The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JUNE, 1880. 



Vol. xn. No. 6. 



Editorial. 



THE PREMIUM LIST. 

 Ill this iiuinliei- of Thk F.\kmeu we pub- 

 lish tlio iiiemiiiin hst of llie exhiliitinn of the 

 Agi-iciiltiii-al and Ilortifiiltural Society of 

 Lancaster county, to be held in tho Nouth- 

 ERx Mauket House, Lancaster city, on 

 Wednesday, Tluiisday and Friday, the 'iOth 

 and ;fi)tli of September, and tlie ist of Octo- 

 ber next, in addition to wliich .'5,0U() copies 

 have been publislied in pamphlet form, to be 

 distributed amon<; the people "where tliey can 

 do the most good." Nearly .500 premimns 

 are olVered, from 2-) cents up toS10.00,anionnt- 

 ing to about $000. So far the season has been 

 a propitious one, and if it continues so until 

 tho end our farnK^rs, houselieepers, mechanics 

 and merchaut.'s will have .an opportunity to 

 make such a display of their products and 

 their handicraft as was never before brouglit 

 together in Lancaster county. We admonish 

 tliem to examine carefully the list in the vari- 

 ous industries invited to be placed on exhibi- 

 tion. We kuow that the material will be in 

 the county in almost any event, and will need 

 only a little energy, enterprise and local prideto 

 place it before the people. Everything will be 

 under cover and supervised by careful officers 

 and their attendants, so that exhibitors may 

 feel assured that their property will be iu safe 

 hands and free from damage. As the State 

 Fair will bo over before ours has commenced, 

 there will be no conflict in that quarter, 

 therefore we are free and uatrarameled by 

 outside contingencies. 



SWEET APPLES. 



"Fifty or sixty years ago sweet apples were 

 regarded as a special feature in an orchard. 

 In fact, however small an orchard might bs, 

 there were always two or three of the sweet 

 varieties. The early harvest apple was par- 

 ticularly desirable. They began to ripen in 

 August and became very soft and possessed a 

 fine flavor. Then there was the Sweet Van- 

 devere, which was a good winter variety, 

 and was to be found in every orchard. This 

 apple was used for drying, for winter use, and 

 was besides being made into pies, boiled and 

 eaten with sauce, intermixed with dough 

 dumplings. They were much prized, especi- 

 ally by the German farmers, and helped to 

 make out many dinners when other dried 

 fruit was scarce. 



"After this time the desire for sweet apples 

 declined, and to such an extent that not a 

 single tree would be found iu an orchard of a 

 hundred. But within the last five years they 

 have begun to come into favor again, aud 

 now there is seldom an orchard set out in 

 which there are not three or four choice 

 sweets, but much superior to those formerly 

 grown, and much appreciated." 



The above, from the Gennantrnvn Telegraphy 

 speaks of a subject within the memories of 

 our boyhood, and to a point on which we have 

 been much exercised in our later years. But 

 the veteran editor has omitted one variety of 

 sweet apple which was considered the neplus 

 «i(ra among the sweets iu our youth, or else has 

 alluded to it under another name. We mean 

 what was then called in this county the "Para- 

 dise apple." No sweet ap[ile cultivated then 

 or now, in our estimation, and iu the estima- 

 tion of farmers generally, could at all ap- 

 proach the Paradise. We can still vividly 

 recall its beautiful form, its smooth skin, its 

 brown cheek, its luscious semi-granular pulp, 

 and its spicy flavor. No townsman in our 

 early days, who ordered his supply of winter 

 apples, failed to include half a dozen bushels 

 or more of the Paradise. When ripe the pulp 



was of a pale bufV tint, and the seed cavities 

 almost as large as those of the "BcUflower," 

 aud (liey were singularly free from imperfec- 

 tions or insect infestations ; but finally they 

 pa.ssed away, and for years we have not seen 

 a single specimen of them worthy of the name. 

 They were esteemed especially as a fall and 

 winter eating apple, and we have had them in 

 fine flavor and condition as late as the first 

 of April. They were generally valueil too 

 highly to dry, (a sweet pippin being usually 

 employed for that purpose,) but those who 

 did dry them, you may depend upon it, en- 

 joyed the luxury of "schnitts and knei)f," far 

 beyond that of their neighbors. English peo- 

 ple, or those who had undutched themselves, 

 mincingly spoke of this dish as "suits and 

 nep," to the derision of those who employed 

 the more emphatic and germanic name. Ac- 

 companying this "sauce, intermixed with 

 dough dumplings," (what an awkward effort 

 to translate ,scft)i/(f.s tend knepf,) was always 

 boiled a nice piece of "flitch" (bacon) beauti- 

 fully laminated with "a streak of lean and a 

 streak of fat," and, so firmly was this custom 

 fixed, that the one invariably suggested the 

 other, and Ihey .seemed "one .and inseparable." 

 When we became a housekeeper and had less 



YELLOW ROOT. 



{Hydrastis canadtnsit.) 



open air exercise than when we were a boy on 

 the farm, we initiated what we considered an 

 improvement in the preparation of the knepf, 

 by the introduction of yeast, to make them 

 light and spongy — something like a "sponge- 

 cake" — with less lard and more egg. When 

 this mass is cut open it immediately absorbs 

 the sweet juice of the schnitts and makes it 

 not only more edible, but, we think, more 

 digestible. It is pleasant to us to know that 

 better varieties of the sweet apple than the 

 old varieties arc finding favor among apple- 

 growers, but we are doubtful whether they 

 can find any variety superior to the old 



Paradise. 



« 



YELLOW ROOT. 



This is an old plant and was first cultivated 

 in England by Philip Miller, in 17.5'.», and was 

 called a litig-plnnt. Dr. Muhlenberg intro- 

 duced it into his catalogue of the plants of 

 Lancaster county, but with a doubt. Dr. 

 Barton was of opinion that Mr. Walter's 



species (II. carolinensis) was only a local 

 variety of the same. It ap|)ears to be a 

 uniiiue si)ecies— or was so in 1817, when Dr. 

 Barton wrote, and was first discovered and 

 described by Mr. .lohii Ellis, to whom .science 

 is indebted for its generic name. The main 

 root consists of a tortuous shaft, from which 

 proceed a great niunb-r of large fibrous root- 

 lets, which are of a brigliter yellow than the 

 main root. It is rather a rare plant in Penn- 

 sylvania, except west of the Allegheny Moun- 

 tains. Sixty years ago it was considered very 

 rare in Lancaster county, and perhaps is so 

 still, but Dr. Muhlenberg appears to have 

 found it here. Although Dr. Barton never 

 found it, and in his work on "Medical 

 Botany " he made his illustrations from a 

 dried specimen of Dr. M.'s Herbarium. Prof. 

 Porter includes it in his catalogue of the 

 plants of Lanca.ster county, and quotes it as 

 existing in rich woods, ue;kr I.iancaster, and, 

 on the authority of Prof, llaldeman, also in 

 C'onoy township. Mr. Stanfi'er found what 

 seemed to be a variety of it in a woods near 

 Mount Joy, some years ago, from which he 

 made the above illustration. Its medicinal 

 virtues, if any, were .said to reside in the root, 

 hence spirituous infusions of it were recom- 

 mended by rural practitioners for their tonic 

 effect. A cold, strained infusion was used in 

 cases of inflammation r)f the eyes. On tlie 

 recommendation of Prof. Barton, it was in- 

 troduced into the American Dispensatories. 

 According to Dr. Barton, " whfn dried it has 

 a strong and somewhat narcotic odor, and is 

 exceedingly bitter." He thought, however, 

 that it was rather unfortunate that its use 

 was not confined to its tonic virtues, " which 

 it undoubtedly possessed, "but it was vaguely 

 claimed that the Cherokee Indians used it as 

 a cure for cancer. That vague claim, how- 

 ever, endorsed by an Indian doctor, seemed to 

 give it a qium character. Dr. B. himself, 

 however, was unwilling to believe that it 

 possessed any projierties sufficiently active, 

 or of such a nature, as to lead to any expecta- 

 tion of being serviceable in cases of cancer, 

 although it probably was one of those vege- 

 table bases upon which might be hypothecated 

 a (piack remedy for that dangerous disorder, 



^ 



SWALLOWS. 



" Die schwalmc eehkippe iwwer'e fcid, 



Die yedderscht is die bcscht ! 

 Un eehnscht du dort ara glebeleck 

 'N haus Ton setitopple und von dreckl 



Sell Is en scliwalme-nesciit." 



" Die junge leie allwells achtfll, 



Un echlofe alle fescht. 

 Ward bis die alte kriege werm 

 No'd lierscht du awwer gross gclerm — 



Von meiler in dem nescht." 



"When / was a boy," remarked a retired 

 farmer to a friend who was on a visit to the 

 village of Lititz, " farmers, in building their 

 barns, invarialily left a number of oblong 

 holes in the gables, first for ventilation, and 

 sicondli/ for the free ingress and egress of the 

 swallows ; but now these loopholes are omit- 

 ted, and a fancy latticed sr slatted chimney is 

 erected on the apex of the roof, through which 

 it is impossible for a swallow or any other bird 

 to pass in or out. " It was just so when we were 

 a boy, and the result was that large colonies 

 of the common Barn .Swallows (Hirundo hor- 

 reorum) built multitudes of their raud-ne.sts all 

 along the rafters of the roof, in which they 

 had dry and cozy quarters for their young 

 broods, and where they cared for and fed 

 them, until they were able to provide for 

 themselves. They also selected tlie overehots 

 of barns, piers of bridges, unoccupied out- 

 houses, wagon sheds and other like places, but 

 the great majority of them preferred the ele- 

 vated lofts of barus. Mr. Gentry, who has 



