162 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
Contents for May, 1867. 
Ailanthns Tree 183 
A Look into the Sea Illustrated.. I r i9-1SQ 
Apiary for May 164 
Baskets for Sitting Hens Illustrated. .172 
Black Bear Illustrated . .173 
Boys and Girls 1 Columns — Boy Training — Baby Ned — 
Greedy Dick — Puzzles — Answers to Problems and 
Puzzles— The Doctor's Talks— To Sec Three Thumbs 
— A Childish Conceit — Please Don't — A Life-like 
Portrait — Handsome is that Handsome does — Geo- 
graphical Problem 6 Illustrations. . 187-1SS 
Castor Oil Bean Culture Illustrated. .171 
Coffee Roaster 2 Illustrations. .1S6 
Cold Grapery in May 1&4 
Cotton Culture 178 
Cranberry Culture 1S3 
Crevecoeur Fowls Illustrated . .11*2 
Cultivating Orchards 182 
Dog Statistics 175 
Farm Work for May 162 
Flower Garden and Lawn in May 164 
Foot Rot in Sheep 178 
Fruit Garden in May 163 
Garden-«-Kitchen in May 163 
Green and Hot-Houses in May 164 
Horse Hay Forks, Harpoons and Grapples . 13 UlusVns. . 176 
Household Recipes 186 
Housekeeper's Journal, Prize Essay 1 . .185 
Indian Cora Culture Illustrated. .178 
Large Root Crops 174 
Markets 166 
Moose— Male and Female Illustrated. ',. .161 
New "Way to Trap Rats ITS 
Orchard and Nursery in May 163 
Origin of Forced Drones '. .171 
Pennsjdvania Agricultural College 174 
Pleuro-Pneumonia 175 
Polar Bear Illustrated. . 173 
Poultry Fancier's Yiew 2 Illustrations . .177 
Premiums 165 
Raspberries and Black Caps 1S3 
Sex of the Strawberry 3 Illustrations . .181 
Silver-striped Bamboo Illustrated. .1S1 
Spring Adonis Illustrated. .182 
Sweet Herbs 182 
Sweet Potato Culture. . . . 1 1S3 
Texas Murrain 173 
Thinning Ornamental Trees 184 
Tim Bunker on Jim Crow 174 
Tree Doctoring and Our Doctrine 182 
Trouble with Seed 1S4 
Two or Ten per Cent 177 
Walks and Talks on the Farm — No. 41 — Moreton Farm 
— Corn — Drains — Feeding Oil and Cotton -Seed 
Cake— Beans— Scalding Peas 170-171 
White-flowering Shrubs 2 2llustratio?is..l&i 
Work— Baskets & Bags— Prize Essay.16 lllustratio/is.ASo 
INDEX TO "BASKET," OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Am. Fruit Culturist 16S 
American Pomology 167 
Am. Pomological Soc'y. .163 
Angora Goats 168 
Answers to Correspon'ts-ieo 
Barometer Challenge.... 169 
Boxes for Butter 1..16S 
Bringing up Sandy Land. IBS 
Carrying Money Abroad.. 164 
Corn Dropper 16S 
Criminal Abortion 167 
Dog Law in Conn 16S 
Experience Commended. 166 
Farm — Our New 169 
Farms Advertised 169 
Fence Posts 169 
Going to Paris 169 
Gravel Houses 168 
Half Dollar Earned 166 
Humbugs 
Hydraulic Rams 
Manures— What to Buy. . 
Marrow Squash for Stock. 
Mr. Judd and Office 
Osage Orange.. 
OnrNew Farm 
Paper, New 
Plastering, &c 
Poultry Matters 
Price of Farm Labor 
Repeating Shot-Gun 
Roller Whiffletree 
Sale of Short-horns 
Showers of Brimstone. . . 
Slow Torture 
Snows Last Winter 
Strawberry Exhibition. . 
Trial of Flows, etc 
Peruvian Maize. — We learn from Mr. E. 
G. Squier, that he ordered a supply of the Peruvian 
Maize, (see p. 219, 1S66,) as he supposed in abundant time 
for it to arrive early this spring. Up to this time we 
have heard nothing further of it. If it does not come by 
or before the first of May, it will be too late to give it a 
fair trial this year, which we shall very much regret. 
Sack Volumes Supplied.— The back volumes 
of t!:e Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with, rural life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last len volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from stereotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
1857— that is, Vol. 16 to Vol. 25, 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 
neatly bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of the past ten 
years will he supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents each. 
AMERICAS AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, MAT, 1S67. 
April is called " fickle, frail and fair," — " tearful'' 
and " sighing." — We talk about April showers and 
May flowers, and about smiling and blushing May, 
as if April were the cold and rainy month in which 
sunshine was the exception and drizzly spring rains 
the rule — and even that rule not to be depended 
upon. Not so. May is the fickle sister, whose 
smiles are capricious, whose promises are frail. 
"We usually hare fine dry weather in April, which 
enables us to finish up a great deal of work and get 
ready for May planting. So it has been this year. 
The spring was very late in March, but the warm 
weather early in April dried the ground, enabled 
farmers to plow, haul manure, and get their spring 
grain in very well. We fear in consequence of so 
fine an April, a cold May, but the long lingering 
of winter gives hope against this. Nevertheless we 
must repeat our caution against too early planting 
the main cropis of Indian corn, beans and roots, ex- 
cept potatoes, for you will lose seed, by its rotting 
in the ground ; or the weeds will get such a start, 
that carrots, parsnips, mangel wnrtzels or beets will 
be choked, if they come up, before they can be 
hoed. Sow all such seeds when the ground is dry 
and warm, and not before. 
Take care to cultivate no more land than you can 
do well by, without working yourself to death, or 
overworking either teams or men. This will secure 
thoroughness, and larger profits if not larger crops. 
Make provision for work to fill up all the " spare 
time," so that you will not hove any. That is — for 
rainy days, and days when the ground is wet and 
can not be worked. A few roods of carrots or beets, 
for stock, are excellent for this, because they must 
be hand-weeded and thinned out on damp and 
rainy days. Give men and teams always-good long 
"noon spells," but exact promptness to begin 
work, and willingness to stick to it and do it well. 
To "Gentlemen Farmers" let us say — know how 
to handle every tool, and if yon do not now, prac- 
tice " on the sly " until you can show any awkward 
man how he should do his work. Ton gain much 
by beating a workman at his own trade, and ,jt is 
very easy to do it, if you have a modicum of knack 
and eommou sense. Tou may almost always cal- 
culate with certainty, on miudagainst muscle, with 
a quill or a crowbar. Learn to judge accurately 
and justly of a good day's or hour's work, not by 
what you can do yourself, but by what an active, 
thorough man can do, when you are with him. 
Bear down as hard as you please on the shirks ; they 
will wince, but stand it, and perhaps do better. If 
you are unjust to a faithful man, he will be very 
apt to "flare up " and quit, as he should, if he can 
not serve you without lowering his own self-respect. 
Elevate your men, by your just dealings with them, 
interest in them, and care for their improvement. 
Furnish them reading for Sundays and eveuiDgs. 
Give them such papers as this, and such books as 
the Agricultural and Horticultural Annuals, Her- 
bert's Hints to Horse-keepers, Johnson on Peat, 
the Hop, Flax, Onion or Tobacco culture hand- 
books, etc., etc. point out particular views as ex- 
pressed in other books, which you use as guides 
to practice. — The practice will surely pay. 
Miiits About Work. 
What would you give if your land — all of it — 
were now dry enough to plow ? Would it not be 
worth $5 an acre to you more this very year and 
every year ? Five dollars is ten per cent, interest 
on $50, which it would cost to drain it, grade it, 
and put it in excellent shape — and after all in nine 
cases in ten, So would not represent half the profit. 
The article on draining in the Agricultural Annual 
is full of good ideas and suggestions to any one 
who wishes to be thorough in his farming, and this 
is the season when a man's needs press upon him 
the consideration of this very important subject. 
Spring Grains. — It is seldom worth while to sow 
oats, barley or spring wheat, unless it can be dona 
during the dry warm spells which we always get, 
some time in March or April. This weather some- 
times lingers into May, being broken up more or- 
less, and sometimes comes all together, four or five 
weeks of it. If you are caught by cold rains, .com- 
ing the last of April or early in May, let the spring 
grains go, and put something else in the laud. 
Corn manured in the hill, or, if the soil is fit, roots 
of some kind. This is a general rule, but when the 
rains are early and apparently over before the mid- 
dle of the mouth, good crops of wheat are occasion- 
ally obtained, and oats may be profitably sown 
when straw for fodder is the principal desideratum, 
but the early sown always yield the best grain. 
Boot Crops. — See hints given last month in regard 
to roots that will bear early sowing. In field cul- 
ture do not put the drills too close, 20 inches is near 
enough for carrots, and 2 feet for mangels and beets. 
The soil for Parsnips must be deep and well en- 
riched throughout — no shallow culture will do at 
all. They do well in heavy, clayey loam. Sow when 
the ground is warm, in drills, 20 inches to 2 feet 
apart, according to the depth' and richness of the 
soil, and the size to which the roots will grow. 
The tops will in a measure correspond, and should 
have space to expand. Delay sowing Rutabagas 
(Swedish turnips) until June. All these crops 
should be hoed by horse power ; and there are 
several horse hoes, well adapted to the purpose. 
Weeding in the drills, and thinning the very young 
plants, must be done by hand, and on rainy days, 
or towards night. On fair days, only when the 
ground is moist. Should the hot sun strike the 
young plants within 12 to 15 hours after the soil 
about them has been disturbed, a great many might 
disappear at once Never let the weeds get a start, 
if you do, a dry hot 6pell in June would almost 
entirely prevent proper weeding, and the crop 
would be lost. Soak beet seed in hot water, keep- 
ing it blood warm 24 hours. 
Corn. — Be in no hurry about planting. There is 
a tendency to err in planting too large varieties, 
and those that need a long season. This leads to 
planting too far apart. On soils properly manured 
3}{ x Z\£ feet is far apart enough for the hills of our 
largest flint corn, and 4 feet each way, light for 
dent corn. The little northern varieties should be 
much closer ; sown in drills, 3 feet apart, and stalks 
left 8 inches apart in the drills, very heavy crops 
are often obtained. The roots of corn wander a 
good way, hence on only moderately enriched laud 
the plants must stand further apart. Corn rarely 
begins to grow before the middle of June, and if 
well up by the last of this month or the first of 
next, it is well enough. 
Broom Corn. — Use a little manure in the hill, 
planting on a good sward. Lime slaked with brine 
is advisable, harrowed in at the rate of about 20 to 
50 bushels to the acre, if the sod is infested with 
wire or cut worms. Ashes and plaster mixed, in 
the hill, or dropped upon it, is a good application. 
The culture is, in short, much like corn, except 
more seed is sown. The plant does not do so well 
on stiff soils, and should not be exposed to early 
frosts. The hills should stand 2}.< feet apart, in 
rows 3 feet apart. Plant before the maiu crop of 
corn (1st to 15th of this month). 
Flax. — Go through and weed carefully by hand, 
when the plants are 2 to 4 inches high, let the wced- 
ers be bare-foot ; children are best employed. 
Hemp may be sown any time this month. Use 4 
to 6 pecks of heavy, bright seed, for broad-cast 
sowing. Be thorough in keeping the grass down. 
Cotton. — See articles on culture in this and pre- 
vious numbers. 
Castor Bean. — An article on the cultivation of this 
plant on page 171 will repay perusal. 
Tobaxco. — The seed-bed, which, having been well 
prepared in a warm place and rich soil, will be just 
now showing its covering of minute round leaves, 
close to the surface, should be watered with dilute 
liquid manure, from the barn yard, or with guano 
water, very dilute, and any weeds, showing them- 
selves, should be pulled out. Tobacco sowed May 
1st will be a little late, but will do very well to fill 
out after the first planting— as is usually needed, 
