1878.1 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



i39 



sources of pleasure in your family, and the 

 sources of profit on your farm. 



Let us now see, in conclusion, what would 

 be the broad national result if a new and de- 

 cided impulse could be given to the circulation 

 of these journals. It is not, of course, easy 

 to say with accuracy what is the present sum 

 total of subscribers to such papers, including, 

 as they do, a considerable list of weekly edi- 

 tions of daily papers, which give ample space 

 as well as liberal effort and outlay to this 

 great and growing industry. Probably the 

 nearest estimate now attainable would make 

 the entire circulation of the agricultural press 

 from one and a half to two million subscribers. 

 The next census will probably show that the 

 number of proprietary farmers is not far from 

 seven millions, and the entire farming popu- 

 lation from twenty to twenty-five millions. 

 But if we assume the present total circulation 

 even at two millions, this still shows a vast 

 and dreary domain lacking the priceless 

 knowledge which a well conducted press is 

 fitted to impart. 



Now suppose it were possible before the 

 close of the present decade to double the cir- 

 culation of the agricultural press. Who does 

 not sec that the new flood of light thus sup- 

 plied would be an unspeakable benediction to 

 a countless host of toilers, who sadly need 

 such an illumination, which would not only 

 impress on them a change of character, but 

 would immensely increase the product of their 

 farms. But is it possible thus to double this 

 circulation ? Probably not in so brief a period. 

 But one thing is certain : If the right means 

 are used, there is a possible increase for these 

 periodicals not far short of the ratio here 

 stated, and the prize is certainly worth the 

 effort, not only of every farmer but of every 

 journal in the country. The means for gain- 

 ing this end include various conditions, but 

 must be left for future discussion. 



It would be easy to show that if the sug- 

 gestions of Mr. Dodge were carried out, for 

 doubling the total product of our farms, or if 

 even one-half that increase were attained, the 

 result would be sufficient to support the popu- 

 lation of the globe for an entire year. It will 

 be an immense stride in this direction when- 

 ever the farmers of the country shall rally to 

 sustain the press, which is the very life blood 

 of their prosperity, and give to its circulation 

 such an increase as its importance demands. 



EVERGREENS AND BIRDS. 



Few persons who are not in position to no- 

 tice it, are aware of wliat an interesting har- 

 bor for a great many varieties of birds, is a 

 cluster of evergreens near a house. They are 

 objects of interest for several reasons, and are 

 frequented by birds at one time of the year 

 for one purpose, and at another time for an- 

 other ; so that they are visited at all times by 

 a number of diffeient birds. In the winter 

 the thick green boughs of balsam fir, Norway 

 spruce and pines, afford an excellent shelter 

 to such birds as stay with us during that in- 

 clement season. Among these are the com- 

 mon sparrow, song sparrow, ground and tree 

 clappers, snowbirds, and sometimes the lesser 

 red-poleof the far North, will, during extreme 

 cold, visit us as far south as the northern part 

 of New Jer.sey, and eat the seeds from the 

 cone of such trees. During the breeding sea- 

 son, most birds that build a banging or bag 

 nest, besides many others, visit those trees to 

 get the gum for sticking the threads of their 

 houses together. While thus engaged gather- 

 ing the gum, they are so busy that they allow 

 no one to approach very close to them. The 

 trees are also a great resort for birds that 

 make their domicile in the branches, particu- 

 larly robins and cat-birds. Such trees are 

 kept clear from insects, and afford a fine shade 

 in summer and are very beautiful also in 

 snowy weather, aflbrding a pleasing contrast 

 in color to the pure white snow. A cluster of 

 them near a farm-house or rural home, affords 

 much interest to the fiimily, and to those who 

 »re fond of bird life. — Eural JVew Yorker. 



OUR LOCAI. ORGANIZATIONS. 



Proceedings of the Lancaster County Agricul- 

 tural and Horticultural Society. 



The regular montlily mectluK of the enciety wiis 

 hcl<l on .Moiiiliiy aftcninoii, September 2iiil, In tlielr 

 rooMip, City Hall. Tlie following nieinliers and visi- 

 tors were present : .*<iiuoii P. Eliy, elty ; LevlS. HeiRt, 

 Manhelm; Levi \V. (iroif, West Earl; Casper Mil- 

 ler, Conestoga ; Daniel Sineych, city; Jaeoli liol- 

 llnger, Manhelm ; Calvin Cooper, BIrd-ln-IIand ; W. 

 W. (iriest.elty ; F. K. Dlireniicrll'er, rity ; Jolin G. 

 Hesli, Willow Street ; .1. F. Winner, I'aradlse ; S. H. 

 Hess, F.phrata ; S. L. Fry, Ephrata ; Ellas S. Her- 

 shey, Paradise ; Jolm.'.on Miller, Warwiek ; Henry 

 Kurtz, Mount Joy; J. M. Johnston, city ; Clare Car- 

 penter, elty ; Epfiralin S. Hoover, .Slanhelm ; M. D. 

 Kciidig, Manor; C. M. Ih.stett.er, Eden; S. 8. Hath- 

 von, elty; J. Hartnian Herslioy, Kohrerstown ; J. 

 Fred. Sencr, elty ; Jaeoh B.Garbcr, Columhia ; Israel 

 L. Landls, elty ; A. F. Hostetter, Manhelm; J. H. 

 Hershey, West Henipfield ; Abraham Bausman, 

 Manor; Christian Miller, Warwiek. 



The soeiety was ealled to order by the President, 

 Calyin Cooper, Esq. 



On motion the reading of the minutes of last meet- 

 ing was dispensed with. 



Election of Members. 



Mr. Christian H. Miller, of Manhelm, and Sanmel 

 R. Hess, of Ephrata, were proposed and elected to 

 membership. 



Reports on Crops. 



Levi S. Reistj of Manheim, called attention to a 

 field of wheat just outside the city that yielded '.i73 

 bushels from .5' J acres. Another of three acres gave 

 a product of 1.56 bushels. Wheat, corn, oats and 

 tobacco will make an average crop. Potatoes are 

 plenty but not so large. The Goodrich have done the 

 best. Out of two hundred of his apple trees fifty are 

 bearing well. At the head of the list for bearing he 

 put York Imperial, Pennsylvania Ked Streak, Rambo, 

 Baldwin, Hubert's Nonsuch, Smokehouse, Sheep- 

 nose, Cambridge and Golden Pippin. Of those bear- 

 ing in a less degree he named the Pound, Berks 

 County Cider, Kussets, Sweet All Summer, Ked 

 Streak, Ked Astraehan, Smith's Cider, Northern 

 Spy, Bell Flower and Conestoga Pippin. Many other 

 varieties have only a few on the trees. The best of 

 his early peaches are Troth's Early Red, George IV. 

 and Crawford's Late. Hale's Early rotted on the 

 trees before ripening ; all the rest rotted more or 

 less. The grapes are doing well. Anew thing ap- 

 peared In the grapes and also with the pears ; the 

 wasps destroyed a great deal, while the bees did no 

 harm. 



Henry Kurtz, of Mount Joy, reported a yield of 

 wheat by weight of 44 bushels to the acre. Of his 

 own he had a yield of about 40 bushels. The corn 

 crop will be tolerably good. Tobacco is both good 

 and bad. 



.Johnson Miller, of Warwick, reported that they 

 could not do so well as the reports jnst given. There 

 has been no such a dry spell for years. "Tobacco will 

 be a short crop. The early potatoes were a a fair 

 crop, but the late one will be a poor one. 



Ephralm S. Hoover stated that In Manheim the 

 wheat crop w.as a very good one ; the yield was all 

 the way from 23 to 44 bushels per acre. Corn is 

 tolerably fair ; the late planted is much the best. 

 The grass fields are well set . The fruit crop is an 

 average one. Potatoes also are a pretty good crop, 

 except the late ones. The oats ripened too fast; 

 it is long in the straw, but light in weight. 



C. M. Hostetter said some tobacco is good, some 

 poor. Grass has set very well. Corn looks tolera- 

 iily well. 



M. D. Kcndig, of Manor, said their wheat average 

 would be about 80 bushels ; the weather is very dry, 

 and the corn Is very poor. The rain fall for August 

 was nine-tenths of an inch. The grass Is dying off 

 and pasture is getting short. Fruit is an average 

 crop only. S. L. Fry, of Epiirata, said he had 

 traveled over a good deal of territory lately, l)Ut he 

 has seen none so gf>od as here at home. The Coealieo 

 valley average, a little over 2.5 bushels of wheat to 

 the acre. Corn is scarcely much more than half a 

 crop. Some, however, is belter than it looks. In a 

 trip of thirty miles he saw but two good fields of 

 corn. Grass is well set, clover particularly so ; clover 

 Isgrowlnir short. If we have rain soon there will be 

 no lack of pasture. Potatoes are a short crop, hardly 

 averaging a half crop. Clover seed is reported as 

 yielding a full crop. On the farm of Hon. Thos. E. 

 Franklin he had counted 85 stacks of grain. 



S. R. Hess, of Ephr.Ua, said fruit was doing better 

 than for years. The Gravenstein and the Jeffries are 

 doing uncommonly well. The Smokehouse are 

 showing to excellent advantage ; so are the Winesap. 

 Peaches of the early varieties were a comparative 

 failure. Old MIxon and Mountain Kose take the 

 lead tliis year. The wasps have been very destruc- 

 tive. The grapes are doing tolerably well ; the fruit 

 is mostly small. 



Henry Kurtz said a Mr. Snyder raised 38 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre on his farm, the acreage being 

 considerable. 



The President remarked, while some members re- 

 ported average cropB, others selecled the very best 

 lots that came to their notice. It would be well to 

 bear this In mind ; unless this is done misundcrstancl- 

 InL'B may occur. 



Daniel Snieych, of the city, called attention to a 

 good grape crop. The bees, however, are literally 

 eating them up ; tliey have earrleil ofl" three bushels 

 wfthin ten days for him. lb; is the only person who 

 rej)orteti harm from the bees. 



Levi W. Grolt said that lie never licllevcd the bees 

 hurt grajjcs until yesterday, when they did a full 

 day's work. 



.s. S. Uathvon observed bees to-day for the first 

 time on his vines; they did no damage, however. 

 What, they may do hsreafter he does not know. Dur- 

 ing the week he saw bees working at the leaves of 

 the Osage orange, which they bruised considerably. 



Reading ol Essays. 



Levi S. Rcist, of Oregon, read an essay on the use 

 of lime. The proper use of lime is not fully under- 

 stood. It may be burned Iniprojierly and slaked 

 badly. Some limestone makes belter lime than 

 olliers. He referred to the Porters of this elty, who 

 were among the first users of lime In this vicinity. 

 Some contend manure an<l lime must be u.sed to- 

 gether to ])roduee the best effects. He questioned 

 whether It paid big money to lime land heavily. He 

 thought, perhaps, farmers would be as well r>lf with- 

 out lime as with It. The Romans used It until their 

 lands became unproductive. Barnyard manure must, 

 after all, be our final resort'. We know, that to bo 

 effective. We may also plow under clover and thus 

 renew our soils. Our fields are now washed by rains, 

 because the surface soil has been made so loose that 

 rains and winds operate ob them and carry off the 

 fine dusty portions. 



Henry Kurtz was surprised at the contents of the 

 essay. It advocated a backward move In agriculture. 

 The Pequea lime is a pure one, but not strong. 

 Where land Is not limed you can raise nothing. Land 

 washes more now because it Is turned up oftener. So 

 far as grass Is concerned as a manurlal agent, of 

 course that is good, but you must have lime to pro- 

 duce grass first. Lime Is our great ally in growing 

 crops. 



Jacob Bollinger remarked, some fancy farmers 

 have no faith in lime, but his experience was that 

 lime does pay. Last year he burned seven thousand 

 bushels of lime, and during the past six years he has 

 burned, for his own exclusive use, twenty-five thous- 

 and bushels of lime, and he believed it has paid him. 

 He criticised the .address of Prof. Ileiges for some of 

 his views on the lime question, and also about ship- 

 ping too much of our grain out of the county. But 

 there are thousands of bushels of corn aii(l wheat 

 brought into this county and used here. The farmers 

 of Lancaster county are not so stupid as to have used 

 lime for a century without discovering that it has 

 benefited their farms. 



Ephralm S. Hoover agreed with the last speaker. 

 He would be very sorry if all his jiast labor in liming 

 has been In vain. Before we go to liming we ought 

 to know what kind of soil we have. On a worn- 

 down, bound-up farm, lime is the best of all fertil- 

 izers ; it loosens that soil and puts it In a condition 

 to grow crops. But when the soil is once loosened and 

 becomes productive it would, perhaps, be belter to 

 use barnyard manure. As the same medicine is not 

 good for all diseases, so, too, lime has not the same 

 eflect in all cases. 



Joseph F. Winner thought the members had mis- 

 understooil Prof. Ileises ; he said it was a fertilizer, 

 but not a manure. That a small quantity of lime 

 was suflieient to supply the cereals ; that it prepared 

 vegetable mailer so that plants could take it up and 

 feed on it. lie knew of a farm often manured, but 

 on wliieli liirlit <nips only could lie raised ; it was 

 limed ami produced thirty bushels of wheat to the 

 acre the following year. 



Levi S. Reist trave an instance of a man who ex- 

 perimented with lliiie, and who found It to be an abso- 

 lute Injury ; his was a rich vecetable mould. 



J. F. Witmer bad asked Prof. Ileiges how much 

 lime he would apply to an acre, and he replied twenty 

 bushels. 



S. L. Fry, of Ephrata, also fell somewhat sharply 

 upon Prof! S. B. Ileiges' lecture. He was also sur- 

 prised that an old farmer should tell us lime is a 

 fertilizer. He alluded to a farmer who has had no 

 fall crop on bis farm for thirty years, and which has 

 undergone only two limings In all that time. He docs 

 not believe it is a fertilizer. In Itself, independent of 

 other manures, you can raise nothing from lime. He 

 does not beticve"that lime, if put on barren soil, will 

 ("ver bring it into productive condition. He failed to 

 understand the learned Professor's lecture as re- 

 ported. 



J. G. Resh alluded to farmers In a certain section, 

 who limed their soil so heavily and constantly that 

 they finally could grow nothing, so they have to re- 

 turn to artificial fertilizers. 



Joseph F. Witmer said the lime question was 

 easily tested. Take pure river sand and put your 

 lime into It, and the seed into that, and see whether 

 you can raise anything. You will then see it is not 

 a fertilizer. 



