152 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



gives the required leisure that insures rest and 

 recreation, and that leads to culture. We are 

 wont to look at this saving of labor exclu- 

 sively as the means of multiplying and cheap- 

 ening the products, and ignoring that greater 

 and more important fact of the time it saves 

 to every sou and daughter of toil. It is in 

 the memory of many of us, before the adap- 

 tation of power to mowing machinery, that 

 it was a day's labor of ten hours to cut an 

 acre of grass; to-day, through the triumphs 

 of inventive genius, the same man can ac- 

 complish ten times the amount of labor in a 

 day, wherehy ninety hours of toil are gained. 

 A portion, it is true, goes to the increasing 

 and cheapening of the product, but the greater 

 gam is for leisure, to be devoted to moral and 

 intellectual improvement. This Is true of 

 every implement in use in human industry. 

 It is this adaption of other than the power of 

 the human muscle to farm improvements that 

 has elevated, by rest and education, more 

 people than all other agencies of modern 

 times. It is this that will, in its progress, 

 make agriculture a profession rather than a 

 mere occupation. The genius which gave to 

 the field and the fireside labor-saving imple- 

 ments, emancipated thirty million laborers, 

 men, women and children, in this country 

 alone, from the bondage of incessant toil. 

 That genius gives wealth to found institutions 

 of learning, and sons and daughters their 

 whole youth to profit by them. It gives wealth 

 for ten thousand periodicals of agriculture, 

 of art and science, and gives you time to read 

 them. It creates public and private libraries, 

 and gives leisure to study them. A half cen- 

 tury ago the tilling of the soil was the merest 

 manual labor ; to-day it is a question of skill, 

 art and intelligence. Then the measure of 

 the producing power of any region was the 

 number of those who dug and delved. Now 

 it is from the number and character of farm 

 implements, and the skill and intelligence of 

 those who use them. Then the farming popu- 

 lation represented mere muscle ; the employer 

 alone represented the brain. Now an agri- 

 cultural population represents the brain ; the 

 implements the muscle. The agricultural 

 population represents a great producing power, 

 but labor saving machinery represents a vastly 

 greater. 



• 



THE BALANCE OF NATURE— FISH. 



It is diiflcult to convey an adequate idea of 

 the number of individual fish which may 

 compose a shoal of herrings, and it has been 

 averred that they would speedily impede navi- 

 gation were it not for the vast number of 

 agencies that are at work to prevent an un- 

 due increase of their number. As the result 

 of recent inquiry we have been informed that 

 the quantities which man takes from the water 

 for food uses do not represent a tenth of what 

 are captured by the sea birds, or devoured by 

 marine enemies. As the herring is the only 

 fish of which statistics of the capture are col- 

 lected and tabulated, we are in possession of 

 figures which aflbrd us a rough idea of the 

 number annually withdrawn from the sea for 

 food purposes. In a recent year sufficient her- 

 rings were taken to fill a million barrels , and 

 as each barrel contains, on an average, 700 

 fish, we have thus a number equal to 700,000,- 

 000. This quantity, it must be observed, 

 represents cured fish only, and only those 

 which are caught in Scotland under the super- 

 intendence of the Fishery Board. It is pretty 

 certain that as many herrings are cap- 

 tured and offered for sale as fresh fish and 

 "reds" as are cured for the markets in Scot- 

 land and offiered for sale as salt herrings; 

 which gives us the prodigious total of 1,400,- 

 000,000 withdrawn annually from the sea ; 

 and even this number, vast as it is, does not 

 include what are used in the form of white- 

 bait, or those which are sold as sprats. After 

 draining the sea to such an extent it might 

 also be supposed that there would' be scarcely 

 so many herrings left as would suffice for a 

 breeding stock ; but the demands of man are 

 a mere fraction of what are taken out of the 

 shoals. All that are captured, as well as all 



that are wasted during the capture, and 

 destroyed in the process of curing, sink into 

 insignificance when compared with the vast- 

 ness of the quantities which are devoured by 

 other enemies of the fish. Cod and ling are 

 known to prey extensively on the herring ; 

 and a calculation, based on the number of cod 

 and ling annually caught under the auspices 

 of the Scotland Board of Fisheries (3,500,000 

 were taken in 1876), assumes that there is a 

 capital stock of these fish in the Scottish firths 

 and seas of 70,000,000 individuals ; and that 

 each individual consumes 420 herrings jier 

 annmn, which, at the rate of two herrings 

 every day for seven months in the year, shows 

 a consumption of 29,400,000,000 individual 

 herrings. Nor does the account stop at this 

 point. The commissioners who recently col- 

 lected information on Scottish herring fisher- 

 ies assume that in Scotland alone the gannet 

 (a sea-bird) will annually draw on the shoals 

 to the extent of 1,110,000,000 herrings. In 

 addition to dog-fish, cod, gannets and other 

 sea-birds, the herring has many other enemies ; 

 porpoises, seals, cod fish and other |predaceous 

 fishes are constantly lying in wait to fall upon 

 and devour them. A female herring, we 

 know, yields over 30,000 eggs ; but at the 

 shoaling-time myriads of these eggs are de- 

 voured by a variety of enemi,es, besides which 

 hundreds of thousands of the eggs are never 

 touched by the fructifying milt of the male 

 fish, and so perish in the waters.— C/iawi6e?'s' 

 Journal. 



STANDARD OF THE AMERICAN JER- 

 SEY CATTLE CLUB. 



A letter has come to hand, written by a 

 gentleman interested in dairy matters to some 

 extent, in which the writer takes exception 

 (and we think very justly) to the standard 

 adopted by the American Jersey Cattle Club. 

 We have not that standard before us, but 

 have examined it hitherto, and do not, there- 

 fore, speak of it altogether at random. Our 

 correspondent desires to know what our views 

 are in regard to the scale referred to, and es- 

 pecially in reference to what he calls "the 

 frills and furbelows" with which it is orna- 

 mented. 



Not having the scale of points before us, 

 we are not prepared to examine it in detail, 

 but from recollection and some figures given 

 by our friend we shall not have much difficul- 

 ty in pointing out what we think are serious 

 faults it contains, and at the same time 

 plainly indicate our position in regard to some 

 things which such standards should recognize, 

 as well as some tilings they should ignore. 



In deciding upon standards of excellence 

 by which to measure any class of stock, it has 

 happened not unfrequently that the import- 

 ance of the real merit has been overlooked, 

 or that the most desirable points have not 

 been given the prominence they deserved, 

 while fanciful and non-essential characteris- 

 tics have received too much consideration in 

 the scale. The behests of fashion have thus 

 been obeyed to the detriment of true interests 

 which were at stake. It is only proper to re- 

 mark here that we have no unfriendly feel- 

 ings against the American Jersey Cattle 

 Club, or any other similar club or association. 

 And so far as Jersey cattle are concerned, we 

 look upon them as a very useful and desirable 

 breed for certain purposes. We are dealing 

 entirely with a scale of points laid down by 

 the clubby which Jerseys are judged, which,in 

 our our opinion, is inimical to the welfare of 

 breeders of and dealers in that breed of cattle 

 in this country ; hence we are free to say in 

 all kindness and candor that in catering to 

 fanciful tastes and placing undue value upon 

 non-essentials, we believe that the club stands 

 in its own light, and is really, though unin- 

 tentionally of course, doing an injury to the 

 Jersey cattle interest. Eesults at the pail and 

 in the churn are what Jerseys must show — 

 results that at once recommend them to 

 farmers, -io dairymen and other's— if they are 

 to retain i=eputati^n.- If these are sacrificed 

 to the color of hair, hor-ns,4ioofs, and to high 

 up nostrils, it is but a questioa-of time ^ben 



the breed wiU lose much of its prestige and 

 prominence. As the value of tlie Jerseys 

 consists almost exclusively in the richness and 

 quantity of the milk they produce, the true 

 policy, of course, is to preserve these qualities; 

 but how long can this be done, if they are 

 made secondary or subservient to other things 

 which are not material, or which really count 

 nothing by the side of these useful character- 

 istics. In the scale adopted by the club there 

 are thirty-four points, and of this number 

 four only relate to the lacteal characters of 

 the cow, viz. : the milk veins, the front and 

 rear udder, and the teats. Twenty-nine points 

 are required to entitle an animal to a prize at 

 a competitive trial, or to be classed as a prize 

 animal, and it will be seen, therefore, that a 

 cow or heifer of this breed— whose chief and 

 almost only recommendation consists of its 

 milk quality — may secure a prize without 

 possessing a single one of the points indi- 

 cating excellence in that direction. The color 

 and size of the ears count two in the scale, 

 and the length and quality of the tail also 

 count two, so that ears and tail equal in the 

 count the number of points given to milk 

 veins, front and rear udder and teats. Now 

 we respectfully submit that milk veins, udders 

 and teats are likely to be more favorably can- 

 vassed than delicate and deer-like ears by 

 dairymen and others desirous of adding Jersey 

 cows to their herds or purchasing for family 

 use ; and further, that with such persons it is 

 more a problem of pail than of tail. The 

 question of utility is paramount, and hence 

 the folly of giving undue prominence to tests 

 of no real value, or at least of such small 

 consequence as to entitle them to little ap- 

 preciable weight in any proper standard or 

 scale of points. We repeat that performance 

 at the pail is the highest test. The quantity 

 of butter a Jersey cow produces within a 

 year, or what profit she yields to her owner in 

 dairy products, has more to do with her value 

 than anything else ; all others are secondary, 

 and some that are present in this standard 

 are worse than useless. — American Stockman. 



WHOLE ACRES OF PERFUME. 



The Swiss limes says : Some idea of the 

 magnitude of the business of raising sweet- 

 scented flowers for their perfume alone may 

 be gathered from the fact that Europe and 

 British India alone consume about 150,000 

 gallons of handkerchief pej-fume yearly; that 

 the English revenue from French Eau de 

 Cologne of itself is |40,000 annually, and the 

 total revenue of England from other import- 

 ed perfumes is estimated at $200,000 each 

 year. There is one great perfume distillery 

 at Cannes, in France, which tises yearly about 

 one hundred thousand pounds acacia flowers, 

 140,000 pounds of rare flower leaves, 32,000 

 pounds of jasmine blossoms, and 20,000 

 pounds of tuberose blossoms, togetlier with 

 an immense quantity of other material used 

 for perfume. Victoria, in New South Wales, 

 is a noted place for the production of perfume- 

 yielding plants, because such plants as the 

 mignonette, sweet verbena, jasmine, rose, 

 lavender, acacia, heliotrope, rosemary, wall- 

 flower, laurel, orange, and the sweet-scented 

 geraniums are said to grow there in greater 

 perfection than in any other part of the world. 

 South Australia, it is believed, would also be 

 a good place for the growing of these perfume- 

 producing plants, though they are not yet 

 cultivated to much extent. The value of per- 

 fumes to countries adapted to their produc- 

 tion may be gathered from the* following esti- 

 mate of their growth and value per acre, as 

 given in the London (England) Journal of 

 Horticulture: An acre of jasmine plants, 

 80,000 in number, will produce 5,000 pounds 

 of flowers, valued at 11,250; an acre of rose 

 trees, 10,000 in number, will yield 2,000 

 pounds of flowers, worth $375; 300 orange 

 trees growing on an acre, will yield, at ten 

 years of age, 2,000 pounds of flowers, valued 

 at $250; an acre of violets, producing 1,600 

 pounds of flowers, is worth $800; an acre of 

 cassia trees of about 300, will, at three years 

 of age, yield 900 pounds of flowers, worth 



