AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
scriptioa for $0.00. 
£>50 
Contents for October, 1868. 
American Hay in England.359 
Birds—The Wild Turkey. Illustrated.. 349 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns—The Philosopher’s Stone- 
Pious Thieves — Robinson Crusoe’s Land — An 
Honest Miner—The Monk Outwitted—The Disoblig¬ 
ing Clerk — Arithmetical Curiosity—The Pet Bird — 
Unexpected Answers—Answers to Problems and 
Puzzles — New Puzzles.3 Illustrations. .375—376 
Boxes for Protection.371 
Bulbs, Hardy.370 
Care of Tools.362 
Cellar—An Out Door.366 
Cider Making. 359 
Cold Grapery in October.352 
Corn Fodder—Curing and Use.363 
Corn—Grinding on the Cob.367 
Corn—Implements for Cutting Up.4 Illustrations. . 365 
Cow-Halter — Danish. Illustrated.. 364 
Cuttings—Callusing.369 
Duck Shooting.0 Illustrations. .361 
Fairs in October.353 
Farm Work in October.350 
Flower Garden and Lawn in October.351 
Fruit Garden in October.351 
Every New Subscriber to the American Agri¬ 
culturist for whose subscription comes to 
hand during October , will be presented with the pa¬ 
per the rest of this year w at la»sit charge, 
S4' the name be marked new when sent in. 
.... Take Notice, that this offer extends to All 
New Subscribers, whether coming singly, or in Pre¬ 
mium Clubs, or otherwise. (This mil help those who 
now begin to make up lists for Premiums, for they 
can offer to each new subscriber a bonus of two months 
free, and still count these names in Premium Lists.) 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
work tell to tlie best advantage. One may easily 
find work fora few weeks for cheap labor if he can 
secure it at this season, and thus relieve himself of 
just so much cause for hurry or anxiety by and by. 
Animals. —Nature provides nuts for the squirrels, 
mast for the swine, the seeds of cereals (grasses 
and grains) for the cattle, both small and large, and 
innumerable insects for the feathered tribes. Thus 
they all fatten readily, and prepare for severe 
weather not only by laying on a warm coat but by 
storing fuel for maintaining internal warmth. The 
weather is not severe, yet shelter will be found to 
make quite a difference in the rapidity of fattening. 
Cook, if possible, all or most of the feed of fattening 
animals, except, perhaps, sheep, which it is claimed 
gain nearly as fast and are more likely to remain 
healthy on uncooked and even whole grain. Keep 
beeves and sheep at pasture as long as the feed is 
good, and give grain morning and night. Hogs 
must be kept growing and gaining by well cooked 
food in more or less variety. Give them a few 
shovelfuls of wood ashes in which is a good deal of 
charcoal, and throw a few handfuls of corn into it. 
Fuchsias.2 Illustrations.. 369 
Green and Hot-Houses in October.352 
Hay—Loss in Stacking.364 
Horticultural Wonders.371 
Household Department — Sea-side Fare, The Qualiog 
— The Cooking of Vegetables — A Handsome Flower- 
stand — Household Talks by Aunt Hattie—Pickles, 
Sweet, Sour, and Spiced, Higdom — Neat and Durable 
Tidy—Herbs for Winter.7 Illustrations. .374—375 
House Plants—Management of. 370 
Insects—An Enemy to the Wistaria_2 Illustrations. .371 
Kitchen Garden in October.351 
Laurels and Hollies from the Woods.371 
Lawn Plant — A New.372 
Lawns and Grass Plots—Treatment of Illustrated ..372 
Market Reports. .352 
Movements of Plants. Illustrated ..372 
Muck and Its Composts.360 
Orchard and Nursery in October.351 
Osage Orange and Silk Worms.363 
Plows — Left-hand and Thrqe Horses Abreast_ .PI ..365 
Poke, or Pigeon-berry, as a Garden Plant:.367 
Potatoes — Storing for Winter.304 
Rose, with Single and Double Flowers. .371 
Sheep—What to Do with the.360 
Strawberries — Forcing.2 Illustrations ..370 
Squashes — Keeping.363 
Thorough Draining and Deep Tillage_'.365 
Trotting Horse “ Dexter”. Illustrated ..368 
Vinegar Making.367 
Virginia Way of Loading Logs. 2 Illustrations. . 364 
Walks and Talks of tlie Farm, No. 5S — Fishing and 
Farming — Weeds — Men Milking—Corn Fodder— 
Drought—High Fanning—A Run Down Farm- 
Barley—Clover for Seed.362 — 363 
Water for Man and Beast by the Road-side. . 366 
Winter Bouquets. Illustrated. .372 
Winter Fallows.359 
Winter Rye. 367 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
Advice to a Novice.357!Keeping Old Hay.357 
Am. Entomologist.354; Lima Beans and Corn 358 
Apple Trees Dying.355 Mich. Wheat Premiums..357 
Arbor Vitse Seeds.356 
Arbor Vitse, Troublewith 356 
Autumn Leaves.... 111. .356 
Basket Worms.355 
Black Pekin Egg Plant..354 
Board Measure.358 
Bone Mill .358 
Buchanan’s Sale.355 
Caladium Seed.356 
Casabar Melon.351 
Cheap Lands at the East.357 
Clover Gone Crazy.355 
Coal Tar.355 
Coloring Carpet Warp. ...355 
Copperas in the Garden.355 
Cotton-Seed Meal.357 
Crab Apple Leaves.355 
Cutting Corn.35S 
Dept, of Agriculture... .3.59 
Distributing Manure_35S 
Early Rose Potato.356 
Early Rose Potato-Prem.358 
Eleriients of Agriculture.355 
Eumeian Grape.351 
to rmers’ Clubs.358: 
First Cast Iron Plow... .357 
Fitting for Nursery B’ss.358 
For All Children.355 
Foremen and Places.357 
Gas Lime.35S 
Good Farm Help.357 
Grapes in Md. 354 
Grape Test.354 
Greeley Strawbe’y Prize.356 
Mole Traps . 111 ..356 
Muck Depo.sit.35S 
Nebraska Lands.357 
New England Fair.35S 
N.Y.GrapeGrowers’Ass’n355 
Night-Blooming:Cereus.. 355 
Obstruction in Drains.. .357 
Onions and Rotation.357 
Parasite on NnrseryStock355 
Peacli and Nectarine ... .355 
Peach Fungus.354 
Pears Cracking.355 
Peas as a Field Crop..357 
Plantain Pest.355 
Plants Named.355 
Poultry Breeding... _358 
Prairie Ice-liouse.357 
Reid’s Nursery.355 
Reno vat’gWorn-outgoils.357 
Rooks.35S 
Scuppernong Grape... .354 
Selecting Cattle.359 
Sorghum Culture.358 
Spent, Tan-bark.357 
Splendid Premiums.354 
Spots on Rose Leaves.. .356 
Spring Balances.354 
Steamed food for Cows. .355 
Strawberry Pres. Wilder.355 
Succotash.355 
Sundry Humbugs.354 
Supertuberating.356 
Tanning Skins'.357 
The Crack Shot.357 
Horned Caterpillar.355 Tim Bunker Papers 354 
Horse-hoe & Cultivator. .357’ To Dealers.357 
Horseradish Grater.355 Tomato Question 356 
Horticultural Exhib’s _ 355 Transplant’g Pear Trees.356 
“How Crops Grow”_354 Turning in Clover 358 
Humbugs, Sundry . 354 Vine Borer.354 
Hyyro-baromcter . 355 What Missouri Wants.. .357 
Ice Houses . 357 Whitening Sheep skins.355 
Increase in Sugar . 354 Whitlock’s Grape Show.354 
Insect named.355 Worms in Pots . 355 
Insect on Pear Trees - 355 Writing a Volume 354 
NEW-YORK, OCTOBER, 1868. 
Somber yet happy Autumn is here; the land¬ 
scape wears the sere and yellow hues, blended with 
red and green, tlie more brilliant for the contrast. 
But for the sighing winds and the chill that is in 
the air, and the drifts of leaves that are swept 
across the view, one might take October for the 
gayest month of the twelve. ‘ And it is gay. Why 
should the falling of the leaf inspire sad thoughts ? 
All things grow old as do garments, and like them 
they are changed with the season, or in their ap¬ 
pointed time. If we change with them it should 
be as the buds mature on the trees, to burst into 
leaf in the spring, or as the fruits and seeds ripen 
for the Master’s use, or as tlie bulbs wrap up the 
vital germ which will rise into a new and beautiful 
life when the spring-time comes. This is the season 
of abundance, when man and beast prepare for the 
coming winter. The days are growing shorter, and 
long evenings invite to reading, study, and medita¬ 
tion. The experiences of the summer, the results 
of the harvest, the memorandums and recollections 
of what was seen at the fairs, furnish topics of con¬ 
versation and induce visiting among formers. 
Fruits and nuts and sweet cider may well add to 
the sociability'. Such visits will, we hope, in many 
instances ripen into formers’ clubs, with their read¬ 
ing rooms or circulating libraries, and meetings for 
discussion, for exchange of seeds, and for the ex¬ 
hibition of products of the soil, or of skillful hands. 
One of the most important things for formers to 
think about and plan for this month is good win¬ 
ter schools. Do not say by your actions or uncon¬ 
cern, brother formers, that “ Half an education 
is good enough for farmers’ children,” or that 
“Lamin’ spiles a farmer,” as the writer was once 
told, but strike for a first rate public school, as the 
very foundation of local prosperity, and as the 
greatest security against lawlessness and vice ; in 
most neighborhoods, an extra expense of $25 to 
$40 each on the principal families will secure rooms 
and teachers for the public school; that will afford 
advantages to all the children, which are usually 
' obtained by only two or three children who are 
packed off to an “academy” at an expense of a 
hundred or more dollars each. Make the public 
school equal to an academy. This matter will 
hear talking, thinking, and figuring about. 
Mints W©i*lc. 
Farm work at this time of the year is naturally 
classified in order of its importance; as 1st, 
Necessary Autumn work, that which must be 
done now, like the harvesting of the corn and root 
crops, gathering the fruits of the orchard, etc. 2d. 
Spring work which may be done now, as preparing 
the ground for spring crops. 3d. Winter work, 
that which may appropriately be done at any time 
during the winter, such as getting out timber or 
cutting fire-wood, work in the muck beds, etc. 
It is well to bear this in mind, so as to make all 
Milch Cows if well fed will give rich milk, if not a 
great deal of it; and as rich and beautiful butter 
may be made now. as in any month. After sharp 
frosts the pasturage will be less nutritious. Feed 
pumpkins, (removing the seeds, which are excellent 
for hogs,) roots, turnip tops, cabbages that do not 
head, etc. Decaying leaves and rotten turnips will 
make the milk taste. Cows must have all the pure 
water they will drink, and salt is essential to thrift. 
Calves and Steers will “ get along ” on coarse fore; 
they will not starve on wheat straw, or bog hay 
with some corn stalks ; they will probably not die 
if they standout until next March on the north side 
of a barn ; hut they will be stunted in their growth, 
and never have any thing like the form or size they 
should and would have had. One of the highest 
pleasures of a good farmer is to see his young stock 
grow. They need shelter quite as much as the 
older cattle, and if apet heifer or pair of nice steers 
get a few ears of corn more than their share, the 
farmer had better wink at it unless it is carried loo 
far. That the liberal hand shall be made rich is 
constantly demonstrated in the barn-yards of this 
country. Don’t attempt to carry over too much 
young stock; that kept should be well fed. 
Horses. —As pasturage begius to foil,commence reg¬ 
ular feeding and grooming in comfortable quarters. 
Purchase of Stock for Wintering. —The hay crop 
has been abundant, and many will buy sheep and 
cattle to consume their surplus straw, hay, and 
grain, and to make manure. Buy so as to give them 
a good start on grass before winter sets in. 
Fall Plowing for Spring Crops. —Ihere is great 
economy in plowing in the autumn. It must only 
he attempted on laud not exposed to wash badly. 
It is well also to regard the direction of prevalent 
winds, and if the lay of the land is such that the 
fine particles which the wind will move a distance 
of several rods, will be blown off the farm, this 
will be an argument in favor of spring plowing. 
Plow deep, if there is richness enough in the soil 
or manure enough applied to warrant it.' 
Roots usually make the best part of their growth 
after frost; yet they will not stand severe freez¬ 
ing without harm, and it is risky to leave them un¬ 
dug after the ground begins to stiffen mornings, for 
some flue day you will find them all frozen and 
solid. A good, well-ventilated barn-cellar, which 
may be closed so as to keep the frost out, is the 
best place for storing roots; but they keep perfect¬ 
ly well in pits, or out-door cellars. See page 366. 
Root-Pits may or may not be pits ; if actually in 
part below the surface, the drainage must be per¬ 
fect. If above the surface, first place the roots in 
uniform piles, say 6 feet wide, 3 feet high, and as 
long as convenient; cover with a few inches of 
straw and a light covering of earth, and let them lie 
lightly covered for a few days. Provide ventilation 
by placing bundles of straw upright iu the ridge of 
tlie heap. As the cold increases, add to the thick¬ 
ness of earth until the roots are covered about a 
foot deep at all points. Remove the earth for cover¬ 
ing, so as to leave good ditches to carry off water. 
