278 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
Contents for August, 1889. 
About Asparagus.200 
After Potato Digging.2S6 
Birds—Our Small Herons.2 Illustrations.. 2S9 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—A Six-legged Teacher— 
The Old Man of the Mountain—Jolly Companions— 
New Puzzles to be Answered—Answers to Problems 
aunt Puzzles—Items.5 Illustrations. .303-304 
Cannas—Tho.300 
Cheap Material for Drains.2 Illustrations. .294 
Clover and Grass Seed, When to Sow.294 
Deerberry or Squaw Huckleberry. Illustrated. .300 
Dispensation of Providence . 295 
Drain Conduits and Drain Diggers.292 
Draining by Means of Wells.295 
Fairs in 1869. 280 
Farm Work in August. 278 
Flower Garden and Lawn in August.279 
Fruit Garden in August.279 
Grecian Silk. Illustrated. .300 
Green-house and Window Plants in August.279 
Hammer-head Shark. Illustrated.. 289 
Harvesting Clover Seed.286 
Hedge—How to Set.2 Illustrations. 298 
Horse Carts for Farm Work. Illustrated.. 292 
Household Department—Framing a Picture—A Talk 
with Girls about Housekeeping—Household Talks 
by Aunt Hattie—Mutton Chops—Pudding Sauce— 
Hasp berry Vinegar—Bottled Raspberries—Bad Luck 
with Jars—Wheat and Corn Bread—Children’s Dress 
—Recipes. Illustrated.. 301-302 
How to Build a Row-boat.5 Illustrations. 294 
In a Dry Time.300 
Kitchen Garden in August.279 
Lost the Road. Illustrated.. 277 
Management of Black-caps.299 
Market Reports.280 
Milk in Hot Weather—Coolers. Illustrated.. 293 
Notes from “ The Pines,” No. 3—Chickens—Planting 
Melons—Strawberries — New York ns a Center— 
Comstock’s Cultivator—Little Gem Pea.298 
Orchard and Nurserv in August.279 
Pasturing Mowing Lands.286 
Private Herd Records.294 
Propagating the Rose. Illustrated ..299 
Red-root, or Pigeon-grass.293 
Roads and Road-making—No. 2... .287 
Rotation of Crops.287 
Safety Reins for Runaways and Kickers..2 llhwlrat ...292 
Saving Flower Seeds. 299 
Seed Stock—Selecting.298 
Sefton Pigs—In-and-in Breeding.287 
Self-milkers—A Cure. Illustrated.. 293 
Sending Honey to Market.286 
Solomon’s Seals. Illustrated. .297 
State and County Fairs....280 
Steaming Food for Cattle and Swine.291 
Supports for Tomatoes.2 Illustrations.. 299 
Tape-grass or Eel-grass. Illustrated. .297 
Three-horse Evener, S Inches long. Illustrated. .293 
Thorough Cultivation.295 
Tim Bunker on Farmers’ Losses and Trials.287 
Tropical Fishes. Illustrated. 296 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 68—Draining— 
Steel Plows —John Johnston’s Experience—Cows 
and their Condition—Horses—Plowing with Lines— 
Fall-fallowing—Pigs—Curing Hayand Cutting Grain 
—Steam Thrashing Machines—Labor.290-291 
Woodruff. Illustrated.. 297 
INDEX TO “BASKET” Oil SIIOItTER ARTICLES. 
Agriculture In Ky.284 
Alton Ilort. Soc’y.284 
Apple &Q,uince C!uttings.283 
Am. Woman’s Home_282 
A Problem, Rye.283 
A Word to the Ladies... 2S1 
Barley vs. Corn.283 
Bird-house.2S4 
Brown Bread.284 
Bull Harness.282 
Buttercups in Meadows..285 
Butter-making in Ky_284 
By Return Mail.284 
Calycanthus.233 
Casting the Withers... .285 
Castle Garden Labor Ex.286 
C. Downing Strawberry. .285 
Chinese Yams.283 
Cincinnati Hort. Soc’y..285 
Club-foot in Cabbages.. .285 
Coal Tar Water.285 
Colorado Potato Beetle. .285 
Com’l Fertilizers in Ct. .282 
Com’l Fertilizers in Me.282 
Destroying Cherry Trees.282 
Dogs Eating Eggs.285 
Dry Earth.283 
Eclipse on Aug. 7.281 
European Vineyards.285 
Ex’n. of Textile Fabrics.281 
Fairs, List of.282 
Farmers “ Lying on their 
Oars”. 283 
Fertilizers for a Garden.285 
First Milk.284 
Foul Water. 282 
Geneva Hort. Society_285 
Graham Meal. .281 
Grape Queries.283 
Grindstone toRun byl ? oot286 
Heating Green house... 283 
Hog Cholera.286 
Landscape Gardening... .2S5 
Leached or Unleached 
Ashes.283 
Letters not Answered.... 281 
Life of Audubon.282 
Marriages and Deaths.. .281 
Maryland.281 
Neshannock Potato.282 
NewRochelle Blackberry2S5 
N. Y. State Fair.281 
Our Young Folks.281 
Oyster-shell Bark-louse. .285 
Pear Blight. .282 
Plata Ducks.283 
Raspberries in Ga.284 
Running Out Land.283 
Seed Peas.283 
Sights and Sensations.. .283 
Small Fruit Seed.283 
Smutty Corn.279 
State Fairs.2S4 
Steam Plow. .282 
Steam Plowing in N. J...282 
Steel Plows.285 
Strawberries in Ill .283 
Strawberries in N. J.285 
Sundry Humbugs.281 
Suppposed Diamond.... 2S4 
The Comet.282 
The Moon Again.284 
The Peace Festival.281 
Threc-liorse Evener.283 
Tomatoes from Cal.283 
Transportation Wanted..285 
Trial of Mo wers,Reapers.283 
Uncle John's Flower 
Gatherer.282 
Veterinary Education.. .2S4 
Wardian Case.285 
Wasted Powder.281 
Weather and the Crops..281 
What Fowls to Keep... .28-1 
Houdans.282 What Is a Bushel ofCorn?2$5 
How Much Can a Man 
Cradle ?.2S3 
John T. Norton...28-1 
Wheat on Prairie Sod...285 
White Beans.285 
White Clover.2S4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORIv, AUGUST, 1869. 
The pressing work of the summer, which needs 
crowding and watching, the constant care and close 
planning of the farmer, to do everything just at 
(he best time, have, in a good measure, past. The 
farmer may employ more labor at more reasonable 
rates as soon as summer grains are harvested, and 
opportunities may be had for taking hold of a num¬ 
ber of extra jobs,—road-making, draining, building, 
repairing, etc.,—if one lias his regular working force 
regulated so that the work will go on without his 
constant supervision. Time might, in all proba¬ 
bility, he found for a few days’ absence from home 
for relaxation. This is as important for the farmer 
aud his wife as for the professional man, and a 
fortnight at the seaside, fishing and bathing, would 
renew the youth of many a hard-worked wife, 
and bring roses to the pale face of a daughter who 
lias been scalding curd and turning cheeses or 
making butter all summer. The poor women can- 
uot get and keep health by light out-of-door work, 
but are chilled in the milk-cellar, or toasted over the 
hot stove, getting three meals a day for half a dozen 
or more hungry men, and are tired out long be¬ 
fore night from the character of the work. August 
is their opportunity: give them a vacation; go 
with them; spend freely alittle of the money which 
they have earned as much as you, for what will 
do you ail good. If the house is full of city cousins, 
who want you to make them just as long a visit in 
the winter as you entertain them in summer, it 
may be well to postpone this time of recreation 
for a few weeks for the sake of hospitality, but be 
sure to plan for a good play spell, either in August 
or when the Agricultural Fairs take place. 
Mints Al»ont Work. 
Grass. —There may be a little late grass to cut 
for hay, hut July should have seen the first crop of 
grass well out of the way, and the aftermath will 
hardly he fit to cut before the last of August or 
first of September. Manuring grass land is in 
season. Ever}' day’s delay is a loss, the best time 
to top-dress grass land being the day after the hay 
is taken home; the poorest time, iu the spring. 
Mossy pastures, growing up with huckleberry 
bushes, sweet ferns, and other shrubby plants, may 
be taken hold of now with great profit. Lay out 
the ground in lands, and set two or three men with 
sharp mattocks to cut the big brush ; then let a 
good lively pair of oxen take a heavy, well-loaded 
harrow over the piece, hack and forth, and cross- 
ways, tearing out the brush, ripping up the moss, 
and making it all look like plowed ground. Rake 
or throw the brush together, and when dry, burn 
it, and scatter the ashes ; top-dress with anything 
you have that is tolerably fine and well composted 
—plaster, ashes, muck compost made with lime 
slaked iu brine, fish manure, guauo, etc. There 
need he no grass seed sown; enough is in the soil. 
A mixture of red and white clover, with a little 
Kentucky blue grass, will pay on barren spots well 
manured. The manure should be prepared before¬ 
hand, and applied before harrowing. 
Salt-marsh and Swale grasses arc, most of them, 
in the best condition to cut in August, and no 
farmer can have too touch of them for bedding for 
his stock, and the manure they bring to the upland. 
Spring Grain— Harvest before the grain is dead 
ripe, unless it is required for seed. Oats, especial¬ 
ly, ought not to stand too long, for the straw loses 
iu feeding value greatly, and the grain gains noth¬ 
ing. The rule is, to cut when two-thirds of the 
heads have turned yellowish. 
Stacks of hay or of grain that are to stand long 
should be looked to while settling, braced if need 
be, and re-topped when done settling. 
Thrashing. —Grain is a great deal safer in the 
granary than in the stack or mow. Abundance 
of food makes vermin plenty. If grain of all 
kinds were to be thraebedas soon as possible, mice 
would not find in the barns such attractive quar¬ 
ters, aud would remain much longer in the field 
exposed to many casualties. Owls, hawks, crows, 
snakes, cats, weasels, etc., prevent much in¬ 
crease. Grain should he stored until it is marketed, 
either in well-ventilated bins, in sacks, or spread 
out in hot, dry, ventilated lofts. Look closely to 
the thrashing, that no grain is lost in tho straw. 
Boot crops need weeding, and probably, severe 
thinning. Too many turnip plants arc j ust as bad as 
weeds to the few that ought to occupy the ground ; 
they grow small, and strong, and tough, when 
crowded. The growth of all root crops should be 
from the start. It is as poor a plan to wait until 
the roots are beginning to fill out before weeding 
as it is to wait for weeds to get a foot high before 
hoeing. Keep all clean, and allow room to grow. 
Blowing for Wheat. —The weather is so hot that, 
if we have other work for the teams, we do not 
like to put all the fall plowing upon them in 
August; yet it is necessary or best to plow for wheat 
at this time. Turn over a clover sod perfectly flat, 
plowing not over six iuches deep, apply a top¬ 
dressing of slaked lime, and harrow it in. Wait 
three weeks, and then spread a rich, fine compost, 
and harrow it in thoroughly. Shares’ harrow (which 
is not a harrow at all) is the best tool. This will 
leave the land in conditiou to receive the seed, 
which should be drilled in about the first to the 
middle of September. 
TFeeds.—When mowing land is bare, go through 
with a narrow hoe, old adz, or weeding spud, and 
cut up buttercups, daisies, dock, asters, thistles, 
and all weeds that may then be distinctly seen, cut¬ 
ting two or three incites under the crowns, and 
lifting them out. Many woody plants may he 
served the same way in the fence rows and else¬ 
where, and running briers, rose-bushes, etc., should 
have like treatment wherever found. Weeds should 
be mown and consigned to th£ pig-sty if not gone 
to seed, in which case let them dry aud burn them. 
Turnips sown now will make a crop on good 
mellow soil. Ruta bagas may be sown south of 
Pennsylvania, and even far north of that will ordi¬ 
narily make a crop of nice little roots for the table, 
more marrow-like and delicious than if they had 
had a longer time to grow. 
Buckwheat may be sown south of New York up 
to the 10th of the month. There is some risk, but 
the chances are in favor of escaping frost in most 
localities. For several years late sown has failed. 
Swine. —Pen up store pigs and begin to fatten 
them. Feed peas, vines and all, as soon as the 
peas have all gained their full size, before the vines 
have turned too yellow, and add corn meal to the 
swill. Breeding sows lined now (Aug. 1st) will 
farrow after the middle of November. 
Sheep. —Lambs must be weaned, rams aproned or 
separated from the flock, entire removal being pref¬ 
erable. See that the ewes whose bags cake are 
milked carefully, aud watched for a week after 
the lambs are taken away. Give the lambs oil¬ 
cake and oats, which will keep them quieter ; and 
place them out of hearing of each others’ bleating, 
if possible. They worry less. 
Cows will fill off rapidly iu milk unless great 
pains are taken to keep them up. Corn fodder 
should be cut and fed daily; a change of pasturage 
is beneficial, and when they can be turned upon 
a good clover aftermath they will do well enough. 
Working animals need good feed if they are put 
to hard labor. If possible, turn them out to grass 
for a few weeks, to be ready for autumn work. 
Oxen ought to have good long “noon-spells.” 
Ilorscs stand great heat better; a good driver will 
give liis team drink as often as he drinks himself. 
Work horses will be greatly refreshed by being 
turned into the pasture as soon as they are cooled 
off and fed, and left out over night. 
Cahv.s.—It is usually best to wean calves that 
have run with the cows at four or five montlis 
old. First teach them to drink, and confine them 
away from their dams, letting them suck once a 
day, then on alternate days, and gradually wean 
altogether, feeding at first skimmed milk or warm 
