1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
203 
cuUurist, to which reference should be made when 
choosing a mower. When scythes are used, the 
rhomboidal scythe-sharpener will be found very ef¬ 
fective. Mowers, rakes, scythes, hay-racks, barns, 
and stack bottoms, and any other needed facilities, 
should all be made ready for work without delay. 
A Tool Shed is a necessity on every farm. Here 
should be kept machines, implements, tools, wheel¬ 
barrows, and all spare things of every sort that 
usually lie arouud loose. Every thing should be 
kept in its proper place, so that it could be found 
in the dark if needed. Habits of neatness and regu¬ 
larity are learned in keeping a tool shed in proper 
order, more, perhaps, than in any other place on 
the farm. When neatness in little things is learned, 
greater things are always taken care of. 
Clover Hay is worth much more when cut early, 
than when cut late. Professor Atwater has given 
the readers of the American Agriculturist some very 
valuable hints in this respect, which should be well 
studied and remembered. We prefer to rake up 
clover before it is completely dried, and cure it in 
the cock for at least 24 hours. This method con¬ 
siderably increases the value of the hay. 
The Dairy.— Cows are now in their prime, and 
justice should be done them, by using care and 
skill in the dairy. June butter is the best of 
the season, and may be packed, so as to keep 
perfectly for a year. Use only the best qual¬ 
ity of salt, the price of which is really of no object, 
considering that only one ounce of it goes to a 
pound of butter; and the difference in the quality 
of the salt may easily make 5 or 10 cents a pound 
variation in the value of the butter. 
Water. —Provide pure, fresh water for the cows, 
and when thinking of them, do not forget their 
owners, who suffer very often in health and com¬ 
fort from using impure water. See that no drains, 
manure piles, or cesspools leak into the well, and 
keep the ground around it high, so that no surface- 
water can soak into it. A good pump should be 
attached to the well, and a galvanized iron pipe will 
prevent any bad taste in the water. 
Pasture. —Do not overstock the pasture. Keep a 
good growth by feeding a little dry feed or grain in 
the evening, and bringing up the stock early. A 
dressing of 60 lbs. of salt or of nitrate of soda per 
acre will he useful to the grass, if given early this 
month ; but when the soda is used, it should be 
spread during a shower of rain, so that it is at once 
dissolved and carried into the soil. 
Sheep and Lambs. —Ewes and lambs will thrive all 
the better for a little extra feed. The lambs should 
be fed in a place by themselves, to which they can 
gain access easily. An enclosure, known as a 
“lamb-creep,” will be found useful. This is a 
fence with openings, through which the lambs can 
pass, but the sheep can not. Pure water should be 
provided for both ewes and lambs, where they can 
have constant access to it. 
Dipping Sheep. —To free the lambs from ticks, 
which worry them after the ewes have been sheared, 
they should be dipped. Buchan’s Cresylic dip is 
effective in freeing the lambs from this pest. 
Tagging both sheep and lambs, should not be neg¬ 
lected,while feeding on young grass. If looseness 
of the bowels occurs, the wool should be closely 
clipped, and if the disorder should become trouble¬ 
some, a tablespoonful of peppermint water, and a 
teaspoonful of prepared chalk mixed with it, may 
be given to each lamb with good effect. 
Pigs. — A piece of pasture should by all means be 
provided for the swine, especially for young pigs. 
This ensures health and healthful growth. An acre 
or two of orchard seeded to cloverj with an open 
shed for shelter during storms, would be found 
very valuable. Keep only grade pigs of a good 
breed, and feed liberally; this is the secret of 
cheap pork. A mixture of salt, sulphur, and char¬ 
coal, given occasionally, will be useful; 4 ounces of 
each will be enough for a week’s supply for 12 full- 
grown pigs. Pure water should be given plentifully. 
Bead the Advertisements.— Almost every day in¬ 
quiries are made about matters and things which 
are described in the columns devoted to advertising, 
These matters are of great interest, and should be 
looked over every month. If anything is wanted, 
the back numbers should be referred to. It would 
be strange to find any useful thing missing from 
the columns during the past few years. 
Notes on Orchard and Garden Work. 
As hinted last month, whatever the earlier part 
of the season may have been, June 1st, take one 
year with another, usually finds vegetation ad¬ 
vanced to a certain point. In June we stand at the 
end of most of the preparatory work, and, with but 
few exceptions, in advance of the harvest. Yet it 
is by no means an idle month, when the orchardist 
and gardener can enjoy his summer respite, and 
in that trip to the sea shore, to the mountains, or 
elsewhere, that he has been looking forward to. 
©rcBiard assd Nursery. 
Planting being over, the young trees should not 
be left to shirk for themselves. One of the im¬ 
portant things is to 
Look to the Labels. —If in the hurry of planting the 
labels put on at the nursery were left on' the trees, 
these must be attended to at once. They are not 
intended to be permanent, and are usually put on 
with iron wire and twisted tight. If left, the sea¬ 
son’s growth having no chance to expand, the tree 
will often be strangled by the wire, and well nigh 
ruined. We have often repeated that no one 
should depend upon labels, but there should be 
6uch a record that every tree on the place may be 
known by its position. Where the trees are in reg¬ 
ular rows, this record is easily kept. Still, until 
one gets acquainted with his trees, and learned the 
name of each row, or single tree, labels are con¬ 
venient. Use lead wire, a strip of “ lace-leather,” 
or something that will not injure the growing tree. 
Mulching, in a very dry season, will save the lives 
of young trees, and it is always useful. See last 
month’s “Fruit Garden.”_How much future 
trouble would be saved if we would recollect that 
Green Shoots become Woody. —What is now a tender 
quick-growing sprout, will in October be a strong 
woody branch, and perhaps a branch just where it 
is not wanted, and which must be removed by the 
use of a saw or strong knife. At the right time, 
the shoot could have been rubbed off, and not only 
the trouble of removing the branch avoided, but the 
useless growth would have been directed to parts 
where it was needed. Some one has called this 
“Anticipative Pruning ,” and it is really that. If 
one has a careful eye to his young trees, he can, by 
rubbing off a bud or shoot here, and pinching a 
shoot there, so direct the growth that by the time 
the trees come into bearing, they will be of proper 
form, and very little work will be required of the 
pruning saw and chisel. 
P-uning. —If large limbs are to be removed from 
neglected trees, this month or next (according to 
locality—at any rate, when the spring growth is 
made and the leave's have attained full size and 
substance) is by many preferred for the work, as 
wounds now heal rapidly. Cut all large wounds 
smooth with a drawing knife, and cover with shellac 
varnish, melted grafting wax, or thick paint. 
Grafts set this spring must be looked to, and if 
shoots start from the stock, to rob them of nourish¬ 
ment, rub them off. It is often the case that one 
bud on a cion will start and make a vigorous growth 
of a single unbranched shoot, which will be whip¬ 
ped about, and likely be broken by the winds. The 
growth from a graft should be treated as if it were 
a young tree planted in the ground, instead of the 
wood of another tree, and properly shaped by 
pinching the ends of the too rapid-growing shoots. 
Thinning Fruit is another important work of the 
month, and is especially needed upon young trees 
just coming into bearing. As relating to this, see 
“ Changing the Bearing Year,” on p. 182 last month. 
See what was said in last month’s Notes on thin¬ 
ning. That it will pay in many cases, there is no 
doubt. Just which kinds of fruit may be profitably 
thinned, can only be learned by experience. With 
choice pears and with peaches it will generally give 
good returns. At the present writing, the prospects 
are good for a large crop of peaches. In such years 
Only the Best Fruit Pays. —Fine, large,, well-color¬ 
ed peaches will bring a fair price, at times when 
the common will hardly pay the cost of handling. 
The one way to get the very best is to thin, and 
severely. Three-fourths of the set may often be 
taken off and leave a full crop. 
Fruit Crates and Baskets should be provided in 
season. Ascertain from the commission dealer 
what kind of packages will be most in demand.... 
Another important work for the month is the 
Fight with Insects. —N. B.—If a chap offers to sell 
you something to put on the tree to kill borers in. 
the tree, tell him to “git.” If one wants you to 
buy a recipe for a “tree invigorator,” you may pay 
$5 for directions to mix soft soap, sulphur, and cop¬ 
peras, to paint on trees—but you had better show 
him the front gate. If some good friend tells you 
to bore an inch and a quarter hole in the tree 
(mind the size), put in a lump of sulphur, or a tear 
spoonful of calomel, and then put in a pine plug, 
(be sure and use pine, for a cork may spoil the job), 
and that you can thus so sulphurize or mercurialize 
the plums that the curculio won’t hurt them— 
don’t do it. If people only understood 
The ways of Insects, and more about “matters 
and things in general,” they would throw away no 
money on useless applications, and waste no time 
in spoiling their trees with auger holes. 
As to Cureulios, there is but one way with them 
thus far known. After hundreds of experiments 
by careful men, with every proposed medication, 
application, and botheration, nothing but catching 
and killing is of the slightest use. Some of them 
may be caught by smoothing the ground around 
the trees, and placing pieces of board here and 
there ; those that hide under these boards may be 
caught and killed. Still, many will go upon the 
trees, and these must be jarred off early in the 
morning, caught on a cloth and killed. 
Borers do not breed in the tree, as some suppose. 
Every borer in the trees went in. The parent, 
winged insect, laid the egg on the bark, the little 
borer hatched out, at once bored its way into the 
tree, and there it will stay until it comes out as a 
perfect insect, or is cut out, or is punched to death 
in the hole. But please observe, no patent stuff 
that is to be laid in the crotch of the tree, no stuff 
that you may paint on the trunk, no “ invigorator,” 
or any thing that you apply to the soil to be taken 
up by the roots and thus poison the borer, will be 
of any earthly use. While you are fussing with 
such treatment, the borer is quietly at work, per¬ 
haps stopping now and then, to laugh at the folly 
of the performance. Cut with knife and punch 
with wire. 
The Slug, so called, but which is really a cater¬ 
pillar, will appear, especially on the pear and cherry 
leaves, and, unless checked, often make sad work. 
It is a dark-green leech-like creature, that leaves a 
slimy trail. Slaked lime, dusted from a coarse bag 
at the end of a pole, will soon end it. In a dry 
time fine dust from the road may be thrown into 
the trees with good effect. 
Marketing. —Our southern friends should know 
that while early peaches- will sell well, they must be 
peaches. The miserable things that have been sent 
for the past two or three years, with the hope of 
being early, have injured those who sent them. 
Little woolly, green hard things, as large as hickory 
nuts, or larger, had better be fed to the pigs—if 
they will eat them. Such fruit (?) can neither be 
sold nor given away, in the New York or other 
northern markets. So with early apples—they 
should be carefully assorted, and come in good 
shape, or they will not sell. 
• Odds and Ends.— Keep the weeds down in nur¬ 
sery rows.Weed seed beds, and if they are not 
already sheltered, do not wait for the seedlings to 
suffer, before shade of some kind is applied, as di¬ 
rected last month_When a caterpillar’s web is 
discovered, do not sleep until you know that it and 
its contents are disposed of. 
