AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
lUanr-m, GrarcLen, and. TdonseTiold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NORLE EMPLOYMENT OP MAN.”- Washinoion 
ORANGE JIJI>I> COMPANY, j 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. 
Office, 245 BROADWAY. ) 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
Published in German at same rates as In English. 
( TERMS: *1.50 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE; 
J 4 Copies lor S5; 10 for $l - 4j 20 or more, $1 each ; 
I 10 Cents additional must be sent with eacli Sub- 
( scription for postage.—Single Number, 15 Cents. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in July, 1S78, by the Orange Judd Company, at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXXVII.—No. 8. NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1878. NEW SERIES—No. 379. 
Contents of this Number, 
Calendar for the Month. 
Aconite Leaved Geranium. Illustrated. f >00 
Agriculture of the Nile . Illustrated. .283 
American Agriculturist Experimental Farm.291 
Among the Farmers, No. 31.—Wethersfield—Onions— 
Farm of S. M. <fc D. Wells—Home-made Things..291 
Bee Notes for August.289 
Beet-Sugar Industry of France.288 
Boys and Girls.—Young, Microscopists—Spittle In¬ 
sects—Curious Discoveries—Ivy Disease ; Doctor’s 
Chat; Aunt Sue; Large Insects; Bryant. 9305-308 
Country Parsons.298 
Cow Milkers... .290 
Cultivator for Small Grains. Illustrated. .299 
Egg Tester. . Illustrated. .291 
Emasculate tiie Dog.290 
English Notes . 290 
Farm Dog, A Useful. Illustrated ..293 
Farm Work in August.283 
Ferry-boat..2 Illustrations. .297 
Fruit Garden for August.285 
Flower Garden and Lawn for August.285 
Gathering Clover-seed. Illustrated. .296 
Grades as Milkers . 295 
Greenhouse and Window Plants. 285 
Harrow for All Work. Illustrated. .296 
Household Department.—Home Topics.—Co-operation 
in Taking Homesteads — Maternity Alleviated — 
Clothes Moth; Household Notes and Queries. .303-305 
Humbugs.287 
Japan Iris, New Varieties.302-303 
Kitchen and Market Garden.. —303 
Laundry Machinery.. .2 Illustrations. .290 
Lock-up Nest Box . Illustrated.. 297 
Market Reports... . .285 
Notes From the Pines.—Deutzia Crenata—Wistarias— 
Dyehouse Cherry—Hall’s Honeysuckle—Wire Work 
on the Veranda—Kentish Invicta Pea.302 
Pea Fowl.296 
Pulling Stumps. Illustrated ..296 
Pig-Pen—A Cheap One.2 Illustrations. .297 
Quack Grass, How to Kill.2 Illustrations ..299 
Quinces and their Cultivation.302 
Science Applied to Farming, No. 44.—Formulas for 
Fertilizers—Stockbridge Manures .291 
Sheep Farming for the South . 3 P 0 
Shepherd Dogs. Illustrated.. 293 
Slatted Floors for Cow Stables. 4 Illustrations ..296 
Strawberries—New ones of Promise.. .2 Illustrations.. 301 
Talks on Farm Crops, No. 18. .294 
Tethering Cows .. . Illustrated. .298 
Village Improvement. 299 
Wheat to the Acre, More.289 
Wooden Stable Fork. Illustrated. .298 
INDEX TO “BASKET.” AND OTHER SHORT ARTICLES. 
Agricultural Education. .S^Gold Detecting .316 
Ashton's Salt.282,Green Corn, Preserving.287 
Asparagus, Fine.315!Hedges, Pruning.314 
Big Head.286 House Drainage.282 
Birds, A New Work on..282 Jas. Fleming, Obituary..315 
Bones, Preparation of. . .314jLump in a Cow’s Teat. ..315 
Bones or S’p’rphosph’te. 314 Mending Burst Pipes.... 314 
Bone-ash, black,or Bones314'Nuts and Nubbins.316 
Burn Heap.303Uleomargarine Law, Ct..315 
Butter Factory..314 
Butter Coloring.315 
•Carbolic Acid, Sheep Dip316 
Chicken Cholera.315 
Clawson Wheat.282 
Clogging a Water-Pipe. .313 
Clover Weed Seed...///..287 
Colts—To accustom them 
to the Halter.314 
Compost Heap. .314 
Composting Animals 315 
Cotswold Sheep and An¬ 
gora Goats. .315 
Cow Holding Back Milk.313 
Cows in Season.315 
Cow’s Tails, Cutting.316 
Cows, Breachincss.316 
Crop Reports.286 
Cramps in Turkeys.315 
Paris Green.315 
Pasture, to Renovate_314 
Petun ias—Pota to-bugs.. 316 
Plaster on Clover.315 
Plums do not. Bear.316 
Pneumonia, Typhoid... .314 
Potato-bugs, made useful.314 
Potato-diggers.281 
Potatoes above Ground..316 
Poultry in Stables. 315 
Poultry in UnitedStates.313 
Poultry Vermin .315 
Preserving Powders.281 
Railroads in U. S.314 
Ram’s Horn, Removal of.314 
Road-horse, Condition...316 
Roller, Use of.295 
Roses, A Selection of... .286 
Roots, Feeding.313 
Drained Marsh.316 Roots, Rich Soil for.293 
Draining Meadows.314;Roots, Thinning. 289 
Dysentery in Pigs.315'Rustic Chair. .Illustrated . .287 
Excursion, Editorial.282 Sheep, Herding.282 
Farm Accounts.315 Shooting, Remarkable . 287 
Farm Experiments.297 Soap Box, A Use for_„. c 0? 
Flour, New Process.314 Strawberry, Layering_301 
Food from the FarWest.282 Strawberry Grub.304 
Foreign Markets.298 Trace-Chains, Protection314 
Fruit-growing in U. S.. .316 Watermelon, Carrying.. .287 
Frnit Trees, Potash in...316 
Gas-lime, Value of.314 
Georgia Flea-trap.___315 
Grafting and Budding. ..282 
Granary Boards.313 
Weeds.. .295 
Western Immigration... .289 
Wheat,Experiments with282 
Wheat on Poor Land... .282 
When to Sow Timothy..318 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON. 
1st Quart 
Full M’n 
3d Quart. 
New M’n 
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28 
BOSTON. ;N. YORK. I WASIl’N.'.OnA’STONjCHICAGO. 
II. M. II. M. II. M. II. M. III. M. 
8 85 mo. 1 8 23 mo. 8 II mo! 7 59 mo.' 7 29 mo. 
7 32 ev. I 7 2Q ev. j 7 8 ev. 6 56 ev. j 6 26 ev. 
11 24 ev. 11 12 ev. ill 0 ev. 10 18 ev. 10 13 ev. 
1 15 mo. 1 3 mo. I 0 51 mo! 0 39 mo.; 0 9 mo. 
Terms, Publishers’ Notices, etc. 
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supplied at 12 cents each.— Any Numbers of the paper is¬ 
sued for 21 years past, sent post paid for 15 cents each; 
or any full year, sent unbound, for $1.60.Clubs of 
Subscribers can be Increased at any time, at the club rates, 
if new members begin at same date as original club. 
Every German Cultivator and Laborer 
on tl»c Farm, or in I2»e Garden, OUGHT 
to have the German American Agriculturist, and thou¬ 
sands of new subscribers are taking it this year. It 
contains not only the Engravings and all the essential 
reading matter of the American edition, but an additional 
Special German Department , edited by the Hon. Frederick 
Munch, of Missouri, a skillful and successful cultivator 
and excellent writer. No other German Agricultural or 
Horticultural Journal in America has been so long issued; 
no other contains so much useful information and so many 
engravings. Germans are a reading, thinking people, 
and know how to make good use of what they read. 
Many Americans supply it to their German laborers and 
gardeners; all would find it pay to do so. — Nothing 
else can compete with it in cheapness of pi ke for the same 
amount of material , engravings, etc., because the expense 
of collecting and making these is largely borne by the 
American edition, and no separate office or machinery is 
required beyond German editors and the printers. Its 
terms are the same as the American edition, singly and 
in clubs; and clubs can be composed of subscribers for 
either edition in whole, or in part.— Please call the 
attention of your German neighbors to this paper. It will 
do much to help new comers to a knowledge of the sys¬ 
tem and modes of culture used in this country. 
Potato-Diggers, Flouring Mills, and ail other 
implements, will be found mentioned in onr ad¬ 
vertising columns, which may always be looked to as a 
“ Directory ” for farm supplies, often at a great saving in 
time and postage on the part of correspondents. 
Preserving Powders. —There arc other chemical 
compounds besides the Chloride of Sodium, or common 
salt, which have the power of arresting decay in animal 
and vegetable substances. For several years these have 
been offered to the public for the preservation of fruits, 
etc. When ail advertisement of this kind is presented to 
us, the first condition is, that we shall be informed of the 
precise composition of the article. If we regard the com¬ 
pound as a safe one, the advertisement is admitted. To 
avoid answering special inquiries, we would say that so 
far as regards the articles offered in former years, and 
those advertised the present year, we have every reason 
to believe that they may be employed for preserving pur¬ 
poses, without impairing the safety as food of the articles 
preserved by this agency. 
A Blunder was made in the description of the 
“Farmer’s Friend Grain Drill” in the July number, 
wherein it was stated that’by a simple arrangement the 
implement could be transformed into a wheat hoe. Al¬ 
though we bad not seen the attachment, we had under¬ 
stood this to he one of its desirable features. Wel1.it 
was our blunder, and so much the worse for the “Far¬ 
mer’s Friend; ” hut the manufacturers are honest, and 
“ do not want to make any misrepresentations.” 
Trouble with Specimens by Mail.—We 
have heretofore called attention to the trouble we have 
with plants, etc., sent us by mail. After exercising all 
care, we still have several letters referring to specimens 
which have not reached us, and a number of specimens 
of plants, insects, etc., to which we have no clue. When 
one lias taken the pains to send a specimen by mail, it is 
a fair indication that he really wishes to know something 
about it, and we have every desire to gratify his wish; 
hut if three or four specimens of grasses, for example, ns 
sometimes happens, come in one day, and there is neither 
postmark, nor sign, to tell to whom they belong, we are 
quite unable to make them useful. By far the safest way 
is to spend specimens of moderate size in a letter; it 
rarely occurs that the grass or other plant is large 
enough to more than double the ordinary letter-postage, 
and we are sure of its safe arrival (which, in the other 
case, we are not), and of knowing from whom it comes. 
... Some one in Minn., having a new raspberry, wishes 
our opinion of it. It is just possible, that by great care a 
perishable fruit like this might be sent so far by mail, 
and arrive in fair order, but highly improbable. Our cor¬ 
respondent wraps some berries in cotton, puts them in a 
frail paper box, ties it with a string, and sends it. We 
receive a crushed box, containing some matted cotton, 
