254- 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
water through the middle. When the trenches 
are dug, care must be taken that they all de¬ 
scend towards a convenient outlet; and from this 
point a covered drain, with which the founda¬ 
tion drains are connected, must lead off to 
lower ground. Instead of a channel in the 
stones, a tile drain maybe laid six inches below 
the level of the trencb. Tbe tiles should be 
covered with earth, well packed with the back 
of a spade. If the trench is filled a foot deep 
with small stones, the weight of the wall and 
building will be distributed so evenly that there 
will be little or no danger of the tiles ever be¬ 
coming misplaced. In case there is much 
water to be carried, this is decidedly a better 
plan than to have a channel in the stones, 
which in time is almost sure to be filled up. 
It is not at all worth while to place a brick 
wall upon a stone drain, unless a bed for the 
bricks be laid in cement. This makes more 
work than is necessary, though the result is a 
very substantial foundation. Brick founda¬ 
tions are usually best laid over a tile drain 
about a foot lower than the bricks, as in figure 2, 
the tiles being of the smallest diameter procura¬ 
ble, the trench for the tiles narrow as possible, 
and the earth above them well packed. The 
brick wall may rest directly in mortar upon the 
earth, if it is of uniform hardness; but if it is 
not solid enough, old boards should be laid 
down to place the first course upon. The same 
cement mortar directed for stone foundations 
should be used for brick ones; and if the whole 
wall, inside and out, be floated over with ce¬ 
ment, it will be more impervious to water, and 
the better for it. In case a wall is liable to re¬ 
ceive the wash of higher land, or, if in case of 
hard rains, water stands near the house, lest it 
soak down, lie against the wall, and find its 
way through to the cellar, it is very well to es¬ 
tablish a sort of indirect communication with 
the drain by filling in small stones by the side 
of the wall, as shown in the engraving, though, 
except upon very flat ground, or in a tenacious 
subsoil, it would be seldom necessary. 
Such drainage as we have described will in¬ 
sure dry cellars, which may be grouted and ce¬ 
mented with care, and so made both rat and 
damp proof. Should springs occur in the cellar 
bottom, as is not unfrequently the case, separate 
covered drains must be made for them. 
---—O N — . ■—- 
Use the Rake. —It is too much the custom to 
allow the ground to get weedy, and then make 
a job of hoeing out. It is better not to allow 
the weeds to get the start, and to effect this, no 
implement is more useful than a sharp steel 
rake. In small gardens, especially, whether of 
vegetables or flowers, the rake can be kept in 
such frequent use between the rows and among 
the plants, that very little weeding will be nec¬ 
essary. It is many times easier to kill a weed 
just as it is in the seed-leaf, than when it be¬ 
comes a well-established plant. Stir the soil 
frequently with the rake, and the weeds will be 
taken at their most vulnerable time. A short 
exposure to the sun while in their early stage of 
growth will kill the hardiest of them. 
More About the Sefton Swine. 
“Our experience with fancy pigs” grows 
more favorable. The Seftons promise to be a 
success after all; for although the produce of 
the thoroughbred pair is scarce, (owing, we 
think, to too close in-breeding,) the crosses of 
the thoroughbred boar with sows of other 
breeds are invariably fine. This fact becoming 
known among the neighbors, the boar is in de¬ 
mand at fair rates, and our own stock of pigs 
goes off readily, at high prices. Ten pigs, less 
than eight weeks old, have recently been sold 
for $86, which is fully double the price that the 
same number from common stock would have 
brought, and with five promising sows to litter 
during the season, there is still a prospect that 
the original investment of $60 for the pair of 
Seftons will prove to have been a good one. It 
is to be borne in mind that the young pigs 
which have thus far sold have all been grades , 
or crosses of fehe Sefton and common stock. 
Farm Implements. 
On the great estates of Europe and Great 
Britain, at the South, more under the old regime 
Fig. 1.—KOOLOO PLOW. 
than now, and on some of the great firms at 
the "West, blacksmiths and other mechanics are 
as much a part of the regular force of farm la¬ 
borers as plowmen. On our smaller farms the 
farmer himself must know enough of the vari¬ 
ous trades to be able to help himself, and keep 
the work going along, though tools break, and 
harness gives way, and nuts are lost, and all 
sorts of unforeseen accidents happen. A man 
who can sew a neat seam in a piece of harness, 
put on a horse’s shoe, solder a seam in a leaky 
Fig. 2.—OLD EUROPEAN PLOW, STILL IN USE. 
pail, get out the frame and put up a simple 
barn, mend his tools, wood his plows, and han¬ 
dle his axes, is not of necessity a “Jack at all 
trades, and good at none.” He may be a first- 
rate farmer, and it is certain that a knowledge 
of all these may be had without making a man 
a worse cultivator. A very large farmer cannot 
afford time, except occasionally, and then more 
as a sort of recreation than for the profit of it, 
to do much tinkering, but the knowledge of 
how many a job ought to be done is well 
gained only with the ability to do it one’s-self. 
If this is true in regard to the actual manual 
operations which we have denominated “ tink¬ 
ering,” it is ten times more important with re¬ 
gard to principles. If we all understood better 
Fig. 3. —15ADEN PLOW. 
the principles upon which buildings, vehicles, 
and implements, are or ought to be constructed, 
it would keep mechanics up to their duty, and 
Fig. 4.—MODERN PLOW. 
we should have better houses, better tools, and 
better wagons. We learn what we know' by 
hard experience, and even this knowledge is 
inaccurate. As 
boys in the Acad¬ 
emy, -we studied 
natural philoso¬ 
phy, and very 
likely neglected it 
for chemistry, (if 
not for Latin) 
thinking that 
chemistry would 
be of far more 
practical use. 
This is not the case. To the farmer chemical 
knowledge, compared with a knowledge of nat¬ 
ural philosophy (physics), is of very little value. 
John J. Thomas’ new book is admirable for its 
presentation of natural laws, and for the clear¬ 
ness of the practical application of them, as ex¬ 
hibited in the forms of our best tools. In discuss¬ 
ing the time-honored plow r , Mr. T. gives a little 
historical sketch of the implement, with several 
interesting engravings, showing gradual ad¬ 
vancement in the knowledge of principles, and 
their application. We borrow a few of the 
engravings of these rude implements. The Baden 
plow, fig. 3, reminds one strongly of the old 
wooden mould-board plow's, some of which 
Fig. 5. Fig. 6. 
may still be seen on old farms. The contrast 
with plows formed more philosophically, as 
most of our modern plows are, is very striking. 
To illustrate the simple, clear way in which im¬ 
portant principles are explained, we quote the 
substance of a paragraph in the chapter on 
plows:——A large part of the power of the team 
is expended in severing the furrow slice. The 
point or share should therefore be kept sharp, 
and form as acute an angle as practicable, as in 
fig. 5. Some plows, which otherwise work 
well, are hard to draw, because the share being 
made too thick or obtuse, raises the earth 
abruptly, as in fig. 6. Where stones occur, the 
cutting edge must form an acute angle with the 
land-side, like a sharp w 7 edge(see fig. 7,); a plow' 
like this will crow'd obstructions aside much 
Fig. 8. 
more easily than one like fig. 8. When, how'- 
ever, as in a breaking-up plow on the Western 
prairies, the great necessity is that the plow' 
should cut roots, the sharpness of edge 
is more important than its wedge-like form. 
Every part of the plow' is discussed in 
like manner, and so with plow appendages, 
among which the Weed Hook is mentioned. 
As it may be of service to our readers this 
season in plowing under green crops or 
-weeds, we give it. See fig. 9. “ Sometimes 
it is bent in the form of a bow 7 , with the 
lower point projecting fonvard, as in the 
upper figure; another form is like that in 
the lower figure, pointing backwards. This 
is less liable to be caught by obstructions.” 
It bends fonvard the tall growth, and holds 
