42 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
Contents for February, 1876. 
Artificial Fertilizers . 50 
Asparagus, Bunching. .2 Illustrations.. 62 
Barn, an Ohio.6 Illustrations.. 57 
Bee Notes for February. 47 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—Playing School—Snaring 
Rabbits or Hares—Doctor’s Talks—Doll Show— 
Aunt Sue’s Chats—Aunt Sue’s Puzzle Box—Useful 
and Useless Dogs. .7 Illustrations.. 65-6S 
Bulls, Management of Young. Illustrated.. 56 
Catalogues Received. 74 
Cattle Corral, Kansas. Illustrated.. 60 
Crnpper-pad for Horses. Illustrated.. 56 
Dairymen’s Association, American.47 
Farmers, Among. . 54 
Fences of Prairie Sod, Building. 4 Illustrations.. 55 
Flower-Garden and Lawn for February.. 49 
Forest-tree Planting. 53 
Fruit Garden for February. 43 
Gate-post, to Fix or Lift a.2 Illustrations.. 57 
Gate, Self-shutting. Illustrated.. 56 
Greenhouse and Window Plants for February. 43 
Hints about Work for February. 42 
Horse-Collars, Measuring fo?. Illustrated.. 58 
Horticultural Notes for the Southern States.43 
Horticultural Association, New York. 47 
Household Department—Home Topics—Centennial 
Extension Lounge—Dry Earth and Earth Closets— 
German Recipes.5 Illustrations.. 63-65 
Honse Plan. 
Iowa Gardener’s Success. 
Kitchen Garden for February. 
Lantern, Safe Barn. 
Market Report for February. 43 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 72—Jersey Cattle—Stock- 
Breeding.50-51 
Oil-Cakes, Use of.5S 
Orchard and Nursery for February. 43 
Pigs, Small White. . . Illustrated.. 53 
Plants,Entire-leaved Cleome. Illustrated.. 61 
Plants, Sea-side Coreopsis. Illustrated.. 61 
Poultry Exhibition, L. I., Prize Bantams. Illustrated.. 41 
Rhubarb, What it comes from. 51 
Science Applied to Farming. 49 
Seeds—Seedsmen—and the Law. 47 
Sheep. Fish-scrap for. 56 
Short-horns, Booth. Illustrated.. 53 
Trailing Arbutus in the House. 59 
Walks, Building Stone. Illustrated.. 55 
Workshop, Hints for the .2 Illustrations.. 57 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” OK SHORTER ARTICLES. 
.5 Illustrations.. 
62 
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Accounts, Keeping.75 
Allen's Seed-drills and 
Wheel Hoes. 46 
American Naturalist. 74 
Broom-Sedge and Sprout 
Land. 74 
Butter, How to Make 
Good.74 
Coal Mines, Among the.. 74 
Clydesdale, Importation 
of. 46 
Cotton Manufacture. 73 
Cow, Indigestion in a.. . 75 
Cows for a Cheese Dairy, 73 
Dairy, a Profitable.. 75 
Dairy, Management of a.. 75 
Death of Doctor Hull.... 45 
Dikes and Ditches. 75 
Dogs and Sheep. 75 
Fair, New Orleans. 45 
Fertilizers, Artificial. ... 45 
Fertilizers, Chemical.... 74 
Fleas in the Barn. 75 
Fodder-Cutter, Baldwin’s 46 
Grapes and Wine . 74 
Hay-Racks. 73 
Hay-Rakes, Patent. 75 
Hazel-Nut, Triple. 73 
Heaves in Horses, Pre¬ 
ventives of. 
Heifers, Spaying. 
Hen, Egg-Bonucl. 
Horses, Circus.. 
Horticulturist, Exit of... 
Humbugs, Sundry. 
Land, Howto Improve.. 
Lawn Mower, Excelsior. 
Lime Kilns. 
Lucerne in Virginia. 
Night Soil. 
Parsnips, Failure in 
Growing. 
Pig, Large Essex . 
Pigs, Ringing.... 
Pork-Raising in Virginia 
Potato Crops, Prize. 
Register of Rural Affairs. 
Religious Journals.- 
Rifle, Target. 
Right, and Left. 
Roof, Cement.. 
Salt for Wheat. 
Spiders. 
Tiles, Draining with.... 
Turnips with Beans. 
Wheat, Ivory. 
Vines of tlie South of France.—P 
Dupuy, Alaclma Co., Fla., writes to know what varieties 
of grapes are grown in the department of La Gironde, 
France, for wine, and if they will succeed with him. 
There is no one variety grown in any part of France, but 
each vineyard has that best suited to it, or several varie¬ 
ties, to ripen in succession. The number of kinds is 
very large, but the popular grape is the Pinol in some of 
its many sub-varieties, for there are a dozen or more 
Pinots, from white to black. Our correspondent has first 
to ascertain if any European grape will succeed in his 
locality, and then to find out by experiment, which are 
best suited to it. Unfortunately there is very little ex¬ 
perience for his guidance, and if lie would undertake to 
cultivate the wine grapes of the south of Franco, lie must 
be.a pioneer, and experiment. Some of.thc. table grapes, 
such as Black Hamburgh and others, have been cultivated 
with success. 
Calendar for February. 
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PHASES OF THE MOOR. 
AM EIIIC AX A G RI (1 U LT U R 1ST. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1876. 
In modern farming there can not be a fair profit 
upon the capital invested, unless there is skillful 
management, and such a forecast of business as will 
make it necessary to pursue a certain steady course 
of cropping. This comes fr.om the necessities of 
the case. Corn and grass, wheat, barley, roots, or 
oats, follow each other on a well ordered farm, or 
all is disorder and confusion. But, unfortunately, 
nil farms are not well ordered, and there is a 
pressing need which actually prevents order on 
some farms, just as poverty forces makeshifts in 
some households. Something like this obliges the 
planter to grow cotton year after year, when he 
knows he is losing money by it. He loses less by 
making a crop, than by letting his fields go untilled, 
and he plants again, hoping against hope for a 
change in the market, which will bring him profit. 
But this method can not last always. Like growing 
wheat every year after year, in California, it must 
stop some day, just as the continuous growing of 
wheat in the Genessee valley came to an end. What 
is to be done ? It is difficult to answer. If there 
were such a thorough organization among farmers, 
as there is of coal miners or cotton spinners, par¬ 
ticular products might be reduced in quantity, to 
relieve the over-stocked markets, which now can 
take neither our cotton nor our wheat at paying 
prices. A farmer can not, like a factory or a coal¬ 
mine, run on “short time”; but he cap do what 
amounts to the same thing, he can go on short 
acres ; he can plant and sow less, and by spending 
less and prockicing less, get as much money for less 
produce. He will thus gain at one end what he 
could not reach at the other. That tome such 
arrangement or combination is needed, the present 
condition of the two greatest markets in the world, 
those of cotton and wheat, show most conclusively. 
Klimts about Work. 
The Cotton Crop. —It is important to consider the 
condition of the cotton markets, while there is time 
to change the plans for planting. Oats may yet be 
sown in the southern states, and this is the time to 
prepare the com and potato ground. If it is 
thought desirable to plant less cotton than usual, 
this point must be decided now. It is certain that 
with a larger crop than is wanted, not only the sur¬ 
plus, but the whole supply of cotton falls in price, 
and the planter loses money. Had a million less 
bales of cotton been grown, or had they been 
burned, the three millions left would have sold last 
year, for more money than was received for the 
whole crop of four million bales. 
The Wheat Ci-op.— The prospects for this crop 
are very doubtful at the present time. The latest 
advices from England, report 30 percent less wheat 
in the market than last year, with only 4i per cent 
increase in price, and rates are still on the decline. 
If it were not that a large portion of our wheat has 
been held back, prices would have been much low¬ 
er. What shall the grower of spring wheat do in 
this case ? The Minnesota, Iowa, or Nebraska 
farmer must grow spring wheat or stop business, 
as the market for barley, oats, and corn is as easily 
over-stocked as that for wheat. This is the mis¬ 
fortune of his position as a purveyor to a foreign 
nation, which may not want his goods, and as a 
farmer in a state where almost every other man is 
a farmer, and where there are few or no manufac¬ 
turing towns, in which he can find a home market. 
To remedy this, time, and the growth of other in- 
d ustries are needed. We can see no other help for it. 
Where coni can be grown readily and turned into 
pork for exportation, the experience of the past 
two years has been in favor of this crop. 
Out-door Worle. —There is enough of this to keep 
farmers busy everywhere. Gathering materials for 
manure, making composts of coarse materials, 
with cotton-seed and superphosphates for corn and 
cotton, top-dressing grass fields and for encouraging 
the growth of native pastures, plowing, fencing, 
and cleaning out water-courses, will employ south¬ 
ern farmers. At the north, there is fire-wood to 
cut and haul, rails to split, fence posts to hew and 
bore, ice to cut and put away, the smoke-house to 
look to, manure to turn over, and many other 
things to be done, that will make a quiet evening’s 
rest over an instructive book or paper, very accept¬ 
able. Every farm has its special needs that require 
providing for, and when the February snows and 
sleets make out-door work impossible, hut few 
hours need be wasted in-doors. 
Hoads. —There is as much need to keep roads in 
good repair during the snowy season, as in sum¬ 
mer. Bare spots thatare swept by the wind, should 
be packed over with snow when the sun is warm 
and the spow soft. It may then he beaten down, 
so that it will not drift away. “ Cradle-holes,” the 
“ thank’ee-marms ” of New England, may be re¬ 
paired by laying brush across the hollow, and cov¬ 
ering it with snow, which should be well trampled 
down. Where the roads are muddy, the best way 
is to temporarily repair them by filling the holes 
with brush, or by laying brush across the soft spots. 
It is useless to repair roads with earth or stone 
while they are wet. 
Working Cattle. —Oxen should be well fed, and 
well carded every day, to bring them into good con¬ 
dition for spring work. A weak animal will soon 
give out under the first hot 6uns of spring. 
Work the hulls. A bull may be made to at least 
earn his feed. He will be more tractable and more 
trustworthy.for it. Several plans for working bulls 
have been given from time to time. A bull had 
better do much of the hauling and odd jobs of the 
farm, than to be tied up to fret and become savage.. 
Cows. —In coming cows should be treated with 
great care. The dry feed will have rendered them 
very liable to inflammatory diseases. Garget, milk- 
fever, abortion, and such troubles, affect well fed 
cows more than others. The blood needs cooling by 
laxative food. One quart -of oil-cake meal, mixed 
with bran scalded, and given as a drink once a day, 
will he useful. No corn should be given for several 
weeks before calving. Bran or middlings will be 
more cooling and healthful, but if good hay is 
given, very little grain of any kind will he needed. 
Caution now will prevent trouble hereafter. When 
the calf is expected, the cow should be turned into 
a loose stall, or into a quiet stable alone. 
Horses and Colts. —If cuts are found upon sharp 
shod horses, about the feet or pasterns, wash the 
wounds with warm soap and water, and then apply 
a pinch of salt, or a little compound tincture of 
benzoin, which will cause them to heal rapidly. 
