122 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[August, 



Charles Rau, in the last American N^iitumlist, 

 shows that copper being too soft for the pur- 

 pose, or even bronze, the use of flint borers, 

 with wooden handles twisted by a bow and 

 string was the means probably used. Ex- 

 periment proved it could easily be done, and 

 James Wood, of Mount Kisco, N. Y., has in 

 his possession a stone with an unfinished hole 

 drilled into it, and the flint drill shaped alittle 

 like an arrow head, but with rounded end, in- 

 stead of a point, was found at the bottom of 

 the hole in the stone. 



Effi'cis of Different Colored Light on Animal 

 Growth— M. Yung, in recent investigations on 

 the eggs of frogs, trout and LymniBa, found 

 that they developed in the following order, the 

 violet hastening, tlie red retarding : violet ; 

 blue ; yellow and white near alike, red, green. 

 — Am. Nat. 



H. H. Bushry, of Clifton, Arizona, writes to 

 the American Naturalist thut the country is 

 one vast ant colony, and that ants prove the 

 greatest drawback to suecefsful agriculture in 

 that region in the arable portions. Too little 

 is yet known of their habits to determine how 

 best to abate their injuries. 



Tlie wild rice, Zizania aquatica, grows ex- 

 tensively in many parts of the United States, 

 and has been of the most important food arti- 

 cles of the Indians of the Mississippi plains. 

 After many fruitless attempts to introduce 

 this plant into Europe, the seeds arriving too 

 much dried to grow, M. Villmoriu lately sent 

 fresh grains to France packed in a box fllled 

 with wet moss. The recipient, Count Hya- 

 cintbe de Charenay, Department of the Oi-he, 

 placing them in a swamp, had the satisfac- 

 tion to see them sprouting. They soon arriv- 

 ed at maturity, and this valuable food plant 

 may there find a climate as congenial to it as 

 the swamps of America. 



A specimen of the rhinoceros (Ccetodonta 

 merki), was recently found imbedded in the 

 ice of a tributary of the Lena river, Siberia. 

 It was almost entire, with the flesh in good 

 preservation. The head and feet only were 

 preserved; the former is now at St. Peters- 

 burg.— .4?n. Nat. 



ESTIMATE OF JAY GOULD'S WEALTH 

 The impression is that Mr. Gould is laboring 

 to become the richest man on the continent, 

 and, as a nest egg, it is presumed that he is 

 worth to-day about $75,000,000, divided as 

 follows : 

 Western Union, .... $22,500,000 



Union Pacitic, 10,000,000 



Wabasli and connections - - - 4,000,000 



Missouri Pacific, 5,000,000 



Iron Mountain, - - ... . 5,000,000 

 Texas Pacific, ----- 10,000,000 

 Kansas and Texas, - . - . 2,000,000 



Kansas Pacific, i!, 000,000 



Kansas City and Northern, . - . 1,000,000 

 St. Louis Bridge and Tunnel, - - 2,O0o|o0O 



Central Pacific, 1,000,000 



New Cable, $10,000,000 



Real Estate, 500,000 



Total, $75,000,000 



INTERNAL REVENUE. 



Immense Sums Collected in Lancaster and 

 York. 

 Thos. A. Wiley, Collector of the Ninth 

 Eevenue District of Pennsylvania, comprising 

 the counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland 

 and Perry, furnishes for publication the fol- 

 lowing statement, showing the amount of 



United States revenue collected in this dis- 

 trict during the years ending June 30, 1878, 

 1870, 1880 and 1881— the subjects from which 

 the revenue was derived being given in de- 

 tail for the year 1881, and the totals only 

 being given for the years preceding; 



For the year ending June 30, '78 i 803,8 



'79 870.264.95 



;; " " ;; 'so i,064,642.47 



follows : 



OnWhiskv .7 8 117,675..S2 



" Tobacco 29,.')51.86 



" Cigans l,086,fl22.S.5 



" Beer 2.'!,529.64 



" Banks 21,020.10 



" Penalties 120.55 



81,278.820.83 



The collections for the year ending June 30, 

 1881, were, from the diflerent counties com- 

 posing the (iislrict^. as Jol lows : 



Lancaster coiinly 5R49..'i67.<i2 



York county 1512,417.21 



Cumberland ^ml Ptrrv IC.MB.OO 



81,278,820.83 



Collected atthe Lancaster office f748,5.'57.42 



Collected at York office 530,283.41 



$1,278,820.83 



THOMAS A. -WILEY, Collector. 



It will be seen that Lancaster outranks any 

 other county in the district in the amount of 

 revenue collected, and the district far sur- 

 passes all others in the State except Philadel- 

 phia and Pittsburg. 



Our Local Organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL 

 AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society was held in their rooms on 

 Monday afternoou, August 1st. The following per- 

 sons were present : 



President J, F. Witmer, of Paradise; Secretary M. 

 D. Kendig, Creswell; James Wood, Little Britain; 

 Henry M. Engle, Marietta; Henry Kurtz, Mount 

 Joy; John H, Linville, Gap; F. K. Diffenderffer, 

 city; W. W. Griest, city; J. M. Johnston, city; 

 Johnson Miller, Warwick; John H. Laudis, Millers- 

 ville; Peter Hershey, city; Jacob Bollinger, War- 

 wick; Levi S. Reist, Oregon; J. G. Rush, West 

 Willow; J. Frank Landis, East Lampeter; Ephraim 

 S. Hoover, Manheim township. 



Crop Reports. 



The reading of the minutes was dispensed with, 

 after which crop reports were called for, and John- 

 son Miller reported the wheat threshed not so good 

 as anticipated. Tobacco irregular, but recovered 

 fiom the black rot. Potato crop about an average. 



Henry Kurtz, Mount Joy, said the wheat thrashed 

 turned out rather poor, yielding only ten and twelve 

 bushels per acre in some instances, but my own 

 reaches about eighteen bushels. Tobacco is very 

 irregular, but a good crop is expected ; corn will yet 

 yield well if rain falls. Considerable hail fell on 

 Friday near Drj-town and through Donegal. 



H. M. Engle : In our immediate neighborhood less 

 rain has fallen than right around us ; pasture is 

 quite good, and young clover of this spring's sowing 

 is out in head ; tobacco in some fields is as line as I 

 ever saw it, although there is some foxiness, and 

 other fields present rather an unfavorable appear- 

 ance. Apple crop is short. Rainfall for July about 

 1>2 inches. 



J. C. Linville said that in Salisbury no rains of 

 any account had fallen since June, hence corn and 

 vegetation are doing no good. Corn is irregular ; to- 

 bacco has a poorer prospect than for years ; oats 

 crop was the best for many years ; wheat so far as 

 threshed yields poorly. Early potatoes yielded well, 

 but the later crop needs rain hadly. 



James Wood reported that his section had been 

 rather favored with rain thus far. Tobacco looks 

 well aiid promises better than farther north. Wheat 

 yields only moderately ; potato crop will yield well. 

 Wheat just across the line in Chester county gave 22, 

 bushels per acre. 



John H. Laudis reported the Manor corn looking 

 very well, with exceptional fields; potatoes are most 

 excellent ; not a single peach in the township so far 



as Mr. Landis knew; apple yield is poor; tobacco 

 patches present as varied appearances as the hues on 

 Joseph's coat. Mr. L. saw the best tobacco fields he 

 had seen anywhere, in Fulton and Little Britain 

 towrships. 



M D. Kendig, for Western Manor, said that lack 

 of rain retarded to the growth of crops very much. 

 Some tobacco is being topped ; pasture is drying up ; 

 young clover is yet well set, and on the whole, our 

 crops have not suffered so much as in some other 

 sections. 



J. F. Landis, East Lampeter, said that wheat 

 yields about from 12 to 16 bushels per acre ; oats 

 good crop ; peaches not any; apples very few, and 

 the tobacco is looking well, the rain of last Saturday 

 making it fairly jump. 



Mr. -Jacoby Bollinger assured the members present 

 that his peach trees had yielded two of the velvety 

 fruit, that tobacco was short, potatoes an average 

 crop, young clover destroyed by grasshoppers and 

 drouth, corn in stubble fields not good, that the pear 

 trees were full, and apples falling off fast. 



J. F. Witmer, of Paradise, reported that in his 

 township (which, if there is anything in a name 

 ought to fiow with milk and honey), the tobacco was 

 shooting, corn promising, and wheat not a full crop. 

 Along-the Strasburg pike the tobacco is surprisingly 

 short. 



H. M. Engle had observed that the corn cultivated 

 later withstood the drouth much better than the 

 early cultivated corn ; also a dry spell on the head of 

 fresh cultivation is injurious. A great mistake among 

 farmers is that they plant late potatoes too early ; 

 they should be planted so as to mature about the 

 close of September, in which event a failure in ten 

 years will be very improbable. 



Answering Questions. 

 What varieties of wheat should farmers sow this 

 fall ? was responded to by Johnson Miller, who said 

 the Fult.z wheat was a decided failure this season 

 and that he generally had to fall back on the old Red 

 Mediterranean. He thought it would be the best to 

 sow it this fall. He had tried Eureka and it did not 

 ripen for him. 



Mr. Linville also deserted the Fultz wheat. A 

 number of farmers in his neighborhood had tried the 

 Eureka and it looked well so far as he had observed. 

 The Rogers White, from Ohio, yielded well and gave 

 satisfaction, save that there were a great many smut 

 heads in it. The Seneca White was also recom- 

 mended by some, but the speaker had not tried it. 



Mr. Bollinger, for the last ten years, had sowed a 

 field half and half in Mediterranean and Fultz, and 

 he was satisfied that the Fultz was decidedly the 

 better. In the early sown the fly destroyed the 

 Mediterranean, whilein the late sown field the Fultz 

 was not much superior to the .Mediterranean. He 

 stood by the Fultz. 



Johnson -Miller had also mixed the two varieties 

 and found that both kinds did better — two or three 

 bushels more to the acre— than when sown in sepa- 

 rate fields. 



J. C. Linville sowed the most of his wheat from 

 the 20th to the 25th of September last, but two acres 

 sown October 2d yielded very decidedly the better 

 crop. 



Mr. Engle concluded that as usual every farmer 

 would choose his own seed wheat. Different varie. 

 ties have had their day and ceased to be. The old 

 straw wheat, Lancaster wheat and many other 

 varieties were all prominent in their day, but passed 

 away. For himself Mr. Engle preferred the Fultz. 



Levi S. Reist said the Fultz wheat yielded less 

 straw than other varieties, and required a rich, low 

 soil. The Red Mediterranean was the most durable 

 variety, and Mr. Reist gave his preference to it.- 



Mr. Wood said the Fultz wheat did best for him ; 

 no Mediterranean was raised in his neighborhood. 

 He used Key's Prolific. 



Mr. J. F. Witmer said the Fultz was preferred In 

 h'is neighborhood, but hi^ experience with it was 

 entirely unsatisfactory. In the last four years he 

 had sown a red-bearded wheat, the name unknown, 

 which had yielded very well. The Eureka's straw 



