1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
-A49 
Colts .—Young colts and yearlings require good 
nutritious food. Oats are the best food for a grow¬ 
ing colt; if corn is used, wheat-bran is a proper ac¬ 
companiment. Abundance of phosphates is needed 
to form a solid and strong bony framework, and 
bran is rich in these. Keep the skin clean with the 
curry-comb and brush, especially the latter. 
Hkeep and Ijambs. —The ewes will now be in lamb, 
or should be, excepting where late lambs are de¬ 
sired. Where wool and mutton are the chief ob¬ 
jects, May lambs will be preferable to earlier ones. 
There is no better place or time for lambs to be 
dropped than in a pasture on a fine sunny May day. 
Where lambs for market are wanted, the ewes will 
now be in breeding, and will need some extra care. 
An abundance of good, nutritious food, and water, 
are the principal requisites. Sheep nfay be the 
last animals to be brought into winter quarters. 
Sheds and Yards should be prepared without de¬ 
lay. The use of iron for building sheds, described 
elsewhere, is worthy of consideration. This ma¬ 
terial has the advantage of being put together 
cheaply and rapidly, and a portion of a yard cover¬ 
ed with it, might in many cases be a good invest¬ 
ment. Litter for sheds should be kept dry, and 
plenty of it gathered. Leaves from the woods are 
not surpassed for the sheep-yards and pig-pens. 
Pigs. —Pork can hardly fail to join in the general 
upward movement. While pigs of pure breed can 
be obtained cheaply, the opportunity for improving 
the stock should not be neglected. It is probable 
that a better time than the present will not soon 
occur again. Pigs, as manure-makers, are not so 
much considered as their importance deserves. 
Poultry. —A well arranged poultry house, plain, 
without “gimerack” and useless fixtures, and 
made so as to be kept clean easily, will pay as well 
as any other farm expenditure, if not better. With 
eggs at 2 cents each, 12 good hens will now return 
more than $3 in a month, and next month more 
than that. The profit of keeping winter layers is 
obvious. In all farm work our aim should be to 
produce that which sells best, and at a time when 
it sells for the highest price. At odd times, a stock 
of coops may be made for use iu the spring. 
Sundry Matters. —A general clearing up is now in 
order. Fields, fences, yards, buildings, and cel¬ 
lars, should be cleared of rubbish, and the rubbish 
burned. Gather up every tool and put it into its 
place; fix up wagons and carts, clean and paint 
them ; arrange the house for winter and rough 
weather ; now that lights have to be carried about 
the bams and stables, everything should be fully 
insured, and a good responsible company selected 
to insure in , fire-wood should be prepared and put 
under shelter, and that general family peace-maker, 
dry fuel, generously supplied and conveniently 
placed for use; where coal is used, a bin under 
cover, with an opening at the bottom for taking 
out the fuel easily, will save trouble and loss. 
Finally, prepare a suitable place for disposing of all 
household waste where it can be made available as a 
fertilizer and all risk of infection from it be avoided. 
Orchard and Garden Work. 
Whatever the season may have been, this month 
brings work to a close over a wide extent of coun¬ 
try. The orehardist or gardener finds himself at 
the closing of one year, and already at the begin¬ 
ning of another, and while he is occupied with the 
sale, or the proper storing, of his crops, he must, 
in order to be successful, also plan, and in some 
things prepare, for the crops of the coming year. 
Orchard and Nursery. 
Apples. —With the present short crop, fruit that 
in years of abundance would,not be thought mar¬ 
ketable will sell, and should be sorted with this in 
view, and put up in the best possible shape. The 
rejected fruit can go into cider, which is better 
when made at this season, because the process of 
fermentation goes on more slowly. 
Fences and Oates of the orchard and nursery 
should be in good order, especially at this season, 
when a stray animal may do serious damage. 
Rabbits can do much harm if left to themselves. 
If the trees are few, they may be protected by 
bands of lath or tarred paper, tied on with fine 
wire. Rabbits have a great distaste for meat, and 
may be. kept away from the trees by smearing 
the trunks of the trecs'with blood, or rubbing 
them with liver or other refuse meat. A small 
“ bounty ” on rabbits will make boys active with 
their traps. The rabbit is at its best in No¬ 
vember, and a fat young one is most excellent. 
A Mound of Forth at the base of young trees will 
serve the double purpose of a support to the tree 
against the winds and storms, and also prevent 
mice from gnawing the trunks and killing the trees. 
The mounds should be 18 or 20 inches high, and of 
earth free from weeds, so that it may pack firmly. 
Draining, if necessary, should be done before 
hard freezing weather. Surface water should not 
be allowed to collect; a few furrows in the right 
place will be useful in carrying off the water. 
Cions may be cut as soon as the leaves fall, when 
they should be put into sawdust, or, in its absence, 
sand, and kept in a cool cellar. Only healthy, 
thrifty trees of well-known varieties should be se¬ 
lected from. It is better to buy than to use poor stock. 
Stocks for Root Grafting— The grafting is done 
during the winter, and therefore the stocks should 
be in a handy place. The stocks are taken up be¬ 
fore the ground freezes, assorted, tied in bundles, 
and put in boxes, with their roots well covered with 
soil, and placed in the cellar, ready for grafting. 
The Keeping of Fruit requires a uniform, low 
temperature, just above the freezing point. Fruit, 
in ripening, gives otf carbonic acid gas, which is 
deleterious, hence fruit should not be stored in the 
house cellar, if it can be avoided. Where there is 
no other place for the fruit, then the ventila¬ 
tion of the cellar must be carefully looked to, and 
if an opening can be made from the cellar into the 
chimney, let it be done. Open the windows of the 
cellar when the outside temperature will allow. 
Detached Cellars should be provided where there 
is much fruit. In such, ventilation is not required, 
as the gas, by excluding the air, retards the ripen¬ 
ing, and, in fact, tends to preserve the fruit. 
Labels .—Those upon the trees should be looked 
to. The old style, made of pine, marked with a 
lead-pencil while a coat of white-lead is still fresh 
upon them, is about the best. Some prefer zinc 
strips with the name written with pencil. Perhaps 
the best, most durable tree label, was described 
and figured in the September number. 
Seeds of Trees for spring planting are best preserved 
by mixing them with sand, and placing the boxes 
in a cool and dry place, where there are no mice. 
Manuring .—If the results of annual cropping 
without any return to the soil could be seen in an 
orchard as quickly as in a corn or potato field, there 
would be fewer melancholy illustrations of the fact 
in unproductive orchards. What manure shall be 
given will depend upon circumstances, and the 
subject is too large to discuss here. Stable 
manure, bone, ashes, green crops—turned under, 
not taken otf, as is too frequently done—and lime, 
are all of great value, and should be freely used. 
'riie Fruit Garden. 
To those really fond of gardening, the propaga¬ 
tion of plants is one of its greatest pleasures. Aside 
from the economy of raising their own plants, ahd 
the certainty of having these true to name, there is 
a vastly greater satisfaction in cultivating plants 
they have started from the beginning—almost cre¬ 
ated—than with plants purchased already grown. 
The case with which many things maybe multiplied 
will surprise those who have never attempted it. 
In propagating, it is of great importance to do it at 
the right time, and in some cases the operation 
must be begun months before it is finished For 
the fruit garden, the propagation of the Currant, 
Gooseberry, Blackberry, Raspberry, and the Grape, 
is best begun in the fall. The very simplest is 
The Propagation of the Currant and Gooseberry ,— 
The material used is the pieces removed from the 
bushes at the time of pruning. We have advised 
pruning so soon as the leaves fall, which is usually 
a month or more earlier, though many put it off un¬ 
til now, or much later. In pruning the Currant, the 
aim should be to have an open bush ; remove alto¬ 
gether, from the base, those stems that make it too 
crowded, whether young or old, and the present 
year’s growth of stem should be shortened by cut¬ 
ting off one-third or one-lialf. From the primings, 
Currant Cuttings are made, using only the growth 
of this year (told by its much lighter color), and 
cutting it into six-inch lengths. In localities where 
the ground is not likely to freeze hard for some 
weeks, the cuttings may be planted at once, other¬ 
wise they may be set quite close together in boxes 
of soil; the soil should be deep enough to allow 
them to be pushed in for two-thirds their length. 
Place the boxes in the cellar, see that they do not 
get very dry during the winter, and set out the first 
thing in spring. To plant now, open a trench with 
the spade, having one side of it perpendicular, and 
deep enough to hold the cuttings, leaving an inch 
above the surface. Place the cuttings 4 inches 
apart, and carefully till iu the earth. Success largely 
depends upon having the soil well against the low¬ 
er ends of the cuttings, aud it should be firmly 
pressed down here, using the end of a board to 
gently, but firmly, pound it down. Cover the bed 
with straw or hay, and leave it until spring. 
Blackberry and Raspberry. —Both are supposed to 
have had the old stems cut away as soon as the 
crop was oft'. If this was not done then, do it now, 
and tie up the canes for the winter. Those who 
cultivate the tender raspberries must cover them 
this month. The canes are bent down in the direc¬ 
tion of the row by one man, while another throws 
enough earth upon them to hold them in place ; in 
a garden, the work may be done with the spade or 
shovel, covering the entire length of stem with a 
few inches of earth. In large plantations, the cov¬ 
ering is done with a plow, and very rapidly. 
Propagating the Blackberry and Raspberry. —In 
small gardens, the demand for plants is usually 
supplied by suckers, which come up from the old 
stools, and are allowed to grow for the purpose. 
Where a larger quantity are needed, they may be 
readily raised from root-cuttings. Roots are taken 
from old plants, by cutting down at a short distance 
from them with a sharp spade—they can lose a por¬ 
tion of their roots without injury—and taking up 
the severed roots. Cut up these into pieces two 
and three inches long, the smaller the roots, the 
longer the pieces, and place them in boxes of 
earth. Put in a layer of an inch of earth, 
cover this with cuttings, then another layer of 
earth, and so on. Place the box in the cellar, look¬ 
ing to it occasionally to see that it does not get too' 
dry. If watering Is necessary, do not make mud of 
the soil, the object being to keen it at the natural 
moisture. On the large scale, the box of roots and 
earth is buried in a place where no water will 
stand, and provision made for drainage. In either 
case, when the box is opened in the spring, the cut¬ 
tings will be found to have callused, and with buds, 
and more or less roots will have formed. The cut¬ 
tings are then to be set out in the open ground. 
Grape-Vines. —Pruning should be done as soonas 
the leaves fall. Vines set this spring should beat- 
one or two shoots next year, according to then- 
vigor. Cut such vines back to three buds or so, 
leaving one or two extra ones io provide against 
accident. Old vines should be pruned according to 
the condition of each vine. Enough buds should 
be left to produce a sufficient number of shoots to 
bear the leaves and fruit, and no more, as it is to 
be remembered that those buds left after pruning 
represent the new growth for the next year. 
Propagation of the Grape .—The cuttings are made- 
from the branches pruned off, and should have two- 
buds at least; tie them in bundles, label, and cover 
with earth in the cellar. The Concords and many 
others grow readily from such cuttings planted in 
the open ground in spring; others of harder wood, 
like Delaware, etc., do not grow readily, and are 
raised from cuttings of a single eye, in propagating 
houses ; while others still, like Norton’s Virginia, 
are with great difficulty propagated from cuttings 
at all, and must be layered. The Delaware, and 
others like it, may be propagated in the open air 
