162 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



1873 to three and a half days, and in 1878 to 

 three days and only one change. Now the 

 time has been reduced to fifty-eight hours. 



Strength is imparted to the strawberry 

 plants by taking off the runners, especially 

 the late ones. 



In some countries a farmer can sue hilT 

 neighbor for damages if the latter allows 

 weeds to grow and seed. 



In packing butter for winter use it should 

 be borne in mind that uniformity of color in 

 the jars is very important, 



Vermont Merino sheep-breeders are be- 

 coming dfegusted with the heavy folds on the 

 wool, and think they will breed them off. 



A SUBSCRIBER recommends a drop of kero- 

 sene oil, picked into the injured part with a 

 needle, as a certain remedy for bee stings. 



Mr. St. John, ol Newton, Iowa, trains 

 his grapevines on elm trees, and claims that 

 he secures fine fruit every year and free from 

 rot. 



Hardiness is the most essential requisite in 

 fruit trees. No matter how beautiful the fruit 

 and foliage, they will prove unprofitable un- 

 less able to stand severe winters. 



If cornstalks are passed through a cutter 

 and crushed during the operation of cutting 

 the stock will eat the whole up clean. Prepa- 

 ration saves waste and renders the stalk more 

 palatable. 



There is no occasion for deriding "scien- 

 tific farming," as is sometimes done. It is 

 only common sense practically applied, and it 

 is only to the extent that it is scientific that 

 any farming is successful. — Farm, Herd and 

 Home. 



Bars of steel obtained by the cementation 

 process in the works at Unieux frequently 

 contain crystals in those portions exposed to 

 the hottest portion of the furnace. 



In Krupp's great gun manufactory at 

 Essen, compressed carbonic acid is used for 

 the manufacture of what ice and seltzer water 

 may be required by the workmen. 



Sparrows appear to be a veritable plague 

 at Pergamos, in Asia Minor, and the inhabi- 

 tants have begun to urge the Turkish Gov- 

 ernment to take some measures to abate the 

 nuisance. 



When carbonic anhydride, says Professor 

 E. Noack, is passed over heated zinc dust 

 contained in a combustion tube it is almost 

 completely reduced to carbonic oxide, the last 

 traces of carbonic anhydride being easily re- 

 moved by passing the gas through some soda 

 solution. 



Ths Soja bean, which has been so highly 

 recommended, does not ripen in New Jersey. 

 At least it did not do so in some parts this 

 season. It may serve well, however, as a 

 green manurial plant, as it produces abun- 

 dantly of foliage. 



There is a kind of clover called German 

 clover, which was introduced in Virginia sev- 

 eral years ago. It thrives best when sown in 

 the fall. It is ready to be cut by the fir.st of 

 May, grows high, yields heavily, and is relished 

 by all classes of stock. 



Mutton to be good and devoid of rank 

 flavor must be prepared quickly, says tlie 



Western Bural. The food eaten by the animal 

 imparts flavor to the meat to a certain extent, 

 and this difficulty is increased when sheep are 

 slaughtered just after being fed. 



The power exercised by beets and annual 

 roots is exceedingly great. At the New York 

 shipment station a long blood beet was planted 

 in an inch drain tile, set upon end and buried 

 in the soil. The tile was split lengthwise as 

 the root outgrew its accommodations. 



Sheep can be made profitable on some soils 

 that are too poor for cultivation, and, as a 

 proof of this, an Alabama sheep breeder 

 made his flock net 60 per cent, on his invest- 

 ment. He claims that any old sage grass field, 

 interspersed with shrubbery, makes the best 

 of pasture for sheep. 



Eggs are beginning to be very high, be- 

 cause the matured fowls have been sent to 

 market to make room for early pullets, which 

 do not begin to lay till somewhat later. After 

 the remaining old fowls have finisljf d moulting 

 they begin to lay as soon as they again become 

 full in plumage. 



The Pittsburg Stockman suggests that too 

 many farmers are inclined to put off many 

 necessary jobs until the time comes when the 

 necessity is made most apparent. Thus many 

 leave all their draining and ditching until 

 spring, when the ground is full of water, the 

 worst and most in convenient time for such 

 work. 



Many farmers who secure for themselves 

 all the labor-saving improvements are slow in 

 arranging similar helps for their wives. A 

 rewper or mower is used at the most only a 

 few days in the year. A creamer, to make 

 butter- making easisr, will be in use nearly or 

 quite every day in the year, and the butter 

 product will bring enough more to pay heavy 

 interest on the first cost, besides the saving in 

 labor. 



A writtr in Farmer and Fruit Grower 

 says: " If the agricultural colleges and e.x- 

 periment stations would make disinterested 

 trials of the new fruits and give the public un- 

 biased opinions of the character and merits of 

 each fruit, it might prove of as much value 

 in their bulletins as some of the lengthy ac- 

 counts about the albuminoids and carbo- 

 hydrates. Nurserymen's circulars are gener- 

 ally made to puff those plants in which their 

 pecuniary interest predominates. 



The cost of storing ensilage is stated by a 

 Wisconsin farmer as follows : " My ensilage 

 last year, made of grass, cost me 80 cents a 

 ton to put it in the silo. This .season, in 

 three and a half days, I put 125 tons of grass 

 in my silo at a cost of $7.75, or a fraction less 

 than 57 cents per ton. At the rate of four 

 tons of ensilage as an equivalent of a ton of 

 hay, this would be equal to $2.28 per ton of 

 hay. I doubt if hay can be put up for less 

 than this, and no doubt well-preserved en- 

 silage is better than hay." 



A Writer in the Prairie Farmer, after ex- 

 tended experiments, is convinced that wheat 

 is generally sown too deep. 



The advantages of having early-maturing 

 corn have never been so well demonstrated as 

 this year. Bear it in mind in saving seed for 

 next year. — Exchange. 



Hickory-nut cream cake is made of two 



teacups of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup 

 of thin cream, three and a half cups of flour, 

 two teaspoonfuls of baking powder mixed 

 with the dry flour, tliree eggs, the whites and 

 yelks beaten separately, and one large cupful 

 of the hickory nuts chopped or broken in 

 small bits.— JV. Y. Post. 



An agricultural writer has found salt 

 sprinkled on a manure heap an excellent ap- 

 plication both for summer and winter. He 

 says : "In warm weather it attracts moisture 

 and keeps the mature from fire-fanging or 

 burning from excessive fermentation. In 

 winter it keeps the heap from freezing solid, 

 and at any season it makes the manure more 

 soluble." 



Oil cloth may be kept bright when al- 

 most worn out, if after washing you take a 

 flannel cloth and dip a corner of it in kerosene 

 and rub the oil cloth with it. A little oil goes 

 a great way and care must be taken not to use 

 too much. 



To make black Japan varnish mix together 

 burnt umber, eight ounces ; true asphaltum, 

 three ounces ; boiled linseed oil, one gallon ; 

 griud the umber with a little of the oil ; add 

 the asphaltum, previously dissolved in a small 

 quantity of the oil by heat ; mix, add the re- 

 mainder of the oil, boil, cool and tliin with a 

 sutticient quantity of oil of turpentine. 



To jiake crystal varnish take genuine pale 

 Canada balsam and rectified oil of turpentine, 

 equal parts ; mix, place the bottles in warm 

 water, agitate well, set it aside in a moder- 

 ately warm place, and in a week pour off the 

 clear. It is used for maps, prints, drawings 

 and other articles of paper ; also to prepare 

 tracing paper and to transfer engravings. 



English statisticians who have been com- 

 piling data on the subject pronounce the 

 United States to be not only potentially, but 

 actually, richer than Great Britain. Counting 

 the houses, furniture, manufactures, railways, 

 shipping, bullion, lauds, cattle, crops, invest- 

 ments and roads, it is estimated that there is 

 a grand total in the United States of $49, 770,- 

 000,000. Great Britain is credited with some- 

 thing less than $40,000,000,000, or nearly 

 $10,000,000,000 less than the United States. 

 The wealth per inhabitant in Great Britain is 

 estimated at $1,100, and in the United States 

 at $995. Witli regard to the remuneration of 

 labor, assuming the product of labor to be 

 100, in Great Britain 56 parts go the laborer, 

 21 to capital and 23 to government. In 

 France, 41 parts go to labor, 36 to capital 

 and 23 to government. In the United States, 

 72 parts go to labor, 23 to capital and 5 to 

 government. 



There were 25,000 people at the Beading 

 fair on" Thursday, the biggest day in the his- 

 tory of Berks county. At the York county 

 fair on the same day 23,703 persons were in 

 attendance. 



*GRAPE INFESTATIONS. 



*Read before the Linnjean Society, by Dr. S. S, Rath- 

 von. 



During the last week in September, Mr. 

 Jno. Thomas of East Orange street, in the 

 City of Lancaster, brought me several clusters 

 of grapes, of the Concord and another un- 

 named variety, about three in every five of 

 which were affected with some sort of disease, 



