246 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
Contents for July, 1875. 
Calendar for July. 
Am. Pomologies! Society. .. .252 
Beech in Flower. Illustrated. .265 
Bellwort, Large-flowered. Illustrated.. 265 
Bolt, How to Make a.6 Illustrations. .256 
Books and Catalogues Received.251 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—Doctor’s Talks—Aunt 
Sne’s Chats—Answers to Correspondents—The 4th— 
Aunt Sue Goes to a Spelling Match—Can You Swim ? 
—A Wonderful Cat—Nests and Eggs—July—Saved 
by a Fish—Aunt Sue’s Puzzle-Box—Evidences of 
Guiit .9 Illustrations. .269-272 
Buffalo Gnat .. .2 Illustrations. .262 
Cape Heaths, Culture of .263 
Clevis Key. Illustrated.. 261 
Colorado Potato Bug.264 
Donkey Show, English.259 
Education among Farmers.259 
Florida Torreya. Illustrated.. 264 
Flower-Garden and Lawn for July.247 
Fruit Garden for July.247 
Granaries and Grain Bins.6 Illustrations. 259 
Greenhouse and Window Plants for July.248 
Hints About Work. 246 
Household Department—Household Inquiries—Tin 
Weddings—Home Topics.267-268 
House Plan..5 Illustrations. 254 
Kitchen Garden for July.247 
Locust at Dinner. 252 
Locusts, Grasshoppers.2 Illustrations. 261 
Lunch Time in the Field. Illustrated. .255 
Market Report for July.248 
Mechanical Powers for the Farm. Illustrated. .264 
Muzzle for Biting Horses. Illustrated. .HOI 
Obituary, Moses Quinby.252 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 65—Poultry—Deep Can 
System—Jersey Cows.255-256 
Orchard and Nursery for July.247 
Pear-trees, New Tops on Old .266 
Pilgrimage to Torreya.266 
Potato Rot .-.262 
Pot-cover, Rustic... Illustrated.. 263 
Poultry, Care of.259 
Science Applied to Farming.255 
Shingling Gauge. ..2 Illustrations.. 261 
Short-horns for the Dairy .262 
Slitting the Bark of Fruit-trees in Summer.263 
Stables, Clean.260 
Turkey, Darter or Water.. . . Illustrated.. 257 
Walks and Talks Correspondence.278 
Wallis and Talks on the Farm, No. 139—Dry Weather 
—Corn—Wheat—Perfect Manuring—Dipping Lambs 
—Clover. Illustrated. .258-259 
Waste*. 261 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” 
Ag’l. College..249 
Am. Veterinary College..249 
Ashes, Wood.279 
Buffalo Gnat.249 
Calves, Scours in.277 
Cheese Factories in III...277 
Climates, Dry.279 
Colorado Potato Beetle. .249 
Compost Heap, Making..279 
Corn for Soiling....279 
Cotswold Merino Sheep.250 
Cows, The Best .277 
Cubic Feet in Ton of IIay250 
Death of G. S. Parsons..249 
Egg Oats.279 
Feeding for Milk.277 
Fence, Cheapest.279 
Fish Scrap.250 
Fistula, Treating a .. ..279 
Fruit and Produce.249 
Fruit Jars.252 
Geese, Bremen and China250 
Grain from Kansas.252 
Grasses for the South_250 
Guano.249 
Humbugs, Sundry.249 
Mill Dams, Construction 
of.250 
Mixing Earth with Ma¬ 
nure. .279 
Oregon. 
.250 
OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Patent Machines.278 
Patent Rights .. .251 
Patents.250 
Peach Crop.249 
Peach, Early Beatrice_250 
Potato Bug.249 
Poultry raising.277 
Poultry, Scabby Legs in.279 
Prof. Turned Farmer_249 
Quarter - Crack, Remedy 
for.279 
Sales of Short-horns.278 
Sawing Machine.251 
Sheep, Anthrax Fever in 278 
Sheep,Black-faced Scot.ch277 
Short - horn Breeders’ 
Convention.277 
Silver-tipped Shoes.252 
Skimmed Milk, Value of.250 
Sowing Wheat.250 
Sows, Feeding Breeding.279 
Steam Motor, Parvin’s.. .277 
Straw, To Decompose.. .279 
Sum. Fallowing Wheat..250 
Summer Resort.24!) 
Sunday-School Lessons 
Uniform. .. .279 
Tanners’ Waste.279 
Well, Impure.279 
What’s in a Name.250 
Windmills for Irrigation.279 
Grape Vine Insect. —“ G. F.,” Lehigh 
Co., Pa. The insect sent is the Grape Vine Flea Beetle, 
Ilallica chalybea, and not a fly at all. It is sometimes very 
destructive. Hand picking, or shaking from the vines 
and crushing, early in the morning, when they are inac¬ 
tive, is the only remedy we know of. 
A Cistern in Sandy Soil.— “J. L.,” 
St. Croix Falls, Wis. A cistern in a soil consisting of 
sand and gravel, shonM be lined with brick, or the walls 
will be likely to care in. The brick should be hard 
burned and laid in cement, and then plastered with a 
thin coat of cement. The cement used should be mixed 
with four or five times its bulk of sharp fine sand, while 
dry, and then with water, until it is thin enough to spread 
well; mix with water in small quantities, as it is needed. 
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ST. 
NEW YORK, JULY, 1875. 
It would be of great value if we were able, at 
this season, to forecast the weather for 34 hours. 
Although in no country in the world is the summer 
climate more favorable for harvest hperations, (and 
few have so good a one), yet for the want of 
accurate knowledge of the premonitory symptoms 
of thunder showers, and other changes of the 
weather, farmers are often caught with their crops 
exposed, and suffer damage and loss. The farmer 
should have as accurate a “ weather eye ” as a sai¬ 
lor, for he is equally interested in changes of the 
weather. Except in very rare cases, the admirable 
weather reports of the Signal Office, can not be 
made available in time to be of use to the farmer, 
who must depend upon his own skill and tact in 
predicting the weather. We have found an aneroid 
barometer a very sensitive and trustworthy guide, 
and do not call to mind a single instance in which it 
failed to give warning of the approach of even a 
thunder storm some hours before it arrived. The 
backward motion of the index, is a sufficient 
notice to use every precaution against getting 
caught, but not of itself a warning to quit harvest¬ 
ing, for rain does not always follow a barometer 
falling. One needs only co make things safe as he 
goes ; to cap the shocks, to haul in what is expos¬ 
ed, to hasten cutting grain that is ripe, and protect 
shocks with liay-caps or top-sheaves. “Forewarned 
is forearmed,” and the warning is all that is needed. 
Some apparently threatening storms pass over with¬ 
out rain, and in such cases the little labor of pre¬ 
paring for them, is more than compensated by the 
sense of security one feels in being ready for the 
worst. There is,little probability of higher prices 
for grain. There is nothing to regret in this. 
Business recovers slowly from its depression. 
Labor is everywhere a drug. Laborers gener¬ 
ally are in such straits that cheap food is needed 
for their proper subsistence. The way to improve¬ 
ment seems to lie in fair if not abundant crops, and 
low prices. The farmer can not thrive while gen¬ 
eral business is depressed, and business matters are 
evidently settling down on a basis of low prices. 
If a calico dress costs only a dollar, those who 
make the material, must buy their food at propor¬ 
tionately low prices. It is the same with other 
clothing, shoes, iron, and all those things which 
enter into general use. The prices of these being- 
now very low, if the prices of food are not propor¬ 
tionately low, 6ome must suffer. 
Hints about Work. 
Harvest Work. —Field labor can hardly be subject 
to the same rules as in-door work. The more quick¬ 
ly the crops can be harvested and housed, the safer 
they will be. Extra hours can scarcely be avoided 
when the rush of work comes, and reasonable 
men will not object to it if the work is fairly com¬ 
pensated. In many years of farm work, we have 
always finished up at 4 o’clock on Saturdays, and 
never worked on a Sunday, yet never lost a pound 
of hay or of grain by observing these rules. 
Bathing is not only a great preservative of the 
health, but it greatly promotes comfort. If there 
is no convenient shed or out-building, where a tub 
of water can be used for this purpose every even¬ 
ing, arrange a portion of the barn for bathing. 
Take a washtub with two or three pails of cold 
water, a large sponge or piece of flannel, and a 
piece of Castile soap. Dash a few 6pongefuls of 
water over the whole body, then wash with soap 
and water, rinse off, and rub dry with a coarse 
towel. This is a part of the daily training of the 
professional athlete, as it hardens the muscles, 
induces healthful and not debilitating perspiration, 
and sound restful sleep. Induce the hired men to 
bathe every night; they will work all the better. 
Horses should have every attention that can ease 
their labors. It is not humane to turn a horse that 
has worked all day in the reaper, into a poor pas¬ 
ture, to pick his feed during the whole night, or 
lie and rest with a half filled stomach. (See article 
on clean stables, on page 380). If horses are turned 
out at night, they should first be well fed. Wash 
the legs with carbolic soap suds. Give drink fre¬ 
quently. Fresh cold water from the well, is highly 
injurious, the water should he as warm as the air, 
and a handful of finely ground meal, should be 
stirred in each drink. 
Cows will need some succulent feed. The thin¬ 
nings and suckers from the corn-field will supply 
this. Let a boy take a wheelbarrow along a few 
rows, and gather a mess of fodder every afternoon. 
Sheep. —The fly which produces the “ grub in the 
head,” ( (Estrus ovis), will trouble the flock. The 
sheep, when that is present, will run with their 
heads to the ground, and stamp with the fore feet. 
Rub some pine tar on their noses, and keep it fresh 
and sticky. Tar is a good tonic, and helps sheep 
to resist other parasites. Keep them out of low 
wet pastures, which produce “rot.” Milk the 
udders of ewes which have lost their lambs. 
See that the lambs have fresh tender pasture. 
“ Roughness ” will not do for lambs. 
Hay. —Clover and orchard grass ought to have 
been cut before this. If not cut, lose no time in 
doing it; every day’s delay greatly reduces the 
value of the hay. Timothy should not go past full 
blossom, unless to be left for seed. Red-top may 
be cut last of all. If there are a few loads of fine 
manure on hand, they will be of great use upon 
the freshly mown meadows. 
Cutting Grain— Everything should be fully pre¬ 
pared before harvest is begun. Wheat and rye 
that is left until dead ripe, may be thrashed as it is 
cut. It is best to cut before this period is reached. 
When the grain is firm hut still soft, so that it can 
be pinched in two with the thumb-nail, it is in 
good order for cutting, and will not shell out. Oats 
do not ripen evenly, and may be cut when the 
largest portion of the crop is ripe. Cut as much 
as possible when the dew is on, to prevent shelling. 
Cut barley as nearly ripe as may be. The conditions 
being right, it is safest to cut, bind and shock grain 
the same day. If a sudden shower comes up, it is 
soon secured. As binding and shocking must be 
done, no time is lost in doing it at once. 
Cultivating Crops. —Corn and roots must not be 
neglected. Keep the ground mellow and free from 
weeds. Nothing helps so much as this to over¬ 
come the effects of dry weather. Cultivate no root 
crops or beans while the soil and plants are wet. 
Colorado Ibtato Beetle. —Give this insect no rest. 
