472 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 13 
We have troughs that the other hogs can not get to 
where we feed the pigs when three to four weeks old, 
three times a day of the slop feed, all they will eat 
clean in about 15 minutes, and no more. 
All pigs not wanted for breeding, should be cas¬ 
trated at three to four weeks old. Our pasture is wild 
grass, Timothy, Blue grass and the much despised 
(but to us valuable) White clover. Our slop feed is 
composed of- corn, oats, wheat and rye, ground to¬ 
gether in proportion as we have them or as seems 
cheaper. Sometimes it is composed wholly of either 
one, two or three of them, soaked about two days. 
In the absence of 25 per cent of milk to the water to 
mix with, I would use 10 per cent or a little more, oil 
meal in the ground feed. Sweet corn planted near 
the lot, would help out in August, but we do not use 
much of it. We have shade and pure water in the 
field. We usually raise 100 in a 30-acre field, but I 
think twice as many might be raised on the same 
ground; bat 80 to 100 are all that should run together. 
I would not raise more than I could feed as above. 
Renwick, Iowa. o. E. F. 
Corn Will Prevent Scouring. 
Clover is not worth so much for suckling pigs as 
for older hogs ; that is, suckling sows and the little 
pigs will not thrive so well on clover alone as older 
hogs will. Early in the spring, pigs eat almost any 
kind of green vegetation with a relish, and this in 
connection with corn, makes the cheapest feed I 
know, and there is nothing better. As soon as the 
pigs get old enough to crack corn, provide a pen 
where the sows can not enter, and keep shelled corn 
there, but allow them free access also to grass. Pure 
drinking water is also very necessary. No matter for 
what market pigs are being raised, it pays well to 
feed liberally on corn when they are young, and, in 
fact, all the time unless some other good, rich food is 
provided instead. The younger the animal, the 
greater the returns for the feed consumed. A great 
deal depends upon the way a young pig is started, 
and nothing will start him off better than corn in 
connection with grass. I like this much better than 
slops for pigs, as the corn is not so likely to produce 
scours. Green gi-ass, and especially clover, together 
with slops, will scour many of the little pigs. In 
fact, without the slops, clover will scour many of 
them. Rye allowed to ripen makes a splendid and 
cheap feed for hogs of any age, by turning them on it 
when about ripe enough to be cut. This will be at a 
time when corn is scai’ce, as a rule, and the i’ye will 
not fall down and decay like oats, but remain good 
until eaten. I have seen hogs fed upon this until 
new corn ripened, being almost fat enough when 
they commenced upon the corn, and, therefore, re- 
quii’ing but little coi’n to finish them off. 
Sedalia, Mo. _ N. H. gentry. 
ANOTHER THREE-HORSE EVENER. 
I have seen a number of three-horse eveners illus- 
tx-ated in The R. N.-Y. lately. At Fig. 149 I show one 
which I think is ahead of them all. On the short end, 
is a wheel or pulley around which runs a chain about 
two feet long with a hook in each end into which the 
tugs are hooked. As one horse falls behind or steps 
ahead of the others, the chains play around the 
pulleys so that each horse must do his share. The 
pulleys should be fastened on with a strip of band 
iron, as wide as the diameter of the pulley. 
Rath, N. Y. _ m. r. w. 
A CONVENIENT BARN FRAME. 
In the planning of a bai’n, many things are to be 
considered—expense, strength of the building, etc.— 
but most of all should be considered convenience and 
labor-saving in actual use. A convenient bai’n will 
save many dollars a year over an ill-arx-anged one, and 
the amount thus saved will cover the cost of the 
building long befoi-e it is worn out. A barn for the 
storage of hay and grain, and for thi-ashing and other 
purposes, should be free fi'om beams and cross tim- 
bei’s, from one end to the other, so that a hay fork or 
other tools may be used with perfect freedom. 
Figs. 150 and 151 show plans for framing such a 
bai’n, which may be modified according to size or 
other circumstances. Fig. 150 shows the plan of a 
frame, the end bents being made in the usual way 
with bi-aces and cross girth. The intermediate bents 
are made in sections, each one reaching fi’orn the out¬ 
side to the purlin post which i*ests upon the cross sill. 
The bi’acing is done, as shown in Fig. 151, by bolting 
l%x5-inch spruce strips on each side of the posts, the 
bolts passing through the posts and thi-ough the 
bi-aces on each side. Ry this means the frame is 
made exceedingly strong and stiff, for there is no 
weakening of timbei’s by mortises, and at the same 
time, hay foi’ks and slings have pei’fect fi’eedoxn to 
work the whole length of the barn, and thei’e ai’e no 
timbers on which a mow can get “ hung.” 
The same plan is applicable to a dairy barn, for the 
stables are usually placed on the ground floor, and a 
driveway arranged to permit driving in above the 
stable. In such a barn the stable is built in the 
usual way, and that portion of the barn above the 
stable is framed as shown in this plan. In a large 
barn 80 or 100 feet in length, it is convenient to have 
doors so arranged that several spaces may be driven 
into, and at the close these may also be filled if it be 
desired. chari.es e. benton. 
Bristol County, Mass. 
RENOVATING THE FARM. 
MORE CROP FROM BESS LAND. 
More than 20 years ago, I retired almost an invalid 
from pi'ofessional life to a 50-acre farm in Iowa. 
There we—wife and I—went into fruits, poultry, 
dairy and kindred employments. About that time it 
was new prairie soil that, without any sort of manure, 
prodixeed 80 bushels of corn to the acre. Rut the land 
was rolling, and it soon began to wash. As I was not 
able to farm, I l’ented the spare land. As we all 
wanted corn more than any other produce, the land 
was planted to corn year after year, varied now and 
then with wheat or oats. The result was that in 10 
years the land was reduced mostly to clay hillsides 
producing from 25 to 30 bushels of corn per aci’e, and 
as I had only one-third of this, almost anything would 
pay better than to rent and still be running the farm 
out. 
Dui’ing these 10 years, as I made my weekly visits 
to town, I passed the farm of a man who lived near 
the city. He had 80 acres, but invariably planted but 
10 acres a year to corn, and evei’y year had from 70 to 
90 bushels per acre, while we, do the best we could, 
got but 25. This was his plan : He set apart two 10 - 
acre plots ; each was in corn one year and in wheat 
the next, continually alternating. As soon as the 
wheat was shocked, he began hauling on to the 
stubble all the manure he could find. Having leisure 
in the fall, he hauled loads from town. Late in the 
fall, aftq£ the manure was well spread, he plowed the 
stubble, weeds and trash well under. On this plot in 
the spring he planted corn and, as soon as the corn 
was cut, the land would be plowed for wheat in the 
spring. I could not follow this plan, but I saw that 
the better way was to till less land and secure a larger 
yield. So I made a plan of my own. I divided by 
fences a 40-acre field into four equal parts. • The part 
next the house I devoted to permanent pastui-e, keep¬ 
ing three fields for corn, grass and experiment. 
In 1880, plot No. 1 was planted to coi’n. In Sep¬ 
tember, I sowed rye and Timothy among the corn, 
and in the spring sowed Red clover. I did not cut the 
corn, but after it was husked in the field, the cows 
were let in. In 1881, plot No. 2 was planted to corn 
and treated in the same way. Plot No. 3 was planted 
to corn in 1882, and in 1883 we got back to No. 1 
again, planting it to corn. This plan gave every year 
a 10 -acre field that had been in grass and clover two 
years, that would produce more corn than the whole 
land before, and gave us two vacant fields for the 
cows. As we kept but six or eight cows, the 30 acres 
gave more pasture than was needed, so that there was 
no fear that the clover would be eaten too closely. 
The last year, every field was in grass ; the cows were 
kept off until one cutting for hay was made. It was 
somewhat wasteful of land, but the purpose was to 
bring back the soil to its former fertility. The cows 
had the two vacant plots every summer, and during 
the summer we would haul all manure that could be 
had and spread it at once on the vacant fields. Most 
of the manure the cows made, was left directly on the 
land where wanted. 
On this land there were many hill points washed so 
bare that the corn would not grow a foot high ; with 
these, I took special pains. Sometimes I spread the 
hen manure there, and as early in the fall I began to 
cut the corn to feed the hogs, I would go into the 
field with my one-horse wagon—for I was a one-horse 
farmer—cut a load of coi’n, and drive on to these 
barren points, lixisk the corn, and throw the stalks to 
the cows. Sometimes I would put temporary feed- 
racks on these points, and fill them with hay so 
that the best of the fertilizers were left where they 
would do the most good. The latter plan also kept 
these places well seeded. In the end, one summer 
some of this land was left to be mowed, and in going 
over some of these most barren places with a pur¬ 
chaser, we could hardly make our way through the 
tall grass. The result was that I raised as much corn 
as before, had two-thirds of the land for hay or pas- 
txxre, a convenient place to deposit all manure or 
trash, and in the end brought the land back to the 80 
bushel yield. Instead of renting the land and getting 
but one-third of the corn, I hired a little help to plow, 
and put in and cultivated the corn and had the whole 
crop for my own use. A. d. field. 
Iowa. 
" THE PRACTICAL PAPER.” 
WIIAT PREACHING WILL REACH THIS AUDIENCE? 
This afternoon, I went to a neighboi’’s to grind a 
few bushels of corn for chicken feed, and as I passed 
the house, I saw Susie, the 12-year-old daughter of 
the house, looking out of the window, with her face 
and throat bandaged. I learned that she had the 
quinsy, and so had to stay home from school. I went 
out to the grinder, which is a coffee-mill concern, 
filled up the hopper with corn, set my half bushel 
under the spout, and started to grinding. Pretty 
soon I saw Susie sitting on the fence near by. 
She had become lonesome, and thought that I might 
be company. When the half bushel was full, I stopped 
the team to empty it, and took that opportunity to 
ask her about “ Bee,” her rat terrier puppy. This 
won her heart at once, and during the stops to sack 
the meal or fill the hopper, we had pleasant, confi¬ 
dential chats. 
“ Do you have any strawberries now ? ” 1 asked her. 
“ No, we haven’t any beds at all ; we can’t raise 
them.” 
“ Can’t ? Why, they are not hard to raise ! ” 
“ Well, we have tried them three times, and did not 
get berries either time. We can’t raise ’em,” she said 
with decision. 
Next time she asked, “ How many little pigs have 
you ? ” 
“ We have nine,” I replied. 
“ That is just what we would have had, only my 
sow lost five of hers, so she has only two now, and 
pa’s sow has two. We have just four pigs now. I 
do have the worst luck with pigs ! Seems like I never 
can raise them. Last year, my sow died, and so did 
all her pigs. I pick out the nicest ones, too. But 
I don’t have any luck with pigs. Ma had a pig once 
that she paid only 10 cents for, and when she sold it, 
she got a nice rocking chair.” 
“There’s money in raising hogs that way, isn’t 
thei’e ? ” 
“Yes, a man had it, and he thought it was going to 
die, so he let ma have it for 10 cents. It had the 
scoui’s dreadful bad, and she just tied a red string 
around its tail, and it got well.” 
I laughed and said, “ A yellow stx-ing would not 
have done, would it ? Did it have to be red ? ” 
“ Yes, a red flannel string. Ma can ’most always 
cui’e anything she tries to.” 
Next time it was, “ Don’t you want to buy a goat ?” 
“ No, I believe not. Do you have too many ? ” 
“ Yes, we have four and want only two.” 
“ Better eat one of them.” 
“ Oh, we wouldn’t want to eat one. Seems like we 
