18?9.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



d03 



land ; and I do not think we ought to feel 

 proud if this old, discarded English supersti- 

 tion has emigrated to these shores and 'found 

 a final cherished home among the honest but 

 too credulous farmers of Lancaster county.— 

 Amateur Farmei; Lancaster, .Tub/ 1, 187il. 



Selections. 



THE CROPS OF THE COUNTRY. 



Government Reports of Cotton and Wheat 

 Prospects. 



The returns to the Uei)artment of Agricul- 

 ture indicate an increase in tlie area planted 

 in cotton of somewhat over 2 per cent. Tlie 

 percentage, as compared with the acreage of 

 1878, is as follows: North Carolina, 47 coun- 

 ties reporting, 100; South Carolina, 18 coun- 

 ties, 100; Georgia, 71 counties, 102; Florida, 

 12 counties, 97; Alabama, 28 counties, 103; 

 Mississippi, 3<) counties, 100; Louisiana, 18 

 counties, 08; Texas 58 counties, 107: Arkan- 

 sas, 40 counties, 101; Tennessee, 18 counties, 

 103. The average condition is not so high as 

 last year, being 00, while in 1878 it was 00. 

 'ihe stand is generally good, but about two 

 weeks late. 



Winter Wheat— The June returns show 

 that the average condition of winter wheat is 

 90, against 98 last year. The I'acifio coast is 

 considerably over the average, Oregon rising 

 to 104. Tlie South Atlantic States average 

 90, South Carolina reporting 108 and Georgia 

 112. The .States north of the Ohio river ave- 

 rage 95, Tndiana reaching 103. New England 

 averages 94, the Southern Inland States, 88, 

 the Middle States 80, the Gulf States 83, and 

 the trans-Mississippi States, 79. Drought 

 has been felt more or less severely in all parts 

 of the country. From the South come some 

 co-.uplaints of Winter-killing, and from the 

 North and "West, of the Hessian tly. Grass- 

 hoppers have also been heard of beyond the 

 Mississippi. 



Sj^ring Wheat— The acreage sown this 

 spring is about 4 per cent, increase over last 

 spring. On the Pacific coast, California re- 

 ports over 10 per cent, increase, while Ore- 

 gon falls oir 1 per cent. The trans-Mississippi 

 States and New England States increase 5 

 per cent. Texas retains her previous acreage. 

 Of the Slates north of the Ohio river, Ohio 

 and Indiana make no reports of Spring wheat, 

 the other three States fall off 3 per cent. 

 Minnesota increases 9 per cent, while Iowa 

 decreases 1 per cent. The Middle States fall 

 off 10 per cent. The condition of Spring 

 wheat Is about the same as Winter wheat— 

 90, all the States being below the average. 

 Tlie crop has been subject to the same cli- 

 matic iuHuences as Winter wheat. 



In the Territories wheat-raising has ad- 

 vanced westward more rapidly than statisti- 

 cal inquiries have been able to reach. There 

 is a vast increase here, which must be left to 

 subsequent inquiry. The department has in- 

 formation that one county in Dakota, which 

 last year sowed only .50 acres, has this year 

 under vigorous growth over 4,000 acres. Many 

 other cases of very large increase are re- 

 ported. 



THE USE OF THE FEET IN SOWING 

 AND PLANTING.* 



It may be useless to throw out any sugges- 

 tions relative to horticultural operations to 

 such a body of practical men as is now before 

 me. Yet I candidly admit that although I 

 have been extensively engaged in gardening 

 operations for over a quarter of a century, I 

 did not fully realize until a few years ago the 

 full importance of how indispensable it was 

 to use the feet in the operations of sowing 

 and planting. 



Particularly in the sowing of seeds, I con- 

 sider the matter of such vast importance that 

 it cannot be too often or too strongly told, 

 fbrUie loss to the agricultural and horticul- 



•Keaa before the American Association of Nurserrmsn 

 »t Cleveland, Ohio, Juno ISth, 1879, by Peter Headefson, 



tural community by the neglect of the simple 

 operation of firming the so-1 around seed 

 must amount to many millions annually. 

 From the middle of April to nearly the eiid 

 of May of this year, in many sections of the 

 country there was little or no rain ; such was 

 particularly the case in the vicinity of New 

 York, where we have hundreds of market 

 gardeners who cultivate thousands of acres of 

 cabbage, cauliHower and celery, but the "dry 

 spring " has played sad havoc witli their seed 

 bed.s. Celery is not one-fourth of a crop, and 

 cabbage and caulillower hardly half, and this 

 failure is due to no other cause than that they 

 persist in sowing their seeds without ever 

 taking the precaution to firm the soil by rolling. 

 We sow annually about four acres of celery, 

 cabbage and caulillower plants, which pro- 

 duces probably five millions in number, and 

 which we never fail to sell mostly in our 

 immediate neighborhood to the market gar- 

 deners, who liave many of tliem even better 

 facilities than we have for raising these 

 plants, if they would only do as we do, firm 

 the seed after sowing, which is done thus : 

 After plougliing, harrowing and leveling the 

 land smoothly, lines are drawn by the 

 "marker" which makes a furrow about two 

 inches deep and a foot apart ; after tlie man 

 who sows the seed follows another, who with 

 the ball of the right foot presses down his full 

 weight on every inch of soil in the drill where 

 the seed has been sown; the rows are then 

 lightly leveled longitudinally with the rake; a 

 light roller is then passed over it, and the 

 operation is done. 



By this method our crop has never once 

 failed, and what is true of celery and cabbage 

 seed is nearly true of all other seeds requiring 

 to be sown during the late spring or summer 

 months. 



On July 2d, of 1874, as an experiment, I 

 sowed twelve rows of sweet corn and twelve 

 rows of beets, treading in after sowing ev( ry 

 alternate row of each. In both cases those 

 trod in came up in four days, while those un- 

 firmed remained twelve days before starting, 

 and would not then have germinated had rain 

 not fallen, for the soil was dry as dust when 

 planted. 



The result was that the seeds that had been 

 trodden in grew freely from the start and 

 matured their crops to a marketable conxlition 

 by Fall, while the rows unfirmed did not 

 mature, as they were not only eight days later 

 in germinating, but the plants were also to 

 some extent enfeebled by being partially dried 

 in the loose, dry soil. 



This experiment was a most useful one, for 

 it proved that a corn crop, sown in the vicinity 

 of New Vork, as late as July 2d, could be 

 made to produce "roasting ears" in October, 

 when they never fail to sell freely at high 

 rates, but the crop would not mature unless 

 the seed germinated at once, and which would 

 never be certain, at that dry and hot season, 

 unless by this method. 



The same season in August, I treated seeds 

 of turnip and spinach in the same way ; those 

 trod in germinated at once and made an ex- 

 cellent crop, while those unfirmed germinated 

 feebly and were eventually nearly all burned 

 out by a continuance of dry, hot air pene- 

 trating through the loose soil to the tender 

 rootlets. 



Of course this rule of treading in or firming 

 seeds after sowing musb not be blindly fol- 

 lowed. Very early in spring or late in fall 

 when the soil is damp and no danger from 

 heated, dry air, there is no necessity to do so, 

 or even at other seasons the soil may be in a 

 suitable condition to sow, and yet to be too 

 damp to be trodden upon or rolled ; in such 

 cases these operations may not be necessary 

 at all, for if rainy weather ensue the seeds 

 will germinate of course ; but if there is any 

 likelihood of continued drouth the treading 

 or rolling may be done a week or so after 

 sowing, if it is at such a season as there is 

 reason to believe that it may suffer from the 

 dry, hot air. 



Now, if firming the soil around seed to pro- 

 tect it from the influence of a dry and hot 



atmosphere is a necessity, it is obvious that it 

 is even more so in the case of plants, whose 

 rootlets are even more sensitive to such in- 

 fiuence than the dormant seed. 



Experienced professional horticulturists, 

 however, are less likely to neglect this than 

 to neglect in the case of seeds, for the damage 

 from such neglect is easier to be seen, and 

 hence better understood by the practical. nur- 

 seryman, but with the unexperienced ama- 

 teur the case is dilferent ; when he receives 

 his package of trees or plants from the nur- 

 seryman, he handles them as if they were 

 glass, every broken twig or root calls forth a 

 comiilaint, and he proceeds to plant them 

 gingerly, straightening out each root and 

 sifting ihe soil around them, but he would no 

 more stamp down that soil than he would 

 stamp on the soil of hi.s mother's grave. So 

 the i)lant in nine cases out of ten is left loose 

 and waggling, the dry air penetrates through 

 the soil to its roots, the winds shake it and it 

 shrivels up and fails to grow ; then comes the 

 anathemas on the head of the unfortunate 

 nurseryman who is charged with selling him 

 dead trees or plants. 



About a month ago I sent a package of a 

 dozen roses by mail to a lady in Savannah ; 

 she wrote me a woeful story last week saying 

 that though the roses had arrived seemingly 

 all right, they had all died but one, and what 

 was very singular, she said, the one that 

 lived was the one that Mr. Jones had stepped 

 on, and which she had thought sure was 

 crushed to death, for Mr. Jones weighs 200 

 9>a. Now though we do not advise any 

 gentleman of 200 lbs. putting his brogans on 

 the top of a tender rose plant as a practice 

 conducive to its health, yet if Mrs. Jones could 

 have allowed her weiglity lord to press the 

 soil against the root of each of her dozen 

 roses I much doubt if she would now have 

 had to mourn their loss. 



It has often been a wonder to many of us 

 who have been workers in the soil for a gen- 

 eration, liow some of the simplest methods of 

 culture have not been practiced until we were 

 nearly done with life's work. There are few 

 of us but have had such experience ; per- 

 sonally, I must say that 1 never pass through 

 a year but I am confounded to find that some 

 operation cannot only be quicker done, but 

 better done than we have been in the habit of 

 doing it. These improvements loom up from 

 various causes, but mainly from suggestions 

 thrown out by our employees in ch ;rge of 

 special departments, a system which we do all 

 in our power to encourage. As a proof of the 

 value of such improvements which have led 

 to simplifying our operations, I will state the 

 fact that though my area of green-house sur- 

 face is now more than double that which 

 it was in 1870, and the land used in our 

 llorist business oue-tliiid more, yet the num- 

 ber of hands employed is less now than in 

 1870, and yet at the same time the quality of 

 our stock is infinitely better now than then. 

 Whether it is the higher price ol labor in this 

 country that forces us into labor-saving ex- 

 pedients, or the interchange of opinions trom 

 the greater number of nationalities centering 

 here that gives us broader views of culture, I 

 am not prepared to state, but that America 

 is now selling nearly all the products of the 

 green-house, garden, nursery and farm, lower 

 than is done in Europe, admits of no question, 

 and if my homely suggestions in this matter 

 of finning the soil around newly-planted seeds 

 and plants will in any degree assist us in still 

 holding to the front,! will be gratified. 



DISINFECTION. 



The State Board of II?alth of Massachu- 

 setts have lately given to the public the fol- 

 lowing useful information on the above sub- 

 ject : 



Recent experiments made under the direc- 

 tion of the International Cholera Commission 

 have shown that the ordinary methods of dis- 

 infection are inefficient, and in practice they 

 have often failed to arrest the spread of infec- 

 tious disea.ses. 



As it is impossible to experiment directly 



