1879.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



151 



the nest of a smaller bird is chosen, and in 

 rearing, the smaller birds are frequently robbed 

 of their foodand perish, the overgrown bird's 

 beak salting the larger share of food. Tlie 

 cow blackbird cannot be any great layer, or 

 their eggs are discarded by the other birds 

 thus imposed upon, for tlie species is not very 

 plentiful. Eggs dropped in May and .June 

 keep much better than those dropped later in 

 the season. The reason is that the fowls are 

 in better condition. After the middle of July, 

 the close summer heats and sultry nights come 

 on. and the birds are more or less cxliausted. 

 The moulting season is close at hand, and the 

 whole sy.stcm is preparing for a chnnt;!', th(^ 

 recovery from which is a (luesiiDn (irtiuic and 

 care. 15y this time, if left unheeded, their 

 roosting places have become foul and infested 

 with vermin. From this time out, stimulants 

 and mild tonics should be given to the pcrjiet- 

 ual layers as required. To be thoroughly 

 profitable, these fowls should not be kept over 

 the second winter, unless it be in exceptional 

 cases. There is no breed of fowls that accepts 

 management as readily as the Brahmas. They 

 yield to confinement, in time, place, and food, 

 without repining, yet they are tender, and 

 require more care and forethought in feeding 

 than any of the other races of sitters. Perfect 

 eggs, after once obtained, should be set up on 

 end in good, sweet, clean oats, and kept in a 

 cool place, and there will be found little diffi- 

 culty in saving them to obtain a fair price at 

 the fall markets. They must possess good, 

 thick, perfect shells, or they will not keep. 



TOBACCO. 



The Tobacco Leaf gives a large assortment 

 of the views of New York leaf tobacco mer- 

 chants and importers on the condition and 

 prospects of the seed leaf and Havana to- 

 bacco trade of this country. We select some 

 of them of local interest for republication : 



A. S. jRosciitrtwni it Co.— We consider trade 

 in a sound condition, and the prospect is good 

 for a continuance of the same, providing peo- 

 ple do business at a fair profit, and do not go 

 into speculation. The crop of last year is thus 

 far affording only a small proportion of fine 

 wrappers, and prices for those that are fine 

 will be well sustained throughout the season. 



E. Roscnwald <t Bro. — It seems to us that 

 all seed leaf tobaccos will maintain their 

 prices, and fine wrappers of the 1878 crop will 

 go higher than they are at present. 



H. SchubartA Co. — We find trade very good 

 and consider the prospect very favorable. 

 Dealers look forward to and must have higher 

 prices, as they do not want to, nor intend to, 

 lose money on their investments. Those who 

 have good tobacco will get higher prices than 

 are now paid. Cigar manufacturers must get 

 higher prices for their goods than they are 

 now receiving. 



J. S. Gmis's Son & Co.— The condition of 

 trade is very satisfactory, and notwithstand- 

 ing the high prices of the 1878 tobacco, manu- 

 facturers will be compelled to take it very 

 freely before long. In fact, during the pres- 

 ent month they have been liberal buyers. We 

 doubt whether the prices that are at present 

 ruling will in all instances be maintained. We 

 are convinced that no further advance in 

 prices is to be expected. 



Charles F. Taij <fc Son. — There will probably 

 be a legitimate advance on the stock on hand, 

 enough to cover the interest and charges, but 

 we don't exisect a large advance. We look 

 forward to a legitimate supply and demand 

 business. The new tobaccos have been bought 

 rather high, and it is going to be a slow busi- 

 ness to sell them. The old stock is almost all 

 entirely exhausted, and while manufacturers 

 will have to take the new we do not antici- 

 pate a speculative movement in it. 



L. Gershel <fc JBro.— Our idea is that trade 

 has never been in a healthier condition than 

 at present, and we feel that in the next sixty 

 days higher prices than are now paid for seed 

 leaf tobacco will be obtained. There is very 

 little old stock on hand, and the new crop 

 contains but a small portion of fine goods. 

 Those who hold fine wi-appers are in posses- 



sion of good property and will get their prices 

 for them. 



N. Lachcnh-mch & Bro.— In fine goods the 

 market is very bare, and we think for them 

 higher prices will certainly rule in the near 

 future. AVe believe all grades of Pennsylva- 

 nia tob.acco that are anyway useful, good 

 property to hold ; as also fine wrappers of the 

 growth of other .States. We are having offers 

 for our 1878 tobaccos very close to our prices, 

 and think it will noi be long before those in 

 want of them will come up to our figures. 

 We are satisfied prices will range still higher 

 than they are at present. The market is in a 

 very good condition indeed, manufacturers 

 l)(ing very busy, and yet holding exceedingly 

 liglit stocks. 



ILivciuci/rrs & Viijeliw.—Tvude is in a dull 

 and unsatisfactory condition. According to 

 oia- oiiinion tobacco was bought at too liigh 

 prices last year, speaking exclu.sivcly of the 

 1878 crop. Taking into consideration the fact 

 that a large crop has been raised, one that 

 has been pronounced to be good in every 

 State — not only good but excellent in every 

 State— there i.s, according to our idea, no 

 likelihood of an increase in price. As trade 

 is now we certainly cannot look for a great 

 trade ; it is cut up so much that there can 

 not be. 



M. Opjmihcimer.—I consider trade in a 

 fair, healthy condition, and the prospect of 

 its remaining so is good. There is a satisfac- 

 tory demand for good tobaccos. In general 

 the 1878 crop is of better quality than we 

 have had for a long time. The Connecticut 

 and Ohio are both leafy crops, and will yield 

 as many wrappers as ever before ; and as 

 much may be said for the other green or new 

 crops. 



Buvzl A Dormitzer. — Trade is very^good. 

 We are selling as fast as we are sampling, 

 and what we do not dispose of in this country 

 we find a ready market in Bremen. We are 

 getting a poor crop in wrappers, that is, poor 

 in serviceable wrapper leaf, but the demand 

 is steady and legitimate. There is more of 

 the new crop going to Europe than is gener- 

 ally known, the Messrs. Rosenwald and our- 

 selves sending a good deal there of which no 

 account is made public. 



ESSAY ON THE SUBJECT OF MANUR- 

 ING LAND AND HOW TO APPLY IT. 

 The proprietor of the Reading Enijh offered 

 two premiums for two of the " best'essays on 

 the subject of manuring land and how to 

 apply it." To pass upon the different esSays 

 written in response to these premiums, Hon. 

 George D. Stitzel, Ezra High, J. H. Punk, 

 W. G. Moore and Christian Shearer, all prac- 

 tical farmers, agreed to act as a committee to 

 read and pass upon the essays and award the 

 premiums. * 



The committee examined the different 

 essays submitted to them by the writers 

 thereof, and after due consideration awarded 

 the highest or first premium to John S. Eckert, 

 of Womelsdorf, and have decided to hold the 

 remaining essays under advisement. FoUow- 

 mg is Mr. Eckert's essay: 



I live in Heidelberg township, a short dis- 

 tance below Womelsdorf, on a farm owned by 

 one of my best friends, George B. Eckert, of 

 Reading. I have lived on this farm for the 

 last fifteen years. The community know the 

 condition of this farm when I first occupied 

 it and believe I have improved the soil as well 

 as the general appearance of the farm vei-y 

 much. From what 1 know of fertilizing land, 

 I believe barnyard manure to be better than 

 guano or phosphates. I do not believe in top- 

 dressing with manure, for after you seed the 

 ground the manure will still be on top and a 

 large part of the ammonia will be lost, instead 

 of entering the soil and enriching it. My 

 plan is to manure oats stubble and plow it 

 under. The best wheat I ever raised was by 

 plowing down sod, well limed. Manuring the 

 sod or the oats stubble is very Mod, and I 

 believe with a good season a splendid crop 

 will reward the farmer. 

 I believe farmers make a mistake in seeding 



timothy. It would be better to cast the tim- 

 othy seed into the sea and double seed with 

 clover. To plow timothy sod you will find it 

 hard and touch, the ground looking poor and 

 the soil not in a good condition. Clover sod 

 is right the opposite of timothy — clover being 

 blacker and richer. Some farmers argue if 

 they do not raise timothy they will not be 

 able to feed their stock, as their soil is marshy, 

 and clover will freeze out. Such is not the 

 fact if farmers will use barnyard manure in- 

 stead of phosphates, which I do not believe 

 pay the farmer at all. Phosphates may pay 

 small truck farmers near a city or book farmers. 

 The latter conclude to quit the city and live 

 in the country, then buy a farm and expect 

 results from it just as practical farmers get. 

 These fancy book farmers forget the long and 

 patient toil and close observation of the laws 

 of nature which a practical farmer mu.sl pos- 

 sess to make farming profitable. A fancy 

 book farmer believes a man must sei-ve an ap- 

 prenticeship to become a watchmaker, but that 

 anybody can farm. This is a great mistake. 

 Exi)erience on the farm is worth more than 

 anything else. I think that after manure and 

 proper cultivation of the ground a good .season 

 comes next, for without weather to make 

 what we plant grow a farmer's labors will not 

 amount to much. Every farmer should know 

 that the better the soil is tilled the more it 

 will produce and pay. Keep your weeds 

 down. 



There is a great difference between lime- 

 stone and gravel soil, and also between rolling, 

 level and low lands. Rolling lands will require 

 more feeding than level land on account of the 

 drainage. Heavy rains on rolling land will 

 wash it and carry off the fertilizers, which is 

 not the case with level lands with good drain- 

 age. To raise a good crop of com plow roll- 

 ing land in the spring and level land in the 

 fall. Rolling land when plowed in the fall 

 will become mellow and wash out the sod, 

 while such is not the case with level land. I 

 believe in deep plowing, if the soil allows it. 

 Deep furrowing for planting will save corn 

 from drouth and it will not blow down so 

 readily. 



Canada lliistlcs cun be killed by using fine 

 dust from the furnaces put on about four 

 inches thick. I have killed Canada thistles in 

 this way, and also have enriched the .soil by it. 

 You can get the fine dust from furnaces with- 

 out cost,and you will be richly repaid for your 

 labor. 



A grave question for the consideration of 

 farmers in the future will be fencing. As the 

 country becomes more thickly settled and 

 timber becomes more scarce fencing will cost 

 much more than now. To overcome thLs pro- 

 spective trouble I haveosagc orange, which 

 will last a lifetime and will not cost iis much 

 as post fence. I plant osage orange for two 

 thousand feet at the cost of tln-ee and a half 

 cents a foot, which are growing nicely. I 

 would also urge my fellow farmers to plant 

 shade trees around their dwellings, for in this 

 way you will make youi- homes more comfort- 

 able and valuable. 



Often city people speak of farmers being 

 careless in their dress. We cannot be as tidy 

 in our dress as city people, for our business 

 will not permit it, but against this we know 

 how much better fresh mdk is from a cow than 

 after it is hauled to the city and drank by city 

 folks. We also know hpw much better fresh 

 vegetables are than after they are kept for 

 several days and then sold and eaten by city 

 people. 



To my fellow farmers I would say again, 

 plow deep while sluggaixls sleep, and we will 

 have grain to sell and to keep. 



Remember, any work well done will bring 

 its reward. 



LABOR-SAVING IMPLEMENTS. 

 A great historian of civilization declares 

 that "wealth alone gives leisure for study, 

 culture, and true education." On this con- 

 tinent, the adaptation of every description of 

 power to agricultural and household imple- 

 ments whereby human labor and toil is saved, 



