10 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



a coiuylete dreuchiug more likely to be in- 

 jurious Lhau weLimg of oue pun. But ntiver 

 sit still wet, iuiU 111 chuu^iug rub the body 

 (iry. There is a geueral leuaeiicy, spriugiDg 

 froui latigue, iiiUol iicu or ludiltereuce, to 

 uuglect uaiup feet ; that is to say, to dry them 

 by the lire ; Out tuis prooess is tedious and 

 uijceitam. i would say especially, oft with 

 the muddy boots aud suddeu soeks at ouce — 

 dry stoekmgb alter a hunt may make just the 

 diifereiice oi your being able lo go out agam 

 or never, lake care UeVer to check perspira- 

 tiou ; during Uiis process the body is in a some- 

 what critical couuitiou, and a sudden arrest 

 of the function may result disastrously— even 

 fatally. Uiie part ol the business of perspira- 

 tion IS to equalize bodily temperature, and it 

 must not be lulertered with. The secret of 

 much that IS to be said about bathing, when 

 healed, lies uere. A person overheated, pant- 

 ing it may be, with throbbing temples and a 

 dry skin, is in danger, partly because the 

 natural cooUug by evaporation from the skin 

 is denied, and this condition is sometimes not 

 far from a •■sunstroke." Under these circuui- 

 stauces a person of fairly good constitution 

 may plunge into the water with impunity — 

 even with benefit. But if the body be already 

 cooling by sweating, rapid abstraction of heat 

 from the surface may cause internal conges- 

 tion, never unattended with danger. Drinking 

 ice water offers a somewhat parallel case; 

 even on stooping to drink at a brook, when 

 flushed with heat, it is well to bathe the face 

 and hands hrsi, and to taste the water before 

 a full draught.— Cones' Field of Ornilkoloyy. 



TOXIC EFFECTS OF TEA. 

 W. J. Morton, M. D., of New York, gives 

 in The Journal of Neimiis and Mental Disease, 

 an account of investigations he has made on 

 the toxic effects of tea. They were carried 

 on in the case of live tea-tasters suffering from 

 disease who came under his care, and in obser- 

 vations of his own symptoms during a week, 

 in which he subjected himself to special treat- 

 ment with tea for purposes of experiment. 

 From the whole series of observations, he 

 draws the conclusions that (1) with tea, as 

 with any potent drug, there is a proper and 

 an improper dose. [-A] In moderation, tea is 

 a mental and bodily stimulant of a most 

 agreeable nature, loUovved by no harmful re- 

 action. It produces contentment of mind, 

 allays hunger and bodily weariness, and in- 

 creases the disposition and the capacity for 

 work. (3) Taken moderately, it leads to a 

 very serious group of symptoms, such as head- 

 ache, vertigo, heat and llushings of body, 

 ringing in the ears, mental dullness and con- 

 fusion, tremulousness, "nervousness," sleep- 

 lessness, apprehension of evil, exhaustion of 

 mind and body, with disinclination to mental 

 and physical exertion, increased and irregular 

 action of the heart, increased respiration. 

 Each of the above symptoms is produced by 

 tea taken in immoderate quantities, irrespec- 

 tive of dyspepsia, or hypochondria, or liyper- 

 aemia. (4) immoderate tea- drinking, con- 

 tinued tor a considerable time, with great 

 certainty produces dyspepsia. (5) The imme- 

 diate mental symptoms produced by tea are 

 not to be attributed to dyspepsia. (0) Tea 

 retards the waste or retrograde metamorphosis 

 of tissue, and tliereby reduces the demand for 

 food. It also diminishes the amount of urine 

 secreted. (7) Many of the symptoms of im- 

 moderate tea-drinking are such as may occur 

 without sus icion of tea being tlieir cause, 

 and we find many people taking tea to relieve 

 the discomfort which its abuse is producing.— 

 Fopular tScience Monthly. 



an English gentleman set himself to work to 

 And out the trut^i of the matter, and dis- 

 covered tliat they are used to make hot-beds 

 in which the eggs are hatched. As soon as 

 this happens the the bifs of leaves are carried 

 out of the nest and thrown away. In some of 

 the large colonies there will be bushels of this 

 stuff in a pile. Many ways have been tried 

 to destroy or drive away these destructive 

 creatures, but only lately has a way to do so 

 been discovered. The way is simple ; it is 

 merely to scatter some of the refuse leaves 

 from another nest in the paths and ways of a 

 fixmily of ants. This is very offensive to them ; 

 tliey drop their loads instantly, and run for 

 the nest, and will not return for many 

 days. A bushel of this hated refuse will 

 keep the ants away from acres of ground. 

 The English gentleman w'ho writes to the 

 Zoological Society of Loudon about it, says he 

 got the hint from a negro, and he has tried it 

 several times without a failure. 



Our Local Organizations. 



WISE ANTS. 

 A stoi7 of the knowing ways of ants comes 

 from Colorado. It seems that in that State 

 flourish great numbers of ants of a large zize, 

 called Atta Cthaloles, which are very destruc- 

 tive to all green leaves. No matter whether 

 they are sweet or sour, tender or tough, the 

 ants cut them all down and carry them off. It 

 was supposed that the leaves were eaten, till 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 

 AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The regular meetiug of the Lancaster County 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Society was held in 

 their rooms on Monday afternoon, January 3rd. 



The meeting was called to order by the President. 

 Tlie following members and visitors were present : 



Joseph F. Witmer, Paradise ; M. D. Kendig, Ores- 

 well; Henry Kurtz, Mount Joy; Simon P. Eby, 

 city ; Casper Hiller, Conestoga; Johuson Miller, 

 Warwick; W. W. Griest, city ; F. R. Diffenderffer, 

 city; E. B. Brubaker, Brickerville ; Dr. C. A. 

 Greene, city; Mr. Hoover, Lititz ; Dr. Wm. Corap- 

 ton, city; C. L. Hunsecker, Manheim ; Calvin 

 Cooper, Bird-in-Hand ; Frank H. Griest, city ; J. M. 

 Johnston, city ; Washington L. Hershey, Chickies ; 

 John G. Kesh, West Willow ; William McComsey, 

 city ; Dr. S. S. Rathvon, city ; C. A. Gast, city ; Hen- 

 ry G. Resh, West Willow. 



On motion, the reading of the minutes of last 

 meeting was dispensed with. 



New Members. 

 Cyrus Neflr, of Mountville, was proposed and 

 elected to membership. 



Special Committee. 

 Dr. Greene reported that he had not yet succeeded 

 in securing any one to deliver a lecture before the 

 society. 



Crop Reports. 

 Johnson Miller reported that some cherry trees 

 had burst during the cold weather. 



Casper Hiller said a tree might split and yet bear 

 fruit. Some fruit bnds are killed when the mercury 

 goes down to 15 or 18 degrees below zero. In 1»30 

 or 1835 the apple trees were so badly frozen that 

 some never recovered. Apple trees can bear a good 

 deal of cold weather without being destroyed. 



M. D. Kendig proposed that each district report 

 the average yield of the cereals during the past year 

 at the next monthly meeting. 



The President's Address. 

 President Witmer then read the annual address 

 to the society. See page 3 of the present number of 

 The Farmer. 



Essay on Windbreaks. 

 Casper Hiller, to whom this question was referred, 

 discussed the subject in the foUowint: essay : 



As far as my experience and observations go, 

 windbreaks are of no practical benefit to orchards 

 in our county. Our orchards are not often injured 

 by winter winds. If injured by cold, it is usually by 

 the still cold, and that is always greater in sheltered 

 and low places than on high and exposed situations. 

 In one of our extreme cold winters the thermometer 

 indicated 11° below zero, while in a low, sheltered 

 situation, half a mile distant, it sank to 23° below 

 zero. In the former place, peach trees were but 

 slightly injur d, while in the latter they were en- 

 tirely destroved. A few successive sunshiny days in 

 March or early April will start vegetation quickly in 

 those sheltered nooks, oftentimes starting the blos- 

 soms of the apricot, peach and cherry, while on high, 

 unsheltered ground the rays of the sun are contiim- 

 ally cooled by the breeze, and vegetation is not 

 started by a few warm days. Dew forms and settles 

 in these sheltered places, and causes frequent white 

 frosts, while in open places the free air prevents the 

 formation of dew and frost. These influences would 

 not be so marked on the apple orchard as they are 

 on the peach, as the apple is seldom injured in the 

 wood by winter weather, and is so late a bloomer 

 that spring frosts do not often hurt it. Shelter 

 belts have the ettect of ripening the fruit quite per- 

 ceptibly earlier, which, in an apple orchard, would 

 be a great objection, as the fruit already ripens too 

 soon in our locality. 



Legislation on Forest Culture. 



S. P. Ebv, esq., to whom the discussion of this 

 subject was confided, read the following paper : 



We suppose it is no longer a disputed fact that, 

 within the last forty years, the Hate of Pennsylva- 

 nia, and particularly the eastern portion thereof, 

 has undergone great climatic changes,a few of which 

 may be briefly mentioned : 



1. That the variations in temperature of heat and 

 cold have become more sudden and intense. 



2. That the summers are more dry, and the win- 

 ters more changeable, with less snow. 



3. That the flow of our larger springs has decreas- 

 ed in volume, while many of the smalle" ones have 

 disappeared altogether : consequently wells have to 

 be deepened, and water power supplied during dry 

 seasons with steam. 



4. That our rivers and streams are no longer as 

 regular in their flow, but rise higher and more sud- 

 denly after heavy rains, and become lower in dry 

 seasons. 



5. That winds sweep with greater force. That we 

 have fewer local riins during the hot seasons, and 

 more frequent hail storms. 



6. That we have no longer the fine fruit-bearing 

 orchards our ancestors had forty years ago. 



The principal cause of all these changes, as well 

 as minor ones, which we have not now time to 

 enumerate, has by close observation and careful in- 

 vestigation of intelligent scientific men, both of this 

 country and Europe, been satisfactorily traced to the 

 cutting away and destruction of the forests and belts 

 of timber which formerly existed. 



It needs no argument to prove that these changes 

 are injurious to both animal and vegetable existence; 

 that they seriously affect our well-being as a commu- 

 nity, by depriving us of many of the necessaries and 

 comforts of life. 



A land without vegetation or water is either a bar 

 ren heath or an arid desert, unsuited for human 

 habitation, while with the most desirable homes we 

 naturally associate pleasant groves, fruitful gardens, 

 fertile grain fields and springs of pure water. It 

 follows, therefore, that we should employ all proper 

 means to restore as many of those blessings as we 

 can by preserving the forests which yet remain; by 

 restocking such as are getting thin, and by planting 

 new timber belts for windbreaks and for shelter 

 around springs and along the heads of our streams. 

 I do not wish to be understood that whon timber 

 trees have grown to full maturity they should not 

 be cut and used; only that before they are removed 

 others should be planted and partly grown to take 

 their place. We should learn from nature, and have 

 an undergrowth of young trees upon the ground be- 

 fore we cut down the full grown timber. 



Lancaster county had in 1877, only 12.1 per cent, 

 of timber area, as compared with its clear land, 

 some of which has since been cut down. Of the ad- 

 joining counties, Lebanon had 21.2; Berks, 15; 

 Chester, 14; York, 18; and Dauphin, 24. Forty 

 years ago Lancaster county had six furnaces and 

 fourteen forges, that were supplied with charcoal 

 from timber mostly growing in the county. At the 

 present time, we have but one charcoal furnace and 

 two forges, which look for much of their coal out- 

 side of our county. I think we are safe in saying 

 that more than one-half of the timber standing forty 

 years ago in Lancaster county, is now cleared oflr. 

 The whole of this need not be restored. An increase 

 of from three to five per cent, will, with what re- 

 mains, if judiciously distributed, be sufficient, 

 making the forest area of Lancaster county about 15 

 per cent. To do this will require about three addi- 

 tional acres of forest to every one hundred acres of 

 clear land— not an expensive nor impossible project, 

 when we consider the increase in the value of the 

 timber twenty years hence, and the important bear- 

 ing newly-planted belts of forests will have upon the 

 crops of the interior. 



While individual eflfort, and the agricultural so- 

 cieties can do much towards accomplishing the de- 

 sired result, it is plain we must have legislation on 

 the subject, and this brings us to the question. 

 What should such legislation be ? In some parts of 

 Europe the government itself takes care of its forests. 

 Ill other parts the ditlerent communities in which 

 the forest is located, or upon which the community 

 is dependent for its fuel, have charge of and adopt- 

 regulations for its preservation. In our State I 

 think it would best be intrusted to the united enter- 

 prise of private citizens— to companies formed for 

 that purpose similar to insurance companies, com- 

 posed of such persons as may take an interest in the 

 matter To that end I have prepared a draft for an 

 act of assembly allowing the incorporating of com- 

 panies for that purpose, and allowing members and 

 individuals who plant forest trees a credit on ac- 

 count of their county tax for encouragement and 

 compensation. , 



Dr. Greene also read an essay from Harpers 

 Maqazine, published twenty -six years ago, on this 

 subject, which was at once valuable and interesting. 

 Casper Hiller thought it a question whether rtuch 

 can be got by an act of legislation. He is afraid of 

 such jobs. Even in the West, those who planted 

 trees have had a good deal of troubje to compel 

 compliance with the existing laws. 



He believed it 



