86 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June 



ON WHEAT CROPS. 



Recollections of Over Fifty Years Ago, 

 The winter of 1827-8 was so mild that the 

 oats tliat fell to the ground in the oat fields of 

 the previous summer remained all winter in 

 the soil uninjured, and grew up the following 

 spring almost as rank as if it had been speci- 

 ally sowed. There has been no such a mix- 

 ture of oats and wheat since that time. The 

 wheat crop was very good ; the grains of wheat 

 were very plump and full, weighing from 60 

 to 65 pounds to the bushel, so that the wheat 

 and the oats was easily separated in winnow- 

 ing. 



We generally have but one good wheat year 

 in six ; the intervening years averagiiig from 

 three-quarters down to one-half, or even one- 

 quarter of a crop. The price of wheat in 

 1828 was seventy-five cents per bushel. In 

 1836 and in 18.37 the wheat crops were very 

 poor — cause, the Hessian-fly. Many fields 

 were pastured. The kinds of wheat then 

 generally cultivated were the "blue-stem" 

 and the "red-beardy." The latter variety 

 was usually sown on oat-stubble. "Supple" 

 on wheat-stubble, or second crop blue 

 stem" did very well in good soil, but 

 soon commenced to get smutty. The price 

 of wheat in 1835 was $1.25 per bushel; in 

 *June 1837, 82.31, and in 1838, »3.00 per 

 bushel. That was the greatt " grass-liopper " 

 year, and a drought also prevailed. That 

 year we had the poorest crop of corn ever 

 known in Lancaster county. About this time 

 the Meditetranean wheat was imported. It 

 was at first thought a little rough, but was 

 supposed to be fly-proof; it was at least not 

 affected for some time, and took the place of 

 the three old varieties and improved in qual- 

 ity. In 1844 or 5, we had again a very good 

 wheat crop, on high grounds. On low and 

 level grounds the wheat was entirely destroyed 

 by a black frost in June. The Mediterranean 

 was generalljr sown up to 1850, when a man 

 in Paradise township, Lancaster county, 

 noticed a bunch of Red-beardy wheat grow- 

 ing in a wheat of a different variety. He 

 secured it and propagated a new variety. It 

 was an improvement on the old, or "white 

 Mediterranean," as it was named. Sometimes 

 the 1-iew was named the red, and by 1865 it had 

 almost entirely taken the place of the old. 

 About that time "something new" appeared, 

 several years in succession . The wheat looked re- 

 markably well all spring; made straw enough 

 apparently to yield from twenty-five to thirty 

 bushels of grain to the acre, but many 

 fields only yielded from five to ten bushels to 

 the acre. The cause was never definitely 

 discovered. Some said it was the " weevil;" 

 others believed it was caused by atmospheric 

 poisoning when the wheat was in bloom. 

 About 1870 we had again a severe -wheat fail- 

 ure in the larger portion of Lancaster county 

 in a new way. The season was a little dry 



*In the spring of 1S37 we paid SU.OO for a barrel of flour 

 w}iioh we believe was tlie only time we ever paid that 

 pric-e. 



^^ tEitlier our oontribntor or we are in error as to the 

 " GrnMS-hopper year," unless there were two such years 

 in suecessioTi, On the 1st of September 1839 we became 

 a resident of Lancaster, and remained here until April, 

 18«, hoarding at the Cooper House, which was largelv 

 patronized by the farmers of Lancaster county, and we 

 distinctly recall the advent of the destructive "hoppers" 

 and the groups of people in North Queen and East and 

 West King streets, looking skyward where millions of 

 these insects seemed to be hovermgover the city of Lan- 

 caster.— Ed. 



the previous fall; the winter was without 

 snow, dry and very cold, the thermometer 

 registering from fifteen to twenty-five degrees 

 below zero; cold bleak winds prevailed, with 

 occasionally a few inches of snow, which was 

 drifted from the fields mixed with surface soib 

 and the bare ground could be seen in many 

 fields in the middle of May. The yield was 

 only from five to fifteen bushels per acre, in 

 the greater part of the county. About the 

 year 1875 the "Foltz" wheat was introduced 

 into Lancaster county, and at first had the 

 appearance of supplanting the Mediterranean 

 again, but the millers did not like it in the 

 manufacture of superfine flour and it is a 

 wheat also that will not make much straw, 

 unless sown on very rich, low lands. A great 

 many of the farmers who raised it, went back 

 again to the Red Mediterranean, and at the 

 present time we have about three- fob f 

 it in a growing condition. Unless the Foltz 

 wheat improves soon, it will likely be aban- 

 doned altogether. As for the present crop 

 of wheat, it so far promises to be the very 

 best ever grown in Lancaster county, and a 

 poor field of wheat cannot be seen in a whole 

 day's travel through the county. If nothing 

 unforeseen happens the yield might be from 

 twenty-five to forty-five bushels to the acre. 

 It will depend entirely on the state of the 

 weather in maturing and harvesting, but the 

 earlier it matures, the less it will be in danger 

 of mildew. We have had the different varie- 

 ties of wheat in our county. Some far pre- 

 ferable to others. I have not the least doubt 

 that new and improved varieties could be 

 raised, if farmers or the men who operate the 

 reapers, would keep a vigilant watch for stray 

 heads of wheat that are superior to those 

 around them; and in that way we might pro- 

 duce a beardy and prolific variety of wheat 

 that would be better adapted to our climate, 

 and make a more sure crop, and less liable to 

 degeneration than any of our past and present 

 varieties have been, excepting only the variety 

 that originated in Paradise township about 

 twenty years ago. It would be a very good 

 thing if our local Agricultural Society would 

 offer a liberal premium/or the best new varie- 

 ty of wheat, selected from among our own 

 wheat fields. It might originate a variety 

 that would regularly average a yield of from 

 twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre.— i. S. 

 R., Oregon June, 1882. 



Essays. 



INSECTS AND SOME OF THEIR RELA- 

 TIONS TO THE VEGETABLE 

 KINGDOM.* 



*' Creative wisdom never works in vaiu nor merely in 

 sport." 



Sir John Lubbock estimates that there are 

 seven hundred thousand sper.ies of animals iu- 

 haWting this world of ours, the smaller moiety 

 of which have been recorded and described, 

 and perhaps the larger number of those de- 

 scribed belong to the class In.secta. It may 

 assist you in fully comprehending the true 

 import of species, when I state that it means 

 different kinds of animals, and that a single 

 species may comprise millions of individuals, 

 and almost an endle.ss number of varieties ; 

 and that by a consecutive series of procrea- 



*Kead berorc the Lancaster Plant-club, June 5, 1882 

 by the Editor. 



tious each species is capable of reproducing 

 its specific kind to an almost limitless extent, 

 and doubtless would do so, if it were not that 

 in tlie economy of nature itself there are 

 conter-influences, through which a sort of 

 equilibrium is preserved. 



It has also been carefully estimated by in- 

 telligent and experienced authorities, that the 

 los.ses annually sustained, by the United 

 States alone, through the depredations of 

 noxious insects, amounts to the enormous 

 sum of four hundred millions of dollars; and this, 

 from the standpoint of experience, do not I 

 consider an exaggerated statement. It is not 

 difficult to make an estimate of this kind 

 when we reflect that in the single State of 

 Kansas, only a few years ago, the almost 

 entire crop of the vegetable productions of 

 certain districts was totally destroyed by the 

 influx of the "Rocky Mountain Locusts," 

 commonly called (jrasshoj^jKrs. 



These preliminary statements bring me im- 

 mediately to the door of the leading topic of 

 this essay, namely: "The relations existing 

 between insects and plants in the economy of 

 nature;''^ and, not only in nature^ s economy, 

 but also, correlatively, in social, commercial 

 and domestic economy. When I s&y plants, 

 I mean the entire vegetable kingdom, al- 

 though my remarks must necessarily be con- 

 fined to a few incidental references to either 

 insects or plants,and those mainly of a general 

 or popular character. 



Notwithstanding the admitted destructive 

 character of noxious insects, it cannot be 

 positively demonstrated that the immediate 

 extinction of insect life throughout the world, 

 is a thing to be seriously desired. If the uni- 

 verse, and all the living Iteings therein, are 

 the outbirths of a Divine Economy, overruled 

 by an Infinite Intellvjence, then we may ra- 

 tionally conclude that the existence of noxious 

 insects would not have been permitted except 

 as a lesser evil, and hence that they are of 

 some use. All other things, therefore, re- 

 maining just as they at present are, the sud- 

 den removal of the insect world from the 

 category of animal life, might leave this 

 globe of ours an "unwholesome" place for 

 the human family to dwell on. Even the 

 most annoying, repulsive, or di.sgusting among 

 them, may be the scavengers, the fertilizers 

 and purifiers of the physical world ; and in 

 that degree, useful. It is mainly through 

 their occasional and destructive redundancy, 

 and our ignorance of their useful functions, 

 as well as their general utilization, that they 

 become a pest, or a scourge. * 



I pass by the little domestic house-fly, and 

 his immediate congener8,asbeing'carnivorous, 

 or carrionarious, in their developmental hab- 

 its, and therefore not siieeially germain to the 

 present subject. But, if we were entirely ig- ■ 

 norant of the uses of the common "silk- 

 worm," it might be legitimately regarded — 

 where it is native — as one of tlie most de- 

 structive insects to plant foliage that i< known 

 to its class. Compared with its .size and 

 weight it can consume a greater amount of 

 vegetation, in a given time, than any other 

 insect extant. Instead, however, of being an 

 injury to the human family, it has become 

 one of the greatest factors in commercial and 

 domestic economy. The product of this, to 

 many, repulsive worm, amounts annually to 



