The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. 3. 3. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JANUARY, 1882. 



Vol. SIV. No. 1. 



Editorial. 



OUR FOURTEENTH VOLUME. 



T/ike till' "Ghost of Bamiuo," liere we are 

 agiiin, ill response to many t'riuiids who have 

 greeted us with the sigiiilieaiit greeting— 

 "May your shadow never grow less." Tliis 

 would be a dreadful greeting to a fat man; but 

 then dear reader, we are not fat — never have 

 been fat, and, without any double meaning 

 whatever, we never expect to be fat at our pre- 

 sent rate of feeding Csesar is said to have 

 said, "Let me have men about me that are 

 /a(." Mark Antony was fat and was popu- 

 lar — Cassius was lean and was unpopular, if 

 not hated by Caisar. Now we want to get 

 out of the category of leanness, since leanness 

 works such disparagement to its possessor — or 

 rather its victims; and, it seems to us the 

 shortest and surest road out, would be five 

 thousand nriv and true subscribers to our vol- 

 ume for 1882. Ttvii /iioiflrffZ contributors, one 

 ?iM)!dr«Z correspondents and odc (Z"2e)i repo rters, 

 or communicators. We are not very particu- 

 lar where lliese subscribers, correspondents, 

 contributors, &c., are from, so that tliey are 

 not rei)resentatives of districts in wliich a 

 "Kilkleer" could not live; for, we don't care 

 to know how jMor soil may be, and how lean 

 its cultivators may become and yet have the 

 power to breathe; but, how rich the one may 

 be, and how/a{ the other. But this is not all. 

 We want to know hoiv they have become rich 

 and fat, tliat we may be abU; to instruct otiiers 

 to "go and do likewise." These we consider 

 very moderate wants, in such a magniticent 

 "kingdom" as Lancaster county, and where 

 people are reputed to live on " the fat of the 

 land." 



It would be a most laudable ambition for 

 the farmers of Lancaster county, just to see 

 liow/{(( they can make us and tlieir represen- 

 tative journal, witliin the year 1882. It would 

 be sonielhiiig to be jolly over next Ciiristmas, 

 and enhance the pleasures of the occasion. 

 Dear public, try it "for once." 



We have nothing in the form of premiums 

 or bribes to offer, but would rather that every 

 one should be bribed Isy his own feelings of 

 right, of justice, and of humanity, when he 

 contemplates his duties toward the institu- 

 tions and enterprises of his county, his state, 

 or his entire country. It may require a greater 

 struggle, a larger quantum of self-denial and 

 self-compulsion, to oliey the dictates of his uu- 

 standing — 



" Uiiboii-jjlil by eoiuineHt 

 Anil unhribefl by yahi," 



l)ul then, after the deed is accomplished, the 

 doer of it will feel just so much the better 

 than he would have felt had he yielded to the 

 fluttcriwj inducement to do otherwise. 



We are not so exceedingly selfish as to ad- 

 monish our patrons and readers to patronize 

 no journal but ours. That is not at all our 

 meaning; for, we would have them patronize 

 all they can afford to, and ours too - cspenally 

 ours. "Eat them all yourself, and give me 



some," was the "small boy's" advice to his 



"clumi," when other "small boys" were 

 l)egging his sugar plums. So we advise, when 

 other publisliers are trying to obtain your 

 patronage through a prciniunt, take tliem al] 

 if you can, but don't forget to lake the 

 F.vkmek: for it is "bone of your bone and 

 flesh of your liesh," and like you, " to the 

 manor-bo in "—a local anclior, mooring you 

 to local lioiues, wherever you may l)e. 



There is no lov& more ennobling than pure 

 unsellish domestic, or local love. Men often 

 in the heyday or prime of life indulge in the 

 glittering seusntiou of foreign loves, foreign 

 scenes and foreign festivities; only to return 

 in maturer life, or in life's decline, to the 

 loves, the homes, and tlie atliliations of tlieir 

 earlier days. It is very much the same in re- 

 gard to home literature, home pulilications. 

 Publications that contain a record of tlu; local 

 doings and sentiments of tliose who repre- 

 sented the local industries and enterprises of 

 a district where we have, or once had, our 

 local homes, possess a local value far beyond 

 that of mere dollars and cents. And, if per- 

 chance, we should become possessed of an old 

 volume, or even a single paper, that recorded 

 the events of our early days, and the names 

 and occupations of our cotemporaries, we are 

 apt to peruse it from "end to end" and gaze 

 upon it with all the fond affection that a 

 grandparent does upon tlie tiny shoes of the 

 first born. And why V Because they are 

 owrs— part and parcel of our local history, 

 local experience, and local memories, however 

 common-place and humble they may appear to 

 others. 



By the genorou-i assistance 'of local contri- 

 butors and local correspondents we desire to 

 make tlie Lancaster Farmer for 1882 a 

 local hand-book of Agriculture, Horticulture, 

 Floriculture, 'gardening, domestic employ- 

 ment, and scientific miscellany, that will al- 

 ways be referred to with pleasure and witli 

 profit, long years after its projectors, its edi- 

 tors and its publishers are "gathered to their 

 fiithers." 



At no period in the history of agriculture, 

 is a publication of its development and pro- 

 gress considered of more vital importance 

 than the present period. Agricultural and 

 Domestic journals are springing up almost 

 every where in our broad land, and by a refer- 

 ence to our "Literary and Personal" col- 

 umns, it will be perceived that our own Penn- 

 sylvania furnishes several new enterprises of 

 the kind. We sincerely hope they may all re- 

 alize their most sanguine expectations; and, 

 that they may all become "/at," and— if they 

 prefer it— also "ragged .and sassy." 



We cannot indulge in any special prorai.ses 

 for 1882. \Ve hoi)e to be all that you see fit 

 to make us ; but, under any circumstances, 

 we think we can with confidence point you to 

 the past as a guarantee for the future. 



Of course, the opening year is still one of 

 undeveloped anticipation, and <as the tide of 

 time flows on, it will become manifest who is 



to be carried successfully on its (low, and who 

 buried beneath its Ihxid. But, whatever 

 woes betide us, both religion and philosophy 

 admonish us to reconcile ourselves to "the 

 things that be," as the best condition in 

 which to learn the lessons which experience 

 teaches. 



In conclusion, may one and all be blest 

 with a prosperous and Happy New Year. 



THE MOOSE-DEER lOO YEARS AGO. 



"Captain Harrison," stated to Judge Henry 

 in 1775, that the moose-deer reigned the mas- 

 ter of the forest at that period, about Fort 

 Halifax, at the junction of the Sabasticoog 

 and Kennebec rivers; but that when he first 

 settled there, about 1745, the common deer 

 (Cerviis viryininnus) which now inhabits our 

 more southern climate, was the only animal 

 of the deer kind found in all those regions, to 

 their knowledge, unless it was the Elks 

 {Cervus canadensis), and those only occasion- 

 ally. In a short space of time after his loca- 

 tion in the country the Moose-deer {Akt 

 americanus) appeared in small numbers, but 

 increased annually afterwards, and as the one 

 species became more numerous, the other di- 

 mislied, so that the common, or Virginia 

 deer, at the time of this information (1775), 

 according to Captain Harrison, was totally 

 driven from that quarter. 



This, in the mind of the narrator seemed to 

 imply that animals, like human beings, wheth- 

 er forced by necessity, or from choice, do emi- 

 grate. 



Perhaps the most notable instance of one 

 species of animal displacing another, is to be 

 found in the Rat, immediately around us, but 

 that was not a matter of choice, for the in- 

 truder and usurper was brought here, per- 

 haps against his will. 



The Rat that now predominates Lancaster 

 county, and perhaps the entire State of Penn- 

 sylvania, if not the whole country, is the 

 "Norway Rat" (Jl/us decumanus) ■And he has 

 almost entirely displaced the "Black Rat" 

 (Jl/i(.s ra(t((.s) which is our native species— in- 

 deed we do not remember to have seen but 

 one (dead and partly decayed) specimen in 

 all our life, and that was forty years ago. The 

 reader will please not infer (from a similarity 

 of sound in name) that we refer to the "Musk- 

 Rat" {Fiber zibcthicus) for that animal is now 

 almost as common as ever it was. 



It may seem singular that an animal appa- 

 rently so slow and stupid as the Moose, should 

 have supplanted one so bright and swift as 

 the Virginia deer. It has been said that the 

 dull, slow "Gr.ay Fox," which was once very 

 abundant in Pennsylvania, h.as retired further 

 north on account of the invasion of the swift, 

 cunning and sprightly "Red Fox;" but the 

 cases, in regard to special characterics, are 

 here reversed. It occurs also that one species 

 of plant will displace another. Permit "Can- 

 ada Thistle" to domiciliate itself in the soil, 

 and soon nothing will be found growing but 

 the thistle. 



