2 4=2 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
Contents for July, 1872. 
her Doll — The Fourth of July. .2 Illustrations. .207 
Cabbage Planfs, Cold-frame. 
Drainimr, Will it Injure Lowland Tim 
Drain, What Lands will it Pay to. 
Eggs do not Hatch, Why High-priced. 
Fiber from Cane. 
Flower Garden and Lawn in July. 
Illustrations. 
Gate, Farm. 
Golden Club. 
Grain for Cows, Grinding. 
Greenhouse and Window' Plants in July. 
Harness, Repairing. 
Haying, Hints on.» .... 
Hay-Press.4 Illustrations . 
Household Department—Neighborhood Picnics—Trap¬ 
ping Rats and Mice — Home Topics — Fritters in 
Haste—Indian Cake. 
Insects in Relation to Horticulture. 
Meadow-Larks. 
Notes from the Pines—We have Buried our Dead- 
Causes of Winter-Killing—Red Maples—Tree-Labels 
—Plant-Labels—Packing Plants—Columbines 
Ogden Farm Papers, No. 30—Rain—Improved 
—Jerusalem Artichoke—Plowimr. 
Orchard and Nursery in July_ 
Pig of Sorrento, Neapolitan. 
Prizes, The Doctor’s Talk about. 
Rake-Cultivator. 
... Illustrated. 
.249 
.. .Illustrated. .252 
Roads, Keeping in Repair. 259 
Roots, How to Raise. .8 Illustrations . .255 
Rotation for Farm-Gardening.262 
Southern Park Gate. 1 . Illustrated.. 258 
Toads, Shall we Kill.203 
Turnip-Fly. 2 Illustrations ..250 
Turnip, Indian. Illustrated.. 201 
Turnips, Grow'.257 
Walks and Talks on the Farm. No. 103—“ Contrary 
to Nature ”—Canker-Worm—Drouth—Clover—Cots- 
wold-Mcrino Lambs—Wheat—Cheap Meats.254 
“ What Ails the Bees’ Legs ? ”.4 Illustrations. .264 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Acre, an.24 
Agriculture, English... .249 
Am. Horticulturists for 
Europe.24G 
Another of the Family...249 
Asparagus Bed.245 
Barley, How to Boil.248 
Bee Notes for July.249 
Bees, Their Management 
and Culture.247 
Beet-root Sugar in N. J. .249 
Bob-Sleds, Lock for.246 
Boncs,Steam’damlBoird249 
Bones,What to do with..249 
Buckskins, Tanning.247 
Butter,White Specks in. .248 
Butter,Why it won’t come2-16 
Cabbage-Flies.246 
Camellias.240 
Castings.240 
Cattle, Exportation of 
Shorthorn..249 
Celery. 217 
Cherry, the Mahaleb.247 
Chicken Cholera.249 
Chufas.248 
Churning, toWarmCream 
for. 240 
Cistern-Water, to Keep 
Pure.246 
Clark’s Compost.240 
Clover as a Fertilizer.. .'.249 
Cook-Book.247 
Corn, Hybrid. 248 
Com in the Crib. Meas’g.249 
Corn, Judson’s Branchi’g 
.248 
Hen-Manure, Value of.. .248 
Hen-Manure with Sul¬ 
phuric Acid, Treating.247 
Hide-Bound.248 
Hogs, Ringing.248 
Honey-Dew.218 
Hops, Refuse.246 
Horse, a Dyspeptic.248 
Humbugs, Sundry.245 
Insects. 240 
Ivy, Propagating.273 
Kansas Ag’l College.219 
Land for Sale.219 
Lane’s Beet.245 
Lime-Kilns.219 
Lime on Garden Land.. .273 
Lime, Salt, and Plaster. .273 
Liquid-Manure Cart.249 
Machine for making Nets 240 
Mistake.248 
Moles, How to Trap.273 
Mules, at wliat Age should 
they Work.249 
Mustard in the Southern 
States....249 
No Doubt about it.218 
Northern Pacific R.R.215 
Orchards, Protection to. .273 
Pastures, Fencing.219 
Peas and Oats.210 
Personal.216 
Pigs, Chester White.247 
Pigs on Clover.218 
Plants Named.249 
Plaster, Old.273 
Please Observe.273 
Plow, Double-furrow.245 
Plowing, Steam.219 
~ ' ~ 246 
219 
and Egyptian. 
Corn, Measuring.248 
Corn, Sandford.210 Poke-Root 
Cows, Ayrshire.247 Pork, American 
Department of Agricult’re248 Potato Queries .245 
Docks, How to Kill.273 Poudrette or Superphos- 
Drain Wanted.240' phatc?. 247 
Fairs in August.215 Pump for Deep Well.. ..243 
Fair, Penn. State. 249 Quince and Pear Trees..247 
Farm, Buying a.273 Rape or Coleseed?. .247, 273 
Farms in Engl’d, Value..273 Red Spiders.247 
Farming on the Eastern Rye-Grass.273 
Shore, Md.273 Seeds of Forest-Trees.. .247 
FlaxFibcr.249 Sheep, Cotswold _vs. 
Fruit-Preserving Powder, I South-Down.248 
American.240 Spavin.217 
Fruit-Trees, Sulphur in..273|Squasli, Petrified.210 
Gates, Those Patent. .. .247,Steam-Plowsand Tackle.273 
Gin sen" .245 Stock-raising, Fancy_273 
Gopher” Defense of the. .273 Sundry Humbugs.245 
Grain-Bags, Corner in....273 Tallow Scraps, How to 
Grapes in Indiana.247 Use.247 
Grapes, Mulching. 273 . The Doctor’s Talk about 
Grass, Growing.247 the Prizes...247 
Grasses in Ark., Mixed. .219 Thistles, Canada.218 
Green Manuring Crop_248 
Grinding, Fine.249 
Hair, Changing Colorof.240 
Harrow, Thomas’s.217 
Haw or Hooks.210 
Hay Conveyer.240 
Hay-Tea.218 
Hedge for Texas.273 Wheat Market, 
Thousand-acre Farms in 
N. Y.210 
Tree-Planting.273 
Venus’s Flower-Basket..219 
Walnuts. .246 
We Give it up.215 
Well, The Drive.240 
Calendar for July. 
.263 
! Boston.NEng- 
k. r. city. ct.. 
Washington, 
land, IV. 
York 
Philadelphia , 
Mar y land , 
.249 
• 
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State. 
Michi - 
New Jersey. 
I irqinia.Ken- 
(fan 
. Wiscon- 
Penn ., 
Ohio. 
lucky. Missou- 
I 
; sin. 
mica, and 
Indiana 
and 
ri. 
and 
Cali- 
208 
Oregon. 
Illinois . 
fornia. 
.202 
250 
.253 
253 
252 
§ 
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.273 
PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON'. 
ID. 
New Moon I 5 
1st Quart.. 13 
Full.20 
3(1 Quart ..127 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, JULY, 1S72. 
We hope all the readers of the American Agricul¬ 
turist are striving after improvement—aiming to be 
better this year than they were last, and to have 
their farms, their gardens, their houses, barns, 
fences, machines, implements, tools, and everything 
about them in better order and improved condition. 
We hope they are earnest men, active, industrious, 
energetic; men who control circumstances and do 
not let circumstances control them. To such men 
the present season, though one of the most dis¬ 
couraging in some respects we have had for many 
years, will teach and enforce an important lesson, 
and one which we shall all do well to heed. Slip¬ 
shod, slovenly farming sometimes produces a paj'- 
ing crop, and the fact is eagerly seized by those 
who are opposed to an improved system of firm¬ 
ing, and used as an argument against those of us 
who advocate more thorough cultivation, draining, 
and manuring. But this year poor farming cer¬ 
tainly will not pay. Wages are high, and the crops 
on thousands of carelessly-worked farms will not 
more than pay the expense of harvesting and 
thrashing. On many good farms the profits will be 
small, hut at any rate those of us who are aiming 
to make our land clean and rich, and do not over¬ 
crop, have no reason to feel discouraged when we 
compare our crops with those of our neighbors 
who adopt a makeshift system of farming. The 
season is a had one, and the mips light, but poor 
as our prospects may be, they are far better than 
they would have been had we made no effort to im¬ 
prove our farms. The difference between good and 
poor farming the present year is most striking. 
You sec a piece of wheat that will yield 30 bushels 
per acre, and on the other side of the fence a field 
that will not pay for harvesting. On the neglected 
farm we have stunted meadows, poor clover, yellow 
oats, and sickly-looking wheat, and we say it is 
“the drouth.” Nothing flourishes but weeds. 
These pump up and evaporate nearly or quite as 
mucli water per acre as would make the difference 
between a wet season and a dry one. No wonder 
the crops suffer for want of rain. There is seldom 
a year, we repeat, when there is such a marked dif¬ 
ference between a weedy, neglected, run-down 
BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
WASH'S. 
cha’ston 
CHICAGO. 
n. M. 
H. M. 
n. m. 
n. m. 
n. M. 
1 41 ev. 
1 29 ev. 
1 17 ev. 
1 5 ev. 
0 35 ev. 
3 4 ev. 
2 52 ev. 
2 40 ev. 
2 28 ev. 
1 58 ev. 
9 9 m. 
8 57 m. 
8 45 m. 
8 33 111. 
8 3 ni. 
2 35 m. 
2 23 in. 
2 11 111. 
1 59 111. 
1 29 m. 
farm, and a clean, well-cultivated one. Let the good 
farmers take courage. Their labor is not in vain. 
Hints about Work. 
The great aim of the farmer must be to make the 
labor he employs, as well as his own and that of his 
teams, more effective. To do this requires much 
study. A man may work hard and accomplish 
little. He does not plan well, or he lacks system 
and order. Another lays good plans, but lacks 
energy sufficient to carry them out in all their de¬ 
tails. It is a great thing to know when to work 
and when to let others work. In haying and har¬ 
vesting, a farmer who employs a good many men 
should rarely undertake any steady work. He can 
accomplish far more by attending to the little de¬ 
tails than by using up all his strength in pitching 
or binding. He should always be present, ready at 
any moment to lend a baud where his work can be 
most effective. He should be able to see at a glance 
that every important bolt in a machine is tight. 
He should know the weak spots in all his opera¬ 
tions, and be prepared for all emergencies, no 
should realize that the weakest link determines 
the strength of the whole chain. In the innumer¬ 
able details of farm work this weak link is some¬ 
times in one Thing and sometimes in another, but 
it is always somewhere. In one field it may be in 
the reaper and in another the binders ; sometimes 
it is the pitcher, sometimes the unloader, or on the 
stack or mow. It is always somewhere, and the 
farmer should look out for it, and be prepared to 
strengthen (hat point. 
Bigger Crops per Acre. —But it is not merely in 
the details of farming operations that we should 
aim to render our labor more effective—we must 
more than ever strive to get larger crops per acre. 
High wages will compel us to raise larger crops or 
not to raise any. It costs no more to plow and 
plant and cultivate an acre of potatoes that will 
yield 300 bushels than one th"t yields less than one 
hundred, and where the: a are many weeds little if 
any more to dig them. It may cost twelve cents a 
bushel to dig potatoes in the one case, and only 
four cents in the other. A field of wheat yielding 
less than ten bushels per acre, and so full of thistles 
that it is almost impossible to bind it, will cost 
more to harvest it than a clean crop yielding thirty- 
five bushels per acre. And the same principle 
holds good with all our crops. 
TFeeds.—We have one of the best climates in the 
world for killing weeds. Our hot summers and 
dry winds will take the sap out of even a thistle or 
quack-root, or a plant of purslane, if we only use 
the means necessary to dissever its connection with 
the soil. The English farmer is obliged to spend 
in ordinary seasons far more labor to kill quack 
than is required here. Wc ought to have the cleanest 
farms in the world. And yet it is not too much to 
say that on thousands of farms in the United States 
the weeds run away with half the profits. We 
again and again urge the readers of the American 
Agriculturist to make an earnest effort to kill the 
weeds, and to make thorough work of it. 
Summer-Fallows on strong, clayey land are often 
the best and cheapest means of killing weeds and 
enriching the soil at the same time. A true sum¬ 
mer-fallow is preparing land for a crop, and then 
not sowing it until the next season. It cleans the 
l n nd and concentrates the plant-food, which is ren- 
de; ed available in two years into manure for one 
crop. Instead of raising two wheat crops of fifteen 
bushels each, it enables us to raise one crop of 
thirty bushels, and cleans the land at the same.time. 
Fallows for Wheat. —A true summer-fallow is sel¬ 
dom seen. Our so-called summer-fallows for wheat 
are a modern invention, and often a very useful one. 
They are of two kinds. One is plowing under a 
clover sod in June or July, and then keeping the 
surface clean by the free nse of the cultivator and 
harrow, and sowing the wheat without again plow¬ 
ing. The other is to plow in June, and cross-plow 
as soon as the sod is partially rotted. Then harrow 
thoroughly, and cultivate until the sods are pulled 
to pieces and the weeds all killed. Then plow 
