44 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March, 



early looks bad and that which was sown late looks 

 well. The early sown will probably yield a poor crop 

 and the late-sown a good one. 



Johnson Miller said that some wheat fields that 

 looked very well when the snow melted have been 

 much injured by the recent storm. 



Peter S. Eeist endorsed the views of the above gen- 

 tlemen as to the wheat and peach prospect, and 

 called attention to the fact . that the bee keepers 

 would hold a meeting at the Black Horse hotel next 

 Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock. 



Henry M. Engle said that about Marietta they had 

 considerably more snow than here, and that the 

 wheat looks well ; the clover is poor and will proba- 

 bly yield a poor crop. He advised farmers to pro- 

 vide sustitutes. Hungarian grass, green corn, oats, 

 peas, &c., cnt green "and cured, made good feed, 

 for cattle, so that farmers need not suffer. The 

 peach buds are pretty generally killed and some of 

 the wood is also killed; apples and pears are all 

 right ; cherries a good deal damaged ; grapes and 

 raspberries better than expected: many hives of 

 bees killed. The rainfall for January was 3 9-16 

 inches for February 2% inches. 



Wm. H. Brosius of Drumore, said wheat and grass 

 looked poorly. 



John G. Resh of Pequea, said the same, but that 

 the wells and springs were in good condition and 

 there was little danger of a drouth next summer. 



John C. Linville read the following easy : 

 A Chester County Sale— The Great Dairy of 

 Enos Bernard 



The subject of ensilage is now giving rise to much 

 discussion among the farmers of New York and the 

 New England States. Although it does not yet 

 amount to a " boom " among the steady-going farm- 

 ers of Eastern Pennsylvania, the matter is beginning 

 to excite some inquiry. 



With the view of learning something about this 

 much-praised and much abused ensilage, I, on the 

 the second instant, in company with my brother, vis- 

 ited the dairy of Enos Barnard, near Doe Run, Ches- 

 ter county. 



We were hospitably received by the proprietor, 

 who took us at once to the silo. This is neither 

 more nor less than a large root cellar. The cultiva- 

 tion of roots has been abandoned because of the im- 

 mense labor of raising and storing them. 



We euter the silo through a door in the back wall 

 of the cow stables. The odor of the "cow-crout" is 

 perceptible as soon as we approach the door. The 

 door sill is three feet above the bottom of the silo, 

 and the ensilage has been removed only to this level. 

 We walk in on the ensilage and perceive at once that 

 it is quite juicy when we tread on it. Tankee-like, I 

 asked a great many questions, which were as 

 promptly answered by our host. He does not con- 

 sider the present trial a fair test of the value of en- 

 eilege. Finding that his hay crop would be inade- 

 quate for his large dairy— 180 cows— he broke up 

 eight acres after harvest and planted It with corn. 

 Most of it was seeded with the wheat drill and not 

 cultivated. 



Although the corn grew rapidly it had not attained 

 sutlicient maturity when cold weather came on. He 

 then went to work with fifteen men and a large fod- 

 der cutter driven by steam power and in three days 

 he put the crop, of over 100 tons, in the silo. The 

 machine was set to cut the pieces one eighth of an 

 inch in length. The ensilage is covered with boards 

 running across the silo and weighted with slones. 

 1,000 pounds pressure per square yard is applied. 

 The joists over the cellar were lifted until the ensi- 

 lage was settled enough to allow them to be re- 

 palaced. 



Sixty cows are in the barn containing the silo and 

 they are fed .0 bushels of the " crout " per day at 

 two feeds, and notwithstanding its somewhat sour 

 stfiell and taste, they eat it with avidi'y. The ensi- 

 lage is mixed with cut fodder, corn and cob meal, 

 bran and cottonseed meal. This is certainly a bill 

 of fare over which the most fastidious cow might 

 smile. 



As regards the value of ensilage as a butter pro- 

 ducer, sur entertainer could give no information, as 

 he has not tested it in comparison with other feeds. 

 He thinks if the corn was planted earlier in the sea- 

 son and well cultivated, and better matured, the en- 

 silege would make richer feed. Ho notified his com ■ 

 mission merchant in Philadelphia that he had begun 

 feeding ensilage and if objections were made to the 

 butter, be should report immediately. His patrons 

 have been eating the butter for several weeks, and 

 eo far have not given a single squeak. 



From the silo we went to the dairy. This building 

 has been gotten up at great expense. The walls are 

 constructed with five compartments with sheathing 

 paper between and plastered on the inside. The ceil- 

 ings are the same and the floors are laid with arti- 

 ficial stone. The windows are made of three or four 

 sashes, flitting as closely as possible. The object in 

 all this is to make the building as nearly air-tight as 

 possible. 



Standing out on the hill, perhaps K05 feet from the 

 dairy, is an object resembling a gigantic trumpet 

 with a vane attached, so that the flaring mouth of 

 the trumpet is always directed to the wind. Con- 



necting this apparatus with the dairy is a subter- 

 ranean passage or air-duct. This air duct is fifteen 

 feet below the surface of the ground and was tun- 

 neled, part of the way, through rock. It is arched 

 over with stone and a man can pass through it. As 

 the temperature of the earth, at a depth of fifteen 

 feet is about the same, summer and winter, the dairy 

 can be supplied with cool pure air in summer through 

 this duct. The proprietor considers it a success. 



The milk is set in shallow pans. Steam furnishes 

 the motive power. The boiler supplies water for 

 washing the dairy fixtures and steam pipes warm 

 the milk room and wash and drying room. The en- 

 gine cuts fodder and ensilage, runs the three large 

 churns, pumps the milk up from the cellar, and 

 does all that a faitliful steam engine can do to light- 

 en the labor of the dairy. On the high ground in- 

 the rear of Ihe buildings stands a wind engine which 

 pumps water for the stock. It is scarcely necessary 

 to say that the most rigid cleanliness and order are 

 observed in the dairy. 



Of course, these costly appliances are out of the 

 reach of the average farmer ; but Emerson says we 

 should " hitch our wagon to a star." It is well to 

 note the work of advanced farmers as we pass along 

 and we may find something worthy of imitation 

 even ina small way. 



In the meantime the dinner bell rang. Our horses 

 were well cared for, and we were soon resting our 

 legs under our host's mahogany. All of which goes 

 to show that " hospitality is not an obsolete word " 

 in Chester county. 



The essay was discussed at considerable length by 

 Dr. Greene, Henry M. Engle, Jos. F. Witmer, John 

 G. Resh, Wm. H. Brosius and others, some of the 

 speakers professing to believe that ensilage would 

 prove of great value, and others fearing that it 

 would not. The discussion took a very discursive 

 range. 



Insects and Agriculture. 



Dr.,C. A. Greene read an essay on the above sub- 

 ject, of which we have only room for the following 

 abstract : 



The gentleman prefaced his remarks by congratu- 

 lating the society upon the fact that a number of the 

 papers read before it had been widely copied and 

 discussed in the newspapers. He then referred 

 briefiy to a criticism by Dr. Rathvon of his (Dr. 

 Greene's) paper, recently published in the Intelli- 

 gencer, in which he stated that insect life in all its 

 forms would be largely killed off by the continuous 

 cold weather of this winter. To this Dr. Kathvon 

 had taken exceptions, and gave instances of insects 

 being taken out of solid blocks of frozen earth, 

 which were not dead, and contended that insects 

 were not always killed by the cold. These cases, 

 Dr. Greene contended, were but exceptions to the 

 general rule, and should furnish no argument 

 against the truth of his statements. He was willing 

 to admit that entomologists were at sea on this sub- 

 ject. Tile following questions have never been satis- 

 factorily answered : How great a degree of cold will 

 kill insect life ? How long must insects' eggs and 

 larva, etc., be frozen before life Is extinct? What 

 class of insects are easiest killed by freezing? What 

 variety can longest endure freezing? These ques- 

 tions, he said, should long since have been answered 

 by the entomologists in our agricultural college, and 

 in the agricultural department at Washington. If 

 Prof. Pviley had turned his attention to this matter, 

 and also to the one whether the honey bee does or 

 does not destroy the grape, he would have been of 

 some service to the people. 



There is a degree of cold that will kill any larva, 

 imago, eggs, chrysalis or insect, and our paid-for it 

 entomologists, like Prof. Riley, who received over 

 $.5,000 last year, should answer satisfactorily the 

 above inquiries. The form of insect life that we see 

 in the various forms of cocoons will resist the ac- 

 tion of the cold longer and of a greater degree than 

 when not similarly protected, as the silk covering is 

 a non-conductor of the heat, and hence prevents its 

 inmate from being easily frozen. The United States 

 has arrived at the state of its condition, in its intel- 

 lectual scale, as now to demand many new commis- 

 sions and improvements. We need now a commis- 

 sioner general, and several subordinates, one of 

 agriculture, another of commerce, another of 

 geology and another of entomology. Heretofore our 

 progress has been hindered by not collecting valu- 

 able information. 



To those who have read the entomological mis- 

 carriage of Prof. Riley, in his endeavors to let the 

 public believe he is the first man to bring the pyre- 

 thrum before the people, let me here say that in the 

 United States Agricultural Report of 1861, page 2J3, 

 you will find it fully described and references show- 

 ing it was known and used many years before. This 

 pyrethrum (called bv many druggists in this country 

 and Eurojie Persian insect powder,) is called techni- 

 cally the Pyrethrum of Caucasus. It belongs to the 

 chamomile family, and it is a very sure and general 

 insect destroyer, and can be easily raised in this 

 country. There are several varieties of the pyre- 

 thrum, some of which are worthless. In the above 

 volume is a very valuable essay on insects by Prof. 

 Rathvon, of thirty five pages with ninety-seven illus- 

 trations, printed,aB you see, twenty years ago. Now 



it is about time the government took such men into 

 their employ; Prof. Rathvon has a very large store 

 of valuable entomological facts which would be 

 worth thousands of dollars to .the farmers of the 

 United States if the United States Government 

 would employ his valuable services, and pay for 

 them. For two-score years and more he has been 

 laboring almost for nothing. There is plenty of 

 talent in our country if 'only properly brought to- 

 gether. The acquired information of Hon. Marshall 

 Wilder, of Boston, Dr. John Warder, of Cincinnati, 

 and Judge George D. Stitzel, of Reading, Pa., on 

 fruits of all kinds, should be collected and saved to 

 the world. The services of Prof. Herman Stocker 

 (who has, although a day laborer — a worker On 

 marble— collected together 60,000 butterflies,) 

 should be retained by our government. An immense 

 amount of valuable information has been lost to the 

 world that in the above manner could have been 

 saved. A farmer can write all the experiences of a 

 lifetime in a small work, and if the government 

 would adopt the above suggestions, they would be of 

 incalculable service to the people. Heretofore a 

 gem has been here and there seen and retained, and 

 thousands lost in the above manner. All inventions, 

 discoveries and experiences of the mineralogist, the 

 farmer and the artisan could be collated and pre- 

 served. 



The expense to the government would only be a 

 trifle as compared with the ultimate benefits de- 

 rived. The loss every year to the farmers of the 

 United States, from insects only, amounts to mil- 

 lions of dollars. 



Mr. Engle regarded Dr Greene's essay as a valua- 

 bleone, and especially urged farmers to test the merits 

 of the Pyrethrum. 



Casper Hiller read an exhaustive essay ou the cul- 

 tivation of corn. See page iO. 



The essay was discussed at great length by P. S. 

 Reist, Dr. Greene, Henry M. Engle, J. C. Linville, 

 Wm. H. Brosius, C. L. Hunsecker and President 

 Witmer. Verily, corn is a subject that makes folks 

 loquacious, whether in the hill, the shock, the crib, 

 the silo, the distillery or the taverni 

 Books Presented. 



I. L. Landispresented the society with two bound 

 volumes of the Religious Farmer, published Id 

 1S2S-9. 



Mr. Engle presented copies of the report of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, report of Pennsylvania, 

 Fruit Growers' society, and Agriculture of Pennsyl- 

 vania, 1880. 



Seeds and Nuts Distributed. 



Dr. S. S. Rathvon presented for distribution pack- 

 ages of squash seeds. 



Levi S. Reist presented about a pint of very large 

 chestnuts, grown from a tree planted by himself. 

 Exchange of Reports. 



On motion, Mr. Engle was authorized to make ex- 

 changes of the reports of the board of agriculture 

 and other Pennsylvania publications for similar re- 

 ports published by other stales. 



John H. Landis stated that he had the names of 

 the members of the society at the head of his list of 

 those to whom he distributed state documents, and 

 he would endeavor to supply all in his own district 

 with the agricultural reports, and, if possible, those 

 residing in the Northern district. 



A Life Membership. 



In consideration of the many valuable works pre- 

 sented by John H. Landis to the society, and in ac- 

 knowledirmcnt of liis untiring zeal in furthering the 

 interests of f.irmers, Mr. Engle moved that Mr. 

 Landis be elected a life member of the society. 



The motion was unanimously agreed to, and Mr. 

 Landis briefly acknowledged the compliment. 



Adjourned. 



THE POULTRY SOCIETY. 



Discussions at the March Meeting. 



The regular monthlv meeting of the Poultry As- 

 sociation was held Monday, Mal-ch ~th. The follow- 

 ing members were present ; J. B. Lichty, city; C. A. 

 Gast, city; .John C. Linville, Sadsbury; Wm. L. 

 Hershey, Chickies; Charles E. Long, city ; John E. 

 Schum, city; J. M.Johnston, city; W. A. Schoen- 

 berger, city; J. W. Bruckhart, Salunga; Charles 

 Lippold, city ; F. R. Diffenderffer, city ; S. G. Engle, 

 .Marietta; T. Frank Buch, LitHz; J. B. tiarman, 

 Leacock ; George A. Geyer, Spring Garden ; 'Squire 

 Grieder, MoantviUe; Josdph F. Witmer, Paradise ; 

 and J. A. Stober, Schoeueck. 



In the absence of the President, Vice President 

 Geo. A). Geyer called the association to order. 



The minutes of the previous meeting were road by 

 Secretary Lichty, aud approved as read. 

 New Business. 



Edward Trlssler, of Lancaster ; Jacob Barnhart, ■ 

 Frederick Beates and John Boots, of Lancaster ; 

 Cyrus B. Neff, of Manor; A. G. .Musser, of Mariet- 

 ta; J. F. Johnson, of Maytown; Dr. E. Keller, of 

 Elizabethtowu ; J. S. Keudig, of Mountville ; Henry 

 S. Musser, of Marietta; C. Musselman, of Witmer, 

 and John H. Tyson, of Cordelia, were nominated 

 and elected to membership. 



