418 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Becewber, 
Contents for December, 1866. 
Annual— American AgricuUarai 420 
Annual — American Horticultural for 1867 ,420 
Apple — The Stirprise 436 
Bees — Apiary in December 419 
Bees— Invenlion for Emptying Combs 431 
Binding— Papers, Pamphlets, etc G Illustrations.. -iZQ 
Bitters Injurious 439 
Boys and Giils' columns — Premiums for — Boy Cuts 
Cord of Wood— How Rain Falls— Great Amount of 
Rain — Problems about Rain — Cliecliers — Sometliing 
about ]\letenrs— Problems and Puzzles— Our Young 
Soldiers — Grudging Forgiveness — Tiie Gipsies — 
[ Comiral Misapprehension — Jlotions of a Watch— 
■i lUustrafinns 441-442 
Cattle Plagues 400 
Cattle— Pole Ax 430 
Cattle Stables .Z l/Iustrcirions .431 
Cooliing Hinls—Farmers'Pudding— Tapioca Pudding 
—Cracker Pie— Steamed Apple Pudding— Puff Pud- 
jijig — Cottage Puddding— Wine Sauce— Bread with- 
out Yeast— Pilaff-Oriental Dish— Frying Fish- 
Sour Curd Cheese , 440 
Cotton Culture— Costs and Rislis 432 
Evergreens for Holidays Illustrated. AZ3 
Farm Wotk in December 418 
Fences— Foundations for Stone 429 
Fertilization by Insects 3 Ilhistrations . .iZl 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December 419 
Foliage— Ornamental Plants 433 
Fruit Garden in December .419 
Garden -Kitchen in December 419 
Geraniums — Double Illustrated. .455 
Grapes — Cold Grapery in December 419 
Grapes— Greeley Prize Awarded 438 
Grapes — Notes on Yarieiies. etc 4.37 
Green and Hot-Houses in December 419 
Hedge-hog— European 427 
Horse Breaking and Horse Sense 432 
Horse— Young Ethan Illustrated.. ill 
Household- Information Wanted 410 
Housekeepers— Note to 439 
Improving an Old Place 433 
Land— How tn Improve . .427 
Ladders— Extension and Fruit 2 Ulustrufions. .430 
Market Reports 451 
Orchard and Nursery in December 419 
Paper for Walls— Selecting 440 
Plants— Cut Leaved 2 Illustrationx..i3S 
Plants- Half Hardy 435 
Porcupine— White Haired Illustrated. .421 
Premiums for 1S67 426 
Protection from Frost 433 
Sheep Rack— Portable 4 Illustrations . .AZ\ 
Shi rts- Fitting 440 
Slaughtering Animals J3S 
Trees— Disea.5e5 435 
Trees— Giafling Nut-Bearing.:... -— 436 
Trees— Jlountaiu Ashes.. Illustrated.. US 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 36— Cutting Corn 
Fodder— Husking M.achine— Potato Crop— Fatten- 
ing Sheep— Expense of Farming — Prices of Pjo- 
ilnce— Capital Needed— Destroying Rats— Prices of 
Ferrets 429 
Western Farming— Good 432 
INDEX TO ''BASKET," OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
.\nn'l Register, Tucker's422 Humbug Recipes 424 
Barberry Seeds 421 H>imtaui;s. Sundry 491 
Beehive. Langstlolh's.... 423 Index Sheet '. 425 
Bonnet, Fashionable 424 Ink Recipe 420 
Book— Bulbs - ...423 Irrigation— Windmills. ..422 
Book— Fiuit 423 Leather, Preservation. . .424 
Book— Gardening 420 Letters. Subscription — 420 
Book— Gift 4^2 Map, Llovd's 422 
Book- Grape Culture 425 Measures, Englisli 422 
Book— Manure 421 .Melhoiiist Newspa|ier 422 
Booi( — Poelry 422 .Mower, Buckeye 420 
Book— Rural Art 423 Musquash Skins— Price. .420 
Book— S. S. (Questions... 420 Osage Orange in Pa 425 
Book— Tree Culturist. ..423 Paint, Coal Tar 424 
Books. Good Pay 425 Painting, Colors 423 
Bound Volumes 425 Paintings.Eiig'vings, etc. 421 
Butter, Cost of 424 Path, Steep 422 
Cabbage. Marblehead. . ..421 Pears at Hammondsport.423 
Calves, Rearing 423 Pears, Beurre Clairgeau.423 
Chestnuts, Planting 421 Pencil Marks, Faslening.424 
Clubs, Increasing 425 Plant Medicine 423 
Clubs, Where Made up, 425 Plants Named 421 
CowsforDairv 420 P. 0. Address 425 
Clranberries. Fine 422 Pom. Soc. Ohio 425 
Documents Received ..,422 Poultry, Diseased 421 
F'erlilization by Insects. .423 Poultry, Large Flocks.. 421 
Flour, Best, Cheapest, ..424 Pump and Sprinkler 422 
Fodder. Steaming 420 Quince, Hardiness 422 
Frost, Use of 424 Railish. Mailr.as 423 
Fruit for Stock 425 Recipes. .■Vdvertised 494 
Geography, New 422 Rose. Mareschal Niel 422 
Gift Repeated 425 Sal.sify. Cooking 424 
Goats for Milk 420 Sheep for Small Flock... 420 
Grape Vine Cuttings 420 Smart Weed Fodder 420 
Grape Vino— Trade Sale. 420 Snails in Cellars 423 
Grape Vines, Growing. . .422jSparrows, Ealing 424 
Grouse, Cooking 424|Subscribe Now 425 
Heaves in Animals 423 Tomato. Tilden 423 
Honey. Artificial 423|Trout, Cooking 424 
Hop Culture 424 Willow. While -132 
Horses, Crib-Biting 42l|Wire for Clothes Lines.. 421 
Hurl. Soc. Philadelphia. .423 Young Jtan's Success . .424 
Ilumhug, Lotteries 421 
AMERKW i IGRICULTrRIST. 
NEU'-YCIRK, DECEMBER, 1860. 
Plo^viug, stump pulling, ■\yall-la}'ing, field-clear- 
ing of stones and roots, underdraiuiug, etc., must 
cease when the thermometer drops down towards 
zero. Still these are the appropriate labors of those 
favored sections ^vhel■c the plovi may run in every 
month of the year, and where white clover and 
annual grasses afford abundant pa-sturage, thoiigh 
oflcu cropped, from November to May. 
This seasoQ is one of comparative rest to both 
the farmer and his stock. It is a time for him to 
read, to plan for the nest year, to lay in a store of 
ideas, like as he collects ehoiee seeds for his next 
spring's planting. We have often said that winter 
is the seed time of praetieal ideas, wliich bear their 
fruit in the season of labor. It is especially a time 
for farmers to compare notes. A. B. went to the 
fair, perhaps to the State fair; he brought .away the 
liand-bills, cards, catalogues and posters of fifty dif- 
ferent dealers, and he will never weary of talliiug 
over what he saw, and you may copy off tlie ad- 
dresses and write to tlie ijarties for catalogues of 
stock, implements, fruit trees, or any thing you 
like. Almost all send such things free, or some- 
thing free, though many cliai-ge a small fee for 
their very extensive and expensively illustrated cat- 
alogues, which are almost always very instructive. 
Au immense stock of inform.ition may be thus 
gathered, and readily tnrned to account. 
The Farmer's Club is the jdaee for discussing 
improved stock, implements, new crops, better 
seed, and all such things, and were the readers of 
tlie American AgricuUnrid aware of what the bene- 
fits of such au organizatioQ might be to them, .and 
what pleasure as well as profit they wotild realize, 
there would be a good club maintained in every 
country school district, or village at least. 
The Sdrijspfrt. — We have climbed the hill, and 
before this month is past we may look over upon 
the sunlit prospects of the coming year ; but now if 
we face .about in the clear wintcry air of these De- 
cember days, we may well take a survey of the road 
we have travelled, of the mistakes we have made, 
and the points won — the failures and the gains. 
The year has had its anxieties, (more th.an usual). 
It h.os been a prosperous one on the whole ; abun- 
dant harvests, ready markets, and high prices, have 
rewarded the toils of the husbandman. To a 
limited extent only has disease prevailed .among 
flocks or herds. Other nations have suffered from 
war, from murr.ains, and from the failure of their 
harvests, while we are spared this distress, and our 
products are in great demand. 
Our commerce increases, and even our internal 
disquiet does not prevent the most marked recogni- 
tion of our prosperity .and greatness as a n.ation. 
So ends the year. What the future has in store is 
known only to Him ^vho has guided us thus far in 
prosperity and in adversity, and whom in thankful- 
ness we trust to lead still in ways of prosperity 
and usefulness, and that our ill-deserts may not he 
remembered against us. 
Iliiit« about AVork. 
As we have hinted above, the farmer's most im- 
portant winter work may be in cultivating his own 
mind, and not his alone, but those of his children 
and dependents. lu this free .and independent 
country, it is often hard to tell which is the servant, 
he who giyes I he labor of his free hands for money, 
or he who gives his money for labor. They some- 
times change places, and very often the hired man 
becomes the more intelligent, cultivated, and wealthy 
of the two. Many a mau has voted for a former 
day laborer as his representative in the Legislature, 
or in Congress. This comes only by good use of 
the golden hour.s of winter evenings. 
Books. — The world is full of good ones. The less 
one knows, the better is he satisfied with what he 
Icnows. Those books upon .subjects bearing upon 
a man's own calling, are a never failing source of 
interest and profit; and in connection with books, 
RriodkaU both professional and those of general 
interest, are very important as educators. These 
things should be made .available iu each neighbor- 
hood, by means of a well selected 
CirvuhMnij Lthrary, established iu a central loca- 
tion, iu the school-house, a store, or in a privatr 
family, and open at regular hours. Even at 
present prices of literature of all kinds, a smill 
sttm only is required to estaldish and raainta'.n 
such a library, if it be selected by a good agen:. 
Si'hniiU. — Review hints iif previous numbers ;>n 
this most important subject. 
Aemuuts. — To begin the new year aright when i^ 
comes, the old year must be finished rightly. 
Farmers are very apt to run into careless habiti 
about their .accounts — uot so much iu money trans- 
actions as in their store bills, especially where the 
farm products are seldom sold for money, hut arf 
exchanged for family groceries. Go over ali 
accounts, and get ready to commence with a cle.an 
balance sheet January 1st, 1867. A plain account 
book has prevented many a law suit, for it is the 
very best witness a man can take into court, prc- 
vided it has been regularly and accurately kept. 
Frolectioia against Fro.$t. — Protect cellars by b.ank- 
ing up outside the walls with sods and dirt, or what 
is better, tau bark. Conduct off water dripping or 
flowing from leaves, and j^ack straw or leaves against 
such windo\vs and doors as are not constant!}' in 
use. Pumps or hydr.ants may be protected by set- 
ting he.adle*3 barrels around them and filling them 
with tan-bark, or muck, or manure. Protect 
imderground cisterns, if necessary, by covering 
them with more earth. If water pipes freeze, clear 
the ice out by pouring hot water upon the ice 
through an India rubber tube. Exposed pipes may 
be protected very well by winding them with hay 
rope, and smearing this with clay. 
Foihlei: — It makes little difference how abundant 
fodder is ; its waste is criminal. Those who throw 
out hay, straw, or stalks, to bo trampled upon, and 
trod into the ground by cattle and sheep, do .a very 
foolish thing, for if properly used as bedding even, 
it would be worth a goiw deal for manure. Pvaeks 
ought to be provided for tiie yards and sheds, as 
well as for the stalls, and so constructed th.at .all 
the cattle refuse mnj' bo worked over, as indicatedi 
Li>'e Slock of all Khnh require the farmer's espc- 
ci.al e.aro and daily jiersoual attention. The cold 
weather is .apt to induce carelessness on the part of', 
the hands, and .animals are not all well watered or' 
equally foddered, or systematically carded or clean- 
ed, unless the master's presence secures faithful 
work. Feed and water regularly and well, and 
keep salt before horses, cattle and sheep. We like , 
the Liverpool rock salt best. This comes iu solid, ' 
hard m.osses, weighing several pounds, and lumps ; 
may be laid in the mangers or in salt troughs iu the 1 
yard. Give all kinds of cattle a daily airing of two 
or three hours. Young cattle and sheep may have 
mucli more liberty. No class of stock should be 
allowed to run down in flesh — it is so hard to bring 
them up again, and keep the young stoclc growing, j 
Colts and Steei-s.—Whcamro get a snow of .a foot 
or more deep, it is a capital time to break steers 
and colts. For hints on horse-ln-cakiug see p. 432. 
Moi-ses. — See hints iu last number. Look out for 
having them well shod and caulked as soon .as icy 
weather comes. The best application for brniscs 
.and sprains is usually cold water and thorough rub- 
bing. If very painful, put on rum and a little 
tincture of arnica, but not on raw spots. Cuts, or 
bruises, when the skin is broken, arc best treated 
with grease and pine tar, melted together to a soft 
salve. See "Horse Hospital " iu our Basket. 
Working Oxrn, if used, should be well shod and 
caulked, at any rate in front, otherwise one runs n 
great risk of having them get falls and sprains. 
(^5„.,,._Keep tlicir stables clean, sprinkle gypsum 
to prevent the odor of .ammonia. Give abundant 
ventilation, but not cold drafts. JIake them exer- 
cise daily when it is not very icy. If kept in a 
