1883 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Irish Setter Dog. 
The leading points of the excellent breed 
of setter dogs,developed by Irish fanciers,are 
as follows: In frame higher than the English 
setter; shoulders long and sloping; loin arch¬ 
ed slightly; brisket deep; legs straight, with 
the feet soft and hairy. The skull is longer 
and narrower than the English dog; the 
mahogany nose is square at the end, with 
wide open nostrils. 
The coat is a rich 
blood red; a little 
white sometimes 
comes on the breast, 
neck, and toes, and 
constitutes the 
“white and red,” 
met in some good 
strains. The hair 
is wavy and of av¬ 
erage length. All 
the legs are well 
featherbed, as also the 
ears, which reach to 
within a half inch 
of the end of the 
nose. The eyes are 
of a rich mahogany 
or brown, full of life 
and intelligence. A 
noted writer on this 
domestic animal 
says, “In his work 
the Irish setter is 
fast and enduring; 
his nose is quite up 
to the average fast 
dogs in delicacy, 
and to those who 
are limited to a 
small kennel, he is 
an invaluable aid 
to the gun. His style 
of going is very 
beautiful,with head 
metal tank will prevent the freezing of the 
water, but it has the serious objection of be¬ 
ing dangerous, and there is trouble in keep¬ 
ing the water of a suitable temperature. The 
illustrations show a cup of my own inven¬ 
tion, that has been in use many years. Any 
tinman can manufacture these cups. The 
sloping sides and ends, which are the de¬ 
sirable features, make the expense of manu¬ 
facture somewhat more than where the cuts 
the red Irish setter. —Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
well up and feeling for the body scent; he 
has a free action of the shoulders, hind 
legs brought well under him, and a merry 
lashing of the flag on the slightest indi¬ 
cation of scent—often indeed without it,” 
The accompanying engraving is a faithful 
representation of a fine specimen of Irish 
setter. The whole frame is symmetrical, 
and from the tip of the broad, square and 
mahogany nose, to the end of the red and 
graceful “flag,” this dog is a noble animal. 
A Winter Poultry Cup. 
BT D. Z. EVANS, JR. 
One of the troubles in keeping poultry in 
winter, is the freezing of the drinking water. 
Hg. 1. a POULTRY CUP. Fig. 2. 
"Various devices, some of them expensive, 
have oeen made without general satisfac¬ 
tion. A small lamp arranged underneath a 
are all straight ones. The cost is from fif¬ 
teen to twenty-five cents each, when made 
in small quantities. The cup consists of 
three pieces of tin, the two ends and one 
other piece making the back and front, when 
bent into shape. Figure 1 shows the form of 
the large piece. The sloping sides admit of 
a quick removal of ice. When ice forms, 
immerse the cup in cold water, which will 
very quickly detach the ice, and it can be 
thrown out and fresh water supplied. The 
cups (fig. 2) are 6 inches across the front, 5 
inches deep, and three inches from back to 
front. The ends should be neatly soldered 
in, and the edges of the tin, around the cup, 
turned over a little, to prevent possible in¬ 
jury to the fowls. These cups make not 
only good ones for winter in and around the 
poultry house, but they can be used in the 
shipping boxes, for food and water, by 
breeders who ship live birds long distances. 
The Purpose of Manure. 
In a state of nature all rich soils are cov¬ 
ered with some form of vegetation. Grasses 
form the natural coat of the prairies, while 
the mountains and coast borders are clad with 
forests. A new set of conditions is brought 
in with the plow and the axe ; in short, crop¬ 
growing, with its attendant removal of grain, 
grass, roots, and fruit, is not the natural 
course of vegetation. On the prairie the 
wild grass grows through the summer sea¬ 
son and the vegetable matter, thus produced, 
becomes a muich and a source of nourish¬ 
ment for succeeding years. In this way 
there is a gradual and constant accumulation 
of fertility in the upper soil. The forest 
trees continue to grow from year to year, 
and the annual crop of fallen leaves, with 
the decay of old trunks and branches, fur¬ 
nish the rich, dark leaf-mould that covers 
the surface of for¬ 
est soils. When a 
crop is grown up¬ 
on a field there is 
a removal of plant 
food in some of its. 
many forms, and 
therefore provis¬ 
ion needs to be 
made for its re¬ 
turn. In brief, 
this is the purpose 
of all manures and 
fertilizers. Unless 
such a return is 
made to a con¬ 
stantly cropped 
soil, exhaustion 
must follow. It 
may take a long 
term of years be¬ 
fore the accumu¬ 
lated fertility of 
the prairie has 
been so much re¬ 
duced that ma¬ 
nure must be ap¬ 
plied to insure a 
profitable crop. 
The poorer a soil 
gets the more nec¬ 
essary it is to make 
complete returns 
of the plant food, 
needed for the 
growth of the suc- 
have been long 
as factories 
ceeding crop. Soils that 
cropped may be looked upon 
into which the crude materials are poured, 
and out of them the manufactured products 
are obtained. The food materials that man 
needs to supply are included under the terms 
manures and fertilizers. If the amount of 
plant food applied to and retained in the soil, 
exceeds that taken off in the crops, the land 
is improving in fertility. 
Cultivated land parts with its fertility prin¬ 
cipally in two ways ; the plant food is either- 
washed out by rains, or it is removed in the 
crop. The first is a real loss, and depends 
upon mechanical and other conditions of the 
soil. A light soil is sometimes called 
“ leachy ” from its lack of power of retention 
of soluble plant food. Other things remaining 
equal, a field loses less of its fertility when it 
bears a growing crop. As the food elements 
are liberated from their combinations by 
chemical action in the soil, the growing plants 
absorb them through their roots. Any me¬ 
chanical change that can be produced in 
“ leachy ” land to make it more retentive will 
increase its value. Manures, and especially 
any very soluble fertilizers, as nitrate of soda, 
should be applied frequently, and in small 
quantities to such soils. The fertility that a 
field parts with through the growth of a crop, 
is a real loss only when its equivalent is not 
returned. These elements of plant food are 
contained in all parts of the crop ; those in 
