14 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



Agriculture. 



Look After the Implements. 



As winter approaches we cannot refrain from say- 

 inp- tliat tlie careful, tliougiitful farme never allows 

 bis plows, harrows, cultivators, mowing and reaping; 

 machines, hay tedders and other implements and 

 machinery, to be exposed to the weather, or where 

 they can be damaged by fowls or stock. He pro- 

 vides a covered place for them all where the rains 

 and snows cannot penetrate, with either board floor- 

 ing or placed upon scantling to raise them from the 

 ground. Such portions of the iron likely to rust 

 should be painted over slightly with any cheap oil 

 paint, and it will add to the preservation and appear- 

 ance of all implements and machinery, especially if 

 the woodwork is also painted. When this is incon- 

 venient the iron should be cleaned of dirt and 

 greased with pieces of fat pork. They should also 

 be put in good repair during the winter, in order to 

 be ready for operating when needed in the spring. 

 Leaving this repairing until another season opens 

 frequently causes damaging delays which should 

 always be provided against. There is nothing like 

 being always ready with these things for any 

 emergency. — OermaHtown Telegraph. 

 ^ 



Do Your Own Repairing. 



Wc think that almost every farmer will agree with 

 US that every farm should have its own workshop, 

 and every cultivator of the land should understand 

 how to use it. He may not do so when he Brst en- 

 ters upon farming on coming of age ; hut after a 

 year or so of what we call apprenticeship, when he 

 finds that to "know how to do things" is absolutely 

 indispensable he will tapidly learn to attend to most 

 of his own repairing of the ordinary implements and 

 machines upon his premises, instead of incurring de- 

 lay, expense and uncertainty by depending upon pro- 

 fessionals at a distance. Rather than to be without 

 a workshop and the necessary tools, one should be 

 erected expressly for the purpose, iu a convenient 

 spot and daily warmed in winter, so as to be ready 

 at all times for use, in which many odd jobs can be 

 done also not immediately connected with the farm. 



All ordinary wooden repairing ought to be done by 

 the farmer and his hands during rainy days and in 

 winter, when there is plenty of time on hand for 

 that purpose. Every part of a wheelbarrow, except 

 the wheel, ought to be made on the premises; new 

 forks and handles of iron rakes, repairing even some 

 pori.'.ns of the farm machinery, building of garden 

 and yard fences, repairing roofs, building of corn- 

 cribs, hog-pens, wagon and cart shelvings, making 

 of the frames of hotbeds, and all the many jobs con- 

 stantly requiring to be done about a well-conducted 

 place too numerous too mention. A person becomes 

 very handy in the use of good tools after a short ex- 

 perience, and saves many a dollar without consum- 

 ing any time necessary for the usual demands of the 

 farm. 



Ensilage Solus. 



There has been of late considerable falling olfin 

 the talk about silos and the value of ensilage as a 

 separate food. At the beginning of the mania the 

 preserved cornfodder in its perfectly fresh, green 

 state was to accomplish everything unassisted. 

 Milk, butter and cheese were to be produced, conM- 

 tion of the cattle maintained, and 'health se»ured 

 solely bythe feeding of ensiljige ; and, altogether, it 

 was to be effected at a rate of economy that must 

 satisfy every one at short notice that this newly- 

 discovered method of making the most out of the 

 products of the earth at the least expense must com- 

 mend itself to the favorabl"' attention of every agri- 

 culturist. 



But has it done so? We need hardly say that it 

 has not. Ensilage by itself, as a food for even milch 

 cows, is not recommended by those who seem to he 

 mostly experienced in the use of it. Almost all ex- 

 tensive feeders employ at the same time other feed, 

 which takes away from the fresh fodder its distinc- 



tive features or qualities as a separate food. One 

 farmer says the fodder comes out of the silo in good 

 condition and is eaten up clean by the cattle; but, he 

 "mixes with good cut hay," which is given in two 

 feeds per day; but to secure proper results "some 

 concentrated feed must be added," such as cakemeal 

 bran, etc. And this is the way the question is now 

 treated. We don't pretend to say that this combined 

 food is not very good — excellent — and that cattle will 

 not give plenty milk and thrive upon it, but we beg 

 to be allowed to say, without being much abused for 

 it, th.at we douljt the economy involved, or that any 

 labvr is saved, or that any profits are obtained over 

 the system in vogue before a silo was ever built. 



Bad Seed. 



It should be remembered that it is easier to de- 

 teriorate a crop by choosing bad seed, or even by 

 carelessly neglecting the selection of good seed, than 

 it is to improve upon a variety already acknow- 

 ledged to be good. The down hill road is the easiest 

 traveled. 



HORTJCL rURE. 



Rosebushes. 



A correspondent of the New York Observer says : 

 Never give up a choice but decaying rosebush till 

 you have tried watering it two or three times with 

 soot tea. Take soot fiom a chimney or stove with 

 which w'ood is burned, and make tea of it. When 

 cold, water the rosebush with it. When all is used 

 pour boiling water a second time on the soot. Tlie 

 shrub will quickly send out thrifty shoots, the eaves 

 will become large and thick, and the blossoms will 

 be larger and more richly tinted than before. To 

 keep the plants clear of insects syringe them with 

 quassia tea. Quassia chips can be obtained at the 

 apothecary's. 



Fears. 



The pear as a fruit stands next in popularity to the 

 apple, and has, like it, been known and cultivated 

 from time immemorial. It is mentioned by the ear- 

 liest writers as a fruit growing abundantly in Syria, 

 Egypt, as well as Greece, and it appears to have 

 been brought into Italy from these places about the 

 time that Sylla made himself master of the latter 

 country (68 B. C.,) ajid from thence it spread oyer 

 Europe to Britain. Homer mentions the "pendant 

 pear" as one of the fruits of the orchard of Laertes 

 (Odys. 24C. iiSOI). Theophrastus often speaks m 

 praise of them and of the great productiveness of old 

 pear trees in his works. That learned physician of 

 ancient times, Galen, considered pears as containing 

 in a greater degree more strengthening and astrin- 

 gent virtues than apples. The Greeks and Romans 

 have several kinds of pears whose names included 

 their taste and form. Pliny describes about forty 

 varieties cultivated in Italy. Of all pears, he says, 

 the Crustumine is the most delicate and agreeable ; 

 this fruit Columella places first in his catalogue. 

 Then there was the Falernian pear, which was 

 esteemed for its abundant juice, which Pliny com- 

 pares to wine. 



The Tiberian pears were so named because they 

 were the sort Tiberius, the emperor, preferred, and 

 they grew to a larger size than most pears ; others 

 were named after the persons who had introduced or 

 cultivated them. Some, Pliny tells us, are re- 

 proached with the name of proud pears, because 

 they ripened early and would not keep. There were 

 also winter pears, pears for baking, etc., as in the 

 present day. Nevertheless, Pliny did not consider 

 this fruit, iu an uncooked state, good for the con. 

 stitution, for he states all pears whatever are but a 

 heavy meat, even to those in good health, unless 

 boiled or baked with honey, when they become ex- 

 tremely wholesome to the stomach. Some pears 

 were used as counter-poison against venomous mush- 

 rooms ; the ashes of pear trees were also used for 

 the same medical purpose. The ancients appear to 

 have had a curious notion respecting the effect of 

 this fruit on beasts of burden, for Pliny tells UB a 



load of apples or pears, however small, is singularly 

 fatiguins- to them. Thebest way to counteract this, 

 they say, is to give the animal some to eat, or at 

 least show them the fruit belbre starting. Virgil 

 speaks of pears which he had from Uato. — Science 

 Gossip. 



Notes on Orchard and Garden Work. 



One who depends upon the garden and orchard for 

 his living will be very apt to know which products 

 bring him thebest returns. With the farmer the 

 orchard and the garden are often looked upon as of 

 little importance, if not i-egarded as necessary evils. 

 Both manure and labor are grudgingly supplied and 

 then at a time too late for the best results. In the 

 general summing up of the business of the year, let 

 the farmer take into account the return from the 

 garden and orchard or fruit garden. We do not 

 refer to the supplies of vegetables and fruit consumed 

 at home, for health and comfort cannot be expressed 

 in dollars and cents, but the actual money returns 

 throughout the year. Much, of course, will depend 

 upon the location in reference to market, but we are' 

 sure that in the majority of cases a carefully kept 

 account, in which all the odd quarters and dollars 

 are fresented, will result in a determination to en- 

 large and improve tlie ground devoted to fruit, vege- 

 tables and flowers. The time has passed when 

 choice fruits were regarded as a luxury; and the 

 farmer who cannot afford to provide his table with a 

 large variety of garden vegetables is living behind 

 the age. The man who sees only the market value 

 of any product of the soil may not care for a hand- 

 some lawn and a flower garden filled with choice 

 plants; but he only half lives who is blind to the 

 beauty of these things. 



Making Butter. 



The following method of making butter was pur- 

 sued by the Farmington Creamery Company, Farm- 

 ington, Conn., in the production of a premium lot: 

 The milk was cooled and aerated before it came to. 

 the creamery, was received once a day, was mixed 

 at once in a receiving vat, thence drawn into deep, 

 open coolers, 8 by 20 inches, and set floating in a pool 

 of cold spring water. It was skimmed in twenty- 

 four hours, the cream again mixed in a vat and 

 allowed to stand twenty-four hours and become 

 slightly acid. It was then cliurned in a barrel-churn, 

 and dashed running about forty-eight strokes to the 

 minute, -and the butter coming in about forty five 

 minutes. The butter was worked by a lever worker 

 and salted one ounce to the pound. After standing 

 twenty hours it was again worked over and packed 

 in tubs. If our butter has any particular merit we 

 ascribe it largely to the cows, which are mostly 

 Guernseys and Jerseys and their grades; the Guern 

 seys giving the color, the Jerseys the dryness, and 

 both solidity. 



How to Make Tea and Coffee. 



The Scotch do not sny "to make tea," but "to in 

 fuie the tea," which is more correct in ver.- respect, 

 dood tea is an infusion, not a decoction. By boiling 

 the tea leaves, you get from them a bitter principle, 

 and you drive off the delicate pcrfiimp of the tea. 

 For this reason, the tea-pot should never be kept hot 

 tiy letting it stand on the top ut a cookuig stove, over 

 a lamp, or where it is likely to be made to boil. Ex- 

 cessively bad tea is maiie in some parts of the eonti- 

 Hint by people who do not know better, by putting a 

 small pinch of tea into a large kettle of wnfer, and 

 letting it boil till they have extracted all i s coloring 

 m itter,in which they think the goodness oi tea con- 

 sists. A metal teapot is hi-tter than an enr'hpnware 

 1 n ', and the brighter it is kept the bet r Bfieter. 

 '■ Mi.'e t'te teapot with boiling water. Put in a bumping 

 spoonf il of tea for each person, and one for the poli. 

 1 our over it just enough boiling water to soak the 

 tea. Let it stand a few niinutrs, and then fill up Mie 

 pot with boiling water. Do not put in carbonate of 

 poihi to soften the water and make the tea draw 

 better — i. «., to make awn tc'ied saving of tea, un 

 ll-^s you are in absolute poverty. The water, in fact, 

 is sofeiied by boiling, which causes it to defOdt 

 some of the matters it held in solution; witness the 

 "fur" in long used tea kettles, and the lime which 

 settles at the bottom of many waters after boiling A 

 cup of tea is an excellent thing after any fatigue, and 

 its refreshing effects may then be followed up by 

 more substantial nutriment. 



Cofi'ee in English middle class houses is often badly 

 served. It should not be boiled, nor made in quantity 

 twice a week, to be heated up when wanted. The 

 kernels should be suflliicntly and equally roasted. 

 As it is the roasting which develops the aroma, under 

 roasted coffee is so much lost, whilst over roasted is 

 much driven off and wasted or lost in another 

 direction. Of the two faults the former is the worst. 

 Unroasted coffee is useless. Circumstances very 

 olten compel the buying of cofiee ready giound, 

 almost always ready roasted ; but the more quickly 

 coffee is used after both roasting and grinding the 



