1875 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
34,1 
accidental overflow or stoppage of the water, and 
the flow is regulated with ease and certainty. 
Ladders for the House and Barn. 
Every farm-house and harn should be provided 
with a ladder. The most vulnerable part of a farm¬ 
house as to fire is the roof. This is true also of the 
ham and stables, so far as regards outside fires. 
For want of a ladder the house may burn, when 
one pailful of water applied at the right place, 
might have quenched the fire at its first discovery. 
We would, therefore, have a ladder for the house 
and one for the barn always in reach, and never to 
be loaned, except of course in case of emergency, 
when it should always be 
brought back again as 
soon as possible. It may 
not be out of place to say 
a word here as to return¬ 
ing borrowed things. A 
neighbor, who is willing 
to lend when asked, 
should certainly be treat¬ 
ed with so much show of 
gratitude as to have the 
borrowed article returned 
to him as soon as it has 
been used. In the case of 
ladders, which are fre¬ 
quently borrowed — for 
few farmers have them— 
it is generally necessary 
for the lenders to go and 
bring them back again. 
Every owner or occupier 
of a country or farm¬ 
house should have a lad-! 
der ready for instant use.' 
To make a ladder is a 
very easy matter. Apiece 
of 2 x 4 spruce timber of 
straight grain, free from 
knots, will make a very 
good one, when a round 
pole of the proper character cannot be procured. 
A well-grown slender spmce pole makes the best 
ladder. It should be well seasoned and straight, 
and sawn into two equal parts exactly in the center, 
peeled and shaved down to a good taper. Two 
pieces of 2 x 4 will answer a good purpose. In this 
case the timber may be cut away at each end, leav¬ 
ing it strongest in the middle where the greatest 
strain comes, as shown at fig. 1. The rungs should 
be of white ash, tapered to both ends, and should 
be well seasoned. The holes should be marked out 
on the sides, and bored with the proper slant to ad¬ 
mit of the spread of the lower end of the ladder. 
This may > be done by marking a short wooden 
straight edge with the proper slant for the holes, 
and then marking them upon the rough pieces be¬ 
fore they are dressed out. 
In carrying a long ladder, the easiest way is to 
fasten it upon a wheelbarrow, as shown in fig. 2, 
and taking it by the end as handles to trundle it 
along. One can then see the whole ladder before 
him, and in turning corners is in no danger of do¬ 
ing any injury to anything that may come in the 
Fig. 1.— LADDER. 
fore we received the article on Extension Ladders, 
by L. D. S., given last month on p. 296. While 
they differ in some unimportant details, the two 
articles together give the farmer such full instruc- 
Fig. 3.— LADDER IN HALVES. 
tions, that he need not be without a ladder because 
he does not know how to make one. 
An Improved Corn Crib. 
The waste caused by vermin in the corn-crib is 
frequently very serious. Rats are the especial 
enemy of the farmer in this respect, and any means 
trap door may be made in the center of this flooi 
to hand up com from below. Any corn that is 
shelled oif from the ears, and falls through the floor, 
can be picked up by poultry or pigs, and none will 
be wasted. If desired, lean-to sheds may be built 
against the sides of the crib, giving valuable room 
for many purposes. The shed between the cribs 
will make an excellent storehouse for implements, 
and as many doors may be made in the cribs as 
may be desired. These should be slide doors, and 
loose boards shr uld be placed across the door-way6 
inside, to prevent the com resting against them. 
The roof should be well shingled, and a door made 
at each end of the upper loft, which may be 
opened as needed for thorough ventilation. 
Fig. 2.—MANNER OF CARRYING A 
way of the sweep of the hinder half, as may happen 
when it is carried upon the shoulder. A very con¬ 
venient ladder for the bam is made in two halves 
hinged together, as shown at fig. 3. It is kept 
from spreading by cords tied to screw eyes upon 
each half. When the whole is needed for use, the 
cords can be wound around the joints where the 
sides lap, and a long ladder is made of it. The 
foregoing, with its illustrations, was prepared be¬ 
AN IMPROVED CORN CRIB. 
whereby their ravages may be prevented, will be 
productive of a great saving. The burrowing rat, 
which makes its nest beneath the buildings or rub¬ 
bish piles, does the most mischief in the corn-crib, 
and unless the crib is so made that there are no 
hiding places about it, it is impossible to dislodge 
it from its retreat. The corn-crib, of which the 
illustration is an end view, is made so that it is 
inaccessible to rats or mice, and there are no 
hiding places beneath it. It is elevated three 
feet above the ground, on firmly set posts. The 
cribs are 6 to 8 feet wide, and of any desired 
length; for 4,000 bushels of corn in the ear, the 
building should be 40 feet long, with cribs 8 feet 
wide and 12 feet high. The outside is closely 
boarded and battened. The floor of the cribs are 
made of three-inch strips, set an inch-and-a-half 
apart, to admit a cur¬ 
rent of air. The space 
between the cribs is 12 
feet wide, and is closed 
inside from the bottom 
of the cribs to the 
ground, forming an in¬ 
side shed, which is 
LADDER. , ’ , 
not accessible to any 
farm animals or vermin. This inner shed is closed 
by sliding doors at each end. The cribs are boarded 
up inside the shed with three-inch strips placed a 
quarter of an inch or half an inch apart, to admit 
air. The cribs are thus weather-proof on the out¬ 
side, and by opening the slide doors, free circula¬ 
tion of air can be obtained in fine weather. Above, 
the shed is floored over, forming an apartment 12 
feet wide, by 40 feet long, for storage of com. A 
Pure Air in tlie Stable. 
The comfort and health of farm animals depend 
greatly upon the purity of the air in the stables, 
and their usefulness and profitableness depend on 
> the comfort and health they may enjoy. Pure air 
can only be obtained through drainage and ventila¬ 
tion. Want of drainage can not be substituted by 
ventilation, for the gases which arise from the de¬ 
composition of the droppings of the animals, are 
constantly being produced, and are supplied as fast 
as they may be conveyed away. These gases are 
very injurious. The products of the decomposition 
of the waste from stables are chiefly pungent am- 
moniacal gases, which cause diseases of the eyes, 
and irritation and inflam¬ 
mation of the air-passages 
and lungs ; and sulphuret¬ 
ted hydrogen and similar 
compounds, which enter¬ 
ing the lungs poison the 
blood, and cause diseases 
of the typhoid type, which 
are so common in crowded 
stables. Drainage and 
ventilation should there¬ 
fore go together. As a 
matter of profit the drain¬ 
age of stables should not 
be neglected. The largest 
portion of the nitrogen of 
the manure exists in the 
liquid portion, and no 
other valuable part of the 
manure is 60 volatile, 
as that which contains 
the nitrogen. If the liquid waste from the stable 
is not properly collected, we lose that part of the 
manure which is of the greatest value, and which 
acts with the greatest rapidity in the soil. It is not 
enough that drains and a safe drainage-tank should 
be provided, but some contrivance should be used 
Fig. 1. —TRAP. 
SECTION. 
to prevent the gases from the tank and the drains 
from escaping into the stable. A drain-trap, such 
as is shown at fig. 1, and in section at fig. 2, will 
answer this purpose very effectively. It is a box 
of wood, covered with a stout grating, and di¬ 
vided into two compartments by a piece of board 
Fig. 3.— ROOF VENTILATOR. 
placed across it at the upper part. The outlet to 
the discharge-pipe is placed above the level of the 
lower edge of the board partition, so that the wa¬ 
ter in the trap always covers this lower edge, and 
prevents any vapor or gas from passing from the 
drain to the stable. The trap should be flushed 
