4,50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Contents for December, 1877. 
Among the Farmers, No. 23.—Farmers Should be Bus¬ 
iness Men, Guernseys, Mr. Storr’s Swamp, Boot 
Crops, Seeding Down With Turnips, Mangles..463-464 
Barley—New Trade Regulations...468 
Bee Notes for December.482 
Boys and Girls’ Columns.—Now for Good Things— 
Doctor's Correspondence, About Peanuts, How Eels 
are Caught, Trapping Rabbits—Aunt Sue’s Puzzle 
Box—Metric System of Measures and Weights— 
Aunt Sue’s Chats—A Mechanical Pig—Little Alice 
Tending Her Flowers.11 Illustrations.. 473-476 
Cattle—The Blanketed or Sheeted Breed. .Illustrated. .449 
Cattle—Treatment of Kicking Cows. Illustrated ..465 
Celery—How to Keep in Winter.470 
Climbers—The Pilogyne. Illustrated .469 
Corn-Crib and Granary.3 Illustrations. .468 
Drain From a Cesspool.2 Illustrations .467 
Drains of Log and Brush. Illustrated. .466 
Farm Roads, How to Improve.7 Illustrations. .466 
Farm Work for December. 450 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December.451 
Fork for Gathering Leaves. Illustrated. .465 
Fruit Garden in December.451 
Greenhouse and Window Plants in December.451 
Guard Against Rats. Illustrated. .467 
Hints and Helps for Farmers—Post-Hole Axe, Flood 
Fences and Gates, Screen for Fish Dam, Triangular 
Harrow, Cheap Farm Gate, Home-made Corn Shelter, 
A Barn Basket.8 Illustrations. .464-465 
House—A Country Cottage to Cost $550..4 Illustrations AliQ 
Household Department—Home Topics—Moving, Old 
Newspapers, In the New Home, Rags for Rugs, 
Saving Work, Being too Particular, Let us Moisten 
the Air, Catch to Hold a Door, Fi fteen Cent Dinners, 
Freshen Oiled Furniture.3 Illustrations. .471—473 
Ice Houses, Under and Above Ground.. 4 Illustrations.. 468 
Implement, Useful Garden Trowel. illustrated. .470 
Kitchen and Market Garden in December.451 
Market Reports for December.454 
Microscopes... Illustrated. .452-453 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 94.—The Results of Ten 
Years Management.359 
Orchard and Nursery in December.451 
Plants, The Blackberry Lily. Illustrated. .469 
Plowing Gear for Kicking Mule. Illustrated. .465 
Poultry and Eggs, Export of.467 
Poultry—Close Breeding .465 
Poultry—Nest for Egg-Eating Hens. Illustrated. .465 
Poultry—Plymouth Rock Fowls. Illustrated. .461 
Safety Latch for a Gate.. Illustrated. .466 
Science Applied to Farming, No. 36.—More About 
the German Potash Salts.45S 
Stock Business in Nebraska.468 
Sweet Potatoes, Keeping for Seed. .482 
Sweet Potatoes, The “Early Peabody”.471 
Swine, Duroc or Red. lllustrokd. .461 
Talks on Farm Crops, No. 10.—Fodder Corn, Ever¬ 
green Corn, Potatoes, Early and Late Crops, Surface 
Drains, Top-Dressing Wheat, Hoeing Wheat.. .463-464 
Tim Bunker on Tramps.466 
Tree Planting at the Capital.470 
Waste Lands, Make them Useful.467 
Wire Worm and White-Grub.471 
on suortTEP. akticxes. 
Italian Onions.457 
Liliput Land.483 
Linseed Oil.457 
Lobster Refuse.456 
Marl, Value of.482 
Music Low.456 
Nebraska .. .,.455 
NoFarewells.456 
Our Exports.456 
Patella Dislocated.455 
Pipe for Water.4S2 
Six Millions Surplus .. 454 
Slaughter-house Refuse. .481 
Sundry Humbugs.455 
Surfeit.482 
Spring Rye.481 
Swelling of Udder.482 
Tra nsparency.482 
Trimmings of Hides.457 
Tubrous Begonias.456 
Use of Ashes.4S2 
Vick’s Mon fitly.45" 
Western Virginia.481 
Wheat Fertilizer .. .. .481 
Windmills.482 
Workmen Emigrating.. 481 
INDEX TO "BASKET. 
Arnold Arboretum.. .. 457 
Australian Meat.482 
Bargains.482 
Blasting Logs.457 
Cabbage Family.457 
Canning Corn.482 
Carbonic Acid.456 
Chrysanthemum, Sport. .456 
Citadelle.483 
Consumptive Cow.481 
Cow-Pox.481 
Crackers for Horses.457 
Diking Salt Meadown.. .457 
Estimating Weight of 
Cattle.482 
Extracting Stumps.482 
Farm Mill.482 
Fistula in Ano.481 
German Agriculturist_455 
Hay Caps.457 
Hog Washer. 455 
Holiday Present.457 
Homesteading.482 
Ice-House for - 100 Tons. .482 
India-Rubber Boots .. ..455 
Indigestion in Lambs... 
I>ej>tl« <>4" a H&uii-y House, —“W. W. 
jl.,” Delaware. To procure the requisite coolness, a 
beiow-grouml dairy may be dug eight feet or more below 
the surface, with a lighted well a few feet above ground, 
for light and ventilation. We have seen an underground 
house of this kind made of brick, whitewashed inside, 
and thus lighted, twelve feet deep and twelve feet square, 
that was in every way satisfactory. Such a cellar, how¬ 
ever, can not be made except in dry soil. 
Calendar for December. 
MOON. 
I BOSTON. 
N. YOKE. 
WASIl’N. 
cha’ston 
CHICAGO. 
New M’n 
1st Quart 
Full M’n 
3d Quart. 
"4 "5 20’ev. 
12 4-50 ev. 
20 7 7 mo. 
17| 1 36 mo. 
5 8 ev. 
4 3S ev. 
6 55 mo. 
1 24 mo. 
II. M. 
4 56 ev. 
4 26 ev. 
6 43 mo 
I 12 mo 
ir. m. 
4 44 ev. 
4 14 ev. 
6 31 mo. 
1 omo. 
4 14 ev. 
3 44 ev. 
6 1 mo. 
0 30 mo. 
A I»1 12 III C AIM A G It I < U LTU It 1ST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1877. 
With this month closes another year, and one 
which leaves the nation better off than it has 
been for some years past. The agricultural inter¬ 
est has especial causes for gratification. The har¬ 
vests of 1877 have never been excelled, in our his¬ 
tory, in quantity and quality, and we have wider 
markets for our produce than ever before. As agri¬ 
culture is the foundation of all national industries, 
when that prospers, others partake of its pros¬ 
perity: This result reacts, and, as a consequence, 
farmers soon experience a better demand and 
higher prices for their produce. We are therefore 
very hopeful for 1878. The fall season has been 
very favorable for winter sown grain, and for plow¬ 
ing for spring crops, and so far as can be seen, a 
continued improvement of our condition is indi¬ 
cated. Much of this general improvement results 
directly from better methods in carrying on our 
industries. Economical appliances to save labor 
and money, are in general use, while improved 
seeds, plants, and live stock, are coming into great¬ 
er favor. We are prepared to take advantage of 
the opportunities offered, and avail ourselves of the 
markets of those countries that are more thickly 
populated than our own. While we have been 
sending immense quantities of meat and live cattle 
to England, we have made an opening in the French 
markets, and expect to have that nation for a pur¬ 
chaser of our meat. So, through the improvement 
of our cattle, by the use of pure Shorthorn blood, 
we are able to supply the Europeans better and 
cheaper meat from our vast pastures, than those 
people can produce with all their lauded superiori¬ 
ty of methods. American farming is now equal to 
any in the world ; our farms, generally, are notably 
cleaner and freer from weeds than foreign ones— 
with some exceptions—and if we would use our na¬ 
tive fertilizers, such as bones, blood, and meat re¬ 
fuse, fish guano ; our native foods, such as linseed 
and cotton seed oil-cakes, instead of selling them to 
our foreign competitors ; and also use those artifi¬ 
cial fertilizers which are so cheap and effective, as 
an aid to increase our crops, we could excel the 
famed English farms in the product of the fields. 
We have this yet to do. All that is needed is in¬ 
telligence and confidence, that the more liberally 
we feed our soils, the more bountifully they will 
reward us with teeming harvests. 
Hints lor Work. 
[The suggestions under this and the following head¬ 
ings, are never reprinted from previous years, but they 
are always prepared fresh from the latest experience and 
observation, by men who “ practice what they preach,” 
and preach from what they practice.] 
Labor is very Cheap, good farm hands can be pro¬ 
cured at the present time for lower wages than we 
can remember. This is a favorable time for mak¬ 
ing all such permanent improvements as draining, 
fencing, building, getting out posts and rails, clear¬ 
ing land, removing 6tones or stumps, and the like. 
Cheap work should be done by cheap labor. One 
skilled man, supervising, can direct several common, 
laborers or boys, and save money. 
Piece Work is always the cheapest. To know how 
much should fairly be paid for any work, the em¬ 
ployer should know exactly how much can be 
done in a certain time. For example, let him split. 
100 rails, or measure a rod of ditch and dig it, or 
have a good man do it while he is watched, and 
then note the time required as a basis for calculation. 
Clear Fields and Smooth Hoads are necessary when 
machinery is used. All work to this effect done 
now, will be doubly repaid in saving of time, 
labor, and repairs in harvest time, or in the pre¬ 
servation of the machines. 
After the Field Work is done, look to the house, 
and make that and all about it comfortable, without, 
delay. Where water lodges, grade the surface so as 
to carry it away from the building. Fit eaves- 
troughs and leaders to the house. Double sash in 
the cellar windows will keep out frost and admit 
light. Never heap manure about cellar windows, 
bundles of corn stalks are best for this purpose. 
Provide a place for ashes, house slops, and other- 
waste. Remove heaps of rubbish, and everything 
that will cause snow drifts. 
Good Shelter for the Stock is absolute economy 
with warmth there must be an ample supply of 
pure, fresh air. The time may come when we 
shall find coal cheaper than the extra food needed 
to sustain vital heat under extreme cold, and use 1 
fire heat for our animals. At present we must 
keep our stables as warm and dry as we can ; but 
pure air, with severe cold and plenty of food, is pre¬ 
ferable to warm, impure stables, with food saved. 
Regular Feeding, if not generous, is better than 
food given in excess for a few days, and then stint¬ 
ed, or food given plentifully, but at irregular 
periods. Animals do not thrive unless perfectly 
contented, and never permitted to get hungry. The 
same hours for feeding should be kept regularly 
throughout the whole season. 
A Good Hay Cutter will save its cost in one sea¬ 
son. Hay or straw is not made more nutritious, 
but it is more easily masticated when chaffed ; and a 
saving of exertion is equivalent to a saving of food.. 
Straw, when cut and mixed with two quarts of 
corn-meal to the bushel, is equal to the same quan¬ 
tity of the best hay. Read over again Professor 
Atwater’s articles on the feeding values of fodders, 
and the improvement of coarse hay and straw, in 
March, April, and May, 1876. 
Horses should be fed in proportion to their work. 
An idle team may be wintered upon good hay alone; 
when working lightly, a feed of grain at noon, will 
be sufficient with hay morning and night. With 
heavy work, 10 quarts of ground corn and oats, and 
chaffed straw or corn-fodder, will be good feeding, 
and in many cases, for small horses, less will do. 
Good grooming is necessary for health in winter. 
Ground Gypsum spread upon the floors, will pre¬ 
vent the pungent odor common to stables. This 
vapor of ammonia is hurtful to horses’ eyes, and 
the frequent cause of ophthalmia, and resulting 
blindness, with which so many horses are troubled. 
Throw a few pailfuls of water upon the floor first, 
and then scatter around a shovelful of the gypsum. 
Fresh Air should enter the stables at the bottom, 
and the foul air escape at the top. Make small 
sliding doors for ventilation, and cover them with 
wire netting or laths, to exclude vermin. 
A Pair of Cards should be kept in every stable for 
use on cows and oxen. To clean these animals 
