L. .TACK. 
Ifarm (gfouamij. 
PREMIUM FOR 
A GENERAL-PURPOSE 
BARN. 
A subscriber to the Rural New - Yorker, 
having erected a large frame bam, with 
stone basement, offers the following premiums, 
amounting to one hundred dollars, for the best 
three plans of dividing and arranging it for gen¬ 
eral farm purposes, the plana to embrace the 
latest approved thought In modern farm build¬ 
ing:—The best plan to receive $50; the next 
best, $30; and the third, $20. 
The bam is 55 by 110 feet on a stone base¬ 
ment, which is 51 by 106 feet on the inside, and 
10 feet high in the clear. 
The wails are built up 4 feet above the ground 
on the north, Bouth, and east sides ; on the west 
side the ground is on a level with the basement 
floor. 
The two openings in the north and south 
walls, and the five openings in the east wall are 
windows, 2 feet 6 inches high and 4 feet 4 inches 
wide. 
In tho west wall there are six doors, 5 feet wide 
and 9 feet high, and one larger door, 10 feet 
wide and 9 feet high; also, four windows, box 
frames, four feet wide and 7 feet high. 
The rows of posts in the basement are 15 feet 
apart, aud, with the exception of those forming 
the center bay, which are 20 foot from centers, 
they are 15 feet from centers, ns shown in v ig. 1. 
Tho ham is 55 by 110 feet gallows framed. 
The posts are 10 inches square and 20 feet high, 
and are 15 feet from centers, with tho exception 
of those forming tho center bay, which are 20 
feet from centers. The inner postt which form 
the gallows frame are directly over the locust 
posts in the basement which support the girders 
(see Fig. 2). 
There are two large doors, one at each end of 
the barn, 14 feet wide and 14 feet high, as shown 
in Fig. 2. 
The farm might he called a General-Purpose 
Farm, and consists of 500 aeres; that portion 
where the barn is situated is meadow land of 
about 100 acres. The rest of the land consists 
of hill-side, about equally divided between grain 
and wood land. 
The water supply is excellent, there being a 
largo spring within 150 of the barn, and a large 
oreek not over 300 feet from it. 
The plans must embrace the latest approved 
thought of dividing the building and providing 
it with all approved conveniences. In a word, a 
Model General-Purpose Barn on a Model Gen¬ 
eral-Purpose Farm. 
The plans must be sent to the office of the 
Rural New-Yorker, 78 Duane St., New York 
City, before the fifteenth day of April. - 
Any one desiring further information relating 
to the above will receive it „by addressing H. W. 
C., 257 Broadway, Room 14, N. Y. City. 
[The plans sent in will be submitted to a com¬ 
petent committee of practical agriculturists, to 
be named hereafter. We hope to receive a goodly 
number of replies to so liberal an offer, which 
comes from a gentleman who is over ready to 
pay for valuable information and suggestions of 
the kind named.—pn. Eural.J 
of the article in question. Therefore it iapot 
safe to buy on the recommendation of another, 
unless all of the attendant circumstances are 
known. 
In this matter of buying new inventions one 
needs to have his eyes open. 
Look at your seed boxes and Beed bins and, if 
you have not what you desire, get what you 
want now, and only of reliablo parties. 
S lot peas, potatoes, and other small crops. Now we 
er, will venture to Bay that those two colored men 
i are find no difficulty in obtaining work and good 
pay, and the hard times will never interfere 
) one with their happiness and prosperity. What a 
pity that some of the white folks, both North 
id, if and Bouth, who complain of their circumstances, 
you would not try to learn the secret of these colored 
men’s success and endeavor to profit thereby! 
WEST 
east no:o u 
Plan of General-Purpose Barn.—Fig. 2. 
Engage help early, pay them promptly and 
pay all bills when contracted. Credit ruins 
more farmers than poor crops. g. r. n. 
Merrimack Co., N. H. 
-- 
WESTERN PORK PROSPECTS. 
Tho scarcest thing in market to-day is good and 
efficient labor, no matter how much is said to 
the contrary ; and the whole country is suffering 
in consequence. 
GET READY. 
During the days intervening between now and 
the time for the starting of the plows and the 
preparation of the land for putting in seed, 
every farmer should get everything in readiness 
for active operations. 
The tools should be examined in every part to 
see if any piece is weak or worn, and if so, dupli¬ 
cates shonld bo procured for insertion when the 
break occurs. If by the breaking of one part of 
a tool or machine, another will be weakened or 
broken, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish, 
but put in a new part at once. It often takes 
half of a4ay to get a twouty-tive cent job done, 
and. the half a day spent in getting it done often 
wastes or uses to a disadvantage the time of 
several teams and workmen. 
If any new tools are needed ascertain what, 
and spend sufficient time before work drives you 
to get the best kind. Do not be beguiled by 
flippant salesmen or tricky agents but look the 
articles over, and il’ you have donbt, take them on 
trial. This matter of trial is one of the best to 
determine the worth of a thing on its face. All 
agents arc shrewd enough in selling a worthless 
thing, to soli for cash on delivery. This is the 
only proper way to buy anything if you are 
acquainted with the merits of the article. But 
this is a progressive age. New inventions are 
constantly made, and they will not all stand the 
test cf use, and in buying one shonld avoid 
getting articles not adapted to his wants. 
Some things are well adapted to one kind of 
soil, the harvesting of a particular crop, or 
doing jobs very similar to the one for which you 
•wish to use them, but there may be a little 
difference and this little may spoil the working 
Raising hogs has long been considered a safe 
and profitable business for farmers generally, 
both in the new and older States. There is 
always more or lens waste or inferior material 
about the farm which with a little labor is readily 
and profitably disposed of by feeding it to hogs. 
The small potatoes and vegetables of various 
kinds, milk, wkoy from the cheese room and 
slops from the kitchen, can always bo utilized 
when one keeps a few pigs or many, and then 
they are excellent gleaners for the grain fields 
after harvest, and will not refuse tho wormy 
fruits from the orchard and garden, while later 
in the season they can turn the soft and un¬ 
marketable corn to good account. 
But we fear that, unless some certain and 
practicable preventive or cure for hog chdlera is 
soon discovered, our pork interests are likely to 
suffer severely; for the farmer begins to look 
upon the raising of hogs as rather a risky busi¬ 
ness. His pigs may be all right and grow rapidly 
and cost him but little, still ho is not safe, for 
after tho corn-cribs have been emptied, and 
when tho pork is almost ready for market tho 
cholera breaks out, aud swoops away both 
principal and profit. 
Thero is no telling when this disease may 
make its appearance, and this very uncertainty is 
one of the most discouraging features in connec¬ 
tion with it, for if a man could know in advance 
that the disease is to be about the coming season, 
he would not attempt to raise pork or else he 
would make preparations to combat with the 
disease when it did come. Under thoRe circum¬ 
stances it is no wonder that the farmers in some 
localities are somewhat discouraged, and tho 
consequences are that those who are enabled to 
ward off this disease will profit by the misfortune 
of then unluekier neighbors. Where this thing 
will end, it is, of course, difficult to say, but it is 
liihsfrial Implements, 
THEN AND NOW. 
Then. —The men must commence mowing at 
sunrise and work till the breakfast-horn is 
sounded. 
•• The trrusa cutB easier when wet with dew.” 
After breakfast, mow till noon. Then the hay 
must he all raked with hand-rakos and handled 
with pitchforks. 
A day's work in the hay-field meant fourteen 
hours excessive strain on bone and muscle. 
Price, 75 cents to $1. 
Now.—The Mower cuts the grass, tho Tedder 
teds it. It is raked with a Hnlky-Rake, deposited 
on the wagon with the Hay-Loader, and pitched 
off with the Horse-Fork. 
A day’s labor in the hay-field means nine or 
ten hours of gentle exercise. Price, $1.50 to $2. 
The first labor-saving implement, introduced 
iuto the hay-field was the horse-rake, and the 
first United Htatos patent for a horse-rake w f as 
granted to Mr. Pennock (the father of Samuel 
Pknnock, who now lives in Chester Go.. Pa.), iu 
the year 1822. This was a revolving rake, simi¬ 
lar to those now in use, and must have worked 
well; yet it was twenty-five years before many 
were used. 
Prior to 1850 several attempts had been made 
to construct a w heel-rake, with but little success. 
In 1851 a patent was issued to Harvv W. Lavin. 
of Cauandaigua, N. Y., for valuable improve¬ 
ments in horse-rakes : yet this man died before 
tho success of wheel-rakes was established. 
They did not get into general use till about 1865, 
and later ; aud then were used mostly for glean¬ 
ing stubble and scatterings. 
During the next five years great improvements 
were made, and a large manufacturing trade es- 
was perfecting one that would be faultless. He 
told us the same Btory in 1874 and in 1875. Din¬ 
ing the Centennial year his “ Pet,” which he had 
been experimenting on and manufacturing in a 
small way for several years, was pronounced 
perfect and christened “Wisner’s Tiger,” and 
offered to the trade. Its success was wonderful, 
and establishes Wisner as the leading inventor 
(in this line) of the age. Many manufacturers 
acknowledge this, by building the old Wisner 
Rake of 1875. that has been dropped for The 
Tiger. They, of course, give their rake another 
name, and deny any infringement on Wisner, 
The latest-boni harvesting implement is the 
Loader. It is a powerful worker. Mr. James 
Geddes estimates that Foust's Hay-Loader per¬ 
formed the labor of eight good men in his bar¬ 
ley-field last harvest. 
-- 
Farmers are not given to calculating how 
many grains of wheat placed in a row it would 
require to circle the earHi, or problems of a sim¬ 
ilar nature, but a little arithmetic of this kiud 
applied, to more practical subjects is worth the 
while, as, for instance, the following : 
Let two machines, one cutting four feet wide 
and the other five, follow each other in grain for 
one day, each being drawn a distance of 24 miles, 
the former will have cut 12 acres, the latter 15 
acres. To out 100 acres of wheat, the former 
must travel 200 miles, the latter only ICO. A 
Baving of 40 miles travel with a heavy load at 
the end of so long a journey is a matter of no 
small importance. It is a saving, too, of 40 
miles walking, or 10 miles for each of the four 
binders. It is a saving, also, to tho farmer of 
two dayR’ labor for liimself aud team, aud the 
wages and board of the four hinders for two 
days, in cutting 100 acres of grain. 
J. W. Stoddard & Co., mo building 10,000 
Tioers for tire trade of 1877. It requires one- 
fourth of this enormous number of rakes to sup¬ 
ply the trade of J. M. Guilds & Co., Utica, N. 
Y., and Geo. W. Sillcox, Bremen, Germany. 
WOMAN’S ACRE. 
BY MBS. ANNIE 
No. 1 . 
WEST 
EAST! IO.O" ” 
Plan of General-Purpose Barn. — Fig. l 
to be hoped that the disease will disappear or I tablished with tho It 
that some cure may be discovered before many 
more losses occur. 
- ++-+ - 
WHAT TWO MEN CAN DO. 
Mb. Henry W. Coleman writes to the Sparta 
Times and Planter that two industrious colored 
men on his place last year raised, with the assist¬ 
ance of one horse, 25 bales of cotton, averaging 
450 pounds each, 175 bushels of com besides 
tablished with the Ithaca, Taylor & Hollings¬ 
worth rakes, and others. They all discharged 
their gathered loads by means of a haud-lever, 
which taxed the strength of the strongest man 
in heavy bay. Several unsuccessful attempts 
had been made to make the horse discharge the 
hay, and this problem was not solved till the 
Wisner Bake was introduced, in 1873. This rake 
had its defects. Wisner was a practical dairy¬ 
man, and was the first to notice these defects 
and provide a remedy, and would tell us that he 
“ At times I lnuirtfor gentler skies, 
And bailie In dreams of softer air, 
But. bomesick tears would fill the eyes 
That Maw the Cross without the Bear.” 
. After a long, dreary winter, lasting from 
November until May, there is no country in 
the world where vegetation is so rapid, where 
all nature is so suddenly stirred to a complete 
and wonderful change as in eastern Canada, es¬ 
pecially tho valley that is called the south shore 
of the Ht. Lawrence. Bleak and cold, with often 
a snow storm, is April known to be, all through 
tho month, and May finds us with leafless trees 
and frozen ground, only a few of the early birds 
giving promise of a spring-time. But some 
evening, perhaps, the wind changes; it becomes 
a soft southern breeze, so warm aud gentle that 
the dormant buds feel the blessed influence, and 
iu tho morning the trees have a faint tinge of 
green; the long covered grass Heems to have 
grown as by a miracle* The sheep bleat in the 
barn-yard, and look longingly at the tempting 
sward outside ; tho snow at the fence sides has 
disappeared, aud in two days we cease repeating 
to each other in an assured whisper—“It is 
Spring.” Then suddenly we see the gooseberry 
bushes leafed in their vivid green, aud waiting 
no longer, know that gardening days have come. 
The twelve ridges iuto which my garden was 
divided were all thoroughly harrowed and rolled, 
after a day of back ache and sore hands, in 
which, with the help of tho children, we fol¬ 
lowed the cart in the laborious business, taking 
off the largest of the stones that in the soil were 
every winter thrown to the surface. Then with 
eager haste wo brought forward our seeds, 
temptingly paoked by Vick of Rochester in his 
neat ajid well-filled packages. Tho entry reads, 
for that season, “Vegetable seeds, ten dollars; 
flowers, four dollars,” and one-half of the latter 
comprised all varieties of everlasting flowers and 
grasses to he used in winter bouquets. In our 
hot-bed at this time tho cauliflowers and toma¬ 
toes were in green rows of stocky plants, requir¬ 
ing constant care in oar changeable climate, and 
the tender annuals were just breaking ground. 
With a Hdhrook’s Seed Sower, easily guided by 
cautious Johnnie, our eldest born, aged ten, we 
intrusted tho chilly earth with four quarts of 
early peas, “ Carter's First Crop,” reserving for 
a later sowiug a quart of Champion of England, 
for table use. 
The beets, carrots, parsnip and lettuce, all for 
family use, occupied one ridge, Wethersfield red 
onion two ridges; one was to await a warmer 
soil before planting Early Minnesota com, two 
were destined for Hubbard BquaBhes, the seed 
