•418 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
proportion of ingredients is varied, so as to give 
them just sufficient tenacity and strength to 
hold together and resist collapse by pressure of 
the earth above them. When the material is 
mixed, the mold (b) is filled with it, the core (a) 
is forced down upon tlie cement, which is mixed 
with sufficient water to render it quite soft, 
until it touches the flanges seen at each end of 
the mold, and thus the tile receives an even, 
square shape at the ends. The core is then 
covered with cement, and the top part of the 
mold is turned down over it, and the excess of 
material squeezed out. The mold with the con¬ 
tained tile is pushed on one side, and another 
filled in the same manner, sufficient molds be¬ 
ing needed to work with until the cement has 
set enough to be turned out. The number re¬ 
quired of course depends on the rapidity of the 
workman. The caps or collars are made in 
exactl} r the same manner; the mold, however, 
is provided with flanges placed so far apart as 
to cut the collars into the sizes required, three 
inches in length being about a proper size. 
The mold ( e ) is single, no upper portion being 
required, as the collars arc much better in the 
shape of half-circles than whole ones. They are 
placed with greater facility when in this shape, 
and where the ground is solid, as in clay soil, 
and the bottom of the drain properly shaped to 
receive the tiles, no collars are needed under 
them, only caps over the joints being required. 
Figure 3 shows the position of the tiles and 
caps in the drain as they are to be laid. Far¬ 
mers intending to drain their fields who are 
situated at a distance from tile manufactories or 
from railroad stations, can very conveniently 
and profitably make use of the method above 
described. The great loss incident to the carriage 
of fragile articles such as drain-tiles is avoided 
and much expense of freight saved, the carriage 
of the cement alone having to be met, which is 
only a small portiou of the material used, the 
greater bulk being sand, sifled coal-ashes, or 
finely-broken brick, etc., where coarse sand can 
not easily be procured. 
Why Thorough-bred Bulls are Vicious. 
We rarely hear of a common or scrub bull 
being vicious, and almost as rarely do we hear 
of a thorough-bred bull that is not so. In our 
judgment, this is due not at all to the difference 
of blood, but to the difference of treatment. 
The common bull is generally kept in the 
same field and in the same stable with the cows, 
and is in all respects treated in the same way. 
He is accustomed to the presence of man, and 
to all the sights and sounds of the farm and the 
road. The thorough-bred, on the other hand, 
is usually expected to be vicious, and everything 
is done to make him so. He is confined in a 
box-stall (usually a dark one), and takes his ex¬ 
ercise in a yard that is surrounded by a high 
fence, witli no opportunity to become familiar 
with anything but his single keeper. Too often 
he is chained by his neck and by his nose-ring, 
and sees only his attendant—who usually goes 
to him armed with a club or a whip, and who 
makes it evident that he is afraid for his life 
while in his presence. This is enough to make 
a bull, or a horse, or a man cross and cantan¬ 
kerous, and we have no right to expect a differ¬ 
ent result from such management. 
We h ave had practical experience of the 
opposite mode of treatment in the cases of a 
number of Jersey bulls, and always with good 
effect. We are now using one nearly six years 
old. When we first got him, four years ago, he 
was showing the effect of previous mismanage¬ 
ment, and was ready to bellow and paw the 
ground in preparation for a fight at the sight of 
every man who -went into the stable or field. 
Since he has been in our possession, he has been 
treated exactly as he would have been if lie had 
been the tamest of scrubs. Tied by his nose¬ 
ring in the same line of stalls with the cows, 
fed in the same way, patted and spoken to by 
all who passed, he has become as docile and 
quiet as an ox, and strangers go into the open 
barn-yard witli him without even attracting his 
notice. If this were a single case, the result 
might be ascribed to the temper of this parti¬ 
cular animal, but we have had the same expe¬ 
rience with a dozen others, and we have never 
seen a bull so treated that was vicious—nor one 
kept in solitary confinement that was not so. 
A Farm Level. 
T. S. Strobecker, Venango Co., Pa., sends us 
a model of a farmer’s level, from which we 
A SIMPLE FARM LEVEL. 
make an engraving. He thus describes it: It 
consists of a board about eight feet long, both 
edges being straight and parallel, with sights 
attached to the upper edge. An upright piece 
about three feet long is dovetailed into the board, 
or otherwise firmly affixed, at right-angles to 
it. A cord and plummet is attached to the up¬ 
right piece, and in its center a crease is made, 
also at right angles to llu: upper edge of the 
board carrying the sights. It can be rested on 
blocks on a staff, which may be pivoted so that 
the level may be used on ground that is rough 
or uneven. The upright piece is handy to 
plumb walls; attached to the board it is useful 
to level foundations or cellars. When mounted 
on a staff, it may be used for many purposes as 
a substitute for a surveyor’s level, and it costs 
only a little ingenuity to make it. 
■--» --oOo--►-<.- 
Small Artificial Ponds for Fish.— 
“S. L.,” Fairfield, Iowa, asks if a small half¬ 
acre pond can be utilized for raising fish, and 
what kinds of fish can be raised in it. The 
pond is six feet deep. If the pond is fed by 
springs, and the water does not get above 70° 
in the summer, trout can be raised in it. If 
there is a good stream running through, or if it 
is kept uniformly six feet deep, the smaller 
kinds of fresh-water fish will live in it, even if it 
is much warmer. If it is wanted merely for 
ornament, gold-fish may be put in, and it may 
be planted with water-lilies, to make shelter for 
them. If fish for food and sport are wanted, 
black bass would live in such a pond, but they 
would need to be fed occasionally in summer 
to make them grow rapidly. The best feed is 
small live fish and insects. Beef-lights run 
through a sausage-meat cutter make good food. 
A few loads of coarse gravel should be put into 
the pond in wmler three or four feet deep for 
spawning-beds, unless the bottom is gravel. 
Of course, in so small a pond, not a great many 
fish can be raised. The growth will depend 
upon the liberality with which they are fed. 
■ ■ «» * i 
Old Pastures, or New? 
There are two opinions about pastures. One 
is that it is more profitable to feed only newly- 
seeded land, using it not more than two years 
before plowing it up for a reseeding; and the 
other to let it remain for many years, allowing 
the surface to become fully occupied by the 
native grasses, these being supposed to be best 
adapted to develop its power of production. 
If we consider this question according to the 
general practice of farming communities in this 
country, we can not hesitate to decide that the 
greatest profit will follow the first-named 
method, for there is no disputing the proposi¬ 
tion that timothy, red-top, orchard grass, and 
red clover, newly sown on a well-prepared and 
well-manured soil, will produce much more 
forage (and of a highly nutritious kind) than 
will a close turf of blue-grass, white clover, 
etc., which has for many years had full posses¬ 
sion of the ground, and has had no artificial 
stimulation. The difference in amount will be 
much more than enough to repay the cost of 
breaking up, manuring, and seeding. 
It is not now a question whether the c-ows 
will do better on one kind of pasture than on 
the oilier, only which will produce the largest 
money profit. If a single cow were allowed to 
roam over ten acres of short old pasture, pick¬ 
ing up her whole living in white clover and the 
tender sprouts of blue-grass, there is no deny¬ 
ing that she would give more milk, more butter, 
and more cheese than she would if feeding, 
however abundantly, on the coarser grasses of 
an artificial pasture. But our purpose in farm¬ 
ing is not to get the largest possible yield from 
our cows, but to get the largest possible yield 
from our land. The cows are only implements 
for converting the products of the field into the 
salable products of the dairy. 
An average first-class cow coming in in May 
will make 200 lbs. of butter in the season on 
good natural pasture, but she will require at least 
three acres of land for her exclusive use. At 
30c. per lb., the season’s produce will be $60— 
or $20 per acre. On a good artificial pasture 
she may give only 180 lbs., worth $54, but she 
will be fully supported by the produce of a sin¬ 
gle acre. Supposing that one third of the pro¬ 
duce is consumed by the interest on the extra 
number of cows, and by the cost of keeping up 
the pastures—which is surely a very liberal 
allowance—w r e shall have $36 instead of $20 as 
the return per acre. In addition to this, we 
shall make ourselves much more independent 
of variations of the seasons, for a well-worked 
rich meadow is far less injured by excessive 
drouth than any natural pasture on the same 
soil could be. This, of itself, will often equal 
the drawback we have allowed for extra cost. 
To put the proposition in another form, we 
may expect, from the foregoing calculation, as 
large a cash profit from ten acres of artificial 
as from eighteen acres of natural pasture, and 
there would be far less risk of loss from unusual 
drouth. It is not proposed, of course, that 
rough or waste lands should be used for artifi- 
