66 



THE LANCASTER .FARMER. 



[May, 



i 



yard manure seems to be most in favor, but 

 there are many places where tobacco is grown 

 that this kind of manure caimot be obtained. 

 Recently, on several occasions, we have noticed 

 that tobacco stems have been highly recom- 

 mended as a fertilizing manure. 



The stems are broken up, or are laid down 

 whole, and plowed under. This is supposed — 

 as in the case of mulching with forest leaves, 

 around the trees from which the leaves have 

 fallen — to return to the soil the elementary 

 substances which had been drawn from it by 

 the previous crop. 



This has suggested to our mind that if these 

 stems, as well as the " runts," were all gather- 

 ed, dried, broken into pieces, and then run 

 through a mill constructed for the pm-pose, so 

 as to be reduced to a powder, it would make a 

 capital fertilizer, and would return to the soil 

 what the previous crop had drawn from it. 

 There is a probability that the county of Lan- 

 caster will, in the near future, become a vast 

 tobacco garden, and therefore there should Ije 

 some good and cheap manure ready at hand. 

 This would also furnish occupation during the 

 ''weary waitings" on a market, and would be 

 the next job after the stripping season. We 

 merely call the attention of tobacco cultivators 

 to it, as a subject, for the purpose of experi- 

 menting on it. — Secor. 



^ 



MANURING LAND. 



The quantities of each kind of manures to 

 be applied to an acre are given below. They 

 vary much in their range, as the present con- 

 dition of the .soil as to fertility must be taken 

 into consideration, and this must be left to the 

 judgment of the cultivator. 



Barn-yard manure : Five to twenty tons, or 

 thirty to fifty cubic yards. 



Bone-dust : Sixteen to twenty bushels, or 

 from seven hundred to twelve himdred pounds. 



Fresh fish : Twenty-five to forty bushels. 



Fish guano : Four to six hundred pounds. 



Guano : Three to eight hundred pounds. 



Gypsum : Five to six hundred pounds. 



Horn-shavings : Twenty-five to forty bushels. 



Hops : Thirty to forty tons. 



Lime : Fiftytoone hundred andflfty bushels. 



Night-soil : Twenty bushels. 



Poudrette : Twenty-five to thirty bushels. 



Salt : Two to six bushels. 



Soot : Twenty to fifty bushels. 



Sulphur : Six to eight pounds. 



SulpMu-ic acid : Thirty to forty pounds. 



Super-phosphate : Five hundred to a thou- 

 sand pounds. 



Farmers' refuse : Five to eight hundred 

 pounds. 



*Wood ashes : Twenty to forty bushels. 



If there is anything in which amateur culti- 

 vators are lacking, it is in having a liberal 

 supply of manure, the very corner stone of all 

 gardening and field operations. It is there- 

 fore of the first importance to know how to 

 make the most of it. 



SIX MONTHS FOR AN OWL. 



The Osborne county (Kas.) JVii-ma- says: 

 "We have taken wood, potatoes, corn, eggs, 

 bulter, onions, cabbages, chickens, stone, 

 lumber, labor, sand, calico, sauerkraut, sec- 

 ond-hand clothing, coon-skins aod bug-juice 

 on subscriptions, in our time, and now a man 

 writes to us to know if we would send the 

 paiier six niontlis for a large owl. There are 

 few things an editor would refuse on subscrip- 

 tion, and if we come across any fellow who is 

 out of owl, and is in need of one, we'll do it." 



That is a little more liberal than is the case 

 with srmie peojilc about this "neck of woods," 

 who, when they capture an owl or any other 

 kind of wild fowl, exjiect to be handsomely 

 compensated for it in sometliing more conver- 

 tible and sulistautial than the copy of a news- 

 paper. We have, tried live owl, as a gift, and 

 our experience is, that a live owl on our hands 

 is only exceeded by having a "live elephant." 

 Judging from the above paragraph we should 



•If the ashes are leached, from one hundred to one hund- 

 red aud fifty bushels may be used to advantage. — Dick'a 

 Girrden, 



conclude that the "circulating medium" 

 about Osborne is something like it was in 

 North Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana some 

 years ago; when the Indians and tlie whites 

 had their social gatherings at the country 

 taverns, where, when a man called for a single 

 drink, he would ofter a "coon-skin" at the 

 bar, and get his drink and three rabl)it skins 

 in change. In tlie lunilier regions, shingles, 

 staves and hoop poles were the "current cur- 

 rency," and when the "vendee" returned to 

 his home in the evening he carried quite as 

 heavy a"load" as he did with his currency in 

 the morning. 



"AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY." 



Our readers will bear in mind that this dis- 

 tinguished association — at the invitation of 

 the Maryland Horticultural Society — will hold 

 its sixteenth annual session in Baltimore, to 

 commence on Wednesday the I'ith of Septem- 

 ber next, at 10 o'clock a. m., to continue 

 three days. All horticultural, pomological, 

 agricultural and other kindred associations in 

 the Ujiited States and the British Provinces, 

 are invited to send delegations as large as 

 they deem expedient; and all persons interest- 

 ed in the cultivation of fruits, are invited to 

 be present, and to take seats in the conven- 

 tion. Specimens of all kinds of fruit will be 

 exhibited, and a large meeting is anticipated. 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Programme of meeting of the Penn'a State 

 Board of Agriculture, at Harrisburg, commen- 

 cing Tuesday, May 22, 1877, at 2 p. m. 

 Meeting for business; report of the Secretary 

 of the Board; Report of the Chemist of the 

 Board. 



Essay — Fertilizer Laws, by E. L. Sturte- 

 vant; Essay — Valuation of Fertilizers, by 

 Secretary ; Essay — Fertilizers on the Eastern 

 Experimental Farm, by John I. Carter, Sup't; 

 Essay — On the Choice of Fertilizers, by Secre- 

 tary ; Essay — The Future of our Board of 

 Agriculture, by Hon. Jno. P. Edge ; Address 

 — Influence of Forest on Rainfall, by Thos. 

 Meehan ; Essay — Tree Planting for Shade, 

 Shelter and Profit, by Prof. S. B. Heiges ; 

 Essay — Forest Area of the State, by Secretary ; 

 Essay— Pleura Pneumonia, by Chas. B. Mich- 

 ener, V. S. 



The report of the Secretary will include a 

 draft of a iiroiiosed law regulating the manu- 

 facture and sale of commercial fertilizers in 

 the State. 



Tlie report of the chemist will embrace an 

 analysis of each of the principal fertilizers used 

 in the State. 



Essays and addresses are expected on other 

 important subjects. 



The meetings are public and all are invited 

 to participate in the discussions. — Thos. J. 

 Edge, Secrciarij. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



A Voice from the South. 



To those who are in the habit of reading — 

 and we regret to say there are many yet who 

 have n<it formed this liahit — we have no fears 

 that the Laxcastek Farmer will not be 

 ultimately appreciated ; and that, like our 

 correspondent below, tliey will turn their 

 attention to our journal as a matter of choice: 



Salisbury, North Carolina, 1 

 April 27th, 1877. ) 

 Lancaster Farmer : — You are always a 

 welcome visitor to our d(jinieile— perliaps we 

 .should have more iiroperly said, to the place 

 where we dat/ at — for truly speaking, we have 

 no permanent home on this earth, seem this 

 as it may to others. But to the point. We 

 regard tiie Fa iniKR as one amongst the best 

 Agricultural pajters in our whole country, and 

 have little fear of contradiction, if any. In 

 saying tliat, to our aiiprehension, you a^re the 

 best household journal, and if we believe, ex- 

 press,feel and take an interest in your wflf ire, 

 living at so remote a distance — we cannot sec 



why your own people, the citizens of Lancas- 

 ter county, the best cultivated county in 

 America (so far as we have seen and are able 

 to judge), do not stand by you en nia^sc, and 

 help to build you up, and keep you as a shin- 

 ing light before the Agricultural community, 

 as well as to other matters relating to domestic 

 economy. 



^Ve last visited your great county in 1876 ; 

 took special notice of j'our lands, productions, 

 manufactories, live stock, poultry, &c. ; ex- 

 amined your markets, and concluded you ought 

 to be the most independent, liai>piest, and 

 according to your opportunities, the most in- 

 telligent people on this continent. 



Here, we in a measure tread in tlie steps 

 our fathers trod — that is to say, when we go to 

 mill, we put the corn into one end of the bag 

 and a stone in the other to make it balance on 

 the horse's back. Old haljits and old associa- 

 tions are hard to get rid of, but we are trying 

 to surmount them. 



Thus far, this year, the season has been 

 rather backward. Much rainfall and unfavor- 

 able weather has kept good housewives and 

 farmers from planting garden and field crops ; 

 much of neither of which has so far yet been 

 done this spring. The season being backward 

 for this latitude, however, does not seem to 

 have an injurious effect upon wheat, oats and 

 grass, all of which make a fine appearance, as 

 far as we have seen and heard. Judging from 

 present prospects, there will be a bountiful 

 crop of grain, grass, fruits, &c. 



For forty, or more, years past we have 

 traveled in diflerent States ; read difl'erent 

 papers — home and transatlantic — tried to be a 

 close observer of men and things — mineral, 

 vegetable and animal — but nowhere have we 

 seen as good a neUured country as this is. 

 Nature has done much for it, man but little. 



With all good wishes for your prosperity, 

 and a long and happy life, we are truly yours 

 and the Farmer's friend.— JI/. E. 



[We thank our correspondent, not so much 

 for the high compliment he pays to our paper 

 as for that which he pays to our comity, and 

 which, if we are riglit in our conjecturers, is 

 the old home of him or his ancestors. We 

 hope our people may eventually realize that 

 our county can produce as good an Agricul- 

 tural paper, as it can produce good crops of 

 corn, wheat, tobacco and fruit, as well as 

 stock and implements.] 



Lime and Oyster Shell Bark Louse. 



LiTiz, March ?>!, 1877. 



Simon P. Eby, Esq. — Dear Friend.— I 

 cannot refrain (even in these few last busy 

 hour's of scrivening) to call your attention to 

 a few articles that appeared in the American 

 Aejricidturist, of April nuiutier. The first on 

 page 12"5, on the bottom of the middle column, 

 lieaded "Manuring Old Trees." Tlie .second 

 on page 143, middle column, headed tlie 

 "Oysfer Shell Bark Louse." Iliave practiced 

 what those articles suggest, for years past, 

 with much success; the only difference, in ar- 

 ticle fir.st, I do not turn the manure under. 

 If you recollect, we hud a talk aliout manur- 

 ing orchards and whitewashing trees some 

 time ago. Foi; over eight years 1 have been 

 guided principally by my own judgment and 

 experience, and often found that much to the 

 contrary of my own practice was said, but I 

 was not discouraged, because I found that I 

 was right, and now the same results are seen 

 l)y some of our cliief fruit growers, with simi- 

 l;ir aiiplieations. Please look up the articles 

 and see more fully what they contain. Yours 

 in haste. — Israel G. Erh. 



"Manuring cild trees, or those that have 

 come into bearing, should have been cared 

 for last month, or earlier. If they need man- 

 ure, give it at once. Ni-arly all the "running 

 out," bitter rot, and other troubles not due to 

 insects, are merely cries I'or niauure. Stable 

 manure rarely comes amiss; this may be ap- 

 plied over the whole surface, except close to 

 the trees, and turned under with a furrow so 

 shallow as not to cut the roots. On orchards 

 already fully manured in previous years, or 



