THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[January, 



results of analyses show " that the amount 

 of nitrogen within the range of the deepest 

 roots of our agricultural crops amounts to 

 10,000 pounds per acre." They ought to 

 thrive on that amount. 



Canada is reported to have a good crop of 

 potatoes, and that will aid to keep down ex- 

 travagant prices tliis winter. A decreased 

 consumption, which always attends high 

 prices, will also have the same effect. Pota- 

 toes are popular, but not particularly nutri- 

 tious. 



Sand is excellent to make good loam out of 

 heavy clay soil, and will last if not exposed 

 to washing. It would cost a good deal for a 

 hundred-acre lot, but for a garden or a 

 flower-bed, or a lawn even, it will often pay 

 well. And so clay mixed with a sandy soil 

 will greatly improve it. 



The growth of grass on a narrow strip of 

 land thirty-three years ago still shows a 

 marked good effect on land cultivated by Mr. 

 J. B. Lawes, the famous English farmei'. 

 He says that his experiments also show that 

 the effects of mineral manures can be seen for 

 twenty-five years in succession. 



Edw^aed Hunger, in speaking of the time 

 when he was a boy, says it was the custom of 

 school children as you pass a school-house to 

 make a bow, but in these latter days, as you 

 pass a school-house, you must keep your eye 

 peeled, or you will get a brick bat at the side 

 of your head. 



The one great principal of success in pre- 

 paring cattle, fowls or swine for slaughter, is 

 to keep them growing as rapidly as possible 

 from the start. 



Days of Worship. — The f oUowing'days of 

 the week are set apart for public worship in 

 different nations : Sunday, or Lord's day, by 

 Christians ; Monday, by the Grecians; Tues- 

 day, by the Persians'; Wednesday, by the 

 Assyrians ; Thursday, by the Egyptians ; 

 Friday, by the Turks ; Saturday, by the Jews. 



Who is Old ? — A wise man will never rust 

 out. As long as he can move and breathe, 

 he will do something for himself, for his 

 neighbor or for his posterity. Almost to the 

 last hour of his life, Wellington was at work. 

 So were Newton, Bacon, Milton and Franklin. 

 The vigor of their lives never decayed. No 

 rust marred their spirits. It is a foolish idea 

 to suppose that we must lie down because 

 we are old. Who is old ? Not the man of 

 energy ; not the day-laborer in science, art 

 or benevolence ; but he only sutlers his ener- 

 gies to waste time, and the spring of life to 

 become motionless, on whose hands the hours 

 drag heavily. 



When two cows are kept ^which give to- 

 gether 300 pounds of butter a year, it is a fair 

 question to consider if one cow couldn't be 

 obtained somewhere that would give as much 

 as both. At the same time it might be well 

 to try whether better treatment of the two 

 cows — full and regular feeding all the year 

 round, soiling and careful milking, will not 

 change the two into the value of four such 

 cows as they were at first. 



The Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture 

 has received reports from its 4.")0 official re- 

 porters, and makes the following estimate of 

 the crops of 1882: Wheat, 22,425,000 bush- 



els ; corn, 39,875,000 bushels ; oats, 34,.580,- 

 000 bushels ; rye, 5,805,000 ; potatoes, 13,- 

 760,000 bushels ; tobacco, 28,750,000 pounds. 

 The trouble is that tliese rei)orts are verj 

 loosely gathered. But their errors may bal- 

 ance themselves, and leave reasonably accu- 

 rate results. 



A letter from Rflssell, Kan., says that 

 sheep in that part of the country look well, 

 and are going into the winter in good flesh. 



The quotations of gilt-edge butter at 80 

 cents and SI. 00 per pound are merely nominal 

 and misleading. It means that certain makers 

 of really fine fresh dairy butter have succeed- 

 ed in securing a limited class ot wealthy cus- 

 tomers who like the flavor of their dairy pro- 

 duct, and who are willing to pay a fancy 

 price for the gratification of their palate. No 

 one of the very few butter makers who re- 

 ceive these fancy prices in Boston market 

 could double his present sales without mate- 

 rially reducing his prices. There is but a 

 limited circle of consumers who will pay over 

 40 to 45 cents for eveu a choice article of but- 

 ter. — American Cid'Avator. 



A Mammoth Tree. — A friend has handed 

 us a, description of a mammoth water-pitch 

 tree, which stands iu front of the dwelling of 

 Mr. Jacob Sener, near this city, which may 

 be designated as the mammoth of the county. 

 It is one hundred and ten years old, about 

 one hundred and fifty feet high, and measures 

 twenty-three feet around the trunk. One of 

 the lower limbs measures sixty-one feet in 

 length, and five and a half feet in circum- 

 ference. This tree was planted by Mr. Baer 

 more than a century ago. He had been out 

 riding on horse-back, and used a twig as a 

 riding whip; when he returned home he stuck 

 it in the ground, and the present tree is the 

 product. It looks as though it might live 

 another century, and is a striking illustration 

 of what great results may grow from apparent 

 trifles. 



A PAIL of milk standing ten minutes where 

 it is exposed to the scent of a strong smelling 

 stable, or any other offensive odor will imbibe 

 a taint that will never leave it. 



The Baneful Effects of Nicotine 

 Prevented. — M. Melsens has found that to- 

 baccos from various countries contain nico- 

 tine in very diflere.ut proportions. In tobacco 

 from some parts of France (e. g. the depart- 

 ment of Lot) there is nearly eight or 7.96 per 

 cent, of nicotine, whilst liavana tobacco con- 

 tains only two per cent. He proposes to 

 smokers a way of preserving them from the 

 effects of the alkaloid, and advises them to 

 put into the tube of the pipe or cigar-holder a 

 little ball of cotton, impregnated with citric 

 and tannic acids ; as the smoke passes through 

 the cotton it will deposit the nicotine therein 

 in the shape of tannate and citrate. M. Mel- 

 sens has made very ingenious experiments 

 which go a great way to show that he is 

 correct. 



The average life of a railroad sleeper is 

 seven years. There are 2,211 in a mile. The 

 average cost is 50 cents each. Thus our 

 sleepers are costing us $150 a mile every year 

 for each of the 40,000 miles in the Union. 

 The sleepers on the English roads last on an 

 average foiu'teen years, and when properly 

 treated with preserving substances, they last 



for a century. The wooden structures on the 

 farms of this country cost $3,000,000,000 

 every thirty years, or 8100,000,000 each year. 

 By the use of simple and cheap preservatives, 

 the duration of all this wood could at least be 

 doubled. 



During leisure hours this month make a 

 simple hot-bed, eveu if it is no longer than a 

 dry-goods box from which the bottom and 

 top have been removed. This, if sawed m a 

 diagonal direction, will make two frames one 

 foot in height on the front side and twenty to 

 twenty-four inches on the rear side when 

 placed in position at the south side of a build- 

 ing or high plank fence. If no old sash are at 

 hand, cotton cloth, saturated with boiled lin- 

 seed oil, will answer a very good purpose. 

 No manure will be needed within the frames, 

 but fresh stable manure should extend one 

 foot beyond the frames on each side. 



As part of the fall work gather up all the 

 vegetable rubbish about the farm and make 

 stock bedding of it, or put it into the chicken- 

 yard for the poultry to pulverize and scratch 

 over. Throw grain among it frequently, and 

 the fowls will pulverize it in due time into an 

 intiuity of atoms. 



The late Provincial Fair at London, Onta- 

 rio, was a great success. On some days 

 40,000 people were present, and that without 

 the aid of any side-shows, horse-races, beer- 

 guzzling stands, or gambling contrivances. 

 If Canada can sustain good fairs without such 

 immoral aids, why cannot " the States " do as 

 much ? 



The Bucks-county Intelligencer says thaf'the 

 thinking farmers of this (that) part of the 

 country are beginning to more and more 

 clearly recognize the necessity for better 

 farming than we have yet reached." We 

 suggest that " thinking farmers" have always 

 thought that way, and that the possilile 

 change is that more farmers are beginning to 

 think that way than was formerly the case. 



An exclusive vegetable diet, no matter how 

 unvarying, seems to answer well for some of 

 the hardiest nations and tribes of the world. 

 In the matter of eating generally there are 

 undoubtedly some very crude notions extant 

 founded on artificial necessities. The fasts of 

 Dr. Tanner and others show quite clearly 

 that starvation is not at all imminent on 

 abstinence from a few "square" meals. 



A sweet-corn canning factory at Nor- 

 way, Maine, turns out 20,000 cans a day in 

 the height of the season. This factory takes 

 the product of 300 acres, and the net return 

 to the corn-growers is about $37.50 per acre. 

 J. Winslow Jones & Co., are the leading can- 

 ners of this article. The Maine Farmer 

 thinks this business is a great boon to Maine, 

 and that it has come to stay. One county 

 has six of these factories. 



There is a chance for a " corner " in pea- 

 nuts if the speculators choose to take hold of 

 that crop. The supply available for consump- 

 tion for the year commencing October 1, 

 1881, is estimated by the Cincinnati Price 

 Current at 1,233,000 bushels, against 2,608,000 

 bushels for the previous year. A foiling off 

 of more than fifty per cent, ought to have an 

 ett'ect at circuses, minstrel concerts, and 

 camp-meetings. 



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