1881] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



27 



the heavy infhix of gold from Europe, and 

 the complete restoration of confidence, Rrow- 

 ing out of the success of si)ecie payments. One 

 of the most >;ratifying features of 1S8() has 

 been the great falling off in the number of 

 -failures and amount of liabilities of suspend- 

 ed merchants. The growth of the country 

 and the large additions to the national wealtli 

 during 18S0 are strikingly illustrated in the 

 products of the soil, of which we raised 475,- 

 000,000 bushels of wheat. 15.-,,(I00.0(I0 busliels 

 of corn, 413,000,0(10 bushels ..t oats. 24,000- 

 000 bushels of rve. 4(i,U0it,(Hiii bushels of bar- 

 ley, and 6,000,000 bales of cotton, to say 

 nothing of the toliacco, sugar, rice, hemp, 

 hay, and other crojis, and the hogs and dairy 

 products, which yield au immense sum of 

 money in the aggregate. 



In plain words, the United States now 

 raises enough to ;feed her own 50,000,000 of 

 people and to supply the deficiency of the 

 balance of the civilized world. During the 

 year more miles of railroad have been built, 

 more consolidations and combinations have 

 been entered into, more freight and passen- 

 gers have been trausportcd. more money 

 earned and nicirc interest and dividends paid, 

 than in any former year. The commerce of 

 the country during the year has made rapid 

 progress and caused the United States to take 

 still higher rank, being now third among the 

 commercial nations of the globe. 



NEW PROCESS IN MILLING. 



All the Minnesota millers are now lighting 

 the old-fashioned Hour barrels. They say it 

 is a relic of barbarism. They desire to substi- 

 tute the cotton sack in its place. Cotton sacks 

 holding a half barrel of flour are worth ten 

 cents apiece. Flour barrels aie worth forty- 

 five cents each. All the flour shipped to 

 Glasgow and Rotterdam goes in cotton sacks. 

 These sacks are worth as much there as here. 

 The millers maintain that flour does not sift 

 through a good cotton bag as much as it sifts 

 through a barrel. The bags of flour were 

 shipped to Glasgow, returned to Minneapolis, 

 and sent again to Glasgow. "When weighed 

 they bad actually gained in weight. Six 

 hundred barrels "of flour put up in bags and 

 shipped to Glasgow will gain in weight one 

 thousand eight hundred pounds. When l^ew 

 York flour dealers begin to handle flour in 

 half-barrel sacks, the people will save twenty- 

 five cents on a barrel and have their good sacks 

 left. 



The old millstones are taken out and new 

 Bteel rollers are substituted in their places. The 

 wheat passes through five sets of rollers, ea(;h 

 set closer than the former. These rollers are 

 thirty inches long and ten inches in diameter. 

 After passing between each set of rollers it is 

 "bolted" or sifted through the cloth. The 

 last rollers are hardly anything but wheat 

 hulls and the waxy germs which do not crack 

 up, but smash together. So flour is now 

 cracked and disintegrated without grinding. 

 The first rollers crack the kernels of wheat 

 into say six pieces. The slarcliy substance 

 which rattles out drops through the cloth 

 sieves or bolting cloths. These six pieces are 

 broken between the next rollers into thirty-six 

 pieces. Then the wiiite starch crumbs are 

 sifted out again, and the thirty-six pieces are 

 passed between still tighter rollers, which 

 crack them into 216 piees; another set of roll- 

 ers multiply each of these particles into six 

 more, making them agregate 12fl6. Another 

 set of rollers screwed together with tremen- 

 dous pressure makes 777(5 pieces. The scien- 

 tific miller says a grain of wheat is finally 

 cracked into 7776 pieces without being ground 

 at all. This is the Hungarian process. The 

 germ of a kernel of wheat is a waxy sub- 

 stance, not fit to eat. Between .stones this 

 germ grinds into the flour and damages it. 

 By the new process of the Hungarian rollers 

 this germ is flattened out, and it is bolted out. 

 However, it is finally ground up with the 

 debris, on stones, to make the low grade of 

 flour, which we sell in Eotterdani for S2.50 

 per barrel.— Cinciwjiati Conmurcial. 



Our Local Organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 

 AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Tlic n-riiliir st.itc-.l iiiiolin;,- of'llie I,:inc.is(cr 

 County A-iiiiiltmal and Horticultural Society was 

 heW ill ttioir room, In City Hall, on .Monday after- 

 noon, February 7l)i, President WItnier In tlu> cliair. 



In the absence of the Secretary, M. D. Kciidle, 

 Calvin Coo|)er acted as Sccietary. The readliiff of 

 tlie minutes of lant meetini; was dispensed ivitli. 



The followinir membera and visitors were present : 

 Joficpli F. .Wltmer, President, Paradise ; Calvin 

 Cooper, Bird-lii-llaiid ; Henry Kurtz, Mount Joy; 

 Casper Ililjer, ConestoRa ; John C. Linvlllc, Salis- 

 bury; Wm. H. Brosius, Uruinore ; Washiniitou L. 

 Hershey, Chickics ; Frank H. Dlfl<;nderfl'er,cily ; 

 Henry ihiffer, Upper Lcacock ; Henry Hcrr, Lan- 

 caster towiisliip; J. M.Johnston, city; Cyrus Naif, 

 Manor; John .Slerlinc, West Hcnipfleld ; Simon P. 

 Eliy, city ; John Kesh, Pequea ; W. W. (iriesl, city; 

 Dr. VVm. Compton, city; E. 8. Hershey; James 

 Wood, Little Britain; John H. Frey, F.phrata: J. 

 H. Hershey, Uohrerstown : Dr. C. A. Greene, city; 

 Levis. Kcist, Oregon. 



M. L. Grcider, of Kaplio, and John E. Huber, of 



Pequea, were proposed for membership and elected. 



Crop Reports. 



Henry Kurtz said he could report a vary heavy 

 crop of ice and snow, and an abundance of unstripped 

 toliacco. Of tlie stripped tobacco only a small pro- 

 [wrtion has been sold. The ground is so deeply cov- 

 ered with snow and ice that it is impossible to tell 

 what is the condition of the winter wheat. It is re- 

 liorted tliat the peach trees and some ot the apple 

 trees are frozen. 



Casper Hiller said that if the peach trees -were not 

 frozen it might be regarded as almost a miracle ; for 

 it is generally conceded that the peach will not stand 

 a, temperature of more that 10 to 15 below zero, and 

 this winter the mercury has fallen to 20 and 34 below. 

 In 1856, when the mercury fell to 11 below zero, 

 peach trees planted on high and dry ground survived 

 the winter, while those planted in the low ground 

 were killed. This year the wood of the peach is 

 plump and full of sap, and there is a chance that 

 the trees may survive. It is not likely that the apple 

 trees will be much injured. 



John C. Liuvlllc did not think the peach trees 

 would he killed. The past season was remarkably 

 dry, and the wood became mature and hardy before 

 the cold weather set in. Many young peach and 

 pear trees have, however, been killed by the rabbits, 

 which have entirely girdled them. He feftred that 

 the wheat in low and wet sections was badly dam- 

 aged, as it has been so long covered with solid ice. 



Johnsou Miller had little to report except that he 

 still remained in winter quarters, the mercury this' 

 morning marking 4 degrees below zero. He fears tlie 

 wheat has been greatly injured by the severe weather. 

 He never knew a good harvest to follow a very cold 



President Witmer said that he had cut through 

 the snow and ice to examine the wheat, but a neigh- 

 bor of his, who had filled an ice-houee with ice cut 

 from the pond in a wheat tield, reported that the 

 wheat looked green and heallliy. 



Casper Hiller said that this winter the ground was 

 well covered with snow before the severe weather 

 came ; so that the great sheets of ice with which the 

 ground is covered do not lie directly on the young 

 wheat, but are found some distance above it, and 

 therefore not so liable to kill it. 



James Wood said he thought there was more ice 

 and snow on the ground in the winter of 185(i than 

 there is this winter, and yet we had an unusually 

 good crop of straw that year. 



Dr. C. A. Greene read the following short paper 

 on "Insects" and the longer one upon the horse : 

 Insects. 



Prof. Riley has notified the farmers of Lancas- 

 ter county that the seventeen-year locusts will make 

 their unwelcome appearance this summer in this 

 county ; and my prediction is that if tliey so show 

 themselves, no decided harm will take place — solely 

 from the fact that insect life in all its forms will be 

 largely killed off by the continuous severe cold of 

 this winter. Neither the mature insects, larva, 

 chrysalis, or egg can stand freezing. 

 The Horse. 



There is no animal to which man is more decidedly 

 indebted than the noble, intelligent, willing horse, 

 and many men so understand it, and treat him with 

 due consideration. Many persons think as much of 

 his comfort as they do of their own. He is always 

 well fed at proper times and well cleaned and watered, 

 and kept in a well ventilated, warm stable. It gives 

 me real pleasure to stand and look at the round, 

 slock, shiny coats of some of our farmers' horses. 

 Toucan at once perceive that they have not been 

 nci;lected, and you can imagine, now the farmer's 

 wife and bis girls take pride in his appearance, and 

 that they like to take him some extra tidbits, and 

 feed him with their own bands. 



Unfortunately for the reasoning animal there is 



another class of humans who arc either ignorant of 

 hi9 wants or else they are of huch brutal instincts 

 themselves that hislwants are only partially fuiailed, 

 and t.\iih horses sutler more than man has any 

 knowledge of. Wonderful and cxceetllugly interest- 

 ing anecdotes have been told and verltled in refer- 

 ence to the reasonine: ability of tliis useful quadru- 

 IK'd. I've studied him well, and 1 believe if big 

 tongue was unloosened sometimes he would givebls 

 owner such a scorchinir,wiihering lectnreon Ingratf- 

 tiide as would force lilni from real remorse to treat 

 hlin as he deserves. 



The horse and man are a good deal alike. He 

 wants a variety of food just like man. Some farmers ■ 

 thlJik if they throw him a half peck of corn iu tba 

 ear they have well fed him, and they do u day after 

 day. Now, a horse gets just uji tired of whole corn 

 as a man does of liwr or chicken all the time. If 

 you try the experiment and put ditl'erunt kinds of 

 food before him you will see how quickly and eagerly 

 he makes a selection. I never had a horse, which 

 Would not, after a time, eat bread, sugar beets, car- 

 rots, cabbages, and even [Kilato 'peelings and other 

 table droppings, especially when some bran or mual 

 was liberally sprinkled on them. 



Horses suffer from cold, and lose flesh and fat 

 rapidly if exposed too long and too often, to its In- 

 fluence. As a matter of economy, if not of kindness 

 it pays anyone to keep the; imal warm, and 

 any roan who owns or has hired a horse and will let 

 him stand unblankeled In tlie streets for hours, ought 

 to get thirty days imprlBOnment for the lirst oll'ence 

 of the kind. During the winter the bridle bit should 

 always be warmed before it is placed in the horse's 

 mouth. Hundreds of. horses suffer pain by the 

 frozen bit having taken olT the skin from the tongue 

 and mouth by this cruel proceeding. 



To all those persons who in order to majce the 

 horse "show otf" (as they say) . to advantage, 

 tightly check up the hcud, I would only say it is ex- 

 tremely cruel, and if they can't believe it let them 

 l)Ul a wooden bit in theirown mouth and let some 

 one draw their head buck for ten minutes and I'll 

 guarantee they will never so tantalize him again. 



Galls and sores on hones are usually caused by 

 pure carelessness on the part of the owner. The 

 thills are too close and rub, or the harness Is too 

 tight and unyielding. Always watch the condition 

 of the skin, and it you sec the hair wearing off 

 change the arrangement of the harness or put some 

 softer and more pliable material under the harness 

 which galls the animal. See that that the collars 

 are always clean and well oiled. If the inside is left 

 dirty it is hound to make a sore. 



Blinders are the relic of barbarous times. A 

 horse does not need such an appendage any more 

 than a man does. One half of the horses know 

 more than men do, and if they could express their 

 opinion on this subject they would say ; "Take off 

 these horrid things: at the very time when I am the 

 most anxious to know whether there is danger iu 

 my rear, I can't see, and if I could, my fears would at 

 once be quieted. Why kccj) me in ignorance of what 

 is behind me ? You think I'll shy ! 0, no, I shy 

 because I imagine danger. Besides, the stiff things 

 strike my eyes and the bones around niy eyes and 

 make them very much inflamed and uncomfortable." 

 From my experience I can advisedly say they are of 

 no use whatever, and there Is no horse fn the world, 

 but will soon become so intelligent without them as 

 in no manner to reiiuirethem. Besides the above they 

 often cause decided suffering by the closencis of the 

 blinder injuring the eyes and sight. Film and cata- 

 ract of the eye arc often caused by the blinder. 



Most animals are fur better off without the crup- 

 per. It galls and pajus them, and whenever It can 

 be, it should be left oft'. In fine, let me say a horse 

 if properly cared for, well-fed, well-kept in a clean, 

 well-ventiiatcd stable, ought and will be in t?ood 

 working condition at twenty years of age, and ii 

 richly paysthe owner to care kindly for this intolll- 

 gent, willing, obedient and affectionate animal. 



Henry Kurtz endorsed nearly all Dr. Greene said 

 about the horse; but didn't think that blinders could 

 bu dispensed with, especially where the horse was 

 hitched to reaping or roowini: machines. 



Casper Hiller took exception to the statement that 

 the seventeen-year locust would make its ap|iear- 

 ance next summer. He said the time of its appear- 

 ance would be in 1885. He did not believe cither, 

 that the locust or' other insects would be killed by 

 the severe weather. 



Wm. H. Brosius also thought the insects were 

 doing very well during their hibernation,. One inch 

 below the surface the earth is very little below the 

 freezing point. 



Calvin Cooper was much pleased with what 

 Dr. Greene had said about the horse and 

 called special attentiou to the cruelty of placing 

 frozen iron bits in their mouths. He advised that 

 the bits should be covered with leather, or If this 

 was thought to be too much trouble, dip the bit into 

 water before placing it into the horse's mouth. Tlie 

 iron will be thus immediately covered with a thin 

 lilm of ice, which will prevent it from adhering to 

 the skin of the mouth. 



S. P. Eby, esq., endorsed all Dr. Greene said in 

 behalf of' the horse, but did not think the frost 



