318 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
f September, 
Contents for September, 1869, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Among the Salt Meadows. Illustrated. .336 
Apples—The Surprise.339 
Australian Glory Pea. Illustrated. .337 
A Word to Farmers about Selling their Produce.326 
Blackberries.339 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—How to Get a Farm—Ways 
of Getting a Living—The Doctor’s Talks—About Mak¬ 
ing a Fire—A Horticultural Doll—New Puzzles to be 
Answered—"Little Mischief”—Items—Answers to 
Problems and Puzzles.6 Illustrations. 343-344 
Chestnut as an Ornamental Tree. Illustrated. .340 
Clustered Leucotlioe. . Illustrated. .337 
Commercial Fertilizers—Honest Dealers. 326 
Com Fodder—How to Save it.334 
Death to Half-bred Males.326 
Draining Large Swamps.334 
Drying-houses for Fruit.340 
Farm Work for September.318 
Fairs—State and County.320 
Filling Tile Drains. Illustrated. .333 
Flower Garden and Lawn in September.319 
Fowl-houses—Cheap and Convenient..3 Illustrations. .332 
Fruit Garden in September.319 
Garden Edgings.7 Illustrations. .338 
Green-house and Window Plants in September.319 
Horses—“ Cassius M. Clay, Jr.”. Illustrated. .317 
Household Department—The Table—Order and Orna¬ 
ment—Citron and Citron Melon— Feather Dusters—■ 
Household Talks by Aunt Hattie — Citron Melon Pre¬ 
serves—Crab-apple Jelly — Peaches, to Preserve, to 
Skin, to Bottle—Peach Pie—Plum Pie—Moral Courage 
in a Housekeeper—Soap Making—Ella’s Ivy—Rec¬ 
ipes — Indian Custard Pudding — Spinach — Mint 
Chow Chow—Grape Jelly—SilverCake.S Must. .341-342 
Imitative Insects.,5 Illustrations. .329 
Indian Pipe. Illustrated.. 338 
Kitchen Garden in September.319 
Market Reports. 321 
Marsupial Animals—The Kangaroo. Illustrated. .329 
Notes from "The Pines,” No. 4—Dwarf Wax Bean — 
“Eyes and No Eyes”—Chrysanthemums—Summer 
Fallowing—Potatoes—Egg Plants—Beet Greens— 
Squash Eaemies. 338 
Nutritive Value of Different Crops.339 
Orchard and Nursery in September.319 
Pastures—How to Keep in Good Condition.331 
Pasturing Meadows.336 
Peat—An Experiment with.335 
Pickle Crop.339 
Plowing with a Single Line.332 
Plowing with Throe Horses Abreast... 2 Illustrations.. 333 
Poultry — Exhibition Coops for.4 Illustrations. .333 
Poultry—Check to Egg-eating Hens. Illustrated. .332 
Premium Offers.324 
Preparing for Spring Planting.310 
Rat-tailed Radish. 339 
Roads and Road Making, No. 3.. .Illustrated ..327 
Setting Trees..340 
Sheep—Hurdling on Green Crops. Illustrated. .333 
Sprouts. . Illustrated. .339 
Tim Bunker on Chips.327 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 09—Keeping Ac¬ 
counts — New Implements — Sick Horses — Farm 
Labor—Wheat Culture.330-331 
Warning to Young Book Farmers.335 
Water—Impure Drinking. 334 
When Will Top-dressing Pay ?. ...331 
Winter Spinach. 339 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OH SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Abortion in Cows.322 
Agriculture & the Press.325 
Am. Pomological Soc_323 
Am.Preserv’ng Powders.323 
Bar for Setting Hurdles.325 
Beecher’s Sermons . 324 
Bermuda.322 
Blue Thistles.323 
Brown Spots on Currants323i 
Cabbage Plants.323 
Canker Worm . 323 
Central Park Report.323 
Chester Whites vs. York¬ 
shires.325 
Connecticut Agriculture.325 
Corn in Iowa.324 
Cuba.'.322 
Draining without Ontlets324 
Drains near a Hedge . 325 
Draughts of Cold Air... .321 
Drouth better than Rain.324 
Dry Tan as a Manure _ 325 
Essex vs. Berkshires _ 325 
Fall Planting.323 
Finely Grown Lilies.323 
Floors for Cow Stables.. 324 
Grape Prospects..323 
Hay Crop in Conn . 324 
Henry II. Crapo.322 
Hogs Eating Hen Dung.325 
Important Nursery Sale.323 
Important Work.322 
Liming Sandy Soils.325 
Live-stock in Ohio.325 
Maple Sugar Queries... .325 
More Beautiful Houses..323 
Nets for Grain.325 
N. Y. State Poultry Soc..322 
Pictures in theITouseh’d.322 
Pig Lot at the Soulh.321 
Plants Named.323 
Potashes.325 
Poultry—Imp’t. Change. .325 
Right and Left-hand 
Plows.324 
Roots in Drains.325 
Samuel F. Headley.325 
Scripture Quotations_322 
Sewage System.322 
Spreading Manure.325 
Strawberry—C. Downing323 
Strawberry — Golden 
Queen.323 
Substitute for a Boy.325 
Sundry Humbugs....322 
To Keep Milk Sweet... .325 
Trouble with Verbenas..323 
Vegetable Marrow and 
Pumpkin.323 
Vine, Unfruitful.823 
Walnut and Fruit Trees.323 
Wild Goose Plum.323 
NEW-YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1869. 
Work will vary with the weather. If we have a 
moist time the opportunity should not he neglect¬ 
ed to have the plowing done early, and then to kill 
several crops of seedling weeds with the harrow. 
If the weather is hot and dry, no better time can 
be found for burning weeds along stone walls, or 
cutting and drying those in the field or in tire mead¬ 
ow that are in seed. If the fall work that can be 
done at this seasou is finished, look to the swamps 
and to the draining of boggy ground where too 
much water stands in ordinary seasons. Rainy-day 
work is-plenty. There is grain to thrash and pre¬ 
pare for market—peas and beans also; the corn- 
house to put in order, and apparatus for grindiug 
and cooking pig feed. Withal save time to at¬ 
tend the fairs, and by all means exhibit something. 
Hints About Work. 
Apples .—Windfalls are full of worms, usually. 
Pick them up regularly, and feed to the pigs all not 
fit for cider, or at least for vinegar. 
Field Crops.—Beans should be pulled as scon as 
the pods seem well matured. They will cure in a 
loft better than in the field, and a few may be cured 
on a barn floor. In the field, stack them between 
stakes to keep off the ground and thrash when dry. 
Potatoes .—Dig as soon as ripe—provided there is 
not much rot among them—in which case use judg¬ 
ment. If they can be dug and sold before they 
rot much, well; if they can be fed with profit, do 
so. Do not put them into the cellar to become a 
mass of corruption, and make it necessary to 
overhaul and throw them away by and by. 
Corn.—Pulling corn fodder is a Southern practice, 
which we do not approve of. If it seems best to 
pull leaves this year, do not do it until the grain is 
glazed. Topping is much less objectionable—in 
fact, we do not object to it in the ease of large, 
coarse-stalked varieties. This, too, should never 
be done until the glazing of the kernel shows 
that the grain has its full size. No doubt it is a 
damage to the com, but there is proportionate gain 
in the feed, which is very valuable. Cutting up at 
the ground has much in its favor. The field is as 
good as cleared at one operation, and may be 
plowed and sown at once if desired—provided the 
stooks are made ou as few lines as possible, stand¬ 
ing very close. Taking twenty-five rows the long¬ 
est way through the field, it is no very great labor 
to close on the middle row, taking twelve hills on 
each side, and so make a stook to every hill on 
this row—leaving plow lands of one hundred feet 
or thereabouts in width, which should be plowed 
“inward,” or “right about.” The grain must be 
well glazed before the stalks are cut. It loses 
scarcely perceptibly in weight, while the stalks aud 
leaves are saved. One day’s or half a day’s drying 
after being cut up will save the fodder from injury 
from severe frosts, which would otherwise render 
it flavorless aud of little value as fodder. 
Corn Fodder .—Cattle and horses will eat corn 
leaves and husks well; they will eat almost the 
whole of the toppings*, but unless it is cooked 
they will not eat all the hut stalks. However, if 
cut up and soaked, they will eat a good portion of 
them, especially if dusted with a little meal or oil¬ 
cake. What they refuse is worth, we presume, half 
as much as manure as it would be if eaten. The im¬ 
mense waste of feeding corn fodder on the ground 
is, that but a comparatively small part is eaten, and 
the rest is utilized as manure to but a small ex¬ 
tent. Corn fodder, sown for the purpose, should 
he cut as close as possible, bound in small bundles, 
with new rye straw, and set up against rails laid on 
crossed stakes, or in crotches against a fence, or in 
open shooks, to dry. It will not mould enough to 
hurt it unless it lies long flat upon (lie ground. 
Boots. —Beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, 
make astonishing growth this month. Keep them 
clear of weeds, which sap the very life of the soil. 
It is an excellent plan to run a one-horse subsoil 
plow between the rows. If crowded, roots of all 
kinds may be thinned to advantage, and the surplus 
sent to market or fed to stock. Hogs will grow 
fast on the diet, though it is not very fattening. 
Crass .—If the aftermath is to be cut, do it in 
this month, and, if you can, manure with fine com¬ 
post or some “ hand manure” afterwards. This 
gives a chance for a good covering to grow, to pro¬ 
tect the roots of the grasses from the winter. If 
the second growth is to be fed off, it is economy to 
tether the cows. The writer tethers with chains, 
using iron fetters to attach them to one hind leg. 
If the fetters fit, there will be no wearing of the 
skin after a few days. Chauge from leg to leg 
daily. The cows need water three times a day, 
and to have the stakes or rods shifted according to 
the abundance of the feed, giving them six feet or 
more advance at each shift. See that the cows can¬ 
not get together and become twisted up. The 
twisting up, and turning around trees, etc., are the 
only accidents that can happen to cows tethered by 
the leg. Tied by the neck, they may hang them¬ 
selves as easily as not, and often do, in an open 
field. New grass land aud stubble should not be 
fed off too soon or by heavy animals of any kind. 
Seeding down .—Grass may be sown alone at this 
season, or a little earlier perhaps, better than at 
any other. Prepare the ground well, giving thor¬ 
ough harrowing and top-dressing, picking off the 
stones; sow the seed, and roll. A bushel of oats 
harrowed in before the grass seed is sown, will af¬ 
ford the young plants the protection of a fine 
mulch during the winter, and unless the season is 
very mild, will he thoroughly dead and out of the 
way when spring comes, making good manure. 
Saving Seed .—Seed corn should he marked be¬ 
fore it is cut up, by selecting the best ear where 
two or more are ou a stalk, and tying strings tightly 
around them. They will thus be found aud thrown 
one side at husking. Seed potatoes should be se¬ 
lected from those that have healthy stalks, and 
ripen first. It is very well to go through and dig 
from hills before the general digging. If the whole 
crop is to be saved for seed, or if it is desirable to 
keep it pure, go through carefully, and dig any 
suspicious or peculiar looking hills. Seed of all 
kinds should be kept where it is dry, in nets, bask¬ 
ets, loosely covered pails, or In net bags, or tied 
together and suspended. Close vessels are often 
fatal to seeds, causing them to mould or heat. 
Winter Grain. — Wheat .—The land should he put 
in order, well manured on the surface, harrowed to 
a fine tilth, and the seed sown as early as possible 
this month. Use any fine, rich, well-rotted com¬ 
post. Peruvian guano, fine bone-dust, and almost 
any good fertilizer, containing both ammonia and 
phosphoric acid, will pay. Soaking the seed in a 
strong brine and drying with dry slaked lime pre¬ 
vents smut to a great degree. Pickling enables one 
also to skim off and separate many of the light 
grains which the fan-mill leaves_ Bge may be 
sown the latter part of the month, but is usually 
sown in October, as sometimes it makes too rank a 
growth, and is smothered thereby in the course of 
the winter. Much depends on the land. 
Buckwheat is greatly injured by even a light frost. 
Be prepared to cut and put in little cocks orgavelsas 
soon as frost threatens. The tops should be gathered 
and bound at the top, more to prolong the drying 
and to prevent the wind scattering the graiji, than 
to make the little gavels shed rain. Many kernels, 
half formed when cut, will fill out at the expense 
of the juices of the haulm. 
Sorghum .—This crop is one of great importance, 
especially with present facilities for working it up. 
It should be topped, cut up, stripped and stacked 
before frost, to lie hauled to the mill and worked 
up before hard freezing weather. 
Live-stock of all kinds require good feeding, for 
they lay on flesh and fat much more readily in 
mildly warm weather than when it is colder, in 
cool weather better than in cold, and when severe 
weather comes, it is almost impossible to make 
