1883.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



59 



from 10 in the forenoon to 2 in the afternoon. 

 These observations reler iiriiicii ally to tlie 

 Suiiimer, tlioiigli tlu-y affect Spring anil 

 Autiinin nearly in the same ratio. 



5. The ^loon's change, fust (luarter, full 

 ,111(1 last quarter, iiapiieniiii; during six of the 

 aflenioon hours, i. e., from 4 to 10, may be 

 followed by fjiir weather; but tliis is mostly 

 lU'pendent on tlio lutm?, as noted in the table. 



0. Tlmugh the weather, from a variety of 

 irregular causes, is niDre uncertain in the 

 latter part of Autiunn, the whole of AVinte'r, 

 I lid the beginning of Spring, yet in the main, 

 I he above observations will ajiiily to those 

 periods also. 



7. To prognosticate correctly, especially in 

 those cases where the wind is concerned, the 

 observer should be within sight of a good vane, 

 where the four cardinal points of the heavens 

 are correctly placed. 



HARVEST DATES OF THE WORLD. 



January— Harvest is ended in most dis- 

 tricts of Australia, and shipments have been 

 made of the new crop. Chili, New Zealand, 

 Argentine Republic. 



February— Upper Egypt, India. 



March — Egypt, India 



April— Coast of Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, 

 India, Persia, Asia Minor, Mexico, Cuba. 



May — Persia, Asia Minor, Algeria, Syria, 

 Texas, Florida, Morocco, mid-China, Japan. 

 Central Asia. 



June— California, Oregon, South:'iii United 

 States, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, 

 Turkey, Rounialia, Danube, South Russia, 

 South of France, Danubian, Principalities, 

 Greece, Sicily, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala- 

 bama, Georgia, Carolina (North and South) 

 Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Kansas, 

 Arkansas, Utah, Colorado, Missouri. 



July— .S.jutliern, Eastern, and Midland 

 English counties, Oregon, Nebraska, Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, 

 Michigan, Ohio, New England, New York, 

 Virginia, Upper Canada, France, Germany, 

 Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, 

 Poland. 



August— United Kingdom, France, Ger- 

 many, Belgium, Holland, Manitoba, Colum- 

 bia, (British) Lower Canada, Hudson Bay 

 Territory, Denmark, Poland. 



September— Scotland, England— Hops and 

 roots. America— Maize. Athabasca— wheat, 

 barley, &e. Sweden, North Russia, France 

 — Beet root, buckwheat. 



October— Scotland, America— Maize crop. 

 France, Germany — Vintage. 



November— Australia (north), Peru, South 

 Africa. 



December— Australia (south), Chili, Argen- 

 tine Republic. 



BIRDS ON THE FARM. 



A paper read before the Connecticut State 

 Board of Agriculture, by Prof. W. A. Sterns, 

 of Amherst, Mass. 



The crow regulates its food from necessity, 

 and not from choice. To him. strictly a grain- 

 feeding, and not an insect-eating bird, corn is 

 his favorite diet. It is not true, as some have 

 claimed, that it picks out weevil-eaten or 

 imperfect kernels from the hills. He eats all 

 he can get,- good or bad, and though he is also 



a great scourger, the balance is rather against 

 his being beneficial to the farmer. The robin 

 is an insect-eating bird. It prefers insects in 

 the larval, pupal, and adult stage to any other 

 food. Few persons have any idea of the enor- 

 mous, the incalculable number of insects that 

 robins eat every year. A young robin in the 

 nest requires a daily supply of food eipiivalent 

 to considerably more than its own weight. 

 To supply the millions of young birds hatched 

 each year, this requires enormous runnbers of 

 insects. The service of these birds, during 

 the time they are engaged in rearing their 

 young alone, would entitle them to protection, 

 were the parents themselves to feed exclu- 

 sively upon garden fruits during the whole 

 period. But at this time the diet of the old 

 birds is very largely of an animal nature; nor 

 IS this the only season during which the de- 

 struction of insects goes on. It does no harm 

 tb put scare-crows in your trees and gardens 

 to drive off the rol)ins, but it hardly pays to 

 kill them. Yet when killed, they make very 

 delicate eating. 



Swallows may generally be found where 

 there are grain fields. The summer range of 

 these birds includes nearly all the central 

 portion and the great grain-growing sections 

 of the West. They are more or less migra- 

 tory, and spend their winters in the South. 

 As pestiferous as the eve and barn swallows 

 are witli their chatterings, and the annoyance 

 they give the farmers in various other ways, 

 they are the natural enemies of the midgesand 

 similar small insects that prey on grain, and 

 pursue them with unremitting vigilance. It 

 has been estimated that the nestling of a 

 single pair of swallows will in twenty-one 

 days consume 500,000 insects. Their benefit 

 is simply incalculable. 



Blue-birds have largely superseded swal- 

 lows near houses, and protect fruit trees from 

 insects much better than the swallows do. 

 The martin is too lazy to do much good, and 

 has been largely driven away from New 

 England. The king-bird, or bee-martin, has 

 been voted a terror to bee-keepers ; but it has 

 been found that the immense number of 

 insects it destroyed more than balanced this 

 evil. Again, tlie king-bird drives away other 

 birds from fruit trees, and is usefid for this 

 reason. If suitably baited with scraps of 

 cotton, strings, and other loose material to 

 complete a nest, the king-bird will soon ac- 

 custom itself to building in and about the 

 orchards, gardens, and even the houses of 

 our farmers, and thus protect thousands of 

 dollars' woith of vegetables and fruits. It is 

 strictly an insectivorous bird, and will not 

 destroy, on the whole, that which conduces 

 to the interests of the farmers. Altogether 

 the king-bird is one of the most valuable 

 species for agriculturists. The legislation in 

 regard to this bird should be of the strictest 

 kind. 



Another species doing an immense amount 

 of good in its own quiet way is the yellow- 

 billed as also its ally, the black-billed cuckoo. 

 Those birds build in apple and fruit trees. 

 They are strictly insect-eating, while they 

 make terrible -raids upon the caterpillar. 

 They should be encouraged in every possible 

 way. 



The blue jay does much benefit, but so 

 much direct damage that it is almost absurd 



to class him as a friend of the farmers. The 

 Baltimore oriole is very destructive to pea 

 vines early in the season, but he eats a class 

 of insects not touched by other birds— the 

 leaf beetles and the larvie of many species of 

 insects inhabiting the toi)s ot elm, oak, and 

 apple trees. At the end of the season a bal- 

 ance will be found in the oriole's favor. The 

 nut-hatch is emiiieiitly an insect-eating bird, 

 living largely iqion grubs which hide under 

 the bark of oak, chestnut, elm, maple, and 

 other rough-barked trees. The black tit- 

 mouse, or chicadee, is of direct benefit to for- 

 ests by the great number of insect larvje con- 

 sumed during the year. It eats in.sects too 

 small for the nut-hatch. The woodpecker 

 hooks out larger insects than either of the 

 two preceeding kinds, but can hardly be said 

 to bean especially valuable aid to the farmer, 

 The wrens are strongly beneficial to gar- 

 dens and plants about the hou.se, because of 

 the number of caterpillars they eat. The Hy- 

 catchers are beneficial, and so are the thrushes, 

 warblers, and vircos. 



CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. 

 Our Ijest success has been in .scattering I he 

 seed over growing wheat, on a cool morning 

 early in April, when an inch depth of frost 

 opens the ground in cracks into which the 

 seed falls and is lightly covered by the thaw- 

 ing earth. Both this and the wheat, but 

 especially the clover, are usually benefitted 

 by a broadcast sowing of ground plaster in 

 May. So marked is this sometimes, that one 

 can write his name in large letters with plas- 

 ter sowing, and the letters will be distinctly 

 visible in the more luxurious green, when 

 the clover slants, at first protected from the sun 

 l)y the wheat plants, have a chance for full 

 growth, after the wheat is cut. The experi- 

 ence of many who raise much clover is, that a 

 good catch is most certain if the seed is not 

 sown until the soil is warm and mellow. The 

 clover starts into growth at once and strong 

 plants are quickly obtained. The chief 

 danger of delay is that the still feebly-rooted 

 plants may be caught liy dry, hot weather 

 and killed. While [ilaster is a good top- 

 dressing for clover on most soils, if one's own 

 experience or that of his near neighbor does 

 not indicate this, other light top-dressings 

 may be useful — some soluble fertilizer, as 

 superphosphate or muriate of potash. Clover 

 responds to any attentions of Ibis kind and 

 makes a good return in the mass of foliage 

 and rich material it gathers from .soil and 

 air— material which, when plowed in, richly 

 prepares the soil for other crops. 



Clover as a Fertilizer. 

 Wherever clover can In? grown it nuist al- 

 ways be the. 8ta|)le crop, to be turned under 

 as green manure. There are good reasons for 

 believing that a large clover growth turned 

 under actually adds to the fertility of the soil. 

 Much of the mineral matters in its leaves and 

 steins are brought from the subsoil, whence, 

 in the case of other ero|)s, they would be en- 

 tirely unavailable. The bulk of a clover crop 

 in full growth is much greater than most 

 farmers realize. The green herbage of such 

 an acre might, when dried, yield little over 

 two or three tons ot hay ; but, by carefully 

 washing away the soil, so as to preserve all the 

 clover roots, it has been found that these, in 



