18 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



tFebruary, 



Colorado, with the anticipated participation 

 of the whole "great west" at least, but the 

 invitation is extended to all the world. 



Our young sister States of the West have 

 taken time by the forelock, announcing their 

 programme almost with the incoming of the 

 new year, and have already sent their bulle- 

 tins (sec our literary columns,) throughout 

 the country. Tliis is an approximation to our 

 suggestion made during the centennial exhihi- 

 tion : namely, that our vast territory should 

 be divided into four, six or eight districts, 

 each holding an annual, biennial, triennial or 

 quadrennial exhibition, instead of only one, 

 and thus draining the whole country of time, 

 money and laborfor its support, and concen- 

 trating it all in one locality to the disadvan- 

 tage of all the other places. 



These district fairs held at intervals of two, 

 three, four or more years might exist without 

 at all interfering with the successful opera- 

 tions of county fairs, except, perhaps, the 

 single counties in which they are held for the 

 current year, and would also receive a larger 

 patronage, for the reason that the expense of 

 attending would be far less than when held 

 in a single locality. 



From the proceedings of our local society 

 it will be seen that at the meeting on the first 

 Monday in March it proposes to discuss the 

 propriety of holding a fair next autumn in 

 Lancaster county, and it will not be too soon 

 to inaugurate a movement of that kind befoi e 

 the opening of spring, and following it up 

 with an energetic effort to make it a success, 

 the State fair at Philadelphia notwithstanding. 

 Lancaster county, in this respect, has been 

 acting an inferior part for many years, and the 

 time has fully arrived when she should act a 

 part commensurate with the position she occu- 

 pies in her relations agriculturally, mechanic- 

 ally and commercially with other portions of 

 the country. Her tobacco industry alone, 

 either independently or as an auxiliary, is 

 capable of making an imposing display. 

 There are no means by which she can more 

 practically advertise her products than 

 through an energetic and well ordered county 

 exhibition. The result of the poultry sliow 

 in January last is sufficient to illu.strate what 

 can be done when the effort is backed by the 

 energetic will of those who are delegated to 

 carry it through. Of course the enterprise 

 ought to be iniYiated imderstangingly and in- 

 telligently in order to secure a successful 

 termination. An early start, a judiciously 

 elaborated premium list, and a good set of 

 judges appointed long enough in advance to 

 ascertain whether they can or vill serve or 

 not, are very essential to the information and 

 the confidence of the people, and when they 

 are assured of this their is little doubt they 

 will do their part as a whole. 



ABOUT GRAHAM BREAD. 



If by Graliam bread, that made from unbolted 

 flour is meant, it is only ri!,'ht to understand its value 

 as an artiele of diet, as tliere are several very fjen- 

 eral errors eoneeruing it. One is, its superior nutri- 

 tive properties; tlie bolted out parts, as aseertained 

 by the chemist, eontain important nerve and bone 

 making m.alerial — but then it requires the chemist 

 to extract It, for the gastric juice of neither man nor 

 animal will do it, not even in the healthy subject. 



Young children and feeble or irritable stomachs 

 will be injured by its use. Those who like it "just 

 for a change," should be advised never to employ 

 soda, saleratus or baking powder in the manufacture 

 of it, and any alkali, when used for baking bread or 

 cake, pic or pudding, seriously interferes with 

 healthy digestion by neutralizing the gastric fluid. 



Bread made from unbolted flour may be of use in 

 scouring radical reformers, but won't do as a substi- 

 tute for that made in the best manner at home from 

 flne flour; and the addition of soda, molasses, or 

 making a slap-jack of it, to do away with fermenta- 

 tion, are so many degrading processes. 



It is only superior to fine flour in one condition; 

 that of habitual constipation, unattended with difli- 

 cult digestion or soreness of the stomach. The per- 

 fectly healthy can make the same use of it they do 

 of grape seeds, cherrystones, apple parings, etc. — L. 

 J). Z., Xew Era. 



We never saw or tasted any tUaham bread 

 that we did not feel we would get "sick and 

 tired of" in le.ss than a fortnight. There is no 

 use in saying that we would "become used to 



it in a short time," for we dont think we eve 

 would. But for all that, we are far from con- 

 demning that kind of bread; we only say that 

 the old rule — "what's good for the goose is 

 good for the gander," will not apply ^jer .se to 

 the human family in its relation to Graham 

 bread. From our earliest childhood uji to our 

 sixteenth year we had always been fond of 

 pies and doughimts, even when they were not 

 of the very best quality. About in our six- 

 teenth year it so transpired that during the 

 winter season our boarding "boss" dispensed 

 with dinners, and instead thereof we were 

 served with a lunch, which we daily took 

 along to our place of work. One entire win- 

 ter this Umcli consisted of doughnuts, and the 

 following winter of "half-moon" or "lay-over" 

 pies, which at first awhile we relished, goon 

 we became indifferent, then we appropriated 

 them[stoically, or mechanically, with about the 

 same gratification an ostrich enjoys when it 

 swallows an iron wedge. Then followed 

 periods of aversion, repulsion and disgust, 

 which finally terminated in unqualified hate; 

 and, O how grateful \ye. were at the return of 

 the long days and square dinners of spring 

 and summer again. Now, we have been eat- 

 ing white wheat bread for full sixty years, 

 and we have never seen the period that we 

 could not return to it three or four times a 

 day with the same relish that a fish does to 

 wholesome oxygenated water. Still we are 

 not condemning Graham liread, but we feel 

 morally certain that if we were compelled to 

 use it for a single month we should loath it 

 as intensely as we once did lay-over pies and 

 doughnuts. When cold or stale, Graham 

 bread is about as repulsive to us as cold pot- 

 pie. Have any of our readers noticed the ex- 

 crelal voidings of a horse or a pig exposed for 

 a time to wind, rain and sun ? how it disen- 

 tegrates and all the substance bleaches out of 

 it, leaving nothing but a residue of dry chaff 

 or bran-like scales remaining. The stoniaciis 

 of these healthy and strong animals having 

 been powerless in digesting and assimilating 

 it, so we imagine it is with the human stom- 

 ach in regard to bread made of unbolted floiu-. 

 But for all that we are far from an indiscrim- 

 inate condemnation of it. There may be 

 human stomachs that need that kind of ali- 

 ment. We once dined with a noted vegeta- 

 rian and Graharaite. Of course, there was 

 no animal food served, but we would not 

 have stowed into our stomach the amount 

 that individual did, (a thiii cadaverous man 

 too,) on that occasion, for fifty dollars. We 

 should have feared an expansion of our stom- 

 ach beyond the power of contraction again. 

 True, he only took two meals a day, but in 

 those two he could "put himself outside of" 

 more than we could in five or six. This does 

 not seem natural. Few animals feed in that 

 fashion, except serpents. As serpents are 

 supposed to be generally healthy, perhaps 

 this system is based on their habits. Doubt- 

 less there is much unwholesome bread made 

 out of bolted flour, but so are there also many 

 miwholesome meals cooked out of wholesome 



material. 



^ 



CANDLEMAS. 



The Day that Brings the Groundhog Out. 



To-day is Candlemas Day, or as it is more 

 commonly called Groundhog Day. This fes- 

 tival is very strictly kept by the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church, there being a procession with 

 many lighted candles, and those required for 

 the service of the ensuing year being also on 

 that occasion consecrated; hence the name 

 Candlemas Day. In Scotland, this day is one 

 of the four-term days appointed for periodical 

 payments of money, interest, taxes, etc., and 

 of entry of premises. 



An old document of the time of Henry 

 VIII. concerning the rites and ceremonies of 

 the English (Jliurch, speaks thus of the cus- 

 tom of carrying candles: "On Candlemas 

 Daye it shall be declared that the bearingeof 

 candles is done in the memorie of Christie, 

 the spiritual lyghte whom Simeon dyd proph- 

 ecye ("a light to lighten the Gentiles,) as it is 



redde iu the ch\u-che that daye." The can- 

 dles were suiiposed by the liomans to have 

 the effect of frightening the devil and all evil 

 spirits away from the persons who carried 

 them, or from the houses in which they were 

 placed. 



In Scotland the prognostication is expressed 

 in the following distich : 



If Candlemas is fair and clear, 

 There'll be twa winter in the year. 



There is a tradition in most parts of Europe 

 to the effect that a fine Candlemas portends a 

 severe winter. We have the groundhog tra- 

 dition. If on the 2d of February, on leaving 

 his hole he sees his shadow in the sun.shine, 

 he retiu-ns, and for six weeks thereafter the 

 weather will be rough; but if he does not see 

 his shadow, owing to a clouded sky, he re- 

 mains out and the'weather will be propitious 

 of an early spring. He saw his shadow to- 

 day; we shall see. — Examiner and Exprcn!!, 

 Fchruary, 2. 



.Just as often as the second day of February 

 comes, just , so often will the pai>ers of the 

 German localities in Pennsylvania have some- 

 thhig to say about the "Groundhog." This 

 year we forgot the "old joker" entirely until 

 the very morning of the '2nd., and our con- 

 temporaries seemed to have forgotten him too, 

 for he was not "trotted out" until the issue of 

 the Monday evening papers. The little 

 Scotch'couplet in the above extract trom the 

 Examiner emd Express may be literally true, 

 for every year we have "twa winters," or 

 parts of winters, beginning the year with a 

 winter month, and ending it with the same. 

 Of course, so far as the groundhog is person- 

 ally concerned, the whole story is an allegory 

 — a symbol or figure of speech; for stupid as 

 he may be, he is still too cunning to venture 

 out in'the open air on such a cold morning as 

 wc had on the 2nd of February the present 

 year. If he was even smart enough to ven- 

 ture out he would not have done so, simply 

 because he could not. He would have been 

 too torpid to move one foot before another. 

 It is, therefore, said very cautiously and 

 wisely "i/'the groundhog, &c., &c." But, 

 suppose he don't come out at all, what then V 

 The answer would probably he that it would 

 not make the slightest diflerence in the world 

 whether he comes out or stays in, for the 

 animus of the question rests on the sliadoio of 

 the animal, and not on the animal itself, and 

 the meteorological significance would be the 

 same, whether the sun reflected the shadow 

 of a dog, a goat or a guineapig. At any rate, 

 "may his shadow never grow less." 



•^ 



FLORIDA MANUFACTURES. 

 Of course, manufactures iu Florida are still 

 only prospective, but peculiarly situated as the 

 country is geographically, it must possess im- 

 mense resources that only require time for 

 their development. If we look at the map we 

 will observe that Florida is a peninsula almost 

 suiroiuided by water, and that it extends 

 farther southward than some of the Bahama 

 Islands, its extreme southern point being on 

 a line with Matamoras iu Mexico, and that 

 it must be capable of producing much of the 

 tropical vegetation; and from its peculiar 

 locality, oranges, pineapples and bananas, 

 lemons, citrons and other tropical fruits and 

 vegetation ought to and probably would 

 abound if it had more of the live Yankee in 

 its social and domestic composition. Florida 

 is a very okl territory, possessing wholly or in 

 part many buildings erected before it came into 

 the American Union. But all these things have 

 more intimate relation to agriculture and 

 horticulture than to manufactures. Recently, 

 however, it has been "opening up" to manu- 

 factures, and possesses material elements 

 and climate for the development of its re- 

 sources superior to any other State in the 

 Amerlrnn Uyxion. A time Is fast approaching 

 when its vast material resources will be 

 made available for manufacturing purposes. 

 Some of these material resources together 

 with their abundance and their uses will be 

 found in the following extract from a contem- 

 porary journal, for the benefit of those of our 



