82 
AMERICAN AGRICUETIJRIST, 
[March, 
Contents for March, 1867. 
All the Tear Round.103 
Apiary in March. 8-1 
Apple—New, Dodge’s Crimson. Illustrated. 
Bald Eagle... Illustrated.. 81 
Boys and Girls’ Column—Learn to Use What Ton 
Know—Curious Geographical Problem—A Borer 
Under Water—Don’t be a Coward—Problems and 
Puzzles—Suspense—A Hit at the Editors—How Large 
is the Earth ? —Uncle Paul.6 Illustrations. 
Breeding Young Mares. 95 
Buildings for Agricultural Fairs. 95 
Buildings in Cold Climates. 95 
Canker Worm—Remedy for. 5 Illustrations. .IQH 
Coal Tar and Asphalt for Floors. 91 
Cold Grapery in March. 81 
Concord and Discord Among Grapes.101 
County Agricultural Society—How to Start. 95 
Cow S tables. Illustrated.. 90 
Cranberry Culture. 98 
Drainage—By John Johnston. 98 
Earliness in Vegetables.104 
Farm Work in March. 82 
Flower Garden and Lawn in March. 83 
Fruit Garden in March. 83 
Garden—Kitchen in March. 83 
Gates—Simple Farm. Illustrations.. 91 
Getting a Foiw Turns Ahead...104 
Green and Hot Houses in March. 83 
Hen-Houses—Good and Cheap. 2 Illustrations.. 91 
Hobbies in Horticulture.104 
Houses—Country With City Conveniences.5 Ills.. 91 
Hmisehold Ornaments.3 Illustrations. .1<X> 
Housekeepers’ Diary—Prize Essay—Setting Table- 
Order in Housework—Care of Young Pigs.105 
HousekcCTers’ Journal—Shoe Bag—Pickles—Canned 
Fruit—^Yankee Pic—Apple Pie—Grandfathers and 
Grandmothers.106 
Irrigation—Garden.3 Illustrations. . 93 
Lynx—Canada. lUustrated.. 93 
Ltox—E uropean. lUustrated.. 93 
Markets. 85 
New Trees. ”l03 
Oranges—North and South. lUustrated. .101 
Orchard and Nui’sery in March. 83 
Potatoes—^Valuable Experiments. 90 
Premiums. 84 
Profits from Small Places. 103 
Seeds—Cedar and Thom.103 
Shall We Have an Efficient Dog Law. lUudrated. . 91 
Shall We Have the Address—At Fairs. 95 
Squirrels. Illustrated. .100 
Sweet-Scented Shrub. lUustrated. .101 
Take Care of the Tools. 94 
Tim Bunker on Horse Racing at Fairs. 93 
Vinegar from Apple Pomace".. 94 
Walks and Talks on The Farm No. 39—The Winter on 
Wheat—Comparative Value of Clover Turned tinder 
and Fed Out—Clover Manure and Straw Manure- 
Raising and Storing Roots.90—91 
Willows and Withes. 4 Illustrations.. 92 
INDEX TO “basket,” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agricultural Annual.85] 
Agriculture, Hamilton Col. 88 | 
Always Too Late. 88 ] 
American Cow Milker.87: 
Am. Dairymen’s Ass’n....87 
Am. Journal, Horticulture.87j 
Beans—100 Kinds.87 
Bluifton Wine Company. .88 
Bommer’s Manure Method.87 
Can the Ethiopian Changc.SS 
Catalogues Acknowledcd.. 8 ' 
Cheated by “ Doctors ”.. .88 
Chicory. . 88 
Cockle or VGieat.89 
Cold Grapery. 
Conn. Board of Agrture..89 
Cornea Restorers. 88 
Cotton Planter’s Manual. .88 
Draining to Dry Springs. .89 
Dry Earth."_— 
Experience With Ferrets .88 
Excursion—The Grandest.Sfi 
Farm Proverbs. 88 
Forty Pages Again.85 
Fuller’s Grape Culturist. .86 
Gas Tar for Posts....87 
Good Seeds.87 
Grain from Germany.8(5; 
Green Crops—Timnng in.89 
Home-Made Binding. 88 
Hope for Farmers’ tlub.. .87 
Horticultural Laws, Ill.... 89 
Humbugs at the South... .86 
]Large Barley.87 
Lathing Adobe Walls. 88 
Lime.87 
Liquid Manure Pipe.87 
Map of Maryland.*.. 86 
Mare Foaling.. 8 (> 
Miles on thcHorfses Foot .88 
OlHcers N. Y. Ag’l Soc’y ..86 
Osage Orange on Sod. 88 
Peat and Muck. 88 
Plowing Pasture.89 
Poultry Book. 88 
Pumpkins or Roots ?.89 
Queries.87 
liaising Calves. 88 
Read tne Advertisements.85 
Red-Legged Locust.87 
Selecting Grain Seed.87 
Single Lines in Plowing. .88 
Sorghum Experience.89 
Stimle Article. 86 
S. 8 . Lessons. 86 
Sundry Humbugs. 86 
Supplying Evening Post. .85 
Surprise Oats.87 
Sweet Potatoes.87 
Teeth and Hair. 88 
Temperature for Cliuniing .88 
Ticket Swindlers. 86 
Use for Hickory Withe... g 7 
Vermont Ag’l Society.89 
Washer and Wringer.89 
W’n N. Y. Fruit Growers.87 
Back Volumes Sui>pHed.— The back volumes 
of tl;e Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with rnrai life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last ten volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any de.sired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from stereotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
18;)7—that is, Vol. IGto Vol. 25, inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $ 1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $1,50 if taken at the office). The volumes 
neatly bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of the past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents each. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-TORK, MARCH, 1S67. 
Good or ill success in tlie farming operations of 
the season depend very much upon this month— 
much upon the weather of this most variable and 
uncertain of all changeable periods, and more upon 
the farmer’s own ability, promptness and diligence 
to take advantage of events. There are many 
things in the future that we may calculate upon 
with great certainty, and, planning to take advan¬ 
tage of them., be able to turn the uncertainties to 
our good also. We shall have in March 31 days 
and nights—many frosty nights and cold days; 
some storms and rainy days, cold, clear, drying 
northwest winds lapping up the water over the 
fields and drying the fall-plowed furrows. We 
shall have sunshine too, warming the ground and 
breaking the frost fetters. The snow on the hills 
will melt and the streams will swell, sweeping off 
fences and bridges, perhaps. The roads will be 
broken up, traveling hindered, and mails detained, 
going to mill with grain and to town for needed ar¬ 
ticles, will be a labor to be undertaken only by the 
pressure of necessity. Poultry will be laying, and 
clucking or setting. Foxes, minks and other ver¬ 
min will be prowling about. Calves, lambs and 
pigs will be coming into the world; stock will be 
hungry, and we hope, satisfied also. There is work 
to be done and time to do it in. 
Hints A1>ont Worlc. 
Plans for the Month. —We shall all accomplish 
double the work, if it be well laid out, and it will 
be better done.—“What do we want done?”— 
“ How and wdien shall we do it ? ”—Let us make a 
list of the things we want to do most, and then sec 
how fast we can cancel tliem off as done. 
Hired Labor. —If a farmer does not hire any 
labor now, let it be his aim to employ as many men 
as he profitably can, and make arrangements to do 
so as soon as he can. Hired men are often very 
disagreeable associates, and the wbrst companions 
for one’s children, but this need not be ; lookout 
at once for good, steady, moral men, and sacrifice 
the profits of the farm rather than have a vicious, 
bad fellow about, though his work be never so 
needed. If we do our part to make the men com¬ 
fortable and do them good, few will ill reward it. 
Buildings. —The winds will find out any insecure 
weather boards and shingles, and play mischief 
with the exposed hay stacks and with thatched 
roofs. Have nails and hammer at hand; stop 
leaks ; see that door and shutter fastenings are se¬ 
cure, and that board fences, posts of w'hich are 
loosened by the frost, are not prostrated by the wind. 
Cellars. —Over-haul the roots, put them in bins 
or boxes, or make fresh heaps of sound ones only; 
clean out cellars, air and white wash; stop rat-holes 
with coal tar and mortar, said to be rat-proof. 
Braining .— While 'the frost is coming out of the 
ground, and the soil of plowed side-hills is liable 
to slide, look to it that no water finds its way upon 
such spots, or great damage may ensue. Open 
surface drains with the hoe, pick, or mattock, so 
that surface water may flow off upon sward ground 
or where it will not wash off the soil. Such water 
from cart paths, roads, or plowed fields brings with 
it, upon the meadows and pastures, a wealth of en¬ 
richment, not to be lost. The advantage of 
Irrigation can hardly be over-estimated. If a 
brook can be turned to flow at will (your will) over 
a piece of meadow, even in the crudest and simplest 
way, by all means try it, and then profit by ex¬ 
perience to extend the system, or rather, profit by 
the experience of others and use the best system. 
Grain Fields are especially liable to injury from 
washing, and surface drains on them should be 
kept free. Top-dressings of plaster, bonedust, 
superphosphate, guano, fine fowl-house compost, 
.home-made poudrette and such things are applied 
with great advantage at this season. 
Clover and Grass Seed may be sown on winter grain ; 
best on a still day, after a light snow, which may 
have fallen on frost-cracked and thawing ground. 
Plowing should be done as soon as the ground is 
drj' enough, but not one hour before; better wait a 
week or two than compact the soil, so that it will 
dry into hard clods, which will last for months. 
Peas may be sown as soon as the ground is dry 
enough to plow well, often in March, in this lati¬ 
tude ; they may be sown broad cast, alone or mixed 
with oats, or in drills. On warm, earl}”^ spots the 
drill culture maj' be recommended. The soil should 
be in good order for a heavy crop of oats, and 
deeply plowed, then jilow shallow (4-inch) furrows, 
and in cvei'y third furrow scatter the peas, throwing 
in twelve to fifteen to the running foot. If you 
have time these may be picked for marketing green, 
and if not, the crop will be ripe enough to cut and 
cure, and leave the ground for summer plowing, 
and wheat, cabbages or turnips may follow. 
/Seeds.—Procure, and test the vitality of all seeds. 
Houses need very thorough grooming, and the 
feet and legs should be washed and kept clean, long 
fetlocks trimmed off, and any redness or cracking 
of the skin or heels treated with iiine tar and 
grease, or an ointment of lard and turpentine. 
These applications are either of them very good for 
chafed shoulders, sprains, or harness galls. Blanket 
carefully if exposed to the wind or cold when warm. 
Working Oxen. —Protect from storms ; feed well; 
use the card freely ; impose hard labor gradually; 
have well fitting j okes, and if their necks become 
tender, give a day or two of rest, and grease the 
spot, rubbing the grease well in. Aw'ettowelon 
the neck, with a piece of blanket bound over it, 
kept on one night, and the neck greased well the 
next day, will, it is said, cure a very tender neck 
between Saturday night and Monday morning. 
Cows. —Give good care, personal attention, and 
roomy box stalls to cows about to calve. They 
may need assistance, and suffer much or evmn die 
ibr lack of it. If milk is worth much the 
Calves should be removed from their dams at 
once, and brought up on skimmed milk gruel. Tlie 
cow misses the calf least if she never even licks it; 
but we w'ould rather she should worry more, when 
she loses her calf after a day or two, than deprive 
her of the satisfaction oflovingand licking it awhile. 
Lice, from many causes, show themselves, espe¬ 
cially among ill-kept stock, more in spring than at 
any other season. They cannot stand regular card¬ 
ing and brushing, but if very bad, should be treated 
to an application of alum water, 'with a good I’ub- 
bing, and subsequent carding and greasing, on the 
same day of two or three weeks in succession. 
Mercurial ointment (unguentum), is sure death 
to the lice, and to the ox too, if too much be used. 
A lump as big as a hazelnut, rubbed up with a table, 
spoonful or more of lard is enough for an ox. 
Rub it in behind the horns and along the spine, 
then spread it by thoroughly rubbing with straw. 
Keep the animal from exposure to wet or storms. 
Sheep. —Mutton sheep may be yeaning this month. 
Separate ewes and give them warm quarters, with a 
few extra roots or other feed. 
Hogs. —Isolate breeding sows, give warm pens and 
treatment as before directed. Keep others at work 
in the manure, giving sods, etc., to be worked over. 
Ibultry. —Give chance to run and scratch and dust 
themselves. Save eggs for setting, and make sure 
of a few clutches of early chickens for winter layers. 
Fieldwork of a miscellaneous kind there will be 
no lack of Get out and cart off stones loosened 
by the frost. Reset fence posts, or w'alls, where 
needed, with spuds, spades, and hoes ; clear out the 
bull-thistles, docks, and all biennial weeds that 
show themselves. Remove also any rubbish from 
fields and fence rows. Open ditches and mend roads, 
Mamire. —Haul out while the ground is frozen or 
after it is settled. Spread at once, whether for 
plowing under or for top dressing, but put it on no 
spots where flowing surface water will wash it 
away. It is best to plow it under at once, unless it 
be well made compost, which will bear weathering. 
