86 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



A MAGNIFICENT HORSE. 

 We need not be at all sun'rised that so many 

 men take a delight in " horse.-tiesh, " for if 

 there is any one four-footed animal on earth 

 in which is combined the liighest degree of 

 giace, beauty, intelligence, strength, majesty 

 and use, that animal is the horse. We are not 

 nnich of a horse connoisseur, but a few days 

 ago we saw, at the stables of Mr. S. S. Spencer, 

 that beautiful specimen. The Jenifer Ara- 

 bian, a thoroughbred stallion, imported into 

 Maryland by Col. W. H. Jenifer, of the 

 Egyptian Cavalry, by pennission of his High- 

 ness, the KluHlive of Egypt, specially obtained. 

 He is of a pure grey color — almost immacu- 

 late white — with a silver mane and tail ; per- 

 fect in form, style and action ; eight years old; 

 00 inches high, and has all the tiaditional 

 marks of the i)ure bred Arabians, which de- 

 scended from Mohammed to the present Arabs. 

 He was bred on the desert by the Bedouin 

 Arabs, from the stock of the famous Kochlani 

 or Koheilan Arabians, a branch of the great 

 Anaazah family, fiom Mejdee, the centre of 

 Arabia, and his sire and dam were both of the 

 purest blood. 



He remained in Lancaster only a few days, 

 in transit from the east to farther south, his 

 next destination being Baltimore ; but during 

 that brief period there were, i)erhaps, few 

 horse fanciers in and about Lancaster who 

 did not pay their respects to him, for he is in- 

 deed a most admirable creature. 



WINTER-KILLED VINES. 



From the fact that two of our grape vines 

 have not yet (June 1st) developed a single bud, 

 we opine they were "winter-killed" some 

 time during the late severe winter. These 

 are an Isabella, fully an inch and a half in 

 diameter at the thickest part, and a Rebecca, 

 about half an inch in diameter. We don't 

 e:;actly see why this should be so, seeing that 

 an Isabella, about five feet north of the for- 

 ■ mer, and a Concord and a Telegraph ou the 

 same line, have survived and are doing well — 

 only the usual quantity of the last year's 

 growth being killed. The Isabella stood on 

 the north side of a close fence, and had very 

 little sun all winter ; but it has stood there for 

 more than ten years without injury, and my 

 neighbor's vines, on the south side of the 

 fence, within six inches of the same latitudinal 

 line as mine, have escaped entirely. The 

 Rebecca stood on the east side of a ch.ise fence, 

 and was protected from the cold northwest 

 blasts all winter, and, moreover, had the 

 benefit of the sun — when it shiiied— from 

 about 9 o'clock in the forenoon until about ii 

 or i o'clock in the afternoon, and had been 

 standing there for three years or more. The 

 conditions, otherwise, were the same in all. 



We have seen similar effects of cold weather 

 before, in regard to grape vines, but more 

 frequently in Arbor Vita', hedges, where, 

 "here and there," a single hedge-bush or 

 more were killed down to the ground, and 

 turned yellow the following spring, whilst the 

 others all remained green, and put forth new 

 leaves and branches — those killed never re- 

 covering again. Of course, there is some 

 cmise for this, and that cause is just the thing 

 we would like to know. We have never had 

 the Phylloxera, in the gali form, on our prem- 

 ises that we know of. Is it possible that we 

 had the tubercular, or root-form of the pest, 

 without our knowledge of the same ? Have 

 any of our readers or subscribers had a simi- 

 lar experience, and what is their opinion on 

 the subject? If so, will they be so kind as to 

 give us their experience or opinion on the sub- 

 ject ? We have seen tens of tlKiusands — per- 

 haps hundreds of thousands — of the Phylloxera 

 vustrix on the Clinton grape vines, to the al- 

 most total destruction of the crop ; but we 

 have not yet recognized any of the "root 

 phylloxera," but we have inferred that where 

 the one is the other will be also. 



The root phylloxera is spreading in this 

 country, and it is very probable that much of 

 the injury sustained by grape vines may be 

 owing to the presence of tliis little micro- 



scopic pest. Is it not possible that vines ener- 

 vated by Phylloxera may become too feeble to 

 successfully resist the effects of freezing cold. 



Since ^vi-iting the foregoing we find, on ex- 

 amining our Isabella vine, which we thought 

 had been winter-killed, that it has only been 

 retarded about one full month. To-ilay, 

 June 5th, we find that the buds are pushing 

 out all over the vine with as much vigor as 

 the others did four or five weeks ago. This 

 case exhibits a well-defined question of retar- 

 dation, and is just as interesting as if our first 

 surmises had been realized. 



Unless the matter can be explained upon 

 some other hypothesis, it may illustrate the 

 distinction between a northern and southern 

 exposure— the ditterence between tHe north 

 and the south side of a fence even ; but it 

 does not make it quite clear to us why this 

 difference should have been so manifest last 

 winter, and not in any of the eight or ten pre- 

 ceding winters — because, whatever the char- 

 acters of the winters may have been, the con- 

 ditions were the same to all the vines, and 

 especially to those on the north and the south 

 side of the fence alluded to, and which were 

 within six inches of the same line of latitude, 

 and one, at least, on the same line of longi- 

 tude. If it be attributed to the frost in the 

 ground, we can hardly suppose that it should 

 have observed such a distinct line of demarca- 

 tion •, for, although a fence might protect and 

 shelter the tops, it could hardly aftbrd a simi- 

 lar protection to the roots. It is singular to 

 see one grape vine in bloom, and another one, 

 only about six inches away from it, putting 

 forth its buds — a developmental difference of 



a month or more. 



^ 



SULPHURET OF LEAD. 



Mr. J. B. Erb had some vei-y fair specimens 

 of Argentiferous Galena or Sidphuret of Lead, 

 from his farm in .Strasburg township, on ex- 

 hibition at the meeting of Horticultural So- 

 ciety, on Monday, the 7th inst. All along, 

 from the American Revolution down to the 

 present time, more or less of this mineral, 

 from time to time, has been found in the 

 southern parts of Lancaster county, and tra- 

 dition has it, that prior to the revolution a 

 company of Welch miners were successfully 

 working a mine of it in Martic or some other 

 of the southern townships. When the Revo- 

 lutionary War broke out, it is said, they aban- 

 doned it and closed it up, and as the war ter- 

 minated fatally to the English cause, they 

 never returned, and its exact whereabouts has 

 never been since discovered. 



When the first State Agi-icultural Fair was 

 held at Lancaster, a large and beautiful mass 

 of it, from Martic township, was placed on 

 exhibition, but it never was reclaimed and we 

 never learned who was the exhibitor. It is 

 said to contain about 5 per cent, of silver, and 

 hence it is called arijentiferoinf. If this mineral 

 could be obtained in (piantity, the owner of 

 the land might well forego the vicissitudes of 

 agriculture and turn his attention to mining. 



be. We would therefore admonish fruit-grow- 

 ers to make a note of this in their future ex- 

 periences, because in it is involved the practi- 

 cal side of their noble occupation, and their 

 opportunities to make observations far surpass 

 those of any other class of men. 



ABORTIVE STRAWBERRY. 



Mr. J. B. Erb had on exhiliition, also, an 

 abortive strawberry jilant. This was a fine, 

 large, vigorous j)lant, having borne about 

 thinly flowers, and all abortive but too, and he 

 desired to know the cause. 



This is a botanical question, and as we are 

 not a botanist in any speciiil sense, we can do 

 nothing more than suggest the cause. By 

 reading carefully the contril)Ution of Mr. 

 Stauffer, in this number of The Farmer, it 

 will become ajiparent that insects have more 

 to do with the fertilization of plants than is 

 generally supposed— some plants depending 

 entirely on this resource. Now, if the weather 

 is cold or wet at the fructifying period, and 

 few or no insects are abroad, such plants will 

 be imperfectly fertilized — not only because of 

 the absence of the insects, but because, if wet, 

 or copiously drenched by rains, the fertilizing 

 granules will be washed away and aboVtion 

 follow. There is considerable abortion among 

 the cherries, the apples, and the strawberries 

 the present season, whatever the cause may 



BALLOON METEOROLOGY. 



Our townsman, John Wise, sr., the famous 

 iEronaut, has written to the Bulletin a letter 

 on balloon meteorology, from which we make 

 the following extract : 



"The ascension made with Mr. O. Schneck's 

 'St. Charles' balloon, in which I was accom- 

 panied by Charles C. Cresson, the same person 

 who accompanied me last October, in the 

 ' Franklin ' balloon, which ascended from the 

 roof of the building at the corner of Market 

 and Thirteenth streets, was purely for scien- 

 tific purposes. We started off under a meri- 

 dian sun, and in three minutes rose 5,000 feet. 

 Notwithstanding this velocity of ascent, the 

 motion in itself was imperceptible, .so smoothly 

 did the balloon cleave the air. The transition 

 so suddenly from the solid earth to the fields 

 of cloud-land was sufficient to awaken all the 

 dormant sensibilities of the soul. While my 

 companion was descanting upon the beauty of 

 real estate homesteads dotting the country all 

 around beneath us, I called his attention, or 

 rather the balloon did, to another considera- 

 tion. The sun having full play upon the air 

 vessel and expanding its gas, caused carburet- 

 ted hydrogen to pour down upon us a cloud of 

 death, although we were twelve feet below the 

 muzzle of the balloon. 



"'Now, Mr. Cresson,' I remarked, 'this 

 makes it plain to you how the Zenith party in 

 France the other day had two of their com- 

 rades smothered in a hydrogenated atmos- 

 phere. You are already suflering, I see, and 

 I am not vei-y comfortable myself; my pulse 

 is off on the double-quick, and you are getting • 

 pale, so I will now put a stop to this part of our 

 experimentation by opening the valve. ' 



"We had now attained an altitude of 7,500 

 feet. Had the muzzle of the balloon been 

 close on our heads, as was the case in the 

 Zenith balloon, we could not have lived many 

 minutes in such an asphyxiated atmosphere. 

 The throwing overboard of an eighty-pound 

 weight gas-bag by one of the Zenith party, 

 done, no doubt, under a confused mental ac- 

 tion, brought about by the inhalation of a 

 noxious gas, explains the cause of the disaster. 

 The rarefied condition of the atmosphere at an 

 altitude of 30,000 feet will not cause death of 

 itself. Green, the noted Enj^jlish seronaut, 

 went up to that height without injury, though 

 he used a bag of pure air to inhale from. 



" The atmosphere was much perturbed. At 

 five and six thousand feet up it was fluctuat- 

 ing to and fro, and I am more convinced than 

 ever that we are yet to find a solution of our 

 remarkable seasons from outside pressure upon 

 our earth's elastic shell of air, a pressure from 

 planetary perturbations in conjunctions, qua- 

 dratures and oppositions. Were it not for 

 outside interferences our seasons would neces- 

 sarily have to be the same from year to year, 

 assuming that the earth is regular in its mo- 

 tions and in its conditions of temperature as 

 to ecjuatorial heat and polar cold. Our i)lanet 

 is subject to direct pressure from Venus and 

 Mars,' and they in turn from Mercury and 

 Jupiter. The photosphere is as subject to dis- 

 turbances by pressure as is our atmosphere, 

 and while the cosmogony is a harmonious sum 

 total, its details are the differentiations of 

 evolution through motion. Future experiments 

 will be especially directed to that line of. in- 

 vestigation. 



" While we were suspended over the north- 

 em part of our built-up city the scene mider- 

 neath us was peculiarly lively under the noon- 

 day sun. Everything shone out in radiant 

 beauty, shinnnering in the profusion of span- 

 gles and jewels. 



"The transparency of the Delaware was 

 very marked as we stood almost, if not quite, 

 still over it for some minutes, and until a gen- 

 tle, spasmodic pulf of air sent us over the sandy 

 plains of Jersey." 



