AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
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VOLUME XX—No. 6. 
E3P Office at 41 Park-Kow, (Times Buildings). 
Contents, Terms, &c., onpp. 188, 9-92. 
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. ppN. 55.—Every Journal is invited freely 
to copy any desirable articles, j/ each article or illustration 
copied, be duly accredited to the American Agriculturist. 
Slmectcan Slgvtculttmft in ©crmatt. 
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 
is furnished at the same rates as the English, singly or in 
clubs. A club may be part English, and part German. 
June. 
At leisure now, O let me once again, 
Once, ’ere I leave the cultivated fields, 
My .favorite Patty, in her dairy’s pride, 
Revisit; and the generous steeds which grace 
The pastures of her swain, well pleased survey. 
The lowing kine, see, at their ’customed hour, 
Wait the returning pail. The rosy maids, 
Crouching beneath their sides, in copious streams 
Exhaust the swelling udder. Vessels large 
And broad, by the sweet hand of neatness cleaned, 
Meanwhile, in decent order ranged, appear, 
The milky treasure, strained through filtering lawn, 
.ntendcd to receive.” Dodsley. 
There is a charm about old English poetry, to 
be found in the literature of no other nation. It 
is as dewy and fragrant as one of these June 
mornings, full of rural sights and sounds. What 
can be more delightful than the fields, now that 
the lingering Spring is gone, and the Summer 
has begun its work in good earnest ? The grass 
is luxuriant, and the butter-cups and dandelions 
are unfolding their golden blossoms. The dew 
stands in headed drops upon the green spires, 
and sweet odors are wafted on every breeze. 
The song of birds is never so sweet as at the 
morning hour, when every sense awakes with 
new life from sleep, and field and forest put on 
NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1861. 
new robes of beauty, to hail the morning sun. 
Our illustration introduces us to the raw ma¬ 
terial of June butter, which is famous wherever 
butter is known at all. No month equals this in 
the quantity and quality of this article. The 
grasses are now luxuriant, and the cows have 
full feed. They are also, some of them, in blos¬ 
som, and something of the aroma and perfume 
is thought to be transmitted to the butter. How¬ 
ever this may be, the fact is not disputed. The 
scene is perfectly English, the character of the 
landscape, the maid at the milk-pail, and the 
swain at the bars. This part of the picture 
would be reversed in this country. We are too 
tender of our women to allow them a place in 
the milking yard. While almost all English 
and Irish men who come over to us are un¬ 
used to milking, Ann and Bridget are as certain 
to understand the care of the cow, and her 
milk, as they are to hail from the cottage and 
the farm. On the other hand, our Yankee boys 
upon the farm are invariably trained to the milk- 
pail, from their earliest days. Who that hails 
from the farm, does not remember this as a part 
of his early discipline? As soon as lie had 
strength enough to milk rapidly, he was put to 
his task, and carefully instructed, probably by 
his father, in this wise. “Be very gentle with 
the heifer, John; no loud talking or scolding in 
the yard. Use the stool for a seat, and not to 
beat the cow. After cleaning her bag, milk as fast 
as you can until the last drop is drawn.” Milk¬ 
ing was a part of his daily duty, in Summer, 
from the age of ten till he quit the farm. He 
remembers the early call from bed, his twilight 
visits to the farm yard, his driving the cows to 
pasture before sunrise, his numerous pauses by 
the wayside to hear the song of the robin, or 
the black bird, his admiration of the apple blos¬ 
soms, and the bees that made honey and music 
in the fragrant branches, his eager inspection of 
the blue and speckled eggs in the bird’s nests, 
his bringing home the cows at night with 
weary footsteps, after the other farm labors were 
done. All these are familiar memories with our 
beys and men, but how very few of our women, 
of the present generation, know anything of the 
duties of the dairy outside of the milk-room. In 
tlti present rage for out-door amusements for 
our girls and ladies, it is not impossible that this 
once fashionable out-door work for women may 
cd.ue round again. We do not, however, think 
it desirable. We sympathize with the common 
orthodox notion that “ the barn-yard is no place 
for woman.” It is doubtless one of the rights 
of women to take care of the milk, and to make 
the butter and cheese. 
The dairy is one of the most important of all 
our farm interests, and as a dairy State, New- 
York stands at the head of the list. The seventh 
census shows 313,000,000 pounds of butter, and 
105,000,000 pounds of cheese made in the coun¬ 
try, in a single year, worth at least $100,000,000 
NEW SERIES—No. 173. 
Nearly one-fourth of the butter, and one-half of 
the cheese, was made in New-York. The last 
census, doubtless, will show a great increase of 
these products, and a much smaller proportion 
in this State. Vast regions of grazing country 
in the new States have been opened, and we 
trust that statistics will show that in some of 
the old States, the long neglected pastures have 
begun to improve. 
No part of the farm has been abused so per¬ 
sistently, as the pasture. While the tilled fields 
have had manure, and many of them have been 
well cared for, the pastures have, in most cases, 
had nothing returned to them. There are many 
fields now, in the old States, that have never 
been plowed, and never received an ounce of 
manure beyond that dropped by cattle while 
feeding. They have occasionally had the bushes 
cut, and this is about all the care they have re¬ 
ceived for a century. Every year the fertility 
has been carried off in the shape of milk, butter, 
cheese, beef, and mutton, until the pastures are 
almost barren. In many cases they will not 
keep a fourth part of the stock they once kept. 
It is thought strange that they can not make as 
much butter and cheese as formerly. 
The proper treatment of pastures, so as to re¬ 
store their fertility, is one of the most important 
topics that can be discussed in the dairy region. 
Many of these pastures are too rough and rocky 
to plow, and are too distant to be manured 
economically from the barn-yard. 
We should in all cases, upon arable land, pre¬ 
fer to have pastures, as well as the meadows, 
plowed. All land does better with a rotation of 
crops. Where this is not practicable, we must 
resort to top-dressings, and limit the number of 
stock to the capacity of the land. Many of these 
pastures have been run down by over-stocking. - 
They haye had no chance to recuperate. Cattle 
are turned in, in early Spring, and they are kept 
in until the snow falls. The grass is gnawed so 
close that little or none is allowed to go to seed, 
and the roots grow w r eaker every year. Some¬ 
thing may be done by reducing the stock. 
Sheep husbandry, on high lands, has been 
found to restore the fertility of these worn out 
pastures. Sheep eat plants and shrubs that a 
cow will not touch. Some find great advantage 
from an annual sowing of plaster. Bone dust 
is another excellent remedy, more expensive at 
first, but much more' durable. Ashes, where 
they can be had, prove an excellent and lasting 
manure. It is matter of great importance to 
make a beginning in this work of improvement. 
It is folly to expect that our pastures will main¬ 
tain their fertility if we return nothing for the 
milk they yield us. 
---»-*-—!® 1 » - 
One of the first things to be done this montn, 
is to look after the vacant spots. Note sundry 
hints on the subject in the Calendar,' also on p. 
167, and elsewhere.—[Note also the publisher’s 
oilers on pages 188, 189, and 192.] 
