60 
THE RURAL, NEW-Y O R IC R R 
January 18, 
THAT STUMP-BORING FAKE. 
There are several so-called “agricul¬ 
tural” items floating through the papers 
which get on our nerves. We all have 
our pet aversions, and we feel like com¬ 
mitting a serious crime when some paper 
prints that venerable old item about kill¬ 
ing a stump by boring a hole in it. 
When some back-yard editor wants to 
be very nice to his farm readers he 
states that the “Scientific American” 
says that you can bore a hole in a green 
stump and put in a little saltpeter. This 
will assault it like Peter, and in the fol¬ 
lowing Spring you can put in a little 
oil and easily burn the whole thing 
away. Every back-to-the-lander who 
ever took a farm has tried this, because 
the “Scientific American” was quoted as 
authority. It is really one of the great¬ 
est farm fakes ever exploited—just sim¬ 
ply fool advice. Still they quote the 
“Scientific American.” We are tired of 
seeing this old fake propagated anew 
each 3'ear, so we wrote for the author¬ 
ity. Here is the reply. You see the 
whole thing is a fake: 
It is possible that we may have referred 
to the process of stump removing which 
you cite at some past time, possibly ad¬ 
vising our readers that it was no good. 
We have no record, however, of the publi¬ 
cation of such matter. monn & co. 
MUZZLE FOR ORCHARD PASTURING. 
Maybe I can help the inquirer on page 
1190. I have been working at that very 
thing for years, but have not succeeded in 
making a device that will permit stock to 
eat grass and then lock the mouth when 
they lift the head. All my contrivances 
along that line require too many triggers 
to be practicable. One of the best devices 
I have used is a hood covering the eyes, 
reaching about half way from the eyes to 
the tip of the nose. Take a neat-fitting 
leather head-halter, that fastens with a 
throat-latch. Fasten two small buckles on 
each side or jaw strap, one a little above 
the eyes, the other half way down between 
the eyes and tip of the nose, to hold the 
hood. Make hood like this: Take two strips 
of hoop iron long enough to reach from one 
jaw strap to the other, so when it is fast¬ 
ened to the halter straps it will stand out 
at least three inches from the forehead 
and eyes; bend these strips of hoop iron in 
a half-moon shape. Take three strips of 
hoop iron as long as the distance between 
the buckles on the halter sides; rivet them 
to the half-moon straps, one at each end, 
the other in the centre, forming a light, 
Strong frame. Rivet a leather buckle lap 
on each end of the frame to buckle it to the 
halter at the sides. Cover the hoop-iron 
frame with a good thick canvas or old 
boot-leg. Put the halter on the animal 
comfortably tight, just so it will not shake 
off, then buckle the hood on it. All that 
the animal can see is the ground and grass; 
not seeing the tree or bush he will not 
hunt for it. They cannot see the tree 
without raising their heads more than level 
with the body ; once in a while an old cute 
cow may be cute enough to go round with 
her nose in the air hunting browse, but not 
often. 
If fids will not prevent browsing on trees 
try the old way of hobbling your stock to 
keep them from jumping fences, you may do 
that two ways. Make a wide old-fashioned 
surcingle, put it around the body of the 
animal just behind the shoulders comfort¬ 
ably tight, so it will not slip back or for¬ 
ward ; put on the head-stall of the halter. 
Use martingale, attach it to the surcingle, 
pass it between the fore legs, and snap it 
in the ring of the halter head. Let the 
martingale be long enough so the animal 
can life the mouth as high as the under 
part of the brisket. The other plan, and I 
think just aB good, is to buckle a wide strap 
of canvas or leather around one fore leg 
below the knee, with a ring fastened to it; 
put on the head-stall of the halter. Take 
a light chain just long enough to permit the 
animal to raise the head level with the 
brisket, snap one end in the band around 
the fore leg and the other end in the 
halter ring. If you use a string or strap in 
tying it is likely to get wet or damp and 
pull too tight, maybe injuring the animal’s 
leg, and being very hard to untie. I had 
an Indian pony that was cute enough to 
stand on three legs and hold up one while 
he browsed the trees; not many of them 
will do this. For a herd of wild unbroken 
animals this w r ould not be practical; too 
much hard work, but for the family cow or 
horse it is good, at least it has done the 
work for me many times, and also for 
some of my neighbors. No man of real 
good, hard, common sense would turn a 
herd of wild steers or colts in his orchard, 
or turn stock of any kind (unless it be 
swine) in a young orchard. If they were 
blind they would find the trees and break 
them down rubbing the flies off or scratch¬ 
ing themselves. ax ixdiaxa fakmek. 
Ax Appreciation. —I think Mrs. Ger¬ 
trude O. Bcrylson’s article on page 1290 
worth the price of your paper for 10 years, 
and trust it may save the “hands and 
sweat glands” of many a “back-to-the- 
lander” from being overworked, a. w. p. 
Cement Tank Bottom.— A news note 
from the Ohio College of Agriculture tells 
how a tank was made over: “A cement 
water tank on a Seneca county, Ohio, farm 
illustrates an excellent method of prolong¬ 
ing the usefulness of an old wooden water 
trough or tank. . The bottom of this tank, 
which was circular,, was taken out and 
the dirt beneath removed far enough down 
to give a good foundation. This space 
was then filled with concrete. Then a 
circular form, the same height as the out¬ 
side of the tank, but small enough to go 
inside of it and leave about six or eight 
inches of space all around, was put in. 
This space was filled with concrete rein¬ 
forced with old wagon tires. With the re¬ 
moval of the inside form the job was com¬ 
plete. The wooden part of the old tank 
was not removed. It helps to prevent in¬ 
jury to the tank, retards freezing of the 
water, and makes injury to stock less prob¬ 
able.” 
Worry and Insanity.— The Port Jervis 
Union has a very sensible note on the re¬ 
cent discussion of insanity on the farm. 
It says with truth: “The vices are back 
of much insanity. Worry or overwork may 
be said to be the causes of much of the 
rest. Located on a farm yielding a good 
living, with not too much work but enough 
to make one tired at night, near enough 
to a railroad to receive daily mail, as most 
farms now are and therefore in touch with 
the cities and far corners of the earth men¬ 
tally, the farmer and his wife and children 
ought to be as mentally sound and free 
from worry as any who walk the earth. 
Given occasional trips to a city to taste of 
its best amusements their lives should be 
ideal for mental as well as physical health. 
Likewise, free the cities from their vices, 
give the inhabitants occasional visits to the 
farm and its pleasures and the city dweller 
should be equally free from any menace of 
insanity. Too much city is worse than too 
much country.” 
The Watcii Dog. —It just makes me 
smile when I compare what you write 
about a good watch dog, on page 12S8, 
then read what W. L. writes on page 1294. 
I am with you. No doubt there is an 
amount of damage done by dogs in killing 
sheep, but can that mean, do away with 
all dogs? No, it cannot Those dogs that 
do the damage are either homeless curs 
or are owned by some city sport. The 
numerous good uses made of the dog would 
greatly offset the damage that few of them 
do. I think I can safely say there is not 
one dog in a thousand that really would 
hurt a sheep, even if it had a chance. I 
have a pair of beagles and I enjoy nothing 
more than to take these out on a rabbit 
hunt; a real recreation, and saves doctor’s 
bills, and these two dogs would not molest 
a sheep, so they are not at fault that 
wool is up in price. And surely there are 
thousands like me. Then again there ai*e 
many other duties the dog is put to just 
as useful as what I make use of them 
for. Make each owner take care of his 
dog and do away with curs, and there 
will be very little if any trouble. 
Missouri. chas. purzner. 
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