82 
[Maiich, 
AMERICAN AG-RIC ULT URIST. 
Contents for March, 1872. 
Artesian Wells, where they can be Made. 111.. 97 
Balloon-Tine, or Ileart-Seed. Illustrated. .101 
Bats, Our Native. Illustrated. .99,100 
Bee Notes. 89 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—Map Prizes—Trying to Find 
the Key-hole—Aunt Sue’s Puzzle-Bsx—Boys and 
Girls’ Pictures .5 Illustrations. .107,10S 
Gaponizing.2 Illustrations.. 98, 99 
Churning by Means of a Weight. Illustrated. .90, 97 
Cisterns, Filter for. Illustrated. .9G 
Concrete Buildings, How to make. Illustrated. .95, 0G 
Cooking Food for Stock. 99 
Cow, Story of a Good ... . ... - 98 
Cows, Milk-Mirror in. 99 
Dwarf and Small Fruits in Kentucky.102 
Egg Farm.2 Illustrations.. 91, 92 
Farm Gate. Illustrated.. 96 
Farm Work in March.82, 83 
Fence, a Prairie. Illustrated. .90 
Flower Garden and Lawn in March. 84 
Fruit Garden in March. 83 
Greenhouse and Window Plants in March. 84 
Greenhouses attached to Dwellings.103 
Harrow, Thomas’s Smoothing. Illustrated.. 89, 90 
Hog-Troughs, Improvement in. Illustrated. .06 
Household Department—Now Flour-Bos—Farmers’ 
Daughters—Home Topics—Cooking the Egg-Plant— 
Table Etiquette—Samp or Hominy—Cost of Bones 
and of Cooking.3 Illustrations. ,103, 103 
Kitchen Garden in March. 83 
Matrimony-Vine. Illustrated .. 101 
Mignonettes, White and Crimson.102 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 26—“Gilt-edged Butter”— 
Feeding Cows.90, 91 
Orchard and Nursery in March. S3 
Prune, When to.103 
Saws, Improved.4 Illustrations.. 92 
Sea-Beans—Entada. Illustrated. .104 
Sewing Machine, A Good Cheap, at Last. 1U..SS 
Shovel and Mole Plows in the Garden.2 Ills. .103 
Something about Trapping and Furs. . 5 Ills. .93 
Sowing Seeds of Tropical Annuals.101, 102 
Squashes, Turban. Illustrated. .104 
Stable Farm.4 Illustrations. .97, 98 
Stock, Cost of Po*r. 96 
Swine, Yorkshire. Illustrated. .81, 87 
Thunbcrgia, Great-flowered. Illustrated. . 104 
Venture a Little Seed. 103 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 99—Care of Stock 
—Sheep and Lambs—Pea and Oat Straw—Corn- 
Stalks for Cows—Food for Sows—Corn Raising- 
Cultivating Corn—Coleseed Crop.94, 95 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Are Twin Cattle Barren.. .87 
Artesian Well. Depth of. .86 
Ashes, Spreading.85 
Barry’s Fruit Garden.89 
Batch of Questions.85 
Best Beef Cattle.87 
Bickford Knitting Mach. .89 
Bliss & Sons.89 
Bone Manure, Man’fact’g..87 
Branching Corn.87 
Breaking Oxen.85 
Burned Swamp Land.87 
Buying Food for Hogs... 87 
Cabbages for Fattening.. .87 
Carrots, How to Feed.87 
Catalpas and Magnolias.. ,S7 
Clevis for 3-h*rse Evener.89 
Colorado.87 
Cranberry Culture.86 
Cribbing, Cure for.86 
Curculio, Lady-Bugs, and 
Borers..86 
Curing Clover.85 
Deatli of J. B. Lyinan.89 
Diseases of Cattle.87 
Dissolving Bone.85 
Drain Tile.85 
Dychouse Cherry.89 
Early-Laying Pullets.85 
Eggs—Swindled.87 
Evergreens .87 
Farmers, Look Out.89 
Fisli Manure.85 
Four Months Remain ....89 
Fowl-House Needed.86 
Grape andCurrantCuttings86 
Gray Squirrels and Maple 
Trees.86 
II an d-Th rasher.85 
Harrowing Wheat.85 
Heifer Coming in, How to 
Feed a.86 
Hen Manure.87 
Horses, Earache in.86 
Humbugs, Sundry.85 
Hungarian Grass.85 
Improving Stock.85 
Kidney-Worms in Hogs . .86 
Lolling of the Tongue in 
Horses.S7 
Mad Itch. .85 
Manure from Straw and 
Grain.86 
Manuring by Pasturing. ..85 
Marl, Value of.87 
MeasuringHay in tlieStackST 
Mink Raising.86 
Muck, To Use.85 
Navicular Disease.86 
Northern Pacific Railway.86 
Organs and Melodeons.. .89 
Paint for Tools.S7 
Pawlonia.85 
Peach-Buds.86 
Pine-Wood Ashes.87 
Produce of 15 Hens.85 
Quinn Pear.S9 
Rabbits,To Preserve Trees 
from.86 
Raising Roots.87 
Rotation of Crops in Md.,87 
Salt in the Garden.86 
Seeding a Marsh.86 
Seeding down Corn with 
Clover.87 
Shall he go West?.S5 
Spring Bazaar.89 
Spring Work.89 
Steam-Engine.87 
Stock, which is the Best?.S6 
Sugar Beet.89 
Sundry Humbugs.85 
Tanners’ Refuse,Value of.87 
The Right Sort.86 
Trophy Tomato.66 
Truck Farm.89 
Warbles.S5 
Wild Onion.87 
I’eas for Plowing under, —“J. M.,” 
Portage Co., O. The best pea for this purpose is one 
with a great amountof stalk and leaves, like the large 
Marrowfat. Two to three bushels of seed should be 
used, as the ground is richer or poorer. 
Calendar for March. 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON. 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
wasii’n. 
CHA’STON 
CHICAGO. 
D. 
n. 3r. 
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II. 31. 
H. 31. 
II. 3r. 
3d Quart.. 
2 
2 45 ev. 
2 S3 ev. 
2 21 ev. 
2 9 ev. 
1 39 ev. 
New Moon 
"9 
S 9 m. 
7 57 m. 
7 45 m. 
7 33 m. 
7 3 m . 
1st Quart.. 
16 
9 41 ev. 
9 29 ev. 
9 17 ev. 
9 5 ev. 
8 35 ev. 
Full. 
24 
8 59 ev. 
8 47 ev. 
8 85 ev. 
8 23 ev. 
7 53 ev. 
3d Quart.. 
31 
9 4S ev. 
9 36 ev. 
9 24 ev. 
912 ev. 
8 42 cv. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, MARCH, 1872. 
It is not easy for us, here at the North, to realize 
that spring lias come. We sometimes have “ six 
weeks sleighing in March,” and at any rate it is 
seldom that much real spring work can he done 
before the middle of April. Only once in our ex¬ 
perience have we been able to do much plowing in 
March, aud then the ground was frozen below the 
furrows. We got in three acres of barley on the 
last day of March, but the next morning the earth 
was covered with snow, and it was two weeks be¬ 
fore we could plow aud sow the rest of the field. 
In a well-regulated factory, the manager can 
often tell what the men will be doing each day, for 
a week or a month ahead. But it is not so on a 
farm. We know what work there is to he done, 
hut are never certain as to the particular time when 
we can do it. And the success of a farmer will de¬ 
pend a great deal on having everything in its place, 
in working order, and ready for use at any moment. 
It is at all times, but particularly so at this season, 
a good plan to write down everything that you 
propose to do, and what to do it with, aud how, 
going as much into detail as possible. Ask a 
farmer what work lie has to do this spring, and lie 
will reply, “ I have got to plow twenty acres of 
corn stubble for oats, and break up twenty acres 
for corn.” And a person that knew nothing about 
farming might suppose, from his reply, that this 
was all he had to do. It is evident that the farmer 
regards this as his principal and most important 
spring work. In one sense, of course, this is true. 
But in point of fact, the plowing of this forty 
acres of land is the very last thing that requires his 
consideration. It is the little foxes that spoil the 
grapes. The farmers of the United States sustain 
more damage, every year, from a little stagnant 
water beneath the surface of their fields than from 
the great floods on our mighty rivers. There is 
here and there a farmer who spends so much time 
in getting ready, that he has no time left to 
do the work. Such a man will never succeed in a 
country like this, where the seasons arc short and 
work must be done promptly. A farmer should 
train himself to think and lay plans in advance, 
and get everything lie is likely to need, ready for 
immediate use, hut when the time comes for the 
performance of the work lie must throw off his 
coat aud labor with his might. He must pay great 
attention to such important little things as he is 
inclined to overlook and neglect, and he must study 
his operations until he finds out what are the 
points of greatest importance. An experienced 
thrasher pays more attention to some of the little 
pinions that revolve rapidly than to the main driv¬ 
ing wheel. He looks at every part of his machine, 
but more frequently at those which arc most likely 
to get out of order. Aud so it is in farming. The 
steady, big jobs will almost lake care of themselves. 
It is the little details that are apt' to he neglected, 
and yet upon them mainly depends the profit or 
loss of the whole year’s operations. Look well to 
the pennies, the pounds will take care of thcmselves- 
Hints silenmt VYoi-lc. 
The first work in the spring, on our own farm, 
when the snow begins to melt, is to let oil'any 
water that accumulates on the surface. No matter 
how carefully the dead furrows and outlets may 
have been made in the fall, there is always more or 
less to be done in the spring, to provide free egress 
for the water. A few hours’ work willi a hoe and 
spade, at this season, will often let off thousands of 
gallons of water, which otherwise would soak into' 
the soil and keep it wet and cold for several weeks- 
We would urge every reader of the Agriculturist 
to attend to this matter. Wc arc sure that many a 
farmer would in this way save enough in one year 
to pay for a dozen good papers and a score of the 
best agricultural hooks. In letting off a shallow 
pool of water, the easiest aud quickest plan is to 
commence at the pool and make a little furrow 
with a hoe, letting the water follow you. But, 
where the water is in a somewhat deep basin, with 
little apparent fall from it to the outlet, a better 
plan is to commence at the outlet and dig with a 
spade up to the basin ; and in order to be sure that 
you lose no fall, dig the ditch deep enough to let 
the water follow you up to the basin. In this way 
we have rarely, found a basin that could not he 
drained. There is nothing that people arc so often 
deceived about, as the amount of fall to land. 
Spring is a Good Time to Underdrain .—Unless we 
can do the work in the winter, spring is the best 
time to dig underdrains. The land is full of water, 
and it is much easier digging than in the summer 
or autumn. And it is no slight advantage to have 
water enough to level by. If the water flows freely 
through the tiles when laid, and care is exercised 
in filling in the ditches, aud packing the soil round 
the tiles tight enough to hold them in place, there 
is little or no danger of their stopping afterwards. 
The Cost of Draining depends a good deal on the 
nature of the land and the depth of the drains. In 
sandy or mucky land a ditch 2)4 feet deep for 
tiles should he dug, with labor at SI.50 per day, 
for 15 cents a rod ; 3 feet deep, 20 cents a rod. On 
heavier land, nearly free from stones, a ditch 2)4 to 
3 feet deep will cost 25 cents a rod. A good 
ditcher, at these prices, can make two dollars a day. 
An unskillful man that cuts the ditches unneces¬ 
sarily wide, and is fond of using the pick, might 
work just as hard and not earn a dollar a day. 
Spring ~\Yheat is the'first crop to be sown in the 
spring. Wc hope our readers will bestow extra 
pains in putting it in well, for we anticipate con¬ 
siderable demand for wheat next fall. 
Barley , taking one year witli another, is a well- 
paying crop on good land and in the hands of those 
who know how to manage it. But it is a poor crop 
on poor laud. A careless, slovenly farmer, whose 
land is poor, wet, and foul, should not attempt to- 
raise barley. Oats will pay him better—or rather,, 
he will lose less. As a rule, the earlier barley can 
be sown, the better. But a still more important 
point is, to get the land in good condition. It can 
not he too fine and mellow. On very rich, mellow 
soil, sown early, 1 )4 bushel per acre, drilled in, is 
sufficient seed; but on average good land 2 bushels 
is none too much. In England, the best barley is 
grown on light, sandy land, made rich and firm by 
consuming a turnip crop on the land, the pre- 
