1870 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
57 
of sight if the soil be moderately soft. This 
implement is drawn by a chain fastened to a 
clevis on the end of each side beam of the frame. 
The tool may be reversed by turning it over and 
hitching to the other end. It is not necessary 
to sharpen the teeth much; they will wear 
Fig. 4.— showing construction of fig, 
rounding very soon. These may be omitted 
altogether from the rearmost stick, if smooth 
work not marked by furrows be desired; but iu 
this case the implement could not be so well in¬ 
verted and used the other side up, for then the 
smooth log would be at the forward end. The 
same result is attained by attaching a light 
log or brush to the back end when in use. 
Wet Hog-Yards a Nuisance 
Where hogs are kept on a large scale, say 
where thirty or forty 300 or 400-pound hogs are 
fattened every year by one farmer, they are sel¬ 
dom kept in yards, but have the range of an 
acre or more, with a brook or water-trough, 
and their manure is made little account of. 
Farmers who feed fewer swine, and reckon the 
manure a very important, if not the chief source 
of profit, confine their hogs, and keep them 
working over vegetable matter of all kinds. 
The yards, if not continually supplied with 
large quantities of fresh litter or weeds, are fitly 
described by a correspondent of Somerset Co., 
New Jersey, whose letter we quote as follows: 
“Hog-yards, in connection with hog-pens, as 
most farmers have them, are a nuisance. The 
hogs root up the bottom of the yard until they 
get a great hole, and every rain fills it with a 
slush, into which no one wishes to go to clean 
out the manure, and it is too offensive to be near 
the house. My neighbors have tried paving 
with stone and brick, but the hogs rooted up 
the pavements. About a year ago, I laid mine 
just about as far as most farmers will go who 
have to get the manure out of their own hog¬ 
pens. We propose a plan for those whose pig- 
stys are already built, and have the usual incon¬ 
venient open yards. It would be best to have 
the hog-yard sheds open to the south, and ac¬ 
cessible to carts at this side. A 
simple roof, however, something- 
like the hay-barrack roofs of our 
Dutch neighbors in “Jersey,” 
will answer. A yard 12 or 14 
feet square is large enough for half a dozen 
hogs, and better than if larger. Such an one 
may be roofed as represented in the engraving. 
The four corner posts of the yard are 12 feet 
long, or a little less, and set nearly 3 feet in the 
ground. There are four rafters mortised upon 
these posts, meeting in the middle, at a hight to 
give the desired pitch, and extending 3 feet over 
the posts, to give wide eaves. Before putting 
up the rafters, 3 x 4-inch plate-pieces are nailed 
or pinned near the tops of the posts, all around, 
and tied by similar pieces mortised into the 
middle of each side, crossing at right angles. 
The roof may be of boards, thatch, or shingles, 
and an old tin roof, taken off from some other 
building, may be made to turn rain for several 
years by an occasional coat of some roofing— 
pitch or paint. A yard so covered will receive 
rain enough usually to keep it moist; it will 
not become wet unless water flows into it. 
Manure will make better and faster than in an 
open yard; none will be washed away, and lit¬ 
tle or none will be lost by evaporation, as dur¬ 
ing the warmest part of the day the yard will be 
in shade. In dry weather it might need wetting. 
-_——«*-©.»-->—- 
Killing Beeves on the Farm. 
ROOFED HOG-PEN YARD. 
with oak plank, on a level with the surface of 
the ground, so that the water could run off 
when it rained. The ends of the planks run 
under the lower boards composing the sides of 
the yard, so that the hogs cannot root them up; 
they are not laid on timbers; it is unnecessary. 
We can now go into our yard and cleanout the 
pen with no more inconvenience than we clean 
the plank floor of a horse stable. I have no 
doubt that the reason why farmers make so lit¬ 
tle manure in their hog-yards is because they 
are such filthy places to go into, and have no 
doubt the planks will last in such a situation a 
lifetime, they being always wet.” 
This is very well so far as it goes, and it is 
The slaughter of beeves on the farm is an 
awkward business at best, unless one has the 
more essential appliances of a slaughter-house. 
With plenty of help, and a good pair of blocks 
and tackle, we can get along very well; but 
when one man undertakes the job, whether he 
be on a farm with a roomy barn 
floor, on one without a building 
high enough to swing a bullock 
in, or on the open prairie, with 
only a tree, or perhaps not even 
that, he has his hands full. How¬ 
ever, the work may be done, and 
well done, and that without a 
pulley.—In killing the animal, it 
is desirable to cut the large blood 
vessels of the throat as soon after 
it is struck down as possible, the 
most rapid bleeding being best for 
the beef. When it happens on 
level land that the creature is 
brought down by the bullet, it is a 
little difficult to secure the most 
perfect bleeding, for it is desir¬ 
able to have the head lie low, and the body 
incline towards' it. This is accomplished by 
placing the animal on a bank, or by tying a rope 
to one hind leg, and hoisting the hinder part of 
the body up as high as is necessary. As this 
is done before the struggles of the creature are 
over, the rope should be attached before it is 
knocked down if possible, or a noose should be 
made and thrown over the foot afterwards. As 
soon as dead, the carcass should be skinned. 
The legs, belly, and pate are skinned as it lies 
upon its back—most conveniently if ropes can 
be fastened to each foot, and the legs stretched 
well apart. This done, the feet are cut off at 
the knee and hock joints, the paunch is re¬ 
moved, and the carcass strung up. A gambrel 
is inserted, and with help enough, the beef is 
easily swung clear of the floor in any common 
Fig. 1.— TRIPOD FOR HANGING UP HOGS, 
barn, or to the limb of a tree, not less than 8 
feet high. On the open plain, sometimes a gin 
is set up, having a block and tackle, and this 
does very well. We published, some years ago, 
a plan (see fig. 1) which, while it answers very 
well for heavy hogs, requires the power of three 
men to manage it with even a moderate beef 
animal upon it. This is accomplished as fol- 
Fig. 2.— SUSPENDING A CARCASS, 
lows: Two legs of the tripod, A, have pins set 
in them, upon which the gambrel rests after it 
is inserted, the tripod lying flat upon the ground, 
as shown. Then the upper part of the tripod 
is lifted and the carcass with it a little ways, 
until the ends of the legs hold in the ground, 
after which simply carrying up the leg with the 
pin thrust through it for a handle, elevates the 
carcass to the desired hight, shown at B in the 
engraving, fig. 1. Mr. S. R. Shegogue having 
tried this plan, desciibes for the Agriculturist a 
way by which two men 
“ string up ” a good 
sized bullock. He 
writes : “Get two strong 
poles, say 15 feet long 
each, and place them 
against a building or 
tree, as shown in the il¬ 
lustration. Cut four 
crotched poles and point 
them at one end ; two of 
these should be 5 feet 
long, and the other two 
7 feet. After killing the 
beef, it is turned on its back, aud the legs and 
as much more as you see fit, are skinned; a long 
gambrel stick and shorter one are put in place. 
The long one is laid across the poles, as high up 
as possible, then the short crotch poles are used, 
Fig. 3.— LEVER AND 
SLING. 
