J.S82. 



The Lancaster farmer. 



23 



and draws it in iilso; it now has strengtli to 

 stretcli out its tiny legs tlie yollt being out of 

 the way of its toeniiils, tlieie is no danger; 

 the navpl bein<; closed, and with its feet at 

 the bottom and head and sliouKlers at tlie 

 top, the shell divides in two halves and the 

 chick rolls out. What have we that comes in- 

 to the world, I may say, on a more scientifical 

 principle than the fowl, take it from the 

 tirst formation of the ova. Such is nature; 

 the Almighty has made all things in wisdom, 

 and for our benelit,aiul there are so many ways 

 to cook the egg, also the chick, and every way 

 of each it is calculated to tickle the i)alate. 

 Take ( are of your poultry.— W. 1. P. 



For Thk LANCASTni Farmku, 

 FRUIT BELTS. 



Close observers could hardly have failed to 

 iM.tice that for a number of years past certain 

 sections of Lancaster county have produced 

 better ai)ples than others. The section lying 

 east of a line drawn northward from Chris- 

 tiana through Leacock, West Karl and the 

 western parts of Ephrata and Clay townships, 

 grows finer apples than the section west of 

 that line. In the southern part of the county 

 is another small fruit belt. This includes 

 part of Ifartic and Druraore, Fulton 

 and Little Britain town^ihips. An}'^ one de- 

 sirous of verifying these assertions need only 

 compare the fruit brought to our market from 

 New Holland, Ephrata and other points in 

 the several tovvnsliiiis named, with that 

 brought from Concstoga, Manor, Hempfield 

 and other places in the western section. 



How can we account for this difference ? 

 The cause cannot be in the soil, as that is not 

 materially different in the several locations. 

 Latitude and longitude cannot have a marked 

 effect on so small a scope as a single county. 



Our hot and dry summers for a number of 

 years, no dout, have been the great hindrance 

 that we had to contend with in successful 

 apple culture. Can it be that those eastern 

 and southern belts have more rain i* 



Onr main supply of rain during the summer 

 season, comes from thunder showers, and 

 these, as is well known, are more or less sub- 

 ject to attraction by mountain ranges and 

 large streams of water. 



In severe drought, for many years past, the 

 obseivation has been made from a certain 

 point in the county, that a thunder shower to 

 reach that point must almost invariably arise 

 north-east from that point. If it rises only a 

 few degrees north of that point it will go in 

 an eastern direction and discharge itself 

 through the north-eastern part of the comity. 

 If the shower forms a few degrees further 

 south, it will discharge itself obliquely across 

 the southern part of the county. Very often 

 thunder showers starting at the point named, 

 divide, one part thereof going east, while the 

 other takes the southeastern course. 



The attractive points, no doubt, ai'e the 

 Conewago hills on the north and the Snsque- 

 lianna river on the south 



In most seasons these attractive points lose 

 much of their force, and then thunder show- 

 ers appear to be able to move in all directions. 



The past season thunder showers were 

 rare, the drought was very severe over the 

 greater part of the country, but the few 

 thunder showers we had almost invariably 



followed the Susijuehanna, and the southern 

 belt suffered but little from drought, as the 

 crop of apples, potatoes and corn there raised 

 fully shows. — Casper Hiller. 



CHINESE FRUIT PEAR. 



CoLt'.MniA, Pa., February Id, 



" Slia Icii," or Chinese Sand Pi'ars. 

 ".Suet leu," or Cliiiiese Snow I'cars. 



ISS-J. 



Friend .S. >S'. l{<ithrim : 



During 1S:!2, I got a tree from the l:il(^ Wni. 

 R. Prince, of Flushing, Long Island, New 

 York. It grew vigourously, and in a few 

 years produced a heavy crop of its large and 

 beautiful fruit. The jiears are large and 

 showy, but they never become soft or eatable, 

 unless cooked. We did not know what they 

 were good for, and we let them lot on the 

 ground, but we have since discovered that for 

 canning, for preserves, for applebuttcr, the.se 

 l)ears can't be excelled. 



If you wish to boil applebutter, and us? 

 them with the cider instead of apple, you will 

 have an article that any person would prefer 

 to all apples— all I can say is — it "tastes dif- 

 ferent !" At one time I raised a lot of seed- 

 lings; these grew from two to five feet high 

 the first season. Other seedling pear trees 

 rarely grew as many inches the first year. Of 

 course I thought these would make excellent 

 stocks to work on other pears ; but I soon 

 found that other pears, though growing freely 

 on this stock for a year or two, did not con- 

 tinue their vigor, but stopped growing, be- 

 came stunted, mossy, and bore poor, knotty 

 fruit, and would not make thrifty trees. Yet 

 these Chinese and crosses all take kindly on 

 other iiear stocks or trees. 



A friend in Columbia, to whom I gave 

 grafts many years ago, set them on top of a 

 large pear tree; and this has never been in- 

 jured by cold, blight, or any thing else, but 

 bears lots of its large fruit every year. 



The last severe winter, (22' below zero), 

 apparently did not injure any of my trees, yet 

 the flower buds must have bee;\ injured, as 

 none of my trees had a flower, or bore a single 

 specimen of fruit the last season. 



In ISSO, the "Sha lea" and my seedling both 

 bore heavy crops, though quite small trees 

 My seedling on a limb four feet long and an 

 inch in diameter where it branches out from 

 the main trunk, had thirty seven (.37) large 

 pears. One morning I went out with a basket 

 intending to take tliein off— but lo ! some 

 person who proliably had a better right to 

 them than I had, cleaned them all of ! 



I have never seen or heard of a well 

 authenticated case of blight on any of this 

 class of pears. I have had other pear trees 

 killed by blight that stood only twenty feet 

 from them. There have been rumors of them 

 blighting, but these rumors want confirma- 

 tion. 



At Rochester, New York, they have what 

 they call the .lapan Pear. This may be what 

 Mr. Prince called the "Suet lea," or Chinese 

 Snow Pear, or a cross of it, as it is of the 

 same class as all the other of the Chinese varie- 

 ties — the Kieffer, Le Conte and the rest. 

 This Japan variety is certainly a most excel- 

 lent eating pear, as I can fully acknowledge 

 from a specimen sent me last fall by Charles 

 Downing, of Newburg, New York. This 



specimen wa,s as round iis a ball, with stem 

 and eye a little depressed, twelve incnes in 

 circimiference and of excellent quality. 



Now where any trees of these Chinese 

 species, such as liave already been mixed or 

 cro.ssed with good pears, are growing and 

 bearing fruit, tlic probability is, that their 

 seeds being planted, these seedlings will .still 

 retain their peculiar growth and health, and 

 the prospect of still further improvement is 

 very promising. However, it would be better 

 not to de|)end on bees to carry the pollen as 

 they may take pollen from the poorest pears, 

 but by opening the flowers on a Chine.se, and 

 carefully removing the pistles before the 

 pollen is ripe, and then with a cainePs hair 

 brush take the pollen oil' of a flower of a supcr- 

 for variety, and apply to the stigma of the one 

 you wish to impregnate, you can hardly 

 fail of success, and a new and superior class 

 of pears will be the result. J. B. GMUtEU. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



The question of the comparative values of 

 the various kinds of fertilizers manufactured 

 or sold in this .section of the State, appears to 

 be a matter of special interest with the far- 

 mers and others in the fast-improving agri- 

 cultural district of which Oxford (Chester 

 county) is the centre. According to an act 

 of the Legislature of the 28th of June, 1879, 

 every package of commercial fertilizer offered 

 for sale is required to have stamped upon it 

 the name of the manufacturer, the place where 

 manufactured, the weight, and an analysis 

 stating the percentage therein contained of 

 nitrogen, or its equivalent of ammonia in an 

 available form, of potash soluble in water, of 

 phosphoric acid, &c., every manufacturer or 

 importer of such fertilizers being recjuiied to 

 pay a license to the State varying from ten to 

 thirty dollars, according to quantity sold, and 

 to file with the Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture a copy of the analysis above re- 

 ferred to. Any person selling or offering for 

 sale any commercial fertiliz.er without the re- 

 quired analysis, or stating that it contains 

 more of the specified constituents than it real- 

 ly does, it shall be liable to a fine, ranging in 

 amount from twenty-five to one hundred dol- 

 lars for the first oflence and not" le.ss than two 

 hundred dollars tor each subsequent offence — 

 one half lo go to the informer, provided the 

 informer is a purchaser for his own use. It is 

 made the duty of the board of agriculture to 

 analyze such specimens of fertilizers as may 

 be furnished by its agents, said samples to be 

 accompanied with proper proof that they 

 were fairly drawn, and the money paid for 

 licenses is to constitute a special fund out of 

 which the expenses of analysis arc to be paid. 



In pursuance of this act. Prof. F. A. 

 Genth, "Chemist of the Pennsylvania Board 

 of Agriculture " has made a tabular state- 

 ment, giving the chemical analysis of more 

 than one hundred dilVerent kinds of fertilizers 

 which are sold in the Slate, mo.st of which 

 are also manufactured here, but .some are im- 

 ported from Maryland, New Jei-sey, New 

 York, Ohio, Illinoi.s, and even from Missouri. 

 The money value of the different manurial 

 ingredients is rated by Prof. Genth as follows, 

 viz : " soluble and reverted phosphoric acid 10 

 cts. per pound; insoluble phosphoric acid from 

 bone, Ccts. ; from South Carolina Rock, 5 cts.; 



