168 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ November, 



HUBBARDSTON NON-SUCH. 

 This apple is a iJiie, large winter fruit, 

 which originated in Ilubbardston, Massachu- 

 setts, and is of excellent quality. The tree is 

 vigorous and bears very -abundantly, and is 

 worthy of extensive culture. Fruit large, 

 roundish-oblong ; skin smooth, witli irregular 

 broken stripes of bright and pale red, which 

 nearly cover a yellow ground ; flesh yellow, 

 tender, juicy and highly flavored. Almost any 

 any of tlie nurseries in this county now can fur- 

 nish it in quantity. It is prominently inserted 

 in Elwanger & Barry's list of winter apples 

 for 1877-8, as a strong grower and great 

 bearer ; in quality fine, tender and juicy, and 

 ripen well from November to January, but, 

 with proper care, may be kept until late in 

 the spring, without loosing much of its flavor. 

 There is nothing that grows on a tree, that 

 may propely be denominated "/ruit" that is 

 more generous to the taste, more grateful to 

 the sight, and more healthful to the human 

 constitution — and none that retains those 

 qualities for a longer period — than a good, 

 well-developed apple ; and the subject of our 

 illustration will compare favorably with the 

 best of them ; and especially in its prolific 

 character, although, in other respects, it may 

 have its superiors. Prolific bearing, hardiness, 

 constancy and good flavor are qualities in an 

 apple of the first consideration. 



AROUND THE FARM. 

 No. 3. 



A short time ago I was vis- 

 iting at a place when the fol- 

 lowing conversation occurred 

 between father and son: 

 "Where isthe hatchet, John?" 

 "I don't know, father, unless 

 it is in the barn." The father 

 spent five minutes in a fruit- 

 less search at the barn. "Per- 

 haps it is at the hog-stye, you 

 had it to nail that door." Off 

 he hies to the hog-stye and 

 makes another fruitless search 

 of five minutes. After study- 

 ing three minutes more it oc- 

 curred to him that he used it 

 in the cow stable last, and 

 after five minutes more he se- 

 cured the hatchet. The calcu- 

 lating reader will observe the 

 father lost eighteen minutes 

 in hunting that hatchet, which 

 a man can ill aflbrd at certain 

 times. Many people suppose 

 the time consumed in return- 

 ing tools to a fixed place every 

 time they are done using them 

 is lost, but the above actual 

 occurrence proves it to be otherwise. Now, 

 I repeat what I have often said, that on 

 the farm there should be "a place for every- 

 thing and everything in place. " There is no 

 use to carry on farming or any other business 

 well without some system and order. And 

 the care of tools is a part of that system. We 

 can not accomplish much on a farm without 

 some tools larger or smaller, and to be hunt- 

 ing them every time you need them is a waste 

 of time you can ill aflbrd. In some future 

 time I may describe an ideal shop and the 

 manner of arranging the tools to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



Care of Horses. 



Our horses are sometimes very ill treated in 

 the fiill. After work is over they are cut down 

 in their feed or turned in an old pasture to 

 shift for themselves. This should not be. 

 Ingratitude to our fellow-men is justly con- 

 sidered an odious vice ; but is there not often 

 a strong taint of it also in the treatment of 

 our farm animals, to whose help, in all kinds 

 of drudgery, farmers are so deeply indebted 

 for full barns and comfortable homes ? Would 

 it not be better to give them enough to eat 

 and a warm, comfortable place to sleep in, 

 than to let them stand shivering in the cold, 

 with not enough to eat to keep them in good 

 condition ? Let common sense give the 

 answer. 



Grindstones. 

 Few implements are more necessary on a 

 farm than a good grindstone. It is therefore 

 necessary that every farmer should possess 

 one iind know how to take care of it. Always 

 keep your grindstones under cover, as the 

 sun's rays liarden the grit and injure the 

 frame. Do not let it stand in water, as it 

 causes soft places. Clean all rusty or greasy 

 tools, as rust or grease choke the grit ; also, 

 keep the stone perfectly round. According 

 to my experience the above rules must be ob- 

 served in order to keep the grindstone in 

 order. — Ruralist, Crestvell, Pa.^ Nov. 5, 1877. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN FARMING— VA- 

 RIETIES AND METHODS. 



In years past, when mechanical and indus- 

 trial arts wei'e making huge strides, the farm- 

 ing world seemed to be at neaily a stand-still, 

 or if any improvements were really being 

 made it was only the few that took advantage — 

 the many looked on with apathy — the ways of 

 their fatliers being trood enough for the sons. 

 This state of affairs contiiuied until the eyes 

 of many were opened to tlie fact that some 

 improvement had to be adopted or farming 

 and horticulture would not pay any profits, in 

 some cases not even cover expenses. 



The styles of improvement presented them- 

 selves ; improving the number of staples ; the 

 producing capacity of the soil itself; improv- 



ing the methods of culture ; increasing and 

 improving the varieties of grains and fruits 

 already existing, or better still, raising new 

 and improved varieties. 



Adopting either one of these would natur- 

 ally show some advance, but the adoption of 

 tlie three has done wonders. Among other 

 things it has made farming a surer business, 

 for though we may not as yet exceed the 

 crops that were sometimes raised when the 

 soil was yet virgin, yet we raise them as large 

 now, and the average is [higher. The farmers' 

 and fruit rajsers' only dread now being a totally 

 unfavorable season. 



The improvement of the soil in the older j 

 settled parts of the country has been very 

 great. In this part of Lancaster county, for 

 instance, the land, of what is known as 

 Turkey Hill, was obtainable as low as ten to 

 fifteen dollars an acre, and was dear at that, 

 as very slim crops rewarded the husbandmen; 

 the greater part of the land lay in commons, 

 not being deemed sufficiently productive to 

 warrant fencing it in ; the application of lime 

 to a small tract here and there improved the 

 yield so much that it led people to the con- 

 clusion that the soil might be brought up to a 

 paying standard ; from that time to this, with 

 the help of manure, the upward progress has 

 been steady and continual, until now it is all 

 fenced and cut up into mostly small farms. 



Strange as it may seem, this soil that was not 

 thought fit at one time to raise wheat, now 

 brings good crops of this cereal, which are 

 greatly noted for quality, the prices brought 

 always being at the top of the market rates. 

 I believe millers claim for it that it has a very 

 thin skin, makes more flour and less offal than 

 wheat from other parts of the country. The 

 weight also is greater than is usually found to 

 be the case from the naturally stronger soils, 

 sixty-three and sixty-four pounds to the 

 bushel being not uncommon. 



In other parts of the country the progress 

 has been perhaps greater, but tlie above was 

 given to show what a soil, once supposed to 

 be nearly sterile, is capable of being made by 

 a systematic and continual course of improve- 

 ment. 



The methods of cultivation and improve- 

 ment in farming implements have more than 

 kept pace with the improvements of the soil. 

 In place of the olden wooden plow, or per- 

 haps shovel plow of early times, we now have 

 plows of iron or steel that do the work in a 

 style and manner that would have been as- 

 cribed by our forefathers to witchcraft. After 

 the plowing came the sowing and planting 

 machines, whicli save a third of the seed over 

 the slow hand method, and do it with an 

 evenness that would be attained by a machine 

 only. The sickle and scythe is cast aside and 

 horses now rush through our grain and grass 

 fields dragging machines that 

 complete tlie work at one 

 operation of a half a score of 

 laborers. Instead of the slow 

 hoe a span of horses is taken 

 and our corn worked on both 

 sides as fast iis a man can 

 walk. Very few can use the 

 flail now-a-days as it was used 

 not very many years ago, 

 when often a gang of three 

 struck in together ; nor do 

 we see the farmers' horses 

 walking round and round on 

 the barn floor, knee deep in 

 straw, treading out the grain ; 

 now we use steam machinery 

 that will thrash out as much 

 in one hour as would thirty 

 years ago have taken a man 

 a whole week with a flail. So 

 it is in all departments of 

 farming, wherever a labor- 

 saving machine can be made 

 A iK to work, and at the present 



^ w outlook it seems as though, 



L^ w in a few years, there would 



kk 4S remain but few operations 



that must be done by the slow 

 hand-process. 

 Variety is the spice of life, is the old see- 

 saw, and we would add another : Variety is 

 the life of farming. Many who read The 

 Farmer can remember the time when for 

 this part of the country the staple crops on 

 which the farmer depended for money were 

 rye, oats, corn, some wheat and occasionally 

 potatoes, the latter being considered too bulky 

 to be profitable, except along some water 

 highway. Tobacco was confined to Virginia ; 

 now it is farmed as far north as Connecticut, 

 and as far west as the Mississippi. Kice was 

 confined to South Carolina ; now it is culti- 

 vated in all the Southern States bordering on 

 the ocean and gulf Sugar and molasses was 

 nearly a monopoly with Louisiana ; now it is . 

 raised (but not cane) as far north as Illinois, 

 and spreading year by year ; so with many 

 other crops that were at one time thought to 

 be only profitable in certain restricted sections, 

 are now found to be paying in other parts of 

 our country ; and new ones have been added, 

 such as castor bean, oranges and lemons; 

 tropical fruits for Florida, Louisiana and 

 California ; grapes and wines over at least 

 three-fourths of the country, the latter being 

 equal to foreign, and in most cases superior to 

 the imported. And why should we not raise 

 a variety with the diversity of soils, the ex- 

 tent of couuti7 and the bright suns we have ; 

 indeed, our hot mid-summer sun makes our 



