1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
177 
wood, and when the pan surrounding the auger 
is filled with earth it may he drawn out and 
emptied. But where many stones are in the 
soil other tools are necessary. Then the bar 
Fig. 1. —USE OF POST-HOLE SPOON. 
and post-spoon (fig. 1) are needed. The bar is a 
common iron bar, with a sharp steel point, with 
which the hard gravel is loosened. The spoon 
is inserted in the hole and the stones and earth 
taken out. This post-spoon is made by R II. 
Allen & Co.,Water street, New York. We have 
found it a very handy tool in use. With these 
tools, post-holes may be made so small that the 
post will fit tightly in them, requiring little 
How to Manage Manure. 
The value of liquid manures is not sufficient¬ 
ly realized. One cow voids in the course of a 
year 8,000 pounds of liquid, which undiluted and 
fermented would be too strong to apply even 
to grass. It is safe to say that not one thou¬ 
sandth part of this is ever saved for use, but 
Fig. 2.— POST-HOLE BORER. 
filling, and making a firm, solid setting. A great 
saving is gained over the common method of j 
digging with pick and shovel, whereby a hole 
is needed to be made as broad as it is deep. 
In setting posts, it is an excellent plan to fill 
the hole around them with stones, which do 
not retain water while they admit air, thus pre¬ 
venting the posts from rotting for many years. 
nearly the whole is allowed to go to waste. 
Further than this, the construction of barn-yards 
is so imperfect that much of the valuable part of 
the solid manure is washed away and wasted, 
or it is permitted to ferment and heat in such a 
manner that its value is much lessened. Struck 
with these views, we once went to work to 
economize all these wastes. A square pit was dug 
in the center of the barn-yard, four feet deep. 
The sides and bottom were planked. The bot¬ 
tom sloped to the rear about six inches. Blocks 
were laid on the sloping bottom (a) and a quan¬ 
tity of rails and poles were laid across, to make a 
false bottom, on which the manure was thrown 
as it came from the stable. Drains from the 
stables and sheds carried all the liquids into this 
pit, where it escaped at the rear into the cistern 
{d}, together with all the water which filtered 
through the manure pile after rain had fallen 
on it. The cistern was lined with hemlock 
plank, which after three years was still perfectly 
sound, and was ten feet deep and eight feet 
square. A pump of wood (c) similar to that 
figured on page 339 in our volume for 1871 
(fig. 1) was set in the cistern, and when necessary 
the rain-water from the barn 
roof was turned into it to 
dilute it. In this way a 
large quantity of liquid ma¬ 
nure was procured, which 
was found of the greatest 
service both in the garden 
and in the field. Spread on 
a piece of clover it enabled 
four cuttings to be made 
during the season, which 
was estimated as equal to 
five tons of hay to the acre, 
and which otherwise on ac¬ 
count of the dry season could 
have been cut but once, with 
but a fourth of this yield. 
For hand-use the wheel-tank (fig. 2) was made 
with joints dovetailed and put together with 
strips of brown paper smeared with tar placed 
between them. This made them water-tight. 
The tank was three feet square and. deep, and 
scattered the liquid over six feet wide, or over 
three rows of fodder-corn, which in this way, 
while young, could be easily watered with 
this cart at the rate of an acre an hour, and thus 
its early growth could be rapidly forced. Of all 
the economies of the farm it is safe to say that 
there is none in which greater improvement and 
saving may be made than in that of the manage¬ 
ment of manure, and the saving and utilizing of 
all the liquids. Here is a simple and inexpen¬ 
sive plan, which may, however, be improved 
upon after experience of its usefulness and pos¬ 
sible defects. The pump by being turned could 
either discharge the water from the cistern on 
the manure-heap to prevent too much heating, 
or directly into the small tank or any other 
spreading apparatus. 
northern parts of Europe—Germany, Holland, 
Belgium, France, and England, for instance— 
windmills are in constant work, some of which 
arc over a century old, and are doing good and 
Fig. 1.—MANURE PILE AND CISTERN. 
cheap service. There is no doubt of the fact 
that wind-power might bo largely used in the 
United States with great advantage; but many 
patents having been taken out for improvements 
on windmills, and all of them being persistently 
forced upon the notice of the public, and many 
Windmills for Farm Work. 
Many of our readers are interested in the 
question of the applicability of the power of 
the wind to the light work on the farm. Before 
the introduction of steam, wind and water p>ow- 
ers were the .motive agents of machinery, and 
even now water powers are found to be of such 
value in respect of cheapness that they are very 
seldom idle, even in presence of facilities for the 
use of steam. In the same way wind powers 
are still largely used in old-settled countries, and 
steam has not driven them out of use. In the 
of these being found not efficient or cheap in prac¬ 
tice, a prejudice seems to have arisen against 
them. But the old-fashioned mill remains un¬ 
affected by patent rights, is just as useful as 
A SIMPLE WINDMILL. 
ever, and so simple that a mechanic who can 
construct a simp!. water-wheel or wagon-wheel 
is competent to make one. We figure such a 
windmill, which is in every-day use, which costs 
very little, and which may be constructed to do 
