206 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JUNE, 
Contents for June, 1868. 
Bari ey—Harvesting.219 
Beans—More About.217 
Books for Farmers.209 
Boys' and Girls’ Columns — Wanted—A Boy with Ten 
Points—Presence of Mind — Ways of Getting a Liv¬ 
ing—Who First Lived in America?—A Pleasant 
Picture—India Rubber Shoes — A Natural Mistake— 
Sparse Woods—A Splendid Team—Another Chari¬ 
table Dog—The Promise Kept—A Critic Confounded 
—Problems and Puzzles.4 Illustrations.. 229—230 
Breaking Prairie.221 
Butter a Great Source of Income.220 
Canada Thistles—Quaker Practice on_ Illustrated ..219 
Cat-Bird. Illustrated. .205 
Cattle—Channel Island.2 Illustrations ..215 
Cold Grapery in June.208 
Cotton Seed Meal for Feeding.-.217 
Crops in New York and Great Britain.219 
Evergreens—Notes on.226 
Farm Work for June. 206 
Florida as a Home for Northern Men.220 
Flower Garden and Lawn in June.207 
Gang Plows, and Sulky Cultivators. 219 
Grape Vine — How it Grows and What to Do with 
It.4 Illustrations ..224 
Green and Hot-houses in June.208 
Hens’ Nests.2 Illustrations ..219 
Horses — Wolf-teeth in. Illustrated.. 218 
Household Department—A Wire Egg Stand — House¬ 
hold Ornaments—Flower-glass }Vork Stand—Harp 
Card Case—Household Talks by Aunt Hattie — Cook¬ 
ing Meat—Basting—Newspaper Holder—Treatment 
of Children — Making a Cool Box — Overwork in the 
Household — More about Salad Dressing — Bottling 
Strawberries and Raspberries—Raspberry Vinegar- 
Recipes..^.5 Illustrations. .227—228 
Insects—The Cotton Moth... 21S 
Insects—The Grape Curculio. Illustrated ..223 
Insects—Oak Scale-Louse. Illustrated.. 223 
Insects—The Striped Bug.222 
Lima Beans. 223 
Manure—Selling. 215 
Market Reports.20S 
Monkey-Flower—Mi mulns. Illustrated.. 223 
Orchard and Nursery in June.207 
Pastures—Management of Worn-out.215 
Pharaoh’s Horses. Illustrated ..222 
Picking and Marketing Fruits. Illustrated. .224 
Premiums.209 
Preparing for the Exhibitions.223 
Pruning Evergreens.225 
Sod Fences. .. .: .2 Illustrations.. 218 
Stay on the Farm.221 
Superphosphate—Commercial and Home-made.220 
Supports for Climbers. Illustrated ..224 
Spruces, Hemlocks, and Firs.3 Illustrations ..226 
bummer Pruning or Pinching.221 
Town and Local Agricultural Societies.220 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 54.—Potatoes 
and Prices—Looking Ahead—Tree Planting—Roads 
and other Improvements—Advice — Irrigation — Poor 
Horses — Cultivating Crops. 216-217 
Weeding Hook .2 Illustrations ..225 
Whiffletree Boot for Plowing Orchards... Illustrated. .219 
INDEX TO “basket” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agricultural Editors.211 
Am. Dairymen’s Ass-’n.. .211 
Answering Letters.211 
Apple Pomace.212 
Artificial Manure.214 
Beautiful Pictures.210 
Bees in June.210 
Bone-dust.212 
Borrowing Capital.212 
Cheese Factories.212 
Chester White Swine... .214 
Clay and Muck.212 
Crooked Lake Gone.213 
Cultivating Wheat.212 
Darwin’s Variations.211 
Death of Dr. Dana.210 
Diana Hamburgh Grape..213 
Diseases of Animals.212 
Enriching Land.214 
Farm Scales....203 
Fish Ponds.214 
Flat Culture for Corn.212 
Fowls’ Scabby Legs.212 
Goats as Milkers. 214 
Grade Alderney.212 
Greasing Wheels.212 
Grinding Mach. Knives..214 
Grubs Again .213 
Hemlock for Hedges....213 1 
Hens Eating Feathers.. .212 
Hoopes’ Evergreens.211 
Hop Growers’ Journal.. .212 
Hot-Ilonse Grapes.211 
How Much Land ?.2121 
Humbugs, 2nd Edition..210 
Information Wanted.213 
Insects of Illinois.213 
Ives’ Grape.213 
Large Price for Plants.. .210 
Market Fairs.214 
Medicinal Plants.213 
Mr. Knox’s Exhibition. .211 
Mowing Mach’s in Paris.213 
Mutton as Manure.214 
Native Cattle.212 
N. J. State Ag’l Soc.210 
Ornamental Planting_211 
Papering Brick Walls... .211 
Parsnips.211 
Peaches in Maryland. ..213 
Pear Tree not Blooming.211 
Plowing Barn-yards_1.212 
Plow Trial, N.E. Ag.Soc.210 
Poudrette. ..212 
Price of Land in Mass.. .212 
Profits of Egg Raising... 214 
Propagat’g Green Wood.213 
Railroads and Fanners..208 
Refining Sorghum.212 
Salt for Cattle.:_208 
Seedling Strawberries.. .213 
Self-milking Cows. .111. .214 
Send Your Name.211 
Shape of Trout Ponds.. .214 
Southern Item.213 
Southern Journals.211 
Sundry Humbugs.210 
Sundry Queries'"..213 
Surface Manuring.212 
Texas Farmer.212 
The R. 1. Schoolmaster. .211 
Toad Shelters.213 
Trouble with Cabbages. .211 
Weigh Your Milk....214 
What, Calves to Raise_214 
Wood Mold for Corn. .. 212 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1868. 
A iale, wet season makes June a hard month for 
the farmer. Under the most favorable circum¬ 
stances no month of the year puts liis executive 
abilities more thoroughly to the test. Without 
well-matured plans, and a knowledge of about how 
much the labor, both of men and animals, will ac¬ 
complish, the best farmer will be likely to fall be¬ 
hindhand. The weeds grow so fust yi moist, warm 
weather that the fields must be lioed almost as soon 
as planted, and the growth of the grass in the 
meadow is so rapid, that the necessity for laying 
down the hoe for the scythe is often a most trying 
one. It is very rare, in our latitude, that June is 
not, on the whole, a prosperous time for the crops. 
Very dry Junes are of rare occurrence, and a drouth 
at this season is productive of great injury—quite 
as much so as a sharp frost. Farmers whose spring 
work lias been delayed by the wetness of the 
ground have in this way the value of thorough 
draining impressed upon them. Much drained 
land was this year fit for plowing and planting early 
in April, while that of precisely the same character, 
not drained, yet not what would be called wet land, 
will not be fit to plow before the first of June, 
even if the weather be dry the latter part of May. 
IBints about Work. 
Buildings. —There are certain tilings which can 
be better done at this season than at any other. 
The barns are nearly empty. They must be pre¬ 
pared for the uew crops of liay and grain. If a 
barn should need shingling, this ought to be 
done when it is empty, so that the nails which fall 
may be cleaned up. We know a case of a cow 
which died from swallowing nails in the hay. These 
were found in a large mass in the animal’s stomach. 
Hay lofts and bays should be cleaned, and all the 
hay seed and rubbish removed before any hay is 
placed in them. Old hay is good, but it is best 
not to allow it to accumulate from year to year. 
Working Animals must be well fed if one expects 
them to work well. Oxen worked all day and turn¬ 
ed into the pasture for the night without grain of 
any kind, cannot be expected to do much work. 
Give horses thorough daily grooming. A gill of 
oil-meal, mixed with the feed at each meal, will 
give a glossy coat, and is an excellent ingredient in 
any mixed feed given to them, or other animals. 
Cows are now at pasture, and tlic fresh grass adds 
greatly to the flow of milk aud to its richness and 
color; but this should not lead us to withhold all 
grain. A small quantity of oil-meal or corn- 
meal, or the two mixed, say one quart divided be¬ 
tween the morning and evening, should be given. 
Manure.- —If cows are yarded or stabled, a very 
large quantity of manure is saved. We are too apt 
to look upon the manure crop as the harvest of the 
winter. With reasonable forethought and diligence 
the manure heaps will grow quite as fast in sum¬ 
mer. We have one great advantage—fermentation 
takes place much more rapidly ; hence accumula¬ 
tions of vegetable matter, fresh, or in form of muck 
and peat, if composted witli stable manure, ashes, 
or lime, very rapidly ferment, and ripen into 
homogeneousness, ready for use in the autumn. 
Swine are widely employed as the summer ma¬ 
nure makers, and they are worth so much more as 
rooters than “ tamed,” that it is not worth while to 
“ ring ” or “ tame ” them, until they are peuned to 
fatten. Confine them where they may have con¬ 
veniently, sods, weeds, and all sorts of green rub¬ 
bish thrown to them to work over. If upon the 
manure of other stock, encourage diligence by scat¬ 
tering occasionally handfuls of corn about the heap. 
If muck or sods are used in the compost, swine 
will often tread it so hard as to arrest fermentation. 
Sheep. —A few days after the ewes have been 
sheared all the ticks aud most of the lice will 
prefer lamb to mutton, and be found upon the 
lambs. This is therefore just the right time to 
dip the entire flock. We have great faitli in the 
carbolic and cresylic soap dips for sheep, and when 
this article can be obtained, (and we must refer in¬ 
quirers to our advertising pages), there is no need 
of having anything to do with either vegetable or 
mineral poisons, such as tobacco, arsenic, or mer¬ 
cury in any form. If sores, from too close shear¬ 
ing or sun scalds, occur, smear the wounds with 
an ointment of tallow and pine-tar 
Butter. —June butter is considered the best made 
during the year. Good butter makers pack it to 
keep the whole j'ear. There is no difficulty about 
it if the buttermilk be thoroughly worked out, the 
butter salted one ounce to the pound, and worked 
again after standing 12 to 21 hours. It is packed in 
layers in firkins, with a thin layer of salt on the 
bottom, and salt between each layer. The butter 
must be packed air-tight, if possible—that is, with¬ 
out holes—and pounded down flat and solid. The 
less butter is handled, the better, and the lower the 
temperature at which it is worked, provided it be 
soft enough to work thoroughly, the more waxy 
and firm will it be. If the tub cannot be filled 
at once, cover the butter with a strong brine. 
Cheese. —The production of the best cheese is in¬ 
consistent with butter making from the same milk. 
It requires but a little more care, cleanliness, and 
painstaking, with good judgment, to make cheese 
bring readily a high price, than to make that 
which is a drug on the market. See article on cheese 
making in the Am. Agricultural Annual for 1868. 
Green Fodder Crops. —Sow corn in drills, 24 to 30 
inches apart, for a succession of green fodder. This 
will keep up the flow of milk, and add greatly to 
the butter and cheese returns of the summer, 
especially if the pastures are a little overstocked, or 
the season is dry. Millet may be sown any time 
this month, for seed as well as for green fodder. 
Hungarian grass, a variety of millet, sown for 
hay, on land in fair condition only, will ordinarily 
yield a crop of two tons of good hay per acre. 
Pastures may be benefited by top-dressings at any 
time, especially if close cropped. They respond 
at once if wash from the highways be turned upon 
them. Never overstock, but provide early greeu- 
fodder crops, to feed out before the fields are so far 
denuded as to be liable to injury from drouth. 
Mowing Lands. —Clover which is clean enough 
for seed should be cut early, when first corning into 
bloom. Top-dress with fine manure, ashes and 
plaster, or guano and plaster, aud a good crop of 
seed will be as sure as a crop of corn. Cut mixed 
grasses for hay, beginning when clover is in full 
bloom, before the heads brown, and cutting those 
fields first which have the most clover. Cure as 
much as possible in the shade—that is, in the cock, 
after thoroughly wilting iu tlic sun. If the Ox-eye 
Daisy abounds in the grass, it is most important to 
cut it for hay before the stalks harden, aud for the 
future welfare of the farm it is more important to 
cut it before the seeds are so nearly mature that 
they will ripen in the curing of tlic hay. 
Root-Crops. —Carrots aud Rutabagas may be sown 
to as good advantage between the 1st and 20th of 
June, as earlier, considering the pressure of other 
work and the slight difference a few weeks make to 
these crops. Sugar Beets and Parsnips will make 
a fair crop, also, if put in as late as the first, but 
sowing should not be delayed after that time. 
Field Beans. —This crop is generally planted be¬ 
fore the 20th, if possible. Use only fresh, tender 
seed. Two-year-old seed will surely disappoint. See 
article in this and the previous number. 
Cabbages can hardly be overrated as an econom¬ 
ical article of cattle food. The only objection to 
raising cabbages as a dependence for green fodder 
in winter is, that their market price is usually so 
great we cannot afford to feed them out; but the 
same objection holds with regard to many other 
articles of human food. Set out the Flat Dutch, 
Drumhead, Mason, or other large varieties, after 
the middle of the month, in good soil, well ma¬ 
nured with fine compost and top-dressed with lime. 
Hoeing Corn and Potatoes.— -All tillage of these 
crops goes by the name of hoeing, though done 
