66 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



[May, 



vitality, and have been known to revive by 

 moisture, after tliey Iiad been dried for tliirty 

 or forty days. After the fowls are cured they 

 should be removed to premises remote from 

 those in which they had been afflicted. 



A COUNTY FAIR. 



The business men of this city and the 

 country people generally cannot overestimate 

 the importance to their mutual interests of a 

 well devised local exhibition of our uatura- 

 resources, our agricultural and mechanical 

 products and our business enterprise. The 

 project of holding a county fair, in behalf of 

 which a preliminary meeting of those inter- 

 ested was called, is one that can only be made 

 successful by the hearty co-operation of all 

 concerned. It must be run in no personal or 

 local interest and on no narrow gauge princi- 

 ple. It should have the good will and the 

 participation in its management of representa- 

 tive men from all sections of the county, to 

 the end that the wildest popular interest be 

 excited in its success and the fullest exhibition 

 be secured of our great wealth of agricultiital 

 resources and products. With a riclmess of 

 products of the soil far exceeding that of any 

 other single district in the whole United 

 States, it is a reproach that our community 

 does not every year devise and sustain a far 

 better exhibition in this line than even the 

 state fair can show. 



Added to this is the other consideration 

 that Lancaster city is rapidly growing in im 

 portauce as a business point and manufactur- 

 ing centre. All of these interests being inter- 

 dependent, and each helping the otiier, can 

 be profited by being brought together in an 

 exhibition of their best products. Our far- 

 mers have much to learn by seeing new 

 methods and many striking innovations in 

 agriculture, now being so widely discussed, 

 can be exhibited and tested at a county fair. 

 So with our mechanics and manufacturers 

 and tradesmen in their respective lines. But 

 the more important objects of the exhibition 

 should be to bring all of these classes togetlier, 

 to the furtherance of those interests whijh are 

 mutual and in the harmonious progress of 

 which we secure tlie monj complete and self- 

 sustaining development. Especially is this 

 the case in Lancaster, where so much surplus 

 money of our agricultural community might 

 profitably be directed toward the upbuilding 

 of manufacturing interests, which in turn 

 would afford new and better markets for the 

 products of our tillage. — New Era. 



MARKET GARDENING. 



Farmers as a rule do not pay sufficient at- 

 tention to market gardening. If you are near 

 a large town or city, it will pay you to make 

 a special exertion to get your vegetables into 

 market a few days in advance of your neigh- 

 bors, in some cases it will make the diff- 

 erence between profit and loss. The writer 

 of this article one year made a specialty of 

 peas botli early and late varieties. The early 

 kinds were ready for niarkel in advance of ail 

 competitors, the con.sequence was that they 

 sold readily at .ff-i.OO per busliel ; liy the time 

 the late varieties were ready for iiicking, the 

 market was glutted and prices had dropped 

 to 2.5 cents a bushel. Now the point I wish 

 to make is this ; it did not cost any more to 

 raise, pick, or market the peas that were sold 

 for $-2.00 per bushel than it did tlie peas that 

 sold at 2.5 cents per bushel. Another advan- 

 tage you have in raising early peas is they are 



off the ground in season for a crop of fall 

 turnips, which will be relished by the cows in 

 the tall, wlien the feed is changed from grass 

 to hay. Do not use poor seed because it is 

 cheap. The best way is to raise your own 

 seed, but if you cannot attend to it, buy only 

 of reliable seedsmen, and be willing to pay a 

 fair price for it. Good seed is cheap at a high 

 price, while poor seed is dear at any price. 

 There are thousands of bushels of poor seed 

 (or seed not true to name) put up in packages 

 each year by unprincipled dealers, and sold at 

 a low price. The farmer prepares his land 

 and sows some of the so-called cheap seed, 

 expecting a bountiful harvest. He is sur- 

 prised that his onion seed does not come up ; 

 his early peas turn out to be late ones ; his 

 cucumbers are musk melons ; and his flat 

 turnips are shaped like a cow's horn. For 

 early use I would recommend the following 

 varieties of vegetables : 



Squashes — VVhite Early Bush, Summer 

 Urookneck ; for late varieties plant Turban, 

 Boston Marrow, Marblehead and Hubbard. 



Asparagus — Conover's Colossal. 



Beans— Early Valentine and Dwarf Black 

 Wax. 



Beets — Egyptian and Bastian's Early Blood 

 Turnip. 



Cabljage — Jersey Wakefield. 



Carrot — Early Scarlet Horn. 



Cauliflower — Early Erfurt is one of the 

 best ; cultivated same as cabbage but requires 

 more manure. 



Celery — Boston Market. 



Corn— Marblehead Early Sweet. 



Cucumber — White SSpine. 



Dandelion — Improved Thick-leaved ; make 

 the soil rich and sow in drills from 12 to 14 

 inches apart, covering seed nearly half an 

 inch deep. 



Lettuce — Boston Curled. 



Musk Melon — Early Nutmeg. 



Watermelon — Excelsior and Mountain 

 Sweet. 



Onions— Flat Red and Yellow Danvers. 



Peas— Carter's First Crop. 



Potatoes— Early Rose, Clark's No. 1, for 

 late variety Mammoth Pearl. 



Tomato — Canada Victor. 



Turnip— Flat Red Top. 



— Farmers Companion. 



Although, as a rule, it may be somewhat 

 too late for any practical purpose, the present 

 Season, to insert the above in our May num- 

 ber ; yet, it contains some suggestions that 

 may be good for a long time to come, not- 

 withstanding some of the conclusions are by 

 no means flnal. Some of the advice could not 

 be realized as public, although it might p.g 

 private. 



For instance, one or two men, or even a 

 greater number in a community, might rea- 

 lize .|2.00 a bushel for eaily green peas, but it 

 is very doubtful if a whole community, or 

 county of pea-growers could, unless there was 

 an immense demand, by people who have an 

 immense amount of money. It would dis- 

 turb the market as much to have all the peas 

 rushed in early, as it to have them inter- 

 mediately or late. No poor man, no ordinary 

 mechanic, can aiiord to pay two dollars a 

 bushel for peas, unless it were shelled peas, 

 but that is not the way in which early green 

 peas are usually sold. 



However true it may be that farmers as a 

 rule do not pay sufficient attention to market 

 gardening, there is very little use in attempt- 

 ing to stimulate them by advising impossibi- 

 lities, especially as to big early ^markets, at 

 big prices, and a big demand. The Vander- 

 bilts, the Astors,the Goulds and the Relmonts 

 might pay .SI. 00 or even $5.00 a box for 

 strawberries, but if the whole crop of the 

 country was ' 'rushed in" early it is not likely 



that such prices would long obtain, even 

 among such monetary magnates. 



There certainly must he a limited demand 

 for uushelled green peas at $2.00, a bushel, 

 strawberiied at $1.00 a box, and peaches at 

 50 cts. a piece, and because these, and even 

 higher prices, may be realized early, and in 

 moderate quantity, yet it does no follow that 

 tons, at those prices, could be sold in com. 

 munities that only buy ixjunds. 



We once heard of an "impracticable," who 

 was compelled, "for once," to pay .50 cts for 

 a bunch of belery. He went forthwith and 

 rented six acres of ground, and devoted it, 

 in due time, to the cultivation of a "famous" 

 crcp of celery. It^so happened that a goodly 

 number of his neighbors did the same thing, 

 only not so extensively. When the harvest 

 came he could onyl realize five cents a bunch 

 for his celery ; the market was over stocked 

 with finer celery than his, which only realized 

 ten cents a bunch to its owners. 



Of course, there should be very early, and 

 also very late, vegetable crops, and also inter- 

 mediate ones, not too abundant, not too scant, 

 for the general consumption of the community, 

 at remunerating prices — this is healthy gar- 

 dening. 



FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND FLOW- 

 ERS. 

 The following which appeared in a cotempo- 

 rary journal about the first of May, tells a sig- 

 nificant tale in relation to the horticultural 

 products of the country, and_ the pecuniary 

 encouragement they may aflford those who 

 have the energy, the knowledge and the enter- 

 prise to engage in their production. Of cour&e, 

 some of the prices mentioned below are fabu- 

 lous ; but then, there are many people who 

 will almost pay any price for articles of lux- 

 ury, whether they can afford to pay for it or 

 not. If they can't afford it, of course they are 

 fools, and deserve to suffer for such brainless 

 extravagance. But, there are many who can 

 afford it, and these ouyht to pay them, if for 

 no other purpose, at least for the benefit and 

 encouragement of horticulturists and garden- 

 ers. It needs a stimulant of this kind to 

 foi'ce cultivators out of the narrow habit of 

 growing two rows of peas, tiiree hills of straw- 

 berries, a bunch of onions, or half a dozen 

 cucumbers, and attending market about once 

 a month. 



"Fifty thousand quarts of strawberries may 

 be expected here next month from Florida, 

 Georgia and South Carolina," said a wholesale 

 dealer yesterday. " Two thousand quarts ar- 

 rived to-day from Jacksonville, and this makes 

 7,000 quarts received from there this month. 

 They are selling to-day at 75 cents a quart ; 

 the first brought .$2.75. Let the young folks 

 who are thinking of matrimony know that 

 two cases of orange blossoms arrived this 

 morning from Florida, being the first that 

 iiave ever been sent here from there. They 

 Were sent in a refrigerator, and are in a fine 

 condition." Hot-house strawberries from 

 Massachusetts and Rhode Island bring $3 a 

 quart now ; the first brought .f 10. Peaches 

 from the same source will begin to arrive in 

 about two months. Cucumljers from the hot- 

 beds around Boston and Fitchburi; are arriv- 

 ing, and retailers sell the best at $'.i a dozen, 

 or t!l more than the wholesale dealers charge 

 Mushrooms from Long Island and from the 

 hot-houses around South Amboy are worth .50 

 cents a pound at wholesale; the retailers 

 charge their wealthy customers a price that 

 nets a large profit. The hot-house radishes 



