1883.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



93 



Asking and Answering Questions. 



E. H. Haines asked bow the members' corn had 

 come up, and where It was a failure, what Is it to be 

 attributed to. 



Most of the members' corn had come up pretty 

 well, but some had tiouble and attributed it to the 

 imperfect seed. One said he selected his seed in llic 

 fall and kept it near the kitchen stove, and never 

 had any trouble to get it to grow. 



Solomon Gregg cited a case where a neighbor of 

 his had done similar to this, and there was very little 

 came up, and afterwards got seed from his crib, and 

 this came up very well. 



Josiah Brown stated he has for over twenty years 

 selected his seed corn in the fall, keeping it near the 

 kitchen stove, and never has had any trouble, 

 always coming up, no matter what the condition of 

 the ground or the weather. 



It was the universal opinion of all present that by 

 a judicial selection of seed in the fall and keeping it 

 in a warm and dry place, there will be uo trouble in 

 getting it to grow. 



Lindley King asked what is the reason tlie hogs 

 are eating the bark otf of apple trees this season 

 more than is usual ? The club was not aware that 

 this was the case. It was thought to be a habit that 

 hogs get into, and the only remedy is to take them 

 away from the trees. 



Wm. King said»that at a former meeting of the 

 club the question was asked if it was bettei to cut 

 clover green or let it get pretty ripe, and he now 

 asked the club if they have changed their opinions 

 since then. 



All present preferred cutting before it was too ripe 

 and the question was raised what constituted ripe- 

 ness. When the heads turn a dark color or when 

 the blossom was dying, was thought what would be 

 meant by the ripe state. 



Kebecca King asked which is the most nutritious 

 canned or dried fruits. 



This question raised quite a discussion as (o the 

 changes from a green to a dried state, some mem- 

 bers contending that the dried fruit was as nutri- 

 tious as the canned, that the drying process only 

 took the water out and the fruit still retained all the 

 nutriment. But at the same time all preferred the 

 canned fruit as it was more palatable. Others held 

 the opinion that the drying process, while taking the 

 water out, also takes a certain quantity of nnlriment 

 and consequently is inferior to canned fruit. 



[This is an important question and the club would 

 be pleased to have a scientific answer to it from any 

 person through the columns of this paper.] 



Esther Haines said the worms were very bad on 

 the currant and gooseberry bushes and asked if any 

 one present could give a remedy. 



Layman Blaekborn uses with good results dry 

 coal or wood ashes dusted on the bushes when they 

 are wet. 



Mary Stubbs uses the ashes as above and it is sat- 

 isfactory . 



William King said white hellebore clustered on 

 the bushes when wet was recomended. 



Mont. Brown wanted to know what i)ro6pect there 

 was for fruit. 



E. H. Haines : There is going to be the largest 

 crop of cherries there has been for years, an average 

 crop of apples and some pears. 



Solomon Gregg, so far as he has observed, thinks 

 the prospect good. 



Josiah Brown reports cherries full, apples and 

 pears poor, and wild goose plums a failure. 



B. J. Bennington (fruit tree agent) says his obser- 

 vations are a large crop of cherries, not an average 

 crop of apples, some varieties of plums very full. 



Club then adjourned for dinner. After doing jus- 

 tice to the good things set before them, they spent 

 some time looking at the host's stock, farm, etc. 



Afternoon Session. — After resembling for the 

 afternoon session, the minutes of the previous meet 

 ingheld here were read. 



Criticisms on the farm management was then 

 called for. As usual the remarks were all of a favor 

 able character. Mr. Brown's fine flocHc of sheep and 



lambs, a pen of hogs, buildings and fences white- 

 washed, a Held of oats (one member pronouncing It 

 the best he had seen this year), were all lavorably 

 spoken of. The host had Just purchased a full bred 

 Scotch coolie pup which was much admired by the 

 club. 



The host read an essay on " Lime as a Fertilizer," 

 telling in a praelleal way what lime has done for the 

 Improvement of this section years ago. 



E. II. Haines believed lime had been of great bene- 

 fit In improving the country years ago, but our land 

 has enough, and It is usi less for farmers to apply 

 lime on their farms when they eould not see any 

 benefit from it. 



Kebecca King, read a very interesting temperance 

 sketch, entitled " Mother, Don't Cry." 



E. II. Iliiies read from the Pnictical Farmer an 

 article on ensilaL'c. 



William King read an article from the Amrrkan 

 A()ricu}luyi.sf, describing an insect that works 

 amongst the feathers in beds. They take small 

 pieces of the feathers, cementing them to the bed 

 tick, and giving it an appearance like plush. He 

 exhibited a piece of old bed tick which had this ap- 

 pearance. 



Carrie Blackhorn recited " Farmer Stebbins at 

 Ocean Grove." 



William King read from the New York Tribune, 

 " What will we do with our Old Horses ?" 



Phebe King recited a poem committed to memory 

 when she was a school girl over fifty years ago. 



William King recited " The Lost Heir." 



Club then adjourned to meet at Solomon Gregg's 

 August i, lss;i. 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



The Liunaean Society met on Saturday afternoon, 

 May '.16, 18^3, at 2 o'clock, in museum' rooms, Y. M. 

 C. A. building. The president, J. P. Wickersham, 

 in the chair, and eight members in attendance. 

 There were also three ludiau girls from Carlisle 

 present as visitors. The minutes of the previous 

 meeting were read in part, and dues collected, after 

 which 



Donations to Library 



were examined and found to consist of the following: 

 Patent Office Gazette Nos. 19,30, 21, volume '23; 

 Seiciiee for March 4, 1S83, The Auiinuariiin and Ori- 

 entalist, volume 5, No. 3 ; Scienti^fic and Literunj 

 Gosxip, published by S. E. Cassino, Boston ; pros- 

 pectus of Dr. Briutou's " Library of Aboriginal 

 Knowledge:" Lancaster Farmer for May, l!-S3, An- 

 srrer to Inquiries about Education, from Interior De- 

 partment ; a German catalogue of Microscopical 

 Preparations, per Dr. Knight; Cincinnati Weekly 

 iVfii'.s, May Hi, 1883; five circulars, and two envel 

 opes containing twenty-eight miscellaneous scraps. 



The donations to the .Museum consisted of the fol- 

 lowing : 



A specimen of the pnpa of a species of ralingenia 

 —commonly called " May-fly," from Walhalla, 

 South Carolina, sent by mail, by Dr. Wm. B. Fah- 

 nestoek. This subject may be P. limbata, as that 

 specie occurs in the South ; but, from the pupa 

 alone, without previous identifications, it would be 

 unsafe to pronounce upon the species, especially 

 after it had been immersed for some time in alcohol, 

 and afterwards shrunken and dried. Palimjenia 

 bUincata is common to Lancaster county, but has 

 also a wide geological range bciug found along the 

 Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries. 



Very few boys who have been reared near ponds 

 or streams are ignorant of these flies, although they 

 may not know their common or scientific names. 

 Indeed I do not think that "May-fly" is appro- 

 priate to them, in this latitude, for they usually do 

 not appear until June, and even as late a« July. 

 They belong to a family of " Pscudoneuroptera," the | 

 typical genus of which is E/ilicmern, indicating some- 

 thing that lives but a single day, and as these j 

 insects are short lived, It would he more proper to j 

 name them " Day flies." Both the larea and the 

 pupa are aquatic, and remain In the water a whole 

 year, annually crawling out in the pupa form, and , 



adhering to almost any object that la convenient, the 

 fly evolves flrhl as n nith imnijo, and then the true 

 imnijo. They are then altogether harmless, being 

 destitute of muutliparts or iiosaesslng them only 

 faintly rudlmental. They are long lAMlled, with the 

 wings erected— back to baik -like those of the com- 

 mon yellow butterfly, and have conspicuously two 

 very long and filaments or trl<t, and very lone ante- 

 rior legs projecting forward, very small atleuiui, and 

 finely retleulaled wings, the anterior pair bi'lng almut 

 three times as large an the [MiBterlor pair. They 

 have a slui,'i:lsh lllcht, and multltuiles of them are 

 sometimes found sitting on fences and other objects 

 In the vicinity of water streams. Having nn mouth, 

 ofcimrse, they can cat nolhlni;, and the whole busi- 

 ness of their brief lives Is devoted to the perpetua- 

 tion of their species. The eggs arc dc|>osltcd on the 

 water, sink lo the Imttom, and are soon batched, and 

 the larva feeds on slime, mud, algea and perhaps 

 other small aciuallc animals. 



A specimen of ''Animated Oafs" — Avena Sleritit 

 — cultivated t)y some gardeners as a vegetable curi- 

 osity. The curious thing almut It Is, that when laid 

 ou a smooth surface, paper for instance, and a auc- 

 cession of moderate blows are struck on the plane 

 near It, it will move towarils the point of concusalOD, 

 and follow the blows In any illrectlon they are made. 

 The outer surface of tlie shell of the oala Is densely 

 covered with long finely barbed bristles or telit In- 

 clined from the base to the apex, and through the 

 elastic and barbed character of these bristles the 

 apparently animated movement supervenes. 



Dr. S. S. Kathvon staled that the cocoons of the 

 " Saddleback moth " — Kinpretin ntimulea — noticed 

 in the May number of the Laucatter Fanner, and 

 which still contained the living lurvn of that Insect 

 on the .3d of May, almost In the form and colors lh<-y 

 possessed last summer or autumn, when I hey spun 

 themselves in, ou examining them 'again on the 20lh 

 of May, were found lo contain the pnpa, so that the 

 pupal transformation must have taken place some 

 time between those two dates. Removal from the 

 open air to the house may have hastened this trans- 

 formation, but it also may have retarded It. It Is 

 difficult to urtillcially preserve all the conditions 

 necessary to accomplish the final evolution to Ihc 

 moth state ; but, from the healthy and plump 

 appearance of the /iii/M, 1 entertain the hope that I 

 may succeed, although I have often failed. The 

 pu|)a is of a clay yellow color, nlin' sixteenths of an 

 inch in lencth, and about the same In circumference 

 and otherwise has the blunt form of the " Bomby- 

 cida? " in general, althouch not exact ly belonging to 

 that family, under Us modern ellmloatlous and re- 

 strictions. 



Prof. J. S. Stahr read a very interesting paper on 

 " Vegetable Monstrosities," Illustrated with a speci- 

 men of the common Indian turnip. This was the 

 consolidation of six stems into one, while the number 

 ofspadlces were a gooil deal more. Miss Lefevre 

 exhibited specimens of the Tamarisk (Tamarix galll- 

 ca), and American Larch (Li.rox Americana). 



Dr. Kathvon said that he had paid a bill of $5.00 to 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences, for their publica- 

 tion, and asked that the same be approved, which, 

 on motion, was done. 



Committee on by. laws further continued, after 

 which society adjourned to meet on Salunlay, June 

 30, at 3'j P.M., in Museum. 



AGRICULTURE. 



The Crop Outlook. 

 The Agricultural Bureau has made Its May crop 

 report, and In the main it confirms what we have 

 been told by private estimates, that the wheat crop 

 of the country will fall short of last year's crop by 

 from ?0,000,000 to 100,000,000 bushels. The average 

 is lower In a number of Slates than It was In April, 

 most notably In Ohio, Mkhltan, New York, Illliiuis, 

 Missouri, all im|X)rtant wheat growing localities. 

 Most of the Northern States show an Improvement, 

 as do also the Southern States and those on the Pa- 

 cific. Oregon shows an Improvement equivalent to 



