1877.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



71 



and the liglit snows remaining only a few 

 (lavs. Tlic altituile is about two tlioiisaiul 

 fef"t ubovi' the sea, eiisunnf; (leliiihtriiUy enol 

 summci-.s and warmer winters than in tlie 

 same latitude, either east or west ; and as tlie 

 peueral sIoik^ of the country is south and east, 

 tliere are no hijili winds as in the nortliwest. 

 The rapid descent of tlie luunerous large 

 streams alVonls excellent water-power for 

 nianufaeturinc tlie vast forests of wahiut, 

 oak, ash, hickory, maple, i>ine, etc., into 

 luniher, ears, carriages, wagons, furniture 

 and agricultural implements, and for driving 

 the niacliincry of the llouring, cotton and 

 woolen mills, which nnist lu-rcafter largely in- 

 crease in number, as the grain, cotton aiul 

 wool are all produced in the vicinity. 

 The Healthfulness 



of this region is remarkable, owing to the 

 abundance of bright and genial sunshine, 

 pure water, excellent bread and beef, few 

 sudden atmospheric changes, and no swamp 

 lands within hinulred of miles. Ague is un- 

 known, and there are no grasshoppers. 



Tlie St. Louis and .San Francisco Uaihvay 

 extending entirely across the State, and the 

 rich eoal, iron, lead, zinc and other mines, 

 and to the great plains region west, insure a 

 ready market and good prices for all farm, 

 garden, orchard ami dairy products for all 

 time to come. 



By settling in colonies here, good society, 

 schools, churches, daily mails, telegraph, mills 

 and other advantages may be secured from the 

 beginning, and land bought at from two to six 

 dollars per acre, of the Railway Company, on 

 long credit. — Exninincr, ISl. Louis, March 2S, 

 1877. 



For The Lancaster Faiemek, 

 INCIDENTAL SUGGESTION. 



Mn. EiJiTOii. — 1 congratulate the Fanners 

 of our county on the re-appearance, or con- 

 tinuanee, of your valuable journal. It would 

 do no credit to the intelligence of this grand 

 agricultural garden if it could not sustain 

 one jieriodieal devoted to its greatest interest. 



I have often iiotid your re(iuests to your 

 readers to furnish memoranda of their expe- 

 rience in farming, and observations on modes 

 of culture — items of every kind likely to be 

 of interest, or to awaken incpiiry among 

 neighboring farmers. And I have blamed 

 myself that I have not asked questions 

 through your journal, even if it would not 

 furnish answers worth occupying your pages. 



ily excuse for my own remissness is, that 

 though I am much interested in agriculture 

 and the farm, I have other occupations and 

 interests than the farm : (which I do not per- 

 sonally cullivate) and that my experiments 

 can hardly be called experiences or exampU'S 

 to copy. A plausible hint I may have eager- 

 ly adopted and pursued to apparent or prom- 

 ised success, without wat<hing closely tiiial re- 

 sults. The spirit of Girard, "if 1 thought I 

 ■ should die to-morrow, I would jilant a tree to- 

 day." I have carried out, however — every 

 year for thirty years — planting trees, vines, 

 something with each returning spring. Read- 

 ing agricultural papers, I could select the 

 choicest kinds of fruit from the catalogues of 

 the nurseryman and have bought and planted 

 fruit trees every year. 



Plum trees in the garden — "Golden Drop" 

 to tumble like little leaden bullets, and yellow 

 gages that fell while they were green, and so 

 with other.s— all sacrificed to the Curculio, ex- 

 cept one fine Gei-man Prune, which matured 

 fruit, owing I think to this treatment: round 

 the trunk of the tree I wrapped a piece of 

 Strong iron mongers' papera foot or more wide 

 — the lower edge resting in the earth, the 

 paper tied with twine to the tree, and coated 

 with a thick coat of coal tar — a few strips of 

 lath, and some corn cobs saturated in this 

 black paint were suspended from twigs of the 

 tree— this before the buds began to swell. It 

 happened that this tree was near an open win- 

 dow from which as soon as the first blossoms 

 appeared the whole top could be dusted with 

 fine slaked lime, which was plentifully show- 



ered over it every day or two while the blos- 

 soms Lasted— the fruit did not fall. Peach 

 trees have had shiu't lives with me, in spite of 

 trials of lime, at the roots, hot water, lie, oil 

 &(■.., &c., in adilitiou to examinations; spring 

 and fall, for worms in the roots— eating tliein 

 hollow or gridling them. Observing the fresh, 

 green appearance of trees in the garden of a 

 friend, near to his house, full of fruit, while 

 the neigliborbood was a failure, I learned that 

 the slop from the chambers were distributed 

 at the roots of three dozen trees, daily— thus 

 they were fertilized and somelliiiig olTeiisive 

 enough to drive the worms from the roots sup- 

 plied— this should be done where, it could bo 

 followed oil a small scale near th(^ house ; and 

 the chemist woulil assist tin; fruit grower 

 would furnish a recipie that 

 substitute for this Uric acid, 

 be applied wholesale to the 



greatly win 

 would be a 

 that could 

 orchard. 



MILLIONS FOR MIDDLEMEN— PEN- 

 NIES FOR PRODUCERS. 



Bv reipicst of the Conimittecion Agriculture 

 of the House of Uepreseiitatives, at a hearing 

 to consider the absurd iiisulllciency of appro- 

 priation for statistical investigation and com- 

 pilation, and the preparation of material for 

 "reports," the following communication was 

 made : 



Depahtmkxt of Aoricultuke, \ 

 Washington, Feb. 1, 1S77. ) 



Sill : In response to the request of your 

 committee for a showing of the inadequacy of 

 the proposed appropriation for the statistical 

 division of this Department, allow me to pre- 

 sent the following considerations : 



The appropriation is for the entire expenses, 

 including clerical service of this division, the 

 current work of which includes — 



1. Statistical investigation in more than 

 twenty-five hundred counties of the United 

 States. 



2. The cro|)-reporting system now including 

 our organized corjis of corres]ioiulents in seven- 

 teen hundred of the iirincipal counties. 



;!. Investigations for furnishing advanced 

 and practical original material for the annual 

 volume. 



4. Record and tabulation of such statistics, 

 with current data from ofiicial statistics of 

 States, boards of agriculture and of trade. 



5. Translation and compilation of foreign, 

 official and other statistics of agriculture. 



('). Writing and editing fifteen hundred 

 luinted pages, aiiinially, of regular and special 

 reiMirts, and preparing an equivalent of one 

 thousand pages more for industri.al, commer- 

 cial and other organizatiinis ; in all an annual 

 average of seventy-five hundred manuscript 

 pages. 



For this work, at its initiation thirteen 

 years ago, $'iO,U(ll) was ai)|)ropriated in addi- 

 tion to the salary of the statistician. AVitli 

 the decrease of appropriations a few years 

 later, as the war-begotten labors of other 

 branches of the civil service declined, thejjro 

 )-n(a system of reduction was applied to this 

 new work, when its importance and usefulness 

 demanded increase, and theapiiropriatiou was 

 cut down to $1."),()II0. Last year it was re- 

 duced to $10,00(1 for all these purposes, when 

 the salaries of the regular finre of clerks em- 

 ployed in tabulating ami recording amounted 

 to $10,600, leaving nothing for collecting 

 statistics, statistical investigations, or the pre- 

 paration of material for the annual volume or 

 other work. This staggering blow might have 

 lieen regarded as a vote of censure but for the 

 fact that on the day before an appropriation 

 of 8130,000 was voted for the jn-inting for 

 ccnigressional distribution of .'JOOjOOO copies of 

 the annual, for which uo future provision was 

 apparently desired. But it was evidently an 

 accident of the conference committee, as it 

 was less than provision made in the House 

 bill, which was enlarged by a Senate amend- 

 ment. 



The appropriation proposed in the present 

 bill, $5,000, if all applied to the collection of 

 statistics, will not give twenty cents for each 

 monthly county return, or pay the postage be- 



tween our county correspondents. If applied 

 to the routine office work exclusively, it wou'd 

 not pay $"i each per day for the smallest force 

 f(n' its possible accomplishment. If used for 

 investigations and writing for the annual, all 

 other work lieing discarded, it could not pro- 

 duce a volume worthy an edition of 200,000 

 coi)ies, or even 10,000. In fact, it wovild be 

 far better to blot out the $5,000 and the divi- 

 sion and its work together, and with it the 

 Department, rather than to degrade and 

 dwarf to utter inefficiency a branch of the 

 service which has possibilities of eminent use- 

 fulness and needed protection to both jiro- 

 ducers and (V)usuiners, who have already been 

 saved the iiluiider oi' millions liy heartless 

 speculators through its instrumentality. 



Voii know well the history of agricultural 

 appropriations ; that a hundi-ed dollars has 

 been given in the aid of commerce to every 

 dollar appropriated for the promotion or pro- 

 tection of agriculture. There is no lack of 

 provision for investigation in aid of other in- 

 dustries. One of the geologic^al explorations 

 of the Rocky Mountains in ISTO obtained 

 5:75,000 ; another SlO,000 ; a third .S25,000, and 

 .'if40,0U0 more were given for illustrations of 

 two of them. In the same year the appro- 

 priation for the observation and report of 

 storms was $470,000, for the benefit of com- 

 merce. There was apin'opriated for clerical 

 service in compiling commercial statistics, 

 during the same year, ff5i»_4l0, and an addi- 

 tional fimdof $20,000 for special investigation. 

 There was also as large a sum appropriated 

 for the prejiaration of a single annual of min- 

 ing statistics, in the same year, as was given 

 for all the operations of the statistical division. 

 And yet there is no government publication 

 for which the popular demand is so imperative, 

 and public appreciation so marked as for the 

 reports of agriculture. 



We have at least the value of SI 50,000 per 

 annum in gratuitous service of luiblic-spirited 

 citizens. We need .$.50,000 per annum to sup- 

 plement this work and render it truly efficient. 

 But for the present year *2O,000 is as small a 

 sum as should be given for jiresent imrposes. 

 I am, very respectfully, your obedient ser- 

 vant, J. R. DODGE, 

 StutiMiri'in Department of AtjricuUure. 

 Hon. John II. Cai^dwell, 



Chairman Committee on Agriculture. 



BKIEF NOTES OF DEliATE IN THE IIOL'SE. 



On the motion of the Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture, jMr. Caldwell of Ala- 

 bama, the amendment to increase the appro- 

 priation to 115, OOy was agreed to. 



During the discussion, Mr. Townsend of 

 \ew Y(uk said he was prepared to vote for 

 S20,000, regretting that "every interest in 

 this country can obtain appropriations more 

 readily than the agricultural interest." 



Mr.' Townsend, of Pennsylvania, said the 

 increase would be repaid "ten times over, 

 probably a hundred times over, to the people 

 of the country in the information brought 

 before them." 



Mr. Harris, of Georgia, said " the trouble is 

 we are appropriating too much to commerce, 

 and too little to agriculture." "There are 

 thousand of reports of the Agricultural De- 

 partment called for annually by our constitu- 

 ents, to one single copy called for of the 

 reports of the Treasury Department." 



Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, thought " the small 

 amount asked for by the Chairman of the 

 Agricultural Committee ought to be given, 

 and that we ought either to do something with 

 this Department of Agriculture, and not 

 hamper it in its operation, or else abolish it 

 altogether. No country in the world does so 

 little to spread agricultural information as 

 ours." 



Mr. Davis, of Xorth Carolina, said, " the 

 amount of information collected by this De- 

 partment cannot be procured from any other 

 source at a cost of ten times as much as is 

 asked for by the Committee on Agriculture." 



The Chairman of the Committee on Agri- 

 culture, in moving an amendment increasing 

 the salary of the Statistician S200, under in- 

 struction from the Committee, said : 



