182 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[May, 
dishonest men are strongly tempted to sell them as 
purely bred birds. The Pekin drake is so strong 
and vigorous that he marks all his offspring, and 
the crosses with Aylesburys, Rouens, and Black 
Java, which have come under our observation, are 
invariably increased in size by the Pekin blood. 
The Aylesbury crosses, though all white, are readi¬ 
ly distinguished by the lighter color of their bills, 
the smaller neck, and narrower build behind. The 
Rouen crosses come out often pure white, and the 
fraud is not readily detected. The practiced eye, 
however, would notice the different shape behind. 
The true safeguard against these and all similar 
frauds is to buy only of responsible parties. 
■-—- 
Cart for Liquid Manure. 
A “ reader of the Agriculturist ” sends a sketch 
of a cart for spreading liquid manure upon mead¬ 
ows or gardens, which is very easy to make and 
handy to use. It is a box made similar to a com¬ 
mon box cart, but water tight, and with two tail¬ 
boards. The tail-boards work in tight fitting 
grooves, with not over one inch between them. 
The outer tail-board has several small holes bored 
in it, as shown in the engraving, through which the 
liquid manure escapes when the inner tail-board is 
raised. The cart is hung upon a bent iron axle, so 
as to bring it near the ground. The cart body is 
rendered water-tight by making the joints with 
tongue-and-grooved boards, and fitting them to¬ 
gether with tar or oil paint. After giving the 
interior a thorough coat of tar, a second bottom of 
thin boards is put down with screws or wrought 
nails, while the tar is soft. This cart may be used 
for many purposes about the farm, such as gather¬ 
ing roots, moving manure, and similar services. 
—---s—-- **--- 
Care of Lambs. 
The usually gentle sheep can be remarkably ill- 
natured and obstinate when it chooses so to be. 
These peculiarities often lead to an unmotherly 
conduct tow'ards their lambs, many of which would 
be lost were not these untoward propensities in 
their dams watched and overcome. In every flock 
there will be some ewes that will disown their 
lambs, and resist all but forcible means to com¬ 
pel them to perform the necessary nursing to the 
helpless creatures. In such cases various expe¬ 
dients are adopted to overcome their dislike. 
Small, close darkened pens or stalls, in which the 
ewe and the lamb alone may be confined together, 
Will be found effective in bringing the mother to 
own her lamb. The ewe in such a pen, can not 
escape from the lamb, and if she is held twice a 
day to allow the lamb to suck, it will manage to 
procure enough at other times to keep it thriving. 
After a few days’ confinement, the ewe’s dislike 
usually wears off. When she is more than usu¬ 
ally vicious, and attacks the lamb with head and 
feet, a common practice amongst careful shepherds, 
is to put the ew r e in stanchions in the pen. These 
are made by driving two stakes into the ground 
so close together that the ewe’s head can not slip 
from between them, aud after pressing them apart, 
and securing her neck between them, they are tied 
together by a hay-band or a piece of cord ; thus 
confined she can reach her feed placed before her, 
but can not turn to attack the lamb. The pens 
may be made of hurdles driven into the ground, or 
the floor of the sheep shed, about two feet apart, 
as shown in the illustration ; a portion of one hur¬ 
dle is broken away to show the lamb. The lamb 
can creep under the bars and find room enough to 
get about. If the ewe lies down rather than let 
the lamb suck, as some obstinate ones will do, a 
bar of wood may be put under her belly from one 
hurdle to another, and resting on the bars, so that 
she can not lie down until it is removed. It is 
needful for the shepherd to visit the ewes two or 
three times a day and see that the lambs get all 
the milk the mothers may have. With the help of 
these contrivances, perseverauce and gentleness 
will bring the ewes to their duty in a short time. 
—- i '»■ —- 
A Eitching-Strap for a Horze. 
The most secure method of hitching a horse is 
by a halter and neck-strap. A horse thus fastened 
can do no injury by flying back, as some will habitu¬ 
ally do. The strap and halter is easily carried, or it 
may be kept on the horse without interfering with 
HITCHING STRAP. 
the haraess, and is as easily and quickly hitched in 
this way as in any other that is not so safe. The 
strap is 32 inches long. The flat part is 8 inches in 
length ; the center, which is rounded or not, as may 
be desired, is 18 inches, and the end to which the 
buckle is affixed, is 6 inches long. A ring is se¬ 
cured to the strap about 2 inches behind the loop of 
the buckle. The form of the strap will be seen in 
the illustration. It is made of strong harness leather. 
-—car. - 
Mending Harness. 
“A stitch in time ” in the harness, at this season, 
will probably save considerably more than the pro¬ 
verbial “ nine ” when the busy season commences. 
To mend harness, the first thing needed is a clamp 
for holding it. A very good clamp may be made of a 
6tave of a flour barrel cut in two in the middle. 
A small block with two sides beveled is fixed on 
the top of the larger block, and the staves 
are screwed firmly to St, as in the engraving. 
Screws are to be preferred to nails, which would 
be liable to split the staves. The upper end of 
each stave is smoothed and beveled so as to take 
an even and firm hold of the leather when it is 
slipped between them. Fine copper wire is a bet¬ 
ter material with which to mend harness than 
thread, aud is much more convenient in use. A 
roll of this wire should be kept on hand. Rivets 
and burrs should be used for splicing traces or 
heavy parts of the harness. A few of these, with a 
punch and a light tack hammer for clenching the 
rivets, should form part of the tools, and a straight 
awl should be procured for making holes in the 
leather when the original holes have become filled 
up or worn so as to be useless. A seat may be 
made by fixing two legs to a piece of board about 
two feet long; the oilier end will then rest up¬ 
on the block when it is in use. Whcnnotinuse 
it may be hung up on the wall of the tool-house by 
a hole in the end. Such a harness-mending appa¬ 
ratus, in lack of a more costly “kit” of tools 
ought to be kept in every farm workshop. A 
6trap may be mended in two or three minutes for 
one cent, that would cost ten cents at the harness 
makers, and the loss of time; and thus in one 
CLAMP FOR HARNESS. 
year a man might save the whole cost of a volume 
of the American Agriculturist in this way alone. 
- - . — - 
Cisterns—Lessons of the Drouth. 
We heard great complaint of scarcity of water in 
many parts of the country during the winter. We 
did not have the usual fall rains, and the ground 
froze to an unusual depth, so that the winter rains 
remained upon the surface in the shape of ice, or 
ran off into the streams. Some springs gave out, 
and the streams in some instances froze to the bot¬ 
tom. Pipes that had escaped injury for twenty 
years, were frozen solid, and many farmers have 
had to carry water long distances for household 
use, and for stock. The inconvenience and expense 
will not be wholly lost if it leads farmers to pro¬ 
vide cisterns near the house or barn, in which a 
large supply of water may be stored for just such 
emergencies. Stone, lime, and cement, are cheap 
in most parts of the country, and with these, any 
man of average skill can make a cistern that will 
store all the water needed—generally the rain wa¬ 
ter from the roof of barns, if saved, will supply all 
the stock kept upon the farm. In many cases, the 
cistern is most conveniently located in the bank, 
immediately back of the wall to the barn cellar, and 
the water can be drawn through a faucet at the 
bottom into the trough for the cattle. In other 
cases, the cistern could be made in the yard, and 
the water be drawn by an endless chain or pump. 
Those who have suffered inconvenience through 
the past winter, are just at this time in a good 
frame of mind to consider the advantages of a 
cistern. There is money in it for the purse, and a 
great deal of comfort for both man and beast. 
Pens for Calves. 
There is nothing in which we are so generally de¬ 
ficient in our farm arrangements, as in the treatment 
of our young stock. This neglect is most frequent 
and conspicuous in the case of calves. Just now, 
when the warmth of the spring sun adds to the 
Fig. 1.—PLAN OF CALF-SHED. 
distressed appearance of last year’s calves, that 
have been wintered in a cold shed, or in a partly 
sheltered yard, their poor condition is made rela¬ 
tively worse by the sleeker state of the cows, which 
have had all the good treatment that could be 
afforded them. Nevertheless these young animals 
are those by which the dairy is by and by to be 
replenished. It is a mistaken idea, although it is a 
common one, that exposure to cold hardens the 
constitution of a young animal, and that by half 
starving a calf, the tendency to take on flesh and 
fat, so much dreaded, or pretended to be dreaded, 
