i«6 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



tions tlie whole amount will corae back with 

 at least 50 per cent, added to it. My main 

 reliance is uiion the compost heap, stable 

 and barnyard manures and wood ashes. How 

 shall they be used to be of the gieatest advan- 

 tage to us ? My early teachings were all in 

 favor of plowing them under, and I remember 

 some of the teachers saying the deeper the 

 better. 



Nearly twenty years ago I bad occasion to 

 break up a piece of very heavy sod. Believing 

 ni deep plowing, as well as heavy manuring, 

 two yoke of oxen were put to the plow, and 

 it was turned over not less than eight, and 

 most of it ten inches deep. Upon a portion 

 of it I put some very rich manure, putting it 

 in the bottom of the furrows. It was of 

 course buried very deep ; but if my theory of 

 deeply covering the manure was correct it 

 would be all right, and I should in due time 

 receive my reward. I watched and waited 

 with a good deal of interest for the result. I 

 am waiting yet, but not watching with any 

 great amount of interest any longer. So far 

 as any benefit to the subsequent crops was 

 concerned I believe the manure might as well 

 been buried under the Pyramid of Cheops as 

 to have been put where it was. 



Tliis set me to thinking as well as to study- 

 ing and experimenting in other directions. 

 The result has been that my system of fer- 

 tilizing ray land has been almost completely 

 revolutionized within the last ten or twelve 

 years. At present my rule is to have my 

 compost heaps (which, by the way, are my 

 main reliance) as fine and thoroughly rotted 

 as possible, and then spread upon the top of 

 the ground after plowing and harrowing it. I 

 still plow under some manure, but never so 

 deep as I did years ago. I will not pretend 

 that my jjresent plan is the best for others 

 and under all circumstances, or that 1 have 

 reached perfection as regards my own land ; 

 but I am certainly receiving mucli better re- 

 turns for my manures than 1 did years ago 

 when they were buried much deeper. When 

 I can find a better method than my present 

 one I shall not hesitate to adopt it. — /. Jl/. 

 Smith, N. Y. Tribune. 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 



Tliere is not the slightest reason to believe 

 that when the ancient Egyptians invented a 

 method of artificially hatching eggs they were 

 inrtuenced by any desire to lessen the labor of 

 hens. Tlieir sole object was to produce more 

 chickens than the hens produced. Although 

 we may give a setting hen credit for the best 

 possible intentions, it must be admitted that 

 she is a'very "clumsy bird. iSlie will tread on 

 her eggs and will leave more or less of them 

 out in the cold, liisides, her capacity to 

 hatch eggs is limited by her size. There are 

 very few hens who can hatch out more than a 

 dozen chickens, and, of course, if a man 

 wishes to raise chickens on a large scale he 

 must supply liiniself with an immense nnm- 

 lier of bens. Artificial incubation obviates 

 all these difficulties. As invented )iy the 

 Egyptians, and extensively practi(e<l in our 

 own day, a thousand eggs can be hatched at 

 one time in a single iuoubalor, and not one of 

 these runs any risk of being broken or cIiIIUkI. 



The nnnieuse success which has attended 

 the artificial incubation of cliickensin France 



recently attracted the attention of Dr. Taver- 

 nier. a learned and ingenious physician. He 

 was attached to a hospital ior foundlings, 

 and although the position gave him an ad- 

 mirable opportunity for experimenting with 

 new medicines, he was a humane man, and 

 he was annoyed at the large nnmber of 

 foundlings who died within the first six 

 months of their life. The majority of those 

 admitted to the hospital were weak and sick- 

 ly, but in that respect they did not difter 

 from the majority of all sorts of French in- 

 fants. Dr. Tavernier felt that it was a re- 

 proach to medical science that French infants 

 cotdd not be cultivated with as much success 

 as French chickens, and he resolved to try 

 what artificial incubation— if it may be so 

 called— would accomplish if applied to in- 

 fants. 



The doctor constructed a child incubator 

 on precisely the model of the ordinary 

 chicken incubator. It was a box covered 

 with a glass side furnished with a soft 

 woolen bed and kept at the temperature of 

 86° Fahrenheit by the aid of hot water. He 

 selected as the subject of his first experiment 

 a miserably made infant, one, in fact, that 

 had rashly insisted upon beginning the world 

 at an injudiciously early period. This infant 

 was placed in the incubator, provided with a 

 nursing bottle, and kept in a dark room. To 

 the surprise of the doctor it ceased to cry on 

 the second day after it was placed in the in- 

 cubator, and although it had been a preter- 

 naturally sleepless child, it sank into a deep 

 and quiet sleep. The child remained in the 

 cubator for about eight weeks, during which 

 time it never once cried, and never remained 

 awake except while taking nourishment. It 

 grew rapidly, and when, at the ex])iratiou of 

 sixty days, it was removed fi-om the incuba- 

 tor it presented the appearance of a healthy 

 infant of at least a year old. 



Delighted with tlie success of this experi- 

 ment. Dr. Tavernier next selected an ordinary 

 six-months-old infant addicted to the usual 

 pins and colic, and exhibiting the usual fret- 

 fulness of French infants. This child eon- 

 ducted itself while in the incubator precisely 

 us its predecessor had done. It never cried ; 

 it spent its whole time in sleep, and it grew 

 as if it had made up its caind to embrace the 

 career of a professional giant. After a six 

 weeks' stay in the incubator it was removed 

 and weighed. During this brief period it 

 had doubled its weight. It had become so 

 strong and healthy that it resembled a child 

 of three years old, and it could actually walk 

 when holding on to a convenient piece of fur- 

 niture. 



Tliese two experiments satisfied Dr. Taver- 

 nier of the vast advantages of artificial child 

 incubation. He immediately ])roceeded — witli 

 the permission of the authorities of the hos- 

 pital — to construct an incubator of the ca- 

 pacity ot four hundred infants, and in this he 

 jilaced every one of the three hundred and 

 sixty infants who were in the hospital on the 

 loth day of February last. AVitb the excep- 

 tion of one who died of congenital hydro- 

 cephalus and another who was claimed by its 

 rei)entant parents, the infants were ke])t con- 

 tiiniously in tlie incubator for si.x mouths, 

 when they were removed in consequence of 

 having outgrown their narrow beds. The re- 



sult will seem almost incredible to persons 

 who are unfamiliar with the reputation of 

 Dr. Tavernier, and have not sien the rei)nit 

 made to the French government on the sul> 

 ject by a select committee of twelve. The 

 average age of the infants last February was 

 3 months and 3 days— the youngest being 

 less than 12 hours old and the eldest not more 

 than 11 months. Their average weight was 

 16 pounds, only one of the entire 360 having 

 attained a weight of 32 pounds. At the end 

 of six months of artificial incubation the 

 average weight of each infant was 84 pounds, 

 and there was not one who would not have 

 been supposed by a casual observer to be at 

 least eight years old. 



In other words, six months of artificial in- 

 cubation did as much in the way of develop- 

 ing Dr. Tavernier's foundlings as eight years 

 of ordinary life would have done. The in- 

 fants were strong and healthy, as well as big ; 

 they walked within a week after leaving the 

 incubator, and most of them have since 

 learned to talk. These results surpassed Dr. 

 Tavernier's most enthusiastic expectations, 

 and there can be no doubt that his system of 

 artificial child incubation will be^doirted not 

 only in every child's hospital in France, but 

 in every private family throughout the civil- 

 ized world. — N. Y. Timea. 



INDIAN CORN IN KANSAS— ITS 

 VALUE AND IMPORTANCE. 



The crop of Indian corn is one of the most 

 important and valuable in the United States. 

 Tlie crop of 1880 was estimated at 1,717,- 

 000,000 bushels ; the wheat crop ,of the same 

 year was estimated at 498,000,000 bushels. 

 It must be considered as being the staple crop 

 of the Western and Southwestern States. In 

 1880, Illinois produced 240,000,000 bushels, as 

 against 60,000,000 bushels of wheat. The 

 acreage of corn in Kansas the same year was 

 2,995,070 acres, and the product 108,704,927 

 bushels, against an acreage of 1,. 520,659 acres 

 of winter wlieat, with a ))roduct of 17,560,259 

 bushels. 



On land as well adapted to cultivation and 

 production of corn as the prairie and bottom 

 lands of the West, it has the advantage of any 

 other crop of grain. 



The cost of an acre of corn, put in the crib, 

 is as follows : 



Plowing ?t.00 



Planting and seed 35 



Harrowing twice 25 



Flowing three times tOO 



Husking 110 



Total *3-C0 



The average yield of corn feu- 20 years is 35 

 bushels per acre, and the price has averaged, 

 for the same time timi', :'.U cents i)er bushel, 

 giving a product per acre of .flO.50, at a cost 

 of $3.00. 



But the great advantage of the corn crop 

 is, that it can lie fed out at home, and taken 

 to the market in the shape of beef and pork. 

 Where this is done, there is hardly a year in 

 Kansas that will not return more than 30 

 cents per bushel. With a good stock of hogs, 

 and pork at S3..50 per 100 iwiinds gross, 40 

 cents i>er bushel can lie realized for corn, or 

 when fed to good grade steers, at 14.25 per 100 

 pounds, will make 40 cents per bushel, besides 



