100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Winter litter. Put the chips under cover, if you 
have any, and pile up all stray and loose lumber. 
Rake and pitch together the litter of the barn¬ 
yards where it can rot down in to muck or compost. 
“ Slick up” generally, so that the whole premises 
may look tidy and comfortable. 
This is the month to set out shade and fruit 
trees. Dig large holes—“ not as hig as your 
hat,” but three, four, five, or six feet in diameter, 
so as to give ample space, and more too—for the 
roots, which the trees now have, but for the young 
fibres that will strike from them in the next year 
or two. 
Put in the plows for the coming crops. Plow 
deep not while sluggards sleep only, but plow 
deep always. Recollect you have a most excel¬ 
lent farm right below the one you now occupy and 
only about six or eight inches under it, where the 
roots of your previous crops have seldom pene¬ 
trated. Only work into this new farm thoroughly, 
say three to six inches, and let it see daylight by 
(browing its fresh soil up to the sun, and the ef¬ 
fects, after the first year or two will surprise you. 
Don’t mind the “hard plowing.” Put on an extra 
team or two ; or if you have not that extra team 
of your own, change works with a neighbor, and 
you will be well compensated in the crops—next 
year, if not this. Don’t be afraid of that “ nasty 
yaller clay,” or that “ leachy gravel,” or “ poor, 
sandy stuff,” if it does come up. If not quite as 
good the first year, it will be the second, and soon 
you will have a deep rich soil a foot deep where 
you only had from two to six inches before. 
When well plowed, and the surface dry, put on 
the harrow, the teeth sharp, and thick, and tear it 
up as finely as possible for the young seeds. 
Plant early potatoes as soon as the ground is 
warm enough. Let the peas, barley, Spring 
wheat, and oats be in as soon as possible. One 
day of early Spring growth is worth a week of 
June or July in giving a thrifty stalk and well filled 
head. 
Fix the ground for corn, and beans, the latter 
part of the month, and let it lie up to the sun to 
thoroughly warm, so as to be ready to plant in 
good season—the right time to plant you know 
better than we do, as we are ignorant of the ex¬ 
act place you live. Corn ought to come up quickly, 
and then grow right on, without stopping a day 
till it ripens. Stunted corn, be it either by cold in 
the ground after planting, or frost, or drouth af¬ 
ter it comes up, never gets forward like that 
which has no pull-backs. And in a corn country 
like ours, where we rely largely on that crop to 
make our meats, as well as to sell, and eat, it 
should receive the very best part of our atten¬ 
tion. 
If the apple, and other orchard trees have not 
been pruned all they need—and which is not 
much, if they have been attended to as they ought 
to have been vears before—take off the useless 
sprouts and limbs of the last year’s growth. Cut 
out the broken branches, if there be any ; put 
crutches under and straighten up the leaning trees; 
throw the head into shape, and let them go on 
rejoicing in the protection of a good master who 
appreciates their value. 
Get the tools all into order, and keep them so. 
When the field is plowed bring the plow in, and 
put it under cover ; so with the harrow, and other 
tools. Have a place for them, and let them be in 
their place, so you can put your hand upon them 
in the dark. The same with shovels, hoes, axes 
—indeed everything you work with on the farm, 
as sleds, wagons, carts, inclusive. 
The cows are now bringing their calves. We 
have already told you how to manage them, as 
weli as tne sheep with their lambs. Look back 
to our March number, page 68, for the latter. 
Young colts usually drop in this month, and 
May. Look well to the mares about this time. 
Don’t work them hard for a few days before, and 
after dropping the foal. A sweated mare is more 
injured in the way of her milk for the young foal 
than is almost anything else. She may work con¬ 
stantly after the colt is a week old, hut the work 
must be uniform, and not hurried. Her blood 
must be kept equable, and her feed generous. 
Chopped hay, or straw with meal of some kind is 
the best, being easy of digestion, and producing 
plenty of milk. 
Let the cows be still stabled every night until 
the weather is warm enough for lying out. Cows 
are just as liable to catch cold by exposure as folks 
are, and as their coats are now coming off they 
are thinner haired than usual, for a month or 
more. 
In short, look well to everything about the 
place. “ Whatsoever your eye sees, or your hands 
find to do, do it with all your might, and in good 
time.” “ Eternal vigilance is the price of”—suc¬ 
cess in anything, except a windfall of good for¬ 
tune ; but as we “ common folks” have no especial 
expectations _in that line we must trust to our 
own stout hands and willing minds for the achieve¬ 
ment of what good fortune is to attend us in life, 
and as “April fool’s” day is now past, we hope the 
balance of the month is going to be appropriated 
to the getting of wisdom, and understanding, as 
well as the getting in of our future crops, on 
which our success for the whole year is to rely. 
April is, perhaps, the most important month in the 
whole season. 
---* «-—il«6—-► —- 
Sow Clover Seed Now. 
We have found no more successful mode of 
sowing clover, or clover and timothy upon winter 
grain fields, than to choose a still morning, when 
the ground is a little frozen, and scatter the seed 
broadcast. It falls in the open frost-cracks, and 
when thawing takes place, is beautifully and 
uniformly covered near the surface, and is almost 
sure to germinate. A good crop of clover, thus 
sowed, acts partly as a mulch to the grain roots, 
yields a supply of Fall feed, and is most admirable 
to be turned under when “ knee high ” the next 
year, as one of the best manures that can be ap¬ 
plied to any soil. 
- 4 - H l 
Early Plants—A First-rate Way to Start 
Them. 
A very convenient method of starting early 
corn, sugar-cane, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, 
and indeed almost any kind of plants, is the fol¬ 
lowing :—Take an under sod (not too grassy,) or 
tenaceous muck and cut into cubes, say two 
inches each way. Insert one or more seeds in 
the center of each, and then pack the pieces 
closely together and firmly down upon a box of 
earth, to be kept moderately moist. This box can 
be set in the cellar on frosty^ys and nights, and 
be carried out into the sun at other times. When 
the seeds are up and transplanting out is admissi¬ 
ble, take up the cubes and transplant them to the 
open ground. This can be done without disturb¬ 
ing the roots, or scarcely retarding the growth of 
the young plants. 
Seeds of cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, &c., are 
sometimes planted in soil placed in old or cheap 
baskets, with rather open work. These are hung 
up out of the way of frost, being exposed to the 
sun during the day. At the proper time these 
baskets are simply imbedded in the hill even with 
the surface, and left there. The roots will find 
their way out into the soil through the open-work 
of the sides. A few hills thus started, with little 
trouble, will often produce a crop some weeks 
in advance of those sown at first in the open 
ground. 
Seed Potatoes for New York Market. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
As the time approaches for farmers to make se¬ 
lection of potatoes for planting, it is important 
that they should be acquainted with the kinds 
which will pay best, taking yield and market val¬ 
ue into consideration. There is but one true 
standard for the value of a potato, viz., one that 
will yield a fair crop, be clear as possible from 
rot under ordinary circumstances, and command 
the highest price in market. The value put up¬ 
on his potatoes by purchasers and consumers is 
of vastly more service to the farmer than the 
opinion of those having fancy varieties to dispose 
of. As a general rule it is better to raise those 
kinds for which there is already a market, rather 
than create a market, for new varieties. 
The great requirements of the New-York 
market which in ordinary times consumes or dis¬ 
poses of about 8000 bushels per day , are a large 
sized, smooth, white fleshed potatoes that will 
cook dry, mealy and white. The color of the 
skin is not of much consequence although a white 
or light colored one will generally command the 
highest price. The usual test is boiling, to serve 
up whole. In the mercer variety of potato tire 
whiter the skin with the least purple color inside 
the better. Those raised on sandy soil will com¬ 
mand a higher price than those from heavy or 
clayey loam, as they uniformly cook better. In 
shape, long or oval varieties are more saleable 
than round ones, other things being equal. 
In preparing for market, too much care cannot be 
taken to sort out all the small ones, so as to 
make them a uniform size. The customary mode 
of selling potatoes in New-York, is by the barrel, 
taking an ordinary flat-hooped flour barrel holding 
two bushels and three pecks, for a model. The 
kinds coming to this market and those which are 
well known, with their relative value—taking 
good sized light colored mercers at $3 per barrel 
as a standard—are given below. Farmers should 
bear in mind in selecting seed that the cost 
of transportation and handling, is no more on po¬ 
tatoes worth $3 to $4 per barrel, than on those 
worth only $1,25 to $2, and the cost of raising is 
but little more. 
Elgie, a small yellow-fleshed potato is the 
earliest variety. It was formerly much raised 
by the Long Islanders, but now nearly superseded 
by the 
Dykcman, which is generally considered the best 
early variety. It is also known under the name 
of the Excelsior, is a good yielder, growing large, 
sound, and smooth, the skin slightly mottled with 
purple, and having a mottled eye, with white flesh. 
It wholesales readily at $2,50 per barrel. 
The Long Island and New-Jersey farmers raise 
them largely for an early crop. 
Mountain or Early June .—A large sized, round, 
white-skinned, and while-fleshed variety, re¬ 
sembling the Dykeman in all except the color of 
the skin and eye. It takes about a week longer 
to ripen, and sells generally at 25 to 50 cents per 
barrel less. 
Mercer .—One of the old favorites, but which 
has been failing of late years. Those raised on 
Long Island and New-Jersey, from the whiteness 
of their skin and flesh, together with their smooth¬ 
ness, usually command and advance over those 
brought from other sections. They are the 
standard potatoes of this market, and, under fa¬ 
vorable circumstances answer very well for a 
general crop. 
