1202 
Atignst 1(5, 1010 
Where Live Stock Attend to the Harvest 
Steer, Hog & Co., Harvesters and Gleaners 
L ABOR-SAVING HOGS.—The pictures on the first 
page this week are taken from the photographs 
made by the Department of Agriculture to show how 
various kinds of live stock ai’e taking the place of 
the hired man and the machine in harvesting crops. 
Some years ago a careful farmer would have been 
shocked at the thought of turning the hogs and cat¬ 
tle into a field to harvest the corn and small grain. 
The changed conditions brought about by the scarc¬ 
ity of labor, and its high cost, have compelled many a 
farmer to adopt something of this plan. We are 
constantly hearing from farmers in the Middle West 
who have handled most of their rye in this manner, 
by turning the hogs in to eat the grain and as much 
of the straw as they will. In other cases a cover 
crop of rape and rye is seeded in the corn at the 
last cultivation. This makes a fair growth, and when 
the corn is about fit for cutting in the usual way, a 
drove of hogs is turned in to finish the job. They do 
it. They break down the stalks, eat up the grain, 
chew up the stalks, and then work on the rape and 
rye in the cover crops. When they get done you 
would be astonished to see how little of the crop 
there is left, and how much more of hog there is on 
hand to pay for it. The first picture shows a bunch 
of hogs cleaning up just such a cornfield. They are 
doing the work of cutting, hauling, cribbing, grind¬ 
ing and handling, and there will he less waste on the 
whole than when the crop is handled in the usual 
way. These hogs have a full supply of water, and 
there is generally a self-feeder containing tankage 
where list r can help themselves. In some cases Soy 
beans are seeded with the corn in order to give these 
hogs something like a ham sandwich in their ration. 
It is surprising what gain these hogs will make, and 
bow much they save through this manner of feeding. 
CATTLE IN STANDING CORN.—The next pic¬ 
ture shows a bunch of cattle that have been turned 
into the standing corn. The cattle will not do as 
good a job as the swine. They do not break down 
the stalks as well, and they leave more of the feed. 
In many cases through the West the ears of corn 
are snapped from the stalk and thrown into wagons. 
It is a familiar sight in a Western country to see one 
of these wagons driving slowly through the field, 
while two men work rapidly alongside of it. snap¬ 
ping the ears off several rows, and throwing them 
with unerring aim into the wagon body. Just now 
on our own farm the boys are snapping off the ears 
of sweet corn in very much the same way, although 
in the grain field the corn is left to mature before 
harvesting. Then after the ears are snapped off the 
cattle are turned in to eat down the straw. The 
writer has spent many a day, in former years, herd¬ 
ing a big bunch of cattle that had been turned into 
one of these big corn fields to chew off the upper 
part of the stalk. 
HOGS IN RYE.—The picture at Fig. 357 shows 
our old friend, the hog, in liis great act of playing 
the part of hired man. He is “coming through the 
rye.” and when he gets done you could not find a 
head or a kernel of grain left, while most of the 
straw has gone the way of the grain, or been flat¬ 
tened down into the ground, where it can easily be 
plowed under for its organic matter. This practice 
may seem wasteful at first sight to an Eastern 
farmer, yet we know from experience that there are 
often times when just such a plan can be followed to 
great advantage. With the present high price • f 
pork, many a corn and rye field would far better be 
left to Mr. Hog for the harvest. 
SELF-FEEDERS.—And in connection with this 
kind of feeding, most farmers have a quick lunch for 
the hog. You can see some of them at work at Fig. 
358. Here are three self-feeders. They are filled 
with grain, and the hogs do the rest. It is 
not difficult for a hog to find out where his 
food is located, and they nose out their grain at 
the bottom of these feeders. At the San Francisco 
Exhibition a combination of hog feeder and grinder 
was shown. This was made of metal, with a good 
imitation of an old-fashioned stone grinder at the 
bottom. The feeder revolved on a bar at the center. 
The hogs soon learned the trick of rooting it around 
with theiv nose, and as they did so the corn fell down 
between the grindstone and was crushed or coarsely 
ground. It did not pay, for the hog can take,care 
of the whole grain about as well as lie can handle the 
cornmeal 
SHEEP FEEDERS—Then Fig. 350 shows another 
way in which grain is handled. This is on a large 
sheep-feeding farm in the West. The big feeders we 
see are put at one end of the sheep pen. The feed 
is shoveled into these big bins and falls down in 
front into a narrow trough, such as we see at the 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
left of the picture. The sheep in the pen come and 
use this feed as they need it. Some of the Western 
stock yards use something of this plan. It is cus¬ 
tomary for a man to send a shipment of hogs, and 
if they are held for a day or so before selling, he pays 
for the use of the pen and buys the feed from the 
stock yard company. They tell the story of a farmer 
who sent a bunch of hogs and bought a few bushels 
want to expend a lot more money than is needed for 
safety, and the ideas of local builders appear to be 
greatly at variance. How thick should this dam be 
made at bottom and top? What angle should the inside 
slope be to prevent damage by ice? What size should 
the spillway be? What size and how should the gate 
be made to drain pond from bottom when desired? IIow 
deep should the foundation of the dam go. and how 
anchored? There is plenty of stone in the locality, so 
probably stone and cement would be the best form of 
construction. Y. G. H. 
Sullivan Co., N«-Y. 
of corn to carry them until they were sold. An¬ 
other farmer drove in with a load of corn which he 
sold to the stock company. He got .$1.25 per bushel 
for his corn. As he was unloading it. lie was in¬ 
structed to drive a few rods further and throw 10 
bushels of that corn into the feeder before those 
hogs. He did so, and was paid $1.25 per bushel for 
his load. When the other farmer came to settle up, 
a 
lie found he had been charged $2.40 per bushel for 
that corn. 
STEALING THE CALF’S DINNER.—The last 
picture might be called “too•much of a good thing.” 
We have printed a number of pictures to show how 
a hog may help himself to a good meal, whenever 
lie gets a chance. There, is no question about the 
fact that a hog knows the value of vitauiinos in 
Dam of II. E. Coolc, Denmark, N. Y. Fig. 36.1 
milk. The two hogs in this picture are running true 
to their name, and they are stealing a part of the 
calf’s dinner. It may be that long association with 
the controlling powers at some of these stock yards 
has its influence upon the moral character of a hog. 
Building a Dam for Ice Pond 
We wish to build a dam for ice pond across a small 
stream in a ravine. The dam will have to be 80 ft. long, 
Dam at MorrisviUc, N. Y. Fig. 361/ 
and the pond is to be (! ft. deep at the dam. The stream 
is from spring water, and the flow is normally enough to 
till a (1-in. pipe. The fall is 1 in. to the- foot. The dam 
will be so near the source of the stream that there is 
practically no Spring flood. We want to make this dam 
amply strong enough to be secure, but of course do not 
M ATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION.—In the 
construction of a dam the two chief considera¬ 
tions are ample strength and water tightness. Con¬ 
crete seems one of the best materials for ob¬ 
taining these. The sketches show a dam suitable 
for small streams, such as the one outlined. In con¬ 
struction the water of the stream is diverted, if pos¬ 
sible. and a trench dug for the base. This trench, 
for the dam in question, should he about 3 ft. deep 
or deeper if a solid footing is not reached at this 
depth and should extend well out into the banks as 
indicated. At distances of 20 ft. openings 3 ft. square 
should be dug on the down-stream side of this trench 
to provide footings for the abutments shown. This 
trench can be filled to the ground level with a mix¬ 
ture of one part cement, three parts clean, coarse 
sand and six parts gravel from which the sand has 
been screened, placing the woven wire reinforcement 
before filling as shown. This wire is not used to 
strengthen the dam against the weight of water held, 
but rather to prevent cracking and consequent leak¬ 
ing due to expansion and shrinkage due to tempera¬ 
ture changes. 
FORMS FOR BUILDING.—The forms for the up¬ 
per part of the dam should be erected, securely 
braced and tied together with wire as quickly as 
possible in order that the work may he made as 
nearly continuous as may he. Where the work lias 
set before concrete can be applied it should he thor¬ 
oughly cleaned and a mushy mixture of clear cement 
and water spread over it before the regular concrete 
is added. This upper portion of the dam may be 
made a foot thick at the top, sloping on the down¬ 
stream side to 3 ft. in thickness at the base. The 
up-stream side is made plumb, as under the condi¬ 
tions given it is not probable that there will he any 
injury from ice; such ice as there may he in the pond 
rotting out in the Spring sun. 
MIXING CONCRETE.—The above-ground portion 
may be made from a mixture of one part cement. 214 
parts clean, coarse sand and five parts gravel from 
which the sand has been screened. If good, clean 
gravel is obtainable it may he run over a %-in. mesh 
screen—the portion that goes through being used as 
sand and that passing over the screen as gravel. If 
the concrete is mixed wet so that it will flow about 
them and make a dense mass, about 50 per cent of 
field stone may he imbedded in I lie foundation, while 
at least 25 per cent may he used in the above-ground 
portion if care is exercised to see that all the voids 
are filled and that the reinforcement is not dis¬ 
turbed while placing the stone. The aim should be 
to get as solid a mass as possible. A rough estimate 
on this basis indicates that about 51 barrels of ce¬ 
ment would be required to build the dam as shown. 
THE SPILLWAY.—With a stream of the size 
given it is probable that a waste weir or spillway 
six inches deep and from three to four feet in width 
would he ample to care for the overflow. The top 
of the form should lie carefully leveled to insure 
that the overflow will take place at the point in¬ 
tended and the stream bed below the weir must he 
protected with stone, as shown, to prevent washing. 
WASTE GATE.—As a means of draining the pond 
a box similar to the one shown in longitudinal sec¬ 
tion. being a hinged door opening by means of 
a lever from the down stream side and shutting 
against sheet rubber packing, might he used. The 
door should be made of two layers of matched hoard¬ 
ing with the grain reversed to prevent warping, the 
weight of the water insuring a tight fit against the 
seat. Perhaps better yet. because of greater dura¬ 
bility. a hole might he cast in the dam at the stream 
bed level, and the frame carrying the door bolted 
to the upstream side by means of bolts placed in 
the form and cast in the face of the dam. With the 
stream in question I would expect a waste gate one 
foot square to be large enough. If made much larger 
it should he made to slide, as there would be ditli- 
euity in swinging it open against the weight of the 
water in the pond. 
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES. — The photographs 
show concrete dams built for the purpose of obtain¬ 
ing ice. Fig. 303 shows the downstream side of such 
a dam on the farm of Mr. II. E. Cook. Denmark. 
N. Y r . The spillway and waste gate are both shown 
in the center of the dam. and both are small, as the 
stream supplying the pond is very small. From this 
(Continued on page 120-1) 
