468 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
to road making. In some districts one needs 
to light a lamp at noon to find him, but, 
when found, he is a treasure. He is to be 
put and kept in charge of the roads. The 
other is to make the tax a cash business. The 
assessments being payable in cash, the over¬ 
seer can employ whom he chooses, and, if he 
employs the residents of his district, they 
work better on a cash basis. A good road 
saves wear - and tear of wagon, horses, and 
driver ; it tells a pleasant tale of the good 
sense, and good faith of the neighborhood, 
and it adds something material to the value 
of every farm along its course.—Study the 
picture, and use it. It is an “Object Lesson.” 
Contents of This Number. 
[Articles marked with a star (*) are illustrated; the fig-1 
ure with the star indicates the number of illustrations.) 
Agriculturist in Tasmania.502 
Apples, American iu England.502 
Asparagus, When to Plant.501 
Bell-Flo wer, The Pyramidal.*.. 487 
Birds and Canker Worms. 482 
Block Holder, A Stove Wood.*.. 485 
Bovs' and Girls’ Columns:— Doctor's Talks— Jelly 
Fish. Garden Slugs. Distribution of Seeds. Our 
Puzzle Box. Farming in Old Connecticut. The 
Doctor's Correspondence: Cutting The Brush- 
W ood.10*. .492-494 
Breeder, Qualities of a True.475 
Bridle, A Handy Halter.2*..475 
Catalogues Received.502 
Cattle Feeding, A Manual of.472 
Celery, American.502 
Cheese, American, and its Export.484 
Chinch Bug, The.3*. .476 
Commercial Matters, Market Prices.503 
Corn, Notes on Indian.481 
Creeper, The Japanese.*. .489 
Crow, The Common.*.. 479 
Curse, The Canine.481 
Cut-Worms: Natural History, Remedies, etc.475 
Door Weight, A Handy.*.. 477 
Draining.483 
Ewes with Early Lambs..476 
Exposition, The Great Atlanta.472 
Fairs, Do Agricultural, Pay?.478 
Fencing, Barbed Wire for.476 
Fern Case, A Tasmanian . *..470 
Flecks or “ White Caps” in Cream .480 
Gate, ADouble. *..485 
Gate, Bar for a Sagging.*..483 
Garden, The Wild.500 
Garfield, James A. 468 
Gourds, Nest Egg.485 
Grass, The Mexican Drop Seed.'..487 
Hints and Helps for Farmers.5*..480 
Hitch, A Rolling.*. .485 
Hogs, An Apparatus for Handling.*. .480 
Holder A Grindstone Tool. *. .485 
Hops, Raising.503 
Household :—Window Shelves for Plants. Home 
Topics. Childish Disrespect. Mending Stockings 
and Shoes. Rearing and Training of Children. 
Home-made Christmas Presents. Haw Jelly.. . 8 *. .491 
Humbugs, Sundry .500 
Implements, Take in the Farm.480 
•Iroquois” again Victorious .485 
Labels, Plant.488 
Ladder, Another Fruit. *..483 
Leaves from the Woods.502 
Lily, The “ Wampapin”. 470 
Lump-Fish, The.*..479 
manure, Look to the.474 
Market, The Butter and Poultry.501 
Milk, Artificial .486 
Muck, Getting Out.*..484 
Night Soil, Ensilaging.47u 
N»tes from the Pines .*..489 
Notes on Orchard and Garden Work.469-470 
Ox, A Treatise on the Diseases of.472 
Poisoning by Ivy and Sumach; Treatment.474 
Pond Mud.471 
Poultry Yard, Common Sense in Che.477 
Poultry Notes.502 
Privy Contents.502 
Rotation of Crops.471 
Rhubarb Culture.502 
Salamanders or Water Lizards .*..478 
Sheep, The Shropshire.*..474 
Sixty-seven Per Cent—Or More.473 
Society, The American Pomological.500 
Society, The N. Y. Horticultural.502 
Spaying a Cow.472 
Speculation in Grain.. 472 
Speculation on Misfortune. 472 
Stable, a Small Cow.2*..482 
Stables, Dairy..' 501 
Stanchions, Self-Closing Cattle.. ....*”481 
Suggestions of and for the Season.3*. .468-169 
Tasmania—Its Climate and Prosperity. 501 
Tomatoes . ' ’ 472 
Thyme, Wild, a Troublesome Weed.*..488 
Weeds, Worse and Worse.503 
Wheat, Thick and Thin Seeding of.483 
Whitewash for Outside Work. 501 
Will it Pay?. 473 
“ Working Out the Road Tar. * 467 
[AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER, 1881. 
James A. Garfield, 
Since the American Agriculturist made its 
last visit to the homes of its readers, those 
homes have been saddened as with a sense of I 
personal bereavement, when the intelligence 
came that the President was dead. The eyes 
of a whole nation watched by his bed side, 
and it is not extravagant to say that the whole 
civilized world listened to his pulse-beats. 
Yet he, who had borne up so bravely, at last j 
yielded, his death causing a grief unpre¬ 
cedented in human history. It is not for us j 
to add to the many eulogies that have been 
pronounced. All that was mortal of the late 
President has been laid away in his beloved 
State ; the emblems of mourning that draped j 
the country from shore to shore have been 
removed, and the people now turn their 
thoughts to the affairs of busy life. In read- [ 
ing the eulogies that his death occasioned, 
we find accounts of his early struggles for an I 
education; of his scholarly acquirements, of 
his thoroughness as a teacher, his grasp of 
public questions as a legislator, but we find 
little or no reference to the fact, which should j 
especially be brought to the notice of our 
readers, that he was a farmer. He not only 
held agriculture in high esteem, but, so far as [ 
he was able, practised it. We are told that 
in those long dreary summer days at the 
White House, and later, while his life wasj 
ebbing away at the sea-side, his thoughts 
were of his farm at Mentor, and his day 
dreams were of rural scenes at that Ohio 
home, which he was never to see again. 
How much his thoughts were upon agricul¬ 
ture is shown by the prominent place he gave j 
it in his inaugural address. He there said : 
The farms of the United States afford homes 
and employment for more than one-half our j 
people, and furnish much the largest part of | 
all our exports. As the government lights [ 
our coast for the protection of mariners and 
the benefit of commerce, so it should give the 
tillers of the soil the lights of practical science [ 
and experience.”—It would be difficult to ex-j 
press a warmer sympathy for, or a higher! 
appreciation of, the claims of agriculture. 
One lesson of the late President’s life to 
every young man is, that in this country, 
humble birth and occupation are no barriers 
to the highest position. That he rose to 
eminence through his own exertions does not 
explain the universal grief at his death, for 
others have done that, and yet not been buried j 
with such sincere mourning. The cause of this 
is found in the high esteem in which he held 
the family relation ; it was as son, husband, 
and father, rather than as President, that his 
death touched so many people. When hej 
had, by taking the oath, accepted the highest [ 
office the people could give, his first thought 
was of the little white-haired mother, who 
had helped him to reach the position where 
he then stood, and turning from the rest of 
the world, he kissed her wrinkled cheek—ac¬ 
knowledging that whatever else he might be, 
he was still her son. It was the glimpses 
that we have been allowed to have of his 
home life, his patience and cheerfulness when 
in pain, his courage in the face of death that so [ 
turned human hearts to him in his affliction. 
Suggestions of and for the Season. 
It is difficult to tell just what kind of 
I weather November will bring. We are likely 
to have hard frosts, some snow storms, and a 
foretaste of the coming winter. The fine, 
mellow weather of October often lingers, 
and a long Indian Summer may allow the 
doing of a large amount of out-door work. 
All in all, this is a month when much may be 
expected in fair weather and foul, and there¬ 
fore it is all the more necessary that every 
good day be taken advantage of, and every 
bad one be provided against. Should any of 
the work that properly belongs to last month, 
be still unfinished, such as sowing winter 
grain, husking com, etc., it should be pushed 
to completion at once. The wheat that is 
sown in early November often does well, 
though late sowing has nothing in itself to 
recommend it. Rye may be sown so late, 
that there is only time, before the freezing 
weather sets in, for the plant to get a fair 
start. Com-husking can be done in the barn 
at any time, but it is more pleasant and profit¬ 
able to do this work in the field during warm 
weather. Much grain is thrashed in this 
month, partly because the thrashers were not 
earlier available, and the work now is not so 
| pressing. Some farmers suffer from not 
| speaking for the thrashers early in the sea¬ 
son. Those with large grain farms may have 
their own machine, and thus be independent 
of those who go from farm to farm. Farm¬ 
ers with only a small amount of grain, may 
do their own thrashing by hand, and thus 
make good use of stormy days. The import¬ 
ance of planning for work for days when the 
help must be in-doors, should be more fully 
appreciated. There are many things about 
a farm that may then be done in-doors with 
great advantage. There are tools to be 
mended, painted, and put in good trim for the 
time when they will be needed ; harnesses to 
be cleaned and oiled ; grain to be fanned ; 
wood to be split, and many other jobs that 
[ can be done as well when it rains, as during 
the brightest sunshine. Figure 1 shows a 
tool sled or “boat” that is very handy on 
the farm, and is but one of the many home¬ 
made implements that may be constructed in 
the shop during stormy weather. Heavy 
hard-wood planks serve for the bottom, to 
I which the low sides are firmly fastened. 
The harvesting of the roots is largely done 
I this month. The beets and mangels are pro¬ 
tected from the light, early frosts by their 
broad leaves, but so soon as the leaves drop 
down, growth ceases, and the roots should be 
dug. Much labor can be saved in removing 
the roots from the soil by the use of a subsoil 
plow, running it close to one side of the row, 
thus loosening the roots, when they can be 
pulled unbroken and with ease. Horse labor 
should be used upon the farm wherever it is 
available. The pitting of the roots was 
treated last month. There is danger in mak¬ 
ing the heaps too large. Trenches four feet 
wide and two feet deep, are of a suitable 
size, and there is no heating if thorough ven¬ 
tilation is provided for. The covering of 
earth should be made firm, and pressed 
smooth upon the outside that it will shed the 
rain. The tops of the roots make good feed 
for cows, and especially the young stock. If 
stacked in large heaps they soon decay and 
become worthless, and when thinly spread 
they become dried and valueless. A moder- 
! ately thick layer of them spread in some 
