2 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[•January, 
Contents for January, 1871. 
Animal Intelligence and Faithfulness. Illustrated. 
Bear Grass . ... 
Bee Notes. 
Boys and Girls’ Columns.— A New Year’s Greeting— 
About Walking—What I Saw from New York— 
An Icicle—Aunt Sue’s Puzzle Box—The First 
Smoke—Winter in the Country..3 Illustrations. .27- 
Cattle Disease in Dutchess Co. 
Cattle Shed at Ogden Farm.3 Illustrations.. 
Cattle Soiling in Illinois. 
Commission Merchants. 
Congress and Horticulture . 
Draining—Important Device. By Geo. E. Waring, Jr. 
Education—Shall I Send my Farmer Boy to College.. 
Emigrant Ship.. Illustrated.. 
Egyptian Farm Operations.2 Illustrations.. 
Farm Work for January.".. 
Fruit Garden in January... . 
Flower Garden and Lawn in January. 
Fuchsia, Lilac Colored. Illustrated.. 
Garden Work for January. 
Grape-vine Pruning.. 
Green-house and Window Plants in January. 
Horseback Riding—No. 1.2 Illustrations. 
House Plants. 
Household Department—What is a Warrener ?—Bri¬ 
dal Gifts—System—Use of Apples, with Receipts 
—Brown Bread—Graham Bread and Corn Bread— 
Receipts—Stewed Oysters—Roast Goose—Roast 
Duck—How to Skin and Stew a Rabbit.3 lllus.. 25- 
Humbugs. 
Inventions —Portable Greenhouses. 
Job’s Tears. Illustrated. 
Kitchen Garden in January. 
Market Reports.‘. 
Moon’s Influence on the Weather. 
Manure, Management of Barn-yard. 
Manure, Spreading from the Cart. 
Notes from the Pines—Cordon Peach-trees—Spinach 
—Scolymus—W eeds. 
Orchard and Nursery in January. 
Oak Gall. Illustrated.. 
Ogden Farm Papers. 
Onions, Keeping. ... . 
Patching and Darning Exhibition Put Oft'.. 
Peruvian Guano a Lasting Manure. 
Polymnia, Edible. 
Potato Grafting. By John Warcup. 
Poultry Yard Conveniences—Water Fountains and 
Feeding Boxes.6 Illustrations.. 
Primitive Agriculture.2 Illustrations.. 
Rliinocerous Beetle. Illustrated.. 
Rhubarb, Forcing. . 
Rose of Sharon, Variegated. Illustrated.. 
Sons—Important Habits for.. 
Special Premiums.. 
Vegetables and Fruits. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 85.—Discontent 
—Use of Straw—Fall-fallowing—Missouri Piggery 
—Mixing Manures—Killing Weeds—Manuring on 
the Surface—When to Manure.14- 
Water on the Stove. 
Weeds as a Green Crop. 
Wheat Culture, Common Sense in. 
Yucca. . 
INDEX TO “BASKET,’ 
A Funeral a Day. 
Advertising, Cheap. 
Advertising in the Agri- 
culturisl . 
Advertisements, Reliable. 
Agricultural Report. 
Bird Dogs—Training. 
Black Knot. 
Book—My Summer in a 
Garden. 
Butter—How much Salt ?. 
Caponizing. 
Carcasses for Agassiz. 
Cellar Floors. 
Clover for Hogs. 
Dairymen’s Convention.. 
Feeding Turnips. 
Fowls Poisoned. 
Fun Ahead. 
Grade Essex Pigs__ 
Grand Enterprise. 
Grass on the Glades. 
Gypsum. 
Heifer, When to buy. 
High Wages—Low Prices 
Horse’s Eye, Film on. 
OR SMALLER ARTICLES. 
8 Horses. Pin Worms in.... 7 
5 Jesse Wright, of Salem, O. 5 
Kansas Crops. s 
8 Manure Recipes. ti 
5 Mechanical Engineering.. 8 
8 Minerals and Fossils... . 7 
(i Mink Breeding. 7 
7 N. J. Ag. Society Record. 4 
Oilcake for Pigs... 7 
7 Patching Show. 8 
8 Peddlers a Nuisance. 8 
7 Pheasants and Poultry_ 8 
8 Pickles. 7 
6 Poultry Food. 8 
7 Poultry Raising. 7 
8 Poultry Society of Del.... 7 
8 Present to Yale College... 8 
0 Publishers’ Notices. 5 
SjPumpkin Seeds for Cows. 8 
ft Silver-plating Peddlers. . 5 
Squash, Large. 7 
Squash Seeds. 7 
Sundry Humbugs. 5 
Swivel Plows. (1 
Trees on the Prairies. 7 
Whiflletree Yoke. 6 
Unanswered I.ettei’S. —Just at this sea¬ 
son an immense number of letters are arriving along 
with subscription lists. Those on business will, of 
course, be promptly attended to, but many on personal 
matters, soliciting donations, etc., eto., will necessarily 
wait until we have a little more leisure, after the holidays. 
It is simply impossible to respond promptly to all, just now. 
Calendar for January. 
Boston.NEna- 
N. 1 
City. Ct., 
Washington, 
land, N. 
York 
Phi la delp Ilia. 
Maryland, 
• 
State , 
Mich.i- 
Neio 
Jersey. 
Virginia Ken. 
(jan 
Wiscon■ 
Penn. 
Ohio. 
lucky, Missou- 
s 
sin , 
Tow a, and 
Indiana 
and 
n, 
and, 
Cali- 
Oregon. 
Illinois. 
J or nia. 
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sets. 
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II .31 
h. 3r. 
1 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
wash’n. 
CnA’STON 
CHICAGO. 
D. 
II. 31. 
H. M. 
n. 3i. 
H. M. 
H. 3r. 
Full. 
6 
4 30 ev. 
4 27 ev. 
4 15 ev. 
4 3 ev. 
3 33 ev. 
3d Quart... 
14 
2 13 m. 
2 1 m. 
1 49 m. 
1 3| m. 
1 7 m. 
Netv Moon 
20 
7 48 ev. 
7 30 ev. 
7 24 ev. 
7 12 ev. 
G 42 ev 
1st Quart. 
28 
8 30 ill. 
8 18 m. 
8 6 m. 
7 54 111. 
7 24 ill. 
A M E It IC A IV A 6 R I € IIL TIIII! S T. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1871. 
Wc all enter the New Year cheerfully ancl hope¬ 
fully. It is an excellent thing that once a year at 
least, we bury our disappointments, and gloomy 
feelings, wipe out the old scores and begin afresh 
with a clean slate, and confidence in the future. 
Farmers as business men should employ the be¬ 
ginning of the year in making settlements of a bus¬ 
iness kind. Pay every debt that is on your books, 
collect every one that is due, or settle it in some 
way as soon after the first of January as possible. 
It is a great deal better to come to a direct under¬ 
standing about these things, than for both debtor 
and creditor to grow cool and half unfriendly be¬ 
cause one owes the other a few dollars, or a few 
hundred dollars, and cannot pay. There is no 
friendship lost by coming to a direct and clear un¬ 
derstanding about debts, and it will oftener than 
not happen that things may be turned in some way 
to lessen the account, or gradually to cancel it. A 
man who has a practical, common sense turn of 
mind, and has had a little mercantile training, hav¬ 
ing been a few years in a country store or in busi¬ 
ness in the city, or in some manufacturing estab¬ 
lishment, will almost invariably prove a more suc¬ 
cessful farmer than one who 1ms been trained sole¬ 
ly upon the farm. Wc ought to regard farming 
more as a business than as a trade, more as work 
for the head t-lian for the hands and teams only. 
People have so much to do usually in autumn and 
early winter in preparing for Christmas, getting 
the pigs and poultry killed and marketed, and do¬ 
ing other fall work, that that time is not favorable 
for neighborhood gatherings, for forming farmers’ 
social clubs and libraries, hut after the new year 
begins we have more leisure, and it is not difficult 
to accomplish such organizations. They are very 
useful, and at a very small expense to individual 
members, great enjoyment may he had, and many 
useful and entertaining hooks obtained for general 
circulation. Every farmer’s family should have be¬ 
sides a regular newspaper, a sound agricultural jour¬ 
nal. At the club reading-room, if it should he es¬ 
tablished, a dozen of the better class of the agricul¬ 
tural periodicals of the country ought to be taken, 
that a just comparison of views and teachings may 
he made. An efficient Secretary, well sustained, 
will make such a club a source of great pleasure 
and improvement in any tolerably settled district. 
Mints about Work. 
Building, etc .—January is a very good time to 
work in the wood lot, to haul timber to the saw¬ 
mill, to prepare for building, to plan and get out 
frames, etc. The men who can swing an ax with 
skill and vigor, are becoming hard to find, at least 
in the Eastern States, and it is well to look out 
ahead to secure such labor, and when engaged, to 
see that there is no lack of work. 
Frost .—Our eolcl weather held off so long that 
doubtless when the cold snap came, many were 
unprepared. The winter is the more likely to he 
intensely cold for beginning so mild, hence it is 
important to see that stables, cellars, root pits, and 
water pipes, are very thoroughly protected. 
Icy Paths .-—The constant danger to man and 
beast from icy paths about the house and barn, 
must not he overlooked, sawdust, tan bark, coal 
ashes, etc., offer easy but temporary means of se¬ 
curity. Salt, if used upon steps or any where, 
should be cleaned away, as it is had for animals to 
step in the brine and then into tlie snow, as a tem¬ 
perature of nearly zero is produced upon the foot. 
Feed for Live-stock .—Many barns will be low in 
fodder before the end of this month. Buy corn- 
meal or corn, and feed that rather than hay at the 
high prices. Corn-meal is cheaper at $2 a hundred 
than hay at $30 a ton. Bran, middlings, and other 
forms of feed, usually bear relatively high or low 
prices, so that we can have our choice between 
them and vary the feed occasionally. For pigs, 
slightly damaged flour or other feed, may be fed 
without harm, and very economically. It should 
he mixed with maslied boiled potatoes and water, 
and allowed to ferment before feeding. It is a poor 
plan to feed fattening hogs upon too liquid food. 
As a rule, the drier the better, provided it is so 
that they can eat it easily. For other stock all 
kinds of grain feed should be sound. The best way 
to use the finer kinds of feed is 011 cut hay or straw. 
Horses .—Keep all work and road horses sharp 
shod, or if there is no ice, keep them upon strong 
caulks, which may be sharpened at short notice. 
Sharp caulks wear dull very soon on hare ground, 
and become dangerously smooth. Spavins, splints, 
besides sprains and bruises, capped liocks and 
knees,etc., frequently come from slipping on the ice. 
Cows in Milk should have succulent food as well 
as oil-meal, bran, or corn-meal, to give quantity as 
well as richness to their milk. There is little dan¬ 
ger of a milch cow becoming too fat no matter how 
much she is fed, and it pays to feed well. The drib¬ 
blets of poor milk which most farmers get from 
cows which have nothing hut poor hay, and not 
half enough of that, do not pay for keeping the 
cows even on the poor fare they get. Well fed, 
they would pay in milk, and besides the calves 
would be larger and finer, and the milk much more 
abundant when the cows come in. 
Dry Cows should he well fed, and allowed to get 
into good beef condition. Every pound of flesh 
and fat laid on extra will come back in cream. 
Calves .—Keep young cattle, especially calves, 
growing all the time. They should not he exposed 
hi bleak yards, but in warm stables, and he fed 
more or less meal daily. Their growth and thrift 
will he surprising and effect their whole lives. 
Vermin on Cattle .—A few warm days in January 
will bring the lice to sight, if they arc present. A 
strong solution of carbolic soap will check, if not 
destroy them. The use of mercurial ointment 
(“ unguentum”) is not to he recommended, al¬ 
though more certain in its effects than anj thing 
else.* When applied it should be used only in 
small quantities. Say for an ox a mass as big as a 
hazle nut, mixed with a tablespoonful of lard, and 
rubbed in well upon the neck and spine. If ani¬ 
mals thus treated are exposed to cold and storms, 
they are very apt to he seriously and sometimes 
fatally affected. Lice and poor feed are hardly less 
fatal. 
Sheep ought to have open yards of good size or 
