30 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[February, 



impart viffor to the roots, and protect the surface. 

 An inch of finely broken peat or dry swamp muck is 

 excellent in protecting the surface when evenly 

 spread over it, and the grass will make an earlier 

 and more vigorous start next'sprins. On soils which 

 are beneted by superphosphates, these form an ex- 

 cellent top dressing, although the offensive odor, 

 ■which lasts some days, may be an objection. If the 

 mowing of lawns has been properly discontinued 

 early in October, and a growth of grass some inches 

 long has been permitted, this growth will constitute 

 a good protection, and assist in giving an earlier 

 spring growth.— Co«n<)-^ Gentleman. 



Danger in the " Silos." 

 We are impressed with the importance of warning 

 people who have' put their corn-fodder in tanks, 

 especially in deep ones, of the dangerous carbonic 

 acid gas— the " choke damp " of mines and wells. 

 A fafmcr near Sing Sing, used an old ice-house for 

 pitting his corn-fodder ; on Saturday night, when 

 they knocked off work, there were some seven or 

 f'ii.'iit feet (if fnililcr i-nt in lialf-inch bits, and well 

 trrnjcliu a.iAii in Mil- jiii. On Monday morning it 



juiniji-.i ii, ami i.a-~ tn u.liiu iiljout on it to see if it 

 had bellied cvuLilv, » lien lie felt dizzy and faint; 

 the thought of "choke damp " flashed throiigh his 

 mind, and he called out to have a ladder lowered to 

 him. This was done just in time, and he half 

 crawled and was half hauled out. His head was 

 four or six feet above the worst of ihe " damp," for 

 it is very heavy. Hfad he fallen he would have been 

 drowned in the gas, as effectively as in water, with- 

 out a struggle or a murmur. When going into a pit 

 never fail to lower a lantern first, for half a minute, 

 and if it burns brightly the air of the pit is lit to 

 breathe. — American Agriculturist. 



Accumulation of Manure in Stables. 

 A large mass of dung, unless frozen or kept near 

 the freezing point, will undergo decomposition, and 

 gives of}', besides steam, ammonia, and other gases. 

 These tend to soften and injure the hoofs of animals, 

 and especially horses, that maybe forced /to stand 

 continuously 'upon the accumulation of dung. Tnese 

 gases cause inflammation of the eyes, and injure the 

 general health, iutt-rferc with the digestion, and re- 

 duce the viu'or of the animal. There should be no 

 mass of manure in any stable where horses are kept. 

 A clean fioor and pure air are requisites for the best 

 health of the animals. 



, though well- 

 ■s, is scarcely 

 ii) Its wonder- 

 iiyfactof its 

 lUse— a cause 



quite ripe, after which it never comes to its best 

 flavor ; and before it took to cracking in some few 

 locations. The White Doyenne, however, had just 

 as many votes as the Beurre Diel, and this, also, our 

 people "would have agreed to years ago. The 

 Doyenne tins, still a popular pear, comes next ; and 

 then the Beurre de Cap! nnnnt. w 

 known to many of ..ik i.-:,r r 

 popular, because its i; i ■• : 

 fully prolific characir I ,^1 



enormous bearing i> ;ir> .ilv i 

 which judicious thiuniiii;- iiiiL:l!l nuK-dy. >;a[iMl.>(,ii 

 stands fifth ; but in this case .\i.e,iri,,, Ikh. i,m- 

 thi'ng to say, for although it is 11 iiiai 1: .li'} iealiliv 

 and productive and of tine quality ii . iten a ^lav or 

 two after maturing, there are none left after a week 

 or so is gone. 1^ next one is Williams' Bon 

 Chretien, or as we say, Bartlett ; and then comes 

 Marie Louise, which, like Napoleon, ripens too fast 

 for us to make anything out of. Finally the two 

 last oil the list we find to be Beurre Clairgeau and 

 Beurre D'Hardenpont, well-known to Americans as 

 excellent pears in some localities. 



01 conr.^e our order of excellence would be very 

 ditlerenl IVum tliis ; but- still as compared with the 

 apple, it is remarkable to find all well-known kinds 

 to us and kinds which we find so often in our gar- 

 dens, to be the leadiiiL' ones iu tlie German lists. 



It would he intere.siiii- to know how our best 

 American seedling peajt dti in Eur-.pe. Tlie Sockel, 

 the Tyson, the Sheldon, tlie Biandywine, the Read- 

 ing, the Lawrence and others would, no doubt, be 

 as'acceptable to them as their varieties are to us. — 

 Oermantown Telegraph. 



The Fin 



,01)1', 



of the Wheat. 



real products of this 



annual 

 S50, to 

 n 1870. 



and 2,4a1,(1UO,1)00 in IsTy. The value of th( 

 products increased from S3,9B.5,000,000 iu 

 §7,977,000,000 in ISiiO, and 1111,000,000,000 

 North of the Ohio river there are 400,000,0ou acres 

 of land immediately available, which can produce 

 in wheat and other cereals at least 4,800,000,000 

 bushels annually. 



Salt in Sowing. 

 Some French as well as some German authorities 

 recommend the use of salt at the rate of one hundred 

 and flftv pounds per acre for clover and other legu 

 miuous'plants ; for wheat and flax, two hundred and 

 fifty pounds ; and tor barley and potatoes, three 

 hundred pounds — to be sown broadcast iii the spring 

 season, before the herbage has attained any consider- 

 able growth. 



Horticulture. 



What is Good Grape Culture ? 

 A friend joyfully told us a few days ago of his 

 anticipations in the grape way. He had bought a 

 little place in the vicinity, and had made up his 

 mind to have things right. His maxim was that 

 what was worth doing at all was worth doing well, 

 and he meant to doit. He had done it. He had 

 dug out the dirt three feet into the clay, and had 

 filled with light rich compost, through which the 

 roots might push their way in ease and comfort, and 

 live on the fat of the land. He had spent consider- 

 able money in doing the job well. He intended to 

 get only the best vines, and felt sure such an ex- 

 peuditure would result in magnificent grapes and 

 plenty of them. He had done his work well. 



It is strange that such a course as this should ever 

 have been recommended by horticultural writers, 

 but it is a fact that Ihey have. Grapes are now so 

 easily and cheaply grown— fruit often four and five 

 cents a pound- that we had well-nigh forgotten that 

 this was the standard advice of the books years ago. 

 But our friend produced It in black and while from 

 the pages which he had chosen as an authority, and 

 then we knew how it was in the olden time. 



Now, our readers at least should know that in- 

 stead of such a proceeding as this being an evidence 

 of doing it well for the grape, it is simply an act of 

 folly. Tlie grape root needs to be warm and dry, 

 but this deep well in the clay, encouraging the col- 

 lection of water from all around it, has just the con- 

 trary cH^ect. The roots are damp and cool and not 

 warm and dry. 



Indeed, it is only of late years when people have 

 given up all this expensive foolery that grape-culture 

 has become a tolerable success. Under the old plan 

 we had failure after failure, and we came to believe 

 only those varieties wliich were little removed from 

 the wild fox or the frost grapes could be grown. 

 But now we have the finer kinds getting quite com- 

 mon. As soon as we gave up tliis deep trenching 

 nonsense, grape-culture — real grape-culture — took a 

 fresh start, and this real culture consists in little 

 more than planting a vine in good earth, of less 

 depth than we would any ordinary tree, and see that 

 it does not sufl'er for want of food. This is good 

 grape-culture in a nutshell. 



utmost care, spreading out the roots their full length, 

 and stake them firmly, but so that they will not rub 

 by the action of the wind. Then cut away super- 

 fluous top-branches, of which each one must judge 

 for himself, and be careful that in digging and 

 grubbing about the trees no injury is done to the 

 roots or bark . 



The Best Time for Grafting Trees. 



In several publications we notice that the cutting 

 of grafts in the fall, "or before the sharp cold of 

 winter injures their vitality," is highly recommended. 

 Dire, lions are thus given how they are to be pre- 

 sci VI 4 iiirough the winter : "They may be packed 

 away in l>oxes of fine damp moss, damp sawdust, or 

 buried in the earth or sand." There is a great deal 

 more added which we do not think worth while to 

 quote. This mode may be a very good one, but we 

 have' never tried it and just now do not seem in the 

 mood to do so. We have done most of our own 

 grafting, and have been successful. We never cut 

 our grafts before February, and if the ground is not 

 frozen stick them in at the foot of the tree, then the 

 variety is kown without labeling. If the ground is 

 frozen they are tied up, the bunch labeled and buried 

 in the ground under a shed or in a rather dry place. 

 We have set seventy of these grafts (pears) at one 

 time and every one of them grew. Once on a time we 

 employed a professional grafter, who brought his 

 own eions (cherries) and set thirty-two for us, every 

 one of which died. The following spring we thought 

 to try our own hand at it, and set sixteen (cherries) 

 on the same tree which had been fifteen years 

 planted, the grafts cut as usual in February, and 

 eleven of them grew. This we thought was doing 

 pretty well with cherries. It the grafts are carefully 

 preserved and properly set, it makes no difi'erence 

 whether cut in fall or "spring. Cherry grafts, how- 

 ever, should be always cut before the buds show any 

 signs of swelling.— German^owjt Telegraph. 



Floriculture. 



Foreign Pears and Apples. 



Not long since the German pomologists undertook 

 to discover by a system of voting, once popular in 

 our country, but which, very properly, we think, 

 has lost favor of late years, what varieties were— not 

 the best — hut were most popular in the various dis- 

 tricts. Not one of the apples returned do we recog- 

 nize among our popular kinds except the Ked 

 Astrachan, a Kussian variety, and this is given at 

 the tail end of the list, with the remark that it does 

 well in an occasional case. The Golden winter 

 Pearmain, one almost unknown to our cultivators, is 

 set down as the best apple in twenty-two out of 

 thirty-four of these large districts, and" such trashy 

 things ,that is, trashy as wc find thom — as Alex- 

 ander, kibston Pippin and the various Keinettes, 

 carry olf tlie palm. 



Now, iu pears of all kinds named as their best are 

 well-known to our cultivators, and although we 

 would not put them in the same order as resulted 

 from this German inquiry, some American cultiva- 

 tors, it is not at all impossible, would make some 

 such list. First and foremost they have the Beurre 

 Diel, which would have suited a large number of 

 Americans some years ago, before it took to shed- 

 ding its leaves early in autumn before the fruit was 



Cultivating the Cherry Tree. 

 A few words of advice in planting out and pro- 

 tecting cherry-trees may not be out of place at this 

 time, when people are making up their lists of fruit- 

 trees, etc., for transplanting the approachingspring. 

 There is no tree that requires more careful handling 

 and setting and attention than the cherry. Fre- 

 quently, those being transplanted from a long dis- 

 tance suffer sufficient injury to render them unfit for 

 planting. In our expei-ienee we have havejmet with 

 repeated loss in this way. The worst of the disap- 

 pointment is, that after being set out the tree will 

 give just enough signs of growing to induce one to 

 Tet it stand until the whole summer and fall are past, 

 thus depriving us of two opportunities to throw it 

 out and plant another in its place. In all such cases 

 we would advise in the first place the cutting off of 

 nearly the whole of the top, and then if it docs not 

 in the course of a few weeks give decided evidence 

 of a fresh growth to remove it entirely. We have 

 saved several by this sharp pruning, which are now 

 fine, healthy trees. 



But, in the first place, set out no cherry tree that 

 has not a full supply of roots, especially of small 

 ones, and the stem of which is not free from bruises, 

 from which they will never recover. Set out with the 



House Plants. 



The soil best adapted to the growth of house plants 

 is one in which some organic matter, as old turf or 

 partly decomposed stable manure, is slowly decay- 

 ing. One of the chief reasons why plants do not 

 grow well is that the soil is not rich enough. A good 

 compost is made of two parts of well decomposed 

 stable manure, two parts partly decayed and one 

 part sand. These proportions may be varied to suit 

 the different kinds of plants, the rose, smilax and 

 calla requiring a larger amount of manure, while 

 the cactus needs more sand. 



Watering is the part of the work of plant grow- 

 ing in which most persons fail. Three reasons can be 

 given for.watering plants, viz: to supply the moisture 

 evaporated from the foliage and soil ; to dissolve the 

 plant food in the soil, and by running through the 

 soil to carry out the impure air which is replaced by 

 a fresh supp"ly as the water escapes from the opening 

 at the bottom of the pot . The amount of water that 

 must be applied depends upon the quantity of the 

 foliage and the dryness of the .atmosphere. Those 

 plants having but little foliage require less water 

 1 !, Ill I.' a i .uin-- a large amount, and oue in vigorous 

 ,1,, , , _ i.tli more than one in a dormant or 

 r, 1 11:; 111. "To apply water until it runs into 

 il,,' „a.; r anl not water again until the soil is in 

 condition as to almost cause the plant to wilt. With 

 plants in small Dots watering may be required every 

 day, or in some cases twice in one day." Some 

 plants, however, like the calla, require more 

 water than they would receive by following this rule, 

 but there are only a few exceptions.— JfiJss. Plough- 

 man. _. 



The Feathery Acacias in Bloom. 



The yellow acacias are in bloom, and all glorions 

 in their feathery, tropical verdure. The acacia is 

 mentioned bv very ancient writers. It extends over 

 Oriental countries, Australia and Polynesia, and ex- 

 ists in some two hundred varieties, of which only a 

 few are found in temperate climates. In the times 

 of Israel's greatness and glory, before the Wander- 

 in" Jew started on his melancholy and eternal 

 round, it* was planted at the heads of great men's 

 fraves, not as a drooping mourner, but as an emblem 

 of eternal life. It was made use of as a funeral 

 emblem by the Knightly Crusaders. For these 

 reasons, and more particularly because it was the 

 tree of Solomon, it is held in high regard by the 

 Masonic fraternity ; and of all evergreens it is pre- 

 ferred as an emblem to be worn at burials and to be 

 cast upon the cofiin lid when a friend is about to dis- 

 appear forever from the world . 



To Color Roses. 



A yonng man on the cars the other day had in his 

 hand three roses, one of which was white, oue green, 

 and one of a delicate flesh colored tint. These 

 flowers attracted the attention of the ' passengers, 

 both ladies and gentlemen. One lady remarked that 

 she had seen the buds of the green rose, another 



