24 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[February, 



of all other nations having an extensive 

 foreign commerce. The reason for this is so 

 plain that it seems strange tliat it does not 

 strike every one who reflects but for a moment 

 on the subject. If a country in dealing with 

 others sends away property greater in value 

 than it receives back, is it not manifestly 

 worsted by the trade by the amount of the 

 difference ? But the advocates of the Balance 

 of Trade theory, as understood by Mr. Reist, 

 with perhaps a majority of our people, seems 

 to hold that the more we send abroad and the 

 less we get in return for it, the greater is our 

 gain ! 



Allow me to illustrate by a familiar example: 

 A Lancaster county miller, having an idea 

 that he can do better with his flour than by 

 selling it in Philadelphia, by way of experi- 

 ment sends a consignment of ten barrels of it 

 to Liverpool. It is worth in Philadelphia 

 $5.00 per barrel— $50 for the whole. At 

 Liverpool the consignee sells it for .160, and 

 according to his instructions, lays out the 

 money in fine salt, whicli costs $2.00 per sack. 

 He thus purchases thirty sacks of salt for the 

 860, and dispatches it by the next steamer to 

 Philadelphia, where on arrival it is sold at 

 $2.50 per sack, amounting to $75. In this 

 transaction, therefore, $50 were exported and 

 $75 imported. The miller has gained $25, 

 (less a small sum for freight, &c.,) and mani- 

 festly the country is that much richer ; while 

 according to the Balance of Trade theorists 

 the miller and the country have both been 

 doing a losing business ! 



But this is not all. Suppose that befo're 

 reaching Philadelphia the vessel is partially 

 wrecked and all but six sacks, worth $15, of 

 tlie salt is lost. The Custom House books 

 will then show in this venture, an export of 

 the value of $50, and an importation of only 

 $15. The miller would undoubtedly think he 

 had been doing an unfortunate and losing 

 business, but the believers in the Balarice of 

 Trade theory would stand ready to assure 

 him that however it might be with him, the 

 country was richer and in a more prosperous 

 condition than if he had landed liis salt safely 

 and made $25 instead of losing 835 by his 

 experiment in foreign commerce. 



I admit that if the excess of exports over 

 imports goes to pay our debts previously con- 

 tracted abroad, that disposition of the Slirplus 

 may be quite as advantageous to the country, 

 and more so in the long run, than if its value 

 was brought home in the shape of foreign 

 merchandise ; for it is undoubtedly an advan- 

 tage to nations to pay their debts ; still this 

 is the same as paying for a dead horse, and as 

 it adds nothing to our present resources, can- 

 not conduce to present prosperitv.— J. P., 

 Laiicastp; Feb. 1, 1879. 



For The LANcAsTEit Faemeb. 

 MORE ABOUT CATTLE. 

 The farmers of Lancaster county possess all 

 the advantages necessary for the improvement 

 of their stock of cattle, or to raise, at 

 least, thoroughbred short-horns or Durhams, 

 through ordinary or cheap means. Thirty or 

 forty years ago it was very expensive to start 

 a herd of English Durhams, but things have 

 somewhat changed since then. Jacob Wiest, 

 of West Cocalico township, was probably the 

 best short-horn stock raiser in the county. 

 He obtained his first stock from a firm of 

 Durham importers, in New York State, and 

 ])aid high prices for his stock to begin with. 

 He got a herd-book along with the stock, and 

 kept a regular systematic record of his opera- 

 tions in all their details, and became so fam- 

 ous as a thoroughbred stock raiser that in 

 turn he became a disposer of stock. He sold 

 three fine heifers to a noted Kentucky stock 

 raiser for $1,000 each, on delivery. Wm. L. 

 Peiper, near Lancaster city, has a well-stocked 

 farm of the best of Alderneys, and of the 

 purest blood in Pennsylvania. It is claimed 

 for them that they are the best milkers, both 

 for quantity and quality, with less petting 

 than the Durhams require, which are much 

 heavier, and, therefore, more valuable for beef 

 than the former. Several farmers in the 



county, for instance, Mr. Getz, of East Hemp- 

 flold, and Mr. Steinmetz, of West Cocalico, 

 had the pure Devonshires, with a pure record 

 from the herd-book. For beauty they are an 

 ornament to any farm ; red in color with neat 

 horns; well set in their bodies, and yielding 

 much weight for their size. The .Jerseys and 

 Ayrshires have never been bred extensively 

 in this county to my knowledge. There are a 

 great many diflerent breeds of cattle in Ohio, 

 at least in name and color. They had a breed 

 some years ago, named the "Hall Cattle," 

 probably originated by a man of that name. 

 The steers were rather high in the legs, round 

 in the body, straight in the back, and had 

 greater length of body than any other steer I 

 have ever seen, and could be made to weigh 

 as heavy as any other breed in existence. It 

 is not my object to unduly exalt any one par- 

 ticular breed, or to disparage another breed, 

 but to encourage stock raising in general— to 

 urge stock raisers to improve their present 

 stock, because I see so much i-oom for im- 

 provement. The most valuable improved 

 breeds come originally from Europe, and 

 sometimes at great expense. In the West it 

 was common to form combinations to pur- 

 chase and import some of the best foreign 

 stock, pay thousands of dollars for a single 

 animal. Sometimes agricultural societies 

 would purchase first-class stock, which would 

 be held by the members, jointly, for the pur- 

 pose of propagation, and through these means 

 they have now all over Ohio and Kentucky 

 the very best of stock ; and especially short- 

 horns and Durhams, are now held and sold at 

 ordinary prices. Whole car loads of bulls are 

 now brought to our eastern markets, and sold 

 at from 2^ to 3^ cents per pound as stakers. 

 Some could be picked out as breeders, almost 

 as good as those that cost $1,000 a piece 

 thirty years ago. I confess that improvement 

 is not necessarily within the reach of every 

 farmer, but it is within the reach of many, 

 and with very little additional expense ; but, 

 notwithstanding all this, we still persist in 

 raising and keeping a race of "mackerel- 

 backed" bulls and cows.— i. S. JR., Oregon, 

 February, 1879. 



[In our early boyhood we knew of some 

 town cows that had the reputation of creep- 

 ing under fences and browsing on garden 

 truck, and also quenching their thirst at tlic 

 slop barrel, and then retiring in the same way, 

 but as a general thing our stock is better now, 

 although there is doubtless aljundant room for 

 im pro vement. —Ed. ] 



For The Lancaster Farmek. 

 FIFTY YEARS AGO vs. THE PRESENT 

 DAY. 

 My father was a farmer, using wooden 

 teeth in the harrow, and sometimes the wheat 

 was plowed in ; but a shovel-harrow, as it 

 was called, was mostly used, then sowed by 

 hand and oftimes harrowed it in with a 

 lot of brush wood with the leaves on, drag- 

 ging it over the field until the grain was cov- 

 ered. The yield per acre was as large under 

 the crude system as at the present day, not- 

 withstanding the use of the grain drills and 

 other improvements. I am of the opinion 

 that grain sown by hand requires le.=s per 

 acre to produce an abundant yield at harvest 

 time, as it gives each stalk more room to 

 mature. Railroads were then unknown, and 

 commerce was carried on between the sea- 

 board cities and the inland towns with horses 

 and wagons. I have seen as many as twenty 

 consecutive teams on the pike loaded with 

 merchandise for Pittsburg, hence from Phila- 

 delphia. At night time the horses were tied 

 to a trough fastened to the tongue of the 

 wagon, which was very often frozen to the 

 ground by morning ; and the horses so cold 

 and stiff and nearly frozen by being exposed 

 without shelter or blankets 'that they could 

 stand on a tin plate, to use an expression 

 common to those days. From such treatment 

 and overloading the teams would oftimes 

 stall and be unable to get along, or to ascend 

 the first hill they came to, each team being a 

 fit case for the Society for the Prevention of 



Cruelty to Animals. These teams would take 

 loads of dry goods, molasses, &c., to Pitts- 

 burg, and bring on their return trip salt, &c. 



Shippensburg was in those days an im- 

 portant town for wagonmaking, as was also 

 lioudon, beyond Chambersburg, which latter 

 was a place of exchange, as many goods were 

 taken thus far and then reshipped to Pittsburg 

 by other parties. The cost of transportation 

 from Philadelphia to Pittsburg was from three 

 to four dollars per cwt. , against twenty-five to 

 fifty cents per cwt. at the present day. Wheat 

 sold at one dollar per bushel ; oats twenty-five 

 cents and corn fifty cents per bushel. Land 

 sold at twenty to forty dollars per acre, against 

 two hundred dollars and more for the same 

 land now. The tax valuation of land was 

 then about twenty-five dollars per acre, and 

 the tax thereon at the rate of twenty-five cents 

 for every one hundred dollars valuation. At 

 the present time the tax valuation for the 

 same land is from one hundred to two hun- 

 dred dollars per acre, and the rate of taxation 

 twenty-five cents on every one hundred dol- 

 lars valuation. Then a cow cost from ten to 

 twenty dollars, and a horse from fifty to one 

 hundred dollars. Education was dispensed to 

 the country folk, during the winter, at a cost 

 for each pupil of two cents per diem ; those 

 that were unable to pay this amount the 

 county paid for. When the pupil was able to 

 do the sums in Pike's arithmetic, without a 

 key, he was a graduate. Geography was used 

 to teach reading then. Now, owing to the 

 many advantages we enjoy we are able to pay 

 fifteen cents on every hundred dollars valua- 

 tion school tax, and pay a superintendent fif- 

 teen hundred to twenty-five hundred dollars 

 annually for looking after the several school 

 districts in the county ; and a child of ten 

 or twelve years knows more than a man of 

 seventy, and can tell you what rivers flow into 

 the Gulf of Mexico ; and can tell you if a man 

 had one hundred sheep and lost three-fifths of 

 them, and found one-fifth, and sold two-fifths, 

 and bought four-fifths as many, how many he 

 then had. Common laborers received forty to 

 fifty cents per day ; haymakers and harvesters 

 sixty-two to seventy-five cents per day ; a 

 hired man on a farm $8.00 per mouth ; a hired 

 girl from $2.50 to $3.00 per month. Now a 

 well-educated man can make a living by being 

 idle nine days out of ten ; and if he can get 

 your name on a note or check, or persuade 

 you to endorse him, or take his note, if well- 

 written, you oftimes are a sadder and a wiser 

 man. I have a ease in point of a beautifully 

 written note that was never paid ; the payee 

 often remarking it was so very well written, 

 I had no idea that it would not be paid. In 

 those days nothing was known of a minister 

 of the gospel receiving $25,000 annually; or of 

 a bankrupt law which allowed debtors to pay 

 on;'-!ialC their liabilities, or less, and ever 

 alVrwiii-.l be released from the balance, thus 

 miiliiii;.' i li' 111 richer than ever before ; or of a 

 man's wile nwiiing everything after said man 

 had obtained all the credit possible and the 

 creditors wanted their money. Ten to twelve 

 per cent, interest per annum was then un- 

 known, three -and four to five per cent, per 

 annum being the current rates. 



Nothing was then known of a man's son 

 having a horse that cost from $200 to $300, 

 and a buggy that cost from $300 to $400, har- 

 ness $50, and sleigh $125, and driving around 

 the country while his father was home driving 

 the work, and paying the bills contracted by 

 his son as they come in. The daughter away 

 at school, learning music, pap rhust get a 

 piano or org<an for sis ; don't let sis go in the 

 kitchen, her fingers will get too thick if she 

 works, and she cannot play well. She must 

 have a silk dress at $50 or $100. Nothing 

 was known of feeding cattle for market ; the 

 grain was all sold from the farm. Nor of 

 the raising tobacco, excepting that was raised 

 for the farmer's own use. Others had half an 

 acre to sell to segarmakers. No lime was 

 used as a fertilizer on land. In those days if 

 a man would have told the people that fifty 

 years hence millions of dollars' worth of to- 

 bacco would be sold in Lancaster county, and 



