438 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1869. 
— ©— 
Ailanthus as a Timber Tree 455 
Animals — The Buffaloes Illustrated. .454 
Bee Notes Illustrated. 445 
Beet as an Ornamental Plant 458 
Boys' and Girls' Columns— Magician's Tricks— The 
Doctor's Talks— About Making a Fire— A Pleas- 
ing Whirligig— Making Collections— Puzzles- Mr. 
Crandall's Dream 7 Illustrations . .401, 4C2 
Breeding the Mink 440 
Cask, Horse -barrow 2 Illustrations. .451 
Coloring Butter in Winter 452 
Cordon Training of the Pear 2 Illustrations. 456 
Cow, Jersey, "Fancy," No. 9 Illustrated . .437 
Creeping Saxifrage 45S 
Currant— Dr. Brete Illustrate*! .456 
Cutting and Preserving Cions Illustrated. A58 
Don't Sell Your Farm by the Bushel 453 
Farm Hay Scales 453 
Farm-IInuse, a Comfortable 3 Must rations. .452 
Farm Work in December 438 
Flower Garden in December 439 
Fruit Garden in December 430 
Grape Cuttings 45S 
Green -house and Window Plants 439 
Have You any Grape-Vines? 456 
Hog-trougha and Pig Feeding 3 Illustrations.. 451 
Household Department— Home-made Fancy Baskets- 
Treatment of Servants— Chicken Croquettes— A 
Few Words to the "Men Folks."— Hints on Cook- 
ing with Recipes 5 Illustrations. -4r.0, 4&0 
Ice Harvest, The .-. G Illustrations. . 447 
I Must Stop My Paper 446 
Kitchen Garden in December 439 
Lilac Blooming in Autumn 458 
Locat ing Trout Ponds 453 
Market Reports 442 
Myrsipbyllum, The Asparagus-like Illustrated. 455 
Notes from the Pines.— No. 7— Calystegia ^Egopodium 
—Black Alder— Poke Weed— Roses in Winter- 
Weeds Ready for Winter — Bulbs in Rooms. . .457, 45S 
Orchard and Nursery in December 439 
Pears— Adams and Tea.... 2 Illustrations . .457 
Pig-House at, Ogdcn Farm 3 Illustrations.. 452 
Premiums 441 
Prickly-fruited Gherkin Illustrated.. 455 
Saving Manure 453 
Soft-wooded Plants as Standards 459 
Syphons for Farm Use 453 
Tim Bunker on Cape Cod and Cranberries 446 
Unconscious Influence Over Animals 448 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.— No. 72— Hard Times 
for Farmers— Wheat for Fattening— Hog Raising 
— Fix Up the House — Pluck Needed — A Cow 
Disease — Drainage Law — Fall-Fallowing — Sun 
Burning the Land— Keeping Things in Place. 449, 451 
INDEX TO ^CASKET 1 ' OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Am. Hort. Annua! 444 Humbug Advertisements444 
Ashes and Potatoes 445'IIumbu'j;s at Work 433 
A^kimr Questions 445;Lar:rc Seckels 443 
Barberries 445 Manna Seed 443 
Bitter Butter 445 Maple Shade Flock 443 
Catawba Burial 413 Milking Machines 443 
Cheese, $100 Premium... 445|N. Y. State Poultry Soc..445 
..412 Osage Hcdtre 443 
. .1 13 Pear Named 443 
. .443 Scuppernong Grape 445 
. .443;Send as a Present 443 
Farm Wages 44-1 Special Premium 444 
Fruit Grower ....438 Steel Piows 445 
Fruit in 111 443 1 Snicide 443 
German Edition -1-12, Sundry Hnmbiurs 442 
Good Pay 445Taran6 Peach-trees 443 
Good Cement 443;Terriblc Deaths 441 
Gophers and Hedges - ■ .443 Utter Apple 443 
Green-house. Book on. . .443 Vt. Dairymen's Ass'n. . .445 
Hedging andHedgePlants445 What is Fallowing ? 441 
Home-made Tar 442, Wheat or Corn ? 413 
How Does Water Get |Wliy so Much White?. .443 
IntoTiles? 444 Winter in Florida 443 
Huckleberry Seed 413 Work on Peach Culture. .415 
Cows fur Dair 
Davis* Corn-Crib... 
Dewberry Briers 
Dexter Circular 
YEie Fruit Grower. —Edited by E. 
Riunley, Gilman, III. Eight page monthly. Fifty cents a 
year. A wide-awake sheet which starts with excellent 
principles. He says in relation to advertisements, " we 
want no whiskey bitters, lottery, gift or dollar sales, at 
any price ; and, above all, save us from quack doctors." — 
You are on the right track, neighbor, 6end us your first 
number, and go on and prosper. 
'rise "EIoflBBillMig's arc ;it Worl*, and 
quite briskly just now, as will be seen by our exposures 
in another column. Some of their present operations arc 
quite expert, and people should be on their guard. Nu- 
merous testimonials come to us, showing the great value 
of our humbug articles to the country generally. We 
shall continue a vigorous war with them during the com 
ing year, and they will find little business among our 
readers. Even on this account alone we are sorry the 
paper is not seen and read by evory person in the laud. 
Calendar for December. 
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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1S69. 
Hail Winter! We shivered -when those stinging 
October frosts came, whitening the ground, stiffen- 
ing the crust, freezing the potatoes, wilting the 
cabbages, stopping the growth of the turnips. 
Now, we rejoice in the ice and snow. The keen 
air fairly warms us, and we can take hold with a 
will of any work which the season offers. Never- 
theless, the period is one of comparative rest, and 
the best time farmers have to compare notes, to 
meet in farmers' clubs, to read, and lay out plans 
for the coming busy season. Winter is the harvest 
time of ideas — and many a lesson of practical, 
homely wisdom will the results of the summer 
teach, if they are carefully thought over. Decem- 
ber is the hilltop from which two years may be 
seen. The far stretching retrospect is brought 
close, by the clear wintry air, while before us lies 
the fair prospect, dim, yet picturesque in the un- 
certainty of the hopeful future. 
The most useful possession a man can have is 
experience. We all need some of our own, but he 
is richest who can make use of the experiences of 
other men. This is what Farmers' Clubs and Agri- 
cultural Societies are useful for. This is all the use 
there is in agricultural papers. Books are, or 
should be, somebody's experiences, or '.hey should 
be based upon them. An hour's talk with a neigh- 
bor will almost always elicit a valuable fact about 
something. An agricultural paper should offer the 
choice experiences of one hundred neighbors. 
Every citizen has a vital interest in the intelli- 
gence of the community. Where there is a read- 
ing population, there is thrift. Where the people 
are interested in lectures, literary and farmers' 
clubs, circulating libraries, etc., there will usually 
be little of thieving or crime, little of intemperate 
excesses, little of litigation and quarreling among 
neighbors. These things are rife where schools 
and books are scarce. Don't grumble at the school 
tax unless it is misspent, but see to its proper ex- 
penditure, as every good citizen may, encourage 
everything that will make general culture more 
general, but especially be mindful of the responsi- 
bility which rests upon every parent to encourage 
such tastes in his children that, in after years, they 
may take their places among the influential and 
well-informed, and not among the opposite class. 
Of this there is always a large enough number with- 
out your children being included. 
Hints About Work. 
A farmer's first concern is for his family, the next 
for his live stock, the third for his men, that they 
have work enough laid out, and that they do it 
well. Nothing so destroys one's peace of mind, 
and so depletes his purse, as hiring lazy men, who 
pretend to do his work. A good man will be 
spoiled in a few days sometimes for the lack of 
knowledge and appreciation on the part of the 
master. The employer must be critical and com- 
mendatory. His praises should be indirect and in- 
ferential, rather than positive; but the man 
should realize that you are pleased, not with him, 
but with his work. A good man will usually stand 
very little patronizing. Respect a man's independ- 
ence of feeling, but check it if it exceeds tho 
bounds of common sense, as it is very apt to do iu 
the case of the newly-arrived foreigner. 
Surface Water, flowing over half frozen ground 
during winter thaws and rains, carries with it a 
great amount of fertility that should not be allowed 
to run to waste, but turned upon meadows. 
Muck Mining. — A great deal of ditching iu muck 
swamps may be done in winter. The surface, 
during most of the cold weather, is not so deeply 
frozen but it may be taken off, and the ditches are 
of course commenced at the outlet, and followed 
on a level. Pond holes are usually loo full of 
water to clear out, but if they can bedrained, vege- 
table matter of great value may be secured, min- 
gled with the choicest materials, washed down from 
the uplands. Swamp muck is greatly improved by 
freezing and thawing, and to this end should not 
be placed in too large heaps. It is well to let it Ho 
awhile just as thrown out from the pond holes or 
ditches, and to move it before the surface is thawed, 
toward spring, when it may be placed where it may 
be composted with lime, ashes, or manure. 
Corn Fodder. — This neglected and abused forage 
is, if properly cured, made by a. little labor nearly 
as valuable as good upland hay, and decidedly su- 
perior-to hay from over-ripe grass. The labor con- 
sists in cutting so small that it may be shaken up 
and intimately mixed with bran after wilting. It 
should be allowed to soak twelve hours if possible, 
and if it heats, all the better. The finer it is cut 
the better, with a single exception— it should not 
be three-quarters of an inch to an inch long, 
for if of this length, stiff pieces of stalk often 
stand upright in the mouth, and by their sharp 
edges wound the gums. Either very fine or rather 
coarse chaffing are therefore preferable to an in- 
termediate grade. Coarse chaffing may be done by 
baud, but fine hand-cutting is too much work. 
Steaming coarse fodder. — This, no doubt, pays 
abundantly if it can be done for a dairy of fifteen 
or twenty cows, and the usual young stock. 
Live stock. — Every animal should be at least well 
looked at by the farmer personally, every day. The 
more carefully he can look to his stock, the better 
for them and for himself. Look to the hay that is 
fed long, 'and to that which is cut up. Trust no 
guess-work in regard to tho amount of grain or 
meal fed. It is well to measure out a week's sup- 
ply, and on the rest, turn a key and pocket it. 
Horses. — Bed well, clean thoroughly, have the 
stables well ventilated. Feed according to labor re- 
quired. Bran and corn-meal, half and half, by 
weight, is excellent as winter feed on cut hay or 
unthrashed oats. Keep horses in use well shod 
with heavy shoes and thick caulks, that may be 
sharpened whenever it is icy, and keep them sharp. 
Colls, of all ages less than three years, may run 
together. An open shed or hovel, deep and warm, 
opening into a spacious yard, affords them good 
quarters, if they have euough to cat. Oats in the 
sheaf, cut fine, wetted and sprinkled with bran, is 
good for them once a day. A few roots, potatoes, ( 
turnips, or carrots, will be Very acceptable, and 
encourage growth. Colts past three years may be 
broken to saddle or harness. Employ gentleness 
