38 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



on which floor will be a series of public looms, 

 such as billiard, bar, storage and storerooms, 

 servants' dinint; rooms, etc. At tlie park end 

 of this depot, stairways will ascend to a level 

 of the second floor of the hotel, and comnnnii- 

 cate with a bridge one hundred ieet wide, cross- 

 inj; Elm avenue and termiuatinj; Iwtween the 

 macliinery liall and tlie main exliibitiou build- 

 ing. This liridiie will be divided into twojias- 

 sage ways, eaeli fifty feet wide — the one for per- 

 sons entering the park, the other for persons 

 leaving it. 



Tlie hotel proper will commence with the 

 second floor, which ison a level with this bridge. 

 This floor will contain a dining room one hun- 

 dred and seventy by two hundred and ten feet, 

 capable of seating comfortably twelve hundred 

 persons, being the largest room of the kind in 

 the world; a restaurant, fifty by two hundred 

 and thirty-nine feet; a waiting room one hun- 

 dred and seventy by two hundred feet, and all 

 the necessary parlors and reception rooms for 

 guests; besides kitchens, wasli rooms, etc., and 

 a number of sleeping rooms. The hotel build- 

 ing is designed to be seven hundred feet long, 

 two hundred and tifty-four feet wide, four 

 stories high, exclusive of basement, and will 

 comfortably accommodate two thousand live 

 hundred guests. While it is designed as a tem- 

 porary structure, to be removed at the close 

 of the" exhibition, it will be .substantially built, 

 warmed by steam, lighted witli gas, and sup- 

 plied with water tliroughout. 



In the arrangement of trains to and from the 

 exjiosition, tlie company will use every exer- 

 tion to thoroughly acconnnodate all sections 

 of the country, and this they have facilties for 

 doing never equaled on a siihilar occasion. By 

 their own lines they reach all the principal 

 northern and western cities, and many in the 

 south, and tlirough trains will be run over all 

 these lines, combining all the comforts known 

 to American railroading. Between Kew York 

 and Philadelphia the. de of travel will, of 

 course, be heaviest, and here express trains 

 will ha run every few minutes, making the 

 distance in less than two hours. The company 

 will endeavor to show visitors a model Amer- 

 ican railroad, among the other attractions of 

 the Centennial. 



A FRIGID RECORD. 



The months of .January and February 187.5 

 were perhaps the most intensly and continu- 

 ously cold of any that have been experienced 

 in Lancaster county for many years, but still 

 not so cold as it has been in other places and 

 in other years, according to the following ex- 

 tracts, which we publish for the future refer- 

 ence of our readers. The coldest record in 

 Lancaster city during the two months above 

 named, was ft- below zero and in the county 

 it was 14'^ below. This was not a lower point 

 than was reached in 1873 but the cold was 

 more continuous. 



A block of ice was brought from the Cones- 

 toga and exliiViited in this city, which meas- 

 ured four feet in thickness, but this may have 

 only been an extraordinary local formation. 

 The Susquehanna, in many places, was sup- 

 posed to have been frozen to tlie bottom, and 

 for a comparatively long period it become a 

 highway for the transport of heavy burdens 

 of freight. 



According to the iV«p Northwest, there has 

 been some remarkalily cold weather in Silver 

 Bow, Montana. A correspondent of that 

 paper furnishes the following interesting item 

 of news : 



"Your favor of the ll>th of .January is at 

 hand and inquiries answered herewith. On the 

 evening of .January 8, several persons being in 

 tlie store, and the spirit thermometer register- 

 ing "3.5'^ below," tlie remark was made that 

 quicksilver would congeal at :P lower. I reques- 

 ted my clerk, Mr. St()lte, to thoroughly cleanse 

 abartiimlilerand partially fill it with quicksil- 

 ver. We tlien exposed the glass of mercury and 

 the spirit thermometer on the roof of the fire- 

 proof on the north side of the store, giving 

 them as nearly equal exposure as possible. 

 An hour after the thermometer marked 33° 



below, but the quicksilver still remained un- 

 changed. At i):20 p. m. the thermometer 

 stood 4(.P below ; still the quicksilver was live, 

 but terribly cold. At 'J:40 p. m. tlie spirit 

 indicated 41° below ; the quicksilver was 

 hardened on the outside. A few minutes later 

 the thermometer stood 42° below. I picked 

 i\\> the tumbler of quicksilver, and to my 

 astonisliment found it completely .solidified — 

 as hard as a rock. I carried it into the store, 

 and several persons examined it, it remaining 

 in that condition some time before it showed 

 life. On Jan. 10 at 11 p. m., the thermome- 

 ter stood 35° below. On the evening of .Janu- 

 ary 8, the evening above mentioned, at 10:30 

 p. m., tlie register was 40° below. This is the 

 coldest weather we have had." 



A correspondent recently sent the Philadel- 

 phia Lrdijcr a record of the daily markings of 

 the thermometer in a small town of Nebraska 

 during the month of January. There were 

 only eight days in the month when tlie tem- 

 perature was above zero, and the highest mark- 

 ing was nineteen degrees. The lowest tem- 

 perature was twenty-six degrees below zero. 

 The average of the lowest markings of the 

 tliermometers at eighteen stations in the north- 

 westl-ecently, was thirty degrees below zero. 

 Since then, a correspondent at Minneapolis, 

 Minnesota, has favored us with a meteorolo- 

 gic-al talile, showmg the temperature and 

 weather of January of this year in that much 

 talked of climate. This will enlighten our 

 readers who feel an interest in Minnesota. In 

 Montana the temperature has been as low as 

 fifty-six degrees below zero. Extremely cold 

 weather is as disastrous to vegetables as to ani- 

 mal life. Our obituary columns show liow fatal 

 the comparatively cold weather here has been 

 to those in feeble health, and fears are there- 

 fore entertained that vegetation m.ay sufl^er 

 during the winter. The continuanceof cold 

 weather is not so much a source of dan- 

 ger as the extreme cold sometimes reached, 

 and infinitely less dangerous than the sudden- 

 ness of its coming and the circumstances at- 

 tending it. When the snows have been melted 

 from the ground and the moisture penetrating 

 the soil begins to loosen the frost, a sudden snap 

 of extremely cold weather kills the budding 

 seed, and too often injures or kills the mature 

 tree or shrub, lleasoning humanity is really 

 more subject to the danger resulting from sud- 

 den changes than unconscious vegetation. 

 Before a brief warm spell has swept away the 

 lirotecting snow and tempted the seeds to put 

 forth their tender shoots, impatient people too 

 often lay aside their heavy garments and ex- 

 jiose tlieniselves to dangers not less real than 

 those the soldier meets upon the field of battle. 



In Europe, in the year 401, the Black Sea 

 was entirely frozen over. In 703 not only the 

 Black Sea, but the Straits of Dardanelles, 

 were fi-ozen over; thesnow in some iilacesrose 

 fifty feet high. In 82-2 the great riversof Europe, 

 the Danulie, the Elbe, &c., were so hard frozen 

 as to bear heavy wagons for a month. In 800 

 the Adriatic was frozen. In Dill everything 

 was frozen, the crops totally failed, and famine 

 and pestilence closed the year. In 10(i7 most 

 of the travelers in Germany were frozen to 

 death on the roads. ^ In 1134 th(; Po was frozen 

 from Cremona to the sea; the wine sacks were 

 burst, and the trees split by the action of the 

 frost, with immense noise. In 1236 the Danube 

 was frozen to the bottom, and remained long 

 in that state. In 1310 the crops wholly failed 

 in Germany; wheat, which some years before 

 sold in England at (is. the quarter, rose to £2. 

 In 1308 the crojjs failed in Scotland, and such 

 a famine ensued that the poor were reduced to 

 taed on grass, and many perished miserably in 

 the fields. The .successive winters of 1432-3-4 

 were uncommonly severe. In 1.308 the wine 

 distributed to the soliliers was cut with hatch- 

 ets. In 1083 it was excessively cold. Most 

 of the hollies were killed. Coaches drove ujion 

 the Thames, the ice of which was eleven inches 

 thick. In 17U0 occurred the cold winter;' the 

 frost penetrated the earth three yards into the 

 ground. In 1710 liooths were erected on the 

 Thames. In 1744 and 1745 the strongest ale 

 in England, exposed to the air, was covered in 



less than fifteen minutes with ice an eighth of 

 an inch thick. In 1800, and again in 1812, 

 the winters were remarkably cold. In 1814 

 there was a fair on the frozen Thames. 



READ TWICE. 



Considering that the ashes of our crops con- 

 tain on an average ■ about thirty per cent of 

 potash — as shown in the following table — it 

 follows that iiota.sh must lie applied to the soil, 

 or the crop cannot be a healthy one. 



Table— Showing the amount of potash con- 

 tained in a hundred jiarts of the ashes of 

 Wheat. In the grain, oO, in the straw, - - - -1.3 

 Barley. " " 32, " ' " . - - 14 



Oats. " " n, " " - - - - 1.5 



Kyc. " " 33, " " . - . 17 



Potatoes. " tubers, 37, " leaves, - - - - 20 

 Hohl Kabi " " 27, " " - - - 9 



Hops. " Hop 2.5, Leaf 15, Bine 21 

 Flax. " - - - 35, Beans 37, Peas 43 

 Man^jolds. - - -22 Turnips 22, Cabbage 41 

 Sugar Beet. - - 32, Kapeseed 25, Broeoli 47 

 Natural and artificial grasses, 20 to 42. 



— W. N. Dunau's Circular, Jan. 1, 1875. 



THIS NUMBER OF THE FARMER. 



We think we have reason to be proud of this 

 number of The Lancasteu Farmer. Every 

 article it contains is either original or carefully 

 selected and condensed from the most reliable 

 sources, in which case the proper credit, 

 where known to the editor, has been given. 

 The table of contents cover a wide range of 

 practical subjects, of deep interest and impor- 

 tance ; and we do not believe those interested 

 in agriculture, horticulture or domestic econo- 

 my can anywhere get a better bill of fare for 

 the same money. If every farmer in this 

 county does not become a subscriber to The 

 Faioier before the year is out, he will not be 

 alive to his own interests. 



OUR ILLUSTRATIONS. 



In accordance with their promise in the 

 January number, the publishers of The 

 Faujier have completed arrangements for 

 giving illustrations of practical subjects in 

 each number. Another handsome engraving 

 of one of the great Centennial buildings is 

 given, and they will be continued until our 

 readers will be familiar with all that pertains 

 to this great event. In our next we expect to 

 give original illustrations of the Colorado and 

 other potato beetles. An article in type, illus- 

 trating the construction of board fences, is 

 unavoidably crowded over until our next. 



The Grangers: We pubMsh an address 

 delivered by Milton B. Eshleman before the 

 Strasburg Grange of the Patrons of IIu.sbandry, 

 as a matter of local interest. We have, we 

 think, sulliciently defined our position on the 

 grange question in our February number, and, 

 if it were necessary to say anything further on 

 the subject, it would be this, that we do not 

 hold ourselves personally responsible for any 

 of the sentiments expressed in essays, ad- 

 dresses, and lectures, either for or against the 

 grange. We are quite willing to let the dis- 

 cussion of the question have a fair Held in our 

 columns within a reasonable limit, so long as 

 it is conducted with reference to the merits of 

 the question, and without personalities. There 

 is one passage in this address which, however, 

 is entirely ii«n tons, but which may be familiar 

 to "old Anti-Masons," and is as follows: "The 

 inventors and early advocates of Anti-Masonry 

 were women." We were an "yliifi-anti-Ma- 

 son " as early as 1828, but we do not recollect 

 that that argument was used against them 

 then. Of course, as to the comparative merits 

 of the secrcci/ of the grange, we are not compe- 

 tent to render an opinion. 



It is hardly necessary to admonish our con- 

 tributors and correspondents, that their real 

 names should always accompany their com- 

 munications, and that if they do not appear 

 in our columns it may be owing to their 

 ab.sence. Of course, if they do not wish their 

 names to ajipear, we will withhold them, but 

 under all circumstances wc should know who 

 the writers are. 



