1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
will be found very desirable and economical in 
tbe consumption of fuel. With such a boiler 
we would not attempt to boil the food for any 
length of time, but after bringing it to the 
boiling Doint we would simply maintain it 
'Fig. 3. —BOILER FOR COOKING FEED. 
there as nearly as possible by covering up the 
boiler and allowing the feed to soak. Cooked 
in this way whole grain may be fed as economi¬ 
cally as if ground, and the cost of grinding 
which is saved will more than pay for the cost 
of cooking. The feed barrow (figure 2) is 
adapted for using cooked food. It is a barrel 
or a barrel-shaped tank hung upon a bent axle 
and a pair of wheels. It is furnished with a 
spout or lip and handles, by which it may be 
tilted and the feed poured into the troughs. 
Figure 1 represents an ingenious and inde¬ 
structible pig-trough, invented by Mr. F. D. 
Curtis, the very active and enterprising vice- 
president of the New York State Agricultural 
Society, for use in his pig-pens. It is made of 
cast-iron of the thickness of stove plate, weighs 
about 100 pounds, and costs about five or six 
cents a pound. It is not patented, and any 
person may have it made at any foundry. The 
feet upon which it stands are either cast or 
may be made of bent strap iron and attached 
to the trough by a few screws or rivets. 
A Barn Cistern. 
“ A Subscriber ” may construct an elevated 
A CISTERN EOR BARN. 
b«rn cistern without difficulty and at moderate 
cost iri the following manner: A frame of stout 
timber, proportioned to the size of the cistern 
and the weight of its contents (10 x 10 oak tim¬ 
ber would be suitable for one 12 feet square), 
is constructed either in the corner of the bam 
itself or outside of it at one corner; the south¬ 
west corner being preferable as being most 
sheltered from the cold and most exposed to 
the sun. This frame should be large and high 
enough to answer for the cooking room for the 
feed. Above it is built the frame of the cistern, 
which consists of three cross sills, two end sills, 
and eight posts; that is one at each corner and 
one in the middle at each side. These posts 
are framed into the four cap-pieces and the 
whole is strongly pinned together. The floor 
and sides are made of tongued and grooved 
plank two inches thick. Each joint is smeared 
with pine-tar when it is put together, and the 
corners are especially w T ell fitted and caulked. 
When the cistern is put together the sides are 
made to fit closely by means of wedges driven 
between the edges of the upper planks and the 
cap-pieces. This is shown in the above en¬ 
graving. A triangular-shaped piece of scant¬ 
ling should finally be nailed in each corner, 
fitting closely in its place. A cistern 12 feet 
square and 8 feet deep will hold about 250 bar¬ 
rels or 8,600 gallons. The frame of the cistern 
should be made at least two inches smaller 
each w T ay than the frame of the room below. 
Then the whole is boarded up and a tight roof 
built over it. If the room below r is used for a 
cook room the waste heat and steam from the 
boiler will ascend and pass around between 
the walls of the cistern, the outside boarding, 
and gather or escape at the roof. This will en¬ 
able the cistern to be kept in use during the 
winter without freezing, except in localities 
where the cold is very intense, in which cases 
it would not be judicious to use it at that 
season. The pipe from the cistern passes 
through the bottom. The waste pipe from the 
top should pass into a drain below, and the 
gutters from the barn, of course, should lead 
into the cistern beneath the roof. A cistern of 
this character is well adapted for use along 
with the cooking arrangement described in an¬ 
other article. On the whole, we would prefer 
the cistern to an underground one in wdiich a 
pump must be used. 
Two Useful Instruments. 
The accompanying engravings represent two 
very useful although common-place instru¬ 
ments. Fig. 1 is an improved rubber designed 
to take the place of the 
currycomb. To many 
horses the use of the 
currycomb is a very 
painful infliction, and 
after all it does not 
serve the purpose in¬ 
tended so well as it 
ought to do. This im¬ 
proved rubber will an¬ 
swer all the good pur¬ 
poses of the currycomb 
without possessing any 
of its evil qualities, 
used against the direc¬ 
tion of the hair it will loosen and remove dust 
and scurf very effectively, and the friction 
will be agreeable and healthful to the skin. It 
is patented, but sold at the reasonable price of 
25 cents. Fig. 2 represents a very convenient 
brush which will be found useful in the stable 
for the purposes for which the stiff and unne¬ 
cessarily rigid wire card is now employed. It 
is less harsh to the skin of the horse than the 
card, and will clean equally well. Being made 
Fig. 2.—RATTAN BRUSH. 
of split rattan it is flexible and fits the hand 
easily, and is not softened by water nor will it 
wear away rapidly. It is sold in the stores for 
15 cents. It will be found a very efficient 
scrubbing brush for the kitchen. 
Kiln-Drying Corn, 
By a small expenditure of labor and fuel 
corn may be made ready for market or the mill 
in a few days after it is husked. For this pur- 
CRIB ARRANGED AS A KILN. 
pose we have used the contrivance figured in 
the annexed engraving. The bottom of the 
crib was made with two sloping lathed sides, 
instead of being of boards and flat, as has been 
previously described in the Agriculturist 
(September, 1871), and which in itself very 
much aids the drying of the corn. The space 
below the crib was closed in by nailing boards 
upon the posts, and a common sheet-iron stove 
was put into it. In a week, with the expendi¬ 
ture of a quarter of a cord of fire-wood, a crib 
of corn of 800 bushels was made sufficiently 
dry for grinding. Upon our suggestion a 
neighbor who had watched the process above 
described made a rough crib of boards and rails 
of a somewhat similar shape to that in the en¬ 
graving, in which he dried 2,000 bushels of 
com ready for market in two weeks, keeping 
the fire going only during the daytime. 
The advantage of this process of kiln-drying 
is that the corn is ready for sale long before it 
would otherwise be, and can be shelled and 
turned into cash much sooner, which is very 
often a great convenience to the farmer never 
or rarely overburdened with funds. 
Cotton-Seed Cake Meal. —Dr. Voelcker 
recommends as a feed for fattening stock in 
summer a mixture of three parts of corn-meal 
with one part of hulled cotton-seed cake meal 
