72 



THE LANCASTER FARMERS 



THE WEATHER. 



The state of the weatlior is still a wonder to nearly 

 everylio'l.v. the like havinj never hi'cn seen even Ijy 

 the "oldest inhabitant," and the would-lie prophets 

 who had predieted that after havini; emlured sueh an 

 exeeedinjrly cold "spell "of weather from New Year 

 until the close of March, we would surely have a flue 

 April, have miserably failed in their calculations. 

 Last week we recorded several snows, and we have 

 had quite a number since last week's record was 

 made. On Sunday morning the ground was covered 

 with over an inch of snow ; on Sunday afternoon it 

 snowed afiain, ou Monday more snow fell and on 

 Tuesday morning there was another snow of aliout 

 four inches in depth. Saturday, Sunday, Monday 

 and Wednesday were as cold as the average days in 

 mid-winter are, the groimd being frozen so hard on 

 Monday morning that it would bear a heavily loaded 

 wagon. Farmers generally sow their oats the latter 

 part of March, and corn is often planted as early as 

 the 20th of April, but this year not one half of the 

 oats is yet sowed and there is much plowing to be 

 done yet. — Xeie Holland ClariotL 



But that is not the worst of it ; for, now 

 that the snow has passed away, it is found 

 thtit much of tlie wheat in this county is 

 winter-killed, owinn; to the continued frozen 

 and icy condition of the fields— this is at least 

 the case with many of tliem, accordini; to re- 

 ports from relial)U' authorities. As there has 

 been a recent brisk demand for tobacco, and 

 at renumeratini; jirices, the remedy suggests 

 itself to plant more tobacco and dei)end upon 

 more favored districts for wheat. ]?ut then 

 the iirotracted cold weather is unfavorable to 

 the starting of the tobacco crop ; therefore, if 

 that fails, we will have to plant more corn, 

 and rely on "pork and Johnny-cakes." 



Coming back to the weather — what a won- 

 derfully prolific subject the weather is, any 

 how, in these dull times ! On the 24th of April 

 we had a sprinkling of snow in Lancaster city 

 and comity, and in New Jersey a perfect snow- 

 stfirm prevailed to the demolishment of tele- 

 graph lines and sundry other serious damages. 

 Nevertheless, there seems to be sorm good in 

 these weather freaks, for they furnish labor 

 to the poor in making tlie necessary repairs. 

 "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good." 



The \A^eather Two Years Ago. 



This season is not, after all, an excei)tionally 

 severe one. A contributcr to the Cleveland 

 Hcvahl sends a note to that paper concern- 

 ing the spring of 1S7.3 : 



"In looking over my notes of past springs I find 

 the spring of \HTA fully as cold and wintry (less 

 snow) as this. I senil it to vou as I find it in my book 

 from April 21 to .May 19, 1878 : 



The past winter has been long and cold ; not much 

 spring weather up to this. Cold weather set in the 

 heginning of October, 1873, and kept on without 

 much let-up to date. Peaches, Isabella grapes and 

 other tender vines were killed. 



April 34, 187:1— Cold and wintry. 



April 25, 187:1 — Snow and frost this morning ; cold 

 and wild snow storm all day. 



April 37, 187:) — Snow ; last night frost. 



April 2.S, 187:i— Cold and frosty. 



April 3fl, 187:1 — Fine day ; cold at night. 



April .*iO, 187:1 — Frost this morning ; sun bright. 



May 12, 187:! — Somewhat warmer. 



May i:i, 187:1 — Thunder storm last night ; cold 

 to-day. 



May 14, 187:! — Snowing. 



May 17, 187:1 — Cold and frosty all this week ; a 

 white frost this morning. 



May 18, 187:1 — White frost this morning ; cold north 

 wind. 



May 19, 1873 — Spring weather commenced. 



THE WAIFS OF SOCIETY. 



Here is a brief record of the zeal of a statistician 

 most suggestive of the evils which result from the 

 usual inditi'erence to the waifs of society ? 



" Some of the most curious and remarkable crimi- 

 nal statistics ever obtained have been given to the 

 public Ijy Dr. Harris, of New York. Ills attention 

 was called some time since to a county on the upper 

 Hudson which showed a remarkable proportion of 

 crime and poverty to the whole population — 480 of its 

 40,000 inhabitants being in the almshouse — and upon 

 looking into the records a little he found certain 

 names continually appearing. Becoming interested 

 in the subject, he concluded to search the genealogies 

 of these families, and, after a thorough investigation, 

 he discovered that from a young girl named "Marga- 

 ret" — who was left adrift, nobody remembers how, 

 in a villa'je of the county, seventy years ago, and in 

 the absence of an almshouse, was left to grow up as 

 best she eould — have desceiided two hundred crimi- 



nals. As an illustration of this remarkable record, 

 in one single generation of her unhappy line there 

 \vere twenty children ; of these, three died in infancy, 

 and seventeen survived to maturity. Of the seven- 

 teen, nine served in the State prisons for high crimes 

 an aggregate term of fifty years, while the others 

 were frequent inmates of jails and penitentiaries and 

 almshouses. The whole immber of this girl's de- 

 scendants, through six generations, is nine hundred, 

 and besides the two liundred who are on record as 

 criminals, a large number have been idiots, imbeciles, 

 drunkards, lunatics, prostitutes and ])aupers. A 

 stronger argument for careful treatment of pauper 

 children than these fig-ures eould hardly be found." — 

 Spriiiijfidd liepublican . 



Here a "pin should be stuck in," and this 

 paragraph should lie read every diiy, if it even 

 is not correct in till its details, and the con- 

 elusions elicited therefrom ; for the simple 

 reason that there cannot be an (ffeH without a 

 cf(M.se. The aversion to mental culture, the 

 dislike for literature, the apathy in intellectual 

 exercises, and the ignorance and illiteracy re- 

 sulting therefrom, are just as certain to fol- 

 low their aversions, dislikes and apathies as 

 any of the above enumerated effects should 

 follow their primitive causes. 



It is a fearful thing to think of, when we 

 reflect that when man became a "living soul," 

 he also became ;i. subject of immortality. 

 There are many contaminations and acquired 

 evils in the world, but there are none that itre 

 more deeply ingrained in the liumtm constitu- 

 tion, either physically or spiritually, than 

 those that are transmitted through inheri- 

 tance. If nil can l)e transmitted, as the 

 above paragraph implies, so c:in good. To 

 say that it cannot would be an imputation to 

 Deity that we would not apply to man. 



To Obtain Fruit from Barren Trees. 



A correspondent of the Amcrlcau Affyk'nltitrixtsays: 

 "I wish to describe to you a method of making fruit 

 trees liear, that I l)lundered on to. 



Some fifteen years ago I had a small tree that leaned 

 considerably. 1 drove a stake by it, tied a string to a 

 limb and fastened it to a stake. The next year that 

 limb blossomed full and not another blossom ap- 

 peared on the tree, and, as Tim Bunker said, 'it sot 

 me a thinking,' and I came to the conclusion that the 

 string was so tight that it prevented the sap return- 

 ing to the roots ; consequently it formed fruit buds. 

 Having a couple of pear trees that were large enough 

 to bear but that had never blossomed, I took a coarse 

 twine and wound it several times around the tree 

 above the lower limlis, and tied it as tight as I could. 

 The next spring all the top above the cords blossomed 

 as white as a sheet, and there was not one blossom 

 below where the cord was tied. A neighbor seeing 

 my trees loaded with i)cars, used this method with 

 the same result. I have since tried the experiment on 

 several trees, almost with the same result. I think it is 

 a nuich better way than cutting off the roots. In early 

 summer, say June or July, wind a strong twine sev- 

 eral times around the tree, or a single limb, and tie 

 it, the tighter the better, and you will be pleased with 

 the result ; the next winter or spring the cord may be 

 taken oil'." 



AVe are cognizant of a single, accidental, 

 aiiiUagous case, but as that case was never 

 resolved into tlie fundamental principle of a 

 tlicori/ on the subject, we fiiil to Understand 

 the theory of the above, in some of its details. 

 For instance, would not June or July be too 

 late to have any effect ujion the tree tlie same 

 season the cord was applied V 



Would not "next spring" be too soon to 

 remove the cords, if trees are expected to 

 "blossom and bear" the summer iniinediately 

 succeeding '? t)r, do the beneficial effects only 

 become apparent a year iifter the cord has 

 been applied ;ind removed V And does one 

 a])plication suthce for the entire subsequent 

 life of the tree '/ Although there fs something 

 plausible about it, yet it seems very much like 

 — "half a poinid of flour, ^ peck of iilums, one 

 egg, a little butter, a little salt, serve up hot." 



SING MORE. 



Cultivate singing in your family. Begin when the 

 child is not yet three years old. The songs and hymns 

 yfjur childhood sang, bring them all back to your 

 memory, and teach them to your little ones; mix them 

 all together, to meet the similar moods, as in after 

 lite they come over us so mysteriously sometimes. 

 Many a time and ofl , in the very whirl of business, in 

 the sunshine and gay(dy of Fifth avenue, and amid 

 tlu' splendor of the drive in Central Park, some little 

 thing wakes np the memories of early youth — the old 



mill; the cool spring; the shady tree by the little 

 selK»)l house — and next instant we almost see again 

 the ruddy cheeks, the smiling faces, and the merry 

 eyes of schoolmates, some gray-headed now, most 

 " lie mouldering in the grave." And, anon, " the 

 song my mother sang " springs unbidden to the lips 

 anil soothe and sweetens all these memories. 



At other times, amid the crushing mishaps of busi- 

 ness, a merry ditty of the olden time pops up its little 

 head, breaks in upon the ugly train of thought, 

 throws the mind into another cliaunel; light breaks in 

 from behind the cloud in the sky, and a new courage 

 is given to us. The honest man goes singing to his 

 work; and when the day's labor is done, his tools laid 

 aside, and he is on his way home, where wife and 

 child, and the tidy table and cheery fireside await 

 him, he cannot help but whistle or sing. 



The burglar never sings. Moody silence, not the 

 merry song, weighs down the dishonest tradesman, 

 the ])erfidiou6 clerk, the unfaithful servant, the per- 

 jured partner. — Fxfhange. 



We accord our unqualified endorsement of 

 the above; and even now, although we have 

 passed our three-score j'ears, the songs of our 

 youth are often resurrected, and we love to 

 hum them over again, and often do so, in the 

 lone hours of the night, when tliere are none 

 to hear save ourself and the drowsy "gray 

 spiders on the wall;" and while we are doing so, 

 we feel less inclined towards "treason, strata- 

 gem and spoils" than at any other hours 

 within the twenty-four. We fondly look upon 

 the days when we were as musical as a hand 

 organ (and perluips as " cracked " as many of 

 them, too,) and we plied our hands as nimbly, 

 or as lazily, as the measures of the songs we 

 sung. We often regret that time, circum- 

 stance, and advancing years have so effectu- 

 ally quieted oiu- vocal muse. Although the 

 sterner occupations of life .seem to interpose a 

 barrier to our youthful indulgence, still we 

 often revert to the ballads of yore, and men- 

 tally exclaim — 



" Sing me the songs I used to hear, 

 Long, long ago; long, long ago." 



ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE. 



It is exciting some remark in England that an in- 

 sect like the Colorado potato beetle, a native of South- 

 ern Colorado and New Mexico, should be able to emi- 

 grate far to the North, and endure easily the rigors 

 of a Canadian winter; and this fact is being taken 

 into account when discussing the possilnlity of the in- 

 sect getting a foothcdd in England. But this seems 

 to be an attribute of the lower orders of both plants 

 and animals. As we descend in the scale of organ- 

 isms, thei'e is an indifference to wide ranges of tem- 

 perature exhibited. Man has thfe power of protecting 

 himself against these extremes, and so can he adapt 

 himself to most climates; bot the next animals in 

 raid< to him are contined to comparatively limited 

 latitudes. The same with the higher orders of plants, 

 the most complicated '.jcing confined to the most 

 limited districts, wliile the lower orders are often 

 found in the same form all over the world — in tropi- 

 cal as well as very cold regions. The small fongus — 

 Peyoiioapora iitfvKfana — which in 184.5 made its in- 

 tensely destructive ajipcarances in Europe, is a Per- 

 uvian or Brazilian fungus, parasitic on the wild spe- 

 cies of fiolunuin, or potato-like plants found in the re- 

 gion. It v/as probably introduced by some of those 

 great geniuses who had a notion which they called a 

 " theory," that the best way to improve the potato is 

 to begin with some poor scrubby stock from a place 

 where the potato was supposed to be indigenous. 

 Bringing in their " improvements," they brought the 

 potato lungus at the same time, and it found itself 

 just as much at home in Canada, England, Ireland, 

 France and elsewhere, as in the burning atmosphere 

 of its own home. — I'l-cus. 



On the subject of adaptability to climatic con- 

 tingencies, we thiiilc tlie Colorado potato-bee- 

 tle can carry off the palm. In JNIareh, last, 

 scores of them were dug up in this city, where 

 the ground was still frozen two or three feet in 

 depth, and yet these pests were capable of be- 

 ing crushed — as if they had not been frozen — 

 and on placing tliem in a warm situation they 

 revived, became lively, and seemed to be in- 

 quiring for a " potato-patch." 



In addition to " John Bull " and the Eng- 

 li.sh Piirliament — as mentioned in our April 

 number — several of the continental govern- 

 ments of Europe are exercising themselves in 

 regard to this insect. 



Was ever insect so distinguished as to be- 

 come such an object of profound solicitude 

 among crowned lieads, potentates, dukes, 

 lords and most reverend seigniors, before the 

 advent of Buryplwra. 



