234 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Exercising a Dog. 
Mr. “J. H. L.,” Hartford, Conn., sends us a 
sketch of his method of keeping a dog on the 
premises and yet giving him a run for exercise. 
To hold the dog and give him a run, stretch 
a line of hemp rope, f or §-inch in diameter, 
from two posts, or other supports, at a hight 
of five or six feet. On the rope place one of 
the common iron pulleys, such as are used 
for clothes-lines. Connect the chain with a 
snap-hook, and have a strong chain and collar. 
Too much importance cannot be attached to 
TIE FOR A DOG. 
the security of the dog. Mr. L. writes: I 
tried, at first, new telegraph wire, and 
stretched it between firmly secured posts, 
forty feet apart. My puppy, as he grew, was 
too strong for the wire. I then bought tough 
brass wire of the same diameter, or gauge, 
and the growing dog broke that. I then 
bought my hempen rope, and it held. I 
placed the kennel midway between the posts, 
gave my dog a run of ten feet on each side 
the line, and he had all necessary exercise. 
I covered the line with a coating of tallow 
to preserve it from the weather. 
Profit in Pig Feeding. 
BY COL. r. D. CURTIS. 
A profit on pork is only made under favor¬ 
able circumstances. Most farmers think 
they always get a profit on the fat pigs sold, 
but they are mistaken. If they bought the 
feed given to the pigs, or accounted for it at 
market prices, the balance would in many 
cases, if not in the majority, be on the side 
of loss. Of course, these exceptions will not 
occur where house slops and the sour milk 
are made the chief food for the greater por¬ 
tion of the time. When the dairyman charges 
the best of the milk to the cow, then the 
margin of profit on the pig is increased in 
proportion to the value of the milk in making 
growth in the pig. Farmers often gauge 
their profits by regarding whatever they feed 
out of their own raising, as costing nothing. 
I have known them to feed out a crib of corn 
to pigs, and the pigs did not bring any more 
when sold than the corn was worth. The 
milk from the dairy and the house slops were 
also consumed, and a great deal of time. 
A plain observer who knew the facts would 
say: “ Hogs thus managed will not enrich a 
half acre.” They might do it if they were 
managed right, and in fact enrich several 
acres. To do this there should be a yard for 
pigs to run in, and this should be covered | 
with muck, sods, or loose earth, litter, etc., 
so that all of the juices would be absorbed, 
and the excrement thoroughly intermingled 
with the muck or other material so that the 
volatile gases would be absorbed. These 
materials for absorption should be replenished 
from time to time. I never made any money 
out of pigs always shut up in a pen, and do 
not believe other people can. I have realized 
a profit when the pigs ran in a clover or 
orchard grass field, and made a considerable 
portion of their growth on grass or other 
cheap feed. Now, if my neighbor who feeds 
out his “old corn” in the pen to his pigs, 
would calculate ahead and have a nice range 
for his hogs, where they could get a good 
share of their living, and then give them a 
part of the corn, he would increase his profits. 
“ Well,” he says, “ they will not grow as fast, 
nor weigh so much.” I am not sure but they 
will grow as fast. A pig likes a variety of 
food. He will thrive on grass alone when no 
other food is provided. A pig wintered over 
will get fat on green clover or fresh growing 
orchard grass. A little grain will make pro¬ 
portionately more growth when a pig runs in 
a field than when it is confined in a pen. 
Suppose a pig will not weigh more than 
half as much when it runs out, and helps it¬ 
self, as it would if shut up in a pen, and fed 
all of the corn it would eat; it does not cost 
half as much, and the flesh is a hundred times 
better food. I do not wish to eat pigs shut 
up all summer in a foul pen and stuffed with 
corn. It is an unnatural and sickly condition 
for a pig which loves pure air and the food 
incident to a free life. He may not weigh as 
much. It is not a question of weight but of 
health and profit. If two hundred pounds 
cost all it will bring, and one hundred costs 
only half, which is the most profitable ? 
A Stretcher for Barbed Wire. 
In building or repairing barbed wire fence 
I have found all the wire fasteners which I 
have used liable to the serious objection of 
sometimes slipping. A barbed wire sud¬ 
denly let loose is dangerous to any one com¬ 
ing in contact with it. 
I have had an instrument of my own de¬ 
vising made. It is a combined wire holder 
and staple extractor, and can be attached to 
any wire stretcher. 
An old steel spring, 10 3 / 4 inches long, is 
us 3d. From the centre of the rivet to the 
end of the jaw is 2 inches. Arm No. 1 is l'| 4 
inch wide at the rivet by l‘/ 4 inch thick. Each 
link is 2 5 /h inches long inside measure. The 
ring is 1 inch in diameter, the inside measure 
is 3 /e inch. Hook on arm No. 2, is 3 /e by */ 4 - 
in. at the base, and 1 inch long, drawn to a 
point. To extract a staple, let the link slip 
down over the arm, (to be out of the way), 
drive the hook into the staple behind the 
wire, and wrench it out. The projecting 
tooth shown on the front of the jaw pre¬ 
vents the wire from slipping. To join two 
wires, place the ends across the jaws; hold 
with the hand over one knee, and use the 
twister with the other hand. J. D. R. 
Barrel Feeding Tub. 
Mr. “A. F. T.,” Rockport, sends us a sketch 
of a feeding tub for poultry, made from a 
flour barrel. The hoops are nailed to all the 
staves before cutting the slots, which are 
three inches wide and six inches long. The 
cover projects two inches to shed water. This 
contrivance is cheap and can be easily made. 
-- 
Finely Ground Raw Phosphates or 
“Floats.” 
BY DR. C. W. DABNEY, JR., DIRECTOR NORTH CAROLINA 
EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 
The invention of mills, intended to grind 
raw phosphates much finer than was done 
ordinarily by the burr-stone and older mills, 
has directed attention anew to the subject of i 
substituting raw phosphates for superphos¬ 
phate in agriculture. 
The question is, can we save the sulphuric ! 
acid which is added to the phosphate (about 
800 lbs., 55 per cent acid to every 1,200 lbs. of 
phosphate)? This acid is added, not for itself, 
but as a solvent. Possibly it is a disadvan¬ 
tage to put so much sulphuric acid into our 
manures. But we must do it in order to 
render the phosphoric acid soluble. The 
acid attacks the insoluble three-lime-phos¬ 
phate, takes two parts of lime out of the 
compound and leaves the one-lime-phosphate 
which is soluble in cold water. 
There are objections to this superphosphate 
besides the cost of the sulphuric acid. It 
dilutes our phosphate very greatly, and re¬ 
quires that we transport one-third more dead 
weight than we would have to do in the raw 
phosphate. South Carolina raw phosphate, 
for example, contains 25 per cent phosphoric 
acid; a ton 500 lbs. It costs at Charleston, 
ground, say $12.00 per ton. A ton of the 
superphosphate contains about 16 percent of 
phosphoric acid, or 320 lbs., and costs about 
$16.00. We pay this difference and take the 
diluted article in consideration of the solubil¬ 
ity of the phosphoric acid, which is the con¬ 
dition of its being diffused through the soil. 
It has occurred to many persons to try to 
accomplish this by fine grinding. By this 
method we substitute mechanical power for 
the acid and grind it fine with a mill, which 
will leave it undiluted, instead of changing 
it with acid, which sticks in the mass and 
has to go with it. One of the most prom¬ 
ising machines lately invented for this pur¬ 
pose is q centrifugal attrition mill, in w hich 
the crushed rock grinds itself. The mill is 
relieved of its product by a blast of air passed 
through it, hence the name “Floats,” ap¬ 
plied to the product of this mill. 
Two questions come up with regard to 
these “floats,” the answers to which the 
writer has attempted to find. 1st. How fine 
actually is this “floats,” as compared, on the 
one side, with the ordinary burr-stone grinding, 
and on the other with the powder produced 
by acid ? 2d. What is the relation of degrees 
of fineness to the power of plants to absorb 
their phosphoric acid? The first question 
