49-4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Contents of this Number. 
[Articles marked with a star (*) are illustrated; the fig¬ 
ure with the star indicates the number of illustrations.] 
Among the Farmers, No. 59.—Eockwork—Well Curb 
—Well Sweep—Saw Buck.5*..506 
Ash-Box, Convenient.2*..510 
Bam, Small.3*..510 
Barn-Yard Manure vs. Fertilizers.509 
Barn-Building, Trusses in..3*..502 
Bee Notes for December.527 
Bitter Sweet, Climbing*. 514 
Blazing Stars*—.513 
Blight, Pearanwt’each.2*..514 
Boys and Girls’ Columns :—Tke Doctor's Talks; 
Water Wheels—Solution, What is it? Puzzle Box 
—Illustrated Kebus—The Coming Year—Strange 
Flower Bed — The Kangaroo — Puzzle Picture — 
Christmas. 9*.. 518-519-520 
Brier, Sensitive*.513 
Cherries.514 
Chickens and Insects. 511 
Cisterns, Cheap and Durable.508 
Corn, Variations In. 505 
Cow-Barn and Poultry House.2*..508 
Culverts Under Koadways.6*..507 
Bung-heap, The...2*..502 
Eland or Impoofo*.505 
Essays, Prizes for, Keeping One Horse. . .500 
Exports, Great, of Grain Continue.501 
“Eurotas,” Wonderful Butter Record.500 
Fence, A Simple Portable.3*..500 
Forty Years.501 
Garden, Farmer's.515 
Gate, A Wire Fence*.508 
Gate, A, Two Latch*.512 
Hints and Helps for Farmers :—Yoke for Sucking 
Cow—Stable Tie—Catch for Gate—Broom Corn 
Seeder—Wagon Jack—Garden Mattock_. 6* 511 
Hints for the Work of the Month.495 
Hogs, Heavy, to Handle.2*..509 
Horse, Baulky, Cure for*.507 
Household : — Shell Catch-All—Wall-Pocket — Home 
Topics; Hard and Soft Water in Cooking—Washing 
Done Out of the House—Starching Made Easy— 
Diapers—Under Suits. Animals in Needle-work. 
Notes and Queries. Folding Table.9*. .515-517 
House, A Country, Costing $2,200..5*..504 
Houses, Tenant, on Farms .502 
Humbugs, Sundry.498 
Jband, Clean Grass..500 
Manure in Stables, Accumulation of.503 
Milk Supply for Boston. 502 
Muck and Peat Pay . 510 
Notes from the Pines*.515 
Notes and Queries*.517 
Notes on Orchard and Garden Work.4*. .495-496 
Posts, Living, for Wire Fences.2*. .507 
Rack, Fodder, for Sheep.5*. .509 
Reaper, in the Field.506 
Rib-Grass, or English Plantain*.503 
Sawdust in Rivers.512 
Science Applied to Farming.4*. .512 
Sheep and Lambs, Care at Yeaning.509 
Sheep, Ram “Stalwart”*.505 
Shellers, Corn, the “A. B. C.”*.501 
Shoes, Wooden, for Horses .2*..511 
Snow-Shoes, Norwegian “Ski”.3*..500 
Soldering, Something About.507 
Stores, Cooperative.501 
Tansy Tea for Insects. 511 
Things, Little, of Great Moment.509 
Tim Bunker—Irrigation in Shadtown.503 
Trucks for Boats.2*..510 
Well, of Cement Blocks*.508 
Winter, In the Woods in*.493 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” AN 
Alders and Hardbacks.. .525 
Annatto. 528 
Apples Abroad.497 
Apples A broad, American527 
Ashes, Leached.499 
Azalea Culture.527 
Birds, Lice oil.527 
Books, New .496 
Bosoms and Collars*.498 
Boots, Wet.528 
Carp, Distribution.497 
Cart, Barrel.497 
Charcoal as Fertilizer_499 
Chilblains ...498 
Cold, Shut Out.3*..497 
Corn, Quick Returns_498 
“ Curious Plant”..497 
Dentaphone.499 
Fences, Stone.2*. .527 
Fowls for Eggs.499 
Grass, Blue!.499 
Grass, Guinea.497 
Gra ss, Humrn rian.528 
Grass, Orchard.525 
Grass with Buck wheat.. 528 
Grasses for Name.527 
OTHER SHORT ARTICLES. 
Grindstones, Care of.525 
Hops in Manitoba.527 
Horse, A Kicking^... 2*.. 499 
Johnstone. R.F.,Death of497 
Lime for Fertilizer.498 
Lucern. 497 
Manure, How to Treat.. .499 
Manure, Making.528 
Millet for Name.497 
Mules, Breeding.525 
Osiers.499 
Papers, Sending us.527 
Pearls in Oysters.528 
Peas and Beans. 497 
Pipes, Water.498 
Salve, Lip,.527 
Seed, Orchard Grass. 527 
Seed, Sorghum, etc.499 
Seeds, Grass..527 
Shows, The Poultry.527 
Society, Mass. Hort. llist.497 
Soil, Heavy Clay.499 
Stain. Walnut.498 
St.ereopticons . ,_527 
Tables. Grain, Fisher’s...527 
“ Tom Brown ”.498 
AMERICAN A GRI CULT CRIST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1880. 
Hints for the Work of the Month. 
[ The Hints and Suggestions in these columns are 
never copied from previous years, but are freshly pre¬ 
pared for every month, from the latest experience and 
observations, by practical men in each department .] 
The days grow shorter, and reach their shortest 
duration, while the evenings are longer and longer. 
The time is favorable for looking backward in 
thought. Fore-thoughts are good in their time, 
but after thoughts, though often less honored, are 
worth a great deal more for shaping the future. 
Account of Stock. —The last few days of this month 
and often the first week of the next, if indeed a 
longer time is not needed, are spent by all careful 
store-keepers and shop-keepers, and business men, 
in “taking account of stock.” The goods are 
overhauled and examined, and an accurate list made 
out, of all articles, oftentimes with the cost and 
the selling price, or the cost and the present value, 
compared in adjoining columns. Thus the balance 
for the year can be accurately mad® out. Farmers 
ought to do something of this kind. It is not diffi¬ 
cult, and if they do not plan to do it now, Christ¬ 
mas will pass, and the New Year will begin before 
they do it, and then it will be put over until another 
year. It is very easy to catalogue horses, cattle, 
sheep, and swine, and other live stock, and to set a 
fair price upon them. It is not difficult to estimate 
the amount of fodder; and the bushels of grain 
and roots are already, in most cases, accurately 
known. But a farmer’s wealth lies in good part in 
labor expended, which will bear fruit another year, 
and in the far off future, and no estimate of the 
proprietor’s business standing will be a just one 
which does not take into account such items as 
these : “20 acres sowed to wheat and grass, dressed 
with 18 loads of manure to the acre—say at a cost 
for labor, seed, and manure, of $700,” “ 100 rods 
strip fence at $125” ; the former item being placed 
in the “ account of stock ”—the latter in the “ ex¬ 
pense account,” the same as “interest on the invest¬ 
ment,” “ insurance,” “repairs,” “painting,” etc. 
“ What's the TJse?" —Will it make fatter beeves? 
Will it make better wheat and corn ? will it make 
more milk and butter? Perhaps not; and yet it 
probably will help to do all these. The farmer will 
see, after the second year: 1st, whether or not he is 
advancing ; 2d, where he may make important sav¬ 
ings ; 3d, what branches of his business pay best, 
which cost the least labor, and make the best re¬ 
turns. The nearer a farm can be conducted upon 
sound business principles the better for the farmer. 
Live Stock. —As the season advances the live stock 
require increased attention ; not only are they more 
directly dependent upon our care, but they are sub¬ 
ject to discomforts from exposure, which seriously 
interfere with the profit of keeping them. Of all 
our domestic animals the pig is the most sensitive 
to exposure to rough weather, poultry next, in this 
order: fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys, the last 
often doing better when exposed than if sheltered. 
Next to fowls, cows, then, working oxen and young 
cattle ; next horses, which are used, unused horses, 
and sheep. Of these last the long-wool breeds are 
most sensitive to cold storms and snow, but close- 
fleeeed breeds will stand almost any amount of cold 
if they have enough to eat, sheds to go under, and 
shelter from driving storms of rain and snow. 
Horses, if well fed, usually feel bright and lively 
in winter, and young horses are, for this very rea¬ 
son, more easily trained than when the weather and 
running at pasture makes them dull. Whenever 
horses are used so as to warm them up at all, blan¬ 
ket them as soon as they stand still, if only for two 
or three minutes, those two or three minutes are 
sometimes enough to give a chill, which may end 
in pneumonia, or other serious troubles. Grooming 
saves feed, and also promotes health in horses, and 
should never be neglected. It will probably pay 
even to groom hoarding horses, and it will certainly 
pay the owners to stipulate that their horses should 
he groomed daily. Blankets, except mere “dust¬ 
ers,” are worse than useless in stables ; they make 
the horse tender, and more likely to take cold when 
brought in hot. Litter very freely if you have the 
material; straw, leaves, swamp hay, etc. 
Gypsum in Stables.—This, article is admirable as a 
fertilizer upon clover, and an efficient absorbent of 
ammonia, and purifier of the air of stables. It is 
well to sprinkle it over the floor of both horse and 
eow stalls, as soon as they are cleaned out in the 
morning, and over the bedding at evening. When 
thus used, its effects are just as good, and probably 
better than when applied alone upon the land. 
Cattle .—Store and dry cattle will go through the 
winter under dry sheds, and fed upon corn-stalks 
and swamp hay, but they will do much better, if fed 
a little grain and roots, and well sheltered. It is 
not necessary to give them the care needed by 
Milch Cows .—These ought to be well fed, and! 
cleaned by a card and brush, daily, if possible,, 
otherwise twice a week. They should be milked up 
to within four weeks of calving. It is a great temp¬ 
tation to dry off a cow so as to save the labor of 
milking, and not alone will hired men do this, but 
the farmers themselves, generally, do It, and think 
that they save a good deal in feed and labor, while- 
in reality, with young cows, they impart a habit of 
going dry early, which will last them as long as 
they live. The better milch cows are fed, the bet¬ 
ter return they give, hut feed judiciously. 
Colton Seed Oil-Cake Meal is being largely used 
and is worthy of being fed more extensively. Cot¬ 
ton seed is used in the Southern States with good 
results. The meal should be fed mixed with l:ran 
and best on cut hay. A little corn meal added 
gives flavor and color to the butter. Rowen or 
well cured lawn clippings are the best feed for 
giving color to cream and butter in winter. 
Testing Cows .—Upon not a few of the best dairy 
farms—and yet, perhaps, it would be truthful to 
say upon a few such farms, the milk given by each 
cow is weighed at each milking, and once in a 
while, as her turn comes around, the amount of 
butter she will make is ascertained. This, if con¬ 
tinued through the year, gives results which will 
enable the farmer to pick out his best cows. Though' 
the system seems accurate, it is liable to one seri¬ 
ous fallacy ; a cow which is apparently in perfect- 
health will give in one year a much larger quantity 
of milk and butter than she will in another, for 
reasons that are as yet not well understood. 
Calves which are to be brought up away from the- 
cow should be removed from the clams as soon as 
dropped. They will never—hardly ever—attempt 
to suck even one another’s ears, and if fed care¬ 
fully will fatten equally well with those on the cows. 
Sheep are peculiarly sensitive to good treatment. 
A good shepherd is always gentle among his sheep. 
Ewes which are to lamb early ought to be by them¬ 
selves and have better care as their time approaches, 
Feed a few more turnips and give them a little more 
liberal sprinkling of com meal and bran, or oil cake . 
Store Sheep and rams should be by themselves,, 
and let fattening sheep have regular feeding and! 
be kept quiet, giving them a very small yard and: 
an airy but dark shed, supplied with feeding racks 
and troughs: never feed them in the open yard.. 
Pigs. —Nearly double the feed will be required to 
keep pigs from going back, after really cold weather 
comes on—say, when the ground freezes. It is 
then best to kill at once. Every farmer ought to> 
be able to kill and cut up his own pigs. Butchers 
are often very rough and brutal. This is not neces¬ 
sary. Many a farmer who kills his own pigs does 
so because he wants the job kindly and humanely 
done. He actually thrusts the knife as if he loved 
the victim. Feed soaked corn, that is, corn which 
is covered with as much boiling water as it will 
take up in 24 hours. This is better for either fat¬ 
tening or store pigs than coarse meal, unless the 
latter be thoroughly cooked. 
Poultry— Hens will lay up to Christmas, if they 
have warm quarters. A manure shed, where 
mixed manure throws off considerable warmth, 
and which is closed in, hut well ventilated, is an 
excellent place for fowls. They arc kept warm and 
comfortable, their droppings are all saved, going to> 
