The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., DECEMBER, 1881. 



iVol. xm. No. 12. 



Editorial. 



TO OUR PATRONS AND THK PEOPLE. 

 With this nuinbor we comiilc-te the Tiiiij- 



TEENTH CONSECUTIVE VOLUME OF TlIE 



Lancaster Fakmek; and, if we have not 

 succeeded, it is not because we liave not per- 

 severed, yea, importuned in its behalf ; and we 

 have examples inculcated by way of "holy 

 writ," that through importunity we may at- 

 tain success— unless there is greater moral cal- 

 losity now than there was nineteen hundred 

 years ago. Every succeeding year during the 

 whole thirteen, has more and more convinced 

 us that there ought to be an agricultural jour- 

 nal in "Lancaster county," which should be 

 an exponent of her a^'ricultural resources, an 

 advocate of her agricultural interests, a regis- 

 ter and a chronicler of her agricultural pro 

 ductions, and of her agricultural sentiment. 

 Without regard to what we are ; have ei'cc 

 been ; or ever luill.he ; this is nevertheless our 

 abiding sentiment, exemplified through ex- 

 perience, confirmed through industrial devel- 

 opment, and made manifest through material 

 and intellectual progress. Why comes there 

 a voice from remote Oregon, from "down 

 East," from "out West," from the shores of 

 the Pacific, from the "Sunny South," from 

 the central commonwealths and from the 

 Northern Dominion, iterating and reiterat- 

 ing in emphatic tones "please exchange;" 

 but that Lancaster county is known through- 

 out our entire "Republican Realm," and the 

 farmiug,public are anxious to know what we 

 are doing here, and how we do it V Can 

 we supinely and selfishly fold our arms and 

 let the industrial world move on without a 

 single desire to become a factor in its progress, 

 when we remember that it was one possessed 

 with a demon, who uttered—" What have Ito 

 do with thee?" 



There wore those, during the war of the re- 

 bellion, who, 'when they witnessed the tur- 

 moil of the recruiting camp became disgusted 

 or alarmed, and bid tlieir companions — "Come 

 boys, let us go home, there will only be a fuss 

 if we stay here ;" but a fiat had gone forth 

 proclaiming them part and parcel of that 

 camp, and therefore they could not be merely 

 indifferent spectators. Legitimate human 

 society, legitimate human enterprise and 

 legitimate human obligation, link together in 

 one vast chain all the social and industrial iu- 

 terests of the world, and those who stand out- 

 side of that circle, consciously or unconsciously 

 sympathize with the uncivilized or the out- 

 law'd. The higher the degree of intelligence 

 the wider the plane of mental and moral cul- 

 ture, the luore apparent becomes the .sense of 

 social obligation ; and no one can be entirely 

 indifferent in relation to the condition of his 

 fellow man, without becoming more or less a 

 " Cain." Notwitlistanding in a free country 

 and under equal laws, men should be left in 

 " freedom according to reason," this does not 

 abrogate or in the least diminish the obliga- 

 tion to contribute to the general mass. Truth 



remains truth — because " the eternal years of 

 God are hers '' — even if imiversal error shoiM 

 prevail. The newspaper, the magazine and 

 the book have become such neces.sary elements 

 in social, intellectual and material jirogress 

 that no ccinimunity can aflbrd to do without 

 them, any more than they can physically af- 

 ford to do without their "daily bread." Al- 

 most every human interest has now its repre- 

 sentative niDUthpiece in the form of a news- 

 paper, a magazine or a book, and the more 

 local they are, the more may they be regarded 

 as a reflex of the local mind, the local enter- 

 prise and the local condition. We are all in- 

 tegral parts of the same social body, and no 

 part can be injured or destroyed without, in 

 some measure or manner, affecting the whole. 

 We cannot truly say : 

 "I am myself alone, 



" I have no biolher, I am lilie no brother, 

 "And that word Love wliith greybeards call divine, 

 "Be resident iu men lilie one another, and not in me." 

 because, to do so is to relapse into that state of 

 selfish heathenism from which the whole tenor 

 of the nineteenth century has been endeavor- 

 ing to emancipate itself. 



We are fast approaching the threshold of 

 another year, and on a review of the one that 

 is so rapidly passing away, we cannot be other 

 than impressed with aspects of droughts, 

 and floods, and conflagrations, and failures, 

 and frauds, and assassinations, and deaths, 

 and mournings; yet, we, in Pennsylvania, 

 and es()ccially in Lancaster county, have still 

 abundant reason to be thankful that we have 

 been so signally preserved from the more dire 

 calamities — we have been as prosperous on the 

 whole, as we, perhaps, deserve to be. It is 

 true, we cannot chronicle an unexceptionable 

 crop, in any thing ; but for every county in 

 the entire country that has yielded a better 

 crop, there are ten that have yielded worse 

 ones; and when we gather in and consolidate 

 the crops of the whole country, we find that 

 we have abundance for home consumption, 

 and sufficient to send abroad to continue the 

 balance of trade in our favor. 



The facilities for transportation are now so 

 ample and expeditious, both on land and on 

 water— and the philanthropy of the people 

 is so readily and so humanely excited, that no 

 district of our vast country has to suffer very 

 long before relief .;an he brought to its doors. 

 Perhaps an allwise Providence permits these 

 things, not only as a chastisement for our 

 many public and private iniquities, but also 

 to afford us an opportunity to do good to our 

 fellow men. The tendencies to monopolize 

 and suliserve the interests of self are so strong 

 in man's unrcgenerate nature, that perhap.s, 

 precious little good would be done at all if 

 we were always prosperous, and had things 

 our own way. 



The contents of the volume of the Farmer, 

 of which this is the closing number, we think 

 will not only compare with any volinnc that 

 has preceded it, but also with any other one 

 dollar volume that is published in the whole 

 country. If it has failed in attractiveness, or I 



ot variety in its original contributions, it is 

 because our contributore have failed to fur- 

 nish the needed original material; and here 

 and now, as a parting admonition of the fad- 

 ing year, we would most earnestly implore 

 them to be more punctual and liberal during 

 the coming year. 



Our fanning patrons arc proverbially 

 tlioiighifuland practical, and industrious, and 

 withal reliable, and we would fain have them 

 also diffunice; for, the world at large is, 

 as it were, unconciously yearning for the 

 very knowledge which they so abundantly, 

 and apparently so unwittingly, possess. 



Simple fishermen on the coasts and in the 

 valleys of Palestine, were the heralds of the 

 niostgodly system of moral ethics that ever was 

 promulgated on earth, and there is no reason 

 why plain and practical farmers should not 

 perform a like service for the advance of ag- 

 riculture, and the domestic industries in gen- 

 eral. By 'the aid of the printing press, Chris- 

 tianity made its most potent and rapid ad- 

 vance, and it is by and through the same me- 

 dium that practical agriculture can be brought 

 most successfully to the apprehension of the 

 masses of the people; and who so competent 

 to diffuse this species of knowledge as the 

 fitrmer ? There never was a teacher that did 

 not more firmly fix the knowledge in his own 

 mind that he honestly attempted to impart to 

 others— it is a fame, that does not dimish by 

 lighting the torch of the neighbor. It will 

 always be our pleasure, as editor and publish- 

 er, to co-operate in the diffusion of knowledge 

 among the people, in whatever form it may 

 be brought under our observation. And now, 

 having attained our "three-score and ten." 

 the last thirteen of which have been partially 

 devoted to the interests of progressive agri- 

 culture, we may, in sympathy with our pat- 

 rons and readers, be permitted to bid good- 

 bye to old 1881, and commend them to those 

 significant and time-honored festivities, 

 through whose memories and social refresh- 

 ings they may be able to enter more ener- 

 getically into the domain of 1882. 



A STUDY OF VARIOUS SOURCES OF 

 SUGAR. 



Sugar-cane, sorghums, sugar-beet, maple, 

 corn stalks, watermelons, &c., by Lewis S. 

 Ware, memter of the American Chemical 

 Society, &c.; price 50 cents. Published by 

 Henry Carey Baird & Co., No. 810 Walnut 

 Street, Philadelphia, 1881. We have only re- 

 cently received this rare Royal octavo of 66 

 piiges, printed in lieauliful clear tyi)e, on 

 heavy double calendered paper, and, although 

 gotten up in tlic best style of tyiwgraphic art, 

 we deem its literary contents far superior to 

 its mechanical execution. Facts, figures and 

 practical experience all seem to indicate that 

 the cultivation of the suear-beet, and the 

 manufacture of beet sugar, is the "coming 

 man" of the next progressive period in the 

 domestic productions of our country. The 

 inadvertencies of the indifferent, the misap- 

 prehensions of the timid, and, perhaps, the 



