1879.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



109 



of amraonlacal gas, elehty-Hvo ttmcB Its volume of 

 muriatic acid gas, and eixty-flve times its volume of 

 Bulphurous acid gas. It is this remarkal)lc quality 

 that makes it go valuable In destroying odor, color, 

 taste ill many substances, and preserving meats, 

 vegetables and fruit from rapid decay. Us use as a 

 fliterer In cisterns is well known, and Its value 

 here depends on the same quality. It separates and 

 appropriates to Itself the decaying matter and other 

 Impurities In water, rendering it pure and sweet. If 

 placed on the surface of the soil. It will gather 

 from the air moisture and gases and impart them 

 to the growing plants. On tlie same principle Its 

 value In the barnyard, stable and hog pens, as an 

 absorptive agent. Is Incalculable. When used for 

 this purpose to form a basis of manure, it should be 

 In the powdered state.— OAio Farmer. 



Cutting Cornstalks. 

 We observe In some of our exchanges a discussion 

 of the subject of cutting cornstalks before feeding 

 to cattle. One writer states that by cutting about an 

 Inch long the hard ends cause soreness In the mouth 

 among his cattle. To avoid this another recommends 

 length of three in :hes. It will at once be perceived 

 that such coarsely chopped feed cannot be all eaten. 

 The best success we ever witnessed was in the prac- 

 tice of an old farmer many years ago, who gauged 

 his machine only a fourth of an inch long, and then 

 putting on his sI.'e horses, the whole of the corn- 

 stalks was rapidly reduced to a condition of Une 

 chaft'. The hardest stubs were thus made eatable, 

 and the cattle consumed the whole. He could thus 

 cut in half a day enough to last a week. Meal or 

 ground feed was easily mixed with it. It will be ob- 

 served as an important advantage in cutting corn fod- 

 der, that it greatly Improves the texture of manure, 

 by preventing the long, fibrous masses which are al- 

 most impossible to pitch, draw, spread and plow 

 under. 



Corn-Cobs. 

 Feeders differ in their opinions about grinding cobs 

 with the meal for hogs ; some attach great value to 

 the method, while others reject it altogether. 

 Analysis of the corn-cob shows that there is si.v to 

 ten per cent, of matter which may be rendered, with 

 breaking up and boiling, capable of assimilation by 

 the animal in question. The general belief seems to 

 be that while there is not enough nutriment In the 

 cob to pay for the trouble of getting it out, au 

 occasional feeding of cobmeal is an advantage, 

 especially in the fattening process, when a certain 

 amount of inert matter is required by the animal. 

 This necessity induces hogs to eat coal, clay and dirt 

 when the instinctive want is not otherwise supplied. 



Horticulture. 



Rosewood. 



Rosewood has always been considered an aristocratic 

 wood. It is used for fine furniture and pianos in all 

 civilized nations. We have no record of its first in- 

 troduction into use, but it is fair to presume that it 

 was soon after the discovery of Soutli America, as 

 old writers speak of rosewood cabinets and other 

 articles of furniture. It is found only in South 

 America, although a very near approach to it is used 

 by the Chinese, of which and bamboo they construct 

 all their furniture. The French call it palaisandre. 

 Bois de rose, or wood of the rose, is an African wood, 

 and is red, with yellow streaks. It seldom grows 

 over eight inches In diameter, and is cut into veneers 

 and used bias for borders in inlaid or marquetry 

 work. Rosewood, or palaisandre, is found of supe- 

 rior quality in Brazil. Kio de Janeiro exports all of 

 the tine quality of wood. Large quantities of infe- 

 rior quality are sent from Bahia, but this wood is 

 only used by cheap manufacturers, as the grain is a 

 dull brown, and posseses but little beauty of figure. 

 Honduras also exports a heavy, dull looking rose- 

 wood, which is mostly consumed for drumsticks and 

 canes. Rio Janeiro wood grows large, and the grain 

 is beautifully variegated. The most desirable wood, 

 that which is the most mottled, is selected for 

 veneers, and the plain straight-grained logs, when 

 brought to market, are very rough and gnarled. It 

 has latterly been sold by weight only. Some years 

 ago it was sold by the log, and the purchaser relied 

 on his acuteness for bargains. It contains an acrid 

 oil, which must be extracted by steaming, or by long 

 exposure to the air, before it can be relied on to hold 

 with glue. It has a pungent smell, and the men 

 who work in it seem to imbibe the odor into their 

 system, as no ablution will eradicate the smell, by 

 which the worker is distinguished from the worker 

 of other woods. The dust arising from sand-paper- 

 ing is not poisonous, although it gives a peculiarly 

 ghastly expression to the workman's countenance. 

 Rosewood, if well worked, is the most durable of all 

 furniture wood, and after a century's use it can be 

 polished to look as well as new. It is exceedingly 

 strong and hard, and becomes more solid from age. 

 — American Cabinet Maker. 



Apple Orchards. 



In the report of the discussions at the Western 

 New York Farmers' Club, furnished by the Rural 

 Home, we find the following statements, which we 

 glean from that account : Mr. Holton bought a six 

 acre orchard which was about six years old, hut for 

 fifteen years afterward obtained no fruit. He then 

 spread a wagon-load of manure around each tree, 

 thinned the top so as to favor low branches, and can 

 now pick three fourths of the crop from the ground. 

 He allows no grwss to grow on the ground, but does 

 not plow, and now obtains heavy crops. It Is be- 

 coming well established that no treatment tends 

 more to promote productiveness in rather feeble trees 

 of fome age, than the application of manure. 



Mr. Newman, five years ago, became the owner of 

 an orchard of 300 trees, some twenty years old, 

 which for several years past had been In grass. One- 

 half were Baldwins, the rest Greenings, Kussets, 

 Spys,etc. Small crops were produced; about one 

 barrel on an average to six trees. Another orchard 

 adjoined it, which gave large returns formanv years. 

 This orchard was constantly tilled and manured. 

 This ii.dueed Mr. Newman to plow his orchard, 

 which cut off thousands of small roots. It was 

 manured at the rate of twelve or fifteen loads per 

 acre. The result was a heavy crop last ^ear (ilie 

 scarce year), and nearly no crop this year. The 

 bearing year seems to have been changed — a result 

 which we have known in other Instances by manur- 

 ing at the proper time. We do not know in what 

 part of the season he performed the plowing, but we 

 supposed he knew enongh to do it early in spring, 

 bel'ore the buds o^e-aei.— Country Gentleman. 



Pear Blight. 

 There is no subject discussed at fruit growers' 

 meetings more elaborately than the pear blight and so 

 little apparently understood about it. Until within 

 four and five years we did not suffer in the least from 

 it upon our premises. But within that time we have 

 lost a number of fine trees, to all appearance perfect- 

 ly healthy only a day or two before. We had an un- 

 usually vigorous Belle Lucrative tree, which annu- 

 ally bore well ; in fact it bore too well and obliged 

 us to remove a large portion of the fruit, first when 

 they were not as large as marbles, and again when 

 they were nearly half grown. The last year that it 

 bore before yielding up its life to blight, at least 

 three-fourths of all the fruit was removed, and yet 

 in twenty-four hours the life was out of it. The va- 

 riety most subject to this disease has been Gloiit 

 Morceau. In a single night they have died. And in 

 all the losses we have met with we could discern no 

 cause. The trees have blighted in dry and moist 

 soil, in cultivated and in grass. Last Mi«i(«r we lost 

 four trees, some ten to twelve years set out. Two of 

 them bore good crops, and two none at all. We 

 have arrived at the conclusion that after soaping and 

 washing pear trees, and carefully pruning, and keep- 

 ing the ground in good heart, we must take our 

 chances. For fifteen or twenty years we do not re- 

 member to have lost a single tree from any cause ; 

 and as diseases of trees and the visitation of insects 

 come and go without letting us into the secret of 

 their movements, we had better do one's duty to- 

 wards all our crops and then await another cycle of 

 freedom and success. — Germantown Telegraph. 



A Hint on Lawns and Hedges. 



Any one who has taste in that direction cannot but 

 observe, within a dozen miles around Philadelphia, 

 where fine lawns are cultivated, how much damage 

 is done to the beautiful hedges and evergreens by 

 allowing the silver maple and other ugly and useless 

 trees to be mixed up with them, overshadowing them 

 to such an extent as must lead to their early defolia- 

 tion and destruction. The exhaustion of the soil also 

 by these worthless trees, docs more, however, to in- 

 jure the evergreens, than even the shade. Once let 

 the evergreen be damaged and they never recover. 

 What the object Is in permitting such trees to remain 

 in these lawns and along hedge-lines, we cannot im- 

 agine. Either the gardener is incompetent for not 

 suggesting their removal, or the proprietor is obsti- 

 nate in refusing to exterminate trees which he has 

 not knowledge enough to see are ruining his place. 



If any one has a liking for silver maple and other 

 deciduous trees in their lawns, let him enjoy his 

 taste and not mix them up with evergreens. In large 

 lawns, it Is true, there may be varieties of trees 

 without injury to one another; but it is folly to mix 

 them on small lawns, or plant them close together. 



Hedges, even the hemlock, which stands shade 

 better than any other, will show its dwarfing influence, 

 and cannot resist the exhausting of the soil by the 

 roots of large trees standing near; while no arbor 

 vitaes will long survive from either of these causes. 



Curiosities in Pomology. 

 Some years ago one of citizens bought and set out 

 thirty young apple trees. On one of them he 

 neglected to remove the wooden label which was at- 

 tached to one of the limbs by a copper wire. Two 

 years later he found that the copper wire was entire- 

 ly imbedded and out of sight, in the bark of the tree, 



and that year the limb was so heavily loaded with 

 apples that he was obliged to prop It up, while there 

 was not a blossom or apple on any other limb. Last 

 year one of our neighbors, when his young apple 

 trees were in full blossom, carefully girdled some 

 limbs on several trees, and the blossoms produced 

 no fruit on the limbs thus treated, but this year 

 those limbs have blossomed full and no blossoms on 

 the limbs that bore last year. Pomologists may 

 profit by further ezpcrimeuts in that direction.— 

 Hartford Evening Post. 



Many farmers have an impression that their 

 apple, peach and pear orchards can take care of 

 themselves. The mots can stretch themselves 

 a little, but their foraging ground is limited, and to 

 suppose that within this limited space food can be 

 found to sustain growth and bear fruit for decades of 

 years, without any re-supply of the raw material, Is 

 unreasonable. No wonder that so many of our 

 orchards show moss-grown trunks, decayed branches 

 and stunted fruit. 



To KEEP lawn fresh and green put on frequently a 

 slight sprinkling of salt or bone dust, or superphos- 

 phate, or any good fertilizer. When the soil is soft, 

 run the roller over ; It helps the appearance greatly. 

 The application of a little ground gypsum will also 

 freshen up the grass. But above all never neglect to 

 run the mowing machine over frequently. 



Domestic Economy. 



Barns and Barnyards. 

 Nothing so plainly shows the good farmer as large, 

 well-filled tiarns, and compact, sheltered barnyards 

 for protection of stock in winter. A great improve- 

 ment is taking place in these respects, and more is 

 needed and will be had as Its importance Is better 

 understood. Hiding recently through an excellent 

 farming town I was surprised to notice how carefully, 

 shrewd and prosperous farmers had utilized easterly 

 exposed knolls as sites for barns and barnyards. Our 

 coldest winds are from the west, and riding on a 

 north and south road I noticed for several miles that 

 every barnyard was located on the easterly side of a 

 liill, so as togivea basement underneath, and a level, 

 or a neariy level drive away from the west on 

 the barn floor above. In many places a corn- 

 house anl carriage-barn was placed on the north 

 and south sides of the yard, leaving only one 

 side exposed, which would be protected by a high 

 and tight board fence, and the basements uuder 

 tile barn would he further protected by straw 

 stacks and board partitions, leaving only doorways 

 for the passage of cattle. In such yards horses and 

 even cows can be wintered with the smallest possible 

 amount of labor, and horses not used during the 

 winter will keep better and come out better 

 and stronger in spring,' if allowed to run loose 

 in the barn-yard, than if carefully stabled on 

 wooden floors" during the winter. Take off the 

 shoes and let them run loose till the middle 

 of March or 1st of April. Much of their winter 

 keep will lie got from the straw-stack, to the great 

 saving of the hay mow, and when you begin to. feed 

 for spring work, the horses will soon be in better 

 condition than ever to resume spring work. This is 

 particulariy true of old animals that have apparent- 

 ly ceased to be valuable. Many a man has turned 

 his old mare in the barnyard to pick her living as 

 best she could with the cattle, and found the follow- 

 ing summer that she was better for work than In 

 several seasons previous. Stabling under ground 

 may not be good policy, but I am satisfied that letting 

 animals run loose in barn basements is advisable, 

 tying them only at night where they would other- 

 wise be too crowded, or the stronger would drive 

 the weaker out of ioora.— Country Gentleman. 



Tne Best Yeast Known. 

 Vienna bread is said to be the best in the world. 

 It owes its superiority to the yeast used, which is 

 prepared in the following manner : Indian corn, 

 barley and rye (all sproutinsr) arc powdered and 

 mixed, and then macerated in water at a temper- 

 ature of from 149 deg. to 167 deg. Fah. Sacchar- 

 ificaliou takes place in a few hours, when the liquor 

 is racked oflT and allowed to clear, and fermentation 

 Is set up by the help of a minute quantity of any 

 ordinary yeast. Carbonic acid is disengaged during 

 the process with so much rapidity that the globules 

 of yeast are thrown up by the gas, and remain 

 floating on the surface, where they form a thick 

 scum. The latter is carefully removed, and consti- 

 tutes the best and purest yeast, which when drained 

 and comi)ressed, can be kept from eight to fifteen 

 days, according to the season. 



Butter Making. 

 We note by the Western papers, and other sources 

 of information, that butter making is receiving an 

 increased share of attention over former years. In 

 some places they are indeed talking about the 

 \ business being overdone. This is almost always the 



