450 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Decembbb, 
Contents for December, 1877. 
Among the Fanners, No. 23.— Farmers Should be Bus- 
iness Men, Guernseys, Mr. Storr's Swamp, Root 
Crops, Seeding Down With Turnips, Mangles.. 463^161 
Barley— New Trade Regulations 468 
Bee Notes for December 482 
Boys and Girls' Columns.— Now for Good Things- 
Doctor's Correspondence, About Peanuts, How Eels 
are Caught, Trapping Rabbits— Aunt Sue's Puzzle 
Box— Metric System of Measures and Weights — 
Aunt Sue's Chats— A Mechanical Pig — Little Alice 
Tending Her Flowers 11 Muslrations . .4'r3^'J6 
Cattle— The Blanketed or Sheeted 'Bveaii...lUmtrated..4Aa 
Cattle— Treatment of Kicking Cows Illustrated. .465 
Celery— How to Keep in Winter 470 
Climbers— The Pilogyae lllusfrated . .409 
Corn-Crib and Granary 3 lUmlraiwns.AW 
Drain From a Cesspool 2 lUuslralions . 467 
Drains of Log and Brush llliislraled. .466 
Farm Roads, How to Improve 7 Miistrations.. iGQ 
Farm Work for December 430 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December 451 
Fork for Gathering Leaves lUustrated . .i6o 
Fruit Garden in December 451 
Greenhouse and Window Plants in December 451 
Guard Against Rats Illustrated . Am 
Hints and Helps for Farmers— Post-Hole Ase, Flood 
Fences and Gates, Screen for Fish Dam, Triangular 
HaiTOW, Cheap Farm Gate, Home-made Corn Shelter, 
A Barn Basket S Jllustraiions . AM-4&5 
House- A Country Cottage to Cost %oaO. A Illustrations AW) 
Household Department— Home Topics— Moving, Old 
Newspapers, In the New Home, Rags for Rugs, 
Saving Woi-k, Being too Parlicular, Let us Moisten 
the Air, Catch to Hold aDoor,Fifteen Cent Dinners, 
Freshen Oiled Furniture Z Illustrations . An — J73 
Ice Houses, Under and Above Ground. Alllustrations. .403 
Implement, Useful Garden Trowel Illustrated. .470 
Kitchen and Market Garden in December 431 
Market Reports for December 454 
Microscopes Illustrated., ioi-im 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 94.— The Results of Ten 
Tears Management 359 
Orchard and Nursery in December 431 
Plants, The Blackberry Lily lU-usirated.. iS9 
Plowing Gear for Kicking Mule Illustrated. .463 
Poultry and Eggs, Export of 467 
Poultry— Close Breeding 465 
Poultry— Nest for Egg-Eating Hens Illustrated.. iio 
Poultry— Plymouth Rock Fowls Illustrated. .461 
Safety Latch for a Gate Mlusirated. . 466 
Science Applied to Farming, No. 36.— More About 
the German Potash Salts 458 
Stock Business in Nebraska 468 
Sweet Potatoes, Keeping for Seed 4S2 
Sweet Potatoes, The " Early Peabody " 471 
Swine, Duroc or Red 2llustroted..-l61 
Talks on Farm Crops, No. 10.— Fodder Corn, Ever- 
green Corn, Potatoes, Early and Late Crops, Surface 
Drains, Top-Dressing Wheat, Hoeing Wheat.. .463-464 
Tim Bunker on Tramps 466 
Tree Planting at the Capital 470 
Waste Lan ds, Make them Useful 467 
Wire Worm and White-Grub 471 
1N15EX TO "basket." OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Arnold Arboretum.. .. 457|Italian Onions 457 
Australian Meat 432]Liliput Land 483 
Bargains 483 Linseed Oil 457 
Blasting Logs 457'Lobster Refuse 436 
Cabbage Family 457iMarl, Value of 482 
Canning Corn 482!Music Low 466 
Carbonic Acid 456,Nel)raska .. 455 
Chrysanthemum, Sport. .45ljiNo Farewells 456 
Citadelle 483'Our Exports 456 
Consumptive Cow 481 Patella Dislocated 455 
Cow-Pox 481 :Pipe for Water 482 
Crackers for Horses 457|Si.\ Millions Surplus .. 454 
Diking Salt Meadown. ..457|Siaugliter-house Refuse.. 481 
Estimating Weight of | Sundry Humbugs 455 
Cattle 482 Surfeit 482 
Extracting Stumps 482, Spring Rye 481 
Farm Mill 482 Swelling of Udder 482 
FistulainAno 481;Transparency 482 
German Agriculturist 455, Trim mines o'f Hides 457 
Hay Caps 45' 
Hog Washer 455 
Holiday Present 457 
Homesteading 482 
Ice-House for 100 Tons. .482 
India-Rubber Boots 455 
Indigestion in Lambs 481 
Tnbrous Begonias 456 
Use of Ashes 482 
Tick's Monthly 45'! 
Western Virginia 481 
Wheat Fertilizer 481 
Windmills 482 
Workmen Emigrating. . 4S1 
Calendar for December. 
l>ei>tl> ol" a, H>s5ii-y House,— "W. W. 
2i.," Delaware. To procure the requisite coolness, a 
below-ground dairy may be dug eight feet or more below 
the surface, with a lighted well a few feet above ground, 
for light and ventilation. Wc have seen an underground 
house of this kind made of brick, "whitewashed inside, 
and thus lighted, twelve feet deep and twelve feetsquare, 
that was in every way satisfactory. Such a cellar, how- 
ever, can not be made except in dry soil. 
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AMKIIKAIV AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1877. 
With this month closes another year, and one 
■which leaves the nation better off than it has 
been for some years past. The agricultural inter- 
est has especial causes for gratification. The har- 
vests of 1877 have never been excelled, in our his- 
tory, in quantity and quality, and we have -wider 
markets for our produce than ever before. As agri- 
culture is the foundation of all national industries, 
when that prospers, others partake of its pros- 
perity. This result reacts, and, as a consequence, 
farmers soon experience a better demand and 
higher prices for their produce. We are therefore 
very hopeful for 1873. The fall season has been 
very favorable for winter sown grain, and for plow- 
ing for spring crops, and so far as can be seen, a 
continued improvement of our condition is Indi- 
cated. Much of this general improvement results 
directly from better methods in carrying on our 
industries. Economical appliances to save labor 
and money, are in general use, while improved 
seeds, plants, and live stock, are coming into great- 
er favor. We are prepared to take advantage of 
the opportunities offered, and avail ourselves of the 
markets of those countries that are more thickly 
populated than our own. While we have been 
sending immense quantities of meat and live cattle 
to England, we have made an opening in the French 
markets, and expect to have that nation for a pur- 
chaser of our meat. So, through the improvement 
of our cattle, by the use of pure Shorthorn blood, 
we are able to supply the Europeans better and 
cheaper meat from our vast pastures, than those 
people can produce with all their lauded superiori- 
ty of methods. American farming is now equal to 
any in the world ; our farms, generally, are notably 
cleaner and freer from weeds than foreign ones — 
with some exceptions — and if we would use our na- 
tive fertilizers, such as bones, blood, and meat re- 
fuse, flsh guano ; our native foods, such as linseed 
and cotton seed oU-cakes, instead of selling them to 
our foreign competitors ; and also use those artifi- 
cial fertilizers which are so cheap and effective, as 
an aid to increase our crops, we could excel the 
famed English farms in the product of the fields. 
We have this yet to do. All that is needed is in- 
telligence and confidence, that the more liberally 
we feed our soils, the more bountifully they will 
reward us with teeming harvests. 
nints for AVork. 
[The suggestions under this and the following head- 
ings, are never reprinted from previous years, but they 
are always prepared fresh from the latest experience and. 
observation, by men who " practice what they preach," 
and preach from what they practice.] 
Labor is very Cheap, good farm hands can be pro- 
cured at the present time for lower wages than we 
can remember. This is a favorable time for mak- 
ing all such permanent Improvements as draining^ 
fensing, building, getting out posts and rails, clear- 
ing land, removing stones or stumps, and the like. 
Cheap 20ork should be done by cheap labor. One 
skilled man, supervising, can direct several common 
laborers or boys, and save money. 
IKece Work is always the cheapest. To know how 
much should fairly be paid for any work, the em- 
ployer should know exactly how much can he 
done in a certain time. For example, let him split 
100 rails, or measure a rod of ditch and dig it, or 
have a good man do it while he is watched, and 
then note the time required as a basis for calculation. 
Clear Fields and iSmoot/i Soads are necessary whem 
machinery is used. All work to this effect done 
now, will be doubly repaid in saving of time,, 
labor, and repairs in harvest time, or in the pre- 
servation of the machines. 
After tTte Field Work is done, look to the house, 
and make that and all about it comfortable, without 
delay. Where water lodges, grade the surface so as. 
to carry it away from the building. Fit eaves- 
troughs and leaders to the house. Double sash in: 
the cellar windows wUl keep out frost and admit 
light. Never heap manure about cellar windows, 
bundles of corn stalks are best for this purpose. 
Provide a place for ashes, house slops, and other 
waste. Remove heaps of rubbish, and everything 
that will cause snow drifts. 
Good SJteltcr for the Stock is absolute economy j. 
with warmth there must be an ample supply of 
pure, fresh air. The time may come when we 
shall find coal cheaper than the extra food needed 
to sustain vital heat under extreme cold, and use 
fire heat for our animals. At present we must 
keep our stables as warm and dry as we can ; but 
pure air, with severe cold and plenty of food, is pre- 
ferable to warm, impure stables, with food saved. 
Regular Feeding, if not generous, is better than, 
food given in excess for a few days, and then stint- 
ed, or food given plentifully, hut at irregular 
periods. Animals do not thrive unless perfectly 
contented, and never permitted to get hungry. Tha 
same hours for feeding should be kept regularly 
throughout the whole season. 
A Good Say Cutter will save its cost in one sea- 
son. Hay or straw is not made more nutritious, 
hut it is more easily masticated when chaffed ; and a 
saving of exertion is equivalent to a saving of food. 
Strain, when cut and mixed with two quarts of 
corn-meal to the bushel, is equal to the same quan- 
tity of the best hay. Read over again Professor 
Atwater's articles on the feeding values of fodders,, 
and the improvement of coarse hay and straw, in 
March, April, and May, 1876. 
Horses should be fed in proportion to their work. 
An idle team may be wintered upon good hay alone; 
when working lightly, a feed of grain at noon, will 
be sufficient with hay morning and night. With 
heavy work, 10 quarts of ground corn and oats, and 
chaffed straw or corn-fodder, will be good feeding, 
and in many cases, for small horses, less will do. 
Good grooming is necessary for health in winter. 
Ground Gypsum spread upon the floors, will pre- 
vent the pungent odor common to stables. This 
vapor of ammonia is hurtful to horses' eyes, and 
the frequent cause of ophthalmia, and resulting- 
b'Sndness, with which so many horses are troubled. 
Throw a few pailfuls of water upon the floor first, 
and then scatter around a shovelful of the gypsum. 
Fresh Air should enter the stables at the bottom, 
and the foul air escape at the top. Make small 
sliding doors for ventilation, and cover them with 
wire netting or laths, to exclude vermin. 
A Pair of Cards should be kept in every stable for 
use on cows and oxen. To clean these animals 
