178 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ December, 



or ability to write. We admonish them how- 

 ever not to entirelj' forget us. The status of 

 an agricultural journal is very much what its 

 literary contributors make it. We hope to 

 hear from them anon. 



CONDENSED TRUTH. 



"Every farmer of Lancaster county should 

 subscribe for and read the Lancaster 

 Farsieb, our home agricultural organ— and 

 the many thousands of farmers elsewhere 

 throughout the union would also find that by 

 subscribing for The Farmer they would be 

 making a most judicious investment of a 

 dollar, as it is published in the most advanced 

 agricultural community in the land, and is 

 thoroughly practical throughout. Farmers, 

 try it for one year and be convinced of its 

 value. J. A. Hiestaud, publisher, Lancas- 

 ter, Pa."— Nei« Holland Clarion, Bcvember IS, 

 1879. 



A great truth compressed into a very small 

 space— indeed good things generally come in 

 "small packages." Tue above is only one 

 among the many testimonials to the excellence 

 of the Lancaster Farmer which we have 

 received during the past year, and we prefer 

 to make use of this because it comes from 

 nearest to our own home. Our excellent 

 contemporary knows whereof he speaks, and 

 no more appropriate time could be taken 

 advantage of to follow his wholesome advice 

 than just now. If you wish to know the 

 intrinsic excellence of a thing the best way to 

 obtain that information is to ask those who 

 are nearest related to it. If you wish to know 

 the quality of a man, ask his .wife, his chil- 

 dren or his neighbors. Newspaper publica- 

 tions have their difierent spheres of operation, 

 within wliicli spheres nothing out of them can 

 so eli'ectually perform their special uses. The 

 country press is much more than the country 

 gives it ciedit for. Take any of our metro- 

 politan journals and notice how largely they 

 quote from the country press, and if that 

 source of information was entirely suppressed 

 they would be very dull things for general 

 country reading. The Lancaster Farmer 

 is the only purely agricultural journal in 

 Pennsylvania, outside of the city of Philadel- 

 phia, and is published in the centre of one of 

 the most wealthy, proUHc and intelligent 

 districts in the State. As an advertising 

 medium of any thing relating to its specialty, 

 it has no superior in the county, if in the 

 entire State, and it scatters its information 

 in regions far beyond our State aud county 

 borders. What we ask for ourselves we also 

 ask for other local journals, and especially for 

 the New Holland Clarion, which has most 

 deservedly become one of the fixed institutions 

 of our county. May its lamp continue to 

 burn, even if ours should be extinguished. 



THE INCUBATOR. 



How to Hatch Chickens Without Hens. 

 "The incubator which is to be in operation 

 and on exhibition at the show of "Tne Lan- 

 caster County Poultry Association" has 

 arrived here, and is now being put in opera- 

 tion at the liouse of Mr. J. B. Lichty, in order 

 that the chicks may be coming out on the 

 several days of the show, and for the present 

 is under the care and management of Mr. 

 John (J. Burrowes. 



At first view the incubator looks like a box 

 with two drawers in the front, a hole with a 

 valve in it, an electric battery with an electro- 

 magnet and some clock-work on the top, and 

 a lamp with a boiler on the end. When the 

 drawers are opened, the bottom of which is 

 wire netting, are seen a pyrometer and a 

 thermometer. Under the egg-drawer there 

 is a large, shallow pan filled with water; this 

 is to keep the eggs moist. Between the pan 

 and egg-drawer there are iron tubes with 

 small holes in them, extending from side to 

 side of the machine. 'Xhese are to give a free 

 circulation of fresh air. Directly above the 

 eggs there is a tank extending over the whole 

 top of the machine. This tank is in connec- 

 tion with the boiler at the end, and there is a 



circulation between them, so that all the water 

 is kept at about the same temperature. 



But what is the use of the electric appara- 

 tus ? Well, when the heat gets up to a 

 certain temperature it acts on the pyrometer, 

 which is connected with the battery and the ! 

 magnet, and completes the circuit. As soon 

 as this is done, the magnet attracts the 

 armature, and this starts the clock which 

 opens the valve and lets in cool air until the 

 pyrometer contracts and breaks the circuit, 

 when the valve closes. In this way a very 

 regular temperature is maintained. A great 

 deal more might be said about this ingenious 

 machine, but the above will do utitil the time 

 of the exhibition, when all can go and see for 

 themselves, and will be fully repaid for so 

 doing." 



We clip the above from the daily Intelligencer 

 of the lath inst., as an additional reminder to 

 our readers {if such a thing be necessary) of 

 the great poultry show to come off at Locher's 

 building, corner of West King street and 

 Centre Square, commencing January 2d, 1880. 

 Everything indicates that this will be the 

 greatest event of the season— indeed it bids 

 fair to eclipse any thing ever gotten up in 

 Lancaster heretofore. The statistics of the 

 egg and chicken trade of our country are 

 matters of great magnitude, and they are 

 rapidly increasing. None of our readers 

 should by any means fail to witness it or 

 become exhibitors. The list of premiums is 

 very liberal, and everything will be done to 

 render ample justice to all who may feel dis- 

 posed to participate in it. Therefore we say, 

 "don't fail to come and see." 



METEOROLOGICAL CONTRAST. 



Unprecedentedly Cold Weather Throughout 

 Europe. 



"London, Dec. H.-^The weather contin- 

 ues severe throughout the kingdom. In Paris 

 the Seine is frozen over for the first time since 

 18(31. Vienna reports hardest and most con- 

 tinuous frosts at this season of year since 1838. 

 Snow in Sicily and Calabria still impedes com- 

 munication. In Berlin the cold is still in- 

 tense. In Upper Silesia, where famine pre- 

 vails, the thermometer marked twelve below 

 zero, Fahrenheit, Thursday." • 



From the foregoing paragraph it will be ob- 

 served that the people of Europe are not 

 favored in their meteorological conditions as 

 we, thus far, have been in this western hemis- 

 phere of ours; and that instead of having un- 

 precedentedly cold weather, it has been almost 

 directly the reverse. On the 8th of December 

 a pea-sprout, nearly two inches long, was 

 given us, that had been found growing be- 

 tween two bricks in a paved yard, where it 

 had no weather protection whatever. Now, 

 young pea-plants are amongst the most deli- 

 cate of our culinary vegetation. That the 

 seed of the pea should have germinated and 

 grown in such a situation, is an indication 

 that our weather must have been very mild 

 indeed — something like May or June. On the 

 9th of December we took a stroll down to the 

 extreme southern extension of S. Duke street. 

 The sun was very warm, although the air was 

 bracing, and withall, exhilarating. Among 

 other subjects of the vegetable kingdom, we 

 found a "dandelion" {Taraxacum densleonies) 

 in full bloom; a golden flower of which we 

 plucked and brought it home with us. That 

 fact must surely indicate a pleasant condition, 

 contrasted with the physical condition of the 

 poor distressed people of foreign countries. 

 Two or three winters ago we found the dan- 

 delion in bloom every month, from November 

 to May; therefore it would be ditticult to de- 

 termine whether our "find" on the 9th inst. 

 was an immature one of 1879, or a premature 

 one of 1880. It seems they are always ready 

 to bloom when they have the necessary heat 

 and light. On the 10th of December the bees 

 were in our garden. The only plant in bloom 

 was the "black hellebore, "and the bees fairly 

 reveled in its widely expanded flower-cups. 

 Since then we have had warm rains, a "clear 

 up," and a moderately "cold snap," and slight 

 freezing. 



SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 



The great similarity in scientific 

 often sorely taxes the mental energies of the 

 novice or the amateur, especially if he has re- 

 ceived no education in the languages. But, 

 there are some of these names that seem so 

 arbitrary and "far fetched" that if we even 

 know their roots we find little or no analogy 

 whatever between the specimen and the 

 object or objects from which it derived its 

 name. As many of the generic and family 

 names of plants and animals are Greek com- 

 pounds it is possible that in the long lapse of 

 time since Greek was a living language the 

 meaning of many words may have become 

 contracted, corrupted or entirely changed. 

 This must also be the case with many Latin 

 names. We remember our disappointment 

 when we consulted a Latin dictionary to find 

 the definition of Cicindela (a name applied to a 

 genus of "Tiger-beetles,") to find that it 

 meant a "glow-worm ;" because we had pre- 

 viously been familiar with the glow-worm as 

 a species of Lampyridce, a luminous insect 

 having no more generic or family alliance 

 with a cicindela than a goose has with a 

 golden pheasant. It is not only the arbitrary 

 alleged roots of names in natural history, but 

 also theii similarity that perplexes the student 

 of nature. This is however unavoidable, for 

 their volume, numerically, so increases that 

 it is difticult for language to supply terms by 

 which to designate them as fast as they are 

 discovered. Moreover, the specific shades of 

 ditt'erence are so slight that they only warrant 

 a slight modification of the name. Below we 

 adduce a few familiar examples out of the 

 multitudes that exist. 



Lycopodium : this term is a Greek com- 

 pound, and literally means "Wolf's-foot," 

 from Lykos, a wolf and pous, a foot, and is 

 applied to a family of mdfses, (LycoPODiACiE) 

 familiarly called "club-mosses." When this 

 moss is in fruit the spikes look Mke diminu- 

 tive "clubs," and a cluster of these spikes 

 might, by a prolific exercise of the imagina- 

 tion, be contorted into the form of a wolf's 

 foot. Notwithstanding these names may 

 seenx "far fetched," there is no help for it 

 now, therefore, we must accept them as they 

 are and make the best of them we can. 



Lycopersicum : this is also a Greek com- 

 pound, and literally means "Wolf-peach," 

 from Lykos, a wolf and persicon, a peach, and 

 is applied to a genus belonging to the family 

 SoLANACBiE embracing the nightshades. 

 There is but one plant belonging to the genus, 

 and that is now known under the name of 

 tomato, although formerly it was known as 

 the "Love Apple." The potato, [Solanum 

 tuberosum) belongs to this family, and as it 

 bears an apple on its vines which contains 

 seeds similar to tliose of the tomato this may 

 have originally suggested the name of apple 

 for the fruit of the tomato. But there is 

 nothing in connection with the latter that 

 could possibly suggest the ideas of tcolf or 

 peach, and therefore these names are entirely 

 fanciful. 



LycofeRDON : this is another Greek com- 

 pound, and litterally means "WoK's-f— t., 

 from Li/kos, a wolf and perdon, to eructate or 

 "break wind;" the latter of which may allude 

 to the explosion which follows the pressure of 

 a "pufl'ball;" for this name is applied to a 

 genus of Puffballs belonging to the family 

 Lycoperdace^, which includes the spher- 

 ical /u/ii/i. The objects in natural history are 

 so numerous, and the poverty of human lan- 

 guage is so manifest that we must bear with 

 tliese remote, and in many instances, insig- 

 niflcnat, derivations of names. 



Lycopbrdina : this is also a Greek com- 

 pound, but it is not primitive in its character 

 and significance. It is the name of a genus of 

 small beetles that belong to the family En- 

 domychid^. Possibly this genus may origi- 

 nally have been found feeding on puff"- 

 balls, and received its name from that 

 circumstance; just as Boletaphagus derives its 

 name from feeding on a species of fungus 

 named Boletus. 

 Lycopus: another Greek compound, and 



