.[August, 
274. 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTURIST. 
Contents for August, 1867. 
.293 
B^n oTnavici' Lyman.4 Illustratiom ^.. 286 
Beans—Pickling 
276 
Bees— Apiai-y for August. 
Blackberries-Prumng„^^^...^^..^ 
-An Eventful Life ■ 
.275 
.275 
.282 
.282 
Black Cap Berries- 
Boys’ and Girls’ 'Department ; Valuable 
Small Piece of Work-Our Artists’ ° 
Nest-Sincere Mourner-Troublesome Slivei-rau 
Division — Puzzles and Problems i oi 
Breath-Experiments-The Home Guards^As on- 
ished Freedman-Newsboy Co 7 °®P«;dent_Gieat 
Family Meeting...4 llluMns. .297-298 
Buckwheat as a Green Crop... 
Clover—When to Turn in. 
Cotton—Future Prospects at South... 
Crop Keports and Prospects. " 9~s 
Editorial Jottings in Europe... ‘ 
Pairs—Times and Places of Holding.. ^ 
Farm Work in August. 
Fence-Fixed and Movable. ^ lllustratmm. 
Fields—Larger Wanted. 
Flower Garden and Lawn in August. 
Flowers-Deer Grass. Illustrated 
Flowers—Wild. 
Fruit Garden in August.- 
Garden—Kitchen in August. 
Georgia Fruit Lands..'' ’ 
Grain Cutting and Curing. i Illustrations 
Grapes—Cold Grapery in August.•.276 
Grass Lands-Top Dressing.231 
Green and Hot-Houses in August.^. . 
Household Department—Dashes at Housekeeping with 
a Free Pencil—Canning Fruit—Milk-Rack—Learn¬ 
ing from Everybody—Leaves from Housekeeper’s 
Journal - Flowers — Leisure Wanted — Pumpkin 
Pies—Leaves from Diary of Young Housekeeper- 
Drying Corn—Cheeses—Canning Peaches—Visiting 
—Basement Lean-to.4 Illustrations. 297 
Insect Enemies.282 
Liming Land. 
Market Reports.276 
Muck Mines—Work them.285 
Orchard and Nursery in August. 27o 
Ox-Yokes—How to Make them.5 Illustrations. 
Oyster Shells—Money in.282 
Picnic and How to go to it.281 
Poultry—American Poultry Society, 
Premiums—Special for August.276 
Reading for Boys and Girls.296 
Rotation of Crops in Eastern Pennsylvania.288 
Seeds—Care of.. 293 
Sheep—Imported Cotswold... Illustrated. .290 
Shrews or Shrew Mice. Illustrated. .^8 
Snakes—Rattlesnake and Copperhead... .Illustrated. .283 
Squares in Cities—Neglected.293 
Strawberry Show—American Institute.281 
Strawberries—Notes on.10 Ulustratioiis. 
Varieties Mixing—Where Shown.292 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 44—Criticisms— 
Petroleum Paint—Potato Growing—Clover the Sec¬ 
ond Year—Fowls in the Garden—Corn for Manure ' 
-'-^Summer Fallowing—Price of Wheat.288-289 
Weeds—Destroying,.293 
INDEX TO “ basket,” OB SHOETER ARTICLES. 
Ag. Societ’s, Proposals,.280 Information IVanted.. 
AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK. AUGUST, 1867. 
American Naturalist... .280 
Animals, Exhibiting_279 
Ashes, Leached, etc.280 
Barley, Early Sowed....279 
Chemistry of the Farm. .273 
Death, Jno. A. King... .280 
Death. Thomas Brown. .280 
Deutzia, Double.280 
Draining, Ag’l, etc. 
Fairs, Announcing.. 
Fairs, Officers_'... 
Harvest, Results of.. 
Humbugs, Sundry... 
.279 
...279 
...278 
...280 
...278 
.280 
.280 
.279 
.279 
.280 
Invention, Lady’s. 
Manure Frauds_ 
Mass. Ag’l. College 
Music Store.. 
Naturalist, American... .280 
Pork Raising.279 
Poultry Breeding.280 
Pump, Portable.280 
Remittances.278 
Robins, Plea for.280 
Schrseder’s Bromus.280 
fStrawberries, Notes on..280 
Things by Mail.280 
ISaclc Volumes Supplied.- The back volumes 
of tl:e Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with rural life, 
out-door and iiirdoor. and the last ten volumes makeup 
a very complete library. Each volume lias a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We liave on 
hand, and print from stereotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
that is, Vol. 16 to Vol. 2-5, inclusive. Any of tlicse 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $l.:fto if taken at the office). Tlie volumes, 
neally bound, are supplied for $2 eacli, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numliers of the past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents each. 
After the rush and weariness of harvest is over, 
together with the anxieties attendant on the press 
orsummer work, when the crops are growing well, 
when corn is beyond hoeing, and huclcAvlieat and 
turnips all sowed, farmers and their Rimilies ought 
to enjoy a few holidays. The Fourth of July finds 
us in the midst of hoeing, and haying, and cutting 
grain. We need an August festival, and as there is 
none in our national or popular calendar, we 
ought to take each his independent little play spell 
M-a visit to a friend; or in neighhorhood parties, to 
go into the mountains, or to the sea-side, and bake 
clams, catch fish, and make choivdcr. 
Farmers ought to visit one anothei-, and the agri¬ 
cultural clubs and societies of adjoining towns or 
counties can do few wiser things than appoint com¬ 
mittees to visit and report upon the farming prac¬ 
tices of tlieir neiglihors in the districts which lie 
just beyond the circuit of ordinary communication. 
The relaxation will be conducive to happiness and 
health, and to the enlargement of ideas. The crop 
of new thoughts wliich will be sown or garnered in 
new fields, will be worth more to any wide awake 
man, or woman, than months of plodding at home. 
The long continuance of rains and prevailingly 
wet weather has in some measure disturbed the reg¬ 
ularity of the harvest. Gr.ain, as usual, has been 
deemed of more importance than grass, and so the 
latter has suffered, if either. In many cases, both 
have been caught; cutting at the proper time has 
been delayed, and injury has occurred to crops that 
grew and matured finely. Too ripe grass makes 
poor hay. The remedy is one wdiich very few faim- 
ers will apply’. It is to cook or steam the hay. If 
this is done, the hardest and ripest hay becomes 
digestible and is readily eaten, and seeds of sorrel, 
dock, and daisies are killed. Those who steam 
their fodder express the view that even very poor 
feed is thus made equal to the best uncooked. Cer¬ 
tain it is, that witli a slight flavoring of oil-cake or 
corn meal, all is eaten up, and the stock thrive. 
If we have any dry weatliei*this summer, it will 
probably come in August, and afford opportunity 
to do the usual drought work. The muck swamps 
will call for a good deal of labor from all who value 
swamp muck as they should, in their barn-yards and 
compost heaps. In draining swamps, the outlet is 
first determined upon and, if the ditch is to be an 
open one, as is usually the case, the trench is begun 
at that place. This is different from the -way of 
laying tile-drains, because, if the tiles were laid first 
at the outlet, they would be filled up wdth silt from 
the muddy water which would flow through them 
as long as any work was done at the drains above, 
and longer too. Swamps covered with alders and 
other shrubs and small trees, are best cut over in 
winter, and then the next summer, when dry, they 
may be drained, the stumps and roots pulled out 
by oxen, and laid in heaps to dry, while the rest- 
of the land is grubbed over or plowed, if dry enough. 
A man of a little contrivance will devise several 
ways of using the power of oxen or horses to grea t 
advantage in this work. Chains and strong levers, 
and perhaps a pair of blocks and tackle, singly or 
in combination, "will tear out any of the stumps and 
roots of common peaty swamps. The peat or 
inuclv should he thrown out in heaps to dry’, and it 
is best to top the heaps with that which is most 
earthy and crumifly, as this prevents the'more dense 
or “fat” portions from baking into hard lumps. 
Thus treated, after a few iveeks it may become dry 
enough to compost with lime, and be made fit to 
use in the stables as an absorbent of liquid manure. 
If, however, it hakes very hard and lumpyg though 
comppsted, it will hardly be made fine and dry 
enough, but will have to be exposed to freezing 
through the cold season. After that, it will proba¬ 
bly need no other treatment to he made fit for use. 
In regard to the draining of lands in general, the 
American farmer can have no safer or better guide 
than the work of Col. Wai'ing just published, wdiieh 
is especially full in regard to the preliminary ex¬ 
amination and surveys needed. Much laud besides 
the swamps proper, is best drained in August. 
The hospitalities of the country are extended to 
the city in the heat of summer. If bestowed and 
accepted with that considei-ation which Imsbands 
should exercise for their wives, and friends for 
friends, these visits of city cousins, of sous Avith 
their families, and of old friends Avith Avives and 
babies, Avill bring great enjoyment and good to all. 
The man or Avoman who overworks and breaks 
down in the hot Aveather, has niucli less chance to 
build up again, and become strong and Avell, than 
if the prostration occurred in the more bracing 
Aveather of other seasons. Farmers, beware of over- 
Avorking your sons, allow no excuse for laziness, 
but impose only light Avork, not straining to hack 
or muscles. The small stature and crooked foims 
of many once promising and handsome boys tell 
too plainly against their fathers, avIio Avillingly 
accepted all the hard farm AVork Avhicli the energy 
and pride of their sons prompted them to perform. 
Sliiats Alsoiit Worlc. 
A.ninials at Pasture .—^Look to the water supply, 
and see that no animals sutler for it. Nothing but 
absolute starvation pulls them down in condition 
faster than thirst. In the very hottest and dryest 
weather, horses get little good in the field, unless 
they liaA’e thickets and woods to stand in, and get 
away from flies. It is he.st to stable horses during 
the heat of the day, if one has no use for them,,and 
turn them out tOAvards night. Flies are exceedingly 
annoying on damp days, Avhen storms are approach¬ 
ing, and at such times horses should be taken in. 
Give salt regularly, or lieep it in sheltered troughs, 
ahvays accessible to cattle and sheep at pasture, 
aivay’ from the sea shore, Avhere, from 10 to 20 miles 
inland, it is regarded as unnecessaiy. 
Sheep should have their noses tarred; rams should 
he separated from the cavcs, and lambs of suitable 
age and vigor, Aveaned. In Aveaning lambs, put 
the ewes on the dryest pastures, but leave the 
lambs Avhere they are nceustomed to be, with a 
few large AA’cthers lor flock-leaders. They should 
be out of hearing of one another’s calls. The ewes 
should bo driven several evenings into pens and 
examined, and if their bags are tender, caking, or 
hot, they should be milked. 
Ifilch Cows need regular feeding Avith some green 
fodder as the pastures get dry ; yarded, and thus fed 
in the evening, the gain in manure, to say nothing 
of the milk, pays avcU for the trouble. 
Swine.—G'r\-Q plenty of green food. If there are 
no Avecds to pull or moAV for them, then cut clover 
or grass. The trimmings along fences, and sods 
cut Avherever the ordinary Held culture cannot ex¬ 
tend, are excellent. Some fresh earth, either upon 
the roots of Aveeds or in sods is essential to 
health. Charcoal is very beneficial, and plenty 
of fresh Avater desirable. At all CA’cnts, the hogs 
should have daily a good drink of pure Avater, no 
matter hoAV liquid their usual food,and last,not least, 
they should have a dry, clean, bed at all seasons. 
Wounds upon animals, at this season of flies and 
quick mitrefaction, need the most jn-ompt atten¬ 
tion. Wo know of no better application than hot 
liine tar, (not hot enough to burn.) 11^ may be put 
on alone, or as a plaster upon a piece of cotton 
cloth. Look especially to the heads of rams. 
Poultry. _It is desirable to shorten the moulting 
season as much as possible. To this end feed Avell 
and o-ivc range, or green food, dail}’. Make the most 
liberal provision for their diist-haths; a box 
Avith mixture of coal and Avood ashes, sifted, and 
kept Avhere it will ncA’cr get Avet is best. Give 
them the range of stubble fields, if possible. 
(7t„.,,,._Little good Avill be done by ploAving or 
hoeing after the first of August. Weeds should be 
pulled by hand if they groAV large. Let the suckers 
alone; they are often needed for fertilizing tiic tips 
of the ears. If corn is blown doAvn, it is usually 
best to let it get up as it best can, yet if the field be 
entered at once, certainly Avithin 12 hours, it may 
be helped a good deal. Take care not to crack the 
stalk, bend it, or injure the rootsTis is often done. 
