The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JUNE, 1879. 



Editorial. 



LARGE FARMING A PRECARIOUS 

 BUSINESS. 



The followiii;^ ligiins avo given by a San 

 Francisco convspuiulcnl of a Philadelphia 

 paper, as evidence that farming on a gigantic 

 scale is prolitalile neitlier to the country nor 

 to the farmer. lie says : "The largest wheat 

 producer in California, or in the world, is Dr. 

 H. J. Glenn. He was formerly from Monroe 

 county, Mo. He is a man of great enterprise 

 and energy. Ili.'s ranch lies in Colusa county, 

 and comprises 60,000 acres, nearly all arable 

 land. He has this year 45,000 acres in wheat, 

 which, at a low calculation, will produce 900,- 

 000 bushels. His wheat will sell for 85 cents 

 per bushel, or $750,000. Dr. Glenn has been 

 farming ten years, and one would suppose he 

 ought to have a handsome credit in bank ; but 

 what, with a failure in crops— which occurs 

 two years in every five— and the enormous in- 

 terest he pays on his loans, he is said to owe 

 a round million of dollars. Last year his 

 credit was bad, as he had no crop. Now, with 

 his splendid crop in prospect he will probably 

 get out. The Dalrimples, of St. Paul, who, 

 ten years ago, were the largest farmers of 

 wheat in Minnesota, raising as niucli as 40,000 

 bushels in a single year, went to the wall. 



"Another large wheat raiser is D.M.Reavis. 

 whose land lies on the borders of Colusa and 

 Butte counties. He is also from^Monroe co., 

 Missouri, and has an unpretending little estate 

 of 15,000 acres, 1.3,000 of which are in wheat, 

 which he thinks will average this year thirty 

 bushels per acre, or 390,000 bushels. He also 

 is hard pressed, and I am told is paying 9 per 

 cent, on a couple of hundred thousand dollars 

 of borrowed money. If farmers raising half 

 a million to a million bushels of wheat cannot 

 get out of debt, it might be well to inquire, 

 what is the use in having so much land ? 



"The truth is that from the.frequcnt failure 

 of crops in California, and the waste that 

 attends on large operations of that kind, farm- 

 ing on a gigantic scale in this portion of the 

 Pacific coast must be considered a failure. 

 North of this, in Oregon and Washington 

 Territories, there is no failure of tlie harvest ; 

 farming operations are carried on on a smaller 

 scale, and consequently tlie farmers, while 

 not rolling in wealth, are all well to do." 



We clip the above from the columns of the 

 Scientific American for June 7, as an illustra- 

 tion of the great greed there is in the industrial 

 operations of the world ; how they look from 

 an inside view, and what eventually comes of 

 them. We have had occasion heretofore to 

 allude to these mammoth farms, and however 

 they may have appeared from the outside — 

 even if financially sound inside— we have 

 alluded to them deprecatingly, simply because 

 of their monopolizing tendencies, tlieir social 

 and commercial inequalities, and their liability 

 to result eventually in anti-republican landed 

 aristocracies. 



But they do not seem to have succeeded 

 very well, and we cannot see why they should, 

 because every such a gigantic establishment 

 that succeeds crushes just so much of the 

 breath out of the other portion of the farniinj 

 community of the country. The country is 

 capable of producing a limited quantity of 

 anything, and the more equally that amount 

 can be divided among the producers the 

 greater equality will there exist, and the less 

 imposition will there be upon consumers, be- 

 cause there will be a less tendency towards 

 those monopolizing "Corners," which so 

 often oppress the public. Even the unneces- 

 sary waste of such an establishment would 

 often prove a handsome income for an ordi- 

 nary farmer. When it was glowingly stated 



that Dalrimple had only 5, .500 acres in wheat, 

 and that he had some twenty-five reapers and 

 ten threshing machines in his employ, and 

 was sending ofl" to market ten car loads of 

 wheat daily, we felt that it would have been 

 much better for the country, and for Dal- 

 rimple himself, if that harvest had belonged 

 to fifty-live thrifty and industrious farmers, 

 than to be all under the control of one man 

 who, perhaps, was not a farmer at all. Like 

 a game of hazard, such farming may be 

 lucky in one or two turns of the cards in suc- 

 cession, but it is prone to ultimate in failure, 

 or abandoned, wornout lands, and a poverty- 

 stricken community for years thereafter. 



Any practical farmer can see what the up- 

 shot of such farming must be in the end. 

 Read the minutest details of such operations 

 and not the least allusion is made to the re- 

 plenishment of the soil. It is true the soil 

 may be virgin and not in immediate need of 

 replenishment, but this state of things will 

 not always exist. "Wear and tear" is writ- 

 ten upon all the works of human hands ; dis- 

 integration must be balanced by integration, 

 or physical decay and ruin must follow. 



Here and there on such large farms a thresh- 

 ing machine is located, the wheat is threshed 

 and winnowed, then sent on its way to some 

 distant market, and the straw and chaff is left 

 on a heap to be burnt or blown away by the 

 prairie winds. No grass, or stock to feed on 

 it, can be kept on an exclusively wheat farm, 

 and therefore there can "be no return to the 

 soil again of t!ie elements that have been ex- 

 hausted. 



A thrifty republican yeomanry are the bul- 

 wark of the nation, but so soon as they re- 

 solve themselves into landed aristocracies they 

 encourage feiidalism, or exclusiveism, and 

 become its bane. Doubtless many of those 

 who sell their Pennsylvania farms and "go 

 West " may be more or less influenced by the 

 desire alone to own large farms. There is 

 plenty of room in the Middle States for thous- 

 ands of thrifty farmers, if they could content 

 themselves with smaller farms, and a more 

 thorough and intelligent culture. 



SOUTHWARD, HO! vs. WEST- 

 WARD, HO! 



We sincerely believe that it will be idti- 

 mately demonstrated that people of limited 

 means have, and are noio making, a great 

 mistake— and often a sad mistake— in their 

 impulsive emigrations to the "Great AVest " 

 without having first availed themselves of the 

 opportunities which are nearer home— namely, 

 in the Virginias, Maryland and our own 

 Pennsylvania. Many localities in these States, 

 within a 6, 12 or 14 hours' run by rail from 

 Lancaster county, offer inducements that 

 ought to command the attention of those who 

 really desire to better their pecuniary and 

 domestic condition. It is all well enough for 

 the sake of expansion and settling up the 

 Western States ; for if nobody had settled in 

 Lancaster county long years ago, it would 

 not have become the "Garden " it is to-day — 

 but it would have been folly for our ancestors 

 to have come here if they could have done 

 better nearer home. It is quite possible that 

 some of these West-stricken emigrants are 

 like the httle cat in pursuit of its tail. Away 

 it goes heedlessly round and round in a circle 

 after its tail, when if it only would stop a 

 moment and look, it would find the end of its 

 tail right at its nose. In looking over the 

 columns of the Weekly Exatniner and Express, 

 a few days ago, we noticed the following 

 advertisement, which includes one of the 

 many inducements that now are offered for a 

 profitable settlement in the great border State 

 of Virginia, and is worthy of special attention : 



NOTICE 1— A CHANCE FOK ALL ! A HO.ME FOR 

 ANY ONE I 

 We will lease cood farm lands In Clover Hollow, 

 Giles county, Virginia, for Ave years, /ree of all rent 

 and no liuinbug to any energetic farmers who will 

 clear them up and mean business. Satisfaclory 

 reference will be required. "First come, first 

 served." Any further Information will he given by 

 applying to REV. C. ELVIN HOUPT, 



45 South Duke street, Lancaster city. Pa., or 

 II. HAirpT, .Tr., M. D., 

 University of PcDnsylvania, Philadelphia. 



Rev. C. E. Houpt is well known in this 

 city, and is the energetic pastor of one of our 

 city Lutheran congregations ; therefore, any 

 one who wishes to avail himself of the oppor- 

 tunity to better his condition, without going 

 to Kansas, Nebraska or Colorado, would do 

 well to give the subject his most earnest con- 

 sideration. The reputation and standing of 

 those who offer " A ciiaxce for all," are 

 such as the utmost confidence can be reposed 

 in. Without a doubt, any one pos8es.sing the 

 necessary business vitality of a thrifty farmer, 

 can do better here than in subjecting himself 

 to the deprivations, vicissitudes and hard 

 labor of breaking up the virgin soil, and 

 building up a new home in the far-off west. 

 This is only one of the many notices of the 

 kind which we find in the papers every "now 

 and then," from parties who are entirely re- 

 liable. Some of the best farmers in Virginia, 

 especially in the Shenandoah valley, migrated 

 thither from Lancaster county years ago, and 

 they have done well. 



Men whose minds are imbued with the true 

 principles of progress — men of intellectual 

 culture— men who are not prejudiced against 

 scientific farming, and who have been in- 

 structed in the practical application of the 

 laws governing the physical world, may find 

 as profitable and successful an illustration of 

 the principles of culture in old Virginia as in 

 any new State, and will also find a nearer and 

 a more .appreciative market for the physical 

 results of that culture. One old, or partially 

 wornout farm, renewed and restored to a 

 productive and paying condition, is of more 

 value to the country than half a dozen virgin 

 farms that need no prolification ; because it is 

 just that much added to the material wealth 

 of the country — it is practically making two 

 spears of grass grow where only one had 

 grown before. The recuperator of such a 

 farm adds to the material benefit of the 

 countiy, liecause it is the residt of his own 

 labor, under the guidance of his own mind, 

 and if systematically pui-sued cannot relapse 

 into general unproductiveness again. Simply 

 because all his operations have been conducted 

 on scientific principles— principles that exist 

 everywhere, but may not be as necessary 

 where the soil is new and prolific, as where it 

 is old and partially exhausted. 



THE BELASTOMA GRANDIS. 



We were recently presented by Mr. J. L. Witmer, 

 residing near town, with a very fine specimen of the 

 Belastomn Grandis, or Water Bug, captured by 

 him in the creek near his residence. Below will be 

 found a very interesting account of this "pirate" 

 from paper read before the American Fish Cultural 

 Association, by H. D. McGovern, of Brooklyn, and 

 published in the Forest and Stream of March 20th. 

 The specimen Is now at this office. 



The question has been asked me more than once, 

 " Whj is it that our streams, which used to abound 

 with fish, are so depleted, particularly with young 

 trout!" I at once commenced an investigation, and 

 commenced to think why it was that the good old 

 streams of Long Island, that used to furnish so much 

 pleasure, to the sportsman, were now almost un- 

 tenanted by large trout. The question, I thought, 

 could be easily answered ; knowing that there were 

 so many pot-hunting sportsmen around, in and out 

 of season, who would not hesitate to kill a large 

 trout even if they knew it was on the spawning bed 

 and in the very act of spawning. This, with the as- 

 sistance of the mink and snake and other enemies, I 



