AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MANt Washington. 
ORANGE JJUI>I>, A. M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
VOL. XV.—No. 9.] 
I^PTlie Office of the American Agricul¬ 
turist is on the 2d floor at 191 Water-st. 
(near Fulton). 
IF5F*A11 Business and other letters should 
be addressed to ORANGE JUDD, 
No. 191 Water-st., 
New-¥ork City. 
WORK FOR THE MONTH. 
‘Sweet June! with thy fair forehead bound 
With dewy wild-flowers, and with roses crownd, 
I love thee well. 
Deep in the heart of man, all o’er the earth 
Thy presence spreads a livelier tone of mirth, 
A soft deep spell. 
The newly budded groves repeat thy call 
With joy through all the thick arcades; 
And the hoarse plunging waterfall 
Rejoices in its dim primeveal shades.” 
But the finest description of the poet can 
not half equal the reality of a June scene in 
the forest. One must stand there beneath 
that canopy of verdure, and see the fresh 
leaves, the tender shoots of new made wood, 
upon the end of every bough ; one must hear 
the plunge of the waterfall and the soft mur¬ 
mur of the breeze in the tree tops ; and feel 
the pressure of the spongy moss and the 
decaying leaves beneath his feet, to realize 
the scene. What a contrast now, to the 
same forest in mid winter. Then the brook 
that leaps and roars and foams in all the 
wildness of its summer gambles, was stif¬ 
fened with the beauty of still life. No ar¬ 
tist could fix in stone forms so beautiful as 
fringed this stream, a few brief months ago. 
But the fairy creations of the frost king are 
all vanished now, and the icy diamonds that 
glittered on every leaflet of the pine and 
hemlock, now sparkle in the laughing waters 
of the brook as they bound away toward the 
sea. Then the forests bare of foliage, and 
deserted of the singing birds, awed the spir¬ 
it by their silence, and invited man to self 
communion and reflection. Now every 
thing here seems with life, and invites man 
to observation and enjoyment. There is 
something new to study in the most familiar 
scenes. The trees have a new dress, and 
the young shoots are making progress day 
by day, that the eye can detect. The moss 
covered rock assumes a new livery, and 
green shrubs and flowers of every hue crop 
out of its rifted sides. The insects are busy 
whirling through the air, crawling along the 
trunks of trees, and upon the earth in search 
of food, or making preparation to lay their 
eggs for another generation of their kind. 
Now is the time to study the habits of these 
creatures that so often prey upon the labors 
of the husbandman, and destroy his hopes of 
harvest. 
But the cultivated fields invite us, as well 
NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1856. 
as the wildness and beauty of the forest. 
Seed time is almost past. How many pre¬ 
cious hopes have been committed to the torn 
and broken sod. The grains and seeds of 
roots that were thus sown or planted have 
not mocked the cultivator’s hopes. Already 
they have broken the dark earth in which 
they were entombed and wonders great as 
the resurrection morn swarm along every 
cultivated field. The young blades of corn 
have already increased the print of the hoe, 
left upon the planted hill. The purple leaf¬ 
lets of the potato are just visible in the drills. 
The young oats are luxurious and the win¬ 
ter wheat and rye, are already heading out, 
and pushing on toward maturity. But we 
have more pressing duties than observation 
during this month, though we could wish 
that cultivators observed their crops more 
closely, and the insects that often commit 
such ravages, upon them. These field stud¬ 
ies would often be found more profitable 
than books. 
June is a hot month, and the man’s busi¬ 
ness is the care of crops already planted. It 
is not too late however to put in potatoes, 
and the early kinds of Indian corn during the 
first days of this month. But 
TILLAGE 
is the great work of June in the field and in 
the garden. As a rule we pay far too little 
attention to our hoed crops, corn, potatoes, 
and other roots after planting. Potatoes are 
hoed once and corn twice. An additional 
hoeing is thought to be a waste of time and 
labor. We believe from our own experi¬ 
ments and from the reported experiments of 
others, that capital expended in the cultiva¬ 
tion of crops will bring as good returns as 
capital invested in manure, or in good tools. 
Tillage was hardly over estimated even by 
Jethro Tull, the first great advocate of a 
deep and thorough pulverization of the soil 
in English husbandry. He recommended 
the scarifying of the soil as often as once in 
ten or twelve days through the growing sea¬ 
son. This certainly works well in the gar¬ 
den upon the cabbage plants, which are 
profitably hoed once a week, until the heads 
are well formed, and the ground is mostly 
shaded. Potatoes may be profitably hoed 
twice or three times before they are in 
blossom. After they bloom, we have thought 
the stirring of the soil tended to the forma¬ 
tion of new tubers, and made too large a 
share of small potatoes in the harvest. But 
there is no such danger in the treatment of 
corn, and we frequently hoe this crop four 
and five iimes, and think the last two hoe- 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBERS lO CENTS. 
[NEW SERIES—No. 113. 
ings pay as well as the first three. On the 
last two hoeings we would not use the culti¬ 
vator, or horse harrow, as they might injure 
the surface roots, which begin to form abun¬ 
dantly the latter part of the season. If any 
cultivator doubts this, let him try the exper¬ 
iment on any acre of corn. Let him divide 
his acre into three equal parts. Cultivate and 
hoe the whole acre, say on the 1st, 15th, and 
30th days of June. Then leave one third 
for the rest of the season. The second third, 
hoe on the 15th of July, and leave for the 
rest of the season. The last third hoe on 
the 15th, and 31st of July, and then leave 
till harvest. Husk and measure each third 
accurately, and note the result. We think 
the hoeings wiil pay better at about two 
weeks interval, rather than to come later in 
the season. At the middle and last of Au¬ 
gust, many surface roots must be destroyed, 
and this might more than balance the advan¬ 
tage of stirring the soil. We would cultivate 
perfectly flat, unless the ground is wet when 
it may be an advantage to make a small hill 
about the plants at the last hoeing. We 
want more light upon the matter of thorough 
tillage, and we trust the readers of our jour¬ 
nal will institute experiments this summer, 
to satisfy themselves. If it appears that 
each hoeing adds two or three bushels per 
acre to the corn crop, he can easily determine 
whether or not it will pay. 
KEEP THE WEEDS DOWN, 
whether you hoe many times or few. These 
pests of the farm not only abstract the rich¬ 
es of the soil, but they scatter their seeds 
among all kinds of grain and grasses, and 
greatly hinder future cultivation. It cost us 
several hard days’ work last year, to eradi¬ 
cate the charlock from a piece of Spring 
Wheat, which had been stocked years before 
with that troublesome weed. Some slack 
cultivator let the intruder go to seed in his 
corn field, and twenty years after they return 
to plague his successor, and cost him five 
dollars to abate the nuisance. The present 
operations of the farmer, like those of 
most other kinds of business, take hold of 
future years. For your own future com¬ 
fort and prosperity, keep down the weeds. 
GOOD TOOLS 
are now paying a large interest, and if you 
are not furnished with a steel toothed cul¬ 
tivator, to go between the corn and potatoes, 
make the investment immediately. In 
smooth land it is far preferable to the har¬ 
row. It lifts the soil and leaves it very fine. 
Light hoes also make a great difference in 
the ease with which a day’s labor may be 
