®hc goii.'ioman. 
. ... - T " —ag 
HORSE STABLE FLOORS. 
I fully believe tbat there is no advan¬ 
tage in the use of bedding of any descrip¬ 
tion ou plank floors for horses unless they 
are sick or very low in flesh; in the latter 
condition the skin is liable to be abraded 
by attrition against tho plunks. J have 
never known this effect upon an animal in 
proper flesh, except in cases of nervous an¬ 
imals that are restless even when asleep. 
In such cases I have known the prominent 
portions of the knee and liock to be chafed 
so as to be unsightly; but I have a much 
better, more effective and more economical 
mode of protecting the e parts than can be 
effected by the use of a bed of straw, or 
any other material that I have tested. T 
use n pad made of two or more thicknesses 
of old blanket or carpet, buttoning or 
buokling It around the knee or hock, plac¬ 
ing one fastening ubove and the other below 
the Joint. The pad need only be applied at 
night; it will last years, and if to be re¬ 
newed monthly would cost infinitely less 
than straw bedding, even ou the farm 
■where straw is abundant. The labor of 
keeping horses cleanly, and of grooming i3 
less when no bed is used, and the stable is 
less offensive, especially if the provision 
for drainage is as it should bo. 
It is common for the horse to wet his bed 
ns soon as it Is supplied, as every groom 
knows, find T have never known it to be re¬ 
moved at. once and a fresh, cleanly bed fur¬ 
nished; but I have often heard an intelli¬ 
gent animal having this habit called a fool, 
and not unfrequently have I heard the most 
profauo adjectives know to t he groom ad¬ 
dressed to the poor brute, and impressed 
•with the fork handle, and with no good ef- 
feot. 
It is equally well known to all observing 
grooms that, perhaps, a majority of horses 
have the habit of pawing the~bedding back, 
and lying on the bare floor, and I have yet 
to eoe any harm result from the habit. 
Having long since observed this habit of 
horses, of pawing the bedding back and ly¬ 
ing on the plank of choice, and having also 
decided that in a properly drained stall bed- 
dlug was not only useless but injurious, I 
set about the improve meat of the mode of 
construction of stall floors. Iu this effort. 1 
was so successful that I patented my mode 
of constructing horse stalls, and for the 
past three months have done nothing else 
but build stables, and alter those already 
built, introducing in all my patent stall. 
I construct the stall floor level length¬ 
wise, and give it a slope from each side to 
the center, at which point I provide a slot 
In It, of suitable width and length, uuder 
which I place an iron gutter having a fall in 
it toward the rear of the stall, where it dis¬ 
charges into a gutter under the floor, which 
extends the length of the line of stalls, and 
discharging into the manure pit. 
In tho ordinary condition of the atmos¬ 
phere, the stall floor, as I arrange it will, 
where no bedding is used and the stable is 
ventilated properly, be dry in two hours 
after the horse has urinated. The amount 
of fiLh on the belly, thighs, tail and blanket 
is not a tithe in my arrangement that it is 
in the ordinary stable, and the purity of 
tho air in the stable Is proportionate. 
The use of tho stables of animals for the 
purposes of a atercorary. or for the manu¬ 
facture of manure should have long since 
been abandoned. It is claimed by many, 
and even by those of general intelligence, 
that there is economy in passing straw and 
other refuse under animals to absorb the 
urine. Material thus used only retains the 
wet and fetid matter in the stable, which 
is rapidly vaporized and volatilized by the 
animal heat of the body when in contact 
with It, by which the lungs and eyes are ex¬ 
cessively irritated, resulting frequently in 
blindness and lung affections, unknown in 
stables properly drained and ventilated, 
and where no absorbents of the liquid ex¬ 
crement are used, but it is conducted di¬ 
rectly out of the stable. 
The advantages of this mode of construct¬ 
ing the floor of horse stalls are numerous. 
Tho very objectionable slope to the rear in 
the floor, by which curbs are frequently 
produced, by undue stress ou the back tea- 
dons of the hinder limb, and the liability 
for the animal to sllpin rising; the veryim- 
perfect surfaco drainage to a surface gutter 
in the rear of the line of stalls, and the ex¬ 
cessive filthiness unavoidable with such an 
arrangement, are all removed aud supersed¬ 
ed in the u6e of the improved stall floor. 
The necessity for the use of bedding is re¬ 
moved, and a degree of dryness and cleanli¬ 
ness secured that it is impossible to effect 
in the old arrangement; and 1 may safely 
say, by any other system yet discovered. 
All persons familiar with the properties 
of ainmontaeal substances, know that, their 
volatility depends ill a great degree on their 
temperature — the higher it is the more 
volatile; hence the temperature of the blood 
Of the horse at 98given off to moist, fetid 
matter in the bed, will rapidly eliminate 
the unwholesome products, and the nose of 
the animal being near t he floor, the amount 
of noxious gases inhaled is enormous in 
quantity and very destructive. 
The importance of pure air in apartments 
where animals sleep, whether human or 
brute, is so great that the ventilation of the 
subject frequently and thoroughly through 
so effective a medium as the Rubai, New- 
Yorker cannot but be productive of good 
to some of its many thousands of readers. 
I have had an experience of over thirty 
years in designing uud constructing stables 
for both cattle and horses, during which 
period 1 have tested a great variety of 
modes of drainage aud ventilation, aud I 
have become satisfied that I cannot further 
improve ou my present system of effecting 
beth. J. Wilkinson. 
Baltimore, Md. 
Mr. Wilkinson’s long experience in 
stable economy, as well as other matters 
pertaining to the farm, entitle his opinions 
to consideration, and although we are not 
prepared to fall in with all his ideas in the 
foregoing article, they may be worth ex¬ 
amination as hints towards a reform in 
stable floors. The comfort of a good bed 
upon a plank floor, is t oo obvious to need 
argument; and it has the further merit of 
invit ing a tired horse to lie down while fit 
rest instead of sleeping on his feet, in which 
position his rest is only partial. That a 
horse often wets his bed when it is first put 
under him, arises partly from the mistake 
of the groom in laying the bed too soon 
after the horse has been put in his stall. 
Wo do not believe that a horse paws back 
bis bedding that he may lie on the bare 
floor; the pawing is an act of uneasiness, 
and is done the same when no bedding is 
present. As to the slope of the floor, Mr, 
Wilkinson’S plan of a double slope towards 
the center would he more likely to cause 
trouble than aslope towards the rear, as the 
horse makes a side push with his hind feet 
in the act of rising. These are our objec¬ 
tions to Mr. Wilkinson’s plan. 
- 44 *■ - 
A WICKED PONY. 
The Rocky Mountain News (Denver) re¬ 
lates the exploits of a pony in that plaoe: 
Three herds in company were passing 
down town when tho pony of one became 
suddenly possessed of the devil of contra¬ 
riness. and began the manifestation of the 
same in the most positive and determined 
manner. Gathering his feet together he 
humped upon his back and shot his rider 
some feet into the air, then stood still with 
head down, looking stubborn and sulky, aud 
then lay flat down iu the gutter. When the 
rider arrived on earth from his atrial pil¬ 
grimage he began the fut ile task of making 
this perverse equine cuss walk Spanish in 
tho regular way of an ordinary nocomodatiug 
horse. But it was no go; tio was stricken 
wii h t.ln* iu:-a that, his ‘‘calling and election' 
were to lie blissfully beneath the swinging 
sign of the neighboring grocery store aud 
down by the babbling gutter waters that 
flow swift |y towards the Platte. He hesita- 
ted and objeoted, and suddenly rearing iu 
the air .-napped and rattled his hind feet in 
the facet of the crowd in a manner that 
made all stand back in good order. They 
got a rope into his mouth and twisted his 
jaw out of shape; they hitched him to an- 
orln.-r horse and tried to tow him down 
the street; they jammed several inches of 
spur promiscuously into his rump; they 
flayed him with blacksnake whips; 
they poured water into his nose, but, the 
tough little beast withstood all the torture 
and persistently held out for his own way. 
Vfter a half hour of alternate beating and 
coaxing, during which time about two rods 
of ground had been gained the owner cou- 
cltided l.o take off the saddle, bridle and lar- 
iat.| and it was no sooner done than the 
brqnobd sprang to his feet aud trotted off as 
unconcernedly as though he had been free 
all the lime aud had only been indulging iu 
his regular siesta. Whenever you get a 
broncho carry the saddle on your back, and 
walk, besides, £tid your horse will go along 
without bucking or putting you to any 
trouble whatsoever. 
(Bntflmoloijintl. 
INJURIOUS INSECTS. 
Why the Cotton Worm Thrives South. 
In a private letter received a few days 
since from W.m. H. Williams, Galveston 
Co., Texas, there occur gome statements iu 
regard to the increase of noxious insects 
which we consider worthy of being more 
widely disseminated; therefore we beg the 
writer’s pardon for planing them before our 
readers, In speaking of the ravages of in¬ 
sects be says:—"I have always contended 
that if the agriculturist would guiu control 
of the injurious portion of the insect world 
he must, re-establish, if possible, the antag¬ 
onism of races as nature designed in or¬ 
ganizing its orders of such creatures. In 
making specialties of a few plants, thereby 
affecting the conditions of soil to suit thorn, 
man has interrupted the order of things 
and produced other disproportions than 
those sought, /.. c., millions of bales of cot¬ 
ton are produced and millions of millions 
of cotton moths and their progeny are the 
consequences. It is the same in a degree 
with all or many other species of insects. 
In perceiving this disorder man has gener¬ 
ally thought of some specific for tho soil 
aud exhausted all his resources in search of 
it, but to little purpose. The plain marked 
way he could never be induced to enter 
upon. Farmer Brown would try this, that, 
anything, everything, but in vain; for the 
creatures he sought to destroy were a unit. 
Now Farmer Brown aud all his brother 
farmers must uuite to oppose the united 
common enemy. A general systematized 
movement alone will meet the onward roll 
of the tide that yearly reaches higher and 
further, and more surely towards man’s 
chiefest merest s, threatening to futilize his 
efforts to live. Incredulous Brown may 
doubt this, aud smoko, eat, sleep and die, 
his children be no better off’ than their pa¬ 
rents. In a great work like this faith Is 
essential, and intelligence and oneness of 
purpose needed. 
“Years ago, I studied the habits of the 
cotton worm, which is such a devastator of 
our plantations; tho lamented Say had 
left tho subject incomplete. Ho said the 
moth that produced the worm must bo 
poisoned, and suggested poisoned flowers, 
as sometimes practiced with tho Hawk- 
moth or Tobacco Sphynx; but the eotton- 
worm moths do not eat of the sweets of 
flowers. 1 reared several generations of 
these insects aud studied their habits, and 
found the musk-melon to be the most at¬ 
tractive food. I was planting cotton at the 
time and iny house was in the center of the 
plantation, affording me an opportunity of 
investigating the peculiarities of this in¬ 
sect; but it is sufficient to say that a piece 
of cantaloupe melons attracted the moths, 
aud that various poisons, cobalt, for in¬ 
stance, sprinkled on the bait, did the busi¬ 
ness, and 1 destroyed myriads. I then be¬ 
lieved, as 1 do now, that if every planter 
would commence in early Spring, and per¬ 
sistently keep poisoned bait of some kind, 
where the first moth* that appeared would 
find it. we could keep the cotton-worm 
within proper limits if we did not entirely 
annihilate it. It is through this stupidness 
of our planters, who not only want faith, 
but intelligence, to pursue some such prac¬ 
tical method of staying the ravages of this 
great pest, that we onuually lose four- 
fifths of the labor bestowed upon land 
planted with cotton.’’ 
Of course we do not pretend to know 
anything of the plan mentioned by our 
correspondent for destroying the cotton- 
worm ; but this we do know, that the same 
spirit which permits its increase at the 
South is wide-spread, and a curse to our 
oountry. Farmers at the North as well as 
in the South, will permit noxious insects 
and weeds to increase to an alarming ex¬ 
tent without lifting a hand to stay their 
progress. Canada thistles have ruined 
hundreds of farms in localities that we 
might, name, while the value of one acre of 
laud would entirely eradicate thorn from 
fifty. But there is no concert of action, 
and the industrious, intelligent man be¬ 
comes completely paralyzed in the midst 
of shiftless, indolent neighbors. 
- 4 4 ♦ ■ -- 
GURCULIO CATCHER. 
Dr. Hull, Alton, Ill., has invented (and 
applied for a patent) a new eixrculio catcher 
which is thus described in the Praire Farm¬ 
er:—“The general shape of the frame is 
much the same as that of tho wheelbarrow 
machine, illustrations of which have already 
been published in the American Entomolo¬ 
gist and in the transactions of the Illinois 
State Horticultural Society. But the new 
machine instead of being mounted on a 
wheelbarrow, is suspended from the shoul¬ 
ders of a man standing in its centre. A slit 
a foot wide in the canvass before him ena¬ 
bles him to carry the machiue under and 
about a t ree, when the slit is covered by a 
strip of cotton easily and quickly, and the 
tree struck with a covered mallet or maul. 
The machine weighing only 8 or 10 pounds 
and the operation rapidly performed. Dr. 
Hull tells us he has been able to go over 960 
of his younger trees, now three years plant¬ 
ed, iu hours; which is at the rate of 
nearly 275 trees per hour. In this case the 
ground is clean and tho trunks clear to a 
considerable bight, which facilitates rapid¬ 
ity of work; but (and this seems to us a 
special advantage of this machine,) almost 
any tree,however low-headed, can begot un¬ 
der and its insects caught. We regard this, 
after the brief examination made, as far in 
advance of any of the methods yet devised 
for catching the curoulio.” 
- 4--4 4 - - . -- 
COLORADO POTATO BEETLE. 
I discovered, in my potato patch this af¬ 
ternoon, some singular looking bugs which 
were preying on the leaves of the potatoes. 
Desiring some information concerning them 
I w ill mail with this a box containing speci¬ 
mens of both kinds. Can you tell me what 
t hey are, aud whether they are likely to in¬ 
crease (if not disturbed) so as to seriously 
damage the crop next. year. The potatoes 
are Garnet Chili. The bugs are numbered 
ill the box respectively 1 and 2. No. 1 ap¬ 
pears to be the most numerous.—S. C. Hall, 
{.'uMamv'jm Vo., N. Y. 
The beetles are the much dreaded Colo¬ 
rado potato beetle, of which so much has 
been said in the Rural New-Yorker for 
the past two or three years. No. I is tho 
larva, and No. 2 the perfect beetle. Look 
over your file of the Rural and learn how 
to destroy them. Begin now, for you have 
no time to lose, as they will be far more 
abundant next season. 
(Jiirnt (Bccnomn. 
INFRINGEMENTS ON THOMAS’ HARROW. 
Thomas G. Okivig, editor of the Indus¬ 
trial Motor, and, it is asserted, an authority 
ou patents, writes to the editor of the Iowa 
Homestead as follows:—“ In response to 
your inquiry, “ can a farmer make a harrow 
and set the teeth slanting without infring¬ 
ing on the Thomas Patent?'' I submit the 
following: 
“ The claim of J. J. Thomas’ patent issued 
Sept. 22, 1868, No. 82,451, is expressed in 
these words, to wit: 
“ A land brush or spiked harrow, construct¬ 
ed of pieces of plank, hinged together as de¬ 
scribed, and provided with numerous in¬ 
clined teeth poiutiug backwards at such an 
inclination as to cast off or slip over any 
stalks of weeds, straw, or other refuse mat¬ 
ter, substantially as described. 
“ It will be observed that the broad claim 
of setting barrow-teeth at an angle is not 
made. If such a broad claim appeared in 
the original application it was undoubtedly 
properly rejected. A slanting or bent bar- 
row-tootb is shown iu patent No. 9,747, is¬ 
sued in 1853; also in patent No. 10,863, is¬ 
sued in L854; and in patent No. 12,059, also 
issued in 1854, a means is provided for ad¬ 
justing tho teeth 4 from u vertical to a hor¬ 
izontal position.' Simply changing the de¬ 
gree of angle is not such a new uud useful 
invention as the patent law desires to pro¬ 
tect. Mr. Thomas has protection for his 
particular form of harrow, but his claim, so 
far as it relates to inclined teeth, is antici¬ 
pated, and too indefinite to prevent others 
from setting harrow-teeth slanting in com¬ 
mon harrows." 
-- 4 - 4-4 - 
Guano Prospects.—The Augusta (Ga.) 
Chronicle says the reports of large deposits 
of guano on the coast of Peru are said to 
have been exaggerated. The stocK iu the 
Chincha Islands is almost exhausted. The 
stock of guano of good quality ou the Gu- 
anape, Macabi and Lobos Islands does not 
exceed one million tons, aud is of very in¬ 
ferior quality in the Lobos Islands. An¬ 
other million tons is the outside quantity. 
In the south the only deposit of any consid¬ 
eration is on Pabellou de Pica, and this does 
not amount to half a million tons. The same 
quantity of guano whioh remains on the 
Balestas Islands is of an inferior quality. 
Should no new deposits be discovered the 
present stocks will not last more than four 
years. 
