158 



THE LANCASTER- FARMER. 



[ October, 



tendance. This was agreed to, and the treasurer 

 authorized to procure lamps and oil for the oecasiou. 

 The first meeting will take place the second Friday 

 evening in October next (the 12th,) without further 

 notice. 



Under scientific miscellany, various topics con- 

 nected with matter brought before the meeting was 

 discussed and a pleasant time had. The meeting 

 adjourned to meet statedly on the last Saturday in 

 October, the LiTth, 1877. 



AGRICULTURAL. 



Wheat-Growing in America. 

 " Wheat-growing has not paid on the greater part 

 of the laud in England for some time. It is a ques- 

 tion whether it will more than just pay even at the 

 minimum cost of production, with the aid of the 

 most perfect machinery upon large areas. The cost 

 of production beats the English producer, and the 

 teudencyis rather toward increased expenses, as both 

 laud and labor are getting gradually dearer. The 

 English farmer cannot compete with the colossal 

 corn-growers of America, whose wheat fields of rich 

 virgin soil are said to be sometimes so large and 

 long that ploughing one furrow out and back again 

 is a good day's work for a plough team. The Crimean 

 war had the effect of hastening on this crisis, and 

 Ijrematurely developing the enormous corn produc- 

 tion of the United States. The American scholar, 

 bibliopole, philosopher, George Ticknor, whose let- 

 ters and life form one of the most interesting works 

 of current literature, wrote on this point in 1855, the 

 following prophetic words to John, King of Saxony : 

 'Your short crops in Europe are filling the great val- 

 ley of the Mississippi with wealth. * * * Indeed, 

 your European wars are not only making the States 

 in the valley of the Mississippi the preponderating 

 power in the American Union, but you are making 

 them the granary of the world.' Wonderfully has 

 this prediction been fulfilled. Year by year since 

 the date of those words has the great sea of waving 

 corn steadily advanced through the fertile valleys of 

 the States. It is still advancing, and will advance. 

 We cannot resist it. We must accommodate our- 

 selves to the circumstances as well and as quick- 

 ly as possible, taking the tide at its turn. The 

 transition state will be tedious, and fraught with 

 loss and suffering to many, in various classes of 

 society, and it will be imperative that all concerned 

 should endeavor to use mutual forbearance." The 

 above, from the Agricultural Gazette, is full of sig- 

 nificance to the American farmer. The United 

 States is now the granary of the world, and wher- 

 ever wheat is wanted, there the hungry look to us 

 for a supply. The surplus of America goes to fill 

 all deficiencies in Europe. What we have to do is to 

 cheapen our product, so as to enlarge our profit or 

 enlarge our iiroducts without increasing the cost per 

 bushel, which is the same|thing. To retain a hold 

 upon the markets we have captured we must do 



this. 



^ 



Home Manures. 



A writer in the Utica Herald puts this question in 

 good shape as follows: 



The most successful farmers within the writer's 

 acquaintance are those who make the most home- 

 made manure, who depend mainly upon sod, a heavy 

 turf, which means heavy crops, whether of grass or 

 of grain, if the sod is inverted. Here, all the way 

 from seventy to a hundred tons per acre of rich 

 material is turned down to rot and form pabulum 

 for the crop to succeed, and of a nature exactly 

 suited to plant growth, containing all the properties, 

 being in fact a reproduction in the growth . Here no 

 art is necessary to compost or select for the different 

 soils, adapting manure to ground or product. Sod 

 supplemented by the manure of stables, answers all 

 till! purposes, and is of a high fertility, lacking but 

 little of the highest If the manures are kept under 

 cover so as to retain and concentrate their strength. 

 All the elements are always in good proportion. It 

 only needs applying projjcrly what is made, on all 

 the land, the soil originally (in its mineral composi- 

 tion) not materially defective, which emtiraces most 

 of our drift and all our alluvial soil. And this mode 

 can be pi-osecuted successfully for an indelinite 

 period. We know farms on which it has been prac- 

 ticed, uninterruptedly, for more than thirty years, 

 where adjoining land has been incorporated, some- 

 times of a reduced and almost worthless character, 

 and, in a few years, made as good as the rest, the 

 whole forming the most successful, the most profita- 

 ble farming within the writer's knowledge, continu- 

 ing, unabatedly, its high yields up to the present. 

 We see more or less of this all over our dairy section. 

 It needs but concentration, an adoption of the full 

 method, to reach the highest success in farming; 

 this is because the manure is obtained cheaper, and a 

 full use is made of it — all the land will bear. 



poorer ground the quantity may be decreased. Yet 

 fertile land is desirable for this crop, as well as 

 others, and a dressing of dung or fertilizer will be 

 apt to bring its reward in a thick and luxuriant crop. 

 Hungarian is a more difficult crop to harvest than 

 hay. Always cut during a dry time, if possible, for 

 it will take three good hay days to prepare for the 

 barn. We do not always, however, have our choice, 

 for as the crop ripens very rapidly, and should be cut 

 when just in blossom, a little delay at the critical time, 

 in order to secure favorable weather, is apt to result 

 in over-ripening, or the formation of seed. Dead-ripe 

 Hungarian is poor stuff for food, and may even act 

 as poison, or at least as an injurious food, when fed 

 to horses, and hence it is preferable to harvest rather 

 early than too late." This is good advice ; but better 

 advice would be to substitute an .acreor two of sugar 

 corn, sowu broadcast. For fall food it comes just in 

 the nick of time ; or to cut for fodder just before it 

 gets into tassel, and curing it for winter feeding. It 

 is relished exceedingly by cattle, and especially so 

 by horses, and is very wholesome. The fodder crop 

 of corn, when Lucerne and Hungarian grass is under 

 consideration, should always be borne in mind and 

 allowed its full weight. 



Soiling Doubles the Acreage. 



The American farmer has a great desire to increase 

 his .area of land. He can seldom resist the tempta- 

 tion to add his neighbor's farm if opportunity offers. 

 But how mnch better for him to double the produc- 

 tion instead of the acres. And as stock-keeping is 

 necessary to increasing fertility, the soiling system 

 will enable him to double his number of animals, and 

 _ thus double the paying product of his farm. One 

 acre of good grass, well cured into hay, will winter 

 a cow in the latitude where the cold term requiring 

 fodder lasts half of the year, and yet, in that same 

 latitude, it takes on the average three acres to pas- 

 ture a cow during the warm season, although the 

 German chemist Wolff found 46 per cent, of insoluble 

 fiber in clover hay, and only 29 per cent, in green 

 clover, thus showing a still greater loss by pasturing. 

 If, then, one-half acre in good condition will furnish 

 green food for a cow during the pasturing season, 

 and one acre for the winter season, it will be found 

 that a proper management of land under the soiling 

 system will enable a dairyman to keep two cows upon 

 the same land that now keeps one. In many portions 

 of Germany this statement has been more than real- 

 ized, as a little ten acre farm often feeds ten cows. 



HORTICULTURAL. 



Liquid Excrement. 



How strangely we overlook the liquid excrement 

 of our animals ! A cow, under ordinary feeding, will 

 void 20,000 pounds of solid excrement and 8,000 

 pounds of liquid. The comparative mouey value of 

 the two is but slightly in favor of the solid. This 

 statement has been verified as truth, over and over 

 again. The urine of herbivorous animals holds nearly 

 all the secretions of the body which are capable of 

 producing rich nitrogenous compounds so essential 

 as forcing or leaf-forming agents in the growth of 

 plants. The solid holds the phosphoric acid, the 

 lime and magnesia, which go to the seeds principally, 

 but the liquid, holding nitrogen, potash and soda, is 

 needed in forming the stalks and leaves. The two 

 forms of plant nutriment should never be separated 

 or allowed to be wasted liy neglect. The farmer who 

 saves all the urine of his animals doubles his manu- 

 rial resources every year. Good seasoned peat is of 

 immense service to farmers, when used as au absorb- 

 ent, and the stalls of the animals should be so con- 

 structed as to admit of a wide passage iu the rear, 

 with generous room for the peat to be used daily with 

 the excrements. — Journal of Chemistry. 



Hints to Growers of Tobacco. 



From a reliable and authentic source (Deutsche 

 Industrie Blatter, Germany,) we take the account of 

 experiments which have been made in some of the 

 tobacco producing districts of Germany (Schlesien 

 and Pflatz) with decided success. At the time the 

 plant is ready for cutting, judgment should be used 

 in determining the body and texture the leaves pos- 

 sess at such time. If the leaf should be of a weak 

 character, the whole stalk, including the root, should 

 be extracted and nailed or hung up in the barns with 

 the tips of the leaves hanging downward. This will 

 greatly benefit the leaves, as the sap contained iu the 

 root and stalk will gradually diffuse itself into the 

 leaves, and add considerable to their strength and 

 the coming sweating process. If, on the other hand, 

 the leaves should be of a thick, heavy character, 

 then only the leaves should be cut and hung up. 

 This will reduce the surplus of sap, deprive the leaf 

 of too great an accumulation of strength, and turn 

 it out a thinner and more of a desirable texture after 

 sweating. 



^ 



Hungarian Grass. Poj; promoting the fertility of fruit trees, root 



The Scientific Fanner, Boston, has a good word pruning is an operation now generally restored to. If 

 for Hungarian grass, saying: "We recommend a properly carried out it is, perhaps, the most certain 

 bushel of seed to the acre, on rich ground. On ( way to reduce a luxuriant tree to a fruitful state. 



The Original Seckel Pear Tree. 

 Mr. Editor : The old tree, the source from which 

 sprang this well-known and world-renowned variety, 

 I visited last week and fouud still standing and bear- 

 ing fruit. It is on the Girard estate, east of the 

 Point Breeze Park, iu the lower part of the city of 

 Phil.adelphia, and to this tree we are indebted for our 

 Seckel Pear, so widely disseminated over the world 

 and acknowledged to be the standard of quality in 

 testing other varieties. It is the richest and most 

 exquisitely flavored pear known. Samples sent to 

 Europe by Dr. Hosack in 1819 were pronounced by 

 the London Horticultural Society to exceed iu flavor 

 the richest of their autumn pears. The old pear tree 

 must be between 125 and 1:^0 years old, for fruit has 

 been gathered from it (according to the following 

 account published in Downing's "Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of America," compiled in 1845) for from 110 

 to 112 years. 



"The following history may be relied oh as authen- 

 tic," says Downing, "it having been related by the 

 late venerable Bishop White, whose tenacity of 

 memory was well known. About eighty years ago, 

 when the Bishop was a lad, there was a well-known 

 sportsman and cattle dealer in Philadelphia known 

 as 'Dutch Jacob.' Every season, early in the autumn 

 on returniug from his shooting excursions, 'Dutch 

 Jacob' regaled his neighbors with pears of an 

 unusually delicious flavor, the secret of whose place 

 of growth, however, he would never satisfy their 

 curiosity Ijy divulging. At length the Holland Land 

 Company, owning a considerable tract of land south 

 of the city, disposed of it in parcels and 'Dutch 

 Jacob' then secured the ground on which his favor- 

 ite pear tree stood, a fine strip of land near the 

 Delaware. Not long afterward it became the farm 

 of Mr. Seckel, who introduced this remarkable fiuit 

 to public notice, and it received his name. After- 

 ward the property was added to the vast estate of 

 the late Stephen Girard." 



The old tree is about thirty feet in height and two 

 feet iu diameter. The trunk is much decayed in the 

 heart and one side is entirely gone. When I visited 

 it some twelve or fifteen years ago it had a fence 

 aroimd it and a stout prop put on the decayed side to 

 -support it; but now, to the disgrace of the pomolo- 

 gists aud city officials there is not a rail to protect 

 and preserve this grand old pear tree, which still 

 bears fruit and may with care survive for many 

 years. — S. W. jV., Jenkintown, 1877, North American. 



^ 



Grafting and Its Effects. 

 It has long been a debatable question among horti- 

 culturalistsas to what influence, if any, the graft 

 exerts upon the stock, or the stock upon the graft, in 

 their after growth and development. While it is 

 claimed by some that there is no change, but that the 

 growth from the graft retains all its distinctive 

 characteristics of variety of foliage, fruit and flavor, 

 aud that the stock below the graft also remaine uu- 

 changed, others believe that changes do occur in both 

 directions. The latter opinion is probably correct; 

 for, although both graft and stock retain their origi- 

 nal and individual characteristics, there are often 

 evidences that each has in some way been influenced 

 or modified in growth or habit by the action of the 

 other. Cases have been reported \yhere varieties of 

 apples and other fruits have been apparently affected 

 both in Havor and time of ripening by the influence 

 of the stocks upon which they have been grafted. As 

 it is a well-known fact among nurserymen that apple 

 trees grafted upon seedling stocks not only follow the 

 habit .and form of variety in the top growth, but that 

 the roots growing from the stock also assume the 

 habits and distinctive peculiarities of the graft. So, 

 if a lot of apple seedlings, as nearly .alike as possible 

 in size and habits of growth, are selected and grafted 

 with, say crabs, and other kinds of apples, it will be 

 found in their after growth that the crabs have their 

 usual crab roots, and also that where any other va- 

 rieties have peculiarities in their root growth, they 

 will be so perfectly developed iu the different kinds 

 that skillful nurserymen will select and recognize 

 them by their roots alone. For these and some other 

 reasons I am inclined to doubt the entire success of 

 grafting the foreign vine upon our hardier natives as 

 a remedy for the injury to the roots by the phylloxera. 



Salt as a Fertilizer. 

 Only yesterday, says a correspondent of the Utica 

 Herald, one of our most intelligeut and successful 

 farmers informed me that when he took possession, 

 some years ago, of the farm which he now works, he 

 found it impossible to raise good oats; 30 bushels of 

 poor light oats were all he could get from an acre, 

 while his straw was dull or rusty. Acting on the 

 advice of a friend he salted an acre liberally as an 

 experiment. The result was the corn nearly doubled 

 on that acre and the rust disappeared, while the un- 

 saUed portions of his oat field were rusty, and the 

 crop hardly worth harvesting. 



Si» quai-ts of soot to a hogshead of water makes a 

 serviceable manure for watering forced plants— as 

 well as for most bulbs, flowering plants and shrubs. 



