13 -4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[April, 
carrying the grain far, or running over much 
corn. There is no use of more ventilation over 
the top than the three gable ends afford. The 
sides of the crib should be well girded, and the 
strips strongly nailed to them, so that the weight 
and pressure of the corn cannot open them. 
The floor must also be strong. There should 
be ten posts under the crib. I think ten by ten 
feet square the best size for each of the rooms, 
and that will make room for a good crop, and 
will hold all of a small one, and leave room to 
pack away an j'thing that you wish to keep 
away from rats and mice.” 
Three-horse Evener, 
There are thousands of intelligent farmers in 
this country who never saw three horses worked 
abreast. It is a rare sight in New England, and 
in a great part of New' York and New Jersey. 
The great gain in power leads us to present the 
subject frequently. In addition to the forms for 
evener and vhiffletrees previously given, Mr. S. 
B. Fisher, of Westmoreland Co., Pa., sends us a 
drawing and description of a form he has used 
several years. It is more complicated than 
the common simple evener in two pieces, but 
has decided advantages. Mr. Fisher writes: 
“ The large or main beam is four feet ten 
indies long, the two outside beams are two feet 
three inches, and the center beam one foot six 
inches. The clevises in the outside beams are 
placed nine inches and a half from the large end 
of each, the holes being in the center, and the 
clevises riveted fast. The small ends of the out¬ 
side beams and the ends of the center beam are 
ferruled, and small gudgeons with eyes in them 
are driven into them, and connected by a ring. 
This, if made right, is the most complete three- 
horse double-tree.” 
Good Cows for Poor Men. 
Every poor man who can afford to do so nat¬ 
urally keeps a cow; but he generally makes the 
mistake of keeping a cheap eo-w, that is, a cow 
of poor quality. Spending from $40 to $60 for 
her purchase, lie secures an animal that, on not 
very abundant food, but still kept at some ex¬ 
pense, supplies the family with enough milk for 
their use. He considers the operation a profita¬ 
ble one, and undoubtedly it is so. Many poor 
men would be inclined, w r e fancy, to think us 
wild in advising them to pay so much as even 
$100 or $135 for an extra good cow, the best 
that can be found in the neighborhood; yet 
we are confident, that, in a majority of cases, due 
care being given to the animal’s health, clean¬ 
liness, and ample nutrition, the profit would be 
very much greater than with an inferior ani¬ 
mal. Probably the average of cows kept for 
the family use of poor men will not give more 
than 1.500 quarts of milk per annum, or, at the 
most, 1,800 quarts. This amount of milk, in 
the family of the ordinary mechanic or laborer, 
is worth five cents a quart for home consump¬ 
tion, — say $75 or $80 a year. Out of this sum is 
to be paid the interest of the animal’s cost, her 
depreciation in value, and the price of pur¬ 
chased food, which is more or less according to 
the circumstances under which the family live. 
For $135, even in other districts than those 
■which are chiefly devoted to the keeping of 
cows, an excellent animal, frequently a grade 
Ayrshire or Short-horn, may be purchased, that 
will give with good care, on rich food, not less 
than 4,000 quarts of milk per annum. Instances 
are not rare of the yield reaching even 5,000 
quarts. With such an animal we will suppose 
that, as in the previous case, 1,500 quarts are 
consumed by the family, and arc estimated to 
be worth $75. This leaves 3,500 quarts of milk 
for sale; and, in almost every village in the 
land, this milk may be readily sold at the door 
for six or eight, and not seldom for ten cents a 
quart. At the least price,—six cents,—the total 
amount of sales would be $150, which would 
pay for the extra food required to keep this 
larger animal in the best condition, and for the 
increased interest and depreciation, and leave a 
handsome profit besides. 
Any cow must be shelter¬ 
ed, fed, milked, and gener¬ 
ally attended to. The 
amount of labor required 
in the case of the better 
animal is in no respect 
greater than in the case of the poorer one. 
The profit of the operation is all real profit, 
and no small account should be made of the 
greater satisfaction and pleasure that result 
from full milk-pails than from those half full, 
from fine cows than from “scrubs.” It is a re¬ 
turn to that old principle that whatever is worth 
doing at all is worth doing well; and if it will 
pay to keep any cow at all it will surely pay 
to keep the best cow that we can afford to buy. 
--- »-«-- 
Experience with Fancy Pigs. 
About a year ago we purchased a pair of pigs, 
descended from the stock of the Earl of Sefton, 
in England, for which we paid in their early 
infancy, $60, calculating, with an utter disregard 
of the old story of the milkmaid in our spelling- 
book, that if the sow would give two litters a 
year it would be reasonable to hope for eight 
pairs of pigs, which, sold at $60 a pair, would 
I produce a gross income of $480. Of course, $80 
I would be ample for feed and care, and the very 
handsome profit of $400 a year would make 
the investment of $60 a most brilliant one. 
And now for the result! After a year of most 
careful and somewhat expensive treatment, 
during which the animals purchased have grown 
to fair, but not to astonishing proportions, there 
has at last been produced a litter of five pigs, 
four fine ones and one “runt.” Whetlierowing 
to the high mettle of the mother or to her natu¬ 
ral viciousness, whether to predetermined infant¬ 
icide or to accident, we are unable to say ; but 
this promising family has been reduced, one by 
one, until now the sum total of the progeny 
available for future operations is one pig! While 
it might still be possible to sell to a credulous 
person a pair of these pigs for $60, we have 
found it impossible to get an offer of $30 for 
half a pair. Having invested in this enterprise, 
we propose, to see it through, but our hope of 
magnificent results is slightly dimmed, and our 
plan of future operations will probably confine 
itself to such tactics as will get back for the 
whole concern, young and old, a gross sum of 
$60, charging the cost of a year’s keep and of 
baffled hopes to the account of experience. This, 
however, does not prove that the Sefton pigs are 
not excellent, and probably they are. There is no 
doubt that much of our misfortune is the result of 
too long continued in-breeding in the herd from 
which the purchase was made. But the moral 
of the tale plainly points to the recommendation, 
not to invest large amounts of money in untried 
breeds of fancy animals, with a confident hope of 
making a good deal of money by the operation. 
-— . a & b — - --— 
Thoroughbred Males. 
It is not within the means of the very large 
majority of fanners in this country or in any 
other, to raise only, or chiefly, expensive 
thoroughbred stock. But it is within the power 
of every one of them, or it soon would be if 
they cared for it, to breed only from thorough¬ 
bred males. These, belonging to a fixed type 
or race, perpetuate their peculiarities with much 
greater certainty than do mongrel bred animals, 
and they will almost always overcome, in a 
great degree, the defects of mongrel females, 
thus constantly elevating the grade of the 
animal towards the type of the purer race. 
This rule holds good with reference to every 
variety of farm stock, from horses to poultry. 
Sir John Fenwick, in the reign of Charles II., 
said that “every blood horse, even if he be the 
meanest hack that ever came out of Barbarv, is 
so infinitely superior in courage, stoutness and 
quality, both of bone and sinew, as well as 
blood, to the best cold-blooded mare that ever 
went on a shodden hoof, that lie cannot fail to 
improve the stock, whatever may be his com¬ 
parative standing among racers.” And Sir John 
Fenwick was perfectly right, as the history, not 
only of running horses but of trotters, has 
amply proven; for there is not to-day a suc¬ 
cessful trotting horse in America who has not 
in his veins a very large proportion of thorough 
blood, derived probably through several genera¬ 
tions from the side of the sire. 
Cattle for the shambles are more economi¬ 
cally fed and more rapidly raised to a larger 
size, if they have been sired by a thoroughbred 
Short-horn. Cows for the dairy are better 
and more profitable in proportion to the number 
of thoroughbred sires whose blood they carry. 
The commonest and coarsest sow will give far 
more easily kept and advantageously sold pigs, 
if these are sired by a thoroughbred Essex, Sef¬ 
ton, or other boar of fixed type. That the same 
rule holds good in the poultry-yard no breeder 
need be told. And throughout the whole range, 
the cost of securing the services of thorough¬ 
bred males is as nothing compared with the 
value of the result as shown in the progeny. 
The Poultry-house at Ogden Farm. 
As there is an immense demand among the 
summer visitors at Newport for earl}' spring 
chickens—these sometimes selling in June for 
$3.50 a pair—it has been attempted at Ogden 
Farm to perfect an arrangement by which early 
laying and early brooding may be secured. For 
this purpose, the poultry-house has been built 
on the south side of a five-foot stone wall. The 
width of the house at the top is 8 feet, and at 
the bottom, 10 feet. The plate at the eaves of 
the roof lies directly upon the wall, while its 
front edge is 3 feet higher, or 8 feet from the 
ground. The front is built with a batter, or 
slope, of two feet, and tiie whole front, for six 
feet down from the roof, is made of glass, there 
being six sashes, 4 feet wide and 6 feet long, 
having only longitudinal bars, between which 
the glass is set, as it is in ordinary green-house 
sashes. A row of “secret” nests runs the 
whole length of the house, immediately under 
THTiEE-nOr.SE EVEXEIt. 
