1S7-5.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



149 



liave no merit wliatcver, except that they are 

 new ; and even many of the new tliiMLTs wliich 

 are daily liein;,' Ihoul'IiI fmth. are liut the le- 

 (levelopnienl of thinfjs tliat are old. In one 

 sense it is true, that "there is notliin^ new 

 uncU'r the sun." Tlu' reeent diseoveiy of a 

 tliint; is no creation of that tliin;; ; it is only 

 tlie develnpnient of a thiuL; that liad an ex- 

 istenee "loiifr, lon^ a^ro," if not from tlie very 

 'MieKinuiui;. ■■ I'rineiiiles are eternal, and 

 (luirultinialion isfiradvially ih'veloiJcd throuixli 

 tlie slow processor human |iroi;ress. Althoui;h 

 we feel convinced that the human family on 

 the whole is proirressiiij;, yet it never will he- 

 come truly rcKcnerated, until it hceomes im- 

 hned with the moral and philosoi)hical iirinci- 

 jiles tliat ohtained duriny; the "most ancient" 

 period of its existence on this earth — until it 

 regards tlie essential suhstance of thinf;s, in- 

 stead, of rteetini; shadows. These iirincijiles 

 applv as ecpially to .V.i;ricnllui'e as they do to 

 any other depart nicnl of human industry and 

 economy. Of course, we do not expect, nor 

 desire, the Immaii family to ^o back to the 

 days of its infancy, as to tlie applicnccs neces- 

 .sary to its susti'uance, its comfort, and itscon- 

 venience, in its present nmnerical and intel- 

 lectual condition, liut when lumian character 

 is restored to its state of primitive_pnrity, all 

 outward aiiplianccs will be in correspoiiilence 

 with its internal condition, and that will be 

 all that is necessary to its physical comlbrt 

 and convenience, and hence its entire haiipi- 

 ness. The human family in its i)riniitive 

 intej^rity was very probably i)urely frnijivor- 

 ous, and only as it increased numerically were 

 the various auricultural specialties born and 

 nurtured into efficient being. Horticulture 

 must therefore have been coeval with the hu- 

 man race itself, and had it been confined to its 

 primitive limit, nothing else would have been 

 necessary ; but it was under the mandate to 

 "multiply and replenish," and in obedience 

 to this behest, agricullural progress was de- 

 veloped. Under the jierverted ansjiices of the 

 freedom in which it was lirst created it became 

 sensual, and hence gradually grew carniver- 

 ous, and through this, its present omniverous 

 character was linally developed, originating 

 it.s "tlocks upon a thousand hills." 



All these conditions necessitated naturnl 

 sekrtion. but not in the sense set forth by the 

 Darwinian tlie<iry. Although natural .selec- 

 tion undoubtedly develojis improved varieties 

 in any direction in which it is applied, yet it 

 will never transform an apple or a pear to a 

 peach or a plum ; nor corn to wheat ; nor a 

 horse to an ox, whatever their protojilastic 

 origin may have been ; simply because the 

 distinctions between these forms are ijinerir. 

 and beyond thi^ pale of mere variety. The 

 bountiful Creator is a ISeing of (irii(i\ and 

 ■ everything is ultimated in material form, un- 

 der an efflux and inllux which determines its 

 physical character, before it is manifested in 

 visilile being. 15ut a judiciously applied sys- 

 tem of natural selection will most undoubted- 

 ly produ('e an improved variety or even anew 

 variety of a specific thini;, whether it be an 

 animal or a vegetable. This has been so re- 

 peatedly demonstrated that it seems almost 

 supertlnous to uige it at this late day. The 

 fanner can have this demonstrated any day in 

 a variety of ways. It is through this means 

 that all the imjiroved varieties of stock, grains, 

 and fruit are luiidnced, and those who are 

 ignorant of it are among the inexcusably con- 

 senative, or coustitntioiially "fossilized" in 

 human society. 



THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE. 



" Humaging the hold" of our "Editorial 

 Drawer" on a recent occasion, we found the 

 following under date of February t^, 1*^<'>'.* : 



"Mr. I?.: Here yon will tind a piece of 

 hickory wood which I at one time split apart, 

 the .same being a stick of coril wood. Vou 

 will find therein a plug, as marked. On the 

 lower end of the stick, 1 found a rag, or pajier, 

 in which were the linger or toe-nails of some 

 jierson. The outer bark had grown over 

 them. 



"Old Jacob A. tried oi'ten the same for the 



cure of rupture for man, chihl andhorseH, and 

 also for other diseases, viz. : On the (irst Fri- 

 day of the IK ir iiKiiin. after midnight, he often 

 came to me to borrow an augur and mallei. 

 The augur being without a screw point, he 

 used a gouge to .stait it. He always boreil 

 the hole int<i the tree on the side of suiiri.se, or 

 east. The plug used was a limb of the tree 

 the size of the augur, and wlnli' engat;ed in 

 this work he would not speak to any one. It 

 is said if the tree ilocs not die, there will be 

 no cure performed ; Init this tree lived on and 

 ilid not die. 



"This may be a matter fordiscu.ssion before 

 the AtluiKiihii, and perhaps interestin" to one 

 and all. Yours respectfully, _ .S. .1." 



Wf hitsldi to put the above in'print, as an 

 apology for having left it remain for nearly 

 seven yi'ars among the rubbish ot our drawer, 

 without having given it a respectful hearing 

 and placing it on fecord. We c.-innot recall the 

 " ])iece of hickory wood." It probably ar- 

 rived during our temporary absence, and onr 

 attention was never calle<l to it, nor have we 

 any recollection of having read the communi- 

 cation betbre to-day. Under any circum- 

 stances, it seems evident to ns that "Old 

 .hu'ob " could not have been a reader of The 

 F.MOiEl!, or iierhaps of anything else, or he 

 probably wcmld not have had such faith in 

 "heels, horns and toe-nails." 



This recalls a remark made to us during the 

 Fair-week, by an intelligent farmer and fruit 

 grower of Franklin county, who made ns a 

 friendly call. During his visit to Lancaster, 

 his native county, he sauntered through onr 

 Wednes<lay morning market, and he imagined 

 he ccnild liick out every vendor in it who was 

 not a habitual reader of an agricultural paper 

 by the cpiality of the in-odnce he oll'ered for sale. 

 This \i> fiii-hirr vs. fiiniicr. and not our com- 

 parison," and yet tliere may be something in 

 it. Another intelligent subscriber from the 

 east end of the county, called njion us for a 

 duplicate copy of mir September number, as 

 his had been loaned or lost, and he could 

 not afford to be wilhout it. He stated that 

 he subscribed to several agricultural papers, 

 and amongst the rest, for the Anieriran 

 AyrifuUiirist ; but none of them elicited his 

 interest as the J-'an/n;- does. "He reads it 

 through and through, from beginning to end," 

 and then lays it carefully away to have it 

 bound when the volume is completed. He 

 complimented us on its original matter, and 

 its selections. "Nothing in it but what is 

 interesting and useful," and he only won- 

 dered it was not taken and read by every 

 farmer in the county of Lancaster. AVe have 

 faith in the future. We may not live to see 

 it, lint Thf Fiu-iiio- will eventually be as 

 amply su.stained as its friends think it de- 

 serves. The (iresent generation will gradu- 

 ally be numbered with the past, and new and 

 progressive generations will follow. These 

 will not go backward; indeed they cannot, 

 for they are under the influence of " the in- 

 exorable logic of events," and this will pu.sh 

 thein forward. Brains will ultimately take 

 thei>laceof " toe-nails," and the "fogyisni" 

 of the lu-esent period will be numbered with 

 the things that were. It is true, that there 

 may be a recklessly going forward, but this is 

 tar'better than standing still, or going back- 

 ward. Everything that God has made in 

 the past aiai present, or will make in the 

 future, is slamiied with the irresistible and 

 indelible imi>|->'ss of iirogl-e.^sion, and there 

 can be no healthy develoinneiit without it. 

 To stop for a single moment, would shatter 

 the universe to its very centre and resolve 

 the world into chaos again. We are not so 

 good, so pure, .so virtuous, so efficient and 

 so skillful that we can afford to sto]). Our 

 destiny cannot be wrought out in igiKU-ance, 

 in weakness, and in supineness. There will 

 be, there nnist be, more reading among the 

 ma.sses than is done now, although the coun- 

 try is flooded with literature. The people 

 may read much that is trashv, useless, or 

 even hurtful, but without reading they will 

 never he able to exercise the neees.sjiry <lis- 

 crimination to determine what to read, or 



how to reatl. Let the anti-rea<1er8 pass off 



the stage ; others will lake their place, and 

 the world will still go onward. Some, no 

 doubt, wi.sh it were otherwise, but this cannot 

 and will not )h'. 



CURIOUS FACTS. 



Fishes swallow their food whole. They 

 have no dental machinery furnished for them. 



I Sharks have a very formidable "di'nial 

 machinery," allhou'.;h perhaps not for the pnr- 

 |)o.si> of mastication .-io much as for capturing 

 and securing their ju-ey ; hut what can be the 

 us(^ of the incisors, and the inolai-like diMilal 

 liavenieiits on the uiiperand lower Jaws of tlie 

 " Sheep.s-liead V" .\nd perhaps the .same may 

 be .said in reference to tlie "Oyster-cracker," 

 the very name of which implies (hat they re- 

 duce their food before swallowing it, if it is 

 not for some sort of griiidin;; their food. — El>.] 



Frogs, toads and serpi'iits never take any 

 fooil liut that which they aie sjitislied is alive. 



I When we were a boy we caught frogs very 

 readily bv baiting onr hook with a bit of red 

 llannel. What they took it for we never 

 could imagine, and jierhaps they would have 

 rejected it as suddenly as they took it had they 

 not been hooked. — El>.] 



Serpents are so tenacious of their life that 

 they will live for six months without food. 



Turtles dig holes in the sand hy the. si-a- 

 sliore, and bury their eggs, leaving llieiu to be 

 hatched by the sun. 



Lobst(Ms are very pugnacious, and light se- 

 vere battles. If they lose a claw, another 

 grows out. 



Naturalists .say that a single swallow will de- 

 vour six thousand Hies in a day. 



[Bird haters, and especially wauton swallow 

 destroyers, will jilease make a note of this, 

 and govern tlieni.selves accordingly. — Ed.] 



The tarantula of Texas is nothing but an 

 eiHunious spider. 



A codfish produces more than a million 

 eggs in one sea.son. 



A whale suckles its young, and therefore is 

 not a fish. The mother's affection is re- 

 markable. 



Toads become torpid in winter, and hide 

 themselves, taking no food for five or six 

 months. 



Serpents of all species shed their skins an- 

 nually, like sea-cralis and lobsters. 



Turtles and tortoises have their skeletons 

 partly outside of, instead of within, the body. 



It is believed that crocodiles live to be hun- 

 dreds of years old. The ancient Egyptians 

 embalmed them. 



In South America there is a prolific honey- 

 bee that has not been furnished with a .-iting. 



[The late Dr. .1. ('. Keinhardt informed us 

 that there were thirteen species of " .stingless 

 bees" in Brazil alone. — El>.] 



In the darkest nights fishes pursue their 

 usual movements, the sanu; as Viy daylight. 



Seals are as intelligent as dogs, and may be 

 ma<le to perform many tricks like them. 



The head of the rattlesnake has been known 

 to inllict a fatal wound after being separated 

 from the body. 



If the eye of a newt is put out, another jier- 

 fect eye is soon supplied by rajiid growth. 



Fisiies have no eyelids, and neces.s;irily sleep 

 with their eyes open. 



.\lligator.s fall into a lethargic .sleep during 

 the winter, like toads. 



There arc agricultural ants in Texas that 

 actually plant grain, and reap Ix'fore the 

 harvest. 



fDl{. LfXCEf TM, of Texas, imblished a 

 very interesting paper on these ants, in the 

 " Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences," some yeai-s ago; so that the fact.s 

 in reference to tjiem are no doubt pretty well 

 established ; nevertheless, the ipiestion may 

 not yet Ik- fully credited.— Ed.] 



TiTisA'()i.rM?:of TiikLan'c.vsti I! FAiarEn 

 will, when bound, be worth many times its 

 cost. But we ])ro]iose to make the next and 

 each succeeding volume still more valuable to 

 the practical farmer and gjirdener 



