1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



77 



our exports in crain and flour have been ctiuivalent 

 to l.OtL'.nOO.nOO busliele. Of this imnieTisc quantity 

 only 178,000,000 bushels were exporteil up to the 

 year ISrM, while in the year 1874 alone 91,000,000 

 bushels were shipped to ibrciern countries. In what- 

 ever w:iy wo view the question we seo the same re- 

 sult— a lar(;e absolute, a.* well as relative increuf-c 

 In our supply of breadstult's. When we take into 

 consideration" the fact that population increases in 

 the United States more rapiiily than elsewhere, and 

 lind that nevertheless more wheat is niised for each 

 person now than formerly, we can well .say that this 

 is the most convincins; arixtiment yet addiicoil to 

 prove the correctness of Henry C. Carey's theory, 

 that sustenance increases faster than population. — 

 Atiiffican Miller. 



Culture of Broom Corn. 



The Jowiial of ,-l,7riVi(/(ii)-« describes the culture of 

 broom corn in this wise : " Broom corn recpiires rich 

 soil ; bottom land is the best, and it shouM be as free 

 from irrass as |)osfiblc. The ri'ason for choosinsr 

 clean land will appi'ar plain to a man who has raised 

 a crop. The irround should be well plouj;hed ami 

 made perfectly line with the harrow, tlien marked 

 out with shallow nuirks as if to be planted by hanil, 

 so as not to e;et the seed too deep in the ground ; but 

 the best plan is to plant with a drill. Thi' stalks 

 must be as close as live or six inches, to prevent the 

 straw from bccominirtoo heavy. Of course it cannot 

 be drilled with much rc!,'ularity, but must be cut out 

 with the hoe to the risrht distance when small. It is 

 like sorehuiu, ffrows slow when small, and on most 

 land it is positively necessary to hoe the grass out, 

 which ijivcs a gooil opportunity for cuttini; out to the 

 right distance." After this is done tlic enltivatiou is 

 similar to that of corn. When the seed begins to fill, 

 the straw will bend over from the weight, ami to pre- 

 vent this the full force of the hands must be put to 

 break the italks over, say ten or twelve inches from 

 wlierc the straw grows out, or more properly the 

 head. The weight of the seed will then, by hanging 

 down, keep the straw straight. Now conies the 

 busy season and t he time when labor and carii will 

 add much to the value of the crop. The green straw 

 being altogether the most valuable, it is important 

 that it should be cut before it turns red, and dried in 

 the shade. To do this a shed is necessary, with 

 shelves on which to lay it, say six inches deep ; and 

 enough hands must be cm]iloycd to cut the crop be- 

 fore any or m\ich of it turns red. The seed is strip- 

 ped by means of a machine made for the purpose, 

 with two cylinders between which the corn is held in 

 handfuls. The process is very rapid, only an instant 

 being necessary to knoc*k the seed all olT. The coru 

 is baled before being sent, to market . The price is 

 very lluetualing, running from $(iO to 8S50 per ton." 



A Farm that Ruined the Owner and made his 

 Fortune Afterwards. 



■ Years ago, says one of our New York exchanges — 

 papers that, like Washington, never tell a lie — a New- 

 Yorker took into his head that he would try farming 

 on Long Island, and set out b) find a desirable farm. 

 He went on a tour carrying a shovel with which he 

 dug up ground and had it analyzc<l. However, not 

 finding aught to his taste on Long Island, he deter- 

 minded to go to Rhode Island, and there purchaseil 

 a farm for t:0,000 on which he expended ?l:0,000 

 more, anil then apiiarently tired of it, rentcil the 

 ground for a few hundred a year, witli the small 

 remnant of his fortune went to California; there he 

 • made a lucky hit, and not long since returned to the 

 Kast to make the agreeable discovery that during his 

 absence the city of f rovidence had providentially for 

 him been speedily advancing towards his farm, 

 which had become immensely valuable. Pi-esently 

 he sold ofl" ?8O,OO0 worth, then arriving at the con- 

 elusion that be let it go too cheap, he had the rest 

 surveyed and laid out in streets and lots. He has 

 now sold §900,000 worth. 



Measuring Corn in Bulk. 



Multiply the length, width an?l height together by 

 Inches, and divide that product by :i,8.88. This will 

 give the number of bushels in the crib or wagon box. 

 For example, the crib that is twenty feet long, four 

 feet wide, and eight feet high, holds i;S+ 4-9 bushels. 

 And such a crib is '240 inches long, 4S inches wide, 

 and !>fi inches high, containing I,10.'),920 inches. 

 Divide that by S.SS-*, and it will give '284 4-9 bushels. 

 Again, if your wagon bed is II feet long, '1 feet wide, 

 and 17 inches deep, multiply V-^l Inches long, lifi 

 inches wide, :itj inches deep, togetlier, and it will 

 make 80,784 inches. l>iv de by :i,888, and the bed 

 will hold 20 7-9 bushels. 



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Haying. 



Clover, as well as grass, should be cut before the 

 bloom is past. Some of Professor Atwater's articles 

 have clearly shown the extra feeding value of early 

 cut hay. Prepare everything for haying, that there 

 may be nodelay when the work commences. In the 

 Northern States orcharii grass and clover must be 

 cut near the end of the month, and timothy soon 

 after. Hay, for sale, may be cut somewhat later, as 

 it will be heavier, though coarser, than that cut early. 



Farm Profits in America. 



Under this head " A Western Farmer," whose lo- 

 cation is not given, writes to the London Fidil : 



Before leaving England, some ten years ago, I held 

 for a length of time a farm undiTone of the greatest 

 of Knglish landlords ; but what with high rent, dear 

 and bad labor, bad seasons, and disease among cat- 

 tle, I found at the end of that time that 1 was tliOU 

 poorer than when I commenced ; so I cleared out and 

 came West, where I have been farming nine years, 

 and where, with less capital than 1 commenced with 

 in England, I have made some .*'.'0,000, entirely from 

 farming. A man who underslamls his business and 

 possesses some capital, must do well in the West — 

 there is every element of success naturally. 



The Time to Spread Manure. 



For some years we have sprca^l manurt^ dui'ing the 

 winter upon meadows, clover, sod to be plowed for 

 corn, and ground plowed for spring crops. The 

 pra('tiee is econondcal of labor, and convenient, :ii]d 

 we have no reason to helicvr that the manure loses 

 any \aluable constituent. 'I'he ammonia of frc.'>h 

 manure is in a nascent or inactive condition, :ind is 

 not Wiisted during the cold weather. Those who may 

 lind it conveniint to use manure in this manner, can 

 do no harm by nniking the experiment. Dairy 

 farmers cannot do better than sprea^I manure upon 

 their meadows and pastures as fast as it is made. 



Manure on Frozen Ground. 



The Americ'in Ai/rieulhtyixt says : We are asked 

 what advantage tliere is in spreading manure on 

 frozen ground. If it is covered with grass, either a 

 pasture or meadow, there is a great advantage in 

 more than one respect. The surface is protected 

 Irom sudden changes during winter, ami the first 

 thaw carrii'S the manure to the roots, where it causes 

 a vigorous growth early in t he spring. If the ground 

 is ploughed for a spring crop, it is also benefited by 

 having the manure ready to be absorbed liy the soil 

 whenever the ground thaws ; tin' seed, as soon as it 

 sprouts, finds what it needs close at hand. 



Profit in a Good Soil. 



The Pniiric Farmer s.ays on this point : " The 

 idea that the number of acres in crops indicates the 

 farmer's inctune must be abandoned, and the num- 

 ber of bushels per acre must be looked for instead. 

 There is certainly less profit in ploughing fifty acres 

 to raise one thousand bushels of grain than in plough- 

 ing but twenty-five two grow the same amount, and 

 trusting to good seasons for fair crops will not be 

 thought of by the improved farmer. A rich and 

 well-cultivated soil will usually make fair returns in 

 what we call bad or unfavorable seasons. What the 

 farmer on a poor soil would call a good season sel- 

 dom comes." 



Wheat and Chess. 



J. J. Bassart, of Kansas, asked some time ago 

 whether wheat pastured in fall and winter would 

 produce chess? A. Falconer answers as follows: 

 " I have been raising wheat for 50 years and my ex- 

 perience is that it will. You may run a fence 

 through a wheat field, uniformly good, and pasture 

 one side, not disturbing the other, and the part 

 pastured will have the most chess. The main root 

 is disturbed or broken ott' and chess is the result. 1 

 am aware that this is opposed to scientific explana- 

 tions, but. that does not alter the facts. I never had 

 rye injured and have pastured till April." 



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Oats and Peas. 



Oats and peas sown together produce a very nutri- 

 tions fodder. The two crops together, upon one acre 

 of good soil, will yield nearly if not quiet, as much 

 fodder as would an acre of each sown separately. 

 We have sown two bushels of o.ats and six pecks of 

 peas to the acre. If sown early, the fodder may be 

 cut for soiling cows or horses in May ^>r June, and a 

 succcession for continuous use may be sown every 

 two weeks until early in May. Roll the ground after 

 sowing, so that the crop may be cut with a mower, 

 which may easily be done, as the oats support the 

 peas and prevent lodging. 



Clean Out the Weeds. 



It is in every way desirable to clear the weeds from 

 the by-places, the corners of the fence and gardens, 

 and not cast them to the rubliish pile to remain and 

 blow about all winter ; not in the compost heap in 

 the hope that they will rot and make manure ; but 

 to a heap where they may be burned and every 

 ves^go of seed destroyed. It is a nice thing to sec 

 flocks of snow-liirds in winter, but it is not a good 

 method of indulgence to raise weed seed to induce 

 their i)resence. 



Liquid Manure. 

 The sewage system of fertilizing land or using 

 li(piid manure is scarcely known in the United States, 

 but as the country grows older more will be done in 

 that direction, lu England town sewage has been 

 extensively employed to increase the fertdity of the 

 farming land adjacent, and it has proved so beneficial 

 and profitable in many instances that farmers are to 

 some extent adopting a similar system in the use of 

 the manure made in their stables and yards. 



HORTICULTURAL. 



Raising Onion Sets. 

 W. C. Pclham, Mayville, Ky., w rites to the Amer- 

 ican A(/ricutlurKt of his method of raising onion sets : 

 He selects a level and dry piece of ground. His 

 ground is ricli alluvial loam, but the character ofthe 

 soil is of no special importance. Reds are formed 

 two feet wide, with a path of one foot between. The 

 " beds" are excavated to tliedepth of twoiucbes — or, 

 in other words, the path or alley between is two 

 inches higher than the beils ; the bottom of the beds 

 is nicely smoothed with the back of a spade, so as to 

 present a level surface whereon to sow the seed. 

 The sct'd is sown so that frf)m fifteen to twenty sce<ls 

 will cover a square inch. If the surface of the beds 

 was sprin'Kled with plaster or white sand, the seeds, 

 which are black, could be sown more evenly. After 

 sowing, the seeils are covered with two inches of 

 pure clean sand, which brings the beds and paths to 

 the same level. The whole is then rolled with a light 

 I'oller, or patted down with a spade. The ailvan- 

 tages of this plan are, that there being no seeds of 

 weeds in the sand, the labor of weeding is entirely 

 saved, and the sets when matured are far more easily 

 liarvestcd from the clean, soft sand, than from tho 

 hard-bakeil surface which most soils present after a 

 season's rains ami sun on a surface that cannot be 

 stirred. 



Cherries. 



Those who are old enough to renieniljcr thirty. five 

 years ago, know that the .Morello and Pie cherries 

 were at thattimegrown in abundance on nearlyeVery 

 farm. " Black Knot " has left but few of those va- 

 rieties in existence in Lancaster c^'Uiity. The Mo- 

 rellowas first attacked and destroyed ; tile Pie cherry 

 more recently. Pomologisls were not able to agree 

 as to the jiriniary cause ofthe disease ; neither were 

 t hey able to give a remedy to check its ravages. The 

 disease started east of this locality, and spread in a 

 westerly direction. 



The object of this short article is to remind the 

 farmers of this county that those old and similar va- 

 rieties of cheri'ies can again be grown. The few 

 trees that were saved by cutting olftlie knots when- 

 ever noticed, during the time of the prevalence ofthe 

 disease, have been clear of the knots the last four 

 years, aud the last two have borne good crops of 

 cherries. Young trees of the Early Uichmond, Eng- 

 lish Morello, and the old Pie cherries, idanlied two 

 years ago, show no sign ofthe knf)t. 



Cherries rec(uire lull little care to .grow them, and 

 are less liable to be injured by insect enemies than 

 any other i'rnit ; and a few dollars invested in cherry 

 trees to plant in vacant spaces mar our farm buildings 

 will repay the outlay. — 1'., LancaKlcr linjuirer. 



Small Fruits in Gardens. 

 But few people seem to know the value of small 

 fruits to a family when grown in their own gardens. 

 You commence with strawberries; they continue 

 about a month. You i)ick, perhaps, from six to 

 twelve quarts a day. You have them on your table 

 as a dessert, if you please at noon, and your tea-table 

 is loaded with them at evening, and you want little 

 else tint your bread and tiutter. Your family con- 

 sume in one w.ay or another about eight quarts a day, 

 and while they last no medicines for bodily ailments 

 are required, as a quart of strawberries daily gene- 

 rally dispel all ordinary diseases not settled perma- 

 nenily inthesysteni. .\fter strawberries, rasplierriei 

 come, to continue al)out three weeks ; then we have 

 blackljerries where the climate is not too cold for the 

 cultivated varieties ; then the currants ripen, which 

 I'cmain till the early grapes mature ; and taking the 

 season through any family with a half acre of land 

 in a garden can grow small fruits that makes coun- 

 try life delightful, and at the same lime hundreds of 

 dollars can lie saved in the supply at the table. 



Look to your Orchards. 



Before commencing the regular spring work on 

 the farm, the orchard should receive some attention. 



The larva of the apple tree borer, from eggs laid 

 last year, can now be found umler tlu' bark at the 

 base of the tree. Its castings will indicate the pb'e, 

 and il can be dislodged with tlic knife wiliiout much 

 injury to the tree. 



Many of the clirysalida of the codling moth can 

 be fouml under the rough bark on the trunks. 



Tluir destruction now, followed by the capture of 

 the next brood in bay bands tied around the trunks, 

 will aild to the quantity and quality ofthe next fruit 

 crop. 



The eggs of the tent caterpillar moth can also be 

 destroyed at this time. They will be found in clus- 

 ters on twigs, and are easily seen before the leaves 

 are formed. — Iwjuirer, 



Japanese Persimmon. 



The .lapanese persimmon tree is being introduced 

 by the horticulturists of California. The fruit differs 

 somewhat from the persimmon of the Southern 

 Slates, as it ripens without frost, and is free from 



