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gesipeir to intjpfe t|e Jfarater, % ^planter, mk % fehEr, 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF ilfAN.-WASHlNOTON. 
ORANGE J U I> I> ♦ A. M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
SWllOfflll 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBERS 10 OENTS. 
VOL. xv. —No. 11.] NEW-YORK, AUGUST, 1S56. [NEW series-No. 115. 
S^“The Office of tlie American Agricul¬ 
turist is on tlie 2tl floor at 191 IVater-st. 
(near Fulton). 
IPiPAll ilusiness and other letters should 
be addressed to ORANGE JUDD, 
No. 191 Water-st., 
NcwYork City. 
Personal Letters, or those for the Editor only should be 
marked Private. 
WORK FOR THE MONTE, 
“ Now the strong foliage bears the standards high, 
And shoots the tall top-gallants to the sky; 
The suckling ears the silke i fringes bend, 
And pregnant grown, their swelling coats distend ; 
The loaded stalk, while still the burden grows 
O’erhang the space that runs between the lows ; 
High as a top-field waves the silent grove, 
A safe retreat forlitile thefts of love, 
When the pledged roasting ears invite the maid 
To meet her swain beneath tlie new formed shade.” 
A more truthful picture of an August corn 
field was never drawn than this which we 
find in Barlow’s Hasty Pudding. It gives us 
the poetry of the American farm, and we 
envy not the plow boy that can read it 
through without a quickening of his blood, 
felt to his fingers’ end. The scenes with 
which his childhood and youth are identified 
pass before him, like the changing views of 
a panorama. We see the whole process of 
growing the maize, the planting, the weed¬ 
ing, the cultivating, and hoeing, the tassel- 
ling corn, the bending ears, the yellow grain 
bursting through the thick husk, the harvest, 
the evening husking, the cribbing, the thresh¬ 
ing, the meal bags on their way to mill, the 
home scene of mixing and cooking all the 
various preparations of the golden meal, the 
harvest supper of hasty pudding and milk, 
and the legitimate way of eating the classic 
dish. Every cultivator ought to have the 
July Harper, for the sake of this poem.* 
There is not much romance about farm life, 
and a literature has yet to be created, that 
shall glorify it, and make it attractive, Atfe 
greatly under estimate the power of the im¬ 
agination, if we suppose that literature has 
nothing to do with determining our calling 
in life. The farmer’s boy reads of adven¬ 
tures upon the sea by his evening lamp, and 
long before he is old enough to choose for 
himself, an inextinguishable desire for a 
sailor’s roving life has filled his heart, and 
determined his occupation. Our historic 
literature has glorified war, so that the coun¬ 
try never calls to arms in vain. In anyjust 
cause of war, death could not thin the ranks 
of the army so fast as it would fill up. But 
farm life is full of rugged facts, around which 
* Joel Barlow’s “ Hasty Pudding,” together with a me¬ 
moir on Indian Corn, by D. J. Browr.e, constitute one of 
Saxton’s Rural Hand-Books. The Poem was written in 
179 3. 
no halo of glory has been thrown by the hand 
of genius. Poets go ruralizing in w’oods, 
along the banks of wild streams, shunning 
the cultivated field, as if it afforded no themes 
worthy of the lyre. All our imaginative 
literature kindles the boy’s imagination for 
other scenes than those of the farm. We 
know there are exceptions in some of the 
classic writers of ancient da3 T s, and occa¬ 
sional exceptions in the modern English 
classics. But Cowpers and Thompsons, 
are rare, even among the rural firesides of 
England, and Barlow, is almost the only 
American poet that has left behind him any 
considerable work, fragrant with the odor of 
farm-life. We hail with joy any production 
or republication of works, that throw the 
charms of poetry around the stern realities 
of the husbandman's lot. 
Our ancestors of the olden time we appre¬ 
hend were wiser than we in mingling festivi¬ 
ties, and outward demonstrations of joy 
w’ith the ingathering of the summer and au¬ 
tumn harvests. They crowned the wheat 
sheaves with flowers, they sung, they shout¬ 
ed, they feasted and danced, and made pres¬ 
ents to all who had shared the burden of 
theirharvest labors. We have few holidays, 
and little recreation. We trust the day is 
not distant when our autumn fairs will be 
universally attended, and the occasion be 
made a festival, as well as an exhibition of 
the products of our farming population. 
August is not a principal harvest month 
with us. It is the turning point, the zenith 
of the summer’s work. The hay, rye and 
wheat, have been mostly gathered. The bus¬ 
iness of cultivation is mainly over, and we 
have time to rest a little before the potatoes 
and corn are gathered. Oats, barley, peas, 
and beans are harvested often in this month, 
but these are not crops of so great impor¬ 
tance. The swamp grass and the salt marsh 
are also cut this month, but this is taken 
leisurely. Now, for the first time since 
planting, can we pause for pleasure, or to 
do any job that wants a leisure day. 
“After haying” has been the standard 
reference of all minor matters for the 
last two months. “ After haying ” the boys 
had the promise of a day’s fishing. Then 
wife was to have the new cistern built and 
the long journeys to the spring for washing 
water were to be ended. Then the girls 
were to take a trip to the sea side, and a 
long delayed visit of the farmer and his wife 
was to be made at brother John’s. We 
trust these promises will be kept ; for both 
women and children grow weary with long 
deferred hopes. The laboring man loses 
nothing by a little relaxation. 
Look out now upon the face of Nature, 
and study her phases. The forest has lost 
the freshness of its verdure. The flowers 
no longer greet you every where. You have 
to seek them in shady retreats, in swamps, 
and wet places, where the fall varieties al¬ 
ready begin to show their golden blossoms. 
Toward the close of the month, some of the 
trees begin to look bronzed, the beech as¬ 
sumes the sere and yellow leaf, and if 
drought holds on, the maple in dry places 
turns partially crimson. The birds have 
mostly reared their broods, and some of 
them are now rejoicing with their second 
families. The married couples leave their 
retreat, and begin to move about in flocks 
feeding upon the seeds of grasses and weeds, 
or preying upon insects that now swarm in 
countless multitudes. It is a wise provision 
of the Creator, that the birds come in multi¬ 
plied numbers to check the increase of in 
sect life. The birds are beginning to pre¬ 
pare for their southern journey. The swal¬ 
lows are already upon the wing, holding 
conventions, and discussing platforms with 
more than a politician’s volubility. They 
are “ southern men with southern princi¬ 
ples,” and mean to go south to winter. 
But the August visits and meditations 
must be short. There is still work to be 
done. 
CULTIVATING CORN. 
It is not yet too late for the corn to profit 
by stirring the soil between the rows. If 
the corn is planted thick, dispense with the 
horse and cultivator, and use the hoe. Let 
no weeds grow. 
HYE AMONG CORN. 
Some farmers sow their fall rye among 
corn the last of the month. The shade fa¬ 
cilitates the sprouting of the seed, and gives 
it a good start before the corn is removed. 
The hills should be flat where this is done, 
and the seed should be put in after the last 
hoeing, with a horse harrow or by hand with 
a rake. 
WINTER WHEAT. 
The ground should be ready for sowing 
wheat very early next month. There is 
really no necessity for the eastern farmerto 
pay out so much money for flour. Wheat 
does well in New-England now, where the 
ground is properly prepared, and where the 
crop is put in early. We have very favor¬ 
able reports of this crop from New-Hamp- 
shire, where its cultivation is every yearex¬ 
panding. The ground should be liberally 
