163 
AME RICAN ACRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Contents for May, 1867. 
AMERICAN 
AERICIJLTIJRIS T. 
Jlilanthus Tree. 
A Look into the Sea. Illustrated. 
Aphiry for May... 
Baskets for Sitting Hens. Illustrated. Al'i 
Black Bear. Illustrated . .VXZ 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—Boy Training—Baby Nod— 
Greedy Dick—Puzzles—Answers to Problems and 
Puzzles—The Doctor’s Talks-To See Three Thumbs 
—A Childish Conceit —Please Don’t—A Life-like 
Portrait—Handsome is that Handsome does Geo¬ 
graphical Problem.0 Illustrations. . 187-188 
Castor Oil Bean Culture . Illustrated. .Td 
Coffee Roaster. 3 Elustrations. .1^% 
Cold Grapery in May.10^ 
Cotton Culture.ll'S 
Cranberry Culture.183 
Crevecoeur Fowls . Elustrated. .1(3 
Cultivating Orchards.182 
Dog Statistics.175 
Farm Work for May.102 
Flower Garden and Lawn in May. 164 
Foot Rot in Sheep.178 
Fruit Garden in May.163 
Garden—Kitchen in May.163 
Green and Hot-IIouses in May.164 
Horse Hay Forks, Harpoons and Grapples . 13 ElusVns .. 170 
Household Recipes.180 
Housekeeper’s Journal, Prize Essay...,.185 
Indian Com Culture . Illustrated. .Vt9> 
Large Root Crops.174 
Markets.160 
Moose—Male and Female. . .Elustrated . .IQi 
New Way to Trap Rats. 178 
Orchard and Nursery in May.163 
Origin of Forced Drones.N..171 
Pennsylvania Agricultural College. 174 
Pleuro-Pneumonia.175 
Polar Bear ., — Elustrated.. 173 
Poultry Fancier’s View.2 Elustratkms . .VTl 
Premiums.165 
Raspberries and Black Caps.183 
Sex of the Strawberry.3 Elustrations . .181 
Silver-striped Bamboo . Elustrated.. 181 
Spring Adonis . Elustrated. .182 
Sweet Herbs...182 
Sweet Potato Culture.. 183 
Texas Murrain. .'.173 
Thinning Ornamental Trees.184 
Tim Bunker on Jim Crow.174 
Tree Doctoring and Our Doctrine.183 
Trouble with Seed.184 
Two or Ten per Cent. .177 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 41—Moreton Farm 
—Corn — Drains — Feeding Oil and Cotton - Seed 
Cake—Beans—Scalding Peas.170-171 
Wlute-flowering Shrubs. .. . 2 Illustrations. .18^ 
Work—Baskets & Bags—Prize Essay.16 Illustrations. .18^ 
INDEX TO “ BASKET,” OK SIIORTEK ARTICLES. 
Am. Fruit Culturist. 168' 
American Pomology.167 
Am. Pomological Soc’y. .168 
Angora Goats.168 
Answers to Correspon’ts.l66 
Barometer Challenge_169 
Boxes for Butter.168 
Bringing up Sandy Land. 168 
Carrying Money Abroad. .164 
Corn Dropper.168 
Criminal Abortion.167 
Dog Law in Conn.168 
Experience Commended. 166 
Farm—Our New.169 
Farms Advertised.169 
Fence Posts.169 
Going to Paris.169 
Gravel Houses.168 
Half Dollar Earned.166 
Humbugs.167 
Hydraulic Rams.168 
Manures—What to Buy. .169 
Marrow Squash for Stock. 169 
Mr. Judd and Office.167 
Osage Orange. .167 
OiiFNcw Farm.169 
Paper, New.168 
Plastering, &c.168 
Poultry Matters.168 
Price of Farm Labor... .169 
Repeating Shot-Gun.167 
Roller Wniffletree..168 
Sale of Short-homs.166 
Showers of Brimstone... I(i8 
Slow Torture.169 
Snow's Last Winter.168 
Strawben-y Exhibition.. .168 
Trial of Plows, etc.169 
l*eriivia.n. Hlaize. —We learn from Mr, E. 
G. Squier, that he ordered a supply of the Peruvian 
Maize, (see p. 319,1866,) as he supposed in abundant time 
for it to arrive early this spring. Up to this time we 
have heard nothing further of it. If it does not come by 
or before the first of May, it will be too late to give it a 
fair trial this year, which we shali very much regret. 
Back Volumes Supplied.— The back volumes 
of tl:e Agriculturist are very valuable. Tliey contain 
information upon every topic connected with rural life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last ten volumes makeup 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from stereotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
1857—that is, Vol. 16 to 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. 
NEW-TORK. MAY, 1867. 
April is called “fickle, frail and fair,”—“ tearful” 
and “ sighing.”—Wc talk about April showers and 
May flowers, and about smiling and blushing May, 
as if April were the cold and rainy month in which 
sunshine was the exception and drizzly spring rains 
the rule—and even that rule not to be depended 
upon. Not so. May is the fickle sister, whose 
smiles are caxiricious, whose promises are frail. 
We usually have fine dry weather in April, which 
enables us to finish up a great deal of work and get 
ready for May planting. So it has been this year. 
The spring Avas very late in March, but the warm 
Aveather early in April dried the ground, enabled 
farmers to plow, haul manure, and get their spring 
grain in very well. We fear in consequence of so 
fine an April, a cold May, but the long lingering 
of winter gives hope against this. Nevertheless we 
must repeat our caution against too early planting 
the main crops of Indian corn, beans and roots, ex¬ 
cept potatoes, for you Avill lose seed, by its rotting 
in the ground; or the weeds will get such a start, 
that carrots, parsnips, mangel wurtzels or beets will 
be choked, if they come up, before they can be 
hoed. Sow all such seeds when the ground is dry 
and warm, and not before. 
Take care to cultivate no more land than you can 
do Avell by, without working yourself to death, or 
OA’erworking either teams or men. This will secure 
thoroughness, and larger profits if not larger crops. 
Make provision for work to fiil up all the “ spare 
time,” so that you will not have any. That is—for 
rainj' days, and days when the ground is wet and 
can not be worked. A few roods of carrots or beets, 
for stock, are excellent for this, because they must 
be hand-Aveeded and thinned out on damp and 
rainy days. Give men and teams always good long 
“ noon spells,” but exact promptness to begin 
work, and Avillingness to stick to it and do it Avell. 
To “Gentlemen Farmers” Ictus say—know bow 
to handle every tool, and if you do not noAv, prac¬ 
tice “ on the sly ” until you can shoAV any aAvkAvard 
man how he should do his work. You gain much 
by beating a workman at his own trade, and it is 
very easy to do it, if you have a modicum of knack 
and common sense. You may almost always cal¬ 
culate with certainty, on mind against muscle, with 
a quill or a croAvbar. Learn to judge accurately 
and justly of a good day’s or hour’s work, not by 
what you can do yourself, but by what an active, 
thorough man can do, Avhen you are Avith him. 
Bear down as hard as you please on the shirks; they 
will wince, but stand it, and perhaps do better. If 
you are unjust to a faithful man, he will be very 
apt to “ flare up ” and quit, as he should, if he can 
not serve you without lowering his own self-respect. 
Elevate your men, by your just dealings Avith them, 
interest in them, and care for their improvement. 
Furnish them reading for Sundays and evenings. 
Give them such papers as this, and such books as 
the Agricultural and Horticultural Annuals, Her¬ 
bert’s Hints to Horse-keepers, Johnson on Peat, 
the Hop, Flax, Onion or Tobacco culture hand¬ 
books, etc., etc. point out particular vieAvs as ex¬ 
pressed in other books, Avhich you use as guides 
to practice.—The practice will surely pay. 
Hints Al»oiit Worlc. 
What would you give if your land—.all of it— 
were now dry enough to plow ? Would it not be 
Avorth $5 an acre to you more this very year and 
every year ? Five dollars is ten per cent, interest 
on $ 50 , which it would cost to drain it, grade it, 
and put it in excellent shape—and after all in nine 
cases in ten, $5 would not represent half the profit. 
The article on draining in the Agiucultural Annual 
is full of good ideas and suggestions to any one 
who Avishes to be thorough in his farming, and this 
is the season when a man’s needs press upon him 
the consideration of this very important subject. 
Spring Grains .—It is seldom AVorth while to sow 
oats, barley or sxiring wheat, unless it can be done 
during the dry Avarm sxiells Avhich Ave ahvays get. 
some time in March or Aiiril. This Aveather some¬ 
times lingers into May, being broken up more or 
less, and sometimes comes all together, four or five 
weeks of it. If you are caught by cold rains, com¬ 
ing the last of April or early in May, let the spring 
grains go, and put something else in the land. 
Corn manured in the hill, or, if the soil is fit, roots 
of some kind. This is a general rule, but AV'hen the 
rains are early and apparently over before the mid¬ 
dle of the month, good croxis of Avheatare occasion¬ 
ally obtained, and oats may be x^rofitably sown 
Avhen straAV for fodder is the principal desideratum, 
but the early soAvn alw.ays yield the best grain. 
Hoot Crops. —See hints given last month in regard 
to roots that will bear early sowing. In field cul¬ 
ture do not XAut the drills too close, 20 inches is near 
enough for carrots, and 2 feet for mangels .and beets. 
Tlie soil for Parsnips must be deex> and AV'cll en¬ 
riched throughout—no shalloAV culture will do at 
all. They do Avell in heavy, clayey loam. Soav when 
the gi'ound is Avarm, in drills, 20 inches to 2 feet 
axiarl, according to the depth and richness of the 
soil, and the size to AA'hich the roots will groAV. 
The toxAS will in a measure correspond, and should 
have space to expand. Delay sowing Rutabagas 
(Swedish turnips) until June. All these crops 
should be hoed by horse power; and there are 
several horse hoes, Avell adapted to the purpose. 
Weeding in the drills, and thinning the very young 
plants, must be done by hand, and on rainy days, 
or towards night. On fair days, only Avhen the 
ground is moist. Should the hot sun strike the 
young plants within 12 to 15 hours after the soil 
about them has been disturbed, a great many might 
disappear at once Never let the Aveeds get a start, 
if you do, a dry hot Bxaell in June Avould almost 
entirely x^revent proper Aveeding, and the crop 
would be lost. Soak beet seed in hot Avater, keep¬ 
ing it blood Avarm 24 hours. 
Corn. —Be in no hurry about planting. There is 
a tendency to err in planting too Large varieties, 
and those that need a long season. This leads to 
planting too far apart. On soils properly m.anured 
3X X 3X feet is far apart enough for the hills of our 
largest flint corn, and 4 feet each way, right for 
dent corn. The little northern A'arieties should be 
much closer; sown in drills, 3 feet axiart, and stalks 
left 8 inches apart in the drills, very heavy crops 
are often obtained. The roots of corn Avander a 
good AV.ay, hence on only moderately enriched land 
the plants must stand further apart. Corn rarely 
begins to grow before the middle of June, and if 
well up by the last of this month or the first of 
next, it is Avell enough. 
Rroom Corn. —Use a little manure in the hill, 
Xilanting on a good SAvard. Lime slaked Avith brine 
is adA'isable, harrowed in at the rate of abont 20 to 
50 bushels to the acre, if the sod is infested Avith 
Avire or cut worms. Ashes and x^laster mixed, in 
the hill, or dropped upon it, is a good apxilication. 
The culture is, in short, much like com, except 
more seed is sown. The plant does not do so avcU 
on stiff soils, and should not be exposed to early 
frosts. The hills should stand 2)^ feet apart, in 
rows 3 feet aXAart. Plant before the main crop of 
corn (1st to 15th of this month). 
Plax .—Go through and Aveed carefuliy by hand, 
when the plants arc 2 to4 inches high, let the Aveed- 
ers be bare-foot; children are best employed. 
Hemp may be sown any time this month. Use 4 
to 6 pecks of heaA'y, bright seed, for broad-cast 
sowing. Be thorough in keeping the grass down. 
Cotton .—See articles on culture in this and pre- 
A'ious numbers. 
Castor Bean .—An article on the cultivation of this 
plant on page 171 will rexaay pemsal. 
Tobacco. —The seed-bed, Avhich, having been avcH 
prexAared in a Avarm place and rich soil, Avill be just 
now showing its covering of minute round leaves, 
close to the surface, should be watered with dilute 
liquid manure, from the barn yard, or Avith guano 
water, very dilute, and any Aveeds, showing them¬ 
selves, should be pulled out. Tobacco soAved May 
1st Avill be a little late, but will do very Avell to fill 
out after the first planting—as is usually needed. 
