AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
jtcsipefr to imprff&t all Classes interests in Soil Culture. 
AGRICULTURE IS TEE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN —WASHINGTON 
OIATCE JITDI>* A. M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
imm ii ml 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBERS 10 CENTS. 
vol. xvi.— No. io] NEW- Y Q-RK, OCTOBER, 1857. [new series— No. 129 . 
OPBusittess JMSice at No. 101 Water-st. 
E^“Fov CoaiJents, Terms, &c. see pajje 240. 
jg^TVotesto CorrespoMdessls, pages 235-6. 
igPFor SSusiaiess Notices, see page 237. 
Ei^For Advertisements, seepages 238-9. 
WORK FO R TH E MONTH. 
Morn on the mountain, like a Summer birV 
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales 
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, 
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life 
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned, 
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved, 
Where Autumn, like a faint old man sits down 
By the wayside aweary- .’’—Longfellow. 
The Autumn time is unmistakably with 
us. It is here in all its chastened beauty, 
tinging field and forest with a somber hue. 
It is one of the most delightful seasons of 
the year in our climate. The Summer heats 
are over, and the Winter frosts and winds 
are yet in the distance. It is only in the 
early morning that the chill air makes the 
fire upon the hearth-stone enjoyable. All 
day long the mellow sunlight and the soft 
air invite you forth to the labors of the field, 
to way-side wanderings, to hunting in the 
deep forests, or to fishing where the speck¬ 
led trout still watches for the insects that 
float upon the stream. With all the signs of 
decay around you, Nature never wears a 
more charming aspect, or speaks in more 
winning tones to the heart of man. It is a 
season of fruition to the farmer. His long 
delayed hopes are at length realized. The 
com that he planted with trembling, and cul¬ 
tivated with solicitude through the floods and 
drouths of Summer, now reveals its golden 
kernels beneath the ripening husks. Frost 
cannot injure it now. Drouth will not 
blight it. It is as secure as if it were already 
in the store-house. Pleasant visions rise up 
before the farmer as he looks over the broad 
acres covered with this precious grain. Now 
it is a pocket full of money, or an increase 
of bank stocks. Now it is a heap of yellow 
meal to be wrought into the delicious brown 
bread of our Puritan fathers, or to be served 
up in Johnny cakes, hoe cakes, hasty pud¬ 
ding, samp, hominy, or the hundred other 
nice dishes that his good wife knows so well 
how to prepare. He loves to gaze upon this 
crop ripening under the October skies, until 
his soul catches the hue of the sunlight that 
lies soft, like the smile of God, upon his 
fields. Everywhere the earth is full of his 
riches Here potatoes of snowy whiteness 
are nestled in the rounded hills. There tur¬ 
nips still show their broad leaves, and the 
swelling bulbs beneath. Here are stacks of 
grain and hay, the overflowing fullness of 
his barns. There are his flocks and herds 
cropping the aftermath, now' in its glory. 
And the uncultivated wilds and forests are 
quite as charming to the eye. 
“ What gorgeousness, what blazonry, what pomp 
“ Of colors burst upon the ravished sight 1 
“ Here, where the maple rears its yellow crest, 
“ A golden glory ; yonder, w here the oak 
“ Stands monarch of the forest, and the ash 
“ Is girt with flame-like parasite, and broad 
“ The dog-wood spreads beneath a rolling field 
“ Of deepest crimson ; and afar, where looms 
“ The gnarled gum, a cloud of bloodiest red!” 
These scenes of forest splendor greet us 
on every hand in our country, and every 
one that has a soul within him must rejoice 
in the Autumn aspects of Nature. 
The harvests are secure, and now the 
farmer has a little leisure to contemplate 
the esthetics of his occupation. In the 
hurry of the hay and grain harvest, time 
could not be afforded to study the appear¬ 
ance of things, and to put them in order. 
Now a word of exhortation upon 
NEATNESS 
may not pass unheeded. This is a prime 
virtue in husbandry, an essential part of it, 
if we take that word in its strict accepta¬ 
tion. Not only is it more pleasing to the 
eye to have the farm premises in order—a 
place for every thing, and every thing in its 
place—but. it is far more profitable. In fifty 
farms where neatness reigns, and fifty more 
where a sloven bears rule, you shall find 
thrift almost always keeping company with 
good order, and shunning the society of the 
slack and slovenly. It is economy to have 
a tool-house, where every farm implement 
can be sheltered, though the first cost is 
considerable. It is a sad waste to have the 
carts stand exposed to all the weather, the 
axes stuck in the log at the wood pile, the 
plows left in the furrow, the chains hanging 
by the barn-yard gate, and the ox-yoke and 
whip at the watering trough, the scythes 
hung in the apple tree over the grind-stone, 
and the shovels and hoes rusting in a corner 
of the stable. Wood goes to decay, exposed 
to all the changes of the weather, and farmer 
Slack, who has a place for nothing, spends 
more money in repairing decayed tools than 
farmer Tidy does in keeping everything in 
order. He spends more time in looking up 
missing.tools than his neighbor does in put¬ 
ting up every tool clean and bright when he 
has done using it. It is much easier to put 
a tool where you can find it, when you have 
it in hand, them to lay your hand upon it 
when you do not know exactly where it is. 
We love to see a neat farm-house, the 
abode of contentment and thrift, the clap¬ 
boards painted, a yard neatly fenced in, and 
graced with borders for flowers, stone fences 
built in straight lines, orchards well trim¬ 
med, and loaded with fruit, barns of ample 
dimensions, with every fork and rake and 
milking stool where the owner can find them 
in the night. 
The value of these habits of order is be¬ 
yond estimate in a household where child¬ 
ren are in course of training. The farmer 
will almost inevitably leave his own habits 
stamped upon his sons. If they go forth to 
other callings with a cultivated taste, and 
with habits of neatness and order, it will be 
a passport to favor wherever they may go. 
The foundation of success in life is already 
laid in those virtues which they have learned 
to cherish at home. Looking at this matter, 
then, in almost any point of view, it will be 
found that neatness pays. 
And now that the pressure of harvest 
duties are over, look a little at the small 
matters which so many are prone to over¬ 
look. There is a rickety board fence that 
every wind threatens with an overthrow. 
Let it he repaired or renewed, so that you 
will sleep quietly in the Winter nights. 
Here is a piece of dilapidated wall that has 
been making sheep and cattle breachy for a 
dozen years. Let it no longer tempt cattle 
to their undoing, and to the ruin of your 
crops. There are boulders in the meadow 
on which many a plow has been wrecked. 
Let them be blasted or buried. Let all 
things offensive to good taste be removed. 
PRESERVING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 
And while the farmer himself is slicking 
up out of doors, the farmer’s wife, within, 
should be making some slick things for 
Winter. With the self-sealing cans of va¬ 
ried type, and patent, no good house-keeper 
has an excuse for not laying in a good sup¬ 
ply of those fruits and vegetables which now 
grace her table. They keep perfectly in 
these cans, and some of them can hardly be 
distinguished from the fresh picked articles. 
Green corn, tomatoes, peaches, berries, 
plums, and other perishable fruits, not only 
add greatly to the delicacies of the farmer’s 
table in the Winter, but they promote 
health. Nothing can be a more agreeable 
change from the inevitable salt junk and 
potatoes than these preserved fruits and 
vegetables. Lay in a good stock of them. 
SHELTER FOR STOCK. 
Many farmers still neglect their animals 
In vv inter, feeding them from the stack-yard, 
in the open air. This practice is not only 
barbarous, but is very expensive. It take# 
