i873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
97 
inches wide, should be procured. One of these 
will make each side, and one is placed in the 
center. The ends are cut slanting, as shown in 
figure 1. The bottom is first put on. This con¬ 
sists of two-inch plank, which are spiked cross¬ 
wise of the scow. The edges should be jointed 
a sixteenth of an inch out of square, so that 
they will touch on the inside and be open at 
least an eighth of an inch on the outside. All 
the joints should be made in this manner, and 
afterwards caulked tightly with oakum and 
coated with pitch. Then the end planks are 
fitted, and finally the floor. The floor is also 
laid crosswise, and must be jointed and caulked 
the same as the bottom. A hole should be 
made at one side of the floor, into which a 
pump may be put occasionally to remove any 
water which may leak in. At the sides of the 
floor or deck, scantliugs four inches square 
should be spiked, and on each end of the scow 
a broad plank should be hinged to serve as a 
bridge to enable a wagon to be drawn on or off 
(see fig. 2). Four stout cleats should be bolted 
to these bridge planks to strengthen them. Such 
a scow as is here described would sustain a load 
of over eight tons, including its own weight, or 
over six tons in addition to it. It should be 
securely fastened to the landing-place when a 
team is driven on or off, lest when the wagon- 
wheels strike the bridge the scow should be 
forced off the shore and an accident happen. 
Self-closing Door for Pig-Pen. 
A warm dry pen is necessary for the health 
and comfort of a pig. Cold and damp induce 
more diseases than they are charged with. 
Neither the winter’s snow nor the spring nor 
summer rains should be allowed to beat into 
the pen. But the difficulty is to have a door 
that will shut of itself and can be opened by the 
animals whenever they desire. We give an en¬ 
graving of a door of this kind that can usefully 
be applied to any pen, at least any to which a 
door can be affixed at all. It is hung on hooks 
and staples to the lintel of the doorway, and 
swinging either way allows the inmates of the 
pen to go out or in, as they please, closing after 
them. If the door is intended to fit closely, 
leather strips two inches wide should be nailed 
around the frame of the doorway, and as the 
door closes it presses tightly against these strips. 
A Farm-Cart. 
It is a question whether wagons or carts are 
the most desirable vehicles on a farm. Each 
has its advocates, and 
each has many advan¬ 
tages over the other. 
Without recording 
our own preference, 
we give an engraving 
of a cart very widely 
used in England, that 
is light, strong, handy, 
and for those who de¬ 
sire to use one would 
be found convenient in many ways. It is 
furnished with a hay or straw rack, and in 
the hay or harvest field would unquestionably 
have many advantages over a wagon. In this 
respect we have found by experience that two 
carts and two horses are much handier than one 
wagon and the same two horses. One driver 
only is needed, who takes his loaded cart to the 
barn, unloads, and returns for the other one, 
which is by that time ready loaded for him. In 
turning around in a barn-yard and in hauling 
manure or earth and the like, carts are thought 
preferable to wagons by many farmers. 
Hoven in Cattle. —The article in the Janu¬ 
ary Agriculturist headed as above, with an il¬ 
lustration representing a hoven cow, requires a 
few words of explanation, lest a mistake should 
occur in treating a case in the method there de¬ 
scribed. The picture represents the exact 
method of proceeding. The distended rumen 
appears on the left side of the animal , and the 
operator stands on the right side. The wording 
of the article might lead some to suppose that 
the contrary was meant, which was not the in¬ 
tention. This should be carefully noted. The 
operation is not one to be carelessly made, and 
it is only when an animal’s life can be saved by 
no other means that we recommend it, except 
to a farmer who thoroughly understands how 
it should be done. 
Catch for Stanchions. 
C. B., Cal to, Cal., sends a description of a 
method of fastening stanchions, which he says 
was in use in his father’s stables in Ireland when 
he was a boy, and was never known to be out 
of order. The stanchion was made of strong 
2x3 timber, with an iron band riveted on the 
bottom, by which it swung back and forth on a 
strong iron staple driven into the floor beam. 
The top of the stanchion, shown in the engrav¬ 
ing below, was sloped so that when it was pulled 
up to the cows’ 
necks it lifted 
the iron catch 
(a), which im¬ 
mediately drop¬ 
ped again when 
the stanchion 
was in place and 
held it quite se¬ 
curely. When 
the catch was 
lifted, the stan¬ 
chion opened by 
its own weight 
and released the 
animal. In the 
engraving the 
artist shows the fastening stanchions. 
catch separately, that its form may be pro¬ 
perly seen. It is made of light bar-iron. 
-- — * » 
A Hoisting Wheel. 
No barn, granary, or slaughtering-shed is 
complete without some arrangement for hoist¬ 
ing. We give on this page 
a figure of a very simple and 
useful one, which can be 
put together very easily 
without employing a car¬ 
penter, and for which 
nothing is required more 
thau some boards, a wooden 
shaft, and some wrought 
nails. The shaft should be 
a piece of spruce or yellow 
pine, from six inches to a foot 
in diameter, according to the 
size of the hoist desired. A 
six-inch shaft would be 
large enough under any 
ordinary circumstances, and with a six-foot 
wheel a man of 150 pounds weight could hoist 
600 pounds as easily as he could 50 pounds over 
a single pulley. The gain in power would be 
twelve times. The shaft should be cut such a 
length as will fit into the bearings intended for 
it. These may be posts or a frame set up pur¬ 
posely, or they may be laid upon the purlin 
plates of the barn, allowing the shaft to extend 
across the floor. There should be an iron gud- 
A HOME-MADE HOIST-W'HEEL. 
geou driven into each end, or gudgeons may be 
worked on the ends of the shaft itself. The 
place on the shaft where the wheel is to be 
built, which may be at any part of it most con- 
Fig. 2. —THE SCOW COMPLETED 
AN ENGLISH FARM-CART. 
