a 24 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
Contents for July, 1861. 
Agricultural Department at Washington.224 
Agriculturist—Royal—Honor to.205 
Analysis of Soils.200 
Bees—Apiary in July.126 
Boots and Shoes—Patent Leather Condemned.214 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—Editor with his Young 
Readers—The “ Scare-Crow”—An Incident of the 
War—A Young Patriot—A Parmer Boy’s Letter— 
A Valuable Crop—Definitions of War Terms : 
About Gunpowder ; Cannons ; Projectiles—Prob¬ 
lems.10 Illustrations.. 216-18 
Breakfast, Early—Advantages of.214 
Buckwheat—Directions for Sowing....203 
Calendar of Operations for the Month 
Carts—Broad Tires for.• • ■ - 
Cattle—Blooded Stock sent to England. 
Cheese Making—Experience m. 
Cheese Making—Improvement in. 
Chufa—Information Wanted. 
Clover in an Orchard.*r: 
Cooking Meals for Emergencies.21* 
Corn—Transplanting..*““ 
Crop Reports—Reliable Wanted.. .224 
Dioscorea Batatas Homeward Bound.... Illustrated... 204 
Draining—How to Drain—Tile Drains.10 Illus.. 
Exhibition—Worlds Fair in 1862.205 
Fallow for Fall Crops. l:-■;. 
Farm Scenes—Summer —Illustration by Dailey . 2 U 8 
Farm Work in July.. ••••.If* 
Fires, Extinguishing—Important Hints. 14 
Flower Garden and Lawn in July................. 19a 
Flowers—Hanging Baskets for..3 Illustrations. .212 
Fruit Gatherer—A Cheap and Convenient. Illus ..200 
Garden—Kitchen and Fruit in July.1J5 
Grape—New—The Skunnymunk.2JO 
Grapes—A French Vineyard.,•••••••■.210 
Grapes—How to Start a Vineyard—Profits.209 
Grass-Cutting next Year’s...20' 
Green and Hot-IIouses in July . 
194 
206 
205 
206 
206 
204 
Harvest Time. 
. Illustrated... .208 
Hay Mows—Air Ducts for.207 
Haying Time— Hints for.*iu 
Hedges—Osage Orange.. ■ ...*11 
Man’s Pleasant in the Country.211 
....205 
....209 
.... 204 
....213 
.. ..193 
....206 
Home—Poor Man’s Pleasant in the Country 
Horses—Hair Oil for. 
Insect—Borer—Notes on the 
Insects—Rye Fly. 
Ironing Apparatus Wanted.. 
July—Suggestions.. 
Manure—Lime for—Soil Analyses 
209 
203 
205 
203 
Market Review, Weather Notes, etc.218 
Orchard and Nursery in July...194 
Pasture Lands—Hints on Improving.208 
Picture Frames—Rose Leaf- ................ -212 
Potatoes—Price for Seven Years in N. Y. Market-204 
Poultry-Meat for Hens.......... • -205 
Premiums for Obtaining New' Subscribers .218-20 
Pi eserving Fruits—Best Method—Strawberries—Cher¬ 
ries, Blackberries, etc. Illustrated.. 215 
Quince—Cultivation of .. 
Seed—Exchanging—Does it Pay ?. 
Sheep—Rot in... 
Sorghum—Notes on Cultivation, etc. 
Squirrels—Ground, Destroying.-04 
Strawberry Cultivation—Notes on.211 
Tim Bunker on Breastworks.. - (l ~ 
Vines—Cucumber and Melon—Watch them.211 
Washing Day—A Clothes Dryer.3 Illustrations. .213 
Wheat—Cessation of Exports—English Opinions-199 
Wheat—New Varieties in Pennsylvania .202 
INDEX TO “BASKET” ITEMS. 
Bees—Absconding. ............ ...........lffl 
Books—American Short Horn Herd Book—Bee Books 
—Military—Surgery... : .197 
Calves—Raising Late—Fatal Disease in.198 
Cement for Bottles.j*' 
Chess and Wheat.}•" 
Dahlias from Seed.* 
Draining and Transient Showers... .197 
Flagstaff—Douglass Pine....198 
Flowers—Mammoth Poppy—Aloe.198 
Grapes for Wisconsin.198 
Green House on a Hill Side .198 
Hay and Grain Caps—Try them.19/^ 
Hay Salting.••• y;.J97 
Heifers—To Prevent Sucking.198 
Horse—What is a Sound Animal.198 
Humbug—Medical.• • — ■ ..198 
Insects—Army Worm—Borer on the Plum Tree- 
Worms among Pot Plants.197 
Insects—Hen Manure for—Cut Worms under a Plank 
" —Ants injuring Pceonies—Camphor for Pea Wee¬ 
vil-Currant Bush Borer—Apple Tree Insects— 
Lice—Scale on Osage Orange.198 
Lotteries...197 
Manure—Barn-yard and Lime.197 
Manure for the Hauling.198 
Manure Sheds Recommended.198 
Milk—Depth of Pans .197 
Mushrooms—Detecting Poisonous.198 
Nasturtiums—Where to Plant.198 
Periodical—“ United States Mail”.197 
Pine Apple—Large.198 
Poultry—Cure for Gapes and Cholera.198 
Prairie Fowls on Long Island—In England.198 
Rhubarb—New Seedling.198 
Sheep—Sale of Jonas Webb’s.197 
Squashes without Seeds.198 
Strawberries—Barren.197 
Sugar—Maple—Crop in Vermont.198 
Swine—Making Breeding Sows Docile.198 
Tobacco Question in France . .198 
T r ees—Apple Leaves—Blighted—Double Flowering 
Apple.198 
frees—Dwarf Apples—Pruning White Pine—Shorten¬ 
ing-in Peacf.197 
Wate r from Sulpw' Wells.189 
Paa Stoll ls!&ca ,;, § JVoticcs. 
[For other Business Items , see page 197— For valuable 
Seed Premiums , etcsee page 220— For Standing Pre¬ 
miums , see page 218.] 
EXTRA BOOK PREMIUMS. 
Our “Extraordinary Premiums” closed July 1st, but 
owing to depression in the book business, we have 
been able to secure a few valuable works at such prices, 
that we can offer them, for the month of July, on the terms 
named below. (N. B. Two new subscribers for half a 
year, say from July to December, inclusive, at 50 cents 
each, may be counted as one new subscriber at §1.) 
This is an excellent opportunity for all to secure 
good books at a very trifling outlay of time and effort. 
All the books here offered, will be delivered to Ore 
recipient free of all charges. We shall send them paid 
through, by express, or mail, as may be mobt economical 
for us in each case. 
For One Sew Subscriber at $1, 
The sender will receive a post-paid copy of a capi¬ 
tal work on Ouion Culture (2nd Edition), which 
contains essays by 17 experienced onion growers, residing 
in different parts of the country—each one of whom gives 
full, plain, practical directions, from procuring seed to 
storing and marketing the crop, and raising seedagain ; 
Or A copy of that interesting little work entitled 
“Oun Fakm of Four Acres.” 
Or American Bird Fancier. 
Or American Kitchen Gardener. 
Or Bement’s Rabbit Fancier. 
Or Domestic Fowls. 
Or Skillful Housewife. 
For Two Hew Subscribers at $1 each, 
will be given 
Buist’s Family Kitchen Garden, price 75 cents ; 
or Youatt & Martin on the Hog, price 75 cents; 
or Youatt & Martin on the Sheep, price 75 cents ; 
or Allen’s Diseases of Domestic Animals, 75 cents. 
or American Florist’s Guide, 75 cents ; 
or Bridgeman’s Kitchen Gardener’s Instructor, 60 cts. 
For Three Hew Subscribers at $1 each, 
Any one of the following books : Price. 
Youman’s Household Science—very excellent-$1 25 
The American Farm Book—a good practical work..$l 00 
Todd’s Young Farmers’ Manual—new and valuable,$1 25 
Herbert’s Hints to Horse-Keepers—excellent.$1 25 
Dadd’s Horse, or Cattle Doctor.$1 00 
Thomas’ Farm Implements—a standard work..$1 00 
Barry’s Fruit Garden—very good and practical.$1 25 
Breck’s Book of Flowers—very good.$1 00 
Allen on the Culture of the Grape.. .$1 00 
French’s Farm Drainage.$1 00 
Miss E. M. Hail’s Cookery and Domestic Economy.jl 00 
Or, Herbert Spencer’s important new work on the physical, 
moral, and intellectual care and training of Children. 
(Price $1.) Every Parent and Teacher should have it. 
For Five Hew Subscribers at $1 each, 
Downing’s Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, (new Edi¬ 
tion,) the best standard w'ork, which gives directions for 
culture, with accurate descriptions of the various fruits, 
and a multitude of illustrations, (760 pages,) Price $1 75. 
Or, The Shepherd’s Own Book.Price, $2 00. 
The Hydropult as a Premium. 
For 16 New Subscribers at $1 eacli, we will 
present that excellent, new implement, the Hydropult, 
which is very useful for throwing water to extinguish 
fires, water gardens, wash windows, carriages, etc. (See 
page 91, March No.) Price $12. It weighs but 8 lbs., 
can be packed in small compass, and go by express at 
little expense. 
Agricultural Department at Washington. 
Our reference to this Department last month, page 189, 
has called forth several letters of approval from intelli¬ 
gent public spirited gentlemen who express a wish that 
the matter should be followed up. That there has been 
a great perversion of the funds appropriated to that De¬ 
partment, is not to be disputed. Take a single item as 
an example : For the large number of seed bags used, a 
party in Washington has been receiving $4.00 per thou¬ 
sand, and the contractor has claimed that this was only 
for the making, not including the paper ! We have ob¬ 
tained more than a million similar seed bags in this 
City, taking them in quantities as wanted, at considerable 
less than $1 per thousand on the average. Comment is 
unnecessary. So much for the past. We have recently 
had a lengthy conversation with the new Superintendent 
of the Agricultural Department of the Palent Office, Dr 
Erie Locke,of Indianapolis, and after hearing his purposes 
and plans, we confess to a reasonable hope that there is 
to be a great change for the bettor, and vve shall be leady 
to give full credit for all improvements made and good 
done. It is of course unfair to tax a new administration 
with the delinquencies of the past one, if a clean sweep 
be made of all former employees who have not proved 
themselves to be efficient and reliable. Dr. Locke, though 
personally unknown to us, enters upon his important la¬ 
bors with our heartiest good wishes, and unless we shall 
hereafter find cause for a contrary opinion, we shall be 
ready to believe that the Department under his care will 
become what it can and ought to be, an agency of vast 
good to the agricultural interests of our country. 
-"*»-«--. « _ 
Reliable Crop Reports Heeded. 
Cur readers in various parts of the country will confer 
a favor upon the public generally, by furnishing careful, 
reliable reports upon the state of a few of the principal 
growing crops in their several localities. These reports 
should not be founded upon the condition of a particular 
farm, which may be better or worse from special causes, 
but refer to a whole neighborhood, town, or county, and, 
when practicable, be the result of a free conversation 
among a number of intelligent, observing farmers. The 
following are model reports, (filling in the blanks, and 
varying to suit each case): 
July 5, P. O.,-County, Ohio. Reported by-. 
Wheat One fifth more sown than last year ; slightly win¬ 
ter-killed; few insect ravages yet; condition rather better 
than this time last year. Corn —One-fourth more planted 
than last year ; put back by wet Spring; nearly as pro¬ 
mising as last year, llay—An unusual growth, nearly 
twice as much as last year ; Clover somewhat winter- 
killed. Potatoes —Planted full as largely as usual; appear 
well. Fruit —A fair show of apples; few peaches. 
Aug. 10, P. O., -Co., Ill. Reported by -, 
Winter Wheat —about three-fourths last "year’s surface 
sown, and yield a little less per acre than last year, 
gathered in good condition. Spring Wheat — Nearly 
double last year’s surface ; midge not prevalent this year”, 
army W'orm appeared in a few localities for the first time ; 
yield about the same as last year. Grass— IX times as 
large a yield per acre as last year; three-fourths gathered 
in good condition; one fourth damaged by wet weather. 
Potatoes —one-fourth more planted than last year put 
back by Spring rains. Fruit— Not much grown ; apple 
trees about half full, growing finely; no peaches. 
-<*-4-ii — Q rVs*— -» - 
Money by Express. 
N. IS.— Hereafter, until further notice, sums of $5 and 
upward, whether in gold, silver, bills, or stamps, can be 
sent to us through any office of the United States Express 
Company (and this company only), at our expense. 
American ^gruulturist. 
For tlie Farm, Garden, and Household. 
A thorough-going, RELIABLE, and PRACTICAL 
Journal, devoted to the different departments of SOIL 
CULTURE—such as growing field CROPS ; orchard 
and garden FRUITS; garden VEGETABLES and 
FLOWERS; trees, plants, and flowers for the 
LAWN or YARD; care of DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 
&c., &c., and to HOUSEHOLD LABORS. It has also 
an interesting and instructive department for CHILDREN 
and YOUTH. 
A full CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS every month 
THREE to FOUR HUNDRED, or more, illustrative 
ENGRAVINGS appear in each volume. 
Over SIX HUNDRED plain, practical, instructive 
articles are given every year. 
The Editors and Contributors are all practical 
WORKING MEN. 
The teachings of the Agriculturist are confined to no 
State or Territory, but are adapted to the wants of all sec¬ 
tions of the country—it is, as its name indicates, for the 
whole American Continent. 
A German edition is published, of the same size and 
price as theEnglish, and containing all of its reading mat¬ 
ter, and its numerous illustrative engravings. 
TERMS—INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. 
One copy, one year. $1 no 
Six copies, one year. 5 00 
Ten or more copies one year. 80 cents each. 
KpAdd to the above rates: Postage to Canada 6 cents 
to England, France, or Germany 24 cents, per annum. 
Postage anywhere in the United States and Territories 
must be paid by the subscriber, and is only six cents a 
year, if paid in advance at the office where received. 
All business and other communications should be ad 
dressed to the Editor and Proprietor. 
ORANGE JUDD, 41 Park-Row, NewYork City. 
FROM THE STEAM PRESS OF JOHN A. GRAY. 
