1881.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



131 



Sumach," (Bhm tiiphina) the "Smooth Su- 

 mach," {lilinxijlabra), Dwarf Sumach, V'''"'.s 

 capalina), "roisoii Sumacli" {R venenutn) 

 and "Fragrant Sumach" [Elms aromatica). 

 Tliere is also a creeping ov viuhig species, 

 called sometimes "Poison Ivy" (Ithun toxico- 

 dendrunt) which assends trees and winds 

 around fence posts, or creeps over rocks, 

 stoncpiles, or other accessible support. These 

 species themselves together with their eogeu- 

 ers in ditterent parts of the world constitute 

 the "Cashew family," {Anacardiacca;); it oc- 

 curs abundantly all over a large part of the 

 United States, and grows on ground that 

 will hardly produce any thing else. The very 

 fact of its abundance almost everywhere, and 

 the unfriendly soil iu which it luxuriantly 

 floiu-ishes, aeem to indicate that it has been 

 permitted for some important use to the 

 human family. When we think of the time 

 when no potatoes or maize were cultivated 

 (indeed tis .sai*l there are localities still on 

 the'continent of Europe where they are com- 

 paratively unknown) and what essential fac- 

 tors they now are in the domestic economy of 

 human society, we may feel pretty confident 

 that a period xoill arrim iu the industrial 

 history of our country, when the cultivation, 

 or gathering and ultilizing sumach, will be one 

 of the sources of agricultural production. 

 There will be millions in it, and so soon as 

 the other sources of tanning are exhausted 

 (which are every year becoming more super- 

 scribed) the people will think of realizing 

 these millions and keeping tliem in the coun- 

 try. As to the quality of American Sumach, 

 as compared with the foreign product.lt would 

 be a reflection on American genius to pre- 

 sume tliat no discovery could be made by 

 which its value could be equalized. Let 

 establishments be erected for its purchase 

 and preparation for market, and traffic in it 

 will soon grow up and become profitable. 



"THE SUGAR-BEET." 

 The August number 1881, of this energetic 

 advocate of a laudable, but still dubious in- 

 dustry of the United States.has come to hand, 

 freighted with its usual amount of informa- 

 tion on this interesting and useful topic from 

 all parts of the world where the beet has 

 been, and still is growing, and sugar has 

 been made. It is perhaps useless to couple 

 with this subject any moral, patriotic, or 

 utilitarian ideas, for the world seems to have 

 attained to that condition of practical 

 thoiight, where it can only exercise a Judg- 

 ment on the fitness of things, so far as 

 they are based on pecuniary profits. There 

 are plenty of people in the world who would 

 not accumulate wealth by selling intoxicat- 

 ing liquors, raising race-horses, selling lottery 

 tickets, or cultivating tobacco, because of the 

 immoral tendencies— assumed or otherwise 

 —of those occupations; but then for one who 

 would not, there are perhaps fifty who woidd, 

 so long as they yielded a more lucrative 

 income than other occupations. Somehow 

 men are more inttucnced by present profits 

 than by future, or prospective benefits. 



Through this ordeal the sugar interests 

 will have to pass, however certain it may be 

 known, that we are absolutely paying millions 

 of dollars every year for an industrial pro- 

 duct that could be realized at home if we could 



become sufficiently interested to make an en- 

 ergetic beginning, and persevering in it, and 

 sufficiently rt<,sintercsted to undergo present 

 denial for the sake of future emolument and 

 ultimate good. 



Scan the inside history of the American 

 Revolution, the war of 181-2, the Mexican 

 war, our wars with the aboriginal tribes, and 

 the war of the (iceat Rebellion, and it will 

 be astonishing how many persons were influ- 

 enced by motives of sclf-clevatiou, self-ad- 

 vam;cment, and selfish pecuniary gain, and 

 not at all by motives of patriotism and philan- 

 thropy. If the cultivation of tobacco con- 

 tinues far more [irofitable than wheat, we 

 need not at all be surprised if farmers should 

 abandon the cultivation of the latter crop 

 entirely, and depend upon other districts for 

 their supply of breack The sugar interest, 

 either extracted from beets, sorghum, corn- 

 stalks, or other species of vcgetatio'ii, will 

 doubtless ultimately prevail, although at pres- 

 ent there may seem to be odds against it. 

 The great difficulty seems to l>e in the projier 

 inauguration of it. There would be little 

 use in building a sugar manufactory if there 

 was no raw material to supply it, and there 

 would be just as. little use in cultivating the 

 raw material if there was no permanent and 

 responsible ■ market for it. Tobacco may be 

 packed and kept for years before it is manu- 

 factured, but the sugar bearing material has 

 to be used within a certain season or it be- 

 comes useles, unless the drying process be- 

 comes an undoubted success. Heavy expen- 

 ditures, injudicious investments, and needk-ss 

 extravagance in the bcginning,may attend the 

 enterprise as they have attended many others, 

 but through energetic perseverance it will 

 settle down on a paying basis; for, reason as 

 we will, "pay" is the moving force of all in- 

 dustries, of whatsoever kind and character 

 they may be. 



Beet Sugar in Canada. 

 If Madam Uumor speaks truly, we shall soon see 

 the beet root sugar busincfs started on this continent 

 in a style that promises success instead of failure. 

 This time it is Europeans who enter the field, men of 

 experience who have long been engaged in sugar 

 manufacture, and who are thoroughly acquainted 

 with every step in the business. A company has 

 been organized in Paris with a capital of $:i,000,000, 

 who will at once enter upon the preliminary work. 

 We regret their field of operations is Canada, where 

 they will ercet a number of factories, costing $100,- 

 000 or more, each Tliis, we believe, will solve the 

 question on this side of the Atlantic. While it is 

 not a questionable matter whether it will pay in that 

 cool climate, we feel assured that all the conditions 

 of success are present in a still greater degree south 

 of the Dominion line. We have a far more desir- 

 able climate, a far wider area for experiment, better 

 farmers, more intelligent methods and are in every 

 way better prepared to bring the experiments to a 

 favorable solution. Still, we are satisfied to have 

 the good work begun among our neighbors, because 

 we feel assured that it will not be long before the 

 advantages of the southern side of the border will 

 become so well known to the men who are about to 

 begin their Canadian enterprise, that thers will be a 

 migration to this side of the line. It Is simply 

 a question of time when the United States shall be 

 dotted over with beet sugar factories, just as France 

 and Austria, and Prussia and Russia arc to-day, and 

 when the cultivation of sugar beets will become a 

 regular farm crop just as wheat and corn are to-day; 

 but can the good work begin too soon ! When onco 

 it has become a regular farm crop, and grangers 

 will wonder why they delayed taking it up so long, 



and men will aek, why the whole question was not 

 made a matter of governmental encouragement and 

 protection. We send abroad annually as much • 

 money for sugar as would pay the interest on our 

 annual debt, all of which Could be kept at home if 

 the great Industry had the proper footliold among us. 

 France is a sugar expotcr instead of sugar Importer, 

 while we with a climate most admirably adapted to 

 the growth of sugar beets, are compelled to buy all 

 the sugar we need from other countries except the 

 l.'i0,000 hogsheads grown in Louisiana. Still the 

 dawning of a better day is at hand, and many who 

 read this article will live to see the time when we too 

 may become exporters instead of Imirarters of sugar. 

 —Xew Era. 



OUR PRIMITIVE FORESTS. 



A writer In a West Virginia paper says that the 

 Shenandoah Valley, wheii first settled, ICO years 

 ago, was an open pralrie-like region, covered with 

 tall grass on which herds of deer, buffalo, and elk 

 fed, and devoid of timber except on occasional 

 ridges, but then after It became settled trees sprang 

 up almost as thickly and regularly as if seed had 

 been planted. These forests, having been preserved 

 by the farmers, covers now a large part of the sur- 

 faoe of the valley with hard wood trees of superior 

 excellence. The explanation of the change Is that 

 previous to the settlement of the valey annual fire* 

 negligently started by Indians, burned up the young 

 trees, and prevented the formation of forests, but 

 with|the arrival of settlers these fires were prevented 

 and the opinion is asserted that thp treeless charac- 

 ter of the Western prairies Is owning to the Indian 

 practice of annually burning the grass. Were It 

 not for that, dense forests would have covered these 

 vast plains for centuries. 



The above, which is going. the rounds of 

 the secular press seems to be in harmony with 

 Prof. Meehan's theory, which elicted some 

 very weak criticism last winter, from those 

 who professed to know a "thing or two." We 

 can see nothing at all improbable about it. It 

 has been said that elsewhere also, even in 

 Pennsylvania, if not in Lancaster county, 

 the Indians were in the habit of annually 

 burning ofl' the timber, in order to foster the 

 growth of grass for the pasturage of deer and 

 buffalo. Deer and elk abounded less than 

 two Imndred years ago, when the State or 

 province was first settled up, and that the 

 buffalo at one time abounded, seems to be 

 evinced from the osseous remains of those ani- 

 mals which have been found. We know but 

 little about the condition of the plains and 

 velleys of the State two or three hundred 

 years ago, except in the immediate vicinity of 

 settlements which were made on or near tlie 

 banks of streams. As a general thing, peo- 

 ple greatly exaggerate the length of time re- 

 quired for a forest to grow up, and it is thia 

 as much as anything else, that causes the re- 

 luctance that exists in regard to planting. Let 

 any man who located in Lancaster thirty 

 years ago, take a stroll along those places 

 which had not a tree or shrub on them then, 

 and he will be astonished to now find large 

 buildings perfectly embowered in trees. Thirty 

 years more, and many of these trees will 

 become large, unwieldy and perhaps danger- 

 ous, and will have to be removed, and young- 

 er and smaller ones planted instead. If sixty 

 years develops so much, what may be expect- 

 ed from one hundred and sixty or two hun- 

 dred in an open country? 



SUGAR-BEET FLEA BEETLE. 



The editor of the Sugar Bed, on a recent 



visit to the Delaware wheat-fields, regretted 



