1875.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
381 
are safe from hawks, which will not swoop down 
upon them, except in clear ground. The coops 
are kept in this part of the plot, being moved daily 
to fresh ground. The chickens are kept busy 
scratching in the loose ground, and there are few 
potatoes raised but what are scratched out and 
eaten by them. This furnishes them with employ¬ 
ment and with some wholesome food, and it is for 
this purpose alone they are planted. The owner of 
this small chicken farm is a gardener and florist, 
and his wife manages this part of the business, pro¬ 
ducing every year two or three hundred pairs of 
chickens for market, besides eggs and old fowls. 
-- ^ --— 
How to Catch a Sheep. 
A sheep should never be caught by the wool up¬ 
on its back or sides. No other farm animal has so 
tender a skin as a sheep, and when it is roughly 
handled or pulled about by the wool, the skin is 
bruised and the wool which grows upon the part is 
injured. The proper implement is the crook, one 
of which should be kept with every flock. It is a 
light staff, eight or nine feet long, furnished at one 
end with a steel hook, shaped as shown in the il¬ 
lustration (see fig. 3). To use the crook, the handle 
is taken in the right hand and the hook is quietly 
put amongst the sheep, and beneath the belly of 
the sheep to be caught. The round knob prevents 
the hook from being caught by the wool or injur¬ 
ing the sheep. The form of the hook causes it to 
turn in a flat position as soon as it touches the 
sheep’s belly. When it is drawn backwards, it 
slides down the hind leg until it reaches the thin 
part of the leg above the 
hock, which is caught in the 
neck of the hook. If the 
sheep struggles and bounds 
forward, the leg slips past 
the neck of the hook, which 
acts as a spring and gives 
way, permitting the leg to 
slip through to the head of 
the crook. The sheep is 
then caught “ by hook or by 
crook,” and cannot escape. 
The shepherd holds the ani¬ 
mal while he gets to its 
head, when he can secure it 
by putting his hand beneath 
its chin or breast. The 
sheep will not struggle when 
thus held. When there is 
no crook, the proper way to 
catch a sheep is, to take it by the hind leg above 
the hock, as in fig. 1 , (on the preceding page), and 
then hold the sheep until the other arm can be 
passed beneath the throat or in front of the 
breast, as in fig. 2. If the sheep is to be lifted, 
this can be done by seizing the left hind leg and 
passing along the animals right side, putting the 
arm,around its breast. When thus held, a sudden 
lift will hoist a sheep into a cart or wagon, unless 
it is a very heavy one, when it should be made to 
walk up a plank, assisted to do it if necessary. 
A Shed or Barrack for Straw. 
The interes’ting and instructive articles by Pro¬ 
fessor Atwater upon feeding 6 tock, which have 
been published in the Agriculturist for some months 
past, ought to give such a clear idea of the value of 
straw for feeding purposes, as to induce farmers to 
save it carefully and use it economically. If a good 
farmer should have ten or twenty tons of hay, ho 
would have no other thought than to feed it to 
stock, so as to have its value returned, and at the 
same time to make manure for replenishing the 
fertility of the farm. But straw is not so regarded, 
and it is made to serve the purpose of a waste ma¬ 
terial by being thrown under the cattle: Now, if a 
ton of straw, which is considered worthless, can be 
made equal in feeding value to a ton of hay by the 
expenditure of four dollars worth of linseed or 
cotton-seed cake meal, corn meal, or bran, it is cer¬ 
tainly a great saving and economy to feed it to 
cattle instead of treading it under foot. Leaves, 
dry earth, sand, swamp muck, and other substances, 
worthless for feed, can be procured for bedding in 
any quantity, and the straw 6 aved for feeding. As 
the season for thrashing the grain is now at hand, 
we would urge the greatest economy in saving and 
using straw, so that none of its value may be lost. 
As it is not often that it can be put into the barn 
directly from the thrashing machine for want of 
room, some means of preserving it from the weather 
must be provided. To stack it so as to keep it dry 
and in good condition, is more costly than to pro¬ 
vide a roof under which to stack it. The cost of 
a roof like that in the engraving, figure 1 , will be 
about 825 to 830, and it will hold 10 tons of straw. 
This small cost will be returned in one season in 
the saving of straw. To thatch a stack of the same 
size, so as to preserve the straw equally or nearly 
as well, would cost $5, if the necessary skill were 
at hand to make a good job, which is very unusu¬ 
al. The materials required are as follows : 4 posts 
8 x 8 , 24 ft. long, 512 ft. ; 4 pieces 2 x 8 , 20 ft. long, 
80 ft.; 4 pieces 2x8, 21 ft. long, 14 ft.; 4 rafters 2x4, 
16 ft. long, 43 ft.; 8 other rafters 2x4, 64 ft.; 600 
feet half-inch boards for the roof; in all about 
1,300 feet of lumber. It is built as follows : The 
posts are set firmly in the ground, 19 feet 6 inches 
apart each way, so as to form a square. Holes are 
previously bored in the posts with an inch and a 
quarter auger, 8 inches apart, beginning 10 feet 
from the ground. Four pieces of 2x8, 20 feet 
long, are then fitted together outside of the posts— 
but kept loose from them by iron straps around 
the comers. The straps are bolted on with car¬ 
riage bolts. Pieces of a cast off wagon tire will 
make excellent straps. Comer-pieces of 2 x 8 and 
21 feet long are then fitted and bolted, and screwed 
up tightly. This is the foundation or frame-work 
for the roof, and is shown in figure 2. Four 
rafters of 2x4, 16 feet long, are then fastened 
to the corner-pieces, meeting at the center where 
they are fitted and joined together. Eight other 
rafters are fastened to the framework, two in each 
triangular space, to strengthen the roof and for the 
roof boards to be nailed to. Well-seasoned half¬ 
inch siding boards, having the edges rabbeted so 
that one overlaps the other for half an inch, are 
then laid horizontally, commencing at the bottom, 
and nailed with shingle nails. The roof is then 
finished. Eight pins of one-inch round bar-iron, 18 
inches long, are then procured, two for each cor¬ 
ner, and a lever 6 or 7 feet long. The roof is raised 
one corner at a time by resting the lever on one pin, 
and when it is raised to the next hole, the second 
pin is placed in it to hold it there. As the straw is 
stacked, the roof is raised, and as the straw is used 
it may be lowered. The stack may be built two 
feet larger than the roof each way, if the 6 traw at 
Fig. 2.— FOUNDATION OF ROOF. 
the outside is carefully laid to slope downwards, 
and is raked off before the roof is let down upon it. 
If a horse-fork is used, a hook should be fastened 
to the peak of the roof before it is raised to its 
place. One of these stack covers built at the 
corner of four fields, so as to answer for each, 
would be very valuable for stacking hay, com fod¬ 
der, or grain, and save much expense in barn-room, 
-. *-«a®»-—• «.- 
Animal Pokes. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
Breachiuess or the unruly proclivities of horses, 
cattle, and sheep, are supposed by some to be 
hereditary. Whether this be so or not, animal 
pokes and fetters of various kinds are frequently 
necessary and 
are extensively 
used. The 
cheapest plan 
of retaining 
the ordinary 
jumping ani¬ 
mals is to keep 
a good fence 
with sufficient 
food for suste¬ 
nance ; as this 
cannot always 
be done, the 
alternative is 
to put pokes 
on them. In 
fig. 1 is shown 
the simplest 
and cheapest, but one of the best. An iron 
bolt should project from the long part near the 
end for at least two inches. This catches upon 
the fence as the animals jump over it, and often 
throws them, so that they do not care to repeat 
the trespass. Fig. 2 represents a poke with both 
sides of equal length and weight, hanging more 
evenly upon the neck, and with two iron bolts. 
Fig. 3 represents one with a bow, through which 
pass two iron bolts ten 
inches long. The lower 
one passes through a pro¬ 
jecting piece three and 
one half feet in length, 
the upper edge of which 
rests against the upper 
bolt in such a manner that 
the piece projects down¬ 
ward at an angle of about 
45°. ‘This arrangement 
has proved to be a very 
serviceable one. While the Fig, 3 ,— poke. 
projecting piece admits 
of easy feeding, it prevents approaching too neat 
the fence, and, unless the wearers acquire the 
