82 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Contents for March, 1871. 
Calendar for March. 
Alkaline Soils of Colorado. 91 
Annual Meeting of the N. Y. State Ag’l Society. 85 
Boys and Girls’ ■ Columns.—About Donkeys — Aunt 
Sue’s Puzzle Box—Castles in the Air—The Icicle 
Prize—Have a Solid Foundation.. 3 Illustrations. 107-108 
Cheap Clod-Crusher. IUlustrated. 97 
Farm Work for March. 83 
Flower Garden and Lawn for March. 83 
Fruit Garden for March. 83 
Fowls Winning American Agriculturist Prizes. 
4 Illustrations .99-100 
Grassing a Terrace.103 
Greenhouse and Window Plants for March. 83 
Horses’Teeth.7 Illustrations.. 96 
Household Department.—Patching and Darning Ex¬ 
hibition—Cows’ Milk for Infants—A Towel for 
Each—Moreton Farm Cake... .7 Illustrations. .105-106 
How to Catch an Owl. 98 
How to have a Good Garden. Illustrated.. 102 
Kitchen Garden in March. 83 
Like begets Like. 98 
Let us help France to Seed-Grain. 85 
Market Reports. 85 
New Japanese Euonymus. Illustrated. .101 
Ogden Farm Papers—No. 15.91-92 
Orchard and Nursery in March. 83 
Patriarch of the Herd. Illustrated.. 81 
Perforate-leaved Sciudapsus. Illustrated.. 101 
Plan No. 28.—A $2,000 to $3,000 House_7 lllus.. 88-89 
“Practical Poultry-Keeper.”. 90 
Premiums .84 
Question for 5ig-Feeders.97 
Rock-Work and Alpine Plants.5 Illustrations. .103 
Shallow Drains better than None. 90 
Specialties of Eastern Farming—. 99 
Tall Meadow Oat-Grass. 2 Illustrations. .104 
Three Crops in One Season.101 
Trapping the Muskrat. Illustrated.. 93 
Trapping the Black Bear. Illustrated.. 94 
Turning a Compost Heap. Illustrated.. 97 
Vegetables, New and Old. 91 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. S7—Chemistry 
“Applied”—Wheat bran as food for Cattle—How 
much seed-wheat to the Acre ?. 94-95-96 
Water for Cattle in Winter. 90 
When and Where to Irrigate. 98 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” OB SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agencies, Newspaper C!nbS7|Madder.87 
Agriculturist, Bound Vols.SojMaple Sugar.87 
Agriculturist, Postage.86 Oats, Plowing in.„ .87 
American Pom. Soc.86 
Best.Aid for Work.86 
Building and Thatching 
Stacks.89 
Bufthlo Beef.86 
Clubs.86 
Crops thatstand Drouth..89 
“Doctors’,” Do n’t write 
About.86 
Help Wanted.86 
Humbugs, Sundry. 86-87 
Lambs, Early for Butcher.89 
Larch, From Seed.S6 
Patching and Darning Ex¬ 
hibition.87 
Plaster, How much per 
Acre ?.90 
Post-office Money Orders.86 
Preparing Laud for Gardeu89 
Preservation of Timber.. .89 
Registered Letters__86 
Seed Store, New.87 
Small Truck Farm.87 
Special Premiums.S6 
Spring Seeds, Trees, etc..87 
Three Horses abreast.89 
Food for tlows and Heifers before 
Calving.—If the cows are in very high condition, it is 
well, for a week or ten days before calving, to give them 
light food, such as bran-slops, with a moderate allowance 
of hay. The great point is to keep their bowels in a 
loose condition. If the bran does not accemplish the 
object, a drench of 4 oz. of Epsom salts should be given, 
every second or third day for a week or ten days before 
calving. With cows in ordinary condition, however, it 
would be much better to give a quart of flax-seed per 
day, instead of the salts. It should be boiled in three 
or four quarts of water for an hour or more. This flax¬ 
seed-tea is very nutritious, easily digested, and acts as a 
mild cathartic. Linseed oil-cake may he used for the 
same purpose, giving two quarts of meal per day, and 
boiling it in five quarts of water for two or three hours, 
until it is thoroughly cooked. It is said that if heifers are 
liberally fed, for two or three months before calving, they 
are much more likely to prove good milkers. There is 
nothing better for this purpose than bran and oil-cake, 
say six quarts of bran and two quarts of oil-meal per day. 
Until within a week or ten days before calving, the oil- 
~ake and bran may bo fed dry. 
Fiime in a, ComposJ-IIesip.— J. H. M., 
■laeiby Go., Teun., writes: “ I have a small thirty-acre 
'arm of stiff clay, and am trying to make all the manure I 
can. I keep six cows, closely penned, and feed them on 
cotton-seed, corn and fodder. The manure is gathered 
and made into a compost-heap, using alternately a layer 
of air-slaked lime and a layer of manure and such other 
materials as can be gathered. I turn the heap and sprin¬ 
kle It thoroughly with water. Do I make the heap 
right?” No. You should leave out the lime. Better 
nse the lime lu a separate compost of old sods, muck, etc. 
ISoston.KEng- 
N. Y.City. Ct. 
Washington, 
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Maryland, 
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Indiana 
Ohio. 
and 
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Illinois. 
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rises, 
Sun 
sets. 
Mo'n 
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H.M 
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H.M 
n. m. 
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H. M. 
1 
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6 36 
5 51 
2 57 
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6 32 
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6 26 5 58 
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6 7 
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6 7 
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6 6 
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26 
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5 52 
6 20 
morn 
5 52 
6 19 
morn 
5 53 
6 19 
morn 
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28 
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5 50 
6 21 
0 47 
5 51 
6 20 
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29 
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5 48 
6 22 
1 41 
5 49 
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5 50 
6 20 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
WASEL’N. 
cha’ston 
CHICAGO. 
D. 
H. M. 
H. M. 
n. m. 
H. M. 
H. M. 
Full. 
0 
10 55 ev. 
10 43 ev. 
10 31 ev. 
10 19 ev. 
9 49 ev. 
3d Quart... 
13 
5 36 ev. 
5 24 ev. 
5 12 ev. 
5 0 ev. 
4 30 ev. 
New Moon 
20 
11 16 ev. 
11 4 ev. 
10 52 ev. 
10 10 ev. 
10 10 ev. 
1st Quart. 
29 
2 0m. 
1 48 m. 
1 36 m. 
• 1 24 m. 
0 54 m. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, MARCH, 1871. 
In this month we finish up winter work, lay out 
for spring operations, and plan for the summer. 
The memorandum-book is oue of the farmer’s 
best friends, if he will only make it so. It is near¬ 
ly half any job to undertake it just at the right time, 
and a farmer whose work waits for him to see what 
his neighbors are going to do,may as well “lay down 
the shovel and the hoe.” It requires but a modi¬ 
cum of experience, if a little thought be given to 
work, to he able to judge thus of the best time to 
do every common kind of farm-work. The hints 
which we give cannot, of course, have other than a 
general application, and are to be followed with 
common sense. It is well to remember that the 
simplest forethought has a greater practical value 
than the profoundest afterthought. Our best plans 
often escape our memories in the hurry of pressing 
farm-work, or are thought of when too late to car¬ 
ry them out, unless put upon paper and sys¬ 
tematically referred to. If the memorandum- 
book shows just what work to do, it will matter 
little if the farmer is drawn on a jury, or otherwise 
necessarily absent; the oldest boy or the good wife 
will be able to see that the work goes on. 
Hints about Work. 
The Work-Bench. —A farm is as incomplete with¬ 
out a good work-bench as without a corn-house or 
granary. It should be a carpenter’s bench, with a 
good wooden vise at the left-hand side, and ma¬ 
chinist’s or blacksmith’s vise, which may be re¬ 
moved and attached at pleasure. There should be 
carpenter’s tools, cold chisels, and punches, an as¬ 
sortment of files, awls, thread and wax for sewing 
leather, copper rivets, and a rivet-set for leather- 
work, a soldering-iron, and shears for cutting tin, 
besides paint-pots and brushes. 
Rainy-Day Work. —There are the potatoes to be 
looked over, those fit for seed selected, the de¬ 
cayed ones thrown out, and all “sprouted”—that 
is, have the sprouts removed. It may be well, also, 
to cut or rub the tops off from ruta-bagas and other 
roots. (These young turnip sprouts, by the way, 
make delicious greens.) Cedars may be cleaned 
out and whitewashed. Milk-ccllars made ready for 
| use as soon as the weather is mild enough, and the 
j milk is at hand. Tools repaired and sharpened; 
beehives made and put in order for summer, and a. 
] big heap of fodder cut, to save time. 
I Manure that is intended for use in the field may 
| be hauled out while the snow lasts, or over the 
i hard frozen ground of the early mornings ; if the 
| distance is not great, half-a-dozen loads may be 
I got out every morning, and the teams set at other 
| work during the rest of the day. That which can- 
| not be plowed in at once should be made into com- 
I post for corn, or for grass, and got out at once for 
j this purpose. All manure and compost-heaps that 
| have lain for awhile should be worked over, 
j Irrigation. —The melting of the snow will carry 
I away much that is valuable, unless the streams of 
water flowing from it be conducted over the land. 
Grass-laud is most benefited. Snow-water is always 
rich in nitrogen, and often contains other fertiliz¬ 
ing material. The wash from roads and highways 
ought always to be turned upon the land, and con¬ 
ducted in rills over the grass. 
Fences. —When the frost has come out of the 
ground, and before it is dry, fence-posts may be 
set with great ease. All the fences of the farm 
should he examined and the posts straightened; if 
need be, weak rails removed, and new ones put in. 
Plowing must he delayed until the ground is 
crumbly. It would be hard to estimate the damage 
doue to much land by plowing too early. 
Grass-Land. —All kinds of “hand manures” may 
be applied with profit in the spring. A mixture of 
plaster and ashes is excellent. Guano and plaster, 
guano and superphosphate, bone-dust and fine 
earth, half and half, after lying and heating, are all 
good combinations, and better than either alone. 
It is much more profitable to save stable manure 
intended for top-dressing grass until after mowing, 
and meanwhile compost it with muck or soil, so 
that it shall be fine and even at that time. 
Potatoes. —It is rarely worth while to plant pota¬ 
toes in March north of Washington. If we at¬ 
tempt to do so, we do not get the ground well 
enough prepared. In the garden it may do. At 
the South the earlier the ground can be prepared 
and potatoes planted, the better, as the chances 
then favor higher prices and a better crop. 
Mares with foal should have roomy box-stalls; 
they should be worked moderately only, fed 
good hay, with a few carrots, or other roots, and 
enough meal bran or oil-meal; or better, the three 
mingled on cut hay, to keep them in good order. 
Cows approaching calving should be placed in 
box-stalls, well littered, and not interfered with. 
They should have all the good hay they want, 
with a quart of oil-meal, or four quarts of bran 
daily, and a peck of roots at least. Cows at 
calving should be fat. Let them have all the 
water they will driuk, and it is best, when the 
weather favors, that they should be allowed the 
range of a sunny yard. If the new milk springs, 
and the udder becomes hard and feverish, draw the 
milk occasionally, and knead the bag a little. This 
never occurs until just before calving. When cows 
come in at this time of the year, it is very impor¬ 
tant that they have plenty of roots to take the place 
of the succulent grass of June. 
Calves .— As a rule, we think it best never to let a 
calf suck. Let the cow lick it dry, and then re¬ 
move it to an adjacent stall or box. She will see 
that it gets no harm, and will make no fuss about 
it, unless it is moved or roughly handled. The calf 
will soon learn to drink from a pail, and when the 
cows are turned to grass, such calves may be safely 
trusted with them—though it is well to pht on a 
muzzle, with nails in it, for a few days, lest the cow 
may coax her calf to suck. The calf should have the 
warm milk of its dam pure, for a week, then half- 
skimmed milk for a week or less, always warmed; 
after this, skimmed milk, thickened with fine In¬ 
dian meal or wheat middlings. We add oil-meal, 
and think it safer than Indian meal alone. Boiled 
milk,with fine flour, will check scours, and a little 
castor-oil will cure constipation. 
Swine. —The sow approaching farrowing must 
