The Lancaster Farmer. 



Dr. S. S. RATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., SEPTEMBER, 1883. 



Vol. XV. No. 9. 



Editorial. 



WRITE FOR THE FARMER. 

 If it were not for tlie proceedings of the 

 local agricultural societies ami clubs of Lan- 

 caster county ^^ regular!}' published in the col- 

 umns of the Lancaster Faumei;, togt^ther 

 with an essay or report read, now and then, 

 before one of the home or State societies, or 

 perhaps an occasional paper or statistical table 

 inserted' in a local history or a United States 

 census, tliere would be little or nothing go 

 down to posterity to indicate that Lancaster 

 had ever been a great agricultural county, or 

 that any resident of its territory had ever dis- 

 tinguished him.self as one of those who had 

 tilled the soil. But, in these proceedings the 

 names of the individual men who had devoted 

 tlieir lives to agriculture arc recorded, tlieir 

 experiences, their sentiments, their successes 

 and tlieir failures, are transmitted to the gen- 

 erations of the far future, in a compact, dur- 

 able, and accessible form. It is true, otlier 

 local papers also publisli these proceedings, 

 essays and reports, but they are not contained 

 in as convenient and as durable a form as 

 they are presented in the columns of the 

 Farmer. Out of the many thousands of 

 folios published in Lancaster county, how 

 many of tliem are preserved and bound into 

 volumes 'i Exce|it the copy carefully pre- 

 served by each publisher, precious few indeed. 

 No matter how rapidly and ruthlessly we 

 hasten down the race course of time, and 

 plunge into the vast area of the future, we 

 nevertheless cannot ignore the toils and ex- 

 periences of the past ; and think you the 

 fathers, the mothers, the sons and the daugh- 

 ters of the future will over become indiffer- 

 ent, insensible, or oblivious of the experiences, 

 the lal)ors, and the sonliments nf the parents, 

 grand-parents and great-grand-parents of the 

 past ? Not while the human mind i>rogresses 

 will such a state of moral and mental oblivion 

 supervene. History and human experience 

 are constantly reproducing themselves. The 

 thoughts, sentiments and modes of the past 

 are not to be repudiated merely because they 

 are old. Many of the improvements in art, 

 in science, and in mechanics of the present 

 had their incipiency in the long past, and are 

 but rediscoveries of principles and manipula- 

 tions that had their origin in ages belonging 

 to the earlier periods of the human race. We 

 seem to be rushing along beyond all reason- 

 able bounds, discarding all that belongs to 

 the present in pursuit of something new, 

 without regard to its intrinsic quality, only 

 that it is «ew, until our eyes become suddenly 

 opened to the fact that it is old — that men's 

 thoughts and minds had been engaged, 

 and their energies exercised on these 

 subjects, long before the present gen- 

 erations were born. When a representa- 

 tive volume, written and printed to-day, 

 is opened fifty or a hundred years hence, it 

 surely would afford more satisfaction, more in- 

 terest, and also more instruction to the future 



reader, to know that the sentiments it con- 

 tained were made up of the united experiences 

 of many intelligent minds, than if they were 

 the productions of only an occasional one or 

 two, because, the reading world in any age is 

 not so obtuse that it cannot realize that " in 

 a multitude of council there is safety." The 

 world is naturally dubious of e:q)arte testi- 

 mony, or anything that savors of the ipsi 

 dixit. It wants to know " if any of the doctors 

 have believed." 



No agricultural publication in Lancaster 

 city and county has maintained an existence, 

 by ten years, as long as the Lancaster 

 Farmer, and if that journal is sufl'ered to 

 lapse for want of moral, pecuniary and literary 

 support, no one in the near future will feel 

 encouraged to initiate a similar enterprise. 

 We have farmers competent to fill our county 

 offices, our legislatures, and other oflices of the 

 State, aad it seems a reflection upon the 

 honorable calling — which has made them wliat 

 they are — to practically ignore it, as a subject 

 unworthy of their literary elucidation. Send 

 in your "desultory dottings down," if only 

 five or six lines at a time — always provided 

 they express an idea, and that idea contains a 

 /acJ. 



HISTORY OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 

 We liave examinea an advance copy of this 

 work, published by EvAiiTS & Feck, Phila- 

 delphia, from the press of J. B. Lippencott & 

 Co., and it would be safe to say, that no histori- 

 cal work yet issued, relating to Pennsylvania 

 or any portion of the .State, makes any approx- 

 imation to it, either in quality, mechanical 

 execution, or interesting contents. The vol- 

 ume is a Royal Octavo of 1101 pages, and 

 printed in fair type, on fine white calendered 

 paper, elaborately illustrated, bound substan- 

 tially and ornamentally, and finished with 

 gilt edges. The work includes 77 chapters, 

 devoted separately to each township, city and 

 borough in the county, beginning with the 

 Indian, and subseciuent civilized occupation 

 through successive periods down to the present 

 time, including the topography, geology, his- 

 tology, l)iography, military record in the revo- 

 lutionary war, the war of 1S12, the Mexican 

 war, and the great rebellion, The immense 

 scope of the work may be inferred from the 

 fact that there are nearly nineteen hundred 

 subjects referred to numerically through its 

 copious index. Conspicuously arc also noted 

 its agriculture and agricultural products, its 

 manufactures, and its minerals and mining 

 resources, its internal improvements, its pub- 

 lic buildings, its educational aud literary in- 

 stitutions, its benevolent and religious asso- 

 ciations, its civil and political history and the 

 prominent characters who were actore in its 

 past and present development. Although time 

 may demonstrate that there are some things 

 omitted that should liave Ijeen included to 

 make it more complete, yet we feel assured that 

 the reader will be astonished to find so much 

 relating to his natal domain of which be never 



had a previous kimwledge. No public or pri- 

 vate library, in Lancaster county at least, 

 (;an be regarded as complete without a copy 

 of this work ; and as a book of reference it 

 will be found invaluable. Its value as a his- 

 torical work is enhanced from the fact that 

 nearly the wliole volume is made up from the 

 contributions of local writers and thenr assist- 

 ants. In a few days the work will be delivered 

 to"subscribers, and those who have not sub- 

 scribed should avail themselves of the first op- 

 portunity to secure a copy. The work is not 

 only a credit to the publishers, but also to the 

 great county and the people, whose history it 



pt)rtrays. 



^ 



AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. 



Sixty-six county fairs in Pennsylvania this 

 year. 



The above very small but very significant 

 "slip" we scissors from the variety column of 

 the Public Ledger of the 14th, inst. Notwith- 

 standing the local indiflierence (if not local 

 contempt), it appears there are, in the State 

 of Pennsylvania sixly-dx counties that hold 

 their annual agricultural exhibitions the 

 present season. While this number of the 

 Farmer is running through the press, the so 

 called Independent Hlale Fair is in process of 

 being held in the McGrann Park, in the east- 

 ern suburbs of Lancaster city, therefore, we 

 are unable to chronicle its success or failure, 

 but we hope to do so in our October number. 

 We hope, however, for the credit of Lancaster 

 city and county, it shall have been a success. 

 This Fair, our readers are aware, is a personal 

 enterprise, and all the Vesponsibilities of cost 

 and conduct will devolve upon those only who 

 have undertaken the enterprise. We hope 

 that the idea of its being a mere "foreign 

 speculation," will not have prevented any of 

 our people from placing a liberal quantity of 

 their meritorious products on exhibition, be- 

 cause, should it have failed in material, a 

 greater or lesser share of the responsibility 

 will be imposed by the public at large, upon 

 the citizens of Lancaster city and county, and 

 they will hardly be able to shake it off success- 

 fully, however little they may have been in- 

 strumental in originating it. We know th.at 

 there are some people who argue that State 

 aud County Fairs are merely selfish organiza- 

 tions that belong to the past, and that "they 

 must go." No man is able to say truly what 

 the state of agriculture and the social and do- 

 mestic condition of the farmer would have 

 been, had these Fairs never been instituted 

 and held. They are infinitely more legitimate 

 and civilizing than base-ball clubs, boat clubs, 

 tennis-lawn associations, &c., which the pub- 

 lic press is so much exercised about, and the 

 details of which are more conspicuously spread 

 in its columns than any special inculcations of 

 moral, physical and domestic use. 



In conclusion we submit the following from 

 the columns of a most worthy contemporary 

 journal, as germain to the subject : 



"If the agricultural fiiir is not an educator, 

 the fault lies in its management; yet it is a 



