THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ June, 



to tell the secret. At last she said she always 

 transplanted her plants when the monn was 

 passing through the iign Lil/ra ! She said no 

 insect could then stay on the plants. I misjht 

 remark on such singular coirKidences, but 

 enough. 



Now, as to Dr. Lardner. Your "amateur" 

 lays great stress on what the doctor said thirty 

 years ago, "that the moon has no influence 

 on the weather," is simply about as reliable, 

 or trustworthy, as his lecture on steam-power. 

 He very earnestly predicted "that steam- 

 power could never be used as a motor to cross 

 the ocean to England as a paying adventure," 

 yet we now find steamboats traversing old 

 ocean in all directions in opposition to sailing 



The new science of "Planetary Meteorolo- 

 gy," by Prof. Kichard Mansill, of Rock Island, 

 111., takes strong grounds in favor of plane- 

 tory influence on mundane affairs, foretell- 

 ing more than a year in advance the probable 

 state of the weather — heat and cold, storms, 

 cyclones, floods, and a general synopsis of 

 the state of the weather over the whole world, 

 with many other wonderful influences brought 

 about on terra firma through the various 

 changes and configurations of planetary con- 

 junctions, oppositions and other aspects of the 

 planets affecting our earth. Although he calls 

 it a "new science," yet the belief in planetary 

 agency is as old as the hills, and has been 

 handed down from father to son for ages. 

 But the Professor is probably the first who has 

 reduced it to a science. Though, of course, 

 when he takes the terrestrial and celestial 

 eflfects of the planetary system into his calcula- 

 tions he cannot be expected to give local data. 



It is admitted by a great majority of as- 

 tronomers that the tides in the ocep.n are 

 caused by the attractive powers of the sun 

 and moon — raising the water in the Bay of 

 Fundy forty or more feet high, though the 

 force may not be perceptible'in a small sheet 

 of water like "amateur's" little "frog pond." 



Prof. Mansill's new science of Planetary 

 Meteorology is really wonderful, and confirms 

 the saying, "There are yet more hidden 

 mysteries in nature than was ever dreamed of 

 in our philosophy ;" and as a writer once said, 

 "The stars were set in the firmament for signs, 

 for seasons, for days and years." — A Seeker 

 after Truth. 



For The Lancaster Fabmeb. 

 BEE LABOR. 



Mr. Rathvon— Sir ; I see by the last 

 number of The Lancaster Farmer where 

 Darwin has made some calculations in regard 

 to " bee laboi-," and I think he is a little wild 

 in his ideas. His number of trips for a bee to 

 make one pound of honey is up in the mil- 

 lions ; I will here give your.many readers of 

 The Farmer my idea in this matter, and 

 any one who is well posted in bee labor by 

 self-experience (not book lea.-ning) will say 

 that I am not far wrong. The honey-comb 

 when put on frames is generally about one 

 and a quarter inches thick, and a piece three 

 inches and a half square will weigh one pound, 

 and it contains 882 cells, with the division in 

 the centre. It will allow the cells four-eighths 

 and a sixteenth long on each side ; and it re- 

 quires but 441 bees to build and fill the same 

 in twelve hours, and they will go the distance 

 of one mile for the material, and make two 

 trips per hour ; their honey sacks holding one 

 drop each time, and each cell holding but 

 twelvs drops only, it will, therefore, require 

 one bee to make 10,584 trips, or 441 bees to 

 make twenty-four trips, each, in one day, to 

 make one pound of honey; and tMs they will 

 or can do. The honey sack is filled to its 

 utmost capacity, and as it is constantly going 

 through a churning process or digesting, in 

 making white wax ' for comb material, there 

 still remains in the sack one drop of sweet 

 liquid ; this is thrown up by the bees into the 

 cells, and there it goes through a slow canning 

 process from the heat of the bees, and also 

 extracting back from the comb its sweetness 

 that it contained in its first gathering. The 

 largest yield I ever had in one day by one 



stock was ten and a half pounds, and the 

 greatest amount consumed in one winter by 

 one stock was fifteen pounds. This has been 

 a backward spring for bees, but my stocks are 

 strong, and the hives are all full and the bees 

 are commencing work on the frames for sur- 

 plus honey. This is the advantage my hives 

 liave over many others, not swarming, and 

 getting the labor in the mother hive of the 

 whole summer's brooding in surplus honey.— 

 Yours, &c., Wm. J. Pijle, May 24, 1879. 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 A WORD MORE. 



Editor Farmer : Your correspondent, J. 

 S. T., having in the March number of the 

 Farmer declared a statement of mine, in the 

 preceding number, to be of " doubtful veraci- 

 ty," I beg you to allow me room to substanti- 

 ate what I there stated, and what J. S. T. so 

 rudely denied, viz.: That in Great Britain (as 

 well as in our own country,) the rule holds 

 that in periods of prosperity the imports of a 

 country will exceed its exports. 



In the April number of the Farmer I gave 

 a statement derived from the official govern- 

 ment report, showing that in every decade, 

 from 1790 to 1860, the imports of the United 

 States exceeded its exports by many millions of 

 dollars— the aggregate excess amounting to 

 over $900,000,000. At the time of writing 

 that article I could not, as I then mentioned, 

 lay my hands on a statement of the imports 

 and exports of Great Britain, which I had 

 read some time before, and which went to 

 confirm what I had affirmed in regard to the 

 foreign commerce of that country. Since then 

 I have been fortunate enough to find in the 

 State Library, at Harrisburg, in "Executive 

 Documents, 2d Session, 43d Congress— Com- 

 mercial Relations— printed by order of the 

 House of Representatives, 1874-75," the in- 

 formation I desired. It is a tabular statement, 

 for a period of fifteen years, of the " value of 

 imports from and exports to the various foreign 

 countries and British possessions," viz.: 



IMPOETS. EXPORTS. 



1859tolS63, (inc.) £1,081,834,248 £ 842,915,37:5 

 l}<64tol868, " 1,411,191,476 1,123,937,855 



1869 to 1873, " 1,655,714,183 1,390,253,928 



•,907 £3,357,107,156 



£791,632,751 



Thus showing an excess of imports averaging 

 upwards of 52,000,000 pounds sterling — about 

 $260,000,000— per year for the whole fifteen 

 years. According to the "Balance of Trade" 

 theorists. Great Britain should have been im- 

 poverished, if not ruined, by this state of 

 things ; but her people did not suspect that 

 such was the case, and, on the contrary, re- 

 garded the period embraced in these years as 

 one of more than usual commercial prosperity. 

 And is it not the most natural thing in the 

 world that it should be so regarded, seeing 

 that they were enabled to acquire and possess 

 (import) 4,100 millions worth of property by 

 an outlay (export) of only 3,300 millions ? 



I may add that statements of the foreign 

 commerce of Denmark, Austria and Hungary 

 for the years 1872 and 1873, found in the same 

 executive documents, also show a large excess 

 of imports into each of those countries over tlie 

 exports from the saftie. I was unable to find 

 the corresponding returns from France and 

 Germany.—/. P., Lancaster, May 25, 1879. 



Selections. 



PROMISE OF THE CROPS. 

 The New York Times, on Saturday, pub- 

 lished a large body of reports upon the pres- 

 ent condition of the crops and the promise of 

 the harvest throughout the United States. 

 The letters and dispatches come from about 

 100 places, covering more than 1,000 points, 

 in 34 States and one Territory. In the case 

 of all the larger States advices have been re- 

 ceived from several correspondents so sta- 

 tioned as to best cover the geographical area 

 and most fertile sections of the State. These 



reports fill 22 columns of this morning's issue 

 of the Times. It is impossible to sum up in a 

 general statement the results of this canvass, 

 because of the material variance in the crop 

 prospects at different points. The varying 

 tone and marked local coloring of the reports, 

 indicating a careful study of the situation at 

 each point, is one of the best possible evi- 

 dences of their faithfulness. It may be said, 

 however, that while there is no such universal 

 promise of overflowing harvests as was re- 

 ported a year ago, resulting from the excep- 

 tionally early spring of 1878, there are satis- 

 factory indications of an average product in 

 most sections and of most crops, while in 

 the case of some staples an increase is ex- 

 pected. The general characteristics of the 

 season have been everywhere the same. A 

 cold and late spring was followed by a severe 

 drought, from which crops had begun to suffer 

 seriously, when the rains of last week brought 

 the needed relief. The lateness of the season 

 was not without some compensating advan- 

 tages. Had the seed been sown early the 

 dryness of the first two weeks in May would 

 have hindered its germination, and a thin and 

 uneven growth would necessarily have re- 

 sulted. The favorable weather succeeding the 

 rains has caused all kinds of vegetation to 

 push forward rapidly, until they are now in a 

 state of advancement equal to that of an 

 ordinary year. The wheat and corn crop of 

 the Western and Northwestern States will 

 surpass that of last year, should the later 

 season prove favorable. The condition of the 

 fruit crop in New England and the Middle 

 States is"one of unusual promise, but in many 

 sections of the South and West the trees have 

 been injured by the cold winter or late frosts. 

 The crop of oats, rye and barley will not be 

 above the average. The hay crop will be large, 

 except in some limited areas, as indicated in 

 the dispatches. The cotton crop will be larger 

 than usual, notwithstanding the unfavorable 

 weather, owing to the effect of the recent in- 

 crease in prices in extending the acreage in 

 most of the Southern States. Farmers every- 

 where have planted more potatoes than usual, 

 and vigorous measures will be taken to pro- 

 tect them from the ravages of the Colorado 

 beetle, which has already appeared in threat- 

 ening numbers, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

 Kentucky, Ohio, and some other States. To- 

 bacco is being more largely cultivated by the 

 farmers of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

 In Massachusetts and New Hampshire the 

 sugar-beet industry is receiving considerable 

 attention, and sorghum has come into favor 

 in many sections of the South and West. 

 Thousands of acres of new land have been 

 opened up and put under cultivation in Michi- 

 gan, Nebraska and Texas during the present 

 year. The population of Nebraska has in- 

 creased 60,000 by immigration. Many farmers 

 in the Northwestern States are engaged in 

 stock-raising to a larger extent than in previ- 

 ous years. 



THE AMERICAN'S ADVANTAGE. 



Why Our \A?heat Can be Sold in England 

 Cheaper than English Growth. 

 The main advantage of the American far- 

 mer seems to be in the cheapness with which 

 he obtains his crop. It is somewhat surpris- 

 ing to find that wheat grown in the Far West 

 still pays as much freight before it can be 

 placed in the English market as the rent 

 charge amounts to at home. The average 

 yield of an acre of land in England is thirty 

 "bushels, against thirteen in the Western 

 States. The American farmer must, there- 

 fore, cultivate two and a half acres before he 

 can sell as much produce as is grown on a 

 single acre in England. This, however, he 

 does at an incredibly small outlay. The dif- 

 ference in tillage is most striking. An Eng- 

 lish farmer, accustomed to drive three or four 

 horses painfully over a stiff clay, can scarcely 

 imagine the ease with which a light plow 

 runs through the rich loam of a Western 

 State. In Northern Minnesota, the Red 

 River settlement is just being opened up. A 



