24:2 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fJcrr.Y, 
Contents for July, 1868. 
Animals— The American Badger illustrated . . 231 
Animals— The Peccary Illustrated.. 257 
Boys' and Girls' Colnmns^-A Stone's Talk— Ways of 
Getting n Li ring— Be ■Courteous— The Fourth of July 
—Out Too Soon— What is a Tear?— A Peculiar Tasfc 
—Puzzles— Answers to Problems and Puzzles 
4 Illustrations.. 285— 286 
Budding— A Word About SSI 
Buildings— A Kansas Corn House Illustrated. .255 
Buildings— Barn Cellars free from Posts 2 lllvntr. -'233 
CatUe— Kerry— The Poor Man's Cow. .Illustrated .241-252 
Cattle— The Village Cow— Soiling 253 
Cold Grapery in .July Ml 
Cucumbers as a Farm Crop 330 
Do You Belong to it ? 261 
Farm Work for July 342 
Fences Across Streams 2 Illustrations . .-154 
Flower Garden and Lawn in July 343 
Flowers— Have You any Chrysanthemums ? 26] 
Gate— A New Carriage Illustrated. 260 
Graft— The Effect of on the Stock 260 
Grape Yiue— How it Grows and What to Do with 
It Illustrated 260 
Green and Hot-houses in July 343 
Haying in "Catching Weather".. 257 
Horses— Sales in Xew York— "On His Last Legs'' 
Page Illustration 257-253 
Household Department — Sea-side Fare—The Lobster 
—Preserving Green Corn for Winter — Household 
Ornaments— Do Farmers Eat Enough— Preserving 
Fruit in Bottles— Bottled Fruits Again— Sunday 
Morning Breakfasts— Cooking Recipe-- . .3 iK. .263-264 
Implements— A Wagon Jack Illusti ated 25 I 
Implements— The Harrow-toothed Cultivator 354 
Implements-Scarifier for Root Crop- Illustrated. 254 
Irrigation of Grass Lauds 250 
Lawns— Orchard Grass in 261 
Liquid Manure in Gardens 262 
Manures— Ashes. Plaster, and Hen Manure 251 
Market Reports 211 
Orchard and Nursery in July 243 
Paths in Public and Private Grounds 259 
Plants— Begonias . . 2 .' 
Plant— A Long Sleep of 250 
Plants— The Treatment of Bedding 26t) 
Poultry— Pure Water for Chickens Wustn 
Shrubs— Early Flowering 2 IllustraUo I 262 
Sticks, Strings, and Wires 261 
Tim Bunker on Real Estate 256 
Turnips-More Wanted 337 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 55.— Give the 
land a chance— A Three-horse F.ven.r— The Food 
and the Manure— Improved Agriculture— Making 
Fanning Pay— Tedding Machines 
INDEX TO "BASKET" Oft SHORTER 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW- YORK, JULY, 1S6S. 
Agriculture of Mass. .. 
Am. Devon Herd Book., 
Am. Farmer's M igazine 
Antelope. Domestication 
Apple Worm 
Aquarium 
Arbor Yiue, New 
Asparagus and Roots — 
Bees in July 
Birds' Egg- r 
Black C ivura Deck 
Bone Mill Wanted 
Bone Phosphate of S.£.. 
Bookof Evergr.'eli- 
Breeding, Young Fowls. 
Buckwheat 
Butterflies of N. A 
Cabbages and Milk 
Canning Apples 
Catalogues 
Cat Phenomenon... 
Central Park Animals... 
China-tree F.Miec- 
Conl Tar on Cloth 
Corn in Drills 
Cotton Seed Cake & Oil 
Darwin's Book 
Dorking Chickens 
Doughnuts 
Drying Frnit ... 
Eggs by Weight 
Fair of'N. K A. ! 
Fish Hitching." 
Fowls on Nest Boxes. .. 
Fruit Laws 
Gapes in Chickens 
Gas Lime 
Grass, A Troublesome. . 
Gypsum. Action of 
Hard Milker 
Harvesting Barley 
Hay Implement Trial. . . 
Hens Eating F. ■ - 
Honey Bee P irs 
Hong Kong Gee-.' 
Keeping Good Bulls... 
Keeping Sausage Meat. 
Leached Ashes 
Leather-scrap Manure. 
Lice ou Cattle 
213 Lightning Rod Swindlers' 
247 Lime on Manure ! 
248 Malice among Plants... ! 
247 Manuring Grow'g Crops./ 
.246 Marking Poultry- • 
313 Marlins Injuring Trees. • 
248;Mass. Ag'IColl. 
246 More Butter 
241 Oar- and Barlej - 
2JS Peaches, Early and Late • 
240 Peat for Fuel.' i 
245 Percheron Horse 
218, Pine Saw-dust... ! 
214 Potato Beetle : 
.313 Poultry. W.-Llit of '. 
249 Poultry on a Large Scale i 
21 ■ Previ nl -!i b - .mill _ ■ 
217 Profits of Farming •: 
.246 Proportion of : 
310 Railroads* Horticulture.; 
217 Range for Fowls. ■: 
24S Record of Horticulture..'; 
245 Row Boat 5 
247 Sally Lunn S 
213 Shade-trees in I'a-imv. '. 
.210 Shaler's Family Scales...'. 
213 Shig-onCal.hag,- , 
217 Soil for PearTr- - 
317 Sour Milk for Hens ■; 
243 S mash-vine Borer J 
- .''--•" ■ crop 
-.111.1 II- i- c liukrl'i."! ." 
I Sundry Humbugs 
l Tansy for Borers . ... 
i Thunder and Lightning. 
: Time to Cul Grass.. .... 
I Tin Strainer 
i Training Turkeys 
I Trout Spawn... 
I Vine in Europe 
I Warts on Cows' Teats.. 
: Wea' her and the Crops. 
i Wheat in Eug. and Am. 
F White Mouse 
I Whitewash 
I White Willow Fence. . . 
: Wild Pigeons 
) Willow Peeler 
i Wire Fences 
Farmers naturally feel greater solicitude in re- 
gard to the results which this month will effect than 
about those of any other similar peril) 1. And well 
they may. It is not farmers alone who are inter- 
ested ; every man, woman, and child, in the length 
and bread h of the land has a personal interest in 
abundant crops, well gathered. Upon no other 
thing does the prosperity of the whole country so 
much depend. The great bulk of the grass crop, 
which is more valuable than any other, the most of 
the wheat crop, and of all winter grains, are har- 
vested in July. The character of the season settles 
the amount which will be realized from spring 
sowed grains, and in fact most summer crops. 
Where drouths prevail this month they may almost, 
if not entirely, destroy the corn, potatoes, past- 
ures, and aftermath. Protracted rains will cause 
great damage to grain and hay, not secured ; stand- 
ing grass will become tough and wiry, losing much 
of its nutritive value, and will fill up with a new 
growth, c'.iiefly of clover, -which is not really 
healthy when cured for hay. One of the most im- 
portant things for us to do is to provide forage 
crops to tike the place of short pasturage in the 
fall. The corn sown in May will help out the feed 
this month. Every one ought to have a set of hay 
and grain caps as a defence against showers and 
storms. We should arrange good plans for quick 
work. When the weather is favorable, keep the soil 
among hoed crops always mellow, not working it 
so deep, however, in dry weather as to cause the 
crops to wilt. The progress of the age is shown 
more in t'.ie application of machinery and horse 
power to save the labor of human hands than in 
any other way, and it is essential to profitable farm- 
ing', that, so far as possible, we avail ourselves of the 
most valuable helps. Smooth land is essential, if 
we would make the best use of haying and harvest- 
ing machinery. Clean land, that having a com- 
parative freedom from weeds, is indispensable to 
the most advantageous use of horse power in til- 
lage. Freedom from water standing within a few 
feet of the surface, accomplished by means of 
thorough drainage, is, perhaps, the most important 
means of making the tiller of the soil in a measure 
independent of both wet and dry seasons. For the 
ease and eomfortof the farmer and his teams, and 
the durability of his implements a removal of the 
stones, so far as possible, is most important. 
Hints about Work. 
This is a month of hard work ; haying presses 
upon hoeing, and this has to be neglected too 
often for the grain harvest. Then turnip and 
buckwheat .owing, cabbage setting, and a score of 
other necessary or desirable things fill 'every mo- 
ment of the long days, and may cause sore per- 
plexity if the plans arc not well thought over for 
eacli day and for several days ahead. 
Weather. — We expect hot weather, with some 
two or three weeks very hot and dry. We must 
be prepared to take advantage of a few rainy days 
early in the month to transplant cabbages, fill out 
tobacco, or vacant spots in the rows of ruta-bagas. 
Thunderstorms must be looked out for, aud hay 
and grain shielded from damage as well as possible. 
Hay. — Cut, cure, and mow away by horse power 
if possible. Steady aud rapid drying of the hay, as 
when the hay tedder tosses it up every few minutes 
until it is cured, is best ; curing in the cock after 
having been twice turned, and cocked up while hot, 
next i lest, and makes better hay than that sunned 
and dried, and raked up after the dew falls, in the 
usual way. Cottonstuffs are cheap enough to make 
hay caps now, and they often pay for themselves 
in one rainy week. Upon shocks of 
Grain, caps of cloth are often very useful, as it 
takes no longer to put them on than to put on the 
cap sheaves. Cut when nearly ripe, and if .the 
straw is short or dry, it saves time aud labor to take 
to the field dampened, long rye straw for bands. 
Fastures must be well looked to, and. if they be- 
gin to get short, the cattle should be fed daily with 
green corn fodder, or other green feed. Top-dress 
with guano, ashes, plaster, or any fine compost. 
Soot-Crops. — Ruta-bagas sown last month should 
be well hoed aud thinned. Hoe other roots. Sow 
turnips any time during the month. A full crop of 
Ruta-bagas cannot be expected, but a very good one 
may be excellent for the table. Sow Strap-leaf or 
Cowhorn turnips only after the 35th. They will 
do well sown among corn at the last hoeing. 
Potatoes. — Keep weeds pulled; scatter turnip 
seed or set cabbage plants, when hills are wanting. 
Com.— Keep down the weeds with the plow and 
cultivator until the corn is too large ; do as little 
hand-hoeiugas possible, but pull the weeds close in 
by the hills, and work the rest of the ground by horse 
power. Sweet corn will mature " roasting ears," 
if sown as late as the 4th of July, and corn may 
be sown for green or dry fodder up to the 20th. 
Stacks for hay, grain, and corn fodder, are best 
made long and narrow. For such, the horse-fork 
attached to a pair of large shears may be used. 
Cabbages. — Set on rich laud, where early potatoes, 
peas, etc., were taken off. Top-dress with lime, 
and water freely when first put out ; when well 
established and beginning to grow, a few waterings 
at evening with liquid manure, (barn-yard lye) will 
give them a grand start, and do much towards 
securing a large crop. Hoe very frequently. 
Buckwheat may be sown any time during the 
month. It is one of the most profitable crops wo 
raise, occupying the ground but a very short time, 
doing fairly on land not in tile best heart, and well 
on any land not enriched with rank manure and 
not too wet. It makes so dense a covering ns to 
choke down all common weeds, and yields a very 
good return for the labor it requires, in grain and 
straw, which latter is a valuable addition to the 
manure heap. An old practice, rarely followed of 
1 id- \ ears, so far as we know, yet not to be over- 
looked, is the sowing of buckwheat as late as the 
last of this month or first week of August with 
wheat. This crop matures before frost, or not at 
all, and being removed the wheat has the ground 
the rest of the season aud is not perceptibly injured. 
Orchards.— It is often a problem what crops to 
put in an orchard, which should be tilled for the 
benefit of the trees. Potatoes seldom do well on a. 
sod, and weeds will grow badly under the trees. 
Corn or grain should be out of (he question, be- 
cause they make their strong growth just when the 
trees do theirs, aud area serious damage. "No 
white crop in an Orchard," is the old English rule. 
Potatoes, roots, cabbages, and clover, are beneficial. 
Ou rather light loams, the sward turned over fiat, 
rolled, and harrowed so as not to tear the sod, buck- 
wheat will make a fair crop. The sod will rot, the 
grass be kept under, and if the stubble be manur- 
ed and plowed after the crop is off, the laud will 
be in good condition for potatoes or root crops the 
uext year if not too much shaded. 
Manure Making. — If the weather be dry, employ 
every spare hour in ditching and draining swamp 
holes and mucky places, to get out a good supply 
of material for composts. All peaty matter, bog 
grasses, ferns and rushes, sods, wherever found, 
aud in the absence of these, good surface soil, or 
even sand, ought to be freely used to compost with 
stable and yard manure. This is more important 
during the warm weather than at any other time. 
It is best to lay up the materials in compact rec- 
tangular heaps, having drainage secured under the 
whole bottom. The hog pens should be well sup- 
plied with weeds and green vegetable matters of 
all kinds, which they rapidly convert into manure. 
It is the saying of an old farmer: "Anything that 
grows in the summer will rot in the winter." This 
may not be exactly true, but sufficiently well in- 
dicates the kind of material to put into hog pens. 
Animals. — All kind of animals do betterfor being 
well fed. Young stock grow much more rapidly 
for a little meal ; oil-cake porridge is grand feed 
for hogs, and they need but little to keep them well 
growing. Beeves ought to get grain in addition to 
