1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



151 



growiiii;, sis it contains jiotash, soda, liinc, 

 niiiKiiPsia and iiliosplioric acid, all of which 

 are I'ound in the vine ilsidf ; showing that it 

 cannot tlnivc unless tliisc elements exist in 

 the soil. The lonn, dry autiunns])ieserve the 

 vine and Itrinj^ the ^I'ape to its Ri'eatost jier- 

 fection. The net prolits on grape growing 

 are from two to live luuidrcd dollars per acre 

 each year. 



The mild, short winters, the abundance of 

 blue ^rass, unfailing, imre running water, an 

 altitude of from 1,.V)U to 2,0(10 feet above the 

 sea, all conspire to give excellent facilities 

 for wool growing. (Joncerning this industry, 

 several sheep raisers corroborate Mr. Ilazel- 

 tinc's statements. This gentleman has lived 

 near Springlield for six years, and .says that 

 the climate is uniformly delightful, and there 

 is .so little snow to keej) sheep from the grass 

 that they do well with very little grain. lie 

 is now keeping about '2,000 sheep, mo.stly 

 Merinos. Thinks small flocks need very little 

 feeding, but large tlocks recpiiro some grain 

 between the fust of December and the last of 

 Marcli. It costs oidy two cents a ixnmd to 

 ship wool to IJoslon, New York or Philadel- 

 phia. Mr. ITazeltine also has 2,000 apple 

 trees, 500 peach, :!00 pear, and one hundred 

 cherry trees, all of his own iilanting and all 

 beariiig, except some pear trees. The apple- 

 trees mature several years earlier here than 

 in the east, and continue 

 iiearing much longer. 

 The grains and fruits 

 riimn several weeks earli- 

 er than any place north 

 or east, which with the 

 facilities for transitorta- 

 tion atTordcd by the St. 

 Louis & San Francisco 

 railroad to St. Louis in 

 a few hours, insure an 

 opportunity of .securing 

 the highest prices foi- 

 early marketing. Unim 

 pro\ed land may lie 

 bought near the railroad 

 here at from two to si.\ 

 dollars per acre on long 

 credit. — Examiner. 



WHEAT AND ITS CULTURE.* 



Wheat was spoken of to Adam in the Gar- 

 den of Lden, and for violation of the command 

 of (rod he was driven out of the garden to 

 till the ground from whence hi! was taken. 

 "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread 

 until thou return unto the ground; dust thou 

 art, and unto dust thou shalt relurn. " Wheat, 

 therefore, was the staff of life in the earliest 

 history of man. The next reference to wlieat 

 we fuid when Keidjcn, in the days of the 

 wheat harvest, found m.andrakes in the held ; 

 next in E.xodus, 0: :i2, "when wheat wius not 

 smitten, for it was not grown \\\>. Again, ui 

 Numbers 18:12, "and of the wheat, the lirst 

 fruit of them which they shall oiler uuto the 

 Lord." And, Deut. :J2:1;S,14, " He made him 

 ride on high places of the earth, that he might 

 eat the increase of the fields of wheat." Sidou 

 thrashed wheat, Judges 1.5. Samson was a bad 

 fellow in the time of wheat harvest; he caught 

 300 foxes and tied lirebrands to their tails and 

 burnt up the wheat of the Philistines. Ruth 

 gathered wheat, 1 Samuel, 0:1.! ; "They of 

 Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat 

 harvest in the valley," Job 31:40. "Let 

 thistles grow instead of wheat," Frov. 27:22. 

 "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a 

 mortar among wheat;" " ships were lightened 

 by throwing out the wheat into the sea," 

 Jer. 12:1.'>. "They sow wheat Ijut shall reap 



THE GRAVENSTEir; 

 APPLE. 



The fruit is large; llat- 

 lish round; the skin very 

 smooth and fair, of a 

 whitish-yellow groinid, 

 mostly covered with a 

 briiliaJit red, geuerally 

 in stripes ; st^ems short", 

 rather stout, in a deep, 

 rather broad and some- 

 what uneven cavity ; Calyx large, open, in a 

 wide, deep, uneven basin ; flesh whiti.sh, very 

 juicy, crisp, of a sprightly vinous flavor; 

 rather acid early in the season, but when 

 fully ripe and mellow it becomes mild and 

 pleasant. It is excellent both for the table 

 auditor cooking. In use during September and 

 October, and even into the middle of Noven- 

 ber, in this latitude. The tree is remarkably 

 rapid, vigorous and erect in growth; and xny 

 productive. It is classed with autunm apples, 

 and is rarely sought for, or of much account, 

 outside of the months of September and Oc- 

 tober. Hut as an apple in its sea.son it stands 

 vei7 high, there only l)cing a few preferred 

 before it, and even not without qualification. 

 It has become a staple stock, and can be ob- 

 tained at almost any first-class nursery in the 

 Northern and Western States. Its cultivation 

 is similar to the "Ilubbardston Non-Such," 

 mentioned in a former number of this journal. 

 ^ 



The Foullri/ World has introduced a new 

 feature in issuing a full-page Chromo-litho- 

 praphic plate of clioice breed of fowls with each 

 month's paper. The price of these 12 pictures 

 is but 75 cents to subscribers who have paid 

 81.25 for the magazine, or #2.00 only for the 

 dozen pictures and the paper for one year. 

 Address, H. H. Stoddard, Pub'er, Hartford, 

 Conn. 



thorns." Judah traded in wheat. "Joel's 

 floors shall be full of wheat," Matt. 3:12. 

 "He gathers' his wheat into his garner, but 

 the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable 

 lire," Luke 3:17. "The enemy sowed tares 

 among the wheat," Acts 7:13. Tares, we 

 think, is cheat, that looks like wheat and yet 

 is not wheat ; the blade looks like wheat, but 

 the kernel is bogus, as the Pharisee is to the 

 Christian. The Saviour said, " do no root up 

 the tares lest you root up the wheat also." 

 AndCh. 22:31, "Satan may sift you as wheat." 

 John 12:24, " Except a corn of wheat fall into 

 the ground and die it abideth alone, but if it 

 dies it brings forth much fruit." Tlie Saviom- 

 makes mention of this seed: "And some fell 

 on stony ground, which had no root, some by 

 the wayside, and some ou good ground and 

 yielded oue hundred fold." This shows it 

 must have good ground to root to bring good 

 crops. 



Much more could be referred to in Holy 

 AVrit which shows that it was .always con- 

 sidered the most important product of the 

 soil, and is often used to exemplify the work- 

 ing of religion on the soul of man. The soil 

 must therefore be well l)rokcn so the seed 

 may take good root ; and as the word of God 



*ltead before the Lancaster County Agricultural and Hor- 

 ticultural Society, October 1, 1S77, by Henry Eurtz, of 

 Mt. Joy. 



must take deep root in our heart or there will 

 be no fruit from .sixty to one hundred fold. 



Wheat, or weitzcn, may be raised on all 

 sorts of soil, but heavy, yellow, stifl' lands are 

 the mo.st suitable for it. The varieties of 

 wheat are penietually changing, in conse- 

 quence of variations of culture, climate and 

 soil, those most in use being distinguished by 

 different local terms; they may be divided 

 into two cla.ses, Red and White, the latter 

 being superior in ipiality while the former ex- 

 cels in production and hardiness, as the grain 

 is frequently cultivated on very inferior soil 

 after vciy imperfect preparation, and yet gives 

 a very fair yield, which varies materially in 

 different counties and districts ; it is also very 

 liable to injury from bad seeding time, a wet 

 winter, mildew, blast, disease of plant, or a 

 blight during the period of its blossoming, 

 which is the most prevalent cau.se of failure 

 in wheat crops, and yet even a greater enemy 

 to this great stajile we achieved iu tho Revo- 

 lutionary war ; we fought ourselves free from 

 the English yoke and placed ourselves under 

 the heavier yoke imposed by the Hessian lly, 

 which is a heavy tax ou us ever since, more 

 than a ten per cent, tax would be. The farm- 

 ers of the United States would pay a large 

 amount of money to get rid of the Hessian 

 fly. Wc live in dread of this fell destroyer 

 every year; sometimes whole crops are 

 destroyed by these pests; 

 for this evil we recom- 

 mend late sowing. An- 

 other evil is the field 

 weevil, of which we had 

 but little for some yeare. 

 Also, smut and rust, 

 from which the wlieat 

 suffers some this year, 

 and is owing, we think, 

 to the wet weather dur- 

 ing the flowering time of 

 the plant. Some think 

 that water lying around 

 the roots is injurious to 

 the plants ; there is a 

 general impression that 

 too much water is injuri- 

 ous to the plants, but the 

 fact of the impression is 

 seUlom felt as it deserves 

 to be; water lying around 

 the roots does not always 

 kill the wheat plant, but 

 many of the plants are 

 injured, and the few that 

 are left are not able to 

 do the work that all were 

 intended for, hence the 

 half-filled grain turns in- 

 to smut. If any one will 

 dig up a wheat plant in 

 the spring, which stood all winter in a wet 

 place, he will readily observe the damage 

 done by water. The English people appear 

 to uiMlt'r.stand this water injury better 

 than wo do, and provide against it ou 

 wheat lands by numerous furrows through 

 wheat lands, it is suppo.sed by many that 

 whether we have a good wheat season or not 

 depends more on the <iuaiitity of rain it gets 

 during its growth than on the condition of the 

 ground and the plants at the time rain falls. 

 If the rain goes away through the ground 

 rapidly it is good for the plants, though in 

 large quantities, but if it lies long it is an in- 

 jury ; thus, if a piece of land is rather flat and 

 the ground is frozen, and stays frozen after 

 the surface has thawed, thereby keeping tlie 

 water from jiassiug away, it proves very detri- 

 mental to the roots and consequent crop. 

 Observation proves that sloping ground, that 

 allows the water to p;iss off, produces the best 

 crops of wheat ; hence we say, that to secure 

 the liest results every precaution should be 

 taken to carry ofl' surplus water from flat 

 lands. There is a prevailing opinion that 

 Pennsylvania is behind the average in the 

 culture of wheat ; and while farmers' clubs 

 and agricultural papers are busy discussing 

 the causes of failure they fail to point out the 

 remedy to recover to us the vantage ground of 



