1876.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



139 



year, then are you one of the seven wonders of 

 the world. 



The above thoupflits were su!;;r;este(l by see- 

 ing the aiiiioiincenieiil in some of tlie papers 

 tliat liy sendiiiL; hi yoiii-naine now, if you are 

 a new siiliseriber, you will i,'et all the miinber.s 

 for this year and the whoU- of next year for the 

 rejjular subseriplinn price. 



This is a ehaiiee whieli slionld be taken ad- 

 vantage of by all who have heretofore not 

 taken such paper, and reineniber tliat in the 

 present progre.«sive sla<;e of farniini: yon 

 cannot alTord to be without the a},Micultural 

 papers. — A. li. K., Safe JLirhir, Lancaster 

 count;/, Sfpt. 2, 1S7(). 



[We commend the above to the respectful 

 consideration of the farmers of lyancaster 

 county, in referenci' to palroni/.inL;aL;i'ienllural 

 I)apers,n() matter in what direction their choice 

 may lead. Vii- also feel pratefnl to our <-on- 

 tributor for his tlattering notice of our journal, 

 and assure him our chief andiition has lieen 

 more to make Til K L.\NtASTicii Faumkk a 

 useful medium of information to its patrons, 

 than a mere means of compensation to ourself, 

 however parado.xical such a profession may ai)- 

 pear.— Ed.] 



For Thk L.Vncahtfh Fabmeh. 

 SWARMING BY DIVISION. 



In the August number of The Faumeii of 

 last year was an article by Mrs. Tupper, taken 

 from the Jirc Keepers^ Mayruine, iu)on tlu^ 

 subject of Artificial Swarming, wherein she 

 recommends, contrary to the i,'eneral custom, 

 that the dividing be jwstponed \mtil after 

 harvest. .She directs that the bees be i)laced 

 in hives sutliciently large to hold frames 

 enough for both the [larent colony and swarm, 

 so that the frames may be fdled while the bees 

 are together. The method is based upon the 

 well-known principle that one strong stock 

 will gather more honey than two weak ones. 

 Upon reading the article it .seemed so plain 

 and practicable, that I wondered I had never 

 thought of it myself. I accordingly con- 

 structed a number of hives twice the size of 

 tho.se I had been using, and at the beginning 

 of the clover season, last spring, i>ut all the 

 stocks in them that would bear swarming, 

 putting the empty frames lietween the full 

 ones. There was not an abundant supply of 

 clover honey in this vicinity this year, but 

 most of the empty frames were filled in two 

 or three weeks, and the stocks became very 

 strong in numbers. All have Iteen divided 

 since the first of July, thus allowing ample 

 time to raise a suflicient number of fertile 

 queens to introduce one in each queen- 

 less part at the time of making the divi- 

 sion. All are now good strong stocks, 

 very much stronger than they could havelwen 

 with this year's supply of honey, had they been 

 divided in tlu^ beginning of the honey season. 

 There is the same diHicnlty as with allmethods 

 of swarming where empty frames are intro- 

 duced among the full ones at the time when 

 drone rearijig is at its height the bees will 

 build too much drone comb. This may be ob- 

 viated, I believe, by using the worker-comb 

 foundation, such as can be purchased for $1 

 per pound, or made by the bee-keeper himself 

 with a simple contrivance exhibited in the 

 British Section of Agricultural Ilall, at the 

 Centennial. 



To those that contend that agricultural 

 papers are of no practical value to farmers. I 

 would say that I consider the information 

 gained from the article referred to above, worth 

 to me, for this year alone, many times the 

 price of The Fak.meh, probably enough to])ay 

 for it for the rest of my life. — IF. P. Bolton, 

 Liberty Sfjuare, L(tn. en., Ph., Sept. 1, 1876. 

 ♦^ 



The great trees of C.ilifornia are not found 

 in any other country excepting where they 

 have been recently propogated. They belong 

 to the genercl cypres.s fiimily. These redwood 

 trees are remarkable for their isolation. They 

 are isolated .systematically, and extremely 

 isolated geograiihically. They seem to have 

 been created local and lonely denizens of Cal- 

 ifornia only. 



MANORIAL VALUE OF CLOVER. 



If cliivcr Ija.s liiTii fculliiicii! lo Mistaiii .\fr. (iwlcli'h' 

 laml, may wo not reasonably coiu-luili' lliat il will ilo 

 as iimcli u|Miii Ihi'se rich prairii-s ? Iff uii'lcrhlaud 

 liirji cniTcclly, only onv crop ol' clover i« |il<>iii;lii-il 

 nii4cr ill liis live yi'ars' lolatioii. Ik HiIk wi? Can he 

 r)r Millie CMC eUe lell UK what is the value iif lorn- 

 slalks for manure? Here in the cum (.'rowiiu; reiciou 

 niiich laiiil is eniiipeil with (.orn colli iniially williiml, 

 niaiiuriui;, the sialics liein;; limkeii iluMii, llien rake.l 

 ami burneil every sprini.', aii.l many men eonleiiil 

 lliat lielter I'rops can he tniwii when the Klall>s have 

 lieeii liuriieil than when lliey have licen pliiweil undiT. 

 Others, like niyKclf, coiitenil that the stalks shimld 

 always he pluweil uniler, lirsl iiiniiin:; a stalk cutter 

 over llie lielils, which cul -. llieni iiilu lent;ths of 

 aticiut line foot.. 1 think that reliiriiiii),' llie annual 

 eriip of slalkK w ill do much toward prcservinir the 

 fertility of our soils, even if the corn is removed. 

 Who can tell us what is the uianurial value of an 

 acre of heavy stalks, slandini; say eiirlit feet liij,'h f 

 Dois chemistry ^ivc us any li(;lil ! 'What says expe- 

 rience; Will .Mr. lieddes give us his opinion ?—//., 

 .\fcl.can Co., III. 



Answers by George Geddes. 



I am asked whether it is otn- rule lo plow in 

 a crop of clover once in our five years' rota- 

 tion. Yes. IJut this rule cannot always be 

 carried out, for it sometimes happens, as it did 

 this year in many places, the clover crop is 

 destroyed by freezing and thawing in the 

 spring, and thtis we have no crop to plow 

 under. And again, the .seed .sometimes fails 

 to "catch," and this makes it neces.sary to 

 put in another crop, and fry and make clover 

 grow with that. The failnteof a cropof clover 

 .seed in " catching " is a serious matter. \ 

 few weeks since, walking with the veuerabh' 

 and well-known John Johnston through a held 

 of his wheat, and, observing as to the pronii.se 

 of a crop, I was asked to .see if any of the 

 clover was starting after the long drouth that 

 had just been terminated by a heavy rain. 

 Eighty-three years had dimmed his vision, but 

 not his zeal as a farmer, and he called for a 

 little help, and when told the clover was com- 

 ing he said : "Ah I that is more impiutant 

 even than the wheat ; for if we lose our clover 

 we nuist go right over the work again, and 

 ))Ut in iinother crop with wliich to seed with 

 clover." I cannot add anything lo this dic- 

 tum of the highest authority in the land. 



Five-year rotation — first year, clover and 

 timothy meadow ; second year, pa.sture ; third 

 year, corn ; fourth yenr, barley or oats, fol- 

 lowed by wheat .sown in the fall lo be har- 

 vested the fifth year— the clover and timothy 

 seed being .sown with ami on the wheat. This 

 is the tlieorelietil round, but circumstances 

 very often break into it. In fact is hardly 

 ever strictly carried out through all Iht^ field.s. 

 One-tiflh of the farm in corn is too much at 

 present iirices of manual labor and corn. So 

 it quite often hapiielis that a piece of clover 

 land thai has lieen used one year for meadow 

 and another for iiaslure is sown to barley or 

 oals, and that crop followiMl by the wheat. 

 Thus the course is, in part, reduced to four 

 years, two of litem being given to the clover 

 and timothy, anil this is all the better for the 

 liind, as we liiive the hind half the lime in re- 

 storing crops, and the other half in exhaust- 

 ing crops. Ilowdi.saslrousloall this a failure 

 of the clover is, can be readily understood ; 

 not only is the rotation broken into, but the 

 manuring is prevented. 



The best protection against loss of clover by 

 its freezing out in the spring is thorough drain- 

 age of the land. It is the water in the land 

 that expands by frost. If there is no excess of 

 water in the land, the freezing docs very little 

 harm, except in the very special and rareca.se 

 ofthawingseveriilinchesof the surface, leaving 

 the subsoil still hard frozi'ii. If a cold night 

 comes and freezes two or three inches of the 

 top of the land while the long lap root of the 

 clover is held fast below, the expansion of the 

 surface will lift up the crown of the plant, and 

 in so doing break off the tap root. As the 

 ground becomes warm and again free from 

 frost, the broken clover roots may be seen 

 .standing above the groimd, where the frost left 

 them— dead. Two-year-old plants sutler in 

 this way nuich more than the shorter rooted 

 plants that have only had the previous season 



in which to grow. Their tap roofs are shorter, 

 and they have most of their lateral roots very 

 near the surface of the ground. The injury to 

 clover, in its .second winter, was very great in 

 central New York this season, and especially 



s I uudrained l.uid. A liberal covering lell 



on the soil lielps to protect il against the f'nist.s 

 thai kill clover, and having made his land free 

 from stagnant water and alloweil it ii libind 

 covering in flic fall of its own prodiief ion. the 

 farmer must aliiite the result, with the feeling 

 that, having done his duty, he has nothing lo 

 do in the future but to be'govenii'd by what- 

 ever may come to pa.sH. 



I am partiiMilarly a.sked, when to plow under 

 clover'^ The clover is doubtless of most value 

 lo iilow under when it has fully matured its 

 growth, both of top and root, and this will not 

 comi- till the second crop of the second year 

 has gone to .seed. By the .second year I niean 

 the year after the seed was sown. Supposing 

 one crop, the latter liarl of June or early in 

 July, had been cut for hay, a second crop of 

 the Tiieiliiim clover will mature and bear seed 

 before cold wi'af her. This crop is too valuable 

 to Ih' jilowid under, for the .seed will usually 

 1k' worth not far from SI.") imt acre. So il is 

 not usually good econoiny to plow clover in 

 for manure when it is worth most for that 

 purpose, for then it is worth still more for 

 seed. 



Our clover fields are usually cut for seed the 

 year after the wheat has been harvested, hav- 

 ing earlier in the sea.son given us a crop of 

 hay. In cnltiiig the seed crop a harvesting 

 machine is used, and the stubble is left high. 

 If the plow fallows that fall, there will usual- 

 ly be left on Ihe ground as iiiiieh clover stub- 

 ble as can well be plowed under. The ma- 

 tured roots all being there the laud is given a 

 heavy dressing of nianine. If the i)lowing is 

 left until the next spring, the same manin-e is 

 there, thouLrh llatleiieil down by the snow; 

 and if not (iloweil into until May for eopn, 

 there will lie aildi d a considerable spring 

 growth to go under with it. Tin: sjiriiig 

 growth id'ten furnishes ewes with young lambs 

 the food they most love, and genertillv is Ih'I- 

 ler disposed of in that way than for inauitre. 

 Supposing the sei'oud year after the wheat is 

 harvested the lield is used for pasture, a liberal 

 allowance of clover and the gra.s.scb that grow 

 with it is plowed under in the fall, or left over 

 for the next spring's iilowing. 



Of late years we have rarely plowed under 

 full crops of clover for manure when we had 

 any other n.se for it, such as making hay or 

 feeding off by stock. The roots, tlu- leaves 

 and stalks that acciimulafe on and in the 

 ground, under our system, htivc been snthcient 

 to ki'el> lip fertility with the belli "f niauure 

 made in the yards and stables. Lands that 

 have bieii ".scourged" by cropping, without 

 eonipenstition, reipiin- a ilill'ereul Ireafinent ; 

 and to renovate lands that are what is called 

 "worn out," the largest quantity of top will 

 be required as well as the roofs. 



To again refer to Mr. John Johnston's 

 methods of culture in raising wheat, to show 

 how lands may be made very inoductive, I will 

 state that during the most of the years of his 

 owningand managing a large farm, wheat wius 

 considered the paying crop, and other cnqis 

 were mostly raised with a view of iiroinofing 

 the greatest yield of wheat when its time to 

 occupy the ground came. Supposing him to 

 havein thespringa lield of good (dover ; when 

 it was .as large as he couhl plow it into the 

 ground, he would commence his summer fal- 

 lowing; and having mixed his crop of clover 

 thoroughly with his soil, and killed the weeds, 

 he woiilil .sow his wheat and reap a large cro]i. 

 Clover seed was dnly.sownon the wheal in the 

 siiring. and great cpiautities of barn-yard ma- 

 nure Were spread (luring the fallowing on the 

 poorer places in the lield. 



If this land was not required for any other 

 croii, he would again summer fallow the year 

 after the wheal was cut. and thus take a crop 

 of wheat every two years from the same land, 

 and by the free n.se of clover (gypsum being 

 Sown on it) and yard manure, he found nodil- 

 tiuulty in raising constantly incrciising croiis 



