The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. KATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., AUGUST, 1881. 



Vol. xni. No. 8. 



Editorial. 



SLOW PROGRESS. 



"Silk cuUiire liad fvidenlly eiigiiged the at- 

 tention of the people iu tlio.se days, for it is 

 learned from tlii.s old book that a Society for 

 Promoting the Culture of Silk then existed ; 

 that £100b was raised by subscription and an 

 additional XIUUO was voted by the A.ssenibly 

 of the Province. It is staled tliut since the 

 establishment of the filature, near-lUO pounds 

 of silk have been reeled from purchased 

 cocoons, besides large quantities reeled for 

 individuals, and the silk reeled thus and sent 

 homo, had been declared as good in quality as 

 any that c;ime to the London market, and 

 brought the price accordingly." 



We find the above ou the first page, and 

 sixth column of the PuhHc Lcdijer for Aug. 1, 

 1881, extracted from "Aitken's General 

 Register and the Gentlemen's Complete An- 

 nnal Book and Calendar, for the pocket and 

 the desk, for the year of our Lord 1773." 



One hundred and seven years liave elapsed 

 since the issue of the old publication under 

 the above comprehensive title, and the silk 

 culture does not seem to have made much 

 advance over what it was prior to the Decla- 

 ration of our National ludepeadenee. 



QMesiiOji.— Would it have been othcrwisehad 

 we never become independent of the "moth- 

 er country?" It seems that there are some 

 enterprises that CRn only succeed when stimu- 

 lated by the iron will of a potentate. Napo- 

 leon I. forced the manufacture of Beet Sugar 

 upon the French people, in order to cripple 

 the sugar interest of England, iu the West 

 Indies. 



At any rate, we are slow — very slow — in 

 getting our social, domestic and financial eyes 

 opened to the importance of silk culture in 

 the American Union. 



OLD DOCUMENTS. 

 Mr. Levi S. Heist has placed temporarily iu 

 our possession two interesting documents, 

 which, in their relations to the agricultural 

 organizations of Lancaster county — and espe- 

 cially on account of the venerable names ap- 

 pended to them— may be accounted old; and, 

 as a matter connected with the history of the 

 past in society lore, we place them on accessi- 

 ble record iu the columns of The Fakjier. 



The first, in the order of time, is a certifi- 

 cate of membership in the following words : 

 "This is to certify that the Lanuisler County 

 Agricultural Society has elected Levi S. Reist 

 a member of the society, in testimony of their 

 confidence in his capacity and inclination to 

 promote the objects of their institution, and 

 to foster the noble science of agriculture 

 generally." 



Lancaster, Sept. 3, 1831. 



Jacob Frantz, Prcsirhnt. 



James Evans, 1 t- d • , . 



Abm. Kauffman, f >««P,-csu?en««. 



Attest : D. W. Patterson, Secretary. 



Thlrtv years have elapsed since this docu- 

 ment was executed, and of the officials who 

 signed it "two are taken and two are left." 

 one of whom has passed hia fourth score. 



Mr. Beist'3 "inclinations" still run in the 

 direction of agricultural affairs, and he has 

 long been in rapport with its institutions in 

 Lancaster county. The other document 

 alluded to is an octavo pamphlet of sixteen 

 pages, containing the " Premiums and Regu- 

 lations of the First Annual Exhibition of the 

 Lancaster Coiiniy A(jricuHur(d Society, held at 

 Columbia, September 13th, 11th and loth, 

 ia.j4." Printed at the office of tha Columbia 

 Spy, and has a scrap of history formerly 

 alluded to iu these colunms by Mr. Reist. 



The following is a list of its "ofiicers' 

 names " at this period, and on this occasion : 



President. — Benjamin Herr. 



Vice Presidents.— Ja.coh B. Garber, John 

 Miller. 



Recording Secretary.— David G. Eshleman. 



Corresponding Secretary. — Alexander L. 

 Hayes. 



rreaswre?-.— Christian H. Lefever. 



Librarian. — Jacob Myers. 



J/anac/crs.— Jacob Frantz, Benjamin Eshle- 

 man, Jacob H. Hershey, J. Ilartman Iler- 

 siiey, Levi S. Heist, Abraham Peters, John 

 Strohni. 



Of these the two Vice Presidents, the Re- 

 cording Secretary, the Treasurer, and five of 

 the Board of Managers still survive, but some 

 of them cannot be very iar from four-score 

 and ten. 



Was this the same society that granted the 

 certificate of membership to Mr. Reist ? for 

 this is the list of the first exinbition held by 

 this society, and we were under the impres- 

 sion that an exhibition was held in or near 

 the city of Lancaster prior to 1851 under 

 the auspices of a county society ; still we may 

 be mistaken. 



It is a little singular how uncertain we are 

 about these matters in the absence of written 

 records made at thp daia, of their transpira- 

 tion. Scarcely thirty years have passed away, 

 and few of those who were active in our 

 county agricultural organizations cau furnish 

 an accurate and unbroken history of them 

 from memory alone. 



In order to fix authentically the first Slate 

 agricultural fair iu Lancaster county, we here 

 insert another document relating to us per- 

 sonally, and we confess that in the abseuce of 

 this paper we should have been " at sea " in 

 reference to its individuality and its date. 

 •'The Pennsylvania State Agricultural So- 

 ciety presents this certificate of merit to S. S. 

 Rathvon, as a testimonial of their approba- 

 tion of a cabinet of preserved insects, by him 

 exhibited at their annual meeting in Lancas- 

 ter, A. D. 1852. 



In testimony whereof the officers have here- 

 unto affixed their signatures, and the seal of 

 the Society, the 22ud day of October, A. D., 

 1852." 



Fred'k Watts, President. 



ROBT. C. Walker, Secrdary. 

 - We also have before us a certificate of 

 membership to the State Society, issued on 

 the 12ih of October, 1852, and signed by Geo. 

 H. Barker, Treasurer. 



According to this document, however, the 

 holder of it only retains his membership so 

 long as he contributes one dollar a year to the 

 funds of the society ; but had not this paper 

 "turned up," we should never have known 

 that we ever had sustained such a relation to 

 the State Society. 



Are there any of the members of any of 

 those older organizations who can put their 

 "finger down" upon an agricultural exhibi- 

 tion held in Lancaster county prior to the 

 one held in Cohmibia in September, 1854, 

 giving the date thereof, and the officers' 

 names ? 



Of course, those who are in possession of 

 the records of those old societies, ought to be 

 able to give a consecutive history of them, 

 and such a liistory would be interesting to 

 file among the archives of the present society. 

 We certainly have no occasion to be dis- 

 couraged about the apparent instability of the 

 present society, for it has lived longer, and 

 more effectively than any of its predecessors 

 by a hundred times. All it needs is to feel 

 that it is a permanent organization, has a 

 mission to perform, and i^etermined to per- 

 form it. 



Since writing the foregoing we have had an 

 " interview " with Mr. Reist, who has had 

 his memory brightened by contemplating the 

 above "old docs," and he puts the matter in 

 this wise : 



The first agricultural exhibition ever held 

 in the county of Lancaster, was held by the 

 State Agricultural Society, in the eastern 

 suburbs of Lancaster city, in the month of 

 October, 1852. Tlie Lancaster County So- 

 ciety, which issued the above certificate of 

 membership to Mr. Reist, was then in the full 

 tide of operation, but on this occasion co- 

 operated with the State Society, and had a 

 stipulated pecuniary interest in its exhibition. 



This exhibition was a complete success, and 

 after all its expenses were paid, and its pre- 

 miums distributed, the share of the plus pro- 

 ceeds that fell to the Lancaster County So- 

 ciety amounted to the neat sum of $800. 



The first agricultural exhibiliun held in 

 Lancaster county by a local society, was the one 

 advertised in the premium list cited above, in 

 18-J4. But owing to a malignant type of 

 dysentery which made its appearance in Co- 

 lumbia, in an epidemic form, (perhaps the 

 cholem) in the month of August, it was 

 deemed advisable to postpone the exhibition 

 to Some time in the month of October, and 

 when at length it did come off, it proved a 

 failure, and the society sunk every cent of its 

 S800, if nothing more. 



In view of the epidemic which prevailed in Co- 

 lumbia that summer, it was most unfortunate 

 that that place was selected to hold the fair. 

 Had it been held at Lancaster, it might have 

 been otherwise, and again it might not. The 

 reader may ask, why was Columbia selected, 

 "anyhow," and not Lancaster? We were 

 not a member of the society, and were too 

 much occupied otherwise to participate in its 



