152 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



Another farm I particularly remember, is 

 on the turnpike between Mountville and Lan- 

 caster, ou which was a public house, where 

 many of the teams stopped over night on their 

 way to Pittsburg. Here was considerable 

 droppings of the horses and manure made, 

 yet corn on that farm would not grow higher 

 than the fences around the fields ; no attempts 

 made to grow wheat or clover ; rye was occa- 

 sionally sown, but it produced little more 

 than the seed sown. But when they began 

 using plaster (gyi)sum) then clover began to 

 grow ; and now, with lime in connection with 

 animal manure and vegetable matter in the 

 soil, they can grow as licavy crops of corn, 

 wheat, clover and tobacco as on the best farms. 

 To what can this wonderful change in the 

 soil be attributed, unless the lime is credited 

 with most of it — decomposing the vegetable 

 and animal matter, making It available for 

 plant food ? 



All over Che.stnut Hill, in West Hempfleld 

 township, the land was so sterile that with all 

 the animal manure they could rake and scrape 

 together the people could barely grow a few 

 vegetables in their gardens for home use ; 

 though many had from one to ten or more 

 acres, most of it was lying out in commons, 

 too poor to pay for plowing, as it would not 

 produce enough to pay expenses. Now, what 

 is the condition of tliis, as then considered 

 worthless land, selling at — five dollars per 

 acre ! Now one hundred dollars would be re- 

 fused ! Sixty years ago they did not attempt 

 to grow any of the cereals, unless a few stalks 

 of corn in the garden. Now wheat, corn, oats, 

 clover, and- fifteen hundred to three thousand 

 pounds of tobacco are frequently produced on 

 an acre of this poor land, as it was considered 

 sixty years ago. 



What has brought about this wonderful 

 change in the producing quality of the soil ? 

 So far as my opinion goes, I attribute it main- 

 ly to the application of lime, of course in con- 

 nection with vegetable and auimal matter, for 

 the lime to exert its influence in decomposing 

 these as a preparation for plant food. 



1 am certain that even our friend R — has 

 some land of a gravell}^ flinty, or slaty 

 nature, which if he applies lime he will find 

 on trial will pay all expenses of liming and 

 leave him a profit besides. 



I do not pretend that lime alone will enrich 

 a soil where there is not a particle of vegetable 

 or animal matter, but with a crop of the most 

 worthless weeds plowed under, and an applica- 

 tion of, say 30 or 50 bushels of lime on an 

 acre, will soon show its value. 



If any reader of these crude remarks should 

 be so imfortunate as to be in possession of a 

 farm so poor tliat insects and killdeers would 

 have to emigi-ate to more fertile fields for a 

 living, let him apply a dressing of 20 or 30 

 bushels of lime pei- acre and plow it under, 

 then he will be able to grow some clover ; 

 plow this under, with twenty more bushels of 

 lime, then a coat of stable manure, and in a 

 few years another light application of lime, 

 and he will be able to grow paying crops of 

 vegetables or ce/eals, with nine-tenths of im- 

 provement credited to the Wme.—Eespectfully, 

 J. £. Oarher. 



For The Lancaster Fabmer. 

 LETTER FROM IOWA. 



Holland, Grundy County, Iowa, ] 

 Sept. 12, 1878. J 

 Editor Parmek : Since my last we have 

 been having very pleasant weather, and soon 

 the " sere and yellow leaf " will begin to show 

 itself. We had a slight frost last night, and 

 farmers will soon be thinking of picking their 

 corn crop, which will be immense ; some will 

 doubtless yield one hundred bushels per acre. 

 You may think that considerable ; come and 

 see for your.self, and you will be apt to change 

 your opinion. This "seems to be the soil for 

 corn, it being of that rich, black loam, and 

 has the peculiar virtue of alike standing the 

 ravages of drouih or heavy rains, the soil 

 having just enough sand in its composition 

 that the plowman never has to wait for it to 

 dry after the heaviest shower of rain, and yet 



has enough of clay, which makes the wheat 

 field as fruitful as the corn, and the good 

 farmer will succeed here, provided he does 

 not become afllicted with the land mania, and 

 become land poor, which is the case with 

 many of the first settlers who came to this 

 county. Men came in here, purchased 10,000 

 to 15,000 acres of land, more than they were 

 able to farm, yet would not part with it, but 

 now are gradually selling off. The largest 

 land owners in this county now are Messrs. 

 Bailey, 20,000 acres ; Geo. Wells, 8,000 ; E. 

 Marble, 3,000, and a number owning from 

 500 to 1 ,000 acres. These men not being able 

 to keep up with the improved farming of the 

 times, and suflering from too great a waste 

 from improper farming, are selling off their 

 fine lands, thus opening up a field for men of 

 smaller means, and, as a consequence, a better 

 system of farming is being inaugurated, and 

 the county is correspondingly better off. 



This country is not a whit different from 

 anj' other. If well tilled and cared for, will 

 produce abundant crops ; if indifferently 

 farmed, will yield correspondingly. I am 

 confident that if your Lancaster county lands 

 were no better taken care of than some of 

 these lands are, they would not produce one- 

 third of what these lands here produce. 



Mr. John S. Gable, of your city, paid this 

 county a visit several days ago. He has a 

 large tract of land in this county (Grundy), 

 as also in Tama county. He is of opinion 

 that this soil and climate are especially adapted 

 to the culture of tobacco. He has experi- 

 mented during the present season with about 

 one-half an acre, and with the very best re- 

 sults, the tobacco being of first quality and 

 burning white as chalk. Mr. Gable's opinion 

 carries great weight with it, having had large 

 experience in growing and handling tobacco ; 

 he knows whereof he speaks. What an open- 

 ing this would be for tobacco growers ; land 

 ■112 to $25 per acre ; a good crop of tobacco 

 would purchase considerable land, and if 

 Mr. Gable's theory is correct and taken hold of 

 some one will make money out of these lands. 



The hog crop of this county will be heavy, 

 and large numbers will be ready for market in 

 about a month from this. Large herds of 

 cattle are also fed here and sold east. 



Wheat is coming in, and the yield in quality 

 and quantity is far better than was expected, 

 and the spirit of the farmer is correspondingly 

 elated. Oats was sold here weighing 38 lbs. 

 per bushel. Hard to beat that. 36 lbs. was 

 thought to be "boss," but a few days ago the 

 38 lbs. were brought in. Next. — W. H. S. 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 RANDOM THOUGHTS— No. 5. 



Wheat from India. 



England is the great wheat-consuming coun- 

 try which does not produce enough to supply 

 its own wants. To supply the deficiency she 

 has been compelled to import large quantities, 

 principally from three countries. The United 

 States stands at the head, the next in order 

 being Russia, to supply her wants. 



This state of the case did not suit her, as 

 she would sooner have her wants filled by 

 some of her own colonies and dependencies. 

 At the time of the high price of cotton she 

 encouraged India in the raising of the latter 

 crop, in every possible way, hoping to become 

 independent of American cotton, but very 

 little success rewarded the eftbrt. 



Now India is to come forward as a wheat- 

 supplying dependency (empire, I believe, is 

 the term used by the English,) and, in fact, 

 considerable quantities have been brought 

 from that country, but not enough yet to 

 make a perceptible iminession on other wheat 

 producing countries, and until railroads and 

 canals become more numerous there is \ery 

 little danger from this source of the markets 

 of the world being flooded. But does it not 

 sound a little curious to Americans that India 

 should export wheat and at the same time 

 suffer from more frequent and more desolating 

 famines than any other part of the world ? 



Queer as the case may be, it is yet too true, 



and the theory of the reason is that the people 

 are too poor and must sell the wheat in order 

 to raise money for taxes, they themselves liv- 

 ing on an insufficient quantity of some in- 

 ferior food. I have seen the statement that 

 it is a common fact for these people not to 

 have a hearty meal for years. As long as such 

 a state of things lasts there can be very little 

 energy in the peojile, as laborers in order to 

 be pushing and effective need abundant and 

 nourishing food. We have therefore but little 

 to fear that they will take away our wheat 

 market, as our intelligence and energy is more 

 than a match for the inefficient management 

 of their millions of half starved laborers. 



Tea Raising. 



In June number of The Farmer I enumer- 

 ated several products that could probably be 

 raised with profit in the United States, tea 

 being one of these. The Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, at Washington, has been sending out 

 tea-plants for the last few years to such places 

 as seemed suitable for the growing of the 

 plants. Individual efforts, before this time, 

 showed that the plants could be raised very 

 readily, but that they could not be produced 

 with profit on account of the much higher 

 wages that had to be paid our laborers than 

 the Chinese laborers received. 



With our improved agricultural machinery 

 there is no doubt but what the plants could be 

 raised as cheaply as is done by hand labor in 

 China ; the plucking of the leaves could be 

 done by the cheaper labor of children and 

 women, so that with the import duties on tea, 

 and the transportation charges, we could 

 possibly compete with the Chinese ; but as 

 every housewife of the land knows, the tea 

 comes in a peculiar shape ; .some round and 

 shot-like, as Imperial ; some of the same form 

 but grains smaller, as Gunpowder ; some 

 twisted, some curled ; each brand having its 

 own peculiar shape, and so accustomed have 

 the peoiile become to them that tea dried flat, 

 though just as good as that rolled or twisted, 

 could not be sold ; to produce these shapes 

 has always been done by the slow process of 

 carefully manipulating each separate leaf by 

 hand until the desired form was produced. 



This has been the only bar against Ameri- 

 can raised tea becoming known on our mar- 

 kets, and I believe even this has been removed 

 by the invention of machinery that will pro- 

 duce the same results at a much less cost as 

 was formerly accomplished by hand labor. 



This, if true, will be good uews to tea drink- 

 ers, as they probably can indulge in this (to 

 some) necessity at a lower expense and higher 

 (luality, for it seems to be inherent to Ameri- 

 cans to produce everything of the best quality 

 at the lowest prices possible. 



Our Government Against the Farmers. 



It is always supposed that a just govern- 

 ment makes no distinction amongst its differ- 

 ent subjects, or that it makes a distinction in 

 favor of the subjects of foreign governments 

 as against those of its own. Yet we must say, 

 that this is the actual case with our own gov- 

 ernment, the discrimination being in favor of 

 trade and commerce as against farmers, and 

 in some cases of foreign subjects as against its 

 own. 



One of the grievances of the farmer is, that 

 in the trades the Goverement will impose such 

 a rate of duty on that class of impoi-f* that 

 such trade can establish itself, and when once 

 on a fair footing the rate of duty is lowered 

 and the trade not hurt. The iron and steel 

 industry is one of the most ])rominent ex- 

 amj)les. Can the farmer point to any of his 

 productions, or any production possiible, that 

 is shown this favor ? 



In counuerce it is the same story, with a 

 variation. In this case millions of dollars are 

 appropriated for improvements, &c.; to throw 

 a sop to the simple fixrmers thousands are 

 enough. Why is this distinction V 



When commerce and trade are favored, of 

 course the farmer is indirectly benefited and 

 we do not look for such excessive ai>propria- 

 tions, but we would like to see the Govern- 

 ment recognize our services by a little more 



