36i 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
Contents for October, 1871. 
An En-^Farm... 5 Illustrations. .372, 373 
BeeNotes 309 
Be Just to the Gardeners 3S3 
Benefits of Pull Plowing «. 375 
Birds— Owls, " Reprisals " Illustrated. . 38B 
Bones— A Great Waste 379 
Bovs and Girls' Columns — Churns and Bottles, by 
Carleton — Aunt Sue's Puzzle Box — Answers to 
Puzzles in August— New Rebuses— Summer and 
Winter -1 lttustmlions..38I, 3S8 
Calves for Milkers 3T9 
Corn Fodder— How to Use 378 
Dumping- Wagon 3 Illustrations. . 371! 
E"-Plants 381 
Farm Work for October 362 
Fences 379 
Flower Garden and Lawn in October 30-1 
Fraxinellu 3S2 
Fruit Garden in October 303 
Greenhouse Phots, Fine Specimens 3 lUus. . 384 
Greenhouse and Window Plants in October 364 
Hardy Bulbs— Tulips 3 Illustrations. 3S1 
Household Department— Little Matters and Greater 
Ones— Letter from a Housekeeper— Dough Turning 
Sour -Biscuits— Green-grape Pie, Stew, and Jelly — 
Grape Jelly and Catsup— Squash-Pie— Home Topics 
— Cover "for Sewing Machine — Night-gowns — 
Homes for the Homeless— The Agriculturist and the 
Children 6 Illustrations. . 3S5, 3S6 
Kitchen Garden in October 363 
Large Collections of Fruit 383 
Letter from Kansas 378 
Liquid Manure Apparatus 3 Illustrations. . 377 
Manuring Meadows in Autumn 373 
Market Reports 304 
Notes from the Pines— The Weather— Lima Beans- 
Asparagus Bean — Trophy Tomato — My Big Pear-tree 
— Grapes— Vine Insects— Bugs and Bugoiogists 3S2 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 21 — Farm Experience — Crops 
Secured— Amount of Stock— Soiling— The Heifer 
" Thrift " 370, 371 
Orchard and Nursery in Otober 363 
Pears in Orchard Culture 3S3 
Pile-Driver, Easily Made 2 Illustrations.. %*ft 
Plum Curculio 3S3 
Reclaiming Swamps 377 
Riding on Horseback, No. 6 370 
Salting the Sheep Illustrated. . 361, 369 
Successful Hedging 382 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 94— Wheat Cul- 
ture—Seeding to Clover— Looking Ahead— Thor- 
ough-bred Stock and Fancy Prices 374, 375 
What is Science in Farming? 378 
INDEX TO "BASKET," OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Ahutilon 365 Missouri Farm 309 
Advice from a Doctor 309 Muck for Wheat 367 
An Acre, $183 369:Murder 366 
Apples do not Bear 366 N. Eastern Beek»eper .. .365 
Bee-Notes for October .. .369 N. E. Fair 365 
Bulb Catalogues 365 Osage Orange 366 
Cattle Eating Earth 364Packing Butter 305 
Compost of Sluck 367 Painted Pails .367 
Cutting Cions 366 Peahen's Eggs 366 
Draining a Basin 367. Poultry Disease 309 
Fastening Shells 306 Preserving Hams 365 
Fine Corn 367 Price of Stock 360 
Flax 367 Pronunciation-Eumelan.3G6 
Fodder Crops 365 Seaweed as Manure 367 
FowlsforTown-dwellers 364 Seed Wheat 365 
Golden Rod 365, Sewage 367 
Grater Mistake 366 Sorrel and Mustard 367 
Green Slugs 306 Sour Keep 369 
Hard Times for Farmers.367 Sowing Clover 367 
Holding back Milk 367 Steaming Food 309 
Hogs and Horn-Dust . . . 369] Sterile Fan-tails 309 
Humbugs, Sundry 305!Snndry Humbugs 305 
Interfering 367, Value of Manures 367 
Ironwecd 367 Value of Sea-weed 366 
June Gra'ss 365i Wagon, Low-bodied 369 
Keeping Eggs 365 Weak kneed Colt 367 
Leaves 307 Where our Thoughts 
Lice on Poultry 366' Come from 365 
Lloyd's Maps 366 Wild Carrot 365 
Luceru Hay 367- Woolly Taste in Mutton. 367 
Take Notice, 
2 Months' Subscription for $0.00. 
Every New Subscriber to the American Agri- 
culturist for X873, wltose subscriplicm comes to 
hand during October, will be presented with the paper 
the rest of this year without charge, if the 
name be marked new when sent in Take Notice, 
that tJds offer extends to All New Subscribers, 
wheUtcr coming singly, or in Premiitm Clubs, or other- 
wise. {This will help those wlio how begin to make 
up lists for Premiums, for they can offer to each new 
subscriber a bonus of two months, free, and still count 
these names in Premium Lists.) 
IS. 11. — The German Edition is issued 
on the sanw terms as the English one, with the same 
privileges, and may form the whole or any part of 
any Club or Premium List. 
Calendar for October. 
V? 
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pregon. 
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5 58ln 41) 
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6 14 
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6 17 
6 18 
6 20 
21 
6 22 5 
235 5 
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6 2S<4 59 
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G 32 4 53 
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5 17 
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10 41 
11 41 
morn 
42 
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8 36 
9 31 
10 43 
11 53 
morn 
1 4 
2 13 
3 20 
4 25 
rises 
5 28 
5 57 
6 28 
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jv. r.ati/. ct. 
Philadelphia, 
yeio Jersey, 
Penn., Ohio. 
Indiana, and 
Illinois. 
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7 8 
8 12 
9 42 
10 19 
11 57 
morn 
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3 21 
4 25 
rises 
5 30 
6 1 
591 6 32 
58 1 7 10 
Washington, 
M'iri/tiiiid, 
Virginia^Ken- 
tuckii, Missou- 
ri, and Cali- 
fornia. 
*3 S fe-i 2 
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5 55 5 
5 56 5 
5 57,5 
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G 10 5 
G 11 j5 
6 12 Ifi 
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6 16,5 
6 18,5 
G 195 
li 20 5 
i) ■; l 5 
li 22 5 
G 23 5 
6 24 5 
G 25 5 
G 2G5 
8 5 
S 40 
9 20 
10 6 
10 as 
11 52 
morn 
51 
1 52 
2 56 
4 3 
25, 5 10 
23 sets 
52, 6 85 
21 7 13 
19; 8 2 
18! 8 47 
16 9 48 
15 10 54 
lllniorn 

II 1 11 
0: 2 IS 
9 3 23 
R 4 25 
6 rises 
5! 5 S3 
.11 6 4 
2 1 6 S7 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
3IOOS. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
WASU'N. 
CHA'STON 
CHICAGO. 
3d Quart.. 
New Moon 
1st Quart.. 
Full 
D. 
6 
11 
120 
2S 
n. M. 
4S ev. 
1 35 m. 
7 10 ev. 
3 30 m. 
n. ?t. . 
3G ev. 
1 23 m. 
6 58 ev. 
8 IS m. 
n. jr. 
24 ev. 
1 11 m. 
6 4G ev. 
3 6 m. 
n. st. 
12 ev. 
59 m . 
6 34 ev. 
2 54 m. 
11. M. 
11 41 m. 
29 m. 
G 4 ev. 
2 24 in. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1871. 
On our oivn farm, we have always found October 
and November the two busiest mouths of the year. 
We have often had cause to regret doing' work the 
early part of October that might have been post- 
poned. We have dug out stones during fine weather 
in October, and been compelled afterwards to dig 
potatoes amid snow, sleet, rain, and frost the latter 
part of November. Let our readers be wiser. 
Push the work now. Hire extra help, if need be, 
to secure all the crops as soon as they are ready. 
The farmer that gets behind with his work now will 
certainly be a loser. Every thing will turn against 
him. The weather will grow colder, and the days 
shorter. Hired help will become scarcer, and will 
ask higher Wages and do less work. We have paid 
men $1.75 per day to dig potatoes the last of Novem- 
ber, who were willing to work for §1.25 in October. 
And they would have done one third more work. 
A farmer should sit down and make ont a list of 
the work he has to do before winter sets in. He 
should place the items under two heads, thus (we 
give a few items as an example) : 
Work that must be done. I Work thai ousht to be dons. 
1st. Ditches to be cleaned 
out and deepened. 
2d. Fall plowing. 
3d. Stones to he got out 
and put in heaps, so that 
they can he dra5vn away in 
4th. Pumpkins to draw injwinter. 
5th. Roots to harvest. | 4th. Corn to draw in, to he 
6th. Corn to husk, andjhusked in the harn. 
stalks to draw in I Bth. Gate to hang, posts 
7th. Stock to attend tojto straighten up, fences to 
daily— almost hourly. |ftx, hoards to nail, etc., etc. 
Under the head of work that ought to be done, a 
farmer, if he will jot them down as they occur to 
him, can readily find a score or two of items. 
The work that must be done should of course have 
the precedence, but if the weather is unsuitable, or 
the crops are not quite ready, select some job from 
the other column. Such a list will be found a 
great help, and we would urge every reader of the 
American Agriculturist to make one out at once. 
Hints al»out Worlt. 
Eye will do well sown the first or second week 
of this month, and on rich, warm land a good crop 
may be obtained when sown as late as the first of 
1st. To finish cutting up 
corn. 
2d. To dig potatoes, 
commencing on the ripest. 
3d. Apples to pick aud 
barrel 
November. The earlier it is sown, the more the 
plants tiller, and the less seed is required, say lKj 
bushels the first of October, and 3 bushels per acre 
towards the last of the month. Rye does not ger- 
minate as soon as wheat, and on wet, heavy, cold 
land is liable to rot in the ground. Where there is 
a good demand for the straw, rye is a profitable 
crop, and deserves more manure and better treat- 
ment than it usually receives. It delights in a 
warm, sandy loam, and frequently does well on low, 
mucky land where wheat would lodge. But it must 
be drained. It is throwing time, and labor, aud 
seed away to sow any grain crop on wet land. 
Winter Wheat sometimes does lvell sown as late 
as the beginning of October ; and we once saw a 
good crop in Western New York that was sown in 
November. But, as a rule, north cf 41°, wheat 
should be in by the last of September. When this 
can not be done, better sow rye, or if the land 
is too heavy for this crop, better plow it this fall 
and sow it to oats or barley in the spring. A good 
crop of oats or barley is far more profitable than a 
poor crop of 5vheat. 
After Wheat is sown, if there is reason to suppose 
some portions of the field, such as sandy knolls, 
too poor to produce a good crop, it is a good plan 
to spread some well-rotted manure on the surface. 
It often has a wonderful effect, not only on the 
wheat, but also ou the clover and grass afterwards. 
If manure can not be had, 200 lbs. of Peruvian 
guano per acre will be good, or 150 lbs. nitrate of 
soda sown this fall, and" 150 lbs. in the spring. 
Furrows to let off water, if not already done, should 
be made at once. Many an acre of ivheat is lost 
from neglecting this simple operation. 
Cutting up Corn should not be delayed an instant 
longer than necessary. A frost, while the corn is 
standing, injures the fodder, though it does not 
hurt it after it is cut up. And not only this: 
over-ripe or frosted corn is more difficult to bind 
properly. The contrivance for binding figured in 
the last Agriculturist will be useful in such a case. 
Husking Corn will in time be done by machinery. 
We have already several machines that " promise 
well." But this year a hundred million bushels or 
more will have to be husked by hand. We have 
from time to time figured several little contrivances 
for facilitating the labor and relieving the fingers. 
Where a farmer and his boys do the husking, it is a 
good plan, at any rate for the first day or two, to 
husk for only a few hours at a time, and then go to 
some other job. In our own case, we find it cheaper 
to let out the work by the bushel — taking care to 
see that the corn is husked clean, that the stalks 
are properly tied, aud the bundles made into com- 
pact, good-sized stooks, with two bands on top.. 
Corn-Stalks. — Hay will be scarce and high the 
coming winter, and we ought to take extra care in 
curing and preserving corn-stalks. Half the corn- 
stalks, even in sections where farmers preteud to 
think a great deal of them, are rendered compara- 
tively worthless for want of a little attention in 
curing and stacking. Farmers know how this work 
should be doue, but do not sufficiently realize its 
importance. In this case, as in fio many others, 
they need exhortation rather than precept. The 
point is to cure the stalks as rapidly as possible, 
and to draw them in as soon as the sap is so much 
reduced that they will not ferment injuriously in 
the stack or barn. In this ease, as with hay, the 
water or sap that is in the stalks is not half so 
likely to cause mold as a little water on the outside 
of the stalks from dew or rain. 
Potatoes. — Commence to dig as soon as the tops 
arc dead or dying. Better be a little too early than 
too late. Give yourself plenty of time, and dig 
during flue days and when the ground is dry. If 
we might hazard an opinion, we should say that, 
taking everything into consideration, it will be 
full as profitable to sell the crop this fall, as soon as 
dug, as to be at the labor and expense of storing. 
The crop of 1868 brought double the price in the 
spring as in the fall ; the crop of 1809 brought 
more in the fall than in the spring; the crop of 
1870 again brought a very high price in the spring;: 
