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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN- Washington. 
OKAK3 1J0», A. M., ) JiWTO Z<r> 5 $ 1.00 per annum, in advance. 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. $ M'S \ SINGLE NUMBERS 10 CENTS. 
vol. xv. —No. 7 .] NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1856. [NEW series-No. hi. 
tsr ~TIsc Offffsce ©£ tSie Ameracati Agricul” 
turist is ©5i tlae 2il floor off 189 Waicr»st. 
(near Fulton). Eulramcc at No. 191. 
S^pAll Utisiiacss saiilot'ser Setters siiould 
be addressetl to ORANGE JUDD, 
No. 189 Water”8t., 
NeW«lf©rk City. 
WORK FOR THE MONTH. 
“ I have found violets. April hath come on, 
And the cool winds feel softer, and the rain 
Falls in the beaded drops of summer-ti ite. 
You may hear the birds at morning, and at eve, 
Earth sends up a pleasant smell, the dry loaves 
Are lifted by the grass; and so 1 know 
That Nature, with her delicate ear hath hoard 
The dropping of the velvet foot of Spring.” 
Willis could not have sung more truthfully 
of this weeping month, had these lines been 
dictated from his own Idlewild. The moods 
of April are even more ficKle than those of 
March. But the pleasant ones predominate 
and lastthe longer in April, as the sour ones 
prevail in March. Nature now seems to be 
in a flutter of excitement, as if on the eve of 
the accomplishment of some great purpose. 
She has been mustering her forces and pre¬ 
paring for the eflfort all through the winter, 
and the signs of bursting buds have been 
growing more numerous, as the day ap¬ 
proached. The snow banks have disap¬ 
peared or are fast dissolving on the sunny 
side of the walls and fences—leaving behind 
a deposite of fine dust, blown from the high¬ 
ways and fields, like the scum upon the bot¬ 
tom lands of a river, after its over flow. 
This deposite is a good dressing for the 
grass, and already the young blades are 
showing their emerald hues. The blue birds 
have come welcoming the spring, and yon¬ 
der a young couple are already inspecting 
a hole in the limb of an old apple tree, pre¬ 
paratory for family arrangements. It is 
manifest that they have leased the tenement 
for the season, and the morning note of the 
bird is no longer solitary, but comes back 
echoed from its chosen mate. They have 
begun their work in season, and every note 
of this worthy couple should be a joyous 
invitation to the farmer to enter upon his 
seed sowing. 
PLOWING 
is the great business of this month. Now, 
if the oxen have been well fed during the 
winter, you will have the advantage of your 
neighbor who has thought to save in his 
meal bin by “ muzzling the ox that tread- 
eth out the corn.” It was a most wretched 
economy as he now sees, every time he 
looks at the gaunt ribs of his team, and finds 
them unable to draw a full load, or to plow 
a whole day. 
Be not in too great haste to plow. Many 
err in turning up the soil as soon asthe frost 
is out, or while it is sa'urated with water. 
The plow acts'upon soil in this condition as 
a packing machine. If clayey, the furrow 
slice is turned over in aclosely pressed mass, 
and great clods are formed as impenetrable 
to the roots of plants as unburnt brick. A 
hard pan too is formed under the plow by the 
extra pressure the soil receives while in this 
wet state. The harrow does not break the 
lumps so effectually as when plowed at the 
proper season. Wait a little until the water 
has run off, and the clods break easily at the 
touch of the cultivator or harrow. Then a 
seed bed is much better prepared, and there 
will be a more uniform growth through the 
season. 
And when the plowing is begun, plow 
deep. This hurrying over the ground mak¬ 
ing a furrow of four or five inches in depth 
is poor business. And yet discretion must 
be used about the depth to which you will 
stir the soil. It will not do to treat all soils 
alike. Ten inches may be safe in one field, 
while it would spoil the crop in another. It 
is a safe rule to turn up one inch of subsoil 
that has never seen the light before. If a 
heavy dressing of manure is to be applied, 
two or three inches of the yellow dirt may 
be brought up. This will furnish some new 
food for plants, and will deepen the soil. A 
deep and thoroughly tilled soil is the only 
safe guard against the drouths of our Ameri¬ 
can Summers. 
SUB-SOILING. 
If this has been attended to in past 
seasons, it will be noticed that the fields so 
treated are in condition to plow some days 
before others. If it has not been, a sub-soil 
plow will be a good investment this spring. 
The water is carried off more rapidly in the 
spring, and there is a more perfect circula¬ 
tion of air and moisture in the soil through 
the whole season. The economy of sub-soil 
plowing is pretty generally admitted, by all 
who have thoroughly tried it. 
EARLY SOWING. 
The sowing of spring wheat, barley, and 
oats, is in order after the plowing. Put in 
the seed immediately after the plowing. 
Wheat is more apt to blast when it ripens 
late in the summer. The first part of the 
summer is the best for all these grains. 
They get well rooted before the dry weath¬ 
er comes on. Two weeks difference in the 
sowing may make many bushels difference 
in the crop. 
PLANT POTATOES EARLY. 
This tuber is from a mountainous region 
and loves a cool climate and moist soil. It 
germinates and grows at a much lower tem= 
perature than corn. There is little danger 
of rotting or freezing after the first of this 
month, and the sooner they are planted the 
better. The best soil is one abounding in 
vegetable matter. We have succeeded ad¬ 
mirably with potatoes by simply putting a 
shovelful of peat in each hill at planting. 
Heavy dressing with stimulating manures 
has been found to iijcrease the tendency to 
rot, especially if the planting is late. Plant 
early varieties in good season, and the pro¬ 
babilities of success are greatly increased. 
Lay out a good breadth for potatoes. If the 
crop is successful, it pays much better than 
corn. 
REPAIRING FENCES. 
If this was not attended to last month, let 
it be done immediately. This used to be the 
first work of the hired man beginning his 
season’s work with April, It is perplexing 
to turn aside from planting or hoeing to re¬ 
pair an old fence. The boundary fences be¬ 
tween neighbors should be thoroughly over¬ 
hauled. Poor fences here make breaehy 
cattle, breed mischief, and bad blood be¬ 
tween neighbors, and sometimes lead to 
law-suits. Remember the old adage, “An 
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure.” 
CLEANING UP MOWING FIELDS. 
If that wretched husbandry prevails, of 
feeding cattle at the stack-yard during the 
winter, there is a good deal of work to be 
done in removing the accumulated litter and 
manure. Rake up the old corn stalks, and 
coarse hay, and remove them to the yard or 
manure cellar. It is wasteful to burn them. 
The beetling of the manure should be fol¬ 
lowed by a good bushing, which will break 
up the coarse lumps. This practice of feed¬ 
ing out of the barn is still very prevelant, but 
we hope it is on the wane. The objections 
to it are manifold, while it has not a single 
good reason to recommend it. It makes 
more labor. A load of hay once upon the 
cart may about as well be unloaded in the 
barn as at a hay stack. The extra labor is 
certainly no offset to the two or three hun¬ 
dred journeys, often a mile long, it will take 
in the course of the winter to feed out the 
hay from the stack. It is a cruel and bar¬ 
barous treatment of dumb animals. There 
must he intense physical suffering from this 
exposure to all the cold, the snow, and the 
rain of winter. It takes one third more hay 
to winter an animal in this way than in a 
good barn, and even with extra feed an ani- 
