90 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



"i' the bud "—he leaves sucli light work for 

 the warblers and creepers, while he goes after 

 the worm hidden deep in the wood, where only 

 his strong sharp bill can penetrate. What a 

 fine ear he has ! See how he gives tap after 

 tap where he suspects his prey, then turns his 

 head one side and listens for sound of stirring 

 within. When assured of it lie falls at it with 

 a will, and his vigorous strokes soon lay open 

 the nest of grubs that are eating out the life of 

 the tree. His rat-tat-tat is heard far through 

 the woods — one of the most musical of sounds 

 to saunterers— heard in the open field it 

 sounds not unlike the chopping of a tree, and 

 we know that 



" The woodpecker down in the pasture is drum- 

 ming 

 A tune on the old beech tree. 



Of the six woodpeckers found here this one 

 is the third in size. 



The largest woodpecker is the ivory bill, 

 called in the West " Indian hen." A few 

 stay here in the deep woods throughout the 

 year. The body is mostly black, with bright 

 scarlet on head and throat. The most re- 

 markable thing about this bird is its bill ; so 

 long and strong and polished, one is not sur- 

 prised to hear of the work it doe?. Next in 

 size is the golden-winged woodpecker or 

 flicker, sometimes called the high-hole. It is 

 one of the earliest birds to come in the spring. 

 Higginson invited us to "come out for the 

 voice of the high-hole is heard in the land." 

 It leaves late, if at all. 1 have known them 

 to stay all winter. It is magnificent in color- 

 ing, the richest of browns and solid gold, 

 with a blood-red creseut on its neck. Unlike 

 others of his tribe this one finds his " grub " 

 on the ground, and only pecks when he is ex- 

 cavating for a nest. Audubon says " their 

 note is a merriment itself, as it imitates a 

 prolonged and jovial laugh." 



The yellow-thzoated woodpecker is some- 

 times mistaken for the hairy, which they re- 

 semble in size. The red on the head is more 

 of a scarlet, while the under parts of the body 

 are a beautiful delicate yellow. They seem 

 to love the juice of pines, as I have known 

 them to riddle bark of trees where there was 

 no suspicion of larvae, but where the sap 

 flowed freely. The hairy and downy wood- 

 peckers are so much alike that many persons 

 consider them the same, the chief difiereuce 

 being in their size. All our woodpeckers 

 make their nests in a hole which they dig in 

 a tree usually prettj high up. The nest is 



sometimes eighteen or twenty mches deep, 

 and in it they lay five or six pure white eggs. 

 • The young have no red on their head the 

 first season. — L. N. Houston. 



TREE PLANTING IN MARYLAND. 



The Legislature of Maryland, at its last 

 session, appointed an unpaid commission to 

 examine and report to the next General As- 

 sembly what legislation is necessary to protect 

 and foster the f orest'growth of theState. A res- 

 olution adopted by the Legislature in this con- 

 nection declares that the destruction of the 

 forest trees in a large portion of Maryland is 

 far in access of the replantin-i which is being 

 done, and that unless proper and remedial 

 legislation is enacted another half century 

 will doubtless witness the almost entire de- 

 struction of the forest growth of the State. 



The committee de.signated by the Legislature 

 to take charge of this important matter com- 

 prises Governor William T. Hamilton, ex- 

 Governor John Lee Carrol, ex-Governor Philip 

 r. Thomas, Hon Lloyd Lowndes and Profes- 

 sors P. R. Uhler and Ira Remsen. The com- 

 mittee have nev^r been called together or 

 had a meeting, but Professor Uhler, who is 

 thoroughly conversant with the resources of 

 the State and its needs, is fully competent to 

 furnish at any time all the information the 

 General Assembly may require on which to 

 base proper legislation and in Professor Rem- 

 sen he would find an equally able scientific co- 

 adjutor. The resolution of the Legislature 

 implies that some replanting had been prac- 

 ticed before 1882, b-it restoration has never 

 been carried on to any considerable extent. 

 The importance of trees to the healtli, safety 

 and prosperity of any country is well recog- 

 nized. Heavy forest growths afford 'protec- 

 tion from " blizzards," and retain tlie rainfall 

 and melting snows sufficiently to prevent sud- 

 den torrents and constquent flooding of large 

 rivers, which are usually attended by destruc- 

 tion of property and even of life. On the 

 other hand, too, they help to make springs 

 which supply the tributaries of the larger 

 streams. Hillsides covered with trees and 

 undergrowth retain the water and ooze it off 

 gradually to the springs, or permit it to trickle 

 through rocky crevices and converge in the 

 streams of lower levels. Where the trees are 

 destroyed and the hillsides are baked by the 

 sun, the rain rushes down by a single impulse 

 to swell the rivers and overspread large areas 

 of cultivated territory ; while that which falls 

 on the disintegrated rocks is held as in a 

 sponge, and is parted with chiefly by evapo- 

 ration into the atmosphere. 



The most extensive tree planting wliich has 

 been practiced in Maryland has been done 

 this spring by Mr. Robert K. Martin who has 

 set out lii,963 forest trees of different varieties 

 on the line of the Gunpowder river, eight 

 miles from the city. These trees have been 

 scattered over 34 acres of land owned by the 

 city at Loch Raven. Mr. Martin, who is the 

 civil engineer of the war department, says he 

 will plant all along the line on the city's 

 property until he gets the Gunpowder river 

 fringed with woods. Next fall he will pro- 

 cure acorns and other seed for extensive 

 planting. The cost he says is trifling and 

 the benefit incalculable. The importance of 

 the work of Mr. Martin may be appreciated 

 when the fact is remembered that the Gun- 

 powder river has lost three-fourths of its vol- 

 ume in the past hundred j'ears by the destruc- 

 tion of the woods which formerly covered its 

 banks and grew thickly on the hill sides and in 

 the ravines through which its tributaries and 

 resources flowed to the main water course. — 

 Baltimore Sun. 



THE SUMMER OF i8i6. 



Columbia, Pa., May 28, 1883. 

 I see by last week's New Era that there are 

 still people on earth who recollect the cold 

 summer of 181G. Though I did not recollect 

 the actual year, I well remember the cold 

 summer. We had frosts every month in the 

 year. I was then a boy of 14 or 16 years of 

 age. Our first corn planting was all killed by 

 frezing, and we bad to replant once and part 



twice, and when husking we had more soft or 

 roasting ears than sound corn ; the following 

 season there was much complaint among far- 

 mers of their corn not sprouting, owing to 

 unripe seed. As our men went into the 

 meadows to cut grass for hay, there was a 

 heavy frost on the grass, and all of the men 

 had ou their woollen coats. It took three to 

 four days to dry the grass sufficiently to store 

 in the barn. 



Then in harvest I well remember that all 

 the men had on their winter clothing, anda 

 neighbor right across the line fence was piling 

 sheaves on the wagon, wearing a great coat, 

 which our men saia looked quite comfortable. 

 Of course, we had no fruit that season, as the 

 frosts destroyed all new growths. Some years 

 previous to the cold summer we had deep 

 snows and heavy drifts. We boys going to 

 school would run on these drifis over fences, 

 and many people dragged heavy logs through 

 the snow to make paths for their children to 

 get to the school houses. During the cold 

 summer there was much talk among tlie peo- 

 ple fearing that our planet had got astray or 

 the sun had lost its power of supplying heat. 

 But in four or five years there came a 

 " change o'er the spirit of our dreanls." The 

 seasons became warm and dry. Spiings that 

 never failed before would not give their usual 

 supply, and streams became very small. Flour 

 mills could no more grind grain for distiller- 

 ies or stock feed, and barely ground a short 

 supply of, meal for their customers. They 

 would shut down for some days to collect a 

 supply of water in their .dams, and then run 

 the mills for a day or a few hours, till the 

 supply of water was exhausted. I well re- 

 member of some distillers and cattle feeders 

 having to get their grain chopped on large 

 .streams, at gr:at distances. 



It was said that in Cumberland county some 

 farmers had to drive their cattle ten miles to 

 water. 



Then prophets rose up in every direction 

 pretending to inform the more ignorant that 

 our climate was undergoing a change, and 

 that in a few years we could grow figs and 

 oranges in the open air. In the fall of 1819 I 

 planted an orchard of sixty apple trees ; we 

 had no rain or snow all that winter till May 

 that moistened the dry earth over an inch, 

 and then I hauled water to the trees every 

 week ; yet of the sixty trees only three or 

 four lived. The next fall I again planted the 

 orchard, and as the ground was then more 

 moist, every tree grew, and most of them 

 are yet living, though far past their prime. 

 The winters were so mild and warm that I 

 saw a neighbor's wheat field containing more 

 oats than wheat, and that was the only win- 

 ter that oats was not killed by freezing or that 

 I ever knew of a crop of wheat and oats grow- 

 ing together ou the same ground. 



But again a change came over the spirit of 

 our dreams — of growing tropical fruit out of 

 doors, as from 182.5 the climate changed 

 again, and we got plenty of rain and snow. I 

 well remember that on April 28th, I think it 

 was the spring of 1828, a snow fell 18 inches 

 deep, blocking up the roads so that Super- 

 visors had a big job on hand for a week, I 

 sent my hired man to mill with a two-horse 

 team who was not familiar with the road, 

 and his team stuck fast in a snow drift 



