52 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
Framing to Secure Wide Floors in Barns. 
Wide floors, unobstructed by posts, are often 
a great convenience in barns, and as it is desir¬ 
able to know a good way to frame a bent so as to 
dispense with posts and make it a self-supporting 
truss through a part of its length,we have had the 
accompanying figure engraved. It represents 
a truss-bent in the barn of Rev. David R. Wal- 
ler of Bloomsbury, Pa., which supports the 
second floor of the barn, on one side, and a hay 
mow upon the other. The barn lias two stories 
and a basement, and all the hay and grain is 
drawn in upon the second floor, over a bridge, 
from an approach walled and banked up. This 
truss is of simple construction, philosophically 
braced and entirely secure. The size of the 
timbers would vary with the width of the barn 
and the extent to which it is self-supporting, as 
well as with the weight it is expected to sustain. 
A Milk Producers’ Association. —Boston 
people are proverbial for having notions, but it 
usually happens that “ Boston notions ” are good 
ones, as witness a late meeting to form a Milk 
Producers’ Association. We are glad to see any 
movement that will tend to bring the producer 
and the consumer nearer to each other, as it re¬ 
sults in the farmer getting more for his articles, 
and the non-producing consumer receiving more 
for his money. Those who supply the Boston 
market with milk, naturally enough object to 
that state of things, in which the producer re¬ 
ceives 3 1 1 2 cents a quart for his milk, which 
is sold in the city for 8 h 2 cents. We quite agree 
with them in the conclusion that 5 cents a quart 
is rather too much to pay the middle man. At 
the meeting in Boston, an organization was ef¬ 
fected, by the adoption of a constitution and by¬ 
laws, but we fail to get, in the account of the pro¬ 
ceedings, an idea of just what they propose to 
do. But infer that their course will be such as 
will bring a greater share of the proceeds of the 
sale of milk into the hands of the farmer. We 
are glad to see anything that looks like co-opera¬ 
tion among farmers, and any-indication that the 
same tact, talent, and energy is obtaining in 
agriculture that is an absolute necessity in other 
kinds of business. We cannot see why co-opera¬ 
tion in the milk business should work to the 
detriment of any but the middle men. It would 
be easy, practicable, and profitable, in any 
community where milk is supplied to a large 
city, for the milk producers to make a co-opera¬ 
tive or joint stock company, and engage a man 
of known business talent and integrity to see to 
the transportion of the milk to market, and its 
delivery to retailers. We have no doubt that 
such an organization, well managed, would pay 
good dividends to the farniers. 
Another Forage Plant,—I t was not long 
ago that the French journals were full of ac¬ 
counts of [he Brome de flohrade, ftromus fichra- 
deri, or Rescue Grass, over which a great 
amount of enthusiasm was expended. How we 
have one of our wild grasses extolled, under the 
name of Perennial Millet— Millet vivace —as a 
very valuable forage plant. The grass in ques¬ 
tion is Panicum virgatum, a coarse, reedy grass, 
that grows in moist, sandy soil; it has long and 
flat leaves, and an open, large panicle; it grows 
four or five feet high, and is perennial. The 
French writer has experimented with a small 
patch, and though its tendency to form clumps 
does not altogether suit him, yet he thinks that 
it is one of the forage plants that furnish the 
most vegetable matter upon a given space of 
ground. He states that all sorts of animals are 
very fond of it; it does not speak very well for 
the taste of French animals if they fancy such 
coarse food. Probably the number of our pas¬ 
ture grasses might be advantageously increased, 
but we doubt if the coarse-leaved and coarse¬ 
stemmed Panicum virgatum will be one of them. 
--"**-«-- 
The Department of Agriculture. 
In last month’s Agriculturist we announced 
the appointment of Col. Capron as Commission¬ 
er, but were, very chary of giving him any praise 
in advance, for we knew we should soon be 
obliged to find fault with him. We gave him 
warning that we were watching his acts, but 
that did no good,—he has acted, and we are 
“ down on him.” We learn that the new Com¬ 
missioner has abolished the seed-shop and seed 
distribution. Oh! Colonel! now you have done 
it, and in the name of many injured people we 
protest. Mortals are weak, and power is a 
dangerous thing to trust in their hands. We 
wished you well, but seated in your place only 
a few short weeks you go and “bust up” the 
great “ National Seed Shop.” We protest—in 
the name of the people in general, or of indi¬ 
viduals in particular. We protest in the name 
of the seedsmen : where else will they be able 
to dispose of their old stock ? What are certain 
Philadelphia seedsmen to do now, when Lima 
Beans and Hubbard Squash can no longer be 
sent forth by the mail as novelties ? We protest 
in behalf of Senators and Representatives in 
Congress. Where can their poor relatives and 
other dependants find occupation, now that they 
can no longer put up seeds? How many votes 
will be lost at the next election for the want of 
a few pole beans! We protest in the name of 
the people, and there is where we have you, 
Col. Capron. Did you think what a great 
agency for the education of the people that seed 
shop was, and how its most practical lessons 
will now be wanting ? When Echium vulgare 
was sent out for a bee plant, didn’t the farmer 
learn the botanical name of one of the worst of 
weeds, and didn’t he have to exercise his inge¬ 
nuity to get rid of it? When seeds of tropical 
plants were sent to Wisconsin, did not the farm¬ 
ers there learn the useful lesson that every 
kind of plant would not grow everywhere? 
We protest in the name of the poultry. Many 
a poultry yard will miss its accustomed variety 
in food ; formerly it was something to be a fowl 
belonging to a friend of a Senator or a Repre¬ 
sentative, as several times a year it had food, 
which if not very good, was at least expensive, 
and was bought by Uncle Sam’s money, was 
brought by the U. S. mail, and was fed out by 
a friend of a friend of Uncle Sam. It must be 
a poor cock who couldn’t fancy himself the 
American eagle upon such food. 
Finally, we protect in our own name. An 
interesting portion correspondency.. m«§t 
cease. The inquiries as to what are Alfalfa, 
Bene, Sanfoin, and other things sent out with¬ 
out any intimation as to their uses, will come 
no more, and we shall no longer have the satis¬ 
faction of telling our friends what is food for 
their cattle and what is food for themselves. 
Seriously, Mr. Commissioner, we congratu- 
late you upon having done the only possible 
thing with the national seed shop. Instead of 1 
trying to reform it, you have abolished it alto¬ 
gether, and in doing so you have abolished one 
of the most unfair, corrupt, and useless para¬ 
sites that ever sucked blood from the treasury. 
-*»—«-—-■ 
More Gates and Fences. 
A Maine correspondent sends us sketches of I 
a convenient farm or door-yard gate, which we 
represent in fig. 1. It is simple, and easily 
made, as the rollers or wheels upon which it 
moves are such as barn doors are hung upon, 
and may be obtained of most hardware dealers, 
or at well furnished country stores. The gate 
rolls open and shuts on a line Avitlr the fence, 
and on a perfect level. The latch stile is made 
of tivo pieces, and has a ivlieel at the bottom, 
as shown in the cut. This may be an iron 
Avlieel with a groove, and made to run upon an 
iron rod; or it may be flat-edged to run in a 
groove. The hinge style, if it may be so called, 
has a grooved ivheel, or roller, attached to the 
upper part of it, which rolls upon a rod of iron, 
made fast to the upper rail of the fence. The 
whole contrivance is very simple, and any one 
with a slight knowledge of the use of tools may 
make such a gate. It is not subject to be blown 
open nor to be slammed to pieces by high 
winds, and the task is much easier to clear away 
the snow for it to slide back and forth, than to 
make room to open a swinging gate. 
The accompanying sketch of a substantial 
stone fence is received from the same corres¬ 
pondent, who would, we presume, hardly rec¬ 
ommend it as economical for the farmers of 
the Grand Prairie, however suitable it may be 
for those Avho earn their bread upon the granite 
hills of New England. Figure 2 represents a 
fence made of granite blocks, each one foot 
square, and six feet long, set upon blocks a foot 
in bight. The granite or gneiss rock of some 
Fig. 2.— a granite fence. 
sections splits into rectangular pieces with great 
ease, the cracks following natural planes of 
cleavage, at least in one direction. This enables 
those Avho can procure such stones, to use them 
as building material, and for fences, either in the 
way shown, or as posts, iron dowels being set 
in to support rails. They make most excellent 
gate posts, and it is often rvell worth while to be 
at considerable expense to procure such, espe¬ 
cially where the situation is of a character to 
q^usQ Qorntnoji wooden posts to rot rapidly 
