THE RURAL 
JUNE 23 
gambling—such, for example, as fine music, 
dancing, innocent games and the like. The 
fact is there is no necessary connection be¬ 
tween horso-raemg and agricultural fairs, and 
those who support the Comer can well be 
spared from the latter. It is better that the 
fair should not pay its expenses or that it 
should be given up entirely than that it should 
owe its success to displays so insidious and 
pernicious in their influences.— Eds.] 
SU'jcIjilccJurc, 
AN ECONOMICAL. BARN. 
I submit the plan of a barn, (Figs. 337, 338, 
and 339, which I think has some advantages 
over those I have seen in the Rural. In the 
first place as regards bight , there is more room 
at less cost, and it is better adapted for the 
use of the horse-fork. In width also there is 
an advantage, as it permits the load to be 
drawn nearer the center of the barn. Placing 
the purlin post one-fourtli the width of the 
barn brings the plate nearer the center of the 
roof and less in the way in unloading. There 
is a piece of plank 3x0 between the rafters as 
a ridge-pole, with holes in for the purpose of 
fastening the pulley for the horse-fork. The 
roof is of good pine lumber laid in paint and 
well painted when laid, and if kept painted it 
will last a lifetime. The rafters are 3x0 inches, 
put on six feet apart. Those in the first tier 
are 14 feet long; those in the second, 10 feet 
long, crossed with 3x4 inch beams let in three 
feet apart to receive the flooring. A harness 
room I think quite as necessary as a granary 
and here we have both. The bairn is 34x40 
feet, the 19 feet posts requiring 30 feet boards 
to reach the bottom of the sill. The gambrel 
roof gives more room, and there is an advan¬ 
tage in laying such a roof, as two lengths can 
be used without splicing. It requires a “prick’’ 
post on each side of stable, and granary doors 
hung on rollers. The ham will take 17,700 
feet of lumber, including 931 feet linear hewed 
timber reduced to inch measure. The bill 
averages here $14 per thousand, and the whole 
cost of the barn was $450. O. P. Brown. 
Otsego Co., Mich. 
A CHEAP BARN. 
At Fig.340-l,is a plan of a barn T built last Fall. 
It is 33x40 feet and Hi feet from the bottom of 
the sill to the top of the plate. I have an 
underground stable of the same size, 14 feet 
of the length being used as a horse stable, and 
14 feet as a cow stable, leaving 13 teet for a 
corn-crib and feed room. The cost of the ma¬ 
terial and work was £050, including the outlay 
for everything except, painting. Here are the 
materials used in its construction; 
Siding.8,904 
Shingles. 1,300 
Brick.12,600 
Lime... 50 bushels 
Lumber (hunl). 500 feet. 
Randolph Co., Ind. Will. Abbott. 
Vftmtmnj. 
MUSTARD SEED FOR A COLD. 
I have been informed some time since forty 
horses were shot not far from here on the suit- 
position they had the glanders. So soon as a 
horse shows signs of a cold or begins to run at 
the nose, “shoot, him at once,” is said to be the 
order. I say remove him to a clean stable; 
give him all the black Kentucky mustard seed 
he will hear—say a gill at a dose three times a 
day—and if possible get a lump of asafo'Lida 
as large as a cornmou white walnut down him 
This can easily be done by dissolving it in hot 
water and mixing the solution with hot water 
and molasses; then administer it the ordinary 
way. This simple remedy has saved me two 
valuable horses in time past. If this simple 
recipe should be the means of living any poor 
man’s horse or of benefiting the human race 
in any way, 1 shall not have written in vain. 
I have tried the mustard seed witli horses and 
cattle 100 times and always with beneficial re¬ 
sults. w. E. M. 
[The recipe may bo good In case of cold, but 
we do not think it will be of any avail in ease 
of glanders. Once the existence of this terri¬ 
ble malady is determined by a competent vet¬ 
erinarian, tin- infected animal should bo in¬ 
stantly shot and the carcass buried. A proper 
regard for the safety of the other horses, mules 
and asses of the neighborhood, as well as for 
the human lieings that may come in contact 
with the sufferer, demands this.—E ds.] 
(L\)t Sunnc-i)t'rt). 
RAISING PIGS. 
COL. F. D CURTIS. 
The following letter on swine, Interesting 
on account of the remoteness of the location 
and the important questions it contains, lias 
been sent to me to answer through the Rural. 
Cot,. K. D. Curt is. Fargo, D. T. 
Dear 8m: I have been mueh Interested for the pas 
year In reading In the Rural New-Yorker your ar 
leles on the management of pigs, but there are two 
or three questions uouneeted with business that the 
I have not seen mentioned by you or any one else, 
that I would like some Information upon. 1 have 22 
brood sows. 111 of which are with pig, and three of 
them have had pigs within a week—one 12, one eight 
and the other seven; and nil are doing well. Willi 
the exception of my sows with litters - which I feed 
liberally with bran, shorts or ground Teed—they have 
nothing the year round except refuge from the hotels, 
which I have to haul six miles, and grass In Summer. 
1. “Will hogs eat either corn fodder, hay or 
straw chaffed, steamed and mixed with bran 
or shorts? I tried them last Fall with corn 
fodder, cut fine, wet and mixed with bran but 
not steamed and they would not touch it.” 
A Ng.—By chaffed is meant cut, line, Pigs will 
eat corn fodder, sorghum and clover or grass, 
when green, provided, they do not have an 
abundance of other food. In the W inter they 
will cat bright, green clover hay when hungry. 
They would no doubt eat ensilage under similar 
conditions. They would probably eat clover 
hay chaffed and steamed if the clover had 
not been allowed to get too ripe. It should he 
cut while in blossom, to be utilized in this way. 
Aside from this I do not think that, any other 
kind of fodder could be made palatable for 
pigs after it bad become thoroughly dried and 
cured, which would bo necessary in order to 
preserve it. 
3. Heretofore I have managed to have my 
pigs come in April and May, and only one 
litter a yeur. Will it pay with a warm and 
well lighted brick basement, to keep them in 
or lot them have two litters a year ? 
Ans.—I t certainly will, with such favorable 
conditions. It would be better to have the first 
litters in March and April, in order to get the 
second earlier in the season. It is not neces¬ 
sary to wait until after the pigs are w'eaned for 
the sows to have a sce< >nd litter. They are often 
in heat a few days after the pigs are born and 
are liable to lie so any time while suckling. If 
this condition is taken advantage of, the sec¬ 
ond litter may be obtained at a correspond 
ingly earlier date. Where there is a good 
market for Autumn pigs I always consider 
such pigs to be more profitable, accordingly, 
than those born in the Spring, as food suitable 
for the sow's is alw ays plentiful at this season, 
and the cost of raising the pigs is not Half as 
much, and it is no detriment to the sow to bear 
them if site is well fed. 
3. Would it tend to strengthen the pigs any, 
or make them grow faster, to feed the old sow 
bone meal while nursing them ? If so how 
often and how much at u time ?” 
Ank.—I n the Spring after a Winter’* con¬ 
finement and feeding on solid food, bone meal, 
sulphur, charcoal, salt, uud roots are healthful 
and keep Up the apjietite and keep the stomach 
in good condition. The animals should bo al¬ 
lowed to follow t heir instincts in regard to these 
allowances which should be placed within 
their reach for them to help themselves. As 
there is no more material or better food for 
producing healthy and vigorous pigs than 
grass or clover pastures, these things are not 
so necessary at this season, but during the 
period of sucklings they will bo advantageous. 
4. I would like to save the urine from my 
hogs if possible. Could it be done by laying a 
three or four-inch drain tile down the center 
on one side of the pens ! Say put. the tile six 
inches deep at one end and give it a full of half 
an inch to the foot for 40 feet, opening into a 
cemented manure cellar ? 
Ans,— I should prefer a tight floor of match¬ 
ed pine plunk and run the urine with the other 
excrement, into a bed of muck, leaves or other 
litter in the rear of thepens, where it would be 
absorbed. A tile drain would be clogged fre¬ 
quently, unless strainers were placed in the 
pens at the inlets into it. A tight, wooden 
trunk of larger dimensions than the tile would 
be preferable, and would lust a great many 
years under ground. 
5. My pigs are pure Berkshire. Can I make 
heavier hogs by crossing them with Chester- 
White, Poland-Cliina or any other breed ? 
Ans.—Y es ! you can increase the size at, ma¬ 
turity from one to two hundred pounds, and the 
pigs in proportion, by crossing with Chester- 
White, Poland-China, Rod Berkshire or Du roc. 
t will add dial ni.v uIrx bid fair to be tht* srnKiii 
the most profitable, crop of the farm. Last season I 
bail no convenient place to keep them, so 1 sob! Hum 
as fast as weaned at $!) u head, and could have sold 
a |ureal nutuy more than I did ir I had had them. 
After this season I shall fatten utul kill all I raise, 
puttiuK them Into hams, shoulders, bacon, bead- 
cheese, snuHitRc, etc., and savins all the refuse for 
manure. Dressed IiOks ure always worth at least 
eight or nine cents in the Kargoimirkel.aud In Spring 
and Fall I can get tl) to Vi'/t. That Is better that) rais¬ 
ing wheat at K5 cents, Isn't It? I have found it so. 
have seeded down .|0 neres to clover this Spring for 
the special benefit of my pigs. e. b. c. 
Pxmi o Lord c al . 
EXPERIENCE WITH FRUITS, ETC., 
IN OREGON. 
Here is some of my experience with fruits 
in this far Western country: Among grapes 
Worden, Isabella, Martha and Agawam all 
do splendidly with me. Muxntuwuey is too 
late some seasons. Concord and Worden are 
the least vigorous of any, and the Mission 
Grapes the most vigorous. All are healthy. 
In strawberries, nil tilings considered, my 
preference is in the order named—Captain 
Jack, Wilson, Jucunda, and, last of all, Slnirp- 
less; but this is the best in qualily, to my taste 
Next to the Evergreen Blackberry stands the 
New Rochelle Raspberry in productiveness. I 
have four bushes, and think a very moderate 
estimate would be one bushel lust season. 
Davidson’s Thornless, Gregg and Mammoth 
Cluster do well, but the latter is defective in 
berry on some bushes. There seems to lie a 
desire here to have the Evergreen Blackberry. 
It is slow of growth for two or three ycurs, 
but it obtains vigor in age, and when seven or 
eght years old, alter having been well mud 
for, one vine w ill produce two or three bush¬ 
els of fruit. It is u trailing vine, and needs 
a frame to run over. It increases from the 
tips. It is hardy and healthy here. Among 
melons, I). M. Ferry’s are heat. The Cuban 
Queen the Rural sent, me Is more vigorous 
and productive, but it is too solid and stringy. 
Perhaps it is on account of the soil: it is sweet 
enough. The Belle and Grange potatoes grow 
too prongy with me, but the latter was very 
good in quality. Mammoth Pearl does first- 
rate. Of those that uo well ou my ground 
(upland) Compton’s Surprise is the best iu 
quality mid keeping properties. 
Josephine Co., Oregon. Orr Brown. 
£1Ptmllnj J)furir. 
MY GRIEVANCES. 
I come to the dear Rural to pour my grievan¬ 
ces into its sympathetic columns. This Spring 
I started out w r ith the determination that I 
would not stop until 1 had hatched 300 chick¬ 
ens. So, early in March I set eight hens—six 
of them on the eggs of our own hens and two 
ou Plymouth Rock eggs that 1 bought, paying 
at the rate of a dollar a setting. One hen left 
her nest, after she had been sitting a little over 
two weeks, and her departure w as uot discov¬ 
ered until the eggs w ere thoroughly cold. I 
was at a loss to account for her unsteadiness, 
as she was one of my best sitters; but on ex¬ 
amining the nest I found it was literally alive 
with lice. The other hen was sitting in a 
coop ou the ground, and she was “broken up” 
by that abomination of all farms, a. pet. pig. 
Not discouraged with this, however, I bought 
another setting, and ray success with these 
remaius to be seen, as they do not hatch until 
next week. One thing J know is that t he hen 
is safe from the pig, as I set her in an old 
sleigh in a loft above the itay mow. Owing 
to the cold weather and the infertility of the 
eggs^ only got 31 chickens from the other six 
hens. I kept on setting and hatching until at 
one time I had 180 young chickens. One 
morning I found some little ones dead in the 
coop, and on examining them I found them 
just covered with lice—not the sniull kiud, 
but great, big ones—a great deal bigger than 
a common red ant. 1 found all the rest in 
the same condition, and 1 didn’t know what 
to do. I searched nil the papers for a remedy, 
and at last, found nn article in the Farm 
Journal which said to grease the chickens 
with a mixture composed of equal parts of 
sulphur, coal-oil and lard. 1 tried it and it 
killed the lice; but it killed the chickens too. 
[You put too much of it mi. Eds.] Next 
morning I found 15 dead in one nest. They 
kept ou dying until 1 lost about 50. The lmlf- 
grown ones it didn’t hurt, but it killed all the 
V] 
YWs« S icAtVt 
Cm fcvi\» 
G OAM StoAiVe 
IH 1 31 
W t 31 
Feed hem. 
S-l A 3 L 
T5 
Mr. Abbott’s Barn. Ground Plan.— Fig. 340. 
