1866.] 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
395 
should be allowed to settle, and then the flues 
closed tight at one end, and the doors left open 
at the other end, and all the firing done there 
until the opposite head settles; 6 hours will gen¬ 
erally accomplish this, and then the fire can be 
changed to the other end, and the same plan 
adopted till the kiln is finished. If a kiln works 
as it should, it will burn evenly, commencing 
at the corners and spreading each way until the 
whole is heated. After the middle gets thor¬ 
oughly hot, six hours will finish it. Three days 
and two nights, if the tiles are properly dry 
when set, will burn a kiln well. A kiln should 
be provided with a roof that can be taken off, or 
shoved away from the top of the kiln when hot, 
or while burning, in fine weather. In case of 
rain during the first 34 hours, the kiln should 
be covered ; after it is hot all over, the rain will 
do no harm. In case of high winds blowing 
in one direction, a wind-brake can be put up on 
the wall of the kiln, on the windward side, 
which will prevent its affecting the top of the 
kiln. Some burners practice covering with clay 
as fast as the tile get to a certain heat (or when 
nicely red). This practice would help in windy 
weather, and is well enough at other times. 
It is impossible to be successful in burning 
without a GOOD Kinit, good wood, and dry tiles. 
A little experience, with a good rig, will enable 
any one with ordinary skill to burn success¬ 
fully. The great art is to tell when they are 
burned enough. This is determined by their 
settling. Good clay is sure to shrink when well 
burned. One-half inch to the foot is, perhaps, 
the average shrinkage, which would make four 
inches in a kiln of eight corners. Some places 
will settle more, and some less, according to 
the heat. When'the last fires are built, the 
doors should be left closed, and the draft shut 
off, that the cold air may not crack the arches 
or tiles. There is liability to get some soft tiles 
in every kiln, with the best management, and 
these, if not cracked, should be burned over.” 
A long-used Stall Fastening for Cattle. 
The comfort of his cows should receive the 
attention of the dairyman, nearly as much as 
provision for 
their main¬ 
tenance. The 
distressed 
beasts which 
poach up the 
mud and ma¬ 
nure in the 
cold wet barn¬ 
yards, and 
stand back up 
against the 
STAXL FASTENING FOR CATTLE. nortll - eastei'S 
of a whole winter, are only more miserable 
than those who have their heads locked in 
between two upright stanchions in narrow-as- 
possible stalls. Neither know much of the com¬ 
forts of the life of a well kept dairy cow. Geo. 
Hatton, of Warren Co., Ohio, sends us a de¬ 
scription and drawing of a neck-yoke for tying 
cows in stalls, which we were familiar with 
many years ago, and which really looks like the 
portrait of an old friend. The yoke consists of a 
bow and a cross piece. The bow is of hickory 
or ash, with one end shaped as shown at 1, by 
cutting a notch on each side. This is the end 
marked 3 in the cut. The other end of the bow 
has a knob or ball left upon it. The cross piece 
(3) connects the ends of the bow, and is made of 
hardwood | to 1 inch thick, 3 inches wide, and 
about as long as a cow’s neck is thick. There 
are 3 holes bored in this piece of wood ; 3 are 
inch holes, (4, 4); the other is a Iths hole (5), 
a little distance from one of the inch holes, and 
between the two holes a slot is cut, so that the 
end (3) of the bow being passed through the 
inch hole on the right, and also through the 
big hole on the left, will spring through the slot 
and into the hole (5) where it will hold. The 
3 mke hangs on the cow’s neck in the position as 
shown, and by it she is chained or tied. A cow 
can turn her head aud neck in it very easily. It 
is hardly possible for her to split or break it, and 
it is perfectly secure, and forms a cheap and very 
convenient fastening for cows and young stock. 
Splitting Wood by Horse Power. 
A tread horse-power, with circular saw at¬ 
tached, affords a means of reducing fire wood 
to suitable lengths for stoves, and as stoves are 
constructed now-a-days, it is desirable to have 
it in very short lengths, sometimes requiring 
even 7 cuts in 4-foot wood. The relief afforded 
by the horse-power to back and arms is so 
great, that we take the splitting as mere pastime, 
and cheerfully “peg away” at the blocks. 
This labor too may be easily and quickly done 
by Dobbin, and we figure a simple machine for 
the purpose. It is a frame of two uprights of 
pine or chestnut, about 13 inches square, and 6 
feet high, framed substantially as shown, and 
set and braced in 4-inch sills about 6 feet long. 
The knife is a blade about 13 inches long, I to 1 
inch in thickness, and brought to a rather obtuse¬ 
ly wedge shaped, steel faced edge, and is set in a 
4x8 hard wood stick,and secured by strong bolts 
with large aud strong washers to strengthen 
the wood, lest a twist of the block might split it. 
Fig. 3. Fig. 8. 
One end of this “ ax helve,” if we may so call 
it, is set by a strong bolt in a mortise in one of 
the uprights, and the opposite end passes through 
the opposite upright in a long mortise, to give 
it freedom to move up and down. The ax, or 
splitting blade, is set near to the fixed end, the 
position varying somewhat with the motion to 
be given to the other end. The frame sustains 
upon the tops of the uprights a rod running in 
metal bearings, which has a belt-pulley on one 
end, and a fly-wheel on the other. A pitman 
connects the fly-wheel with the end of the ax 
bar, and gives it an up and down motion. The 
speed maybe determined by the size of the pul¬ 
ley, and ought to be about 130 strokes a minute. 
The motion of the blade is 3 inches or more. 
The hight at which the ax is set above the 
strong hard wood bottom piece, must be sufB- 
cient to take under the largest sized blocks that 
will be used. The best way to split the wood 
up is to hold it by a strap passed around the 
block, and to cleave it by parallel splits across 
in one direction, and then by others, at right 
angles, if for firewood, (fig. 3,) but obliquely if for 
kindlings, (fig. 3). One such machine will split 
pitch pine for kindlings for a whole village, and 
suppl jdng kindling wood might be made a source 
of considerable profit. In many of our larger 
cities such kindling wood is sold in great quan¬ 
tities, and to a very great extent has taken the 
place of charcoal. The pieces are about flinch¬ 
es long, and when put in little close bundles, 8 
inches in diameter, intended to be just enough to 
kindle a fire in a common coal stove, sell for 3 to 
4 cents per bundle in New York and Brooklyn. 
Spelt, or Spelt- Spelta.) 
We have had several inquiries in regard to 
this grain. The 
Swiss and Ger¬ 
man readers of 
the Agriculturist 
remember it,and 
want to get seed 
and cultivate it 
here. There are 
both winter and 
summer, beard¬ 
ed and bald va¬ 
rieties, and were 
Spelt as much 
cultivated as is 
wheat, it would 
probably sport 
into as many 
difierent kinds. 
Spelt is remark¬ 
able for having 
adherent chaff 
or husks, like 
barley, which it 
very much re¬ 
sembles in its 
marketable con¬ 
dition, though in 
growing it looks 
like wheat. We 
give drawings of 
two kinds. Fig. 
1 is a Winter 
Spelt, and fig. 3 
a Summer va¬ 
riety. It does 
not require quite 
so strong a soil 
as wheat, and 
bears an open 
winter better, 
and some varie¬ 
ties are especi¬ 
ally valued for 
the stout rigid straw. It is cultivated in North- 
Fig. 1. 
