1882. J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



115 



year is given. The total moveiiieut for 1880 

 was about 4,000 miles greater than for 1879. 

 When States and countries make such a 

 record of the wind as tliis, the law of its mo- 

 tion may be ascertaineii, and then the chui'- 

 acter of the seasons in every part of the 

 world, perhaps, foretold. The bureau is 

 making an eftbrt to interest observers every- 

 where in this matter. 



The celebrated rose-bush at Hildesheiin, 

 in Ilauover, reputed to have been planted by 

 Charlemagne and therefore to be more than a 

 thousand years old, has borne more blossoms 

 this season than ever before, and is an object 

 of much cuiiosity. The branches of tlu? bush 

 extend to about three feet and eight inches in 

 height and three feet and four inches in 

 width. 



It is not generally known that Fortress 

 Monroe is the largest single fortilieation in 

 the world. It has already cost over §3,000,- 

 000. The water battery is considered to be 

 one of the finest pieces of military construe 

 tion ever built. 



Have your seed wheat perfectly clean. An 

 hour spent in making seed clean will save a 

 day or week in the future in eradicating 

 weeds. 



The bull is half of the herd. Thus a bull 

 of the best milking strain of blood used even 

 in a small lot of dairy cows greatly and at 

 once improves each of his get. 



Poultry. — As floors to poultry houses 

 boards are not good, especially if chickens are 

 to be brought up on them. Nothing is so good 

 as deep, well pulverized, dry soil, which is 

 really the least expensive of anything. 



Care of Sheep. — Keep sheep dry under 

 foot. This is even more necessary than roof- 

 ing them. 



The Castor bean is a special crop of increas- 

 ing popularity in all the Western States, and 

 in some counties in tlie West they are leading 

 crops. They have proven a source of pro.it 

 to the general farmer, as the cultivation and 

 harvest are simple and require little or no out- 

 lay for machinery. As a crop they are nearly 

 insect-proof, belong to the night-shade family; 

 they also bid defiance to chinch bugs. For the 

 last 13 years it is claimed they have not been 

 below a profitable price but twice, and gene- 

 rally held at a most remunerative figure. Corn 

 and other staples have been below this oftener 

 a great deal.— ioiji.swHe, Kt/., AgnmUurist. 



Vexice and Amsterdam are the cities of 

 bridges. The first has 4.")0. the last 300. Lon- 

 don has 1-3, Vienna 20, Berlin will soon have 

 50. Altogether the most beautiful and strik- 

 ing bridge in Europe is that over the Moldan 

 at Prague. 



The resident population of Great Britain 

 in the middle of 1882 is estimated by the 

 Kegistrar General at .33,280,290 persons ; that 

 of England and Wales at 20,400,820 ; of Scot- 

 land at 3,83,400, and of Ireland at 5,088,079. 



Farmers do not be deceived by the cry, by 

 our large city dailies, of such an immense 

 crop of wheat in the West. This is gotten up 

 for a purpose. While the crop is fair in some 

 localities, large in others and poor in others, 

 this cry is started for the purpose of stimu- 

 lating the farmers of the States east of the 

 Mississippi river to rush their wheat into the 



market at a beggarly price before the Western 

 wheat is harvested. t)nce in the market the 

 " cornering " and speculating business would 

 commence in earnest. With the present poor 

 prsp.spects for corn there is no reason why 

 farmers shouhl crowd their wheal, on the 

 market.— Soi('./i Bend (Indiana) Era. 



How to Feed Pigs.— The great iioint in 

 feeding pigs is to keep them growing. It is 

 not a dilhcult matter to accomplish, but there 

 are many who keep pigs that fail to grow 

 them profitably. If our farmers would lay 

 out and fit up clover pastures for their pigs 

 there would be a great [xiiiit gained towards 

 I'conomical feeding. Clover pasture with a 

 little skim-milk, pure water and a little soaked 

 corn will make pig pork at low cost. 



M. TousSAiNT has sliown experimentally 

 the si>rious dangers of eating meat nearly raw- 

 as is now so generally done If the meat is 

 un.sound, the germs of disease must pass into 

 the .system. The most frequent and danger- 

 ous malady with which anuimals slaughtered 

 for food were affected is consumption, and 

 even if the animal is only slightly att'ected, 

 persons eating the uncooked meat are lial)le 

 to infection. The raw juice pressed from a 

 .slightly affected cow's lung was used to inocu- 

 late rabbits and yonng pigs, and all the sub- 

 jects died in a short time from the disease. 

 The experiment was repeated with a portion 

 of the juice which had been paitially cookeil, 

 and the result was the same. Thorough cook- 

 ing of the meat at a temperature of 1.50 or IGO 

 degrees, is recommended as a precaution un- 

 safe to neglect. 



The Nnu England Homestead says: "There 

 is a right and a wrong time for everything. It 

 certainly isn't the right time for a farmer to 

 take a vacation before haying and hoeing are 

 fini.shed. But with these jobs (the greatest the 

 New England farmer has to do) out of the 

 way, there certainly ought to be a chance 

 for farmers, like other folks, to get ofl" for a 

 few days' vacation. A day or two even of 

 change, of absence from every-day cares, 

 braces a man up wonderfully for future work. 

 And if a farmer and his family who have 

 toiled through the season till August don't 

 deserve a little rest at least, then we don't 

 know who does." 



A LEADING farmer in Middle Tennessee 

 states that a crop of 10 acres of amber cane 

 was of more value to him for feeding hogs, 

 cattle, and mules, than any 25-acre crop on 

 his farm, and that it paid better than any 

 other crop. Those who have had the most 

 experience claim that the amber cane is twice 

 as nutritious as common field corn, and yields 

 nearly double the amount of the best varieties 

 of the sweet corn usually sown for fodder. — 

 St. Louis Journal of Agriculture. 



There has lately been exhibited in the 

 Botanical Garden of Berlin the biggest fiower 

 in the world — the great flower of Sumatra 

 known in science as the Rafllcsia Aruoldi,and 

 peculiar to Java and Sumatra. It measures 

 nearly ten feet in circumference, and more 

 than three in diameter. Sir Stanford Rattles 

 and Dr. .Joseph Arnold were exploring in 

 company when they discovered this champion 

 plant. 



Don't kill the toads, the ugly toads that 

 hop around your door. Each meal the little 



toad doth eat a hundred bugs or more. He 

 sits arouQil with aspect meek, until the bug 

 hath ncared; then shoots he forth his little 

 tongue like lightning double-geared. And 

 then he soberly doth wink and shut his ugly 

 mug, and patiently doth wait until there 

 comes another bug.— Independent Farmer. 



Mi:ui\(i sheep will yield from ten to twenty 

 pounds of wool per head, and the Cotwold 

 even more, while scrub shee.p will give from 

 three to six pounds. The line sheep eat no 

 more than scrub and produc(' more llesh, to 

 say nothing of the superior quality of both 

 wool and flesh. Therefore keep only good 

 sheep. 



■Wasminqton Territory is now setting 

 up its claims to distinction as a State. Two 

 years ago the census of that Territory showed 

 a populatiod of 73,110. The [Hjople now claim 

 a population of quite 1.30,000. Owing to the 

 remoteness of the Territory from the East 

 this increase is quite remarkable, and the 

 completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad 

 will result in the rapid filling up of that coun- 

 try. 



Wide Tires.— Those who have learned to 

 use wide tire wagons find great advantage in 

 .so doing. They could not be induced to go 

 back to the narrow tire. The philoRoi)hy of 

 this is readily ob-served. The broad tire does 

 not cut through, either in mud or sand, thus 

 making the draft much lighter ; besides this 

 the roads are not cut up, but on the contrary 

 the broad tire pre.s.scs down the lumps and 

 leaves a smooth track, thus bettering the 

 roads, the advantage of which is easily under- 

 stood. The tire which seems to meet with 

 general favor is from three and a half to four 

 inches wide. 



In consequence of the defective water sup- 

 ply there has been an incrca.se of 25 per cent. 

 in the price of fire insurance risks in the city 

 of Galveston. The average under the old 

 rates was li per cent. The new schedule of 

 fire rates will make it IJ per cent. There is 

 ab lut §20,000,000 regularly covered by insur- 

 ance iu Galveston. 



Fifty years ago the capital invested in cot- 

 ton-factories was §40,000,000, and the amount 

 of cotton used was 77,759,310 pounds; today 

 the capital is $223,000,000 and the material 

 used 793,240,500 pounds. Forty years ago 

 the woolen factories used 50,808,524 pounds 

 of wood, turning out products worth S20,69C,- 

 699. In 1880 187,iil0,003 i)ounds of wool were 

 manufactured into articles worth $234,587,- 

 071. In the last ten years our silk products 

 have increased from a value or 812.210,002 to 

 834,410,462. Fifty years ago there were but 

 few tanneries and no shoe factories. In 1870 

 4,237 tanneries, using 9,000,000 hides and 

 9.664.000 skins, produced leather worth §86,- 

 169,383; while the 3,151 shoe factories turned 

 out articles worth S14(i, 704.000. In ia30 the 

 yield of the iron furnaces was 165,000 tons ; 

 in 1880 that of iron and steel works was 7,265,- 

 000 tons, worth 2!K>, 557,685. In but twenty 

 years the capital employed in making machi- 

 nery has increased from 815,000,000 to 840.- 

 (HiO.OOO, and the annual product is worth 

 820,000 000. ■ In 1810 the value of paper 

 made in the United Slates was 82,000,000 ; 

 in 1870 it was 8.30,842,445. To quote the words 

 of Commissioner Loring, from whose address 



