AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jakuakt. 
Contents for January, 1870. 
Action of Frost on the Soil 16 
Animals— The Ferret Illustrated. .13 
Annuals, Some New of Last Year's. .3 Illustra Hon s.. 23-24 
Apples— The Sylvester Illustrated. .21 
Asparagus Culture— The i; Colossal " Illustrated. .22 
Bee Notes 1> 
Boxes for Starting Plants 23 
Boys 1 and Girls' Columns— Rambles in China— A Fish 
Story— How a Palace is Lighted—The Magicians' Bas- 
ket Trick— The Young Photographer — Artificial Duck 
Hatching in China— Answers to Problems and Puzzles 
—New Puzzles 5 Illustrations.. 2T-2S 
Breeding the Mink.. ..17 
Cabbage— Early Wyxoan Illustrated. . 22 
Caladiums as Garden Plants Illustrated.. 20 
Climbing Fern .. .Illustrated. .21 
Cord-Grass or"Spartina" Illustrated. .17 
Farmers should take Enough Sleep 19 
Farm Work for January 2 
Field Rollers 4 Illustrations . .17 
Flower Garden and Lawn in January 3 
Fruit Garden in January 3 
Geddes Harrow 3 Illustrations . .1G 
Green-House and Window Plants in January 3 
Horse Papera for Fanners 12 
Household Department— An Efficient Rat-Trap — Winter 
Clothing for Little Ones— A Codfish Dinner— Cooking 
of Game Birds— Wedding Entertainments— Washing 
Fluids— Cleaning Coat Collars— Cookinga Beef Steak— 
Chicken Salad— To "Restore Faded Black Lace— Im- 
provement in Farmers' Homes — Hints on Cooking — 
2 Illustrations . . 25-26 
Keeping Squashes 23 
Kitchen Garden in January 3 
Larch, Propagating from Seed ..21 
Market Reports 6 
Notes from the Pines, No. 8— Christmas Rose— Currant 
Prnning — Evergreens Illustrated . . 23 
Obituary Notice ofR. L. Allen 10 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 1— Description of Farm— Object 
to he attained— Bntter Making— Manure 1S-19 
Orchard and Nursery in January 3 
Plow, Use of in Digging Ditches Illustrated . .15 
Poultry — Dominique Fowls.. Illustrated.. 13 
Premiums 4-5 
Severe Weather Illustrated.. 1 
Shut the Door " Illustrated. .IS 
Stakes 23 
Tim Bunker on Trout Brooks and a Hatching House.. .11 
Tree Labels 2 Illustrations..^ 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 73— Labor of Hand- 
ling Manure — The Labor Question — Rotation of Crops 
— Value of Manures 14-15 
What Bull shall I Buy ? 10 
Work in the Horticultural Departments 3 
index: to "basket" or shorter articles. 
A Horse Saved 8 
Am. AgM Annual 7 
Bark Louse 
Book Notices S 
Cauliflower Seed S 
Chess — More About S 
Circulation South 7 
Com at 50c; Potatoes 
at 25c 8 
Cylinder Plow 7 
Death of B. D. Walsh.... 7 
Dicentra and Di elytra 7 
Dwarf June Berry 9 
Early Rose Potato 7 
Erratic Grass 9 
European Lurch 
Fine Grapes 
Fruitin Mich 8 
German Edition S 
Good Premiums 
Hard on the Farmers' 
Club 8 
Hawk and Owl Traps 7 
Hedging 9 
Influence of Stock onGraft.S 
Laud for Corn 9 
Large Yield of Grains S 
Leucothoi raecmosa 7 
' ; Mexican Everbearing". .9 
Moner at per cent S 
K.T. Fruit Growers'Club. . 9 
Norway Spruce Hedge 9 
Opium 9 
Peaches 9 
Plum on the Peach S 
Rabbits, Mice, & Trees... 9 
Report of Department of 
Agriculture 7 
Seed Peas 7 
Sign Your Name S 
Single or Double Lines... 8 
Smoking Plants 9 
Special "Premiums 7 
Study the Adv. Columns. .6 
Sundry Humbugs 6 
Swindling Nurserymen... 9 
The Cover * 7 
The Kittatinny 9 
The Peach Grub Man 7 
To Advertisers 7 
Trees and Rabbits 9 
Vines in Orchard 9 
Watering and Manure 
Water 9 
Water Hams 7 
Wis. Hort'1 Society 9 
Back Volumes Supplied.— The back volumes 
of the Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information up«m every tonic connected with rural life, 
outdoor and in-door, and the Inst ten volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference in any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from electrotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers an- i volumes for twelve years past. beginning with 
1857— that is, Vol. 10 to Vol. 23. inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) ;it $1.75 each, post- 
paid, (or $1.50 if taken at the office). The volumes, 
3ieully 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 15 cents each. 
Calendar for January. 
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PHASES OF THE MO*ON\ 
MOON. 1 
lOSTOJT. 
X. YORK. 1 WASH'N.ICHA'STON -"-QTCAGO. 
ID. I 
I. Sf. 
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7 10 ev.j 6 58 ev. 
6 46 ev. 6 16 ev. 
1st Quarl 
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4 ev., 3 54 ev. 
3 42 ev. 3 12 ev. 
Full .... 
- ,1T 10 1 m. 
9 49 in. 9 37 m. 
9 25 m. 8 55 m. 
3(1 Quart 
..24 5 S9 m. 
5 27 lit. 1 5 15 in. 5 3 ln.l 4 33 m. 
New 
. .3110 57 in. '10 4"> m.|l0 3:5 m.| 10 21 m. I 9 51 ill. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1870. 
It was wise in tlie Ancients to begin their social 
year in January. The Jewish year begins in Sep- 
tember ; the Mohammedan in May ; the Ecclesias- 
tical at "Advent," about the first of December ; 
and our National or Civil year ou the 4th of July. 
At no time have farmers, gardeners, professional 
or business men so much leisure to wind up the 
affairs of the closing year, and to begin aright 
the new as at this season, when traffic is, in 
a measure, suspended, when the ground is frozen, 
when the hours of light are few, and the even- 
ings are long. "We are receiving the income 
from the harvest in one way or another, or know 
what to calculate upon, in a measure, at least; 
weeks must pass before the activity of field work 
presses us again, and we have time to prepare for 
a successful year. Success does not come unsought, 
at least not to farmers following their ordinary 
avocations. It must be won by well-studied plans, 
and thorough preparations, judiciously carried out. 
To plan and prepare is, therefore, the most import- 
ant work for January. Perhaps we ought to make 
an exception to this statement in favor of that 
mental culture for which the winter offers such 
opportunities. Nothing is so important to a 
farmer, as a man, as to be well informed, — as a 
farmer, he may be tolerably successful, without 
education except in the routine and labor of his 
profession, but every year makes it harder for those 
farmers who depend exclusively on native wit and 
innate shrewdness, and easier for those who study 
farming, aud follow their profession with all the 
aids they can get, with the printed experience of a 
thousand neighbors, the best thoughts of men of 
science, and the best implements and methods they 
can afford to get and learn, and can carry out to use. 
Hints A. front Work. 
We assume that the regular labors of the field 
are suspended by cold weather ; if otherwise, and 
we occasionally have winter's when, even in Penn- 
sylvania, plowing may be done in every month of 
the year, no hint from us will be needed to remind 
farmers that there are some kinds of properly 
called spring work, which may be done, greatly to 
the relief of the men and teams in March aud 
April. Now and then, however, times occur when 
the ground is bare, and stones are loose, and these 
offer an opportunity not to be lost sight of, to pick 
up stones and lay them in heaps, or haul them off 
at once from the fields to where they may be used. 
The Workshop. — The winter affords time to work 
a good deal at repairing tools, making and mend- 
ing articles, and if one has a room which may be 
warmed and lighted, and with a good work-bench, 
furnished with common carpenters' tools, a solder- 
ing iron, a little kit of saddlers' tools, some leather, 
rivets, etc., it will be found a very attractive place 
for the boys ; and not only would there be a good 
deal of good work done, but good habits formed, 
aud skill gained, worth a great many dollars more 
than an expensively fitted up work-shop would cost. 
Frost and Snow. — Never delay path-making and 
road-breaking after every fall of snow. The work is 
much lighter, and it is better done. Never trust 
to mild nights, and leave the water standing in 
pumps or pipes. Sudden changes of weather, with 
accompanying damage, occur without warning. 
Building may often be done by contract in winter 
cheaper than in warm weather, especially if the 
contracts be made in the autumn; but builders 
will give moderate figures for good work, if one 
can present well-made plans and specifications early 
in the new year, and give them time to do the fin- 
ishing after the house is enclosed, and the roof on, 
when their other work does not press upon them. 
Timber. — Cut and haul to the saw-mill. In se- 
lecting trees, take such as have nealy stopped 
growing, but are still sound and healthy. Such 
wood is quite as good as that which is growing 
fast, and stiffer. Young timber is clastic, old is 
stiff; that which has stopped growing, and has 
many dead limbs, is brash, though good for fuel. 
lee. — Those who have ice-houses should not neg- 
lect to fill them whenever sufficient thickness of ice 
forms to make it possible to handle it economically. 
At the lowest latitude where ice-houses are fouud, 
and where ice is usually gathered, it often happens 
that good ice can be obtained only for a very few 
days. lee one inch thick may fce very profitably 
handled, being dragged out upon a clean platform, 
running into the water, and from this shoveled 
into carts. It should bb packed by pounding into 
as solid a mass as possible in the ice-house. An 
intermixture of a moderate quantity of pure, 
fresh-fallen snow is an advantage if it be well 
pouuded. When thick ice cau be obtained, chip 
off all the porous snow-ice, and pack only the 
clearest, filling the crevices with fine ice chipped 
from the top of each layer. Cut the cakes to fit. 
Horses ought to have good cleaning and regular 
exercise. If there is nothing for them to do, give 
them a run of an hour or two in a well-fenced lot, 
one at a time — if there is any danger of their kick- 
ing each other — every fair day. Don't scrimp in 
bedding; you will lose nothing, but gain, in the 
less amount of food a horse will need if kept warm. 
Close stables must be well ventilated. Direct the 
blacksmith to put the best and toughest steel into 
the caulks, so welded on that they will not tear out. 
The caulks should be thick, so that they may be 
sharpened when necessan' several times without 
the necessity of renewing tl»e shoes. 
Mares and ColU. — Brood mares are liable to injury 
from slipping on the ice, aud they ought to be 
kept sharp-shod if used, and kept off from icy 
paths when exercised or led to water. Similar care 
must be had for colts in giving them exercise. The 
winter is a favorable season to break and train 
young horses. In all exercise for the purpose of 
training a horse, remember he is an animal of con- 
siderable powers of reason, of great natural cau- 
tion, of excellent memory, and of almost uncon- 
trollable curiosity, and work upon these faculties. 
The horse is never satisfied with his knowledge of 
a new and stramre thing unless he smells and rubs it 
with his nose. This he must do voluntarily. 
Oxen, if used upon snowy or icy roads, must be 
well shod, and kept sharp. 
Coies. — Feed well, so as to keep them in good 
