FES. 22 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
enough to admit tlm lambs, hut small enough 
to exclude the ewes. With warm lambing pens 
and good care, the lambs may come even in the 
cold North, as early as February; in the ab¬ 
sence of suitable conveniences, however, it is 
fur better that they should he dropped when 
the sheep are turned out to pasture in May. 
In spring, it is advisable to turn the sheep into 
the pasture for only a few hours each day, at 
first, lest a too sudden change should induce 
the scours. The ewes should be. thoroughly 
“tagged," that is, the wool should he.cut away 
under the tail down to, and around the udder, 
so that the lambs muy suck more easily, and to 
prevent the accumulation of filth, which would 
otherwise seriously impede the movements of 
the animals. 
W ithin two weeks after the ewes are sheared, 
the lambs should be dipped in a decoction of 
tobacco and water, strong euough to kill the 
ticks, seven pounds of plug tobacco being 
sufficient for a huudred lambs. Or a solution 
of arsenic and water may he used, made by 
dissolving three pounds of white arsenic (pow¬ 
der) in boiling water, and adding forty gallons 
of cold water. In this case, the waste wash must 
be put where no animal can drink it, as it is 
deadly poisonous, and the hands of tie persons 
who dip the sheep must be free from eruptions 
and bruises. Lambs’ tails should be cut within 
a fortnight from their birth. Buck lambs 
should bo castrated only when they have be¬ 
come strong enough to endure the operation, 
and sufficiently developed so that the owner 
can determine which should be reserved for 
breeding. In summer the sheep should be 
changed from one pasture to another, as often 
as possible. If the farmer Juts only one pas¬ 
ture, let him fence off a part of it, thus making 
two, so that his flock uiay have the ueeessary 
monia among the animals; but, owing to their 
strict confinement at all times to the stables, 
even if the disease had reached a contagious 
stage, it could hardly be communicated to 
stock designed for exportation. By orders of 
Governor Robinson the stables are now rigidly 
f|uarantinod and effective measures have been 
adopted for stamping out the pest here and 
any previous notice, tore off the sides of the 
building just as a consignment of meat was 
about to arrive. The Amor loan consul lias 
protested against the unjust action and is 
seeking redress. . . . Smith and Powell, 
of Syracuse, N. Y., have lately imported 20 
Holstein heifer calves, which were selected for 
them from the best stables in Holland, with 
figure 6. 
change. 
elsewhere throughout this State. A few days 
ago we visitbd the stables ourselves, and, al¬ 
though permission to examine the animals was 
1 el Used, we saw and learned from the villagers 
enough oi the condition and surroundings of 
the inmates of the'buildings to enable us to 
guarantee the correctness of the above account 
of the matter. 
—-- 
STOCK NOTES. 
A HOT-BED OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 
Bi.I8hvii.le, a small village of Queens Coun¬ 
ty, Long Island, has lately gained a wide 
notoriety in this neighborhood on account of 
its possession of a largo distillery and several 
packed cow stables connected with it. The 
latter are wooden buildings containing be¬ 
tween 700 and 800 cows, which arc fed exclu¬ 
sively on the swill lroru the farmer. Some of lliu 
animals belong to Graff, Fleisclimaun & Co., 
owners of the stables and distillery, but most, 
of them are boarded there by milk-dealers who 
get from them the supply of “ Pure, Orange- 
County Milk” they sell to their customers in 
the neighboring cities of Brooklyn and New 
York. The cows are tied in opposite rows ol 
stalls varying in width from 37 to 42 indies, 
the ropes being barely long enough to allow 
them to lie down. Between the rows of heads 
lacing each other, there is ju»t sufficient room 
to allow one to pass, but behind the animals 
are broader spaces trom which the fast accu¬ 
mulating excrement and urine are swept away 
once a day. Evacuations are almost constant, 
us the nature of the food stimulates the kidneys 
sous largely to increase their secretions, be¬ 
sides rendering llio fames very abundant and 
almost liquid. In frout of each row is a trough 
for distillery swill which is supplied, at a tem¬ 
perature of 109 deg. Fab., from a large tank, 
by turning a cock in a connecting pipe. The 
only provisions lor light and ventilation, are 
the doors. When these are closed, the interior 
is dark and the ulr noisome. The cows never 
stir from the place. From the moment they 
first enter it until they cease to give milk in 
satisfactory quantity, and are fattened for the 
butcher, they take no uxerewe beyond those 
tluou-by-ten-foot stalls, got uo Change of food 
from that tin wholesome swill, and breathe over 
and over again that, filth-reeking atmosphere, 
until the lungs become diseased, the body 
feverish and the udder dry or nearly so. Small 
wonder that the wretched victims of cruelty and 
greed have become a source of sickness in the 
community, of possible infection among other 
herds, and of danger to our live-stock export 
trade. For right here is Die most notorious 
hot-bed of pleuro-pucuiuonia in the country. 
About four weeks ago the attention of the 
Brooklyn Board of Health was directed to the 
condition of the cows in these stables by local 
reports of the presence of pleuro-pueimiouia 
among them, and by an unusually high rate of 
mortality among the children or the city, which 
was reasonably attributed to their use of milk 
from the diseased animals. The newspapers 
of New York and Brooklyn, always on the out¬ 
look for something sensational, daily tilled 
columns with highly-colored accounts of the 
seventy of the disease here prevalent, utterly 
regardless of the injury their exaggeration was 
pielty sure to inflict on the vast cutUc interests 
of tlie Country In the present Critical state of 
our live-stock trade with Europe. A thorough 
investigation by Die veterinarians attached lo 
the Boards of Health ot this city and Brooklyn, 
<• y the Goveruor’s Commissioner, Prof, 
aw, of Cornell University, leaves no doubt 
* the existence of a mild type of pluero-pueu- 
Jottinos.—O f the Polled Angus cattle the 
North British Agriculturist says that, although 
it has uo intention of pitting animals of that 
bleed against Short-horns for prepotency in 
improving any kind of cattle with which they 
are crossed, or of putting them alongside cither 
the Ayrshire or Jersey for milking properties, 
yet no pure breed will mature so early, carry 
the same quality and quantity of beef, and re¬ 
alize so much for hundredweight as the im¬ 
proved Polled Angus or Aberdeen. . . . 
Veiy few, il auy, Norinan-Perelicrou horses 
were imported into this country before 1856, 
yet the Stml-Book of that breed, issued a couple 
of months ago, contains a list of 701 imported 
horses and uiares. while the number of native 
lull-bloods bred in this country is 158, making 
a total ol 854 registered in the volume. As, for 
various causes, a considerable number of im¬ 
ported animals have not been entered, it is 
held a safe estimate that Die total number of 
Norman-Peeherons that have crossed the At¬ 
lantic, mainly within the last ten years, is not 
Joss than 750. . . . Mr. MeCombic’s cele¬ 
brated herd of Polled Angus cattle were lately 
sold, except the group illustrated in our last 
issue, which gained a wide reputation by car¬ 
rying off a number of prizes at the Paris Expo 
sition. Forty-four animals in all brought 
•tilt,354, or an average of #210 each. The high¬ 
est price of a single beast was #512. One fam¬ 
ily of twelve brought an average of #313 a piece. 
The price of polled cattle of late years Inis been 
steadily advancing across the Atlantic. . . . 
The English Agricultural Gazette, in refuting 
the assertion of an American writer to the eh 
lect that if abort-horns were good milkers 
dairymen would long since have found it out, 
says that Diuy have found it out in England, 
in the North, the Midlands and the West of 
that country it says the majority of dairy cows 
are cross-bred Short-horns, and many pure¬ 
bred Short-born dairies are kept. Moreover, 
town dairymen pay higher prices for Short¬ 
horns than for any other kind of cows on ac¬ 
count of their known power of giving abund¬ 
ant milk and of quickly fattening when they 
cannot be kept profitably in flic dairy, cither 
through becoming barren, loss of teats or ad¬ 
vanced years. It also gives instances of the 
recent sale of two Short-horn dairy herds, 
one of which contained 34 heavy milkers which 
sold for an average of *120 each, while the 
other, described as chiefly good dairy cows, 
brought an average of *93.50 apiece. . . 
Ail Illinois Short-horn breeder reports to the 
National Live-Stock Journal that his sales dur¬ 
ing the past year amounted to 1,088 head, at 
an average of #125.91 each, or a grand total of 
*136,995. He says that although prices are 
comparatively low, yet the outlook is not dis¬ 
couraging, as there is a greater demand than 
usual for young bulls and cheap high-grade 
licifcra for the Western eouutry. . , . The 
town authorities of New Castle-oii-Tync, Eng¬ 
land, urged on by the jealousy of local and 
Irish cattle dealers, have been guilty of a petty 
display of opposition to the importation of 
American moat into that town. Some time 
back they let a cattle-shed to the local agent 
of the Liverpool consignees of Mr. T. (J, East¬ 
man, one ot our largest incut exporters whose 
annual importations to the north of England, 
amounting to 4,500,000 pounds, have kept 
down the prices of meat in that section. This 
shed was fitted up as a market for American 
meat. The other day the authorities, without 
special reference to the superior milking qual¬ 
ities of their ancestors. As a lot, they are said 
t.o show great uniformity, being finely formed 
and having all the marks and indications of 
deep milkers. With this addition, the Hol¬ 
stein herd ol this firm now numbers nearly 60 
full-blood animals of various ages. 
The American Stockman says that, judging 
from the many old. flabby sows ami light, un¬ 
thrifty hogs just now coming into the Chicago 
market, it seems not unlikely that farmers, 
discouraged by recent low prices, are parting 
with their breeding stock, and that If the aitp- 
ply continues at the present rate, it would not 
ho surprising if tin; crop should be short next 
fall and winter. Week before last we said 
that mi this account among others, farmers 
might reasonably look forward to higher prices 
lor hog products next, season, ami both Die. 
•Stockman and National Live-Stock Journal 
arc of Die same opinion. Very inferior hogs 
winch, a few weeks ago, would only bring 
per hundred in Die Chicago market, are, 
already selling for *3.50, and Die extra drain 
now from the tributary country on this ac¬ 
count, is likely to contribute to the same end. 
Sural ^rrlntfcturr, 
A FEW AXIOMS IN BARN-BUILDING.—2 
w. i. chamberlain. 
I wish to call attention to a few more self- 
evident truths involved in the structure of 
barns. 
4. It is economy to Utilize all Die space cov¬ 
ered by the root. This seems so evident that 
everyone says “ Why, of course!” And yet 
the owners of the greater part of Dm grain- 
barns of Ohio and of many in Pennsylvania, 
seem to me to disregard it. Fig, 6 gives an 
end view of (lie ordinary Dutch groin-barn of 
central Ohio and of some parts of Pennsylvania. 
Nearly oue-third of the enliro basement story 
-usually the south third ; and always towards 
the barnyard and straw stack, is left, miiu- 
emsed, iu the form of an over-shoot or “ over¬ 
shot," as represented in the figure. The rest 
of the basement, even in barns as large us 45x 
100 feet, is all devoted to stabling for the stock, 
and on a grain farm the stuck stabled there are 
seldom more than six or eight horses, as many 
cows, and sometimes a few sheep. The part 
of the barn left uninclosed, would be abundant 
to stable these, And the other two-thirds of (he 
basement would store fifty tons of hay, in a barn 
45x100 feet. I have sometimes asked Dutch 
farmers : 
" What’s the use of the ‘over-shot’ auv- 
way ?” 
“ Vy, mynherr, etery pody lias te ofer-sliot!" 
“Yes, hut what for? What do you use it 
for ?” 
‘Oh! uottings, nottiugs mooch. But he 
keep tc toorvays nice and dhry alvays!" 
And that is all! I have sceu hundreds of 
such barns and never yet saw tlm •• over-shot ” 
utilized for storing machines, implements, feed, 
cattle, or even manure. The Dutch farmers’ 
as a class, are among the best In our State, and 
their barns are splendid, usually costing three 
or four times as much as their houses. But in 
tins respect they do not seem to nie to be eco¬ 
nomical. Indeed the over-shot has always 
seemed fo me a sheer waste, iu more ways 
than one. It “ leaves out in the cold” nearly 
one-third of the basement, the most valuable, 
because the most convenient place for storage, 
and as we have seen, it really costs the storage 
of fifty tons of hay. It leaves the barn to pro¬ 
ject so far that a very solid and expensive 
basement is required, usually quarried stone 
masonry throughout and immense limbers for 
Die floor and projection above the basement. 
By actual measurement, some large burns of 
iO tiffs kind require 10,000 feet of timber for the 
is cross-sleepers and sills above the basement, 
is and about as many foot of heavy plank for the 
is floor. But more than half both of the timber and 
1. lumber would bo saved by the other plan. And 
0 as already hinted, the part, wasted in the pro- 
■i jeetion would stable the stock, and Die rest of 
h the. basement would store, their leci.1 ami leave 
the whole main barn for grain. If that gave 
too much room, the barn could at first lie made 
just so much smaller, thus saving a good deal 
of expense. 
•>. We should make the force of gravitation 
work for, and not against us. It is just as 
willing to help as to hinder, f if we only plan 
aright. Iu hundreds of details is this true. I 
can specify but a few. We have already hinted 
atone. Hie bank-barn itself is a step in Die 
right direction. A nine-foot basement with 
all Die hay and grain driven in above it, means 
nine feet move down-hill pitching ot hay and 
giain than there would otherwise lie. If the 
whole basement is needed for stock, then the 
whole main floor above would lie needed, if 
there were no basement. We have no more 
light to waste any of its precious room than 
we should have tu waste the room of the first 
floor if it was not a bank-barn. If properly 
built, drained and ventilated, a basement will 
not injure the bay by imisting any more than 
the first floor of an ordinary barn will. If I 
were to build a hundred grain or dairy barns, 
or barns for mixed husbandry, they should all 
be bank barns. Not only that, the space in 
the basement should be us carefully econo¬ 
mized as that in any other part of Die ham; 
yes, more carefully, for it is more valuable, 
lhe higher up you go, the less the pressure 
when the hay is iu, and the harder the pitching 
to get the hay in. A thousand cubic feet in 
the basement will hold twice as much as 
, a thousand above the “big beam,” and a ton 
of hay is landed there in less than half the 
time. It is a weariness to the (lush to put hay 
or grain Up near the roof, even if the horse- 
fork is used for the hay. It cannot well lie 
used for grain to good advantage. 
I ndei Diis head we might give this as an 
uxi*m: llie higher up we drive, the lighter 
Die pitching. An excellent plan is to have a 
movable, elevated barn floor. Suppose a barn 
like tlmt iu Fig. 5 page 103 of last week’s is¬ 
sue, 75 feet long, with a permanent floor 
crosswise in the middle, and a temporary or 
movable floor on each side of it. for filling the 
outside bays. Uuc floor will answer in turn 
ho both these spaces, and can be so arranged 
as to slant upward the first 15 feet after enter¬ 
ing Die barn, gaining a rise of live feet, and 
Dion running level. The position of this ele¬ 
vated floor us indicated by the slanting and 
horizontal duLted Hues in Fig. 0. Where pine 
planks run crosswise of the floor, a (cam will 
draw a ton of hay up such a slope perfectly 
well, ami the top of the load will tlieu be above 
Dio big beam iu a barn with 16-foot posts (be 
sides the basement), so that nearly all the hay 
is to be pitched down-hill; and I undertake to 
say that a smart mau can pilch off every load 
till the hay in the bay readies above the big 
beam, i/uioker thou two non can unhitch the 
team, and throw R off with the horse-fork. 
Iu hilly Vermont I have even seen barns witli 
the barn floor running above the big beams 
lengthwise of the ridge of Die roof. Here 
every forkful is pitched downward. The plan 
[ of such a barn will lie given in my next. 
Jiihstrial (Japics, 
NEED OF PERMANENT TEACHERS. EN¬ 
THUSIASM IN COUNTRY SCHOOLS' 
No. 3. 
PROFESSOR W. J. BEAL. 
In my last I spoke of employing good teach¬ 
ers at any price. Low wages will not stimu¬ 
late and encourage candidates to make a 
thorough preparation for the work. Asa gen¬ 
eral thing, our teachers arc poorly paid ami 
often not properly prepared. Low wag^s make 
changes frequent. Young persons engage in 
teaching as a temporary employment to make 
a little something to help them to something 
better, not to help to prepare for better teach¬ 
ing. 
It is to the advantage of any school to retain 
a good teacher for several terms in succession. 
The teachers of our district schools usually 
teach but one term in a place, and but few of 
them teach anywhere for more than three or 
four terms. How would a college fare with t 
change of president every term? How would 
a professorship succeed if tilled with a new 
man every term? How would our graded 
schools thrive with a total change of teachers 
and directors" every term ? Yet this is the kind 
of management givcu to many Of our district 
schools. 
Competent salaries, fair and rigid examina- 
tiuus and good supervision will compel candi¬ 
dates to attend institutes, normal schools and 
colleges. As managed at present, is it uot 
Woudcf that the country schools get along 
