132 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
other in the whole routine of farm labors. The 
remedy for all this trouble is a supply by means 
of flowing water in the barn and stock-yard. 
But water is quite as desirable at the house as 
at the barn, and when pipes have been laid and 
water flows both at the barn and house, it often 
happens that the barn being situated on lower 
ground than the house, if water flows there, it 
will not at the higher level. To obviate any 
difficulty from this source, or, in case of 
scarcity, to economize in the use of water, 
Mr. J. H. Mabbett, of Tarrytown, suggests an 
Fig. 1.— WATER FOR STOCK. 
application of the principles involved in a 
water fountain for chickens, which he described 
in the Agriculturist of November, 1864. This 
is shown in figure 1. The leader, which may 
be a branch from, or the terminus of, the pipe 
that confies from the spring, or elevated cistern, 
comes up from the ground at the post under the 
tub, and a short piece of rubber tube connects 
it with another piece of metal pipe, which de¬ 
livers the water at the top of the tub. The 
post is of oak or cedar, made with a sharp edge 
at the upper end, which receives the weight of 
the tub when full; over this edge the rubber 
connection lies. The tub is balanced upon a 
frame, as shown, and when nearly full, it presses 
Fig. 3.—WATER FOR FOWLS, 
with sufficient force upon the rubber tube to 
close if. Thus the tub can never remain long 
empty, neither can it overflow, and the water 
is never flowing except when there is need. 
Another application of the same principle is 
seen in figure 3, where a wooden tube conducts 
the water from a barrel along near the chicken 
coops. Near each coop a hole is bored in the 
pump tube, and a cork inserted, in which is a 
glass or tin tube, or a bit of pipe-stem. The 
tube may be made to fit water-tight in the cork 
by melting a little wax around it with a hot iron, 
over this tube or pipe-stem a thin rubber 
tube is drawn, which is laid upon the board, 
and passing under a squeezer, discharges the wa¬ 
ter into a pan at one end of the board, which is 
counterbalanced by a brick or stone at the op¬ 
posite end. Should a chick, perchance, perch 
upon this brick, its weight might cause the wa¬ 
ter to overflow in the pan; hence a board is 
nailed over it, to prevent such a catastrophe. 
Saddle Horses for Farmers. 
Why don’t our farmers ride more on horse¬ 
back? It is strange that a people descended 
directly from the English, 
whose lives may almost be 
said to be passed in the 
saddle, should have so 
entirely abandoned this 
healthful and convenient 
means of locomotion. It 
is very rare to find, on an 
ordinary farm, a saddle 
and bridle suited for better 
work than the plowing of 
com ; and to find a thor¬ 
oughly good saddle, one 
easy for the horse and easy 
for the rider, is almost im¬ 
possible. We cherished 
the hope that one of the 
many beneficial effects 
resulting from the recent 
war would be to stimulate the use of saddle 
horses among those farmers who passed three 
or four years in cavalry service; but, pos¬ 
sibly, they may have been surfeited, as, indeed, 
the writer was, by an overdose of a rather dis¬ 
agreeable kind of horsemanship, (poking along 
at a slow gait on rainy and wearisome marches,) 
and did not, as a general thing, have an oppor¬ 
tunity of riding good horses in a pleasant way. 
We fancy that one reason why there is not a 
more active general demand for really good 
saddle horses in America is, because every effort 
to obtain such an animal is pretty sure to result 
in disappointment. The article does not, in 
reality, exist in this country, except in such 
rare cases as not to form 
an important exception 
to the general rule. The 
saddle horse should be 
lithe, short-backed, strong- 
loined, long-necked, free 
in his action, and perfect 
in his temper. Such an 
animal is susceptible of 
any amount of training 
that an amateur rider may 
choose to give him; but, 
in the furore for trotting 
horses that rages through¬ 
out the whole country, 
where almost every point 
that is desirable for the 
saddle is disregarded, and 
attention is wholly given 
to the making of time by mere propulsive 
power, which is almost the least desirable thing 
for saddle use, it seems quite hopeless to look 
for the breeding of the desired animal; and the 
result that we have long hoped for must he 
sought by slow and easy stages, and through a 
stimulus which can be secured in no other way 
so well as by the adoption of horseback riding 
by farmers, and their sons and daughters. In 
going about the farm, in going to the post-office, 
in paying visits, and in all journeying where 
heavy articles arc not to be carried, the saddle 
horse ought to he used here, as he is in nearly 
all other countries of the world; and if there 
is any class of the community who should use 
him regularly, and should, as a matter of pride, 
know how to use him thoroughly well, how to 
ride strongly, gracefully, and securely, it should 
be the robust younger farmers of the country. 
In England, where it is estimated that, during 
the hunting season, a hundred thousand people 
ride daily to fox hounds, fully one-half the 
number being farmers, who go out to enjoy the 
sport or to practice their sale horses, there is, 
of course, a more active demand than can he 
expected in this country, at least for a very long 
time; but, even at this day, in the New York 
market, a perfect saddle horse, nearly thorough¬ 
bred, perfectly bitted and broken, and in all 
respects suited for the use of a lady or gentle¬ 
man, may be readily sold for from $3,000 to 
$3,000. And when we consider the fact that 
the animal belongs to a race that arrives at 
early maturity, while his whole training may be 
incidental to the doing of errands and the nec¬ 
essary recreation of the younger members of 
the farmer’s family, it seems to us that the op¬ 
portunity for a combination of pleasure and 
profit should be enough to induce the giving of 
greater attention to the saddle-horse question. 
Chain-fastening for Tail-boards. 
Why is it that anybody uses rods instead of 
chains to fasten in the tail-boards of farm 
wagons? The writer has experienced the in¬ 
convenience of them from time out of mind. 
The engraving represents the hind end of a 
wagon box, with the board held in place by 
TAIL-BOARD OF WAGON. 
a chain, permanently attached at one end, 
and terminated at the other by a screw bolt, 
some six inches long, which goes through the 
side and receives a nut by which the chain 
is tightened up. L. M. Lane, of Fairfield County, 
Conn., writes: “This way of keeping the tail¬ 
board of a wagon in its place is new to me, and 
it may be new also to some of your readers. It 
certainly must be very handy if one has to take 
the board out often. All one has to do is to un¬ 
screw the nut, put it in his pocket, and let the 
chain drop. It is always in its place, and no 
one has to look about for it, as I have seen many 
farmers do for the rod.” The article described 
was new to us, but we find it can not justly lay 
claim to novelty. The only objection to the 
chain is, that it costs 13 cents a foot, while 
the iron rod costs perhaps a quarter as much. 
Wooden Drains. 
S. M. F., of Philadelphia, writes that he has 
had difficulty with the choking up of a stone 
drain. Tiles were not to be had, and he used 
two strips of 1 i-inch pine plank, four inches 
wide, set on edge, with a 7-inch plank nailed 
on top of them. These troughs were put into 
the ditch with the open side down, stone being 
placed on top of them, and the remainder of 
the ditch filled with earth. This drain has 
worked well. He asks in what respect such a 
drain is inferior to a tile drain, how long the 
wood will probably last, and whether the stones 
on top are of any use. The wood will last 
a long time; where water generally flows 
through the drain, keeping the wood saturated, 
