12; 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Contents for April, 1868. 
Barley—Cultivation of.131 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—A Wonderful Musical In¬ 
strument—A Queer Fish—Puzzle for the Eye—Ava¬ 
rice Outwitted—Laoyrinth—What is a Month?— 
Comic Action Puzzle—Rebus—Answers to Problems 
and Puzzles—Sit up, Ponto !—A D 05 Story—Comical 
Command—Children’s Talk_5 Illustrations. .149—150 
Castor Oil Bean.140 
Cattle—Channel Island. Illustrated.. 135 
Cattle—Feeding Milch Cows.132 
Cattle—Jerseys and Guernseys. Illustrated.. 135 
Cold Grapery in April.124 
Corn Crib—Simple and Good. Illustrated. .138 
Cribbers—A Check for.2 Illustrations. .130 
Farm Work for April. 122 
Flower Garden and Lawn in April. 124 
Fruit Garden in April.123 
Gherkin—The Prickly-fruited. Illustrated.. 143 
Grape Vine—IIow it Grows, and What to Do with 
It.3 Illustrations.. 144 
Green and Hot-houses in April. 124 
Grubs and their Work.2 llhestrations. ,141 
Horses—Price of.138 
Horses, The Percherons. Illustrated. .121 
Household Department—The Game of Croquet—A 
Convenient Cooking Table—Pen Wiper—Variety at 
the Table, Two Bills of Fare—Hulled Corn—To Clean 
Tripe—A Tidy—The Rusting of Metals Prevented— 
How to Take Care of a Watch—Cooking Recipes— 
Frothy Cream and No Butter_5 Illustrations. .147—148 
Insects—Bark Lice. Illustrated .. 134 
Kitchen Garden in April.123 
Lawns and Grass Plots..144 
Market Reports.124 
Olive—Culture of. Illustrated. .133 
Orchard and Nursery in April.123 
Peach Culture.145 
Pigeons—A Group of Fancy. Illustrated.. 142 
Plowing—Deep—Safe and Unsafe.140 
Plowing for Corn and Potatoes. Illustrated.. 138 
Plums—Native—The Miner. Illustrated.. 143 
Potato—The Sebec...148 
Premiums. 125 
Quinces—Culture and Varieties. Illustrated.. 145 
Red Cedar.145 
Rotation of Crops.140 
Save the Earliest. 146 
Saw Filing. Illustrated.. 134 
Shrubs for Cemeteries.143 
Shrubs—The Hydrangeas. Illustrated.. 143 
Shrubs—The Leather-Leaf. Illustrated. .148 
Sorghum—Cultivation of.140 
Straw—Use of, for Fodder.139 
Subsoiling—A Defence Against Drouth.141 
Troughs for Sheep or Hogs. Illustrated.. 139 
Turkeys—Success in Raising.139 
Turnip—gfho White French'... .13-1 
Weeds—Rib-grass. Illustrated.. 134 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 52.—The Judd 
Wheat Premiums—Dairy Farming—Investing in 
Drains—Making Farming Pay—Parsnip Culture— 
Hen Manure. 136—137 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OR SIIORTER ARTICLES, 
Ailanthns.130 
Allen’s Catalogue.. .126 
Alton Ilort. Society.___130 
Ambas Americas.131 
Am. Naturalist.127 
Animals Named..,.132 
Artificial Mother...128 
Ayrshire Herd-book.132 
Bees in April..,132 
Beets and Milk... .127 
Beet Sugar Factories... .132 
Black Knot,....131 
Blood as a Fertilizer... .131 
Bluffton Wine Co.127 
Boiled Grain for Fowls. .132 
Book of Evergreens.127 
Box Edging.130 
Breaking up Prairie.131 
Buckeye Mower..129 
Canada Thistles.131 
Canker-worm.130 
Catalogues Received.128 
Cheap Lands East.127 
CondensedMilkFactoriesl29 
Corn in Drills and Hills..132 
Cows at Calving Time.. .131 
Cranberry Queries.130 
Cultivation of Potatoes. .129 
Curculio.130 
Dark Ages in England.. .131 
Darwin’s New Work. 126-128 
Dept, of Agriculture.129 
Distillation, Brewing,ete.129 
Draining Tile.129 
Early Rose Potato.127 
Extra Farming.131 
Large Price for Pbtatocs.130 
Lice on Cattle..128 
Life Insurance...126 
Lima Beans..130 
Little Girl’s Letter.130 
Manures- for Potatoes.... 128 
Manure Scarce in Ill._132 
Maple Sugar...120 
Mineral Curiosity_...130 
Mr. Knox.127 
Mixing of Vegetables.. .130 
Moving Evergreens.130 
New Kinds of Oats.132 
N. Y. Grape Growers_130 
N. Y. Independent.129 
New Paper.127 
Novel Enterprise.128 
Onions and Carrots.131 
Pea-combed Fowls.132 
Peat Swamp Burnt.129 
Potato Diggers.128 
Potato Experiment.132 
Preservation of Meat.... 127 
Preserving Eggs.128 
Price of Corn Hnsks... .129 
Professorship of Agricnl.131 
Prof. John Garngee.128 
Propagating Maples.130 
Queer Apples.139- 
Rapid Growth of Salmonl32 
Retarding Peacli Trees.. 1-30 
Rutabagas.,.131 
Seeding Oat Stubble. ....128 
Self-milking Cows...128 
Setting a Forest.131 
Sick Chickens.127 
Farming without Stock. .129,Silver Maple.130 
TJVorJin o* fiorn r»a 1 ‘30 Smnll T.umnri i 
Feeding Scraps.132 
Fertilizers.129 
Fish Ponds...132 
Forcing Strawberries... .130 
Foxes and Woodchucks.131 
Good Business Notices. .128 
Grass for Salt Marsh.129 
Grinding Bones.131 
Hair Worm.130 
Hedges.130 
Hens Eating Feathers.. .127 
Hens for Large Hennery.132 
Horticultural Societies. .131 
How to Study Botany.. .130 
Immigrant Laborers.132 
Interesting Figures.128 
Italian Silver Top-Knots 131 
Ives Grape..128 
Kicking Cows.131 
Knots on Cherries.130 
Labor & Profit in Farm’glSl 
Landretli’s Seeds.129 
Small Lemon. 127 
Standard in Poultry.129 
Steadying a Fan-mill... .132 
Strawberries in N. J... .127 
Sugar Beets__131 
Sugar Consumption.129 
Sulph. Acid as Fertilizcr.132 
S. School Index.....129 
Sundry Humbugs.'_126 
To Get Big Crops..129 
Tomato Question. 130 
Trees for S. Wisconsin. .130 
Tying Material.130 
Walks and Talks....126 
Walnut Worms...128 
Water into Houses.129 
W. Jersey Fruit Growers.130 
What to Grow.130 
WhenWill a Mower Pay?.132 
Whitewash.127 
Working Manure.131 
Worms in Flower-pots...130 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1868. 
April is one of tlie most indefinite months; March 
work holds on into it, even though May weather 
prevails. Besides, there is almost always a great 
deal of work which inopportune rains will post¬ 
pone and again postpone, quite into next mouth. 
There should be an early division of work, thus: 
—dry soil work, rainy day work, and work for fair 
days when the soil is wet; this makes three 
good divisions. Nothing should interrupt the 
work in the field and garden while the soil is in 
good condition for working. With proper dili¬ 
gence all that needs to be done indoors, or that can 
he done on rainy days, or while the soil is too moist 
to work, may be without infringing upon the good 
days for field work. If plans are not well matured 
for the summer campaign lose no time before form¬ 
ing them. If there are seeds to buy, tools to provide, 
or anything of that kind to do, delay not. If we 
begin the season with good “ help,” good teams, 
good tools, good seeds, all the manure we can 
get, and the best plans we can make, after doing 
all we possibly can we may rely upon Providence 
for sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons. Last 
year, amid the parched acres of the Interior, the 
fields of those whose drainage and deep tillage had 
been thorough, showed for miles as green oases in 
a barren desert, and at the East, where all was so 
wet, it was undrained fields and those of shallow 
soils that uniformly produced the poor crops. 
Mints about Work. 
Review what was said in the March number with 
regard to winter grains, grass, soiling, and the 
working of wet soils. 
Double Cropping .—Land to be suited for raising 
two crops in one season must he rich, in good tilth, 
and free as possible from weeds—in fact, like a good 
garden. Early potatoes, peas, onions, early cab¬ 
bages, or any early soiling crop, may he followed by 
cabbages, rutabagas, common turnips, pickles, etc. 
Onions will leave the ground for carrots, which 
should have been sowed at tlie last hoeing between 
the rows, as directed in a “ basket item,” and cab¬ 
bages may be set out before the potatoes are dug. 
Animals —Let stock of all kinds have frequent 
carding, and some hours of sunshine daily. Only 
at the South will the grass he forward enough to be 
pastured without danger to the crop. The tempta¬ 
tion will be great to turn cattle upon the fresh 
meadows in case forage is scarce, hut it will he 
much better both for the stock and the pasturage 
to feed a month longer, perhaps, on corn-stalks. 
The first lands that are fit to turn stock upon are 
unreclaimed bogs, where the coarse grass growing" 
in tussocks has been burnt off. Such grass is sweet 
and juicy early in the spring, and eaten with zest 
after the dry fodder of winter, but it soon becomes 
wiry and hard and will be refused by the stock. If 
fed off close when it first starts, it willkeep on grow¬ 
ing and furnish considerable feed. Nevertheless 
such land is very unprofitable property. 
Horses shedding their coats may have a quart of 
oil-meal fed to each daily with cut feed or on a- 
peck of carrots. Feed work-horses well. If kept 
steadily at work, calculate to feed so well that they 
will not fall off at all in flesh. Daily thorough, 
grooming is worth four quarts of feed a day at this- 
season, even for farm horses. Mares near foaling- 
must be well fed, relieved from severe labor, and as 
their time approaches given roomy quarters in. 
loose boxes. A box 10 feet square is none too-- 
large. A slightly loose condition of the bowels in¬ 
breeding animals is always favorable, and should- 
bc induced by feeding roots, oil-cake or flaxseed.. 
Oxen.— Feed in proportion to work required, card: 
often, give long noonings, and a chance to feed but- 
not to fill themselves. Cattle, like all ruminating 
animals, eat fast and do their chewing afterwards. 
An ox that is put to work with his paunch full of.’ 
unmasticated food is lazy, at least, and probably 
more liable than otherwise to be hurt by hard work.. 
Cows and Calves .—Refer to last month’s hints ; we 
have little to add here. Calves that are beginning 
to nibble grass a little may be tethered by the 
fences, where the grass starts green and sweet, and 
will thus learn to pick up a good living as soon as 
turned to pasture. Never let the scours run a day. 
Sheep .—Take extra care of the lambs ; if stinted 
in their earliest growth they never catch up. The 
flock will need close watching to see that no ewe3 
become gargety and their lambs lack milk, that 
none refuse to own their young, and that no lambs 
are hurt, or sick. Provide fresh water regularly, if 
not constantly, and by no means neglect salt. 
Swine .—See hints for previous month. If the 
stock kept is not bred upon the farm, look out 
early for such pigs as yon will need. If these can 
he had bred of full-blood sires, by all means secure 
them ; they grow faster and fatten more easily. 
Foultry .—There are some useful hints in the body 
of this number to which we refer the reader. Sever¬ 
al painful diseases are apt to attack fowls in wet 
Springs, of which the worst arc the Roup, and that 
disease so close akin to it as to be confounded with 
it, Sweiled-head. Both are brought about by un¬ 
cleanly apartments, and both are highly contagious; 
although the previous preparation of the system by 
exposure to wetness and filth seems to be an al¬ 
most essential condition. A cold will run into 
roup if any roupy fowls are about the yard. In bad 
weather, give an iron tonic, say a teaspoonful of 
tincture of iron, wet up in a quart of Indian meal, 
to a flock of twenty. About a tablespoonful of red 
pepper may he mixed with it to good advantage. 
In fact, this is one of the best preventives of disease, 
encouragements to laying, and promoters of health, 
which the poultry breeder can use. Taken early, 
these diseases may he cured by stimulants and 
cleanliness, hut after the first stage they are usually 
fatal. Coops for hens and chickens should be 
placed on clean turf, where no chickens have been, 
at least since early last spring. Old coops should 
he well cleaned and whitewashed, and the water 
furnished to chickens should be so covered that 
they cannot foul it nor step in it, and protected 
from the dirt which the old lien throws in all di¬ 
rections by her scratching. We believe absolute 
cleanliness, on fresh ground, to he a perfect pre¬ 
vention of the gapes. Turkeys hatch and care for 
their own young best. Ducks’ eggs, however, 
ought always to be’ put under hens. Keep ducks 
shut up until 8 o’clock every morning, or until all 
have laid. They lay an egg a day, if well fed, and 
will steal their nests and hide them where they are 
hard to find, if allowed their freedom. When the 
eggs arc regularly removed they will not want to 
sit, but keep on laying until midsummer. Other¬ 
wise they sit as soon as they have a nest full of eggs. 
Miscellaneous Worlc .—For hints about farm roads, 
fences, picking up stones, etc., see March number. 
Buildings .—As soon as tlie weather is warm and 
settled, open and clear out cellars, both in house 
and barn, whitewash thoroughly, stop rat holes 
and cat holes. Roots still on hand may he put in 
barrels or boxes, that the bins may be cleaned. Out¬ 
side painting may he done now, and a better surface 
be formed than if the work he done when the wood 
is thoroughly dry so that the oil will strike in. 
Draining may often be done in the spring better 
than at any other season, and spring draining has 
this.great advantage : the filling has all the sum¬ 
mer to settle, and there is much less danger of the 
surface water washing in and gaining direct access 
to the tiles than when the draining is done in 
the fall. On this account it is advisable to do the 
draining on side hills, and where early in spring 
much surface water flows, at the present season of 
the year, after the heavy spring rains have passed. 
Barn-yard Manure and Composts .—Where manure 
has any value in the estimation of the farmers, 
nobody has enough. Nevertheless, the prevailing 
notions about it are so crude that few take the 
pains they should to increase their manure both in 
quantity and quality. Manure the land well, or not 
at all. It does not pay to put on a sprinkling and 
get half a crop. Manure will secure a reward for 
labor that can be gained in no other way. Begin 
