108 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



species of Stellaria and belongs to the great Pink 

 Family {CaryophiUaccw) and contains the active 

 principle of Doctor Stoy's celebrated remedy for 

 hydrophobia. It is a common plant in fields and 

 widely distributed over the greater portion of our 

 country. It is often used as a relish to caged birds, 

 and canaries seem to be especially fond of it, both 

 when it is young and crisp and also when it is in 

 fruit. Dr. Rathvon read a paper on some of the 

 peculiar characteristics of bats and their relation to 

 other animals in scientific classification. Although 

 this much despised animal has been regarded as a 

 mongrel — "between a bird and a beast" — yet, in its 

 physical structure and anatomical affinities, the 

 Quadrnmana is the only one that separates it from 

 the order Bimana, which includes the various races 

 of man. But as an important element in the econo- 

 my of nature the bat performs no useless part. All 

 the species in our country are purely insectivorous, 

 and take their prey while on the wing, in the eve- 

 ning and early part of the night. Many thousands 

 of night-flying insects fall victims to their voracity 

 every night, and a colony of bats would do more in 

 "cleaning out" the moths of the various army worms, 

 cut-worms and apple codlings than any remedy that 

 could be devised by man. If bats are an evil they 

 they are a perinilled evil for the prevention of some 

 greater evil, the length and breadth of which is not 

 comprehended by our limited philosophies. 



Under "Scientific Gossip," views were inter-com- 

 municated, ideas suggested, and general "talks" in- 

 dulged in, during which it was rather deplored that 

 there are few who take an active interest in natural 

 liistory — that is a working interest. The field is 

 white, but the active laborers are few. The society 

 then adjourned to meet on the last Saturday in July. 



Agriculture. 



Stone Boats. 



At no time in the year, are stone boats so much in 

 request as at this season, when there are so many 

 heavy things to carry to and from the barn and field. 

 The harrows, plows, bags or barrels of grain, and 

 fertilizers, with other things that are often taken 

 across plowed ground, are best conveyed on a stone 

 boat. Every farmer should have one or more of 

 these low and handy vehicles, which costs but a 

 trille for lumber and bolts, and can be made in the 

 shop on a rainy day. All things considered, the 

 kind made from two-inch plank, sawed with an up- 

 turned end, is as good as any. When the boat is not 

 in use, it should be placed on two timbers, or tipped 

 on edge, so that the bottom may not rest on the 

 earth, and thus be kept from the wet, and preserved 

 from otherwise rapid decay. — American Agriculfurist. 



Karm and Garden Notes. 



Do not neglect to kill the weeds. Persevere through 

 the whole season. Harrow soon after the crops are 

 planted, and again soon after they are up. Cultivate 

 often. Hand-pull those that escape the implements. 

 Give horses and laborers a good rest at noon ; an 

 hour and a half taken for that purpose in the mid- 

 dle of the day will not be too much. Noon feed for 

 horses should be of cut hay or straw and meal mixed, 

 June butter is the sweetest and best of the year. 

 Keep the finest calves, and raise them to make dairy 

 cows of. Feed the ewes daily a handful of mixed 

 bran and crushed oats. This will increase the flow 

 of milk and help to make fine, large lambs. Pasture 

 swine in the orchard, and manage so that there is 

 some green crop there for them to feed on. Clover 

 alternated with rye is good. Pigs in an orchard help 

 to destroy and keep oflT insects. Spring pigs that are 

 to be killed for market in the fall should have as 

 much grain or boiled potatoes as they will eat. Give 

 plenty of fresh water. Feed regularly night and 

 morning ; neglect of these precautions causes hog 

 cholera. Tools that will not be needed should be 

 stored away in good repair. Oil at the bearings, and 

 tighten nuts and bolts. As fast as one crop is har- 

 vested manure the ground, spade or plow it, and 

 plant some other crop. Dig up the dock from the 

 fence, to keep the seed from being blown about the 

 fields. When mildew appears on gooseberries or 

 currant bushes, use sulphur freely ; if attacked by 

 worms, use white hellebore. Mulch heavily to pro- 

 long the ripening, and keep the soil loose between 

 the rows and around the bushes. Put a dressing of 

 well-rotted manure over the asparagus beds, and 

 turn in with a Ibrk. Set out plants for a late cabbage 

 crop. Use the thinnings of beets for greens. Keep 

 the celery beds free of weeds and thin out. Trans- 

 plant previous to the final settlement early in July. 

 Sow cucumbers for late crop and for pickling. Ruta- 

 bagas may be sown as late as the 15th of July. 

 Until the young plants push out the rough leaves, 

 dust with fine guano to keep off the flea. Sow fodder 

 for soiling up to the end of July, in drills thirty in- 

 ches apart, seed an inch apart in the drill. Remem- 

 ber the weeds in your potato crop evaporate moisture 

 from the soil, and take much from the soil that is 

 needed by the crop. Pull the weeds by hand when 

 too late so be killed by cultivation. Much waste on 



the farm comes from the careless handling of grain. 

 See that the bands are strong, and shocks well put 

 and carefully wrapped. Give the lawn frequent 



mowings. 



Mixed Farming. 



Until our country is settled up, and the virgin fer- 

 tility of the new soil is beginning to be exhausted 

 we cannot hope for that safe and solid foundation 

 for our agriculture which comes from mixed farm- 

 ing. When every farmer comes to that point when 

 he knows that his land is a medium through which 

 crude fertilizing elements pass in becoming food — 

 vegetables, fruits, grains, flesh — he will feel the im- 

 portance of a variety of products — a rotation of 

 crops — and the value of anim.ils in the economy of 

 the I'arm. As our country grows older, farmers 

 will from necessity be more thorough students of 

 their professions. — American Agriculturiat, 



Preserving Timber. 



There are several compounds used for preserving 

 timber. The process called Kyanizing, invented by 

 a person named Kyan, consists in saturating the 

 timber with Bichloride of Mercury (Corrosive Subli- 

 mate.) Salts of Copper have been largely em- 

 ployed. Creosote is now, perhaps, the most gener 

 ally used preservative. The principle is the same in 

 all cases ; to change the albuminous matter in the 

 wood — that part which is the most susceptible to 

 decomposition. 



Experience with Canada Thistles. 



F. Bacon writes from Lake county, Illinois, essen- 

 tially as follows : "Eleven years ago I bought my 

 present farm, and upon it was a patch of Canada 

 Thistles covering about 1% acre of land, bordering 

 on a slough. It was so boggy and rough that it was 

 impossible to mow them, even with a scythe, so they 

 had yearly to be cut with hoe or spade, making the 

 job an expensive one. Having the slough first well 

 drained, I plowed the piece — through the summer of 

 1878 — plowed, harrowed, or cultivated, every time a 

 green plant appeared. On the first part of Septem- 

 ijer I gave the field a thorough plowing, harrowing, 

 and rolling, and sowed broadcast, by hand, 2^ 

 bushels of winter wheat. Having just threshed, I 

 give the result, which was 91 bushels machine mea- 

 sure, weighing 6Q lbs. to the bushel. I had one 

 load of rakings that was threshed with spring 

 wheat, that I have no doubt would have made 5 to 

 8 bushels more. Every part of it was lodged, and 

 consequently there was a great deal left on the 

 ground. I have no doubt that there were 100 bushels 

 grown on the ground, and not a thistle has been 

 seen since." But was this really the " Canada 

 Thistle?" jThe ease with which it was subdued 

 makes us suspect that it may have been some other 

 thistle. — American AgrieiMurist. 



Destroying^Weeds. 



Every once in a while we read that the way to de- 

 stroy noxious weeds is to haul loads of earth and 

 cover the places where the weeds grow a half a foot 

 or so deep. Sometimes these instructions are varied 

 so as to read rubbish instead of earth, and then again 

 rubbish is defined as straw, cornstalks or even brush. 

 Now, we have no doubt in the world that weeds can 

 be destroyed in that way. We know that weeds are 

 to feed on air, and all that sort of thing, and that if 

 they are smothered they can't breathe, and if they 

 cannot breathe they die. All this is so plain to the 

 thickest skull that one may feel perfectly safe in 

 recommending it as something that will surely do. 

 And yet we would like to know how many who 

 recommend it have ever done so, or seen their plan 

 tried by others ? We very much doubt whether it 

 was ever done. Some one may have noticed that 

 under a brush-heap everything was killed, and that 

 after remaining a year the brush-heaps's removal 

 would show the spot bare of all vegetation. If the 

 recommendation ever had any ground at all it was 

 surely this. 



Our remedy for noxious weeds is thorough eulti- 

 vation. If ajpiece of ground is full of briers, milk- 

 weed, couch-grass, sodom-apples, Canada thistles, 

 sorrel, toad-flax, or other miserable stufl' that so 

 often tries the mettle of our good farmers, let them 

 put the ground in corn for a couple of years or so, 

 keeping the cultivation going continually, and es- 

 pecially going in the earliest part of the season, and 

 the toughest character among these weeds will fail 

 to stand the ordeal. If the hand-hoe can be spared 

 to go in among the hills of corn occasionally, 

 where the teeth of the harrow cannot reach, or to 

 cut off here and there one which the harrow may 

 miss, a bad case may be cured in a single season. 

 But if this cannot be done a couple of successive 

 years with a sharp-tooth cultivator among a corn- 

 crop win generally do the business for the worst case 

 that ever was. 



Let anyone who has a weedy field before him re- 

 solve another season to put the whole tract in corn 

 and keep clean, and he will soon give up all the com- 

 mon ideas of smothering-out with deep layers of 

 earth, cutting up in the full of the moon, putting 



salt upon their tops, or the many other recommenda- 

 tions started in the interest, it is believed, of laziness, 

 but which really calls for more trouble and hard 

 work than a thorough and systematic cleaning, such 

 as we have indicated, does. 



Cultivation of Tobacco in Cuba. 



The tobacco is planted from the seed. The soil 

 being pulverized and enriched with manure, the 

 seed is sown broadcast, and the plant having grown 

 to a height of eight inches, it is set out in rows about 

 two feet apart, when it has much the appearance of 

 corn planted in this country. In Cuba great care 

 has to be exercised in guarding the seedlings from 

 the tobacco worm. This is the only insect enemy 

 the plant has, for it is so astringent and bitter that 

 nothing else will touch it; but so destructive is the 

 worm that if not looked after closely it will in a sin- 

 gle night destroy an entire plantatioa. As the worm 

 couceals itself during the day it is customary for the 

 planters' hands to go forth l)y night with lanterns to 

 destroy the pest. The tobacco having grown until 

 the leaves are fully developed, the first cutting of 

 leaves takes place ; these first cut leaves are the 

 largest and finest. The plant is afterwards allowed 

 to grow until there is a second supply of smaller 

 leaves, which are also cut. The leaves as they are 

 cut are carried to the tobacco houses on the planta- 

 tions, where they are exposed to dry by the action of 

 the air, which process occupies about six weeks. 

 They are then piled in layers, each layer being 

 sprinkled with a liquid called "betun," which is a 

 strong lye made by soaking tobacco stalks in water. 

 The heap of tobacco, or "pilon, as it is called, is 

 covered with banana leaves and allowed to ferment 

 for a couple of weeks This curing process being 

 completed, the tobacco is selected and graded ac- 

 cording to the size of the leaf, the largest leaves and 

 those finest in color and quality being used for wrap- 

 pers and the smaller for filling cigars. 



Horticulture. 



Thinning Fruit. 



Whenever we tell a friend he should thin his fruit 

 he talks about the curculio, the codling moth, the 

 birds and the boys, and "guesses there will be thinning 

 enough before the season gets through." This is 

 true in its way. Wherever these troubles exist to 

 any great extent it is not much use to grow fruit at 

 all. But there are some who do not leave all their 

 gardening to insects and vermin — some who dispute 

 the right of these pests to interfere at all, and wage 

 war, successful war, against them; but even these do 

 not half appieciate the value of thinning their fruit. 



The evil of overbearing is particularly apparent in 

 dwarf pears and grapes. As a general thing there 

 is rarely a grapevine but would be benefited by hav- 

 ing half its bunches cut away, and some of the free- 

 bearing dwarf pears might have from one-third to 

 one-half. The grapes may be cut away as soon as 

 they can be seen ; but the pear should be left until 

 somewhat grown, as they often fall after they are 

 pretty well advanced . It not only helps the size of 

 the fruit left, but is a gain to the future health of the 

 tree. — Germantown Telegraph. 



Small Fruits. 



With the exception of one or two strawberries and 

 grapes, there is quite a diversity of opinion as to the 

 varieties generally to cultivate with growers coming 

 from dilTerent sections of country, though not dis- 

 tantly separated. They will argue with great earnest- 

 ness and confidence lor their specialties, and with 

 the facts upon their side so far as this or that variety 

 concerns their particular neighborhood ; and they 

 are convinced to the contrary only after becoming 

 familiar with the worthlessness of these selfsame 

 varieties at other points where the soil and atmos- 

 pheric influences are different. Even here in Ger- 

 mantown while in some gardens one strawberry or 

 raspberry will give the highest satisfaction in 

 another, but a few hundred yards off, it is next to a 

 failure. 



It was particularly so with the Delaware grape, 

 which is the best grape, when it can be grown, ever 

 i-aised in the open air. From its first introduction 

 we condemned it on account of its small size, its 

 tardiness of growth, its meagre crops — and on this 

 account for the extortionate price demanded for it. 

 We were among its first producers, and after waiting 

 for years to get some fruit, we found the berries no 

 larger than "a big pea; also that it was a sparse 

 bearer and rather smaller than upon other premises. 

 Taking our cue from this experience, we disapproved 

 of the variety, and had a whole fortress of hot-shot 

 poured in upon us from the West, where the vine 

 did much better and where the sales went on steadily. 

 But where is it now ? What has Eastern Pennsylva- 

 nia to show for its fifty thousand dollars spent upon 

 it ? And how stands the Concord grape, which on 

 its introduction was so roundly condemned by the 

 Delaware champions ? Why, it is the grape of the 

 million, as we said from the beginning that it would 

 be, and we think that it will continue to be so for 

 another generation to come. -Oermantouin Telegraph. 



