182 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



TDv.'^TiUe 



just under the sod of an old pasture is suit- 

 able for nearly all plants ; additions of sand 

 and manure can be made as necessary. 



At Crown Point, Lake county, Indiana, 

 Thursday, one of the largest real estate trans- 

 fers ever made in that section of the country 

 occurred. Mrs. Caroline Forsyth and her 

 husband, Jacob Forsyth, signed a warranty 

 deed on an 8,000 acre tract of land owned by 

 them, located about fourteen miles from 

 Chicago, for which S1,000,000 is the consider- 

 ation, of which $350,000 in cash was paid on 

 Wednesday. The deed was made to William 

 W. Green, of New Jersey, who immediately 

 gave a warranty deed to the East Chicago 

 Improvement Company, the consideration 

 being $3,000,000. 



An acre of good pasturage will, says a farm 

 wiiter afford sustenance for from five to eight 

 sheep, keeping them in good condition. But 

 on account of herbage taken and the closer 

 feeding of the sheep it is believed that three 

 acres of good pasturage will maintain one 

 cow, and, in addition, five or six sheep. The 

 sheep would choose plants the cow would re- 

 ject, and feed closer upon May-weeds and 

 weeds and grasses not eaten by the cow. 



It is said that there are upwards of 3,000 

 steam ploughing machines now employed in 

 England and Scotland. 



A TABLESPOONFUL of carbolic acid in two 

 gallons of water is said to prove as destruc- 

 tive to the currant-worm and rose-bug as 

 hellebore. 



The observations of Dumas, Payen and 

 Boussingault have shown the fact that a cow 

 gives a healthy milk in exact proportion to 

 the surplus of food beyond what is necessary 

 for her own maintenance. If the animal is 

 kept on food barely sutHcient for proper nour- 

 ishment, the milk produced must be at a loss 

 of animal tissue, with general deterioration 

 of the milk also of the cow. 



A CORRESPONDENT of Forest and Stream 

 gives the following anti-mosquito receipt: 

 Three ounces sweet oil, one ounce carbolic 

 acid. Rub in every half hour until the pores 

 have tlioroughly absorbed it. 



Too much attention cannot be paid to the 

 cleanliness and ventilation of stables and 

 pens. To insure the health and comfort of 

 animals they must be kept dry and warm and 

 have plenty of light as well as pure air and 

 pure water. 



A NEW scale has made its appearance in 

 the orange orchards or Santa Barbara, Cal. It 

 is white, much larger than the ordinary black 

 one, and blunt at one end. It adheres to the 

 tree, and spreads a sort of cotton film which 

 is impervious to water. Wherever it settles 

 on leaves they curl up and fade. 



The general opinion is that ants are ene- 

 mies to fruit trees, but it has long since been 

 proved that they destroy larvse and chrysa- 

 lides, and that they do not destroy the fresh 

 fruit. 



Linseed is perhaps, of ordinary foods, the 

 one most similar to milk in composition, and 

 hence a desirable artificial food ' for young 

 animals. 



Farmers in Great Britain suffered severe- 

 ly during the first half of 1881. No less than 

 571 agriculturists had to declare themselves 



bankrupt, including farm bailiffs, millers and 

 market gardeners. In trades immediately 

 connected with farming, 501 have been forced 

 to give up business. 



In building a silo the main point is to make 

 it tight. A perfect exclusion of air is neces- 

 sary. Any failure in this respect will be in- 

 jurious to the contents of the silo. 



A MONGREL sire of any kind of stock 

 should never be used. If a farmer is not able 

 to purchase a thoroughbred alone, he should 

 get others to unite with him and make a joint 

 purchase, dividing purchase price and cost of 

 keeping. When this is done, no neighborhood 

 need be without such a sire. 



Pear blight has in several instances been 

 arrested in affected trees by syringing them 

 with a weak solution of potash, and it has 

 proved a preventive when applied to the 

 healthy trees. 



Says the Dalles Mountaineer : The stock 

 range of one firm in the south end of Grant 

 county is 50 miles wide and 125 miles long. 

 This firm, by taking advantage of the nefari- 

 ous swamp land law of Oregon, now hold 

 possession of the watering places of this vast 

 region, and as effectually keep out settlers as 

 if they had a patent for the whole region. 



Young cows do not give as rich milk as 

 those of mature age do. A lean cow gives 

 poor milk, and a fat cow gives rich milk. 



From 1850 to 1880, a period of thirty years, 

 the United States gold coinage consisted of 

 $920,000,000 in double eagles, $44,000,000 in 

 eagles, .$40,000,000 in half eagles, and $42,- 

 000,000 in pieces of smaller denominations. 



A GRAPEVINE that is overloaded with fruit 

 should be thinned— a portion of the bunches 

 removed, half of them, perhaps, or even more. 

 This forces the growth of the remainder and 

 increases the size of the fruit and the bunch. 

 All badly formed and small bunches should be 

 clipped off, and but one bunch left on a bear- 

 ing shoot. 



For family cows, heifers with their first 

 calves should ba milked within a few weeks of 

 their coming in again. If dried off early they 

 will always dry up their milk early. 



When wheat is cut young it will be lighter 

 in color, and will ferment more quickly than 

 that cut later. Late wheat will make the 

 least flour, but the strongest and best. 



Pruning ought to be done after the leaves 

 attain their size, when the wounds will not 

 bleed and they will commence to heal imme- 

 diately. 



Experiment shows that with early rose 

 potatoes the smallest amount of seed in the 

 hill yields the best crop. 



A MAN in Texas is said to have perfected a 

 wheat called Moll's Red River, that is rust 

 proof. 



If salt and charcoal be fed to pigs every 

 week it will greatly benefit them by preserving 

 their health. 



Buttermilk poured over the back of a 

 scurvy pig will remove the scurf. 



Oats grown on clay land make the best 

 meal, keep longest and bring the highest price. 



Hogs should be allowed to have a heap of 

 coal ashes. They will be all the healthier for 

 it. 



To make a good walk, dig out the earth a 

 few inches deep and fill in a layer of broken 

 stones, brick and the like, then a layer of fine 

 clinkers, and over this spread coal ashes and 

 roll down, if you have a roller. If not, make 

 the surface as smooth and compact as possible 

 by other means, and the weather will do the 

 rest. These walks are hard, clean, durable 

 and withal cheap. 



Colts' hoofs should be pared occasionally, 

 or injury will result. 



It is advantageous to turn sheep into 

 orchards in summer and allow them to run 

 there until the apples begin to ripen. 



A celebrated French agriculturist, who 

 for many years held first rank in the art of 

 fattening sheep, when urged to divulge his 

 secret, replied : "My secret? I have none; 

 it is only a question of fare. Induce the ani- 

 mals to eat abundantly by a large, choice 

 variety and good preparation of food ; that is 

 all there is to it." 



Queries and Answers. 



HOW DO EELS BREED.' 



Professor Rathvon, Lancaster, Pa. Dear Sir: 

 —Can you inform me how eels breed? Many fieher- 

 meu's heads are puzzled by this question. 

 Respectfully, your friend, 



D. G. Glass. 

 Fishermen are not the only people who have 

 been " puzzled by this question ;" and yet, 

 one might reasonably, if not naturally, sup- 

 pose that if ever this question was to be prac- 

 tically answered it would be by a fisherman. 

 It is a question, however, that still needs a 

 practical answer; notwithstanding there is no 

 lack of theories on the subject, largely based 

 on inferentialities, and those inferentialities 

 relate mainly to the habits of the eel. 

 Migrating Habits of Eels. 

 For instance, as a general statement, it may 

 be said the eel is migratory in its habits, as 

 much so as the shad is ; with this difference, 

 that the adult shad ascends the streams in the 

 sprnig, and the young shad descend in the 

 autumn whilst the young eels ascend them in 

 tlie spring and the adult eels descend them in 

 autumn. This is unquestionably the case, 

 notwithstanding it may be truly alleged that 

 eels are locally in dams, ponds and streams, 

 which they never leave. They have either by 

 circumstance changed their migratory habit, 

 or they are a different variety or species. On 

 one occasion I witnessed the young eels as- 

 cending the Susquehanna river in late spring 

 for nearly a whole day— for one whole hour 

 at least in the forenoon, and when I returned 

 to the same place in the afternoon, they were 

 still running as numerously as they were in 

 the morning. There were tens of thousands, 

 if not millions, of them, and to make sure that 

 they were young eels, I captured scores of 

 them. This phenomenon has been frequently 

 witnessed by other person in Lancaster county 

 —notably by Mr. E. H. Hershey, of Creswell 

 —and the late Jacob Stauffer assured me that 

 he witnessed the same phenomenon, many 

 years ago, in a stream in Chester or Mont- 

 gomery county, that emptied into the Schuyl- 

 kill or Delaware. Those I captured were from 

 three to four inches in length, and about the 

 thickness of the barrel of the quill of a com- 



