4M6 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1875. 
Bee Notes. 451 
Boys and Girls’ Columns — December — Fine Tilings 
for Boys and Girls — Sphinx Rock—First Passenger 
Train—Mechanical Donkey—Impudence Rebuked— 
Aunt Sue’s Puzzle Box—Aunt Sue’s Chats—The 
Night Before Christmas—Poor Robin Red-breast 
15 Illustrations . /. .409-472 
Broom Sedge. Illustrated. .403 
Butter Herd, How to Improve a.,. .402 
“Butter,” How Some is Made. 402 
Corn, Prolific... 401 
Cow, To Cure a Choked. Illustrated. .461 
Flower-Garden and Lawn for December.447 
Fruit Garden for December.447 
Grass, Barn-yard. Illustrated. . 463 
Greenhouse and Window Plants for December.447 
Hay and Grain Ventilators.6 Illustrations. .459 
Hogs, Scalding.2 Illustrations. AHA 
Household Department — Home Topics—Milk Shelves 
for the Kitchen—Stationary Wash-Tubs — How to 
Make Saur-Krout.8 Illustrations. .407-469 
House Plan.6 Illustrations. . 453 
Ice-house, How to Build and Fill.3 Illustrations. .400 
Kitchen Garden for December .447 
Market Gardeners in 1876, Prospects of..463 
Market Report for December.447 
Meal, Feeding to Dairy Cows.463 
Notes from the Pines.466 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 70 — Irrigation — Liquid 
Manure.454, 455 
Orchard and Nursery for December.447 
Plants, German or Parlor Ivy. Illustrated. .465 
Plows and Harness, English.403 
Poultry, Brown Leghorn. Illustrated. .457 
Poultry Buyer. . Illustrated. . 445 
Poultry, Duck-Winged Game. Illustrated. .457 
Rifle Shooting, Curiosities of.13 Illustrations . .455 
Rose, Cherokee.. Illustrated . .466 
Saw, Gauge for. Illustrated. AHA 
Science Applied to Farming.454 
Sheep, Lincoln.459 
Smoke Houses, Improved.4 Illustrations . .462 
Steer, End of the Texas.463 
Stock, Profit from Good. 462 
Tar-Boiler, How to Make a. Illustrated . .461 
Trees and Shrubs of Mass., Emmerson’s.'.551 
Ventilating Trap for Stables. Illustrated. AGO 
Walks and Talks Correspondence.478 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 144.—Farmers’ 
Extravagance—Farmers’ Work—Sheep Yards.458 
Work, Hints About.446 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” 
Abscess in a Mare’s Head.477 
Bone-dust for Clover,_479 
Bones, Grinding.477 
Chemistry, Youman’s i 
New.450 
Clothing, Ordering.448 
Corn Cribs, Support of. .479 
Corn-Dropper, Patent_450 
Cut Hides.479 
Drains, Time to Dig.479 
Drill, Turnip.479 
Fair, Southern.478 
Fence upon a Dike.478 
Fertilizers, Quantity per 
Acre.479 
Freights, Advance in_449 
Fruit Culturisi, Thomas’.478 
Hog Cholera, So-called..451 
Hollow-horn, Murrain_479 
Hoofs, Brittle.479 
Horticultural Soc., Ohio.44Sl 
Humbugs, Sundry.449 
Insects and Plants.448 
Lectures on Tree-lore... 449 
Milkweed Poisonous to 
Goats.478 
Money in Pork.448 
Nebraska. .451 
N. Y. State Dairymens’ 
Association.478 
Paint, Averill Chemical..450 
On SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Patent Laws, Beauties of 449 
Pedigrees of Jersey Stock-179 
Pigs Shipped by Express, 
Food for ..479 
Pigs, Suffolk.478 
Plaster on Grass Land. ..479 
Plow, Double.477 
Potato Rot.477 
Poultry-House, Cost of..479 
Rain Gauge.450 
Roof, Cement.450 
Seedsmen, Important to.448 
Sheep-Husbandry in Ga.473 
Sheep, Shropshire.477 
Sheep-Keeping on tha 
Plains.479 
Shorthorns for Cal. Dairy477 
Shorthorns.Sale of in Ky.478 
Squash, Suckling.450 
Stock, Feeding on a 
Wheat Field.450 
Suggestive Quotations. .449 
Syringe, Enema.479 
Tanner's Refuse.479 
Udder, Inflamed.449 
Uterus, Inversion of... .419 
Wheat Crop in England.449 
Wheat Running to Straw, 
Remedy for.".477 
“ White Sage” of the Far 
West.448 
Calendar for December, 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
3IOON. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. | \VASIl’N. jCIIA’STON 
CHICAGO. 
n. 
rr. 3i. 
FI. M. FT. 3r. 
II. 31. 
11. 3r. 
1st Quart 
5 
9 12 ev. 
9 0 ev. | 8 48 ev. 
8 36 ev. 
8 6 ev. 
Full M’u 
12 
3 1 ev. 
2 18 ev. | 2 37 ev. 
2 25 ev. 
1 55 ev. 
3d Quart. 
19 
10 12 mo. 
10 0 mo.| 9 4Smo 
9 36 mo. 
9 6 mo. 
New M’n 
2: 
2 20 ev. 
2 8 ev. | 1 56 ev. 
1 44 ev. 
1 14 ev. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1875. 
At the close of the present year there is much 
cause for congratulation amongst farmers. Their 
condition is much more cheerful than they had rea¬ 
son to expect in the spring. Generally crops have 
been abundant and prices are fair. The farmer 
must necessarily live in hope, for he cannot tell 
how events may result. The past season has been 
to the farmer full of anxieties. Disasters have 
continually threatened him. The weather has been 
strangely inconstant and fickle, and it has been 
more from good fortune than his own efforts, that 
disaster has been averted. Now that the real con¬ 
dition of affairs is ascertained, we find the crops are 
unexpectedly heavy, and that the quality is better 
than we had reason to hope for. Some of the 
western states, where thousands of farmers a year 
ago feared destitution, are now overflowing with 
grain which sells at remunerative prices. Beef, 
pork, butter, cheese, and with the exception of 
cotton and wohl, altogether produce is high in 
price, 60 much so that some suffering is entailed 
upon those engaged in other industries, who are 
worse off now than for many years past. It is one 
of the advantages of a farmer’s life, that he is to a 
great extent independent of the fluctuations of 
trade. With his farm free from debt , he is sure at 
least of shelter, food, fuel, and the most of his 
clothing, although his surplus may be totally un¬ 
salable ; but while he feeds other people, this can 
never happen, and a market, for what he does not 
need himself is always to be found. 
The i'erolieroM. Horse. —“ E. O. N.,” 
Tracy City, Tcnn. We doubt if even the most enthusias¬ 
tic friend of the Perchcron horses, would claim for this 
race that it is the best for all farm purposes everywhere. 
The Clydesdale breed, as a heavy farm horse, lias as 
many friends as the Perchcron, who, as may be expected, 
favor their chosen race. The Percheron, when pure, is a 
very valuable horse, and will produce a class of farm 
horses equal to, but we can hardly say better than any. 
Unfortunately some ignorant or unprincipled persons 
have imported some inferior and very coarse Norman 
horses, calling them “ Norman-Pcrcheron ” or Percheron, 
and have injured the reputation of the genuine breed. 
Those who wish for the pure race, should lie cautious 
from whom they buy. It would be safe to consult a 
little work called “The Percheron Horse,” published 
by tlie Orange Judd Company, (price $1.00,) in regard to 
the character of the pure breed. 
. IHimits siltwiit Worli. 
The Winter's Study. —Now that the season for 
active labor is over for 1875, the farmer has leisure 
before him that may be turned to good account. 
With the general spread of information, the farmer 
can not afford to be behind his fellow citizens in 
the knowledge of common things. Every farmer 
should club with his neighbors to form a library of 
at least one-hundred well selected, standard, prac¬ 
tical books, relating, first to his own profession, ag¬ 
riculture, and the sciences connected with It ; there 
are now many excellent, plainly written manuals, 
upon all the collateral sciences, then there should 
be works on American and general history, on poli¬ 
tical economy, and lastly in general literature. 
Feeding Stock. —There is opportunity now for 
those who desire—and every one should—to try 
some of the experiments in feeding, referred to in 
the articles by Prof. Atwater, which have been pub¬ 
lished in the Ameincati Agriculturist during the past 
year. These articles are worthy of close and care¬ 
ful study, for they put many things in quite a new 
and different light from that in which most farmers 
have hitherto viewed them. Economy demands 
that every ounce of nutriment should be got out of 
the fodder we feed. There is no doubt that some 
of it is lost in our usual methods of feeding stock. 
Horses. —Cure is required in grooming and clean¬ 
ing horses. No gathering of scurf, or waste of 
the skin, or of dried perspiration, should be per¬ 
mitted to collect beneath the coat. But this should 
not in every case he torn away with sharp curry¬ 
combs. A tender skin is injured by rough currying. 
A moderately stiff brush, made with an uneven sur¬ 
face, is sufficient in nearly every case. But labor 
must not be stinted in keeping horses clean. 
Cotes. —Fresh cows need a large quantity of water 
at this time, and this is best given in the shape of 
warm slops of bran, or a mixture of corn-meal and 
middlings. Our milking cows have done very well 
on finely cut, well cured corn-fodder, wetted and 
mixed with corn and middlings ground together 
very fine. One bushel of cut fodder, and 3 quarts 
or lbs. of the meal, i6 the daily allowance. A 
sheaf of oats, or a small feed of good clover hay, is 
given at noon. In the case of some very large 
milkers and butter-makers, this allowance of meal 
maybe sometimes doubled with good effect. Clean¬ 
liness is of the greatest importance in the win¬ 
ter time. The cows and calves should be card¬ 
ed every day, and their coats kept free from filth. 
Lice will never be found upon stock thus managed. 
Calves may be kept loose in a shed by themselves, 
with an open yard in which they may run in the 
day time. They should he kept well littered, and 
the litter need not be removed until spring. If the 
litter is short, the manure will be fine and in excel¬ 
lent condition for use. If whole corn-stalks are 
used for litter, this plan will not answer. 
Bedding in the stables is of great importance, 
both as regards the comfort of .the stock, and the 
condition of the manure heap. It will pay to cut 
all the litter with a fodder cutter, when it can be 
done by liorse-power. Where leaves or sawdust 
can be procured for bedding, every pound of straw 
should be used for feed. Otherwise cut straw, 
when used for bedding, is more absorbent than 
long straw, and more quickly rots iu the manure 
heap. ' The stock can he kept very clean with 
short bedding. 
Sheep.— The sheep sheds and yards should be 
kept well bedded with short litter. This may be 
shaken up every day,' to keep the surface clean, 
and if it is not removed at all until spring, the 
sheep will do as well, or better than if the manure 
is disturbed. The litter and droppings become 
firmly packed until two feet thick, without any 
evil or disagreeable effects. The feed racks should 
be arranged so that the sheep can not thrust their 
heads between the bars and tear the wool from 
their necks, or scatter dust, etc., amongst the wool. 
Swine. —There is a good prospect for high prices 
for pork for some time yet. Pork and corn gener¬ 
ally bear relative values, and whatever the price of 
corn, it can be turned into pork with profit. But 
the better the machine (or the pig) for working up 
the corn, the greater is the profit. There has been 
a vast change for the better in the stock of pigs and 
hogs, but there is room for further improvement. 
The aim should be to reduce the offal, and produce 
a pig or hog as nearly as possible all bacon and 
hams, and one that will come to market without 
being wintered over. 
Pure Water is as necessary for stock in the winter 
time as in the summer. There is much suffering 
and consequent loss amongst stock for want of 
water. Ice cold water is injurious, and animala 
will not drink enough of it to supply their wants ; 
unless sufficient is supplied, digestion cannot go on 
properly. Water should be given in the yards, 
three times a day. It should be drawn from wells 
