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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN ,— Washington. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., ) 5 $ 1.00 per annum, in advance. 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. > M© A Ma5mAIS)AA^a!) AlfS il( SINGLE NUMBERS 10 CENTS. 
VOL. xv.— No. 12.] NEW-YORK, SEPTEMBER., 1856. [NEW series-No. no. 
13^°The Office of the American Agricul¬ 
turist is on the 2d floor at 191 Water-st. 
(near Fulton). 
ISFMll Business and other letters should 
be addressed to ORANGE JUDD, 
IVo. 191 AVater-st., 
IVewATorlt City. 
Personal Letters, or those for the Editor only should be 
marked Private. 
WORK FOR THE MONTH. 
“ The sultry summer past, September comes, 
Soft twilight of the slow declining year, 
All mildness, soothing loneliness and peace, 
The fading season, ere the falling come, 
More sober than the buxom blooming May, 
* And therefore less the favorite of the world, 
But dearest month of all to pensive minds.” 
[C. Wilcox. 
September ushers in a new season of the 
year, and calls up a new class of emotions 
in the heart of the husbandman. The heat 
of the summer is over, and its long and ex¬ 
hausting labor is ended. The May harvest 
is gathered, and the great staple crops of the 
farm, corn and potatoes, are rapidly hasten¬ 
ing to maturity. There is no hurry in gath¬ 
ering these ; they have not to be made, like 
hay, while the sun shines. The farmer can 
now take a little longer nooning, and the 
evenings are perceptibly longer for reading 
up the Agricultural journals that have been 
overlooked amid the pressing duties of sum¬ 
mer. He has time now to look at the as¬ 
pects of Nature and to enjoy them. 
New sounds begin to greet his ear as he 
misses from the wood, the meadow and the 
orchard, his summer favorites. The lark, 
the bob-o-link, the swallow, like summer 
friends, are off before the touch of frost 
upon the foliage, seeking in sunnier climes 
the pleasures that no more greet them under 
our autumn skies. We miss-from the or¬ 
chard the full gushing song of the robin. 
His notes are broken as he gives over do¬ 
mestic cares and becomes an epicure. He 
gorges himself now instead of his birdlings 
in the nest, and lays on fat in the plenty of 
harvest against the long bitter fast of~win¬ 
ter. His epicurean habits are unfavorable 
to song. New classes of insects begin to 
make their appearance as the old die off. 
A dead grasshoper is here and there seen 
glued to some sapless grass-stalk or weed, 
as if he were facing the fading summer and 
mourning over his ephemeral joys. The key 
note of the insect hum is changed. It is 
lower and softer, preparing the mind of 
man for the advent of those “ melancholy 
days, the saddest of the year.” 
But the eye as well as the ear takes note 
of the change that is now coming over the 
season. The woods have lost the freshness 
of tlieir verdure, and in many a spot the rus¬ 
set and yellow begin to contrast with the 
green. The somber colors gain in fullness 
and breadth until the close of the month, 
when the frost begins to show its handi¬ 
work fri field and forest. The orchard now 
drops luscious fruits from its laden boughs. 
Alas ! for the man who has none, but looks 
with curious eyes to the ripening apples, 
peaches and pears of his neighbor, and is 
obliged to read unedifying lectures to his 
sons on the sin of fruit-stealing by moon¬ 
light. An order to the nurseryman next 
month for a good supply of trees would have 
more influence than all his exhortations. 
The corn field hastens to maturity. The 
leaves have almost done their work, and 
are drying up. The kernels are hardening 
and glazing, and the-earlier kinds are push¬ 
ing the golden ears through the shrivelling 
husks. Happy is the man now who manured 
heavily and followed our suggestions in re¬ 
gard to thorough tillage. He has thick 
heavy ears upon every hill, and no heavy 
crop of weeds are going to seed to impede 
the cultivation of another year. He has a 
clean soil. He can afford to make 
A FALL VISIT 
to some of his kin, if he does not stay too 
long. As a rule farmers do not take time 
enough for social purposes. It pays every 
man, after the pressing summer work is 
over, to unbend the muscles, and to keep 
alive the associations and friendships of ear 
lier years by the interchange of visits. The 
facilities for travel are now so great that 
these visits can be made with little expense 
and small loss of time. Formerly when 
one’s kindred went to the far West, they 
were as good as buried. They hardly ex¬ 
pected to return again ; and if we went from 
the East thither, it took a month or two, and 
cost a large sum. Now two or three days 
will set us down in almost any place east of 
the Mississippi, and thousands can visit 
friends in that valley to whom it would have 
been impracticable a dozen years ago. 
These visits pay we’l for the information 
they give an intelligent man of the different 
methods of husbandry. He cannot fail, if 
he improves his opportunities, to pick up 
many items of farm practice that will be ex¬ 
ceedingly profitable to him at home. This 
should always be kept as a distinct object 
before the mind in these visits, and the in¬ 
formation thus gathered will not only show 
itself at home, but in the Farmer’s Club, and 
in the intercourse of neighbors at the fire¬ 
side. 
THE FALL EXHIBITIONS 
will of course come in for a share of atten¬ 
tion this month. The County Exhibitions 
should not only be visited, but should have 
the liberal contributions of every farmer. 
A first question should be, with the opening 
of the month, What can I exhibit ? Look 
over the premium list again, and see what 
prizes you can hope to win. Send up the 
best animals and the best products of the 
field and garden to the County show. Let. 
there be an animated competition for the 
premiums. It will cost two or three days 
of time, and a little money, but both will be 
well spent. Take your wife and children to 
the exhibition, and invite all your first and 
second cousins to go, and let the “ good 
time coming” be realized when the county 
gets together, to show up the results of 
their industry for the year. Take full notes 
of the exhibition, and learn all you can of 
the many new things that will he seen. 
SEED CORN 
should be selected this month. Many a 
farmer has lost ten, fifteen, twenty bushels 
of corn for lack of this precaution. We 
have had great complaint of the failure of 
corn to come up with the first planting. 
This, in most instances, was owing to taking 
corn from the bin to plant; corn imperfectly 
ripened, or that was put up last fall before 
the cob was sufficiently dry. Those who se¬ 
lected their corn, and hung it up by the husk 
to cure, had sound seed that came up well. 
Select those ears that grow two or three 
upon a stalk. They may be indicated by 
putting down a stake by the hills, or by 
tying a string or strip of husk around the 
ear. As soon as the husk cleaves from the 
ear, break them off, tie them in bunches, and 
hang them in a dry place, where they will 
cure perfectly, and be ready for use next 
spring. This selection of seed is a matter 
of great importance. It not only secures a 
perfect seed, but one more prolific. The 
yield will be larger, and the farmer who fol¬ 
lows this course will find his crops con¬ 
stantly improving. 
SOWING WHEAT. 
This should be done as early in Septem¬ 
ber as possible. The young plants have 
time to become well established before win¬ 
ter, and are much less likely to be killed by 
the freezing and thawing. Deep, thorough 
tillage is also of great importance in wheat 
culture. We have found guano a very eco¬ 
nomical manure for this crop. (See a longer 
article on this subject.) 
RYE EOR SOILING. 
This comes earlier in the spring than al 
