The Lancaster Farmer. 



Prof. S. S. EATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JANUARY, 1875. 



Vol vn. No. L 



OUR NEW DEPARTURE. 



Li entering iipon this our seventh volume, 

 we liave deemcil it exix'dient to change the 

 form of our journal, believing that it will be 

 more acceptable to our reader.s, more conven- 

 ient to refer to, ami more valuable as a reading 

 and advertising medium. 



We are fully aware that the times' are not 

 as propitious as we could wish, but still the 

 wealth and agricultural position of Lancaster 

 county are such that the sacrilice re(piired in 

 sustaining a local Journal among its farming 

 population is inlinilesimally small, when 

 compared with the ample means it possesses. 

 The great bulk of the material wealth of the 

 county is in the hands of the farmers and, by 

 parity of reasoning, they ought to possess the 

 great bulk of its intellectual and social wealth, 

 as we certainly feel they do of its moral and 

 industrial. Nearly all other interests have 

 their representative journals, and aspire to 

 unity; the farmers alone seem to be a dicer- 

 sily; and so far, as a class, are standing in 

 their own light. Whilst we are by no means 

 the friend or advocate of selfish, sinister and 

 one-sided combinations, having for their single 

 object the pecuniary interests of a single class 

 or clan, yet we would recommend a freer and 

 more social union among those TTiio are so 

 eminently the pillars of the nation, as Ameri- 

 can farmers are. AVe would not have them the 

 mere shadows or mimics of any other class of 

 men, but we would have them intelligent and 

 progressive thinkers and actors for themselves 

 in all that relates to their moral, social and 

 material welfare. But so far as they may be 

 able to attain and rftain such- a sdtfu.s, they 

 should feel that its consummation and contiu- j 

 uance will depend upon their own energetic 

 co-operation ; a co-operation of not only mus- 

 cular energy, but also of that God-given mind 

 and intellect which so peculiarly distinguish 

 man from a mere beast of burden. ^Vhen we 

 look abroad into the world, if we are not 

 blinded by ignorance or prejudice, we cannot 

 fail to see that a different order of things is 

 rapidly developing, from that which gave its 

 specific character to the iiast. The wheels of 

 time are moving onward, and never can be 

 turned backward. If such a thing wore possi- 

 ble, it would be fatal to the very existence of 

 the universe. "The dead have been raised; 

 hungry lions have refused their iirey \ the seas 

 have divided and formed walls of water whilst 

 a whole nation passed in safety through its 

 sandy bosom, and men unhurt have walked 

 amidst consuming flames; but never yet did 

 time, once past, ever return." Therefore, the 

 piment oiily is ours. The past we cannot 

 recall, and the future we may never see. All 

 our nece.ssitie.s are concentrated in the pend- 

 ing present, and i7i this we travel side-and- 

 side together. The moment we yearn after 

 the "flesh-pots" of the past, we fall behiTid in 

 the race of life. So soon as we indulge in 

 selfish anticipations about the future, we, in a 

 measure, unfit ourselves for the rcrt'idV.s' and 

 duties of the present. As the ever present 

 now is ahv.ays with us, and as nothing that can 

 or ought to 1)6 done iioio should be deferred to 

 the future, we ask the co-tiperation of the 

 farming puiilic in support of TiieI..\nc astkk 

 Fau.meu. We not only ask their paid sub- 

 scriptions — for, in reality, that is a mere 

 pittance, which a single week's rational econo- 

 my would rescue from the category of useless 

 expenses — but we also ask their literary con- 

 tributions and their moral and social sujiijort, 

 and we ask it now. We desire to make The 

 F.\RMEit such a home journal as will refleet 

 credit upon the farmers of our great county 

 abroad. We desire our farmers to oi)en their 

 "knowledge-boxes" and let their ideas fiee 

 forth as free as the birds of the air — not to 



hide their light under a bushel or a bed, but 

 to set it on a candlestick. No class of men 

 occupying the advanced position in agriculture 

 that tlie farmers of Lancaster county do, can 

 be de.stitute of practical ideas on the sviljject- 

 of farming, and few who really possess this 

 knowledge are unable to tell what they know 

 in language sufliciently intelligible to their 

 compeers in agriculture and the domestic arts. 

 The yoimg farmers who are coming forward 

 now, are more conversant with sc'ience and 

 literature than the generations of the past, 

 and nothing will afford tlu-m greater opportu- 

 nities for im|irovement, more practical in- 

 struction, and greater mental expansion, than 

 habitually writing for the press; not writing 

 for the mere purpose of filling up a newspaper 

 column, but to communicate faHs important 

 for their brother fanners to know. Where 

 the fdi-ts exist, the language will unfailingly 

 adjust itself in such a maimer as to be under- 

 stood by those for whom it is intended. We 

 need only refer to the essays and other compo- 

 sitions which have been read before the various 

 meetings of the Agricultural and Horticul- 

 tural Society, and ])ublished in the columns of 

 this journal, to illu.strate that Lancaster 

 comity farmers can compose and write intelli- 

 gently if they imll; and why they should not 

 have the will, is something past our finding 

 out, because it is a Divine .■idmonition to give 

 as freely as we have received. We are not 

 always the best .judges of the value of what we 

 have to give. What seems a trivial matter to 

 one who thoroughly knows it. may lie an import- 

 ant matter to oiie who is profountUy ignorant of 

 it. We do not insist upon ' 'scholarly" composi- 

 tions from persions who have never had opnor- 

 tunities of becoming scholars. All we desire 

 is common sense contributions on i)ractical 

 subjects, and we will see that they are i)re- 

 sented to the public in such a form as the 

 writers will have no occasion to be ashamed 

 of In conclusion, we cannot too often ad- 

 monish the farmers of Lancaster county to 

 busy themselves in "working up" a physical 

 and intellectual representation of the resources 

 of the "Garden spot of the Keystone State" 

 in the approaehhig "Uen'ten'XIAL, " which 

 is scar^ly a year and half in the future. We 

 want to see the farming interests of our great 

 county honorably standing by the side of the 

 greatest in the land. ^Ve want to sec our 

 journal there, as the faithful an<l appropriate 

 advocate and exponent of those interests. We 

 want to see our t<ri-enth. volume in tlie hands, 

 and read, by twice as many as patronizi'd its 

 predece.s.sors ; and finally, we want to see our 

 eighth or "centennial volume" in double :is 

 niany hands as the seventh. With thesi' legiti- 

 mate and, we feel, unselfish desires, we again 

 launch our craft upon the sea of public favor ; 

 and with these sentiments we clo.se by wish- 

 ing our patrons a bright, prosperous, and 

 Happy New Year. 



THE PUBLISHERS TO THE READER. 



To those subscribers to The Farmer who 

 read the complimentary introduction given us 

 in the li\st numl>er by the retiring publisher 

 and the editor, it would be hardly neces.'^ary 

 for us to say anything in a<ldition. • Inas- 

 nuieh, however, as we exiiect this issue of 

 The Fahmeii to meet the eye of many who 

 never before read it, a few wonls as io om- 

 object and plans may not be out of place. 

 That a publication speciallv devoted to the 

 intere.sts of the large agricultural community 

 of this great county can become of much 

 practical value to tliose who will read and 

 profit by the information it imparts, no one 

 will be likely to doubt. The prejudice which 

 formerly existed against that knowledge thus 



gained, sneeringly calle<l "book-farming," 

 has long since d"isappeared along witli the 

 l)rejudice which some years ago was enter- 

 tained against reapers and mowers, and even 

 threshing machines; and indeed against most 

 of the great labor-saving inventions which 

 threatened to ri'volutionizi; old methods and 

 demanded an entirely new train of thought. 

 The able publications, devoted in whole or in 

 part to the interests of agriculture^to farm and 

 household economy — inrculated all over this 

 broad land, havi; done more than any other 

 single .agency to eau.se the farmer to mount a 

 step higher iii the intellectual as well as in the 

 industrial scale. It will no longer do for him 

 to be content, iW our grandfathers were, to 

 merely know how to hold the plough and 

 drive the horse, to wield the sickle or the 

 scythe, or the fiail, having no ambition to 

 know what is going on- in the great world 

 around him. The sickle, the scythe and the 

 fiail belong to a past age. Their place luis 

 been supplied by machinery, so wonderful in its 

 mechanicism and so important in its achiev- 

 ments, that no successful farmer can afford 

 not to avail himself of its advantages. 

 The successful management of nia<-hinery 

 requires intelligence of a higher order— a 

 knowledge of the principles of mechanics and 

 their application. To be thoroughly success- 

 ful in his avocation he must be continually 

 educating himself up to the demands of his 

 new surroundings. The appearance of new 

 insect depredators upon the croi>8 demands 

 knowledge in an important direction never 

 dreamecfof as an attainment of the farmer in 

 our boyhood. The improvement in cereals, 

 fruits, "and all cultivated productions of the 

 vegetable wiu-ld, even within our time, has 

 been wonderful. And so we might carry 

 these lefiections to an indefinite length— but 

 enough has been said to suggest what remains 

 unsaid to the mind of every intelligent farmer. 

 Relieving that the fai'mers of Lanca.ster 

 county would be interested in as well as bene- 

 fitted "by a |)nblieation which would serve as 

 an organ for the interchange of idesis and 

 l)ractical results between themselves and our 

 able and zealous editor, as well as among 

 themselves, and many of our agricultural 

 friends having urged as a rea.son that we had 

 the facilities to make The I-ancastek 

 Faumeu a success, we c(msenled to accept the 

 responsibility of its publii-ation. We must 

 confess that," like our enthusiiistic friend, the 

 editor, we have undertaken it more as a lab, r 

 of love or as a matter of local (iride, than from 

 any hop<> of innuediate pecuniary gain ; for, 

 as a business enterpri.'<e, it had never been 

 a success during the six years its life Wiia 

 maintained mainlv through the iiUtck of the 

 editor. Our plaii, including the enlarge- 

 ment and other contfuiplated improve- 

 ments, will involve a much lieavier actual 

 outlay of cash than can Ix- realized from the 

 .subscriptions on the list as it comes into our 

 hands. We therefore rely upon a large 

 increa.se of snbscribei-s to meet these iucrea,sed 

 expense's and to com|)eusate in some measure 

 for the lalxtr In-stowed upon it. The frien(ls 

 oftheenterpri.se will therefore see that tht-ir 

 interest and ours are mutual in making eflorts 

 to increase the sulwcription list. IJy the 

 change of form and the u.se of a more compact 

 type we will Ik- able to give nearly twice as 

 much reading mailer as was given in the old 

 form, and we have no doubt all will agree 

 with us that the new form is an improvement 

 in appearance as well as inconvenience. Our 

 success in otheri)ublishing enterprises, through 

 the confidence and liberal patronage of the 

 people of I.,ancaster county during the past 

 thirty vears, gives us assurance that the 

 future of The Lancaster Farmer will not 

 be a failure. 



