THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



99 



in idleness. Even a "town lot" of good to- | 

 bacco can always find a purchaser at one of 

 these depots. i 



lu lilje manner not every man can iillbid to i 

 build a sugar mill and enter into tliu niaiiii- j 

 fucture of beet or sorglium sugar, with any 

 pros|)ect of profitable remuneration. But 

 when capital has erected such a mill and fac- 

 tory, every man who owns an acre or even a 

 half acre of ground can devote it or a portion 

 of it to the cultivation of sugar-bearing plants, 

 and Hnd a ready market for tlie product of his 

 labor at the factory. These factories cannot 

 be run to ailvantage imless backed by a large 

 amount of money, nor witliout an inlinitely 

 large amount of sugar-bearing plants, there- 

 fore, thousands might engage in the culture 

 of tliose vegetables with little or no risk, after 

 tlie market is established. The interests of 

 the factory and the cultivator are perfectly 

 mutual ; one cannot exist without the other, 

 but both may exist when in harmony. 



Even so the cultivation of silk in this 

 country may become profitable in time, to a 

 multitude of small cultivators, without troub- 

 ling themselves about .the details of reeling 

 and manufacturing the article. Silk manu- 

 factories can only be established successfully 

 on ample pecuniary means, and a large 

 aniDunt of intelligent experience in n-gard to 

 their details. 



The raising of a grove of mulberry trees, 

 however, comes within the scope of the ordi- 

 nary farmer or fruit grower. He may, if he 

 chooses, also add a cocoonery to his grove and 

 rear the worms. None, however, but a land 

 owner, large or small, can be expected to es- 

 tablish a grove, but hundreds in proximity to 

 it may engage in the i)roduction of cocoons^ 

 if large depots are established for the purchase 

 of their products, and thus find employment 

 for hundreds who usiuilly speud their time in 

 idleness. AVhat au ample field of light labor 

 it would aflord for women, especially poor 

 women, for half-grown girls and boys. The 

 crop of cocoons could be sent to the market 

 immediately after they are spun, without even 

 going to the trouble of "choking" thcni, as 

 this operation can be more quickly and more 

 effeclually performed by those who largely 

 purchase them in mass. It seems to us that 

 depots for the purcliase of cocoons, as an in- 

 termediate between the producers and manu- 

 facturers, would do more to stimulate the cul. 

 tivation of silk in this country than any other 

 feature involved in the silk growing business. 



As our populatioii increases, our numbers 

 of idlers and tramps increase. At the end of 

 the first century after the achievement of our 

 National Independence, we <;ount 50,000,000 

 of souls, but it will not require anotlier hun- 

 dred years to increase the number to 100,000,- 

 000. According to the ratio of past increase 

 the latter number may be attained in 1000. 

 Now, the wisdom of the present period should 

 be so exercised as to culminate in a sustain- 

 ing provision for the increasing population, 

 by the opening up of new industries. We 

 have only to look at the immense quantity of 

 silk used in our country, and to consider 

 whether the demaud cannot be ultimately 

 supplied by the initiation of industries to that 

 end among our people. Laws should be 

 enacted for the encouragement, protection 

 and regulation of silk culture, market and 



manufacture. It is true, efforts are being 

 made in some parts of the country, to grow 

 the food plant and rear the worms, and collect 

 the cocoons, and also one or two dejiots for 

 their purchase liave been eslablislied, but no 

 extensive movement has yet been made in 

 that direction. There must be a mutual 

 interest between those who grow the silk- 

 worm pasture, tho.se who produce the cocoons, 

 those who purcliase them, and those who 

 manufacture them into the various tissues and 

 fabrics that are now fo.und in tlie mercantile 

 establishments of the country. Perliaps, 

 under a deeper stress of circumstances than 

 now prevails, tho.se who live long enough — 

 and probably within the lifetime of 

 many of the present generation — may see 

 wagon loads of cocoons coming into Lancas- 

 ter, and discharging their cargoes into ware- 

 liouse erected for that purpose, just as tobacco 

 is now brought in. It rimsl ultimately come 

 to that. Silk is consumed in immense quan- 

 tities, and its consumption is increasing. 

 After the industry is properly introduced, 

 systematized and economized, people can't 

 and won't "go back on it" any more than 

 they can on lucifer matches, stone coal, straw- 

 berries, tomatoes and railroads, or many 

 other thfngs which have become incorporated 

 with the social and domestic economy of the 

 country. But everything must have a b(<jin- 

 ning and a subsetpient progression, and many 

 people are beginning to think that the time 

 has arrived when that beginning should be 

 more emphatically made. 



ARKANSAS ET AL. 



Some days iigo I noticed a selected article 

 in the columns of the Intelligencer in relation 

 to the action of the Legislature of Arkansas 

 in determining the proper pronunciation of 

 the name of that State, in which the writer 

 seemed to think the enactment something 

 unusual, and now we should be under the ne- 

 cessity of adopting an arbitrary pronunciation 

 at the beck of legislative authority. Namely, 

 that the State government had decreed that 

 the proper pronunciation of the name is Ark- 

 unsmv with the accent on the first and last 

 .syllables, instead of accenting the second syl- 

 lable, as so many are in the habit of doing ; 

 although writing it Arkansas, as it always 

 had been written, ever since the territory and 

 State has had an existence. This name is 

 after the great river of the State, and that river 

 derived its name from *Kansas — which proba- 

 bly was an aboriginal name — with the French 

 prefix of Arc, a bow. The early settlers being 

 French, they "frenchified" the Indian name ; 

 not only attaching the prefix but also making 

 the last s silent, and sounding the a in the 

 last syllable as is sounded in ball ; hence Ark- 

 ansaw. But of late years, and especially 

 since the organization of the Territory and 

 .State of Kansas, the pronunciation was drift- 

 ing towards the pronunciation of that name 

 the prefix added, and this was most especially 

 the case with the younger generations tliat 

 have grown up since the State was formed. 



Five and forty years ago I followed my 

 secular occupation in the cities of Louisville, 

 St. Louis and other points along the Ohio 

 and Mississippi rivers, and had intercourse 



with persons from all along tlie "coasts" of 

 these two rivers, and I never heard a single 

 individual pronounce the name otherwise 

 than Arkm)saw ov Arki'.maw, and to have 

 pronounced it otherwise would have been 

 voted "preposterous, absurd, ridiculous." 



And then there was that "quick and devil- 

 ish" old tunc, yclept the ".Aritansaio Travel- 

 er," known, whi.stled or played by every man 

 and boy from I'ittsburg to New Orleans; had 

 any man essayed the pedantic or affected 

 pronunciation of Arkansas Traveler, he would 

 have been laughed to scorn if he would not 

 have been compelled to dodge the U|iheaval 

 of a score or two of "bricks." I would not 

 have rl.sked the supreme derision of the 

 "shopboard" by such a pronunciation for a 

 "mint of money." It is true, that the liter- 

 ary status of the shopboard may not have been 

 the proper standard of criticism in the matter, 

 but Arkansnw was the univeisal pronuncia- 

 tion all along the rivers named, and there is 

 reason to believe that such was the pronunci- 

 ation by the people of the State themselves. 

 But, not only was the s silent in Arkansas, it 

 was also the same in Louisville and St. Louis, 

 which were pronounced Lewyville and St, 

 Lewy. However, long before I visited these 

 regions of our country — and while I was yet 

 an apprentice— returning "trampers" famil- 

 iarized me with the name of "• Arkensaw," 

 and also with "New Orlens" instead of 

 New Orleans, the accent being on Or. In 

 those days the French were . the dominant 

 population, and of course, gave character to 

 the geographical nomenclature of that part 

 of the country. Illinois belongs to the same 

 category. How often do we hear this name 

 pronounced as if spelled lllinoise, the e being 

 added sometimes in order to convert the last 

 syllable into iwise. According to Webster's 

 "Etymological vocabulary of modern geo- 

 graphical names," Illinois is derived from 

 illini, an "Indian name for men, with the 

 French suffix ois, a "tribe of men." Whether 

 the proper pronouncation of the names of 

 States is a matter of sufficient gravity to justify 

 their Legislatures in solemn conclave assem- 

 bled, in passing legal enactments in relation 

 to the same, I do not intend here to discuss ; 

 but, on the whole, I am "right glad" that the 

 Legislature of Arkansas lias done so ; for I 

 have more than once been stared at for using 

 the "vulgarism" of Arkinsau: But now we 

 can speak with author it y, "and not as the 

 scribes." Our great local philologist, the late 

 Prof, llaldeinan, was emphatic in his opinion 

 that the name of a place or thing should 

 always be that which was given to it by ila 

 origuial discoverer and descril>erand by which 

 it became commonly known in the locality 

 where it originated and existed ; and, so long 

 as there is no violence done to common sense 

 and common decency this rule should be pre- 

 eminent. 



LUSUS NATURiE. 

 In plain English, this terra moftns "a play, 

 or fteak of nature," and is applied to any 

 anomalous or deformed production, whether 

 animal or vegetable ; and when applied to the 

 human species, it is usually denominated a 

 monstrosity. Philosophically— perhaps rather 

 physiologically — speaking, it in caused by 

 some violation of the organic laws, and the 



