4:42 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1876, 
Among the Farmers—No. 11.454 
Animal Portraiture.455 
Bark Louse, Oyster-shell. Illustrated. .462 
Bee Notes for December.475 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—Fun for a Holiday Party- 
Aunt, Sue’s Puzzle Box—Aunt Sue’s Chats—Doctor’s 
Talks about Plants and Seeds that Move—Making 
Friends with the Birds—Thrashing Out Grain —10 
111 ustr alions .405-468 
Carriage Spring, New Double. Illustrated. .456 
Catalogues Received.475 
Caitle, First Prize Jerseys at the Centennial../®. .441-449 
Centennial Commendation.475 
Corn-Crib, Self-discharging. .... — Illustrated. .458 
Donkeys from England, Exportation.455 
Dump-Cart and Mink-Trap . 2 Illustrations. .457 
Eulalia, Zebra-Striped. Illustrated”.'. 4C0 
Eye-Cups Once More.475 
Flower Garden and Lawn for December. 443 
Fruit Garden for December.443 
Gate, A Simple Double.. i.2 Illustrations.. 45S 
Governors and Grasshoppers.403 
Grass, A Native Ornamental. . Illustrated. 400 
Greenhouse and Window Plants for December.443 
Hay-Rack, Plan for a.4 Illustrations. .459 
Hints and Helps for Farmers.4 Illustrations. .457 
Household Department—Home Topics—Handy to Have 
in the House—Home-Made Easv-Chairs—Economy 
in the Use of Fuel. .5 Illustrations. .463-465 
House Plan.5 Illustrations. .452 
Ice, December. 457 
Kitchen Garden for December.443 
Live Stock at the Centennial, Note on.475 
Market Report for December.443 
Mills for Farm Use..7 Illustrations. .450 
Mistaking a Friend for an Enemy...403 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 82.450 
Orchard and Nursery for December.443 
Plarfts, About Pitcher. Illustrated. .461 
Poultry, Preparing for Market.475 
Roses in Window Gardening.462 
Science Applied to Farming.450 
Sheep-Corral, A Texan . 6 Illustrations ..458 
Sheep-Rot in Australia, Epidemic.458 
Swine, Essex Breed of. Illustrated .453 
Tree, Sorrel.,... .462 
Wheel-barrows, an Improvement in... . Illustrated. .462 
Wire-Fence Tightener . .2 Illustrations. .458 
Work, Hints About for December.442 
INDEX TO “ BASKET,” Oil SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Advertisements Pays, Horticultural Exhibition 
Reading.445 in Holland...474 
Apples, Feeding.474 Humbugs. Sundry.417 
Asbestos Roofing. 448 Insect for Name...474 
Baby Swing.448 Insects, Prof. Glover’s 
Bananas, Dried.448; Illustrations of.474 
Bones, Reducing by Sul- Kidney or Bladder, Irrita- 
phnric Acid... .449 tion of._.*.449 
Book Notices .448. Market-Garden, Size of. .449 
Books for a Stock Fanner448 Marsh Mud from N. S. ..448 
Broken Legs in Animals.474 Milking Apparatus.443 
Butter, Floating on Milk449 Oats, Winter.449 
Butter, Preparation for Places, Laying-out.473 
Cooling .474 Pigs, Indigestion in.449 
Butternuts..418 Potato Pests.446 
Cement, Rosendale.474 Potatoes. Sued.474 
Centennial,JudgesRop.()rt449,Poultry, Diseases of.448 
Chickens. Weakness in. .449 Poultry Keeping by 
Churns, Thermometer. .449, Ladies.449 
Compost Heap, to make a Press, Hay and Cotton.. .44!) 
Small.474 Questions from Iowa_474 
Cows, Cheaper Feed for..449 Readers in the West, to 
Cranberry Growers’Asso. I. Our.445 
N. .1. .474 Reed, The Common.474 
Creameries, Advice in Reports from tin; South- 
Regard to .448 ern States, Good.445 
Dairy Exhibition at Ham- Sand Cracks, Remedy for448 
burg.448 Sheep, A Dip for.448 
Dairymen’s Assoc., N. Y. Sheep at the Vienna Ex- 
State.447 hibition.473 
Engravings, How they Sparrows, English .449 
are Made.. . .445 Steaming Food for Stock474 
Essay on Hiseases of :Sweet Corn..448 
Swine, Prize.449 Text-Book on Veterinary 
Founder, ADisseaseLike449 Obstetrics.448 
Fowl, The Best.44SiThatch for a Poultry 
Friends, An Item for Onr445 House.448 
Fruit, California.447.Toys for Children.445 
Grass Named.474 TurfHeap.448 
Herd-Book of Ayrshires. .448, Weeds Named .474 
Hogs, Red Water in.474 Wells and Cisterns Easily 
Horse, Diarrhoea in a... 448; Examined.446 
Horse’s Eye, Inflatnmn- Wheat Growing in Eng. .474 
tion ina.44S 1 Wood Ashes.448 
Plans for Barns. — “G. S.,” Rosseau, 
Canada. Plans for barns were given in the American 
Agriculturist in Dec., 1872, March, 1874, July, 1876. That 
given in March, 1874, is suited for a building against 
a hill, having three floors, with drive way,s into each. 
We are always glad to receive descriptions «f new barns, 
with plans or sketches, although these maybe but. rough 
ones, from our readers who have built them. In giving 
these, one person helps another, and in that way returns 
something of what lie lias received at times from others. 
Calendar for December. 
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morn 
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morn 
9 
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0 57 
7 13 
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7 8 
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0 56 
10 
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7 19 
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10 20 
22 
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7 16 
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23 
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7 28 
1 32 
morn 
7 22 
4 37 
morn 
7 16 
1 43 
morn 
21 
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7 23 
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U 21 
7 22 
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0 21 
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29 
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PHASES OF THIS MOOD. 
MOON. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
WASIl’N. 
ciia’ston 
CHICAGO. 
Full Mm M 
3d Quart. 7 
New M’n 15 
1st Quart, 23 
Full M’n 30 
ri. m. 
0 20 mo. 
9 39 ev. 
I 30 ev. 
6 57 ov. 
5 15 ev. 
II. 51. 
6 8 mo. 
9 27 ev. 
1 18 ev. 
6 45 ev. 
5 3 ev. 
II. M. 
5 36 m o 
9 15 ev. 
1 6 ev. 
G 33 ev. 
4 51 ev. 
II. M. 
5 44 mo. 
9 3 ev. 
0 54 ev. 
6 21 ev. 
4 39 ev. 
II. M. 
5 14 mo. 
8 33 ev. 
0 24 ev. 
5 51 ev. 
4 9 ev. 
A M E It I 0 AN A G It I V I! LT II It I S T. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1876. 
The year just closing marks an era in the progress 
of the nation, not only in its political and social 
history, but also in its industrial developments. 
No thoughtful person, whether he be a farmer, 
mechanic, or professional man, can help contrasting 
our present position and attainments in industry, 
and the vast improvements that have been made in 
recent years, with what he remembers of things as 
they were but a few years ago. After a retrospect 
one naturally looks ahead, and anticipates or fore¬ 
casts what may be to come. If our progress here¬ 
after is to bear any ratio to what it has been hereto¬ 
fore, we may justly took for most astonishing 
changes. After surveying the field of mechanical 
invention and improvement, we are forced to be¬ 
lieve that the farmer is to be benefited in the near 
future, by the assistance of mechanical helps, more 
than any other class of workers- At present he is 
manifestly behind all others. In the manufacturing 
industries, old methods have been entirely swept 
away, and new agents introduced. Not only has 
hand labor been abolished, and steam-power substi¬ 
tuted, but old processes have given way to new ones. 
But agricultural methods remain to a great extent 
as they were from the beginning. Furrows are 
turned by “the crooked plow ” still, and the earth 
is yet “persecuted with harrows,” “the seed is 
east,” still, and the sowing is completed with as 
many different and almost as laborious operations 
as it was centuries ago. We hope to see this 
changed, and one operation quickly and well per¬ 
formed by one machine, serve to prepare the ground, 
and sow the fields; and so on through all the labors 
of the farm. It is a misfortune that farmers do not 
themselves invent their improved machines. Agri¬ 
cultural inventions, in great part, are made by en¬ 
thusiasts, who know nothing of practical agricul¬ 
ture, and the consequence is, we have multitudes 
of useless plows, cultivators, harrows, digging ma¬ 
chines, and other implements, that only serve to 
cause disappointment or excite ridicule. For this 
reason progress has been slow in some respects, 
but what the world needs is sure to come in good 
time, and the good time we believe is coming. 
Hints about Work. 
Begularity of Work .—The fine weather of the past 
few weeks has enabled farmers to finish up their 
fall work, aud push on with that for spring. It 
would be well to keep on as long as the weather re¬ 
mains favorable, for we know not what spring may 
bring forth. Work should be done with regularity, 
and not by fits aud starts.” At this season the 
hours of work may be shortened, and the day’s la¬ 
bor be finished at four o’clock. There is much 
work that may be done iu-doors ; reading, studying, 
planning foi the future, which arc all equally as ne¬ 
cessary to be done as plowing and digging drains. 
By appoitioning the time to different labors, one may 
often get through more work than in other ways. 
System is everything in planning work, and goe6 a 
gicat way in doing it. By economizing the time, 
there may be five hours daily set apart for reading. 
About the House everything should be done to 
make things snug, and all requisitions made by the 
housekeepers attended to at once. Winter time is 
an exacting period for housekeepers,and every thing 
should he done to relieve their necessary work of 
much of its weight. Fuel should be put under cover, 
and properly prepared for convenient' use. Drains 
should be made to carry off water; a place provided 
for slops and waste, where they may be saved for 
use as fertilizers; the cellar thoroughly cleaned, 
white-washed, aud protected ; shelves put up 
where needed; porches for protection around the 
doors and well, should be made, and all these done 
without considering that any undue calls are made 
upon the patience or the time of the farmer or me¬ 
chanic. The home should be considered first. 
Water.— In many localities this is one of the dri¬ 
est seasons on record, aud water will be very scarce. 
Wells are dry and water must be procured. A very 
cheap and quick method of deepening a well, is to 
put in a drive pipe at the bottom, and attach a force- 
pump, such as those made by the Nason Manufac¬ 
turing Co., of 71 Beekman st., New York. These 
drive wells may be put down in a day or two with¬ 
out any digging, and one of the “ Universal Force 
Pumps ” attached to it, would force water either 
to the house or the barn. Water must be had 
on one’s own premises, even at some cost. 
Shelter. —It is absolutely necessary that ail ani¬ 
mals should be well sheltered from cold and damp. 
The reason why pigs or other animals do not fatten 
so readily in cold weather as in the warmer months 
is, that the food is largely used in keeping up the 
vital heat, which is now given off in excess, and 
lost. If this loss rs prevented, animals will fat¬ 
ten now as readily as at any other time. 
Sheep. —Tliis is a very important time as regards 
sheep. If not carefully watched, they will soon 
fail off m condition, and this badly injures the wool, 
causing what is known as “ break,” which reduces 
its value to the manufacturer one-half. A healthy 
condition can be maintained only by preventing 
crowding and heating in the yards and pens, and 
furnishing ample ventilation, good food in abund¬ 
ance, and pure water plentifully. 
Swine. —For April pigs, boars and sows may uow 
be mated. The high price of pork has stimulated 
the production of pigs, and we may look for a 
probable reaction through a plentiful supply next 
season. This will not hurt those who keep the 
best pigs, but only those who keep poor sorts. 
Horses. —From our observations we expect to 
see much influenza, sporadic at least, if not epizo¬ 
otic, the coming winter. To avoid this weakening 
disease, thorough ventilation should be given in 
the stables, and too great warmth avoided ; the food 
should be of the best character, the bowels should 
6e kept somewhat relaxed by bran mashes and 
linseed meal, and give an occasional tonic, such 
as half an ounce of gentian root, and one dram of 
sulphate of copper. With such care, this disease 
will probably be avoided. Horses after driving 
should not be left standing exposed to storms. 
Poultry. —To keep poor fowls, now that the heav¬ 
ier pure-bred kinds are so cheap and easily pro¬ 
cured, will not pay. A prominent poultry dealer 
from Ohio, who exhibited largely at the Centennial, 
stated to us that the income of farmers from poul¬ 
try in his locality, had doubled, since he had been 
in business, from the use of better kinds of poul¬ 
try. In our own experience we have surpassed 
even this increase of profit. 
