98 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
grown, otherwise their appetite for hay will dimin¬ 
ish, before they can gather enough to keep them in 
flesh. Deal liberally with working oxen ; an occa¬ 
sional feed of potatoes will be beneficial, with a 
regular allowance of corn meal or shorts. Give 
roomy stalls to cows about calving, and watch, to 
render them assistance if needed. In breaking 
heifers to milk, avoid teaching them to kick by 
roughly handling their teats when sore. Keep 
these well oiled, and treat them gently at all times. 
Cellars. —Clean out and whitewash at once, if not 
already done. Windows of fine wire gauze, milli- 
net, or “ mosquito cloth,” are useful to admit air 
and exclude insects. If milk be kept there, it 
should be in an apartment separate from the gen¬ 
eral store room. Cement the floors, or lay plank 
flooring wherever it is necessary to walk. 
Clover is an important crop. In no better way 
can a soil be fertilized than by turning under a 
heavy growth of it. The first of this month is a 
good time to scatter seed over old meadows and 
pastures, and especially on winter grain fields. 
Choose the first still morning, when the ground is 
full of little frost cracks, and sow seed liberally 
with or without herds-grass seed—with it if design¬ 
ed for a meadow or pasture for two or three years. 
The seed falls into the frost openings, and ik finely 
covered in thawing. We have seldom failed of a 
good “ catch ” by this method. 
Corn. —Good seed, and either good soil or plenty 
of manure, are the essentials. Corn is one of the 
seeds most readily injured by dampness or heating- 
in the shock or crib. It is always best to test an 
average sample selected from the whole seed in ad¬ 
vance, by sprouting in warm soil. It is much bet¬ 
ter to do this than to Tisk the loss of a crop, or of 
many hills. The seed is the least part of the ex¬ 
pense. Corn is a gross feeder, and revels in plenty 
of manure of any kind. It is a sun plant, and not 
a water one. Rich land , warm and dry—drained if 
at all needed, is what fills the corn crib—and the 
purse. A heavy sod turned under is a good place 
for corn roots to revel in. 
Cranberries have almost always brought a high 
price, and are likely to. Many a useless swamp 
might be turned into a cranberry silver mine, with 
proper skill. We have given considerable informa¬ 
tion on the mode of doing it, in previous volumes. 
Eastwood’s little work (costing 50 cents), gives some 
information on this topic, and is the only book on 
the subject we know of. 
Draining. —“ It pays,” is the testimony of hun¬ 
dreds of our old readers who followed our earnest 
advice and suggestions years ago. While waiting 
for sun and wind to dry out wet land, lay plans to 
prevent such delays in future, and execute these 
plans at the earliest practicable moment. Air is es¬ 
sential to roots growing in a soil. Air and water 
can not both be there at once. Warmth is equally 
necessary, but rapid or slow evaporation of water 
from the surface is like an ice bath. 
Fences. —A rail was thrown down in Winter; an 
ox saw it, and went over, leading his companions; 
they trampled down in a night ten thousand square 
feet of surface, and half spoiled a citizen or twenty 
young fruit trees. Enough said. 
Grain Fields. —A single animal will soon tramp 
out plants that would yield a bushel. See page 38 
(February). If plants are much heaved by frost, a 
roller will often benefit them, if used where the 
ground will not be injured by the team. Fill up the 
bare spots by harrowing or hoeing in spring-wheat— 
better have a crop of mixed wheat on the ready 
prepared ground, than a crop of weeds. Carefully 
clean the dead furrows, and outlets of under-drains; 
a small amount of back water may kill out a bush¬ 
el of grain, which two minutes time would save. 
Grass Seed. —See on Clover. Grass seed may be 
sown at the last harrowing in of oats or other 
spring grain. The lighter the covering the better. 
Hedges. —It is high time to set Osage Orange 
plants, for at any point where they will flourish, the 
ground is now ready to work. We should not set 
them north of 40°, as a general rule. Let some : 
body else test the White Willow. Buckthorn will 
answer in many northern localities. Clean up the 
useless hedge rows along the fences; they are nur¬ 
series of foul weeds, and vermin. 
Hogs will probably be in better demand next Au¬ 
tumn, than during the past year, and the pigs should 
be cared for. Good food to the sows will reappear 
in the sucking pigs and produce earlier and more 
rapid development. 
Horses .—Inure them to hard work, gradually. 
Have a merciful harness; a hard spot or badly ad¬ 
justed draught may give them constant pain, and 
consequent loss of flesh, and produce a serious gall¬ 
ing or sore. More work; more strengthening 
grain. Washing off mud and sand from the feet and 
rubbing down at night, will give them comfort and 
vigor, and may save scratches or other sores. Mares 
near foaling can not do hard work and bear good 
progeny : a hard day’s drive may take $10 from the 
value of a colt 
Manures. —Don’t leave any to “ waste its sweet¬ 
ness in the desert air,” while rotting all Summer in 
the barn-yard corners, in the pig stys or hen roosts, 
or in the privies. Every shovelful put under or 
around crops and trees will reappear greatly mul¬ 
tiplied in the graiu bin, corn crib, or fruit cellar, 
before the season is over. No manufactured fer¬ 
tilizer purchased can equal the barn-produced ma¬ 
terial. After all this is used, it will do to try gen¬ 
uine Peruvian guano, superphosphate made of tin- 
burned bones and not mixed with cheap matters, and 
a few other honestly made fertilizers made up prin¬ 
cipally of animal matters. 
Meadows .—It is easier and cheaper to pick up a 
stone now, than to grind a scythe in haying time ; 
to remove bushes and stubs now than to mend 
scythe snaths then. A roller settles the frost- 
heaved roots, and sinks the hummocks and small 
stones. Fill up the bare spots by sowing seed. 
Cattle droppings in heaps, if scattered with a long 
handled mallet, will fertilize several square feet in¬ 
stead of spoiling one. Fine manure, or ashes, or 
lime, spread broadcast as a top-dressing, will show 
itself in the hay mow, after (not) many days. 
Oats are relatively the highest priced grain iu our 
market—75 to 83 cents a bushel just now. Where 
the insect is not feared, they are w r orth looking af¬ 
ter. The earlier they can be sown the better. They 
like good soil but not too much rich manure, or 
the straw will grow rank and fall. 
Onions often pay well as a field crop. Any one 
cultivating them will find it well worth while to 
consult the lengthy, full directions given by 17 
practical men in our onion book, which costs but 
two dimes. See advertisement on page 127. 
Pastures .—The young grass shoots that would 
hardly make a bite for an animal now, will, after a 
few weeks growth, afford several mouthfuls of 
good nourishing forage. Ergo —keep animals off 
from the pasture until well started. Sheep gnaw 
so closely as to give the grass no chance to start. 
Fertilize and fill up pastures the same as meadows. 
Plowing .—See page 112. Remember that all the 
soil below you is yours, and appropriate a little 
more of it every year. Too much of the new soil 
brought up at one time may injure the whole for 
the first crop, though not afterwards. 
Potatoes —Plant early on good, mellow clean 
soil. Coarse, or thoroughly rotted manure is best; 
fermenting manure is not always safe. Ashes or 
lime is generally useful, in the hill or whole soil. 
Poultry .—More rations, more eggs. Fresh meat 
while insects are wanting, is the basis of eggs. 
Ashes or lime to roll in, helps them to keep off in¬ 
sects. Greasing the roosting poles smothers the 
insects on them. 
Roads on the Farm .—A stone removed, or a root 
pulled up, may save a broken wagon or harness, 
and perhaps a balky horse. We find coal ashes and 
cinders make the hardest and best walks and pub¬ 
lic street crossings without raising high ridges. 
Rye .—The same remarks apply to winter rye as 
to wheat. We areunable to say much about spring 
rye, and would like to hear from those who can. 
Sheep were never before in greater demand, or at 
higher prices. Every lamb will be worth saving 
and nursing. Take good care of the ewes; shelter 
from cold and rains, and separate them from the 
rest of the flock. Keep them in good heart; feed 
sparingly, if at all, with grain ; they should be in 
good health, but not fat. Tag locks and filth 
should be removed from their udders and elsewhere. 
Sorghum. —Prepare the soil the same as for corn, 
and plant as early as the ground and season will ad¬ 
mit, covering very lightly. We prefer 3X feet 
drills, the seed sown thickly, and when well start¬ 
ed thin out to 10 or 12 inches apart in the row, 
leaving the best stalks. 
Tobacco .—See pages 108 and 104. 
Tools .—We can not too often impress the fact, 
that two men with first-rate implements will do as 
much as three men with poor ones, while the dif¬ 
ference in cost is not great. To be short of good 
implements is the worst economy, especially in 
these times of scarcity of help, and high wages. 
Trees add to the beauty, comfort, and saleable val¬ 
ue of a farm. A purchaser will pay much more 
for a farm with a few well arranged trees; it look's 
better to him, though he may not notice why. 
Fruit trees are of course doubly valuable. 
Wieai .—See grain fields above. Spring wheat 
will come in well to fill the bins and take to market 
in Autumn. Sow at the earliest date the ground 
will do to work. After frosts will seldom injure it. 
Orchard and Nursery. 
This will be a busy time with both the seller 
and the purchaser of trees. The nurseryman 
will now experience the utility of preparatory 
work. If a good stock of trees was heeled in 
last Fall, in anticipation of the Spring sales, and 
if labels and packing materials are at hand, a large 
amount of orders can be rapidly dispatched. The 
conscientious nurseryman will never send out a 
badly-grown plant or one about which there is 
any doubt as to the name, nor will he substitute a 
variety which he has for one which is not in stock. 
To those who buy trees we say, deal directly with 
the nurseryman, and do not buy of traveling tree- 
pedlars. Consider that an orchard is generally 
planted for a life-time, and a little care now will 
save much future vexation. In the first place, find 
out what varieties of fruit have done well and arc 
most salable in your locality, and make the main 
planting of such sorts. Doubtful and fancy kinds 
can be sparingly planted by way of experiment. 
Having determined what to plant, send the order 
directly to the nearest reliable nurseryman. If you 
kuow of none, look over our advertisements. It 
will be better to pay the cost of freight from a dis¬ 
tance, than to plant unreliable trees if they were 
furnished without cost. If not ready to set out the 
trees as soon as they are received, dig a trench 
large enough to hold the roots, and set them in as 
close as they will stand, and cover the roots well 
with earth. Should trees become shriveled from 
drying, dig a trench and bury the whole, branches 
and all. In a few days they may be taken out 
plump and bright. 
Apple Trees should be planted early. Manure 
well and thoroughly plow the soil intended for 
the orchard. Stake the trees as soon as they are 
planted. Old trees should be cleansed as directed in 
basket note on page 103, and have a dressing of ma¬ 
nure and ashes spaded in about the roots. See list 
of varieties adopted by the Fruit-Growers’ Meeting, 
on page 115. 
Drainage .—Except in a naturally dry subsoil, 
drains should be laid in the orchard. Stone sewers 
or large tiles should be used, and laid at the depth 
of 3, and better 4, feet, and near enough to remove 
all water standing in the soil. 
Grafting may be done this monlli, and even later. 
Cions should be secured before vegetation starts. 
