118 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Contents for April, 1869. 
Abutilon, Variegated Illustrated. . 140 
Alpine Rock Cress Illustrated . .137 
Animal Parasites, To Destroy 4 Illustrations. .133 
Basking Shark, or the '"Great Sea Monster "\ . Illifstr . . 130 
Bee Items — By M. Quinby 12G 
Boys' anrl Girls' Columns — P's that it Pays to Possess 
—Use for the Fire-fly— Dealing with Thieves— The 
, Defective Stone— The Care of Canary Birds— Spelling 
Test— The New-comer— An East Indian Giant Story 
—Too Much Medicine— A Difficult Language— New 
Puzzles to be Answered 3 Illustrations.. 143-144 
Broom-corn Culture 126 
Butter Market— Good and Bad Butter 128 
Chain-fastening for Tail-boards Illustrated.. 133 
Corn Cribs and Granaries Illustrated . .133 
Experience with Fancy Pigs 134 
Experience with Vegetables 13S 
Farm Work in April 118 
Flower Garden and Lawn in April 120 
Fruit at Alton, 111 138 
Fruit Garden in April 119 
Grafting Fruits Trees— A New Method ..Illustrated. .138 
Green-house and Window Plants in April 120 
Good Cows for Poor Men 134 
Herons— A Heronry Illustrated . .136 
House Plants— The Secret 139 
Household Department— A Rustic Jardinet— House- 
hold Management— An Ornamental Pincushion- 
Towel Rack and Clothes Airer— The Table— Order 
and Ornament— Hints on House Cleaning — Honse- 
\. hold Talks by Aunt Ilattie— Home-made Yeast Bread 
—Delicious Dessert— How to Pop Corn. ..3 III. .141-142 
Improvement of the Wild Radish 7 Illustrations . .139 
Kitchen Garden in April 119 
Lilies— Some Garden Varieties Illustrated . .140 
Market Reports 121 
Milk Cooling and Coolers Illustrated . .135 
Native SnmachB 137 
Onion Raising 3 Illustrations . .126 
Orchard and Nursery in April 119 
Pea-nut or Ground-pea 135 
Persian Cyclamen Illustrated. . 137 
Poultry House at Ogden Farm 134 
Saddle Horses for Farmers 132 
Spring-flowering Bulbs— The Bulbocodium . . . lllustr. . 139 
Strawberries 139 
Tim Bunker on Being Smart Next Week 127 
Thorough-bred Males 134 
Three-horse Evener Illustrated. . 134 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 64— Draining Items 
— Chilled Lambs and Pigs— About Plowing— Farm- 
ing in Ohio and New York— Summer-fallowing. 130-131 
Water for Live-stock 2 Illustrations. . 131-133 
What Lands Shall We Drain ? 135 
White Clover 135 
Wooden Drains 132 
Wrens of the United States Illustrated.. 129 
INDEX TO "BASKET" OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Allen's Am. Farm Book.l22!Irrigation 125 
Brack's Flowers 133 Liquid Manure 125 
Cabbage Caterpillars 124 Manure from Cars 125 
Canada Farming 125 Moore's Rural 123 
Chemical News 124iMuck 125 
Chickens to Rocky Mts.. 124 ;Music 123 
Conundrum 124 Natural Inarching 124 
Cornell University 123 Oil Cake Adulterated. ..124 
Curcnlio 134 Oils, Safe and Unsafe. .. .122 
Death of Willie Judd....l23,Osage Orange Seed 123, 
DomesticatingWoodcockl24 Our Young Folks 122 
Eclipse and Corn Crop... 125 Painting a Barn 124 
Editorial ...123 l Potato Growers' Conven.124 
Eggs for Hatching 135,Potato Pamphlet 123 
Fertilizer for Potatoes. . .124 Poultry Premiums . .123 
Few Premium Animals.. 122, Prairie Farmer 123 
Field Peas 124 Prickly Pear 124 
Food and Freight 134 'Refuse of Vats 124 
Foreign Help 123:Register of Rural Affaire. 134 
Fowls, in-and-inBreedingl25 : Rogers' Grapes 122 
Fur-bearing Animals.. ..124 Roofing Materials 135 
Gapes in Chicken*. . ..134'Saseat'ras & Saw-brier.. ..125 
Gardening for Profit 123 Soils and Trees. 124 
Good Books 123 Soil for Barley 126 
Gypsum 125 Southern Poniologists. . .123 
Hens Eating Eggs 124 Starch Mills 124 
Horses & Cows together.. 124 Stone Lime vs. Shell 124 
Hort'l Protection 122 Sugar in Louisiana 124 
Horticulture in Boston. .123 'Sundry Humbugs 122 
House Building Quest'ns. 125 Sweet Potatoes 122 
Humbugs, Sundry 132 The "Hen Fever" 125 
Hydraulic Rains 125 Tree Invigorators 122 
I Haven't a Foot, of Land. 132 Trichina 123 
Xncreaa'g Pasture Lands. 125 Umlerdraining 124 
Insects of Missouri 133 Van BurenV Peach 122 
lona Island 122 Whitewashing 122 
Back: Volume* 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 ten volumes make up 
a very complete library. Eacli volume lias a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from electrotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years pasl, beginning with 
1857— that is, Vol. Ifilo Vol. 27, inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post- 
paid, (or $1,50 if taken at the office). The volumes, 
neally bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of the past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for }5 cents each. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW- YORK, APRIL, 1869. 
Writing our hints about work in April early in 
Starch, as we must, with the thermometer at twelve 
degrees above zero, and sinking, so that we doubt 
not that it will record six degrees lower by sun- 
rise, it seems as if a yielding sward and green fields 
were too far in the future to be objects of immediate 
care. Nevertheless the sun every day rises higher, 
and the warm noons and lengthening days are 
welcome assurance of a change of season. 
April, in our climate rarely a very rainy month, 
is seed-time throughout the most of the United 
States; at the extreme north winter ma}' still hold 
sway, and throughout the cotton belt a good part 
of this work has been anticipated. The heavy and 
constant labors of the spring give farmers little 
leisure, as these must be pushed forward with all 
vigor as rapidly as possible while fair weather and 
tolerably dry soil make field labor possible. Storms 
are always threatening, and we must be ever care- 
ful to have the work so planned that it may be 
dropped for a week without serious consequences. 
We may sow the spring grains, wheat, (rye), barley, 
oats, and peas ; the grasses and clovers, carrots 
and onions, beets and flax, as well as other crops, 
the seeds of whichare not likely to rot in the ground ; 
and seedlings not liable to injury from moderate 
freezing. This mouth our flocks and herds usually 
receive their greatest natural increase. The weather 
is favorable, being rarely too cold for the young, 
and yet so cool and moist that puerperal and milk- 
fevers are less liable to attack the dams than later 
in the season. 
Hints About Woi-k. 
Let us begin the season with the resolution that 
we will not raise weeds, come what will. Last year 
the whole country seemed full of them; they 
carpeted the corn and cotton fields ; grass grew 
everywhere ; weeds stood as high as the grain in 
thousands of fields. In our trips about the country, 
potato fields were rarely recognizable after August, 
except by the ragweed, and this state of things ex- 
isted from Maine to Minnesota, and southward. 
Grass and Clover may be sown on any land which 
is suitably prepared for them, upon winter or spring 
grain, on old sod harrowed well, or by themselves. 
It is better to brush or bush in grass and clover seed 
than to roll the land. The plan of sowing a little 
white clover with grass-seed is advisable wher- 
ever an application of plaster will not bring it in 
abundantly, as it generally will on old land. 
Spring Grains. — The land should never be wrought 
when wet or tenacious. Wait for it to dry, but get 
the seed in as early as possible. On good strong 
soil it is best to drill all kinds of grain. We have 
no doubts either that it will usually pay to cultivate 
wheat, barley, and oats. Spring grains liave a short 
time to grow. They ought not to be obliged to 
dispute their ground with weeds, and while the 
land must support all the plants it can carry it 
should not be burdened, nor should the best be 
crowded with many puny ones. Trust no light 
grain ; get heavy seed, evcu if it cost $10 per bushel. 
Soak the seed in strong brine, to kill the smut 
spores, and dry it in lime slaked to a powder, to 
make it fit for sowing. See Basket items for an 
effective scarecrow. 
Winter Grain, if harmed by frost, is much benefit- 
ed by rolling and by a top-dressing of dry soil, all 
the more if one or two hundred-weight of guano 
and plaster per acre be mixed with the soil. Grass 
and clover may be sown upon it any time this 
month. Liquid manure applied by a sprinkling 
cart will bring forward with a rush that intended 
for soiling. It will pay to send the men and boys 
through grain fields, especially if drilled, with 
hoes to cut up the weeds large and small. Those 
which get an early start will live; others will be 
smothered by the grain. If this weeding can be 
thorough, it will undoul»tedIy pay to put off sowing 
grass and clover until the first of May. 
Tbtatoes.— Plant only in good soil ; if it be rich, 
fresh manure will cause the crop to rot more or less. 
If the soil be poor, a lack of manure will often pro- 
duce the same effect by lack of vigor in the plants 
to resist disease. It is best to plaut as soon as the 
soil is warm — cutting the seed into pieces of two 
or three eyes, and letting them dry a little before 
planting. Plant deep under light ridges, so that 
the field may be harrowed. The sets may be cut 
smaller later in the season. 
Onions, if sufficient labor can be given, are a very 
paying field crop. The ground must lie in perfect 
order, rich and mellow. Do not sow too extensive- 
ly, make sure of good seed, and plant early. 
Carrots. — Sow the Long Orange, on rich soil deep- 
ly worked, any time this month ornext, — the earlier 
the better if the soil is not too weedy. Put the rows 
twenty inches apart, so as to cultivate by horse 
power conveniently. 
Flax requires land in the very beststate of prepara- 
tion. Whether grown for seed or for fibre it should 
be sown as soon as the ground is warm and light. 
No coarse manure should be employed, and the 
greatest pains should be taken to have the land free 
from weeds, water, and stones, and the seed even- 
ly sown, and covered. We have not space for par- 
ticular instructions, but they are given fully and 
clearly in a pamphlet on flax-culture. See book list. 
Tobacco. — The seed bed is prepared this month, 
and the seed sown. The best and the warmest spot 
in the garden or elsewhere is selected, well enrich- 
ed and mellowed. A bed four feet wide and 
twelve to sixteen feet long is abuudantly sufficient 
for an acre of ground. It is well to burn brush, 
evenly spread over the soil, to kill weed seeds, and 
to sow the seed while the soil is still warm alter 
thorough raking. A thimbleful of seed suffices. 
See Tobacco Culture pamphlet in book list. 
Hemp needs good rich corn laud ; it follows corn 
in rotation very well. When many acres are put in 
it is well to sow one or two acres at a time, at in- 
tervals, for a month, to take advantage of variable 
seasons, and eo Hint the culture ami harvesting 
shall not come too much at once. 
Farm Hands. — Make early engagements for the 
season or for the year. Most hands engaged for the 
year in the spring and paid by the month will re- 
main through the winter. Engaged in the autumn 
they arc often tempted to leave in the spring. Make 
it a rule to pay a man all that he is worth. Never 
bind yourself so that you cannot discharge a man 
for impudence, dishonesty, and filthiuess, moral or 
physical. An employer need not keep a servant 
guilty of a criminal offence, even though he have 
a contract or witnessed engagement. 
Manure. — We have little faith in top-dressings 
of barn-yard manure applied in the spring. Manure 
ought to be got under ground, or well harrowed in at 
this season. The temptation is strong to scatter the 
manure too much. Concentrate is the rule. We 
manure too much ground, we work over too much, 
and thoroughness is out of the question in too many 
cases. The hauling out of manure is attended with 
a great deal of labor, especially if the roads arc poor 
and the ground is soft. Field compost heaps made 
in the fall, and manure piles laid up in the fields 
when needed during the winter, are a great saving. 
Commercial Fertilizers. — It pays to use them dis- 
creetly. Peruvian Guauo obtained pure is the safest 
and cheapest fertilizer a farmer can buy, if he will only 
mix it thoroughly with some divisor, and distribute 
it evenly in proper quantities. Pure bone-dust is 
safe, but rarely cheap; superphosphate of lime still 
less cheap, but if pure, excellent, if used with earc; 
fish manure of various kinds, both good and cheap. 
Samples vary greatly. Poudrette rarely pays to 
cart far; its real value is but little greater than 
good barn-yard manure, and often it is not worth so 
much. It requires discretion and considerable ex- 
perience to make a profitable use of concentrated 
manures, but they are a valuable resource to the 
intelligent farmer 
Farm Mm-).: — Tue directions in regard to farm 
animals given in the Hints about Work last month 
are equally applicable to this, and it is not worth 
