1880.3 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



169 



m;ike a good licdsii' tin- same year. As al- 

 ready said, tlie half dead-alive shoots of the 

 laid down i)art in the jilashed ludge tienerally 

 die in time ; hut l)eside this llie young <;rowth 

 which ])ushes uji fmin hclow the i)iace of 

 bendinic has to imsli llirnnuh tlie mass of lient 

 branches and are weakened in the strugjile. 



Besides all this tliere is the great beauty of 

 a hedge on this |)lan over tlie plashed one. 

 If we let the plants grow three or four years 

 before they are plashed they are large, wide 

 and without foini, and when bent down make 

 a thick, luigainly ina?s, oclmpying ground 

 without use I'r beauty ; but when the strong- 

 plants are clean cut away, the new growtli 

 lias every opiiortunity todevelo]) itself health- 

 fully, and can be kept within any reasonable 

 bounds. — Qermantown Telegraph. 



ORCHARD PRODUCTS. 



■We lind in |u-iut a statement which is 

 appiirently reliable, that the orchard products 

 of the United States have a market value 

 annually of .'?l<i,(KI(),O00. These are cliieHy 

 apples, which crop h:is become a regular ex- 

 port to foreign countries, and is highly es- 

 teemed and in great demand in Europe. It 

 is the only one of our ori'hard products that 

 has thus risen to the highest level commer- 

 cially, and the trade is a permanent one, and 

 likely to increase in proportion to the progress 

 of the production. The orchards of the 

 Northern States have for many years past 

 received a great deal of attention both from 

 practical and scientific farmers and hoiticul- 

 turists, and the results are seen in the ex- 

 cellence of the food-crops, and more especially 

 in the magnitude of the American apple trade. 

 It is only within a few years past that our 

 trunk line railroad companies have deemed it 

 advisable to cultivate this trade, in the same 

 way as they have done the commerce in liread- 

 stnffs, cattle, (resh meat and provisions, by 

 multiplying facilities for wareliousing and 

 shipment at Boston, Kew York, Philadelphia 

 and Baltimore. In projiortion as these facili- 

 ties have been augmented and multiplied, the 

 production of apples m the Northern and 

 Western States has become more extensive 

 and prolitable, thus aiding materially in the 

 diversilication of our agriculture. American 

 apples are highly appreciated in England, and 

 always meet with a regular demand from the 

 leading British markets. 



THE SILK WORIVl. 



About thirteen hundred and lifty years ago 

 two Nestorian monks, armed with formidable- 

 looking canes, were traveling from India to 

 Uyzantium. Sent to the East by the Patri- 

 arch of Persia, whither they had tied after 

 the Nestorian per.secution, they were not so 

 zealous in the projiagation of Christianity 

 that they failed to perceive certain features 

 in tlie arts and sciences in which the hea'.hen 

 were far superior to the Christians. They de- 

 termined to learn as well as to teach. They 

 were especially interested in tinding the secret 

 of a certain fabric of surprising lustre and 

 beauty, familar to Europe at that time as one 

 of the most mysterious products of the East, 

 and so highly valued that a pound of it was 

 worth a pound of gold. Their eflbrts were 

 successful. They hastened to Byzantium. 

 Tliey sought an audience with the" Emperor 

 Justinian, who was. no doubt, a little sur- 

 prised when he learned that this beautiful 

 and coveted jiroduct was originally the work 

 of a worm. Up to this time, the middle of 

 tlie sixth century, the common opinion in 

 Europe was, that like cotton, it was wholly a 

 vegetable lirodiict. Me was further informed 

 tliat though the worms themselves could not 

 be brought to Byzantium, it would be easy to 

 bring their eggs, the worms from which, when 

 hatched, and fed on mulberry leaves, would 

 spin their silken fibre for his sulijects, and 

 render importation from the hated Persians 

 unnecessary. Stimulated by the large rewards 

 which the emperor offered, the monks went 

 back to India. The exportation of esgs was 

 forbidden under penalty of death. But the 

 shrewd missiouaiies made two large and hol- 



low canes, which they tilled with the eggs, and 

 by this ingenious device succeeded in coiivey- 

 ing them in good condition to the emperor. 



This is the earliest and commonly received 

 tradition of the introduction of silk cnltuie 

 into Europe. Yet the looms of Asia had 

 been working for many centuries before these 

 enterprising ni<uiks plodded into Europe with 

 those hollow and oviparous mockei'ies. 



M. de Boissiere, who is heroically trying to 

 introduce silk culture into Kansas, tells us 

 that one acre of grouiiil will answer for IGU 

 trained innlberry trees, each of which, (bur 

 years from planting, will average ten to 

 twelve pciunds of leaves, making 1,()0() to 

 1,800 |)ouii(ls to the acre, or enough to feed 

 from thirty to lorty thousand worms, which 

 should produ<'c from thirty to forty thousand 

 cocoons. The price of a pound of cocoons he 

 places at from eighty cents to a dollar, mak- 

 ing the value range from eighty dollars to 

 one hundred and forty dollars. — Atlantic 

 Ml mt Illy. 



^ 



HARVESTING AND STORING TURNIPS. 



Various methods for harvesting this crop, 

 which in Pennsylvania is not a very extensive 

 one, are now on the tiipis. We speak of tur- 

 nips, proper — not rutabagcs. The last im- 

 proved method is to linrnnn the croji out and 

 load them with a thrie-prfmijnl iKHi-fiivk '. This 

 may be rather expeditious and answer well 

 enough where the turnips are to be fed to tlie 

 cattle, but is the worst possible way if they 

 are to be marketed, as purchasers will not 

 look at a cut and bruised article. It will be 

 found, "we guess," that the old-fashioned 

 way of pulling them out with the hands and 

 throwing them in heaps, and cutting the tops 

 otf with a sharp knife, will prove the best 

 after all. It is useless to attempt to shirk the 

 labor, if the croi) is to be harvested in the best 

 manner, and a good price is expected to be 

 obtained for them. 



Of all the roots perhaps the turnip is the 

 most iniiiatient of heat. It starts to grow on 

 the slightest provocation. In a cellar of not 

 over forty degrees, one may find it growing 

 freely, after an incarceration of but a few 

 weeks. It is growth which is the great enemy 

 of preservation, and it is heat which excites 

 growth. There is a natural heat in roots 

 when put in a heap — a little heat from one 

 root and a little more from another soon 

 makes a jirelty high dcirree ; but in the open 

 field this is carried off Viy the open air about 

 the pile. Hence, under cover of near jiro- 

 tection, this natural heat is not carried otl. 

 It accumulates, the roots sprout, thus gives 

 oil more heat, and it all soon becomes a regu- 

 lar turnip stew. The turnip, indeed, does not 

 mind a little frost. If they were put in small 

 lots in stalls, where the frost could get at 

 them, and covered with straw to prevent 

 rapid thawing, they would keep better than 

 if covered witii earth, which rather serves, as 

 we have seen, to collect the heat and boil the 

 rootit. 



As to how best to keep turnips, that will, 

 of cour.se, depend on cacli per.son's conveni- 

 ences. But if each one keeps in view the 

 fact that heat is more likely to injure them 

 tinn cold — and a very low degree at that— hi! 

 will steadily lind out when he looks about 

 what is the best way for him to preserve 

 them. — Oennantown Tchgrnph. 



SMALL POTATOES. 



A correspondent of a leading publication 

 writes that he made an exiieriment the past 

 season which he tdinks fully explodes the 

 theory that small seed jiotatoes will only re- 

 turn a small crop of small potatoes. Any theory 

 of that kind was exploded we suppose before 

 the writer was born, and the whole letter is 

 an admirable illustration of a class who are 

 continually fancying they are exjiloding when 

 there is really nothing to explode. 



Still there is some misapprehension as to 

 this small potato seed business, and it may be 

 worth while to set it right. It is not the size 

 of the potato, but the vigor and .strength of 

 the eyes on the potato, that makes up the 



case. These are often as large on a iKitato of 

 moderate size as on a very large one. If tlie 

 eyes are of the same strength— of equal 

 vigor— it is the same as if they were all cut 

 from the same t niter. A strong eye starts to 

 grow and almost immediately sMicIs out roots 

 of its own, and !uis no farther de|iendi'nce on 

 the old piece. It gets its food wholly from 

 the earth. If it is a weak, puny sprout, of 

 course it takes a whole season to get strong, 

 and in the iiKantime can only send out very 

 Weak threads that must be able to form 

 nothing but very small potatoes. 



If there is a (juestion of the potato's size, 

 and not of the strength of the eyes in the 

 potato, the corresp(mdent would not even yet 

 have "cxploiled" the theory. Eet him plant 

 real small potatoes- potatoes about the size 

 of beans— potatoes with small weak ^yes, and 

 then he will lind that small i>otatoes are small 

 potatoes, lirst, last and all the time, and no 

 mistake. His crop will be in proportion to 

 the size of the seed used. 



Aside from this, however, it is wholly a 

 ipiestioii of the strength of the eyes, and 

 these are likely to be quite as good on average- 

 sized tubers, such as are generally known as 

 seed potatoes, as on laiger ones. It is from 

 a want of a recognition of this fact that 

 makes so much barren discussion as to the 

 proper size of sets to plant. 



CINCINNATI'S CONSUMPTION OF 

 BEER. 



The Cincinnati Guztttc, in a recent issue 

 says: "The following information is from 

 advance sheets of the annual report to the 

 Chamber of Commerce of Sidney 1). Maxwell, 

 Superintendent : 



"The past year has brought the largest 

 production in malt liquors that has ever been 

 witnessed in this locality. The aggregate 

 having reached in this city alone 0r)r),,'j20 

 barrels, compared with 5.J8.7(Jil in 1878-9, 

 .')rj0,.'')18 in 1877-8, 470,212 in 1870-7, 47(i,228 

 in 187.'i-fi. 4.52, 177 in 1874-5, 4G."),88ti in 1873-4, 

 and 4ti7,7'.iO in 1872-3. The cities of Coving- 

 ton and Newport produced in the last year 

 .■■)2,80U barrels, compared with 47,740 in 1878- 

 i», 44,470 in 1877-8, 38,204 in 1870-7, and 

 40,580 in 187o-(). Three cities iiroduced in 

 the late year in the aggregate, 708,32U bar- 

 rels, or 21,957,1(20 gallons in comparison with 

 000,449 barrels or 18,7'J'J,!>1'.J gallons in 1878-i), 

 and .594,'J88 barrels or 18,4i4,201 gallons in 

 1877-8, an increase in the |)ast year over 

 1878-i), of 101,871 barrels or 3,1.58,001 gallons. 



"The year, in some respects, has been an 

 unsatisfactory one to brewers, and therein 

 has been tmlike the preceding season. Barley 

 has been here in liberal quantities, and at 

 satisfactory prices, but hops and ice have 

 both been high, and labor has averaged about 

 10 per cent, more than in 1878-79. Added to 

 this has been nmch irregularity in prices, and 

 while the price for lager beer has been nomi- 

 nally maintained at S8 per barrel, in many 

 instances sales have been made at lower rates, 

 much having found a market under the 

 tremendous competition at .§0 per barrel. An 

 effort was made in the spring to advance 

 jirices to .f9, but it was ineffectual. The de- 

 mand, at the jirices, never has been so great 

 in the history of the trade here, all the brew- 

 eries having been running to their full ca- 

 pacity. It is believed by intelligent observers 

 that, with a much larger cajiacity, all would 

 have found the most active tmployraent. 

 That under such circumstances there should 

 have been great irregularity in prices and un- 

 satisfactory business, is somewhat anoratilous. 

 The condition was probably traceable more to 

 a healthy tmderstanding between producers 

 than tv any other, or all other, causes com- 

 bined. 



These figures show an important increase 

 measured by considerable periods in the 

 growth of the business in this city. In six 

 years the production here has increased over 

 44 per cent. The increase over the vear im- 

 mediately preceding was 90,810 baVrels, or 

 about 17 per cent. The increase in the latter 

 period is traceable to some extent to an en- 



