S3 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Contents for March, 1868. 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—A Curious Fan—A New 
Popgun—Why Do We Cultivate Plants ’—About 
Earthquakes—Printers’ Mistakes—Caught in the 
Act—Too Well Acquainted—Eating Green Fruit— 
New Puzzles to be Answered—Answers to Problems 
and Puzzles.5 Illustrations '-:. 107—10S 
Breeding, Determination of Sex in. 92 
Catalpa Ksempferi.103 
Cattle—Group of Short-liorn. Illustrated.. 93 
Cattle—Improved Short-homs. 92 
Cattle—Raising and Buying Cows. 95 
Cheese—Flavor, Firmness and Texture in. 97 
Cold Grapery in March... 84 
Coreopsis verticillata. Illustrated.. 101 
Evergreens, Raising from Seed. 91 
Everybody’s Hardy Flowers.101 
Fan-Mill—Fixed Foothold for.2 Illustrations.. 97 
Farm Work for March. S2 
Flower Garden and Lawn in March. — 84 
Fruit Garden, in March. 83 
Goats—Angora, Group of. Illustrated.. 81 
Grapes—The Catawba and its Descendants. 90 
Grape Vine—How it grows and what to do with it. 27S.103 
Green and Hot-houses in March. S4 
Horticultural Department, Work in. 83 
Household Department— Iierosene-Oil Explosions— 
Household Ornaments—Too Much Help in Play — 
Bones and Ashes—Hints on Warming Dwellings— 
Rats, How to Get Rid of Them—A Few Hints from 
an Old Housekeeper.3 Illustrations .. 105—100 
Japanese Knotweed. Illustrated.. 101 
Kitchen Garden in March. 83 
Lever—A Handy and Powerful. Illustrated.. 97 
Little Helps...'.104 
Mangrove Tree.2 Illustrations. .104 
Market Gardening around Philadelphia.102 
Market Reports. 85 
Orchard and Nursery in March. S3 
Orchard—Laying Out an.... .3 Illustrations.. 102 
Pear Culture for Profit. 99 
Pickerel—The Common.2 Illustrations. .100 
Plants—Starting in'thc House.2 Illustrations. .103 
Potatoes—Planting in March. 97 
Potatoes under Straw. 99 
Poultry—Experience with Sick... 97 
Premiums—This Month. 84 
Superphosphate—Home-made from Bones. 96 
The South as Desirable Farming Territory. 92 
Timber Culture—The Pine. 98 
Tomatoes—Keyes’ and Others. 99 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 51.—Renting 
Land—Good and Poor Farming—Keeping a Hotel- 
Drouth and the Crops—Draining—Sowing Clover- 
Wheat and Stock—Muck—White Clover.94-95 
Wells—Digging in Sand and Quicksand_ 4 Ulus.. 9(3 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
A French Slicer. 111 ..88 
American Herd Book.... 89 
An Improvement.SS 
Ash Receptacles.88 
Bees in March .89 
Broom-corn.—90 
Buy Reliable Seeds.90 
Chester White Hogs.90 
Chicken Feed.87 
Cleaning Knives & Forks.88 
Cob Meal .89 
Coffee for Scours.90 
Cornell University.SO 
Cost of Cheese Factories.88 
Cranberry Culture.87 
Dangerous Oils.88 
Do Yon Want to Know ?.. 87 
Earlier, if You Please... .86 
Mill-Pond Mud.S9 
New Agricultural Work..86 
New Publishing House.. .87 
N. Y. State Agl. Society. .86 
Oil-Cake.90 
O. Judd Wheat Prizes_87 
Pea-nut Culture_.....87 
Pigeons.S8 
Planting Orchards.88 
Planting Cuttings. .2 111. .88 
Please Answer.86 
Poultry Notes.89 
Raising Barley....90 
Root-grafted Trees. .87 
“ Russian Crab ”.S8 
“ Shakers ”.S9 
Soft Water in Cisterns... .SS 
Special Request.86 
Eggs Fresh for 8 Years 88 Sod Fence Query.87 
Fermented Manure .89; Spring Wheat.89 
Fresh Earth for Animals. ,S9 
Grapes in Colorado.88 
Grape Vine Literature... .87 
Green Manure.87 
In the Ring.S6 
Jerusalem Artichoke.. 111.. 87 
Knox’s Fruit Farm.S7 
Lime for Cabbages.89 
Loose Wagon Tires.00 
Make the Most of Land..87 
MaldngSoap in the FamilySS 
Manure Questions... _90 
Material for Cellar Walls.89 
Sprinkling Jet for Hose. ,S7 
Sundry Humbugs.86 
Sweet Herbs.....88 
Tan-bark as a Mulch .SS 
The Flower Garden.87 
The Mule Team.86 
The Word “ Muck ”.87 
Trans. N. Y. State Soc’y.89 
Trees for Wet Soil.8S 
Vegetables. Select List.. .90 
Vitality of Seeds... ,S7 
Wheat—Chess.89 
‘ Wood Hangings ”.88 
Utaels Volumes Supplied. — The back volumes 
of the Agriculturist are very valuable. They contain 
information upon every topic connected with rural life, 
out-door and in-door, and the last ten volumes make up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. We have on 
hand, and print from electrotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
1857—that is, Vol. 16 to Vol. 20, inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $1.50 if taken at the office). The volumes, 
neatly bound, are supplied for $2 each, or $2.50 if to be 
sent by mail. Any single numbers of the past ten 
years will be supplied, post-paid, for 15 cents each. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, MARCH, 1868. 
Tlie coming of this month brings the renewed 
stir and activity of pressing work, or the prepa¬ 
ration for work soon to be undertaken. March is a 
month of work from New England to Texas. The 
early part is usually the last of the winter, even in 
Maine, and over most of the Union farmers are 
hauling manure, plowing, setting fences, and en¬ 
gaged in other field work before its close. The win¬ 
ter has been a very cold one, up to the time of our 
going to press. Where much snow has lain, winter 
grains and fields newly laid down to grass will be 
benefited, but where the ground has been bare, 
the deep freezing of the soil, and the exposure of 
the plants to both cold and heat before it thaws, 
will be likely to injure both grain and grass, and 
render the application of some “ hand manure ” 
very desirable. After so severe a winter an early 
spring is anticipated. This is rejoiced in by most 
farmers, but it is aceompmnied by many more dan¬ 
gers to fruit trees and field crops than when the 
cold holds on, and the warm weather, coming 
latpr, is subject to few or no great fluctuations 
of temperature. Loamy or clayey soils should never 
be worked before they are so thoroughly dried 
as not to pack before the plow in pasty clods; 
and no seeds, except those of grass and clover 
sowed upon winter grain, should be committed to 
the soil before it is warm and mellow. The error 
of too early plowing is a common one; everybody 
wants to be at work in the spring, and no one real¬ 
ly feels as if he had begun farming before he smells 
the fresh earth and sees the long furrows turned. 
So we get the manures spread and the plows at 
work, often enough when the plowman’s feet are 
loaded with pounds of sticky clay, and water even 
stands in the furrows in the low spots. This is all 
wrong, for thus we burden ourselves with the care 
of rough, cloddy fields which will hardly get in 
good tilth before autumn. 
ESisats alxiuat Work. 
The most important work any farmer does is to 
Lay Plans for the coming season. If possible 
think of every important thing, and keep a memo¬ 
randum of whatever is deemed most essential, and 
the order in which it should come. In case of 
necessary absence, the foreman, or any intelligent 
hand, can go on with the work without any super¬ 
vision, if a definite plan is made and talked over 
beforehand. The responsibility thus thrown upon 
an employee is a stimulus to faithfulness to which 
an intelligent man almost always responds. The 
circumstances of different farmers are so various 
that it is impossible to even hint at a plan of oper¬ 
ations applicable to all. With many, a regular 
system of rotation of crops and manure leaves the 
principal work of the farmer all planned before¬ 
hand. Others decide in the autumn or summer 
previous, and others still delay until spring even 
the decision as to what fields to put under plow 
and where to put their manure. The aimless course 
is almost sure to bring delays and disappointments, 
which are readily ascribed to the weather. He who 
works with a steady aim attains the greater success 
with much less labor. 
Animals .—The maintenance of animals in the 
stable or in the yards at any time of the year is un¬ 
natural, but if they have a great abundance of food 
and considerable range, the conditions surrounding 
them approach those they are subject to in the 
wild state. The amount of food animals exposed 
to the weather will eat is enormous, and even then 
they never come out in more than fair condition. 
We think every spring that it is almost absurd to 
reiterate our condemnation of farmers who expect, 
as a matter of course, to have their cattle “ spring 
poor.” This condition of a man’s stock tells of 
exposure, lack of good food, and of very serious 
losses to the farmer himself—losses both of fodder 
wasted and of cattle injured in their productiveness 
for the rest of the year, or the rest of their lives. 
Working Slock should be fitted for hard labor by 
increasing their grain and accustoming them gradu¬ 
ally to severer demands upon their strength and 
endurance. Horses’ shoulders are apt to gall, and 
oxen’s necks will become sore, if they have done 
little work during the winter. Look out for such 
troubles, and bind on wet cloths at night, greasing 
the spots when the yoke or harness is again put on ; 
but above all have well fitting yokes aud harness. 
Milch Coxes .—Now is the time when rutabagas 
and mangels will tell on milk production. Cows 
coming in this month should have succulent food, 
if possible. Half a bushel, or even a peck, of roots 
will make a marked difference in the yield of milk, 
and soon after calving it will pay over and over 
again to feed oil-cake, from one to three quarts 
daily. Soak until all the lumps are broken up, and 
pour the gruel on cut corn stalks or hay. 
Calves .—It is more humane, and better policy be¬ 
sides, to take away the calf, which is to be removed 
in a few days at farthest, as soon as it is dropped. 
The cow “ takes on” less, and the calf does not mind 
the separation at all. It will learn to drink from 
a pail readily. Its diet at first must be its dam’s 
new milk, and then any sweet milk ; after the first 
week it may be changed gradually to skimmed 
milk with a little oil-meal gruel, or a thin porridge 
of wheat middlings mingled with it—the quantity 
of meal being increased as it grows, and that of 
milk lessened. Scours may usually be cheeked by a 
little scalded fine-llour porridge, and constipation 
by oil-meal. Young calves should be fed four times 
a day, dividing the periods equally between 5 or 0 
o’clock in the morning and 9 or 10 at night. After 
a few days three times a day will be enough. 
Sheep .—Examine the flocks carefully so as to be 
sure that eacli sheep gets its share of grain or roots. 
Give ewes near yeaning pens where they arc not 
crowded, littered with short straw, trodden firm. 
Early lambs are well worth extra care in raising. 
If found chilled they should be brought to the 
house and warmed at the fire, or by a warm bath 
and rubbing. A mild milk punch sometimes has 
an excellent effect. 
Swine .-—Breeding sows should be placed isolated, 
in warm, well littered pens several days before far¬ 
rowing. Feed roots as a guard against constipation. 
Raw potatoes are excellent. Charcoal dust with a 
portion of ashes is uniformly good, and by all 
means throw them a few fresh sods to root over 
and chew. A thorough carding is also beneficial, 
and if a man pets his pigs and really desires to 
have tlie young litters in the very best condition, 
he will do all he can to have the sows not only well 
fed but in the very best health. 
The Currycomb, Card , and Brush , are among the 
best friends of the farmer and his stock, especially 
when the animals are shedding their coats. Every 
horse, young and old, should have a good grooming 
daily, neat cattle twice, and hogs once a week. 
Carrots appear to have a remarkable effect upon the 
coats of cattle and horses. 4 quarts a day is enough, 
if fed with other roots, grain, bran, or oil-cake. 
Buildings, the foundations of which have been 
disturbed by the frost, should be at once settled 
to their proper bearings. The present is a good 
season for outside painting and any repairing. 
Manure .-—That not intended for immediate use 
may he forked over and laid up in good-sized lieaps, 
well trodden down, to undergo another ferment¬ 
ation before its use in May or later in the season. 
Manure that cannot be plowed under, harrowed in, 
or in some way immediately incorporated witli the 
soil, should not be spread in the field, but left in 
heaps till it can be. Exposure of a day or two to 
the sun and wind is often a serious detriment. 
Top-dressings of animal manure upon grass or 
grain are of comparatively little avail in the spring. 
Ashes, plaster, fish manure, guano, bone-dust, etc., 
if purchased at reasonable rates, are economically 
applied at this season. 
Pick up Stones .—As soon as the surface is thawed 
the stones will be loosened, and may be picked up 
aud laid in heaps, or at once loaded into wagons or 
stone-boats, and removed. Manv hands make light 
