The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. EATHVON. Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JUNE, 1883. 



Vol. XV. No. 6. 



Editorial. 



THE COUNTY FAIR. 



The project of liokliug a county f;ur Ihis 

 year in Lancaster seems to luivo l)cen al)an- 

 doned. The idea of holding a meeting on 

 Wliitsuntide Monday in Lancaster to consider 

 the subject seems to have been the precursor 

 to its abandonment. Perliaps it was tliought, 

 as more people visit the city from the country 

 on that day than on any other day of tlieyear, 

 there would be more likelihood of being a full 

 meeting, but this was a mistake. The people 

 who attend such gatherings do not come to 

 discus.s, concoct, and carry out public exhibi- 

 tions, but to participate in and enjoy what 

 liad been previously established. They don't 

 come to think, to propose, and to assume re- 

 sponsibilities, but to see what is to be seen, 

 to commune with their friends, and to indulge 

 in such recreations as seem suited to their vari- 

 ous tastes — some of them perhaps wise, but 

 many of them otherwise. To get up and 

 sustain a successful agricultural and mechan- 

 ical exhibition requires special energies, 

 backed by determination, and directed towards 

 a specific end — it involves head-work and 

 hand-work, such as is not included in the cat- 

 egory of a gala-day. 



Without some personal sacrifice of time, 

 comfort, and perhaps also of money — at least 

 some risk of money — it is idle to think of get- 

 ting up an exhibition with any reasonable 

 prospect of success. Because our neighbor- 

 ing county Berks can do .so— and time and 

 again has done so— it does not legitimately 

 follow that nr can do so ; and the very fact 

 that we never have done so, ought to enable 

 us to look at the subject from a different stand- 

 point than that from which we have been in 

 the habit of viewing it — a standpoint from 

 which we can take a broader view of the sub- 

 ject, than the narrow one of self-interest alone. 

 Again, Berks county and various other coun- 

 ties succeed, because there seems to be more 

 of a unity among their citizens, as to what 

 ought to constitute the leading elements of a 

 fair, how these should be combined and car- 

 ried into practical effect. Another element of 

 success involves the co-operative interests of 

 those who are not farmers or fruit growers iu 

 the community, but who "move lieaven and 

 earth" to extend their personal interests 

 among farmers to secure their pecuniary 

 patronage. Agricultural productions consti- 

 tute the basis of human material existence. 

 But where it comes to a di.splay, in which the 

 whole community is interested, collaterally or 

 othersvise, all those collateral interests are ex- 

 pected to be represented. If some of them 

 are ruled out as "contraband," which in otlier 

 communities are accepted as perfectly legiti- 

 mate, tliere most likely discordant opinions 

 will arise, and a lack of that unilij, so essential 

 to any enterprise of magnitude, will follow. 

 And the strength with which these opinions 

 will be asserted and maintained, will be pi'o- 

 portioned to the conscientious convictions of 



those who entertain tliein. If they cannot he 

 compromised for the advancement of a special 

 end, then it seems more wise to abandon such 

 an end than to subject it to even itossihk failure 

 —not a mere financial failure, but a failure to 

 secure a truly rcjirescnlalice disiAai/. 



A FIELD NATURALIST. 



Forty years ago, or more, a brightly-spotted 

 turtle was described as living near riiiladel- 

 l)hia, and two miserable specimens were sent 

 to Professor Agassiz. It was called Mulileii- 

 berg's turtle, and since tlien not one has been 

 seen until last summer. My friend was always 

 on the lookout, never Aiiling to pick up or turn 

 over every small turtle he met on the mead- 

 ows or along the creek, and examine whether 

 the marks on its undershell were those of tlie 

 lost species. Finally, one of the ditches in 

 the meadows was drained off to be repaired, 

 and there, within a short distance, were pick- 

 ed up six Muhlenberg turtles ! If you go to 

 Cambridge, Mass., you can see four of them 

 alive aiui healthy to-day. They could easily 

 have gone out of that ditch into other ditclies, 

 and so into the creek ; but if they ever did, 

 they have succeeded for twenty years in es- 

 caping some [iretty sharp eyes. 



This little incident has a moral for us in 

 two ways. One is, that often the apparent 

 rarity of an animal comes from the fact that 

 we dont know where to look for it ; and the 

 other, that it takes a practiced eye to know it 

 when we have found it, and to take care that 

 it doesn't get lost sight of again. Practice 

 your methods of observation, then, witliout 

 ceasing. You cannot make discoveries in 

 any otlier way. And the cultivation of the 

 habit will be of inestimable advantage to you. 



This is the merest hint of how, without go- 

 ing aw.ay from home, by always keeping his 

 eyes open, a man, or a boy or a girl can study 

 to the great advantage and enjoyment not 

 only of himself (or herself,) but to the help of 

 all the rest of us. I should like to tell you 

 how patiently this naturalist watches the ways 

 of the wary birds and small game he loves i 

 how those sunfisli and shy darters forget that 

 he is looking quietly down through the still 

 w ter, and go on with their daily life as he 

 wants to witness it ; how he drifts silently at 

 midnight hid in his boat, close to the timid 

 heron, and sees him strike at his jirey ; or 

 how, ('oncealed in the topnvist branches of a 

 leafy tree, he overlooks the water-l)irds drill- 

 ing their little ones, and smiles at the play of 

 a pair of rare otters, whose noses would not 

 he in sight an instant did they suppose any 

 one was looking at them. But I cannot re- 

 count all his vigils and ingenious experunents, 

 or the entertaining facts they bring to our 

 knowledge, since my object now is only to 

 give you a suggestion of how much one man 

 may do and learn on a single farm in the most 

 thickly settled part of the United States. — 

 St. Nkhnla!! for June. 



More than forty years ago we made a col- 

 lection of all the tortoises, turtles and terra- 

 pins of Lancaster county, which we very la- 

 boriously skinned, stuffed and mounted. 



These consisted of Cistiula carnUna, Ehmjs 

 geixjrajjhica, Emi/x picta, Emi/s ijutlata, Emi/s 

 inscidjA'i, Enii/s rubriventris, Sternotheriis ndo- 

 ratHS, Kinanterituui pennsiilvniiinim, unA Etiii/s 

 saura serpentina. But the Emys Midihnhimjii 

 we were not fortunate enough to find, and the 

 late Prof. S. S. Haldeman, in his list furnish- 

 ed for Rupp's History of Lancaster County, 

 published in 1S44, expresses a doubt as to its 



being a native of Lancaster county, iu which 

 doubt, after a hunt of thirty years we strong- 

 ly felt inclined to accjuiesce. Hut In .July 

 ISSO, that doubt was happily dissipited at 

 an encampment of the "Tuc(iuari Club," at 

 York FuniaceSpring, on the .Sus(|uehauna. 



On that occasion, Mr. Lntlier Hichards, 

 the senior of the club, without a knowledge 

 of its scientific value, picked up a tine speci- 

 men near the camp, and presented it to us. 

 Not having time to prepare it in the usual 

 manner, we embalmed it in a jar of alcohol, 

 and it is now in the museum of the Linmcan 

 Soctety. In 184H we donated our collection to 

 the Libhart Mn.seum, of Marietta, Pa., and 

 some years afterwards Judge Libhart donated 

 them to the Linna'an Society in who.se inuseura 

 they now remain. Of course since this col- 

 lection was made a great revolution hivs been 

 made— either backward or forward — in the 

 nomenclature of these animals, but that does 

 not effect the 2K''i^on<i^i \ they are the same 

 "shillgrutten " that they were in the olden 

 time, and before they were scientifically 

 named. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. 



The above is the title of a hand.sonic octavo 

 volume of i:!i) i)iigrs just issued by J. B. Lip- 

 piiieott & Co., of Philadelphia, it is lieauti- 

 fiilly illustrated by 44(J wood cuts, and is 

 printed in the publishers' best style. The Ix)i.k 

 is written by one of our fellow-citizens, Mr. 

 Wm. .Sanuilers, who is already well and 

 favorably known, not only in Canada, hut in 

 the United Stales and Furope. for his original 

 paiiers on Entomology, both in Its scientific 

 and economic aspects. The need of such a 

 work as this has long been felt by the fruit 

 growere, wo are necessarily engaged in con- 

 stant warfare with insect enemies ; for there 

 is no part of the continent where fruit culture 

 can be profitably carried on without constant 

 vigiliince in this direction. But among the 

 insect tribes there are many friends as well as 

 foes, and one of the objects of this book is to 

 convey such infornialion. aided by illustration, 

 as will enable the reader to distinguish readily 

 between these .several cl.asses of insects, and 

 to act inti'lligenlly in all cases. 



In this book there is brought together in a 

 coudeiised form all that a fruit grower re- 

 (piires to know in reference to insects injuri- 

 ous to fruits in all parts of Canada and the 

 United States. With the information obtain- 

 able from all other sources there is incorpo- 

 rated the results of the author's own large 

 experience of over twenty years ivs a fruit 

 grower and student of entomology. The mat- 

 ter is presented in a concise and plain man- 

 ner, avoiding all scientific phra-seology except 

 such as is necessjiry to accuracy. 



The arrangement of the work will make it 

 convenient a.s a book of reference. The in- 

 sects are treated of under the fruits they speci- 

 ally injure, and again are divided into separate 

 groups, such as those which injure the roots, 

 trunk, blanches, leaves and fruit of tlie sev- 

 eral tries and vines, thus enabling any per- 

 son without any scientific knowledge of en- 

 tomology to recognize and determine such in- 

 jurious species as he may meet with. Then 

 having before him the life history of the insect 

 briefly traced and the remedies which have 

 been "found useful in subduing it fully ex- 

 plained, the reader will lie enabled without 

 delay to adopt the best measures for destroy- 

 ing it. 



