1884.1 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



FARM NOTES. 

 Sprouting Potatoes for Planting. 

 First class potato growers say that tliR cut- 

 ting the potato intended for planting, allowing 

 two eyes to each piece, some two or three 

 weeks before planting, and spreading out 

 upon a dark barn floor or any similar floor, 

 where they will have a chance to sprout from 

 one to two inches, will add to their earliness 

 in maturing some two weeks. They should 

 be moistened two or three times a week 

 moilerately, wilU rather warm water. In 

 planting out they should be covered with not 

 over two inches of soil. If a modarato (luality 

 of very early potatoes is desired, the potatoes 

 can be cut as suggested and planted in hot- 

 beds with a very slight covering of soil, and 

 planted out as recommended. 



The Red Astrachan Apple. 

 Although this is a popular variety of the 

 apple, and of rather large size, with the color 

 a brilliant deep crimson, with thick bloom, 

 and is to be found in places nearly all over 

 the republic, yet it is strange that there are so 

 many orchards in which it is not to be found. 

 It is not, it is true, a first-class eating apple, 

 and is perhaps rather acid, but there is scarce- 

 ly another equal to it for culinary purposes ; 

 and no matter what the supply may be in 

 the market, it is quickly bought up. It is as 

 soft and entirely free from pulp when cooked 

 as frozen cream. It is also an early bearer, 

 coming next after the Early Harvest, and 

 though it is not an abundant bearer, it has a 

 yearly crop, and thus retains its productive 

 capacity year after year, and is naturally long 

 lived. We do not hesitate to say that no 

 orchard should be without it, and so far as 

 we know we believe it is to be obtained at al- 

 most every respectable nursery. 



The Cause of Pears Cracking. 

 We have never seen a reasonable cause 

 given for the cracking of pears, which in some 

 kinds in certain localities crack so badly as to 

 be valueless. The old English Butter, or 

 White Doyenne, it is next to impossible to 

 raise except in cities, but why there no one 

 can tell. If it be true that a dressing of salt 

 under the tree, to the extent of the branches, 

 is a remedy, as a AVest Philadelphia correspon- 

 dent some years ago asserted was the case 

 with him, we have a remedy ; but from no one 

 else has this been confirmed. We have known 

 trees of this variety to bear full crops from 

 fifteen to twenty years without producing a 

 half dozen perfect specimens. It is the same 

 . with the Glout Morceau, but not the same ex- 

 tent, as occasionally we have had perfect 

 crops. But here the blight comes in, and is 

 sure in the course of six to eight years to de- 

 stroy the tree. The Beurre Giffard and 

 Tyson are also occasionally subject to crack- 

 ing in some localities, but in others there are 

 no more perfect varieties. We would com- 

 mend the use of salt, which has done so well 

 for the correspondent referred to above. It 

 can do no harm, if not applied too profusely, 

 and is attended with little cost or labor. 

 Stumps and Stump Fences. 

 In clearing land of timber, the next thing 

 to get rid of is the stumps of trees. There are 

 various ways to eflect this, but the best we 

 know is a level power used in the northern 

 part of this state, and described some years 



ago by our veteran correspondent, Mr. J. E. 

 Vaughan, of Bradford county as the simplest, 

 cheapest, most ellicienl and durable which lie 

 had ever encountered. It was originated in 

 that county and was not patented. " It is 

 merely a lever power with a sweep of .some 

 twenty feet in length, take up chains, etc. 

 The rods for pulling. are made of the best one 

 inch iron, though some much larger. Four 

 men and a .span of horses will pull from 

 thirty to forty slumps per day. " The stumps, 

 when the ground has become frozen, arc one 

 by one placed on a low sled, and carried to a 

 dividing line tor a field, and being placed 

 in a row, with the roots on top, allowed to 

 remain and the side ones generally removed, 

 a stump fence is formed which will last for 

 many years with scarcely any repairing, and 

 as> efiicient for all practicable purposes as a 

 fence of any other kind. Many of these 

 fences are now to be seen in numerous parts 

 of northern and nortiiwestern Pennsylvania, 

 and they are so closely and firmly stationed 

 that it is difficult lor even a man to cross 

 them.—Oermanto'tvn Telegraph. 



SUGAR TO BE MADE EVERYWHERE. 



The following article was written for the 

 Nashville Artisan by Mr. Peter Collier, of 

 Wasliington city, wHio, the Artisan says, is 

 the best informed man on the subject in the 

 United States : 



From the results already secured, it ap- 

 pears more than probable that, within a few 

 years at most, we shall be able to secure a 

 sufficient supply of sugar from sorghum to 

 meet not only our own wants, but to be able 

 to export it. 



That such a result seems probable rests 

 upon these few well-established facts : 



1. About 3^ per cent, of all the cultivated 

 land in the United Stated, including the grass 

 lands, is at present devoted to the cultivation 

 of maize, thus showing that the conditions of 

 soil and climate in our country conspire to 

 make the production of maize profitable. 



2. The demands made upon the soil and 

 the conditions of climate necessary to the full 

 development of sorghum are practically iden- 

 tical with those made by and necessary to 

 maize. 



3. The methods of cultivation of the two 

 crops are identical, so that iu every township 

 of this country these methods are practically 

 understood. 



4. The greater part of the maize consumed 

 in this country is used for the purpose of feed- 

 ing and fattening swine, and numerous 

 anaylses of several varieties of sorglium seed 

 have shown the proximate chemical composi- 

 tion of sorglium seed is identical with that of 

 maize, the sorghum seed differing no more 

 from maize in composition than does one 

 variety of maize from another. 



5. Numerous feeding experiments have es- 

 tablished the fact that for feeding and fatten- 

 ing purposes, sorghum seed is the equivalent 

 of maize and may be substituted for it. 



6. As much sorghum seed may be produced 

 from an acre as of maize on the same land, 

 and wherever maize may be grown success- 

 fully in this country, one variety or another 

 of sorghum may be successfully grown. 



7. Fully ninety-nine per cent, of the sorg- 

 hum now grown in the world is grown solely 



for the seed and the forage obtained in the 

 leaves, and abundant testimony is given that 

 for the seed alone the crop may be profitably 

 grown, while many of those using the stalks 

 for syrup and sugar declare that the seed en- 

 ables them to produce the stalks free of all 

 cost. 



8. It is only after the seed of any variety of 

 sorghum is quite mature that the maximum 

 of su^ar in the stalks is attained, so that there 

 is noiliing to prevent the .securing of both the 

 maximum of seed and the maximum of sugar 

 from the crop of sorghum. 



9. Many thousands of analyses of over fifty 

 varieties of sorghum have conclusively estab- 

 lished the fact that at maturity the stalk of 

 sorghum contains an amount of sugar equal 

 to that found in the best sugar cane grown in 

 Louisiana, and already by proces.ses and ap 

 paratus identical with ihose employed upon 

 the sugar plantations of Cuba and Louisiana 

 several hundred tons of sorghum sugar have 

 been put upon the market in competition 

 with sugar from the troiiical sugar cane. 



10. The testimony of numerous manufactur- 

 ers of syrup from sorghum shows that the 

 syrui) may be manufactured at an expense 

 varying iu different localities and with differ- 

 ent manufacturers from twelve to twenty-five 

 cents per gallon, from cane delivered free at 

 the mill, even when working with small mills 

 instead of the improved appliances of the 

 large plantation. 



11. A yield of six to eight pounds of sugar 

 from the gallon of syrup made at the proper 

 time may be fairly expected, and thus the 

 sugar would cost, according to the expense of 

 manufacture above given, from one and half 

 to four cents per pound without any allow- 

 ance for the molasses. 



12. Excellent sugar has been made from 

 sorghum, where accurate account of all ex- 

 penses was kept, including cultivation of crop, 

 but no account made of the seed, and the ex- 

 pense of production of this sugar did not ex- 

 ceed four and a-half cents per pound. 



13. In view of these results I have no doubt 

 that sugar may even now be produced at an 

 expense of not over two cents per pound, and 

 I believe that within a decade it will be pro- 

 duced at au expense of not over one cent per 

 pound ; at Hutchinson ami Sterling, Ks.. the 

 average results for this year were 770 pounds 

 of sugar per acre and seventy gallons of mo- 

 lasses, and an average of ten tons of cane to 

 the acre. The average value of the product 

 per acre was S80.C0. The gross product is 

 about 000,000 pounds of sugar. The price 

 paid for stalks per ton delivered was $2. 

 Those familiar witli the results from sugar 

 cane in Louisiana will see that these results 

 are closely approximate to those from sugar 

 cane. 



POULTRY. 



A Few Interesting Facts About the Different 

 Kinds and Qualities. 

 Among the most delicate articles of animal 

 food served at table are poultry— chickens, 

 turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, etc.— and 

 these are produced in all parts of the United 

 States. Usually they are mere adjuncts to 

 the farm, but, in many instances, poultry 

 raising, including eggs for the market, is a 



