1882,] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



107 



good many disappointments, because many 

 chicks will ollierwisp die in the shell. 



Plant sunrtowers now. The seeds are just 

 as good for poultry as ever, but you can also 

 wear the delicate flower in your buttonhole if 

 you are a Wildo ffisthete, or may, perhaps,sell 

 tliem to some aesthete snob or snobcss. Pl;\nt 

 sunflowers, we say. The flour or meal is also 

 good for feeding cows. 



For ducks, if there is no good stream or 

 pond at hand, a big extemporized basin, if 

 not more than a mud hole, will do. Hut while 

 they will not scratch much in the flower-beds 

 or gardens, Ihcy arc worse nuisances among 

 flowers or vegetables than chickens, and their 

 feet are anything but favorable to grass pro- 

 duction. 



When a chicken has to be assisted out of its 

 shell, it is a nice point to doit at just the right 

 time. The food for the first day is derived 

 from the yolk absorbed, and some should be 

 left in the shell. On the other hand, too long 

 a delay is equally bad. Chickens that bleed 

 when assisted out will generally die, but not 

 always. It is a sign that they are not quite 

 "ripe." 



A separate room for setting hens where 

 they can have food and water at will, and 

 bathe in ashes or dust, is perhaps the most 

 convenient way to manage them where quite 

 a number are hatching at once. If an out- 

 door run can be provided in which they ca^ 

 get grass, it is still better. But as some hens 

 don't know enough to always go back to their 

 own nests, they need a good deal of superin- 

 tendence when a dozen or two are quartered 

 in one room. 



Pure breeds are rather more satisfactory to 

 most poultry raisers than all sorts of odds 

 and ends ; still, if well cared for, the dift'er- 

 ence is not so very important. When a 

 farmer desires frequently to draw upon his 

 poultry for a meal he don't want an entire 

 flock of " everlasting layers," which are usu- 

 ally small and wild, and not much to boast of 

 as to quality. The Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks 

 or Cochins are better, and will furnish a good 

 supply of eggs without running all over the 

 farm or neighborhood. 



H. P. Clarke, of Indiana, makes a recom- 

 mendation in the Germantown Tdajraph 

 about breaking up a broody hen, that may 

 have sense in it. It is to shut her up in a box 

 with a raised bottom of narrow strips or 

 laths, so that when she sits her breast is con- 

 stantly exposed to cold air. If one side of 

 the box is elevated so that it does not stand 

 exactly level, it might add to her dissatisfac- 

 tion. But after all, close confinement with 

 plenty of food and water aud the company of a 

 social rooster, is probably as good way as any. 

 It is sad to see men, assuming to be teach- 

 ers of farmers, to say that poultry " will pre- 

 serve plum trees against the ravages of the 

 curculio." The curculio is a winged insect, 

 with no occasion to visit the ground, and 

 fowls cannot catch it if they would, aud will 

 rarely eat them when offered— at least, not 

 when dead, for we have seen it tried. How 

 is a clumsy hen to catch a curculio that lights 

 on a plum eight or ten feet above her head, 

 and the plum at the end of a long liml), per- 

 haps ? The statement is as absurd as that 

 bottles of sweetened water will keep the in- 

 sect away. 



Talks About Fruit. 



Plenty of soil stirring will always be a par- 

 tial substitute for mamire in fruit growing. 

 It is better than piles of mainue with no cul- 

 ture. That means weeds, and weeds mean 

 ruin. 



The cold weather in April destroyed a good 

 deal of tlie grape blossoms in the vicinity of 

 Nasliville, Tenn. Peaches there, as else- 

 where, ])romise the best on high land. 



Coal oil will kill any insect it touches, and 

 hence, as it is easily applied to the trunks of 

 young trees some fruit-growers are tempted 

 to use it in this way. But they had better 

 not. It will kill the tree also if heavily ap- 

 plied. Better experiment with it first on 

 some tree of little value before applying to a 

 good tree. 



AVe see it stated that if half a pound of am- 

 monia and the same of nitre be put into a 

 hogshead of rain-water, it makes an excellent 

 fertilizer for strawberries. Very likely; but 

 the rain-water itself, applied to. strawberries 

 during a dry period, will be excellent, and no 

 doubt did much of the good which has been 

 referred to this experiment. There is little 

 reason to believe that infinitesimal doses of 

 costly fertilizers are to produce extraordinary 

 results. 



Judge Edmund H. Bennett, writing on the 

 legal rights of farmers, says : " That when a 

 fruit tree stands exactly in the line of two 

 properties, it belongs jointly to both owners ; 

 but if it merely stands near the line, but over- 

 hangs in part the next owner's land, the lat- 

 ter has no legal claim to the fruit, nor any 

 right to destroy its limbs. The common im- 

 pression that any mau is entitled to the fruit 

 which drops upon or overhangs his land, he 

 says is incorrect. 



Fruit trees are often scraped, not specially 

 to make them look well, but to prevent insect 

 enemies from liaviug a hiding place under the 

 scales of the bark whicli accumulate. Sci'ape 

 the trunk in some way so as not to injure the 

 living bark, then wash it with whale oil soap. 

 Then you have a trunk free from insects, and 

 one that looks also "as nice as can be." Ap- 

 ple and pear trees are the ones most in need 

 of this sort of care. 



Some writers recommend fruit growing for 

 women as " a light, pleasant and profitable 

 occupation." Parts of the business are light 

 and pleasant ; but when a woman attempts to 

 manage all departments of it — planting, ma- 

 nurins, hand and horse culture, picking, 

 packing, loading, marketing, handling crates, 

 etc., etc., it will be found that a good deal of 

 the work is anything but "light." But wo- 

 men can greatly assist in fruit growing, and 

 this is where their agcucy is most needed. 

 Some women can also be managers, but men 

 must aid in the heavy work. 



Our Local Organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTU- 

 RAL AND HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



M. D. Kendlg, Creswell ; C. L. Hunsecker, Manheim 

 iwp.; J. M. Jolineton, city; I. L. LanJIe, city ; Peter 

 S. Kelsl, LllilE ; W. B. Paxson, Colcraln. 



In the absence of tlie secretary and his minutes, 

 M. Kcnillg was temporarily elected to the seat of the 

 former, and the latter were not read. What the 

 questions for discussion were only the minutes knew, 

 and consequently the nieelln;j; was much sliorleued. 

 Crop Reports. 

 Ilcnry Kurtz said that around Mount Joy the 

 wheat is very proniisinjj, and he expects forty bush- 

 els per acre ; grass pretty good, and sells from J18 

 to $25 per load ; some tobacco is middling good and 

 some not yet planted; the cut worm Is unusually 

 plenty ; oats and corn look well. 



In Levi Heist's section wheat Is better than for 

 years ; apples ard dropping ofT, through the York 

 Imperial aud Baldwin are hanging [well ; tobacco 

 Mr. Heist never saw so indllTerent. As a whole the 

 crop is promising. In regard to chcrriis It is very 

 curious that in some spots they hang plenty while to 

 others, not a quarter of mile distant, the limbs are 

 bare. 



C. I.. Hunsecker said that Lancaster county never 

 had a better wheat promise ; oats has not looked 

 better for years ; corn crop will probably be Im- 

 mense ; tobacco may yet equal former crops in this 

 county ; potatoes, there will be enough of and some 

 to spare. Prospects are very good all along the 

 line. 



John H. Landis reported that the rankness of the 

 Manor wheat has disappeared and It now looks as 

 tine as ever was seen there or elsewhere ; hay full 

 crop ; oats fine ; tobacco Is being cut in s[iots all 

 over the township ; apples will not be so plenty as 

 indicated four w( cks ago ; the peach crop will be 

 tolerably good in quality, though lacking In quan- 

 tity ; no cherries. 



Mr. PaxBon, of Colerain, said that in bis country 

 there never were better prospects for a wheat crop ; 

 bay long and well set ; corn healthy but backward ; 

 oats rather poor ; no peaches, not so much as five 

 bushels in the township ; of cherries there are none ; 

 those who set tobacco out early did well, but cut 

 worms aud drought are doing damage. 



President Witmer gave a promising report for 

 Paradise, with the exception of tobacco. One gen- 

 tleman says he has lost 9,000 out of 12,000 plants. 

 Shall We Have a Fair.' No. 

 Hcury Kurtz brought up the well worn fair ques- 

 tion. Some of his neighbors were taking an interest 

 in the matter, and they wanted to know whether 

 there was any chance of having a fair. Though 

 silence sometimes gives consent, yet the ominous 

 quiet which followed Mr. Kurtz's remarks showed 

 plainly that those present had no desire to undertake 

 the celling up of a fair, and the president then sug- 

 gested the inadvisabilily of action on this question 

 when so lew were present. 



The Immigration Question. 

 C. L. Hunsecker proposed that as the society was 

 doing nothing, it discuss the immigration question 

 indulging the Chinese, Dutch, Irish, aud everybody 

 else. Mr. Hunsecker pictured the poverty-striekcn 

 condition of the over-crowded foreign lands, aud 

 thought it but right and humane that this country 

 with all its uusetiled lauds should extend a hclpiue 

 hand to suffering humanity. 



The business on the programme for this meeting 

 was continued until the August meeting. 

 Grain and Fruit Exhibited. 

 Henry Iviutz displayed some slalksof Fiiltz wheat 

 raised on Ihc Kurtzlarm near .Mount Joy. Thev 

 were five feet eight inches long and were a fair 

 sample, Mr. Kurtz declared, of the whole of his 

 forty-lwo acres of wheal. 



Levi S. Heist had three varieties of cherries— the 

 Little Britain, tine large black juicy ones; a seetUing 

 somewhat similar in appearance; and Molkenkinsche, 

 small, red and sweet — and some sharpless strawber- 

 ries of flue flavor. 



The July meeting of the Agricultural Society was 

 held on Monday afternoon, July 3d, and was at- 

 tended by the following named persons : 



Levi S. Kci9t, Oregon; Henry Kurtz, Mt. Joy; 

 F. K. Ditfenderffer, city; W. W.Griest, city ; Joseph 

 F. Witmer, Paradise ; John H. Landis, MlUersville ; 



POULTRY ASSOCIATION. 



The Lancaster County Poultry Association met In 

 the agricultural room of city hall, on Monday, July 

 3rd, 1882. 



The following named members were present: 



