39-4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NoVEMBEli, 
Contents for November, 1868. 
Accural* Knowledge on the Farm 411 
Apples for the Southern Suites 1 Illustrations. 114 
A Settled Policy on the Farm 404 
birds— Pinnated Grouse or Prairie Chickens. MutPd. .412 
Boys' and Girls' Columns— Fearful Convulsions -The 
Revolution in Spain— A Squirrel Hunt— Suggestive 
Biography — A Sun-power Engine— Origin of the 
" Grecian Bend "—Practical Questions in Arithmetic 
—An Unexpected Collision— Curious Work of Bees 
— Agricultural Joke's— Precision in Business— New 
Puzzles 3 Illustrations.. 410-420 
Burning Straw at the West 404 
Cattle, Dairy— Ayrshi res 2 Illustrations . .405 
Cattle— Growing Interest in Blooded Stock 409 
Cattle— Value of Grade 404 
Defect in the Pennsylvania Rotation 411 
Farm Work in November 394 
Flower Garden and Lawn in November 395 
Fruit Garden in November 395 
Grapes— The Longworth Prize 114 
Grapes— The Scuppernong Illustrated. .413 
Grapes— Notes on, and Culture 415 
Green and Hot-houses in November 395 
Horses— The Percheron Illustrated. . 393 
Household Department — Sea-side Fare— Scallops— 
About Pickles— Toast, How to Make it— A Foot 
Rest— Mending a Rag Carpet— Economy in Coal- 
hods or Buckets— More Variety in Food Wanted— 
Sandwiches— Apple Pie as it Should be— The ,-Etna 
—Children's Swings— The Health of Gold Fish— 4 
Illustrations -117-41S 
Row and When to Milk 403 
In a Bog— An Agricultural Problem 410 
Insects-The Wheel-bug 3 Illustrations .4111 
Kitchen Garden in November 395 
Make More Butter Ill 
Manure— Carting out in the Fall 410 
Manure— Shelter for 3 Illustrations. 408 
Market Reports 398 
Muck— Getting out 3 Illustrations, ui'.i 
Orchard and Nursery in November 395 
Paint in the Tool Room 403 
Plants. Parasitic-Thc Dodders 2 Illustrations— 414 
Plants— The Virgin's Bower Illustrated 113 
Pondrette Make for I lie Garden 41(> 
Poultry— Winter Care of Fowls 2 Illustrations Ills 
Premiums 396 397 
Spring Barley IDS 
Steamer or Mill ? 403 
Tim Bunker on Farmers Getting Rich 409 
Trees— Tin' Krelreuteria Tlluslraltd. .410 
Walks and Talks on the Farm. No. .V.I Draining and 
Deep Plowing— Renovating Old Pastures— ProtUs on 
Good and Poor Farming— Fattening Sheep— Har- 
vestingBeans 406-407 
Wheat — Experiments in I 'lilt are 407 
Wood Ashes as a Fertilizer 411 
INDEX TO "BASKET" OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Alsike Clover 400 Improving Sandy Land 400 
Am. Stud-Book lol Infringing Patent? 402 
Bleaching Tanned Pelts, 401 Irrigation in Winter 401 
Blooded Slock 402 Judd Wheat Prizes 399 
Bone-dust lor Pastures 4,11 Manhattan Belief As9'n.,39fl 
Brazen Swindle. .. .399 Marketing Poultry. 
Cinn 
Colo 
Hulls 
.401 
Cooked Food for Hogs, ton Our JersSj 
Cooking Pumpkins. . . 4(12 Pigeon Bel 
Cork Oaks in Cal 101 Pond Mud.." Inn 
Country Residences. . ,:i'.l!i Rotary Spader 402 
Dept. of Agriculture :'«i s,. :l hb" v Leg in Fowls 401 
Earl v Corn :i'i'i S.-civl of Cheap Pork. loll 
English Sparrows In-; Seed-lied on Sward Land. ton 
Fairs, Canada & N. Y SI. lug S I Potatoes 402 
Fall Plowing I112 Selection of Seed Corn .400 
Farming bv Proxy Km Self-filling Ice-House 11111 
Fattening Cattle 102 Sens.' at Farmer-' Club 399 
Fish Ponds KB Slaughter-house Mannre.400 
"Freezing Kill- F-e- " nil Splendid Premiums . 398 
Frost Improving Soil . .400 Stone or Wood Fences 400 
Gar: 
Goaf, Care of 
Grain, when to Thras 
Guide to Study of Insei 
Horticulture at N.Y.F: 
iloveu and Sorghum. 
.399 
oad 401 
I 'alecs.. ..402 
■Mcadows.401 
Bark Volumes Supplied.— The back volumes 
of the Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with rural life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last len volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desire. I topic. We have on 
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numbers and volumes for len years past, beginning with 
1857-that is. Vol. 1010 Vol. 20. inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post- 
paid, (or $1.50 if laken at the office). The volumes, 
neatly bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if te be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of ihe past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents wioh. 
A Year of 13 Months, 
Every rYew Subscriber to the American Agri- 
culturist for 1869, whose subscription, comes to 
hand during November, will receive the paper for 
December without charge, if the name be 
marked new when sent in Take Notice, that 
this offer extends to All Mew Subscribers, whether 
coming singly, or in Premium Clubs, nr otherwise. 
A M E R I ( A IV A (i R I <: U L T II R I S T . 
NEW- YORK, NOVEMBER, 1868. 
The excitement and hurly-burly attendant upon 
an election for President of the United States will 
occupy the heads and hearts of a great number of 
our readers, so that those who come to these col- 
umns for advice, or to be reminded of the work 
before them, will very likely not take tip this num- 
ber until it has laiu a week upou their tables. 
After Hie momentous question has been decided, 
the news read, re-read, well pondered, and the whole 
nation has settled down quietly and accepted the de- 
cision, then the farmers will have to bestir them- 
selves to make up for lost time, before the setting 
in of winter. It is a bad plan to be in a hurry ; even 
the farmer who has only one pair of hands to keep 
employed should have definite plans, and work ac- 
cording; to tbem. Of course it is vastly more im- 
portant for those who give employment to several 
laborers to lay out their work well ahead. Winter 
will come among the mountain valleys and forests 
of the North, while we, perhaps, are enjoying the 
bland, bracing weather of the late autumn. Sleigh- 
bells will jingle and keep time to the pace of mettle- 
some horses, dashing over frozen roads with happy 
sleigh loads of parents and children at Thanksgiv- 
ing time in one State, while the children of another 
celebrate the same festival in summer clothing, 
playing upon the lawns, or rambling in search of 
nuts in the grove. Nevertheless, irresistible win- 
ter slowly and surely marches onward, and we 
should all be ready when he comes. 
The harvests are abundant ; prices of farm prod- 
uce rule high ; there is no pressure of famine, no 
short stock of any of the necessities, and hardly of 
the luxuries of life ; our nation is bearing up man- 
fully under what our enemies predicted would be 
a crushing load of debt, gradually paying it off; 
and upon every side evidences of personal and na- 
tional prosperity meet us. With these blessings 
come responsibilities and accountabilities which 
we cannot avoid. This month, closing as it does 
the farmer's year of toil in the fields, and filling his 
heart with gladness, should remind us that we are 
not alone in the world, that all are not prosperous, 
so that receiving freely we should remember the 
good Giver, in bestowing freely of our surplus. 
Hints about Work. 
The order of farm work at the North is, first to 
secure crops still in the field, before freezing 
weather; second, to protect those already in store, 
as well as houses, barns, and manure stores from 
damage from any source; third, to put the farm in 
order for a sudden freezing up. Early winters 
come now and then, and shut down upon farm work 
just when a day or two more of out-door labor would 
save the labors of months, perhaps, from loss. 
Boot Crops. — These continue to grow as long as 
the ground is open, but it is a poor plan to trust 
too long to the weather. No date can be fixed ap- 
plicable to different latitudes, but at the North it 
will be wise to lose no time after the first of No- 
vember, in harvesting roots of all sorts. Pars, tips 
will not be injured by the severest freezing, 
though they may be frozeu up and not be available 
before next spring. They are wintered thus as they 
grew, and are ready for feeding or for market as 
soon as the ground opens. Ruta-bagas will bear 
more frost than white turnips, but neither should 
be subjected to severe freezing. Mangels and Sugar 
Beets, though they bear, perhaps, an equal degree of 
cold without apparent damage, yet if they stand in 
the ground after they cease to grow, they become 
tough aud woody, and roots exposed to freezing, if 
not used soon, decay at the crown. Growth ceases 
with beets after a few sharp frosts ; hence they 
should be dug and housed early. Carrots are also 
liable to injury from freezing, and the first frost 
that stiffens the soil should be a signal to harvest 
beets and carrots with alacrity, if not already done. 
Potatoes — In parts of the country where the dig- 
ging of potatoes has been delayed, or where it is 
safe to wait so long as November, digging should 
be postponed no longer, but this valuable crop 
housed at. once, or placed in frost-proof pits, such 
as were described in the Hints for Work last month. 
Winter drain. — Top-dressings are sometimes 
recommended for application early this month. 
These are of two kinds. One acts chiefly as a 
mulch, and is often very useful. Poor composts of 
sods, peat, etc., made with but little manure, or 
with lime, ashes, guano, fish manure, castor pom- 
ace, or something of that kind, if they have lain 
until line and uniform, may be spread on pretty 
liberally, and the ground rolled. Guano or some 
fine " hand manure " may be sown on to quicken 
the growth of late crops, aud to promote tillering 
when the stand is thin. Do not trust a common 
farm hand to plow the water furrows or surface 
drains about or across grain fields. Keep them 
nearly on a level, but with a uniform, slight fall. 
Housing or Stacking Corn Fodder. — Com stalks 
dry so slowly that it often takes all the fair weather 
of autumn to dry them. It is rarely safe to leave 
them in the field after the middle of the month, 
and they make much better fodder if housed as 
soon as they are dry enough. Whether iu stacks 
or under " barracks," lay the bundles with the 
tops inward, and inclined slightly upward, so that 
rain and thawing snow will all be carried off. 
Buildings. — Look well to the roofs, cave troughs, 
and weather boarding of all buildings. Where every 
thing is not snug aud tight, a few nails will add 
greatly to the durability of barns and sheds. If 
Stables have only single outer walls, line them with 
bog hay, or other litter, stuffed between an inner 
boarding or lathing and the weather boards. This 
is a favorable season for outside Painting, as the 
weather is seldom so dry as to be very dusty. New 
paint is not disfigured by small insects, flies, etc., 
sticking to it, as often happens at other seasons. 
Roads.— Employ spare time of men and teams in 
putting the farm roads in good repair, and protect- 
ing them against washing during thaws or rains. 
Fences. — Tear away all fences not absolutely 
necessary. We believe that small farmers who 
keep only four or five head of cows and heifers can 
well afford to get chain-tethers for their animals 
and keep them tethered while grazing, rather than 
be at the expense of putting up many interior 
fences. Grain fields must be securely enclosed, and 
fences between neighbors and along the highway 
should be looked to, before the ground freezes, 
and weak posts strengthened by stakes, or reset. 
Manure may be carted out if it can be spread and 
plowed in, or put into compost heaps with sod- or 
muck, or even put in heaps and covered with two 
or three inches of soil. The swamps and roadsides, 
old fence rows aud the woods, should contribute to 
the supply of material for composts to be made 
now, or to be worked up during the winter by 
mingling the vegetable mold with manure as it 
accumulates. To get rich, fine manure for spring 
grains, flax, garden use, and many other purposes, 
build up heaps, consisting of alternate layers of 
strawy stuff, fresh manure, and litter, from the 
stables, and wet the whole now and then by pumping 
barn-yard liquor over it to saturation. It will all 
rot down before spring, and become fine and uni- 
form. See article on sheltering manure, on page 408. 
Hogs gain flesh and fatten very rapidly during 
most of this month. Feed regularly all they will 
eat, and only ground or cooked grain. Every few 
days it is well to mix a few handfuls of charcoal 
and ashes from a wood lire with their food, or to 
