1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
373 
edge—the more the better—of the science of 
agriculture. A well-chosen library of works on 
agriculture, books written by men of practical 
experience, as well as some of the agricultural 
papers of the day, is of great value. With this 
theory, and the means to carry it out, I think I 
could make farming pay. What think you ?” 
[You are right. Make the farm earn its own 
improvements and you will be happy. If you 
know an investment must pay at least 10 per 
cent, go in for it. If it will pay 20, you may 
borrow money to make it. If you wish to make 
farming pay, spend no money for extras ; or, if 
you do so, do not charge it to the farm.— Ed.] 
Fig. 1. —BAR-MUZZLE FOR CRIBBERS. 
Cribbing Horses. 
Cribbing is not a disease but a habit, which 
no doubt is as agreeable to the horse as it is dis¬ 
agreeable to his owner. This evil is probably 
brought on by the horse standing in his stall 
with an empty stomach and nothing to eat; by 
slight indigestion; flatulency of the stomach, 
which is relieved by an eructation of gas; by 
imitation; and per¬ 
haps by simply ac¬ 
cidentally resting 
the teeth upon the 
crib and experienc¬ 
ing the agreeable 
sensation. Taken 
very early it may be 
cured. The horse 
should at once be 
put in a close box 
stall where there is 
nothing upon which 
he can rest his teeth, 
not even an upright 
post. (After the 
habit is formed a 
horse will often crib 
upon a horizontal 
iron bar.) His feed 
should be given him 
upon the floor in a 
half-barrel tub or a 
basket. When taken 
out, if it is necessary 
to hitch him, the ar¬ 
rangement figured 
in April, 1868, page 
139, should be used. 
This is a rod about 
two feet long, at¬ 
tached to the hitch¬ 
ing rein, and made 
fast to the bit-ring when the horse is hitched, 
so that he cannot get his head to the post. 
When a box stall caunct be provided, it will 
pay, we think, to use the bar-muzzle, shown in 
fig. 1. This, if properly made, allows the horse 
to eat any kind of fodder, while it perfectly 
prevents cribbing, as will be apparent to any 
one examining the illustration. A good black¬ 
smith will make a neat one, which should be as 
light as possible con¬ 
sistent with strength. 
It is attached to the 
halter. The expense 
of this bar-muzzle 
will prevent some 
persons using it. A 
less effective preven¬ 
tive, which is, never¬ 
theless, good for any 
but confirmed crib-' 
bers, is a strap to go 
around the neck, in 
which are several 
sharp-pointed nails, 
arranged as shown 
in fig. 2, so as to 
stick into the throat 
Fig. 2. —THROAT-BAND. 
when the horse is in the act of cribbing. 
These nails, or steel points, are protected by a 
piece of stiff leather or a steel spring attached at 
one end to the stop, and having a slot cut in 
the other through which the strap may slip. 
This piece of leather is attached, soaked, bent 
into the form desired, and hammered stiff while 
drying; when dry, holes are cut for the points to 
come through. We have found that a horse in 
whom the habit was not a confirmed one, would 
stop when a small cord was tied tightly around 
the throat. A farmer of experience assures us 
that lie has completely broken a colt of the habit 
by standing out of sight with a heavy whip 
and bringing down the lash soundly when¬ 
ever he tried to crib in the least. Strips of 
sheepskin are useful with beginners, nailed upon 
all those parts of the crib or stall where they can 
rest their teeth. Cribbing has the effect to re¬ 
. THE BARN AT OGDEN FARM. 
duce a horse in flesh, and probably also inter¬ 
feres with digestion somewhat. When the habit 
is confirmed, we doubt if it can be cured. 
Raking Sea-weed with a Horse*rake. 
The old method of gathering sea-weed in 
piles with a hand-ralce and fork is tedious, as 
every shore farmer knows. By far the larger 
part of the marine vegetation landed upon the 
beach is usually lost, through fear of the ex¬ 
pense of saving it. On rough shores there is 
no substitute for the old method. But on the 
smooth, sandy beaches that line many of our 
coves and harbors, the sulky liorse-rake can be 
used to great advantage. It does not run quite 
so readily as upon smooth meadow, but it does 
its work well, and saves the labor of ten men. 
It will not only gather the dry weed thrown 
up by the tides, but the tangled mass that floats 
in water two or three feet deep. A great deal 
may be saved in this way that otherwise would 
not be thrown upon the shore. Another advant¬ 
age of this mode of gathering is the saving of 
a multitude of marine animals and small fish, 
that get entangled in the weeds and do not have 
time to escape. The horse-rake with its load is 
a seine to draw them ashore. On some shores 
this marine animal life is very abundant, and 
adds much to the value of the sea-wrack. The 
labor is quite severe upon the horse, and 
judgment must be used in not loading the rake 
too heavily. It also tests the strength of the 
rake, but with good steel teeth, as in the Bay 
State, there is little danger of breaking. 
The Barn at Ogden Farm. 
The engraving below shows the elevation 
of a large barn that has recently been erected at 
Ogden Farm. Although built on nearly level 
land, the slope of the surface of the ground be¬ 
ing only 2 feet in 100, it is, nevertheless, so ar¬ 
ranged that three floors are entered by drive¬ 
ways from the ground. The view of the' barn 
is taken from the south-east. The earth exca¬ 
vated in digging the 
cellars was used in 
making the elevated 
drive-way, by which 
the main floor is 
reached. At the west 
end, opposite this 
drive-way, a slope 
was dug out to allow 
manure carts to be 
driven into the cel¬ 
lar. Under the bridge 
there is a passage¬ 
way for carts and 
animals, and from 
this a double door 
opens into the gang¬ 
way between the 
stalls. The total 
length of the barn, 
on the cattle floor, is 
100 feet, and its 
width 40 feet. The 
cellar is of corre¬ 
sponding size. The 
upper or hay floor 
of the barn is only 
80 feet long, and the 
upper part of the 
lean-to. which covers 
the extension of the 
cattle floor is used 
as a convenient stor¬ 
age room for barrels and rubbish generally 
and also for straw. The barn cellar is 7 feet 
deep below the sills, and is all in one room, ex- 
