amekioan ag-rioulturist. 
[Decejiber, 
4:30 
449 
Contents for December, 1867. 
Bats-Elying Foxes. . MX 
Bees—Apiaiy in December. ^ 
Black Alder — 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—A Curious Box—Christmas 
Presents—An Igmorant Engineer—A Ride by Wind 
PQ,yei-_Our Railroad—Garibaldi—Little Tot A 
Bully Rebuked—Send New Puzzles—New Puzzles 
to be Answered — Answers to Problems and Pnz- 
jjleg.-7 Illustrations. .455, 456 
Constitution of a Horticultural Society.447 
Coftan Moth. .3 lUmtrations. .XiZ 
Dog—The Newfoundland. Illustrated. 
Earth Woi-ms in Flowers-pots.451 
Editorial Jottings in Europe.439 
Farm Woi-k in December.. ..430 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December.431 
Foreign Items.447 
Fruit Garden in December.431 
Garden—Kitchen, in December.431 
Gate, Self-closing.3 lUustrations . .450 
Grape Exhibition at 345 Broadway.439 
Grapes and Grape Culture.450 
Grape Growers’ Meeting.438 
Green and Hot-houses in December... . .432 
Horse-stall—An Improved. Illustrated. .4M 
Household Department—What to Do with a Person 
Apparently Drowned—Miss Collins’ Essay, Christ¬ 
mas Tree, Holders, Emory Bags—Diary of a Young 
Housekeeper, Lard, Sausages, Head Cheese, Bread, 
Fiannel Garments, Washing Machines.14 JUus. 453, 454 
Indian Com—Fertilization.3 lUusstrations . .4A^ 
Judging of Fruits at Fairs. 452 
Kidney Vetch. .442 
Lake Shore Grape Growers’ Association.438 
Lilies, Varieties of... Illustrated. 
Lizard’s-tail. Illustrated . .Am 
Market Reports.432 
Orchard and Nursery in December. 431 
Papaw, the. Illustrated. .447 
Pear Culture in Connecticut. 447 
Peat Moss and its Uses. . Illustrated. . 452 
Plum, the Miner... 452 
Poultry—Close Breeding... 444 
Premiums for 1868. .'.433 
Profits of a Small Place.. . !451 
Sable, The American. Illustrated. '.4AX 
Shrubs, Showy Fruited. Illustrated . .XM 
Smoking Meats... Illustrated. 446 
“Solomon in all his Glory’’. Illustrated. 449 
Swine. Breeding of. 444 
Tight Embankments. Illustrated. '446 
Tim Bunker on Base Ball. 444 
Tomatoes, Improvement in. '450 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 48—Experiments 
in Feeding—Cheese Factories—Cost of Keepino' a 
Cow—Of what Flesh is Composed—A Dry Time- 
Page 440, and continued on,. 443 
INDEX TO “basket” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
AbdominalTumor,Horse.437 
Agricultural Annual.434 
Am. Pomolcgical Soc’y. .438 
Asphaltum Moors.43' 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
NEW-YORK, DECEMBER, 1867. 
Balsam Fir. 135 
Barberry Hedges. 435 
Bam Cellars. 435 
Boston Fun. 434 
Bottling Cider. 436 
Buckwheat Shortcake.. .435 
CastorBeanB,BroomCom .434 
Cheap Homes. 437 
Chess. 437 
Chromo-Li thography. 436 
Clearing Timbered Land .438 
Clotty Milk. 437 
Com in Drills. 435 
Correction, A. 438 
Cost of Sheep. . 437 
Cotton and Manure_ 43 'T 
Cotton Culture,Work on.434 
Cows Holding up Milk. .437 
Crops in Europe.437 
Dictionary, a Good. 436 
Drains, Difficulty with.. .438 
EarlyQoodrichPotatoes. .437 
End of the Volume.434 
Facts about Peat.437 
Farm Boiler.” ‘437 
Farmers’ Home Journal.437 
Farming in Colorado... .437 
Fattening Food, Horses ..438 
Feeding Cabbages.4.37 
Feeding Fowls.435 
Fine Marigolds.4.35 
Fruit Preserving House .438 
Fuchsias won’t Bloom. ..4,35 
Good Papers.436 
Good Religious Paper! "4.34 
Grapes from California. .438 
Grape Growers’ Meeting. 4.38 
Grape Trellis.435 
Ground Vinery.!!!! 435 
Hanging Baskets.! 4,33 
Harrison Potato.., 437 
HeaMngSmallGreenhousk35 
Herbaceous Perennials. 4:35 
A^'^^'.Seeds?.. . 438 ; 
Iowa State Fair. 4.33 
Journal of the Farm.. !437 
Jujube.435 
Lake Mahopac.!! !435 
Large Beets.' '435 
Letters, Once More.!!.. 435 
Lifting Stones. 433 
Lilies inD. C.!!!.4:i5 
Louisiana Fairs.434 
Mass. Ag’l College.! !435 
Mathushek Pianos.434 
Mowing Machines and 
John Bull.437 
Muck —500 Loads of...! !437 
Native Woods. 433 
Nebraska Plums...!!.'! .'4,35 
News Boy’s Lodging . .!!436 
New Year s Present.4.36 
No Grafts, No Seeds.434 
Now IS the Time to Re¬ 
new. 430 
Oysters in Salt Lake..4,37 
Penn. Hort’l Society...!!434 
Plants in Rooms.435 
Plowing with One Line..437 
Profitable Investments ...436 
Propagating Oleander. ..4.3.5 
Registered Letters.433 
Russian Sweet Potatoes.'.434 
Salt and Lime.437 
Selecting Seed Corn.... 437 
Soldering Iron.437 
Sewghum and its Products4.37 
Some Pumpkins”.435 
Strawberry Tree.435 
Sugar Cane in Nevada.! !434 
isgd'tefe.g 
SS“#eSr. 
Vaults with Coal'Ashe's'.:4.38 
Ventilation of Soil. 437 
Vergalieu Pears.!'''43.5 
Vmegarfrom Sorghum.!437 
Watercress. 
Watering Troughs.!!!!!!437 
Weed—A Bad .433 
HoStriVnrar'''li^S 
Increase Clubs Now "' ' 4 '% ®"g>and.435 
Indiana State Pair 
Hail winter, the resting time of vegetable life. 
We gather strength in sleep, and by repose. So 
do the animals, to which man is so close akin in his 
physical and even intellectual structure. Plants 
also undergo internal changes which fit them lor 
the new life of the spring. The maple stem con¬ 
tains little sugar during the season of growth, but 
gains it from the changes which occur to the con¬ 
tents of its cells during the period of rest. The 
grasses and winter grains ripen their roots, so to 
spe.ak, and we presume that no vegetables which 
maintain their vitality through the cold season, ap¬ 
proach the spring unchanged, but they are better 
prepared to commence anew growth. The soil firmly 
bound by the frost fetters is no exception to the 
rule of improvement. Simple freezing is very bene 
ficial, freezing and thawing still more so, and the 
more thorough the exposure to the action of the 
elements, the greater the advantages. Particles of 
plant food, before unavailable, are brought into a 
condition to be dissolved by water, and taken up 
by the plants. Stiff clays are ameliorated, peaty 
soils are made friable, and a volume might be writ¬ 
ten on the good effects of frost on the soil. It 
makes up to the dwellers in the temperate and 
frigid zones the lack; of the intenser action of warm 
airs, moisture, fermentation, and decay upon the 
soil and its constituents, occurring in the tropics. 
Rest is not a folding of the hands in idleness, that 
is rxist, or its equivalent. A change is more resting 
than a cessation of labor. If the hands rest, let us 
set the brain at work, and let the social qualities 
find useful employment, for thus shall we be in¬ 
vigorated in body and mind, and all the better pre¬ 
pared for hard work when it comes. After all, the 
rest of winter, to most farmers, is more in change 
of work than in anything else. Work enough 
may be done in the shortest day to give any man 
good digestion, and to soften even a bed of straw. 
The interest in Farmers’ Club meetings, and in 
other similar gatherings, will flag, if especial eflibrts 
be not made by those who have the ordering of 
them to make every meeting attractive by drawing 
out from the members fiicts useful to all, imparting 
some practically useful knowledge, giving away 
seeds, grafts, roots, duplicate catalogues and circu¬ 
lars, etc. Here let us drop a hint, which, in our 
experience, has always worked well. If the secre¬ 
tary, at each meeting, distributes all the articles of 
the kinds enumerated that he has on hand to the 
members present, be they many or few, saving none 
for delinquent or absent ones, the meetings will be 
much better attended. 
The Setrospect.—Tha last month of the year 
upon us. Our volume closes with it, but we neith 
shut our books, nor lay down our pens. The Sa 
bath of the year is for our readers, not for us, wi 
whom every month is like its fellows. Yet ’the 
brief halts upon the march are pleasant, as we ca 
the eye back over the way we have come, and ta] 
our bearings, and make ready to move forward in 
the unknown but hopeful future. The year h 
been one long to be remembered as presenting tl 
anomaly of a parching drought and most damaa-ii 
rams, sweeping hand in hand, as it were, across tl 
continent; yet our prosperity, as an agricultural pe 
pie, is great. Most of our products are sought fi 
at high prices, and we have much to sell. The di 
eases which have threatened our stock, have pass( 
away, means of intercommunication have great 
increased, so that access to markets, with remune 
ative prices are offered even to the corn growers ar 
herdsmen of our out-most borders. Tlie peacef 
conquests of labor and of the strifes of trade a; 
noticeable everywhere. Each section is beir 
bound to the other by cords of iron, and bonds . 
commercial intercourse. The mutual dependence. 
each portion of the country upon the other for re 
prosperity, is every d.ay more strongly apparen 
Hints A1>ont Work:. 
The winter evenings have come, and it is a m.atter 
of the first importance that a portion of them 
should be devoted to the cultivation of the mind. 
The summer has necessarily been devoted to labor. 
In the winter. Nature puts a barrier upon many of 
our labors, and we should take advantage of the in¬ 
terval to read upon topics that have been deferred 
for want of time to discuss them. The mind needs 
cultivation as much as the soil, and it is generally 
the state of the mind that makes farming profitable 
or otherwise. The brain is more and more show¬ 
ing its power every year in economizing farm la¬ 
bor, and no man can afford to remain in ignorance 
of the manifold appliances that help his industry. 
Keep the mind improving, and make all your firm 
operations a means of mental culture. Look back 
over the past year, and see wherein you have made 
bad plans, or failed to cari-y out good ones. De¬ 
termine what practices have been profit.able and 
what ought to be abandoned. Every year’s opera¬ 
tions ought to have its lessons for the thinking 
farmer, and settle some principles. 
Books .—These are becoming more and more nec¬ 
essary upon the farm. The more a man knows, 
the more he needs to know in every calling in life. 
“ A little learning is a dangerous thing.” There has 
been a great mental quickening upon the farm 
within the past ten years, and multitudes of work¬ 
ers have got smattering of the science of agri¬ 
culture. They have got out of the ruts in which 
they were comparatively safe, and have ventured 
upon experiments. They need more light to 
guide them; and to this end they must read the 
writings of men farther advanced than themselves, 
and thus avail themselves of their knowledge. The 
books made by practical farmers, gardeners, and 
fruit-growers, embody the experience of a life-time 
and are invaluable to those who come after them. 
The m.an who masters this experience saves himself 
from a multitude of losses, and puts himself in the 
way to make large gains. “ Draining for Profit ” is 
a book that ought to be in every farmer’s hands. 
Get the best books on your business, and study 
them with a view to following such teachings as 
are adapted to your soil and climate. 
Periodicals. — These are indi&pensable now to 
keep a man abreast of his times. No investment 
pays better than a few dollars in the best agricul¬ 
tural and horticultural journals. Farming is pro¬ 
gressive like the other arts, and there is money 
saved and gained in the hints which these papers 
drop in their monthly or weekly visits. 
Circulating Libraries, will furnish much that one 
is not able to purchase for himself. These should 
be established in every town, and provision made 
for their regular increase. At least exchange books 
and periodicals with your neighbors. They are 
great educators. Your children will read some¬ 
thing, and you may as well direct their education 
as to leave it to others. A home well supplied 
with good books and papers is rarely deserted for 
places of vicious resort. 
Keep your children in the best schools. 
Make the free schools as good as they can be, but 
if there are better, use them. There is no compen¬ 
sation for the loss of the advantages of education. 
Accounts.—'S.a.ye evei^thing settled up by the 
close of this month, and ascertain definitely the re¬ 
sult of the year’s transactions. Know whether you 
have gained or lost, and how much. Farmers are 
more negligent than any other class in this matter. 
They have much barter with their neighbors, and 
at the stoi’e or market town, and often accounts 
run for years without any settlement. They do not 
know how they stand with the world, and cannot 
tell whether any crop they cultivate is a loss or gain 
to them. This is bad farming, and often leads to 
bad morality. Keep accounts and settle them once 
a year, for your own sake as well as your neighbors’. 
Begin the next year with a clean balance sheet. 
Protection agahist Frost .—The cellar may be made 
frost-proof originally, by good underpinning and 
double ghazed windows. If this has not been done, 
make a thick bank of earth, tan-bark, sea weed, or 
