1880.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



the floor, the busy groiiiis of harvesters, and 

 tlie scattered clusters of houses and barns 

 make up a picture the like of which has never 

 been seen boforc. Hero before you, from an 

 outlook on one of the buildinj;s near the rail- 

 road which runs throujih these fields, are 

 20,000 acres covered with most luxuriant 

 grain. The bright golden hue of tlie wheat 

 and barley, the darker tints of the oats, 

 blending witli the rich green of the grass, 

 which forms a fringe to the grain lields, 

 entrance the beholder. Harvesting having 

 commenced, the scene is all the more strange 

 and interesting; for round tlicsc iinmeuse 

 acres of grain (Irive llo machini'S, which cut 

 and bnul into bundles, and throw it off on one 

 side witli a precision and constancy that 

 seems suj)erlunuan. Thcu .scattered alwut 

 are twenty steam threshers, to which the 

 wagons bear the gatliered bundles ofwlieat, 

 and by wliich the grain is rapidly separated 

 from the chaff, and poured out, clean and 

 ready for market, througli a funnel into the 

 meiisures set to receive it. The^ latter are 

 emptied into bags, wliich in turn are tied up 

 and carried away to the ears, twenty of wliich 

 are loaded every day. Six hundred men 

 make up the force at work in the liarvest 

 field. The overseers are mounted, and watch 

 the proceedings of the gangs they severally 

 superintend. Twelve days sees 20,000 acres 

 of wheat cut, bound up in bundles, and gath- 

 ered into shocks then threshed, carried to the 

 cars, and Ijorne away to the elevators for 

 storage or shipment. 



"This makes a brief story of what is really 

 a most marvelous occurrence; for until these 

 mammoth farms were opened, nothing like 

 this had ever been known in the annals of 

 agriculture. Until tliese machines, doing 

 their work with sucli tirelessue.ss and intelli- 

 gence, liad been invented, farming on sucli a 

 scale was simply impossible. But this is a 

 scene which increasing nuniljers of visitors 

 from all parts of our country love to look 

 upon every harvest. Xo one realizes what 

 the possibilities of this laud are, until he has 

 seen with his own eyes this which has now 

 been descril)ed. Moreover these farms are 

 not yet wholly under cultivation. There are 

 09,000 acres in one of them, only a small 

 portion of which has been In-oken up. There 

 are two others of gigantic, though not (luite 

 equal area, tlie whole of which is under the 

 supervision of one man, Mr. Dalrymple. 

 Over one of the farms a telephone has been 

 constructed, so that cominiiuiealiou may be 

 held with tlie difierenl points where the 

 threshers are at work, or where the men and 

 horses are housed. "—JVeM; York Mercantile 

 Journal. 



FIGS. 



Gathering the Fruit in Italy. 

 Although indigenous to Asia and liarbary, 

 the fig has been so long and so extensively 

 cultivated in Italy that it may be considered 

 native, on the ground of the Irishman's 

 remark that he had been a native of a certain 

 county for ten years ! The season, just at its 

 height, joins hands in October with the 

 vendemmiu, or vintage ; but it begins in 

 August, owing to a curious system of culture. 

 Early in that month as you sit gasping under 

 t!ie noonday sun you hear a wild, eerie strain 

 in minor-key which goes echoing up and 

 down the slopes with intense mournfulness. 

 It is the .song of the lig-gatherers, tossing 

 back and forth from hillside to hillside, and 

 from treetop to treetop, as they s(iuirm 

 through the twisted branches and "oil the 

 fruit."' The tribe is nomadic, and aiipears 

 and disappears like the wandering harvesters 

 of France, no one knowing whence tliey come 

 or whither they go. Late in .July the mussurie 

 are rented to tliem, they paying a given sum 

 to the proprietor, and taking possession of all 

 the fruit, beginning with the ligs and ending 

 with the last waxen clusters of grapes. Rude 

 huts thatched with straw are built by the 

 proprietor in all his orchards, and there the 

 gypsy-like creatures live with their families- 



stalwart, fierce looking men, swarthy, dark- 

 eyed women and active, lithe young rascals of 

 children. Sometimes they supplement their 

 narrow quartei-s witli a ragged tent — three 

 sticks crosswise and the kettle in the crotch 

 constitute the kitchen. Beds are an unknown 

 luxury. Indeed, they .seem never to lay 

 aside their clothing and day and night they 

 patrol the orchards with long guns and a 

 tierce dog, the very sight of which is enough to 

 destroy one's appetite for those particular 

 ligs. 



The process of forcing the fruit is at once 

 begun, and for many days that wild, sweet 

 song, into whose weird melody the spirit of 

 their homeless life seems to have entered, is 

 heard from tree to tree, in call and response, 

 as far as the faintest adumbration of sound 

 can reach. The methods of forcing the 

 ripening are curious. In one a wad of cotton 

 is dipped in oil and gently rubbed on the lower 

 end of the lig. Fig by lig is thus treated, and 

 eight days tliereafter the fruit is ready for 

 market, when it commands a high price as a 

 jirimeur. Another method consists ingather- 

 ing in the spring the half-formed rniit, which 

 is strung on ropes as we .string dried fruits. 

 These rojies or garlands are thrown over the 

 branches of the tree and allowed to decay 

 under the burning sun. Life out of death. 

 An insect is born from tliis decay which 

 pierces the growing fig and induces the rapid 

 maturity — or, shall we call it, early decay V 

 maturity being only that precious zenith of 

 existence wliicli must inevitably be followed 

 by decline. Leaving such premature sweet- 

 ness to the epicure, one may well be content 

 to wait the result of nature's uidiurried pro- 

 cess. The lig, when perfectly ripe, exudes a 

 slow drop of honey-sweet juice at the nether 

 end, which never falls, but hangs there, a 

 standing temptation to bees and men. Wlien 

 fresh picked, at this stage, the tig is inde- 

 scriljably luscious, with a rich flavor entirely 

 lost in the dried fruit. 



PLUM PUDDING AT SEA. 



The pride and glory of an English Christ- 

 mas is the plum pudding — supposed lo be the 

 lineal descend.ant of plum porridge. In olden 

 times in England plum pottage was always 

 served with the first course of a Christmas 

 dinner. It was made by boiling beef or mut- 

 ton with broth thickened with brown bread ; 

 when half-boiled, raisins, currants, prunes, 

 cloves, mace and ginger were added, and 

 when the mess had been thoroughly boiled, 

 it was sent to table with the best meats. Sir 

 Roger de Coverly thought there was some 

 hope of a Dissenter when he saw him enjoy 

 his porridge at the hall on Christmas day. 

 Plum-broth figures in Poor Robin's almanac 

 for 17.50 among the items of Christmas fare ; 

 and Mrs. Frazer, "sole teacher of the art of 

 cookery in Edinburgh, and several years 

 colleague and afterward successor to Mrs. 

 M'lver," who published a cookery book in 

 1701, thought it necessary to include plum- 

 pottage among her soups. Brand partook of a 

 tureenful of "lu.scious i)lum-porridge" at the 

 table of the royal chaplain in 1801, but that is 

 the latest appearance of this once indispensa- 

 ble dish of which we have any record. 



As to plum-pudding, we are thoroughly at 

 fault. Rabisha gives a recipe, in his Whole 

 Body of Cookery Dissected (1<)7.'),) for a pud- 

 ding to be boiled in a basin, which bears a 

 great resemblance to the modern Christmas 

 favorite, but does not include it in his bills of 

 fare for winter, although "a dish of stewed 

 broth, if at Christmas," figures therein. It 

 shared honors with the porridge in Addison's 

 time, however, for the Taller tells us : "No 

 man of the most rigid virtue gives ofience by 

 an excess in plum-pudding or plum-porridge, 

 because they are the first partsof thedinner;" 

 but Mrs. Krazer above mentioned is the 

 earliest culinary authority we find describing 

 its concoction. ' 



In the time of the commonwealth plum- 

 pudding and Christmas pie (as mince-pies 

 were then sometimes called) both fell under 

 censure. The enjoying of these dishes seems 



to have been peculiarly obnoxious to Puritan 

 taste. An old verse reads : 



"All plums the prophet's sons deuy, 



And splou broths are too hot ; 

 Treason's lu a December pie, 

 And death within the f>ot." 



Or, as another satii'ical rbycmster of the same 

 period has it : 



"The hi;,'h-8lioc lords of Crotuwell's making 

 Were not lor dainties — roasliuf;, baking ; 

 The chiefest food they found most good In 

 Was rusty bacon and bag pviddinj; , 

 Plum broth was popish, and mince-pie — 

 Ob, that was flat Idolatry !" 



The ship's cook when at sea has evidently 

 exhausted all the resotirces of his art in the 

 preparation of the great Christmas disli. lie 

 always does his part well, and for the sake of 

 those who are eating their Christma.s dinner 

 ainid.st all the discomforts of an ocean iiassage 

 in winter, let us trust that the toothsome 

 concoction may find its way in safety from the 

 galley to the table. 



GLUE AND GLUING. 



A Practical Paper of Interest to Professional 

 and Amateur Joiners. 



There are few persons who cannot tell a 

 piece of glue when they see it, but how much 

 depends upon it in the practice of the cabinet- 

 maker's and joiner's trades is only known to 

 those whu are fully initiated into the mys- 

 teries of modern construction. 



There is no department in the cabinet fac- 

 tory or joiner's workshop that is so little 

 understood or more slighted than the gluing 

 department — not slighted with the deliberate 

 intention of doing bad work, but from a 

 habitual carelessness in the proper prepara- 

 tion and application of this abused and, at 

 times, useful cement. 



The following are some of the requisites 

 and tests of good glue : Glue is adhesive and 

 to a certain extent elastic. It should present 

 a clear appearance when held between the eye 

 and the light; color is of minor importance, so 

 that it is neither spotted nor streaked. When 

 broken it should present a whitish edge where 

 it is com)iresscd in the break; it should not be 

 too brittle, neither should it be too tough, 

 but should break clean. Another lest is to 

 allow it to absorb all the water it will, then 

 dry in a cool place. If the piece returns to 

 the size it was in the first instance it is good. 



In the preparation or, as the trade term it, 

 "making the glue" (I am not alluding to the 

 manufacture of glue, but the making as un- 

 derstood by the cabinet makers,) wliat is re- 

 ipiired is to preserve its elasticity and adhe- 

 siveness in the fidlest extent, to destroy 

 either of which is to render the glue worth- 

 less, and its worthlessness will be in exact 

 proportion to the destruction of either of 

 these properties. 



If a cabinet maker be asked why he puts 

 water into his glue, in nine cases'out of ten 

 his answer will be, "It is too thick, and will 

 not spread as it should unless you thin it with 

 water." All glue as received from the fac- 

 tory requires the addition of water before it 

 will melt properly, and every addition of 

 water (while the glue is fresh made) will, up 

 to a certain point, increase the adhesiveness 

 and elasticity ; and it is the duty of every 

 man who uses glue to find out just where that 

 point lies, as it is possible to melt glue and 

 have it so thick that after it is dry or set it 

 will be so brittle as not to adhere to the wood. 

 Some glues will bear more water than others, 

 but all will bear more water than usually 

 falls to their sliare, and that too, with a great 

 increase in the quality of the work. 



For glue to be properly effective it requires 

 to penetrate the pores of the wood, and the 

 more a body of glue penetrates the wood the 

 more substantial the joint will remain. I 

 have always found that glues that take the 

 longest to dry are to be preferred to those 

 that dry quick, the slow-drying glues being 

 always "the strongest, other things being equal. 



I have made glue in many different ways, 

 but as yet have not found a" way that gives so 



