il4 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[August- 



beginning of the Cliristian Era. Xenophon 

 records an interview between Socrates and 

 Ischomacbiis, a rich and powerful Athenian, 

 in which occur many of the economical max- 

 ims of the present day— not only secular or 

 domestic maxiums, but those also of a relig- 

 ious character, albeit both were Pagans. 



For instance, wlien Socrates inquired 

 whether Ischomachus liad instructed his young 

 wife in the things "which relate to the man- 

 agement of a house," he answered : " I did, 

 but not before I had implored the gods to 

 show me what instructions were necessary for 

 her, and that she might have a heart to learn 

 and practice those instructions to tlie advan- 

 tage and profit of us both." And this noble 

 Athenian also invoked the guidance of tlie 

 gods in all his enterprises. No matter about 

 the quality of his religion— it was the best 

 then accessible to him— it was his faith we 

 commend, a faith that puts to blush many of 

 the pietetic practices of modern Christianity, 

 which have little regard to any influence out- 

 side of self. 



"Husbandry," says Ischomachus, "is an 

 honorable science, and the most pleasant and 

 profitable of any other : it is favored by the 

 gods and beloved by mankind." 



Even the dravpbacks to husbandry existed 

 in ancient times very much as they do now. 

 "There are many unforeseen accidents that 

 happen in husbandry, which will sometimes 

 destroy all our hopes of profit, though a hus- 

 bandman has acted with the greatest skill and 

 diligence. Sometimes hail, droughts, mil- 

 dews, or continual rains, spoil our crops, or 

 vermin will even eat up the seed in the 

 ground." What period in the world's history 

 can the husbandman point back to, when 

 these contingencies did not exist ? And yet 

 many are fretful and dissatisfied with the call- 

 ing of the husbandman, and are yearning 

 after that of the artisan, as though these 

 troubles alone were his, and belong to the 

 evils of our modern times. 



HOW TO PRESERVE STABLE 

 MANURE. 



First. — All urine should be gathered or 

 made to flow into a well-puddled or cemented 

 cistern, covered and protected against cur- 

 rents of air, as experiments have proved that 

 in one week four-fifths of the ammonia can 

 be dissipated. 



Second. — The stables should daily have a 

 dusting of plaster-of-paris, and the solid 

 manure when thrown out should have a slight 

 sprinkling; jthe quantity can be regulated by 

 the number of animals, some idea of which 

 can be formed in estimating, that to hold the 

 135 pounds of nitrogen from an animal of 

 1000 pounds weight during one year in the 

 form of ammonia, would require lOOU pounds 

 of plasier-of-paris, or 500 pounds of oil of 

 vitriol. 



Third.— The manure should frequently have 

 some soil or turf thrown over it, especially if 

 exposed to the sun in hot weather. 



Fourth. — The urine sliould be frequently 

 pumped over the manure heap, that the same 

 may not become burned or dried out, and that 

 the gypsum spread over it may combine with 

 the ammonia generated. It will be well in 

 the urine cistren to add 3 to 4 pounds of oil 

 of vitriol to about every 100 gallons of urine, 



thereby preventing the escape of ammonia. 

 The acid when applied should be thoroughly 

 stirred in, otherwise it may sink to the bottom 

 by its gravity, and lie inert, and in a cemen- 

 ted cistern prove injurious to the well by dis- 

 solving the cement. — From What of Fertilizers. 



GAPES AND EELS. 

 All we have time and space to say, on this 

 occasion, in regard to the theory of our con- 

 tributor, "W. J. P., on the origin of "gapes" 

 and " hair worms, " and the breeding habits 

 of eels, is, that if his observations can be veri- 

 fied, or eoroborated by any intelligent author- 

 ity, he has made the greatest discovery, on 

 these subjects, of the nineteenth century. We 

 do not doubt his intelligence nor his integrity, 

 but we think he may have based hiscouclu. 

 sious on insufficient data. 



EXCERPTS 



India has nearly 2,000,000 acres of land 

 sown to wheat. 



Hop-growers are happy over the prospects 

 of a heavy hop crop. 



The prospects for good crops in France, 

 Germany and Holland are favorable. 



Clover will be a short crop in Michigan this 

 saason, owing to winter killing and drouth. 



Apple trees in Bucks county. Pa., are said 

 to be dying from the etfects of last year's 

 drought. 



In Geogia insects of all kinds are abundant 

 and all kinds of crops are receiving their at- 

 tentions. 



Cattle valued at $13,500,000 are calmly 

 grazing in what was six years ago absolutely 

 an Indian country. 



A TOTAL of 85,160,866 fleeces were shorn in 

 the United States in 1880, with an average 

 weight of 4.42 pounds. 



The army worms, which are abundant in 

 Lyons county, Ky., are being destroyed by 

 miriads of small red ants. 



A fruit-grower in California says that 

 should the Chinese go the fruit interest in 

 that State would sufler seriously. 



Califorina takes the lead for heavy heads 

 of wheat. Some stalks have been shown, 

 six feet high, with heads six inches loug. 



Two nundred thousand head of sheep were 

 driven from New Mexico recently to Texas, 

 and 50,000 wethers to Nebraska. 



The silk trade of Switzerland gives em- 

 l)loyment to 70,000 hands. The yearly pro- 

 ducts of this industry amount to 130,000,000 

 francs. 



There are over 150,000 orange trees in 

 Florida, and the number is rapidly increasing 

 annually. The product this year is put at 

 50,000,000 oranges. 



The large bean-raising districts of Ne\# 

 York are afflicted by a worm called the bean 

 weevil, which is doing great damage to the 

 newly planted crops. 



The oleomargarine factories of New York 

 have a producing capacity of 116,000,000 

 pounds annually, while the production of 

 dairy butter in the State is only 111,000,000 

 pounds. 



Fire Brick should be laid in a thin mortar 

 made of fire clay, rather than in a lime and 



sand mortar, such as is used in ordinary brick- 

 work. In laying up those portions of a boiler 

 furnace requiring fire brick, provision should 

 be made in the original wall for replacing the 

 Are brick and without disturbing the outer 

 brickwork. 



When corn on the ear is fed to horses they 

 masticate it much more slowly than if the 

 corn was shelled. As a consequence that on 

 the ear is better digested. A horse requires 

 more time to eat corn on the ear than if fed 

 either meal or shelled corn. If the horse can 

 not have time to masticate a full feed of un- 

 shelled corn, then it is best to feed something 

 else. 



Kgots of Grass. — The roots of grass being 

 much shorter than those of cereals are less 

 able to collect ash constituents from the soil. 

 If, therefore, grass is mown for hay, manures 

 containing potash, lime and phosphoric acid 

 will generally be required. Lijce the cereal 

 crops, grass is greatly increased in luxuriance 

 by the application of soluble, nitrogenous ma- 

 nures. 



Butter in Winter. — In Denmark in the 

 management of the dairy rape cake, oats and 

 wheat bran are reckoned as first-class butter 

 foods, palm-nut cake and barley as second- 

 class foods, while linseed cake, peas and rye 

 are placed in the third class. By the employ- 

 ment of first and second-class foods, with cut 

 stravv, hay and roots, an abundance of excel- 

 lent butter is produced throughout the winter. 



The opinion has generally prevailed that a 

 little bran mixed with meal would produce 

 more pork than clear meal, but in some ex- 

 periments lately tried it was found that clear 

 meal made more pork than a mixture of bran 

 and meal. 



The naturalists have found that trunks of 

 trees undergo daily clianges in diameter. 

 From early morning to early afternoon there 

 is a regular diminution, followed until twi- 

 light by an increase. 



House-flies are found to be very frequent- 

 ly infested by parasitic worms, which suggests 

 the possibility that they may also carry about 

 the germs of infectious diseases. 



J)E Vries believes that the true function of 

 the resinous juices of plants is to serve as a 

 balm for wounds, and that the resins, are not 

 therefore excrementitious matter as some 

 have thought. 



Inclose a piece of ground adjacent to the 

 hen-house with a high picket fence, and set 

 out plum trees in it. Keep the hens in the 

 inclosure during the curculio's ravages, and a 

 crop of plums annually will be the reward of 

 the pains and the outlay. The editor says the 

 remedy is a good one, and has been used by 

 plum growers for years. Whether it is as 

 thoroughly efficacious as this correspondent 

 thinks, is open to debate. However, in the 

 vicinity of Detroit, two parties who have tried 

 it for years declare it eminently satisfactory, 

 as they have never had a curculio since they 

 turned their fowls into their pluui orchards. — 

 Michigan Fanner. 



Studies of the Wind in Japan.— The 

 Indian Bureau of statistics has received a 

 report from the University of Tokio, Japan, 

 on meteorology. Among other things, the 

 movement of the wind for each day in the 



