AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
ADAPTED TO THE 
IT arm, Grarden, and. IT o us e It o 1 d. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN -WASHINOTOW. 
ORANGE JUDO, A. M •, ) I73T A RT TQIirTi TAT loiiii i $ 1.00 per annum, in advance. 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. ) EjlJ 1 ii-DLuOll Ei V 1 IN Io4s. \ SINGLE NUMBERS IO CENTS. 
VOL. XIX.—No. 8. NEW- YORK, AUGUST, 1860. [NEW series—N o. 1 ( 53 . 
igg^Offt'Ice sit 189 Watcr-st., (Near Fulton-st.) 
'S'erins, Arc. ,011 [>affes 252-56. 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. jgpTV. I*.—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. 
American ^Icjricnlturist in (German. 
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 Illustra¬ 
tions. The German Edition is furnished at the 
same rates as the English, singly or in clubs- 
August. 
“ The fervid splendor of thy raid-day sun 
With wonder strikes me, though its fire I shun. 
I love thee most, whene’er thy potent rage 
Or Autumn’s breath, or vernal gales assuage. 
Though Nature pant beneath thy noontide power, 
How sweet the freshness of thy evening hour' 
What time the night, throughout the gelid air, 
Veils with her sable wings the solar glare ; 
Then loves the eye that shrunk before the day. 
To drink refreshment from the moon-pale ray ; 
When modest Cynthia clad in silver light, 
Expands her beauty on the brow of night, 
Sheds her soft beams upon the mountain side, 
Peeps through the wood, and quivers on the tide.” 
Delille. 
Hot! Hot! ! The whole air seems aflame, 
and man and beast seek the grateful shade where- 
ever it can be found. You can see the heat quiv¬ 
ering along the fences and the roofs of buildings, 
like the breath of a furnace. A dreamy haze 
hangs over field and forest, and mingles with the 
skies. Distant outlines loose their distinctness, 
and the softened sunlight bronzes every object 
where it lies. The breeze is fitful, coming up be¬ 
tween awful pauses of silence, as if the pulse of 
Nature had ceased to beat. Look out over that 
broad expanse of water. Not a ripple is visible 
to the furthest shore. The sails flap idly against 
the mast as the boat rolls in the lazy swell of 
the sea. Not a sea bird lifts its wing ; the white 
gull no longer skims the air, and the fish hawk 
slumbers upon his perch in the dead oak that 
looks out upon the waters. Even the bees are 
still enjoying their siesta upon the thistle down, 
and now and then at long intervals, a shrill whirr— 
a tread—a hum—a tap is heard through the dry 
leaves, in grass and bush, as insect, animal, or bird, 
rouse a little from their noontide sleep. 
The mood of Nature is catching, and we will 
seek the shade while we rest from the labors of 
the hay field not yet quite cleared of its burden 
of grass. No great burden, say you, after this 
long drouth. It is true the hay harvest has been 
delayed all through the north for want of season¬ 
able showers, and in the larger part, the crop 
is light, varying from two thirds to three fourths 
the usual yield. Not one farmer in fifty has 
stored his usual quantity of hay. But the princi¬ 
ple of compensation runs through all the arrange¬ 
ments of Nature, so that we may have occasion 
for thanksgiving whatever our losses may be. 
In short hay crops like the present, it is always 
observed that the hay is of better quality, and 
seems to spend better in feeding than when it is 
of ranker growth. There is probably some rea¬ 
son for this popular belief. There is no doubt 
that grass grown in the open field is much better 
than that which grows under the shade of trees. 
And In the seasons of abundant rains, when the 
grass grows so large, it is quite probable that it 
duos not have sunshine enough to perfect all its 
nutritious qualities. It may be true in this sea¬ 
son that three-fourths of a tun of hay will contain 
as much aliment as a tun in a wet season. Then 
it is a noticeable fact that in the years of a short 
hay crop, we have other compensations. The 
lack of rain in May and June is almost always 
made up by abundant rains in the following 
months. This makes an abundant com crop, and 
fodder enough to make up the lack of hay. The 
after feed is also abundant, so that at the close of 
every season, if we take all the products of the 
farm into the account, the weather would not 
make much difference in the aggregate yield of 
each year. Especially is this the case where a 
great variety of products are cultivated. 
In years too cool for corn, the great grain sta¬ 
ple of the country, wheat, rye, and oats are gen¬ 
erally of better quality than usual, so that if corn 
fall off a quarter, the deficiency is made up in 
other grains. Dry Summers are usually followed 
by wet Autumns, which are particularly favora¬ 
ble to the tap roots. The carrot makes more 
than three fourths of its growth after the first of 
this month, and will continue to grow until the 
ground freezes. Beets, parsneps, mangel wur- 
zels, and turnips, also grow late, and where these 
roots are cultivated, the farmer has an ample re¬ 
source for a short hay crop. 
Seasons of excessive drouth are said to have 
an ameliorating influence upon the soil—and the 
opinion seems to be well founded. The tendency 
of excessive rains is to wash the mineral con¬ 
stituents of the surface soil downward beyond 
the reach of the roots of ordinary farm crops. 
Manures, especially in loose porous soils, work 
downward, and a fraction of the soluble portions 
are lost for present use. Lime is found to work 
downward quite rapidly, and for this reason is 
best applied upon the surface. This downward 
tendency of fertilizing material is pretty conclu¬ 
sively proved when we come to plow a field tfirt 
inches deep, that has usually been plowed but 
five or six. The breaking up of the old hard pan 
enlarges the pasture ground of the roots, and 
brings a great deal of new aliment within reach. 
The drouth in part performs the office of deep¬ 
er plowing. The water line sinks deeper in all 
cultivated soils, and the air pushes dofivn after it 
to occupy the space vacated by the water. Of 
course, moisture must circulate through all this 
aerated soil ; and as the ordinary supplies are cut 
off from above, they must come from beneath by 
capillary attraction and evaporation. The theo¬ 
ry is, that fertilizing materials are brought up in 
the water from the storehouse beneath. Every 
tiling that the water will hold in solution is thus 
brought nearer the surface. However this may 
be, the fact is frequently remarked that a season 
of drouth is usually followed by one of more than 
average productiveness. Then again, in years of 
short crops the price of all farm produce is usu¬ 
ally higher, so it often happens that the amount 
realized is larger than in years of plenty. 
There is much less occasion for complaint than 
the family of grumblers suppose. Indeed we 
suspect that if they could see the whole bearing 
of what they term ills, upon their own interests, 
their occupation would be gone. We sometimes 
have unseasonable frosts in June, doing great 
damage to the wheat and other crops. Such a 
frost visited a large district in the Ohio valley last 
year, and it was thought that the wheat crop 
would be a total failure. But it is now conceded 
by intelligent wheat growers that these frosts 
destroy insects, particularly the midge, and re¬ 
move one of the greatest hindrances to the cul¬ 
tivation of this indispensable grain. We have, 
in a circle of years, all that variety of seasons 
which, on the whole, is most favorable to the pro¬ 
duction of food and raiment for the race. Even 
the ills and disappointments of the husbandman 
will be found in the end to advance his interests 
if he make a wise use of them. 
“ All Nature is but art unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see ; 
All discord harmony not understood ; 
All partial evil, universal good.” 
Whether we can see it or not, there is a be- 
beneficent Providence above the drouth, the 
frost, and all seeming evils, using these untow¬ 
ard agencies to promote the comfort an4 happi,* 
ness of all His creatures 
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