26 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[February 



it is hardly known on our lands in Central 

 Pennsylvania, and yet it flourishes on the 

 shores of Lake Erie and on the south side of 

 the South Mountain. A better and more pro- 

 ductive peach than the Susquehanna or Grittith, 

 ■when grown in its native locality, the house- 

 yards of Harrisburg, cannot be found ; but if 

 planted in the field or orchard, even if within 

 five miles of this city, it is a very shy and un- 

 satisfactory bearer. Tlie Agriculturist straw- 

 berry rejoices in the sands of New .Jersey, but 

 is worthless on our strono; Ptnnsylvania soil ; 

 while the Triomphe Grand will do nothing 

 there, but resimnds heartily to the influences 

 ■which meet here. 



IV. If Possible, Have a Variety. 

 The difticulties arising from unfavorable 

 seasons, ravages of insects and competition 

 from other producers, combine to teach the 

 farmer that his loss of pi'oflt cannot be built 

 upon the cultivation of any one kind of fruit, 

 nmch less upon any one variety of that kind. 

 We run an unnecessary risk when we aim to 

 make money by growing, for instance, apples 

 alone ; and much more when wo confine our 

 eflbrls to one variety, even though it be so 

 good a one as as a Belle Flower or the Rambo. 

 While we plant most largely of the kind which 

 suits our soil, climate and market best, we 

 should remember the old adage, and " not put 

 all our eggs into one basket." 



Many kinds of fruit can be grown together. 

 Thus among our apple and pear trees, which 

 come into bearing comparatively slowly, we 

 can set our peach trees, which come to ma- 

 turity soon, and will probably finish their 

 course before the apples and pears get large 

 enough to require all the ground. While the 

 trees"are small we can profitably plant among 

 them raspberries, strawberries, and other low 

 growing varieties of fruits, which will induce 

 us to stir the soil, to the advantage of the 

 young trees, and will bring in receipts more 

 than equal to the annual outlay on the young 

 orchard. 



All the ground devoted to fruit should be 

 occupied by fruit. Do not many of us find 

 our orchards to be failures because we be 

 grudge the ground they occupy, and seek to 

 make them at the same time fields for wheat 

 or hay V We do not so treat the lauds -^vhich 

 we devote to the growing of hay or wheat. 



Further, under this head, we would call 

 attention to the fact that certain kinds of 

 fruit could be profitably grown to a much 

 greater extent than they are at present. Thus 

 quinces will flourish almost auy where in Penn- 

 sylvania, and they always meet a ready sale, 

 at good prices. But how few farmers have 

 them ; and those -who own them have but 

 few, and neglect even them. 



New kinds of fruit, such as have not been 

 known in our section or even in our land be- 

 fore, should be experimented with, and such 

 as may be found adapted to our circumstances 

 should be planted, and in due time offered to 

 our customers. In this connection I venture 

 the opinion that the Chinese persimmon will 

 do well in our State, and that it can be pro- 

 fitably introduced here. From that which I 

 found it to be in China, I believe our people 

 would soon come to regard it as a great acqui- 

 sition, both delicious and healthful, quite the 

 opposite of our almost worthless native variety. 



V. Plant Other Crops Among Your" Young 

 Fruit Until the Latter Shall Need 

 all the Ground. 

 If the circumstances are such that you do 

 not desire to put berries, for instance, among 

 your young fruit trees, you can fill up the 

 rows and intervals -n'ith garden vegetables. 

 This, particularly in the case of apple trees, 

 may be continued with advantage for a num- 

 ber of years ; and thus the growth of the 

 orchard be promoted while almost as much 

 will be made from the ground as if the trees 

 were not there. Our thrifty German immi- 

 grant teaches us a lesson on this point which 

 even worldly wise Americans may profitably 

 consider, lie puts into the spaces between 

 his favorite cabbages, beets or onions, and then 

 further crowds out the weeds and fills his 



pockets by setting everywhere else in the rows 

 and along side of them, plants of head lettuce. 



VI. Carry on Fruit-Growing Sjstematically 

 and Vigorously as You Can. 



If experience has taught you that you can 

 hope to raise but few kinds profitably, as 

 apples or grapes or peaches, pay chief atten- 

 tion to those. Plant only the best ; and plant 

 enough of them. See to it that your stock is 

 not only true to name, but also healthy, free 

 from worms, and not too old at transplanting. 

 Having set the plants out properly, care for 

 them thoroughly, mulching them, cultivating 

 them in the proper season, training and prun- 

 ing them as they make growth, and guarding 

 them from the ravages of worms, insects, 

 mice, etc. 



VII. Market Your Fruit in the Best Condition. 

 Some men fail to make money even from 



good fruit, because they are careless or slovenly 

 or dishonest in their method of presenting it 

 to purchasers. Except in rare cases and for 

 peculiar uses, all fruit should be ripe when 

 offered in market. If it is not ripe it should 

 not find sale. It should be sound also. If 

 the quantity on hand is large enough to justify, 

 it should be carefully assorted ; the best speci- 

 mens put by themselves, even though they be 

 few in number, and the least valuable placed 

 by themselves. This will enable consumers to 

 choose according to their purposes or means, 

 and will most likely secure buyers for all the 

 grades. To so arrange one's fruit in the boxes 

 or crates as to have the finest specimens on 

 the top, while below are mere odds and ends, 

 is to act di.shonestly as well as most foolishly. 

 Fair dealing as to quality, quantity and price 

 will always pay best in the long run. 



Much attention should be given to the bas- 

 kets, crates or boxes in which the fruit is 

 marketed. They should be neat, convenient 

 in size and attractive in appearance. Labels 

 setting forth the name of the fruit and of the 

 grower of his locality will greatly add to the 

 attractiveness of the stock and the .satisfaction 

 of the purchasers. We would make more 

 money if we were more mindful of the fact 

 that bu3ers are largely influenced by their 

 eyes, and that the sight often dictates per- 

 emptorily to the appetite. 



VIII. Preserve in a Fresh State, or as Nearly 

 so as Possible, the Fruit for Which a Mar- 

 ket Cannot be Found Immediately. 

 It is a disastrous error to suppose that fruit 

 which cannot be sold as soon as it is ripe must 

 be suffered to rot or be fed to the swine, or, 

 what is worse, must be turned into wine or 

 brandy. It is entirely practicable and is not 

 too laborious to so dry or can or otherwise 

 preserve fruits as to do a great deal of good 

 with them and receive a handsome pecuniary 

 return in addition. 



Farmers who live at a great distance from 

 market will find that while their location de- 

 prives them of some of the opportunities of 

 securing profit from fruit-growing it cannot 

 deprive them of all, but th;it by the course 

 here indicated they too can swell their gross 

 receipts. 



IX. Transportation Companies Can Do Much 

 Toward Securing the Object of Which 



We Are Speaking. 

 By arranging convenient places for receiv- 

 ing fruit of a neighborhood, affording quick 

 transit without reshipment, returning the 

 empty packages to the owners, and meeting 

 the schedule of charges as low as their own 

 interests will justify, they will enlarge the in- 

 come of distant producers and certainly pay 

 better dividends to their stockholders. 



X. There are Related Departments of Labor 

 Which may be Made to Swell One's Receipts. 



He who grows fruit extensively may, .with- 

 out inconvenience, establish a small nursery, 

 from which he can not only supply trees and 

 plants for his own grounds", but also sell stock 

 for the use of others. This is especially true 

 as to berries and grape vines. In the ordinary 

 coui-se of student instruction in our college 

 vineyards, we laid down within the last year 

 several hundred vines, -which made most satis- 



factory growth and were worth a handsome 

 price. 



To a slight extent horticulture could be 

 pleasantly, appropriately and profitably car- 

 ried on with fruit-growing. We need orna- 

 mental plants and shrubs for our grounds, and 

 such as we can spare can generally be 

 readily sold under the circumstances in which 

 we find a market for our fruit. 



So the keeping of bees, facilitated by the 

 culture of fruit, may be advantageously con- 

 nected therewith. If any one objects that 

 bees will injure the fruit and render it un- 

 salable, I would reply that I have never had 

 proof of their doing so. As far as my obser- 

 vation extends their attention is all drawn to 

 such specimens as have been injured or are too 

 ripe to be marketed. 



And no-\v, in conclusion, I would say that 

 we cannot safely affirm that all farmers, every- 

 where, can make extensive fruit-growing to 

 be profitable to themselves. The points before 

 stated forbid such an inference. Location, 

 soil, climate, and other material facts must be 

 consulted before the question can be deter- 

 mined. 



But much can be done by the diligent and 

 enterprising farmer to overcome existing diflti- 

 culties. By the careful selection of varieties 

 and the judicious marketing of his products, 

 he can develop and educate the public taste, 

 and make for himself an additional branch of 

 industry which will bring him more nearly into 

 the line of labor which the Creator first as- 

 signed to man, and which all experience 

 proves, like charity, blesses both him who 

 gives and him who receives. 



^ 



OUR PARIS LETTER. 



Paris, January Sd, 1878. 

 ■Veterinary surgeons, cattle dealere aud agricultur- 

 istB are not one respecting the treatment of farm 

 stock affected with the plague. Excepting, perhaps, 

 Bavaria and Hungary, the cattle disease has disap- 

 peared on the continent. France, having organized 

 its sanitary police for the frontier, is now about doing 

 the same for the interior of the country ; inspectors 

 will be armed with almost arbitrary powers for deal- 

 ing with live stock brought to Paris and markets. If 

 excessive precaution be attended with inconvenience 

 it does not last long; German drovers complained 

 that France was over-precautious in the case of pro- 

 hibiting the entry of sheep, as the latter do not neces- 

 sarily communicate endemic typhus. M. Villeroy 

 affirms that, during the late war, his out-oa3ces were 

 occupied by German oxen, that communicated the 

 plague to his black cattle; he had some of the latter 

 killed in order to study the mahidy ; he discovered 

 nothing, and the poor, to whom he presented the car- 

 casses, eat the flesh with impunity. In the course of 

 a week the plague admitted no longer of any doubt ; 

 he had the remainder of the stock slaughtered ; later 

 he purchased some sheep to consume the crops ; the 

 animals were penned in the place where the cattle 

 had been killed, and was stained with their blood 

 and excrements, vet the sheep never contracted the 

 disease. It is avowed that sheep and goats are re- 

 fractory towards the contagion. Veterinary surgeon 

 Zundelj attests that these animals can be affected 

 without, however, falling ill ; but it is not to be con- 

 cluded they escape. When innoculated the mortality 

 has ranged as high as 70 per cent. Epizootic fever 

 is not rare among Russian sheep, aud in ISG'i and 

 ISe-t it committed great ravages in Naples. In 1805 

 one of the Zoological Gardens of Paris was attacked 

 by the cattle plague, that -was communicated by 

 gazelles imported "from London, and deers, goats, 

 i&c., contracted the malady; the like calamity was 

 observed in 18t)6 in the Rotterdam Zoological Gar- 

 dens. In Egypt the same virus has afflicted camels. 

 Many plans have been tried to prevent sows from 

 devouring their young ; the mother's voracity is due 

 to the pain the young inflict on her when first com- 

 mencing to suckle, for they are littered with milk 

 teeth, and the latter, often not being sufficiently dis- 

 tant Irom one another, the teat is thus bitten. In 

 France the milk teeth, at the extremity of the jaw, 

 are extracted, so the mother, not being wounded, 

 does not become furious. Another plan is to rub the 

 young with gin, as also the mother's snout ; the odor 

 will ward off her attacks ; or pour into her ear, at 

 the moment of littering, some drops of a mixture 

 composed of two parts of tincture of opium and 15 

 of camphored alcohol ; this will cause sleep, and 

 when she awakens the young will have taken posses- 

 sion each of its teat, and the first " nips " will be 

 forgotten . 



In some parts of France the value of commercial 

 manures is regulated according to the prices paid for 

 the manure from city or cavalry stables ; on au 

 average, fr. 10 per ton is the accepted value of farm- 

 yard manure ; this is the estimate of Ville, the 



