62 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



But the factors at work this season are likely to 

 be at work another season. If we are carryins; lii,- 

 000,000 bushels this year, there is no reason why we 

 should not be carrying 25,000,000 bushels next year. 

 An increased warehouse capacity — much greater 

 than that now contemplated — should therefore be 

 added as soon as possible. Our capitalists, who 

 have money to invest in this kind of property, 

 should bear in raiud that we are becoming more and 

 more a holding market, and that the facilities for 

 storing grain must be increased to keep pace with 

 this tendency. 



Not long ago we were the transfer point and the 

 seaboard cities the holding points. Now the situation 

 has been exactly reversed; and it is not likely that 

 the old state of affairs will ever be restored. Instead 

 of regarding the grain blockade as a calamity, and 

 grumbling aboit it, we should consider it as a sign 

 of our sure progress toward supremacy over all 

 American cities. 



Horticulture. 



The Best Location for Fruit Trees. 



This question has often come up for discussion, 

 and as is usual on all questions of the kind, there is a 

 considerable diversity of opinion. We have our own 

 and have frequently expres.sed it. For a peach, 

 pear or apple orchard we should select a northern 

 exposure in older that the swelling of the buds and 

 their blooming might be as long delayed as possible 

 and thus pass over the period of probable frost un- 

 harmed. Take the present season, for instance, and 

 mark the condition of the buds to-day, and what 

 must be the consequence of a severe freeze in the lat- 

 ter part of this mouth or the forepart of next month? 

 And that we shall have it before long, on account of 

 the almost unparallelled mild winter and spring up 

 to this writing, may be looked for with almost abso- 

 lute certainty. It is the late springs on which we 

 must depend for our beet crops of fruits of the larger 

 kinds; but when the season is not too backward or 

 forward, a northern exposure to retard the blooming 

 is to be preferred for orchards. 



We have an old friend in Montgomery county — 

 the late Judge Longstreth, than whom there was 

 no better citizen in the county — who was nearly 

 always successful in raising peaches, having an 

 orchard of about one hundred trees, and who told us 

 that liis practice was when a snow fell in the latter 

 part of January or in February, to pile it around the 

 stems of the trees to the depth of a foot or more, 

 well-tramped down. This retarded the blooming foi 

 a full month later, so that in nearly all cases his 

 crop was uninjured by late frosts, as is so often done 

 in Delaware, Maryland and elsewhere. 



But, in connection with the raising of pears and 

 cherries, the results are so variable and singular as 

 to be dillicult to understand them or to adopt a rem- 

 edy. A plan that will do well in one part of a pre- 

 mises will fail in another part, though they may be 

 only a hundred yards apart. Then, too, while lime, 

 salt or a fertilizer may prove a remedy for cracking, 

 falling permaturely ofl', or failing to ripen, in one 

 case, in the other it will have no effect at all. 



Withxherries it is worse. One never knows when 

 there will be a crop. A tree may be covered with 

 blossoms, you watch it carefully, and you see noth- 

 ing to interfere with an overloadec^ tree of fruit. 

 There is no storm, hail or rain at the time of inflor- 

 eseenee, the latter of which is especially injurious at 

 this delicate period, and yet there is no fruit. They 

 will grow freely until half the full size, when they 

 suddenly — sometimes in a single day — turn black 

 and fall to the ground. The tree itself, too, without 

 giving any indication, will suddenly curl up its 

 leaves and die. Some years ago we had six trees, 

 oyer twenty years old, which bore full crops nearly 

 every year, but they died within a few weeks of each 

 other one fall. They were of different varieties, em- 

 bracing Mayduke, Black Eagle, Black Tartarian, 

 Florence, Downton and GovernorjWood. They stood 

 In cultivated ground, not over thirtj feet apart. 

 Grass, we are very well satisfied, is the best for 

 pears or cherries. 



The Best Fruit to Plant. 

 Friends who have but small yards of garden often 

 ask what is the best tree to plant where only one or 

 so can have room to grow. Now, in a general way 

 there is no doubt but the apple is the king of fruits ; 

 but limited to one or two trees we shall give the 

 preference to a pear. The apple has such a close- 

 spreading head that notliingwill grow well under it. 

 Everything must be given up to it ; neither grass nor 

 flowering shrubs will grow. But the pear has rather 

 an upright growth, which does not shade every- 

 thing about it ; and the roots run deep, so that often 

 things can grow almost up to its very trunk, and 

 this gives it a great advantage over the apple tree. 

 Besides all this, it is measurably free from diseases 

 when growing in these confined localities. We do 

 not think we ever heard of a case of fire-blight in a 

 pear tree in a city yard ; and it is well known that so 

 far as the disease which results in cracked fruit is 

 concerned, it is so little known in city yards that the 



old butter pear will often bear good fruit, under 

 such circumstances, when it will do so nowhere else. 



Then in regard to the certainty of producing a 

 crop, there is no fruit like it, at least in Pennsylvania. 

 Peaches, apples, cherries, all may fail ; but when a 

 pear once conies in, it is tolerably sure to have more 

 or less fruit every year. 



We should plant a pear by all means if limited to 

 a small space of ground. And yet in some respects 

 the cherry is not far behind it ; and especially in 

 that good point which allows crops to grow close to 

 the trunk without much objection. One of the most 

 successful cherry-growers we have in this State 

 grows clover between the trees, and he insists tliat 

 he has quite as good a crop about the tree-trunks as 

 anywhere else. Be this as it may, we do know that 

 the deep roots of the cherry do not interfere near as 

 much with things growing on the surface of the 

 ground under the branches as many other things do. 

 it is also a tolerably regular bearer, though the cur- 

 culio, and in some eases birds, are troublesome. In 

 the matter of diseases, also, the knot is often formid- 

 able. The pie cherries, however, are less troubled 

 by the curculio, though perhaps more liable to suffer 

 from the knot trouble. The sweet cherries grow 

 very rapidly as a general rule, and in this respect are 

 often chosen where a little shade as well as some 

 fruit are desirable combinations in a single tree. On 

 the whole, we prel'er the pear, though for a little 

 change and for some other reasons one can have a 

 cherry if desirable. — Germa9flow7i Telegraph. 



Selecting Seed Potatoes. 



Those farmers who have no settled practice of 

 selecting their seed potatoes would do well to con- 

 sider carefully whether the same rule which governs 

 the selection of seed corn will not apply equally as 

 well to potatoes. We have no doubt that it will, and 

 therefore advise that the larger-sized tubers, such as 

 are used for the table, be selected for seed, and that 

 a very economical way of domg so is, when selecting 

 such for the table, to cut' each one horizontally in 

 two, reserving the smaller half, or that containing 

 the crown end, for seed, and using the other or larger 

 half for culinary purposes — the smaller-sized tubers 

 to be fed the cows, or boiled and mixed with meal 

 for the pigs. Before planting, however, these crown 

 halves should be cut lengthwise in two, and rolled in 

 plaster, the better to prevent their drying. To test 

 the diiJerence in product between whole and cut 

 potatoes, the most careful experiments were recently 

 instituted in Germany, where it was found that an 

 acre of ground planted with tubers cut in half length- 

 wise produced five tons, another acre planted with 

 whole tubers produced seven and a half tons, while 

 from an acre of ground planted with the crown half 

 of tubers cut lengthwise in two the yield was nine 

 and a half tons. Other experiments but confirmed 

 these results, while there was no evidence of any 

 well-ordered experiments showing the contrary. 

 Repeated trials also demonstrated the fact that the 

 largest potatoes yielded the largest potatoes iu re- 

 turn. There are two reasons for this : one, that it is 

 in accordance with a uniform law of nature that like 

 will produce like, and the other that the nutriment 

 afforded the embryo potato is in proportion to the 

 size of the parent tuber. It is all a mistake, there- 

 fore, to sujipose that all that is necessary to insure 

 its full yield is to plant the eye of the potato, with- 

 out reference to the amount of nutriment it receives 

 from the tuber containing it. 



Domestic Economy. 



What Every House Needs. 



One of the worst faults of our very faulty modern 

 architecture, as applied to houses, is found in the 

 fact that architects do not take into their plans the 

 possibilities of sickness in the family. No house is 

 properly constructed that has not in it a room or 

 rooms expressly designed for the accommodation of 

 the sick and the infirm. This room should have a 

 very warm, sunny exposure. The window-light 

 should tie ample, and command the widest possible 

 view. The next essential is a good, liberal fireplace. 

 By the warmth which it generates, and facilities for 

 ventilation, the whole room is kept wholesome and 

 pure. Not only so, but a slowly burning fire, with 

 its lights and shades, its rising sparks and glowing 

 brands, its curling and many colored smoke, and its 

 changed embers, furnishes careless diversion to the 

 sick one who lies watching it. Nothing is more 

 soothing and quieting than the influence which 

 siil)tly steals over the senses of on£ who gazes 

 dreamily into the genial fiame. It is companionship 

 itself. The walls too, should have their proper 

 adornments. Pictures that suggest quiet and peace, 

 and the free, fresh life of nature outside, should be 

 ou them. A bracket with its vases of fiowers; a 

 green clambering vine, clinging ambitiously to the 

 ceiling; a library case full of familiar books; curtains 

 that soften the light while admitting it — all these 

 are helpful to one that lies in weakness, and can 

 take no more than the little room reveals. Better 

 still, if just outside the window stands a tree with 

 the branches so placed that the leaves of some 



almost sweep the pane. How much the sight of 

 twigs, buds, and leaves stirred by the wind and 

 flecked with bright gleams of the sun, can cheer the 

 mind of one who lies up in the pillow idly looking at 

 them ? The central thought expressed iu a well con- 

 ducted sickroom is — diversion. The oliject of Its 

 construction and location should be to give perfect 

 accommodation and protection to the invalid, while 

 at the same time it suggests the beauty and the free- 

 dom of being juncsnfiued — the life and animation of 

 the great outdoor world beyond. 



Have Clean Beds. 



It is a false idea of neatness which demands that 

 beds should be made soon after being vacated. Let 

 it be remembered that more than three-fifths of the 

 solids and liquids taken into the stomach should pass 

 off through the pores of the skin — seven millions in 

 number — and that this escape is the most rapid dur- 

 ing the night, while warm in bed. At least one-half 

 of the waste and putrid matter (from twenty to 

 thirty ounces in the night), must become more or 

 less tangled in the bedding — of course soiling it — 

 and a part of this may become re-absorbed by the 

 skin, if it is allowed to come in contact with it on 

 the next night, as it must if the bedding is not ex- 

 posed for a few hours in the air and light. We may 

 well imitate the Dutch example of placing such bed- 

 ding on two chairs near the window, that the best 

 purifier known — the light of the sun — may dissipate 

 their impurities, or neutralize them. At least three 

 hours on the average is as short exposure as is com- 

 patible with neatness. It is also desirable that the 

 air shall pass through open doors and windows, and 

 that as much sunlight be admitted as possible to the 

 room in which about one-third of the time is spent. 

 In addition to these measures, it is w.ell to have the 

 attic windows wholly or partly open, and the doors 

 leading to it, so that a free current may pass through 

 all the rooms, up the stairs, and out into the outer 

 world, to become purified by vegetation, etc., before 

 being again respired. Clothes thus aired and sunned 

 will not demand more than half the usual washing, 

 though they can scaicely be washed too often. An- 

 other means of promoting cleanliness is by the abso- 

 lute change of all clothing morning and night, wear- 

 ing nothing by night that is worn by day, and vice 

 versa. Such clothes are hung to sun by day and dry 

 by night, and such only are fit to be worn by those 

 who have a reasonable regard for personal cleanli- 

 ness. And I may remark that when such clothes 

 are removed for the change, it is of the utmost im- 

 portance to the health that the skin should be sub- 

 jected to a reasonable friction — as by a flesh-brush, a 

 crash, a coarse flannel, or the hand, as a means of 

 cleanliness, and of improved circulation. — J. M. 

 Hanaford. 



Household Recipes. 



Veal Pie. — Take some of the middle or scrag of a 

 small neck ; season it with pepf er and salt, and put 

 to it a few pieces of ham or lean bacon. If it be 

 wanted of a high relish, add mace, cayenne and 

 nutmeg to the salt and pepper, and also forcemeat 

 and egg balls. 



Gravies. — To have gravy always on hand you 

 must do as the French do— namely : Save gristle and 

 every bone left from cold meat or fresh. The bones 

 must be chopped small and put on to stew, with 

 enough water to cover. Leave the fat on until you 

 need to use gravy. By this means it will keep longer. 



Beef Like Game. — Cut some slices of beef in 

 square pieces, put on each a strip of bacon, dredge 

 flour over them, skewer them into a rolled shape ; 

 fry them in butter ; when brown, add shalots, a 

 slice of lemon peel, a spoonful of capers, two bay- 

 leaves, salt, spice, a wineglass of vinegar, and a 

 glass of wine and a little of water ; stew till tender. 



Scrambled Eugs with Dried Beef. — Shave the 

 beef very fine; put a tablespoonful of butter in a 

 frying pan ; set it over the fire, and when hot put in 

 the beef; heat a few minutes, stirring constantly to 

 prevent burning ; beat up the required number of 

 eggs and stir in with hot beef ; stir altogether until 

 the eggs are cooked. Serve immediately. 



French Rarebit. — Take three ounces of cheese, 

 cut in small square pieces, and set it to fry with a 

 little piece of butter. When your cheese begins to 

 melt, have three eggs beaten up with salt and pep 

 per, pour them upon your cheese. Stir and roll it 

 into a sort of a muff, and take it off. The whole op- 

 eration should uot take more than one or two min- 

 utes. 



"Stewed Chicken. — Cut up your chicken pretty 

 fine, wash careful and set on the stove with cold 

 water nearly to cover it; skim carefully as it comes to 

 a boil; cook till tender, and season with salt, pepper, 

 and butter. Have ready some hot biscuits short- 

 ened a little, split them open, aud lay them in your 

 dish, pour over your meat and gravy, and send to 

 the table. 



Stewed Beef. — Cut thick slices from the tougher 

 portions of beef; lay two or three slices of salt pork 

 iu the bottom of your kettle, and fry it till cri«p; 



