1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
139 
New York are such as to lead those who attempt 
it to specify only in the most general terms the 
condition of the market, that is, the supply and 
demand, as nearly as it can be estimated, and 
besides, notable transactions that can be reliably 
ascertained. Each horse, or pair of horses, is 
generally sold by a special bargain—the dealer 
getting all he can, and the buyer paying the 
least possible; each exercising his wits to secure 
his own interest, without reference to market 
price or to anything except his own necessities. 
The street car and omnibus companies usually 
limit those who purchase for them to a price 
which they must not exceed; hence for the 
class of horses which they require there is a sort 
of standard of prices, which fluctuates but little. 
However, these horses are quietly picked up in 
different parts of the country; but while com¬ 
paratively few are bought in the city, a good 
many, which are found to be unserviceable, are 
sold here. In this way the city has its full share 
of halt, broken-winded, and vicious beasts. 
Watering and Feeding Troughs for Sheep 
or Hogs. 
Sheep aud hogs will put their feet into the 
troughs if they can. They will even stand and 
lie in them and defile them in every possible 
-way. This may be prevented by various means, 
but we think no one has suggested a simpler 
remedy than Mr. Jacob Nixon, of Yan Buren 
Co., Iowa, who sends us a sketch and description 
of an appliance he has put upon his troughs, 
which is seen in the accompanying engraving. 
Neither hog nor sheep can feed from such a 
trough with both fore feet in at once, and it 
would be difficult for any but a very young 
animal to stand or lie in the trough. The im¬ 
provement consists of a board set up edgewise, 
lengthwise over the middle of the trough, kept 
in place bj r standards at the ends, and a brace, 
scarce the straw chaffed may be substituted 
for it, increasing the quantity of meal or roots 
iu the fodder. Straw should not bo fed alone. 
Turkeys—Success in Raising. 
WATERING AND FEEDING TROUGH. 
if necessary, in the middle. The trough, H, is 
represented as 10 inches high and 20 inches 
wide; the standards, I, J, are inch boards, 4 
inches -wide, and the board, J", over the trough is 
of inch stuff 8 inches wide. If the trough is 
more than 10 feet long, a brace, K ) is needed ; 
otherwise not. This contrivance is equally ap¬ 
plicable to log (dug out) or plank troughs. 
Use of Straw for Fodder. —Dr. C. A. 
Cameron of Ireland recommends the use of 
straw for fodder. Oat straw contains from 3 to 
4 per cent, of flesli-forming principles and about 
12 per cent, of gum, sugar, and other fat-forming 
matters. Wheat and barley straw are not quite 
so valuable. He recommends that the straw 
should be either cooked or fermented before 
being used, as in either case the constituents are 
far more digestible than when the straw is 
merely cut or reduced to chaff. When hay is 
Comparatively few people have uniformly 
good luck in raising turkeys. Those whose 
flock numbers perhaps hundreds oue season will 
count but a bare score or two another. When 
the old birds are watched, shut up, and made to 
sit where they can be controlled, and the young 
receive great care from the first, they seem to 
do no better and often not so well as when the 
old turkey steals her nest in the woods and 
brings her young home only when she finds it 
hard to provide food for them. Young turkeys 
seem to die for no good reason. Some of the 
readers of the Agriculturist report their dying 
at the rate of 20 or 30 a day. The gapes de¬ 
stroys many, and a slight cold, apparently, is fre¬ 
quently the cause of whole broods dying. The 
lack of proper food is also, no doubt, a prolific 
cause of disaster. One of the best suggestions 
we have lately seen is the recommendation to 
use an empty hay bay for early chickens, loca¬ 
ting the coops in different corners. This would 
be just the place for young turkeys, provided 
they could have grass, finely chopped roots, or 
similar vegetable food. Such a place is, how¬ 
ever, greatly exposed to depredations of rats, and 
these are great foes of young poultry of all kinds. 
The food of all young animals is of an animal 
nature. In the earliest period of the existence 
of young birds, it consists of the yolk of the 
egg. On this they live before aud for some time 
after they leave the shell. Turkeys and chick¬ 
ens are never hungry when first hatched, and 
may go at least two days unfed without harm. 
This is because a portion of the yolk of the egg 
remains in the digestive organs, to serve as food 
until they get familiar with the world and some 
of its responsibilities and 
cares. The gizzard is 
not yet in order to grind 
up hard grains like flint 
corn, simply cracked, or 
in the shape of coarse 
meal. The instincts of 
the mother bird are a 
tolerably good guide to 
the kind of food adapted 
to her young. Throw her 
some grain, or Indian 
meal wet up, and she will 
consume it with the 
greatest greediness her¬ 
self; give, on the Con¬ 
or grub, and she will 
it, and pick it to pieces 
trary, a soft -worm 
call her young to get 
for them. Hard boiled egg, mashed, and boiled 
liver, also mashed fine, are adapted to their easy 
digestion, and should be fed to them for the first 
few days at least, together with bread crumbs, 
fine Indian meal mush (cooked), and if they are 
not upon the ground, some clean, sharp sand. 
Another excellent suggestion in regard to 
turkeys is made by Mr. J. A. Richardson, of 
Kane Co., Ill., who writes that they seldom lose 
a turkey, except by accident, if each brood is 
treated as follows: “ We make a tight pen 12 
feet square, and 16 inches high, of boards, and 
in this we place the young turkeys when first 
hatched, and let them remain until they are able 
to fly out. On one side of the pen we make a 
shelter of boards, to protect them from the sun 
and from the fains. We feed during the first 
week with boiled egg Chopped fine, and good 
wheat bread, in about equal quantities. The 
second week we give curd made by heating sour 
milk, and bread made of wheat shorts, or coarse 
flour. When three weeks old we give them dan¬ 
delions chopped fine and mixed with their food. 
Up to this time we feed six times a day at regu¬ 
lar intervals, and always furnish plenty of fresh 
water. When seven or eight weeks old wheat 
makes excellent feed. We use screenings or 
small wheat. The old turkey will not leave 
the young; consequently she is not confined.” 
-A Check for Cribbers. 
There have been all sorts of contrivances used 
to prevent cribbing horses exercising their 
“wind-sucking” propensity. It is doubtless 
well known to most of our readers what this 
propensity or 
habit is, but to ex¬ 
plain it to all we f 
introduce an en¬ 
graving, figure 1, 
showing the head 
of a horse in the 
act of “ sucking 
■*rund,” or crib- 
ffing. The upper 
teeth are rested 
upon the top of 
his manger, a 
post, or any firm 
support; then 
bending the neck 
slightly, pressing Fig- 1 .— horse cribbing. 
downward and backward with the teeth, the 
horse expels spasmodically a portion of wind 
from the stomach. This is constantly practiced 
by confirmed cribbers so long as they stand near 
any convenient rest for their teeth. It is not 
regarded as a constitutional unsoundness, nei¬ 
ther is it a disease, though cribbers are generally 
hard to keep in good condition. Both by veter¬ 
inarians and by the courts it has been held to 
be a bad habit, but not a vice. It is supposed 
to arise from indigestion, causing an accumula¬ 
tion of wind in the stomach,—something akin 
to dyspepsia,—which is relieved in a measure by 
the eructation of air. This is always difficult 
for the horse to do, hence the marked effort al¬ 
ways made when it is accomplished in this way. 
Among the devices to prevent cribbing are an 
iron muzzle for use in the stable, which permits 
eating but prevents cribbing, a tight throat-latch, 
hitching between two posts by a rein going to 
each, the remov¬ 
al of mangers 
and cribs alto¬ 
gether from the 
stables, and feed¬ 
ing in tubs, or 
boxes, or on the 
floor. We were 
struck with the 
novelty and sim¬ 
plicity, as well as 
the perfect effi¬ 
ciency, of the de¬ 
vice shown in 
fig. 2. It is the 
invention of Mr. 
Edward Dough¬ 
ty, of Palisades, 
N. Y., w r ho permits us to describe it for the 
benefit of all who have cribbing horses. It 
consists of a light rod of iron about two feet 
long, in one end of which is an eye set at right 
angles to the rod, to receive the hitching rein 
Fie;. 2 .—hitching rein. 
