2-42 
[July, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Contents for July, 1868. 
Animals—The American Badger.. Illustrated. .251 
Animals—The Peccary. Illustrated. .257 
Boys' and Girls’ Columns—A Stone’s Talk—Ways of 
Getting a Living—Be-Courteous—The Fourth of July 
—Out Too Soon—What is a Tear ?—A Peculiar Taste 
—Puzzles—Answers to Problems and Puzzles. 
.4 Illustrations.. 265—266 
Budding—A Word About...2(il 
Buildings—A Kansas Corn Ilouse. Illustrated. .255 
Buildings—Barn Cellars free from Posts'.2 llluslr. .255 
Cattle—Kerry—The Poor Man’s Cow.. Illustrated.. 241-252 
Cattle—The Village Cow—Soiling.253 
Cold Grapery in July.243 
Cucumbers as a Farm Crop.250 
Do You Belong to it ?.261 
Farm Work for July.242 
Fences Across Streams.2 Illustrations ..254 
Flower Garden and Lawn in July.. .243 
Flowers—Have You any Chrysanthemums?.261 
Gate—A New Carriage. Illustrated. .260 
Graft—The Effect of on the Stock.260 
Grape Vine—How it Grows and What to Do with 
It. Illustrated. .260 
Green and not-houses in July.243 
Haying in “Catching Weather”.257 
Horses—Sales in New York—“ On His Last Legs ” 
. Par/e Illustration. .257-258 
Household Department—Sea-side Fare—The Lobster 
—Preserving Green Corn for Winter — Household 
Ornaments—Do Farmers Eat Enough—Preserving 
Fruit in Bottles—Bottled Fruits Again—Sunday 
Morning Breakfasts—Cooking Recipes — 2 111. .263-264 
Implements—A Wagon Jack. Illustrated. .250 
Implements—The Harrow-toothed Cultivator.254 
Implements—Scarifier for Root Crops_ Illustrated ..254 
Irrigation of Grass Lands.250 
Lawns—Orchard Grass in.261 
Liquid Manure in Gardens.262 
Manures—Ashes, Plaster, and Hen Manure.251 
Market Reports.214 
Orchard and Nursery in July.213 
Paths in Public and Private Grounds.259 
Plants—Begonias.,.2 Illustrations ..259 
Plant—A Long- Sleep of.259 
Plants—The Treatment of Bedding.260 
Poultry—Pure Water for Chickens. Illustrated ..254 
Shrubs—Early Flowering.2 Illustrations. .262 
Sticks, Strings, and Wires.261 
Tim Bunker on Real Estate.256 
Turnips—More Wanted.257 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 55.—Give the 
land a chance—A Three-liorse Evener—The Food 
and the Manure—Improved Agriculture—Making- 
Farming Pay—Tedding Machines.252-253 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Agriculture of Mass... 
Am. Devon Herd Book. 
Am. Farmer’s Magazine 
Antelope.Domestication 
Apple Worm. 
Aquarium. 
Arbor Vitie, New. 
Asparagus and Roots 
Bees in July. 
Birds' Eggs. 
Black Cayuga Duck. 
Bone Mill Wanted. 
Bone Phosphate of S. C.. 
Book of Evergreens. 
Breeding, Young Fowls. 
Buckwheat. 
Butterflies of N. A. 
Cabbages and Milk. 
Canning Apples. 
Catalogues. 
Cat Phenomenon. 
Central Park Animals.... 
China-tree Fences. 
Coal Tar on Cloth. 
Corn in Drills . 
Cotton Seed Cake & Oil. 
Darwin’s Book. 
Dorking Chickens. 
Doughnuts. 
Drying Fruit . 
Eggs by Weight. 
Fair of N. E. Ag’l Soc... 
Fish Hatching . 
Fowls on Nest Boxes. . .. 
Fruit Laws . 
Gapes in Chickens... . 
Gas Lime... .. 
Grass, A Troublesome. . . 
Gypsum, Action of. 
Hard Milker. 
Harvesting Barley. 
Hay Implement, Trial.... 
Hens Eating Eggs 
Honey Bee Parasites 
Hong Kong Geese. .. 
Keeping Good Bulls 
Keeping Sausage Meat.. 
Leached Ashes . 
Leather-scrap Manure... 
Lice on Cattle. ... 
. 245 [Lightning Rod Swindlers247 
.247 Lime-on Manure.245 
.248 Malice among Plants... 248 
.2471 Manuring Gro w’g Crops..249 
246jMarking Poultry.219 
245 Martins Injuring Trees. .248 
248jMass. Ag’l College.246 
216-More Butter.247 
247|Oats and Barley. 249 
24S|Peaches, Early and Late.248 
249;Peat for Fuel..249 
245 Percheron Horse.245 
Pine Saw-dust.249 
Potato Beetle.248 
Poultry, Weight of.245 
Poultry on a Large Scale.245 
Prevent Milk Souring.. .247 
Profits of Fanning.245 
Proportion of the‘Sexes.21S 
Railroads & Horticulture.24S 
247 Range for Fowls.245 
248 Record of Horticulture. .246 
245 Row Boat.248 
247 Sally Lunn..247 
246 Shade-trees in Pastures. .246 
.246 Shaler’s Family Scales...217 
243 Slugs on Cabbages__. .248 
217 Soil for Pear Trees.248 
247 Sour Milk for Hens.245 
246 Squasli-vine Borer.___246 
.247 Strawberry Crop.246 
246 Suffolk Hogs.249 
217|Summer Chickens.245 
243! Sundry Humbugs.245 
248 Tansy for Borers.248 
245 Thunder and Lightning..246 
247 Time to Cut Grass___ .246 
24S|Tin Strainer.246 
246 Training Turkeys.245 
246 Trout Spawn.215 
249lVine in Europe.246 
247 Warts on Cows’ Teats.. .245 
247,Weather and the Crops..246 
248Wheat in Eng. and Am..219 
247 White Mouse. 247 
247Whitewash.219 
249,White Willow Fence_248 
247 Wild Pigeons.247 
249 Willow Peeler.248 
248 Wire Fences..248 
AMERICAN AO RICIILTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, JULY, ISOS. 
Farmers naturally feel greater solicitude in re¬ 
gard to tlie results which this month will effect than 
about those of any other similar period. And well 
they may. It is not farmers alone who are inter¬ 
ested; every man, woman, and child, in the length 
and breadth of the land has a personal interest in 
abundant crops, well gathered. Upon no other 
thing does the prosperity of the whole country so 
much depend. The great bulk of the grass crop, 
which is more valuable than any other, the most of 
the wheat crop, and of all winter grains, are har¬ 
vested in July. The character of the season settles 
(he amount which will be realized from spring- 
sowed grains, and in fact most summer crops. 
Where drouths prevail this month they may almost, 
if not entirely, destroy the corn, potatoes, past¬ 
ures, and aftermath. Protracted rains will cause 
great damage to grain and hay, not secured; stand¬ 
ing grass will become tough and wiry, losing much 
of its nutritive value, and will fill up with a new 
growth, chiefly of clover, which is not really 
healthy when cured for hay. One of the most im¬ 
portant things for us to do is to provide forage 
crops to take the place of short pasturage in the 
fall. The corn sown in May will help out the feed 
this month. Every one ought to have a set of hay 
and grain caps as a defence against showers and 
storms. We should arrange good plans for quick 
work. When the weather is favorable, keep the soil 
among hoed crops always mellow, not working it 
so deep, however, in dry weather as to cause the 
crops to wilt. The progress of the age is shown 
more iu the application of machinery and horse 
power to save the labor of human hands than in 
any other way, and it is essential to profitable farm¬ 
ing, that, so fiir as possible, we avail ourselves of the 
most valuable helps. Smooth land is essential, if 
we would make llie best use of haying and harvest¬ 
ing machinery. Clean land, that having a com¬ 
parative freedom from weeds, is indispensable to 
the most advantageous use of horse power in til¬ 
lage. Freedom from water standing within a few 
feet of the surface, accomplished by means of 
thorough drainage, is, perhaps, the most important 
means of making the tiller of the soil in a measure 
independent of both wet and dry seasons. For the 
ease and comfort of the farmer and his teams, and 
the durability of his implements a removal of the 
stones, so far as possible, is most important. 
ISSints silxmt Work. 
This is a month of hard work ; haying presses 
upon hoeing, and this has to he neglected too 
often for the grain harvest. Then turnip and 
buckwheat sowing, cabbage setting, and a score of 
other necessary or desirable things till every mo¬ 
ment of the long days, and may cause sore per¬ 
plexity if the plans are not well thought over for 
each day and for several days ahead. 
Weather .—-We expect hot weather, with some 
two or three weeks very hot and dry. We must 
be prepared to take advantage of a few rainy days 
early in the month to transplant cabbages, fill out 
tobacco, or vacant spots in the rows of ruta-bagas. 
Thunder storms must be looked out for, and hay 
and grain shielded from damage as well as possible. 
Hay. —Cut, cure, and mow away by horse power 
if possible. Steady and rapid drying of the liay, as 
when the hay tedder tosses it up every few minutes 
until it is cured, is best; curing in the cock after 
having been twice turned, and cocked up while hot, 
next best, and makes better hay than that sunned 
and dried, and raked up after the dew falls, in the 
usual way. Cotton stuffs are cheap enough to make 
hay caps now, and they often pay for themselves 
in one rainy week. Upon shocks of 
Grain, caps of cloth are often very useful, as it 
takes no longer to put them on than to put on the 
cap sheaves. Cut when nearly ripe, and if the 
straw is short or dry, it saves time and labor to take 
to the field dampened, long rye straw for bands. 
Pastures must be well looked to, aud if they be¬ 
gin to get short, the cattle should be fed daily with 
green corn fodder, or other green feed. Top-dress 
with guano, ashes, plaster, or any fine compost. 
Root-Crops. —Ruta-bagas sown last month should 
be well hoed and thinned. Hoe other roots. Sow 
turnips any time during the month. A full crop of 
Ruta-bagas canuot be expected, but a very good one 
may be excellent for the table. Sow Strap-leaf or 
Cowhorn turnips only after the 25th. They will 
do well sown among corn at the last hoeing. 
Potatoes .—Keep weeds pulled ; scatter turnip 
seed or set cabbage plants, when hills are wanting. 
Corn .—Keep down the weeds with the plow and 
cultivator until the corn is too large; do as little 
hand-hoeiug as possible, but pull the weeds close in 
by the hills, and work the rest of the ground by horse 
power. Sweet com will mature “ roasting ears,” 
if sown as late as the 4th of July, and corn may 
be sown for green or dry fodder up to the 20th. 
Stacks for hay, grain, and corn fodder, are best 
made long and narrow. For such, the horse-fork 
attached to a pair of large shears may he used. 
Cabbages .—Set on rich land, where early potatoes, 
peas, etc., were taken off Top-dress with lime, 
and water freely when first put out; when well 
established and beginning to grow, a few waterings 
at evening witti liquid manure, (barn-yard lye) will 
give them a grand start, and do much towards 
securing a large crop. Hoe very frequently. 
Buckwheat may be sown any time during the 
month. It is one of the most profitable crops we 
raise, occupying the ground but a very short time, 
doing fairly on land not in the best heart, aud well 
on any land not enriched with rank manure and 
not too wet. It makes so dense a covering as to 
choke down all common weeds, aud yields a very 
good return for the labor it requires, in grain and 
straw, which latter is a valuable addition to the 
manure heap. An old practice, rarely followed of 
late years, so far as we know, yet not to he over¬ 
looked, is the sowing of buckwheat as late as the 
last of this month or first week of August with 
wheat. This crop matures before frost, or not at 
all, and being removed the wheat has the ground 
the rest of the season aud is not perceptibly injured. 
Orchards .—It is often a problem what crops to 
put in an orchard, which should be tilled for the 
benefit of the trees. Potatoes seldom do well on a 
sod, and weeds will grow badly under the trees. 
Com or grain should be out of the question, be¬ 
cause they make their strong growth just when the 
trees do theirs, and area serious damage. “No 
white crop in an orchard,” is the old English rule. 
Potatoes, roots, cabbages, aud clover, are beneficial. 
On rather light loams, the sward turned over fiat, 
rolled, and harrowed so as not to tear the sod, buck¬ 
wheat will make a fair crop. The sod will rot, the 
grass be kept under, and if the stubble be manur¬ 
ed and plowed after the crop is off, the laud will 
be in good condition for potatoes or root crops the 
next year if not too much shaded. 
Manure Making .—If the weather he dry, employ 
every spare hour iu ditching and draining swamp 
holes and mucky places, to get out a good supply 
of material for composts. All peaty matter, bog- 
grasses, ferns and rushes, sods, wherever found, 
and in the absence of these, good surface soil, or 
even sand, ought to be freely used to compost witli 
stable and yard manure. This is more important 
during the warm weather than at any other time. 
It is best to lay up the materials in compact rec¬ 
tangular heaps, having drainage secured under the 
whole bottom. The hog pens should be well sup¬ 
plied with weeds and green vegetable matters of 
all kinds, which they rapidly convert into mauure. 
It is the saying of an old farmer: “Anything that 
grows in the summer will rot iu the winter.” This 
may not be exactly true, but sufficiently well in¬ 
dicates the kind of material to put into hog pens. 
Animals .—All kind of animals do better for being- 
well fed. Young stock grow much more rapidly 
for a little meal; oil-cake porridge is grand feed 
for hogs, and they need but little to keep them well 
growing. Beeves ought to get grain in addition to 
