1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
297 
shoe, and is a little more than one-third the full 
size of the number 3-shoe, which weighs eight 
pounds the set of eight pair, a full set thus 
costing only $1.20, These shoes are made of 
four sizes, six, seven, eight, and ten pounds the 
set, and are made wholly by machinery, the 
dies giving the necessary concavity to the shoe, 
to make it fit perfectly, and cover the ball of 
the foot without pressure. This is a very dif¬ 
ficult thing to do with the hammer, and is a 
special feature of this shoe, the dies being pa¬ 
tented. These shoes, fitting the foot perfectly, 
cling thereto much longer than a hand-made 
shoe, which rarely fits the foot, and besides 
they are so readily fitted, if the proper size is 
procured, that it is an easy matter for a careful 
hand, who can drive a nail in the place he 
wants to put it, to shoe an ox. 
HOLD FOE OX-BOW 
How to Bend an Ox-Bow. 
Ox-bows may be given their permanent shape 
by such a mold as we here illustrate. It may 
be made of a piece of two-inch plank, cut to 
the shape desired to give to the bows, and 
pinned upon another piece of plank, or the end 
of a block, as here shown. A hole is bored on 
each side of the mold, into which pins are 
placed, to hold the bow firmly while it is re¬ 
ceiving the set. The wood for the bow, after 
having been dressed to a proper shape, is soaked 
in water, and heated before a fire, by which it 
is rendered flexible; or it may be steamed in a 
steam-box, or soaked in a trough in boiling wa¬ 
ter. When the bow has remained in the mold 
until it is dry, it is removed, and the ends are 
tied together with a cord, to keep it in shape. 
It should be hung up in a dry place until used. 
Sour-Fodder-making in Hungary. 
The chief necessity of every dairy farm, or 
cheese and butter factory, is to feed a juicy 
FIT OF SOUR-FODDER. 
food to the cows at every season of the year; this 
is easily provided for in the spring, summer, and 
autumn, by feeding green rye, wheat, clover, a 
mixture of oats and peas, corn, etc., but in the 
wintei we have no other milk-producing fod¬ 
der than beets and corn-sour-hay. It is known 
to eveiy farmer, how difficult is the preserving 
of roots in the winter, and that large quantities 
of them are injured and therefore spoil. To 
avoid this, we cure the beets and other roots 
with chaff into sour-fodder. This method of 
using root-fodder has been in use on large 
farms in Hungary for some years, and has al¬ 
ways been successful. The 
method of making this so-called 
sour-fodder is as follows : at 
first we have a ditch made m a 
dry place; the ditch may be of 
the same dimensions, as was de¬ 
scribed for making sour-hay in 
the Agriculturist for October, 
1873. When the beets are taken 
up in the usual manner, they 
are hauled in, washed, and cut 
with a machine. Then the pit 
may be divided into sections, for 
instance, fora length of ten rods 
into five sections, and by this 
division the labor is very much 
facilitated, because the first section can be cov¬ 
ered with earth, while the second section is be¬ 
ing filled. When a certain quantity of beets are 
cut, we place at first a layer of chaff upon the 
ground of the first section, upon this chaff is 
placed a layer of cut beets, in the proportion of 
one pound of chaff to ten pounds of cut beets; 
these two layers are then solidly mixed with a 
fork • after having done so, a layer of chaff and 
beets is again laid clown, and again well mixed. 
This is repeated until the mixture reaches the 
top of the ditch; then it must be built upward 
from six to nine feet above the level of the 
ground. On the top of the stack are laid a few 
sheaves of rye-straw, to prevent the fodder be¬ 
ing mixed with earth; then the first section is 
covered with earth, commencing the covering 
at first on the. top of the stack. When the first 
section is finished, the second and all following 
sections are managed in the same manner, as 
above described ; when the whole ditch is 
filled, we take care that the stack is covered on 
every side with l-£ to 2 feet of earth. This sour- 
fodder, mixed with corn-meal or other feed, 
will be relished by the daintiest beast. The 
engraving shows the whole arrangement. The 
first and second section of the ditch is filled, 
the first one is also covered with earth. 
Albrechtsfeld, Hungary . G. C. 
[Although the fodder above described is 
called sour-fodder, yet it is not on that account 
objectionable ; the fermentation, which the feed 
undergoes, produces some ammonia, so that 
really the mixture is to some extent alkaline, 
and this corrects any ill effects which 
might be supposed liable to arise 
from the acidity of the food. By 
the same process brewers’ grains 
may be preserved for use during the 
• • .. winter, alone or with cut straw.] 
A Convenient Barn for Sheep. 
Unless sheep are carefully provided 
for, there is sure to be trouble and 
loss in the flock. It is probably for 
the reason that a single sheep is 
not worth much, and that they are 
ignorantly supposed to exist with¬ 
out water, or any fodder, but the 
waste of the feeding yard, and to thrive 
the better the more they are exposed to 
the weather, and to pine away the faster the 
more they are coddled, that so many of them 
are lost every year, and that so few farmers 
succeed with them. But if we figure up how 
much money may be made, by good care, year¬ 
ly out of $100 invested in sheep, as compared 
with the profit from $100 invested in cows, or 
a mare, the balance will be greatly in favor of 
the sheep. As an illustration of what may 
easily be done by any farmer, who will take 
the trouble, we give an account of the cost of> 
1.—front elevation of sheep-barn. 
and receipts from, a flock of 55 common ewes, 
picked out of a drove, which was passing the 
writer’s farm on its way to market, in the sum¬ 
mer of 1808. The sheep were purchased at $3- 
per head, and until winter were pastured in a 
rough field at the rear of the farm, where they 
more than earned their keep and care, by the 
service they performed. The account for one 
year, opened and kept expressly for this flock, 
is as follows: 
Dr. 
Cost of 55 sheep ..- $165.00 • 
Value of hay, straw, stalks, turnips, bran, meal, 
and oil-cake, fed . 205.84- 
Freight and charges on 2-1 lambs. . 7.92 
Balance of profit and loss.. ..145.64 
$524.40 
Cr. 
24 early lambs sold at from $7 @ $10 each.$192.00- 
8 lambs, @ $4.50... 36.00 
12 lambs, © $3.50. . 42.00 
8 lambs kept, @ 4.00... 32-00 
9lbs. pulled wool,@ 80c■ . ... .. ... 2.70 
182 lbs. wool, @ 35c.... 63.70 
52 sheep on hand (3 killed by dogs).. 156.00 
$52-1,10 
This leaves a profit of nearly 100 per cent 
on the original cost of the sheep, and in 
addition a large pile of valuable manure, of 
which no account was kept; besides, some of 
Fig. 2.— SIDE-SECTION OF BARN. 
the ewes could have been sold in the spring at 
$5 or $6 each, to the butcher, but we had use 
for them for another year. The next year’s 
account would have been more favorable still, 
