314 
Contents for September, 1868. 
American agriculturist. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
g'ether. That cut in August may be crowded up 
Abattoirs at Communipaw . Illustrated. .320—330 
Agricultural Colleges—A Field for.•.328 
Arrange to Sow more Clover.323—32G 
Barn Building at the West,. . . . ..2 Illustrations. .326 
Barnyards . 2 Illustrations . .32S 
Boy’s and Girls’ Columns—Sunstroke—Curious Gam¬ 
bling—A Private Picture Gallery — Ways of Getting 
a Living — “Little by Little,” — A Great Structure- 
Tire Orphans—Snake Story— 111 Rich as Croesus,”— 
“The Old Oaken Bucket,” — Quite a difference — The 
Invention of Envelopes—Problems and Puzzles — 
, „ . .5 Illustrations.. 337—338 
Canker Worms—Remedy for... Illustrated. .327 
Cleaning up the Garden .333 
Climber—Akebia Quinata. Illustrated.. 334 
Cold Grapery in Sept . 316 
Crop Prospects and Prices.. -.. 318 
Education for Farming. 325 
Fairs in 1868. 317 
Farm Work in September. 314 
Flower Garden and Lawn in Sept.316 
Flowers— — Tire Amaranth Family_3 Illustrations.. 331 
Foul Water in Wells.326 
Frnit Garden in Sept.315 
Garden-seeds — Saving. 332 
Grape Vine—How it Grows and What to do With It 
, ...3 Illustrations.. 332 
Green and Hot-houses in Sept.316 
Greens in Summer. .332 
Hogs in the Orchard.333 
Holland Mole Trap. . Illustrated ..333 
Hop Picking... . Illustrated . .313 
Household Department.—Sea-side Fare—The Clam- 
Tomatoes next Winter—Soap Cups—The Cooking 
of Vegetables—Household Talks by Aunt Hattie— 
Ice Cream—Drying Fruit—Dish for Tea — Tomato 
Pickles—A Good Word for tire Cabbage—Ladies at 
Fall Fairs — Sunshine in Sleeping Rooms—Preserv¬ 
ing Crab Apples .5 Illustrations . 335—336 
Kitchen Garden in Sept.315 
Lance-head Hoes . Illustrated. 326 
Lawns—Seeding down in Autumn. .333 
Lilies..332 
Market Reports.316 
Manure the Test of Good Farming.329 
Orchard and Nursery in Sept.315 
Picking Fruit f >r Market.334 
Peas—Some New.334 
Poultry — Asiatic Fowls — Cochirr .2 Illustrations. 323 
Should Cows have Food during the Night?.325 
Stone-fence—A Durable. Illustrated .327 
Tethering Cattle in Grazing. Illustrated. .327 
Texas Murrain on Spanish Fever.. .322 
Flower Gardening—The Fault of. 331 
Walks and Talks on the Farm No. 37—-Fattening 
Sheep—Peas—Wheat oir Nursery Land—Renovat¬ 
ing a Rrrtr-down Farm—Farm Help.324 .325 
Wheat—What Kind to Sow. r ..322 
Wilson’s Blackberry and Small Fruits.. .333 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OK SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Ailarrthus Trees. 320 Naomi Raspberry.319 
Apples in Illinois.319|N. J. State Fair.318 
Bone Mill. ...321iNot.es from Colorado _ 321 
Bone Phosphate.322 Patented Walks.319 
Canada Thistles .32l|Peach Trees. .319 
Conn. State Board.321 Plants Named.320 
Cost of Roots .319;Plaster, How prepared.. .321 
Cream Skimmer.321. Potato Bugs.321 
Dairying at the South.. .322|Pruning Blackberries_320 
Deep Planting of Trees..319 Raspberry .Odd.3,20 
Do Locusts Sting ?.319 Rat-tailed Radish.319 
Double Peaches.320'Reclaimin°t Swamp.321 
Dried Sweet Corn.319 Red-Root, Destroying_3.21 
Farmers Club on Botany.320 Steaming Food.322 
Fish Compost.321 Strawberries .320 
Fish Guano.322 Sundry Humbugs.318 
Forsyth’s Composition. .319 Texas Murrain.318 
Fruit, Ladder.320.Thursday’s Shows .320 
Gardening for the South.318,Tomalo Question.320 
Gladioluses.320 Tubes in a Log.310 
Grapes and Pears..._319 
Grape Grafting.319 
Grape Vine Beetle.320 
Harvesting Beans.320 
Hedge Trimmer.319 
Horticult. Exhibitions. .318 
Ice House ...321 
Let Bugs Beware.319 
Lima Beans.320 
Turnip Flea-Beetles.319 
Two Wonders of the Agc.319 
Use Black Ink. ...819 
Wheat on the Seaboard.. 322 
Wheat Weevil and Clover321 
White Huckleberries ...319 
Whitlock’ sHort.Recordcr.320 
Wild Mustard.321 
Winter Radishes.319 
Lime for Wheat,. . ......321 Work of Locusts . . — 320 
Mech. Turning Farmer. .321 Worms on Arbor Vitres. .319 
Merch, Turning Farmer. 318 Yield of Pear Trees .... 319 
Slack Volmsics 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 itp 
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 lo Vol. 26. inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $1.50 if laken 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. 
NEW-YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1S6S. 
We approach the autumn harvests with great 
hope and no little solicitude. Early frosts may cut 
short our most important cereal crop, and greatly 
injure the quality of com fodder, which is annually 
becoming more and more a dependence, as it is 
better economized. September will settle the fate 
of the great corn crop, and if the hopes and prayers 
are answered, the harvest will be abundant for 
home needs at any rate. The great abundance of 
hay, and the excellent condition in. which it was 
gotten in over a large portion of the Atlantic 
States, may lead to a neglect of the corn fodder. 
This should not he, for the drouth in England is re¬ 
ported as having been severe, and the hay crop so 
short that large orders have been filled for shipment 
of this article. The powerful presses, now not un¬ 
common, make it possible to load a ship heavily 
with hay, which, until recently, we have never been 
able to do. So prices may yet rule high, and farm¬ 
ers may be very willing to supplement their hay 
with good corn fodder. Make it a rule, if hay be 
sold, to spend all the money for manure. 
Many agricultural fairs occur this month. Too 
many important ones interfere with one another, 
being held upon the same days. Cannot this be 
obviated? Every fair ought to be patronized and 
visited, and it should be a matter of conscience 
with every farmer, horticulturist, and producer of 
anything of value, to show his best products some¬ 
where, at the State and County fairs if possible, 
and with wife and children have one pleasant holi¬ 
day, at least, in visiting the fair and cattle show. 
ESSsstfs Work. 
September work is ordinarily not of a very press¬ 
ing kind. It requires good judgment to know 
what should be first done of several things, all re¬ 
quiring attention, but, unlike the labors of the 
spring and summer, a few days’ delay will not be 
certainly disastrous, or entail additional labor. 
Buckwheat ought to be in full blossom over the 
northern half of the Union; a frost of moderate 
severity is destructive to all but the well-grown 
kernels, and may cut off half or two-tliirds of the 
crop. The succulent stalks and leaves will furnish 
sap to mature a great part of the grain which lias 
passed the bloom. If a change of weather threatens 
frost, it is best to cut buckwheat at any rate, and 
after partial drying, it should be laid up in small 
cocks, or gavels, bound at the top so as to shed 
rain, and so left until all the kernels have filled 
and ripened that will do so. 
Corn .—The corn crop over a large portion of the 
Union is backward. It is folly to top it, to promote 
its ripening. It is not the sun on the ears that 
ripens corn, but the effects of light and air upon 
the leaves and entire plant. After the kernels are 
well glazed at the tips of the ears, it maj' pay to top 
the large, coarse kinds, in order to secure a better 
quality of fodder. We prefer, however, to cut at 
the ground, and stook up as soon as thoroughly 
glazed. The grain will ripen, the stalks make bet¬ 
ter fodder, and the heavy huts, if not used for 
fodder, are easily made available in the compost 
heap, and worth more than if left in the field. 
Corn for Seed should be selected personally be¬ 
fore the stalks arc cut up. Go through the best 
part of the field, marking the ears on the most 
prolific stalks, and choosing the ears whicli please 
you best on the stalks which are of medium size 
and not given to suckering. Mark by a string tied 
around the middle of the car. At husking time all 
these ears will he saved by themselves, and out of 
them, when the husks are stripped back, one can 
select the most perfect. Mark two or three times 
as many as you will need. 
Tobacco is hopelessly daimlged by a light frost. 
That which still stands should he out early in the 
month. In hanging avoid crowding, as much as in 
hot weather; though as soon as the plants have 
partially dried, they may be moved quite near to- 
to make more room for the rest of the e>.*>p. 
Potatoes .—The death of the tops indicates the 
maturity of the tubers. If the rot be amongst 
them, we hold it better to let them rot in the 
ground than in the cellar or pit. Many, however, 
dig and market at once. If consumed before the 
disease makes progress, a larger portion of the crop 
may he thus utilized. When other work does not 
press, early potatoes should be dug and put in cool 
cellars, or in pits in perfectly dry soil. 
Boot Oops.-—After cool weather sets in, roots 
make their chief growth. Weeds should be pulled 
or hoed up, so as not to disturb the roots. Thin¬ 
ning may also be done effectively. The plants re¬ 
moved will be relished by the stock. Carrots re¬ 
quire that the ground between the rows should be 
kept loose and open, more than other roots. 
Grass — Aftermath .—If a rowen crop is taken, by 
all means manure well after it. It often pays to 
cut the aftermath for the sake of removing a crop 
of weed seeds, like wiki carrots, for instance, even 
though it would hardly paj r to cut for hay alone. 
Pasturing the Aftermath .—Nearly or quite half 
the feed is destroyed by the trampling of the stock. 
This is all avoided by tethering in the way described 
on page 327. If the tether is fastened to an hind 
leg, and the stakes moved forward six feet at a time, 
the droppings will he left on the fed off portion. 
Seeding Down to Grass may be done any time 
during this month. Put the surface in good order ; 
spread a fine compost or some guano ; harrow 
mellow afld even; pick off all the stones; sow 
grass seed, with clover, if you please, and roll. 
Clover sowing may be delayed until spring. Three 
pecks to a bushel of oats may be sown as a mulch. 
See article on Seeding Lawns in Autumn, page 333. 
New Grass Land and seeded stubble should not 
be pastured too soon, if at all. Calves, yearlings, 
and weaned colts, do little harm, for they neither 
poach it up in rainy weather, nor pull much up by 
the roots, as heavier cattle are apt to do. Go over 
such land and cut the rag-weed, carrots, and other 
weeds, before the seeds are ripe. Once mowing is 
usually sufficient, and it is light, easy work for boys. 
Wheat .—The earlier sowed, the better, as a 
general rule. It makes a little difference at harvest 
time, and but a little, but it is so much clear gain. 
The better tilth the land is in, the better will the 
wheat be. An excellent compost for wheat and 
substitute for Peruvian guano is bone-dust and fish 
guano, equal parts, with two or three times as 
much fine muck or rotted sods. Another is bone- 
dust two parts, castor pomace one part, composted 
with muck in like manner, spread after it has 
undergone one good heating, and harrowed in with 
the grain. All manure applied directly for a grain 
crop should be put on as a top-dressing. 
Pickles for Seed Wheat .—Smut in wheat is to a 
very great degree prevented by soaking the seed in 
a strong brine previous to sowing. The smut is a 
parasitic plant, which attacks and entirely destroys 
the head of the wheat. It propagates itself by in¬ 
visible spores, which attach themselves to the 
grain, remain upon it, and are sown with it if not 
destroyed. This is proved by the fact that pickling 
the seed is a remedy for the disease. A strong 
brine is efficient; many suppose they improve its 
efficacy by adding blue vitriol, and others that it is 
essential to dry off with dry-slaked lime. In the 
absence of proof that f lie blue vitriol and lime do 
no good, and as the former is but a slight expense, 
and the use of the lime a great convenience, we 
advise to make a brine that will float an egg; add 
two pounds blue vitriol to the half barrel of brine; 
wet a bushel of wheat at a time, stirring it thor¬ 
oughly, and skimming off the light stuff as the 
wheat is poured into the brine; after ten minutes, 
dip out the wheat, and letting it drain thoroughly, 
throw it into a pile on a floor, and when all is done, 
sprinkle with dry, powdery lime, shoveling it over 
until dry enough 1o sow. This may be done 24 to 
3G hours before sowing. 
Nay and Grain Stacks .—Brace them up if (hey 
settle unevenly and incline much. If need be, re- 
