382 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
i'Novemukk, 
Contents for November, 1866. 
“Above Iliilf Right”..403 
Alkalies ami Acids .403 
American Institute Show. 415 
Annuals—A 7ner(can Agriculturist .390 
Aaers — Native. ... 399 
Baybeny or Wax Myrtle. Illustrated..399 
Bees—Apiary in November.3S4 
Bees—Imperfections of Forced Queens.393 
Boys and Girls’Columns—Premiums for Boys and 
Girls—Clieckers or Draughts — Debt not Easily Paid 
—Dog Stories—Impracticable Inventions—Problems 
and Puzzles—Stranger in tlie Family—“Lift a Lit¬ 
tle ’’-Plenty of Oysters—About Snakes — The Float¬ 
ing Grindstone.4 lllustratio7is. .i05~i0G 
Cattle — Stall Fastening. Illustrated. .395 
Drain Tile Manufacture...5 Illustrations. .39i 
Extra Numbers Offered . .390 
Farm Work in November.3S2 
Fertilization by Insects.3 Iliustrations..i00 
Five Points Mission House . Illustrated. .39S 
Flower Garden and Lawn in November.3S3 
Fruit Garden in November.3fj3 
Fruits—Naming New.401 
Garden—Kitclien in November.383 
Grape Scissors. Illustrated. .401 
Grapes at Ilammondsport.401 
Green and Hot-Houses in November.3S4 
Hedges — Osage Orange and Barberry.403 
Jlarket Reports. 415 
Musquasli or Muskrat. Illustrated. .39\ 
Orchard and Nursery in November.383 
Pears—The Bronx. . Illustrated. .401 
Poor People in New York.397 
Poultry—Chicken Ailments. 392 
Poultry—Coop for Fattening. Illustrated..393 
Poultry-Fattening. 393 
Premiums for Obt.aining Subscribers.384 
Prizes—$1,250 for Treatises.390 
Prize—$100 for Housekeeping.390 
Recipes—Moravian Recipes—Stock Yeast—First Y'east 
— Bread — Christmas Cakes — Snow Fritters — 
Thanksgiving Pudding — Molasses Cake — Soft 
Ginger Cake—Clieap Cake Frosting—Drop Cakes— 
Bread Griddle Cakes.404 
Roses—Marechal Niel. Illustrated.. 402 
Sheep-Breeding — Talk on.392 
Sheep—Ram "Golden Fleece”. Illustrateik .331 
Skunks Destroying Bees.392 
Soap, Frauds in, etc.403 
Spell or Spelt Wheat. 2 Illustratioris . .395 
Stock and Graft.399 
Trees—Young in Winter. S99 
W'ood-Sniitting by Horse Power... .3 Illustrations ..395 
Woodcliuck—Description. Illustrated. .391 
Wallis and Talks on the Farm, No. 35— Prices of 
Wheat and B.arley—Tlie Potato Crop—Clover and 
Superphosphate — Tools Left in the Field—Soft 
Corn — Sand in Manure—Leaky Cows — Making 
Farming Pay — Management of Swine — Capital 
Wanted.396-397 
INDEX TO “basket,” 
Advertisements, Note...386 
Answering Queries.389 
Ants Expelled.-387 
Asters, Fine.388 
B. America Subscribers.366 
Bean, Giant Wax.388 
Boots, Grease for.387 
Brooms, Care of.387 
Butler Making.387 
Cabbages, Large .... ..386 
Calves, Rearing.390 
Cattle Food.389 
Chapped Hands, Salve..387 
Charles Reade.389 
Coffee, Keeping.387 
Corn Bread.387 
Corn, Tall.387 
Correspondents, Note.. .386 
Crediting Articles .389 
Diamond Cut Diamond. 386 
Donation Parties.386 
Evening Post, N. Y’'.386 
Fair Grounds,Queens Co390 
Fairs, Addresses.389 
Fairs, Notices.399 
Fan Mills.389 
Farmers’ Clubs.387 
Fattening Steers .3SS 
Flour. Unbolted.387 
Fruit Houses.387 
Ghidiolus. Fine.388 
Grape Queries .388 
(irape Grower’s Conv’n.S,S6 
Gymnasium, Parlor.387 
Hbilyhocks, Burying ...388 
Hops in Michigan.387 
Horses, Farcy.390 
Hotel! I’otcli.387 
How it Works .389 
Hulling Corn.387 
Humbugs, Sundry.389 
Husbands, Piclufes. .383 
Ink Recipes.387 
Iii.sects, Paper.386 
Internal Revenue .388 
Irrigation..390 
OR SHORTER ARTICI.ES. 
Lard and Resin.387 
Manure and Corn.387 
.Manure, Ashes.387 
.Manure, Bommer’s.385 
Manure, Coal Ashes.387 
Manure, Marl.386 
.Maternal Instinct.390 
Meteors Coming.389 
.Mill Stone, Mending....388 
.Moon Notions.390 
Nails, Annealing.388 
Offer. Unwarranted.388 
Our Young Folks,.3S6 
Paint, Coal Tar.388 
Pennyroyal.390 
Photograpli Paper.389 
Pigs Born with Teeth . .387 
Plants Named. .386 
Pliints, Propagating.388 
Poetry not Wanted.389 
Postmasters, Note.386 
Poultry Disease.387 
Press, Champion.386 
Radish Growtli.390 
Renewals, Send Now.. 386 
Roads, Country.383 
Root Cutters.389 
Salsify. Unrulv.38S 
Siloes, Toes of.388 
Soda Crackers.387 
Sour Crout. 388 
Squash, Mammoth.390 
Stove Hook .390 
Strav\berry,.\gricullurist388 
Strawberry Runners_383 
Strawberries. Iowa. .. .388 
Swine, Prolific.386 
Teams. Good.390 
Time Tables.386 
Tobacco. Preparing.390 
Tomato Crout.387 
Useful Everywhere.389 
Verbena, Introduction ..3S8 
Washing Easily.387 
Water. Indications . ..388 
Wringer Rollers ..387 
AMERICAN AGRICIILTURIS T. 
NEW-YOPJv, NOVEMBER, 1866. 
There is a northern army marching southward 
with power. The winds are its scouts, and Jack 
Frost is on the picket line. Its skirmishers are in 
the forests of Maine ; they fill the Adirondacs, and 
skirt the chain of great lakes. Some daring com¬ 
panies have pushed far in advtmce of their reserves 
into the prairies .and the valleys of the West. Be- 
hiud them comes the gr.and army in its march to 
the sea^eaving no green thing behind it, save the 
cedars and pines with which it seems to fraternize. 
But wc have weapons and resources, which will 
enable ns to sustain the siege. Then, too, we have 
one great ally, hut for whose p.artial withdrawal, to 
attend to business farther South, ivc should not ex¬ 
perience the present attack. This ally is the Sun, 
■who figlits for us by day, but leaves us to take care 
of ourselves by night. Our resources are wood 
and coal, and peat, good shelter and the abiind.ant 
corn. The first nippings of the frost should have 
set us to finishing up farm work, and making ready 
for winter. When we cast our eyes over the hints 
for November given in previous years, we feel the 
need of ten times the space we have to m,ake sug¬ 
gestions upon every important subject, hut with so 
little space as we have tve must be somewhat gen¬ 
eral in our hints. First, however, a word about 
Permanent Improvements. —Multitudes of farmers 
and their families are satisfied with their present 
homes, but many others want to move. They are 
looking West or South, and are re.ady to take a 
good offer and clear out. The result of this is, that 
they do not half take care of the farms they are on, 
and if they sell at all, tliey will not get half the 
price they might. We say then, wherever you are, 
make the surroundings as attractive as possible. 
Make permanent improvements, good buildings, 
good fences, walls, etc., lay underdrains, reclaim 
swamps, aud in short, ■worlc as if you were going 
to live in one iilaee .all your life, and j’our children 
after you. So you tvill have the comfort, as you go 
along, of seeing every thing improving, and such 
investments are safe and usually pa}’ a good interest, 
if not annually, they certainly increase the value of 
the farm. But do not let any work upon the farm 
uor the material welfare of yourself and family 
lead to the neglect of the moral and intellectual. 
The Common School should h.ave the solicitous 
care and atteutiou of every citizen, no matter what 
his profession, or how light his family responsibili¬ 
ties. Statistics bear us out in sayiug that the 
poorest schools aud the least attention to education 
exist among the most purely agricultural districts; 
and it is also true that in more populous sections 
fiirniers, as a class, are not the ones to forward 
efforts for better .and more thorough schools. The 
great safe-guard of our liberties is universal intel¬ 
ligence. A good public sehool is a security to any 
community ag.ainst petty thieving, stack burning, 
orchard robbing, and a thousand other aun 03 ’ances 
from bad boys and b.ad men, which can hardly be over¬ 
estimated. The contamination of one’s children b}’ 
ignorance, which is almost always vicious and the 
cause of poverty, should he provided against by 
securing the very best school houses and the best 
teacdiers for all the children of the communit}’. 
Tills is evciy man’s and every ■woman’s business, 
and a duty for which an account must be rendered 
as mucli as for the lieartlcss neglect of the Imngry 
and naked. It is not necessary at this season to 
direct attention to 
The Poor, for wc li.ave tlicm .always tvitli us. It 
is much pleasanter of a winter night to think of 
those ■who have been and are ■warmed and fed by 
our unostentatious charities, tlian of those to ivhom 
it may have been said, “depart in peace, bo ye 
wanned and filled (by somebody else).” This month 
occurs the usual season of Thanksgiving, which, 
formerly observed by only a few of the older States, 
has now become a National festival. — May this 
be among the many causes for tliankfuluess of our 
readers and of ourselves, that as God has prospered 
ns, God’.s poor liavc shared his bounty by our hands. 
Mints atooiat Work. 
To those of our readers who read the October 
Hints we liave little to say under the heads of 
Buildings, Cellars and Ice Houses, that will not seem 
repetitious. In short, put all in perfect order for 
cold weatlier, so far as repairing, cleaning, white¬ 
washing and painting go. There is one important 
suiiject which might well have been dwelt upon 
last month, namely 
Cisterns .—Old ones should be cleaned out if they 
get low during Indian Summer weather, when we 
often h.ave little rain for some weeks, aud they 
should be protected from the action of frost. 
Clean eaves troughs, pipes and conductors of 
leaves and rubbish, aud make every thing ready for 
winter. New cisterns m.ay be set at this time, and 
where running xvater c.annot be secured either at 
the house or stock-yard, capacious cisterns certain¬ 
ly should be. It is very easy to make a cistern in 
any soil in which a pit may be cut down with per¬ 
pendicular sides. All that is necessary is to lay 
on a good even coating of cement directly upon the 
sides and bottom of the pit, which may be about 8 
or 10 feet in diameter. Lay a flatish boulder on the 
bottom in the middle to st.aud upon, aud ne.ar it 
make a depression into which all sediment may be 
made to flow, to be pumped or dipped out. Such a 
cistern maybe covered with plank and 2 feetof soil, 
or by a dome or jug-shaped top, all below the sur¬ 
face and below frost. To construct this,m.ake a frame 
of boards going from a center-post to the sides, aud 
form the top with a smooth surface of hemispherical 
form by filling in ■\vith pieces of wood, and finish¬ 
ing off with clay or soil sprinkled and smoothed off. 
On this lay a coat of cement mortar, and a grouting 
of stones 6 inches thick. A h'-Vlf-barrel tub should 
be set in the dome in the middle, or a little to one 
side, fora “man-liole.” AVater enough falls upon 
ordinary farm buildings for all the stock that they 
can cover. After all, cisterns are a iioor substitute 
for running water brought to the barn in pipes. 
Horses. —In November we expect to get all our 
stock into the barns, and should take good care of 
them. There are no animals, however,that witli plen¬ 
ty to eat will bear the cold so well as horses—full- 
grown horses. “ AVeathering” stunts colts shock¬ 
ingly. AA'e have no doubt of tlie truth of the state¬ 
ment, that farmers in Vermont frequently tvinter 
their horses in the open meadows with barely a 
shed to run under, giving them a little hay or str.aw 
only during ice storms, M'heu they c.annot paw 
down through a foot or two of snow and get at the 
grass and clover aftermath, which ivas left for 
them. They are said to grow fat upon such treat¬ 
ment. Nothing is worse for horses than too much 
blanketing aud tender care. Keep them clean— 
they can’t be too well groomed—but let them have 
fresh air and cold air, plenty of it, but not in draughts 
through windows, floor cracks, etc. AA’hen they are 
sweaty^uh them and blanket them until dry, aud for 
an hour or two after they are cool. After grooming, 
a linen cover may be put on to keep the coat down. 
Colts ought to he accustomed to being handled 
very young, and may be kept in stalls or loose 
boxes. Never use the whip, but try the eflic.acy of a 
little sugar instead. (It will pay even at 10c. per 
pound.) Any young horse is much e.asicr coaxed 
than whipped, aud punishment is rarely necessary. 
Beeves should he pushed forward in fattening as 
fast as possible. Be careful not to over-feed, but 
judiciously increase and vary the feed so as to 
secure always good appetite .and digestion. AVatcr 
regularly; keep salt always hel'ore them; feed 
ground or cooked grain ; never let tliem won-y for 
a meal, but be ready as soon .as the time comes; 
also never prepare their food before them, making 
them wait half an hour, i-ostless and thrashing 
about, but prepare for the next me.al wliilc they are 
eating. See that cattle are fed uniformly the same 
amount of grain, roots, oil cake, etc., daily, or in¬ 
crease M'ith regularity. Variety and occasional 
changes of feed ai’c well, and most economical. 
Cows. —As the quantity of milk decreases, its rich¬ 
ness in butter may be made to increase liy proper 
feeding, aud it is worth while to take advantage of 
