1876.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



149 



size ; but so toothsome are they, that their 

 quality compensates for tlieir lack of iiuaiitity, 

 and when properly dressed they often sell in 

 the restaurants at from 50 cents to SI a pair. 

 It would therefore be most prudent in lhose_ 

 not "up to the rijfs," to Ihsl iuciuire alioutthe 

 price of reed-birds before ordering them at an 

 eating-saloon. Some very chaiateristic anec- 

 dotes are related about " rural verdants " who 

 had gorged themselves with reed-birds, and 

 were then struck witli astonishment equal to 

 a small clap of thunder, when they ascertained 

 the price afterwards. 



Ueed-birds are now in season, and in their 

 transit southward they are often seen in large 

 flocks in Lancaster county. They feed on 

 seeds, grain and berries, and there is a kind of 

 seed-bearing reed growing at the " Neck," be- 

 low Philadelphia, that attracts these birds in 

 large numbers. The reeds grow in a marshal 

 the conlluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware 

 rivers, but to obtain good shots at them the 

 sportsman is required to hire a boatman who 

 pushes him through the marsh among the 

 reeds, and also secures the game after it is 

 killed. This place has been famous for this 

 sport for a long series of years, and probably 

 will continue to be so as long as the reeds and 

 the swamp continue. The "American Wax- 

 wing," "Cedar-bird," or " Cherry-bird," and 

 also a large species of sparrow, (Eiijipizn) are 

 often mistaken for the reed-bird ; and the lat- 

 ter (e.xcept in the bluntness of its bill) bears 

 some resemblance to it. But they all belong 

 to different families, the reed-bird being more 

 nearly allied to the Ictehians or "Red- 

 winged Black-birds," whilst the former are 

 related to the Bomhycillians and the 

 FiNCiiE.s. We have a stntt'ed specimen of the 

 Bobolink in our possession that we shot and 

 prepared more than 39 years ago, and iu the 

 Linnajan Museum is one prepared 42 years 

 ago by J. J. L., and both are in a good state 

 of preservation. — Ed. 



For The Lancasteb Farmer. 

 DOTTINGS FROM LEOLINE. 



Dear Editor. — As it has been some time 

 since I wrote you last, I have thought a few 

 lines would not come ami.ss "just now." Al- 

 though limes are generally reported dull, yet 

 they are brisk with us farmers at the present 

 writing, and I have not much leisure to in- 

 dulge in that occupation. 



A Bit of Pennsylvania History. 



On the banks of the Susquehanna river, and 

 about one hundred yards from the water's 

 edge, about one mile below Middletown, Dau- 

 phm county, there stands a log house that was 

 built in the spring of the year 1770, which is 

 consequently now over one hundred and six 

 years old. It was built by two brothers named 

 Pyle, but has been in the possession of the 

 Zimmermans and Kirks ; and is now owned 

 by Thomas E. Kohr, who has lived in it over 

 thirty-three years. One elm, one linden, and 

 one walnut tree still stand, as venerable mon- 

 uments of the olden times, when the Red men 

 still traversed the surromiding forests. The 

 present owner has renewed the inside of the 

 house, but the outside remains inucb the same 

 as it was in days of yore. It has the old-fash- 

 ioned stone chimney, the walls of which are 

 two feet in thickness, and on the whole it 

 seems as solid and as good as it was when first 

 built. There the old time-honored mansion 

 is still standing, over lapping in part three 

 centuries, including the whole period of our 

 independent national existence ; and there let 

 it stand, " in the land of the free and the home 

 of the brave." 



Domestic Hints. 

 To keep swine in good health, give them 

 charcoal to eat at least once a month. They 

 will eat it almost as freely as corn. Any one 

 that has a bake-oven can always have the ne- 

 cessary quantity of charcoal. 



To keep lice out of the chicken house, pour 

 coal oil on the slats where they sit or roost. 



To make grape jelly, take good ripe grapes 

 and squeeze out the juice; to every pint of 



No. 1 is white. 



juice add one pound of good white sugar, boil 

 each pint separate for liiteen minutes, and it 

 will become stiff when cold. 



Edible Mushrooms. 

 Accompanying these lines I inclose a small 

 piece of paper on wliich I have ruilely traced 

 illuslrations of a few niushroonis which are 

 known to me, and which I have fre(iuently 

 used. 



has cells liki^ a honey-comb, 

 only somewhat larger, but 

 not so deep. It comes up 

 about the middle of May, 

 and is found at the font of 

 cherry trees, maple, |)op- 

 lar an<l butternut trees. 



No. 'i is a light brown ; 

 cells the same as No. 1, 

 but not quite so large. It 

 has a longer stem, how- 

 ever, the same in quality, 

 aiul is found under ajiple 

 trees, and also in the woods under different 

 kinds of trees. It comes up in May and 

 June, after a heavy thunder shower, and I 

 have frequently gathered them by the basket- 

 ful. 



No. 3 is also a light brown when it first 

 comes up, but soon turns a darker color. It 

 is umbrella shaped, and striped on the inside ; 

 it is also similarly striped on the outside, only 

 that the stripes are open, or flag-like. It comes 

 up about the same time as No. 2. It is found 

 only under apple trees, and then only under 

 old ones. I liave never found them (elsewhere. 

 Nos. 4 and 5 come up during summer aiul 

 fall. The first long-stemmed and angular or 



pointed at the top, and the other more flat and 

 rounded, with a shorter and thicker stem. 

 They are white on the outside, and bright 

 pink on the under side. They are found in 

 the woods. I have seen peoiile eat them raw 

 with pepper and salt. — L., Elizabetlitown, Sep., 

 30, 187(5. 



In the absence of cuts to illustrate the five 

 species or varieties of mushrooms alluded to 

 by Leoline, we are under the necessity of mak- 

 ing two groups of them, of which numbers 1 

 and 2 constitute the first group, and are illus- 

 trated by the figure A. Numbers 3, 4, and 5 

 constitute the second group, and are repre- 

 sented by the figure B. 



Figure A is the common Morell (MorcheUa 

 eaculenta), known to the German population of 

 our county under the name of "Moricles. " 

 There seem to be different varieties, or species 

 of these, mainly distinguished by the length 

 of the upright stem, and differing essentially 

 only in that respect. 



Figure B is the common mushroom (Agari- 

 cus campenlris). There are also very many 

 species and varieties of the.se. Numbers 3 and 

 4, alluded to by Leoline, are taller and thin- 

 ner in the stem than our figure, the umbrellas 

 or tops are more cone-shaped, do not expand 

 so widely as ovu' figure, and differ in other re- 

 spects, as she has stated in her descriptions. 



We may further slate that figure A expands 

 more at the bottom than either of L.'s draw- 

 ings, whi(-h on the whole are more spherical 

 in their forms, and neither exhibit the short 

 stem of our figure. 



We have just been reading a paragraph iu 

 a daily paper, to the efl'ect that four persons 

 somewhere iu Connecticut, had been poisoned 



by mistakenly eating "load-stool " for mush- 

 rooms, three of whom died. Whether any of 

 the reports of this kind of poisoning, that from 

 time to time get into the public papers, are 

 true or not, is niore than we pretend to say ; 

 but somehow there seems to be so much un- 

 certainty on the subject, that a novice had bet- 

 ter regard them with caution, evc-n with the 

 foregoing descriidions and illustrations. 



We should touch them doubtfully, unless 

 we had llu^ benefit of a few practical lessons 

 from Leoline, who, we feel confident, knows 

 all about the edible quality of the varieties 

 she has above described. The subject is an 

 interesting and useful one, for mushroom cul- 

 tin-e has become a successful and lucrative 

 branch of human industry in France and 

 other European countries, and we hope it may 

 become so iu America. — Ed. 



For The Lancasteb FAnuEB. 

 WHAT CAUSES BLIGHT? 



This- question involves a number of other 

 questions. I will allow my friend S. S. Rath- 

 von, to give the entomological side of the sub- 

 ject, while I will, in my usual rambling way, 

 put down the thoughts as they suggest them- 

 selves. This reminds me of Robert Burns, 

 commencing with — 



" Wliieli way the subject-theme may gang, 

 Let lime or chance determine ; 

 Perhai>s ii, may turn out a 6aug, 

 Or probably a sermon." . 



My object i.s, however, to present some 

 facts— some as old and frequently retold as 

 many an "old song," and yet of interest. 

 The High (xermans gave the name of " Blich- 

 fiur " to the sudden blasting of the leaves on 

 trees and shrubs, rendered in English to "Fire- 

 blight." I shall not occupy time or space 

 with reiieating the various notions of the 

 Ancients, but simply consider vegetation as 

 organized beings, and the intimate relation 

 exi.sting between plant and animal life; then 

 the effects of frost, heat and fungi, and the in- 

 vestigations made and published touching this 

 branch of the question. Modern research has 

 made it dilhcull to say where the vegetable 

 kingdom really commences and the animal 

 end.s, when we include the lowest forms of 

 fungi and animaclul*. For instance, De Barry 

 has shown that the ^tludium septicum, whicli 

 appears upon decaying vegetable substances, 

 in one of its forms, is common upon the 

 surface of tan pits. In this condition it is, to 

 all intents and purposes, a fungus, and for- 

 merly was always regarded as such ; in an- 

 other condition the yEthalium is an actively 

 locomotive creature, and takes in solid matter 

 as food. This may seem strange ; yet con- 

 sider the Polypes, or corallines : these minute 

 creatures propagate by budding, (germination) 

 and are of an arborescent habit, with jointed 

 branches and stems, supported on a kind of 

 root, in which neither pores nor polypes are dis- 

 tinguishable on the surface of the aggregated 

 corallina, which look more as if built up as a 

 plant, from carlwnate of lime, into a pliant or 

 stony mass, instead of woody tissues. An or- 

 dinary observer would supjiose them to belong 

 to the vegetable kingdom ; i. e., certain kinds, 

 at least. In vegetation we find cells and nu- 

 clei. Huxley says : " Protoplasm, simply or 

 nucleated, is the formal basis of all life." 

 Although Mr. Huxley, as well as Darwin and 

 Tyndale, say many things that are true, yet 

 neither they,, with all their chemistry and 

 philosoi)hy, are able to give an explanation of 

 what constitutes the composition of living 

 matter, or whence the protoplasm or nuclei 

 deriv(t their life and motion. This is a secret 

 of divine wisdom and power — past finding out. 

 So let us step softly. I will stop lest I get to 

 " sermonizing," and return to plant-life. Sup- 

 pose a peach-tree — the roots anchoring it in 

 the soil, with its sijongioles, like minute suck- 

 ing and filtering tubes, to draw moisture from 

 the soil, and such pabulum as it may find 

 needful to supply the conditions of certain 

 elements required in eliminating blossoms 

 and fruit, the ultimatum of its being and 

 organism. The pith or central axis of growth 



