178 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
tioDS should be of- lattice work, the building 
filled in at least six inches with saw-dust or tan- 
bark (roof and all). Yards to be made in front 
in proportion, double windows. These rooms 
are suitable for from six to twelve fowls, which 
is as many as should ever go together, they will 
be found more profitable than a large flock. 
Fowls kept in such a house and provided with 
a variety of food—grains of ditferent kinds, 
Fig. 2 .— GKOTJND PLAN OP FOWL HOUSE. 
boiled potatoes, meat, gravel, lime and ashes, 
they will do about as well as if running at large, 
destroying your garden, and doing more damage 
to yourself and your neighbors than they are 
all worth. I Avould also paint the roosts, etc., 
occasionally with gas tar, which is a sure cure 
for vermin. If not put on too thick it will dry 
in a short time. It also keeps the fowls healthy. 
The manure will (if taken care of) nearly pay 
the care taken in their keeping. It should not 
be allowed to remain a great while in the house. 
The Culture of Indian Corn. 
The culture ofindian corn is to be undertaken 
not alone because it is profitable to raise the 
grain for sale, or for feeding, but because it is 
one of the best crops we have to subdue weeds, 
and to amend the soil by the thorough tillage 
wliich it requires, and which it enables us to 
apply with profit. In fact, for many eastern 
farmers, it is this consideration alone W'hich 
gives a margin for profit in connection with the 
corn crop. How mistaken then is the practice 
which half does this Avork. In the vicinity of 
railroads, by Avhich we can obtain western corn, 
Avliere land is Avorth 100 to 150 dollars an acre, 
and Avhere manure is Avorth $3 an ox-cart load, 
no man can afford to raise corn, except as a 
cleaning and tillage crop as part pay for labor. 
The accompanying engraving is made from a 
drawing sent us by a subscriber Avho has used 
the implement it represents Avith satisfaction. 
It is a harrow for going astride the roAvs of corn 
and destroying the Aveeds while yet the corn is 
very small and liable to be covered up if the 
cultivator teeth were used. The teeth are of 
square iron, the beams of 4 x 4 stuff, 4 feet long, 
CORN CULTIVATOR. 
connected at both ends as shown; at the rear, 
the teeth are brought Avithin one foot; at the 
front they are spread 3 to ih feet apart. There 
are several holes in the front cross-piece Avhich 
allow of adjustment to sweep different breadths. 
The two cross-pieces connecting the beams are 
elevated respectively 4 and 8 inches above them, 
and raised high enough to clear the corn. 
They are banded at their ends and bolted 
through the beams with bolts strong enough to 
stand any ordinary strains. The implement 
strikes us as an efficient one, but requires two 
horses, and these should draAV upon a pole. It 
is especially useful when the corn is very small 
and most in danger from weeds and grass. 
A Hew Way of Trapping Eats. 
BT L. L. LANGSTBOTH, OXFORD, OHIO. 
Get a common round wire-trap. Bait it Avith 
the most inviting food, and Avait patiently until 
a rat is caught. Instead of killing this rat, and 
Availing perhaps for weeks before you are for¬ 
tunate enough to trap another, keep him alive 
and feed him much as you would a pet squirrel. 
In a feAV days he will become quite reconciled 
to his cage, and you ai’e now ready for business. 
At night, bait the trap well and set it where the 
rats resort most. Some one or more of them, 
seeing a rat quite at home in the midst of plenty, 
will enter the trap without any suspicion of 
harm. Next morning, pump or pour water 
thoroughly over the trap to clean it, and to 
make the killing of your prey more easy. 
Have an empty barrel into which drop the con- 
I tents of your cage; the prisoners being AA’ell 
soaked, will be so heavy and sIoav that you can 
easily knock them on the head. Treat your par¬ 
tially tamed rat, however, “as if you loved him,” 
jind return him to his cage; this is easily done 
by lowering the cage into the barrel. Repeat the 
operation from night to night, and you Avill be 
surprised to see how easy a matter it is to out¬ 
wit so cunning an animal as an “ old rat.” 
Be careful not to keep a large one for your 
tame rat. He will frighten off all the younger 
fry, as none of them will dare to enter. The 
only difficult thing in the matter is to get j^ur 
first rat. I have had a wire trap Avell baited 
for weeks before I could entice one to enter it. 
To get the first, is something like Astor’s recipe 
for getting rich: “ Get a thousand dollars clear 
of the Avorld, and it is all very easy.” Since I 
caught my first rat, I have failed but once for 
many nights in getting from one to four to keep 
him company. If your readers will try my 
plan, I think that something may be done to 
abate one of the most intolerable nuisances of 
this country. To say that millions of dollars 
Avorth of our property are annually destroyed by 
rats, would not be an extravagant assertion. 
- - t 
Foot Eot in Sheep. 
This distressing and destructive malady is 
seldom properly understood or treated, and the 
result is that, though checked, it breaks out 
again and again. This is because so feiv 
farmers read and inform themselves thoroughly 
about their business, and because even those 
well informed perform surgical operations in 
so careless a manner. In the April number of 
the American Agriculturist^ yve explained the 
structure of the sheep’s foot and the origin of the 
disease known as tlie fouls. This never need 
be confounded Avith foot rot, though we doubt 
not it is often the precursor of it, for it puts the 
foot in excellent preparation to take it easil}L 
Contagiousness of Hoof Rot .—There are some 
medical men, Ave believe, who deny that any 
disease is contagious, and they deny the conta¬ 
giousness of hoof-rot. They are, wm presume, 
right just so far:—were a perfectly healthy foot, 
sound and clean, to be exposed to the contagious 
virus, it would probably escape; if, however, it 
Avere anywise sore, inflamed or wounded, it 
Avould probably take it at once. The disease is 
often long in reaching that point which causes 
the sheep to go lame, and it progresses gradu¬ 
ally, first causing limping; then the lifting of 
one foot; then severe lameness of both forefeet; 
then going upon the knees, which brings the feet 
in contact with the breast. It does not involve 
other parts of the system until far advanced. 
Then the feet become masses of rottenness; 
maggots breed in them and work into the flesh, 
and this corruption is communicated to the 
breast. During the whole course of the disease, 
until near the last, the sheep has good appetite 
and digestion, and is in no other way affected. 
On this account the cure is, theoretically, very 
simple and sure. In practice, it is just as sim¬ 
ple, if thoroughly done. The well cleaned 
hoofs, softened by soaking in dewy grass or on 
a rainy dajq or otherwise, are pared with cutting 
pliers and very sharp knives until every particle 
of diseased matter is taken aAvay, even if it in¬ 
volves the removal of all the hoof; they are 
then washed Avith warm water and soap, and 
smeared Avith some caustic paste, or fluid, or the 
sheep forced to stand in a hot, saturated so¬ 
lution of blue vitriol for ten minutes. 
In discussing the origin of hoof-rot, most 
writers take sides, either denying its contagious¬ 
ness, or asserting it most vehemently. For our¬ 
selves, we can see no other sensible belief than 
that it may be originated Avhenever the hoofs, 
being softened by moisture, are penetrated by 
foreign substances like gritty soil or sand, and 
especially when such things, finding their way 
through cracks in the hoof, thus come in con¬ 
tact with the sensitive lamellse, or the papillary 
tissues, where they incftice acute inflammation. 
The natural growth of the hoof adapts it to 
the wear and tear of gravelly and rocky hill 
sides, and on such localities the outer walls 
Avear oft* fast, so that they are nearly even 
Avith the sole, and the foot is neat and trim; 
but on soft ground, in stables or in yai’ds, the 
growth of the outer Avails is so much more 
rapid than the Avear, that they grow long, curl 
under the ' sole, and turn up in front, throw 
the Avear back upon the heels, and keep them 
more or less inflamed, and are themselves liable 
to cracks and splits, which, if foreign substances 
work in, readily involve the sensitive portion of 
the hoof in inflammation. Where the horn- 
forming tissue becomes inflamed, the character 
of the horn foiuned is changed; its quantity is 
greatly increased, but it is softer, OAving to the 
mixture of pus and foreign matter, and in por¬ 
tions has a fungoid appearance. The Avails of 
the hoof become detached from the foot in spots 
ol larger or smaller extent, owing to the fact 
that as soon as the lamellm become diseased the 
horn they secrete has no consistence, and 
hence the walls have no hold upon the foot. 
The pus which constantly exudes from the sores 
has the quality of inducing the same disease, if 
it comes in contact Avith inflamed or Avounded 
surfaces of the feet of other sheep. We see, then, 
good reasons for the views that the hoof-rot 
originates only in AA'et locations, or on ground 
Avhich is not dry, and Avhere sheep’s hoofs are 
liable to crack from over-growth and softening 
by water, and exposed to grit, and that Avhere 
the malady is otherwise unknown, it may be 
communicated to a sound flock by the introduc¬ 
tion of one sheep having the disease. 
Cotton Culture. —{Continued from page 136.) 
BT P. G. DAVIGHT. 
, Cotton Coming. —If a warm rain sets in 
'immediately after planting, your cotton rows 
‘Avill, in about a week or ten days, be Avell mark- 
'ed; and the chances of a “good stand” Avill 
be discussed; then, too, the tell-tale plants will 
betray Avhere there has been careless dropping. 
By having the plants in a straight line, in¬ 
stead of scattering from three to six inches in 
width, all the after work would be easier. Siding 
