel as layers, not being sitters. Their | 
eggs are large, of most excellent quality, and of 
a most beautiful white color. The birds require 
warm quarters during our cold winters, and are 
often greatly disfigured by the freezing off of 
their combs. They will, no doubt, do better 
south than north of the latitute of New York 
BLACK SPANISH COCK. 
City. Still they are not very difficult to raise; 
they grow rapidly and mature early. The flesh 
is good, not quite equal to Dorkings, and they 
fatten easily. The chickens ought not to be 
hatched before about the first of June, or settled 
warm weather, as they do not bear cold and 
wet well, yet after they get a good start, they 
get their feathers early, and are considered no 
more difficult to rear than other varieties. Be¬ 
fore young birds are in full plumage, some 
white feathers are often shown, and very old fowls 
frequently exhibit also the same peculiarity. 
The great beauty and excellence of these fowls 
as layers will make them special favorites, so 
long as they are preserved pure. Though they 
improve the common Dunghills when crossed 
with them, their beauty is not perpetuated. 
Look out for Glanders and Farcy now. 
The attention of the whole community of 
horse owners ought to be especially directed to 
the terrible and Insidious malady, which ap¬ 
pears usually under two forms, bearing the 
names Glanders and Farcy. The former ex¬ 
hibits itself chiefly in the nasal cavities, while 
in the latter form it is seated in the lymphatic 
system, and appears in abscesses, swellings 
and ulcerations upon any part of the body, but 
chiefly upon the legs. The wicked sales by 
Government agents in the best horse markets 
all over the country, certainly in several of 
them, both at the East and the West, of horses 
infected with this fatal and incurable disorder, 
not only deserve reprehension and punishment, 
but impose upon us all the duty of knowing 
something about the disease, its symptoms and 
the appearances by which it may be recognized. 
The first fact which meets us is, that the dis¬ 
ease is contagious; the next, that it is incurable. 
Then we become aware, that, though in most 
forms it is easily recognized, in some systems it 
remains partially dormant, yet so active that the^ 
horse is capable of imparting the disease in its 
acutest form. Then we have the following, 
stated as facts by all the best veterinary author¬ 
ities: Inoculation with the virus will produce 
either Glanders or Farcy, according to the 
constitution or condition of the patient, irrespec¬ 
tive of the origin of the virus, whether fi'om 
a glandered or farcied horse.—Infection takes 
place from horses drinking out of the same 
trough or bucket, eating out of the same crib, 
wearing the same bits or harness, being cur¬ 
ried by the same comb, being harnessed in the 
same team, being hitched at the same post, 
from rubbing noses as horses always will if they 
can on the road or in adjoining pastures, etc., 
etc. Besides all these we have the appalling fact 
that grooms, drivers, and all coming in contact 
with glandered animals are liable to take the 
disease, which, when attacking human beings, is 
attended with the greatest distress and agony, 
before death comes to relieve the sufferer. 
We have prepared an engraving, which ex¬ 
hibits the two prominent and certain indica¬ 
tions of glanders, as usually observed in this 
country. The first symptom is like the in¬ 
dication of a cold with a running at the nose; 
but the discharge instead of being simply whit* 
