366 
AMERICAS' AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
trils, greatly to the distress of the affected sheep. 
The “ worms ” attach themselves to the sinuses of 
the nose, by means of hooks like those of the horse 
hot, and live upon the mucus secretions of the ir¬ 
ritated surface to which they cling. When fully 
grown, the grubs work their way down through 
the narrow openings, by which they entered when 
iirst hatched, and again cause the sheep much 
pain. The grubs fall to the ground, and burrow¬ 
ing for a few inches, become chrysalids, which de¬ 
velop into the perfect flies in about two months. 
The grubs pass from the sheep in early summer, 
and the flies come out of the ground from July to 
September. A daub of tar upon the nose is the 
best preventive, and should be frequently applied 
during the summer months. This may be done by 
sprinkling some meal or salt over the tar in a 
trough, when the sheep will apply it themselves as 
they eat the meal. Some farmers pi aw furrows in 
the pasture, to furnish the sheep a good place to 
bury their noses. The sheep grub is not fatal, but 
very disagreeable, and doubtless has a bad effect 
on the general health of infected sheep. If any 
one desires to study the grubs, he may find them 
in many of the heads of sheep killed at the shambles. 
The Use of a Dry Well. 
There are certain household wastes which can 
not be fed to the poultry or pigs, can not be 
burned, and will not decay on the compost heap. 
These, in a country place, where the cart of the 
city scavenger is unknown, will accumulate. The 
articles we refer to are old fruit cans ; tinware, past 
mending; saucepans, which a crack has rendered 
useless; old bottles and leaky stoneware jugs and 
jars. These and others will accumulate,and a proper 
regard for neatness forbids following a too com¬ 
mon custom of throwing them into the road. If 
a rubbish heap is established in an out of the way 
place, enterprising boys will find it and scatter its 
accumulations. There is but one effective way to 
dispose of rubbish of this description—bury it. A 
dry well is a useful adjunct to every neatly kept 
country place, be it large or small. In an out of 
the way corner dig a well or pit, cover it with 
pieces of plank too heavy for children to remove, 
and drop into this all kinds of indestructible rub¬ 
bish. When this well, which need be but a few 
feet deep, is partly filled, dig another near by, us¬ 
ing the earth taken out to cover the rubbish in well 
number one. This effectually disposes of the un¬ 
sightly accumulations of rubbish, while the amount 
of labor required is not large, and the incidental 
drainage afforded may be beneficial. 
A Farmers’ Fruit Evaporator. 
“Evaporated Fruit” is now a common term, 
applied to fruits that are rapidly dried by artificial 
heat, while that of “ Dried Fruit,” is used for 
the sun-dried product. Of course “Evaporated 
Fruit” is nothing more or less than dried fruit, 
but, the process being rapid and in the dark, a 
much handsomer product than the common arti¬ 
cle is the result. There are, as we observed in the 
July American Agriculturist, a number of patented 
evaporators offered for sale. All (so far as we are 
aware) are upon the same general principle—the 
rapid drying of the fruit by means of a current of 
hot air, and in the dark. The principle is not 
patentable, as it has been in use, to our know¬ 
ledge, for many years; but various mechanical 
contrivances for applying this method are patent¬ 
ed. We have hitherto advised our readers, who 
propose to prepare their fruit on a large scale, to 
look into the merits of the different forms of ap¬ 
paratus offered for sale, and purchase the one that 
seemed best suited to their requirements. 
It will be cheaper, in the end, to purchase a well- 
tested apparatus, one that is sure to turn out a 
good article, than to experiment with makeshifts 
of home manufacture. With the farmer, who 
does not wish to go into the evaporation of fruit 
as a business, but merely wishes to work up his 
surplus in the best manner, the case is different. 
He does not care, if able, to invest in an apparatus 
which he can use for but a short time, and yet 
would be glad to improve the old method of drying. 
One of our Canadian subscribers, Albert H. 
Smith, sends us a sketch of an evaporator for 
farmers’ use. As in most farm-house kitchens, a 
fire is usually kept up all summer, this is designed 
to use the heat of the kitchen fire, and the work 
required to make it can all be done by an ordinary 
tinsmith. The “ evaporator ” is an ordinary dry¬ 
ing closet, through which the heated air passes. 
This may be placed in a room over the kitchen, or 
where there is a summer kitchen the evaporator 
may stand upon a shelf of the proper hight. The 
engraving shows the arrangement, which can, of 
course, be modified to suit circumstances, the 
chief point being to make use of air heated by the 
kitchen fire. In the engraving, a is the kitchen, 
c an upper room, with a section of the floor 
between. The kitchen stove, d, has a pipe, e, 
which passes up to the room above, where it either 
enters a chimney, or, as in some cases, passes out 
through the roof. The evaporator or dryer, g, stands 
in the room above, or in a summer kitchen, on a 
high shelf, and is so arranged that a current of 
heated air will pass through it. This hot air is 
supplied by the tube,/, of tin or sheet iron, and 
two inches in diameter. It runs up through the 
stove-pipe; its lower end being open, takes the 
air from the kitchen ; this tube passes out of the 
stove-pipe in the room above, and connects with 
the evaporator, g , at the bottom. It will be seen 
that the portion of this air-tube within the stove¬ 
pipe will be heated, causing a constant current of 
hot air to flow through it. The evaporator is a 
closet of sheet-iron, or, perhaps better, of galvan¬ 
ized iron. Mr. S. does not give any measurements, 
but these may be easily determined. It has its 
door in halves, for convenience, and at every three 
inches are cleats, upon which the trays, to hold 
the fruit, etc., are to rest. At h, is a perforated 
plate for distributing the current of hot air from 
/. Directly over the inlet-tube,, at the top of 
the closet, is a tube, i, which connects with the 
6tove-pipe, thus providing for a continuous cur¬ 
rent of hot air. At k is an escape-pipe, with a 
valve or damper, which may be opened for the 
rapid escape of hot air, if desirable. The trays 
are wooden frames, covered with galvanized wire 
netting. This seems to have all that is needetj for 
a practical evaporator, and offers useful hints to 
those who would construct such an apparatus. It 
supplies a current of hot air, which, after taking 
up the moisture from the fruit, passes off above. 
Mr. S., in his sketch, indicates, on the horizontal 
part of the tube,/, between the stove-pipe and the 
closet, a place for a small stove for burning sul¬ 
phur, but as he does not give details for its con¬ 
struction, we omit it. Those who prepare fruit 
for market, improve its appearance by means of 
sulphur fumes, but for home use this is not neces¬ 
sary. In using such an evaporator, rapid drying 
is important. The fruit should at first be spread 
thinly on the trays, the newest nearest the source 
of heat; as fresh trays are added, move the others 
higher, and when the fruit shrinks in drying, 
empty the contents of two or more trays into one. 
Looking Out the Back Door. 
A friend of ours wished to hire a farmer for a 
wealthy neighbor, and we mentioned one who was 
wanting an engagement. Knowing that our friend 
had been to see this farmer, we asked the result. 
His reply was, in substance : “Yes, I went there; 
I went around to the back door and came away, 
knowing that lie would not suit.” The front doors 
of many farm-houses are rarely opened. The back 
door is in constant use. One need not go far in 
any locality, to find the outlet of the kitchen sink 
ending in a sort of ditch, which is supposed to 
carry off the waste water, but which only allows it 
to soak away and saturate the ground near the 
back of the house. The seldom used front door is 
opened when a small coffin is to be taken out. The 
minister speaks of “the mysterious dispensations 
of Providence.” They are not at all mysterious. 
Bad sink drains at the back of the house are sure 
to bring typhoid fever and other sickness. Let 
the back door surroundings be looked to. If 
nothing better can be done, carry the kitchen 
wastes to a cesspool a distance from the house, 
where they can soak away far below the surface. 
Prohibit all throwing out of slops at the back door. 
The ground soon becomes charged with matters 
that ferment and breed disease. Where pigs are 
kept, and that includes every farm, there should 
be a pail, to receive all animal and vegetable matters 
and daily emptied. Nothing of the kind should 
be thrown out at the back of the house. Where 
there is such a disease-breeding sink spout as we 
have mentioned, let provisions be at once made to- 
carry off the water to a cesspool, and cover up the 
saturated ground with dry earth. Let the back 
yard to the house always be kept scrupulously neat. 
Green Corn for Pigs. 
In the summer and early fall feeding of pigs, we 
have found sweet corn one of the best and most 
convenient kinds of fodder. Pork is made to the 
best advantage by putting the pigs, as soon as they 
are weaned from the sow and have learned to eat 
milk and meal, into the pen, and keeping them 
there under full feed until they are ready for 
slaughter in November or December. With a good 
breed of swine there is no difficulty in making 
March pigs weigh from two hundred and fifty to 
three hundred lbs., at eight or nine months old. 
With plenty of Indian meal and skimmed milk 
they will grow rapidly until the corn is large 
enough for cutting. About the first of August, 
this should be given as an additional ration. The 
pigs will eat the green stalks and leaves with 
the greatest relish after the ears have been plucked. 
It is an excellent appetizer, helps the digestion of 
more solid food, and promotes the thrift of the 
animals. Field corn may not be quite so nutritious, 
but no better use can be made of that, after the 
ears are in milk, than to cut and feed it to fatten¬ 
ing swine. It costs much less to make pork in 
summer than in cold winter weather. 
