1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
55 
Esmoving Glass Stoppers. 
The glass-stopper to a bottle often becomes so 
.firmly fixed that it resists all ordinary eSorts to re¬ 
move it. Apothecaries, who handle such bottles 
daily, often acquire much skill in starting fixed 
corks. A 6udden tap with a hard stick or a 
knife handle will often allow the stopper to be 
readily taken out. If this has been put in place 
while the bottle is somewhat warm, the neck will 
contract and hold it very fast. If the neck of the 
bottle be surrounded by a cloth, wet with hot 
water, the glass will usually expand and allow the 
stopper to be taken out with ease. The most dif¬ 
ficult cases are where the liquid in the bottle is 
of such a kind that it may form a sort of cement 
between the cork and its socket. Place such a 
bottle stopper downwards in a sauce pan contain¬ 
ing water. Let the whole soak for some hours; 
then place the sauce pan on the stove and heat the 
water gradually. Try the stopper from time to 
time ; usually it may be removed long before the 
water is hot enough to boil. By this method we 
have rarely failed to remove glass corks that re¬ 
sisted all other means. 
Sunlight in Stables.—Trap-Doors. 
BY D. D. SLADE, M. D. 
All barns, stables, sheds, and other buildings, in¬ 
tended for the shelter of domestic animals, should 
be so arranged as to command all the sunlight pos¬ 
sible. For this purpose, invariably place the stalls 
on the eastern and southern sides of the building. 
The windows should be large and sufficiently nu¬ 
merous. There is no fear of too much sunlight, 
cither in the house or the barn. We have no right 
to deprive our animals, anymore than our children, 
of that which has been diffused so liberally. There 
is no objection to placing animals in the basement, 
or cellar of a building, if due care is taken to pro¬ 
vide against dampness and darkness. In fact, if 
the stable is properly constructed, the ground floor 
should be the warmest in winter, and the coolest 
in summer. Every animal seeks the sun, and will 
comfort itself by basking in its rays. Let them 
pour freely into barns and cellars, and build yards 
. so that while sheltered from the cold winds, they 
may be open to the winter’s sun, from the rising 
until the going down of the same. Some object 
to the direct sunlight falling upon the head and 
face of the horse as injurious to the sight. It 
vs much more to be feared that the animal will 
shy and start upon the road, if he is kept in dark¬ 
ness and then suddenly exposed to a bright light. 
The use of blinds, or curtains during the hot 
months, may, under certain circumstances, be ad¬ 
visable. Darkness is sometimes conducive to re¬ 
pose, and indirectly, this repose to the process 
of fattening, but with darkness, both filth and 
neglect are too apt to be found. The barn cellar, 
or basement, is not only a convenience, but of¬ 
ten a necessity. If this is commodious, with 
ample means for light and ventilation, easy of ac¬ 
cess for the removal of manure, then the farmer has 
all that can be desired in this way. In most stables 
the provisions for proper ventilation are deficient, 
and consequently ammoniacal vapors from the fer¬ 
menting manure heap, penetrate the apartments 
above, which are too often ill ventilated, and exert 
an injurious effect upon the animals there confined, 
and do much damage to harness and carriages. 
When the basement, or cellar of a barn is needed 
for other purposes, as for the storage of vegetables, 
or where it is not practicable to have a cellar, a pit 
may be formed at the side of the building, over 
which a shed may be erected. Thus, in my own 
stable, a pit, or outside cellar, receives the horse 
droppings through a s'iding door, on a level with 
the floor of the stable, while over the pit is the cow 
stable, the dung from which is thrown through 
an opening protected by a sliding door. The pit 
may also serve for a pig pen, if covered and pro¬ 
tected, and at the same time open to the sunlight 
and air, elements essential to the well-being of 
swine, as of other animals. 
Trap-doors communicating with the barn cel¬ 
lars, through which is thrown the droppings, are in 
almost universal use. This common trap-door, too 
often placed in just such a position as to be all the 
more sure to catch some unoffending man or beast 
passing in and out of the stalls, is most dangerous 
to life and limb, is inconvenient, not easily raised, 
and almost always filthy. Better convenience may 
be attained by the use of a sliding-door, or by one 
hung on hinges, constructed in the side of a square 
box, which shall cover the hole through the floor, 
or better by one or more long narrow ones which 
may be placed in the lower end of the raised plat¬ 
form, upon which the cattle stand. These last 
may be lifted on their hinges, and thrown back 
upon the platform, whilfi cleaning out the premises. 
House Drains and “ Traps.” 
Very few persons consider the close relation 
which exists between the house-drain and the 
health of the household. It were better to go back 
to the primitive “ slop hole”—still to be seen about 
the houses of pioneer farmers in a new country, or 
near temporary shanties along railroad lines—than 
to have imperfectly laid drains, which conduct the 
wastes ofj the kitchen away from the house only to 
let them soak into 
the soil to contami¬ 
nate the water of 
the well. The sink- 
drain should always 
be laid in cement 
and be water-tight. 
Round pipes are no 
doubt best, laid be¬ 
low frost, and there 
should be a “trap” 
at either end. These 
traps are to prevent the foul air from coming back. 
The best kind to have at the sink is the common cup 
tray, usually made of cast iron, and obtained at any 
hardware store or plumber’s shop. It is shaped 
like fig. 1, and consists of the following parts : a, 
the perforated plate through which the water flows 
into the bowl J>, where it rises to the top of the 
pipe c, while a backward flow of air is prevented 
by the inverted cup d, attached to the perforated 
plate by a rivet. Sand and many other solid sub¬ 
stances will be arrested in this bowl, and by lifting 
the plate and cup, may be removed. Greasy water 
will, however, pass through and into the pipe. 
When this comes in contact with the cold drain, the 
grease will be deposited along the sides, and en¬ 
tangling other sediment will form obstructions 
difficult to remove, 
which, unless taken 
out in time, will cer¬ 
tainly stop the flow 
of water. To pre¬ 
vent this, it is well 
now and then to 
flush the drain with 
hot water, and if 
this is noteffectua), 
with hot ley, which 
will usually dissolve 
and remove the 
greasy mass. The drain should be accessible at 
points about thirty feet apart, where “silt basins” 
are placed. At thesf points the drain-pipe should 
be about the full length of a man’s arm below the 
surface. Such a “ basin ” is probably best made 
of bricks laid in cement, leaving a chamber about 
a foot square, six inches lower than the end of the 
drain-pipe, and water-tight. The outlet pipe, also 
water-tight, should be set a very little higher than 
the inlet pipe, so that the end of the latter will 
always be covered with water, as shown in section 
in fig. a; a, chamber; 6, inlet pipe ; c, outlet pipe ; d, 
water ; e, sediment; /, cement bottom. 
With such an arrangement in good order, no harm 
can come to the family from the sink-drain, for the 
sewage water may be carried to any distance. At 
the end it may enter a cess-pool, be distributed 
upon the surface, or led into a muck heap. Both 
the water and the solid matter should, if possible, 
be applied to the soil as a fertilizer. 
Fig. 2.—SECTION OF BASIN. 
Farm Lands in the “ New Colorado.” 
BY WM E. PABOR. 
The pioneering element in the West is aggressive 
in the extreme. In August, 1881, the Ute Indians 
were in possession of over 18,000 square miles c' 
territory lying in Western Colorado, reaching from 
the mining regiou of San Juan to Utah. In Sep¬ 
tember of the same year the footprints of civiliza¬ 
tion followed fast upon the retirement of the red 
men to other reservations further west. 
The best watered portions of Colorado are in 
this new farming country, and in the valleys of the 
Gunnison, the Grand, the Dolores and their nu¬ 
merous tributaries. One million acres of good 
farming land await settlement when canals for 
irrigation have been constructed. Land in Col¬ 
orado is of little value to the farmer unless water 
is assured ; a quarter section (160 acres) becomes 
worth at least 810 per acre when an irrigating canal 
has been built. Water has a commercial value of 
$15 per acre, when in the shape of a Water Right, 
which is a perpetual claim upon a canal for a 
certain amount of water each year. When water 
is rented by corporations to consumers it has a 
yearly average value of $2 per inch, running contin¬ 
uously through the growing season, which amount 
is capable of irrigating one acre of grain land. 
In this New Colorado, there is a territory twice 
as large as the State of Massachusetts, abound¬ 
ing in the precious metals and also having depos¬ 
its of iron and coal of unknown extent and of 
varying grades ; there are also within its limits 
vast areas of dense forests of yellow and white 
pine and cedar. The water supply is far beyond 
what can be utilized for irrigation, and in this re¬ 
spect this region is superior to the eastern slope 
of the Rocky Mountain range. 
Only one third of what is consumed in Colorado 
is produced there; hence high prices prevail and a 
ready market is always at hand. Last year two 
million bushels of wheat, one and a half mil¬ 
lion bushels of oats, 6ix hundred thousand bush- 
els of corn, seven hundred thousand bushels of po¬ 
tatoes, three million pounds of butter, one million 
pounds of cheese, and other household commodi¬ 
ties in like proportion (in all over $12,000,000 worth 
of food) were shipped into the State. Only a rich 
State can stand such a drain upon its resources. 
Its yearly production of twenty-three millions of 
bullion tells how it is being done. The great Com¬ 
monwealth in the heart of the Rocky Mountains is 
looking forward to a future, in which manufactur¬ 
ing, as well as mining, will make her an important 
factor in the industrial wealth of the country. 
When to this is added the attractions of a peculiarly 
healthy climate, a varying altitude of from 3,500 to 
8,000 feet, the diverse products of the soil, and the 
never cloying mountain scenery, whose magnifi¬ 
cence not even Switzerland can surpass, we are 
presented with a variety of attractions hard to bo 
equalled by other portions of the Great West. 
During the past fifteen years, the plains region of 
Eastern Colorado has been changed from barren 
prairie lands into prosperous farming communities. 
No large areas remain, capable of being brought 
into cultivation by irrigation now being so ex¬ 
tensively practised. Public attention is being 
rapidly drawn to this section of our country, 
which, though two thousand miles from the At¬ 
lantic seaboard, and half this distance from the 
warm waters of the Pacific, still has direct commu¬ 
nication with each by a railway system that brings 
it on the highway of travel across the Continent. 
Liquid Glue.— Glue, as ordinarily made, with 
water, must be used hot, and when cold it 
becomes hard and almost solid again. Glue, 
that will remain liquid, and be always ready 
for use, is very convenient to have at hand. 
It is prepared by plaoing fragments of the beet 
glue in a bottle, and covering them with Acetic 
Acid, which may be had at any drugstore. The bot¬ 
tle is placed in a vessel of water, which is gradually 
heated and kept warm until the glue is dissolved. 
