4,34: 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[December, 
Contents for December, 1868. 
Agricultural Fairs Run by Stock Companies.443 
Apples—Duchess of Oldcnburgh. Illustrated .'.453 
Birds — The Musk Duck. Illustrated. .445-440 
Birds—The Wild Goose. Illustrated. .445 
Boys’ and Girls’ Columns — A Handful of Dust—Differ- 
ent Ways of Laughing- — Our Presidents—A Picture 
for Boys — An Amusing Toy — Blowing Bubbles— 
Spots on the Sun — Many Premiums—New Puzzles.. 
..i' Illustrations. .459-400 
Clearing Woodland. 449 
Climber — The Mannettia. llliistrdted. .450 
Exhausted Lands of the West.443 
Farm Work in December.434 
Fish-Oil and Guano Factory.......4 Illustrations. .451-452 
-Flower Garden and Lawn in December.- . .435 
Forcing Rhubarb.455 
Fowl without a Head.3 Illustrations. .4-18' 
Fruit Garden in December.435 
Grapes — -Native under Glass. 45-1 
Green and Ilot-liouses in December.435 
Harrow—A Good Wooden-toothed. Illustrated. AW 
Hickory Nuts and Timber.. . .2 Illustrations. .449 
Honey Locust.—A Chapter on.—455 
Household Department — Sea-side Faro—The Mussel 
—Household Talks by Aunt Hattie—Straw and other 
Fancy Frames—Corn-Starch Pudding—Rice Pudding 
—Keeping a Family Record—Recipes and Household 
Hints—Cleansing Tainted Barrels—A Dish of Chest¬ 
nuts—Pickled Artichokes—Keeping Sausage Meat- 
Breakfast Puffs — Bay-Leaves—Folding Napkins— 
The Proprieties of the Table_9 Illustrations. .457—158 
House-Plants — Treatment of.455 
Kitchen Garden in December.135 
Leaves for Bedding.-.2 Illustrations —149 
Male Breeding-Animals.448 
Market Reports.438 
Measurement of Farm Lands. Illustrated. A 44 
Monkshoods—Aconites. Illustrated.. 450 
More Labor Wanted on the Farm.443 
More Quinces Wanted by Planters.453 
Orchard and Nursery in December.435 
Pear—The Pratt.. Illustrated. .453 
Pigeons—A Group of Fancy. Illustrated. .433 
Pig Nature. 443 
Potato Excitement.451 
Potato Grown from Cuttings.2 Illustrations. .454 
Potatoes on Clover Sod.450 
Premiums.430-437 
River and Pond Mud as Top-dressiim.144 
Rotations for New England and the East..450 
Seeds—Look out. for your .. 455 
Silk Culture in California.441 
Stone-boats.2 Illustrations. A\§ 
Tim Bunker on the Hay Tedder.451 
Walks and Talks on the Farm, No. 60—Getting Out 
Stones—Breeding Short-horns — Seeding Land to 
Grass—Sheep—Four Horses abreast—Pigs-Pork and 
other Meats . Illustrated. .446-447 
Wheat in England.451 
INDEX TO “BASKET” OR SHORTER ARTICLES. 
About Evergreens. 
Apple Melon. 
Aquarium. 
Bones and Wood Ashes. 
Book to Make a Farmer. 
Breachy Cows. 
Brewers’ Grains. 
Buttons on Horns. 
Cattle Diseases. 
Cement Pipe Drains_ 
Christmas Poultry Show 
Clinton Grape Blighting 
Concord Grape in Mo... 
Cranberry Queries. 
Death on Humbugs. 
Express Charges. 
Farmers’ Club. 
Ferment, of Apple Jnice. 
Florida Farming.... 
Flower Seeds. 
Foul Cisterns. 
Free Martins Again 
Gardening for the South. 
Grape Testing. 
Grinding Corn and Cobs 
Grinding Limestone. 
Harness Clippings. 
Henderson’s New Work. 
House Plans. 
Hunter and Trapper... 
It. will Pay. 
Injuring a Vineyard. 
Increasing Flow, Spring 
Inspecting Wells... _ 
Labor Exchange. 
Leaven Manure Humbug.443 
Men and Fruits.. .443 
Milk Experiments.441 
Milking Stock for South.442 
Moles Again. 442 
Muck Mining.441 
Onions.. .441 
Pepper Tree. 443 
Planting Hickory Nuts. .439 
Plant Parasite.433 
Potatoes on Sod .441 
Portable Fences.4-11 
Potomac Fruit Growers’ 
Association.439 
Profitable Use of Land... 443 
Salsify and Parsnips... .439 
Seeds..439 
Sell an Acre of Land. .4-11 
442!Sod Fences.443 
443'Soft Water Turri’g Hard..442 
442'Special Request.441) 
441:Steaming Cattle Food...439 
440,Stone vs. Tile Drains_441 
440: Sundry Humbugs.439 
.441, Ten Million Saved.440 
442,1 Tiles for Roofs.441 
442 Tomatoes in Michigan.. .440 
43S Tree and Shrub Book_443 
43S Trotting Horses of Am...443 
440iTyrolese Larch.441 
1401 Vo]unt.eer Mother.442 
443 What Missouri Wants.. .412 
.442' Western Beauty Apple.. .443 
442 Woodchucks, to Kill... 442 
441 ! Work on the Hors#.443 
,43S 
.443 
.439 
.442 
.439 
.411 
441 
.441 
.439 
.412 
.439 
439 
439 
443 
440 
442 
441 
.442 
Back Volumes Supplied.— Tlie 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 up 
a very complete library. Each volume has a full index 
for ready reference to any desired topic. Wo have on 
hand, and print from electrotype plates as wanted, all the 
numbers and volumes for ten years past, beginning with 
1857—that is, Voh- IGto Vol. 26, inclusive. Any of these 
volumes sent complete (in numbers) at $1.75 each, post¬ 
paid, (or $1.50 if taken at the office). The volumes, 
neatly hound, 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. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
NEW-YORK, DECEMBER, 1SGS. 
Winter is here! short days grow shorter, cold 
ones colder. We seek our pleasures indoors, as a 
rule, and our labors, as farmers, are chiefly those 
incident to the season, and wherever performed, 
have only an indirect reference to the soil. Long 
evenings invite to reading and study ; to the laying 
out maps of. the farm, and plans of the labors to be 
undertaken nextsnmmer; efimprovements to be set 
on foot, upon the homestead, or for benefiting the 
public. They offer also an invaluable opportunity 
for looking over the labors of the past year, going 
over the accounts, taking an inventory of stock 
and property of all sorts. The farmer lias a multi¬ 
tude of subjects to interest himself in, and it is 
worth a great deal to. any young farmer to take up 
some one specialty, and devote himself so thor¬ 
oughly to it that his knowledge upon it will be far 
in advance of his neighbors’. For instance a young 
man may take up sheep and wool, and find in them 
material fdr a lifetime of study and experiment, 
and the more he knows of what other people have 
done and thought, the more profitable will he he 
able (o make his own knowledge. Almost every 
department of farming offers similar subjects. 
Breeding, and feeding for milk, swine, poultry of va¬ 
rious kinds, fish culture, and forest tree culture, are 
some very attractive objects of study, and a score 
might easily he named. There is no surer or pleas¬ 
anter road to fame, and to the real respect and 
honor of the best men in the country than that 
by which a mail becomes an “ authority ” on any 
important subject- connected with Agriculture. 
Farmers' Clubs . — If one is not in active operation 
in the neighborhood, it will pay to start one in 
most genuine farming communities. One good 
active young man, who knows what lie wants, will 
generally do the work, and the whole burden of 
keeping up the interest will have to he sustained 
by half a dozen people. Hence such an undertaking 
goes easier and takes better if connected with some 
social entertainment at which the wives and daugh¬ 
ters of the farmers maybe present, or if coupled 
with a circulating library of hooks and periodicals, 
and with a system of exchange and distribution of 
choice seeds, that more may take a personal inter¬ 
est in it, and in having the meetings well attended. 
The year now drawing to a close ha? been re¬ 
markable for unusually prolonged and severe cold, 
extending far to the southward, and doing consid¬ 
erable damage to some fruits, especially to the 
peach, blackberry, and raspberry crops, now of so 
much importance; for an exceedingly late and cold 
spring especially delaying farm work, which is usu¬ 
ally done in May and pushing it into June; for a 
late, hut, on the whole, propitious summer, causing 
crops to mature in a very short time, and giving us 
fair harvests of the great staple crops, and a very- 
large yield of grass and hay. The prevalent charac¬ 
ter of the summer was, however, cold and wet over 
a large portion of the Union, and it has been the 
almost universal observation that so many weeds 
were never seen before. This entails additional 
labor upon all tillers of the soil for the coming 
year. The time of ripening for our cereal, Indian 
corn, was by the nature of the season very short, 
and though the summer was cold, frosts came so 
early as to seriously damage the crop of both grain 
and fodder in numerous districts. The same cause, 
early frosts, also blasted the prospects of an unusu¬ 
ally favorable grape crop. The prices of- agricul¬ 
tural produce have ruled very high, as indeed they 
have for several years past, and we may rejoice (not 
without the fear that this favorable state of things 
will not last,) that the farmers are about as well paid 
as other classes of producers. The partial failure 
of the hay and root crops of Europe has led to the 
exportation, to some extent, of these articles. A 
remarkable and fatal murrain lias been observed 
among our market cattle, originating among Texas 
droves, but affecting those chiefly which follow or 
associate with them. 
The agriculture of the Southern States is gradu- 
. --- 1 — - T"! 1 ." .-1.-- 
ally improving, and the great labor problem is un¬ 
dergoing solution. A condition of political anar¬ 
chy is not favorable to agricultural development; 
nevertheless, men must he fed and clothed, and as 
botli food and clothing are derived directly or in¬ 
directly from the field, man’s necessities force up¬ 
on him attention to the farming interests. We 
may continue to hope, therefore/that the magnifi¬ 
cent resources of this section of the Union will be¬ 
fore long be thoroughly developed. 
Hints about Work. 
Buildings. —Protect cellars against the frost, by 
hanking up earth against exposed and thin founda¬ 
tion walls. Stop . windows, except well-gla^ccl. 
ones, with strawy litter, protected by stakes on. 
the outside, to prevent hens scratching it all about. 
Pumps, cisterns, hydrants, and water-pipes need' 
similar protection if exposed. Horse manure and 
litter is better than any other packing we know of 
to keep frost out of water-pipes. It is a good 
thing to line stables which arc against the sides of 
old buildings, with strips of hoard tacked on so 
that swamp hay or straw can he stuffed in between, 
tliem and the weather-hoarding. It makes therm 
much warmer, and saves fodder in proportion. 
Ventilation .—Close stables maybe warm, but with¬ 
out ample provision for ventilation they will be un¬ 
healthy. The stock will be found “ off their feed,” 
and ailing in various ways. With sufficient ventila¬ 
tion, which is easily secured, warmth and liealth- 
fuluess are entirely compatible. 
Chaffing, Soaking, Steaming Fodder. —The econo¬ 
my of the cutting-box is very generally admitted 
nowadays, and with chaffing hay, and straw, and 
stalks, comes soaking as a matter of course. The 
expense of steaming fodder leads many of us who 
do not feel as if we could afford a Prindle’s steam 
boiler, to devise sour-grape reasons why we and our 
cattle are just as well off without, while, neverthe¬ 
less, all who do use steam are loud in praise of its 
economy. We have not come to grinding hay yet, 
but that will be the next step, in all probability, 
for its advantages have been asserted in Em-ope. 
Foots .— Feed sliced, chopped, or mashed, in such 
pieces that a cow or “young critter” will not 
choke itself. It. is rarely best to feed more than 4 
quarts of carrots a day. Their highest effect is ob¬ 
served when fed with other roots, grain, etc. 
Common turnips are the first roots to be fed, as 
they soon grow pithy and lose much in value. 
Foddering .—If any reader of the Agriculturist con¬ 
tinues the wasteful practice of foddering upon the 
ground around stacks or in the barn-yard, we en¬ 
treat him to stop it. Put up temporary racks, un¬ 
der cover if possible, and check this great waste. 
Live Stock of all kinds should be looked to daily ; 
they should be fed and watered with the regularity 
of clock-work. The card, brush, and curry-comb 
will, if frequently used, not only promote health 
and cleanliness, but effect a great saving of fodder, 
while at the same time the paradox of sharpened ap¬ 
petites will be observed. A well-cleaned ox, whose 
skin has its pores thoroughly opened twice a week 
by the friction of the brush and card, feels well, and 
will eat coarser fodder with a better relish than 
an uncleaned one, and eat it cleaner, and it will do 
him more good. All kinds of stock should have 
salt before them, so that their natural craving may 
he satisfied. Salt and ashes is a good mixture, and a 
few sods, thrown where animals can work them 
over, will be mumbled and chewed often with 
a relish which makes it evident that it is no un¬ 
natural appetite, hut’ that they get something 
which the pastures would supply in summer, and 
which their systems need equally in the winter. 
Cows.—Do not dry off for the mere sake of saving 
labor. It is injurious to the milking qualities of 
both the cows and their female offspring. The 
milk-giving tendency should be encouraged to the 
utmost if milk is an object with the breeder. Feed 
well, whether cows are in milk or dry. 
Oxen, if worked, should be kept sharp-shod, aud 
Young Slock should be maintained constantly 
growing, and not exposed to the weather, if simply 
