AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOB THE 
TTai-ni, Garden, and. HonseliolcL 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AS3 MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.»-W milsm 
ORANGE JUDD, A.M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBER, 10 CENTS. 
VOLUME XX—No. 3. 
igp Office at 41 Parlt-Row, (Times Buildings) 
tf?- 1 Contents, Terms, Af ., on pages 96-92. 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year ISfil, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. ggp*N. B.—Every Journal is invited freely 
to copy any and all desirable articles, if each article or 
illustration copied, be duly accredited to the American 
Agriculturist. ORANGE JUDD, Proprietor. 
ftnicricart Stgvicullurift in ©crinan. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
both the English and German Languages. Both Editions 
are of the same size, and contain, as nearly as possible, 
the same Articles and Illustrations. The German Edition 
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clubs. A club may be part English, and part German. 
March,. 
“ Be patient swains ; these cruel-seeming winds 
Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repressed 
Those deep’ning clouds on clouds surcharged with rain, 
That, o’er the vast Atlantic hither borne 
In endless train, would quench the Summer-blaee, 
And, cheerless, drown the crude, unripened year. 
The North-east spends his rage ; he now shut up 
Within lus iron cave, the effusive South 
Warms the wide air, and o’er the void of heaven 
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent.” 
Thomson. 
March is a conflict between the winds of the 
North and the South, and in this respect the 
climate of America at this season bears a close 
resemblance to that of Britain. The same Gulf 
Stream that flows along our coast, producing 
such marked changes in our temperature, sweeps 
the Western shores of Ireland and England, 
carrying the heat of tropical seas, and the float¬ 
ing wrecks of tropical lands, thousands of miles 
toward the poles. The Laplander cooks his 
reindeer steak, and boils his tea kettle, if he in¬ 
dulges in that luxury, with the palms that were 
floated out into the Caribbean sea. As we are 
nearer to the tropics, and the Gulf Stream has a 
higher temperature, and as our northerly winds 
come oyer snow clad lands, we have greater 
NEW-YORK, MARCH, 1861. NEW SERIES—No. 170 
alternations of heat and cold in Spring, than are 
known in England. These sudden changes are 
the characteristic features of this month. To¬ 
day we have the wind from beyond the great 
lakes, and the thermometer goes down to the 
neighborhood of zero. To-morrow it comes 
from the warm South, bearing rain laden clouds, 
and the balmy air of the Mexican Gulf. Now 
we have fierce snow storms and pinching frosts, 
and it would seem that winter had resumed his 
iron sway. Again the snows dissolve, the banks 
disappear from under the walls, and in shelter¬ 
ed nooks the grass lifts its green spires above the 
withered vegetation of the old year. 
Notiiing can be more charming than these first 
indications of Spring, after the long and dreary 
Winter. The notes of the bluo bird are beard in 
the orchard, and be is seen peeping into the 
knot hole, that he occupied in the Summer. A 
stray robin is seen hopping on the meadow in 
search of grubs. What lands have they visited 
while their old haunts have been wrapped in 
snow ? The wild geese fly overhead in long 
wedge shaped flocks, seeking their breeding 
places on the coast of Labrador, and further 
north. This is a sign, universally accepted, 
that winter is broken. The unerring instinct of 
the bird does not push northward, until certain 
of finding a congenial clime for laying its eggs 
and for brooding. The ducks are disappearing 
from the bays and inlets along the shore, and 
seeking by easy flight, the same northern re¬ 
treats. They know their appointed season. 
And among domestic animals there are cheer¬ 
ing indications of Spring. It will soon be yean¬ 
ing time with the flocks and herds, and the boys 
and girls will be rejoicing over the calves and 
lambs, that so suddenly and mysteriously make 
their appearance in the yard. Though all is 
dead yet in field and forest, there is a stir of 
preparation that heralds the coming Spring. 
The buds swell a little in the bright warm days. 
The water runs merrily from the dripping eaves 
and spouts, and the uncovered earth drinks in 
the flood, and the cheering rays of the sun. 
Could these sunny days last, the Spring would be 
upon us at once. But there is the fatal weak¬ 
ness of this tickle month. She does nothing per¬ 
sistently, and often closes in snow banks and 
frost, apparently as dead as December.- 
And March , in this respect, is just like a great 
many men and women. They lack pluck and 
nerve to put an enterprise straight through. 
Here is a man that starts vigorously in the bus¬ 
iness of farming. He purchases a homestead 
and begins to improve and cultivate. He re¬ 
pairs the house and out-buildings, builds new 
walls, gets the best tools, plows deep, and ma¬ 
nures high, and shows that he has capacity 
enough to get rich by the cultivation of the soil. 
You call at his house the third year, and find 
that he has sold out every thing at a sacrifice, 
and gone to California. Had he kept on in his 
work, he would have made an unfailing placer 
of his farm. But his enterprise was only a 
March wind from the South. 
There is another who goes in for improved 
stock. He purchases judiciously, and raises fine 
Morgan colts, superb Devons, and Suffolk pigs, 
that live upon almost nothing and grow fat. He 
takes pride in the sleek well fed animals that 
fill his stalls and sties, and makes a sensation at 
the fairs with the multitude of prizes that lie car¬ 
ries off. He becomes known to the public as a 
stock breeder, and has orders for all the improved 
stock lie can raise. He finds the business fairly 
remuneiative, but in au evil hour is tempted to 
go into some new business that promises larger 
gains. A neighbor lias become suddenly rich by 
speculation in city lots, or railroad stocks. He 
is envious of his success, invests largely, and is 
ruined. Too late he discovers that a man’s ex¬ 
perience in farming is of little avail in other 
callings, that a good judge of cattle maybe a 
poor judge of men, and that a man great upon 
the form, may be very small elsewhere. 
Another has a right theory of farming, but is 
fickle in reducing his principles to practice. He 
sees clearly enough that draining pays in the 
long run; that deeper plowing is needed; and 
that more manure is the great want of his soil. 
If he drains an acre, lie is alarmed by the fifty 
dollars that have slipped out of his pocket, per¬ 
haps never to return. If lie subsoils, lie counts 
the cost of the extra team and labor, and mourns 
over ten dollars sunk on an acre in getting' it 
ready fora crop. If he gets ids bam cellar°in 
readiness, lie shrinks back from the expense of 
digging and drawing muck enough to keep Ids 
manure factory running through the year. A 
hundred dollars spent on the raw material of 
manure, seems a great draw back upon his prof¬ 
its. True, the compost made last year wrought 
wonders, and gave him such crops as lie never 
raised upon the old system, but then it costs so 
much to furnish the muck. He is troubled with 
a longing for creative power to make something 
out of nothing, and he makes small drafts on 
the muck mine. 
In no business do men need more to follow a 
steady, persistent course, than in farming. There 
is no chance for sudden wealth, no brilliant 
speculations that will raise a man from poverty 
to affluence in a month, or in a year. As it is 
only the steady advance of the sun and the pre¬ 
vailing winds from the South, that bring the 
Summer and mature the harvest, so it is only 
the steady purpose and the persistent effort, 
that make the farmer successful. The reward 
of the mechanic is generally immediate and final. 
He receives his dollar for shoeing a horse and 
that closes the account. But the reward of the 
farmer’s toil stretches over many y'ears, and lie 
needs patience to receive the whole of it. The 
tile that he buries in the earth will carry water, 
and improve every crop extending over fifty 
years, or more. The money invested in the 
