138 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ September, 



body. The wings are long and narrow, but 

 strongly formed, and the first quill is the 

 longest, a peculiarity found in hardly any 

 other birds but a few of the swifts. The bill 

 varies greatly in length, but is always long, 

 slender and pointed, the upper mandible be- 

 ing the widest and lapping over the lower at 

 each side, thus affording complete protection 

 to the delicate tongue, the perfect action of 

 which is essential to the bird's existence. The 

 humming-bird's tongue is very long, and is 

 capable of being greatly extended beyond the 

 beak and rapidly drawn back, by means of 

 muscles which are attached to the hyoid or 

 tongue bones, and bend round over the back 

 and top of the head to the very forehead, just 

 as in the woodpeckers. The two blades, or 

 two laminte, of which the tongues of birds 

 usually seem to be formed, are here greatly 

 lengthened, broadened out, and each rolled 

 up, so as to form a complete double tube, con- 

 nected down the middle, and with the outer 

 edges in contact, but not united. The ex- 

 tremities of the tubes are, however, flat and 

 fibrous. This tubular and retractile tongue 

 enables the bird to suck up honey from the 

 nectaries of flowers, and also to capture small 

 insects ; but whether the latter pass down the 

 tubes or afe entangled in the fibrous tips, and 

 thus drawn back into the gullet, is not known. 

 The only other birds with a similar tubular 

 tongue are the sun-birds of the East, which, 

 however, have no aflinity whatever with the 

 humming-birds. 



For The Lancaster Fabmer. 

 REVU OF AUGUST NUMBER. 



The Sparrow Nuisance. — Hu shal no when 

 doctors disagre ? Won thing we do no, ie — 

 that tha ate very nerly al tlie buds ofl' a plum 

 tre which bor but won plum wher it mit hav 

 brot haf a bushel, thus outdoing the litl Turk 

 ten to won. We arin forther extermination. 



Ox Eye Daisy. — Som foks rais thes in larg 

 quantities. Suppos tha dont cost as much as 

 to go to florists to by flowers. Wei, every 

 won to his fancy. 



Best Time to Soiv Wlieatand How to Prepare 

 the Soil. — J. G. givs som gud hints on soing 

 wheat, but he gets everything mixed up with 

 the mun. Wonder if the Hessian fly mit not 

 be bafled by working the ground and soing 

 the wheat in the rising of the mun, so that 

 the larva wud ascend the stock rusted of 

 going dovni as usual. 



Random Thoughts. — A. B. K. alwas has 

 somthing interesting. Tis a pity ther ar not 

 mor such contributors to The Farmer. 



Strawberry Culture. — Everything from the 

 pen of C. II. is worth re-reding. Mor practi- 

 cal riters are fu and far betwen. He shud use 

 his pen mor. 



Price of Flour. — The New Era pitches a 

 brodsid into our millers, but if the Era calcu- 

 lats rit tha can bar som criticisms. 



Suga»Beets. — We ar a litl slo geting into 

 the sugar bisnes, but it is destined tobecom 

 won of the grat interests of the Northern 

 stats. Mark our prediction. 



The Agricultural and Horticultural, To- 

 bacco-Growers', Linnwan and Bee-Keepers' 

 Societies sem al tu find rum for the discusion 

 of ther special interests. Hop tha ma al flurish. 

 Condition of American Agriculture. — Webeter 

 not promis the world to much. We ma som 

 da ned al we can rase if we continue the skin- 

 ing system on a stil largerscal than we du now. 



Interim- Fences. — We can no longer aford to 

 continue midl fences, but the majority wil 

 hav them whethertha can aford it or not. 



Where to Plant an Apjyle Orchard. — This is 

 gud advice, but a majority of farmers plant 

 behind the barn, just wher the old orchard 

 stud, believing it to be a gud plac, becaus tlia 

 used to liav plenty of appls. What foly 1 



Orenoing Cliestnuts. — We believ strongly in 

 the idea of the Qermantown Telegraph. 



To Cure Dogs of Killing Chickens. — Dogs 

 that wil kil cliickens wil kil shep, and we hav 

 a surer cur than that given in The Farmer. 

 lusted of tying the chicken to the dog's neck, 

 cut ofi" his tail clos behind his ers, and he wil 

 be sur to let yur chickens alon. — Von Humholt. 



AGRICULTURAL JOURNALS — THEIR 

 INFLUENCE AND VALUE.* 



It will be found, on examination, that most 

 of the large products in husbandry are ob- 

 tained by farmers who are accustomed to I'ead 

 and think, and who are not only wise enougli 

 to profit, by reading, but who select the best 

 part of their material from books and papers 

 devoted to their interest, and in which they 

 find recorded the facts and the experience of 

 successful men. 



That the real progress of agriculture is in 

 this way greatly promoted by the influence of 

 the press is no longer an open question, for 

 although it is undoubtedly true that the pro- 

 ducts of husbandry are directly and mainly 

 tlie outcome of manual labor, yet the quality 

 and amount of those products are largely de- 

 termined by superiority of mental force, and 

 by the kind of intelligence that comes from 

 books and Journals. 



Let not the tillers of the soil, therefore, 

 blindly imagine that physical development 

 alone is sufficient to secure maximum crops, 

 and a margin of profit. Let them bear in 

 mind that a still higher pewer has its seat in 

 the brain, from which physical development 

 derives all its value ; that the silent energy of 

 thought is quietly doing its work over ' the 

 continent from week to week, and from j'ear 

 to year, and that this free, earnest and unselfish 

 thought, while continually achieving grand 

 results, is also continually putting them on 

 record for the benefit of all. 



Tims it is that while we discover on one 

 hand a grand army of thoughtful workers, 

 everywhere intent on developing new and 

 original facts, and new fruits of experience, 

 we may also find, in the background of the 

 picture, another army of workers, who are 

 also thinkers of the highest type — a countless 

 array of vigorous and enterprising journals, 

 always ready and eager to seize and appro- 

 priate, to expound and improve these new and 

 valuable results of practical farming, and then 

 to scatter them broad-cast through tlie land to 

 shed light in dark places, and pour new fer- 

 tility into sterile soils. 



How is it possible, then, not to see that the 

 pen as well as the plow, the type-setter as 

 well as the planter, the editor at his desk not 

 less than the proprietor of a thousand acres, 

 are all instrumental in propelling this great 

 industry of the country, and have jointly con- 

 tributed to make our agriculture all that it 

 now is. 



In confirmation of this view, there are many 

 shrewd and practical men who have discovered 

 in their own experience, and we do not hesi- 

 tate to emphasize the fact, that the best in- 

 vestment they have yet made in their business 

 is the money paid for agricultural papers, and 

 who also make it a point to read them care- 

 fully, and to write for them often. These are 

 the men who win the surest prizes of hus- 

 bandry, whose success proves that farming 

 can be made to pay, not only in the broadest 

 and highest sense of the word, but also in its 

 money aspect, and whose example kindles the 

 faith, and animates the zeal of other farmers 

 even in remote and unfavored sections. 



So clearly and )ialpably have the journals of 

 this class demonstrated their value, that it is 

 often possible in passing through a rural dis- 

 trict to discover by unmistakable signs the 

 farms at which such papers are taken, and 

 where they liavc found a welcome home ; and 

 it is easy to see tliat in the presence of these 

 slieets of u.seful knowledge, the whole aspect 

 of the farm is changed, and all the results 

 improved. Manures and fertilizers are more 

 efficient, as well as more abundant ; the latest 

 and best methods are adopted ; a new impulse 

 is given to vegetation ; the very roots of the 

 crop strike deeper, and spread wider than 

 before, and even the meadows assume a 

 brighter shade of green, and the cereal grains 

 a deeper tin^e of gold. And, finally, as a 

 crowning evidence of what is here claimed for 

 the influence of the press, along with this new 



"A paper read at the American Institute Farmers' Club 

 by Conrad Wilson. 



vigor of vegetation and more abundant yield, 

 we find also a reduction of cost that is even 

 more important than all the rest. 



It would be easy to refer by name, if it were 

 not invidious, to a score of such papers, in 

 either of which a single number could be 

 pointed out, which for intrinsic value is worth, 

 to a shrewd farmer, the subscription of a life- 

 time. Even single passages could be referred 

 to iu various journals, in which the facts com- 

 pressed in a few lines are worth more to an in- 

 telligent, practical man than a ton of guano, 

 or an acre of land ; for the acre of land is con- 

 fined to one unchanging spot, and the ton of 

 guano admits of only one application. But 

 the great facts of experience in farming are 

 not bounded by an acre, and do not expire in 

 one application. On the contrary, they are 

 developed by use, and grow by repetition. 

 They spread and multiply from fiirm to farm, 

 and from year to year, until a continent is 

 made richer by them, and posterity hails them 

 as a treasure. 



Now, farmers, this is not a long sermon, 

 but it has a moral and a purpose, and the 

 meaning for each individual is this: If you 

 are not already a subscribev to an agricultural 

 paper, lose no time in securing the benefit of 

 such a journal, for you are certainly losing 

 every year fiir more than the cost, and sooner 

 or later you will find this out. If you are 

 already taking one or more such papers, don't 

 be satisfied till you make the number three or 

 four. Depend upon it, farmers are too gener- 

 ally under a mistake on this subject, and it is 

 time to take up a new departure. 



The timidity shown by many in applying a 

 sum so limited as two or three dollars to 

 obtain the priceless knowledge, on which de- 

 pends tlie whole value and final profit of their 

 business, is more than surprising. Tlie trifling 

 sums, often lavished without a thought on 

 objects comparatively of little or no value, if 

 applied to such a purpose as this would be 

 sufiicient to supply a variety of journals and 

 vaiuable books that would at ouce create a 

 new atmosphere of thought in the house, and, 

 while thus rounding out the education of the 

 fomily, would also enlarge the yield and the 

 profit of harvests to come. 



This is no mere picture of imagination, for 

 I have more than once seen the proofs of it, 

 and have heard the admission made by prac- 

 tical men. 



Does it not then, farmers, clearly devolve 

 on you to encourage and sustain the generous 

 eflbrts of a press that is everywhere working 

 in your interest, and lighting up your future 

 with the experience of the past ? I know that 

 many of you so regard it. But what shall we 

 say to those who excuse themselves by finding 

 fault with the defects of the press, and who 

 allege that among so many imperfections they 

 do not know wliat paper to take ? 



To all such let me frankly say that this is 

 not a reason, but simply an evasion. You do 

 not expect perfection in anything human ; 

 then why exact it in the case of a farmer's 

 journal ? If you could really find an ideal 

 journal, absolutely faultless and perfect, it 

 would be cheap at $10 a year, while the 

 present range of prices is from one dollar to 

 $2.50, and it is safe to say that, taking them 

 as we now find them, there is hardly one in 

 the whole number tliat is not worth many 

 times its cost, if rightly used. 



The mere fact that a paper of this class is 

 not perfect is the last reason in the world for 

 neglecting it. If you have discovered the 

 defects of your local paper, you are the very 

 man to help improve it, by taking hold of it 

 with a will. If you will order it at once, 

 paying for a year iu advance, you will be sure 

 to read it, and after reading a few numbers 

 you will find time occasionally to write for it. 

 But don't be afraid to criticise and make sug- 

 gestions. And, above all, send in new facts, 

 giving your own experience and that of your 

 neighbors. In this way your example will 

 kindle a contagion throughout your town and 

 county, and you will have the satisfaction of 

 improving your local paper, and extending its 

 circulation, while largely increasing the 



