The Lancaster Farmer. 



Prof. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JANUARY, 1876. 



Vol. vm. No. 1. 



OUR CENTENNIAL GREETING. 



"God and Liberty." 



Tlip n.itional "year of jubilee" has lieeii 

 iisheied in, ami tlie Centennial Ainiiveisary 

 of American Independenee is near itsliistoric 

 advent. Aeeidents, im-idents, and impulsive 

 ebullitions only oirur, liut gi-eat liistoi'ic events 

 transpire. They are the develupnuMitsor visi- 

 ble effects of a long line of minor auxiliary 

 events that poiut to their uUiniation, and 

 their permanence and einUiuuiiuce are l>ut tin; 

 superstructures, based upon fundamental prin- 

 cii)lcs that liad an existences anterior to the 

 dcnonenient through winch tiK'y bi'camc cogni- 

 zant to tlie world at large. The intelligent 

 mind, noting carefully the history of the Amer- 

 ican colonics, from the landing on Plyiunuth 

 Rock down totheever-m'-morahlecuhniuation 

 of events on the fourth of Jidy, 1770, must 

 have often been impressed with the fact tliat, 

 eventually, 



" America would be kuee." 



F)-ce(hm was the great boon vouchsafed to the 

 human family in the "CJarden of Eden," and 

 it was through the i)erversion of freedom that 

 sorrow, sutfering, and moral death came into 

 the world. A true huuuinhoDd cannot exist 

 separated from the resiiousiliilities of freedom. 

 In the absence of freedom, man becomes an 

 irresponsible macliine, the plaything of destiny 

 and a slave. 



The wheels of tiiui.' are rapidly carrying us 

 towards the consunnnation of the lirst century 

 of our national existence, and it behooves us to 

 take a retrospective view of the jiast hundred 

 years, and note the political, mtiral, and social 

 progress we have made dining all that long 

 period, and determine how far tlie present is 

 in advance of the past. In almost every cle- 

 jiartment of human industry, invention and 

 skill, we will observe there has been wonder- 

 ful progress made, some conspicuously great, 

 some mediocre, and others almost impercepti- 

 bly small. To all ajiiiearance, the " civilizing 

 foundation of society" is far in the rear, in the 

 progressive race, and this is an effcH that nuist 

 have its cause in the moral, intellectual and do- 

 mestic economy of the people it comprehends. 

 There is hardly a human occupation that does 

 not exhibit the most striking difference lietween 

 now and a hundred years ag( >, in its results, sav- 

 ing, perhaps, the single occupation of farming. 

 It is unquesticmahle tliat the farmercannot pro- 

 duce a greater quantity nor a better quality 

 to the acre than he could one hundred years 

 ago, and there muM be a reason for it. Has 

 he made a right use of his freedom, or has he 

 not used it at all ? Has he made use of liis 

 brain power, or has he relied solely upon his 

 muscular iiower V These questions we leave 

 those to answer "whom thev most concern;" 

 suffice it to say, that it is imiiossil)le for igno- 

 rance to fonii a rational conception of the real 

 height and depth and breadth of frceilom, for 

 "he is a freeman only whom truth makes 

 free." Slavery to customs because they are 

 old, and prejudices against innovations because 

 they are iicic, are forms of servitude that no 

 freeman will endure with impunity. An in- 

 fluential and iiopular agricultural cotemiiorary 

 in his addpss to his patrons says, ■'farmers, 

 as a general thing, do not read as much as 

 mechanics. But one in a hundred reads a 

 really good, trustworthy agriimUural |iaper, or 

 meets a farmers' club to discuss (piestions of 

 practical interest to him. The rest arc not 

 well versed in matters pertaining to their own 

 business," and much more to tlie same effect, 

 which may be some of the reasons why farming 

 has not made the same progress during the 

 past hundred years that other occujiations 

 have. Will they continue so through the 

 coming century ? Tliey themselves must an- 



swer. The same authority also says, " [t is 

 doul>tful whether there is a" farmer in the world 

 worth a million dollars, or a tenth of that sum, 

 who has madcithy farming. " ltiseipially(iues- 

 tionable with us, if farmers ■lenerally ih.sire to 

 be millionaires, or whether they .sli'iHld desire 

 it. What the country most needs is more 

 farmers, smaller farms and more thoro\igh 

 cultivation. lunneuse overgrown farms an' 

 neither evidences of gi'iu-i'al prosperity nor 

 progH'ss. William 15. Astor died leaving an 

 estate estimated at .:?U)tl,(H)ll.0IK), whilst i'."),!!!!!) 

 poor in the city of New Vork are living in 

 abject poverty or in states of semi-starvation. 

 We are no agrarian, tor this would prolialily 

 be the same condition of these people in a year 

 or two henc-e, if a division of his estate was 

 ntade am )ng tlii^m to-day. Bid there are a 

 hundred thousand hardy, industrious young 

 men, who would "go west" and lu'com; farm- 

 ers to-morrow, if they had the pecuniary m-ans 

 to locate a farm and stock it. 



True fre('dom involves not only moral intel- 

 ligence, but also equality. There cannot, or 

 will not, exist eciuality — even before tins law 

 — where poverty and immense wealth are in 

 contlict. If, in a hun(lrc<l years hence, our 

 country exhibits fewer rich men, no po(U' peo- 

 ple, more intelligent farmers and a higher 

 state of cultivation, "all other things being 

 equal," it will be a greater evidence of solid 

 prosperity than is exhiljited to-day. 



But, as we remarked in the beginning of 

 our article, this is our national i/nir of jubilee. 

 Not a single adult individual who participates 

 in it will ever participate in another centennial 

 of American indepinidence. Therefore, it be- 

 hooves the farming i)\d)lic to make a record on 

 this occasion that will be worthy of handing 

 down to their remotest posterity. 



Less exposed to contaminating social inllu- 

 ences, less prolligate as a class, more constitu- 

 ti(mally robust, more industrious and farther 

 removed from temptation than other men, 

 there is more hope for the fanner in this coun- 

 try than for any other class of its citizens. 

 I.,et them therefore "make friends of the 

 unrighteous mannnon" — that is, imitate the 

 virtues and make use of the intellectual re- 

 sourcesof the worthy amougother classes, and 

 they will exhibit the .same evidences of mental 

 and physical jirogress; and the huinlile aim of 

 The Laxcasteii FAUMKit will always be to 

 assist them in this. Every physical demon- 

 stration is but a manifestation, in correspond- 

 ence with moral and intellectual culture. 

 With these remarks we wish our patrons a 

 hapi)y and prosperous CENTENNIAL year. 



THE MAY-FLY. 

 {Ephrmertt vnlgnta.) 



The May-tly has been, historically, very 

 badly treated", and made aiipear a much 

 pi)orer creature than it really is. As children, 

 we were told on the best nursery author- 

 ity that there was a iioor gnat that lived a 

 .single day, and then died— a story which tilled 

 our little minds with wonih'rand pity. It was 

 a lelief to learn afterwards that this one day 

 of winged existence was preceded by three 

 years of aquatic life ; but this was (pialitied by 

 the intelligence that through this long period 

 it lived on mud. Such, indeed, was the a.s- 

 serticm of .S.wanimerdam, and this strange 

 opitnon, stamped with his great authority, has 

 been received and handed dowTi tor moretlian 

 two hundred years almost to our own (lay. 

 Mud was always found in the larva on dis.sec- 

 tion ; therefiire it must eat mud and live on it. 

 Messrs. Kirby an<l .Sp,'n<'e had some misgiv- 

 ings on the suliject, and thought it must eat, 

 in addition, decaying vegetable substances. 

 The Uev. .F. G. Wood, with his usual sagacity, 

 while testifying to the constant presence of I 



the mud, thinks it probable that it is taken 

 invohmlarily with its other fi«>d. whatever 

 that may he. In a translation of Louis Ki- 

 giiier's entertaining Hummary, entitled "Tlie 

 Insi'ct World." published in this country last 

 year, it is correcllv slated (hat this larva'feeiU 

 on small insects; liul no authority is quolml, 

 and the mud (pieslion is not .slirri-d. 



.My acqnainlance with tins A'/j/u'iiwra wiw 

 made accidMitally some years ago. Dipping 

 for Dn/i'iiii'v and other siirill crustaceaiiK. an 

 advanced larva or pupa of Kit'irinrrd cu'v.i/a 

 was iiieludcd in the captine, and altoi,'eilier 

 transferred to a small miwiriinn. In a fort- 

 night afteiwards not a water tlea wa.s left. 

 The pupa, (pnvering with ex<Mtemeiit from 

 head to tail, swo(»ped with uni-rring aim on 

 the doomed cruslaei'aiis .so long as any were 

 h-ft and he felt an appetil". A second sn|>- 

 ply was given, and siiared the like fate; and 

 now the growth of the pupa was eomplet<-<l. 

 One tine May m )rning the gracefid tly wiw 

 founil in the window, from which it e.scaiH-d 

 iido the open air. 



It had left three or four exurlir, thrown off 

 from time to time, and one of these, perha|is 

 the la.st, exhibits, when moimted in bals;uii. a 

 perfect im]ire.ssion of the momh, and miy 

 throw some light u]ion tin- nature of the ("oimI. 

 The jaws, when open, form a wide fnimel for 

 the more ready capture of a nimble prey ; 

 when closed, they seem designed to inlerlaci? 

 each other anil form a compact front to bar 

 all escape. The teeth exhibit a row of .slightly 

 curved bars on one side, opposed on the otlier 

 to a raised block, crowned with sharp serrated 

 edges, and could be brought together with 

 crushing elfect on the poor little crustaceans. 

 The back of the month is partly closed by a 

 singular and curious contrivance; aiieep, egg- 

 shaped sack extends a<rross it, opening into 

 the throat by valves or slits, fenced oil the out- 

 side with tine hairs, which would permit the 

 downward passage of a too lively daplmia, 

 l)id jirevent its return. And here we may 

 probably account for the constaid preseiic-e of 

 mud in the inteslinal canal. A momhful 

 taken involuntarily in a struggle at the bottom 

 with a liveh' l)rey, and swallowi'd with it, 

 would be retained by the line sieves aerossi 

 the throat, and pa.ss "into the stomach. Such 

 a condiment might be evi^n benuticial (for all 

 such conlingeiKMes are weighed) by dividing 

 the food, or, as seems very likcdy, by inerejus- 

 iug the gravitv of the body after a meal, and so 

 enabling the larva to remain without effort at 

 the bottom. .My a(|Uarinm contained no nnid, 

 aiul yel the pupa throve well ; but in streams 

 and ('ddies it might be ditf.'rent for so light a 

 creature, furnished with a large bre;ulth of 

 bronchial plates, lo maintain it-s jilace or re- 

 main in concealment without ballast: or it 

 might be useful in other ways which we cjin- 

 not even guess. — .S. S., in Srirnrf (joKxip. 



.\hhough the foregoing relates to a foreign 

 insect, yet surely .f>iiw of our reailers mu.st 

 know \vhat an Kiilirmrrn or "May-tly" is; 

 but that they <('/ do not know was made very 

 mainfest la.st summer, alMiut tlu' period when 

 the " Hascal Cra-sshopiHT " was coiinnilting 

 such direful depredations uiMin the crops of 

 the Western .Stat^.s. 



A tniin of cars pa.ssed on the railroad 

 through Lancaster, ami stopivd for a short 

 time to detach or attach a car, one of which 

 cars caused considerable anxiety. This w-.w 

 a car loaded with Imidier, and all over it. in 

 groups of from ten to tifty, wen- ,Hitting Ihcso 

 Ephemerans. which .some ]ie<>pU- (of the usual 

 intidligence on other subjects) supposed might 

 be the albre.sjjid " hop|H'r." in one of its forms. 

 To those l)oin and raised, or for a numlxT of 

 years, residing on the banks of a river or 

 "creek, the Mav-lly miLst Im; one of the most 

 familiar objects of the insect world: The 



