The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. SATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., APRIL, 1879. 



Vol. XI. No. 4. 



Editorial. 



SILK CULTURE. 

 I Ostensibly, we presume, toatloid cucouiage- 

 !meut to those who may incline to engage iu 

 iihe production of silk in the United States, 

 il'rot. C. V. Riley, Entomologist ol' the De- 

 partment ol' AgriculLure, makes a special re- 

 port (No. lij ot :!1 PI'. 8vo.,lo the department 

 bu that suliject. The pamphlet contains an 

 introduction and a brief manual of iustruc- 

 jtions for tlie i)roduction of silk, including the 

 ttiaturc of the silk-worm ; different states or 

 pages of the silk-worm ; varieties or races ; 

 wintering and hatching the eggs ; feeding 

 and rearing the worm ; preparation for spin- 

 biug ; gathering the cocoons ; choking (kill- 

 jing) the cluysalis ; egg-laying— reproduction ; 

 p-eeliug; fooU-plants, and aglossary of technical 

 perms, which is a rational resume of a subject 

 fwliich we are able to recall iu its wildest and 

 most inflated manifestation about the year 

 4.S37 and a few following years, exploding 

 ^bout 1841. The pamphlet is embellished 

 iwith seven illustrations, three of which are 

 \lifEerent kinds of silk reels, of European 

 jorigin. Should silk culture become a perma- 

 kient industry of this country— especially in 

 [Lancaster county — before adopting a reel, we 

 [would recommend our readers to examine the 

 !i-eel invented by lion. J. J. Libhart, of Mari- 

 letta, in 1840. We have not seen it for more 

 jthan thirty years, but from our best recoUec- 

 (tion of it, it seems to us it would "take down" 

 any of those illustrated in this pamphlet. 



We may never live to see it, but we believe 

 that silk culture and silk manufacture must 

 ultimately become one of the permanent — and 

 reasonably paying— industries of our country, 

 although it may mvolve something of a revolu- 

 tion iu the minds of men as to tlje true aims and 

 objects of progressive and productive labor, a 

 revolution, the germs of which already exist 

 fin society, but are still only faintly seen and 

 jacknowledged. The silk fever, as it mani- 

 jfested itself forty years ago, was only spas- 

 modic, and did not entertain at any time a 

 single idea beyond merely selfish specidation. 

 Hundreds of dollars were made iu trafficing 

 iu Midtkuulus trees, and tliousands of dollars 

 were lost iu tlie same. Very few thought 

 about the details of silk culture, the whole 

 aim being money, money, money, and so the 

 market became glutted and then the bubble 

 bursted, and disgust and doleful lamentations 

 followed as a cousequence. Men did not think 

 of a permanent organic branch of productive 

 labor through which the masses might secure 

 employment and a reasonable subsistence. 

 They only thought of realizing a fortmie 

 quickly for themselves, and then to retire and 

 enjoy it themselves, without regard to any use 

 or benefit that might inure to their country. 

 The masses perhaps were also selfish, for they 

 extorted sueli wages as no one in the silk busi- 

 ness could aflbrd to pay and compete success- 

 fully with tlie silk producers of otlier countries. 



We have for live or six years been passing 

 through a labor aud financial ordeal in this 

 coimtry that must ultimately initiate a new 

 order of things, if we desire a return of pros- 

 perous times— an order that will secure per- 

 manent employment to tlie poor, at reason- 

 able and permanent compensations. 



In Europe there are villages, the inhabitants 

 ef which employ their time in knitting sub- 

 stantial, seamless, woolen jackets. When the 

 villager has knit a half dozen, a dozen, or two 

 dozen, as the case may be, he puts them in a 

 package, on liis head or b.ick, and travels on 

 foot to the market town and there disposes of 

 them. It re(iuires little outlay to start and 

 conduct his business, but as he makes a good 

 article he can always find ready sale for it, be- 



cause no machinery in either America or 

 Europe can iiroduce as good an article a.s he 

 can by hand. At least those who consume 

 his wares in Kurope and America think so. 

 The foreign Germans in this country always 

 emiuire for them and will have them, although 

 they lire much higher in price than American 

 jackets — indeed at American wages w9 could 

 not produce hand-knit goods to compete witli 

 them at all. 



Uu a plan approximating to this, and not 

 by large and expensive, establishments — ac- 

 cording to Prof. Kiley's suggestions— the silk 

 businPR.>? may become a w Ide-sprcading indus- 

 trj amongst us, and give employment to many 

 old men, women and children. 



Silkville, Kansas, is a village of this charac- 

 ter ; and there are other villages and isolated 

 operators in California, North Carolina, New 

 Jersey aud elsewhere. Very little reeling and 

 manufacture of silken fabrics are done in the 

 United States, but some trade is carried on in 

 cocoons and the raising of silk-worm eggs. 

 Fiance in the year 1877 paid 1,691,400 francs 

 for eggs, exported from the United States ; 

 and although some of these, presumably, came 

 from Japan, yet the larger portion was raised 

 here. It ai>pears that we have no good and 

 peiuuiueut market in this country yet for eggs 

 or cocoons, but all we can produce, of a good 

 quality, i:aii be sold lo the manufactures of 

 Europe, especially in Italy and France. The 

 three best trees, the leaves of which are de- 

 voured by the silk-worm, are the mulberries, 

 botanicnlly known under the names of Mm-us 

 alh'i, M. nlycr and J/, inultimiduii; but tliey 

 will also live aud tlourish on the "osage 

 orange " — Madura aurantiaca. As this is 

 coming into use as a hedge-plant, and ueeds a 

 good deal of pruning, the eliminated branches 

 could be utilized to feed worms. Cocoons are 

 worth from S2 to $2.50 a pound, eveu in the 

 present depressed condition of the country, 

 and even at that price they may yield suffi- 

 cient compensation to remunerate the laborer 

 to a reasonable extent, although he may not 

 gr^iw rich on it — in the sense usually attached 

 to riches — health and content are better than 

 riches. 



A MODEL POSTMASTER. 



In January, 1877, .seven subscriliers to The 

 Lancaster Farmer were obtainud by an 

 authorized canvasser, all of whose papers 

 were sent, in a single package, to an office 

 within the county of Lancaster. It is of no 

 consequence now who the model postmiister 

 was, or where the postolBce was located — 

 whether east, west, north, south nr central, 

 bei:iiuse we desire to discuss the subject from 

 a principle of " right, justice and humanity," 

 and not from feelings of a merely personal 

 nature. One of these seven subscribers always 

 took his paper from the office when he could 

 get it. Which was not always, and also iiaid 

 promptly for it. Sometime after the peiiod 

 of subscription — we don't know exactly how 

 long after, it may have been alinul tb.-ee 

 months— six of these subscribers ''scattered 

 abroad," some going west, and others remov- 

 inii to other districts in the county, and con- 

 sequently diseontinucd calling for their papei-s, 

 the Mib.-rriiiticii ofwhieli they had not paid ■ 

 aiiil have iKil ])aid it yet, and doubtless never 

 will. .Mian as the act was, of coiu'se the 

 postmaster was not responsible for it. Pre- 

 sumably he would cheerfully have delivered 

 the papers to these mxhl subscribers had they 

 condescended to call for them. They are wel- 

 come to all the consolation such an act can 

 afford them, either in the successes or adversi- 

 ties of this transient and micertain life. But 

 what did the model postmaster do, or rather 

 what ought he to have done in the matter ? 

 What course does the Postoflice Department 



prescribe in cases of this kind ? Common 

 courtesy, we would think, should have dic- 

 tated tlie propriety of informing the editor 

 or publisher, and promptly returning the 

 papers to the office from wlience they were 

 issued, marked "uncalled for;" but he did 

 not do anything of the kind— at least such in- 

 forniiition never came to the knowledge of the 

 editor or Ihi' |iublisher — but, on the contrary, 

 he left six- ]iapiis accumulate in his office, from 

 month to month, for nearly two entire years, 

 subjeirting the publisher in the meantime to 

 the labor and expense of printing, folding, 

 stitching, enveloping, labeling, posting and 

 mailing, just as if editors and publishers had 

 no rights that a postm;ister was bound to re- 

 spect. Now, we do not desire to be captious 

 or unnecessarily censorious about this mat- 

 ter, for it may be that the department does 

 not require its sub-officials to return uncalled 

 for mail matter, and, as we have said before, 

 we may have been olHcially informed ot the 

 deliquency of those model subscribers at the 

 proper time, but we are sincere when we say 

 we have no recollection of it ; and, if there 

 had been notliing more, we do not think we 

 should have felt compelled to pen this para- 

 graph. But, near the end of the second year, 

 we happened to call at the postoffice to which 

 we allude, when the postmaster did con- 

 descend to gather up as many of tlie uncalled 

 for papers as he had on hand and place them 

 in our possession ; an act of condescension he 

 was, perhaps, not legally required to exercise. 

 It is very certain, however, that an officer 

 may fidfill all the requirements of the civil 

 law and yet fail in tliat higher law, which 

 every man ought to be unto himself. Subse- 

 quently when we had occasion to ojien the 

 packages, we found a number of them in the 

 same condition they were in when they left 

 the office in Lancaster, months before, aud in 

 one or two instances more than a year jirevi- 

 ously. Some of the packages, we feel ((uite 

 sure, never could have been touched auy 

 farther than was necessary to throw them into 

 some obscure corner in the postoffice ; for 

 among those we found at least seven copies of 

 our paper belonging to our honest and upright 

 paying subscscriber, with his name plainly 

 printed thereon. Now, our friend had fre- 

 quently complained that he did not get liis 

 paper regularly, and sometimes not at all, and 

 weas often felt self-mortification and reminded 

 the publisher of the embarrassing omission, 

 aud also furnished extra numbers. There is 

 not a doubt in our mind that in many in- 

 stances, where like occurrences take place, 

 the tault is in the model postmaster, and not 

 in the editor and publislier, although, of 

 course, neither of them is so perfect that such 

 things may not occur. Such omissions cannot 

 well occur in the mailing department of a well- 

 regulated office. They keep a special mailing 

 biiok, in which the names are not grouped in 

 alpliabetical order, butaccording to postoffices, 

 whether of cities, towns, villages or rural 

 liamlets, and if they omit one name they are 

 j list as likely to omit all. Even after the papers 

 have left tlie printing office they may be -car- 

 ried to the wrong State, county or postoffice ; 

 but all this transpires under the auspices of 

 the postoffice officials, and not under the mail- 

 ing system of the newspaper or periodical 

 publisher. 



LIME. 

 "The utility of lime as a manure consists 

 in loosening the tenacious nature of some 

 soils, rendering them more friable and recep- 

 tive of vegetable fibres ; it especially facili- 

 tates the di.ssolution and putrefaction' of ani- 

 mal and vegetable sulistances, which are thus 

 more readily received and circulated in the 

 growing plant ; and it has the power of ac- 



