178 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 



excessive anticipations of mere adventurers, 

 may retard, thwart, or divert its progress, but 

 time will work its ultimate elucidation, and 

 it will eventually become as sure an in- 

 industry in the United States as it has be- 

 come in Europe. Our population, by home 

 procreation and foreign emigration, is increas- 

 ing too rapidly for the present state of things 

 to remain in statu quo. Bloated and dishonest 

 speculations must come to an end, and the 

 people must settle down to reasonably com- 

 pensated honest labor. They must produce 

 sufficient at least for home consumption — if it 

 is only sugar— and if all were sufficiently in- 

 telligent to apprehend the sugar question, 

 they would be perfectly appalled at the great 

 amount we pay annually for the saccharine 

 products which elementally exist so abundant- 

 ly in our own country, almost to its utmost 

 boundaries. If foreigners, who seek our 

 shores as an asylum from pinching want, are 

 compelled to depend on the countries they 

 have left for the necessaries of life, then they 

 might as well have remained there. If our 

 rising generations cannot assimilate them- 

 selves with the progressive industries of their 

 country, as necessity develops them, then, 

 perhaps, they had better locate somewhere 

 near the eqninoctial line. 



Mr. Ware, of course, discusses the sugar 

 question from his own standpoint, but he does 

 it so reasonably, so moderately, so cleurly,and 

 we think, so truthfully, that we deem him 

 entitled to an unprejudiced and patient 

 hearing. 



For the time being, we wish we were a 

 Daily or even a Weekly, that we might print 

 all the chapters of this little work consecutive- 

 ly on our first page, but under the circumstan- 

 ces we cannot do this; but, we admonish our 

 patrons and readers, who entertain the re- 

 motest thought of entering into the cultiva- 

 tion of any sugar producing vegetation, to 

 get a copy of this " Study " by all means. 



They will And the tabulated statistics very 

 elaborate and interesting. "Nothing extenu- 

 ate or aught set down in malic?," and after a 

 perusal of its columns, they will have a clear- 

 er conception of the questions than they^have 

 now. We do not expect any of the tobacco 

 growing districts of Pennsylvania to make 

 any very special demonstration sugar-beet- 

 wards, just yet; but. if ever the question be- 

 tween sugar and tobacco involves a domestic 

 necessity — where one or the other must abate 

 — we think the former must triumph. 



From authentic sources it is ascertained 

 that the production of cane-sugar is greatly 

 falling off (90 per cent, in Mississippi alone) 

 and while the "tables show that the produc- 

 tiou has not regularly diminished, yet it has 

 practically, for the reason that nearly 30,000,- 

 000 pounds less are made to-day, than twenty 

 years ago." This in face of the fact that 

 during those twenty years our population has 

 increased about twenty millions. 



The following will explain how we "got 

 along " in the mean time. In 1860 we import- 

 ed 694,879,790 pounds of sugar, but in 1877 

 our imports had already increased over one 

 hundred per cent, and were 1,623,07.3,537 

 pounds, and the increase coutiimes. Under 

 these circumstances, can any one fail to see 

 the necessity of devoloping a home sugar pro- 

 duction? There are many sources of sugar in 



our vast country. Beets, cane, sorghum, 

 cornstalks, maple, potatoes, watermelons, 

 acorns, pine, chestnuts, fruit of various kinds, 

 palm, milk, &c.. &c., the relative values of 

 which are, comprehended in the little work 

 we have been reviewing; and, in our stock of 

 general knowledge, it is sometimes of as much 

 importance to know how worthless one thing 

 may be, as it is to know how useful a dift'erent 

 one may be. The southern sugar-cane is 

 known to be the most prolific sugar bearer of 

 any of the cane-kind, and if the supply from 

 that is diminishing, something ;else must be 

 improvised, and nothing seems so "cosmopo- 

 litan," as the Sufjar-Beet. 



A RELIC. 

 Some kind friend, apprehending our pen- 

 chant for literary relics, has sent us by mail 

 No. 1, vol. 1, of the Pennsylvania Farm Jour- 

 nal for April 18.51. Edited by Prof. S. S. 

 Halderaan, and published by A. M. Spangler, 

 Lancaster, Pa., just thirty years ago last 

 April. How many full sets of this journal 

 are now extant it would be impossible to say, 

 even in the county of Lancaster where it was 

 born, in April 1851. 



The Editor, in his address, thus quoted 

 from tlie Tennesse -Parmer, "It is a great falla- 

 cy to suppose that when an individual becomes 

 the editor of an agricultural paper, he neces- 

 sarily constitutes himself a dictator of opinion 

 and practice to his readers." This has al- 

 ways been our view, and we have on various 

 fitting occasions practically, and in gen- 

 eral terms, so expressed it. In fact an editor 

 of a an agricultural paper may necessarily be 

 a mere gleaner— "a gatherer and dispenser 

 of other men's stuff "—perchance—" to make 

 you laugh." We have in our possession an 

 entire set of this work as far as published, 

 7 volumes in all. From Lancaster it was re- 

 moved to West Chester, and from thence to 

 Philadelphia, when the title was changed and 

 thenceforward known as Ihe Farmer and 

 Gardener, and was finally merged in the Pro- 

 gressive and Practical larmer. In 1851 there 

 was not a distinctly agricultural paper pub- 

 lished in Pennsylvania, and the publisher in 

 his introductory says, "After persevering in- 

 quiry we were led to believe that the day had 

 arrived when Pennsylvania would support an 

 agricultural journal of her own,-" but it can 

 hardly be said, that in any very special sense, 

 she ever gave that support to the Farm Jour- 

 nal; and finally it was compelled to suspend, 

 as a distinct publication, for the want of sup- 

 port. 



There are some things in this old odd num- 

 ber that are worthy of republication, and we 

 shall probably make that use of it by and by. 

 In looking over this waif of the past, it recalls 

 the fact that it was tiirough the pressing so- 

 licitations of the publisher of this Journal that 

 we were first induced to put our pen to paper 

 on the subject of agricultural Entomology, 

 and we are not quite sure that "we have done 

 a good thing," for it imposed on us a multi- 

 tude of unrecompensed labors and responsibili- 

 ities, which have clung to us for more than 

 thirty years— almost half our lifetime. 



a forest through the operation of natural 

 causes, and, as establishing the fact that such 

 change does sometimes occur, brings forward 

 the case of the Shenandoah Valley. When 

 first settled, about 160 years ago,it was an open 

 prairie-like region covered with tall grass, on 

 which fed herds of deer, buffalo, elk, etc., 

 and having no timber, except on ridgy por- 

 tions of it ; but in consequence of its settle- 

 ment, the annual fires were prevented, and 

 trees sprang up almost as thickly and regular- 

 ly as if seed had been planted. These forests, 

 having been preserved by the farmers, cover 

 now a large part of the surface with hard 

 wood trees of superior excellence. These 

 facts would also seem to substantiate the 

 theory that the treeless character of the prai- 

 ries of the West is due to the annual burning 

 of the grass by the Indians. 



The above is a confirmation of what Prof. 

 Meehan said about the Shenandoah Valley, 

 and parts. of Pennsylvania, and for which he 

 had been taken to task by those who in their 

 very arguments against his position, practi- 

 cally admitted the tenability of his assertions. 

 The, opiniou of the cause of our western 

 prairies may not be universally prevalent, but 

 we think it as valid as any that has yet been 

 given, and until a better reason for their des- 

 titution of trees can be given, we may as 

 well settle down on this view as on any other. 

 When the prairies are permitted to remain 160 

 years orso without beingsubjected to devouring 

 flames they may put on a different appearance 

 from that which they present now, except so 

 far as this sylvan succession is prevented by 

 the necessities of agriculture, i/bw the tree 

 producing seeds get into the soil, or ivhere 

 they come from, is quite another question. 

 Many have noticed a similar phenomenon in 

 a single lifetime, when forests lands have 

 been cleared of timber and underwood. 



SPONTANEOUS FORESTS. 



A writer in a West Virginia paper combats 



the opinion, held by many arboriculturist, 



that an open country is never converted into 



In the December number of the American 

 Agriculturalist we find an excellent article on 

 this subject, by Prof. W. O. Atwater, of the 

 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., from 

 which we glean the relative nutriment of the 

 different kinds of animal food in the follow- 

 ing list. He also gives in seperate columns 

 of a tabulated list the percentage of water, 

 fat, and albuminoids of the several kinds, 

 but as most of our readers may regard the 

 nutriment of primary importance, we will 

 confine our quotations to that alone. Esti- 

 mating medium beef at 100, all the others 

 will bear a percentage in relation to that. 



Lean beef, 91; medium beef, 100; fat beef, 

 112; veal, 92; medium mutton, 87; fat pork, 

 ll6; smoked beef, 146; smoked ham, 157; 

 hen meat, 94; cow's milk, 24; skimmed milk, 

 19; cow's cream, 56; butter, 124; skimmed milk 

 cheese, 159; whole milk cheese, 151; very fat 

 cheese, 163; Hen's eggs 72; Fresh Fish as fol- 

 lows: Halibut, 88; Flounder, 62; cod, 68; had- 

 dock, 75; alewives, 87; saltwater eels, 96; shad, 

 98; striped bass, 80; black bass, 87; mackerel, 

 91; blue fish, 85; salmon, 108; salmon trout, 96; 

 wliite fish, 105; black fish, 94; red snappQr, 

 91; smelt, 74; Spanish mackerel, 106; white 

 perch, 89; herring, 100; turbot, 84. Prepared 

 Fsh as follows: boned cod, 107; salt cod, 102; 

 dried cod, 341; smoked halibut, 102; smoked 

 herring, 163; canned salmon, 107; salt mack- 

 erel, 111. 



These figures will not only illustrate the 

 relative values of lean and fat meats, but 



