122 
AMERICAN AGRIC ULTUBIST. 
[ApniL, 
Contents for April, 1868. 
Barley— Cultivation of 137 
Boys 1 and Girls' Columns— A Wonderful Musical In- 
strument— A Queer Fish— Puzzle for the Eye— Ava- 
rice Outwitted— La nyrinth— What is a Month?— 
Comtc Action Puzzle— Rebus— Answers to Problems 
and Puzzles— Sit up, Ponto !— A Dog Story— Comical 
Command— Children's Talk. . . .5 Illustrations. .1-19— 150 
Castor Oil Bean 140 
Cattle— Channel Main! Illustrated.. 135 
GatUe— Feeding Mileh Cows 132 
Cattle— Jerseys and Guernseys Illustrated. . 135 
Cold Grapery in April 124 
Corn Crib— Simple and Good Illustrated. 138 
Cribbers— A Check for 2 Illustrations. AM 
Farm Work for April 122 
Flower Garden and Lawn in April 124 
Fruit Garden in April 123 
Gherkin— The Prickly-fruited Ill ust rated.. 143 
Grape Yine— How it Grows, and What to Do with 
It 3 Illustrations. .144 
Green and Hothouses in April 121 
Grubs and their Work r. , .2 Illustrations. .141 
Horses— Price of 13S 
Horses, The Percherons Must rated. . 121 
Household Department — The Game of Croquet — A 
Convenient Cooking Table— Pen Wiper — Variety at 
the Table. Two Bills of Fan — Hulled Corn— To Clean 
Tripe— A Tidy— The Busting of Metals Prevented— 
How to Take Care of a Watch— Cooking Recipes- 
Frothy Cream and No Butter. . . .5 Illustrations. , 147— US 
Insects— Bark Liee Mwtrated . .134 
Kitchen Garden in April 123 
Lawns and Grass Plots 144 
Market Reports .. 124 
Olive— Culture of Illustrated, . 133 
Orchard and Nursery in April 123 
Peach Culture 145 
Pigeons— A Group of Fancy Itlustratt d. . 142 
Plowing— Deep— Safe and Unsafe 140 
Plowing for Corn and Potatoes Illustrated. . 13s 
Plums— Native— The Miner Illustrated . . 1 13 
Potato— The Sebec 146 
Premiums 195 
Quinces— Culture and Varieties Illustrated ..Ho 
Red Cedar 145 
Rotation of Crops 140 
Save the Earliest 146 
Saw Filing ///ut/ruied..m 
Shrubs for Cemeteries 143 
Shrubs— The Hydrangeas Illustrated. . 143 
Shrubs— The Lealher-Leaf Illustrated.. 146 
Sorghum— Cnltiva I ion of 140 
Straw— Use of, fi ir Fodder 139 
Subsoiiing— A Defence Against Drouth 141 
Troughs for Sheep or Hogs Illustrated. .139 
Turkeys— Success in Raising 139 
Turnip— The White French 134 
Weeds— Rib-grass Illustrated. . 134 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 52.— The Jiuld 
Wheat Premiums— Dairy Farming — Investing in 
Drains— Making Farming Pay— Parsnip Culture— 
Hen Manure 136 — 137 
INDEX TO "BASKET" OR SITOIITETC AUTICLES. 
Ailanthus 130'Large Price for Potatoes.130 
Allen's Catalogue 126 Lice on Cattle 128 
Alton Hort. Society 130 Life Insurance 138 
Anibas Americas 131 Lima Beans 130 
Am. Naturalist 127 Little Girl's Letter ... 130 
Animal* Named 132 Manures f..r Potatoes. 12s 
Artificial Mother 12S Manure Scarce in 111.. . . 133 
Ayrshire Herd-book 132 Maple Sugar 129 
Bees in April 132 Mineral Curiosity 130 
Beets and Milk 127 Mr. Knox 1^7 
Beet Sugar Factories 132 Mixing of Vegetables' jo,) 
Black Knot 131 Moving Evergreens 130 
Blood as a Fertilizer 131 New Kinds el' Oats i:j> 
Bluffton Wine Co 127 N. V. Grape Growers ' 'l80 
Boiled Grain for Fowls. .132 N. Y. Independent 129 
Book of Evergreens 127 NewPaper. 1-17 
Box Edging 130 Novel Enterprise "l-ls 
Breaking up Prairie 131 Onions and Carrots. 131 
Buckeye Mower 129 Pea-combed Fowls 134 
Canada Thistles 131 Peat Swamp Burnt.... 129 
Canker-worm 130 Potato Diggers 128 
Catalogues Received 12s Potato Experiment 133 
Cheap Lands East 127 Preservation of Meat 127 
CondcnscdMilkFar lories 129 Preserving Eggs 133 
Corn in Drills and Hills. 132 Price of Corn Husks 1'9 
Cows at Calving Time. . .l.'MIProl'essorsliip of A-ricul 131 
Cranberry Queries 1. 'ill Prof. John Gamgee.. 126 
Cultivation of Potatoes. .129 Propagating Maples 130 
Curculio 1311 Queer Apples 130 
Dark Ages in England. .131 Rapid Growl h of Salmon 1:13 
Darwin's New Work. 126-13-s Retarding Peach Trees 130 
Dept. of Agricnltnre 129 Rntabo as 131 
IVt lliiKn frcwing.etr I ['is |„. . <>,,, Stubbl. lis 
.'raining Tile 120 Self-milking Cows 128 
Early Bose Potato 127iSetting a Forest 131 
Extra Farming 
Farming without Stock. 
Feeding Scraps. 
Fertilizers 
Fish Ponds 
Forcing Strawberries.. . 
Foxes and Woodehucks 
Good Business Not ices.. 126 Siigar c "i-iimption 129 
Grass for Salt Marsh 139 Sulph. Acid a- Fertilizer |'V> 
Grinding Bones 1::1 x. School Index 'pif) 
Hair Worm 13.1 Sundry lliuiibu— [-V, 
Hedges 13n To Get Big Crops. l-"'.i 
Hens Eating Feathers.. .137 Tomato Question 130 
Hens for Large Hennery. 132 Trees for S. Wisconsin 1311 
Horticultural Societies. . 1.31 Tying Material 139 
How to Study Botany... 136 Walks and Talks. .'." " VX, 
Immigrant Laborers 132 Walnut Worms 12S 
Interesting Figures 128 Water into Houses ' ' 129 
Italian Silver Top-Knots 131 W. Jersey Fruit Grower- 130 
. 12S What to Grow. . . . 130 
.131 \VhenWillaMowerPa\ - 182 
...127 
Poultry. . .. 
Fan-mill... 
- in N.J... 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, APRIL, 18G8. 
April is one of the most indefinite months ; March 
work holds on into it, even though May weather 
prevails. Besides, there is almost always a great 
deal of work which inopportune rains will post- 
pone and again postpone, quite into next mouth. 
There should be an early divisiou of work, thus : 
— dry soil work, raiuy day work, and work for fair 
days when the soil is wet; this makes three 
good divisions. Nothing should interrupt the 
work in the field and garden while the soil is iu 
good condition for working. With proper dili- 
gence all that needs to be done indoors, or that can 
be done on rainy days, or while the soil is too moist 
to work, may be without infringing upon the good 
days for field work. If plans are not well matured 
for the summer campaign lose no time before form- 
ing them. If there are seeds to buy, tools to provide, 
or anything of that kind to do, delay not. If we 
begin the season with good "help," good teams, 
good tools, good seeds, all the manure we can 
get, and the best plans we can make, after doing 
all we possibly can we may rely npon Providence 
for sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons. Last 
year, amid the parched acres of the Interior, the 
fields of those whose drainage and deep tillage had 
been thorough, showed for miles as green oases in 
a barren desert, and at the East, where all was so 
wet, it was undrained fields and those of shallow 
soils that uniformly produced the poor crops. 
Ives Grape. 
Kicking Cow: 
Knots on Cherries 1311 Whitewash ' l->7 
Labor & Profit in Farm'gl31 Working Manure 131 
Landreth's Seeds 129' Worms in Flower-pots.. .130 
Hints about Work. 
Review what was said in the March number with 
regard to winter grains, grass, soiling, nud the 
working of wet soils. 
Double Cropping. — Land to be euited for raising 
two crops in one season must be rich, iu good tilth, 
and free as possible from weeds — in fact, likeagood 
garden. Early potatoes, peas, onions, early cab- 
bages, or any early soiling crop, may be followed by 
cabbages, rutabagas, common turnips, pickles, etc. 
Onions will leave the ground for carrots, which 
should have been sowed at the last hoeing between 
the rows, as directed in a "basket item," and cab- 
bages may be set out before the potatoes are dug. 
Animals. — Let stock of all kinds hare frequent 
carding, and some bonis of sunshine daily. Only 
at the South will the grass be forward enough to be 
pastured without danger to the crop. The tempta- 
tion will be great to turn cattle upon the frcsli 
meadows in case forage is scarce, but it will be 
much better both for the stock and the pasturage 
to feed a month longer, perhaps, on corn-stalks. 
The first, lands that are fit to turn stock upon are 
unreclaimed bogs, where the coarse grass growing 
iu tussocks has been burnt off. Such grass is sweet 
and juicy early iu the spring, and eaten with zest 
after the dry fodder of winter, but it soon becomes 
wiry and hard and will be refused by the stock. If 
fed off close when it first starts, it will keep on grow- 
ing and furnish considerable feed. Nevertheless 
such land is very unprofitable property. 
Horses shedding their coats may have a quart of 
oil-meal fed to eacli daily with cut feed or on a 
peck of carrots. Feed work-horses well. If kept 
steadily at work, calculate to feed so well that they 
will not fall ofT at all in flesh. Daily thorough 
grooming is worth four quarts of feed a day at this 
season, even for farm horses. Mares near foaling 
must be well fed, relieved from severe labor, and as 
their time approaches given roomy quarters in- 
loose boxes. A bos 10 feet square is none too 
large. A slightly loose condition of the bowels in 
breeding animals is always favorable, and should 
be induced by feeding roots, oil-cake or flaxseed. 
Oxen. — Feed in proportion to work required, card 
often, give long noonings, and a chance to feed but 
not to fill themselves. Cattle, like all ruminating 
animals, cat fast and do their chewing; afterwards.. 
An ox that is put to work with his paunch full o.f 
unmasticated food is lazy, at least, and probably 
more liable than otherwise to be hurt by hard work- 
Cows and Calves. — Refer to last month's hints; we 
have little to add here. Calves that are beginning 
to nibble grass a little may be tethered by the 
fences, where the grass starts green and sweet, and 
will thus learn to pick up a good living as soon as 
turned to pasture. Never let the scours run a day. 
Sheep.— Take extra care of the lambs ; if stinted 
in their earliest growth they never catch up. The 
flock will need close watching to see that no ewes 
become gargety and their lambs lack milk, that 
none refuse to own their young, and that no lambs 
are hurt, or sick. Provide freBli water regularly, if 
not constantly, and by no means neglect salt. 
Swine. — See hints for previous month. If the 
stock kept is not bred upon the farm, look out 
early for such pigs as you will need. If these can 
be had bred of full-blood sires, by all means secure 
them ; they grow faster and fatten more easily. 
I'oultry. — There are some useful hints in the body 
of this number to which we refer the reader. Sever- 
al painful diseases are apt to attack fowls in wet 
Springs, of which the worst are the Roup, and that 
disease so close akin to it as to be confounded with 
it, Swelled-head. Both arc brought about by un- 
cleanly apartments, and both are highly contagious ; 
although the previous preparation of the system by 
exposure to wetness and filth seems to be an al- 
most essential condition. A cold will run into 
roup if any roupy fowls are about the yard. In bad 
weather, give an iron tonic, say a teaspoonful of 
tincture of iron, wet up in a quart of Indian meal, 
to a flock of twenty. About a tablespoonful of red 
pepper may lie mixed with it to good advantage. 
In fact, this is one of the best preventives of disease, 
encouragements to laying, and promoters of health, 
which the poultry breeder can use. Taken early, 
these diseases may be cured by stimulants and 
cleanliness, but after the first stage they are usually 
fatal. Coops for hens and chickens should be 
placed on clean turf, where no chickens have been, 
at least since early last spring. Old coops should 
be well cleaned and whitewashed, and the water 
furnished to chickens should be so covered that 
they cannot foul it nor step iu it, and protected 
from the dirt which the old hen throws in all di- 
rections by her scratching. We believe absolute 
cleanliness, on fresh ground, to be a perfect pre- 
vention of the gapes. Turkeys hatch and care for 
their own young best. Ducks' eggs, however, 
ought always to be put under hens. Keep ducks 
shut up until 8 o'clock every morning, or until all 
have laid. They lay an egg a day, if well fed, and 
will steal their nests and hide them where they are 
hard to find, if allowed their freedom. When the 
eggs are regularly removed they will not want to 
sit, but keep on laying until midsummer. Other- 
wise they sit as soon as they have a nest full of eggs. 
^Miscellaneous Work. — For hints about farm roads, 
fences, picking up stones, etc., see March number. 
Buildings. — As soon as the weather is warm and 
settled, open and clear out cellars, both iu house 
and barn, whitewash thoroughly, stop rat holes 
and cat holes. Roots still on baud may be put iu 
barrels or boxes, that the bins may be cleaned. Out- 
side painting ma}' be done now, and a belter surface 
be formed than if the work be done when the wood 
is thoroughly dry so that the oil will strike in. 
Draining may often be done in the spring better 
than at any other season, and spring draining has 
this.great advantage : the filling has all the sum- 
mer to settle, and there is much less danger of the 
surface water washing in and gaining direct access 
to the tiles than wheu the draining is done in 
the fall. On this account it is advisable to do the 
draining on side hills, and where early in spring 
much surface water flows, at the present season of 
the year, after the heavy spring rains have passed. 
Barn-yard Manure and Composts.— Where manure 
has any value iu the estimation of the farmers, 
nobody has enough. Nevertheless, the prevailing 
notions about it arc so crude that few take the 
pains they should to increase their manure both in 
quantity and quality. Manure the land well, or not 
at all. It does not pay to put on a sprinkling and 
get half a crop. Manure will secure a reward for 
labor that can be gained iu no other way. Begin 
