82 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



more than equivalent to ten thousand at a 

 later period, or at the season's wane. That 

 the robin eats fruit is no new hahit acquired 

 hy him. So long as we have known him he 

 has alwa3's been a fruit-eater, and our law- 

 makers must have been aware of this fact 

 when they enacted laws for his protection ; if 

 they were not they were haidly competent to 

 be law-makers on the subject. 

 So long as we have not on our premises 



" Here and there a tree, 



The cattle to get under 

 Out of the way of 



Lightning and thunder," 



and so long as such trees are not the common 

 black cherry, wild cherry or gumlierry, we 

 may expect the robin to help himself from 

 among the more tempting varieties now under 

 cultivation. 



The robin is a progressive bird ; his culti- 

 vation runs parallel with the human species, 

 and if we hanker after and are only satisfied 

 with the most improved varieties of fruit we 

 surely should not be astonished that he should 

 imitate our excessive fastidiousness. 



In conclusion, it needs no influential admo- 

 nition to shoot tlie robin ; our " crack shots " 

 are already addicted to that, even in defiance 

 of the law. We believe that all the pros and 

 cons of the case should be well considered be- 

 fore we take any steps towards the extinction 

 of the robin. 



physiology wheat, or any other cereal, should 

 be deemed a special exception. 



THE CULTIVATION OF WHEAT. 



" A Pennsylvania farmer, located rather 

 too indefinitely, ' in Lancaster county, ' is said 

 to have raised, in some micertain past, sixty 

 bushels of wheat per acre by sowing in rows 

 eleven inches apart and tilling witli a cultiva- 

 tor. Possibly there might be a Yankee back 

 of this with an implement to sell." 



The above paragraph was handed to us as 

 having been cut out of a recent number of the 

 New York Tribune. We don't know from 

 what source the Tribune received its informa- 

 tion, but if it was from The Farmer, or any 

 other paper published in Lancaster county, 

 we think it might have learned that Mr. Levi 

 W. Groff's location in our county is by no 

 means "indefinite," and that he resides in 

 the old family mansion and on the very farm 

 first located by the celebrated Hans Gkoff, 

 in West Earl (then Earl) township. Lancas- 

 ter county, the township being called after 

 him, its most distinguished first settler. Graf 

 or Oraff was originally a German title of 

 nobility, and translated into English it be- 

 comes and is equivalent to Earl. Sir. Groff's 

 farm is located about one and a half miles 

 northeast from Bareville, which is his nearest 

 post-town. Whether there is " a Y'ankee back 

 of the statement with an implement to sell" or 

 not does not at all affect the facts of the case ; 

 Mr. Groflf and his son have been engaged in 

 the cultivation of wheat for some years, and 

 last year, it is believed, that by cultivation 

 alone, they brought the yield to more than 

 double the yield of the average crop of the 

 county of Lancaster. The matter is one that 

 belongs exclusively to the "Pennsylvania 

 Dutchmen," and there is no l''ankee eitlier in 

 the background or the foreground. It is not 

 pretended that the cultivation of wheat is yet 

 a fixed system beyond any peradventure, but 

 the results thus far have proved it a success- 

 ful experiment. In a season when, through 

 favorable circumstances, the crops are uni- 

 versally good, the benefits residting from culti- 

 vation may not be so apparent as they are in 

 seasons more unfriendly, and when tlu'ough 

 the manipulations of the soil the gro^vtli of 

 ■wheat, as tlie growth of any other species of 

 vegetation, may be stimulated and strength- 

 ened by cultivation. If we were to put corn, 

 potatoes, beans, cabbages or tomatoes into 

 the ground, cover them with a little earth, 

 and then let them take care of themselves, as 

 is usually done with wheat, we should gather 

 a very unsatisfactory crop, but through culti- 

 vation we cause them to perfect themselves 

 and yield abundantly, and it is difficult to de- 

 termine by what luiown law in vegetable 



Lancaster County Farming. 

 The Reading Hcajle says : " Ezra Z. Griese- 

 mer and Solomon Deturek, two Oley farmers, 

 have just returned from a trip to Lancaster 

 county, whifher they went to look into the 

 plan of cultivating wheat. The wheat is 

 sown in rows foiu' inches in width and eleven 

 inches apart, giving sufficient room to run the 

 cultivator through in the spring of the year, 

 very much like hoe-harrowing corn. The 

 cultivator is a simple arrangement whicli is 

 attached to the drill and worked by two 

 horses, who walk between the rows of wheat. 

 The wheat is worked in this way just as soon 

 as the frost leaves the ground and afterwards 

 about the twentieth of April again, when the 

 clover and timothy are sown. The results of 

 this new plan of cultivating wheat were 61 

 bushels and 15 pounds to tlie acre last year, 

 and the promise tlie coming harvest is in 

 every respect as bright. The straw is 6 to 

 feet 1 inch high, and the heads of wheat from 

 4 to 4| inches in length. Mr. Griesemer 

 thinks that without any exaggeration the 

 yield of wheat will be forty-five bushels to the 

 acre. The clover and timothy are also men- 

 tioned as very fine, being much better than 

 when sown under the present way. The farm 

 visited by Messrs. Griesemer and Deturek is 

 owned and worked by Levi W. Groff, near 

 Bareville." 



HAYMAKING, 



The sun shone out in splendor on the after- 

 noon of June 0th, 1878, and the air was genial 

 and healthful. "The ripe harvest of the new 

 mown hay gave it a sweet and wholesome 

 odor." In company with ift-. S. we took a 

 short rural ride to his farm, just beyond the 

 western boundary line of Lancaster city, and 

 there, probably, witnessed the taking in of 

 the "first load of hay of the season," the 

 grass having been cut two days previously. 

 We repaired to the hay-field, and taking a 

 hay-fork in our hands (in our boyhood we 

 called it a "shaking-fork,") we proceeded to 

 vun up a "winrow" into "hay-cocks," as we 

 had done "many a time and often" moretlian 

 fifty years ago. It was early to take in hay 

 on the balmy 6th of June ; indeed we do not 

 remember of ever having seen it harvested so 

 early in this county, although it maj' have 

 been done a liundred times before", and the 

 occasion recalled the happy scenes of our early 

 days of youth, when we were wont to engage 

 annually in this healthful exercise, although 

 we may have tlien looked upon it as a sweaty 

 and laborious occupation. In order to make 

 clean work we looked for a liand rake, but we 

 were told that that implement was not used 

 so much in a hay-field now as it was in days 

 of yore — it has been superseded by the horse- 

 rake. 



This was not a merely premature or spas- 

 modic haymaking, but was a permanent be- 

 ginning of the hay-harvest on this farm, w hich 

 was to be continued "right along," until the 

 whole crop was gathered, and which promised 

 to be an ample one. 



The Scientifir Farnier says : "Of late years 

 the early cutting of hay has received consider- 

 able attention, and it has been found tliat for 

 milch cows such hay is preferable to that 

 which is overripe. Y'et the reasons why early 

 cutting should be an advantage are seldom 

 considered. We know that the analysis of 

 chemists tell us that there is more digestive 

 matter in the plant at one time over another, 

 and as an empirical fact, that cows relish the 

 early cut hay and seem to thrive on it." 



The proprietor of this farm conducts his 

 farming operations with special refercjice to 

 the raising and feeding of milch cows, and 

 his leading aim is the production of first-class 

 bntter; and for that jiurpose he has in his 

 stables about twenty-five head of Alderney 

 and Guernsey stock, including tliree fine bulls. 

 All the appointments, machinery and fixtures 

 essential to a first-class dairy farm are here 

 introduced, or are in process of introduction, 



and when completed will be a model in its 

 specialty. The proprietor seems to think that 

 "some things can be done as well as others," 

 and therefore he is not content with medi- 

 ocrity when an advanced point is attainable. 



Whenever the proper time comes to give 

 the details of tliis fiirm with its various biiild- 

 ings, fixtures and systems of operation, it will 

 be interesting reading to those whose tastes 

 and interests lie in tliat direction, and not 

 only to tliese, but also to those who are 

 patrons of the very best butter the market 

 affords. Essential to good butter is good 

 cream, and this presupiioses good milk, whicli 

 can only be obtained from good milking stoct; 

 and that stock must be well housed, well fed', 

 and well cared for in all their various periods 

 of progress and development, and tliey are 

 likely to obtain it here. In a late speech Loi-d 

 Beaconsfield defined "civilization," briefly, as 

 being "comfortable," and there is a great 

 stratum of truth underlying the proposition. 



Those nations, those people and those ani- 

 mals that are comfortable are peaceable, tract- 

 able, prosperous, contented, and not given to 

 wars and fightings. Discomfort is the great 

 cause of revolts, strikes, frauds and falsifica- 

 tions. It may be sad to think that many 

 millions of human beings in this world are not 

 as well housed, fed and cared for as the cattle 

 of a good dairy farm, nevertheless these con- 

 ditions are essential to the production of good 

 butter, and preliminary to these are good 

 feed; and this brings us back again to the hay- 

 field, and the early cutting of grass and mak- 

 ing hay on practical and scientific principles. 



^ 



HOW TO SAVE PLUMS AND GOOSE- 

 BERRIES. 



A correspondent of the Fariner''s Advocate, 

 Loudon, Ont., gives the following as the ex- 

 perience of a neighbor. The experience is 

 easily tried and may prove of value : 



Mr. Holman has eight plum trees in his 

 garden. In the spring of 1876, all tlie trees 

 being in full bloom, he smoked one tree with 

 smoke from gas house tar ; in the autumn 

 that tree was loaded with fruit, while the 

 seven trees not so smoked, had not a single 

 plum on them. In the spring of 1877 he re- 

 versed his operations, and smoked the seven 

 trees, leaving the one tree smoked in 1870 

 without smoke in 1877. All the trees were 

 alike covered with blossoms, but the result 

 showed that wliile the seven trees were so 

 loaded with fruit as to require supporting, 

 the one unsmoked tree bore not a particle of 

 fruit. His metliod of operating is as follows : 

 jNIix in an old tin pan coal tar with shavings, 

 chips, pieces of shingle, old rags, or anything 

 else that will ignite ; jilace the pan under the 

 tree, keeping it moving so that the smoke will 

 come in contact with the whole tree. It takes 

 him about half an hour to smoke the eight 

 trees. Tlie evening he thinks the best time — 

 about sundown — when there is no wind and 

 tlie dew is falling. The smoke then adlieres 

 better to the leaves and the forming fruit. 



The first application of the smoke must be 

 made just as the blossoms begin to fall, and 

 must be repeated immediately after a storm 

 of rain, Mr. Ilolman repeated the applica- • 

 tion at intervals of about four days in 1877 

 until the fruit was formed, say for three 

 weeks. He is not sure of the necessity of 

 doing so, although he recommends it. He is 

 a master bricklayer, mason, &c., by trade, 

 and in 1876, after smoking the one tree, he 

 was obliged to leave home to perform a build- 

 ing contract, so that his tree had but one 

 smoking, witli the result aforesaid — no rain 

 having fallen to wash the smoky deposit off. 

 Mr. Holman has also been succsssful in en- 

 deavoring to prevent the mildew on the goose- 

 berry, lie purchased from the St. Catharine 

 Nursery a bush of a large English variety, 

 against tlie advice of the nurseryman, as it 

 was so subject to mildew. His method is in 

 early spring carefully to remove all the sur- 

 face soil from under and around the bush, 

 then to pour the composition under and 

 around the bush, and immediately cover the 

 comj»osition witli the removed soil. The com-!J 



1 



