26 



tHE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[February, 



less than 92 points and some of them as high 

 as 98. His exhibits attracted nnic-h attention. 



T. Franlc Evans, ofLititz, and S. G. Engle, 

 of Marietta, divide the principal honors and 

 ptofits on exhibits of Black Cochins, their 

 birds^scoring well up in the nineties. 



Of Games, T. K. Bennett, of Phillipsburg, 

 liad the largest number, the greatest variety 

 and took the greatest number of premiums. 

 One of his Br. B. Red pullets scored 97J points, 

 was awarded .13 as the best of her class and a 

 special valued at $10. 



The display of Bantams was very large and 

 tine, and tlie bulk of the premiums were 

 awarded Messrs. Dorsey and Bennett, and 

 Dr. Maple, of Trenton, N.J. 



There were many fine exhibits of Ham- 

 burgs, of all colors; but George C. Liller, of 

 this city took the lead. He entered but a 

 single pair of Black Hamburg chicks and 

 with them he was awarded the following: for 

 best pair Hamburg chicks lat premium and 

 special; for best Hamburg pullet of her class 

 special premium; for best Hamburg cockerel, 

 special premium; for best pair of Hamburgs 

 of any variety, special premium. It is not 

 often that a "single pair" wins so big a pot. 



Jos. R. Trissler, of this city, roped in a ma- 

 jority of the premiums ofl'ered lor Brown Leg- 

 horns, and Robert R. Morris, of Pottsville, 

 for White Leghorn chicks; though Henry 

 Neater, of York, took first premium for 

 White Leghorn fowls. 



So far as Plymouth Rocks were concerned. 

 Dr. D. F. Royer, of Shady Grove, Franklin 

 county, sat down on everybody else. In ad- 

 dition to the regular cash premiums awarded 

 him he carried off ten specials, valued at 

 $35.50. 



B. L. Wood, of Doe Run, Chester county, 

 was awarded first premium for best pair of 

 Bronze Turkeys, the cock scoring 97 and the 

 hen 99 points. S. G. Engle had on exhibi- 

 tion a heavier pair, but the cock had acciden- 

 tally hurt his wing which reduced his score. 



J. W. Bruckhart, of Salunga, took first and 

 two special premiums for a fine pair of white 

 turkeys. H. H. Tshudy, of Lititz, showed a 

 heavier pair, but the cock was " disqualified" 

 because he had a small black feather in his 

 tail. 



There was a warm contest between John E. 

 Schum and Chas. Lippold, both of Lancaster, 

 for the pigeon cliampionship. Each of these 

 fanciers took some thirty premiiuus, but ac- 

 cording to a close calculation made by the 

 executive committee Schum came out one 

 point ahead, and was awarded an additional 

 premium of $10 for the best collection, Lip- 

 pold taking a $5 premium for second best. 



WHITE VEIN— CAUSE -OF THIS DIS- 

 EASE IN TOBACCO. 



There are a few things connected with to- 

 bacco growing more aggravating to the 

 grower than to find on stripping his tobacco 

 that the small ribs or veins are not colored 

 like the rest of the leaf, causing it to present 

 a streaked appearance. The farmer, very 

 naturally, asks himself the cause, and soon 

 has some theory to account for it. 



A number of these theories liave come 

 under the writer's observation, and some 

 have been tested by him, and a record of his 

 experiences, it is thought, will be of interest 



to others and stimulate them to test the mat- 

 ter more fully, both by experiment and obser- 

 vation. 



The Early Cutting Theory. 

 The first theory, as near as I can recollect, 

 was given me six or seven years ago, and was 

 the too early cutting of the crop. We cut 

 several hundred stalks quite green, in order 

 to give a road through the field. This was 

 colored so nicely, while the balance of the 

 crop that year, which had ripened, contained 

 so much white vein that it refuted this theory 

 at once, and I began to inquire for another. 



The next year a friend cut his crop rather 

 over-ripe, had plenty of white vein, and he 

 jumped to the conclusion that ovcr-riijeness 

 caused it. The next year several neighbors 

 cut early and still had white vein. 



Another gentleman proposed that old worn 

 lands caused the vein, and that on new lands 

 it would cure all right. This also proved in- 

 correct, as I have had white vein on the best 

 of new ground. 



Convincing Experiences. 

 Thus I continued groping in the dark un- 

 til the summer of 1879, in which I had ex- 

 periences which convinced me I had at last 

 reached the right solution of the problem. 

 That season I had a variety of tobacco known 

 in our neighborhood as the " Hanging Leaf 

 Hoover," which is of slow growth. After 

 topping, it received but a slight rain until it 

 was cut off. On stripping it, I found the to- 

 bacco all nicely cured except that the first five 

 or six branch ribs or veins from the tips of 

 the leaves are ichite! 



I reasoned as follows: The phenomenon is 

 often witnessed of the human heart becoming 

 so weakened by disease that it is not able to 

 propel the life power, the blood, into the ex- 

 tremities, the feet and hands, thus causing 

 them to die first, often as long as several days 

 before the heart ceases to beat; so the plant, 

 by continued drouth, became so weakened 

 that the sap did not circulate to the veins at 

 the extreme points of the leaves, and they 

 died before the tobacco was cut and could not 

 po.ssibly cure brown, as could those which 

 were nearer the life centre of the plant — the 

 stalk— and therefore grew more perfect. 



This, then, I think is the cause of white 

 vein; either from drouth or some other cause 

 the plant becomes stunted before cutting, and 

 the veinlets are no longer vitalized and can- 

 not cure as do those of stalks which continue 

 growing vigorously from the time of planting 

 until it is cut, and in this new land has the 

 advantage, as it pushes the plant to perfec- 

 tion quicker than old soils. 



I do not think, as some do, that white vein 

 is under our control, but that it depends en- 

 tirely on the weather after topping, and I think 

 if farmers will but reflect how the growing 

 season was when they had much white vein, 

 they will invariably have found it dry and 

 hot. — E. K. H. , in New Era. 



TOBACCO GROWING— PROFITS REAL- 

 IZED BY SOME EXPERTS. 



The past year was a remarkable one in 

 several ways for the tobacco growers of Lan- 

 caster county. The planting season opened 

 very auspiciously, and the young plants were, 

 perhaps, never set out under more favorable I 



circumstances. For a time all went well and 

 the crop came along famously. But at the 

 season when rains were most needed by the 

 maturing plants, a Icng-continued drouth set 

 in, which continued without intermission 

 until the crop was harvested. What promised 

 to be the largest crop ever grown in this 

 county proved the smallest we have had in 

 recent years. 



Early Buying in the Field. 

 But the early planted fields had advanced 

 so far towards maturity when the dry spell 

 came that they suftered comparatively little 

 from want of rain. The belief that there 

 would be a very short crop woke up the 

 buyers to a study of the situation, and as the 

 previous year's crop had been very defective, 

 each buyer became very desirous of securing 

 some of the choice lots of the present season. 

 The result was that about the middle of 

 August buyers by the dozen came pouring 

 into the county, overrunning every portion of 

 it in their search of choice lots, which, when 

 found, they at once purchased while still 

 standing in the field, paying unprecedented 

 prices for them. Nothing to match this 

 scramble for the weed had before been seen 

 among us, and perhaps nowhere else in the 

 United States. Perhaps one-half the entire 

 product of the county was purchased in this 

 way, and even after the furore had spent its 

 greatest force, the buying continued steadily 

 until nearly the whole product of the county 

 was secured by the eager buyers. 



Result of Careful Handling. 



Purchasers, however, by the terms of their 

 contracts, bound the farmers to an unusually 

 careful handling of their crops and the latter, 

 fearful that the high prices paid by the form- 

 er might induce them to find fault for the 

 purpose of breaking their contracts, were 

 careful to manipidate their crops with even 

 more than their usual care. The result has 

 been that much of the present crop is in some 

 particulars the best and most carefully hand- 

 led we have ever seen, and has proved unusu- 

 ally profitable to tlie growers, as we hope and 

 believe it will also be to the liberal men who 

 have bought it. Tobacco has been delivered 

 at the packing houses in this city during the 

 present month equal in quality to any ever 

 grown in Pennsylvania, andj although the 

 weight uer acre is considerably below the 

 average of some other years, the greatly in- 

 creased prices received for the crop have run 

 the value per acre realized by some farmers 

 fully up, if not beyond, that of any previous 

 year. Several instances of this kind have 

 come to our notice during the present week, 

 and we have deemed the matter of suflicient 

 interest to give the figures here. 



An Excellent Crop. 

 The first crop to which we call attention 

 was that grown by Mr. Moses Snavely, 

 of Pequea tovifnship, purchased by Messrs. 

 Skiles & Frey, of this city, and received by 

 them on last Wednesday. It was not a large 

 crop, con.sisting of only 10,400 plants, grown 

 on something less than two acres of ground. 

 It was planted in rows four feet apart, and 28 

 inches apart in the rows. The crop was sold 

 in the early fall at 33 cents through, and when 

 delivered was found to consist, after careful 

 assorting by the grower, of 1,640 pounds of 



