158 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Contents for May, 1869. 
Bee Items—The Bee Malady—Italian and Black Bees 
—Straight Combs. .167 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—A School-girl’s Composi¬ 
tion — Picture Story—Ready Wit—One Secret of 
“Good Luck"—“I Want My Own Umbrella”—A 
Bear Story—Covetousness— Revenge —A Genuine 
Ghost—Conundrum—Rebus—Answers to Problems 
and Puzzles.4 Illustrations. .1S3-184 
Bracket for Garden Purposes.2 Illustrations.. 179 
Cabbages—Trouble with.180 
Carrots—How to Raise Them.174 
Chalk Wagoner. Illustrated. .157 
Corn in Iowa.169 
Crows—What Use Have We for Them ?. .Illustrated. .173 
Earth Closets for Cows and Horses.173 
Earm Work in May..158 
Flower Garden and Lawn in May. Illustrated.. 159 
Fruit Garden in May.159 
Gladiolus—Improvement in. Illustrated. .180 
Grafting—The Art of.3 Illustrations.. 178 
Grape Trellises.5 Illustrations . .179 
Grape Trellises—A Circular. . Illustrated. .17S 
Green-house and Window Plants in May.160 
Grinding Mowing Machine Knives. Illustrated. .172 
Harrow—A Good Home-made. Illustrated.. 172 
Hedge Planting on the Prairies. Illustrated.. 178 
Household Department—Insects and Flowers—Expe¬ 
rience in Soap-making—Bags for Shoes and Slip¬ 
pers—The Table—Order and Ornament—A Perfo¬ 
rated Lamp Shade—Household Talks, by Aunt Hat¬ 
tie—Supper—Plain Fruit Cake—Puff Pastry Tarts— 
Salads—Parsnips—Dandelion Leaves—Ladies’ Fin¬ 
gers—To Boil Peeled Potatoes—Furs and Moths. 
.5 Illustrations. .1S1-1S2 
Kitchen Garden in May. Illustrated. .159 
Market Reports.161 
Orchard and Nursery in May.159 
Outlets of Underdrains.172 
Pennsylvania Hay Wagon.2 Illustrations. .171 
Portable Fence or Hurdle. Illustrated. .174 
Portable Hitching Ring. Illustrated. .173 
Picking and Packing Strawberries for Market.168 
Poultry—Creve Occurs.. ... 2 Illustrations. .177 
Poultry—Dark Brahmas.2 Illustrations.. 177 
Poultry—Iloudans.—2 Illustrations. .176 
Poultry—La Fleche.2 Illustrations. 176 
Poultry Show of the N. Y. State Poultry Society.174 
Poultry—Very Useful Fowls. 175 
Premiums. 160-161 
Rhode Island Muller. Illustrated. .173 
Rock-work—A Bit of..179 
Roses—About. 16S 
Sparrows—Are They Useful or Not?.168 
Spent Hops.180 
Swine—Breeds and Breeding.5 Illustrations. 
Turkeys—Do They Pay ?.172 
Walk and Talks on the Farm—No. 65—Pigs and Pork- 
Pasture—Lame Horses—Doctoring Animals—Colic 
in Horses—Rotation for Kentucky—Corn and Timo¬ 
thy-Wild Turkeys—Plaster on Clay Land.170-171 
Washing Sheep.174 
Wild Flowers—Some Early.2 Illustrations. .180 
INDEX TO “BASKET” 
Apple Blossoms in Jan. 165 
Apricots.164 
Ayrshires as Milkers... .166 
Barberry and Blight.163 
Black knot. . .163 
Book for Young Farmersl62 
Buchanan Pear.165 
Bugs and Vines. .165 
Burning Lime.164 
California Bean.163 
Canary Seed.163 
Carts vs. Wagons.166 
Chinese Yam.165 
Coal Ashes.166 
Compost Heaps.164 
Concentrated Manure... .165 
Cotton Seed Meal.166 
Crops for an Orchard... .105 
Death of Col. Johnson.. .103 
Deep Sowing.164 
Diseases of the Grape... .103 
Drains anti Trees.165 
Ewe Owning a Lamb... .106 
Farm Roads.104 
Fish Guano..164 
Flowers.165 
Fountain Basin.165 
Gardening for Profit.165 
Gardening without a Gar¬ 
den .103 
Garget or Caked Bag... .104 
Garlic.101 
Geological Surveyof N.J.103 
Glazing Flower Pots.105 
Grapes.163 
Half the Farm to Barley.104 
Hanging a Grindstone.. .166 
Herds-grass, Timothy... .184 
Hedges in Kansas.165 
Hints to Advertisers.102 
Hog Cholera.106 
Holding for High Prices.100 
Honeysuckles & Aphides.103 
How to Sludy Insects... .162 
In Season and Out.165 
Items.166 
Lavender.105 
Learning Farming from 
Books.164 
on SHORTER ARTICI.ES. 
Low Hedge.105 
Machine for Sowing Gua¬ 
no.164 
Manual of Fig Culture.. .163 
Manure for Corn and Po¬ 
tatoes.164 
Manuring Grapes.165 
Market Assistant.163 
Melon Culture.164 
Moistening Chopped Hayl02 
My Ten-rod Farm.163 
Norfolk Co. Ag’l Soc.v. .167 
Nutritive Value of Crops.166 
Okra.163 
Onions, Tobacco, etc_165 
“ O. Judd Prize Wheat.” 163 
Pursons on the Rose_ 162 
Peach Orchard.165 
Pear, a New Winter.165 
Pine Straw.167 
Poultry Number. 162 
Pumpkin Spinach. 164 
Quinces.165 
Raising a Calf.107 
Sage and Thyme. 163 
Schoolmaster Abroad_105 
Selling Straw to Mills.. .164 
Small Fruits.165 
Smart Hens in Vt. 167 
Stark Apple Again.165 
Striped Bugs.'.163 
Sundry Humbugs.102 
Taming Bulls.106 
To Agriculturists of III..103 
Tomato Experience___165 
Too Fat. 167 
Trimming Trees.105 
Troublesome Bugs.105 
Trouble withCherryTrehslOS 
Tuberous Chervil..165 
Varieties of the Grape...163 
Watermelons.164 
Wax Bean.164 
What Ails the Ileus ?... .166 
White Blackberries.16 i 
Whitewashing Trees... .163 
Wild Parsnip.164 
Windsor Beans.165 
Yeoman’s Grape Trellis..164 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, MAY, 1869. 
“ Will it pay ? ” Shall we reduce every thing to a 
monetary standard and consider the question of 
pay or no pay as estimated in hard cash or green¬ 
backs ? This is not necessary, for work and invest¬ 
ments pay in many more ways than in money sim¬ 
ply. Still, in farming operations, questions which 
should continually recur are—Will it pay ? Shall I 
get my money back ? Can I afford it ? Farmers’ 
finances do not bear close scrutiny, as a rule. They 
make money when and where they do not know it, 
and they “ make losses ” in the same way. A close 
system of accounts, kept as accurately as those of 
a well-managed counting-house, would show many 
a farmer that crops on which he thinks lie makes 
most are really less profitable than others. A 
good farmer said, “ If I can get a dollar and a half a 
barrel for potatoes, I can’t afford to raise corn at 
a dollar a bushel.” If any man doubts the state¬ 
ment, let him figure upon it. Still, many opera¬ 
tions which may pay pecuniarily, cost so much in 
anxiety, or are so uncertain in their returns, that 
they should be entered upon with caution. The. 
culture of certain commercial crops, hops, tobac¬ 
co, etc., may be thus classed. Almost every thing 
pays that makes hard labor lighter, that works the 
brain in place of the muscles, that makes horses 
do the labor of men, and that makes the farmer’s 
life and that of his wife and family more comforta¬ 
ble. Every man considers the question, Will it 
pay ? but it is as often decided wrongly as rightly. 
IBiuts About Work. 
Labor, this month, needs to follow well-matured 
plans. We shall have rain storms, coming just 
when we do not want them, putting us back in our 
work, giving weeds a start, rotting the seed in the 
ground, and making the land too wet to work. 
These troubles tend to make men sour, and to dis¬ 
hearten them; but if work is planned ahead for 
both fair and rainy weather, we shall find that the 
“set-backs” of May are not very serious ones after 
all. The season, as it progresses, makes up for 
early deficiencies, and it is a satisfaction to believe 
that late, cold springs, or cold snaps that put vege¬ 
tation back, often do tenfoid more damage to in¬ 
sect life, which thus receives often severe checks. 
Spring Grains and Grass.- —It seldom pays to sow 
any spring grain after the first of May. In very 
backward seasons it may be done, but every day’s 
delay diminishes the probability of securing good 
crops. If the prime object of sowing grain is to 
seed to grass, (for the impression is prevalent that 
to get a good catcli of grass seed, it must be sown 
with some grain crop,—which is a great mistake,) 
it would be much better to sow the grass alone on 
the well-harrowed surface, and brush it in lightly. 
Boots .—Beets and mangels ought to be sown 
early. The soil should be in the best order it can 
be put,—deeply tilled, and well manured, and the 
rows placed two feet apart, so that they may be 
worked by horse-power. Tills distance is about ns 
small as will do for field culture. The plants cover 
the soil well, and as large crops are gained as when 
the rows are closer. Parsnips may be sown in 
rows equally distant, but the seed should not be so 
deeply placed, nor should the sowing be done be¬ 
fore the soil is warm and dry. Rows of Carrots 
may be placed a little nearer together — about 
twenty inches apart is best on most soils—though, 
in the garden, they are often 10 to 18 inches apart. 
Potatoes. —There should be little delay now in 
planting the whole of the crop. On poor land, we 
think animal manure is quite as likely to prevent 
as to cause the rot; though in very rich soils, no 
doubt, it renders the plant more liable to take the 
disease. There is little risk of potato sets rotting 
now, if cut even to single eyes. Manuring in the 
hill with ashes and plaster is good practice, but 
this dressing is probably equally effective, if placed 
upon the hill at the first or second hoeing. Among 
the concentrated fertilizers in market, a good su¬ 
perphosphate is probably the best application for 
potatoes. Guano is rather'stimulating, but, like 
castor pomace, which is very good for this crop, 
must be mixed with earth in the drill. 
Flax and Henvp. —Flax is occasionally sown in 
May, but it is too late for assured success. See 
that the weeding is thoroughly done before the 
shoots start up. Hemp may be sown any time this 
month, but the earlier the better. Sow in drills, 
on clean land. A bushel to a bushel and a half to 
the acre of land is recommended for broadcast 
sowing. Less than half the quantity is required 
when drilled. Weeds, especially grass, are injuri¬ 
ous, and may be fatal to the crop when quite young. 
Broom-corn should be planted before Indian corn. 
Use a liberal quantity of seed, and thin it out after 
the wire-worms have done their work. It needs 
similar soil and culture to corn. Seeqx 126, (April). 
Corn. —The corn crops of the country would be 
greatly improved if farmers would take more pains 
to plant early varieties, and make a careful selection 
of the earliest ripening ears for seed ; hut early or 
late kinds should not be planted before the seed 
will come up and grow. If we have cold weather, 
as we usually do have in May, corn struggles with 
weeds, and exists, between life and death, a prey 
to cut-worms and grubs, until hot weather. We find 
it much more satisfactory to wait until we are pretty 
sure of having warm, if not hot, weather within a 
week or ten days ; then the growtli is rapid and 
healthy from the start. Corn cannot be put on too 
rich ground, but it must not be planted too thick. 
Peas may be sown broadcast, or in drills. The 
Canada Creeper is recommended, and three bushels 
per acre is an abundance of this kind. Larger sorts 
require more seed. Peas do well on a fresh clover 
sod. Peas and oats sown together—two bushels of 
each per acre—make good sheep or hog fodder. 
Tobacco .—The seed-beds may need watering with 
liquid manure towards the end of the month. See 
that they are weeded thoroughly, and thinned. 
Hops. —See book-list for pamphlet on hop culture, 
which contains full directions for management. 
Soiling Crops. —In this climate there is no sum¬ 
mer-soiling crop equal to corn. If the ground is 
very highly enriched, it may he sown early this 
month, but otherwise sow when the main crop is 
in, or about the same time. Drill it in two and a 
half feet apart, sowing any large, sweet variety. 
Stowell’s Evergreen is good. Oats and peas sown 
now may be cut before the corn, and fed green. 
Weeds. —Early and late, let the warfare go on. 
Weeds in the seed-leaf may be swept off, thou¬ 
sands at a blow, or push of the push-lioe. Stirring 
of the ground kills multitudes, and lays it open 
for a fresh lot of seeds to start. In using the push 
or common hoe to kill weeds, walk backwards, so 
as not to step upon the loosened soil, for this will 
re-piant weeds, which would otherwise be killed. 
Cows pine for fresh grass, and they may be 
turned into swampy land or bog meadows when 
the bog grass springs green and tender. This is 
the only time of the year when they will eat it. 
Cattle must not go upon the summer pastures too 
early, for they will do great damage to the crop of 
feed. Manage, if possible, to make the roots last 
until the pastures are fit to turn the cattle upon. 
Sheep. —Keep them off the pastures until there 
is a good stock of grass. Mow off the brush, if 
this has not been previously done. The sheep will 
keep down the young growth, and kill the bushes. 
Shearing may take place before the settled warm 
weather of June, provided the naked animals can 
have warm, sheltered sheds, and good feed until 
accustomed to the change. If the fleece is to be 
washed on the sheep, by all means delay shearing 
until warm weather. If wool be tub-washed, or if 
sheep be washed in tanks, from which the water 
may be drawn off and distributed over the land, 
much valuable manure may be saved. From an 
ordinary flock of merinos, we presume the value of 
the washings would not be less than six cents each 
on an average, and nothing could be better for grass. 
Tools and Implements. —Every year gives us im¬ 
portant additions to our labor-saving implements ; 
and the necessity of buying the best whenever a 
