78 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ May, 



Mulligan said that under certain conditions it could 

 appear seven days after. 



Mr. DitTenderffer, when the question of the time 

 of next meeting arose, said he hoped that it would 

 be just in the fruit season so that they could dis- 

 cuss the question, "Do bees destroy Fruit?'' 



Mr. Eshleman said he did not believe a bee could 

 cut the skin of a grape, though they might cut 

 through paper; grape skin is almost as tough as 

 leather. 



Mr. Rush asked if any one could propose a plan 

 by which it could be tested, and it was proposed to 

 put mola.sses on a bunch of grapes and cut the skin 

 of one grape. If the bee sucks the inside of the cut 

 grape out, and does not touch the others, it is a rea- 

 sonably sure sign that they cannot pierce the skin. 



Mr. Eshleman said he would put a bunch of 

 grapes at the opening of a hive, and then the bees 

 could not get out without cutting the skin of the 

 grape. If this did not test the matter thoroughly, 

 he did not know what would. 



The society now adjourned to meet , the second 

 Monday in August. 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



The Linniean Society met on Saturday, April 27th, 

 1878, in the parlor of the Y. M. C. A., Vice-President 

 Rev. J. II. Dubbs in the chair. Seven members pre- 

 sent. After attending to the preliminary matters the 



Donations to the Museum 

 were examined. A bottle containing a moderate 

 sized eel, cut open to show the egg tube along the 

 spinal column, and the eggs, which was caught in 

 the Little Conestoga by Mr. John Wohr, of South 

 Queen street, on the 12th inst. This proves that eels 

 have eggs, whether matured into small fish before 

 spawning or after being spawned, is still a question. 

 That immense shoals of the minute fry, from two to 

 three inches long, are occasionally seen along the 

 banks of streams in late spring is testified to by many. 



Mr. Wm. L. Gill donated two fac-siuiilcs of the 

 Washington cent. Mr. Linn*us Kathvon also de- 

 posited nine rare coins for exchange for a duplicate 

 cent of 1799, supposed to be in our collection. It is 

 doubtful. 



To the Library. 

 The proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia, part III., September to December, 

 1877. Book catalogues, etc. The Lancaster 

 Faumer for April. 



Papers Read. 



No. 491, S. S. Kathvon, all about the eel and its 

 relations and habits; this will appear at length in 

 the May number of the Lancaster Farmer. 



A letter was read from the President, Kev. J. S. 

 Stahr, stating cause of absence ; it also contained a 

 specimen and description of a cruciferous plant new 

 to the county — the Lipklinm catnpe.itrix, found by 

 Mr. C. H. Herbert, of Franklin and Marshall Col- 

 lege, along the Reading railroad, north of Lancaster. 

 We have the jilant in our collection, No. 194. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. Gray, it is found in fields from Mas- 

 sachusetts to Delaware, introduced from Europe; 

 rather rare, however. Dr. Darlington found it in 

 the great valley, Chester county. Prof. Porter does 

 not include it among the flora of Lancaster county. 



J. Stautfer here mentioned a crucifex found by Mr. 

 Gilbert, of the High School, the Titrrilix glabni ; 

 Tower-mustard ; in Gray's edition of 1856, he de- 

 scribes three species, and says the glabra is common 

 northward among rocks and in fields. Yet strange 

 that it i.s neither in the Floral Cestrica nor Porter's 

 list of Lancaster county plants; nor do I And the 

 genus in Man's extensive catalogue, nor in our col- 

 lection of plants. This led to 



Scientific Miscellany, 



and the question also came up, is " Jasper right or 

 wrong?" considering the late lecture on the motion 

 of the planets and the stationary earth, as set forth 

 by Dr. Shcpfer, of Berlin. 



The President, Rev. J. S. Stahr, now came in, 

 when Mr. Dubbs insisted upon him taking the chair. 



New Business 

 was called, when the chairman, S. S. Rathvon, from 

 the committee appointed to negotiate with a commit- 

 tee of the Y. M. C. A., reported an agreement enter- 

 ed into with them in behalf of the society ; also the 

 ordering and having made additional cases for the 

 museum— asking that the action of the committee be 

 confirmed and the committee discharged. On motion, 

 the report was accepted and adopted as the action of 

 the society. 



On motion, the committee nominally appointed at 

 the last meeting to raise funds to pay expenses — 

 namely, Messrs. S. S. liathvon, J. Stauffer, Rev. J. 

 S. Stahr and Dr. Baker, of Millersville, be the duly 

 authorized collectors, to obtain 



Contributions for Stock at $5 a Share, 

 and the rights of members, and appeal to the liberal- 

 minded citizens for coniribution.as such a museum 

 will be a credit to the city, and useful to the youth as 

 object lessons, and hence an object worthy of public 

 patronage among UBcful institutions. 



A committee for classifying, arranging and label- 



ing the specimens was appointed, viz. : S. S. Rath- 

 von, J. Stauffer, John B. Kevinski, Wra. L. Gill, 

 Chas. A. Heinitsh and Samuel Sener, to meet on 

 Tuesday at 8 o'clock, a. m., in the room, with power 

 to employ assistance at the expense of the society. 



After an expression of thanks for the comfortable 

 room furnished on this occasion, the society adjourn- 

 ed to meet on the last Saturday in May, 1878. 



AGRICULTURAL. 



Corn Growing. 



Much is said at the present time about corn raising, 

 the manure in which it is raised, and the expense 

 and profit accruing from its culture. For the benefit, 

 of those of your readers engaged in it, I will give you 

 the time required last season to plant and hoe thirty 

 acres of corn. The ground being prepared, two men 

 each with a horse and planter, marked out and 

 planted the whole field in 15)< hours each. 



Houm. 

 „, , Horse. Man. 



Flxnting 31 31 



The first hoel-.g was done with band wheel- 

 hoe, by a man wit-hout a horse, in — 60 



The peoond hoeing was done with horse and 



man 30 30 



The third hoeing was done by a man and horse 60 60 



121 181 



Equal to 12 1-10 days for horse and 18 1-f days for 

 man. The man was paid $13 per month, or about 



58 cents a day, which equals $10.50 



Horse 12 1-10 days at same price T.O'J 



$17.5; 

 The crop was heavy, no manure being used . 287 

 bushels of ashes and ?58 worth of Bay'State phos- 

 phate were spread on the field and cultivated in 

 before planting, and there was not less than 1,500 

 bushels of shelled corn and sixty to seventy-five tons 

 of fodder. When men can raise corn with such 

 small expense for labor, there is no reason why there 

 should not be enough raised in the Eastern States to 

 nearly supply home consumption. One man can 

 easily raise thirty acres. The crop was raised by the 

 use of the Ross implements and after the Ross system 

 of cultivation.— C'o)-ces/)o«d(!«< JV. E. Farmer. 



How to Plow. 



In his address on "Plowing" before the State 

 Board of Agriculture of Connecticut, Prof. Stock- 

 bridge said : " There are two kinds of soil on every 

 man's farm — the agricultural soil and the subsoil. 

 The agricultural soil may be two inches deep, or it 

 may be nine, but it is not twenty feet. It is no deeper 

 than the air can penetrate. If the agricultural soil 

 is too shallow it may be gradually deepened by lift- 

 ing an inch of the subsoil at each plowing, bringing 

 it up t» the air and enriching it with manure. Our 

 agricultural society committees, by their premiums 

 for smooth, shiny, flat furrows, have done the com- 

 munity great harm. Such plowing as oftcnest takes 

 the premium is the very poorest kind of plowing. 

 The soil is best plowed when it is most thoroughly 

 crushed, twisted and broken, with the sod well cov- 

 ered. On some kinds of land I would have the fur- 

 rows lapped an inch, as the Canada farmers plow. 

 Let the air and water have a chance to circulate 

 underneath the surface. Light lands, however, 

 should have a flat furrow ; we wish to make such 

 lands more compact." 



Pop Corn as a Leading Crop. 



A writer in the New York Smi says that no city in 

 the country of any pretensions is without its pop 

 corn manufactory, large or small, and that one at 

 Lowell, Mass., uses upwards of three thousand bar- 

 rels a year, and another at Boston is not less exten- 

 sive — together selling nearly 100,000 barrels a year, 

 since it is declared to increase in bulk under the 

 process about sixteen times. The varieties used are 

 the Siberian flint corn, rice corn and Connecticut 

 seed corn. Pop corn is grown from Neu -> .!.::. 

 and Prince Edward Island as far south as Texas. In 

 the West and South these varieties degenerate rapidly 

 by running into the large kinds of field corn, and the 

 seed has to be procured from the Eastern States 

 often. It thrives best throughout the region border- 

 ing on the 44tli parallel of latitude, and sells at the 

 manufactory at two to three cents a pound on the 

 cob, and frequently yields one hundred busliels of 

 ears to the acre. "The white flint corn is the variety 

 preferred by the maimfacturers, and is well adapted 

 to cultivate in our latitude. Would it not prove 

 profltable for our farmers to cultivate this variety 

 more extensively ? 



About fifty per cent, more of wheat has been sown 

 in Iowa this sjiring than last, and the season of sow- 

 ing is at least one month earlier this year than last. 

 And the same is true of the State of Minnesota. 



The white oil corn of Indiana is claimed to be the 

 earliest matured, the largest grain, the smallest cob 

 and tlie most productive corn in the world. 



Up to March 9, the total receipts of wheat at lake 

 and river ports, since Sept. 1, aggregate 54,355,000 

 bushels, against 32,651,000 last year. 



HORTICULTURAL. 



The Culture of Cantaloupes. 



The culture of this fruit, unequaled we think by 

 any other gi'own, we are glad to see is becoming 

 more general. Almost every person having a garden 

 of any size, is beginning to try his hand at it, and it 

 can be done with almost as much success as raising 

 a crop of corn. The ground should have a warm 

 exposure and be friable— clay mold not being adapted 

 — the hill shouild be dug out eight or ten inches, two 

 feet in diameter and filled with well rotted manure, 

 rich soil and sand — turnpike dirt is excellent as a 

 substitute for the latter. Five or six seeds should be 

 put at equal distances, about an inch in depth, and 

 the "hill" should be even with the other soil, except 

 when the season is wet, when they should be raised. 

 They should be about six feet apart each way, and 

 the plants when they have passed all danger, should 

 be thinned out to two or thi-ee in a hill. The beds 

 must be kept cle.^r of all weeds and grass, and when 

 the vines commence running they should not be dis- 

 turbed, as the roots connected with the vine, and by 

 which it is largely supplied with nourishment, will 

 be broken. The ground, as the vines begin to ex- 

 tend, should be gone over with an iron rake, especi- 

 ally after a heavy shower, to loosen it and give 

 these rootlets a chance to take hold. The seed should 

 be planted at the time of corn planting. 



Sowing round the bill, a few inches distant, early 

 radish seed will generally protect the young plants 

 from the bugs, and ahvays will be more or less bene- 

 ficial. Sl'.ould bugs appear a sprinkling of weak 

 whale oil soap and water, or of carbolic acid soap 

 and water, will soon send them adrift. 



The best varieties of cantaloupes to plant in this 

 section are the "Citron," the "Jenny Lind," the 

 "White Japan," and the "Casaba." The "Nutmeg" 

 is too late lor us. 



There is no reason why all our farmers should not 

 have a patch of cantaloupes for family use. A plot 

 of ground 40 by 20 feet would be enough for a 

 moderate sized family. They can raise far superior 

 fruit to any found in the city markets. — Oermantowti 

 Telegraph. 



• ^ 



Excessive Stimulation of Strawberries. 



Here let me caution cultivators of strawberries 

 against the excessive use of all stimulating matter, 

 such as contains a great amount of ammonia or 

 nitrogen in its various combinations. Among such 

 fertilizers are guano, bone dust, phosphates, hen 

 manure, night soil, poudrette and urine ; all materials 

 of this character, although very useful in their proper 

 place, are detrimental when out of it, and may even 

 become deleterious when used to excess. They are 

 found very useful in heavy compact soils, cold and 

 slow in action, and especially those well impregnated 

 with carbon in any form, such as black muck or 

 peat, or old manure that has lost a great proportion 

 of its stimulating property, as is often the case witli 

 that which is not composted. It is well, in any 

 event, before using freely, to be sure you have sulfi- 

 cient carbon in some form in the soil to keep pace 

 with the growth of plant produced. The invariable 

 effect of excess ofstimulants (when the plant is able 

 to endure them) is foliage without fruit, or fruit only 

 in such proportion as fruit-producing material may 

 accompany the stimulants. 



Care of Young Fruit Trees. 



Young fruit trees, for the first two or three years 

 after transplanting, should before hard winter sets 

 in be protected against any uiulue quantify of water, 

 especially in low situations. This can be best done 

 by making' a small hillock of dirt around the stems 

 sutlieient to throw off the water and not let it settle 

 about the roots. We have known young trees to be 

 killed by constant immersion in water through most 

 of the winter, and have frequently known them to 

 be stunted, from which many of them never entirely 

 recovered. On the otljer hand, in. suinincr these trees 

 should have the soil lightly bowled out around them, 

 in oi'der that they may have a more abundant supply 

 of water than they would otherwise obtain. If we 

 expect to be successful in fruit-raising we must adopt 

 all the means attainable to insure it. — Oerinantoivfi. 

 Telcfjraph. 



How to Make Trees Fruit Early. 



The Vineyard Gazette reports cases wliere the re- 

 moval of earth over the roots of frees hastened the 

 period of ripening of the fruit several weeks. In one 

 instance eai-th was removed from an early pear tree 

 eight weeks before the normal period of ripening, for 

 the space of thirteen to fifteen feet in diameter, and 

 to such an extent as to leave depth of earth over the 

 roots of only about two or four inches, so they could 

 be thoroughly warmed by the sun. The experimenter 

 was suri)riscd not only by the i-ipening of the fruit in • 

 the middle of Jul}', but also by its superior juiciness 

 and flavor. In another experiment the removal of the 

 earth from the north side of a tree alone caused the 

 ruit on that side to ripen several days earlier than 

 , n the south side. 



