1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



187 



kind of breathing. But in the "Watcr-ti^'er" 

 its gills are jilaccd near its tail ; it talccs in 

 water there through an opening, and I'orces it 

 out again, and that is its way of breathing. 

 IJul this o|Knin>; an.swcrs another imrpose. 

 The animal erawls (luite slowly, and as it is a 

 great feeder it would not get much food did it 

 depend solely upon its legs. If you wateh one 

 of them in seareh of food you will 1)e surprised 

 to see the sluggish fellow dart for its prey with 

 the greatest speed, and this motion is one of 

 the many strange tilings about the ereaturo. 

 Ordiuarfly the water passes out of the open- 

 ing in the tail ipiitc slowly, but, when neces- 

 sary, the inseet can foree the water out with 

 a sudden srpurt, and that pushes it along 

 Ihrougli the water willi great swiftness, upon 

 the same prineiple tiiat a roeket is sent 

 through tlll^ air. Not less curious are the ar- 

 rangements at the otiier end of the insect— at 

 the head. As usually seen, it appears a 

 <iuiet and rather harndess looking larva. But 

 let a small insect or other animal come within 

 reach and, presto, the mild looking fellows 

 shows a savage pair of pincers and becomes 

 a very tigerish animal. This arrangement for 

 taking its prey is called a "mask," and when 

 not in use is bent down under the head of the 

 insect, and quite out of sight ; it is so ar- 

 ranged that whatever is caught by the jaws 

 of this mask is brought, when that is folded 

 \uider, right opposilc the true mouth 

 of the insect, where it can be eaten. 

 These Water-tigers not only prey upon other 

 water insects, but even devour small ti.shes, and 

 seem to live only to destroy and eat other 

 living things. They go on feeding and grow- 

 ing, some one year, and some, it is said, for 

 two years, when the time conies for them to 

 change to perfect insects— to leave the water, 

 and begin a new life in the air. You know 

 that when caterpillars and most other insects 

 —as 1 have shown you on several occasions — 

 make this change, they go into the pupal 

 state, and either spin a cocoon, or form a 

 chrysalis in some way, remaining apparently 

 lifeless for some time, and at length break 

 their enclosing shell or skin, and come out a 

 perfect butterfly, moth or beetle. But the 

 Dragon-tlies are quite too busy to keep still, 

 and even in the pupal state are as lively and 

 greedy as ever. They change their skin, and 

 show a hump, where their future wings will 

 be, and the eyes of the perfect insect may be 

 seen under the skin, but as to keeping quiet, 

 it doesn't know how. At last its time comes, 

 and the i)ui)al crawls up the stem of some 

 plant, and leaves the water forever. Instead 

 of breathing the water through its tail, it 

 now has to breathe air through openings in its 

 sides, and instead of propelling itself, rocket- 

 like, through the water, it has lo dart through 

 the air, and for this it mvist have wing.s. All 

 these are provided. The pupal skin at last 

 bursts, and the perfect Dragon-fly slowly pulls 

 itself out. At first the wings are damp, limp 

 and useless, but they gradually spread and 

 iliy_and what beautiful win^s they are 1 They 

 are worth a close examination ; see the deli- 

 cate framework, so eiu-iously netted, with a 

 beautiful membrane lilling the spaces between; 

 this is wonderfully thin and transparent, and 

 the light often plays on it with rainbow colors. 

 Can anything be more complete than this 

 transformation— from an ugly inhabitant of 

 muddy water, to a light and graceful creature 

 of the air 1 But there is one thing which the 

 Dragon-fly does not leave behind him with the 

 remains of its former life— he has his appetite, 

 and skims away through the air devouring 

 other insects, quite as effectively, as it did 

 l)efore as a ''Water-tiger." There is one 

 thing about the perfect insect you will not 

 fail to notice— that is the great eyes, or rather 

 masses of eyes, as the microscope shows them 

 to be ; these, while the insect is alive, have 

 lieautiful colors ; besides these, there are three 

 little single eyes, usually placed in a row on 

 the front of the head. So far from the Dragon- 

 Hies being dangerous, we may look upon them 

 as not only harmless, but so far as they de- 

 stroy mosquitoes, as really beneficial insects — 

 at any rate, I hope that I have shown you that 

 they are really interesting ones. I have said 



nothing alwut the scientific names of these 

 insects, there being several ditlorent genera, 

 or kinds, and only those who study entomolo- 

 gy will care to know the systematic names, 

 but it is well to know that these belong to the 

 division or sub-order NeurnjUcra, which means 

 uerved-winged, and includes, iH-sides tlio 

 Dragon-tlies, the May-tlies, the I^cc-wings, 

 and' besides others, the Caddis-flies, one of 

 which I told you about, as the iuscct that 

 builds a stone-house. —vlmericau vl;/nci(/(i/nxf. 



CURING MEATS. 

 In culling up pork, if wanted for family 

 use, take out the chine or back bono the whole 

 length ; if too fat, a tip may Ik? cut oil' this 

 and made into lard. To avoid waste, the bone 

 of the ham should be cut out through with a 

 saw just below the joint, and then the ham 

 should be nicely shaped out with the knife. 

 Cut the shoulder off, three or four ribs wide, 

 and if small, it may be cured with the ribs on, 

 to good advantage. Take all the ribs oft the 

 sides, after which they can be made into lard, 

 sausage, bacon— as you may wish. Should 

 you have more bones than you can use while 

 fresh, make a weak pickle of 4 gallons water, 

 5 lbs. salt, 2 07,. of .saltpetre, and one pound 

 browu sugar. This will do for 100 lbs. of 

 meat, and keep it sweet till warm weather. 

 Cut your chines, ribs and pieces for bacon 

 into pieces of convenient size,anddrop loosely 

 into this pickle, taking care to keep them cov- 

 ered. After standing six weeks or two 

 months, pour oft" the pickle ; boil and skim till 

 clear, and put back on the meat when cold. 

 This makes meat of delicious quality for boil- 

 ing, superior to ordinary pickled pork. For 

 pickling pork, cover the bottom of the tub 

 with coarse Turk's Island salt, and pack the 

 meat on edge, then enough salt to entirely 

 cover the meat, and then another layer, till 

 you have it all in. Make a pickle as strong as 

 possible, and pour on the meat till covered, 

 but not to rise above the salt. Keep the 

 pickle entirely covered with salt, or it will 

 become tainted. It is important to use a 

 sweet, clean tub. One in which beef has been 

 cured will not do,as it will soon taint the pickle. 

 Should the weather be warm and the hogs 

 heavy, they should be cut in two lengthwise, 

 as soon as possible after dressing, as the 

 shoulders often taint before they can get 

 thoroughly cooled. 1 have heard people won- 

 der why their shoulders did not cure well, as 

 they had taken great pains with their meat, 

 when the real truth was, the meat was in- 

 j ured before it was put into the pickle. Hams 

 and shoulders should be taken out of pickle 

 and repacked at the end of two weeks, as the 

 pickle will become quite fresh near the meat 

 as the salt is absorbed. The great desidera- 

 tum is to get the bone and joint well cured, 

 and then you will always have good bacon. 



Cut the fat into small pieces, and have your 

 iron kettle thoroughly cleaned) ; put in a pan 

 of the cut fat, and start a slow fire under it. 

 When it begins to melt add more fat and stir 

 it, but do not have the fire very hot ; as soon 

 as the fat becomes clear, and cracklings are a 

 light brown, begin to dip out and strain into 

 vessels. If on tin keep them in cold water to 

 prevent the solder from being melted. Bear 

 in mind that lard only needs to be melted, not 

 cooked, and the less it is heated the whiter 

 and harder it will be. 



Every one knows how to make sausage, but 

 few have any good rule for seasoning it ; here 

 is a good one : To 40 pounds of meat add J 

 of a poimd of salt ; i of a pound of black 

 pepper ; if red pepper and sage are wanted 

 add them to taste, but I tliink it better with- 

 oui them. To cure a beef's liver choose a red 

 one of fine grain, lay in on a large meat di.sh, 

 and sprinkle it daily with a mi.xture of salt, 

 sugar and saltpetre ; each day pour oft the 

 blood and wash the liver, and again sprinkle 

 with the mixture ; do this daily nine times, 

 then hanf it up to dry. Shaved thin and 

 cooked vPMi butter and cream, it is delicious. 

 One pound of salt, i ounce of saltpetre (fine), 

 and i cupful of pulverized sugar will cure a 

 liver of 20 pounds weight.— Co«»<ri/ Oenlhman. 



OUR LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



Proceedings of the Lancaster County Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural Society. 

 Ttie repiiliir iiirMitlily iinTtiiii; (if the I.aii^asti'r 

 County A),'rliiilliin>l hihI lloriliiiltural Soilcly wa» 

 liclil on Moniliiy aflfrnooii, Ucicmbor :), In tlic 

 Allii-nirum roontB. 



The followhitc nicnil>erH were prencnt : Calvin 

 l'(x)i>er, President; M. I). Kenillj.', II. M. KnKle, 

 Levi W. (iroir, .1. n. tiarlicr, .Simon 1'. Khy, Hairy 

 Myers, Henry .Hliilliier, V. 1.. IIuiiBeeker, I.evI .S. 

 Kciiit, I'rof. .S. S. Uiithvon, I'eler S. Heist, Joseph F. 

 Winner, Casper lllller, Henry Kurt/., Henry Krh, .1. 

 M. .loliiiston, W. 11. Broslus, .Mr. Molllnger and Mr. 

 Wcldlc. 



The {.oclety was called to onler by the President, 

 Cuhin Co<il)er, esq. 



The re^fiilar Sceretary, .Johnson Miller, lieini; ab- 

 sent, Joseph K. Wltnn'r was elected Secretary pro 

 tent. On motion, the reaillnfc of the minutes of the 

 last iiieeling was dispensed with. 



Reports on the Condition of Crops. 

 H. M. Enoi.k said crops liave gone Into winter 

 quarters In iiood condition. Tlicre Is not much else 

 lo be said. 



M. I). Kendk) reiKirted what he thought was an 

 error In the report of the State Board of Agriculture 

 in relation to the wheat crop of this county. With 

 10(1 as the standard for ft full crop, the yield of this 

 county was given at 7ti, or about threefourths of a 

 full crop. He believed the wheal crop was more 

 than that. If not a full crop, It was nearly so. 



An Informal discussion between the members 

 proved, however, that the general opinion was that 

 the report of the board was'alwut correct. Some of 

 the other crops of the county are given as follows : 

 Kve, 8C; oats, 100; hay, 80; potatoes, 1:!0; garden 

 produce, 10:i; tobacco, ».'>; apples, IS; peaches, 41; 

 pears, 80; cherries, M; grapes, 100; berries, tiO; coni, 

 «6. These figures were believed to iH! a very fair 

 average of the crops for 1877. 



Reading ot Essays. 

 PuoF. S. S. Ratiivon proceeded lo read an essay 

 ou the best method of destroying bark-lice on fruit 

 trees. The essay was of great length and very prac- 

 tical, and the society, on motion of S. P. Kby, voted 

 its thanks to the learned author. Sec page 178, 171). 

 S. P. Kby knew of a gentleman who has used a 

 remedy for the bark-lice which has proved elTcetual. 

 It was a railroad engineer; he took a ball of greasy 

 cotton such as is used by engineers; he put sulphur 

 over it, and then placed it under the trees infected by 

 the lice, and set it on fire; the smoke destroyed tlie 

 lice efl'ectually. He desired lo know the best time 

 lo make the application of the oil, to which Prof. 

 Kathvon responded, that warm days in early June 

 was the best lime; about that time the young leave 

 their winter homes and travel off. 



H. M. Engle thought as we were all interested In 

 the subject of watching insects, all should provide 

 themselves with magulfylug glasses, as they cost but 

 a trifle. 



Mr. Bollinger said a friend of his tried oil, and 

 Ihree-fourlhs of his trees died, apple, peach and 

 other trees — did the oil kill them f 



Mr. Weldle used whale oil soap ; it kills the in- 

 sects. 



M. D. Kendio said he used common lanl oH on 

 trees to keep away rabbits, and it had an injurious 

 effect ; the bark turned almost black, and It came 

 near finishing them. 



P. S. Reist bought a lot of trees in a foreign nur- 

 sery and most of them died— he didn't have to use 

 any oil whatever lo kill them— they all died without 

 that remedy. 



S. P. Ebv had experience just like Mr. Kcndlg s, 

 and he Is afraid of nsing lard on young trees. 



Caspku Hii.i.ER staled thai raw llnseod oil is the 

 thing to use on trees. It is used to prevent lire 

 blight as well. He also uses a compound of white- 

 wash, soft soap and salt. It is cheaper than oil and 

 quite as good. 



JosEPU WiTMEU had a tree on which the tiark- 

 llce were very plenty. He used an application of 

 common soap suds and it destroyed the insects effec- 

 tively. 



Referred Questions. 

 " Wliat is the best mode of conslrucling cisterns?" 

 was the question referred to Andrew Pownall, and 

 answered by him af follows : 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of tlie Agrievllural 

 ami llortieuUnral Huciely of Laneaiter County: 

 A question was referred to me at the meeting of 

 August 0, 1S77, which as yet remains nnanswered, 

 and which reads thus : " What is the best mo<le of 

 constructing cisterns for farming purposes?" I would 

 answer now. There Is such a difference In situations, 

 and the locations of farm buildings are so varied, 

 that It would be diffleult lo determine which would 

 be the best way to construct a cistern without tlrst 

 knowing something of the buildings and their sur- 

 roundings. I would build the cistern In Ihe bridge- 

 way of the barn, if there should be sufflclent fall to 

 draw the wftter off at will in the stock yard. But It 



