234 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[August, 
I 
Jf’eitces. —Where rail fences have settled into the 
ground, pry up the corners, and put stones or 
blocks beueath. Where no sheep are kept, a rail 
fence may be raised a foot or more high with 
blocks and i>ieces of old rails, and thus save many 
whole oues. Fasten all loose boards before the 
wind, or animals, separate them fj'om the posts. 
Harrows. —Clean the points of the teeth, and it 
they must be left out of doors, let them stand on 
strips of boards, as rust often corrodes them nearly 
as much as usage wears them out. 
Horn Fiths .—Collect them at tanneries, and plow 
them. They are valuable fertilizers for any purpose. 
Horses. —Do not over-drive in hot weather. Never 
allow a horse to drink when warm, unless he is to 
be kept moving as usual. Where they are stabled 
during hot weather, clean the stables often, litter 
well, and allow each animal to have a breathing 
hole in the window or wall before him, if possible. 
Some horses gall very easily beueath the collar 
and harness, during hot weather, where the parts 
do not fit well. Wash the wounds with clean wa¬ 
ter, and apply a paste made of white lead and 
linseed oil. Then provide a collar or harness that 
will not chafe. The comfort of working horses may 
be much promoted, while in the harness, by hanging 
strips of cloth to the harness so as to dangle about 
their fore legs. ' Long and narrow pieces of sheep 
skin or old buffalo robe, or two .or three raccoons’ 
tails sewed together, will keep the files eflectually 
from the fore legs. Many farmers in the country 
adopt the excellent practice of attaching a piece of 
white shirting to the bridle, to protect the entii'C 
under jaw and throat from the botfly. 
Harness. —During stormy days and leisure hours, 
clean, repair, oil and varnish harness. Always wet 
dry leather before oiling. Neat’s foot oil is best 
for harness. An excellent black varnish for har¬ 
ness is half a pound of gum shellac dissolved in a 
pint of good alcohol, an ounce of good lamp black, 
and an ounce of gum camphor, corked tight in a 
bottle, shaken up frequently and applied with a 
swab or brush. Add more alcohol if too thick. 
Linseed Cake. —Some farmers, who feed oil meal, 
frequeutly purchase in the summer, when it is 
cheaper than in winter. 
Manure. —Scrape manure yards and sheds, and 
collect all the fine and well-rotted manure to apply 
to wheat at seed time. Beneath many barns in the 
country, there are a number of loads of the choicest 
manure for wheat, which may be shoveled out by 
taking up a few loose planks in the stable. 
Machines. — Purchase or repair thrashing ma¬ 
chines, and straw and hay cutters for fall and win¬ 
ter’s use. Months often elapse after a machine is 
ordered before it can be shipped, or come to hand. 
Oats. —Harvest before they are dead ripe. If cut 
when about two-thirds of the panicles appear of a 
yellowish color, the grain will be heavier and the 
straw will make excellent fodder. Where one h.as 
abundance of room, oats may be gathered loose and 
much faster, than in sheaves. If bound, they 
occupy far less space either in a stack or mow. It 
is well to save seed where it ripens first. 
Orchards. —When the ground is not covered with 
a smooth turf, remove all brush and sticks, level 
with hoes, harrow thoroughly, put all the stones in 
close heaps where apples will not fall on them and 
be bruised, roll, and sow a bushel of orchard grass 
seed and half a bushel of Kentucky blue grass seed 
per acre. This will form a soft and smooth surface 
for the fruit to drop on, when it is to be gathered. 
Oxen.—Let oxen work in the cool parts of the 
day, and enjoy quiet rest and rumination while it is 
too hot to labor. Feed well, use them gently, and 
they will do more, and grow fat while working. 
Pastures.—Wheva the ground is very dry and the 
grass short, it is better to give all stock one feeding 
of hay, daily, than to .allow them to gnaw the gr.ass 
close to the ground. Sheep, neat ciittle and horses 
will subsist on hay in summer as well as in winter. 
Pastures must have more time to grow in hot and 
dry Wfiather, than when vegetation does not suffer 
for rain. If pastures are short, let stock he fed 
green corn stalks or sorghum, a portion of the time. 
Peas. —When peas are to be fed to swine without 
threshiug, those who pr.actise feeding them prefer 
putting them in large stacks. Then, those that are 
wet by r.aius can be fed out before they have been 
injured. If designed for sheep next winter, it is 
better to house them, or put them in loug and n.ar- 
row stacks, and cover with a lean-to roof of boards. 
Poultry. —Drive turkeys, ducks and chickens to 
the meadows and whetit stubbles, that they may eat 
grasshoppers and scattered grain. A mixture of 
loppered milk and luclian meal is excellent to make 
poultry grow and hens lay. 
Seed. —Save grass seed of all good kinds to stock 
down with next month. Gather turnip, carrot, 
parsnip, and other seed, before birds waste them. 
Every farmer should save his own seed, and pre¬ 
serve his best roots, grain, grass, etc., for seed. 
Sheep. —Lambs should usually be weaned this 
month, to allo.w their dams to reciipeiute before 
winter. Late lambs need not be separated till next 
month. Let ewes and lambs be confined in contig¬ 
uous fields, if possible, as they will he more quiet 
i when only a fence separ.ates them. Let several dry 
ewes, or those h.aving very young lambs, run with 
the flock of lambs to make them more gentle and 
manageable. Examine the heads of bucks for mag¬ 
gots about their horns. Apply tar as warm as it 
can be and not burn, to any part where the skin is 
broken, especially where maggots have hatched. It 
is a common thing for bucks to have bruises and 
i sores filled with maggots about their horns. 
Swine. —Read remarks on swine in July number. 
Stacks. —Retop them as soon as they settle, rak¬ 
ing them off smoothly, when wet, so as to turn all 
straws down the sides to conduct the rain off readily. 
Turnips. —Cultivate and hoe often. Keep down 
all weeds and grass. Thin out the drills. More 
roots can be raised at 10 inches apart than at 5 
inches. Fill up all vae.aut places with such as are 
pulled up. Plants always live better if put out 
just before night, than in the former part of the 
day, unless the weather is constantly cloudy. 
Tools. —Protect all tools, whether iron, steel, or 
wood, from alternate rain, dew and sunshine. 
Moisture and heat will rust iron, while wet raises the 
grain of wood, makes it rough, and rots the joints. 
Wagons. —Keep all wheel vehicles in the shade 
during hot weather. If a tire is very loose, reset 
it. If loose but little, the felloes of nice wheels 
may be saturated with linseed oil, and wheels of 
ox carts and lumber wagons soaked in coal tar. 
Water. —Sec that every animal is supplied with 
clean water. Hens, turkeys and ducks, often suffer 
for di'ink in August. Scrub out the water troughs 
often where horses and neat cattle drink; and see 
that the timid and weaker ones are allowed to come 
to the water as often as the master animals. Sheep 
will thrive well without water, but much better 
when they have access to it. 
Wells. — Jlake preparations for digging wells 
where needed this month, when springs of w.ater 
arc low. Collect stones, brick, timber, or water- 
lime and sand for stoning, bricking, curbing, or 
plastering. Most farmers can make a well at a 
small expense, with a little pains and management. 
Wheat .—Obtain good seed, free friyn weed seeds 
and shrunken kernels. Prepare the ground well, 
put in the seed in good time, not without a dres¬ 
sing of some kind of manure. If the soil is not 
well under drained, where it is apt to be too wet 
for winter grain, better defer sowing winter wheat, 
and raise spring wheat next season. 
Yards. —Improve leisure days after harvest in 
fencing and improving barn yards. Read about them 
in the calendar for Julj’, and practise accordingly. 
Work in tiic Orchard and I^nrscry. 
What with the failure of fruit to set freely and the 
ravages of insects, the harvest of most kinds will 
be small. Those who live in southern loc.alities 
will do well to turn their attention to early fruits 
for the markets of the larger cities. The most 
miserable apologies for pears, small, green and 
unwholesome, were brought from Maryland and 
Virginia, and sold at enormous prices the first week 
in July. Now we don’t believe in fruit of this 1 
kind, and never should buy it, but as there are 
plenty of people who will pay a good price for the 
earliest of everything, the fruit raiser must consult 
the demands of the market. We can not too often 
impress upon those who send fruit to market, thn ‘ 
necessity of sending it in good shape. Careful pick- ^ 
ing and assorting will always pay, the best fruit [ 
being put by itself and the poorer in separate lots i 
the whole will give a better return than when go )d i 
and bad are indiscriminately mixed, as then the po )r 
detr.acts from the appearance of the good, while ; 
.at the same time it looks worse, by contrast | 
with the better than it would were it placed by it¬ 
self. Early varieties of apples and pears, as well 
as peaches should be picked before they begin to 
soften, as they will carry better and be iu good eat¬ 
ing condition by the time they reach the consumer. ! 
Budding. —This method of propagation is largely ! 
practised this month. The operation is a very j 
simple one, and a few minutes watching of an ex- | 
perieneed hand is worth more than a long descrip- i 
tion. It was illustrated in August of last year, and 
any one by carefully following that, may under¬ 
take it with a good prospect of success. 
Borers. —These mischievous carpenters work in¬ 
dustriously this month. The eggs which have been 
laid upon the bark have hatched and the young | 
grubs will work their way into the trunk, unless 
p.aper, or some preventive has been wrapped around 
it. Now is the time to e.xamine the trunk near the , 
ground, and if any holes are found, folloiv the ' 
maker with a wire or whalebone probe. Nothing 
kills insects more effectually than crushing them. 
Even-greens. —With proper care these may be rc- ! 
moved this month, and with more chances of suc¬ 
cess than if it is done in autumn. Make the re- 
mov.al in a damp time, keep the roots from drying, ' 
and see that the holes in which they are placed, are 
moist, or made so by watering. A few large stones 
placed over the roots are better than stakes to hold 
the tree in place. 
Layers. —This season’s growth of shrubs is gene- • 
rally sufficiently matured for Layering, according 
to directions already given in the present volume. 
Have the soil into which the Layer is put, fine and 
rich, and with things that do not root very readily, 
make a slanting cut about h.alf way through the 
branch on the under side of the portion to be buried. 
P-uning. —If the work was not finished iu July, I 
better do it the present month than delay it until ‘ 
spring. Some good horticulturists use a very heavy 
long handled chisel driven with a mallet. With all 
but very large limbs, this is better than a saw; the 
cut being made from the underside of the limb, 
there is no risk of a r.agged wound. If a little 
attention be now paid to the formation of young 
trees, much pruning may be avoided. 
Seeds and Seedlings. —Continue to collect seeds of 
trees and shrubs as they ripen, and sow as soou as i 
gathered, or keep iu sand until spring. This is a 
trying month with seedlings, and care must be 
given to properly shade and weed them. Give 
water when the weather is dry. 
Water and 3{idch. —If trees set this spring show 
signs of suffering, remove the surface earth, water | 
copiously, replace the earth and put on a mulch of ' 
some kind to prevent ev.apor.ation. One operation 
of this kind will often save a valuable tree or shrub. | 
Weeds.—These hinder the growth of woody plants 
as well as they do that of faster growing ones, and 
every one who raises nursery stock, either for his i 
own use or for s.ale, will find it to his advantage to j 
keep the ifiauts free of weeds and the soil stirred. 
Mitclicn €»ai'den.—A good gardener, 
like a good sailor, alwtiys keeps a bright lookout 
ahead. Not only does the garden require that he 
should lay his pLans for the present year, but he 
must take some thought for the coming one. There 
are two things for the benefit of next year’s crop 
which may now be cared for with profit; seeds and 
nianure, two essentials iu successful gardening. 
While we do not think it worth-while for those 
who have small gardens to raise all their seeds, yet 
