18G7.] 
AMKRTCAX AC^mCA 1 1.TIJRTST. 
57 
stable. Sltxw lorluri! at the stack ought to be 
abolished by statute. Tlu- man who practices 
it needs an overseer to keep him out of the poor 
liouse. Connecticut. 
Fig. 1.— SECTION OF MANGEK AND FOLLOWER. 
How to Hang “ Followers ” in Horse 
Mangers. 
Where there is a feeding alley, “ followers,” as 
they are usually hung, are a nuisance, in fact 
cannot be used. The Follower, as it is called, is 
a rack laid in the manger, which rests upon the 
fodder and prevents the hoi'se throwing it out. 
Fig. 1 e.xhibits a section of a manger with a fol¬ 
lower adapted to use in connection with a feed¬ 
ing alley. It is hung on double-jointed hinges, 
made of pieces of heavj’- plate iron, with holes 
punched in each end, measuring, from the edge 
of one hole to the center of the other, half the 
width of the manger-front 
Fig. 3 represents the follower hanging over 
a ^ the front of 
. <f i-a B ■" - —; the manger 
into the al¬ 
ley. The en¬ 
graver has 
represente d 
an extra bar 
across the 
Fig. 2.— FOLLOWER TURNED BACK. tOp, whicllis 
unnccessarj'. The follower is made of Is-inch 
round iron, of a rectangular shape, to fit the 
manger, not reaching quite to the bottom as 
it hangs when the manger is empty, and hav¬ 
ing a free space of some 3 or 4 inches be¬ 
tween the follower and the edge, and an equal 
space on the sides. Rather an elaborate hinge 
to be screwed on the front rail, is 
shown in fig. 2 J but this is not 
ne^issary, as a much simpler 
contrivance, which any black¬ 
smith will make, will answer 
equally well. With a follower Fig. 3. 
of this kind, the hay, cut feed, or anything of 
that kind, may be thrown in from the feeding 
alley the follower being turned over outside the 
manger and hanging in the alley, entirely out of 
the way. The use of a follower may not be ap¬ 
parent to farmers who have a great abundance 
of hay and no market for it; but in districts 
where hay is worth from 1 to I'h cents per 
pound, even small daily wastes will be seriously 
felt at the end of the season. 
owing, in part, to the same cause. The finer 
we can make our fertilizers the better for imme¬ 
diate results. In the compost heap at this sea¬ 
son, there are three agencies at work to reduce 
the coarser particles of the manure, viz.: man¬ 
ipulation, fermentation, and frost. After the 
heap is formed in the usual manner with alter¬ 
nate layers of fresh manure and other material, 
and gone through with the first fermentation, it 
should be carefully forked or shoveled over, 
changing the whole mass, from top to bottom, 
and breaking all the lumps. The more thor¬ 
oughly this is done the better. A new fermen¬ 
tation takes place inside, while the surface 
freezes and thaws with the changes of the 
weather. Labor upon the compost heap now 
will tell upon the growing crops next summer. 
--—-- 
Barn Doors, Fastenings, Etc. 
Composting >IANUUE.-Much can be done at 
this season to prepare manures for the o’" 
for spreading wherever they are wanted. i i 
nil that has been written and said upon the com¬ 
post heap, few arc aware of the importance o 
absolute fineness in fertilizing matter. 
One element in the immediate effects of guano 
is the extreme fineness to which the particles 
arc reduced. The success of liquid manures is 
The discussion of any subject in the columns 
of the Agriculturist has the effect to set people 
thinking, and as a result we gather a crop of 
suggestions and new ideas which are often very 
valuable. We discussed barn-door fastenings 
not long since, and 
after the first publica¬ 
tion had numerous 
suggestions, of which 
our readers had the 
benefit. Next to loose 
floors and springy cel¬ 
lars—swinging great 
doors are the greatest 
nuisance that a man 
can encumber his 
barn with. They are 
not only unwieldy, 
ever slamming and 
getting out of order, hard to fasten open, or 
shut, but really dangerous to life and limb to 
both men and animals. Sliding doors are the 
only suitable ones for outside barn-doois, 
large or small, and they are so easily hung 
and kept in repair, if well made, that, in point 
of economy simply, they are superior. Be¬ 
sides, they may be opened wide enough for 
a cat to enter, or to give a little change of air, 
or as easily, opened wide enough for a horse or 
for a load of hay. No wind moves them; there 
is no sagging, and no trouble from snow-drifts 
outside, or from snow and rain blowing in over 
the top. These doors are hung by cast iion 
“ hangers,”—groved wheels bolted fast to the top 
of the door. These run upon an iron rod, well 
supported upon a bar or rail, crossing over the 
doorway, and extending to a distance beyond 
equal to the width of the door. This is pro¬ 
tected by a little roof-like door-cap which, how¬ 
ever need not extend much beyond the width 
of the door. These doors may indeed be con¬ 
structed and ^ 
braced in the 
usual way, but - 
are best made 
of two thick¬ 
nesses of well- 
seasoned ’l4-iu., 
clear, matched 
stuff. On the 
inside, boards of Fig. 3 -—l^tcu. 
!«>"“”**'■ 
Tlie outside should he of boaris only 4 or 5 wd.- 
es wide, and put on at an “f® ^ 
ffive additional strength, a board 10 o 
® ide n^ylto “"^f^idcs 
8-iiioli battens noross tiie bottom an 
It is a matter of considerable interest to know 
how to fasten these doors securely and easily. 
They are usually fastened on the inside with a 
hasp and pin, or with a hook; if these are not 
securely pinned they can be opened with a knife 
from the outside, and simple inspection does not 
tell whether they are secure or not. Dr. Hex- 
araer, of Westchester Co., many of whose con¬ 
trivances for saving steps and labor about the 
barn are very good, uses latches on the follow¬ 
ing plan. Figure 1 shows the latch of a double 
barn-door, which is simply a flat hook and sta¬ 
ple with a pendant piece of iron, of the shape 
shown, above the staple, and so hung that 
when the hook is in it must be fastened. It is 
easily seen from the inside Avhether it is so or 
not, and an attempt to open the door from the 
outside will also reveal the fact. 
Figure 2 is a self-fastening latch for a single 
sliding door. The catch is in a gain in the inside 
of the post against which the door shuts, and 
the latch may be in a similar gain, or in a mor¬ 
tice in the door. This arrangement may some¬ 
times be conveniently reversed by putting the 
latch in a mortice in the door post, in which case 
there should be a strong outside batten proj ect- 
ing as fixr as the latch does, to guard animals 
and men from harm from it, as well as to pro¬ 
tect it from injury. 
One door of every barn should lock from the 
outside. This will seem folly to many people, 
but we know that many barns are burnt by the 
pipe-fire of wandering “tramps,” who always 
sleep in unlocked barns if they can, and that 
harness and other things are stolen in all parts 
of the country, more or less. It is usually best 
to lock one of the small doors, which should 
be hung on the inside, and locked with a strong 
hasp and good padlock, chained to the door. 
Tim. Bunker on the Food Question. 
“ I knew we should catch it to-day,” sa,id 
Seth Twiggs, as he came into our house on the 
evening of Tlianksgiving day, and seating him¬ 
self comfortably upon the settle, blew a ring of 
smoke out of his mouth, as if it had been shot 
out of a rifle. “The Parson ginerally hits the 
nail on the head, and hit it square to-day, no 
mistake. We have sent off too many of our 
boys to the city. There isn’t so much breadstuff 
raised in Hookertown as there was fifty years 
ago, and if it keeps on at this rate, somebody 
has got to starve bye and bye.” 
“ That is to say, if every place is just like 
Hookertown,” I responded. 
Neio-hbor Twiggs’ remark had reference o 
Mr. Spooner’s Thanksgiving sermon, wliich was 
pretty much like all his sermons, whether on 
Sundays or not, “ a word in season. You see 
Mr. sjooner, like myself, belongs to the old 
school of folks, who have got so accustomed to 
making up our own minds on public questions, 
that we can’t afford to take our 
hand You see, most people around heie m 
Connecticut have got atlreaclful 
citv life and fashions. They want somethin^ 
better than farming for their sons and daugh¬ 
ters thouc-h, according to my notion, faimmg, 
calling upon ° would 
ihatgrow upaiounotoe^^ ^ 
probably C O w Hookertoiyn can’t hold 
had a fan oha boillngwater. 
.e,n anymore than a p^ down South to try 
^“““fortunes some to the West, but more to the 
which I'teeatcns to .wallow UP thecoun- 
