AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
184 
Contents of This Number. 
[Articles marked with a star (*) are illustrated; the fig- 
mre with the star indicates the number of illustrations.] 
Afcnmenoids and Milk.216 
Among the Farmers, No. 64.—Ensilage—Alcohol and 
Vinegar—Will Ensilage Pay ?—The Miles’ Process 
—Ensilage for Late Crops.196-197 
Ashes and Plaster.194 
Bee Notes for May..3*..188 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns :— Doctor's Talks.— Frogs 
Eggs, etc. A Spool Arrrow Gun. Our Puzzle Box. 
“How Does Coffee Grow ? The Pet Calf.. .14*.. 208-210 
Box, A Bushel.*..200 
Brush, Substitute for Pea.205 
Bucket, Handling a Well. *..199 
Catalogues Received.217 
Cattle, A Method of Leading.. .*. .196 
Chayote or Cho ao. *..204 
Cistern for the Barn or Loft.*..193 
Codfish, Reddening of Salted.202 
Colt, Training A .... 197 
Com, Improvement of.202 
Cow, Device to Prevent Kicking.*. .200 
Crop, The Peach for 1881 .216 
Crop, The Rye.200 
Crows and Scarecrows.*.. 198 
Bairy, Houghton Farm.4*.. 194 
Day, A Sunshiny Rainy, in May.*..183 
Ditcher, A Home-made.202 
“ Electricity ” Nonsense and Humbug.187 
Evergreens, The Time for Pruning.205 
Experiments, Some Results of our Field.192 
Farming in Old Connecticut. 216 
Fence, A Canada Portable.*. .202 
Fork, Mending Handle of.*..202 
Fowls, Partridge-Cochin.*.. 191 
Fruit, Someone will Eat.190 
Gardening, How Early, Paid. 187 
Gate, A Li ft.*..192 
Grape Vine, What Shall I do with the.186 
Halter, Tying Horses.3*..201 
Harness, Hangings.*..196 
Hay Binder.*..202 
Helps, Some Garden: Garden Reel—A Rake and 
Roller.....2*..205 
Holder, A Grain Bag.*..199 
Household :—Oyster Can “ Pigeon Holes.” Some 
Topics. Eating Between Meals. Childrens’ Under¬ 
garments—Tfhe Use of Spices. A Mud Mat. Our 
Rural Improvement Society. A Clothes Line 
Reel.6*.. 206-207 
HumbugB, Sundry .188 
Babels, Zinc.205 
Lambs, Early for Market.197 
Laurels, Transplanting.203 
Level, A Home-made Drain.*..198 
Log Lifter, A Handy.*..200 
Man, The Hired.. 198 
Matter, How Increase Vegetable in the Soil.199 
Melons, Forwarding, and other Plants.193 
Milk-Wort, The Box-Leaved.*..203 
Mutton to Fead Dogs. 202 
Notes on Orchard and Garden Work.2*..185-186 
Osage Orange, Extirpating the. 186 
Best, A Dangerous, Among Grasses.*. .201 
Plant, A New Agricultural—Soy.*..200 
Post, Slanting Gate. *.. 199 
Potatoes, Some of the Newer _ t .* .216 
Power, Dog and Sheep, for Churning.■.*..199 
Back, A Feed, for Stable.*..192 
Sbortia— The Rarest of Native Plants .*..203 
Spring Rye.188 
Stock. Health of Farm. 192 
Strawberry, The Bid well. ...*..204 
Suggestions of and for the Season.184-185 
Supplies, Raising Home. 216 
Xether for A Cow. *.. 197 
Threshing Machines and Separators— “ The Vibra¬ 
tor”.. .. .4*.. 190 
Tim Bunker on Hookertown Lore.192-193 
Trichines and Trichinosis..2*. .201 
Ventilator foraPoultry House.*..197 
Water for Cellar Tank.198 
Wheels, Broad for Farm Wagons. ... 195 
Essays on Keeping One Horse.— The re¬ 
port of the committee to which the 93 essays were sub¬ 
mitted comes so late that we can only give the bare de¬ 
cisions : 
1st Prize to C. F. Burnham, Mt. Holly Springs, Pa. 
2d Prize T. L. Nevill, St. John’s, Newfoundland. 
3d Prize to A. B. Knowlson, Sand Lake, N. J. 
One or more of the prize essays will be published as 
eon as we can find room in our columns. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. | 
NEW YORK, MAY, 1881. 
Suggestions of and for the Season. 
No farmer needs to be told that this is a 
month in which work presses, but many of 
our readers will find this year that a large 
share of the work of two months is crowd¬ 
ed into one. Over several of the Western 
States the late and lingering snows have de¬ 
layed work disastrously, and the ground has 
not been fit for the plow until long after the 
usual time. In a season so unseasonable as 
this, in such localities, careful laying out of 
the work is more than ever necessary. For¬ 
tunate are those who prepared the land for 
spring wheat last fall. In many cases farm¬ 
ers may be compelled to let this crop go by, 
and give more attention to com. Early sowing 
is on many accounts desirable, yet good crops 
have been made in New York Statte when the 
sowing was not done until May 20th. Oats 
rarely do well unless sown very early. The 
crop may be much improved by care in pre¬ 
paring the seed. Pass it through a fanning 
mill to blow out all the fight, imperfect seeds. 
Com planting will be the leading work 
throughout a broad area. It is a matter of 
common remark with those who observe the 
weather, that, take one year with another, 
the first of June will find vegetation about 
equally advanced, no matter how backward 
the early part of the season may have been. 
Corn-land is to be put in readiness as soon as 
may be, but the seed must not be planted un¬ 
til the soil is warm, and the grain will start 
into vigorous growth at once. There is often 
serious loss from planting too early; the grain 
remains dormant, or rots in the ground. It 
is often the case that a field planted in April 
will, in June, be far behind one planted two 
weeks later. The old rule is: “a sod for 
corn”; one cannot always follow this ; besides 
in many cases grass land is too valuable as 
such to be plowed up for another crop. The 
American farmer is learning that meadows 
and pastures furnish the most valuable of 
crops. Com does admirably on stubble land; 
the extensive experiments reported to by 
Prof. Atwater and others, show that it does 
not matter what the preceding crop has been, 
so long as the soil is in good tilth, and abun¬ 
dantly supplied with the food elements which 
the com plant requires. There is as much 
difference of opinion as ever, as to whether 
it is preferable to plant in hills or in drills. 
Corn can be kept free from weeds with great¬ 
er ease when planted in hills, as the cultiva¬ 
tor or horse-hoe may be run in two directions, 
and thus leave a much smaller part of the 
work for the hand-hoe. There is the advan¬ 
tage in drills that the plants are more evenly 
distributed over the ground, each stalk has 
more immediate room to itself. A larger 
crop can be grown with the com in drills, but 
it is claimed that, in most cases, this is more 
than offset by the increased labor in tending 
it, especially if the land is weedy. The im¬ 
portance of selecting seed com has been so 
strongly set forth at the proper season, that 
it is presumed that this first step towards a 
successful crop was taken in time. If one 
has a variety that he has improved by care¬ 
ful selection through several years, he should 
be slow to change it for a new kind, though 
we would by no means discourage the test¬ 
ing of new varieties of promise. 
[May, 
The root crop increases in importance, and 
a greater acreage is devoted to it each year, 
and it must advance in favor as the country 
becomes older, and our methods are forced to 
ft 
ada^t themselves to the change in our condi¬ 
tion. Roots do best in a loose friable soil, 
with a gravelly subsoil. They require deep 
culture, and the soil should be plowed to at 
least ten inches. If the soil is not rich, give 
a good supply of well-rotted manure ; bone- 
dust, guano, or superphosphate, at the rate of 
800 to 500 pounds per acre, may be applied 
with profit. All such concentrated manures 
should be sown on the surface, and harrowed 
in, or otherwise thoroughly mixed with the 
soil. Mangel-wurzels are the most important 
root crop. They should be sown by the mid¬ 
dle of the month. After mangels come sugar- 
beets and blood beets, which may be sown 
early in June, but do the best, usually, when 
put in the ground the last of May. The lead¬ 
ing varieties of yellow-fleshed mangels are: 
Webb’s Yellow Globe, Yellow-fleshed Tank¬ 
ard, and the Long Yellow. The red varieties 
are less solid. With the fodder crops sown 
in April, and the corn and roots in May, there 
is little of the farm land unoccupied. A 
small portion may be devoted with profit to 
fodder corn for June, July, or August, after 
the early rye and clover. 
A top-dressing of fine bam-yard manure, or 
artificial fertilizer applied to the grass land, 
either pasture or meadow, will often give new 
life to the grass, and return the expense many 
fold. Plaster often produces excellent results 
upon young clover fields. Thus applied, it 
will help increase the crop to be plowed in as 
a green manure. One to eight bushels per 
acre may be sown broadcast, and this should 
be done as early as possible this month. Do 
not let the animals go to pasture until the 
ground is settled and firm. 
'Fite Farm Five Stock. 
With the hard work of the month the 
horses require the best care, which includes 
carding and brushing. Too much corn, fed 
now, make the animals restless by producing 
an irritation of the skin. A moderate feed of 
green rye will be very acceptable to horses, 
and promote their health. If the land is 
not stony, the shoes may be removed from 
the farm teams, for a time at least, with ben¬ 
efit. Oxen being naturally slow in their mo¬ 
tions, they will not bear hurrying in their 
work, and should be given abundant time for 
feeding. A yoke of oxen can be kept with 
profit on most farms of considerable size 
where three or more men with team are 
employed. 
Cows at pasture, as well as those kept in 
stables under the soiling system, should have 
an abundance of fresh, pure water, and be 
properly supplied with salt. This is consider¬ 
ed to have a corrective effect upon the succu¬ 
lent food that might otherwise produce some 
disorder of the digestion. It is best not to 
let the cows feed entirely upon grass for the 
first few days, but continue the hay and meal 
until the green feed is more mature. This 
caution applies still more strongly to the 
calves and young stock, which are especially 
subject to injury from overfeeding with suc¬ 
culent herbage. “Black leg” or “black 
quarter ” in calves is regarded as a result of 
this. An ounce of Epsom Salts to each calf 
when turned out is given by some as a pre¬ 
caution against this disease. To change the 
feed gradually is one of the best methods of 
