4884 
THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER. 
399 
ond place, a narrow ditch forms a snugger 
bed for the tile—an important consideration. 
Where a plow can he used, the cutting of one 
or two furrows will aid the ditchers amazing¬ 
ly : but for some reason, they frequently will 
not admit that it helps at all: they do not like 
the rough work left by the plow. For diggiug, 
the common spade is the best implement for 
most purposes. The last spading, however, 
laying eight-inch tile. For smaller tile, the 
pieces might be much nearer together. The 
IwU'k handle, B, is made of three-quarter inch 
round iron to prevent the collapse of the back 
end, owiug to pressure from the sand. The 
arrangement has worked well. Under-drains 
are best constructed of tile, and the shape best 
suited for every place is the plain cylindrical 
form. 
The tile are now usually laid with the ends 
blooms alKiut two days earlier than Soulauge’s 
Magnolia, and continues several days later, 
the flowers, owing to having more petals, per¬ 
haps, lasting longer 
There are few trees more Ixwiutiftil than this 
class of magnolias, and they are rarely seen 
in the door-yards or about the grounds of far 
mers. One reason is that the plants are high 
in price, ami do not bear transplanting as well 
as many other trees. We ask our readers, 
why not raise them from seeds? The seeds 
may be gathered as soon as ripe, and planted 
at once. Many will sprout the next Spring. 
Mulched with straw or long manure, they may 
be transplanted the next year to the places 
where they are to grow. 
spindling, grass like stalks, instead of stems as 
thick at least as his finger. The nature of 
asparagus ami its return for liberal treatment, 
will bo found the same whether it be grown 
by the acre or in a yard-bed 40 feet by 4 , nnd 
friend Garfield will find, when too late, that 
ho had better have followed the books, not¬ 
withstanding their “ fussiness.” 
Buoyrus, Ohio. “ asparagus.” 
PROFITABLE EXPERIENCE IN POUL 
TRY RAISING. 
To show how poultry raising may l>o made 
as profitable perhaps ns lahor in tbo work¬ 
shop, here arc the details of what the wife of 
a small farmer in my neighborhood is doing: 
She wintered 37 hens and two roosters, and 
during this time the flock laid nearly eggs 
enough to pay for the cost of their food. 
Early in March she began sotting the hens as 
fast as brooded. 
By the middle of May she had 141 chickens, 
and had only lost two. She is going to keep on 
setting liens until July, when she will probably 
have at least 300 chickens. In June the earli¬ 
est will be two-and-a-half to three months 
old, plump and fat and suitable for broilers. 
For them she will obtain a high price. As 
the Summer advances, 
prices will gradually 
fall, but even through 
Autumn, chickens pay a 
fair profit, and during 
the whole time sho will 
be selling eggs, perhaps 
enough to pay for the 
feed of the flock. 
Now, os to the fix¬ 
tures to carry on this 
business: There is a 
cheap, well-ventilated 
/ \ poultry house, and old 
/' ^gg£''-«Afiour barrels with one 
head taken out are chief- 
lymGd £or ues£s an d for 
coops. The chickens are 
weaned when six weeks 
old. and placed in the 
barn at night, where 
they sit safe and warm 
on the thrashing floor 
till morning. They ure 
giveu feed, a drink of 
skimmed milk, and left 
to wander around the 
grouud at will. The 
barn door is left open to 
the south, so thoy can 
go in for feed and drink 
a often as they desire, 
and also for shelter if it 
rains; bub as the hens 
have been let out of 
their coops since the 
chickens wero a week 
old, they grow up quite 
hardy nnd don’t mind a 
little rain. 
TJpo soil here is admi 
rably suited for raising 
chickens, it being a light 
gravel, which dries im¬ 
mediately after a rain, 
and is consequently 
never muddy, 
W lien setting the hen, 
a piece of dry turf is cut 
V.i to Ifi inches square, 
hollowed out a little on 
the under side, so as to make a correspond¬ 
ing hollmv on the upper, to safely hold tbo 
eggs. The turf is now laid on the bottom of 
the coop or barrel, grass side up, and the 
eggs placed upon it. A little sulphur is 
sprinkled around the neck of the hen, begin¬ 
ning close to 'he head, also on her rump und 
under the wings This kills lice ir she hap¬ 
pens to have any. The turf has the advau- 
Curhino Box, 
abutting against each other, leaving as smooth 
a channel as possible for the water. In soil 
that is not easily worked, no prot’Ctioy at the 
joints is needed; in sandy or peaty soils the 
tops should bo covered, so that the water will 
be forced to enter at the bottom of the joint, 
it will then bo likely to be free from sediment. 
The best coveriug for joints of tile is. in my 
opinion, a piece of closely mown turf laid, 
grass down. This is especially good, as it 
seems also to prevent lateral displacement of 
the tile. Small pieces of tarred paper, pieces 
ASPARAGUS—PRACTICE VS. THEORY. 
I notice what Mr. Garfield wrote about his 
planting an acre of asparagus, and Ignoring 
the experience of writers because of what he 
calls their “ fussiness.” Well, he has put 12 
cords of rotted ami 10 cords of partially rotted 
manure to an acre, making but little over 
three-quarters of an inch of top spreading 
plowed in. His asparagus will probably grow 
well at, first, and he will imagine he has beaten 
the books; but in the end ho will find ho has 
Push and Pull. Scoop. 
had bettor be done with a spade of tbo general 
form of the ordinary one, but as narrow as 
can be worked and admit the tile. The long, 
narrow, tapering, tiling spades are worthless 
for most soils. They are 
good when the soil will ad¬ 
mit of eleau work, but 
worthless in other soils. 
The wide upper end pre¬ 
vents the use of tins spade 
for cleaning. 
The tile scoop, shown in 
Figure 193, for cleaning 
the bottom, should be 
made of a sheet of half- 
round steel with the handle 
fastened opposite its cen¬ 
ter, so that it may be used 
as a push or pull scoop. 
The handle should rise nt 
an angle of about 80 or 45 
degrees. The scoop usually 
on sale is of thick, heavy 
wrought iron, with the 
handle fastened at the back 
end—a more awkward in¬ 
strument could hardly be 
devised. In the first place, 
the earth is loosened at a ■ 
disadvautugo as compared 
with the work of the scoop 
with a handle fastened at 
the center; and, again, it 
is only of use as a push 
scoop. Any blacksmith 
can make this. For two, 
three or four-inch tile, one 
with a diameter of four 
inches will do ulcely. For 
larger tile—six to eight- 
inch—the diameter may 
he increased to six inches, 
although the smaller scoop 
may be made to do the 
work. The leugtb should 
be 18 to 15 inches. 
In quicksand, the exca¬ 
vation cannot bo carried 
aheud of the tile, and much 
difficulty is experienced in 
keeping the tile open while 
constructing the drain. 1 f 
thequleksuud is deep—say, 
three or four feet—a curb¬ 
ing will have to be used, 
and it is best put in as follows: Take 12 
pieces of two by-four scantling, each about i 
six feet long; drive these down in pairs of 
two on each side of the ditch, within a dis¬ 
tance of 18 feet; put lietweeu each pair hori¬ 
zontal. inch boards 12 feet long. By braces be¬ 
tween the inner uprights, prevent tb« earth 
trom pushing in the sides. In excavating, 
first remove the sand from below the boards 
on each side; shove them down, throw 
out the center dirt lost; so continue, and the 
quicksand cannot possibly get into the ditch, 
lhe curbing can lie sunk down as deep as nec¬ 
essary. The boards can ail be removed by 
taking out tho bottom one first, filling with 
earth, and then the second one, and so on. 
This is ltest worked in three lengths at one 
time, taking up one length and putting one 
down at the same time. 
Wuen the quicksand is not over two feet in 
depth, it can be held back by a U-shaped box 
of iron without bottom or top, as seen in Fig. 
194. Wood is rather thick to sink in the sand, 
but it could, doubtless, be successfully used. bloomed eveiy year since 
lg - *7 ls a view o£ a bo *. one built after a de- at Fig. 192. is a true porl 
sign of my owe of 1-lfj boiler plate iron; its flowers as plucked May 13. 
length is hve feet; depth, 15 inches; width, the parent flower in beings, 
one toot. Two handles, B, B, are put on for 12 petals instead of nine; ii 
the purpose of moving; an edge of angle-iron white in color, with fainter, 
^ Jive e on the top side, This was made for imon the lower nm-ta r,f tv., 
A “RURAL” SEEDLING MAGNOLIA. From Naturo. • Fig 193. 
of old tile, of tin, etc.., answer a good pur¬ 
pose. Tarred paper is always cheap and con¬ 
venient to use. Turf is sometimes objected 
to because of the silt that may be worked into 
the tile. The water gets into thB tile princip¬ 
ally at the joints, though the tile is in itself 
porous. This was strongly illustrated by a 
construction that was carried out by the 
Lansing Wheel barrow Works, owing to a 
misunderstanding of some of my directions 
In laying the tile, the joints were completely 
enveloped with tarred paper. The result was 
that no water entered the tile, and the paper 
had to be removed before the tile would work. 
beaten himself. Tho asparagus grows in a 
night; it is succulent and prolific when pro¬ 
perly cultivated, and that means when ma¬ 
nured so richly that it is almost impossible to 
make the soil richer. Its roots, like small 
ropes, penetrate five and six feet down, and 
rich as its bed should be made, it will still re¬ 
quire a constant, and liberal top-dressing of 
the richest kind in the Fall, forked in and 
raked smooth as soon as the ground will per¬ 
mit. The writer also, over 25 yearsago, made 
an asparagus bed in his garden. He dug a 
trench four feet wide, in deep, black loam, 
and threw out even the clay, until the trench 
was four foot deep. Ho covered the bottom 
to a depth of a foot with bones, pounding up 
the large ones. He filled in between the bones 
with the richest liquid refuse of the slaughter¬ 
house; then filled up the trench wi th alternate 
layers of the richest stable manure and thin 
layers of the rich, black soil, and left it in 
tho Fall, ridged like a house roof; in the 
Spring it required but little to even it. In 
this he planted the seed in two rows only, and 
waited three years before he cut a head! It 
has hud occasional top dressings and forkings- 
in since, and after 85 years of cutting the bed 
is good aud prolific still. 
The probability is that Mr. Garfield will, 
after a year or two, find his crop yields thin, 
POULTRY-HOUSE. 
At Fig 190is given tho plan of a convenient 
poultry-house. The laying room is separated 
