48 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[February, 



their cultivation and encouragement is pro- 

 fane. Tlieir soothing outgoing perfumes 

 dissipate the noxious odors that surely would 

 render this world uninhabitable, both to man 

 and the higher animals, if it were not for 

 God's lovely flowers. They are here, and 

 were here on earth before man was, and it 

 seems the most Pharisaical species of pre- 

 sumption to ignore them. 



PEACH BARK LOUSE. 

 {Lf'caniitni 2*frsicum,) 



The following, from a correspondent, is im- 

 portant and speaks for itself to all who may 

 heed it : 



Reading, January 20th, 1879. 



S. S. RATin'ON— ZJcrt)- /S'ir: For further informa- 

 tion I write you that I have experimented for a 

 remedy on the peach bark louse and found one. My 

 remedy is not permanent for individual good, but 

 profitable. If all fruit-growers were to nnite and 

 adopt my remedy the pest might be exterminated. 

 My remedy, which proved effectual last season, was 

 this : In the early part of spring, before the buds 

 sprouted, I began the operation. No rain happening 

 to fall to suit my purpose I took the means, by using 

 a water-sprinkler, of making the trees' branches 

 completely wet, after which I took fine air-slaked 

 lime and saturated the tree iill over with it, which 

 adhered nicely to the bark. I left the trees unnoticed 

 until the peach fruit were about half grown, when I 

 made observations, and found the insect gone and 

 the bark clean again. These Irees were thrify and 

 hardy all through the summer and had fine fruit, to 

 perfection. But when autumn came I again noticed 

 the insect beginning to make its appearance, though 

 in a small quantity, which satisfied me that if all 

 fruit-growers do not enlist in waging war against 

 destructive insects, we, as individuals, must be con- 

 stantly at labor against odds to keep down the multi- 

 plication of evil against the good and beautiful fruit. 

 Have any of the Lancaster people found any remedy ? 

 If so what are they ? Hoping to hear some remarks 

 I remain yours, respectfully, Williain Young, Head- 

 ing, Pa. 



Xo, not that we heard of. They are, 

 probably, waiting to profit by some other per- 

 son's discovery.' AVe approve your remedy, 

 but we believe that grease would have the 

 same efl'ect. 



FARM LIFE vs. PROFESSIONAL LIFE- 

 The following interesting extract, frotn a 

 letter to ''ye local" to the Lancaster Inte.lU- 

 fjencer, will be read with attention by a good 

 many in this locality, where the writer is well 

 known and held a distinguished position in 

 society, having been one of the former editors 

 of that paper and the member from Lancaster 

 city in the Constitutional Convention that 

 formed the present Constitution of Pennsyl- 

 vania. II. G. Smith, Esq., of Hawkins county, 

 Tennessee, gives a very grapiiic description of 

 his whereabouts, what he has been doing and 

 what he intends to do for the future. His ex- 

 periences in life have been various, and there- 

 fore he is enabled to speak to a practical 

 ]ioint; and we especially advise all those 

 farmers who are yearning after town life, 

 town speculations and town aspirations to 

 give it an attentive perusal. It is true he may 

 be still too young in agricultural experience 

 to be regarded as a standard authority, but 

 his example is very appropriate at this time, 

 when there are so many thousands in the 

 towns dragging out a life of listless idleness, 

 and so«nany also of limited means who don't 

 know bow to invest them, whilst so many acres 

 of good land in our vast country are literally 

 hungering after industrious and enterprising 

 tillers of of the soil to come and "occupy." 

 The tide of human events must turn in that 

 direction if ever we wish to see better times, 

 and anything that can afford the least en- 

 couragement to those who contemplate a 

 change of state, and an enrollraent among the 

 yeomanry of our county, ought to be scattered 

 abroad. After enumerating many things of 

 a purely personal and private character Mr. S. 

 proceeds in a seemingly happy and contented 

 strain: 



"I have settled down to farming with the 

 determination to make a lifetime business of 

 it. The political bugle may blow, but it can 

 not rouse me when I return from my fields 

 to take my siesta beneath the wide-spreading 

 beeches which surround my house. I com- 



menced in the woods, almost as much so as 

 any producer ; built me a saw mill, and then 

 continued to build ; am not done yet ; built 

 an ice-honSe and filled it during the coldest 

 snap we had. Built the thing myself with the 

 assistance of a common farm hand. Made a 

 first-class job of it, I think. Provided for 

 turning the drainage into a dairy. When the 

 thermometer goes to the other extreme next 

 summer I can give you punch made from milk 

 of my Jerseys, with as fine ice in it as ever 

 froze on the Conestoga. I got it off my mill 

 dam, eight inches thick and as clear as crystal. 

 I havn't got my barn finished yet. With that 

 and one or two other little jobs I will end 

 building and begin to put things in order 

 about me. I have a large orchard set and 

 vines planted. Have had apples, peaches and 

 grapes of my own planting. Had a number 

 of peach trees with fine fruit, which ripened 

 before the 1st of last July. Some as early as 

 June 20th. How is that for progress i* If I 

 were to come back to Lancaster I might aspire 

 to membership in the Agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural Society ; might I not ? I am content 

 with my present life. There is an indepen- 

 dence and freedom about it that suits my 

 temper. My chief ambition is to become a 

 self-sustaining farmer — to produce everything 

 I need, so far as it can be done on a farm. I 

 have the sheep, and I intend to wear nothing 

 but gray clothes made from my own flocks 

 hereafter. There is a mill in the county which 

 makes very nice goods. 



I want "some first-class Lancaster county 

 tobacco seed ; some best fitted for making 

 cigars. I raised some Cuba tobacco from seed 

 furnished by the patent office two years ago, 

 and it had the genuine Havana flavor. It was 

 not properly cared for. This year I intend to 

 do the thing right— on a small scale, of 

 course — only for my own use at present. I 

 believe that on virgin soil, such as I have, I 

 can raise tobacco which will make first-rate 

 cigars. The Cuba grows too small for good 

 wrappers. Send me some choice seed from 

 Lancaster, and send as soon as you can get it, 

 as it is nearly time to sow it, though a month 

 late will do here." 



CHRISTMAS ROSE. 



First, we would admonish our readers not 

 to be misled by the term "rose" employed in 

 the above name, for the flowering plant to which 

 we refer is really not a rose at all. It only 

 evinces the arbitrary use that is often made, 

 locally, of the common names of things. We 

 allude to what is regarded by botanists as the 

 "Black Helebore,"* or a variety of it, other- 

 wise called the "Christmas Eose." We have 

 this plant growing in our own garden, and it 

 is one of the most hardy flowering plants we 

 know of. It is rather a slow grower, but it is 

 always fresh and green throughout the entire 

 summer and winter, and blooms from Decem- 

 ber to April— sometimes earlier and later. 

 The first flowers opened the present season in 

 December, and those flowers are as fine and 

 fresh to-day as when they first opened, not- 

 withstanding, in the meantime, the tempera- 

 ture where the plant was growing was seven 

 degrees below zero. There are now about 

 twenty-five half opened flowers and buds visi- 

 ble, and upon which the frost seems to have 

 no more effect than it has upon iron. For a 

 figure and description of the Black Helebore 

 we refer our readers to page 41, Vol. X, of 

 The Lancaster Farmer, where its history 

 and medicinal qualities are portrayed. It is 

 true, when the ground is covered with snow 

 its cheerful aspect is hidden by the lurid 

 mantle of winter. But when the season is an 

 open one, or as soon as the snow disappears, 

 it welcomes you to its frosty bed, and is the 

 first, and perhaps the only floral sojourner 

 that hails the advent of the modest " snow- 

 drop," the early harbinger .of the new-born 

 spring, and sharer in its blooming glory. 

 Under careful cultivation and special atten- 

 tion no doubt it would be susceptible of im- 

 provement. 



'Heleborua niger. Order, RiKiraouLAoi a. 



CORRECTION. 



In the 2'2d and 53d lines of the first column, 

 and the 7th line of tlie second column of J^ 

 G. 's article on pages G and 7 of our .January 

 number for "corncob meal" read chopped corn. 

 Corncob meal may do as a "make-shift," but 

 Mr. G. would by no means recommend it in 

 speaking of good, nutritious food, and its 

 occurrence in his article is our mistake. 



Essays. 



OUR ORCHARDS.* 



Friends and neighbors, look to your or- 

 chards. Perhaps you ought to plant a new 

 one. Now is the time to think over it, and to 

 make the calculations. The planting of 

 orchards is too much neglected. Persons who 

 have orchards wait too long before they start 

 a new one. AVhen I was a boy I heard some 

 people say that when an orchard is in its best 

 bearing condition, then is the proper time to 

 start a new one. I took special notice of that 

 remark, and I have found by experience that 

 it is so. It takes from twelve to fifteen years 

 for a young orchard to come into bearing fruit 

 to any extent. Take an orchard that is in Its 

 very best condition, and then fifteen to twenty 

 years after that you will see that it is not 

 much— that it is already going to decay, ex- 

 cept in a few very special eases. But many 

 farmers don't think of planting an orchard as 

 long as they have fruit enough in the old one, 

 and then they run entirely out before the new 

 one comes up to fill the gap. About twenty 

 years ago I had a talk with an old man that I 

 was well acquainted with. I told him he 

 ought to plant a new orchard. He answered, 

 "I'll plant none, for it won't do me any good." 

 He lived to be quite an old man, and only 

 died five years ago. He had two farms and a 

 small homestead, all in a row along a public 

 road, and left them all without an orchard to 

 those who came after him. Last year I had 

 a talk with a farmer who has an excellent 

 orchard in full prime or a little over. I told 

 him now would be the time for him to plant a 

 new orchard, but he only shook his head and 

 replied, "I will plant none yet awhile." 

 That's the way it goes ; most people think 

 only of the present and self, without troubling 

 themselves much about the future and others. 



What would have been the case if our 

 fathers had not planted ? Would we have 

 had any fruit at all ? If we only plant fruit 

 when we begin housekeeping we shall have no 

 fruit until we get old. This will do for new 

 beginners on new farm lauds, but we ought 

 to plant for our children or successors on the 

 old homesteads. Think of it ; there are many 

 farms where orchards should be started, but 

 their owners tliink it would be so much lost. 

 But that is a mistake ; it is not lost. 



I started an orchard about ten years ago 

 and had potatoes in it every year, for eight 

 years in succession. The trees don't take up 

 mucli space when young, only we must be 

 careful that by plowing and cultivating we do 

 not injure the trees. I muzzled the horses so 

 that they could not bite or crop offthe branches, 

 and I tied an old bag around the "traisor" 

 and the ends of the singletrees, so that they 

 could not skin the young trees if they should 

 happen to touch them. After that I had 

 wheat in one year, sowed with clover, and 

 have it in clover ever since and get a good 

 crop of it every year ; and now the trees have 

 commenced to bear and in a short time will 

 pay for themselves. To plant an orchard will 

 not cost much. In November last I planted 

 an orchard of seventy-five trees. I plowed the 

 groimd and followed with a sub-soil plow, , 

 Which took twice as much time as ordinary 

 plowing. I then purchased trees at 12^ cents 

 each, and myself and two others planted 

 them all in less than a day. Then the work 

 was done. I would advise all those who have 

 no young orchards to plant at once. Trees are 

 cheap and labor is cheap. Don't buy trees 



