1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
spout, into the feed room. Fig. 2 shows the j 
ground plan, in which a , a, a , are stalls; b , the i 
feed room, c, the harness room, and d, the | 
Fig. 8.—INTERIOR OP STABLE. 
carriage room. Fig. 3 shows the interior. 
Along the walls of the passage are rings for 
tying horses, and the feed troughs are swung 
outwards in process of being tilled. In this 
way the horses are fed from the outside, and 
by raising the upper half of the door, as seen 
in the engraving, a horse may be watered when 
necessary, without taking him outside. 
In-and-In-Breeding. —Although some of 
the most highly prized stock is the result of 
close breeding, yet it is doubtful if it is not al¬ 
ready in process of degeneration from this very 
cause. The highly bred “ Bates” animals now 
and then drop off by disease, or turn out “ non¬ 
breeders.” The “ Booth ” herd itself is said to 
be in a bad way from barrenness and disease. 
Sir Charles Knightley brought his herd to a 
“dead lock” through in-and-in-breeding, and 
another noted breeder produced animals which 
were blind or otherwise defective. If all these 
close-bred herds can only be restored by the 
use of “ a cross ” it would seem to show that 
the “ cross” is a most potent influence for good, 
as it is used to obliterate the ill effects of a long 
course cf mistakes. 
To Clear a Roof of Snow. 
In a heavy fall of snow, a sufficient quantity 
will collect upon a weak roof to break it down 
or force the rafters to 
spread and distort the 
shape of the building. 
Much damage occurs 
every winter by neg¬ 
lecting to clear roofs of 
snow immediately after 
a storm. A barn roof 
is not often accessible, 
nor is it safe or agreea¬ 
ble to stand upon the 
roof of a shed and shovel 
snow while a north-east¬ 
er is blowing. "We sug¬ 
gest the following plan 
of doing this work in a 
more comfortable fash¬ 
ion. A board 12 inches 
wide and 6 feet or less 
in length, is fastened to 
a long rope in the manner shown in the illus¬ 
tration. One end of the rope is thrown over 
the barn roof and held by a person on the rear 
side, who draws the board up on the roof until 
it reaches the peak. The person in front then 
draws the board 
down and scrapes 
the snow down with 
it. The board is 
then drawn up 
again, the person in 
front guiding it to 
the proper place 
with his end of the 
rope. The one in 
the rear steps along 
each time the board 
is drawn up a dis¬ 
tance equal to its 
length, so as to 
bring the scraper in 
the proper position 
each time. To faci¬ 
litate the drawing 
of the board up the 
roof, a short rope is 
temporarily fasten¬ 
ed to its upper edge 
and to the long rope,by which it is made to lie flat 
as it is drawn up. The roofs should be cleared 
as soon as possible after each fall of snow*. 
8 Water=9 Ice.—Important Now. 
The general law that substances expand when 
heated, and shrink when cooled, is reversed in the 
case of water, and some other liquified bodies. 
Thus, water expands when heated, and shrinks 
when cooling at all temperatures above about 39° 
Fahrenheit, but the moment it sinks below 39°, it 
begins to expand, and the colder it grows, the more 
it expands. It does this so powerfully, that a single 
cubic inch of water, confined in a hollow globe of 
brass and frozen, burst it open with a force estimat¬ 
ed at 27,720 pounds, or nearly 14 tons ! The power 
of freezing water to rend rocks is well known. But 
for the exception referred to, the colder water and 
ice would be heavier, and sink to the bottom of 
ponds, lakes, and rivers, until a solid mass of ice 
would be formed that would not melt through all 
the summer heat. As it is, the water expands in 
changing to ice, and thus becoming lighter, it floats 
upon the surface, and even protects the water be- ,. 
low from becoming frozen to much depth. In 
round numbers, water expands about one-eightli 
when it becomes very cold ice. Eight cubic feet of 
water, or of earth saturated with water , expands to 
nine cubic feet, when frozen. In this way the 
coarser soils are broken fine—disintegrated—dur¬ 
ing winter, and they are thus fitted for supporting 
and nourishing plants. Plowing, or otherwise 
breaking up and loosening soils in autumn, to let 
the frost deeper down, is thus highly beneficial. 
But there is one result of great importance to 
every cultivator of any kind of plants, in field or 
garden, which are to stand in the ground over win¬ 
ter. The freezing and expansion of water-soaked 
soil breaks and tears whatever roots and rootlets 
are growing in it. But dry or merely moist soil ex¬ 
pands very little. It will at once be seen that it is 
highly important, to draw off the water from every 
spot of saturated soil. Most fields of wheat, rye, 
clover, etc., contain same places, where the water 
settles so as to fill the soil. These should be seen 
to at once, and an outlet be made with the plow, 
spade, or hoe, for the standing water. Better de¬ 
stroy some of the plants to accomplish this, for 
those that remain will be far more vigorous and 
productive. The same with garden plants, with 
vines, fruit trees, etc. One long, steady freezing, 
with slow thawing, is seldom of great injury. The 
frequent freezings and thawings of early spring are 
most disastrous. Freeing the whole soil from wa¬ 
ter by draining will prevent this. Until this is done, 
have plenty of dead furrows, or other open drains, 
(md keep their outlets open all winter and spring. 
Fence and gate posts in wet soils are lifted out by 
the expanding earth, and do not settle back again. 
Stone-walls are displaced or thrown down, be¬ 
cause, after being raised by frost, one side thaws 
out and settles sooner than the other. Fences run¬ 
ning east and west are more disturbed than those 
running north and south, because the latter admit 
the warm sun’s rays on both sides alike. But keep 
the standing water out of the soil around the posts, 
and under the walls, and there will not be expansion 
of soil enough to disturb their position. Open or 
blind drains will secure this. While this subject is 
fresh in mind, inspect the fields, gardens, vines, 
fruit trees, etc., and see what can be done now. 
Mice vs. Fruit-trees—Look out for them. 
The older readers of the Agriculturist will re¬ 
member that nineteen years ago, that is the winter 
of 1855-56, there was an immense devastation of 
fruit-trees by the gnawing of mice. These pests 
seemed to abound like the frogs in ancient Egypt. 
They even destroyed gooseberry, currant, rose and 
other bushes, and cases came to our knowledge of 
whole fields stripped of grass as evenly as if cut 
off with a mower. In March and December 1856, we 
gave a theory for their prevalence which was gener¬ 
ally approved. Mice multiply very rapidly. A single 
pair will soon stock a house with their progeny. 
The fall of 1855 was very dry, and winter closed in 
with no rain-fall,.after which the ground was long 
covered with a deep snow mantle. The mice not 
only multiplied greatly in summer and autumn, but 
they were not killed off as in ordinary years by the 
freezing up of water soaked ground, and the snow 
afforded them ample protection under which they 
carried on their destructive work, doing damage to 
the amount of millions of dollars. The past autumn 
has been a similar one in most parts of the country, 
though rain probably filled the ground during No¬ 
vember in some localities. The rain, however, fell 
upon frozen ground in many northern sections, and 
ran off over the surface, yet it doubtless drowned out 
many mice. It is well, therefore, to be on the 
careful watch, mice will travel miles even, under 
light snow, and no one knows whence an invasion 
may come. Where practicable, snow should be 
carefully tramped hard every time it falls or blows 
freshly around the trees. Curved pieces of tin, or 
tarred or roofing paper set around the trees is a 
help, though in 1855-56 they often barked the roots 
in light, dry soils. The little yoke-traps, costing 
2 or 3 cents a hole, set freely, will kill them rapidly. 
Roots for Sheep.— It would be well to 
use caution in feeding roots to breeding ewes. 
A “ belly-full ” of turnips or mangels upon a cold 
wintry morning abstracts a large amount of heat 
from the animal. This results in decreasing 
the vitality and vigor of the ewe, and conse¬ 
quently injures the growing lamb. The loss is 
never regained. Consequently at lambing time, 
more especially when that comes early, a 
number of weakly or dead lambs are produced, 
and the ewes themselves are too much weaken¬ 
ed to recover as quickly as they should do 
from the shock of yeaning. Experience has 
taught us to be cautious in the use of roots, 
especially of mangels or white turnips. Sugar 
beets, carrots, and rutabagas, which contain 
much sugar, are less injurious; but even these 
should be used with caution, and never with¬ 
out meal sprinkled upon them. 
Heavy Horses in the West.— The popu¬ 
larity of the Percheron and Norman horses in 
the Western States, is rapidly increasing. As 
the Percherons become scarce, the Normans 
are largely substituted for them. At the late 
Illinois State Fair, 45 draft stallions were 
shown in one ring, and 38 in another, the 
majority being Normans. At the Chicago 
Exposition, Mr. M. W. Dunham exhibited 40 
