1S75.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



i3i 



author who tlourishml uuarly eighty years :i}?o 

 in EiijiUuid. 



" Thti Liiinwan system of botany, supposes 

 plants to he male and female, li(('ause of cer- 

 tivindistinetions l)ct\veen their parts calli'd ti>e 

 stnmen and the piMit, the vuiion of liolh of 

 which is necessary to render tliitm i)r(ililic. 

 But tliis distinction in jilants, is no more a 

 sullicient reason for calling them male and 

 female parts of a i)lant, than a similar distinc- 

 tion which may he ol)serve(l in all male ani- 

 mals is for supposinj; there are male and 

 female parts in one and the same animal. The 

 characteristic i)ecidar to male animals is lh(! 

 formation of xced in themselves, wliieh is lirst 

 conceived in tlie uTKlerstandinf;, then formed 

 in the will, and afterwards translated to tin? 

 lower parts of the hody, where it is enveloped 

 with a material covering, and from thenc<' 

 conveyed into the wond), and last of all, 

 brought forth into open day. By tracing tliis 

 anology in the vegetaliU^ l<ingdoni, we may 

 easily see what is male, and wliiit is female. 

 AH plants are male, hccauso they (iroducu of 

 themselves serd.t oii/v, and not new plants. 

 The distinct \y,uU of the plant, which some 

 mistake for the male and female organs of 

 generation, are notlnng hut analagous resem- 

 blances of the will and the understanding 

 which are eipially distinct in every male ani- 

 mal, and like them, necessarily unite in the 

 formation of seed. But the animal sci'd cannot 

 produce new animals, until it is conveyed into 

 the wonibof a female, where, after imdergoing 

 a state of corruption, similar to that of (leath, 

 it rises again in all the strength and vigor of 

 anew and living animal. In like manner, tlie 

 seeds of plants which are all males, cannot 

 produce new plants until they are sown in the 

 woml) of the earth, which is the common 

 female, where they equally undergo a state of 

 corruption similar to death, and after that 

 rise up by vegetation into new plants. As 

 therefore, the formation of the seed is peculiar 

 to the male, and the nomishment anil expan- 

 sion of it is i>eculiar to the female, it follows, 

 that all the subjects of the vegetable kingdom 

 are males, because they are cencerned only in 

 preparing the seed lor the production of the 

 plant, and that the earth alone is the conunon 

 female — and also the conunon mother of the 

 veget.able Kingdom — because she nourishes 

 ami exjiands the seed, and thus actually brings 

 forth new plants." 



AVhether we adoi)t this or not, as the true 

 sexual system of plants, it cannot but set us to 

 thinking if it be possible for the vege.able 

 kingdom to produce new i>lants, or even to 

 exist, without the conunon motherhood of the 

 cartli, which contains the great matrix or 

 womb of the vegetable w<nid. 



We are awari; that this system may apiiear 

 too metaiihysical or '"far-fetched" to meet the 

 "views of popular Botany ; that it may be ob- 

 jected that plants can be iirodnccd and repro- 

 duced without .seed at all, by cuttings, scions 

 and tubers, and that, by parity of reasoning, 

 this rule might al.so ajiply to the animal 

 kingdom; but can they he produced without 

 the aid of "mother earth" V The fact that 

 parasitic idants do not re<iuire an (earthy 

 matrix for their reproduction, is by no means 

 a conclusive argument against this sexual 

 system, because the vegetation ujion which 

 they are parasitic dn, and their drafts \ipon 

 their hosts are sometimes such as to gri'atly 

 enervate or destroy them, inv<ilvlng thus tlieir 

 own destruction. 5lay not then, what appears 

 to Vie male and female organs in plants be 

 merely the representatives of the male and 

 female princiiiles in the animal world? Thev do 

 not produce a plant or tree, they only proilnce 

 seeds or fruit, and what is fruit, fundamentally, 

 but a modidcation of the leaf V and often in 

 both tlowers and fruit, we sec an effort to 

 return to the leafy condition. There are 

 male and female faculties in the mental con- 

 stitution of all animals, whether they are 

 controled bj- reascm or instinct, corresponding 

 to i\m inhilectwd and the etffertional — the un- 

 derstamli)iij and the irill in man ; and it 

 rcinnres the exercise of these two faculties in 

 ulthnates, before seed can be produced ; but 



without a womb or matrix they will remain or 

 ])erish iw seeds. It is also so by analogy in 

 l>laiits. The grains of wheat that had re- j 

 mained :!,OIIO years in the hand of an Egyptian 

 nunumy, would have remained there as .seed 

 to irternity, if an eivrthy womb had not 

 supervened. ! 



METEROLOGICAL AND AGRICULTU- | 



RAL OBSERVATIONS FOR THE j 



YEAR 1874-5. I 



The snnnncr of 1S74 was rather dry; no set- 

 tled rain of any conseipieiice oecuring, few 

 thtmder showers, and few or no walcr Hows. 

 The hay and wheat crops wen' oidy ordinary, 

 theoats very light — not half acrop, and of poor 

 ipiality. Corn w;is an averagi' crop. .Vpples 

 an ordinary crop, but very knotty and imper- 

 fect. I'ears were amiddlingcnrp ; Ixuriesilid 

 not make a full crop, owing to tlu^ dryness of 

 the soil ; the grapes, however, were rathergood. 

 No real soaking rain all snnnncr. The last 

 good rain was about the 7th of .Vugust. The 

 autnnm was also very dry, so much so that 

 farmers could not get the .soil in good order to 

 ])ut in their winter wheat. The wheat made 

 a poor growth in the fall, and tlu' winter com- 

 menced cold. The ground was thoroughly 

 frozen from November, 1S74, to .Viiril, 1H7.'). 

 Most ticlds were literally covered over with ice 

 for four months. The ice disappeared about 

 the end of March. No water could soak into 

 the earth during winter. Wells and springs 

 became dry that had never been known to be 

 dry before. In March an<l Ajiril no rain of 

 any very special benelit to vegetation fell, nor 

 until about the idth of June, 1S7."). Wheat 

 was very short and thin, averaging scarcely 

 ten liu.shels to the acre, and often only one 

 load of straw from three or fonracres of wheat; 

 but the quality was good. Oats were three or 

 tour inches high on tlie 2((tli of .lune, and after 

 heading out grew to a foot or lifteen inches, 

 nevertheless it turned out better than the crop 

 of lS7-t. The great drawback in manyplaces 

 was a mixture of green and ripe oats, making 

 it troublcscmie to harvest on account of the 

 shortness of the straw, and often being full of 

 bitter wormwood and other noxious weeds. 

 The hay crop of 1S7.J was the smallest for 

 thirty years, farmers getting from live to lif- 

 teen loads from an entire farm — their barns 

 are not half filled, and they will sustain a great 

 I0.SS in making manure the coming winter. 

 The wells and springs were dry or low in June, 

 and the streams, last spring, had not been 

 lower for lifty years. 



Hungarian Grass has been sown in different 

 jiarts of the county the iire.sent season. This 

 maybe sown from the 1st of May to the l.stof 

 August, and reipiires sixty days to mature. I 

 saw some cut on the 1st of August that 

 had niiitured perfectly in sixty days, that was 

 over two feet long. .Should it jirove what is 

 claimed for it, it will become a settled proven- 

 der in the county — like timothy. Refreshing 

 rains set in in July, yet the new clover, in new 

 tields, is a failure. The clover from the sjiring 

 sowing has generally perished. Farmers re- 

 sowcil clover in July. One (inn in Lancaster 

 city sold between four and live hundred bushels 

 of clover .seed the jire.seid season. 



Ihn-ses at best sell lower than they did last 

 year. In consequence of the .scant liay crop, 

 they bring from one hundred to one hnndre<l 

 anil lifty dnllors lower than horses of the same 

 quality foi'merly brought, or that sold for from 

 two to three hundred dollars, making a diller- 

 cnce of a hundred jiercent. .'smking colts can 

 be bought at thirty or forty dollars. Two year- 

 lings at lifty or sixty dollars. All other kinds 

 of stocks are proportionally lower than for- 

 merly. 



Ai;GrsT 20TH.^Since the foi-egoing was 

 written, settled rains have occurred, continu- 

 ing for a week or more, and springs and 

 streamsare re])lonishcd by the hand of nature, 

 and in some i)laces so lavishly as to |)roducc 

 destructive Ihiods and overtlows. Corn prom- 

 ises to be more than an average crop. Tobacco 

 is doing remarkahly well, and will make more 

 than an average cro)), and will also make more 

 than ordinary weight, but it is somewhat iu 



danger of beconiing/oj-//, or brittle, on .account 

 of wet and cloudy weather. 



Apples only about one-third of a crop, and 

 even that very imperlV'cl. Bears are (loing 

 well, as a general thing, (irapes seem to be 

 a faibu'e, in some parts of the county, proba- 

 bly owing to tlie cold and icy condition of 

 last wilder; some vines dying and othere * 

 Jiartially barri'U. Beaches are doing well, 

 as a whole, in the county, although in some 

 places they are prematurely diop]>iHg or rot- 

 ling. Berries liave done toleralily well. 



The two last sea.sons have been noted for 

 the presence of the " tlolorado I'otato-Heelle." 

 They made their appearance for the (irst time 

 last year in siiHiiient iiuiubers to be seriously 

 injurious to the crop. They have |irobably 

 not been quite as numerous the present sea- 

 son as they were the last. They have been 

 more elleciually destroyed, generally by vigor- 

 ous hand-picking, more than by I'aiis <jii< n, 

 which has not come into general use in my 

 neighborhood on account of its poi.sonons ipia- 

 lity, which is generally abhorred. The yield 

 of potatoes will be large throughout thecoimty. 

 In places where the vines were shaded the l)ec- 

 tles did very little damage, hut in exposed 

 lilaces, and where they had In-en neglected, 

 the bugs destroyed everything. They .seem, 

 howeyer, to be decreasing from .some cause, 

 and 1 hope that in a very few years they may 

 be too few to inllict injury niion the crops. — 

 L. S. B., Oreijon, Lanatslcr county, Fa., AuijU3l 

 20, l«7o. 



We hope that L. S. R.'shope, in reference 

 to the Botato-beetle, may be realized; hut at 

 the same time we would not counsel our read- 

 ers to suiiinelif indulge such a hope. No doubt 

 something is due to nidured causes, for this 

 apparent decrease of the beetle: but tliis ought 

 not to interfere with continuous and vigorous 

 artifviid causes, as an aid. We think however 

 that his ideas in regard to the clover-hay crop 

 will not he generally realized. We took a drive 

 about live miles iii> the Ilarrisburg pike im the 

 lid of September, and at inevcral places found 

 the farmers engaged in raking and hauling 

 home second-croj) clover hay ; and we do 

 not think we ever noticed a heavier crop than 

 we did on this occasion, in at least one of the 

 fields we iiassed. All looked well and rca.son- 

 ahly aliuiidant, but, the nwdHij may be inferior, 

 inasmuch as we had much more rain than was 

 nece.s.sary for it, and it grew very rapidly, 

 which is considered uiifavoralile to quality. — 



Eu. 



-♦. 



THE FACTS OF NATURAL HISTORY, 

 No. 4. 



Night Hawks vs. Whip-poor-wills. 



Many more ]ieople have heard a "Whip- 

 lioor-will" than have sem one : although many 

 may tliink they have seen one, when, in fact, 

 they mav have only seen a "Night-hawk ;" 

 yet, notwitlistanding the fact that these birds 

 •ire often confounded, there is a very marked 

 distinction between them ; they, however, 

 both belong to the old family C.U'itlMln.fJiD.fi, 

 or '•(Joat-suckers ;" and the natural order iN- 

 cKssoits, or '-IVrchei-s." But they lielong to 

 dilTerent genera, and, therefore, the difference 

 between them is not merely sjiirip'r; it is 

 (jenerir ill its character. The Whip-lioor-will 

 ^A)dr(istoniu.s vorififntx— IS a bird "to the 

 manor horn" of Lanciuster county, although 

 it is also native to other localities from ea,stern 

 rniteil States to the central plains. It is 

 about tell inches in length, and the wings are 

 six and a half inches. The general color is 

 pale rufous, and the top of the head is reddi.HJi- 

 brown. with blackish streaks, or aslien gray, 

 modilied by aye or sex. The bristles of the 

 hill, which" becoine very coii.spicuoiis when the 

 mouth is oiieii, are without laternal filaments, 

 and assist the bird in capturing its insect prey. 

 .\ltlioiigli the bill is very small, yet the 

 moutli is large, opening back a little be- 

 voiid till' eyes, like the month of a .snake. 

 It utters three distinct notes, which have 

 at least a fancied resemblance to the 

 syllables ?/7it;>-;*f)iir-iri7f, and from this it derives 

 its common name. It begins ita song, soon 



