274r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[AcstrsT, 
Contents for August, 1866. 
Baromeleis— Useful lo Farmers 277 
Bees— Apiiiry in August 276 
Book— Ameiican Poinoiogy 277 
Book— Barry's Fruit Giirden 278 
Buok — Market and Family Gardening 277 
Book on Peat and its Uses 283 
Book— Practical and Sciefitific Gardening 277 
Hook— Small Fruit Cnllurist 277 
Boys and Girls' Columns- Tlie Sun Seen at the Poles 
Two Figlits and a Victory— Nicknames— How an 
Owl was Canglil— -Mixing the Pronouns— Checkers 
— Problems and Puzzles— Fighting Recommended — 
The Right Road— Something About tlie Toad— An 
Auctioneer's Mistake 4 lUustrati^..i9i, 296 
Butter Making 294 
Carts vs. Wagons for Horses 583 
Cedar Apples— Description of Illustrated.. 2^9 
Chicken Medicine— Value of Charcoal .^ ....2S3 
Deodorizer— Dry Earth Efficient , 2f6 
Farm Work in August — 273 
Fence Posts— Preserving with Gas Tar 2S3 
Fences — Designs foi" Ornamental — 6 Illustrations . .2%5 
Fences— How to Set Bar Posts 283 
Fertilization by Insects 5 I Uustrations.. 200 
Flower Garden and Lawn in August 276 
Fhisiung Monument to Soldiers Illustrated. 280 
Fruit Garden in August 275 
Fruit-Unusual Growths 2 Illustrations.. 2il 
Garden— Kitchen in August 275 
Gas Tar for Posts 2S3 
Gate for the Farm Illustrated.. 2ib 
Grape Vines— How to Slop Bleeding 257 
Grapes— Cold Grapery in August 276 
Green and Hot- Ho uses in August 276 
Hen Roosts — Improvement in Illustrated.. .284 
Hop Aphis— How the English Destroy.... 2S2 
House Leeks and Stone Crops Illustrated. .292 
Implements— Trial at Auburn 277 
Information Given— To Clean anil Color Kid Gloves 
—To Get Rid of Flies— Cement for Knife Handles 
— Pork Biine— Good Home-made Ink— Extracting 
Wheel Grease — Preserving Bacon or Ham— Soap 
and Washing Fluid— To Color Carpet Warp 294 
Insect— The .Mole Cricket Illustrated. .i86 
Insects and Fertilization of Plants. .5 lUustruTions ..290 
Laddeis for Farm and Orchard 4 Illustrations. .2M 
Lamp Bracket 3 Illustrations.. 29i 
Linnajaii Society at Lancaster, Pa 290 
.Manure- Treatment of Urine 28" 
Market Report ...276 
.Mildew— Methods of Treating 2S6 
Monuments to Deceased Soldiers Illustrated. .2S0 
Oats, Wild — Vaiious Opinions About 282 
Orcliard and Nursery in August 274 
Pain Perdu 294 
I'eas— The Carter Condemned 886 
Peat and its Uses— New Work on 283 
I'oultry — Feeding Boxes 2 Illustrations. .^S5 
Itabbit Breeding 3 Illustrations.. 2S\ 
.Safe from Seeond Commandment 294 
Shirts -Difficulties in Fitting 293 
Stacking Apparatus for Hay or Grain Illustrated.. 2ii 
Strawberries — Leading Varieties — 20 Illustrations. .2SS 
Strawberries— Notes on the Crop, etc 287 
Strawberries — Notes on Varieties 289 
Swans in Brooding Time Illustrated. .273 
Tidy P.attern- Neat and Cheap I llustrated . .29Z 
Verbena— Notes on Introduction 287 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 32.— Cheese Mak- 
ing — Winter Feeding and Yield of Butter — Visit 
from Mr. Judd — Weeding Farms — Care of Young 
Animals— Crops for Soiling 2T9-2S0 
Willow Hedges— How to Grow 286 
INDEX TO ''BASKET," OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Humbugs. Sundry 277 
Implement Trial 277 
Insects on Squashes ...278 
Knitting Machines 278 
.Manure. Ashes 278 
Manure. Barn-Yard... .278 
-Vpple Parer 
Hook, Fruit Culture 
Uotanical Congress 
Uroom. Silver's 276 
Mutter Won't Come 278 
i'abbageandlndependent'2' 
Cancer Quacks 27S 
l^ntoniolo'-'ist .278 
i-'ertitization 278 
'■rost Flower.. . 2 
Humbug Concert 278 
Manure. Bone Flour .. 278 
Paint Company 278 
Rinderpest in England.. 27S 
Strawberry Engraving.. 278 
; ate for Farm 27SI straw berry, Gol'n Queen::78 
■ 1 Wine, Unfermenled 278 
Post-Oflioe Money Orders — Iin- 
provemenl.— The new law allows $50 to be sent in 
one Order. Tiie charge is ten cents for any sum up to 
■^20, and 25 cents for any sum over $20 up to S50. For 
over $50 it is merely necessary to take more than one 
.trder. New Order Offices are being established. This 
^ystem is of great value to the whole country, and 
amounts to positive safely in tr;insmitting moderate sums 
''f motley by mail, by paying about 'i of one ••■er cent. 
AMERICIX 4GRI€ULTrRIST. 
NEW-YORK, AUGUST, 1866. 
Ati'ricultiir.il operations, especially out-of-door 
work, depend to a great extent upon the weather. 
In the early p.irt of the season field labor was much 
interrupted by rains and cold storms, which pre- 
vented the early working of the land, and crowded 
■work very much into June, so that whatever could 
be postponed until July was so put off. in many 
parts of the country. The result is, lh.it while gr.ain 
has generally been promptly harvested when in the 
best condition, a good deal of grass, has been left to 
get over lipe and wirey before being cut. To the 
careless farmer there is a gain in this dela^r, for the 
older the grass the quicker the hay will make ; but 
few re.ilize how much poorer the quality is. There 
is reason still to expect great heat, such as wc ex- 
perienced in the last of June and the first of July, 
and if so, the provisions made for soiling cattle 
"will be of great value. We cannot too often insist 
upon the practice, now happily becoming much 
more common thcu formerly, namely, that of sow- 
ing corn, sugar-cane, millet, and perhaps also other 
summer crops, like ruta b.igas, or rape, to be used 
for this purpose wheu jjastures run short. There 
are several things that can be sowed for fiill feed 
now, which may come in most opportunely — such 
as oats, rye, sorghum, ruta-bagas, etc., sowed thick 
for leaf only. The pasturage may also be " pieced 
out " to good advantage, by feeding some dry hay 
which will ordinarily be relished by all kinds of 
stock, especially if it be cut up, salted a little, a 
handful or two of meal or oilcake for each ani- 
mal, sprinkled over it, and the whole moistened 
well lyith water and allowed to stand a few hours. 
The dry season gives opportunities to get into 
the muck and peat swamps, which in the lull of 
field worlc upon the staple crops should not he 
neglected. The recent pernsal of Prof. Johnson's 
admirable work on Peat .and its Uses, impresses us 
more perhaps than ever before with the great stores 
of fertility locked up in our swainp.ii and quag- 
mires, waiting only enterprise to develop and to en- 
rich with them the exhausted acres which on thou- 
sands of farms lie closely adjacent. The system of 
operations is first to find the lowest place and best 
outlet; then to dig trenches to drain the swamp, or 
part of it, making first the main ditches, open and 
flaring, then the lateral ones, leaving the muck 
which is thrown out exposed to the weather until 
it becomes dry aud crumbles, unless the sun bakes 
it into too hard cakes, in which case, when partially 
dry, beat it to pieces aud lay it up in compost 
heaps, with lime slaked with old brine. Such muck 
will be dry and ready for use in the stables as an 
absorbent in winter. That which is not so treated, 
will be disintegrated by frost for use iu the spring. 
It often happens that the worlc of this season is 
such that it may be left a good deal to the hired 
men, and thus the time gained for a few days of 
relaxation. Nothing is more beneficial. A trip to 
the sea-side, when a few neighbors make up the 
party, aud enjoy sea bathing, fishing, clam bakes, 
and chowders; even a day of fishing and out-of- 
door sports in the woods with one's family and a 
few friends is worth a great deal for health and 
good spirits. We often hear it said that we make 
too little of holid.ays and have too few in this coun- 
try, and it is true. Farm work will go better and 
one's interest iu his farm, his family and in life it- 
self is hightcned, and made generous and he.ilthy 
by occasionally giving up a few days to enjoyment, 
aud having a real good time. 
Not the least reason for occasional iriief from the 
pressure of business and labor may be fouud in the 
sanitary condition of the country. There is no 
little anxiety at the time we write in regard to the 
cholera, which seems to be held ofl', under God, 
only by the strong sanitary police regulations main- 
tained at our ports of entry. It is therefore the 
bounden duty of everybody to keeji himself so far 
as possible in a condition of health, not to over- 
worli or get exhausted in body, or foolishly anxious. 
The women of the fiirm who, iu the geuerosity of 
their hearts, often bid city cousins welcome to the 
best they have, and slave themselves almost day 
aud night to serve them, are in more danger of 
over-working than anybody else, and husbands and 
firthcrs should quietly regulate this matter by plan- 
ning excursions or visits, which shall break up the 
too long stay of labor-makiug guests, and give 
their wives and daughters pleasure and relief from 
the severe burdens of their confining duties. Per- 
haps you have never been invited to spent a fort- 
night in January with your cousins in Boston, New- 
Tork, or Philadelphia, who visit you so gladly every 
August. At any rate you owe no one hospitality 
which will endanger the health of your family. 
Hints about 'Work. 
Bushes uiid Weeds. — August is a season for the 
most eflfective and deadly onskaughts upon weeds 
and bushes. The nature of most weeds is iu the 
first part of the season to make tops, and after- 
wards to concentrate their energies either upon the 
production of seed or maturing their roots, bo as 
to live through the winter. If cut in this dry hot 
weather, it is usually certain death. Even Butter- 
and-Eggs {Linai-ia), that most showy and detestible 
of Weeds, is sometimes killed by thorough hoeing 
up iu .an August drouth. As for bushes, once cut- 
ting up, and then letting the sheep browse off the 
young shoots, will make an end of the worst, even 
wild roses, and bl.ackberry bushes. Do not let any 
weeds go to seed. The season has been p.articular- 
ly favorable to crops of weeds, and without proper 
diligence it will take years to do away with the 
harm that may be done, if they scatter their seeds. 
Seed Orain. — Look out early for a good supply of 
cle.au plump seed, especially for that to be used this 
season. Clean it thoroughly from all shrnnken 
lieruels and weed seeds by repeated winnowing, 
using if possible the arrangement described on 
page 1.38 (April), which is applicable to all kinds of 
grain and grass seeds. 
Bt.Kkwheat may be sowed now and make a good 
mass of green manure, to be plowed under in time 
for sowing rye, or for enriching the ground for 
spring crops, and with a chance for a crop of grain. 
Timothy sowed alone will, on good soil quickened 
with a top-dressing of bone, guano, or any fine rich 
compost, usually catch well, and sooner make n 
good sward than that sown with spring grain, or 
upon winter grain iu the spring. 
^VIleat. — If the soil be dry in winter and in good 
heart now, plow early, and giving a top-dressing of 
some good fine compost, or special manure, drill 
in the wheat. It is poor policy to risk winter 
wheat on soil which, from lack of draining, barely 
allows the plants to struggle through. 
Oafs. — Harvest before too ripe, and thus have 
much better straw, more and plumper grain. 
Com. — It is a great temptation sometimes to 
sucker corn for the sake of getting green feed for 
cows We do not believe in suckering corn at all, 
though with some kinds it m.ay have no evil effects. 
With many varieties we feel sure that the snckers 
are important to secure the proper filling out of 
the tips of the cars, the tassels coming into flower 
a little later than those of the main stalks, the later 
maturing tip kernels of the ear, are thus fertilized. 
Pull weeds among corn, but do no hoeing after the 
ground is shaded. 
Tobacco begins to ripen for cutting by the middle 
of the month, if properly topped and suckercd. 
When about 13 to 16 leaves have formed, aud the 
flower stalk begins to push up rapidly, clear of the 
mass of large leaves below, then it should be 
broken off. The bight will vary with the vigor of 
the plant, and the earlincss or lateness of the sea- 
son. The leaves increase rapidly in size after this, 
and suckers will start from the base of each, which 
must be broken off. The worming must go on all 
the time ; and so vigorously do the suckers grow, 
and so active are the worms, that a few acres ■will 
give very steady work during this month to several 
