152 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



the past. It is argued that our soil is ex- 

 hausted, lacking that essential which feeds 

 and develops the kernel to a marked degree, 

 and that the land should have rest, so as again 

 to recuperate this kernel-developing element. 

 The idea that land must have rest, the same 

 as a horse, is erroneous, but land must be fed 

 as well as a horse to become strong, or a cow 

 to give good milk. 



One hundred years ago more rye was sown 

 than wheat, and rye bread and rye coftee was 

 used by the best of farmers ; some fanners 

 had but half an acre in wheat, and the balance 

 of the best land in rye, the wheat always being 

 raised by good cultivation and good ploughing, 

 (not with "an ox and ass together," Dent. 

 22:10, which was forbidden in" the old law). 

 In our day the ass is often at the plough. We 

 read much about ploughing in the good book, 

 and also about plough-shares; so they must 

 have had iron shares at that time or they 

 would not have been ordered to beat them into 

 swords. I have seen wooden ploughs, with 

 but very little iron on them, in fact no iron 

 shares at all ; and wooden pins in the harrows, 

 yet with such rude instruments I have seen 

 good crops of wheat raised, as good as at the 

 present day. In the vicinity of Mt. Joy, 40 

 years ago, 42 and 52 bushels of wheat and rye, 

 respectively, were raised ; it keeps us busy to 

 do it now. The best way to cultivate wheat 

 in limestone soil is to plough well — not too 

 soon after harvest — land medium dry ; have 

 the grass well turned under, if cloddy ; roll 

 well and break the clods, and cultivate with 

 shovel-harrow, as we call it, and follow with 

 the harrow and drag ; then sow from 1 J to 2 

 bushels per acre, not over three inches in the 

 ground and not too close in the furrow, on or 

 soon after the 20th of September, to avoid the 

 fly ; be careful to have the land in proper con- 

 dition to receive the grain, which is medium 

 dry ; sooner wait two weeks than make a mis- 

 take in this matter ; and if there is manure 

 and lime in the soil and no providential inter- 

 vention you are sure of good crops of wheat. 

 C4ood judgmeni is necessary in the cultivation 

 of loose gravel or sandy soil ; it must not be 

 too loose for wheat ; the farmer should there- 

 fore be careful to roll it well before seeding, 

 and forty bushels to the acre will be the result 

 of his pains. 



About the year 1816 seven hundred bushels 

 of wheat was raised on a 14 acre field — sur- 

 veyor's measuie — on the farm now owned by 

 Mr. Benj. Hershey, one mile east of Mt. Joy; 

 the kind was red beardy wheat ; the farm was 

 then owned by Mr. Alexander Patterson. We 

 might here go into a chemical analysis of the 

 kernel of wheat, the male and female plant, 

 how different kinds may be propagated, and 

 the element in the soil that germinates and 

 carries to perfection this most important 

 cereal. Whatever this principle is is of no 

 consequence ; what you want to know is, how 

 to produce perpetual good crops of wheat, 

 which lesson is summed up in a few words, 

 after having carefully observed the rules al- 

 ready given you as to drainage, land, cultiva- 

 tion and seed time, together with prime, full- 

 grown seed sown; use plentifully of that most 

 potent and infallible agent for the propaga- 

 tion of any of the cereals — lime and well pre- 

 pared stable manure. 



' ^ 



For The Lancaster Farmeb. 

 ITALIAN vs. BLACK BEES. 



After a trial of two years I would add my 

 experience to the conflicting testimony con- 

 cerning the superiority or inferiority of the 

 Italian compared with the black bees. 



I have always been skeptical when hearing 

 reports in praise of the Italians, believing 

 them to come from queen propagators, whose 

 interest might have influenced their judgment. 

 After a careful comparison of the two varie- 

 ties in the same apiary, for two years, I am 

 satisfied the Italians have some advantages. 

 The most prominent difference is that the 

 Italians are more docile. Within a month or 

 two, since the stocks have become strong and 

 the hives full of honey, a time when bee's are 

 always more diflicult to manage, this has been 

 particularly noticeable. 



In going over the hives, with the work of 

 exchanging and arranging the combs, after 

 having opened a number of Italian hives I 

 would approach a stock of blacks without 

 noticing or thinking of them being dift'erent, I 

 would blow in a few whiffs of smoke and pro- 

 ceed to open the hive, as I had been doing, when 

 the black rascals would i)our out at every 

 ojiening and sting me through the clothing, so 

 that I would be compelled to retreat until they 

 had become somewhat quiet. Had I noticed 

 they were black bees, in such cases, and this 

 has occurred several times with me, I would 

 have given them treble the amoimt of smoke 

 and seen that they had "given up" before 

 opening the hive. I have frequently opened 

 Italian hives without smoke or protection, at 

 times when honey was plenty in the fields, a 

 thing I never attempted with the black bees. 



Tills difference in docility would not be a 

 matter of much consequence to the man who 

 has his bees in box-hives and only ai)proaches 

 them when he wants honey; but to the prac- 

 tical apicnlturist it is of great importance, be- 

 cause it saves him much time and trouble. I 

 have found, however, that when the Italians 

 are once made thoroughly cross they are more 

 diflicult to master than the blacks. 



They are more persistent when robbing, as 

 they are in stinging when cross, and this 

 characteristic makes them more energetic in 

 obtaining stores from flowers; but this differ- 

 ence is not so great, I think, as has been repre- 

 sented. I cannot perceive any difference in 

 the hardinesss of the two varieties. The Ital- 

 ians seem to be more prolific, but probably do 

 not live so long. The bright color of the 

 queens makes them more easily distinguished 

 when among the workers,a fact which would be 

 of some advantage to those who do much at 

 artificial swarming. The Italians are a trifle 

 larger when bred in combs of their own build- 

 ing. — W. P. Bolton, Liberty Square, Lancaster 

 county. Pa., Oct. 8, 1877. 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 FORESTS— THEIR DESTRUCTION AND 

 RESTORATION. 



This is one of the most vital questions now 

 arising in the United States of North Amer- 

 ica; and especially since our people are be- 

 coming (as the saying is) a "fast people," in 

 everything they undertake. Forty years ago, 

 it took a man, with a good horse under him, 

 about a day and a-half to go to Philadelphia 

 from Lancaster, but now he can reach that 

 city in less than three hours. To haul a load 

 of flour to the same place it then took three 

 days, but now that feat can be accomplished 

 in less than four hoiu"s by steam. It required 

 two weeks to carry a load of goods to Pitts- 

 burg, but now it only requires a day and 

 a-half. It took one week to convey a letter 

 by mail from New York to Washington, but 

 now it only takes five hours, and messages by 

 telegraph only five minutes; and to Euroi)e 

 it required from three to six months, but now 

 messages may be sent there in thh-ty minutes. 



.lust so, in proportion, has the destruction 

 of forest timbers increased in forty years. It 

 is just about forty years since steam naviga- 

 tion was first introduced, and railroads and 

 steamboats have been rapidly increasing in 

 their time-tables down to 1873. 



Very few people are able to realize the im- 

 mense destruction and consumption of our 

 native forests annually, and that the demand 

 for lumber for building purposes, railroad ties 

 and fuel is far in excess of the annual growth 

 of timber trees. For railroad ties alone, the 

 country requires annually about 04,500,000 

 cubic feet, equal to 738,500 cords of wood, to 

 supply which, at least 2,000,000 cords of 

 standing timber have to be cut down. The 

 annual yield of forest timber is about fifty 

 cords to the acre, so that about 40,000 acres 

 of woodland are annually cleared, to supply 

 our railroads with ties. Railroad building is 

 still increasing, notwithstanding the depres- 

 sion of the times. About 50,000,000 cords of 

 wood, demanding perhaps 600,000 acres of 

 woodlands, are annually consumed for fuel. 

 Many engines on raih-oads remotely situated 



from coal mines, use wood altogether for fuel. 

 The New York Central is, and always has 

 been, tlie greatest timber destroyer in the 

 United States. It employed one and two en- 

 gines constantly, in bringing ties and fuel for 

 that road alone, destroying hundreds of acres 

 of timber to meet its demands. The southern 

 and western railroads use wood, almost ex- 

 clusively, for fuel. 



There are over sixty occupations enumera- 

 ted in the census of 1.S70 which depend wholly, 

 or in part, upon wood as their raw material, in 

 manufactures and in commerce, employing a 

 total of 476,985 working men, and most of 

 them use engines as a motor power to conduct 

 their business. Perhaps more than 2,000,000 

 ojieratives of all kinds find employment in the 

 whole business, composing the following 

 trades : Carpenters, 242,950; coflin makers, 

 7,000; cabinet makers, 29,225; chair makers. 

 0,340; sawyers, 15,000; mill-wrights, 9,063; 

 ship-carpenters, 13,397; coopers, 43,625; 

 wheelwrights, 32,695; piano makers, 2,578 

 and coachmakers, 19,180; thus proceeding 

 until the sixty classes are named, and besides 

 those enumerated add fencing for 3,000,000 

 farms. 25,000,000 acres of woodland were de- 

 stroyed to fence the country, and it requires 

 3,000,000 of acres annually to keei) the fences 

 in repair. The total annual consumption of 

 forest is about 5,500,000 acres. Om- forest 

 lands have already been denuded of timber 

 in an amount equivalent to the product of 

 380,000,000 acres, and at the present rate of 

 consumption it will take less than seventy-five 

 years to exhaust the whole. The annual 

 consumption of the country is 20,000,000,000 

 feet, representing 2,000,000 acres. 



The question of f oresty in Lancaster county 

 is perhaps treated as being premature, like 

 the man who himself feels comfortably warm, 

 and imagines everybody else to feel the same. 

 We may have at present for immediate use 

 timber enough, and from om- proximity to 

 rich coal fields, may enjoy cheap fuel for rnany 

 years to come, but we cannot all live in east- 

 ern Pennsylvania or Lancaster county. A 

 western man came here recently from one of 

 the prairie States, whose ancestors had lived 

 m Lancaster county. He frequently remark- 

 ed to his friends, that they should thank God 

 that they could live in Lancaster county. 

 Many of the western States have a rich soil, 

 but they are almost timberless for miles on 

 miles, and especially in Nebraska for nearly 

 two hundred miles along the Platte river. 

 All those States are now beginning to till up 

 very fast, and will be compelled to draw on 

 the eastern States for timber and lumber for 

 building purposes. The central Pacific States 

 for hundreds of miles have nothing but sage 

 bush. 



At one time, Pennsylvania was considered 

 a great timber State, but its timber is fast 

 disappearing from the northern and western 

 regions of the State, and it will require ages 

 to replace the slow growiog pines and other 

 timber trees, and consequently timber will 

 never again become cheap for building pur- 

 poses after the present decade. The timber 

 question is therefore one of great importance 

 to our country. We have many farms that 

 are entirely treeless, not even a shade tree in 

 the fields for the protection of men and beasts, 

 much less as harbors for the birds. Let us 

 then become informed on the subject of for- 

 estry, and give some attention to it, and it 

 seems to me that now is the time to com- 

 mence gathering seeds and nuts of forest trees. 

 All nuts, incluiiiug acorns, should be planted 

 in the fall, or buried near the surface of the 

 ground in the fall and taken out early in the 

 s])ring, and planted in rows in the nursery, 

 although occasionally nuts may grow when 

 planted in the spring. I obtained two large 

 "shell-barks" last spring, which were on ex- 

 liiliition on the Centemiial grounds, which I 

 planted in April, first partially cracking them, 

 and to my great surprise they both grew, and 

 one of them is at this time over a foot high. 

 I planted walnuts in 1875 and they did not 

 come up until the spring of 1877, but they 

 were in a very dry state when I planted them. 



