18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
ets are made of half-inch clear pine or spruce, 
and are cut exactly to fit into the grooves. 
When they are all put in their places, four (or 
more, if the wheel is large) rods of 4 -inch round 
iron are passed through, and nuts with washers 
underneath them are screwed on, to draw the 
rims tightly together. Then a half-inch skin is 
nailed on the inside, which makes the soles of 
the buckets ; ■wing-gudgeons are let into the ends 
of the shaft, iron rings are driven over the gud¬ 
geons to prevent the shaft from splitting, and 
the wheel is ready to set up. It must be raised 
free from contact with the tail-water, or much 
loss of power will be occasioned. If this 'wheel 
is neatly made, of light materials, the buckets 
made so as to discharge the water freely at the 
right moment, and no power is lost by improper 
management, it is one of the most economical 
wheels that can be used; utilizing 75 per cent 
or more of the actual weight of the water. 
Where water is more plentiful and the fall less, 
the undershot wheel shown in fig. 2 should be 
used. Its construction is so simple, and is shown 
so clearly in the engraving, that no further de¬ 
scription is needed. The materials should be 
similar to those in the previously-described 
wheel. The gearing necessary for communi¬ 
cating power from these wheels may be of iron 
or wood. Teeth of second-growth hickory wood 
Will answer for light, work, as pumping or clmrn- 
Fig. 3. —GEARING FOR WATER-WHEEL. 
ing, but for heavier work iron gearing would 
be needed. The wooden teeth may be mortised 
into the rim, and work into a pinion fixed into 
a shaft on which a wooden pulley is built. A 
belt from this pulley will convey a greatly ac¬ 
celerated motion to any other machinery at¬ 
tached to it; or the crank of a pump or churn 
may be connected directly with the pinion, 
which would give sufficiently rapid motion for 
such work. 
The power of a stream may he calculated as 
follows : Mark a spot on the bank of the stream; 
throw a straw on the water and measure the 
distance it is carried down in one minute. 
This may be 200 feet, or less or more. Meas¬ 
ure the depth and width of the stream in feet. 
If it should be six feet wide and six inches deep, 
that will make three square feet. Multiply 200 
by the 3 gives 600 cubic feet per minute; multi¬ 
plied by 62i, the weight of a cubic foot of water, 
makes 37,500; multiply this by the fall in feet, 
say 8 , gives the foot-pounds of the fall, 300,000; 
which divided by 33,000 (the foot-pounds of one 
horse-power)gives about 9 horse-power. About 
three fourths of this may be utilized by a good 
overshot wheel if it be properly arranged. 
A Splice for Timber. 
The engraving represents a splice that is very 
useful for many purposes. For timber of a 
heavy character, as sills, plates, or beams; for 
lighter stuff, as posts, studs, or rafters, or for 
wagon and sled tongues, it makes an excellent 
joint. Where the joint has to resist a drawing 
strain or sustain a weight it is indispensable. 
In the center of the scarf a square notch is to 
be cut, which enables the beveled ends of the 
SPLICING A TONGUE. 
joined pieces to enter beneath the inward slop¬ 
ing cut made to receive them. The keys (shown 
separately) are then driven tightly into the 
notch from opposite sides, by 
which the joints are closed. 
I 11 small work a joint of this 
kind glued will be as solid and 
strong as unbroken timber, 
and a wagon - tongue thus spliced, and 
wound with stout twine or wire, or with two 
carriage-bolts passed through the joint, will be 
as strong as ever again. 
Earth-Closet Manure and the Potato 
Disease. 
Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., now in England, 
sends us the following: England has been this 
year, as never before, cursed with a very gen¬ 
eral destruction of the potato crop. The cause 
of the disease is not known, nor does any one 
pretend to prescribe a remedy. The general 
and very natural assumption is, that the plant 
is weakened either by a deficiency of needed 
supplies in the soil, or by its inability* to assimi¬ 
late, under the atmospheric conditions of a sea¬ 
son in which the blight is produced, the sup¬ 
plies existing in the soil in sufficient quan¬ 
tity, perhaps, but not in a condition to be taken 
up by a plant of diminished vigor. 
The Rev. Henry Moule, the inventor of the 
earth-closet, who is always on the lookout for 
evidence of the value of earth manure, now 
points out the curious fact that in the garden of 
the Industrial Aid Society, in Hereford (in a 
district where the potato disease has been uni¬ 
versal), the entire crop, manured with earth- 
closet manure, escaped entirely, to the surprise 
of all. Mr. Moule believes that by reason of 
their better nutrition, these potatoes were better 
able to withstand the influence of the blight. 
Scales of Points for Jerseys.—Disquali¬ 
fications. 
BY MASON C. WELD. 
The publication of a proposition for a Scale 
of Points for Jerseys by the American Jersey 
Cattle Club has set breeders thinking. Their 
thoughts, like those of the writer, have probably 
been influenced in one way or another by arti¬ 
cles recently published in the Agriculturist and 
other agricultural journals; and it is with the 
hope of aiding to direct views into right chan¬ 
nels that this article is offered. 
We take it to be conceded that every breeder 
who aims at the improvement or even the main¬ 
tenance of the best qualities of any breed of 
animals has an idea of what perfection is—that 
is, perfection in his view—and he breeds to¬ 
wards that. Were all breeders to agree in this 
ideal perfection, great diversities in the animals 
of different herds would soon disappear. The 
Devon breeders agree thus, and how wonder¬ 
fully alike their animals are! Breeders of many 
of the varieties of fancy poultry agree almost 
exactly as to points, and their birds are so simi¬ 
lar, that only a practiced eye can tell those of 
the same age and sex apart. 
It becomes, then, a pertinent question: “Do 
we wish to breed Jerseys towards a general- 
ly-recognized ideal ? ” If so, we need an accu¬ 
rate “Standard of Excellence,” consisting of 
a description and scale of points, and a plain 
statement of disqualifications. We have never 
seen this last in connection with any scale of 
points for cattle, and deem it of the greatest im¬ 
portance—not for the breeder, but for the gui¬ 
dance of ignorant or prejudiced judges at fairs. 
{Note. —A man may be an excellent breeder and 
judge of Shorthorns or Devons, and be igno¬ 
rant of the nice points in judging of Jerseys.) 
It is clear that decisions at fairs should be 
made with precisely the same ideal as a standard, 
as that to which the most intelligent breeders 
strive to approximate. 
Without the system of disqualifications which 
are rigidly adhered to in judging of poultiy, we 
believe it would be impossible to present any 
such similarity of characters in fowls of the 
same breed as we now uniformly see at shows. 
Without a similar system in judging of Jerseys, 
and indeed of any other kind of live-stock, pro¬ 
gress in the future will be discouragiugly slow. 
Without discussing a description of the points 
constituting a “Standard of Excellence,” we 
suggest a few disqualifications, any one of which 
if possessed by any animal shall outweigh all 
good qualities, and prevent its receiving any 
consideration by the judges. 
DISQUALIFICATIONS IN JERSEY COWS. 
1. Barrenness at three years old. 
2. Inability to yield one pound of butter daily «p to 
six months after calving. 
3. Milk drawn upon the fair ground exhibiting by the 
lactometer less than 15 per cent, by measure, of rich- 
colored cream. 
4. Having, in whole or in part, a bay or red color simi¬ 
lar to that of the Devons. 
5. Being white or black without color or shades of 
color in the coat. 
G. Having a white or nearly white nose. 
7. Evidence of impurity of blood, either from general 
appearance or from the absence of a reliable pedigree. 
DISQUALIFICATIONS IN JERSEY BULLS. 
1. Failure as a stock-getter. 
2. Absence of evidence that, his dam would not be dis¬ 
qualified by Nos. 2 and 3 of disqualifications in Jersey 
cows. 
3. Bay or red in whole or in part, as No. 4 of the same. 
4. Black or white without color or shading, as No. 5 
of the same. 
5. Having a white nose, as No. 0 of the same. 
G. Evidence of impurity of blood, as No. 7 of the same. 
Tlnfse “disqualifications” are suggested, and 
perhaps others might be added, because we 
consider that few, if any, of our best American 
breeders would allow an animal to remain in 
his herd possessing any one of them. We know 
that white noses, or rather pink ones, have 00 - 
curred in well-bred herds, and the animals have 
been used as breeders, that black Jerseys of un¬ 
doubted purity of blood occur, and that a great 
mauy beautiful-looking cows, in herds too not 
unknown to fame, will not make on an average 
a pound of butter a day for six months, much 
less produce that amount or more daily “ up to 
six months after calving.” Still, no one would 
buy such an animal to improve his herd, and 
surely one failing in any of the points indicated 
should not receive a prize of any kind at an 
agricultural fair or cattle show. When all the 
animals presented at our fairs pass without be¬ 
ing disqualified by such a scale, it will be time 
to make the test still more rigid. 
No man about to purchase would find any 
difficulty in satisfying himself in regard to the 
points covered by the “ disqualifications,” and 
it is not too much to require the judges to be 
