The Lancaster Farmer 



Prof. S. S. EATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., DECEMBER, 1875. 



VoL VIL No. 12. 



TO OUR PATRONS AND THE PEOPLE. 



This number coiuplctes the Sevonth volumi' 

 of The IvANCAsiEK F.VTorKit, uiul the iicxl 

 mmiber will Iw issiii'd iiiidei- llieudveiu ol" our 

 Kalionnl CtnliniiUd — our f;'lorious " '7li" — ;i 

 uumnrical cabalii that has become classic iu the 

 aiuials of our country. ThroULjh srrvn louij 

 j'uarsof fortunate auiluulortunate vicissituiles. 

 our beloved country stru'.;f?led before she. ac- 

 coniiilished her Independence ; and wlien at 

 last she reached the goal she had so Ion,? and 

 ardently striven for, she found herself weak, 

 depleted, and materially cxhuisted ; but she 

 had secured, elaborated, and miintaiued the 

 elements of that future greatness which we 

 now see so ani.ily developed at the closiu;,' 

 period of her fn-st century, when she has be- 

 come a refuge for the oj)pr<'ssed among all 

 nations, and the admiration of the civili/.cd 

 ■world. At the close of her war for national 

 independence, siie jxissi'ssed a population of 

 less than three Dtilliims, but to-day, if all were 

 told, it would bj fovuid little less taau JiJ'hj 

 millinnx, with a status, iu all that relates to 

 physical, moral, and intellectual culture, that 

 stamps lier as a progressive nation — a uninn 

 that every patriotic heart resolves " must and 

 sluill be jircservcd.'" 



Keniotely aualagous to the unprecedented 

 lirogress of our country, may we be jiei'mitted, 

 iiy a law of similitude, to include The Far- 

 BIEK. After a struggle of seven long years, 

 wc have attained a status similar to tliat of 

 the American colonies one hundred years ago, 

 namely, "poor, but indeiieudeut." Although 

 our pecuniary income is still limited, we think 

 we liave developed elements of enterprise, 

 honorable distinction anil usefulness, that have 

 met a vcduntary recognition by the press and 

 the intelligent piu'tion of the people, both ''far 

 and near. " IIow far the analogue with the 

 progress of the nation ina.y be extended, is 

 left for time to develop ; but for what we have 

 attained, we desire to be grateful. It is true, 

 ■we may have no excessive manifestations of 

 success" to record during the year now coming 

 to a close, still we have abundant reason to 

 be thankful for the many evidences of appre- 

 ciation that have been vouchsafed by our 

 patrons and our friends. To them The Far- 

 mer lias become an almost iudispensaljle 

 household friend, and our ambition is to make 

 it .such to every farmer and householder in the 

 land ; and we can attain that iiosition if we 

 receive a reasonable supi)ort from those most 

 interested in our success. 



Shall our progress from this time forward 

 be in correspondence witii that of the nation? 

 That is a i>roblem that cannot be solved, ex- 

 cept Ijy the assistance of the sovereign peo- 

 ple, and especially the farming people. To 

 them we conunit the destinies of our ei(;htii 

 voi^tJME, and we are not 3'et able to believe 

 that our appeal to that august tribunal will 

 be in vain. All power, under our republican 

 form of government, both theoretically and 

 practically, is vested in the hands of tlu^ sov- 

 ereign people, and it is they who politically, 

 socially, and linancially, make or unmake 

 ■whom and what they will. It is the people 

 who have been reared on American soil, <ir 

 ■who have adopted that soil as their common 

 country, and whose ancestry is from almost 

 every clime, tliat have made our State and 

 nation what they are to-day, and what they 

 ever will be, we hope, in the unfathomable 

 realms of the future. Without derogating 

 anything from that Supreme Intelligence who 

 rules the universe, and whose permissions and 

 providences ramify and direct all that inter- 

 nally relates to the general and particular con- 

 cerns of that tmiverse ; still, in external mani- 

 festation, and in all that relates to social, 

 political and domestic polity, Vox ix>puli is 



practically vox Del, and as a legitim.ito ex- 

 pression of tiiat voice — 



"Here shall the /■"/•.;«.< the pmplc's ris;hts maintain, 

 Uiiawcd hy coiKiuest and unhrihed hy gain." 



We have no selfish ambitio.i— no personal 

 ends to sul)serve. We theref)r(r freely I'om- 

 mit the future prospects of TjIE Faicmer to 

 the verdict of tlu' people ; and its intellectual 

 and material progress will be what they may 

 choose to make it. We havi- had heretofore 

 no sjiecial pr<'raiunis to oiler, no bigh-soimding 

 advantages to vamp ; n )thiug but the intrinsic 

 value of our journal— a value that we feel as- 

 sured will be ultimately appri!ciated by t!ie 

 people ; but un ler a ly circumstances, we 

 shall end >avor to b^ ci) itent with the detei-- 

 miuatiousof the popular will. Our .jourind- 

 istic intercoar.se with the people for whose iu- 

 terest we have be^^i catering for the -past seven 

 years, has li.-en to us ()f a i)leasaut and satis- 

 factory character. When they have rejoiced 

 W(! have rejoiced with th "m ; and when tli 'y 

 had oc.-asiou to b'j s id, we have been in .sym- 

 pathy with them. 



.\ltliough we have not been able to record 

 the highi'sl condition of prosp -rity, either for 

 comity, for State, or for country, yet on the 

 whole", the agricultural results of thi^ y(Mir just 

 ending have been anything but discouraging, 

 and with i)roi)er economy will afford a hand- 

 some margin of profit to a vast number of the 

 honest tillers of the soil. 



And now, dear pe(jple— you for whose pecu- 

 niary interest, for whose moral and intellectual 

 elevation, we have been laboring through the 

 now fast-fading year— we ask a moment's 

 rational reHectiou unon the " situation," as 

 wi> have endeavored to portray it. Yon have 

 lierhapsbeeiidriven hither and thither through- 

 out the year, by business, by jilcasure. or by 

 dire necessities, and have not had much time 

 to think. Cut an annual period is rapidly 

 api)roa(;liing,wlien not to think upon somebody 

 or something, out of ourselves, may be a moral 

 crime. Can it be that " He who bowed the 

 heavens and came down" is entirely indiffer- 

 ent as to whether Ills creatures ever think 

 upon that glorious advent or not'? And think- 

 inij upon it, will it not suggest something that 

 oiight to be donef And in ifoiiif/, is it too 

 much to ask of you a material remembrancer 

 fm- The Faioikr, either in discharging past 

 obligations, or iu incurring future ones'? L'.iy 

 aside, or curtail expenses to the amount of 

 two cents a week, and subscribe for The 

 Farmer. Celebrate the huudredth ainiivca-- 

 sary of American Independence by subscrib- 

 ing for the best local record of tiiat august 

 epoch in the history of the country. With 

 this valuable suggestion, dear patrons, we 

 heartily tender you the "c'myjiin«?)i.(s nf tlu; 



» 



PECULIARITIES OF SPIDERS. 

 (Aradiniflff.) 



" Their homes, their liahits, and their lives." 

 Every animal lives by depredation. Nature 

 is ever devourhig itself, but the prey is not 

 always sought and merited by a patient indus- 

 try deserving respect. Xo being, however, is 

 so" much the plaything of fate as the spider. 

 Lik(^ every good workman, it has a twofold 

 value ; in its work and its i)ersou. An inliiiity 

 of insects — the murderous ' 'ar<('>i(.s or the Li- 

 hcllnla, an elegant and splendid assassin— have 

 only their bodies and their weapons, and spend 

 their lives joyously in killing. Others jtossess 

 secure and easily defended asylums, where they 

 have (•aiisc to fear tew dangers. The lield- 

 spider has neither the one nor theotheradvan- 

 tage. It is in the position of the respectable 

 operative, who, through his small and ill-guar- 

 anteed fortune, attracts or tempts cupidity or 

 insolence. The lizard from below, the s(iuir- 



rel from abiive, hunt the feeble hunter. The 

 inert frog darts at it the vicious tongue, which 

 glues it and renders it immovable. It is the 

 felicity of the swallow, in her graceful circle, 

 to carry oil. without injuring, the spider aiul 

 his Web ; and all birds look upon it as a great 

 dainty or an excellent medicin". The night- 

 ingale, faithful, like all great singers, to a cer- 

 tain hygiene, prescribes for herscdf, as an occa- 

 sional purgative, a spider. Kv 'H if she be not 

 swallowed up hers If, if the instrument of her 

 trade is destroyed, the con.seipiences are the 

 same. Should the w<d) he und one, blow upon 

 blow, a somewhat jn-otracted fas' renders it 

 unable to .secrete a fr 'sli supply of thread, and 

 it 'soon perishes of hunger. It is constantly 

 confined to this vicious idrcle : To spin, it 

 r.!quir..\s f)od. To feed, it nuist spin. Its 

 thr !ad, for the spider as fir the I'.ircu', is that 

 of destiny. We ouc m ide, the experiment of 

 removing th.'ee tiuies in siic.;essiou a spider's 

 wei). Tlir.^e tim s, in six hours, it replaced 

 it, with ad'uirable patience, and w thont abat- 

 ing oae jot of lio'pe. TU' cxpM'i.nent was a 

 cruel one, and we now rei>roa,ch ourselves for 

 it. We meet with too many unfortunates whom 

 accidents of this kind have thrown out of 

 work, and who are thenceforth too exhausted 

 to resume their labor. One sees them, like 

 living skeletons, attempting fruitlessly a dif- 

 bn-eiit trade, in whicli they suc'ceed but poorly, 

 and mournfully envying the long legs of the 

 lield-spiders, which gain tlu'ir living liy inces- 

 sant traveling and vigilant hunting. 



When people speak oftlie eager gluttony of 

 the spider, they forg<'t that it must either eat 

 a double (|uantity or soon perish; eat to recruit 

 its body, and eat to renew its thread. Three 

 circumstances contribute to wear it out: the 

 ardor of incessant work, its nervous suscep- 

 tibility—which is carried to an extreme— and 

 its twofold respiratory system. For it has not 

 only the passive respiration of the insect which 

 receives or submits to the air introduced 

 through its stigmata; it has also a kind of ac- 

 tive respiration, analog(nis to the play of the 

 lungs in higher animals. It takes the air and 

 masters it, and iiicessanlly renews it. If you 

 do but examine the movements, you feel that 

 it is .something more than an insect, the vital 

 glow traver.ses its frame in a rapid circulation; 

 the heart beats very dilTi'reutly from what it 

 does in the Ity or butterliy. i?ut its superi- 

 ority is its peril. The insect braves with im- 

 punity the strongest odors and mephitic mias- 

 mas. The spider cannot endure them. In- 

 stantly affected by them, it falls into convul- 

 sions, struggles, and expires. Chloroform, 

 who.se action the stag-lwetle lia-s endured for 

 fourteen days without succumbing, immedi- 

 ately—at the lirtit contact— hiis overpowered 

 the spider. 



I mw. found a large sjiider feeding on a 

 gnat, and wished to experiment on him. I 

 jioured on it a single drop of chloroform. The 

 effect was terrible. Xolbing more [litiful could 

 be .seen in a case of human asphyxia. It tum- 

 bled over, raised itself, and then swooned; all 

 its supports failed it. and its limbs appeared 

 disjoiiiled. One thing was very [lalhetic — that 

 in this supreme 'moment the fecundity of its 

 bosom became apiiarent; in its agony, its 

 tubercles sent forth their little cloudy woof, 

 so that you might have believed it to be work- 

 ing even in death. I felt o|)pressed, and in the 

 hope that the fresh air would perhaiis revive 

 it, I placed it on my window sill ; but it wiis 

 no longer itself. I know not how the effect 

 was i>ro(niced, but it seemed to have melted 

 awaj', and iiolbing remained of it but its skel- 

 eton. The vanislied substance had left but its 

 shadow, which the wind bore away to a neigh- 

 boring lake. — hdis Mil-lit I' I. 



Thire is no rule to which there is not an 

 exception, and, accordingly, we have found 



