50 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



the physical economy of the bee. It will 

 bloom in a temperature mucli lower tliau that 

 required to animate a bee; hence when the 

 bees go abroad in search of food or nectar, to 

 store up, they always will find it in the 

 flowers of the "Black Hellebore." The editor 

 of tlie American Bee Journal, emphasizing the 

 necessity of bee-pasLure, says: "vVe have 

 just issued a new pampldet giving our views 

 on this important subject, with suggestions 

 what to plant, and when and how. It is 

 illustrated with twenty-six engravings, and 

 will be sent postpaid to any address for ten 

 cents." 



A writer in the March number of the same 

 journal, says : ■Tor ten years or more I 

 have had fine Virginia grapes in front of and 

 very near my apiary, and to my surprise and 

 dee}) regret, the bees do not "injure" the 

 grapes. I wish I could get them to "go for 

 grapes, peaches and all other fruits." This 

 writer doubtless believes in furnishing bee- 

 pasture, but seems to be disappointed that 

 the bees do not appropriate what is so bounti- 

 fully provided. The italicising is ours, and 

 we quote the lines only for their bearing on 

 the question of ixisturuge. Nevertheless, it 

 does seem queer that one man condemns cer- 

 tain characteristics in bees, which another 

 man as emphatically commends. 



CHARCOAL AS A FOOD. 



Whatever increases the power of laying on 

 fat or promoting the rapid and healthy pro- 

 duction of flesh must be food or equivalent 

 thereto. This pure charcoal does most ef- 

 fectually, as recently proved by taking the 

 live weights of two lots of sheep, and simply 

 separating them by an ordinary net, the 

 artificial food, corn and cake being carefully 

 weighed out to each lot alike daily, one pint 

 of charcoal being added to one lot only. 

 When reweighed prior to selling to the 

 butcher, the increa.se in weight was in favor 

 of charcoal by ]6| per cent. Sanitation causes 

 easy and complete digestion, and assimilation 

 only can account for these results, which 

 charcoal alone can accomplish. The charcoal 

 should be given mixed with the food, except 

 in urgent cases, when it may be mixed in 

 water or thin gruel and given as a drench. 

 The dose is one pint to every twenty-five 

 head of sheep or Iambs. One quarter-pint per 

 head for full-grown cattle, horses or pigs ; 

 half the quantity for young cattle, and two 

 teaspoonfuls to one dessertspoonful for young 

 calves, daily, when sutteriug from disease or 

 in ill-condition. To keep in good health and 

 fortify against disease the dose should be 

 given two or three times per week, according 

 to the claiis of food they are having and the 

 state of tiie atmosphere. The best plan is to 

 wet a quantity of bran, pollard or malt comb- 

 hied ; mix the charcoal among it, and then 

 amongst the food you give them. For rapid 

 and healthy fatting of cattle it should be used 

 daily amongst their food. Charcoal for in- 

 ternal and medicinal purposes must be pure 

 vegetable charcoal, free from all irritating 

 and injurious foreign matter. The charcoal, 

 when coming into the user's possession, must 

 be kept perfectly dry and free from any ill- 

 smelling surroundings, such as the vapors of 

 a stable or artificial manures, etc., or it will 

 absorb them aud thus become septic, and of 

 no medicinal value. It is better kept in a 

 closed bin or tin canister, with a closely fit- 

 ting cover. — Farm and Home. 



Our experience in stock-feeding has been 

 very limited — very limited, indeed — very long 

 ago, and confined mainly to swine feeding, 

 but limited as it was, it was still an experience, 

 and one too that seems to be somewhat in 

 harmony with the above paragraph, although 



not so systematic and precise. A pig of, 

 apparently, a very ordinary breed, had been 

 palmed off' on us as a healthy and thrifty 

 animal, but which subsequently proved to be 

 unhealthy, "stunted," and afflicted with 

 "black teeth." We were advised to admin- 

 ister charcoal with its food. We did so, in 

 this wise : The swill-barrel was kept in a 

 corner under a shod that had been built over 

 an old-fashioned out-door bake-even, which 

 was used by two families just twice a week. 

 Every time the oven was used for baking pur- 

 poses, a shovelfuU or two of the cliarcoal 

 drawn out in front, was thrown into the swill- 

 barrel, giving it a dark or cloudy color nearly 

 constantly. Those about the house no doubt 

 dumped the charcoal into the swill often as a 

 matter of convenience. Be that as it may, it 

 became a bi-weekly habit to throw charcoal 

 into the swill, which was composed of tlie 

 usual " house-slops," scraps, mixed with bran, 

 or "shipstuft"" or "chopstuff." This sort of 

 swill, together with weeds — purslain, lambs- 

 quarter, amaranth — and six bushels of corn in 

 the dry grain durms the month of November, 

 was all that was fed to that sickly pig. Well, 

 what then ? Why this : That pig was incar- 

 cerated the first week in April, and languished 

 until the first week in May, after which we 

 commenced dosing it with charcoal, and by 

 the first week in June it was " Fair as a lily 

 and bright as a bunn." Its ribs began to 

 arch, its sides began to distend, its hams and 

 shoulders to " round up," audits neck, snout, 

 and legs to shorten (apparently) and its taij 

 took an extra curl. From being lank, cadav- 

 erous and melancholy, it became contented, 

 somewhat lazy, but always hungry at the ap 

 proach of feed time. It was butchered about 

 the middle of December, and wlien hung up, 

 haired, scraped and disemboweled, it weighed 

 a little over three hundred pounds, fifty 

 pounds — "better" than the best pig in the 

 litter. A friend told us in confidence, that 

 he would not have taken that pig as a gift, 

 because it was always "left out in the cold," 

 the dam having one pig more than she had 

 teats. We don't say that charcoal did it, any 

 more than we say that the weeds, or the slops, 

 or the corn did it, but it was done ; and he 

 that has a mind to apprehend, may make 

 such use of it as he thinks best. 



At the annual ineetingof the Berks County 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Society, held 

 in Reading, Pa., Februarys, 188.3, the follow- 

 ing officers were elected to serve during the 

 ensuing year : 



President. — James McGowan. 



Vice Prcs((Zcnfs.— Joseph L. Stichter, Josiah 

 Lewis, William G. Moore, Ezra High, Reuben 

 W. Scherer. 



Secrttary. — Cyrus T. Fox. 



Corresponding Secretary. — Stephen M. Mer- 

 edith. 



Treasurer.— WiWiiXva S. Ritter. 



Auditors.— MsLtthiAS Mengel, Ezra High. 



The twenty-ninth annual exhibition of the 

 Society will be held in the city of Reading, on 

 the '2d, 3d, 4th and 5th of October, 1883. 



Tlie office of the Society is at No. 11 North 

 S^xth Street ( 2'imes Building), Beading, Pa. 

 ' All communications intended for the Soci- 

 ety should be addressed to the Secretary. 



'PEAR-TREE BLIGHT." 



Among the many different theories ad- 

 vanced during the past ten or fifteen years, 

 as to the cause and treatment of tree-hlight — 

 whether of apple, cherry, pear, quince or 

 plum— that advanced by Chas. D. Zimmer- 

 man, of Buffalo, N. Y., in a paper read before 

 the " Western New York Horticultural Soci- 

 ety," and published in the Ajiril number of 

 the Gardeners'' Monthly, seems to make as 

 near an approach to the true cause of blight 

 as any we have yet seen, and possibly there 

 may be nothing beyond it. But even when 

 the cause is .known, the application of a pre- 

 vention ora cure,' may be as unavailable as the 

 knowledge of the sailor who knew that the 

 captain's skillet was at the bottom of the 

 ocean; because, the "finer spun" tlie subject, 

 the theory, and the remedy, the more expert 

 and delicate the manipulations necessary to 

 cure, prevent or counteract the evil. Not 

 even " eternal vigilance and a sharp knife," 

 would avail anything, if they were blindly 

 applied. 



Setting aside the frozen-sap, sunburnt, 

 insect, aud soil theories, Professor Bur- 

 RELL has announced that tlie "blight" in 

 apple, pear, and quince trees, is caused by a 

 species of Bacteria, "the smallest of living 

 organisms," and that bacteria may be carried 

 from one tree to another, aud an inoculation 

 effected, through the agency of Suctorial 

 Insects. 



Mycrococus aniylovorus. Bur, is the species, 

 and so very small that it only becomes visible 

 when it is magnified 500 times, nor does it yet 

 seem to be fully determined whether the 

 blight parasite is animal «r vegetable. What- 

 ever or whichever it may be, it destroys the 

 starch grains and causes a fermentation, leav- 

 ing the cell structure apparently unharmed. 

 With the poisoned sap Prof. B. inoculated 

 healthy trees, of which over sixty per cent, 

 showed signs of "blight," clearly proving 

 that bacteria is the caiise and not the effect of 

 the disease. Twenty years ago Derlainb 

 demonstrated that these organisms increase 

 by "fission," that is by dividing in the mid- 

 dle, under favorable circumstances, once 

 every hour, and sometimes even oftener. 

 This would be, at least, at the rate of sixteen 

 millions five hundred thousand in twenty-four 

 hours. Some species of bacteria alsojierpetu- 

 ate themselves by spores, like fungi, and these 

 different modes of perpetuation is, perhaps, 

 the "stumbling-block" involving their ani- 

 mal or vegetable origin— a matter of no vital 

 importance. 



" It is quite evident that the disease is one 

 of the outer cellular bark, as the bacteria are 

 unable to penetrate through the best cells, 

 and can spread up and down only by working 

 their way through the apparently solid cell 

 walls. There being no such things as sap 

 veins in plants, analogous to blood veins in 

 animals, the sjiread of the disease from the 

 point of attack must be comparatively slow. 

 Soil, situation, exposure, etc., have little or 

 nothing to do with the disease. " 



" Of the different modes of cultivation, the 

 one that produces a moderate, healthy growth, 

 should be preferred tothatofexcessivegrowth. 

 It is quite apparent that trees highly stimu- 

 lated by manure, severe pruning, and clean 

 cultivation, are most subject to 'blight." 



