303 
1875.1 AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
that the beasts have great knowledge because they 
seem so clever; or else we fancy that they must be 
stupid, because we have ascertained that they are 
■ignorant; so that, on the one hand, we constantly 
see animals severely punished for not having known 
what they could only have learned through human 
language ; and, on the other hand, we find men 
very frequently underrating the wonderful natural 
intelligence of the brute creation, and treating an¬ 
imals without the least consideration for their feel¬ 
ings, which are often highly sensitive.” 
How a good Farm Wagon should be Built. 
The original cost of vehicles in use among farm¬ 
ers, exceeds $200 for each farm. Many of these 
-are unsuitable for the purpose intended, poorly 
made, and very badly cared for. Scarcely 
any piece of mechanism is put to more severe 
strains, or suffers more from exposure, than the 
farm wagon. When a farmer buys a wagon he 
-should look well to quality rather than to price. A 
good wagon with good care should stand for 12 to 
15 years. No two-horse wagon should be used with 
.tires less than 11 inch in width. The pole should 
be of the best straight white ash, rather small at 
.the end, and the largest part about 20 inches ahead 
of the evener. The evener and neck yoke should 
be of good length, as the team will then work bet¬ 
ter on rough roads. The tires should be a very 
little wider than the felloes, so that the paint will 
not wear off; they should be bent true and fit 
tightly. A wheel to carry loads should have about 
inch dish, and nearly all of this should be made 
■in the wheel and not drawn over with the tire, else 
the tenons will be strained and the spokes loosened. 
The hub should be firm, solid, and fine-grained, 
but not “too hard;” the spokes of fine grained 
second growth oak ; the tenons should be smooth 
and uniform with a little more taper than the mor¬ 
tice, and 3 /ie of an inch wider at the shoulder than 
the mortice, and 3 / 33 inch thicker. If the hubs are 
well banded there will be no difficulty in driving, 
df the points are smeared with tar. The spokes 
must be perfectly dry, two years seasoned, and the 
tenons after having been thoroughly warmed to 
drive out all atmospheric moisture, should be 
driven until the shoulders come down firm on to the 
hub, but not driven into the hub so as to spoil the 
shoulder and the grain of the hub. The spokes 
on the fore wheels should be driven over, 5 / 16 of an 
inch, and the hind ones 3 / 8 of an inch. The felloes 
should be of the finest grained oak to be procured; 
good forest timber is better than young second 
growth. When they are bored and fitted they 
should be put on as soon as possible, and left on so 
that they may settle on to the tenons, which they 
should fit tightly. They should not be painted un¬ 
til they have been entirely finished two weeks, and 
if the felloes are rolled in a sheet-iron tank of boil¬ 
ing linseed oil, the tires will not need re-setting un¬ 
til worn out. After boiling they should be wiped with 
-old rags, as the paint will not adhere well where the 
oil is allowed to dry on. Good, sound, hard maple, 
which has been dried under cover, away from the 
-sun and rain, but with free circulation of air, makes 
the best axle, although some hickory is very good. 
The skeins should be set exactly level on the bot¬ 
tom, and all first-class skeins have the gather cast 
-in them. The reach should be made of a good 
tough stick, and not too large, as it must either 
spring or break. When the wagon is painted, noth¬ 
ing but the best English orange mineral, which is 
better than our red lead, should be used for the first 
coat. This should be ground in five parts boiled 
oil to one part Japan dryer, using a very little tur¬ 
pentine. This coat is put on all the woodwork be¬ 
fore it goes to the blacksmith, and if the felloes 
have not been treated with boiled oil, the treads of 
them should have two coats, and the smith cau¬ 
tioned to shape his tire well before heating, and not 
to bnrn quite all of the paint off. The second coat is 
-put on after it leaves the smith, and should be 
ground in boiled oil and Japan, half and half. The 
third and last coat may be the same,or of one part oil, 
■one part Japan, and one part No. 1 coach varnish, 
The wood-work should be well sand-papered before 
priming, and lightly after it leaves the smith-shop, 
and after removing all grease and smoke. After 
painting, the wagon may be striped neatly with 
black, and a good heavy coat of coach varnish given. 
The varnish should never be permitted to wear 
through to the striping, but renewed when neces¬ 
sary, and if it has been well done with good stock, 
it will stay on for twelve years. A wagon with Si 
inch skeins, made in this manner, will carry 6,000 
lbs., and last fifteen or twenty years. The box 
should be made with extra side-boards, primed and 
painted with white lead and umber, half and half 
in weight, darkened with a little lamp-black, and 
mixed for priming in the same manner as the red. 
Then two coats with oil and Japan half and half, 
should be given, after which a coat of best medium 
chrome green ground in Japan and varnish half and 
half, striped with plain, broad, black lines, and the 
inside panel of fine white lines. The above infor¬ 
mation is for the benefit of the purchaser, and not 
the builder. E. H. 
Canandaigua, N. T. 
Skim Cheese. —Skim cheese is quoted in the 
market at 2 to 3 cents a pound. This will not 
cover the cost of manufacture, boxes, and freight. 
The dairymen had better have given the milk to 
the hogs. These quotations go to show the public 
estimation in which skim cheese is held. But it is 
said if this worthless cheese could have some 
tallow-oil mixed with it, it would pass with con¬ 
sumers as full cream cheese. We do not think 
that dairymen can be brought to believe this, 
although some authorities on dairy matters try 
to induce them to believe it. It is a healthy sign 
of the public taste, that skim cheese brings only 
the price it does. It is very certain that the public 
taste will as strongly condemn the mixture of skim 
milk and tallow, although the latter may be sent 
out as “ oleo-margarine ” ; and equally certain that 
those who go into this business of adulteration, 
will lose by it. “ Oleo-margarine ” cheese can 
never be an honest dairy product, and dairymen, 
who avoid it, will retain their reputation. 
How to Get Large Birds. 
Many purchasers of fine stock, or of their imme¬ 
diate descendants, fail to secure as fine birds as the 
seller raises, and are unhappy. They hear of eigh¬ 
teen pound Light or Dark Brahma cocks, and 
twelve pound hens of some noted breeder, or of 
Mammoth bronze turkeys weighing sixty or more 
pounds to the pair. They order the eggs or young 
birds of such stock, hand them over to some servant 
or neighbor, who is not skilled in breeding, feeds 
irregularly, or regularly stints them, and at the end 
of six months wonder that they have not first-class 
birds equal to the advertisement. They think they 
have been cheated, and set down the breeder as a 
rogue. There are men no doubt in the poultiy 
business who cannot be trusted, but there are also 
a large number of men who have brought capital, 
skill, and integrity to their business, and who would 
not knowingly let a poor fowl go from their yards. 
They sell, uniformly, 6tock true to name, but at so 
early an age that the development does not always 
answer expectations. A turkey does not get its full 
growth until the third year, but most of them are 
sold at from four to eight months. Ducks and 
hens are not fully developed until the second year, 
and yet most of them are sold under nine months’ 
old. While it is true that large stock is essential 
to the raising of large birds, another factor is quite 
as essential. This is abundant feed during the 
whole period of growth. The grand results at¬ 
tained by our skillful breeders are reached by care 
and feed, after they have selected their stock. To 
make the most of a young bird, it should be fed 
with a variety of food at least five times a day, from 
daylight in the morning until the middle of the 
afternoon. It is well to omit late feeding to give 
time for digestion. Slack or full feed will make a 
difference of six pounds in the weight of a turkey 
gobbler at eight months old, which is the most of 
the difference between an ordinary and an extraor¬ 
dinary bird. Persons who buy thoroughbred young 
birds of good breeders should not expect to buy the 
skill of the breeder with his stock. That is a com¬ 
modity that cannot be bought for money. It can 
only be gained by daily attention to the details of 
poultry breeding. 
- m - 
The Country the Place for Mechanics. 
The demand for mechanics in country places is 
always growing. It is a mistake to suppose that 
carpenters, bricklayers, and masons need to crowd 
into a city to find employment. In the country, 
where a mechanic can have a few acres of land, up¬ 
on which he may spend part of his time not other¬ 
wise occupied, he need never be short of work. He 
can keep a horse, and ride to his work, losing less 
time in doing so, than if he lived in a city. He can 
keep a cow, some pigs, and fowls, and raise, with 
the help of his children, a large share of his sup¬ 
plies. His family will have better health, and enjoy 
themselves much more than in the crowded city, 
having flowers and a garden to amuse them. They 
may dress less expensively, will wear out fewer 
clothes, and the rent will not have to be provided 
for every month, or if it has, it will be but a trifle 
compared with city rents. Farmers everywhere are 
Improving their buildings, putting up better bams 
and fences, and competent country mechanics could 
procure profitable jobs, and could do the work at 
much cheaper rates than in cities. One well fin¬ 
ished job brings others, for nothing is so catching 
as improvement, and our experience has been that 
many farmers do without new barns or houses, be¬ 
cause of the difficulty of procuring competent 
mechanics at a reasonable price. There are very 
few good farmers now in the east or the west that 
are not able to have good farm-buildings, and at 
the present time village mechanics have more 
steady employment, and can save more money, if 
they earn less, than those who work in the cities. 
Value oe the Baelet Cbop.— Fears are often 
expressed that barley may not be a paying crop 
this year, because the price was high last season. 
This may be so if the crop is grown solely for sale 
to the brewers, who require a fine sample, good 
color, etc., and the demand is to a great extent 
capricious. But why depend on the market alto¬ 
gether ? Barley can be turned into pork as well as 
corn. It is excellent feed for horses, and poultry, 
and barley meal will make beef. Why not feed 
the crop if it can not be profitably sold, or at least 
a part of it. With two strings to the bow, the 
breaking of one may be risked, and so we would 
not hesitate to grow barley, although the brewers 
may not want it. As it requires good farming to 
grow this crop, and clean culture, it is not likely 
that the market can long be depressed below a 
paying point. As a feeding material barley stands 
very high, ranking very nearly as high as corn. 
When ground into meal, and fed with cooked po¬ 
tatoes, it makes sweet and excellent pork, and as 
a grain for horses it surpasses oats, and is more 
healthful as a steady feed than corn. 
“ Weigh, Measure, and Count Everything,” 
says the American Grocer —which is, by the way, a 
most useful and excellent journal, published in the 
interest of storekeepers. But the advice should 
not be restricted to grocers, as it is especially valua¬ 
ble to farmers as sellers and as consumers of pro¬ 
duce. Few farmers know exactly what they sell, 
and a platform scale is, we regret to say, a rare piece 
of barn furniture. A very important thing, and one 
which few farmers know exactly, is the quantity 
they feed to their stock, and how much a bushel of 
grain, a ton of hay, a quart of milk, a pound of 
butter, or a pound of pork costs them. A knowl¬ 
edge of these things is necessary if the farmer 
would make his business profitable, and unless he 
weighs, measures, and keeps account of every thing 
used upon or sold from the farm, he can not tell 
whether he Is working at a profit or a loss. 
