206 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Contents for June, 1868. 
Barley— Harvesting 219 
Beans— More About 217 
Books for Farmers 209 
Boys and Girls' Columns— Wanted— A Boy with Ten 
Points — Presence of Mind— Ways of Getting- a Liv- 
ing — Who First Lived in America ? — A Pleasant 
Picture— India Rubber Shoes— A Natural Mistake- 
Sparse Woods — A Splendid Team — Another Chari- 
table Dog— The Promise Kept— A Critic Confounded 
—Problems and Puzzles 4 Illustrations. .329—2.30 
Breaking Prairie 221 
Butter a Great Source of Income 220 
Canada Thistles— Quaker Practice on Illustrated. . 219 
Cat-Bird Illustrated. .205 
Cattle— Channel Island 2 Illustrations.. 215 
Cold Grapery in June 208 
Cotton Seed Meal for Feeding 217 
Crops in New York and Great Britain 219 
Evergreens — Notes on 226 
Fnrm Work for June 206 
Florida as a Home for Northern Men 220 
Flower Garden and Lawn in June 207 
Gang Plows, and Sulky Cultivators 219 
Grape Vine — How it Grows and What to Do with 
It 4 Illustrations. .224' 
Green and Hot-houses in June 208 
Hens' Nests 2 Illustrations. .219 
Horses— Woir-teeth in Illustrated . . 218 
Household Department — A Wire Egg Stand— House- 
hold Ornaments— Flower-glass Work Stand— Harp 
Card Case— Household Talks by Aunt Hattie — Cook- 
ing Meat— Basting— Newspaper Holder— Treatment 
of Children — Making a Cool Bos — Overwork in the 
Household— More about Salad Dressing— Bottling 
Strawberries and Raspberries — Raspberry Vinegar- 
Recipes 5 Illustrations . .227— 22S 
Insects— The Cotton Moth 218 
Insects — The Grape Curculio Illustrated. . 223 
Insects— Oak Scale-Louse lllustralt <l . . 228 
Insects— The Striped Bug 222 
Lima Beans 225 
Manure— Selling 215 
Market Reports 20S 
Monkey-Flower— Mimulus Illustrated. . 223 
Orchard and Nursery in June 207 
Pastures— Management of Worn-out 215 
Pharaoh's Horses Illustrated. . 222 
Picking and Marketing Fruits Illustrated. . 224 
Premiums 209 
Preparing for the Exhibitions * 223 
Pruning Evergreens 225 
Sod Fences 2 Illustrations.. 218 
Stay on the Farm 221 
Superphosphate— Commercial and Home-made 220 
Supports for Climbers Illustrated. . 224 
Spruces, Hemlocks, and Firs 3 Illustrations. .226 
Summer Pruning or Pinching 221 
Town and Local Agricultural Societies -220 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 54.— Potatoes 
and Prices — Looking Ahead— Tree Planting— Roads 
and other Improvements — Advice — Irrigation — Poor 
Horses — Cultivating Crops 216-217 
Weeding Hook 2 Illustrations. . 225 
Whiflletree Boot for Plowing Orchards... Illustrated.. 219 
INDEX TO "BASKET" OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agricultural Editor: 
Am. Dairymen's As: 
Answering Letters. 
Apple Pomace 
Artificial Manure. . 
Beautiful Pictures. 
in Jn 
dust 
Borrowing Capital 212 
Cheese Factories 212 
Chester White Swine... 214 
Clav and Muck 212 
Crooked Lake Gone 213 
Cultivating Wheat 212 
Darwin's Variations 211 
Death of Dr. Dana 210 
Diana Hamburgh Grape.. 213 
Diseases of Animals 212 
Enriching Land 214 
Farm Scales... 20S 
Fish Ponds... 214 
Flat Culture for Corn. ...212 
21 1 Large Price for Plants . . . 210 
-.'1 1 Market Fairs 214 
•ill Medicinal Plants 213 
212 Mr. Knox's Exhibition. .211 
214 Mowing Math's in Paris.213 
Mutton as Manure 214 
Native Cattle 212 
N. J. State Ag'l Soc 210 
Ornamental Planting.. . .211 
Papering Brick Walls.. ..211 
Parsnips 211 
Peaches in Maryland. 
Pear Tree not Blooming. 211 
Plowing Barn-vards 212 
Plow Trial. N.'E. Ag.Soc.210 
Poudrette 212 
Price of Land in Mass. . . 212 
Profits of Egg Raising... 214 
Propagat'g Green Wood. 213 
Iiailmads and Farmers.. 208 
Refining Sorghum 212 
Salt for Cattle 20S 
■illi 
.213 
Goats a* Milker- 214 Sell'-milking Cows 111 214 
Grade Alderu-y 212 Send Your Name 211 
Greasing Wheels 212 Shape of Trout Pond- "14 
Grinding Mach. Knives. .21 1 Southern Item 213 
Grubs Again 21.": Southern Journals 211 
Hemlock for Hedges 213 Sundry Humbii"* -no 
Hens Eating Feathers. . .212 Sundry Queries" ' !ai.3 
Hoopes' Evergreens 211 Surface Manuring -V 1 
Hop Growers'" Journal... 212 Texas Farmer " 110 
Hot-House drapes 211jTheR. I. Schoolmaster 211 
How Much Land ? 212 Toad Shelters.. . 213 
Humbugs. 2nd Edition.. 210 Trouble with Cabbages. 211 
lnlormation Wanted 213 Weigh Your Milk 214 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1868. 
A late, wet season makes June a hard, month for 
the farmer. Under the most favorable circum- 
stances no month of the year puts his executive 
abilities more thoroughly to the test. Without 
well-matured plans, and a knowledge of about how 
much the labor, both of men and animals, will ac- 
complish, the best farmer will be likely to fall be- 
hindhand. The weeds grow so fast in moist, warm 
weather that the fields must be hoed almost as soon 
as planted, and the growth of the grass in the 
meadow is so rapid, that the necessity for laying 
down the hoe for the scythe is often a most trying 
one. It is very rare, in our latitude, that June is 
not, on the whole, a prosperous time for the crops. 
Very dry Juues are of rare occurrence, and a drouth 
at this season is productive of great injury — quite 
as much so as a sharp frost. Farmers whose spring 
work has been delayed by the wetness of the 
ground have in this way the value of thorough 
draining impressed upon them. Much drained 
land was this year fit for plowing and planting early 
in April, while that of precisely the same character, 
not drained, yet not what would be called wet laud, 
will not be fit to plow before the first of June, 
even if the weather be dry the latter part of May. 
Insects of Illinois 213 What Calves to Raise'. 
Ives' Grape 213 Wood Mold for Corn. 
Hints about Work. 
Buildings. — There are certain things which can 
be better done at this season than at any other. 
The barns are nearly empty. They must be pre- 
pared for the new crops of hay and grain. If a 
barn should need shingling, this ought to be 
done when it is empty, so that the nails which fall 
may be cleaned up. We know a case of a cow 
which died from swallowing nails in the hay. These 
were found in a large mass in the animal's stomach. 
Hay lofts and bays should be cleaned, and all the 
hay seed and rubbish removed before any hay is 
placed in them. Old hay is good, but it is best 
not to allow it to accumulate from year to year. 
Working Animals must be well fed if one expects 
them to work well. Oxen worked all day and turn- 
ed into the pasture for the night without grain of 
any kind, cannot be expected to do much work. 
Give horses thorough daily groomiug. A gill of 
oil-meal, mixed with the feed at each meal, will 
give a glossy coat, and is an excellent ingredient in 
any mixed feed given to them, or other animals. 
Cotos are now at pasture, and the fresh grass adds 
greatly to the flow of milk and to its richness and 
color; but this- should not lead us to withhold all 
grain. A small quantity of oil-meal or corn- 
meal, or the two mixed, say one quart divided be- 
tween the morning and eveuiug, should be given. 
Manure. — If cows are yarded or stabled, a very 
large quantity of manure is saved. We are too apt 
to look upon the manure crop as the harvest of the 
winter. With reasonable forethought and diligence 
the manure heaps will grow quite as fast in sum- 
mer. We have one great advantage — fermentation 
takes place much more rapidly ; hence accumula- 
tions of vegetable matter, fresh, or in form of muck 
and peat, if composted with stable manure, ashes, 
or lime, very rapidly ferment, and ripen into 
homogeueousness, ready for use in the autumn. 
Smne are widely employed as the summer ma- 
nure makers, and they are worth so much more as 
rooters than "tamed," that it is not worth while to 
" ring " or " tame " them, until they are penned to 
fatten. Confine them where they may have con- 
veniently, sods, weeds, and all sorts of green rub- 
bish throwu to them to work over. If upon the 
manure of other stock, encourage diligence by scat- 
tering occasionally haudfuls of corn about the heap. 
If muck or sods are used in the compost, swine 
will often tread it so hard as to arrest fermentation. 
Sheep. — A few days after the ewes have been 
sheared all the ticks and most of the lice will 
prefer lamb to mutton, and be found upon the 
lambs. This is ther»fore just the right time to 
dip the entire flock. We have great faith in. the 
carbolic and cresylic soap dips for sheep, and when 
this article can be obtained, (and we must refer in- 
quirers to our advertising pages), there is no need 
of having anything to do with either vegetable or 
mineral poisons, such as tobacco, arsenic, or mer- 
cury in any form. If sores, from too close shear- 
ing or sun scalds, occur, smear the wounds with 
an ointment of tallow and pine-tar 
Butter. — June butter is considered the best made 
during the year. Good butter makers pack it to 
keep the whole year. There is no difliculty about 
it if the buttermilk be thoroughly worked out, the 
butter salted one ounce to the pound, and worked 
again after standing 13 to 24 hours. It is packed in 
layers in firkins, with a thin layer of salt on the 
bottom, and salt between each layer. The butter 
must be packed air-tight, if possible — that is, with- 
out holes — and pounded down flat aud solid. The 
less butter is handled, the bel ter, and the lower the 
temperature at which it is worked, provided it be 
soft enough to work thoroughly, the more waxy 
and firm will it be. If the tub cannot be filled 
at once, cover the butter with a strong briue. 
Cheese. — The production of the best cheese is in- 
consistent with butter making from the same milk. 
It requires but a little more care, cleanliness, and 
painstaking, with good judgment, to make cheese 
briug readily a high price, than to make that 
whicli is a drug on the market. See article on cheese 
making in the Am. Agricultural Annual for 1868. 
Green Fodder Crops.— Sow corn in drills, 24 to 30 
inches apart, for a succession of green fodder. This 
will keep up the flow of milk, and add greatly to 
the butter aud cheese returns of the summer, 
especially if the pastures arc a little overstocked, or 
the season is dry. Millet may lie sown any time 
this month, for seed as well as for green fodder. 
Hungarian grass, a variety of millet, sown for 
hay, on land in fair condition only, will ordinarily 
yield a crop of two tons of good hay per acre. 
Pastures may be benefited by top-dressings at any 
time, especially if close cropped. They respond 
at once if wash from the highways be turned upon 
them. Never overstock, but provide early green- 
fodder crops, to feed out before the. fields are so far 
denuded as to be liable to injury from drouth. 
Mowing Lands. — Clover which is clean enough 
for seed should be cut early, when first coining into 
bloom. Top-dress with fine manure, ashes and 
plaster, or guano and plaster, and a good crop of 
6eed will be as sure as a crop of corn. Cut mixed 
grasses for hay, beginning when clover is in full 
bloom, before the heads brown, and cutting those 
fields first which have the most clover. Cure as 
much as possible in the shade — that is, in the cock, 
after thoroughly wilting in Jhe sun. If the Ox-eye 
Daisy abounds in the grass, it is most important to 
cut it for hay beforetthc stalks harden, aud for the 
future welfare of the farm it is more important to 
cut it before the seeds are so nearly mature that 
they will ripen in the curing of the hay. 
Root-Crops. — Carrots and Rutabagas may be sown 
to as good advantage between the 1st aud 20th of 
June, as earlier, considering the pressure of other 
work and the slight difference a few weeks make to 
these crops. Sugar Beets and Parsnips will make 
a fair crop, also, if put in as late as the first, but 
sowing should not be delayed after that time. 
Field Beans. — This crop is generally planted be- 
fore the 20th, if possible. Use only fresh, tender 
seed. Two-year-old seed will surely disappoint. See 
article in this and the previous number. 
Cabbages can hardly be overrated as an econom- 
ical article of cattle food. The only objection to 
raising cabbages as a dependence for green fodder 
in winter is, that their market price is usually so 
great we cannot afford to feed them out ; but the 
same objection holds with regard to many other 
articles of human food. Set out the Flat Dutch, 
Drumhead, Mason, or other large varieties, after 
the middle of the month, in good soil, well ma- 
nured with fine compost and top-dressed with lime. 
Hoeing Corn and Potatoes. — All tillage of these 
crops goes by the name of hoeing, though done 
