1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



87 



TOULOUSE GEESE. 



Those geese, of which the cut hclnw is a 

 faithful represontalidii, arc in stock by Heu- 

 soii Si Hurpco. of Philadelphia, an.l won the 

 first uiul s|)ccial prizes at L'hiladelphia in 

 January, I'^iO. . ^ , 



The Toulouse are the largest variety ot 

 geese known to the poultry world, and have 

 been appropriately styled "the (ioo.soof the 

 period." They arc very hardy, produce an 

 abundance of feathers, grow raiiiilly, and 

 fatten readily at any age. In color, they are 

 of an even shaded gray, with the posterior 

 vend-al portion of a lighter color, and short in 

 their pedal limbs. They are just phlegmatic 

 enough to become a savory roast by Christmas 

 time, and yield a sutliciency of surplus "goose- 

 grease" to alleviate the sore throats of the 

 children of a large family for an entire year. 

 If ancient Rome was saved by a goose, surely 

 the salvation of our country cannot be in 

 jeoi>ardy as Ioiil' as wc cultivate, or tolerate, 

 the presence of this magiiilicent specimen of 

 the AnatUlan family amongst us— either by 

 "war, pestilence or famine." 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMMUNICA- 

 TIONS— No. 565* 



I give for the eililieatioii of the members of 

 the lyiniKcan Society present,' extracts from 

 interesting and valuable 

 letters of which I was the 

 recipient several weeks 

 ago. The jicrsons who 

 were the writers have 

 taken an intense interest 

 in Archa'ological matters, 

 and one of them is very 

 favorably mentioned by 

 the late C:ol.,I. W. Foster, 

 author of the Prehistoric 

 Races ofthethiitcd States, 

 in this manner : " To Mr. 

 Silas ^FcDnwell, a gentle- 

 man who has resided in 

 this region (Franklin, Ma- 

 con coinity, X.C.) for more 

 than half a century, I am 

 indebted tor the subjoined 

 information. Up to 1811), 

 theC'heidkres lield posses- 

 sion of this region, when, 

 in pursuance of a treaty, 

 tbcy vacalid a portion of 

 tlie'laiids lying in the val- 

 ley of the I, i I lie Tennessee 

 k'iver. In 1S21, Mr. Mc- 

 Dowell ciinimenced farm- 

 ing;, liiiring the first sea- 

 sons the « plowshare, in 

 lia.ssing over a certain por- 

 tion of .a field, )iroduced a 

 hollow, rumbling sound, and, in exploring for 

 the cause, the lirsl object met with was a shal- 

 low layer of eharcoal, beneath which was a slab 

 of Vmrnt clay, about seven feet in length and 

 four feet broad, which, in the attempt to re- 

 move, broke into .several fragments. Nothing 

 teneath this slab was found ; but, on exam- 

 ining its under side, to his great surjirise, 

 there was the mould of a naked human 

 figure. Three of these burned clay sepul- 

 chres were thus raised and examined during 

 the first year of his occupancy, since which 

 time none have been found until recently. 

 These fragments were so little api)reciated 

 that they were suffered to remain in the field, 

 subject to the disintegrating agency of the 

 elements and the tramping of the" cattle. 

 During the past .season (lS7'2),the i)low brought 

 niianother fragment of one of these moulds, re- 

 vealing the inijiress of a plump human arm." 



Col. McDowell writes me thus: "In my 

 twenty-fifth year, to wit, in 1820, I came 

 among the Cherokee tribe of Indians, and 

 the country was purchased and settled by the 

 white man shortly afterward. This is the 

 upper valley of the Tennes.see River, which 

 was then only settled or populated by In- 

 dians. On the low gro\mds of the river were 



mixed with the soil were fragments of pot- 

 tery, arrow-heads, spear-heads !Uid axes. T 

 became intensely interested, and whished to 

 know the traditions of the the tribes. These 

 traditions were all in the brain ot an old In- 

 dian woman whom they had selected, and her 

 otlicial name was " Sensekeepcr." AVith an 

 interpreter I called on the old woman 

 and propounded many questions. How many 

 years since your tribe built these mounds V 

 "My tribe "did not build them, but found 

 them here, when they drove out another tribci 

 of Indians." TIow many years since this 

 happened ? " Don't know ; we can't count 

 back only by moons and snows, and \vc soon 

 lose count." I propounded many other 

 questions, and the answers convinced me that 

 the Cherokee tribe was without any tradition 

 that could be of service to the anti(piarian. 

 * * * * I infer from the diirerent styles 

 of pottery, cutting instruments and offensive 

 weapons, as well as different modes of sejnil- 

 ture, that many difTerent tribes, for thousands 

 of years back, at different periods have, for 

 the" time, been the lords of these beautiful 

 mountain valleys; but I cannot vent uni to 

 gue.ss which of them built the mounds, nor 

 cremated their dead. But it is a strange fact 

 that the mode of cremation was precisely 

 that of the Greeks in the Homeric Age, and 



many large Indian earth mounds, and inter 



'Read before the Linnteau Society 



TOULOUSE GEESE— Bred by Benson & Burpee, Philadelphia 

 an exhumation of one of the.se Indian graves 

 and a Greek grave near Ilion presents 

 precisely the same result. First, a bed 

 of charcoal, then a layer of clay burned like a 

 brick, and then, in the case of the Greek, 

 jewels, trinkets and coin ; but no bones in 

 the graves of either. * * * * Among 

 the stone relics are found, cut out of the 

 hardest quartz rock, the most exquisite speci- 

 mens of stone work that I ever beheld ; 

 the form being two plain surfaces and then 

 formed to a circle, and the upper plain cut 

 into a STiccession of disks, one within the 

 other, and the centre one three inches in 

 diameter and one inch deep, in which tits ii 

 stone cut out of the same material. Until 

 recently, the problem was, how did the In- 

 dians cut these hard implements ? That 

 problem is now solved since Col. .1. N. .lenks 

 opened the finest Corundum mines found in 

 the United States, and as that stone is next to 

 the diamond in hardness, and obtained where 

 these fine quartz relics arc found, there is no 

 question but that some Indians of brain 

 carved them out of the bard quartz rock." 

 Col. McDowell refers to the beautiful " Dis- 

 coidal stones" which I had the pleasure of 

 describing to you in my paper read liefore 

 your society. 



The other interesting letter speaks in this 

 manner : "I was acquainted with a number 



of the Potawatomic Indians, and traveled 

 over a portion of the Korthern part of the 

 State (Illinois) in company with Shabona and 

 his attendants. He was the Chief of the 

 Potawatomics, and, in conversing with them 

 in regard to many of the stone implements 

 found, they believed them to have been made 

 by some people that lived before they came— - 

 tiio Potawatomics— and evidently, they never 

 belonged to the present race of Indians, but 

 are true relics of the Stone Age." The writer 

 of this communication. Dr. Roardman, an 

 old settler of Illinois, who left for that State, 

 from Pennsylvania, many years ago, has care- 

 fully studicil the relics of an extinct race, 

 and one which is fast disappearing.— yl. F. 

 IStrlin, Reading, Pa. 



^ 



For Thk Lanoartfh I-'ARMEn. 

 THE BEST METHOD FOR DESTROY- 

 ING CUT WORMS.* 

 The best method that I have founil for de- 

 stroying this little destructive worm to to- 

 bacco iilants, was mixing some of the best 

 "Paris Green" with gypsum, and sprinkling 

 it over the plants with a tin box, made like a 

 pepper box, with a wooden handle about 

 thi-ec feet in length. Care must Vie exercised, 

 however, not to have too much Paris Green, 

 as it will be fatal to both plant and worm. 

 Mix oneiif)inid l'ari»(Trcen 

 to three peeks gypsum. 1 

 applied lielleliore to some 

 of my plants last year, 

 which proved a success to 

 destroy the worm for a 

 short time of about two 

 days. As time and ex- 

 posure deteriorates its pro- 

 perties, it is nec'cssary to 

 apply it fie(iuently, and 

 thereby it becomes an ex- 

 pensive article to use, as it 

 cannot be obtained for less 

 than about (iO or 70 cents 

 ■ per iiotmd. Another ob- 

 \^=^i" jection I have to its use is, 

 --^'-- it contains salts, which is 

 4^3- T! „r) benefit to the tobacco 

 ants. 



Bran is use<l t o ' 'eoncen- 

 trate" the cut-womi, with 

 great success. They are 

 very fond of it, and will 

 feed upon it in preference 

 to tob;icco plants. A small 

 portion of bran is placed 

 aside of each plant, and 

 when the worms are con- 

 tent with their fill, they 

 will hide below the bran, 

 where they may l)e read- 

 ily found and destroyed. 



'\V'here poultry have no access to tobacco 

 fields, and birds can be prevented to feed upon 

 bran, I would recommend bran mixed with 

 Paris Green, and a small iwrtion placed 

 aside of each plant, which will destioy the 

 cut worms without doing injury to the tobac- 

 co plants. 



^ ,-. pi 



STRAWBERRIES.! 



While in the seasonof enjoying this luscious 



fruit, a little consideration in reference^ to its 



1 cultivation, may not be out of place. Nature 



J seems to offer a" bountiful supply for all. Our 



I climate being adapted, and our soils having 



1 capacity to produce a sufiiciency for every 



one, not only as a luxury, but as an article of 



; food, at reasonable cost "to the consumer, and 



1 at fairly remunerative prices to the in-oducer. 



The (picstion will here arise : "Why then is 



this want not filled ? Why continue this 



achii)'.; void between anxious, craving mouths, 



and ample resources to both gratify and satisfy 



them V 



The answer is simple. The people! are not 

 educated up to such a standard 1 There are 



•Ri'iid Ixfnrt- the Tobacco Orowers' AKSocialioii, of Lan- 

 CiistiT county, iit the Miiy mcolini;, hold at the Athenmnm, 

 oil the 21st u'lt.. by H. M. Mayer. 



tUoad before the Laucanf^-r County Agricultural and Hor- 

 ticultural Sooiely, by n. M. Engle. 



