172 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ November, 



of his own time, fares better at table, lodses 

 better, and gets a better retm-n for liis labor. 

 What i.s the reason then, that the farmer's 

 boy runs to the city the first chance he can get, 

 and remains, if he can possibly tiud there the 

 means of lite ? 



It can only be found, we believe, in the so- 

 cial leanness or social starvation of American 

 agricultural life. The American farmer, in 

 all his planniuR, and all his building, has 

 never made provision for life. He has only 

 considered the means of getting a living. 

 Everythiusr outside of this — everythins relat- 

 ing to society and culture — has been steadily 

 ignored. He gives his children the advan- 

 tages of schools, not recognizing the fiict that 

 these very advantages call into life a new set 

 of social wants. A Ijriglit, well-educated 

 family, in a lonely farm house, is very differ- 

 ent material from a family brought up in 

 ignorance. An American farmer's children, 

 who have a few terms at a neighboring 

 academy, resemble in no degree the children 

 of the European peasant. They come home 

 with new ideas and new wants ; and if tliere 

 is no provision made for these new wants, 

 and they find no opportunities for their satis- 

 faction, they will be ready, on reaching their 

 maturity, to fly the farm, and seek the city. 



If the American farmer wishes to keep his 

 children near him, he must learn the differ- 

 ence between living and getting a living ; and 

 we mistake him and his grade of culture alto- 

 gether if he does not stop over this statement 

 and wonder what we mean liy it. To get a 

 living, to make money, to become " fore- 

 handed" — this is the whole of life to agricul- 

 tural multitudes, discouraging in their num- 

 bers to contemplate. To them there is no dif- 

 ference between living and getting a living. 

 Their whole life consists in getting a living ; 

 and when their families come back to them 

 from their schooling, and find that, reall}', this 

 is thf, only pursuit that has any recognition 

 under the paternal roof, must go away. The 

 boys push to the centres or the cities, and the 

 girls follow them if they can. A young man 

 or a young woman, raised to the point where 

 they apprehend the difference between living 

 and getting a living, can never be satisfied 

 with the latter alone. Either the farmer's 

 children must be kept ignorant, or provision 

 must be made for their social wants. Brains 

 and hearts need food and clothing as well as 

 bodies, and those who have learned to recog- 

 nize brains and heai'ts as the best and most 

 important part of their personal possessions, 

 will go where they can find the ministry they 

 need. 



What is the remedy ? How shall farmers 

 manage to keej) their children near them V 

 How can we discourage the influx of unneces- 

 sary — nay, burdensome — poiiulations into the 

 cities ? We answer : By making agricultural 

 society attractive. Fill the farm houses with 

 periodicals and liooks. Establish central 

 reading rooms, or neighborhood clubs. En- 

 courage the social meetings of the young. 

 Have concerts, lectures, amateur dramatic as- 

 sociations. Establish a bright, active, social 

 life, that shall give some significance to labor. 

 — Every-Day 2hpics, by Dr. J. G. Holland. 



♦ 



Feeding Animals. 



In some parts of tlu' country, throuah heavy crops 

 and hard times, there is little market for apples. 

 They shoulil not be allowed to waste. They may 

 be placed in lieaps on the srrass, and covered witli 

 straw or cornslallis, and will keep till winter ; and if 

 the straw is a foot tliick, long lieepers will remain 

 uninjured till spring. In this condition they are 

 readily accessible for feeding. Properly fed to milch 

 cows, they largely increase both the quantity and 

 the quality of tlie milk. Always begin feeding in 

 small quantities ami gradually increase the rations. 

 Large quantities given at tlie outset, will do more 

 harm than good. Nothing is in more danger of 

 choking a cow than smootli-skinned, round apples. 

 They must, therefore, be either passed through a 

 slicing machine, or cut on the floor with a clean 

 spade, ground sharp. Fed in connection with corn 

 meal, they are excellent for swine. Horses fed on 

 dry hay are benefitted by a few apples. Sheep eat 

 them with avidity. A few in the hen-house are 

 eagerly sought. In all these instances, they do more 

 good than the mere amount of nutriment they con- 

 tain. — Country OentUman. 



OUR PARIS LETTER. 



Farming on the Continent of Europe. 

 CorreBpoiidence of The LANCAsTEn Farmer. 



Paris, Nov. 1st, 1876. 



The Department of the Nievre is celebrated for the 

 rearing and fattening of cattle, and agriculture there, 

 once so backward, is now the most flourishing in the 

 realm. The farmers have become wealthy by aban- 

 doning expensive systems of culture and confining 

 their attention to live stock. The enlightened agri- 

 culturists of France recognize two truths ; that they 

 cannot compete with America and other countries in 

 the profitable raising of wheat, nor with Australia 

 in the growth of wool. It is on the production of 

 meat then, that attention is fixed, and for which the 

 demand is unlimited and the competition nil. Wool 

 is regarded but as an accessory. The question of 

 improved breeds of cattle, and the precocious pro- 

 duction of meat, are two subjects that occupy very 

 seriously the attention of Continental agriculturists. 

 Belgium seems to have taken a strange step to ad- 

 vance these ends ; the provincial Council of Haiuaut 

 has decided, that henceforth no pure Durham blood 

 shall be imported for ameliorating local races ; the 

 latter must he amended by a careful selection of the 

 best local types. Thus reliable purity of descent, 

 and aptitude for the butcher, are secondary consid- 

 erations. The discussion continues to be interesting 

 between P]-ofes6or Sanson and his opponents, on the 

 question of precocity. According to the Professor, 

 it is the maturity of the bones that limits and stops 

 the development of the flesh, &c., while the contrary 

 view is, that it is the complete development of the soft 

 parts that arrests the growth of the skeleton. Food 

 acts in two manners ; nitrogen tends to the produc- 

 tion of flesh, phosphoric acid to that of the bones. M. 

 Sanson lays down, that the acid pushes to maturity, 

 by liardening the extremities of the bones, and thus 

 checking the growth of tissue ; not a few maintain, 

 that the solidifieation of the bone is the natural eon- 

 sequence of the animal's fleshy structure having been 

 completed, and requiring no more phosphoric acid to 

 form new tissue; the acid concentrates itself in the 

 tissue of the bones — the latter contains 30 per cent, 

 of organic matter. The phosphoric acid accumulates 

 in the extremities of the bones, as it collects in the 

 seeds of plants, and the laws in both cases would 

 appear to be similar — to grow at first, and when 

 growth is over, to ripen. Maturity is thus the con- 

 sequence and crowning of growth. 



Roquefort is the Stillon cheese of France, and is 

 prepared from sheep's milk. The race of milk 

 sheep is very hardy, and is known by the name of 

 Larzac ; originally limited to wooded heights, the 

 breed ha-s been improved, by crossings and richer pas- 

 turages. The animal measures about four feet in 

 length; its live weight is from 88 to 112 lbs., and 

 yields 44 lbs. net of meat, and 2 of fat ; its fleece 

 weighs from 4 to 6 lbs., and the wool, very much in 

 request by the cloth makers of the South of France, 

 sells for 12 sous per lb. However the chief object of 

 the sheep is for the production of milk to be convert- 

 ed into cheese ; about BO lbs. of the latter is the 

 quantity prepared per each animal, which sells at the 

 wholesale price of lialf-a-franc per pound ; if to this 

 sum be added .5/r. for the wool and fi/c. for the lamb 

 sold to the butcher a few days after its birth, sheep 

 milk-farming is not a bad speculation in France. 



JIuch attention continues to be devoted to the sub- 

 ject of forage. Wheaten straw is largely consumed, 

 l)ut then it must be of a golden yellow, possessing a 

 mild odor, and a saccharine taste ; the stems should 

 be thin, flexil)le and shining, and the ear garnished 

 with its chaff. Straw that has been a long time 

 threshed is only fit for litter. The best hay in this 

 country, and perhaps the observation holds good 

 elsewhere, is that which is produced on light, moist, 

 but not wet, mountain soils; next such as is yielded 

 by land more sandy than clayey; to be nutritive, hay 

 ought to preserve its green color, to possess an odor 

 agreeable and aromatic ; the stems should be thin, 

 supple, and ditHcult to break, possessing as much as 

 possible their flowers and leaves, and in addition to a 

 fragrant odor, to have a slightly sweet taste. Re- 

 specting bran, it is essential that it be fresh, floury, 

 and agreeable to taste ; it undergoes serious altera- 

 tions in the course of three months, becomes bitter 

 and heating; this fermentation is soon succeeded by 

 jiutridity, and the bran quickly becomes a home for 

 insects. 



Lucern is a plant much calumniated of late on the 

 Continent ; it is reproached with being short-lived 

 and unremunerative. Much of the culpability rests at 

 the doors of those who do not bestow upon its culture 

 much attention ; it is liable to be attacked by dodder, 

 but this need is the offspring of slovenly farming, so 

 grow your own seed is the remedy. M. Beaucamp 

 recommends that Lucern ought only to be cut twice 

 in a season, the second aftermath to be grazed ; this 

 latter plan does not lay bare the crowns of the plant 

 so much as the scythe does, and thus prevents the 

 cold rains and snow from killing the root by fester- 

 ing it. He reaps 2' 2 tons per acre the flrst cutting, 

 and half that quantity the second, and which sells 

 for a total sum of :!.50/r. per acre. The success that 

 has followed the employment of preserved green 

 maize in trenches for winter and spring feeding, has 



naturally concentrated attention on the propriety of 

 conserving red clover, rye and other precocious forage 

 plants, to be placed in trenches during the close of 

 May and early days of .June, and thus become armed 

 against the effects of a dry summer. The plan has 

 been tried on several farms with success. Where rye 

 is sown as an intercalary crop for spring green feed- 

 ing, the custom in the north of France is, to chop it, 

 and mix it with beet pulp ; the cattle cat the mix- 

 ture greedily. 



France has at last her " Agricultural Institute," 

 where the most advanced form of agricultural instruc- 

 tion will be imparted, to students already educated 

 is various branches of human knowledge. The new 

 Institute is on the eve of opening, and foreigners will 

 experience no difficulty in obtaining permission to 

 join the classes under stated conditions. It is not so 

 much a new, as an old institution revived, having 

 been founded in 1848 at Versailles, and suppressed in 

 18.52 by the Empire. Agricultural education is given 

 in France in the farm schools, which is the primary 

 stage, and where only the children of the peasants 

 and artizans are expected to attend; then follows the 

 '* regimal " establishments, of which there are two, 

 perhaps three would be a more correct classification, 

 for the Grignon school fulfils all the conditions of one, 

 as well as being more practical. The Montpellier 

 and Grand Jauan colleges represent the regional type, 

 that is a school where the agricultural processes iu 

 the different zones or regions of France, would be 

 specially studied. The new Institute will be very 

 scientific in its aims, and will have an experimental 

 farm of 120 acres in the vicinity of Paris at its dis- 

 posal; it will not teach general sciences; it will take 

 mechanics, chemistry, physics, and physiology, in 

 their technical relations with modern agriculture. 

 The German Empire has perhaps a monopoly of this 

 superior agricultural knowledge, and it is to her 10 

 agronomical Institutes, and 174 secondary farm 

 schools, that she owes much of her rapid progress in 

 rural economy. Austria possesses two of these supe- 

 rior Institutes; Hungary has four, but not of so ad- 

 vanced a character, and Sweden possesses five. Ag- 

 riculture is undergoing to-day what is common to 

 every other science — a revolution; it is becoming more 

 an industry, where affairs must be conducted with 

 promptitude, activity, and intensity; it must invent, 

 transform, renew itself; adopt scientific methods, 

 powerful and rapid processes. The strength of agri- 

 culture docs not resemble that of the ancient Egypt- 

 ians — in sitting still. 



The sugar beet industry, like the plant's physiology, 

 is in a confused state. Owing to the strange sum- 

 mer, and our stranger autumn, this year's beet har- 

 vest is compromised; the culture of the plant has di- 

 minished, in its speeiai districts, by 30 and .50 per 

 cent., so that one-half the factories are closed, or 

 only working half-time; not more than one-lburth of 

 the total quantity of sugar will be produced this year, 

 as compared with the preceding ones; fiscal ditHcul- 

 ties have not a little to do with the result, but a short 

 yield — ten tons per acre of roots, has also its influence. 

 While some are advocating the cultivation of small 

 roots for sugar purposes as being most suitable, the 

 Eure Farming Society encourages the contrary by 

 prizes. Again, high manuring has been hitherto ac- 

 cepted as lessening the per ceutage of sugar, and af- 

 fectingthe crystallization of thejuice. .Messrs. Cham- 

 ])ion it Pellet, from their careful experiments, con- 

 clude the opposite. Finally, two celebrities, Claude 

 Bernard and Coenninder, are of contrary opinions as 

 to how the sugar and the salts localize themselves in 

 the cells of the roots. 



Another but too open question is the best means to 

 destroy the vine bug ; the phylloxera are extending 

 their ravages; there is no cure, but a multitude of 

 proposed remedies. The point now is to ascertain 

 where the bug cannot be found; winged, it has been 

 discovered lately on the cobwebs that are so plentiful 

 in vineyards, and even on the fruit itself — a hint for 

 the exportation of grapes. Having failed to poison 

 and to starve the insect, efforts are made to induce it 

 to feed on red maize, planted between the vines, and 

 new legislative measures are threatened against the 

 plasrue. The vintage has been completed in excellent 

 conililions — dry, warm weather; the wine will be of 

 excellent quality, but the quantity, owing to spring 

 frosts, will be sensibly reduced. Some proprietors 

 have thus lost four-fifths of their annual yield. 



In France the law prohiliits the establishment of a 

 pig-sty in a village of 1.50 inhabitants, and of a cow- 

 house where there is a population of 5,000 ; perhaps 

 in point of salubrity, there is no dift'erence. 



In Belgium, flax is often visited by a disease, which 

 destroys the plant within 48 hours after being attacked . 

 Growth is suddenly checked, the flax etiolates and 

 dies, and the crop has to be ploughed down. M. 

 Ladureau attributes the cause to a deficiency of pot- 

 ash in the soil, and finds vegetable ashes an excellent 

 preventive. 



M. Laperiere cures the lung disease, or stops the 

 contagion, byfumigatingthecattle; burning 30 grains 

 of sulphur per cubic yard of air in the sheds. 



I>f the State of New York any person making or 

 using a barrel for the sale of potatoes, apples, or 

 quinces, which shall not contain equal to 100 quarts 

 dry measure, is liable to fine. 



