102 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



two and a half and three feet in length, gaily 

 painted ; they were of the general shape of 

 the Indian canoe, about a span in width. The 

 prow was furnished with a bunch of feathers 

 tied to an iron point driven in. "When the 

 gambling race is to take place, the owner of 

 each boat entered, invokes the patron deity 

 with offerings for its success ; at a signal the 

 boats are turned adrift and the winning one 

 is that which arrives at the station first. The 

 others are usually abandoned, because the favor 

 of the deity— it is supposed — is withheld. 



Fulke, Earl of Anjou, who lived a century 

 before the Norman conquest, having been 

 guilty of some crimes, was enjoined to go to 

 the Holy Land, which he submitted to, and to 

 show his penance and humility he wore the 

 Genista in his cap, as this was considered a 

 symbol of humility. He afterwards adopted 

 the title of Plantagenet. 



The Genista (tiuctoria) grows plentifully in 

 the British provinces, it is the broom and 

 dyeing weed, of Europe. — L. N. Z. 



atmospheric points at once, instead of, as has 

 been usually supposed, from one. Electricity 

 is a rain, a number of tributaries from a wide 

 surface, not a single torrent. 



Selections. 



DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR WELLS. 



Friend, you have a mud hole at your well V 

 Go for it at once. Do not eat or sleep till it is 

 removed. Take a hoe and drag out the mud 

 and filth, and then fill the hole with dry soil 

 or sand. After doing this, shut out the pigs 

 and poultry from the well, and keep them 

 •y)ut. If the curb is broken or rotted down, 

 replace with a new one. After doing this, 

 scrape away the grass and surface soil around 

 the well, and replace with a layer of sand 

 and gravel. If, from the character of the 

 land, your well ever fills with water, cut a 

 ditch six feet deep all around it, at the dis- 

 tance of a few yards, and have an outlet from 

 this to take oft'" the water. The water in the 

 well will not, after this, rise higher than the 

 bottom of the ditch. If your water is muddy 

 and impure, throw in a peck of lime to purify 

 it. If animalculie appear in the water, throw 

 la a half gallon of salt to make them settle to 

 the bottom. And it is worth while to take 

 some i^ains to fix up some conveniences at 

 your well. A bench to set the bucket on 

 while it is being filled, and a handy and easy 

 way to get the water, and a smooth, dry path 

 from the well to the kitchen — these things 

 will make so much easier the task of your 

 wives and daughters. Farmers, do not ne- 

 glect your wells a single day longer, but see 

 that all about them is neat and tidy, and de- 

 termine to keep it so.— Maryland Farmer. 



LIGHTNING AND TREES. 



Professor CoUadon, of Geneva, has made 

 some interesting observations on the course of 

 lightning wlien it strikes trees and houses. 

 He holds that the great discharges which in- 

 jui'e trues and houses seldom or never happen 

 while the lightning has an unobstructed 

 course — which it has along the thin upper 

 branches of trees, where birds and their nests 

 are often left quite uninjured by its descent. 

 But it is where the electric current reaches 

 the thick stem that the tree becomes a worse 

 and worse conductor, and it is here, there- 

 fore, that the tree is what is called struck — 

 i. e., here that the electricitj', failing to find 

 an unobstructed channel to the earth, accu- 

 mulates in masses, and gives out shocks that 

 rend the tree. And the same is true of 

 houses whose lightning-conductors stop short 

 of the ground. Professor Colladon has also 

 shown that the close neighborhood of a pool 

 of water is a great attraction to the electric 

 current, and that the electricity often passes 

 down a house or till it is near enough to dart 

 straight across to the water ; and he thinks 

 that where possible, lightning conductors 

 ehould end in a spring or pool of water. Pro- 

 fessor Colladon believes that lightning de- 

 scends rather in a shower — through a multi- 

 tude of vines, for instance, in the same vine- 

 yard — than in a single main stream. It 

 divides itself among all the upper branches of 

 a tree, and is received from hundreds of 



ESSAY ON GENERAL FARMING. 



Dr. C. A. Greene read an essay on "Gene- 

 ral Farming." Among other things he said: 



I also suggest the keeping of memoradum 

 books, inio which the farmer should enter 

 from day to day anything he wishes to do, 

 and by referring to it, he will see what has 

 and what has not been done. Another book 

 to keep other entries is very serviceable, days 

 when plowing commenced, corn and other 

 grains planted, days for town and other meet- 

 ings, to what neighbor and at what time he 

 loaned a plow, harrow or other instrument. 

 If you please you can keep half a dozen of 

 these books, and on'the cover of each one the 

 style of contents may be [noted : No. 1, crop 

 book ; No. 2, tool book, etc. 



Collection of Fertilizing Material. 



The most prominent object in all farmers' 

 minds must be the collection in the cheapest 

 manner of the greatest amouut of fertilizing 

 material, for the stern and unchangeable law 

 of nature says that you must return the ele- 

 ments you are abstracting from the earth, or 

 fruitful growth will cease in the ratio of ab- 

 straction. The above axiom strongly reminds 

 one of Benjamin FrankUn's wise saying in 

 his almanc callled "PoorBichard," viz : "Al- 

 ways taking out of the meat tub and never 

 putting in soon comes to the bottom." Then 

 remember that any animal, vegetable or 

 mineral substance, when disintegrated or rot- 

 ted, can be appropriately brought into your 

 compost enclosure grounds, and if your com- 

 post yard is covered, so much the better. 

 Keep under your barns always some muck 

 from your meadow or swamp. While it is 

 decaying it is also absorbing the valuable 

 watery dejections of your animals, containing 

 phosphates and ammoniates in solution. Don't 

 burn up any old bones, shoes, bits of carpets, 

 leather, straw or such like material. Put 

 them all in the compost heap. 



Stir It Up Occasionally. 



This prevents evaporation and encourages 

 disintegration. Save all the old lime from 

 the newly plastered walls. Put all your ashes, 

 either made from the anthracite or bitumi- 

 nous coal, or wood upon the heap. Heavy or 

 clayey soils are made loose by the use of coal 

 ashes and allow the tender fibres of the 

 plants to shoot in amongst them for nourish- 

 ment. Haul in all your surplus leaves and 

 add to the pile. Take out every shovelful 

 from under your privies, sheep and hog-pens 

 and mix in with other ingredients. Don't 

 waste anything, not even the slops of unused 

 offal from the house. Every pint of soot from 

 the chimney will add another constituent 

 greatly needed. To eyery ton of compost add 

 at least a peck of coarse salt. Salt and salt- 

 petre possess, with gypsum, wonderful proper- 

 ties of absorbing moisture from the atmos- 

 phere. Hence in continuous dry weather the 

 crops are aided in taking up nutrition from 

 the earth." 



The Treatment of Animals. 



I advise the use of a variety of food and 

 warm barns. Always warm the bit for the 

 horse and take off the chill from the water 

 given to cattle. Drive your colts without 

 "blinders." Their use injures the eye, by 

 rubbing against the orbit or bone, and the 

 vision by its nearness to the eye. The check- 

 rein is also an unnecessary appendage, and 

 there should be a law making the use of the 

 check a penal offence, because it induces 

 strangulation and is a brutal torture. 

 Fertilizers. 



The great and most important questions 

 that all farmers must constantly discuss, and 

 attempt to decide, are 1st, what kind of fer- 

 tilizers do the various portions of my land re- 

 quire ? 2d, how large or how small is the 

 amount to be applied? 3d, how often must 

 they be placed on the soil ? 4th, shall they be 



spread when applied, or left in piles to be 

 afterwards scattered ? 5th, shall they be ap- 

 plied in the fall, spring, or at the very time 

 when the seed, roots, or vegetable growths 

 are s-et out or transplanted ? 6th, do I require 

 one kind of manure this year and another 

 variety next year ? and last and most im- 

 portant, or 7th inquiry, is, where can I the 

 most economically obtain the various com- 

 post required ? I have said in a former arti- 

 cle upon this subject that one of God's laws 

 is, that in the vegetable and animal world es- 

 pecially, a constant process of growth and 

 decay "is ever going on; formation and disinte- 

 gration is' now and ever will be the commence- 

 ment and end of vegetable and animal life. 



PLEURO-PNEUMONIA IN THIS STATE. 



The war which has been kept up against 

 this disease for more than a year past seems 

 to be producing its effects. 



The Disease Disappearing. 



The last herd in Lancaster county has been 

 released from quarantine as entirely free from 

 the disease, and the last animal has been paid 

 for in full. In Adams county no cases of the 

 disease are known, and we believe that it has 

 been eradicated from that county also. York 

 county has shown no cases within the past 

 year and may fairly be added to the list of 

 non-infected districts. In Montgomery county 

 State Surgeon .T.C. Michener has two or three 

 cases in charge ; in two or three localities in 

 this county the outbreak has been more than 

 usually stubborn and difficult to control ; the 

 prompt and decided action of the State au- 

 thorities has prevented any serious spread 

 from the original centres, and it is hoped 

 that the county will soon be free from the 

 disease. No cases are known in Bucks and 

 Lehigh, and they are now considered clear, 

 although a serious outbreak occurred in each. 

 Precautions at the Philadelphia Stock Yards. 



Surgeons are now in charge of all of the 

 Philadelphia drove yards, and no diseased 

 cattle can leave the yard. Heretofore, when 

 the disease was clearly shown in the herd, it 

 was common to rush it oft' to market for sale 

 at any price possible. Tiie action of Governor 

 Hoyt and his assistants in promptly placing 

 every diseased herd in strict quarantine has 

 prevented this cause of contagion, and has no 

 doubt saved our farmers much loss and the 

 State greatly increased expense. 



How the State Agent Went to Work. 



Wlien the disease was taken in hand by 

 the Governor's agent it was considered that 

 there were two ways of conquering the evil : 

 I. A special force of surgeons might be de- 

 tailed to hunt up the disease, or by paying a 

 fair price for animals killed thus make it to 

 the interest of the owner to promptly report 

 the outbreak. New York and New .Jersey 

 adopted the former plan, and the former ex- 

 pended $60,000 and the latter S.35,000 in one 

 year without accomplishing the desired result, 

 or even seemingly decreasing the number of 

 diseased herds. 



The Method and Cost in this State. 



In Pennsylvania the theory was adopted 

 that it would in the end prove more economi- 

 cal to make it to the interest of the unfortunate 

 owner to report the cases by paying a good 

 price for condemned animals. Thus far less 

 than S5,000 have been expended, and the 

 United States Veterinary Surgeon has said 

 that "Pennsylvania has done and is doing 

 more to eradicate the disease than any other 

 State." 



Excellent Results of the Plan. 



This plan of offering an inducement to re- 

 port cases by paying for the animals has 

 worked so well, and the disease has been re- 

 duced to so low an existence that it has been 

 resolved to still further adopt it, and here- 

 after the plan will be as follows : As soon as 

 reported the herd will be visited by a surgeon 

 in the employ of the Governor's agent, who 

 will name one appraiser out of three, who 

 shall appraise the then diseased stock at its 

 actual value at the time ; at the same time 



