16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
is encouragement. We want to believe that 
good farming will pay—and it most certainly 
will. Or, if it does not, no other business in 
the community can long continue to prosper. 
How Sleds are Built. 
The best sled-runner is made from the butt of 
a tree. The grain where the root joins the butt 
Fig. 1.— BUTT READY FOR SAWING. 
is gnarled and twisted in such a manner that a 
runner cut therefrom can hardly be broken, 
and can not be split. But there is something 
in choosing the tree. Yellow birch, sugar maple, 
or white oak furnishes excellent wood for this 
purpose. 
A good- 
sized tree 
with spread¬ 
ing roots 
should be 
selected; 
one which 
has two 
broad thick 
roots, one 
o p p o s i t e 
to the other, and the stem of which suddenly 
thickens just above the curve of the roots, will 
be found the best. The main roots should be 
cut off a foot from the tree, and all others 
close to the stem ; the earth should be dug 
Fig. 3.—LINES TO SAW BY. 
away from the tap roots and they should be 
cut. But very often it is not necessary to do 
this, as the tree will fall when the roots are cut 
all around it unless it stand very upright. Th’e 
butt should be sawn off six feet long. In 
preparing it for 
sawing, it 
should be neat¬ 
ly trimmed, all 
earth and 
stones cleared 
from the crev- 
i c e s, and 
brought as near- 
ly as may be 
into the shape of that shown in figure 1, in which 
the piece is represented as fixed upon the car¬ 
riage of a muley saw-mill. It is necessary that 
roots, as farmers often call them, taken to a mill 
to be sawn should be so prepared, as sawyers 
are otherwise averse to sawing them, often 
refusing to do so, when they are useless, and 
the labor in cutting and hauling them lost. 
When properly sawn the planks, 2$ inches 
thick, appear as 
shown at figure 
2, and the dotted 
lines there given 
indicate the form 
of the sled-run¬ 
ners to be cut 
from them. It 
will be seen that 
the waste timber 
at the lower part 
may be cut into 
knees, for which 
it is very val- Fig. 5.-cast-iron knee, etc. 
uable, having a grain exactly suitable for 
the purpose. They should be cut out so as to 
avoid cross-grain in any part. The runner is 
shown at a, figure 3, ready morticed for the 
knees. At b is seen the reve, or that piece 
which forms the side of the sled, resting upon 
the benches. This is cut to fit the point of the 
runner, and is secured there by a bolt passing 
through both parts. The reve, 1-1 in. thick and 
G in. wide, is secured to the benches and run¬ 
ners by bolts passing through the shoe and 
runner on each side of the knees. The bolt 
shown at c, figure 3, is made flaring or spread¬ 
ing at the bottom to fit a corresponding coun¬ 
tersunk hole in the shoe, and is secured above 
the reve by a nut, which when screwed down 
tightly is fastened by riveting the end of the 
bolt; or in case one of the improved lock-nut 
bolts described in the Agriculturist of Novem¬ 
ber last is used, the key is driven in, wdiich 
holds the nut firmly. The form of the knee is 
shown at a in figure 4, and the bench at b. 
The joints of these parts should be made very 
close; each one be slightly draw-bored, and a 
bolt passed through each riveted at the end 
over a washer. The better these joints are 
made the longer the sled will last, as it is in 
these parts it first gives out. If the tenons are 
dipped in linseed oil when they are driven in 
the mortice, and the mortice also is painted 
over with the oil, it will add very much to the 
durability of the sled. At figure 5js shown a 
new and very valuable invention—a cast-iron 
sled knee. It is patented and made by the 
Bradley Manufacturing Company of Syracuse, 
Fig. 7.— the sled put together. 
N. Y. This is a decided improvement, and 
one that will add much to the value of the 
sleds in which they are used, and considerably 
reduce the cost. There are no mortices to be 
made, and it will be seen that there is no place 
in which wet or moisture can gather and rot 
the runner. Besides, by using these knees, 
almost any person can build a sled, while it 
needs at least a fair mechanic to build one with 
the ordinary knees. The cast-iron knee is 
shown at a, the runner at b, the beam or bench 
at c, and at d the bolt which binds the whole 
together. The form of the roller is shown at 
a , fig. G. This should be made of a straight¬ 
grained piece of hard maple or birch timber, 
6 in. wide by 4 in. thick, reduced to the shape 
here shown. A mortice is made through the 
center to receive the end of the tongue. Holes 
are bored from the center of each end, running 
out at the middle of the roller in which the 
draw-bar b is placed. A channel is dug out at 
the middle of the roller in which the bar lies 
snugly, flush with the surface. At each end 
of the bar screws are cut and nuts and wash¬ 
ers are made to fit it. At c is shown the 
method of fitting the tongue into the roller, 
the tongue being tenoned and wedged therein 
very tightly. The roller and tongue as com¬ 
pleted is shown at d. A brace is fastened upon 
each side, bolted to the tongue and welded to 
a band which embraces the end of the roller. 
At c is shown a plate to be fastened to the nose 
of the sled, as seen in figure 7, to prevent w r ear 
by the draw-bar. In this figure (7) is seen the 
sled completed before the tongue is fitted into 
its place. If the work is not very heavy the 
bolts passing through the runner and reve may 
be dispensed with and light carriage bolts used 
to fix the reve to the bench. 
Cooking Room for Pig-Pen. 
In the Agriculturist of December, 1873, we 
described an improved pig-pen. We here give 
an engraving (figure 3) of an arrangement for 
cooking the feed suitable for such a pen as that 
referred to. The room should be fitted at one 
end of the row of pens, unless that is too long, 
in which case it would be better to have it in 
the middle. The boiler is of cast-iron, and is 
built around with brick; underneath it is the 
fireplace and ash-pit, from which a flue or 
smoke-pipe passes into the chimney. This is a 
very convenient and economical arrangement 
for preparing food when it is desired only to 
scald it and allow it to soak and swell. For 
cooking whole grain or potatoes or roots it 
