1883.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



487 



any otlier unpveventable chanKPs had any- 

 tliing to do witli the shifting of tlie localitirs 

 of greatest wheat production. We have 

 many times pointed out that continuous crop- 

 ping of tlie soil to wheat would inevitably 

 lend to small crops and to inferior crops. 

 Show us a locality wliere wheat is the main- 

 stay of the agricultural population, and we 

 will show you a district where wheat will 

 soon be a rai'e crop. It is not necessary to 

 recite the history of the Genesee valley, and 

 of nearly all the older States of the Union. 

 The change from a wheat-growing to a non- 

 wheat growing section is going on to-day in 

 parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

 Farmers have fondly imagined that the soil 

 was inexhaustible ; and if ever there was 

 excuse for such a fallacious belief, it exists in 

 reference to the soil of some parts of the 

 Northwest. But it cannot be gainsaid that 

 wheat is an exhausting crop. It is not like 

 tobacco, that seems to poison the soil ; but as 

 wheat contains in proper proportions every 

 element necessary to sustain human life and 

 activity, something which cannot be predicted 

 of any other cereal, it stands to reason that it 

 must speedily exhaust the soil of vital ele- 

 ments ; at least, of the elements necessary to 

 the perfection of the wheat berry. There are, 

 it is true, some soils that have raised wheat 

 year after year. The "American Bottom" in 

 Illinois may be cited as an example ; but its 

 time of deterioration must come sooner or 

 later, no matter how long deferred. 



The statistics of wheat production during 

 the last ten years show conclusively that there 

 is no such thiug as a climatic shifting of the 

 wheat belt, and that whatever changes take 

 place in this particular arise from the cause 

 just stated— long continued cropping of the 

 soil to wheat. It is only a couple of years 

 ago when wheat raising was abandoned in 

 parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio ; but now 

 there is scarcely a county in either of these 

 three States which does not produce a respect- 

 able amount of wheat. The facts aie simply 

 these : Years ago, when the country was new, 

 the soil produced prodigious crops of wheat. 

 The virgin prairie seemed anxious to repay 

 the settler who braved the perils of frontier 

 life. In return, the intelligent settler contin- 

 ued to sow wheat until nature putin her veto. 

 Theif the settler or his son declared that 

 wheat could not be raised any longer in that 

 section, and went to planting corn and oats. 

 Another generation has found that the soil 

 has recuperated ; and that it does not need a 

 prophet to foretell that the soil will go through 

 another experience of over-cropping and de- 

 terioration until the farming population learn 

 the logic, the common sense of rotation of 

 crops. A map of the greatest centers of 

 wheat production would be interesting. It 

 would show for one thing, that new land pro- 

 duces large crops ; that old land that has not 

 been cropped to wheat for years also produces 

 large crops. It would also show that from 

 Minnesota to Tennessee there are no climatic 

 influences that prevent the raising of wheat ; 

 the difficulty is iu the soil and its tillers.— 

 American Miller. 



THE USE OF SALT. 

 We have received from a correspondent a 

 letter making some inquiries into the use of 



salt, and we are given to understand that 

 anong other follies of the day sonic indiscreet 

 persons are objecting to the use of salt, and 

 propose to do without it. Nothing could be 

 more absurd. Common salt is the most wide- 

 ly distrilutti'd siilistance in tlu^ body ; it exists 

 in every lluid and in every solid ; and not 

 only is everywhere iire.sent, but in almost 

 every part it constitutes the largest portion of 

 the ash when any tissue is burnt. In particu- 

 lar, it is a constant constituent of the blood, 

 and it maintains in it a proportion, that is al- 

 most wholly iiuk-peiulent of the (iiianlily that 

 is consumed with the food. The blood will 

 take up so much and no more, however much 

 we may take with our food ; and, on the 

 other hand, if none be given, the blood parts 

 with its natural quantity slowly and unwill- 

 ingly. Under ordinary circumstances a 

 a healthy man loses daily about twelve grains 

 by one channel or the other, and if he is to 

 maintain his health that quantity is to be in- 

 troduced. Common salt is of immense im- 

 portance in the processes ministering to the 

 nutrition of the body, for not only is it the 

 chief salt in the gastric juice and essential for 

 the formation of bile, and may hence be reas- 

 onably regarded as of high value in digestion 

 but it is an important agent in promoting the 

 processes of diflusion and therefore of absorp- 

 tion. Direct experiment has shown that it 

 promotes the decomposition of albumen in the 

 body, acting probably by increasing the 

 activity of the transmission of lluids from cell 

 to cell. Nothing can demonstrate its value 

 better than the fact that if albumen without 

 salt is introduced into the intestines of an ani- 

 mal no portion of it is absorbed, while it all 

 quickly disappears if salt be added. If any 

 further evidence were required it could be 

 found in the powerful instinct which impels 

 animals to obtain salt. Buffaloes will travel 

 for miles to reach a "salt-lick;" and the value 

 of salt in improving the nutrition and the 

 aspect of horses and cattle is well known to 

 every farmer. 



The conclusion, therefore, is obvious, that 

 salt being wholesome, and indeed necessary, 

 should be taken in moderate quantities, and 

 that abstention from it is likely to be injuri- 

 ous. — London Lancet. 



Our Local Organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTV AGRICULTURAL 

 AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A stated meeting of ttie Lancaster County Aeri- 

 cultural Society was held in their room in city hall 

 on Monday afternoon, December .jrd. 



The following; named members were present : 

 Messrs. H. M. Engle, Marietta; John C. LinviUe, 

 Salisbury; .James Wood, Little Britain ; Johnson 

 .Miller, Warwick ; Israel L. Landis, .Manheim ; C. L. 

 Huusccker, Manheim township; Frank K. Ditfen- 

 derffer, city; Levi S. Keist, Oregon; J. .M. .John- 

 ston, city ; Ephraim S. Hoover, .Manheim ; S. P. Eby, 

 city; James Collins, Drumore ; Charles P. Collins, 

 Colerain ; Jacob Hostetter, Penn township ; Mr. 

 Hershey, West Lampeter. 



In the absence of President Kush, Vice President 

 Engle was called to the chair. 



F. H. Diffenderffer reported that he had read two 

 competitive essays which had been handed him for 

 examination and had tlien handed them over to S. P. 

 Eby, Esq., another member of the committee ap- 

 pointed to pass upon them ; but that Mr. Eby had 

 informed him that he had not jet handed them over 



to Mr. Johnston, the third member of the commit- 

 tee ; and that, therefore, the committee was not yet 

 able to report. 



Mr. .Johnston sail he had no doubt the two mem- 

 bers of the committee who liad examined the essays 

 would make a just award, and he was quite ready 

 to waive an examination of them. [.Mr. Eby came 

 into the meeting some time afterwards and stated 

 that he had not read the essays with sufliclcnt care 

 to make a decision at the present meeting, and so 

 the matter was postponed.] 



Mr. LInville presented to the society a bound vol- 

 ume of the report of the chief signal officer of the 

 United States, which had been forwarded for the 

 library ; als^, a catalogue of the world's cotton ex- 

 position to be held at New Orleans, and a copy of a 

 newspaper called the Suijar Beet. 



A Dearth of Business. 



Israel L. Landis saiif there seemed to be a great 

 dearth of business in the society, and he would like 

 to know why this is so. The society was organized 

 for a good and useful jmrpose, and yet its meetings 

 were very slimly attended, and there seemed to be 

 little or nothing to do by those who do attend. 



C. L Hunsecker said the society had been organ- 

 ized for many years ; the attendance was never as 

 large as the importance of the matters discussed 

 merited. The farmers of the county would be 

 greatly benefited by meeting together and consult- 

 ing on their mutual interests. He thought the fail- 

 ure of the society to liolil a country fair had caused 

 some persons to look upon It with disfavor. He said 

 that poorly as the meetings were attended they were 

 better attended than meetings of similar organiza- 

 tions. The tobacco growers' association, after 

 being in existence a few months' disbanded; 

 so did the beekeepers' assoiation, and at 

 the last meeting of the Linniean society only 

 six members were present. The agricultural 

 society was the only one that had held together for 

 a long series of years. He gave great credit to news- 

 papers of the city for publishing extended reports of 

 the proceedings, but took the /Examiner to task for 

 the curt manner in which it referred to the last meet- 

 ing of the society. He paid a compliment to " the 

 nine or thirteen" members whom the Examiner had 

 ridiculed for always beipg In their places, and he 

 saw no reason for their surrendering to " younger 

 men," as has been suggested. 



Levi. S. Keist explained that what he meant at 

 last meeting, when he referred to Infusing younger 

 blood into the society, was that he, who had heen 

 one of the originators of the society, was willing to 

 give way to any more progressive persons who would 

 take hold of the wrok. 



Johnson Miller tlioutrht the society would be more 

 prosperous and its meetings much more largely at- 

 tended if they were held In different parts of the 

 county instead of in the city. Let them be held 

 alternately in Marietta, Lititz, Little Britain and 

 other parts of the county, and much more interest 

 will be taken by the farmers generally. 



Mr. Hunsecker did not think so; he feared the so- 

 elety would soon be entirely disrupted. If It gave up 

 its permanent place of meeting. He believed that 

 though the meetings were not large they did a great 

 deal of good ; many inportant things are said and 

 valuable essays read before the society by practical 

 agriculturists, who knew what they were talking 

 about and these did more good than the finest 

 speeches made by our great men. Col. McClure and 

 W. U. Henscl arc able men, but when they under- 

 take to instruct farmers how to do their own work 

 they are likely to do less good than when plain, 

 practical farmers talk in these meetings. 



Mr. Landis was of the opinion that the society had 

 been injured by Its refusal to recognize the independ- 

 ent state fair held here two months ago, and by the 

 speeches in reference to it which had been made by 

 members here. While the fair was not all that 

 could have been wished the machinery and imple- 

 ments an* some other departments were equal or 

 superior to any ever held in the country. 

 Mr. Johnston thanked Mr. Hunsecker for the kind 



