60 



THE LANCASTERfFARMER. 



[April, 



had yielded for hira in a patch in the garden at the 

 rate of from 350 to 40O bushels per acre and he con- 

 sidered the quality good. They were raised under 

 very favorable circumstances, the land being rich 

 and the cultivation thorough. He believes in plant- 

 ing potatoes in ground previously made rich and 

 then not to use any manure in the row. He also 

 exhibited a few ears of hominy corn, this is a white, 

 flinty, shallow-grained variety well adapted for 

 making good hominy but not very productive, seldom 

 yielding more than 40 bushels per acre. 



Josiah Brown asked "which way can we raise 

 the most corn, by drilling or checkering and plant- 

 ing with the hoe?" 



S. L. Gregg said he thought that about as much 

 corn could be raised in one way as the other ; he 

 drills in his, but not because he thinks it better but 

 it is more convenient. 



Montillion Brown prefers to checker his except 

 when the field is hilly, as it is much easier to keep 

 the corn clean. 



Joseph P. Griest advocated drilling in rows, four 

 feet apart, with two stalks in a hill and the hills 

 thirty-nins inches apart in the rows. In this way he 

 had raised seventy five bushels per acre. 



Several others spoke in favor of drilling. They 

 believed they could raise more corn, it stood dry 

 weather better than when hilled and they could 

 work close to it. 



James .Smedley saW he once planted part of a 

 field in hills SU feet apart each way and from two 

 to three stalks in the hill ; the rest of the field was 

 planted iu hills six feet apart one way and two feet 

 the other with two stalks in the hill, and by the lat- 

 ter plan he raised about one third more corn than by 

 he former. In each case the corn was worked both 

 ways. 



The following questions had been handed to M. 

 Brown to be asked at the club : Ist. Would it be 

 advisable in planting a field of corn to run the rows 

 80 as to render the field liable to wash for the sake 

 of having the rows run north and south. 



S. L. Gregg said he had no faith in the benefits tg 

 be had from making the rows to run from north to 

 south. The air would circulate either way, and If 

 the noonday sun did not shine well along the rows 

 the morning and evening sun, would which answered 

 just as well. He always runs the rows across and 

 not up and down the hill. These views seemed to 

 meet the approbation of all present. 



2nd. How far apart should Lima beans be planted 

 for a field crop ? Nearly all were in favor of plant- 

 ing them about the same distance apart as corn. Jos. 

 P. Griest plants his in rows; four feet apart, in hills 

 one foot apart in the row, in this way he makes one 

 pole answer for two hills. He plants two beans in a 

 hill. 



Jesse Yocum asked, "Where did tlie bean weevil 

 come from and how can it be prevented from injur- 

 ing the beans?" No one could tell where the weevils 

 came from, but James Smedley said he had found 

 that by heating the beans they could be saved from 

 injury. 



Emma King read a selected article encouraging all 

 those who could to write something for the papers 

 and maintaining that it is the duty of every person 

 to try to say or write something tor the instruction 

 and encouragement of others so that the world may 

 be the better for their having lived in it. 



Mabel A. Haines recited "The Poetry of House- 

 work." 



The club having now been in existence twelve 

 years, Montillion Brown read a history he had pre- 

 pered of it, noting briefly its rise, progress and 

 achievements. The first meeting was held at the 

 residence of William Brown in March, 1870, and two 

 of the six or seven persons who were pri^sent and ef- 

 fected its organization are still regufar attenders of 

 its meetings. During the twelve years of its exist- 

 ence it has lost two of its members by death, whose 

 memories have been commemorated by appropriate 

 resolutions. It held two fairs, at which tbe display 

 and attendance exceeded the expectations of all who 

 witnessed them. It has also held a public sale of 

 stock, etc., at which the sale amounted to many 

 hundreds of dollars, and last but not least it held a 

 public meeting in the grove of the Hon. James 

 Black at the now becoming famous Black Barren 

 Spring. 



After the reading of this several others spoke of 

 the good effects of the club, dwelling more particu- 

 larly on its social advantages and of the harmony 

 that had always characterized its meetings. 



Jesse Tocum, who was attending one of its meet- 

 ings for the flrst time, said he was much pleusad with 

 the exercises, but was afraid that the members would 

 allow it to take the place of small social gatherings 

 which he considered so essential to the good of 

 society. 



The question, " Should a farmer make a specialty 

 of one particular kind of business or follow what is 

 known as mixed husbandry ?'' was adopted for dis- 

 cussion several mouths ago, but as the- days were 

 short there never seemed to be time for any discus- 

 sion, and now most of the members had forgotten 

 what the question was, which made the arguments 

 come in rather a crude shaoe. 



S. L. Gregg said that in this section of the country 

 it does not seem possible for a farmer to follow rais- 

 ing any one particular ithing; he must raise grain, 

 hay and keep some stock, but he does not believe it 

 pays to raise a few beans, a little broomcorn, buck- 

 wheat or sorghum to sell, for if he does he will neglect 

 his regular crops. Several others coincided with this 

 view of the subject, yet thought that some certain 

 thing might be made the leading feature of our farm- 

 ing operations, and only such other things raised as 

 are necessary to the carrying out of the main object 

 iu view. Dairying, for instance, might be the princi- 

 pal object in view, and then only sucli grains raised 

 as furnished straw for beddi[ig, and this could easily 

 be done as there is in this section a necessity for 

 breaking up the land occasionally and resetting it 

 with grass in order to keep up a supply of hay and 

 pasture. 



The next meeting will be held at the residence of 

 Montillion Brown on the first Saturday iu next 

 month. 



THE LINN.ffiAN SOCIETY. 



The society met in the hall of the T. M. C. A., crti 

 Saturday afternoon, March 35, 18SJ, when, in the ab- 

 sence of the President and Vice President, Chas. A. 

 Heinitsh was called to the chair. After organization 

 in due form the following donations were reported by 

 the curators; 



Museum. 



Four fine specimens of minerals and metals, name- 

 ly: mic. ox. iron from Rochester, N. Y., by W. L. 

 Hershey; asbestos from Wilmington, Delaware, and 

 mica slate and quartz impregnated with malachite, 

 from localities unknown, by students of the Lancas- 

 ter High school. (A number of the students of the 

 High and Secondary schools are manifesting an active, 

 working interest in natural science, notably in botany 

 and mineralogy, and they deserve encouragement.) 

 A specimen of Triton Jeffei'soiiii, by the curators. 

 This reptile had been kept alive in a globe aquarium 

 for a period of nine months, and died on the liud of 

 March, 1882. As the animal belongs to the order 

 Batrachia, the theory of its death is based upon the 

 natural change in its organization, rather than upon 

 its physical surroundings. During the whole nine 

 months it had been provided with a pair of external 

 ciliated gills, and was a water breathing animal, like 

 the flshes. But the period of its flnal transforma- 

 tion had arrived, when it cast off its gills and be- 

 came air-breathing, and as tbe form of the aquarium 

 prevented it from reaching the surface to inhale the 

 air, and the oxygen in the water in the tank being ex 

 hausted, the result was natural. We kiwin now, 

 however, that in an aquarium these animals may 

 survive, at least nine months, whatever the case 

 may be in their normal condition. 

 Library. 

 Report of the Chief Signal Office for 1879, 700 

 pages octavo, with 73 charts and maps. Proceed 

 ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, for 1881 

 Messages and documents, from the Department of 

 State, for 1881-2. 1 vol. 8vo., pp. 1,000, from Hon. 

 A. Herr Smith. Congressional Record, two vols., -tto 

 pp. 4,041, including index and appendix, Hon. A. 

 Herr Smith. Nos.l to9, vol. 21, Official Gazette of 

 the United States Patent Office. Ten catalogues and 

 circulars of rare and valuable scientific and histori- 

 cal books. Three envelopes, and thirty historical 

 and biographical scraps. 



New Businsss. 

 E. K. Hershey, of Creswell, Lancaster county, 

 was proposed for active membership, which, under 

 the constitutional rule, will receive flnal action at the 

 next stated meeting. 



•" J. N. Sloan, of Millville, Clarion county. Pa., was 

 unanimously elected a corresjjonding member. 



The next stated meeting will be held at the resi- 

 dence of Dr. Knight, on Thursday evening, April 27, 

 1^82, being the last Thursday in the month. 



It was marked that the evening meetings had not 

 yet been as proliflc of favorable results as had been an- 

 ticipated. It was thought, however, that before the 

 end of the year it would be demonstrated whether it 

 would bo best to continue them or not. 



The meeting had about the average attendance 

 during the winter sessions, and although there were 

 no papers read, and little special business brought 

 before the society, yet there were a number of visi- 

 tors present, and on the whole there was a pleasant 

 time spent in the Museum. 



Entomological. 



Swarming Ants and Allied Phenomena. 



March, is usually a rough, boisterous month, and 

 therefore it is not usual to flud aiit.'i, or heex, swarm- 

 ing within that month. But, the March of 1882, 

 "went out like a lamb," and on one of those lamb- 

 like days, near the end of the month, we were 

 brought a bottled swarm of these busy little insects, 

 which issued from a small aperture in a pavement 

 near " Penn Square," in Lancaster city. Males, 

 females and neuters came forth in great numbers ; 

 the flrst two, amply provided with wings, and the 

 last, entirely wingless. The phenomenon seemed 

 strange to those who were unaware that ants ever 

 possessed wings, and hence they were supposed to be 

 "something new under the sun." Ants, however, 

 belong to the same natural order that the various 

 honey-bees do, {Hymenoptera') and have many traits 

 in their habits that approximate those of our com- 

 mon " hive-bees " {Apia tneUiJlfa) in their domestic^ 

 economies. The colonies are usually founded by a 

 single fertilized female, or queen, in the spring, who 

 deposits three kinds of eggs, from which are hatched 

 male, female, and neuter ants, in time. We have 

 often found, during winter, in turning over an old 

 log of wood, or large flat stone, or ripping the bark 

 from an old decaying tree, nestled in small cavities, 

 a large ant — sometimes two or more — and some- 

 times a large "hornet," a "wasp" or a "yellow- 

 jacket," in a state of torpor, but which would revive 

 on exposure to the sun, or to artificial heal. These 

 were the surviving females, or queens, of the previ- 

 ous season, and in their organisms contained all the 

 elements of successive colonies in and during the fol- 

 lowing season; exhibiting a wonderful adaptation of 

 rae^ns to ends in the economy of nature. Under 

 similar circumstances, specimens of the common 

 " bumble-bees," or of " wood-borer-bees," are found; 

 and, before we knew that the " white-head" wasthe 

 male of the wood-borer, we wondered why those 

 found in winter had black-heads. This bee (Xylo- 

 copa Virglnica) , is also found in the winter occupy- 

 ing their galleries of the previous season in wood. 

 Now, these insects also belong to the Jfymenopterous 

 order, and bridge over from one summer to another, 

 with, perhaps, only a very few of the large colonies 

 of a former season, and those few fertile females, 

 each of which, will become the queen, or mother, of 

 a tuture colony; f erpetuating a dynasty that was 

 founded " in the beginning," and doubtless will con- 

 tinue " until the end." 



But the ants, like the honey-bees andbumble-bees' 

 are " social " or gregarious in their habits, whilst 

 the wood-borers are " solitary," and all the labor is 

 performed by the females. Unlike the bees, how- 

 ever, ants are usually wingless until the swarming, 

 or nuptial season arrives, and the wings are rapidly 

 developed in the males and females, whilst the 

 neuters, or workers (whether soldier, servant or 

 slave) remain apterous, or wingless, throughout 

 their entire lives. A case was reported to the Lin- 

 na?an Society in 1S81, of ants swarming on a warm 

 day in November, and we have noticed this phe- 

 nomenon in August, September and October. ( Ter- 

 mite): swarm in May.) Those that swarm in August 

 would, perhaps, have time enough to mature a 

 colony before the cold weather sets in, but this could 

 n(jt be sai<l of those that delay until the month of 

 November. As soon as they have accomplished the 

 purposes for which they swarm they east otf their 

 wings — and they do it quickly too — when the males 

 and neuters perish, and the fertile females are pre- 

 served to found new colonies in the following spring 

 and summer; but why they should be swarming in 

 the month of March, is somewhat aiioinaloiis. It 

 was much too early in the season for a colony to have 

 multiplied from a fertilized female of last year, and 

 hence must have been in active operation all winter, 

 and this suggestion is based upon the fact that under 

 the pavement, where the swarming occurred, is 

 located a furnace and boiler, which generates steam- 

 power for a number of printing presses ; which seems 

 to imply that ants are more influenced in their activi- 

 ties by tetnperature than by signs and seasons. We 

 know that a few warm days, even in mid winter will 

 develoiTthe foliage and flowers of plants ; and, if 

 long continued, will also develop tlie fruit ; and this 

 is also the case when a protracted warm season oc- 

 curs in autumn, producing what is termed a "second 

 crop." Now, this may have been a continuous or second 

 crop of ants, which matured during the winter under 

 the influence of artificial heat. The same phenome- 

 non frequently occurs in conservatories or warm 

 "green-houses," and illustrates that, primarily, in- 

 sects are of the same habits in their procreative 

 powers all over the world ; and that all departures 

 from the primary habit are the results of tempera- 

 ture ; of course there may be other conditions more 

 or less aflecting their development, but the main one 

 is heat or cold — the one accelerating, the other re- 

 tarding their progress. We can hardly name the 

 species referred to in these remarks, because, before 

 we could find time to commit them to paper, our 

 specimens were lost or destroyed, but they seemed to 

 be the " common brown ant," {Fomica fusca). 



