1 880. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



:121 



our farinera would use the inventions of otlier 

 lands to obtain tlieir products with uniformity 

 and regularity. Even oui old rci)utati(>n tor 

 cattle-brcedinj; does not stand without chal- 

 lenge on the otlier side of tlie Atlantic. Last 

 airtumn I vis'.ted a farm in "\^erniont where I 

 saw among tlie cattle, dukes and duchesses of 

 genuine pedigree which would have rejoiced 

 the hearts of our best breeders. Tliere has 

 been a widesjiread distribution of excellent 

 Jerseys, and other good breeds, all through 

 the States, and fresh grass butter, during the 

 whole winter, can be had in New York from 

 the Mississip])!, Tennessee and other regions. 

 While we have been contented in recent years 

 to depend more and more on the lean stock of 

 Ireland, so as to produce high-])riced beef, 

 and neglected the breeding of cattle, the far- 

 mers on the other side of the Atlantic are 

 continually trying to improve their breeds. 

 In the future the competition in beef will be 

 great, fortransiiort is imi>roving, and the cat- 

 tle on the prairie lands are inereasiftg so fast 

 that their SHU'plus must be exported, even at 

 small profits. Sheep are now fed over the 

 cotton lands, on the seed, after the expres- 

 sion of the oil, and arc thus reared with much 

 economy, for their nianiu-e greatly improves 

 the crop, while their wool being added to the 

 profits enables the mutton to be exported at 

 little cost. Already all the products of the 

 heg are comiieting heavily with oiu- home 

 supply. On visiting one of those factories at 

 Chicago, where thousands are daily slaugh- 

 tered and converted into transportable pro- 

 ducts, the owner remarked to me that they 

 were a mere concentration, or, as he express- 

 ed it, "incarnation," of Indian corn, and, 

 therefore, the cheapest way of getting that 

 bulky corn transported to Europe. It is true 

 that "the price of meat to the consumer of the 

 United Kingdom has kept up wall during the 

 past years, but how long such prices will con- 

 tinue is a riuestiou for experience to deter- 

 mine. I may be wrong, but I think the future 

 supply of animal food from the West will ulti- 

 mately keep down the prices of meat as well 

 as of corn. In regard to oats and barley, we 

 have little to fear, and we ought to hold our 

 own against dairy produce when the pressure 

 of competition teaches the farmer that he 

 must improve in quality as well as increase in 

 quantity. My views are of no more value 

 than those of any other intelligent observer, 

 for, though I have paid considerable atten- 

 tion to the science of agriculture, I have never 

 been engaged in its practical operations. 

 Still, as a chemist, I am much struck with 

 some facts in regard to the agriculture of this 

 country, t<i which I can now make only a 

 passing allnsion. The production of human 

 food, especially in Ireland, is decreasing very 

 rapidly. We have seen that the effect of 

 competition on the New England States has 

 been to increase the production of the soil for 

 various kind.s. of crops. But this notably is 

 not the case in Ireland, esjiccially in regard 

 to the crop of potatoes. Previous to 1845, six 

 or seven tons of potatoes per acre were con- 

 stantly raised upon Irish soil. This produce 

 dropped to 5.U tons between 1847 and 1801 ; 

 to 5.3 between 1852 and 185G, and fell as low- 

 as 3.1 tons between 1869 and 1878. In other 

 parts of the United Kingdom there has been 

 little falling off in the produce of this crop ; 

 and the weakened state of the tuber, to which 

 the decline is commonly ascribed, as a result 

 of the potato disease, has no real foundation. 

 It is a canon in agriculture that the best 

 manure for any crop is that of the animal 

 which fed on that crop, because all its ingre- 

 dients are in exact proportion to the wants of 

 the plant. It is in this way that the cotton 

 lands of America are so benefited by the 

 sheep which feed upon the pressed seeds. In 

 Ireland, however, a great change has taken 

 place in the habits of the population. For- 

 merly, the potato was a sta|ile article of food; 

 the people lived upon the farms and restored 

 to the land what was extracted in the growth 

 of potatoes, but when many emigrated to 

 America, and when the residue changed so 

 materially their mode of diet, the mauurial 



balance of production and restoration was 

 nnich changed, and tlie immense falling off 

 of production has been the consecpience. It 

 can only be by due restoration of the abstract- 

 ed ingredients of the soil through artiliinal 

 manuie that the land of Ireland can regain 

 its old fertility. Cereals during a lengthened 

 period have been lessening, and cattle in- 

 creasing, in Ireland. If the balance of nutri- 

 tive equivalent be struck between them, the 

 startling result follows that Ireland could 

 have fed 2,520.000 more peoiile in 1850-7 than 

 it could in 1878. During a large portion of 

 that time England and Scotland were in- 

 creasing in food-producing power, but latterly 

 they have been decreasing also, though not 

 nearly to the extent of Ireland. I state this 

 important fact because it clearly shows that 

 our agriculture is already changing its condi- 

 tion. The economical aspect of the question 

 is another matter. It might i>ay a farmer to 

 grow nothing but lavender, and the land 

 might be fulfilling its fimetions without grow- 

 ing food at all if it produced profit to invest in 

 food from other lauds. But changes are go- 

 ing ou, and rai)idly, in the production of food 

 in this coimtry, and it is a prol)lem for all of 

 us to consider attentively. As a very small 

 contribution to it, I have given the impres- 

 sions produced upon my own mind during a 

 pleasant residence of a few months in the 

 New England States last autunui. — Lyon 

 Playfair, in Fraser''s Magazine. 



ANTIQUITY OF WHEAT, 



Wheat has been in use for bread since the 

 earliest antiquity. Its origin cannot be au- 

 thentically traced, nor are the millions who 

 use it much concerned on that head, as long 

 as they have plenty of the flour which the 

 nourishing article produces. It was iniro- 

 duced into this country, according to a writer 

 in the ximr rircia Miller, in 1539. As to its 

 cultivation this may be true, but there is good 

 reason to believe that it was brought over 

 with Columbus in one of his voyages at an 

 earlier period. Its discovery is attributed to 

 have been by chance on this continent, the 

 story of which, as told by The Miller, runs in 

 this way : A slave of Cortez found a few 

 grains of wheat in a parcel of rice, and 

 showed them to his master, who ordered them 

 to be planted. The result showed that wheat 

 would thrive well on Mexican .soil, and to-day 

 one of tlie finest wheat valleys in the world 

 is found near the Mexican capital. From 

 Mexico the cereal found its way to Peru. 

 Marie D'Escobar, wife of Don Diego de 

 Chauves, carried a few grains to Lima, which 

 were planted, the entire product being used 

 for several successive crops. At Quito, Ecua- 

 dor, a monk of the order of St. Francis, by 

 name .Jodosi Bixi, introduced the new cereal: 

 and it is .said that the Jar which contained 

 the seed is still preserved by the monks of 

 Quito. Wheat was introduced into the pres- 

 ent limit of the United States contemporane- 

 ously with the settlement of the country by 

 the English and Dutch. 



NORMAL LENGTH OF LIFE. 

 The late Professor Faraday held that the 

 natural age of man is one hundred years. The 

 duration of life he believed to be measured 

 by the time of growth. In the camel this 

 takes eight, in the horse five, in the lion four, 

 in the dog two, in the raVibit one year. The 

 natural termination is five removes from 

 these .several points. Man, being twenty 

 years in growing, lives five times twenty 

 years — that is, one hundred ; the camel is 

 eight years in growing, and lives forty years; 

 and so with other animals. The man who 

 does not die of sickness lives everywhere 

 from eighty to one hundred years. The pro- 

 fessor divided life into equal halves — growth 

 and decline — and these into infancy, youth, 

 virility and age. Infancy extends to the 

 twentieth year, youth to the fiftieth, becau.se 

 it is in this period the tissues become firm ; 

 virility from fifty to seventy-five, during 

 which the organism remans complete ; and 



at seventy-five old age commences, to last as 

 the diminution of reserved forces is hastened 

 or retarded. 



A MOUNTAIN FRUIT FARM. 



I am spending a few weeks in the Ijeautiful 

 valley of the .luniata, and making frequent 

 rides over the hills and among the old-fash- 

 ioned Dutch fariufis of this (Perry) and the 

 adjoining comity of .luuiata ; solid, wealthy, 

 unprogressive as they were an hundred years 

 ago. Many of them still live in their liiwed 

 log-hou.ses, not half as large, handsome, airy 

 or comfortable as their barns, which I have 

 named "agricultural cottages." 



Nearly all the orchards upon these old 

 farms are of the most unimproved sorts of 

 apples and seedling peaches of the late ripen- 

 ing kinds. Only now and then a man seems 

 to have thought of trying experiments in 

 growing better sorts, or more than was wanted 

 for family use. The people are farmers in 

 strictest .sense. Gardening and fruit culture 

 are occult sciences. But a new light is dawn- 

 ing in this valley ; an experiment is in pro- 

 gress which proves thattlie.se rough mountain 

 sides are nature's chosen spots for orchards ; 

 that here the cultivators of peaches in Jersey, 

 Delaware and Maryland 'may renew their 

 work whi-n it fails in those States, for here is 

 an abundance of cheap land, of little value 

 for grain cultivation, yet excellent for or- 

 chards. This has been lately proved in several 

 instances and dilTeienl localities, but most 

 extensively on the south bank of the Juniata 

 river, in Juniata county, aliout one hundred 

 and forty-four miles from Philadelphia, near 

 a station called Thoniiisontown. There, if 

 the tr.aveler going west on the Pennsylvania 

 railway will look out south .and up the steep 

 hillside, he will see the main jiart of an 

 orchard of 15,.')00 peach trees, and 9,000 

 Siberian crab apple trees. And if he should 

 stop and walk or ride through the orchard, as 

 I <li(l, and find one dead or diseanled tree, he 

 will find more than I could ; although I was 

 told by Mr. Taylor, the foreman, that he did 

 lose one tree in the section where we wore 

 then. 



"And how many trees are in this section?" . 



"Six thousand." 



If a like result can be found anywhere el.se 

 on earth I should like to be informed, that I 

 might mak(; another pilgrimage, of a thousand 

 miles to see it, as I have seen this, the most 

 healthy, thrifty, most promising young 

 orchard I have ever seen in all my extensive 

 journeys through the Lhiited States and 

 Canada. Yet most of the laud is unfit for 

 any other cultivation, and a cousiderable jior- 

 tiou of the ground has never been ploughed, 

 because so steep and so full of stones and 

 roots. In this respect it reniindid me of some 

 of the vineyards of Pleasant Valley, N. Y., 

 it being often dillicult to get dirt enough to 

 make a good loose bed for the roots. 



There is another remarkable feature about 

 this extensive orchard which is indicative of 

 the character of the owner. Notwithstand- 

 ing all the natural obstacles, every tree has 

 been so exactly set in right angled lines that 

 the transverse rows appear as straight as 

 those on the horizontal and vertical lines. 

 Thus, when furrows can be ploughed at all, 

 they can be run six ways among the trees, 

 which are set 15 feet apart for peaches and 

 (piinces and 20 feet for api)les. To accom- 

 plish this remarkable result of straight rows 

 and exact distances required many a hard 

 day's work removing stumps and stones and 

 filling up holes. Now the beauty of the work 

 fully repays the extra cost. It is, however, 

 eostlv work to jirepare the stee|) hillsides by 

 hand labor, for the largest part of the timber 

 trees had beiii cut oil years ago, leaving a 

 thicket of Inushwood. An attempt is being 

 made to utiiize the brush by cutting it in a 

 machine like a straw cutter and sending the 

 product to market for kindling coal fires. As 

 the roots in the ground continue to send up 

 sprouts, which must be repeatedly mowed, 

 tlie proprietor wants to know how to get them 

 out without too much expense of hand labor. 



