136 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[September, 



come quite conimoa in the southern Atlantic 

 and Gulf States during the past few years, 

 and everybody who has tried it has been de- 

 lighted with it. Here is a field for our mills 

 moie promising than Italy, that needs only (o 

 be properly worked up to make rich returns. 

 It is something that will benefit the whole 

 South, for the cotton planters are all interest- 

 ed in finding a market, and thus giving a value 

 to a product which, a few years ago, was 

 waste, and wliich they were then anxious to 

 get rid of at any price. 



TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL. 



The following tables of temperature and 

 rainfall for June have been received from the 

 Signal Service Bureau, prepared under direc- 

 tion of General W. B. Ilazen. 



Average Temperature for June, 1882. 



DISTRICTS. 



For 

 several 

 years. 



New Entcland 



JlidiHe Atlantic .States 



Southern .\tlftntic States... 



Florifia Peniiisula...T 



Eastern Gulf Stales 



Western (iulf .States 



Rio Grande Valley 



Tennessee ^ 



Ohio Valley 



Lower Lake Region 



I'pper Lake Region 



Extreme Northwest 



Upper ^liswissippi Valley.. 



Mi>^(>uri Valley 



Kortlieni Slope 



Middle Slope 



Southern .Slope 



Northern Plateau 



Mifldle Plateau .' 



•Southern Plateau 



North Pacific Coast 



Middle Pacific Coast 



Souh Pacific Coast 



Moinit Washin}?ton, N. H.. 

 Pike's Peak, Colorado 



Average for 

 June, Signal 

 Service obser- 

 vations. 



64.8 

 70.7 

 77.4 

 80.8 

 79.2 

 79.1 

 8.5.1 

 76.4 

 72.8 

 60.0 

 62.6 

 62.7 

 70.1 

 71.2 

 63.4 



n.i 

 79.9 



64.6 

 67.0 

 79.9 

 60.7 

 69.1 

 71.2 

 43.6 

 33.7 



For 

 1882. 



65.0 

 70.8 

 77.4 

 81.4 

 79.1 

 79.1 

 84.3 

 76.2 

 70.9 

 04.4 

 60.6 

 61.2 

 68.0 

 71.3 

 62.7 

 69.0 

 79.1 

 65.5 

 65.4 

 75.4 

 61.0 

 G6.9 

 69.1 

 41.8 

 30.8 



o B <^ > 



0.2 above 

 0.1 above 



Normal 

 0.3 above 

 0.1 below 

 Normal 

 0.8 below 

 O.li below 

 1,0 below 

 1.6 Ijelow 



2.0 below 

 1.5 beluw 



2.1 below 

 0.1 above 

 0.7 below 



2.1 below 

 0.8 below 

 0.9 above 



2.2 below 

 3.8 below 

 0.3 above 

 2.2 below 

 2.1 below 

 1.8 below 

 3.4 below 



Average Precipitation for June, 1882. 



UISTKICTS. 



several ^Z,ao 

 years, l^^^" 



Xcw En^lnnd 



Middle Atljintic States 



•South .\tlantic States 



l'"lorida Pminsula 



Eastern Gulf States 



Wf.stern fiulf States 



Rio Grande Valley 



'I'ennessee 



Ohio Valley 



Lower Lake Keirion 



L'l)per I,ake Kc^ioii 



Extreme Northwest 



rppi'i- Mississippi Valley.. 



Mi.s.-»oiiri Willey 



Northern Slope 



Middle Slope 



Southern sloi>e 



North-^rn I'hiteau 



Middle Plateau 



Southern Plateau 



North I'acifip Coast 



Middle Pncilie CoaM ' 



South I'a.-ific Coant 



M<innt Washington, N. U, 

 Pike's Peak, Colorado 



Average for 

 June. Signal 

 Service obser- 

 vations. 



m. 





w =- 



Inches. 

 0.14 deflc'y 

 1.01 defic'v 

 0.45 defic'y 

 0.93 excess 

 1.63 defic'y 

 1.90 defic'y 

 10..35 defic'y 

 10.51 defic'y 

 0.87 excess 

 0.11 excess 

 1.39 excess 

 0.35 excess 

 ,'1.96 excess 

 1.35 e.xcess 

 0.14 excess 

 11. .35 excess 

 0.28 excess 

 0.99 defic'y 

 1.12 excess 

 0,.39 excess 

 1O.21 defic'v 

 10.11 defic'y 

 0.12 excess 

 ,3.16 excess 

 1 1.30 excess 



BARN YARD MANURES. 



In the system of agriculture practiced in the 

 United States, barn yard manure, from its 

 cheapness and efliciency, must for a long 

 time constitute the staple fertilizer under 

 ordinary conditions of practice. 



Dr. J. B. Lawes, in his valuable pamphlet 

 on "Fertility," says: 



In the district where I live the land is cul- 

 tivated on a five course shift, and the crops 

 which arc grown and sold oft' the land would 

 cost more to produce by the means of pur 



chased artificial manures than the sura which 

 the tenant, under the above system of culti- 

 vation, pays for them in rent, or in other 

 words, as far as regards the production of the 

 crop, the landowner sells his fertility cheaper 

 than the inauufacturer of manure could sup- 

 ply it. 



The principle that underlies this statement, 

 startling as it may appear, applies with two- 

 fold force to successful fa.im practice in this 

 country. 



On the average American farm, with its 

 cheaper land, and soils that have been under 

 cultivation for a comparatively .short time, 

 the natural stores of fertility that have been 

 accumulated in past ages must be the leading 

 element in determining the profits of grain 

 production at low prices; and when this 

 natural source of profitable cultivation is 

 properly reinforced with the barn-yard manure 

 that can readily be made, under a fairly good 

 system of management, to retard and dimin- 

 ish the exhaustion that is unavoidable in a 

 paying system of husbandry, the commercial 

 fertilizers, which are too often urged upon 

 farmers as the essential basis of good fanning 

 will find their true place as supplemental 

 manures that are desirable for special pur- 

 poses. 



Aside from the fact that barn-yard manure 

 is a complete fertilizer, supplying, as it does, 

 the potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, 

 which are considered the only valuable con- 

 stituents of purchased manures, it seems to 

 have a specific action on the soil that cannot 

 be obtained with any combination of chemical 

 fertilizers. 



In the liothansted experiments with drain- 

 age water.s, from the plots which had been 

 under continuous cultivation with the same 

 crop for more than thirty years, it was ob- 

 served that "whilst the pipe-drains from 

 every one of the other plots in the experi- 

 mental wheat-field run freely, perhaps four 

 or five times or more annually, the drain from 

 the dunged plot seldom runs at all more than 

 once a year, and in .some seasons not at all." 



Dr. Voelcker remarks that "this result is 

 interesting and important, for it illustrates in 

 a striking manner the beneficial effects of 

 barn-yard manure on the soil in ameliorating 

 its texture, and, generally speaking, its me- 

 chanical or physical condition, in consequence 

 of which the growing crops will sufi'er less 

 during seasons of drought." 



After a careful investigation as to the 

 causes of the small discharge of water by the 

 drain of the dunged plot, Drs. Lawes and 

 Gilbert concluded that "the result was due 

 to the greater power of absorption and reten- 

 tion of moisture by the dnuged soil near the 

 surface." 



The power of retaining a large amount of 

 moisture, in an available form, and without 

 making the soil wet, seems, therefore, to be in- 

 creased by the application of barn-yard ma- 

 nure, and this, with the increased porosity 

 which renders the water of the lower strata of 

 soil available for plant growth, explains the 

 greater immunity of manured land from the 

 effects of excessively dry or wet seasons. 



The advantages of the barn-yard manure, 

 under the unfavorable conditions of a wet, 

 backward si)ring,followed by a severe drought, 

 were decidedly marked in the crop of 1881 

 throughout the entire season. 



From the first appearance of the plants 

 above the surface to the time of harvest, the 

 barn-yard manure plots could be clearly dis- 

 tinguished, even at a distance, by the vigorous 

 and rapid growth of the crop, and when the 

 tassels and ears were forming, the stalks ware 

 not only much larger, but they gave indica- 

 tions of a mature development that was not 

 observed on the other plots.— Mm?^ Miles, 

 Houyhton Farm. 



PRESERVING FENCE POSTS. 



Several plans have been tried for increasing 

 the natural durability of the poplars, elms, 

 etc., when u.sed for posts. 



Of these, the most effective has been im- 

 mersing them in hot coal tar, where they are 

 kept at a boiling temperature for thirty or 

 forty minutes. Vats are used for the work 

 built on the principle of the old sorghum 

 evaporators. The posts are put in and taken 

 out of the hot tar with large nippers made for 

 the purpose. 



Pots of willow, Cottonwood, white elm, etc., 

 thus treated have proven more durable than 

 white oak posts set green. With the cotton- 

 wood it has been found that the tar would 

 penetrate into the pores of the wood better 

 wlien green than after they become dry. 



It has been also found that elm boards 

 were very strong, durable and free from warp- 

 ing when treated to a bath cf the boiling gas- 

 tar. — Western Farmer. 



SOME WHEAT STATISTICS. 



It is to be regretted that a journal of such 

 good standing as BradstretV s should fall into 

 such errors regarding wheat statistics as are 

 to be found in its last issue. Commenting on 

 wheat, BradstreeVs says : 



Two years sgo, on August 1, 1880, it was 

 estimated that there were .50,000,000 bushels 

 of wheat left over out of the crop of 1879; 

 add to this the large crop of 1880, which was 

 stated by the Agricultural department at 

 490,000,000 bushels, and the crop of 1881, 

 which may be estimated at not over 400,000,- 

 000 bushels— giving a total supply of 940,000,- 

 000 bushels of wheat tor the two years to 

 August 1, 1882. Out of this we exported in 

 the form of wheat and wheat fiour in the year 

 to July 1, 1881, 198,828,-581 bushels of wheat, 

 and in the year to July 1, 1882, 121, .523,246 

 bushels of wheat, making a total of 320,351,- 

 827 bushels. 



On August 1, 1882, there was practically 

 110 wheat of the old crop left in the country; 

 consequently the balance over what was ex- 

 ported was consumed, say, 619,948,173 bush- 

 els, or at the rate of, say, 320,000,000, which, 

 with an increasing population both by immi- 

 gration and natural increase, would probably 

 require 340,000.000 for the year ending 

 August 1, 1883. 



The estimate of 50,000,000 old stock on 

 hand August 1, 1880. is much too high, as it 

 was a noticeable fact that stocks of old wheat 

 were at tliat date unusually small. Instead 

 of the crop of 1880 being 490,000,000 bushels 

 it was 8,000,000 bushels larger, while the crop 

 of 1881 was 380,000,000 bushels, or 20,000,OCO 

 bushels less than BradstreeVs figures. For 

 the year ending .July 1, 1881, we exported of 

 wheat and fiour 180,321,464 bushels, or 12,- 

 000,000 bushels less than what BradstreeVs 

 gives. In speaking of the stock on hand in 

 1880 and 1882, Bradstreet takes August 1 as 

 the date, but when giving the exports it uses 

 the fiscal year ending July 1 or rather June 



