The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S, SATHVON. Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., MAY, 1883. 



Vol. XV. No. B. 



Editorial. 



WEATHER PROPHECIES. 



Prognostications of the weatlier would be of 

 immense value to tlie countr)', procideil, they 

 were really reliable forecasts of what is to 

 come. As mere guesses, they are valueless, 

 barmfull, if not absolutely criminal; for, no 

 matter how reckless or preposterous they 

 may be, there are still some people who be- 

 lieve in them, and are groatly injured by 

 them. 



The government apprehends the great use 

 such fore-knowledge would be te the governed, 

 and hence the institution and establishment 

 of the Signal Service. This service is not a 

 mere system of pow-wowry, hut is based 

 upon information obtained from all quarters 

 of the country, as to the meteorological con- 

 dition of the different localities from whence 

 the information is obtained, and its reliability 

 must always more or less depend upon the ac- 

 curacy of the observation made and reported 

 by the local observers and oper.ators. Fully 

 appreciating the common aphorism — "There 

 is many a slip betwsen cup and lip," the ser- 

 vice never attempts to promulgate anything 

 more than " Probabilities " in relation to the 

 weather, and this tact amounts to an admis- 

 sion that ihe machinery and executive energies 

 of the different stations are not, beyond a per- 

 adventure, accurate in their observations and 

 calculations, and therefore only can report 

 approximations to the real state of the case. 



The Signal Service may be regarded as still 

 in its "swaddlings," and hence, unlike Ven- 

 nor and Wiggins, its modesty, in publisliing 

 what the weather will probably be, within the 

 next twelve or twenty-four hours — not a 

 week, or a month, or a year, in advance, as 

 the two prophets above named profess to do. 



There are many people who lind fault with 

 the service because of these modest, unpre- 

 tentious manifestations. Thev think an oftice 

 and officers under the auspices of the govern- 

 ment should make a '■^aphmje''^ after the Ven- 

 nor-Wiggiiis style — " hit or miss." 



It probably would be easier to " hit" a 

 storm-prophecy made in the month of March, 

 tharn to " miss" one made for any other month 

 of the year. We cannot recall a monlli of 

 March for at least sixty years, that was not 

 stormy. There may have been such, but we 

 do not remember it. Other months may have 

 their storms also — especially September — but 

 none is .so certain to produce a storm as the 

 month of March ; being, like September, sub- 

 ject to equinoctial intiuences. 



If Vennor and Wiggins are such reliable 

 prophets— especially Wiggins — and could not 

 forego frightening and distressing their fellow- 

 beings— especially the ignorant or illiterate 

 among them — on account of the promptings 

 of their consciences, why were they so silent 

 in regard to the storm?, tempests, tornados, 

 cyclones and Hoods, which so conspicuously, 

 so generally, and so destructively occurred in 

 the late mouth of April ? It would have been 



of some value to the country and the i)eople, 

 had they becm forewarned of these direful 

 occurrences ; but no, it appears they were 

 entirely outside the pale of their prognostic 

 calculations ; or, is it more charitable to 

 frighten the people with a false forewarning, 

 than to cidighten them with a true one ? 



Should it be tliought that these strictures 

 militate as much against the Signal Bureau 

 as against Vennor and Wiggins, we would 

 merely suggest that, according to our under- 

 .standing, the Bureau does not profess to prog- 

 nosticate or prophesy. It merely promulgates 

 what is likely to occur in certain parts of the 

 country, within the next few hours, from 

 observations made and transmitted by local 

 reporters. If it does more than that, it wan- 

 ders out of the domain o( fact, and into that 

 of/fuic//. Of course, a chief possessing greater 

 intellectual force, a larger and more continu- 

 ous experience, and an ample ability to reason 

 from causes to effects, may be able to forecast 

 the results of local meteorological phenomena, 

 better than those who make the original obser- 

 vations. But, the past month amply illus- 

 trates that there are elementary impulses or 

 forces, meteorological divergencies and con- 

 vergencies, that are still beyond the spheres of 

 human observation and calculation — even be- 

 yond the grasp o( probability, and this may be 

 so foi' a long time yet to come. 



ENGLISH SPARROWS, 



" Right about face — Disoi.isseel." 

 Just now the agricultural, the horticultural 

 and the editorial worlds are "down " on the 

 English sparrow ; just as if that bird, from a 

 saint had become a sinner. Why, dear peo- 

 ple, we have no fault to find against this little 

 pugnacious foreigner any more than we have 

 against a duck because it instinctively takes 

 to the water. The chief surprise is not that 

 the sparrow has had his zealous advocates, 

 and has beeu protected by special and stringent 

 laws, but that he ever was introduced into the 

 country at all, as an insectivorous bird of any 

 reliability worth talking about. This journal 

 has distincly demonstrated in several editorial 

 papers during the past two or three years, 

 where the sparrow stands in ornithological 

 classification, and that his place is not, and 

 never has been, among insect-feeding birds. 

 He is a finch, and therefore, essentially, a 

 grain-feeding bird. Mr. .lonesby says he be- 

 lieves a sparrow would eat an insect, provided 

 you could convince him that some other bird 

 wanted it ; and, in conlirmation of this asser- 

 tion, he says ho once .saw a blue-Viird about to 

 ;i|)propriatc a worm, but he was driven oH'by 

 two sparrows, who greedily and heedlessly 

 seized a short string instead of the worm, and, 

 after a stubborn conllict, one of them secured 

 it and immediately swallowed it, tlie worm in 

 the meantime making its exit into the gnnnul. 

 Petition the Legislature to pass an amend- 

 ment to the bird-law, suspending the prohibi- 

 tion relating to tlie English sparrow. Any 

 legislator who would vote against such 



amendment, would certainly do so in total' 



ignorance of the nature and habits of the 

 sparrow. Perhaps it could not bo success- 

 fully demonstrated that the sparrow does not 

 eat insects, especially if there was nothing else 

 " handy" that he could devour, but to uphold 

 hnn as an insectivorous birds is simply prepos- 

 terous. If a bird-fancier caged one, it is very 

 likely he would feed him the same food he 

 provides for his other finches; namely, seed- 

 grain, or their equivalents. The Crow and 

 the Owl are " contraband," because the one 

 destroys corn, and the other young chickens ; 

 and yet, they have conspicuous redeeming 

 qualities, in that they destroy in.sects and 

 mice also. An English sparrow may occa- 

 sionally destroy an insect, but if he does, 

 he is likely ashamed of it, and feels as if he 

 had "departed from the traditions of his 

 fathers." 



PULVERIZED LIME vs. CHICKEN 

 GAPES. 



About annually, for the last half century, 

 complaint has been made, in some quarter of 

 the laud, about the "Gapes," or pips," in 

 young chickens, and remedies have been ask- 

 ed for, and given, times without number, and 

 still the Gallicullurists "are not happy." 

 Those who claim to be gallicultural experts, 

 and who have had many long years of experi- 

 ence have failed as signally in their theories 

 and practice, as have the inexperienced or il- 

 literate amateurs. The singul ar thing 

 about the matter is, that so many 

 claim that the yapes is a mere trifle, a very 

 simple affair, or a myth. Ten years ago, a 

 practical chicken-grower informed us that he 

 invariably cured this disease by a simple ap- 

 plication of lime-dust, and the proce.ss was 

 just as simple as the remedy. He inclosed 

 the infested fowl in a small bo.x just large 

 enough to allow it standing room ; over this 

 box he stretched a muslin screen, upon which 

 he placed a (piantity of pulverized lime. Tlien 

 he struck fthit box with a mallet, or a "billet" 

 of wood, and the lime-dust that sifted through 

 the screen would be enhaled by the fowl and 

 cause a paroxysm of sneezing, and this effort, 

 dislodged and expelled the gapes In a mass, or 

 masses of mucus, and the cure was performed. 



Witliin a few days past, an intelligent far- 

 mer, near Oregon, in this county, informed us 

 that lime-dust has beeu his remedy for some 

 years, and he has always found it effective. 

 He merely mi,xes the lime with a dust-bath, 

 in the coop or out of it, and the fowls effect 

 the application themselves by scratching or 

 throwing up the dust in the act of bathing. 

 The process is the same, namely, inhalation 

 and sneezing, and invariably dislodges the 

 gai)es. He further states that no hen .should 

 be allowed to have more than from ten to a 

 dozen chicks at a time. To all this we would 

 suggest, on competent authority, that the 

 rejected masses of gapes should be carefully 

 collected and destroyed by fire or hot water: 

 for, they are endowed with extraordinary 



