1869 .] 
AMERICAN AG-RK 3ULTURIST. 
93 
milker is much the more profitable, for the 
reason, that the skimmed milk is usually of 
little value, except for the manufacture of pork, 
and this will not compensate for the greater 
amount of food that the larger milker consumes. 
For butter dairies, then, it should be our aim, 
setting aside all other considerations, to select 
such animals as ample experience has shown 
will make the largest quantity of butter from a 
given amount of food. Whether the food be 
fed to one animal or to two is a matter of little 
consequence. What we want is to get the 
most money as the result of its consumption; 
and this is often attained by feeding it to a 
larger number of smaller milkers. In the case 
of thoroughbred animals, the advantage of the 
larger number of cows is still greater, for the 
reason that they give us more valuable calves. 
■--«o>--- --- 
Salt as an Article of Diet for Stock. 
It would seem absurd to argue that salt is 
an essential ingredient in, or in connection 
with, the feed of live-stock. The problem is 
one which has its demonstration daily in the 
fondness of the animals for it, in their rough 
coats, and nibbling and sniffing appetites when 
deprived of it, and in the sleek condition and 
sharp appetites which soon come from its mod¬ 
erate use. The deer and the buffalo are as fond 
of salt as our domestic ruminants, and in a con¬ 
dition of captivity, it is as essential to their 
health. Cattle near the sea-board do not need 
salt, and though they like it, the use of it is often 
given up, because its benefits are not apparent, 
and the very knowledge of its utility may be 
lost in a few generations. 
“ How quickly your butter comes!” said an 
acquaintance who had stepped in to have a 
morning chat with the good wife of a farmer 
living near one of our seaside watering-places. 
“You must salt your cows well.”—“Oh, no! 
we never salt them ; do you salt your cows ?” 
—“ Certainly, every week.”—“How do you do 
it?” rub it into their backs ?” was the innocent, 
and, from her standpoint, natural rejoinder. 
When cattle and sheep are salted once a week 
and flat rocks with basins in them are not abund¬ 
ant, the next best things are little oak “ dug- 
outs,” like the one shown in fig. 2, three feet 
{ long, ten inches wide, four high, and about two 
deep. They will last out in the weather a long 
time if they are only housed in the winter, or 
turned bottom upwards on a rock. We give also 
a sketch of a salt-trough (fig. 1) for the constant 
supply of dry salt. A swinging roof hung in a 
frame, which supports the trough a little above 
the ground, protects the salt from the weather, 
and animals will quickly learn to push the 
roof to one side and get at the salt, and 
when they leave, the roof swings back again. 
Rock-salt in lumps of several pounds’ weight 
is the best article for placing in troughs or 
mangers. This costs a good deal more than the 
Fig. 2. —“dug-out” fob salt. 
salt from the same mines, dissolved, evaporated, 
purified, and furnished in sacks, as “Ashton’s 
Factory-filled,” simply because there is not de¬ 
mand enough for it to make it an article of ex¬ 
tensive commerce. It is so hard that animals 
cannot gnaw it easily, and in simply licking it 
they do not get too much, but quite enough. 
Cheap Shelter for Cattle. 
A common excuse for the barbarous practice 
of wintering cattle at the stack-yard is the want 
of capital to build a good barn. For the pros¬ 
perous farmer a convenient barn, as near the 
center of his premises as possible, is doubtless 
the most economical arrange 
ment. Rut almost every farm 
furnishes the material for 
“hovels,” wdtli very little ex¬ 
penditure of money, and a tem¬ 
porary hovel may be made 
quite as comfortable as a barn. 
Our Irish fellow-citizens have 
a genius for this kind of struc¬ 
ture, and one often sees by their 
rude houses, shelters for the 
poor man’s cow, that are mod¬ 
els of comfort, if not of beauty. 
He has but one to provide for, 
and its walls and roof are 
thrown up in a day; but if it 
pays the poor man to provide 
shelter for his cow, it certainly 
will pay the large farmer to shelter his herd. 
Select dry ground for your hovel, and, if pos¬ 
sible, the southern slope of a hill or the south 
side of a grove. Plant a row of posts ten or 
twelve feet apart, and eight feet high, for the 
rear of the hovel, and a second row, twelve 
feet high, about twelve feet 
in front. These rows of 
posts should be extended ac¬ 
cording to the number of 
cattle to be accommodated, 
allowing three feet for the 
smaller animals, and four for 
the larger. Boards or slabs 
may be used for the siding 
and for the roof, if these 
are available. Doors should 
open to the south, at con¬ 
venient distances. A long 
feeding rack is constructed 
at the back side of the hovel, 
and the cattle are tied up, 
fed, and attended as if in a 
barn. The stacks of fod¬ 
der are made immediately around the hovel, 
with reference to convenience in feeding. This 
is not so easy as to feed from the barn floor, but 
it involves very little more labor than foddering 
from the stack-yard, where the hay has not only 
to be thrown over the fence, but scattered 
widely, to give every animal a fair chance. Not 
' nearly as much hay would be wasted by tram¬ 
pling, and about as much would be saved by 
shelter as in the best constructed barn. If lum¬ 
ber is scarce, the siding and roof may be made 
of straw, bog hay, sedges, sea-weed, or even of 
the hay that is to serve for fodder. Thatch, well 
put on, will last nearly as long as shingles. 
Siding of straw, a foot thick, packed between 
poles, will last several years with slight repairs. 
But the stacks of hay may be so arranged as to 
form the most of the siding, and if the hay knife 
be used, the part next to the hovel may be left 
to the last, and be fed out in spring, after the 
extreme cold has passed. This style of hovel is 
much used upon the prairies, and in the new 
settlements, where timber is scarce, by the more 
careful farmers. It might often be used to ad¬ 
vantage by all farmers in the North, who have 
not sufficient barn room for their cattle. It i 3 
as valuable for manure making as for shelter. 
If the floor of the hovel be covered a foot or 
more thick with muck, peat, or surface soil, well 
dried, it will absorb all the valuable parts of the 
urine, leaving only the water to leach away into 
the earth. The whole floor may be treated as 
in box stalls, adding loam and straw, as they are 
needed to keep the cattle clean and comforta¬ 
ble. All the manure of the cattle would be 
saved in this way, and it would add greatly to 
the riches of the farm. One great advantage of 
these cheap shelters would be a great saving in 
the carting of manures. If the hovel were lo¬ 
cated as it should be, upon the field to be broken 
up for corn, the manure would be already upon 
the ground for spring use. The only labor 
would be to compost the manure, and spread it, 
for plowing in. This would give relief to thw. 
teams at a time when all their strength is 
wanted for the pressing labors of seed-time, 
and by adopting this plan the remote fiekR 
of the farm might b« kept in good heart. 
--•->-— - - - 
A Farmer’s Skiff. 
Many whose farms border on a stream or 
lake find it very convenient to have a boat of 
some kind. A correspondent in West Virginia 
sends us drawings and a description of a boat 
that can be made at a small cost. He states 
that he has had one in use for two years, and 
finds it very serviceable. It will carry six 
persons, and a large man can stand on one 
side of it without dipping water. He says: 
Fig. 1. —SKIFF AS COMPLETED. 
“ For sides, take two 1-inch planks, 16 inches 
wide, and 14 feet long; for ends,2-inch plank, 
the same width. Cut the stern-piece 30 inches 
long at bottom, and 40 at top; cut the bow- 
piece 12 inches long at bottom, and 20 inches at 
top; then cut a center-piece 12 inches wide, 40 
Fig. 1.— SALT-TROUGH WITH ROOF. 
