The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S, S. EATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., MAY, 1881. 



Vol. XIII. No. 5. 



Editorial. 



A COUNTY FAIR. 



A Meeting of Citizens Called to Consider the 

 Matter. 



The citizens of Lancaster county and this 

 city who are interested in holding a 2;randfair 

 of the farming and industrial interests of the 

 county are requested to meet in the spacious 

 reading room at the Stevens House, oh Wed- 

 nesday afternoon at 3 p. ni., April 27, to ap- 

 point committees to act in concert with the 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Societ}' in 

 showing next fall on our Fair Grounds tlie 

 great resources of this favored spot of Penn- 

 sylvania. The exhibits will be shown under 

 immense tents and buildings to be prepared 

 for tlie occasion. 



Every farmer and artisan will be astonished 

 at the wealth and manufactures, and it is ex- 

 pected tliat all of the citizens will take hold 

 with willing hands to make it the grandest 

 exhibition ever held of our agrcultural and 

 horticultural products, of our numerous cattle, 

 sheep,- hogs, poultry, &c\ also, of all the var- 

 ious manufactures of every kind here produ- 

 ced. 



On each day of the fair there will be ex- 

 hibited in a ring prepared for the occasion a 

 cavalcade in which each farmer can show his 

 animals to advantage for the benefit of the 

 thousands of visitors. Hundreds of animals 

 will be in this immense ring at one time, led 

 or driven by their owners or attendants. 

 There will probably be the largest exhibition 

 of poultry ever brought together in Pennsyl- 

 vania, containing fancy fowls from other 

 counties and States. The details and prem- 

 ium list will be published as soon as the com- 

 mittees can prepare them. At the last meet- 

 ing of the Lanciister County Agricultural So- 

 ciety this matter was well discussed, and a 

 committee of three were appointed to make 

 the preliminary arrangement.s. 



We insert the above in this number of the 

 Fahmer, "because, having noticed it in only 

 one of our city papers, we do not think it was 

 sufficiently advertized, according to the 

 vast importance of the subject involved, and 

 hence, perhaps, the reason for the mcaser 

 gathering on the day appointed. From the 

 same paper from which we quote this, we ob- 

 serve that there were only four or five persons 

 present at the mi'cting at the Stevens House, 

 and that these transacted no business. This 

 is very much to be regretted ; but we hope it 

 is no indication of what will be ultimately 

 done in the premises. Lancaster city and 

 county ought to accomplish and ran accom- 

 plish, if they will it— all thai, is proposed in 

 the above call, although it does seem to be a 

 "big claim" to promise definitely so much in 

 advance of its determination by the farmers 

 in solemn conclave assembled. We may, how- 

 ever, be permitted to say this mucli, that no one 

 man will be able to carry out such a programme 

 without being sustained by superior person- 

 al influences, much time and patience, unusu- 

 al energy and perseverance, aud last not least, 

 ample pecuniary means. Perhaps the very 

 wisest plan would be to first ascertain upon 

 what special plane of operations the united 

 resources of the city and coimty could be con- 

 solidated in the ultimation of such a mag- 

 nificent and worthy enterprise. There should 



be no " brcalting in " on such a subject, but 

 on the contrarj' wiUi/ o£ will and purpose, 

 and all abnegation of self should bo the pre- 

 dominating influence from beginning to end; 

 and this also in the general results, as well as 

 in all particulars pointing to such results. 

 There ought to be one hundred~ov at the very 

 lowest number Ji/ty— good and trno men in 

 Lancaster city and county who arc willing to 

 assume the reponsibility of such an exhibition; 

 and whilst it may be true, as a general maxim, 

 that "where there is a. xoill there is atoay," 

 yet there is nothing truer thau that idll has 

 its limits, and those limits are often bounded 

 by a wall of adamant, beyond which no way 

 can possibly penetrate. 



We believe the fathers of the rising genera- 

 tions of farmers, mechanics and artizans are 

 making a great mistake in their apathy and 

 non-participation in agricultural and mechan- 

 ical exhibitions. These things exercise and 

 foster the higher instincts of our human 

 nature, besides encouraging mechanical and 

 agricultural skill, as well as affording a stimu- 

 lant to the cultivation ot the intellect. Any 

 one of sufficient mental capacity can see, that 

 every year it is demonstrated more clearly 

 that viind is working the lever of labor, in- 

 stead of mere physical force. These exhibi- 

 tions should occur about once a year in every 

 county in the Union, and especially ajich count 

 ties as contain the resources of the county o 

 Lancaster. Fathers do not know, in the pres- 

 ent progressive spirit of the age, how much 

 recreation their sous and daughters need as a 

 relaxation from the monotonous labors of the 

 workshop and the farm. "All work and no 

 play makes Jack a didl boy," is true in more 

 ways than one ; nevertheless, there is, and 

 alw.ays will be, a distinction between liberty 

 and license ; but the happy mean can only be 

 attained through the cultivation of a mind 

 governed by moral principle. It is true, that 

 these occasions may be prevented, or thwarted 

 from their legitimate ends, but this does not 

 militate against their proper use. Man is by 

 nature a social being, and in proportion as.he 

 ignores the social relation between himself 

 and his fellow man, in that degree he becomes 

 selfish. An exhibition of the agricultural, 

 mechanical, domestic aud mineral produc- 

 tions of a county, a State, a district or a 

 nation, is an object school to the artizans who 

 delve in these different occupations, and prac- 

 tically illustrates to the one half the world not 

 only how the other half lives, but also what it 

 knows — it becomes, as it were, a city set upon 

 a hill, where it can be seen of men. No man, 

 however, should engage in an enterprise of this 

 kind through compulsion, or with an end only 

 to pecuniary speculation. Those who necessari- 

 ly give their time to it, with no interest in it 

 save their other daily labor, should be reason- 

 ably compensated; but in all prosperous and 

 progressive communities, there must be those 

 who have an indirect or ultimate interest in 

 the success of these enterprises, and these ought 

 to labor or use their influence in behalf of th« 

 common good. There must ever Im a mutual 



intercourse between city consumption and 

 rural production, and public cxhibitious lead 

 to that commerce between these communities 

 which develops the best articles and the most 

 compensating rewards. In short, a public 

 exhibition of industrial products, is one of 

 the most practical and satisfactory advertise- 

 ments that can possibly be made, because, the 

 objects on exhibition in mute eloquence speak 

 for or against themselves. 



But the ground work must be unity of 

 purpose, mutual confidence, untiring energy, 

 disinterested perseverance, and abnegation 

 of, self relying for compensation upon reacting 

 efiects. 



•OUR HELLEBORE." 



The winter of 1880-81 will doubtleas long 

 be remembered as' one of the longest, coldest, 

 "snowiest and blowiest " in the annals of 

 meteorology— so much so, indeed, that we 

 surely thought our "Black Hellebore " {Hik- 

 boroiis niger) would perish. The perishment 

 of the insect world had been forecast by grave 

 sarans, and if these all fell victims to the 

 frigid blasts of King Boreas, how could we 

 expect a blooming winter flower to escape? 

 We say blomning, because the last time we 

 noticed it before the winter set in — about 

 Thanksgiving Day— we observed that it had 

 begun to push forth its flower buds, and in the 

 winter of 1870-80 it bloomed from November 

 to April, and never had less than a dozen 

 opened flowers at a -time. But during the 

 winter just ended it was nearly all the while . 

 covered with ice and sliow, or' slush, most of 

 the time frozen nearly as hard as a rock, and 

 what plant could expect to pass through such 

 an ordeal unscotched or unscathed by frost? 



But, when winter's frigid reign relaxed, the 

 ice had thawed and the snow had melted 

 away, there arose old Hellebore witli his half 

 a hundred swollen flower buds, congratulat- 

 ing the tiny snowdrops on the prospective 

 advent of spring. Some of his leaves were 

 nipped by frost and partially discolored, but 

 the flowers were intact. When we first ex- 

 amined the plant, March 16, we counted over 

 sixty flowers, about half of which were open- 

 ed—each expanding over two inches in diam- 

 eter—and about as many bees were holding a 

 sort of carnival among them. What a singu- 

 lar provision of prolific nature, that the deni- 

 zens of the insect and the floral worlds should 

 thus be rolling in jollity befoi% Saint Patrick's 

 day. 



When we planted our Hclebore Ave years 

 ago, it remained stationary for nearly two 

 years thereafter, apparently never making a 

 single leaf. But all the while it w;w invisibly 

 gathering strength, and now the " bush " 

 measures nearly two feet in diameter. It 

 looks like a huge composite flower, surround- 

 ed by a very dark green frill of leaves lying 

 flat upon the ground. This is perhaps an ob- 

 jection to the plant. If it bore its flowers 

 more aloft it would be more desirable, but 

 they have a short stem and all come up from 



