1880. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



23 



Lauer, of Reading, referred to fruit-f^rowiuf; 

 as a iirnfitablc hranoh of business, and related 

 the result of his visit as a dele<;ato to the 

 incetins of the .\meriean Tomological Society 

 in Soiitenibor, IST'.I, at Ivochcster, X. Y. In 

 the course of his remarks he said : "Fruit 

 liays belter than anyl iiing else, nor can the 

 raising of fruit he overdone in this country. 

 From less than one-quarter of an acre of my 

 garden I annually sell pears and cherries to 

 the amount of $IW. No dcpartuieut of the 

 farm should receive greater attention." In 

 the course of a subse(iiunl interview, Mr. 

 T>auer stated to the writer, that foi' the pur- 

 pose of protecting fruit-growers in this coun- 

 try some stringent laws should be adopted, 

 such as are in force, for instance, in parts of 

 Eiu'oiie whicli he visited several years ago. 

 A heavy line is imposed tor neglecting fruit 

 trees and allowing injurious insects to spread. 

 No tent cateriiillarsare seen on trees there as 

 in this country. In Hohemia, a country with 

 hills and valleys much like Berks county, 

 there arc a great many jiruues grown, and 

 the crop is an important one of export. In 

 many sections of (Tcrmauy the public high- 

 ways are lined with fruit trees. In Siiain it 

 is tile custom of the traveler who partakes of 

 fruit on his journey to plant the seed along 

 the road.side, in order that it may grow and 

 produce fruit and shade for others. The 

 German, or English walnut is much used as a 

 .shade tree in portions of Germany, where 

 avenues miles in length shaded on both sides 

 with trees of this in'olitabh^ variety of nut, 

 may be found. The English walnut has been 

 grown successfully in Berks county, and 

 should be planted more generally for shade 

 and jirolit. In connection with fruit-growing 

 attention should be given to the cultivation 

 of nut bearing trees. 



The Uses to Which Fruit Can be Put. 

 There are so many uses to which fruit can 

 be put, that the (piestion : "Can we plant 

 too many fruit trees ?"' answers itself. So 

 long as there is a demand for fruit, fruit- 

 growing caiuiot be overdone, and it is not 

 likely that the dem.and will ever cease, at 

 least not with the present generation. As 

 our country liecomes more populous, the con- 

 sumption of fruit will increase. The time 

 will come when the millions of dollars which 

 annually flow out of this country for foreign 

 fruits and wines will be kejit at home, for 

 with the proper encouragement of fruit-grow- 

 ing we slionld he alile to svipply our own 

 wants, and have a large surplus of fruit for 

 exjjort. The wine industry is destined to 

 assume greater projiortions in this count. y, 

 and the production of grapes and other fruits 

 is yet in jts infancy. Commenting on the 

 great deficiency in the French vintage of 

 1879, the London Slanddvd thinks that more 

 attention should be paid by Euijland to Amer- 

 ican and Australian wines. "It is far from 

 unlikely,'' .says that journal, "that the time 

 is coming when we shall be corai)elled to look 

 for a large portion of (uir regular wine sui)ply 

 outside the limits of those regions whence we 

 have hitherto exclusively derived it, to the 

 fertile soil of that new world which lies 

 beyond the Atlantic." Vov the purpose of 

 obtaining the views of one of our most experi- 

 enced and successful fruit -Lrrowers. tin- writer 

 addressed a note to (Christopher Shearer, of 

 Berks county, reference to whose e.xtensive 

 operations have already been made in this 

 article, and received a reply of so much prac- 

 tical value that it isherewiih submitted in the 

 liojie that the information which it contains 

 will prove profitable to the members of the 

 Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' .Society. 



Contributions. 



ForTlIK i.ANCASTEH FAKMER. 



FARM-LIFE vs TOWN-LIFE. 

 How to keep our boys on the farm ? is a 

 question of very great imiiortancc, and not as 

 readily answered as asked. That in a coun- 

 try like our own where three-fourtlis nearly of 

 the population are engaged in agiicultural 



pursuits, a very large proportion of tlio young 

 men are born and rercd in the rural districts, 

 but the inviting temptation of the learned 

 professions, manufactures and commercial 

 operations, lures away from the field and 

 stimulates the ambitious to seek the college, 

 the marts of trade and the social habits of 

 city life. Formerly, and even now in some 

 of the old or Furopean countries, the farmer's 

 life is a hard, sad, slavish pursuit, attended 

 with very little of tlie comforts an<l conveni- 

 ences of life. But in our country the case at 

 the i>resent time is greatly improved, and the 

 farmer's sons hav(! here every inducement to 

 respectability and standing in society with 

 the professionals and the merchants. 



Farming here is no longer the isolated, 

 menial task which burdened the tillers of the 

 soil in the early settlements. This is owing 

 in a great measure to the improved macliinery 

 in agricultural labor. Farming is a surer bus- 

 iness than manufactures or merchandising. It 

 is safer than the professions in a pecuniary 

 jioint of view. True, a very few in the i)ro- 

 fessions, as well as in manufactures and com- 

 merce amass wealth, but the number of fail- 

 ures is legion, while the farming interest 

 .accumulates slowly but surely, and there are 

 comparatively few who don't succeed. 



A f^xrmer having several sons, healthy, 

 athletic fellows, but one of them is considered 

 a little stupid, and he stays on the farm; the 

 others, more bright, seek other occupations. 

 The farm is too dull for them, the labor too 

 monotonous. They start off for the town, go 

 into business, and when the lirothers are all 

 old men the chances are that the gifted city 

 traders are so poor that their less ambitious 

 brother has to provide and take care of them 

 in old age. This is no idle picture, but a 

 reality, as we can can see every day. — II. 

 — '^ 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 WHfiLT FERTILIZER SHALL WE USE. 



Somewhat more than a year ago I wrote a 

 few articles for The F.\rmer on "artificial 

 fertilizers," trying to present the known and 

 supposed facts and theories with regard to its 

 action and the benefits resulting from its u.se. 

 I have seen nothing brought forward since 

 tliat time to change my views as then ex- 

 pressed. 



To bring a full crop the soil must contain 

 quite a number of certain ingredients and the 

 lack of one of these is sufhcient to debar the 

 earth from "bringing forth its fruit." There 

 are however only three of these ingredients 

 that are in danger of being exhausted by crop- 

 ping, all the others are present in practically 

 inexhaustible cpiantities. either from the large 

 quantity stored in the soil, or from the small 

 amount needed for plant-growtli. 



At the risk of being tedious by repetition, I 

 give the three elements of plant-food that are 

 in danger of being exhau.sted, with'such facts 

 as I can glean : they are nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid and potash. 



.2V)7rof/c)i is the most costly of all the plant- 

 foods that have to be supplied. It is found 

 in immense (luantities in the atmosphere con- 

 stituting about four-fifths of the bulk of the 

 air. It is here not in an available state for 

 plant-growtli, unless the pl.ants ab.sorb it by 

 their leaves, as is advocated by some. To he 

 used as a plant-food it must be combined with 

 something else, such <is potash or soda, and is 

 then called a nitrate, as nitrate of potash, 

 nitrate of .soda. &c. 



Nitrogen and hydrogen combined in the 

 proportion of fourteen parts of the former to 

 three jiarts of the latter (by weight) form 

 nmmoTim. This is a gas liberated in large 

 quantities in the manufacture of burning (illu- 

 minating) gas, and by proper manipulation 

 becomes sulphate of ammonia. 



The nitrate of soda and the sulphate of am- 

 monia are our most important fertilizers when 

 nitrogen or ammonia only are wanted. They 

 are very quick in their action, and should be 

 ajiplied in not greater quantity than l.")0 to 

 200 pounds iier acre. The nitrate of soda, in 

 particular, is very soluble, and is in many 

 places applied in the spring to winter wheat, 



just before a gentle rain, if possible. The 

 effect is to start an immediate and dark green 

 growth. It should always be ai)plied to pre- 

 pared ground at the last moment. 



Pkosphiric (((id is the ni'xt most im])ortant 

 element of plant-food, and if the action oftlic 

 majority of those who u.se fertilizers is evi- 

 dence, then in this section it is considered the 

 most important, as you hear only the term 

 "phosphate" used. This may arise from a 

 habit some have of calling all fertilizers 

 "phosphate." A i)hosphate is a compound 

 of phos|ihoric acid and some base, such as 

 lime, .soda, m.agnesia. 



The phosphate of lime chielly concerns the 

 farmer, and until within some years was 

 mostly derived from hones. It is very impor- 

 tant that it be understood that phosphoric 

 acid may be in three ditfenmt combinations 

 with the lime, and that their immediate use- 

 fulness depends much upon in which of these 

 combinations it is furnished. 



In the raw bone it exists as bone phosplMte, 

 so called. The phosphate in this use is not 

 .soluble in water, ifiid the hones must be re- 

 duced to a very fine state or their action will 

 1)6 slow. The average amount of phosphoric 

 acid in bones is a little over 2'.i jier i;ent. , or 

 not quite one-fourth the w-eight of the bones; 

 some dealers state it at ')2 jier cent. lOiosphate 

 of lime which amounts to the same thing. 



AVhen raw bones are treated with sulphuric 

 acid (oil of vitriol)the bone phosphate becomes 

 soluble jihosphate of lime; some makers use 

 the term .soluble phosphoric acid. This prep- 

 aration is what is usually called "phosphate" 

 though the real name is super-phosphate. 

 "G(!nuine super-phosphate when made from 

 liones contains about 1.5 per cent, of .soluble 

 phosphoric acid, equal to about 20 per cent, 

 soluble phosphate of lime. Very often they 

 contain only 10 per cent, phosphoric acid, or 

 even less; cases have been known where a so 

 called super-phosphate had no soluble i)hos- 

 phorio acid at all, and le.ss than :5 per cent, of 

 the insoluble acid. This article was a fraud, 

 and under our iiresent laws payment of it 

 could not be enforced unless a note had been 

 given that passed into the hands of a second 

 innocent party. 



There is still another form of phosphate 

 of lime. Among manufacturers and dealers 

 it is known under the various titles of "revert- 

 ed," "precipitated" and "available" phos- 

 phoric acid. The best superjihosphates con- 

 tain .some of this reverted form, and some 

 very good ones also I'ontain more or less of 

 the insoluble "bout phosphate" of lime. 



In chemical language the molecular weight 

 of lime is 2S and of phosphoric acid 71. Now 

 the "bone phosphate" of lime contains three 

 molecules of lime and one of phosphoric acid, 

 making the molecular weight of this phosphate 

 84x71 or l.'i.j, thus a little over 4.5 per cent, of 

 the iihosphate is iihosphoric acid in an insolu- 

 ble form. In the soluble, sometimes called 

 acid phosphate of lime there is only one mole- 

 cule of lime to one of phosphoric acid, and 

 hence the molecular weight of this phosphate 

 is 28x71 or Oit, the phosphoric acid, in a solu- 

 ble state, being nearly 72 per cent, of the 

 phosphate of lime contained. The reverted 

 chielly happens from the soluble phosphate 

 taking up another molecule of lime, and con- 

 sequently the molecular weight of this form 

 of phosphate of lime is .50x71 or 127, the 

 phosphoric acid representing .56 per cent, of 

 the phosph.ato of lime; it soon becomes avail- 

 able to pl.ant-growth, and the phosi)horic acid 

 is rated at about two-thirds of the value of the 

 soluble acid, the insoluble is rated at about 

 one-third such value. The latter applies only 

 to that tbund in bones. When made from 

 South Carolina rock, it, the insoluble, should 

 have no value, as it becomes available very 

 slowly. 



■\Vhether made ("rom bone or from rock, 

 always insist that your superphosphate, or as 

 it is more generally called, "phosphate," con- 

 tains a high percentage of sohible phosphoric 

 acid. 



Potash is the last element of plant-food to 

 he considered. It is the one to which least 



