118 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[APRIL, 
Contents for April, 1889. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Potatoes— Plant only in good soil; if it. be rich, 
fresh manure will cause the crop to rot more or less. 
Abutilon, Variegated. .Illustrated.. 140 
Alpine Rock Cress. Illustrated. .137 
Animal Parasites, To Destroy..4 Illustrations. .133 
Basking Shark, or the “Great Sea Monster "..lUustr.. 130 
Bee Items — By M. Quinby...136 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—P’s that it Pays to Possess 
—Use for the Fire-lly—Dealing with Thieves—The 
Defective Stone—The Care of Canary Birds—Spelling 
Test—The New-comer—An East Indian Giant Story 
—Too Much Medicine—A JMfficult Language—New 
Puzzles to be Answered.3 Illustrations. .143-144 
Broom-corn Culture.126 
Butter Market—Good and Bad Butter.128 
Chain-fastening for Tail-boards. Illustrated. .132 
Com Cribs and Granaries.. Illustrated. .133 
Experience with Fancy Pigs.134 
Experience with Vegetables .138 
Farm Work in April. .118 
Flower Garden and Lawn in April. 120 
Fruit at Alton, Ill.138 
Fruit Garden in April.110 
Grafting Fruits Trees—A New Method . .Illustrated. .138 
Green-house and Window Plants in April.. —120 
Good Cows for Poor Men.134 
Herons—A Heronry. Illustrated. .136 
House Plants—The Secret..... 139 
Household Department—A Rustic Jardinet—House¬ 
hold Management—An Ornamental Pincushion— 
Towel Rack and Clothes Airer—The Table—Order 
i and Ornament—Hints on House Cleaning—Honse- 
i hold Talks by Aunt Hattie—Home-made Yeast. Bread 
—Delicious Dessert—How to Pop Corn... 3 111.. 141-142 
Improvement of the Wild Radish_ 7 Illustrations. .139 
Kitchen Garden in April... ...119 
Lilies—Some Garden Varieties. .Illustrated. .140 
Market Reports. 121 
Milk Cooling and Coolers.. Illustrated.. 133 
Native Sumachs. 137 
Onion Raising.3 Illustrations. .126 
Orchard and Nursery in April.119 
Pea-nut or Ground-pea.135 
Persian Cyclamen. Illustrated.. 137 
Poultry House at Ogden Farm.134 
Saddle Horses for Farmers.132 
Spring-flowering Bulbs—The Bulbocodium.. .lUustr .. 139 
Strawberries..." .. .. .139 
Tim Bunker on Being Smart Next Week.127 
Thorough-bred Males.",.134 
Three-horse Evener. Illustrated. .134 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 64—Draining Items 
—Chilled Lambs and Pigs—Abont Plowing—Farm¬ 
ing in Ohio and New York—Snmmer-fallowing.130-131 
Water for Live-stock.2 Illustrations. .131-132 
What Lauds Shall We Drain ?.135 
White Clover.. k .135 
Wrens of the United States. Illustrated.. 129 
INDEX TO “BASKET 
Allen’s Am. Farm Book. 122 
Breck’s Flowers.123 
Cabbage Caterpillars... .124 
Canada Farming.125 
Chemical News..124 
Chickens to Rocky Mts. .124 
Conundrum.'.124 
Cornell University.123 
Curculio. 124 
Death of Willie Judd.... 123 
Domesticat.ingWoodcockl24 
Eclipse and Corn Crop... 125 
Editorial.*.. .123 
Eggs for Hatching.125 
Fertilizer for Potatoes.. .124 
Few Premium Animals. .122 
Field Peas ..124 
Food and Freight.124 
Foreign Help...123 
Fowls,in-ana-inBreedingl25 
Fur-bearing Animals_124 
Gapes in Chickens. ...124 
Gardening for Profit.... 123 
Good Books.123 
Gypsum .. .125 
Hens Eating Eggs.124 
Horses & Cows together..124 
Hort.’l Protection.122 
Horticulture in Boston. .123 
House Building Quest’ns.125 
Humbugs, Sundry.. .132 
Hydraulic. Rams.125 
I Haven’t a Foot of Land.122 
Increas’g Pasture Lands.125 
Insects of Missouri.123 
Iona Island.122 
OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Irrigation.125 
Liquid Manure.125 
Manure from Cars.125 
Moore’s Rural.123 
Muck.125 
Music... .123 
Natural Inarching.124 
Oil Cake Adulterated. ..124 
Oils, Safe and Unsafe... .122 
Osage Orange Seed.123 
Our Young Folks.122 
Painting a Barn.124 
Potato Growers’ Conveu.124 
Potato Pamphlet.123 
Poultry Premiums.123 
Prairie Farmer.123 
Prickly Pear..124 
Refuse of Vats.124 
Register of Rural Aflairs.124 
Rogers’ Grapes.122 
Roofing Materials. 125 
Sassafras & Saw-brier....125 
Soils and Trees.124 
Soil for Barley.126 
Southern Pomologists.. .123 
Starch Mills.124 
Stone Lime vs. Shell_124 
Sugar in Louisiana.124 
Sundry Humbugs.122 
Sweet Potatoes..122 
The “Hen Fever”.125 
Tree Invigorators.122 
Trichina.123 
Underdrjining.124 
Van Buren’s Peach.122 
Whitewashing.122 
Back Volumes Supplied.—The hack volumes 
of the Agriculturist, are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with rural life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last ten volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from electrotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
1857—that is, Vol. 10 to Vol. 27, inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $1 50 if taken at the office). The volumes, 
neatly bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of the past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents each. 
NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1869. 
Writing our hints about work in April early in 
March, as we must, with the thermometer at twelve 
degrees above zero, and sinking, so that we doubt 
not that it will record six degrees lower by sun¬ 
rise, it seems as if a yielding sward and green fields 
were too far in the future to be objects of immediate 
care. Nevertheless the sun every day rises higher, 
and the warm noons and lengthening days are 
welcome assurance of a change of season. 
April, in our climate rarely a.very rainy month, 
is seed-time throughout the most of the United 
States; at the extreme north winter may still hold 
sway, and throughout the cotton belt a good part 
of this work has been anticipated. The heavy and 
constant labors of the spring give farmers little 
leisure, as these must be pushed forward with all 
vigor as rapidly as possible while fair weather and 
tolerably dry soil make field labor possible. Storms 
are always threatening, and we must be ever care¬ 
ful to have the work so planned that it may be 
dropped for a week without serious consequences. 
We may sow the spring grains, wheat, (rye), barley, 
oats, and peas; the grasses and clovers, carrots 
and onions, beets and flax, ns well as other crops, 
the seeds of which are n ot likely to rot in the groun d; 
and seedlings not liable to injury from moderate 
freezing. This month our flocks and herds usually 
receive their greatest natural increase. The weather 
is favorable, being rarely too cold for the young, 
and yet so cool and moist that puerperal and milk- 
fevers are less liable to attack the dams than later 
in the season. 
Hints AHvosut Work. 
Let us begin the season with the resolution that 
we will not raise weeds, come what will. Last year 
the whole country seemed full of them; they 
carpeted the corn and cotton fields ; grass grew 
everywhere; weeds stood as high as the grain in 
thousands of fields. In our trips about the country, 
potato fields were rarely recognizable after August, 
except by the ragweed, and this state of things ex¬ 
isted from Maine to Minnesota, and southward. 
Grass and Clover may be sown on any land whicli 
is suitably prepared for them, upon winter or spring 
grain, on old sod harrowed well, or by themselves. 
It is better to brush or bush in grass and clover seed 
than to roll the land. The plan of sowing a little 
white clover with grass-seed is advisable wher¬ 
ever an application of plaster will not bring it in 
abundantly, as it generally will on old land. 
Spring Grains. —The land should never be wrought 
when wet or tenacious. Wait for it to dry, but get 
the seed in as early as possible. On good strong 
soil it is best to drill all kinds of grain. We have 
no doubts either that it will usually pay to cultivate 
wheat, barley, and oats. Spring grains have a short 
time to grow. They ought not to be obliged to 
dispute their ground with weeds, and while the 
land must support all the plants it can carry it 
should not be burdened, nor should the best be 
crowded with many puny ones. Trust no light 
grain; get heavy seed, even if it cost $10 per bushel. 
Soak the seed in strong brine, to kill the smut 
spores, and dry it in lime slaked to a powder, to 
make it tit for sowing. See Basket items for an 
effective scarecrow. 
Winter Grain, if harmed by frost, is much benefit¬ 
ed by rolling and by a top-dressing of dry soil, all 
the more if one or two hundred-weight of guano 
and plaster per acre be mixed with the soil. Grass 
and clover may be sown upon it any time this 
month. Liquid manure applied by a sprinkling 
cart will bring forward with a rush that intended 
for soiling. It will pay to send the men and hoys 
through grain fields, especially if drilled, witli 
hoes to cut up the weeds large and small. Those 
which get an early start will live; others will be 
smothered by the grain. If this weeding can be 
thorough, it will undoubtedly pay to put ofT sowing 
grass and clover until the first of May. 
If the soil be poor, a lack of manure will often pro¬ 
duce the same effect by lack of vigor in the plants 
to resist disease. It is best to plant as soon as the 
soil is warm—cutting the seed into pieces of two 
or three eyes, and letting them dry a little before 
planting. Plant deep under light ridges, so that 
the field may be harrowed. The sets may be cut 
smaller later in the season. 
Onions, if sufficient labor can be given, are a very 
paying field crop. The ground must be in perfect 
order, rich and mellow. Do not sow too extensive¬ 
ly, make sure of good seed, and plant early. 
Carrots .—Sow the Long Orange, on rich soil deep¬ 
ly worked, any time this month or next,—the earlier 
the better if the soil is not too weedy. Put the rows 
twenty inches apart, so as to cultivate by horse 
power conveniently. 
Flax req uires land In the very best state of prepara¬ 
tion. Whether grown for seed or for fibre it should 
be sown as soon as the ground is warm and light. 
No coarse manure should be employed, and the 
greatest pains should be taken to have the land free 
from weeds, water, and stones, and the seed even¬ 
ly sown, and covered. We have not space for par¬ 
ticular instructions, but they are given fully and 
clearly in a pamphlet on flax-culture. See hook list. 
Tobacco. —The seed bed is prepared this month, 
and the seed sown. The best and the warmest spot 
in the garden or elsewhere is selected, well enrich¬ 
ed and mellowed. A bed four feet wide and 
twelve to sixteen feet long is abundantly sufficient 
for an acre of ground. It is well to bum brush, 
evenly spread over the soil, lo kill weed Seeds, and 
to sow the seed while the soil is still warm after 
thorough raking. A thimbleful of seed suffices. 
See Tobacco Culture pamphlet in book list. 
Hemp needs good rich corn land; it follows com 
in rotation very well. When many acres are put in 
it is well to sow one or two acres at a time, at in¬ 
tervals, for a month, to take advantage of variable 
seasons, and so that the culture and harvesting 
shall not come too much at once. 
Farm Hands. —Make early engagements for the 
season or for the year. Most hands engaged for the 
year in the spring and paid by the month will re¬ 
main through the winter. Engaged in the autumn 
they are often tempted to leave in the spring. Make 
it a rule to pay a man all that he is worth. Never 
bind yourself so that you cannot discharge a man 
for impudence, dishonesty, and filthiness, moral or 
physical. An employer need not keep a servant 
guilty of a criminal offence, even though he have 
a contract or witnessed engagement. 
Manure. —Wc have little faith in top-dressings 
of barn-yard manure applied in the spring. Manure 
ought to be got under ground, or well harrowed in at 
this season. The temptation is strong to scatter the 
manure too much. Concentrate is the rule. We 
manure too much ground, we work over too much, 
and thoroughness is out ofthe question in too many 
cases. The hauling out of manure is attended with 
a great (leal of labor, especially if the roads are poor 
and the ground is soft. Field compost heaps made 
in the fall, and manure piles laid up in the fields 
when needed during the winter, are a great saving. 
Commercial Fertilizers. —It pays to use them dis. 
erectly. Peruvian Guano obtained pure is the safest 
and cheapest fertilizer a farmer can buy, if he will only 
mix it thoroughly with some divisor, and distribute 
it evenly in proper quantities. Pure bone-dust is 
safe, but rarely cheap; superphosphate of lime still 
less cheap, but if pure, excellent, if used witli care ; 
fish manure of various kinds, both good and cheap. 
Samples vary greatly. Poudrctte rarely pays to 
cart far; its real value is but little greater than 
good barn-yard manure, and often it is not worth so 
much. It requires discretion and considerable ex¬ 
perience to make a profitable use of concentrated 
manures, but they are a valuable resource to the 
intelligent farmer 
Farm Stock. —Tne directions in regard to farm 
animals given in the Hints about Work last month 
are equally applicable to this, and it is not worth 
