278 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ August, 
Contents for August, 1869. 
oo 
About Asparagus 
After Potato Digging 28« 
Birds— Onr Small Herons 2 lUuslratiom ,289 
Boys' nod Girls' Columns— A Six-legged Teacher — 
The Old Man of the Mountain — Jolly Companions — 
New Pazzles to be Answered — Answers to Problems 
and Puzzles— Items 5 Illustrations.. 303 304 
Cannas— The 800 
Cheap Material for Drains 2 Illustrations. .204 
Clover and Grass Seed, When to Sow 291 
Deerberry or Squaw Huckleberry llhistrnt: </ 300 
Dispensation of Providence 305 
Drain Conduits and Drain Diggers 2!)2 
Draining by Means of W'e'lls 295 
Fairs in ISO!) 280 
Farm Work in August - 278 
Flower Garden and Lawn in August -270 
Fruit Garden in August 379 
Grecian Silk Illustrated 300 
Green-bouse and Window Plants in August 27!i 
Hammer-head Shark lllustn /"I 389 
Harvesting Clover Seed 286 
Hedge— How to Set 2 Illustrations. 298 
Horse Carts for Farm Work... Illustrated. . 292 
Household Department— Framing a Picture— ATTalk 
with Girls about Housekeeping— Honsehold Talks 
by Aunt. Hattie — Mutton Chops — Pudding Sauce — 
Raspberry Vinegar — Bottled Raspberries— Bad Lurk 
with Jars— Wheat and Corn Bread— Children's Dress 
—Recipes Illustrated 301-302 
TTow to Build a Row-boat 5 illustrations. 204 
InaDryTime 300 
Kitchen Garden in August 2711 
Lost the Road Illustrated. 271 
Management of Black-caps 209 
Market Reports 380 
Milk in Hot Weather— Coolers Illustrated . .293 
Notes from "The Pines," No. 3— Chickens— Planting 
Melons — Strawberries — New York as a Center — 
Comstock's Cultivator— Little Gem Pea -.298 
Orchard and Nursery in August 279 
Pasturing Mowing Lands 236 
Private Herd Records 2(14 
Propagating the Rose Illustrated 299 
Red-root, or Pigeon-grass. .. 393 
Roads and Road-making — No. 2 287 
Rotation of Crops 281 
Safety Reins for Runaways and Kickers. .2 MustrcU. 292 
Saving Flower Seeds -JOO 
Seed Stock— Selecting 203 
Si -111,11 Pigs — In-and-in Breeding 387 
Self-milkers— A Cure Illustrated 293 
Sending Honey to Market 286 
Solo! lion's Seals Illustrated. .297 
State and County Fairs 280 
Steaming Food for Cattle and Swine 2(11 
Supports for Tomatoes ..." . ..2 Illustrations. .298 
Tape-grass or Eel-grass Illustrated 297 
Three-horse Evener, 8 Inches long Illustrated. 293 
Thorough Cultivation 295 
Tim Bunker on Fanners' Losses and Trials. . . . 287 
Tropical Fishes Illustrated. 2% 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 68— Draining— 
Steel Plows — John Johnston's Experience — Cows 
and their Condition — Horses — Plowing with Lines — 
Fall-fallowing— Pigs— Curing Hay and Cutting Grain 
— Steam Thrashing Machines — Labor 390-291 
Woodruff Illustrated. .297 
INDEX TO "BASKET OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agriculture in Ky 284 Landscape Gardening.. 
Alton Hort. Soc'y. 
Apple ftQuince Cnttings.283 
Am. Woman's lloine. 
A Problem, Rye 
A Word to the Ladies 
Barley ?•.?. Corn.. .*.... 
Bird-house 
Brown Bread 
Bull Harness 
Leached or Uiileachcd 
285 
Ashes ..283 
.282 Letters not Answered . 381 
,'K! Life of Audubon. 282 
.281 Marriages and De.nth j 2S1 
. .283 Maryland -;xi 
. .284 Neshaunock Potato . 2S2 
. .284 NewKochelle Blackberry2S5 
. .28-2 N. Y. State Fair '.281 
Buttercups in Meadows.. 'iS5'Our Young Folks 281 
Butter-making in Ky 284 Oyster-shell Bark-louse 3S5 
Bv Return Mail 384 Fear Blight 
C'alycanlhus 383 Plata Diicks 
Casting the Withers. . . .285 Raspberries in Ga 
Castle Garden Labor Ex.286 Dunning Out Land.. . 
C. Downing Strawberry.. 285 Seed Peas 
Chinese Yams 383 sights anil Sensations. 
Cincinnati Hort. Soc'y.. 285 Small Fruit Seed 
285 Smutty C*,rn 
2 ;, Sine Fi 
Club-foot in Cabbages. . 
Coal Tar Water, 
Colorado Potato Beetle. .2S5 Steam Plow 
Com'l Fertilizers in Ct..282 Steam Plowing in N. . 
Com'l Fertilizers in Me.283 Steel Plows 
Destroying Cherry Trees.282 Strawberries in 111 
Doge Eating EgL's 285 Strawberries ill N. .].. 
Drv Earth 283 Sundry Hnmbngs 
Eclipse on Aug. 7 28J Suppposed Dia ml 
European Vineyards 385 Tie- Comet 
Ex'n. of Textile Fahries.'.'81|The Mo. ,n Again. . 
Fairs, List of 38i 
Farmers " Lying "ii their 
Oars".....' 283 
Fertilizers for a Garden. 285 
First Milk 284 
Foul Water 282 
Geneva Hint. Society '....285 
382 
•283 
28t 
,283 
283 
.283 
. 283 
•;7'.i 
.284 
.282 
.gs-> 
. 'JS-. 
.283 
.-is:, 
.281 
' I 
. 284 
2S1 
333 
283 
The Peace Festival. 
Three-horse Evener 
Tomatoes from Cal. 
Transportation Wanted. .285 
Trial of Mowers.Rea pers, 383 
Uncle John's Flower 
Gather.r 282 
Gri hm it Meal .284 Veterinary Education, . .284 
Grape Queries 2S3i Wardiau Case . . 285 
Grindstone toRiitt by Foot2S6J Wasted Powder 281 
Heating Green-house.. . 283 Weather and the Crops. .281 
Hog Cholera '18(1, What Fowl- to Keep . isl 
Houdans 282 .What is a Bushel ofCora«285 
How Much Can a Man Wheat on Prairie Soil. 285 
Cradle? 3S3 White Beans -js", 
John T. Norton 084 White Clover 284 
AMERICA Y A G R I < U L T U R I S T. 
NEW-YORK, AUGUST, 1S69. 
The pressing work of the summer, which needs 
crowding; and watching, the constant care and close 
planning of the fanner, to do everything just at 
the best time, have, in a good measure, past. The 
farmer may employ more labor at more reasonable 
rates as soon as summer grains are harvested, and 
opportunities may be had for taking hold of a num- 
ber of extra jobs, — road-making, draining, building, 
repairing, etc., — if one lias bis regular working force 
regulated so that the work will go on without his 
constant supervision. Time might, in all proba- 
bility, be found for a few clay..' absence front home 
for relaxation. This is as important lor the farmer 
and his wile as for the professional man, and a 
fortnight at the seaside, fishing and bathing, would 
renew the youth of many a hard-worked wile, 
and bring roses to the pale face of a daughter who 
lias been scalding curd and turning cheeses or 
making butler all summer. The poor women can- 
not get and keep health by light out-of-door work," 
but are chilled in the milk-cellar, or toasted over the 
hot stove, getting three meals a day for half a dozen 
or more hungry men, and ate tired out loug be- 
fore night, from the character of the work. August 
is their opportunity: give- them a vacation; go 
with them ; spend freely a little of the money which 
liny have earned as much as you, for what will 
do you all good. If the house is full of city cousins, 
who want you to make them .just as long a visit in 
the winter as you entertain them in summer, it 
may be well to postpone this time of recreation 
for a few weeks for the sake of hospitality, but be 
sure to plan for a good play spell, either in August 
or when the Agricultural Fairs take place. 
Iliuts About Work, 
Grass. — There maybe a little late grass t,» cut 
for hay, but July should have seen the first crop of 
grass well out of the way, and the aftermath will 
hardly be fit to cut before the last of August, or 
first of September. Manuring grass land is in 
season. Every day's delay is a loss, the best time 
to top-dress grass land being the day after the hay 
is taken home; the poorest time, in the spring. 
Mossy pastures, growing up with huckleberry 
bushes, sweet ferns, and other shrubby plants, may 
be taken hold of now with great profit. Lay out 
the ground in land-, and set two or three men with 
sharp mattocks to cut the big brash; then let a 
good lively pair of oxen take a heavy, well-loaded 
harrow over the piece, back and forth, and cross- 
ways, tearing out the brush, ripping up the moss, 
and making it all look like plowed ground. Rake 
or throw the brush together, and when dry, burn 
it, and scatter the ashes; top-dress with anything 
you have thai is tolerably fine and well composted 
—plaster, ashes, muck compost, made Willi lime 
slaked in brine, fish manure, guano, etc. There 
need be no grass seed sown; enough is in the soil. 
A mixture of red and white clover, with a little 
Kentucky blue grass, will pay on barren spots well 
manured. The manure should be prepared before- 
hand, and applied before harrowing. 
Salt-marsh and Swale grasses are, most of them, 
in the best condition to cut in August, and no 
farmer cm have too much of them for bedding for 
his stock, and the manure they bring to tin- upland. 
Spring Brain. — Harvest before tin' grain is dead 
ripe, utile-- ii i^ required for seed. Oats, especial- 
ly, ought 1101 tostand too lung, for the straw- loses 
in feeding value greatly, and the grain gains noth- 
ing. The rule is, to cut when two-thirds of the 
heads have turned yellowish. 
Stacks of hay or of grain that are to stand long 
should be looked to while settling, braced if need 
be, and re-lopped when done settling. 
Thrashing, — Grain is a great deal safer in the 
granary than in the stack or mow. Abundance 
of food makes vermin plenty. If grain of till 
kinds were to be thrashed as soon as possible, mice 
would not find in the barns such attractive quar- 
ters, and would remain much longer in the field 
exposed to many casualties. Owls, hawks, crows, 
snakes, eals, weasels, etc., prevent much in- 
crease. Grain should be stored until it is marketed, 
either in well-ventilated bins, in sacks, or spread 
out in hot, dry, ventilated lofts. Look closely to 
the thrashing, that no grain is lost in the straw. 
Jiutft crops need weeding, and probably, severe 
thinning. Too many turnip plantsare just as bad as 
weeds to the few that ought to occupy the ground ; 
they grow small, and strong, and tough, when 
crowded. The growth of all root crops should be 
from the start. It is as poor a plan to wait until 
the roots are beginning to fill out before weeding 
as it. is to wait for weeds in get a foot high In-fore 
hoeing. Keep all clean, and allow room to grow. 
jHowingfor Wheat. — The weather is so hot that, 
if we have other work lor tin- teams, we do not 
like to put till the fall plowing upon them in 
August ; yet it is necessary or best lo plow for wheat 
at this time. Turn over a clover sod perfectly fiat, 
plowing not over six inches deep, apply a top- 
dressing of slaked lime, and harrow it in. Wait, 
three weeks, and then spread a rich, fine compost, 
and harrow it in thoroughly. Shares' harrow ( which 
is not a harrow at all) is the best tool. This will 
leave the land in condition to receive the seed, 
which should be drilled in about the first to the 
middle of September. 
Weeds. — When mowing land is bare, go through 
with a narrow hoe, old adz, or weeding spud, and 
cut up buttercups, daisies, dock, asters, thistles, 
and all weeds that may then lie distinctly seen, cut- 
ting two or three inches under the crowns, and 
lifting them out. Many woody plants may be 
served the same way in the fence rows ami else- 
where, and running briers, rose-bushes, etc., should 
have like treatment wherever found. Weeds should 
be mown and consigned to the pig-sty if not gone 
to seed, in which case let them dry and burn them. 
Turnips sown now will make a crop on good 
mellow soil. Rnta bngas may be sown south of 
Pennsylvania, and even far north of that will ordi- 
narily make a crop of nice little roots for the table, 
more marrow like and delicious than if they bad 
had a longer time to grow. 
Buckwheat may be sown south of New York up 
to the 10th of the month. There is some risk, but 
the chances are in favor of escaping frost in most 
localities. For several years late sown has failed. 
Swine. — Pen up store pigs and begin to fatteu 
them. Feed peas, vines and all, as soon as the 
peas have all gained their full size, before the vines 
have turner} too yellow, and add corn meal to the 
swill. Breeding sows lined now (Aug. 1st) will 
farrow after the middle of November. 
Sheep.— Lambs must be weaned, rams aproned or 
separated from the dock, entire removal being pref- 
erable. See that the ewe.-, whose bags cake are 
milked carefully, and watched for a week after 
the lambs are taken away. Give the lambs oil- 
cake and oats, which will keep them quieter; and 
place them out of hearing of each others' bleating, 
if possible. They worry less. 
Cows will fall oil' rapidly in milk unless great 
pains are taken to keep them up. Corn fodder 
should be cut and fed daily; a change of pasturage 
is beneficial, and when they can be turned upon 
a good clover aftermath they will do well enough. 
WorMng animals need good feed if they are put 
to hard labor. If possible, turn them out to grass 
for a few weeks, lo be ready for autumn work. 
Oxen ou .-lit to have good long "noon-spells." 
Horses stand great heat bitter; a good driver will 
give his team drink as often as he drinks himself 
Work horses will be greatly refreshed by being 
turned into the pasture as soon as they are cooled 
oft' and feil, and bit out over night. 
Calves.— It is usually beet to wean calves that 
have run with the cows at four or five months 
old. First, teach them to drink, and confine them 
away from their dams, letting them suck once a 
day, then on alternate days, and gradually wean 
altogether, feeding at first skimmed milk or warm 
