4 , 4 ,2 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1872. 
After the Great Snow-Storm. Illustrated . .441 
Apple, Mexico.2 Illustrations 459 
Barn for Mixed Farming ...3 Illustrations. 454 
Barn Stairs. Illustrated. .455 
Bee Notes.449 
Boys and Girls’ Columns—The Doctor Talks about In¬ 
dian Relics—Tommy’s Trouble and Triumph—Aunt 
Sue’s Puzzle-Box—Jenny’s Dream.2 111.. 465, 466 
Butter-Molds.2 Illustrations . .454 
Canker-Worm.460 
Corn-Plan ter.. Illustrated. .455 
Cows, Large or Small...456 
Cows, Wintering. 457 
Flower Garden and Lawn in December.443 
Fox, Trapping the. Illustrated . .451 
Fruit Garden in December.443 
Fruit Market, Glut in. 459 
Greenhouse and Window Plants in December.413 
Greenhouses, Hints about Cheap. Illustrated . .460 
Hints about Work.442 
Horse Disease. Illustrated. .457 
Household Department—Chopping and Choppers— 
Home Topics—New Heels in old Socks—Toughening 
and Coddling—Devonshire Cream.7 1U,. .463, 464 
Kitchen Garden in December.443 
Labor Question in American Agriculture.457 
Manure, Cheap and Effective... ....460 
Manure, How to Manage.456 
Market Reports.443 
Milk-Tester. Illustrated . .455 
Orchard and Nursery for December.443 
Pear, Pinneo .2 Illustrations . .462 
Pelargoniums, Seedling.461 
Rue Anemone, Maiden-hair. Illustrated. .459 
Shad in Mississippi Waters.456 
Sods, Composting.2 Illustrations . .455 
Straw for Bedding.457 
Striped Bass .2 Illustrations . .450 
Tim Bunker on Self-sucking Cows... .4 Illustrations. .449 
Trees, Measuring the Hight of. Illustrated . .461 
Vegetation in the ** Pine Barrens ”_2 Illustrations . .462 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 108—Working 
Cheap—Sheep—Disease in Spring Pigs—Prices of 
Farmers’ Produce—Small Profits—Corn—Horses_452 
Water, Have You Pure ?.453 
Yuccas and Insects.461 
INDEX TO “BASKET,” OK SHORTEN ARTICLES. 
Agricultural Implement lOrehard, to Renovate... .445 
House, New.447|Painting Implements_447 
Agricultural Schools.445 Parsnip Seed.446 
Bean Straw .447 " Patent Medicines” 445 
Bones, Crushing. 446 Peaches for Canada.446 
Books Received.446 Pelargoniums, Mr. Sis- 
Borers .446 
Cali fori i ia Vi ntago.445 
Clover, How to get. Early.445 
Calves. How to Manage. .446 
Canada Queries.445 
Canuas.446 
Chicks without a Mother.445 
Christmas-tree Rosettes. 447 
Cider, to Keep Sweet... .447 
Corn-stalks.445 
Cross-Harrowing.446 
“ Eternal Corn ”. 445 
Evergreens from the 
Woods.446 
Fair, Cotton States Ass. .445 
Feeding Pigs and Poultry417 
Fine Fruit.447 
Food for a Young Pig.. . .447 
Fowls, Feeding.. .445 
Fowls, Houdan. .. ..446 
Fox, Trapping the ... ..447 
Fruit-trees, to Kill Moss.447 
Ground-Vinery. 416 
Hay ,Co rd - wood Sticks fo i-146 
Horses and Cattle, Man¬ 
agement. of.445 
IIow to make Ten Acres 
. Pa y.447 
Immigrant Laborers.414 
Lice on Dogs... .447 
ley’s.444 
Pictures, Costly.444 
Plants Named.445 
Plaster. Sowing inWinter 447 
Poll-Evil.447 
Pumping by “Clock¬ 
work*.447 
Questions for Decision. .446 
Questions, Sundry.446 
Read it Over.444 
Report of the Department 
of Agriculture.447 
Roots, What to Feed First447 
Rows on an Ear of Corn.445 
Several Questions.447 
Sheep, Price of Pure 
Cote wold.447 
Sundry Humbugs.445 
The Basket.444 
Three Papers enough... .447 
Tongue, Lolling of.446 
Tribune. N. Y. Weekly..444 
Union Pacific Railroad. .444 
Veterinary Surgeons, N. 
Y. College of.444 
Vinegar Eels .446 
Vineyards. Blnffton.445 
Water in Turnips.447 
Well, Dry.447 
West Point.445 
Manure. Chip.447, Wheat Region, the Great.419 
Manure. Spreading.446iWheat, Smutty.445 
Michigan Ag’l College.. .445 White Wire-Work.447 
Milk, No.445 Wire Fence.445 
BMsease in Poultry. —“ Mrs. L. II. B.,” 
Postville, Iowa, finds that the feathers fall off the breasts 
of her fowls, and that the toes gradually decay until only 
stumps are left, and that this complaint spreads amongst 
her fowls. She asks what is it? and what is the remedy? 
—It is probably not contagious, as supposed, but spreads 
because the cause is general. The cause is very likely 
unclean roosts and floors in their houses, not sufficient 
variety of food, and want of an alterative as medicine. 
Their quarters should be well cleansed with lime, some 
rusty iron with sulphur should be kept in their drinking 
water, and they should have some cabbage or raw pota¬ 
toes chopped given regularly to them. 
Calendar for December. 
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PHASES OF THE MOON. 
MOON. 
1 BOSTON. 
N. YORK. 
wash’n. 
cha’ston 
CHICAGO. 
1st Quart 
Full M’n 
3d Quart. 
New M’n 
D. II. M. 
7 6 52 m. 
14! 5 0 ev. 
22 9 28 ev. 
301 1 51 m. 
II. M. 
6 40 m. 
4 48 ev. 
9 16 ev. 
1 40 m. 
H. M. 
6 28 m. 
4 36 ev 
9 4 ev. 
1 28 m. 
H. M. 
6 16 m. 
4 24 ev. 
8 52 ev. 
1 16 m. 
H. M. 
5 46 m. 
3 54 ev. 
8 22 ev. 
0 46 m. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1872. 
We are beginning to look back on the year 1872 
and forward to the year 1873. December is a half¬ 
way house, a breathing spot. It is neutral ground. 
The labors of the past year are nearly ended; those 
of the new liardly commenced. The days are 
short, and during the long evenings we shall think 
over the past, and lay plans for the future. With 
the majority of farmers the past year lias not been 
a prosperous one. But let us not brood over our 
troubles. If we have made mistakes, let us look 
them fairly in the face. Let us not seek to excuse 
ourselves. Let us acknowledge that they were mis¬ 
takes. Let us feel them keenly. Let them make 
a deep impression on the mind. There is pleasure, 
profit, strength, and wisdom in humility. But do 
not brood over blunders. It will do no good. Bet¬ 
ter treat them as you would a hollow tooth. Have 
it filled or have it out. It does no good to let it 
ache. We need to forget the things that are behind 
and to press forward. We need courage, faith, 
hope, energy. The man that sees a lion in the way, 
and who will not take his hands out of his pockets 
for reason of the cold, will not make a successful 
American farmer. It is difficult for us to compre¬ 
hend the character of the age in which we live. 
Things move so rapidly that we must be wide¬ 
awake or we shall be left behind. 
We greatly mistake the signs of the times if we 
are not about to introduce a better system of agri¬ 
culture, better breeds of animals, and a higher 
condition of farm-life. But the first improvement 
must be in ourselves. We must think more and 
work to better advantage. Never allow yourself to 
say “/ have not time ” to do anything that you 
ought to do. It is rarely true. You may not have 
strength, or energy, or inclination. Very few of 
us have learned how to economize or husband our 
energy. We waste it in worrying, or dreaming, or 
moodily wishing instead of working. It will do 
no good to complain of “ hard times.” They are 
hard. And we deeply sympathize with, and would 
not say a harsh word to a farmer with a family de¬ 
pendent on him who has pressing debts to pay and 
little to sell, and that little not worth in market the 
cost of production. There is no remedy except to 
hope and to work. To a man who does not work 
times are never good. To one who does, there are 
fair prospects ahead—we think never better or 
brighter. 
Hints about Work. 
Evening Work .—We do not believe in “ all work 
and no play.” We believe in working with a will 
when we do work, and then resting. We work 
that we may rest, and rest that we may work. We 
can often rest ourselves more by changing the 
character of our employment than by absolute 
idleness. A farmer with the right kind of head 
and heart can not sit down at night with much 
comfort if he knows his horses are covered with 
mud and sweat in the barn, or if he knows there is 
no kindling-wood to start the fire in the morning, 
or tliat there is a pane out of one of the windows in 
tlie cellar. The sun sets at half-past four, and we 
seldom go to bed before half-past nine. How shall 
we use these five hours to the best advantage? 
What the discovery of gas was to the cities, the 
discovery of petroleum is to the country. Our 
farm-houses are now as well lighted, or might be, 
as those of the city. The dim horn-lanterns of 
our early days, by the aid of which we groped 
about the barns and stables to feed the cows and 
clean and bed the horses, and the tallow-dips by 
which we have studied many an hour, have disap¬ 
peared before the brilliant light of our kerosene- 
lamps. There is no longer any excuse for sitting 
hour after hour by the kitchen stove. If there is 
work that needs doing in the barn, get things ready 
during the day and do it in the evening. Nearly 
every farmer is behindhand with his work. It has 
to he done some time, and will be done. We are 
not now urging farmers to work harder than they 
do. All that we mean is that they had better work 
evenings for a week or two than let things drag 
along all winter. It will make a vast difference 
how you spend your evenings. Give yourself no rest 
until you have caught up with your work and got 
things straight. It is a shame to a man to let the 
windows of his house shake in the casements. 
Many a farm-house is cold and uncomfortable all 
winter for want of a little attention to tiie doors 
and windows. Make everything snug and tight, 
and then ventilate. You should have coutrol of 
the air, and not let it control you. 
Be Clean in the House .—There is much dirty work 
to be done on the farm, and a farmer should dress 
appropriately to his work. But there is no reason 
when his work is done for the day why he should 
sit down in the evening with his pantaloons stuck 
in his boots. We cordially dislike foppishness, hut 
cleanliness is one of the cardinal virtues. The 
farmer or the farmer’s son who does not make him¬ 
self and his clothes clean before he sits down at 
night has something yet to learn in regard to the 
pleasures and advantages of a quiet country life. 
Animals .—Next to himself and his family, a far¬ 
mer’s thought and attention should be turned to 
his animals. If we look upon them as machines 
for the conversion of straw, stalks, roots, hay, and 
grain into beef, mutton, wool, milk, pork, eggs, 
etc., we should never forget that they difler very 
materially from ordinary machines, that we can 
start and stop when we please, and stow them away 
when not in use. The animal machine is always 
running, winter and summer, night and day, and a 
farmer’s first care should be to see that it is always 
running to some good purpose. 
Horses .—If possible, work the horses moderately 
during the winter, and let them have grain enough 
to keep them in good condition. A horse that has 
been over-worked and surfeited with grain may he 
the better for a winter’s run at a straw stack. But 
this is not the usual condition of farm horses. As 
a rule, it would be better to keep them in the 
stable and work them regularly. Labor is com¬ 
paratively cheap in winter, and there is much work 
that can be done with advantage, especially if it has 
been prepard in advance. Gravel may be drawn 
for the roads ; stones or rails may be drawn for 
