The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. BATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER. PA., FEBRUARY, 1879. 



Vol. XI. IIo. 



Editorial. 



NEW SUBSCRIBERS. 

 We .arc pleased to be able to state that 

 during the sionth of January about lifty-eiglit 

 new subscribers were added to our list. A 

 few friends of The Faumkr who are inter- 

 ested in its success are working to increase 

 the list in their neighborhood all they can. 

 For their efforts they have our sincere thanks, 

 and we trust that their work in this matter 

 will be the means of inducing others to do the 

 same. We would like to see Tiik Faujieu 

 on a good footing, .so that it will maintain 

 .itself, and that we will not lose money in en- 

 deavoring to give the people of Lancaster 

 county a good home journal. It should re- 

 ceive a liberal support from our farmers and 

 those interested in the various topics of which 

 it treats, and we trust that all of the sub- 

 scribers who receive this number will try and 

 send us two or three new subscribers at least. 

 Some could, no doubt, do more. It would 

 seem like a very little work for each one to 

 do, but if two new names were received from 

 each old subscriber it would increase the list 

 to three times what it is now, and place the 

 paper on a good, sound basis, where it should 

 have been years ago. As Ave said in the 

 January number, we shall do all we can to 

 make it better each mouth, and trust our 

 subscribers will appreciate our efforts and lend 

 us such assistance as is in their power. The 

 subscription price is only one dollar a year. 

 We make the following as an inducement to 

 our friends to work for us : To any one who 

 will send us five new subscribers, accompanied 

 by five dollars, we will send The Farmer 

 free for one year. See if we cannot have a 

 still better report for our next number. 



AS OTHERS SEE US. 



The first number of TnE Lax( astkr Farmer, 

 under the proprietorship of John A. Iliestauil, Esq., 

 publisher of the Lancaster Examiner and Sxprexs, 

 conducted by Dr. S. S. Kathvon, shows a general 

 excellence that might be imitated with profit by 

 other periodicals making agriculture their leading 

 feature. It is well printed, carefully arranged, and 

 conducted witli great ability. The subscription is 

 only one dollar a year. — Germantoien Telegraph. 



There is no man on the editorial st.aff whose 

 good opinion we more highly esteem than that 

 of the veteran editor of the TckijrtqA. AVc 

 do not desire to be pharisaical in our claims 

 to distinction, but wc may lie permitted to 

 say that tlie Major knows a.s well tlie quality 

 of our journal.as we do UkiI be publishes the 

 best family pajier— either for "king or cotter" 

 — tliat is issued in Penusylvania. 



The Lancaster Farmer for .January enters upon 

 Its eleventh volume, hopeful that it may be more 

 generally sustained by the community in which it is 

 published and for whose interest it labors. We have 

 neglected heretofore to state that there has been a 

 change in its publishers. Mr. Linn.Tus Kathvon 

 having sold out to -Mr. .John A. Hiestand, proprietor 

 of Ihe Examiner and Ezjtress. Dr. S. S. Rathvon 

 still retains the pesition of editor, and will continue 

 to labor with all diligence for the success of the 

 journal, which should find a place in every farmer's 

 home, not only in our own great county, but through- 

 out this and adjacent States. Let our farmers risk a 

 dollar in this home journal of agriculture, and they 

 will be convinced that tliey have made a good in- 

 vestment. Address John A. Hiestand, Lancaster, 

 Vn.—yew MoUand Clarion. 



We have marked witli local pride the evi- 

 dences of progress made by the rural press of 

 Lancaster comity ; and none with more in- 

 terest than that of the Clarion, whose own 

 excellence allbrds an imwarped medium, 

 through which it is able to recognize what is 

 praiseworthy in others. 



Many similar notices, from far and near, 

 come under our observation, but our space is 

 too limited to admit them all. We cannot, 

 however, on this occasion, refrain from adding 

 the analytic notii-r of A(ii;icoi..\, in a recent 

 nunilieriil' [\w Ihilh/ E.ramincmnd I'Jxpress, as 

 one that is more than ordinarily appropriate: 



What a thrill the very name is calculated to send 

 through the breasts of the cultivators of the soil, 

 dotted over the various States and Territories of the 

 Union. There is a charm in that name that would 

 welcome the bearer of it to any domicile in the 

 East, the West, the North or the South, owned 

 liy any Ibrmer farmers of Lancaster county, or their 

 posterity. This may be germane to the subject, but 

 it is not exactly the subject itself to which the above 

 caption refers. 



I have just received the January, 1870, number of 

 our local agricultural journal, that bears that name; 

 a journal which, in my humble opinion, ought to be 

 in the house of every progressive farmer in the 

 county of Lancaster, if not in the entire State of 

 Pennsylvania. I have received and welcomed it as a 

 cherished household companion, and I have also 

 analyzed its contents. I Hud that it contains seventy- 

 five separate articles, and forty five subdivisions of 

 some of these articles, as well as an index of the 

 contents of this number. Twenty-eight of these 

 articles (exclusive of the proceedings of societies,) 

 are original ; all, except two, having been written by 

 local contributors, who inelude some of the most 

 practical farmers and fruitgrowers. 



The material, the typographical execution, and the 

 general makeup of the journal will compare favor- 

 ably with the best in the country. Quarto in form, 

 and furnished at one dollar a year in advance, postage 

 paid. 



The farmers of Lancaster county should, by all 

 means, give their preference to their own local 

 journal — work for it — write for it — and be in har- 

 monious sympathy with it. No man who entirely 

 ignores his friends, his family or his kin, will find as 

 much sympathy froui strangers in the hour of ad- 

 versity as he will from the home circle ; therefore, 

 home and the things of home should be sustained. 

 This does not meau that he should be selfishly locked 

 up against foreign things, when he desires, or it is 

 his interests to go beyond ; but he should still hold 

 to the home anchor. — AgrieoUtf Lancaster, Jan, 15, 

 IST'J. 



MORE ABOUT EELS. 



MlLLWAV, January 18th, 1879. 

 Mk. S. S. Kathvon— Z^car .Sir: Allow me to 

 olTer a few remarks on the subject of eels. I saw in 

 The Lancaster Farmer for January, 1879, that 

 you desire to have the experiences of local observers 

 in regard to the migrations, &c., of these peculiar 

 animals. The migrations of eels I have never wit- 

 nessed, but I am able to say something about their 

 eggs, or spawn. I have a fish-pond, about one and 

 a half miles north of Litiz, ou my father's farm. 

 Last summer — I cannot now tell the exact date — one 

 of the laboring men of the farm was fishing, with a 

 hook and line, in the pond aforesaid. Among other 

 fishes he drew out a large female eel, weighing about 

 three pounds. When this eel was opened she was 

 found to be full of eggs, about the size of shad eggs. 

 The oldest of our fishermen say that it is very seldom 

 that eels are caught with eggs in them. .My son 

 Franklin now occupies my farm. I have retired and 

 now reside at Milhvay station, C. K . U . — Yours truly, 

 Levi B. Brubakcr. 



Mr. E. K. Ilcrsbey, of Cresswell, in this 

 county, made a verbal response to the ques- 

 tion in our January number, about the migra- 

 tion of eels. Mr. II., together with his father 

 and other members of the family, saw young 

 eels migrating up the Susquehanna, near the 

 Lancaster shore, about the year 18-tO or 1850, 

 in the month of May, as near as he is able to 

 recall the period ; and to continue their mi- 

 grations upward during a whole day and until 

 after nightfall, but cannot tell how long they 

 continued running, as not one was observed 



the next morning thereaRer. The locality 

 where they made this olKscrvation was about 

 one mile below the borough of Washington, 

 On this occasion they scooped up dozens of 

 them with a common cullender. It is com- 

 monly supposed among lisliermeu that these 

 migrations continue about three days, and 

 furthermore, they favor the idea that many 

 young eels now jiass u]) througli the canals 

 instead of the river, but for various reasons 

 this seems im|in)bal)le, even if it were possible. 

 The oUservatioMS of these two men seem to 

 bo in harmony with what wc stated in our 

 May numlier of The Farmer, page GO. It 

 is very strange that so few have observed this 

 eel migration, :iiid yet more strange, that still 

 fewer have made records of tlie iilienomenon. 

 Catching eels in the month of .May with eggs 

 in them. Unless there are different species 

 of eels, creek species, pond species .and river 

 species, that difler or have changed in their 

 habits, it is dilhcult to reconcile their migra- 

 tions in the month of May, and the existence 

 of eggs in them in tliu s;une month. But the 

 facts are on record, and we have the objects 

 in our posses.siun, and therefore wc arc com- 

 l)elled to conclude that there are local or pond 

 species, and migrating or river si)ecies. So 

 far as we understand Prof. Packard's late 

 discovery, he does not seem to have had such 

 a distinct demonstration of eggs as we have 

 recorded in the foregoing, and after all he 

 may only have seen spermatazoids. 



The following on the same subject w'e have 

 received from an intelligent correspondent 

 from Conestoga township : 



About the year 1S:W I once had the satisfaction of 

 seeing young eels going up the Susquehanna. They 

 followed close along the shore in a continual stream; 

 I suppose I might say millions of them, little fellows, 

 from ;i to 6 inches long. Have not been much about 

 the river since, and had almost foigotten the cir- 

 cumstance, until I saw your queries about them.— 

 r. If. 



FLOWERS. 



In life's varioufl relaticns 



'Mid its scenes of woe ami niirtb, 

 TUey are ever by us valued. 



form pleasant links In the chain of our existence. 

 When the sky of the future seems clear, and no 

 breakers appear ahead, we look upon them with the 

 most tender devotion as contributing to our happi- 

 ness. In the dark and trying hours of misfortune, 

 when alBiction and disappointment combine to make 

 our hearts heavy, involuntarily we turn to these our 

 pels, and lecognize in them an instrument in the 

 hands of Providence, of love, of beauty, teaching us 

 submission to his will, and to look for brighter, 

 happier hours." — /•'. A. \V. in F. and F. Jfagazine. 

 On a perhaps lower and more iiractical 

 plane, llowers lill a social and domestic 

 racutnii that relieves us from that ennui 

 which is sometimes so inseparably from isola- 

 tion and loneliness. Tliey speak to us in a 

 language that we .soon learn to interpret, and 

 recall many pleasant memories of by-gone 

 days; ever suggesting something that ought 

 to be done in order to perpetuate the sympathy 

 existing between us and them. Yea, more ; 

 they are the silent and gentle teachers of a 

 refinement that is imparted by the ciirinihwi 

 of no other school. We admire the gaudy for 

 their higli-toned coloration and their da.shing 

 beauty, but our feeling towards the modest 

 and humble culminates in a sentiment that is 

 akin to love. We hold them as tiie repre- 

 sentative outbirths of principles that have 

 their origin in the invisible realms, permitted, 

 if not provided by the Creator for an en- 

 nobling and useful end ; and nothing staggers 

 us more than the sentiment which obtains 

 among some of the rigidly righteous, that 



