150 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



your garden hoes and school books, yout har- 

 ness and your fruit cans. 



Seek new forms of industry. Just now the 

 Lancaster county farmer seems to have a 

 bonanza in his tobacco raising. The alarmist 

 says he is wrong, but I suspect the Lancaster 

 farmer knows best. Right here to-day, is 

 proposed a most promising and attractive in- 

 dustry which may employ profitably our wives 

 and cJildren. 1 mean the culture of silk 

 which the ladies of the Silk Society are press- 

 ing upon your notice. This enterprise should 

 attract vour careful attention. 



Nor can the Pennsylvania farmer have any 

 quarrel with the "Western farmer and the rail- 

 roads, which cheapen the price of a few arti- 

 cles of food, by means of which all these 

 laborers are enabled to live in our midst in- 

 stead of being sent west to live and work, 

 when, perchance, wheat and beef are still 

 cheaper. Let us be in favor of that policy 

 which keeps our people employed and pros- 

 perous here in Pennsylvania. If the western 

 farmer can equalize some of the hardships he 

 undergoes and some of the losses of society 

 and friends he suffers by cheap land and 

 cheap food, let us bid him God speed. Let 

 us remember that he is our son and our 

 brother ; that he sent him out from among us 

 to make his heroic fight for wife and children 

 and to found a family ; that he and we jointly 

 constitute the citizenship of the strongest, tlie 

 freest, and the happiest people on the globe. 

 It will increase our pride, and this kind of 

 pride pays. I cannot detain you, my fellow- 

 citizens, to work out these propositions, but 

 they are true. Trust something to the ener- 

 gies and intelligence of the American people. 

 Don't complain, don't whme, don't be pessi- 

 mists. The Pennsylvania farmer, especially, 

 has a ' ' good thing, ' ' let him " keep it. ' ' Have 

 some faith in the social laws under which we 

 live as well as in the material laws which sur- 

 round us. Finally, have some belief that 

 perhaps the ruler of the universe will know 

 how to order the conditions under which 

 50,000,000 of us are to " live and let live" 

 quite as well as some of the human journey- 

 men who are, around the street corners and 

 the granges, trying to reconstruct society by 

 acts of Assembly. Mr. President, I now ten- 

 der you and your society the congratulations 

 you deserve, and wish that you may enjoy the 

 splendid success which you have won. 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE- 

 PLANTING. 



-FALL 



In setting out strawberry plants in autumn 

 — that is, ordinary layer plants taken up from 

 the bed in which they have taken root — no- 

 thing is gained in point of time over spring 

 planting, so far as hastening the crop is con- 

 cerned. A field or bed set in April or May, 

 1881, will bear a full crop in June, 1882. If 

 the same plants were set in September or 

 October, 1880, they would give a crop no 

 sooner. We say "crop," as in either case a 

 few berries may be borne, but none can be 

 depended upon. While the crop is gained no 

 sooner by planting six months or more earlier, 

 there is, except in localities where autumn is 

 short and winter long, much to be gained 

 otherwise by fall planting. The soil is still 

 warm and mellow, work js not so driving as 

 in spring, and there is not the fear that a 

 drouth may cut off or injure the plants before 

 they become well established, s Those en- 

 gaged in growing strawberries on a large 

 scale plant at both seasons, but the practice 

 of fall planting is gaining favor. The plants 

 set in autumn have a chance, as gardeners 

 say, to "get hold of the soil" ; their period of 

 probation being past, they start and grow 

 right on as soon as spring opens. Any ap- 

 prehended danger from winter thaws and 

 freezing is avoided by the mulch, whicli all of 

 the plants should have for the best results. 

 Those who would have a crop of strawberries 

 next year can do so by setting out "pot- 

 grown plants." These, as has been explained, 

 are plants from runners which, instead of 

 striking their roots in the soil of the bed, 

 have a small pot of rich earth placed under 



them, in which they take root. These pot- 

 grown plants may be taken up and set out in 

 August or September, without receiving the 

 least check, and will ne.^t spring give a fair 

 or full crop, according to the strength of the 

 plants and the time of striking and setting. 

 All the dealers in plants now furnish those 

 that are pot-grown at a price that can barely 

 cover the cost of the extra labor required to 

 produce tliem. How far apart '? is one of the 

 frequent questions. In field culture the rows 

 should be far enough apart to allow the culti- 

 vator to run between them, and this will de- 

 pend somewhat upon the implement used, 

 three feet being usual, with the plants a foot 

 apart in the rows. In garden culture rows 

 two feet apart and a foot between the plants 

 is most common. Other frequent questions 

 are about manure and fertilizers. Large crops 

 of large berries can only be picked by those 

 who have been liberal to the plants. "No 

 manure, no cabbages, " is better understood 

 and acted upon than "no manure, no straw- 

 berries." We can give no rules for the amount 

 of manure. One successful grower, upon 

 being asked how much he used, replied : "All 

 I can get." If about to set a strawberry 

 patch we should prepare it as the same soil 

 would require for early cabbages, and then 

 put on a little more manure. Wood ashes do 

 wonders on strawberries in the way of making 

 fine, vigorous plants, and guano, if a moder- 

 ate dressing is given after the the fruit is set, 

 will tell at picking time. There is nothing 

 about strawberry culture that should deter 

 whoever has the land from having the fruit 

 in abundance. There is no reason why every 

 farmer's family should not have strawberries, 

 and of the best, and in abundance — yes, three 

 times a day, and no one afraid to pass the 

 saucer the second time. The notion that 

 strawberries can be set only in the spring has 

 done more than anything else to prevent their 

 general culture. Every one knows how difli- 

 cult it is upon the farm to get odd jobs done 

 in the spring. This odd job of the strawberry 

 bed can be Ijetter done now, this very month, 

 than any other time. A few bushels from the 

 abimdant crop of wheat may well be set aside 

 to pay for the plants. Let them by all means 

 be bought and set this month ! 



THE WHEAT CROP FOR 1880-1881. 

 By far the larger number of the farmers of 

 this country are more deeply interested in the 

 wheat crop than any other which is raised. 

 Other crops may be as universally raised as it, 

 and some, perhaps, of equal or greater money 

 value, like that of hay, but none other can be 

 rfiUed upon as can the wheat, for the realiza- 

 tion of the ready money as soon as it can be 

 gotten into the market. Wheat is looked 

 upon "as good as gold," for it is a cash arti- 

 cle that can be depended upon almost to the 

 very day to furnish the grower with the 

 wherewithal to pay the demands which, un- 

 fortunately, too many of them find are being 

 ready for presentation at this auspicious mo- 

 ment, and which, in order to maintain his 

 credit in the future, he finds it his interest, as 

 well as his duty, to respond to with as much 

 despatch as possible. The farmer who is so 

 far ahead in his pecuniary affairs as to be en- 

 abled to keep up a balance in his favor at the 

 bank, may afford to delay his sales for a more 

 favorable market in the distance, though it is 

 generally a doubtful case whether he may 

 not find that he has made a mistake, and may 

 have to sell eventually at a price which will 

 not net him what he would have realized at 

 an earlier date, suffering the losses contingent 

 upon the storage of his grain by rats and 

 mice of more than one species, the shrinkage 

 in weight, the interest of the money if it has 

 been in hand, and dangers from fire and flood 

 and other elements. The forehanded farmer, 

 we say, may bide his time and run the risk of 

 all such contingences, but the impecunious 

 class are obliged to dispose of his crop at 

 whatever price he may be able to obtain as 

 early as he can deliver it to the miller or ship 

 it to the merchant in the city. Both classes, 

 however, are naturally anxious to secure as 



large an increase from the seed sown as possi- 

 ble, and will necessarily be looking about for 

 tlie best means of securing the end in view, 

 some of which are as certain as that there is 

 to be a seedtime and harvest, and the details 

 of which can no more be neglected than the 

 failure to sow and to reap, to enable him to 

 reap a reasonable reward for his labor and the 

 use of his capital. These prerequisites to suc- 

 cess may be classed, first, in the proper prepa- 

 ration of the land for the reception of the 

 seed ; secondly, in the committing to the 

 ground good and healthy seed, deposited in 

 due season ; aud thirdly, the application of 

 such fertilizers and mauvu'es as his soil may 

 require, if it has not alreauy attained that 

 fertility by good cultivation which will render 

 any further outlay in that direction unneces- 

 sary, having secured a condition by the appli- 

 cation of fertilizers and the turning in of 

 green crops in the preceding operations of his 

 system of farming. 



The best way for the preparing of the 

 ground for the reception of the crops in the 

 fall is to study the results of the practice of the 

 most intelligent of their class, added to their 

 own experience. The large average yield of 

 the wheat crop of England, reaching from 40 

 to 4.5 bushels to the acre, is due in a great 

 measure to the great care taken to prepare the 

 ground for the best growth of the wheat 

 plant before the grain is sown. The fields that 

 are imperfectly plowed and indifferently har- 

 rowed are far too common with us, and until 

 the soil is made deep and mellow by thorough 

 tillage all the manure and artificial fertilizers 

 we may apply will not bring the yield of our 

 fall sown crops to the most profitable point. 

 A little extra work in preparation will many 

 times bring a large margin of profit when it 

 comes to gather the harvest. The English 

 farmers, niueteen-twentieths of whom are 

 renters, cannot afford to do work on the farms 

 in a slovenly or imperfect manner ; the heavy 

 demand upon him, in addition to his rental, 

 for the payment of taxes, tithes or church 

 rates and other requirements, render it abso- 

 lutely necessary that every available means 

 shall be used to secure such a return for his 

 labor as will enable him to meet promptly, as 

 he must do, all these demands, which of them- 

 selves would be sufficient in this country to 

 purchase the fee-simple of a farm of equal 

 size to that with which he is entrusted by a 

 landlord, who reserves in his lease the dicta- 

 tion of the mode of farming, the quantity 

 and kind of fertilizers to be used, and the 

 crops to be cultivated. He must also show a 

 bank account upon which he is able to draw 

 for the payment of his expenses, for the laws 

 in such cases are generally made in favor of 

 the landlord, who is also the lawmaker. The 

 average in tliis country is not more than 12 to 

 15 bushels wheat per acre, whilst that of tlie 

 English farmer is three to four times that 

 amount. The land is required to be kept up 

 in England to a condition of fertility equal, 

 when the lease of the renter expires, to that 

 which it possessed on his taking possession, 

 and definite rules are laid down in the lease 

 to secure this oV)ject. 



Wheat is the staple crop of this country, to 

 the greatest number of farmers, and brings 

 in more money in return for labor and ex- 

 penses than any other. Breadstuff's are al- 

 ways in demand in the market, even if the 

 crops l)e abundant, and the price of all agri- 

 cultural produce low. All other operations 

 in the farm are, by a proper rotation in farm- 

 ing, directed to the producing of good crops 

 of wheat, and they can, by good cultivation, 

 be at all times obtained, unless under excep- 

 tional adverse circumstances. 



Experience has proved that the best prepa 

 ration for fall wheat is a well prepared sum- 

 mer fallow, and especially so on lieavy soil, 

 rich in lime and phosphates. Lime in some 

 form is necessary to the growth of a good 

 crop of wlieat. When deficient in the soil it 

 should be applied, spreading it on the land 

 and harrowing it in just before sowing the 

 wheat. A light dressing, even twenty bushels 

 per acre, will make a great improvement in 



