90 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



OUR LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



Proceedings of the Lancaster County Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural Society. 



Tlie society met in the Athctiiifum at 2 o'clock 

 Monriay afternoon, June 4th, President Calvin Cooper 

 in the cliair. 



The followinfj members were present : Messrs. 

 Calvin Cooper, Johnson Miller, Casper Hiller, Henry 

 M. F.ngle, Levi W. (iroff, P. S. Reist, Simon P. Eby, 

 John Miller, W. J. Kafroth, John Eby, Henry Kurtz, 

 Jacob Bollinger, John Hubcr, Abraham Summy, 

 Jonas Buckwalter, Isaac Busliong, Joseph F. Wit- 

 mer, Levi Pownall, Wm. A. Ilaskill, Levi S. Reist, 

 Abraham F. Hostctter, Prof. S. S. Rathvon, Jacob 

 B. Garlier, David fi. Swartz, Wm. McComsey, Henrv 

 Erb. 



The Secretary read the minutes of last meetin?. 



The foUowins new members were elected : John 

 Keneagy, Georsje Ehy, Isaac Bushong, Wm. A. Ilas- 

 kill, Joseph Witmcr. 



The crop reports being called for, Mr.H.M. Engle, 

 of Marietta, made an explanation to the efl'ect that 

 he did not say at last meeting as he was reported to 

 liave said, that the apple crop would be as large this 

 year as it was last year. What he did say was the 

 apjile crop would be as large as could be e.tpected 

 considering the unusually large crop of last year. 

 He now reported the prospects of the apple as fair ; 

 peaches promise a good crop ; pears looli well ; 

 cherries a medium crop; most kinds of snuill fruit 

 abundant: few Iruits have been winter killed. Wheat 

 looks well, though the extreme heat has somewhat 

 atlected it. (Jra.ss is quite good along the river bot- 

 toms, but. inland is not so well advanced. Corn 

 looked a little yellow a week or two ago on account 

 of the eold weather; but the recent warm weather 

 and the rain of Sunday has given it a fresh start. 

 More jiotatoes have been planted in Mr. E.'s neigh- 

 borhood this year tlian in any other year witliin bis 

 recollection. Early in the sea.son it was feared that 

 tlie ravages of the potato beetle would deter farmers 

 from planting. Butwheneverpotatoes are high priced 

 farmers plant heavily. He thought the beetle would 

 have but little chance this year. Paris green was 

 being freely ai)plied and would prevent their ravages. 

 Mr. Engle concluded by jiresenting the following 

 meteorological rejiort for the past three months: 

 Rainfall during March, .5 2 16 inches; lowest tem- 

 perature ti degrees above zero, on the 18th ; highest 

 temperature 72 degrees on the 24tb . Rainfall during 

 April, o 10-lfi inches ; lowest temperature SO degrees, 

 on the 3d ; highest temperature 82 degrees, on the 

 ^4th. Rainfall during May, 1 7-16 inches; lowest 

 temperature 40 degrees ; highest 92. 



Mr. Johnson Mii.i.er, of Warwick, reported the 

 wheat crop as looking fine with a few exceptions, 

 where the early sown has sufl'cred from the Hessian 

 fly; rye is excellent, standing very high and giving 

 promise of full heads ; in some places the grass looks 

 very well, in others it is short, owing to the drouth. 

 Corn is tine, hut tin- early planted is somewhat baek- 

 / ward, that planted later being much ahead of it. 

 Oats is short, and the crop will be a partial failure. 

 Orchard fruits do not promise verj well, but small 

 fruits will be abundant. Potatoes are plenty and so 

 are potato bug.s. Mr. .Miller use.s ashes to kill them 

 instead of Paris green, which depreciates the market 

 price of the potatoes on which it is used. 



Mr. Levi Pownai.l, of Salisbury, had last year 

 raises! a fine crop of potatoes without the use of 

 Paris green. He deferred planting until the 24tli of 

 May. The first crop of potato bugs had disappeared 

 before the potatoes came up, and the plants were in 

 blossom before tlje second <-rop of bugs appeared. 

 Mr. Pownall believed that a crop of potatoes could be 

 slipped in and come to matiu-ity between the first and 

 second appearance of the bugs. In about a week 

 from the present time the old bugs will cease flying, 

 and the young ones will not appear until the potatoes 

 are in bloom. Mr. Pownall uses the Early Rose for 

 late planting, because it matures rapidly. 



Mr. Simon P. Env read an interesting essay on 

 "sub-soiling," which he understood to be the process 

 of loosing the earth beneath the cultivated soil. One 

 plan adopted is to bring the sub-soil to the surface 

 and mingle it with the cultivated soil. Another plan 

 more generally in use is to loosen it with a sub-soil 

 plow and leave it beneath the cultivated soil. The 

 essayist believed that if the sub-soil was composed of 

 gravel or pebbles it should not be brought to the sur- 

 face, but if it was of the same nature as the surface 

 soil much good nnght result from intermixing them. 

 He instanced as an example the barren slaty ridges 

 in various parts of the county, which by judicious 

 sub-soiling and breaking u|) the hard-pan below the 

 surface, have come to be the most fertile farm 

 lands in the county. If the sub-soil be of clay it 

 should not be brought to the surfaee,but merely stir- 

 red up and looseneil. It is well known that a farm 

 with a deep soil is better than one with a shallow 

 soil , and sub-soiling tends to deepen the soil . 



Mr. Henry Kurtz, of Mount Joy, believed in 

 sub-soiling if properly done. In mellow ground sub- 

 soiling is not of nuicli account, but where ground is 

 hard a breaking up of the hard-pan is valuable. 



Mb. Levi S. Reist, said sub-soiling is a hobby of 

 his - especially when applied to the planting of trees. 



It must b» remembered that there is a great difference 

 between sub-soiling and deep plowing, by the latter 

 the sub soil is brought to the surface, but by sub- 

 soiling, as he understood it, the surface soil was first 

 thrown out by the ordinary plow and the sub-soil 

 plow was run through the same furrow, loosening 

 but not throwing out the sub-soil, which was covered 

 by the surface soil thrown off from the next furrow 

 made by the ordinary plow. Mr. Reist mentioned 

 the case of a neighbor of his who cultivated a piece 

 of ground that was regarded as worthless. He 

 plowed deep early in the season, planted corn and 

 continued to cultivate constantly till haj'-making 

 and was rewarded with 90 bushels of corn per acre. 

 Mr. Reist said he did not believe in turning up to the 

 surface a bad sub-soil for ordinary crops, but for 

 orchards he believed the deeper the ground was 

 plowed the better. He had planted two orchards, 

 and kept the sub-soil plow running after the regular 

 plow for ten years, and he thought his orchard 

 would compare favorably with any in the county. 

 Loosening the soil enables the roots to spread and 

 penetrate the earth so that they are so thoroughly 

 protected that a hurricane would scarcely blow tlieiii 

 down. 



President Cooper said he had used the sub-soil 

 plow in his nursery. He followed the regular plow 

 with a sub-soil plow, leaving in the furrow the dirt 

 loosened by the latter and plowing the surface soil 

 on top of it. 



Mr. II. M. Engle believed in sub-soiling, but 

 thought in some cases it might prove injurious. In 

 the Jersey sands sub-soiling has been discarded, but 

 there is no doubt of its usefulness in loam or clay 

 lands. The deeper the soil the more easily it will 

 drain and permit surplus moisture to pass off; and 

 in time of drouth a loose soil will hold the moisture 

 much longer than a close, hard soil. Sub-soiling is 

 therefore beneficial in both wet and dry seasons. Mr. 

 Engle said his own practice had confirmed his belief 

 in its usefulness. He recommended those who doubted 

 its value to give it a trial and report the result. 



In reference to .lobnson Miller's statement that 

 Paris green would depreciate the market price of 

 potatoes on which it was used, Mr. Engle thought 

 that tiugbear .should be set at rest. Chemists and 

 scientists declare that Paris green put upon imtato 

 vines cannot injure the tuber, and, as for himself, he 

 would not hesitate to eat a potato that had been 

 rolled in Paris green, if it were afterwards ]iroperly 

 cleaned. He did not agree with .Mr. Pownall that 

 the potato bug would not fly after the date men- 

 tioned by him. He had found the beetle injure his 

 late as well as his early potatoes. 



Mr. p. S. Reist believed the usefulness of sub- 

 soiling depended on the kind of crop you wished to 

 ])lant. To bring the suI>-soil to the sui-face in expec- 

 tation of improving corn or wheat, would be about 

 the same as if a man who had a half a glass of 

 whisky and wanted more, should fill his glass up 

 with watei'. Or likf^ a man who, wanting to fatten 

 his horse, should mix shavings with his feed. Mix- 

 ing the sub-.soil with a thin surface soil will weaken 

 and not strengthen it. On the other hand, if the 

 surface soil is too strong, sub-,soiIing may be advan- 

 tageous. Better wheat and eoj-n can be raised on 

 good mellow soil without snb-soil ng than with it. 

 He did not believe in sub-soiling orchards. Trees 

 require a hard-pan below the surface in which to 

 fasten their roots. If the soil is mellow and becomes 

 soaked with rain the least wind will blow them 

 down. 



President Cooper .said he could not concur with 

 Mr. Reist that mellow ground was not good for 

 orchards. He knew from experience that sub-soiling 

 was of great value in tree planting. 



Mr. S. p. Ehv asked " How deeeply do wheat 

 roots penetrate?" and .Mr. Reist answered from four 

 to six inches. 



Mr. Engle said he did not believe with Mr. Reist 

 that trees should have hard-pan to support them. 

 They would root more firmly in mellow than in hard 

 ground. To prove this he described the formation 

 of the bracing and feed-roots of trees and other 

 plants, and demonstrated that roots would penetrate, 

 if necessary to the support of the tree, to a depth of 

 ten feet or more. In mellow ground wheat roots 

 will attain a length of twenty inches and perhaps 

 two feet. He believed that suli-soiling was almost 

 always useful and could never do any luirm. 



Mr. Henry Kcrtz thought that if the soil was 

 too loose and mellow wheat was apt to freeze out. 

 He once planted wheat in very mellow soil and had 

 no crop, except along the fences where the ground 

 was hard. 



The secretarv* read a note from Jacob Garber, in 

 which he disapproved sub-soiling. 



Mr. Enoi.e, on the other hand, maintained that 

 ground mellowed and made porous by the sub-soil 

 plow will not freeze so easily or so deeply, or bake so 

 badly, as hard ground. 



Mr. Reist replied and gave sc^veral examples of 

 orchai'ds which had been greatly injured by being 

 planted in sub-soiled ground. Lemon trees planted 

 in small ))Ots will fruit much earlier than if planted 

 in large boxes. As soon as the growth of the roots 

 is retarded they commence to Truit. So it is with corn 

 and other crops; they mature earlier if the plowing has 



been shallow, preventing the roots from penetrating 

 too deeply. The best wheat is raised on rolling land, 

 where Jt is impossible to plow very deep. 



Mr. .Tacob Boi.LiNiiER said that Jlr. Reist's the- 

 ory apiieared to be that plants would not friiit until 

 the roots struck hard-jjan. His own experience was 

 diflerent. On one occasion he dug out by the roots a 

 very large walnut tree, making a hole ten feet deep. 

 This he filled in with new earth and jjlanted coi'n, 

 and it grew to be longer in the stalk and longer and 

 fuller in the ear than any he had ever seen except in 

 the West. He favored deep plowing for all kinds of 

 farm crops and sub-soiling for trees. 



Mr. H. M. Engle said that the reason that plants 

 in pots flowered and fruited earlier was because 

 their roots were cramped and they could not expand 

 as nature designed they should. But such plants 

 will not bear so much fruit nor live so long as those 

 that have a fair chance to root. Whatever detracts 

 fi-om wood-growth encourages early fruiting, and 

 whatever advances wood-growth retards fruiting. 

 But those that have the best wood-growth will yield 

 more abundantly and live much longer. 



After some further discussion the subject was 

 dropped. 



JIr. Henry M. Enole read an essay on " Straw- 

 berries." (See page 87.) 



At the conclusion of his essay Mr. Engle presented 

 the society with several boxes of very fine berries, 

 and the President ai)pointed Messrs. S. P. Eby, Jacob 

 Bollinger and Peter S. Reist, a committee to test the 

 fruit and report to the society. 



A recess was taken for social intercourse and a 

 general testing of the fruit. 



The committee, after making a careful test of the 

 several varieties of Itcrries before them, reported that 

 where all were of such tine quality it is dilheult to 

 determine which is best; but that the " Boyden No. 

 :!0," and the "Jucumia," being of rather finer flavor 

 and as large as the otliers, were given the preference. 



Johnson Miller suggested that the executive 

 committee be instructed to make a visit to such 

 farms in the county as tiiey choose to visit, as requii'ed 

 by the constitution. 



A question having arisen as to who constituted the 

 executive committee, it was decided that under the 

 constitution the officers of the society were said com- 

 mittee. 



Levi S. Reist suggested that the executive com- 

 mittee be sub-divided into four sub-eommittees, each 

 sub-committee to visit a diflerent section of the 

 county, and report to next meeting. 



The suggestion was adopted by the society and the 

 President subdivided the committee as follows : 



Henry M. Engle and Levi S. Reist to visit farms in 

 the west end of the county. 



I. L. Landis and Johnson .Miller to visit farms in 

 the north. 



President Calvin Coojjer and Levi Pownall to visit 

 farms in the east. 



Casper Hiller and M. D. Kendig to visit farms in 

 the south. 



Tlie f'ollowiug questions were proposed for discus- 

 sion at next meeting : 



By S. P. Eby — " Should not our county roads be im- 

 proved ' 



By Levi W. Groff — " Will or will not wheat turn 

 into cheat and cheat into wheat T' 



On motion adjourned. 



Tobacco Growers' Association. 



This association held its regular meeting Monday, 

 May 28th, in the Atheii;eum, in the City Hall. Tlie 

 meeting was called to oriler at two o'clock, p. m., 

 M. D. Kendig in the chair. \ 



The following members and visitors wei*e present : 

 M. D. Kendig, A. Lane, I. S. Lane, J. M. Johnston, 

 Harry Mayer, Mr. Landis, W.L. llershey, Peter S. 

 Keist, Jacob Graybill, Air. Shiffner, N. Hostetter, 

 Levi S. Keist, Mr. Eshleman, A. Weidler Mr. Herr, 

 Peter Esbenshade, Mr. .Mommert, S. Hostetter, J. H. 

 Moore, Wm. McComsey, C. Hunsecker, A. Shenk, 

 Jacob Hcrr, John Herr and Mr. Lcfever. Calling of 

 the roll was dispensed with, and the minutes of the 

 previous meeting were I'cad and adopted. 

 Unfinished Business. 



The President stated lliat under this head the 

 question of the construction of toljaceo buildings, 

 which was laid over from the last meeting, was in 

 order. 



Mr. La.ndis said that many hardware merchants 

 had told him that hinges and other iron work used in 

 tlie const I'uction of tobacco buildings were selling 

 fast, and from this, and from his own observations, 

 he thought a great many buildings were being put 

 up. He fhougiit this was an important question. 



Mr. I. L. Landis akw stated that he had Ijcen ii^^ 

 formed by a C'onuccticut tobacco' grower that th^P 

 system of hanging the tobacco on lath was being 

 atiandoned in New England, and the plan of hanging 

 the leaf on twine was being generally adopted. 



iVIu. Shiffner said there were a gi'cat many to- 

 bacco barns being built arountl his jilace, ami all the 

 builders seemed to thinic that they ought to have 

 cellars. In regard to building hehad not much to say. 



M. D. Kendig said it w:is a point conceded that all 

 barns ought to have cellars, and also that they ought 



