54 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



often publish receipts and items on physiology 

 ■ that are truthless, worthless and often ex- 

 ceedingly injurious. In a March number of 

 the Philadelphia Record sulphate of zinc 

 and foxglove (or digitalis) are called a sure 

 remedy for small pox, and yet both of them 

 are powerful poisons; one grain of foxglove, 

 which is the l-480th part of an ounce, has 

 been known to produce vertigo, extreme pains 

 dimness of vision, and a reduction of the 

 pulse from 80 to 40 beats a minute. In the 

 same issue was the following receipt: 



"A solution of oxalic acid is the best for 

 scouring and polishing copper. Finish with 

 whiting." 



Now as editors are not chemists or physi- 

 cians, why will they in this reckless manner 

 give such statements to their readers? The 

 blacksmith who never saw an astronomical 

 instrument, does not force his crude concep- 

 tions of celestial bodies upon the people. 

 Oxalic acid is also a very dangerous poison, 

 and only a few grains of it taken into the 

 stomach will produce disastrous symptoms 

 and death, and merely handling it may intro- 

 duce into the system sufficient to produce 

 thousands of unnecessary pains and aches. 

 It should never be found in your home; it is 

 as dangerous as a rattlesnake. 



COPPER UTENSILS. 



Many farmers do a large amount of cooking 

 for themselves and their cattle, poultry, &c., 

 in copper and brass kettles. Any of them 

 when not used for a time are lined with ver- 

 digris, called in the books subacetate of 

 copper, also oxide of copper, and it is soluble 

 in water and is a virulent poison. Brass ket- 

 tles are made from copper and zinc. Any 

 acid will always act upon metals. If you stew 

 apples, cramberries, tomatoes or any fruit or 

 vegetable that is of an- acid nature, the acid 

 eats or corrodes the copper or zinc and forms 

 usually acetate of copper or zinc. No matter 

 how small the quantity swallowed, it is a 

 foreign substance as well as poisonous, and 

 produces indigestion. The acid of apples is 

 called malic or sorcic acid, and if it comes in 

 contact with copper, sine, lead or tin, will 

 produce malatate of copper, zinc, lead and 

 tin. The formentation of apples or cider, 

 giade from apples, produces vinegar, which is 

 dilute acetic acid, aud it will also produce the 

 same chemical changes if it has the opportun- 

 ity, and the results will be acetate of copper, 

 acetate of zinc, lead and tin. When the milk 

 become sour it produces lactic acid which will 

 a,ct in the same manner as the above acids, 

 and for lactate of copper, lead, zinc and tin, 

 and all of these metals are poisonous, and 

 every one injures the health of the individual 

 who has eating them in his or her food. Dys- 

 pepsia in some of its forms, paralysis, neural- 

 gia, and affection of the organs of the body, 

 are the sequences. I would as soon have a 

 copperhead snake- in my house as a brass or 

 copper utensil for cooking purpose's. If they 

 are scoured ever so clean, the acid will act 

 upon them even more readily. It is a com- 

 com occurence when pickles become a little 

 changed in the spring, to put pickles and vin- 

 egar in a copper or brass kettle and boil them 

 fur a time and they come out much improved 

 in appearance, and handsomely greened. 

 This bright color is acetate of copper. Tin 

 vessels also lose their lustre by long exposure 

 and forms a poison called oxide of tin. Lead 

 pipes have been used for many years to con- 

 vey drinking water; it it stands for some time 

 in the pipe the oxide of lead is formed aud 

 any one drinking it is.poisoned. 



The quail and partridge in the cold winter 

 months eat poison berri.es and in this way 

 they contaminate their flesh and injure the 

 health of the one who eats it. Acetic acid is 

 distilled vinegar. If you take one pint of 

 acetic acid and seven pints of water, and unite 

 together, you have eight pints of vinegar. 



SOAP. 



Some soap makers, regardless of the conse- 

 quences, take the tallow or fat of diseased ani- 

 mals and make them into soap. The unchanged 

 virus is absorbed into the body while being 



used for washing purposes. If you cook 

 lemons in a brass or copper kettle, the acid of 

 the fruit, called citric, will act upon the 

 metals in the same manner and form citrate 

 of copper, zinc, &c. 



HAra BRUSHES. 



Many persons use the hair brush of, another 

 individual, or the barber uses upon a hundred 

 or a thousand heads the same brush. If any 

 of his patrons have tetter, eczema, syphilis or 

 other skin disease, it can be readily conveyed 

 to any one whose head is briskly rubbed with 

 it. In the above and many other ways are 

 poisons conveyed into the body, and the vic- 

 tim of the virus may suffer all his life from 

 the effects. I have brought for inspection 

 some of these poisons, aud to show how small 

 a quantitv of copper will by the laws of 

 affinity make itself known, I propose to add 

 one drop of a solution of nitrate of copper to 

 one hundred drops of water, and then add one 

 drop of aqua ammonia to the colorless liquid 

 and it will at once become beautifully blue. I 

 will conclude by saying that there is a friend 

 of mine in this city who has over 100 tumors 

 on his body occasioned by his handling paints. 



At the close of his essay Dr. Greene made a 

 number of chemical experiments with the 

 poisons referred to in the essay. 



Mr. Engle said that it was news to him 

 that the souring of milk in tin cans produced 

 a poisonous acid, and yet there seemed to be 

 no doubt it would do so. 



In answer to questions. Dr. Greene said 

 that tin was a less dangerous metal to be 

 brought in contact with food than zinc, brass 

 or copper. Iron vessels may be safely used as 

 cooking utensils,as',when iron is taken in prop- 

 er proportions it is not injurious; but people 

 usually get enough of it in the food cooked 

 in iron vessels, without taking it as a medi- 

 cine. 



PRUNING TREES.* 

 There is nothing more deserving of admi- 

 ration than a well proportioned tree. Trees, 

 when left to grow naturally, usually assume 

 an outline that is pleasing ; but where prun- 

 ing is properly understood and apphed, the 

 general appearance of trees can be much im- 

 proved. If pruning be judged by what is 

 seen around us it would be difficult to assert 

 that it is generally beneficial, for too often it 

 has resulted in the permanent injury of trees 

 and certainly to the disfigurement of nearly 

 every street in Philadelphia. On a place 

 where young trees have been recently planted 

 tliere is room for the pruner's skill. There 

 are many small fruit orchards in our town 

 where pruning has been understood, that con- 

 tain pear and other trees, models of symmet-ry. 

 Pruning should commence before a tree is 

 planted. In digging trees there are usually 

 some roots bruised, and these roots should be 

 pruned off, otherwise fungus will attack the 

 diseased parts, and fungus around the roots 

 is the mortal enemy of trees. If the trees 

 that are being planted are fruit trees, such as 

 pears and plums, the branches will generally 

 need pruning ; and here at the start, is where 

 the greatest amount of knowledge is needed. 

 There may be two reasons for pruning. 

 The first is that in transplanting some roots 

 are always lost ; and a cutting away of some 

 branches is needed, because the fibres, or 

 feeders of these branches, have been lost. In 

 other words, the servants to caiTy the provi- 

 sions have disappeared, and some of the occu- 

 pants of the house must go to enable the rest 

 to be served. The other reason for pruning 

 is to form the outline of the future tree. If 

 the tree is wanted with a tall stem that youth- 

 ful depredators cannot easily climb, the lower 

 branches must be pruned away. If, however, 

 the tree is desired with branches to the 

 ground, it is the proper time to prune it. 

 There is a very general belief that fruit trees 

 are better for having their stems somewliat 

 sliaded when young, but this should not be 



Horticultural 



considered where a low-branched tree is not 

 desired. 



In pruning the tree on account of loss of 

 roots; the weak shoots are the ones to take 

 out so far as possible, leaving the strong ones 

 wherever they have grown out at desirable 

 places to make a shapely tree. There is too 

 little care given to forming the future habit of . 

 the tree at pruning. The usual way is to 

 prune off the strong branches here and there 

 to compensate for the loss of roots, with no 

 regard to whether the cut has been where it 

 was needed, and forgetting that the weak 

 shoots are the ones to cut out. It not unfre- 

 quently happens that fruit trees are cut back 

 several feet with no good to the tree, and 

 making it take a year or two of growth to gain 

 the size it was. 



A tree properly planted and pruned will 

 need but little heavy work afterwards if a 

 little care be constantly given it. The most 

 of the pruning will be to regulate the shape of 

 the tree, and this can be done mostly when 

 the tree is growing in the spring and summer 

 time. A little attention in the growing season 

 goes a great way. If a bushier growth be 

 needed, the pinching off of a shoot will cause 

 the buds along the side to burst and grow, 

 and very soon a twiggy growth and a bushy 

 tree is the result, isummer pruning is the 

 only kind to be practiced to make a dense 

 growth. In the winter time pruning tends to 

 make vigorous shoots but not bushy ones. 

 Just below where cut off, one bud, aud gener- 

 ally one only, will burst out and grow up 

 strong. Wherever weak shoots exist, winter 

 pruning will benefit the tree by giving a 

 stronger and cleaner growth the following 

 year. To know what we waut is the point 

 to be sure of before we commence to cut a 

 tree. 



The street 4;rees of Philadelphia are pruned 

 in a way that produces the very opposite of 

 what is" desired. The trees are generally 

 poplars, maples and similar trees, that have 

 grown too tall, and the desire is to dwarf 

 them. Some one with a hatchet and saw is 

 called in, who speedily dwarfs the tree by 

 sawing it almost to the ground. The^ tree 

 makes a somewhat weaker growth the next 

 year, but the pruner thinks it needs sharpen- 

 ing and cuts again the next winter, and a 

 season or two of this treatment gives the 

 owner a half-dead stump in front of his house. 

 The mistake is that a tree growing too tall 

 was planted, and that it was not pruned every . 

 summer to keep it dwarf and bushy. Sum- 

 mer pruning takes but little of the growth of 

 the tree away, and in this way there is no in- 

 jury to the vitality of a tree. Repeated prun- 

 ing of a tree weakens and kills it. This is not 

 usually thought of, but it is nevertheless a 

 fact that every branch removed from a tree is 

 a blow to its vitality. Every greenhouse lad 

 knows that the geranium which is repeatedly 

 cut for cuttings dies ; and in the same way 

 the tree that is repeatedly pruned dies. This 

 knowledge is turned to good account by prac- 

 tical fruit-growers. 



So long as a fruit tree is growing strongly it 

 seldom bears well. It is only when it attains 

 some size, and maturity commences, that it 

 begins to fruit. To take away from a tree or 

 plant spme of its growing; forces, is to make it 

 flower and fruit. This Knowledge' gave rise 

 to the practice of root-pruning to produce 

 fruit, and being founded on natural laws it has 

 proven successful. A tree that seems in full 

 vigor, making a strong growth with healthy 

 leaves, showing nothing ails it, can be gener- 

 ally thrown into bearing by a pruning of the 

 roots. It is often practiced and is generally 

 successful. Some are satisfied with thrusting 

 a spade down here and there around the tree, 

 but this is too risky, as more roots may be cut 

 oft" than desirable. The best way is to dig a 

 trench on one side of the tree, cutting off a 

 few of the strongest roots. This side should 

 be the one least exposed to high winds, so 

 that no danger of blowing over is brought to 

 the tree. ' But roots enough cut off to make 

 the tree liable to blow over is not wanted; a 

 few strong ones will be enough. Many a per- 



