AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
TUariii, Grarden, and. Household.. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.»-W j . h .koi«». 
| ESTABLISHED IN 1842, j 
ORANGE II R». A.M., 
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VOLUME XX—No. 4 
NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1861. 
NEW SERIES—No. 171. 
|tgp Office at 41 Park-Bow, (Times Buildings) 
jy Contents, Terms, Ac., on pages 124-28. 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1861, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. ]2pN. 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. 
Slmmcatt 5tgucultimft in ©cvmait. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
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April. 
On the monuments of classic days, April was 
represented as a dancing youth with a rattle in 
his hand. The name is generally supposed to 
he derived from the Latin word aperire, (to open,) 
because at this season of the year the buds of the 
trees begin to open. It may have had this name 
also from the fact, that the windows of heaven 
are opened anew, and the rains descend in co¬ 
pious showers. All nature wakes up to a new 
life, under the quickening influences of the re¬ 
turning sun. There is a new spirit abroad in 
the heavens above us, and in the earth and sea 
around us. The snows have disappeared from 
the hills and the valleys, and the streams are 
swollen by the frequent rains. In every shelter¬ 
ed spot, the grass springs, and the early flowers 
begin to appear. In the farm yards there is the 
opening of new life among the sheep and kine. 
The dancing youth with a rattle in his hand, 
was not an inappropriate symbol of the month. 
All nature is jubilant, if not saltatory, with the 
return of these genial spring days. We rejoice 
that the Winter is over and gone. The snow 
hanks and icicles are things of memory, and we 
may venture fortli without furs, overcoat, or 
mittens. The sunshine and bland atmosphere 
invite us to linger in the field, in the orchard, 
and by the way side. The Winter, doubtless, is 
shorn of much of its rigor by the appliances of 
modern civilization; snug houses, heated with 
furnace or steam pipes; railcars, steamers, and 
covered carriages for the traveler; warm cloth¬ 
ing for the body, and all the varied products of 
the press for the improvement of the mind; still 
it is a period of many discomforts, and every 
body is glad when he may exchange the artifi¬ 
cial warmth of the most comfortable home, for 
the genial rays of the sun. It is quite too pleas¬ 
ant to be within doors these beautiful morn¬ 
ings ; now, there is no romance like the unwrit¬ 
ten and voiceless volume of nature. Every 
sunbeam and rain drop goes wooing. We see 
it in the springing grass, in the swelling buds, 
and in the pairing birds. The blood goes ting¬ 
ling through our veins with new sensation of 
delight, and we are impatient to enjoy again 
the fresh air, and the sunlight. 
It is a season of expectation and hope, and 
therefore joyous. The bosom of mother earth 
is open to receive seeds, and with how much of 
confidence do we commit the garnered treasures 
of Autumn to her keeping. The husbandman 
has an instinctive, if not an intelligent faith in 
the divine Providence. He buries seed by the 
bushel and by the cartload, in the dark earth. 
The precious grain which has been gathered in 
the sweat of his face, which is the sustenance of 
his family and flocks, which is his food and 
money, is literally cast out and trodden under 
foot of men. He doubts not that it shall return 
again, after many days, yielding thirty, sixty, 
yea, even a hundred fold. 
No small part of the pleasures of Spring time 
is owing to these anticipations of harvest. As 
seen from this month the harvest is always boun¬ 
teous. There is no drouth in May and June, to 
shorten the hay crop—none in July and August, 
to shrivel the ears of corn. There is no untime¬ 
ly frost, no devouring insect for grain or fruit. 
No uncomfortable rugged realities mar the 
beauty of the meadow, and the orchard. The 
scent of the clover blossoms and the tasseling 
corn come down to us like the perfume of flow¬ 
er gardens. We never had suclx crops as those 
we see just before us. The wheat fields never 
looked so grandly luxuriant, and their nodding 
heads were never so burdened with grain. It is 
easy to see that the harvest can not fall short of 
fifty bushels to the acre. Imagination makes 
corn where manure does not, and every bin and 
barrel is stuffed with the golden kernels. There 
is no rot among the potatoes, the turnips swell 
till they touch each other in the drill. There is 
no canker worm in the orchard, no gale to shake 
the ripening fruit, while every branch is loaded, 
and every apple is innocent of worm-hole, 
scratch, or blemish. While such visions as these 
pass before the husbandman—and who does not 
have them ?—he feels very much like shaking 
his rattle, if he do not dance for joy. 
Even the rains so copious in this month do 
not dampen the ardor of his expectation. The 
hail and the snow, which sometimes rattle upon 
his roof, do not cloud the brilliant prospect. He 
may fret and scold, at times, but, on the whole, 
he takes a cheerful view of the future. If the 
snow is untimely, he thinks of the proverb, 
“ Snow is the poor man’s manure.” He feels 
none the less comfortable, if he happens to be 
rich. He thinks of the testimony of Science, 
coming to the aid of the proverb, and showing 
that ammonia, the chief constituent of the ma¬ 
nure heap, is detected in appreciable quantities, 
in all snow water. He thinks of the neglected 
acres, where manure, though scattered, has been 
very scattering, and wonders if the late snow 
will make the grass greener and more luxuriant. 
The rain stops the plow in the field, drives the 
workmen to shelter, chills the young lambs, and 
perhaps kills the newly hatched chickens, but 
then ho is reconciled to rain as an April institu¬ 
tion, and one of the best, in its season. 
The rains, which fall east of the Alleglianies 
in the Spring, are almost invariably at a higher 
temperature than the soil, and often come from 
that warm belt of air that hovers over the Gulf 
stream, giving us tropical showers before the 
frost is fairly out of the ground. These frequent 
showers have an important influence, upon both 
soil and climate, and the farmer should prepare 
his fields to reap the greatest advantage from 
them. It makes a great difference in the fertili¬ 
ty of a field, whether four inches of warm rain 
water is permitted to run down through it, in 
the month of April, or is compelled to pass off 
over its surface. A field underdrained, takes 
nearly all the water that falls upon its surface, off 
at the bottom. Every drop that falls goes down 
through the soil two or three feet, affecting me¬ 
chanically, if not chemically, every particle of 
earth with which it comes in contact. It draws 
after it a column of air, which in its turn works 
favorable changes upon the soil. The more deep¬ 
ly a soil is disturbed, the more rapidly the work 
of amelioration goes on. Rain water, though 
apparently so inefficient, is a powerful solvent, 
and is always preparing plant food from the 
inert materials of the soil. A region blest with 
rains is always productive. A rainless climate, 
or where showers rarely fall, makes a desert, or 
a realm of dwarf vegetation. There is, perhaps, 
no country more favored than our own, in abund¬ 
ant and timely rains. A famine from drouth, 
like that which prevailed in Kansas, is al¬ 
most unknown in our history, and probably nev¬ 
er happened east of the Mississippi. We have 
occasionally short crops of hay and potatoes, 
when the grain, especially Indian corn, is very 
good. The failure of crops is only partial, and 
in a varied husbandry, like that which prevails 
among us, there is generally an abundant sup¬ 
ply of food for the wants of man and beast. 
