4:30 
AMERICAN AG-RIOtTiyrURIST. 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1867. 
Bats— Fiyiug Foxes Illustrated. .441 
Bees— Apiary ill December 431 
Black Aider 410 
Boys' and Girls' Columns — A Curious Box— Christmas 
Presents — An Ignorant Engineer — A Hide by Wind 
Power— Our Eailroad— Garibaldi— Little Tot— A 
Bully Rebuked— Send New Puzzles— New Puzzles 
to be Answered — Answers to Problems and Puz- 
zles -7 Illustrations. . 455, 456 
Constitution of a Horticultural Society 447 
Cotton Moth 3 Illustrations. .443 
Dog— The Newfoundland Illustrated. .448 
Eaf!h Worms in Flowers-pots 451 
Editorial Jottings in Europe 439 
Farm Work in December , 430 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December 431 
Foreign Items 447 
Fruit Garden in December 431 
Garden— Kitchen, in December 431 
Gate, Self-closing 2 Illustrations. .450 
Grape Exhibition at 245 Broadway 439 
Grapes and Grape Culture - 450 
Grape Growers' Meeting 43S 
Green and Hot-houses in December 432 
Horse-stall— An Improved Illustrated. .440 
Household Department— What to Do with a Person 
Apparently Drowned— Miss Collins' Essay, Clu-ist- 
mas Tree, Holders, Emory Bags— Diary of a Young 
Housekeeper, Lard, Sausages, Head Cheese, Bread, 
Flannel Garments, Washing Machines. 14 llhts. 453, 454 
Indian Corn — Fertilization 2 Illusstratiom. .445 
.Tndging of Fruits at Fairs 452 
Kidney Vetch 442 
Lake Shore Grape Growers' Association 433 
Lilies, Varieties of • Illustrated . .449 
Lizard's-tail Illustrated. .452 
Market Reports 432 
Orchard and Nursery in December 431 
Papaw, the Illustrated. .447 
Pear Culture in Connecticut 447 
Pent Moss and its Uses Illustrated.. 452 
Plum, the Miner : 452 
Poultry— Close Breeding 444 
Premiums for 2868 433 
Profits of a Small Place 451 
Sable, The American Illustrated. .441 
Shrubs. Showy Fruited Illustrated.. 449 
Smoking Meats Illustrated. 446 
■■ Solomon in all his Glory " Illustrated. 449 
Swine. Breeding of < 444 
Tight Embankments Illustrated. .440 
Tim Bunker on Base Ball 441 
Tomatoes. Improvement in 450 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 43— Experiments 
in Feeding — Cheese Factories — Cost of Keeping a 
Cow— Of what Flesh is Composed— A Dry Time — 
Page 440, and continued on, 442 
INDEX TO ''BASKET" OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
AbdominalTumor.Horse.437IIowa State Fair 438 
Agricultural Annual 434! Journal r t h e Farm. . .437 
Am. Pomological Soc'y..43S!Jujube ffis 
Asphaltum Floors 437;Lake Mahopac . .435 
Balsam Fir 135jLarge Beetf 
Barberry Hedges 435 
Barn Cellars 435 
Boston Fun 434 
Bottling Cider 436 
Buckwheat Shortcake... 435 
CastorBeans,BroomCorn.434 
Cheap Homes 437jMowing Machines and 
Chess... -437 1 , John Bull 437 
Chromo- Lithography.. . . .-436 Muck— 500 Loads of -137 
Clearing Timbered Land.438iNarive Woods 43S 
.435 
Letters, Once More 435 
Lifting Stones 43.3 
Lilies in D. C 435 
Louisiana Fairs 434 
Mass. Ag"l College 435 
Mathushek Pianos 434 
ClottvMilk 43' 
Corn iu Drills 435 
Correction, A 438 
Cost of Sheep 437 
Cotton and Manure 437 
Cotton Culture/Work on. 4*4 
Cows Holding up Milk. .437 
Crops in Europe 437 
Dictionary, a Good 436 
Drains, Difficulty with.. .43S 
EarlyGoodrichPotatoes . . 437 
End'of the Volume 434 
Facts about Peat 437 
Farm Boiler 437 
Farmers' Home Journal. 437 
Farming in Colorado 437 
Fattening Food, Horses. .438 
Feeding Cabbages 437 
Feeding Fowls 435 
Tine Marigolds 435 
Nebraska Plums 435 
News Boy's Lodging 136 
New Year's Present 436 
Mo Grafts, No Seeds 13-1 
Now is the Time to Re- 
new 436 
Oysters in Salt Lake 437 
Pbuu. Hort'l Society 434 
Plants in Rooms 435 
Plowing with One Line . .437 
Profitable Investments. . .436 
Propagating Oleander. ..435 
Registered Letters 436 
Russian Sweet Potatoes. .434 
Salt and Lime 437 
Selecting Seed Corn 437 
Soldering Iron 437 
Sorghum and its Produers437 
■'Some Pumpkins" 435 
Strawberry Tree 435 
Fruit Preserving House. 43s l Sugar Cane in Nevada. . .434 
Fuchsias won't Bloom... 43o|Snndry Humbugs 434 
rood Papers 436 
t iood Religions Paper... 434 
Grapes from California.. 438 
Grape Growers' Meeting.43S 
Crape Trellis 435 
Ground Vinery 435 
Hanging Baskets 436 
Harrison Potato 437 
HeatingSmallGreenhonse435 
Herbaceous Perennials. .435 ; 
Hickory Nuts, Seeds?. 
Horticultural Annual.. 
Increase Clubs Now . . 
Indiana State Fair 
Tainted Barrels 435 
Taking Up Meadows . . . 4:35 
Tree Seeds 435 
Vaults with Coal Ashes. .433 
Ventilation of Soil 437 
Vergalien Pears 435 
Vinegar from Sorghum.. 437 
Water Cress 435 
Watering Troughs 437 
! Weed— A Bad . 435 
.43S Wheat Crop in the U. S..437 
.434 Wheat Crop of England. 435 
.436 Winter Mulch for Grass. 435 
.438 Yeast 435 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, DECEMBER, 1867. 
Hail winter, tlie resting time of vegetable life. 
We gather strength in sleep, and by repose. So 
do the animals, to which man is so close akin iu his 
physical and even intellectual structure. Plants 
also undergo internal changes which fit them for 
the new life of the spring. The maple stem con- 
tains little sugar during the season of growth, but 
gains it from the changes which occur to the con- 
tents of its cells during the period of rest. The 
grasses and winter grains ripen their roots, so to 
speak, and we presume that no vegetables which 
maintain then-vitality through the cold season, ap- 
proach the spring unchanged, but they are better 
prepared to commence a new growth. The soil firmly 
bound by the frost fetters is no exception to the 
rule of improvement. Simple freeziug is very bene- 
ficial, freezing and thawing still more so, and the 
more thorough the exposure to the action of the 
elements, the greater the advantages. Particles of 
plant food, before unavailable, are brought into a 
condition to be dissolved by water, and taken up 
by the plants. Stiff clays are ameliorated, peaty 
soils are made friable, and a volume might be writ- 
ten on the good effects uf frost on the soil. It 
makes up to the dwellers in the temperate and 
frigid zones the lack of the inteuser action of warm 
airs, moisture, fermentation, and decay upon the 
soil and its constituents, occurring iu the tropics. 
Rest is not a folding of the hands in idleness, that 
is rust, or its equivalent. A change is more resting 
than a cessation of labor. If the hands rest, let us 
set the brain at work, and let the social qualities 
find useful employment, for thus shall we be in- 
vigorated in body and mind, and all the better pre- 
pared for hard work when it comes. After all, the 
rest of winter, to most farmers, is more in change 
of work than in anything else. Work enough 
may be done in the shortest day to give any man 
good digestion, and to soften even a bed of straw. 
The interest in Farmers' Club meetings, and in 
other similar gatherings, will flag, if especial efforts 
be not made by those who have the ordering of 
them to make every meeting attractive by drawing 
out from the members facts useful to all, imparting 
some practically useful knowledge, giving away 
seeds, grafts, roots, duplicate catalogues and circu- 
lars, etc. Here let us drop a hint, which, in our 
experience, has always worked well. If the secre- 
tary, at each meeting, distributes all the articles of 
the kinds enumerated that he has on hand to the 
members present, be they many or few, saving none 
for delinquent or absent ones, the meetings will be 
much better attended. 
The Retrospect. — The last month of the year is 
upon us. Our volume closes with it, but we neither 
shut our books, nor lay down our pens. The Sab- 
bath of the year is for our readers, not for us, with 
whom every month is like its fellows. Yet these 
brief halts upon the march are pleasant, as we east 
the eye back over the way we have come, and take 
our bearings, and make ready to move forward into 
the unknown but hopeful future. The year has 
been one long to be remembered as presenting the 
anomaly of a parching drought and most damaging 
rains, sweeping hand in hand, as it were, across the 
continent; yet our prosperity, as an agricultural peo- 
ple, is great. Most of our products are sought for 
at high prices, and we have niueh to sell. The dis- 
eases which have threatened our stock, have passed 
away, means of intercommunication have greatly 
increased, so that access to markets, with remuner- 
ative prices are offered even to the corn growers and 
herdsmen of our out-most borders. The peaceful 
conquests of labor and of the strifes of trade are 
noticeable everywhere. Each section is being 
bound to the other by cords of iron, and bonds of 
commercial intercourse. The mutual dependence of 
each portion of the country upon the other for real 
prosperity, is every day more strongly apparent. 
Mints Al>o5s! Work. 
The winter evenings have come, and it is a matter 
of the first importance that a portion of them 
should be devoted to the cultivation of the mind. 
The summer has necessarily been devoted to labor. 
In the winter, Nature puts a barrier upon many of 
our labors, and we should take advantage of the in- 
terval to read upon topics that have been deferred 
for want of time to discuss them. The mind need = 
cultivation as much as the soil, and it is generally 
the state of themind that makes farmingprofitab!,' 
or otherwise. The brain is more and more show- 
ing its power every year in economizing farm la- 
bor, and uo man can afford to remain in ignorance 
of the manifold appliances that help his industry 
Keep the mind improving, and make all your f;rsn 
operations a means of mental culture. Look back 
over the past year, and see wherein you have made 
bad plans, or failed to carry out good ones. De- 
termine what practices have been profitable and 
what ought to be abaudoned. Every year's opera- 
tions ought to have its lessons for the thinking 
fanner, and settle some principles. 
Books. — These are becoming more and more nec- 
essary upon the farm. The more a man knows, 
the more he needs to know in every calling in life. 
" A little learning is a dangerous thing." There has 
been a great mental quickening upon the farm 
within the past ten years, and multitudes of work- 
ers have got smattering of the science of agri- 
culture. They have got out of the ruts in which 
they were comparatively safe, and have ventured 
upou experiments. They need more light to 
guide them; and to this end they must read the 
writings of men farther advanced than themselves, 
and thus avail themselves of their knowledge. The 
books made by practical farmers, gardeners, and 
fruit-growers, embody the experience of a life-time 
and are invaluable to those who come after them. 
The man who masters this experience saves himself 
from'a multitude of losses, and puts himself in the 
way to make large gains. " Draining for Profit" is 
a book that ought to be in every farmer's hands. 
Get the best books on your business, and study 
them with a view to following such teachings as 
are adapted to your soil and climate. 
Periodicals. — These are indispensable now to 
keep a man abreast of his times. No investment 
pays better than a few dollars in the best agricul- 
tural and horticultural journals. Farming is pro- 
gressive like the other arts, and there is money 
saved and gained in the hiuts which these papers 
drop in their monthly or weekly visits. 
Circulating Libraries, will furnish much that one 
is not able to purchase for himself. These should 
be established in every town, and provision made 
for their regular increase. At least exchange books 
and periodicals with your neighbors. Tbey are 
great educators. Your children will read some- 
thing, and you may as well direct their education 
as to leave it to others. A home well supplied 
with good books and papers is rarely deserted for 
places of vicious resort. 
Schools. — Keep your children in the best schools. 
Make the free schools as good as they can be, but 
if there are better, use them. There is no compen- 
sation for the loss of the advantages of education. 
Accounts. — Have everything settled up by the 
close of this month, and ascertain definitely the re- 
sult of the year's transactions. Know whether yon 
have gained or lost, and how much. Farmers are 
more negligent than any other class in this matter. 
They have much barter with their neighbors, and 
at the store or market town, and often accounts 
run for years without any settlement. They do not 
know how they stand with the world, and cannot 
tell whether any crop they cultivate is a loss or gain 
to them. This is bad farming, and often leads to 
bad morality. Keep accounts and settle them once 
a year, for your own sake as well as your neighbors'. 
Begin the next year with a clean balance sheet. 
Protertion. against Frost. — The cellar may be made 
frost-proof originally, by good underpinning and 
double glazed windows. If this has uot been done, 
make a thick bank of earth, tan-bark, sea weed, ot 
