1882. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



85 



tni-niiig tliem out lift lirst leads lliem to the 

 feuce and lets tlunn nib their noses against 

 tlie barbs, and the liinl is sufficient. They 

 know enough after that to keep away from 

 the fences. 



To jirevc'ut falling off of hair from a horse's 

 mane, or' to restore the growth, rub the skin 

 of the part witli the following mixture, viz : 

 One pint of alcohol and one draclmi of tinc- 

 ture of eantharidcs. (Jive the horse a dose of 

 .salts (1-2 oz.) and feed Ihem wheat bran,whicli 

 will allay the irritation of the skin, to which 

 the loss of hair is due. 



WiiKAT is more valuable cut at a stage 

 which would be commonly considered a little 

 early th;in when left to become over-ripe. 

 The cellulose or woody fibre rapidly increases 

 in the days of over-ripening, giving more 

 bran and less flour, thus materially reducing 

 the milling value of the wheat. 



A cubit is two feet. 



A pace is three feel. 



A fathom is six feet. 



A palm is three inches. 



A league is tlnee miles. 



There are 2,750 languages. 



A great cubit is eleven feet. 



Two persons die every second. 



Bran twenty pounds per bushel. 



Sound moves 74.'i miles per hour. 



A square mile contains 040 acres. 



A barrel of ice weighs 300 pounds. 



Slow rivers flow five miles per hour. 



A barrel of pork weighs 200 pounds. 



A barrel of flour weighs 196 pounds. 



An acre contains 4,840 square yards. 



Oats, tliirty-two pounds per bushel. 



Barley, forty-eight pounds jier bushel. 



A hand (liorse-measure) is four inches. 



A span is ten and seven-eighths inches. 



A rifle ball moves 1,000 miles per hour. 



A storm blows thirty-six miles per hour. 



A rapid river flows seven miles per hour. 



Buckwheat, fifty-two pounds per bushel. 



Electricity moves 228,000 miles per hour. 



A hurricane moves eighty miles per hour. 



The first lucifer match was made in 1829. 



A firkin of butter weighs lifty-six pounds. 



Coar.se salt, eighty-five pounds per bushel. 



A tub of butter weighs eighty-four pounds. 



Theaverage human life is thirty- three years. 



Timothy seed forty-five pounds per bushel. 



.XOniCULTURAL. 



Sorghum seed is readily eaten by poultry, 

 and is better for small chickens than corn. 



Milk should stand at least thirty-six hours 

 before .skimming to get good results. Farm- 

 ers take notice. 



Kill the dog lirst and hunt for his owner af- 

 terwards, is the maxim of certain Georgia 

 farmers who mean to make sheep-raising 

 profitable. 



Cockle .seed will remain in the ground 

 many years if untouched by the plow. As 

 soon as brought to the surface they begin to 

 sprout. 



If sulphur is well dusted around the sheds 

 and hug-pens it will effectually drive oft lice. 

 Dust it on the hogs also, and leave a little in 

 the trough for them to eat. 



HoRSERAnisii is a profitable crop to grow 

 as it finds sale at from five to six cents per 



pound unprepared. It is bought readily by 

 maimtiicturers of the prepared article. 



Nearly all kinds of fruit do well on a 

 mixture of sui)i'rphospliate and wood aslies. 

 Lime is not suitable for strawlierries, but ex- 

 cellent around apple, peach and pear trees. 



Every fanner should select a portion of 

 rich soil, clear from weeds, which should be 

 devoted to roots, such as beets, turnips, ruta- 

 bagas or carrots for feeding cattle and hogs. 

 They aregond slarlers for fall feeiling. 



Contributions. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OK FARMS BE- 

 TWEEN NOW AND FIFTY 

 YEARS AGO 



Fictitious Value — Good Crops — Good Gov- 

 ernments — Tariffs, Etc. 

 Atve our Lancaster county farms worth 

 what they now bring at a sale ? Or, are 

 these prices fictitious, like they have been at 

 different periods in our history for several 

 generations back ? These are (picstions of 

 some importance, raised among many classes 

 of people. Even politicians make it a point 

 to discourse on the subject of Lancaster 

 county farms, apparently with a view to les- 

 sen the bulk of taxes. I say apprcrcnlbj, for 

 really it seems when politicians get into office 

 they are so much absorbed with ideas of per- 

 sonal emolument, in the form of salaries, fees 

 and perquisites that one must doubt all pro- 

 testations made in ohlaining office. Many 

 politicians, who are such for the sake of pelf 

 and gain — for self and spoils — arc prone to 

 "set up" and manipulate political tickets 

 that cannot but extort high taxes (from those 

 fine Lancaster county farms) in order to fill 

 their own jiockets, whilst the farmers them- 

 selves are doomed to rustic toil, earning their 

 bread by the sweat of their brows. * * * 

 Many years ago we heard that in the east — 

 Connecticut for in.stance— farmers and tobacco 

 growers, were buying their manure in New 

 York, and other large towns, at a cost of 

 $10,(10 per cord, five cords to the acre, making 

 $.50,1)0 per acre for the manure alone, which 

 we thought simply enormous. But we are 

 fast following in their footsteps, and in ad- 

 dition, apply 100 bushels of lime to the acre ; 

 in all footing up .100,01) ; and, after repeating 

 this operation for a number of years, our 

 lands, together with the outlay for fences, 

 buildings and other improvements— such as 

 houses, barns, sheds, &c.— these coveted 

 farms, the eyes of which some of the avericious 

 officeholders are fixed upon, will cost from 

 $100 to iffiOl^ per acre, not including the origi- 

 nal cost of the land. But a farm in itself 

 alone, even wi'h fences and farm buildings, is 

 like a welt without water, unless it is intel- 

 ligently and practically operated, and for this 

 purpose we must add the usual live-stock and 

 implements— for instance— four good horses 

 S800, four cows f200, besides implements 

 such as wagons, plows and harrows, running 

 up to $2,000 on a one hundred acre farm. A 

 good practical farmer will also need $1,000 

 woith of cattle, and SI, 001) worth of sheep in 

 the fall, to make manure, finally running up 

 a bill of $4,000, for all of which he is com- 

 pelled to pay a heavy burden of taxes. 



Now comes the great problem, "does it 



l)ay," or, in other words, can a man realize 

 any amount of interest at these figures, or are 

 the prices fictitious? The old sayings are 

 "experience is tlie best teacher," and "prac- 

 tice makes ])erfect;" but, an inexperienced 

 man may say, "Why, do not farmers realize 

 so many bushels of wheat, corn, Ac., from an 

 acre, and lastly so many |)ounds of tobacco?" 

 which must surely cover all the outlay. Well 

 I will only say, "try it." Buy a farm at the 

 present prices of land- -fictitious or otherwise 

 — if you ever get hold of so much money, and 

 farm for yourself, or rent a farm, and at the 

 end of the year, or a number of years, tell us 

 all about your experience and success ; but, 

 the best proof you can adduce, will be the 

 ability to buy another farm in eight or ten 

 years thereafter. This ipiestion is one open 

 for consideration, but to me it looks as though 

 lands and other properties, at the present day, 

 have a more real value than at any previous 

 period, notwithstanding the small profit real- 

 ized out of them. 



Taking into consideration the Interests of 

 the railroad as a standard of values, in ad- 

 dition, we are still better off with the $200 

 per acre farm, than we were with the $50 or 

 $100 per acre farm ; moreover. In Pennsylva- 

 nia there is yet a great deal of room for im- 

 provement. Fanners and growers of produce 

 are not men uj) to England and other coun- 

 tries. We are even gathering up the bones of 

 dead cattle to be shipped or export('d to other 

 countries, which we could so necessarily use 

 here at home. Thousands of dollars worth of 

 manure, and material which would make ma- 

 nure, or fertilizers, are lost here annually. 

 I contend that we should not stop short of 

 raising — as an average— (7(ir<)/ bushels of 

 wheat or one hundred bushels of corn, or sixty 

 bushels of oats, or Iwenty-five hundred pounds 

 of tobacco to the acre, and make our farmers 

 pay a compensating interest at these figmes. 

 I hope the time will come when all, witliout 

 exception, shall become so educated as to he 

 really practical farmers and mechanics, and 

 also up U> the requirements of the times, and 

 not so merely in i)rctention, or name. That 

 we may become able to discriminate, se- 

 lect, and vote intelligently for such law- 

 makers as will make laws for the people ; to 

 subserve their interest and not their own, ex- 

 cept so fivr as they are integral parts of the 

 people: and not to legislate in the s€'rvice of 

 "treason stratagem, and spoil," merely. Right 

 here I would respectfully ask my friend— who 

 so politely criticised me sometime ago, when 

 In an essay I stated, in allusion to the tariff, 

 that the "balance of trade," was in our favor, 

 and that it was a better sign of prosperous 

 times than when the balance was against us 

 — what he has to s.ay now, since the balance 

 of trade is going strongly against us? Is it 

 belter to sell our surplus to Europe than to 

 sell it here at liome, unless we cannot po.ssi- 

 bly use it here ? We are Importing about $:^,- 

 000,000 worth of L'oods per week, and our ex- 

 ports during last year are far below the year 

 1880. It seems to me that this must ultimately 

 result to our disadvantage.— P. S. R., Lititz, 

 June 8, 1882. 



A FARMER should SO arrange his kitchen 

 garden so that he can use both plow .and cul- 

 tivator in its management. 



