THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
562 
The granary is intended for all grain except 
corn iu the ear,which should be put in* crib out¬ 
side, and itean bo divided into bins as the owner 
may please. It is tin-lined on the inside, and 
thus all rats and mice are kept out. The hen- 
room is partitioned from the main basement, 
and between the roost and feed rooms with 
tight boarding. The other partitions are lat¬ 
tice, with boards at the bottom. The nests 
constitute a part of the partition lietwoen the 
laying and sitt ing-rooms, and are so fixed that 
they can be shut, from either side as desired. 
The double horse stall, next to the hen-room, ii 
so fixed that it can be made into a box stall 
by double doors, that swing back against the 
side of the stall. The box stalls are tempo¬ 
rary structures, and are so made that by un¬ 
hooking the sides they can be taken down and 
stored by the side of the granary at H. The 
cupboard X, is for shovels, forks, etc., that 
would otherwise be under foot. 
The stables should be not less than nine feet 
high. The floor next the hay, marked “drive¬ 
way,” can be used most of the time for stor¬ 
ing farm tools and implements, Under the 
floor, and partly under the hay, is a root 
cellar, 25 feet square, with partitions for dif¬ 
ferent roots. If it is desired to keep more 
stock, the room taken by the hay can be used 
for that purpose. There is a carrier in the 
ridge of this barn; also a movable floor over 
the drive-way, and u horse fork takes the hay 
from the wagon driven into this to either end 
of barn, and after both ends are filled the 
floor is put in place, and the space over the 
drive is filled from a door on the back side, 
not shown in cut. GKO. A. BUSS. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
[Rkmaeks.— We cannot just agree with our 
friend iu his recommendations to put hogs and 
hens in tho same general room with other 
stock. It is almost impossible to so keep a 
pig-pen that it shall not have, to say the least, 
a very disagreeable odor; and this |»ervadeB 
the whole room, however large, and is sure 
to taint the milk if the cows are here milked. 
It is possible to keep a hen house free from lice, 
but it is rarely that it is so kept; and these 
pests are quite likely to spread over a whole 
barn. For those reasons, we think it much 
better to have a sepurate building for each of 
these classes of stock.—E ds.] 
MODEL MILK AND ICE-HOUSE. 
After having secured first-class milk, the 
operation of making gilt-edged butter depends 
entirely upon the appliances we have, and the 
skill with which we use them. The most per¬ 
fect tools aud rooms carelessly used, produce 
only an inferior article; on the other hand, 
the most faultless skill with faulty conveni¬ 
ences cannot make really superior butter. The 
essential requisites are, pure air, pure water 
and some method by which we cuu control the 
temperature. 
We show ut Fig. 244, what to us seems a very 
flue arrangement for making butter, with the 
least expenditure of labor. The main building 
is 12x30 feet, with ten foot posts. From the 
front end is taken off a churning-room eight 
feet iu width, leaving the ice room 13x12 feet. 
Underneath the ice is a room, four feet high, 
four feet wide and six feet long, entered by a 
double door seen back of the band wheel. 
This room is used as a refrigerator for storing 
the butter, etc., and is ventilated by an iron 
pipe ruuuing up to the ventilator shown on 
top of the building. There is a spring, which 
furnishes water, which is brought in a three- 
inch pipe to run the water-wheel which drives 
the churns, as shown through the side of the 
building, broken away for this purpose. 
Adjoining this building is a firing-house 
10 x10, the lower portion built of stoue; the 
upper part of wood. Tills has a tank built of 
stone,six feet long, two feet v> ide aud 18 inches 
deep, which is constantly tilled with cold, run¬ 
ning water direct from the spring. The 
milk is set in cans eight inches in diameter 
aud 20 inches deep, which are placed in this 
cold water. At. the end of this house, the roof 
projects four feet, affording protection to the 
door. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Rural, .Inly 26.—I want again to speak 
words of deserved praise for Dr. Sturtevaut’s 
History of Sweet Corn (p. UT) with its admi¬ 
rable illustrations. To me, it is one of the very 
best series of articles that the Rural has pub¬ 
lished. I have sometimes reluctantly criti¬ 
cised Dr. S. as being hasty iu generalization, 
but every one who knows him personally 
knows that he is a most lovable man, and as 
an observer and experimenter in agriculture, 
he is a rapidly growing man, devoted to bis 
work, and sure to add much to our precise 
knowledge on difficult questions. 
Stockman tells us (p. 478), that “the fancy 
stock business has been overworked” (which is 
mighty true), and then, in the next paragraph, 
that “the good old Short-horn stock rises in 
the scale.” In the next paragraph, he tells 
the truth just as it is, that “speculation in any 
breed is injurious to all concerned.' 1 That spec¬ 
ulation, never was carried to so absurd and 
injurious lengths, as it was in Short, horns—re¬ 
garding which a butcher said to me yesterday, 
“I never have been so taken in, in any stock I 
have handled as in those Durhams.” 
Twelve years ago, in the old Vermont Far¬ 
mer (of which I was then editor). I warned the 
wool-growers against alliance with manufac¬ 
turers, and told them they would get sold out 
by their allies. The late Gov. Brown of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, then editor of the New England 
Farmer, gave me “Jesse” for this opinion; he 
having worked with our Vermont Senator, 
Mr. Morrill, to secure that “co-operation;” 
but Secretary Chamberlain, iu “The Truth 
About It” (p. 478), confirms all that 1 then pro¬ 
phesied. I think the Secretary is a sanguine 
man, if he expects either party to restore the 
wool duties. There is too much money on the 
other side. 
There was never anything truer, or better 
put, than Mr. Beecher’s remarks about “Dead 
Capital” (p. 480). But as long as our boys have 
no better training for their business, they will 
be led away by the will o’-the-wisp notion, that 
a farmer’s profits must be in proportion to the 
size of his farm, irrespective of bis skill, or his 
capital. The smut lest farm in this town, yields 
the largest income; and 1 am glad to say that 
the fact is gradually having its influence upon 
the community. 
Prof. Carpenter is taking great pains to 
make his articles on the construction of under¬ 
drains practically useful to all of the Rural 
readers. I wish to thank him for his cartful 
instructions, carried down clearly into the 
smaller details, so very important in practice. 
I hope the Rural’s public will give them the 
attention they so well deserve. 
Prof. Wiloy’s articles on Sorghum are very 
good, aud will be read with more than com¬ 
mon interest. But how is he going to tell 
“the whole story” without some reference to 
the work of his predecessor in the Depart¬ 
ment? And how can he do that, with any 
regard to truth, and save his own official head? 
I congratulate the Editor-in-chief of tho 
Rural on having au associate competent to 
relieve him of a share of his burdensome aud 
exhausting, if pleasing, duties. My constant 
wonder has been, how ho could do the work he 
has done, and live. Now pray don’t go and 
take on enough more work to make it as hard 
as before. The Rural is good enough. 
Doesn't the Rural think it succeeded well 
in its Prize Essay competition? (Yes, indeed. 
We have many to publish yet.— Eds.] 
Rural, Aug. 9.— The Rural portraits aud 
biographies are a most interesting feature of 
the paper. We shall know Prof. Saunders 
when we meet. him. 
The “Potato Talk” (p. 510), is full of solid 
chunks of agricultural truth, judging by my 
own experience in the same work. I have very 
heavy crops on ground that has had almost no 
stable manure for 18 years. It has constantly 
improved, so that where once 80 bushels of 
potatoes to the acre was a large crop, 460 
bushels have been grown, and cabbages, onions 
uud squashes, and all garden crops are grow¬ 
ing luxuriantly. 
The deep green foliage seen on plants to 
which soluble nitrogenous salts have been ap¬ 
plied (p. 510) is no indication of a successful 
crop. I have found that to be the case re¬ 
peatedly with corn, potatoes and other crops. 
It causes a lush leaf growth, but without the 
aid of potash and phosphoric acid there will 
be but little grain or few tubers, aud the 
luxuriance is but brief. 
F. McAlpiue’s letter from Dakota (p, 517) 
is very graphic, and gives one a “true to 
nature” description of his surroundings. You 
don’t often get a better letter thau that. 
Oh 1 Alas ! Fie ! Poh ! and cau it be true, 
as Zeua Claybourne suspects, that Charity 
Sweetheart is a fictitious character ? And 
have I been wasting sympathy on a figment 
of the imagination ? I will not believe it, for 
I have (after an old man’s fashion) fallen in 
love with Charity. 
BREEDS AND THEIR CHARACTER¬ 
ISTICS. 
HENRV HALES. 
While the Cochin fowls are bred in a 
variety of colors, as Black Cochins, White, 
Buff, Cinuamon, Tjernon Buff, and Partridge; 
the Brahmas have only been bred to the two 
colors, Light and Dark. While the cock and 
hen are similar in the Light breed, they are 
quite unlike each other in the Dark. All the 
Cochins have a flat face and single comb; the 
Brahmas have heavy brows and wide, low 
combs, with three ridges, known as pea combs. 
Both these characteristics are of Malay type, 
and it is more than probable that the first im¬ 
portations were crossed on the old Chittagong, 
that were already here, from the fact that 
several persons exhibited birds first, about the 
same time, with a great lack of uniformity, 
except as regards size: some had single, some 
double combs; some white plumage, while 
some were cream-colored or a little speckled. 
All the magnificent birds, as we now have 
them, were secured shortly after by selection. 
That there should be a controversy as to how 
much was done by nature, and how much by 
the fancier, is not surprising. 
Nature favors certain affinities, or combi¬ 
nations, either of color or form; and the 
breeder, if he knows his business, takes ad¬ 
vantage of these as he notices them, to pro¬ 
duce certain results. This is much better un¬ 
derstood now than it was 20 years ago, and the 
doubt which existedas to species—whether all 
domestic fowls are descendants of one original 
ancestor, or more—is being cleared up. Ex¬ 
perience iu breeding Brahmas and Cochins 
has taught us, or rather the untiring vigi¬ 
lance requteed to maintain the improvements 
once gained by selection, points to one com¬ 
mon origin. 
Although much has been said by scientists, 
to show the structural difference of the skull, 
feet, etc., in the different breeds, no one 
knows better than the fancier the labor re¬ 
quired to keep up these differences, for, al¬ 
though at first they appear, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, accidental, still it requires skill and 
much care to increase and maintain them. 
How easy it is. in promiscuous crossing, to 
bring back the common barn yard fowl by re¬ 
version, uud lose all the peculiar variations of 
the different breeds. With ull this change, 
there is no change of voice, or I may say lan¬ 
guage ; for poultry buve more varieties of 
calls, or utterances, with explicit meaning, 
than any other domestic auimal I know of, 
aud it mutters not whether they have been 
bred in China, India, or Europe, for ages, 
their utterances are all alike, except that the 
greater size of the larger breeds renders their 
crow more sonorous, slower, and louder than 
the shrill voice of the Bantam. Iu all we know 
in nature, no two species of animals have the 
same calls; only those who imitate others can 
make the same sounds. This is the strongest 
natural evidence that all fowls belong to one 
species. 
With every change in form, and sometimes 
even in color, we have also a change iu dispo¬ 
sition and habit. While many of the old 
European breeds of poultry show little or uo 
inclination to sit, ail the Asiatics are persistent 
sitters. This trait facilitated the increase iu 
their number, as sitting hens were not lacking 
to hatch. In chickenhood the Asiatics are 
also hardier than any other breeds. They are 
all likewise, beyond their prim©for laying, at a 
much younger ago than other breeds. Com¬ 
paring the quantity of food consumed to quan¬ 
tity or weight of eggs, they are also behind 
most of the other breeds. When three or four 
years old they are quite aged, if they live so 
long. This is equally true of birds crossed by 
them. 1 have known Hambui'gs, Dorkings, 
Spanish, aud Leghorns, to lay, ou to a much 
greater age. Still uo one cau raise so many 
youug ones from any other breed as from 
Asiatics. Adding hardihood to farm-yard 
qualities, they are one of the greatest acquisi¬ 
tions to the poulterer; but they are still a 
greater acquisition for keeping in small places, 
where other fowls could not be kept. In ever 
so small u yard, if well fed and kept clean, the 
Brahmas or Cochins thrive fairly, aud will lay 
almost as well as those having liberty, and 
this cannot be said of any others. There is 
also a choice of color; where white aud buff 
w ould too easily soil iu towns, the Dark Brah¬ 
mas or Black Cochins will look bright and 
clean. 
This brings me to another remark in regard 
to Black Cochins. Of all the differently colored 
birds, Black Cochins were the most indiffer¬ 
ent; their color was never glossy, nor their 
size and station at all up to those of sister 
varieties; iu fact, the fanciers, a few years 
ago, could hardly muster a decent show pen, 
and some advocated discarding them; but, 
suddenly a new fowl *ound its way from 
India, via England, called Laugshan. These 
have a delightfully glossy sheen, and just, as 
suddenly up come beautiful Black Cochins, 
just as glossy and sheeny. The ungrateful 
breeders of Black Cochins will not admit, how 
they obtained such a splendid improvement; 
but the facts are beyond cavil. A hard fight 
was made to keep the Laiigshans out of the 
“ American Standard of Excellence;” but at. 
last they were admitted, and the similarity 
in the descriptions of the two varieties is 
funny. At the great poultry show in New 
York, one would see some very flue coops of 
large, glossy, black birds, marked “ Black 
Cochins ’’ A little further on. just such look¬ 
ing birds were marked “Langshans.” When 
asked the difference, some fancier standing by 
would direct the attention of the inquirer to 
the tail being a little larger, and not quite so 
high behind, and the soles of the Langshans’ 
feet show a little pink, and tho inquiring visi 
tor, with strong imagination, would pass ou 
quite edified till he reached the next coop of 
Langshans or Black Cochins. 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. 1 CURTIS. 
MISTAKE IN SEED-PLANTING. 
Not one carrot seed in fifty came up. I 
might have accused the seller of the seeds of 
wrong-dealing,—that would have been natu¬ 
ral—but, then, the experience would not have 
taught a useful lesson. It is so easy to lay 
blame ou other*, w ithout considering how 
much we are iu fault. The truth is, the car¬ 
rots were all right, but they were covered too 
deep. Tho ground was so mellow, I thought 
it best to roll it after the seed was sown. This 
was a mistake, as the seed was sown by the 
drill in the bottom of the rows made by the 
marker, and this would havo been not only 
doop enough, but covering enough. The plau 
worked all right with the mangels, as they re¬ 
quire deeper planting to sprout well. This 
mistake with tho carrots will have to be made 
good by putting Swedish turnips in tho va¬ 
cant places. 
WATER IMPROVEMENT. 
Nearly $500 have been expended here, to se¬ 
cure a plentiful supply of water in the differ¬ 
ent farm buildings. A windmill is the motive 
power, uud everything works so well that 
Esquire Davidson, it good farmer, says that the 
new water-works have added $1,000 to the 
value of the farm. A hydraulic ram would 
have cost less, but there was neither suf¬ 
ficient fall, nor enough of water. The trouble 
of earing for the stood has been very much 
iessoned. The old wells which used to furnixh 
pleuty of water, would give out in a dry time. 
It is accessary to go deeper to get permanent 
water, and the more the land is cleared up 
and drained the deeper one must dig. 
TREES AND ROCKS, 
The foundation posts for the tower of the 
windmill were cut from locust trees, planted 
by myself ou a rocky hillside about 20 years 
ago. This rough hillside is now really one of 
the most valuable, a* well as attractive, per 
tions of the fur in. It paid to take the hired 
man and spend a day putting in these locust 
trees. There has been more grass on this 
ground ever since, us the shade has kept it 
from drying up. The increase iu the pasture 
has paid a hundred times for all the labor of 
putting out the trees. 
BEST REMEDY. 
Iu two cases where the swelling and inflam 
mation were severe after castrat ion, aud tho 
hogs refused to eat, the parts were washed 
with warm water uud long chunks of lard, 
saturated with camphor aud alcohol, wore 
pushed into the apertures as far as possible. 
This was done for three or four days, and in 
each case the inflammation rapidly subsided 
and the animals got well. This is the best 
remedy we have ever tried. They do better 
on the ground, as it is cooling, aud they take 
more exercise, which is beneficial. 
FOLLOWING EXAMPLE. 
It is natural for a young annual to imitate 
its parent. Calves may be readily taught to 
eat meal, and lambs to eat grain, by feeding 
the oid ones. A Scotch puny which has a colt 
is very fond of drinking out of a swill barrel; 
she seems to prefer swill to clean water; her 
colt has acquired the same habit, and takes a 
drink of the swill whenever it can get a chance. 
CARE OF RAMS. 
There is a great deal of loss every year on 
account of lambs being born in the early part 
of Winter. These untimely births are gene¬ 
rally caused by leaving the rams too long in 
the pasture with the ewes. Fine- wooled ewes. 
