40 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March, 



are common, because the barns thus located 

 furnish a convenient cellar. A barrier of 

 earth on the lower side of the yard can be 

 quickly thrown up with a team and road- 

 scraper, which will catch and hold the drench- 

 ings of the yard above, and the coarse, newly 

 made manure will absorb the liquid and be 

 benefitted by it. It would be better to have 

 the manure made and kept under cover, 

 always well protected from rains and melting 

 snows. Only enough moisture should be pre- 

 sent to keep it from fermenting too rapidly. 

 An old farmer who let his manure take care 

 of itself, once kept some of his sheep under 

 cover and was greatly surprised at the in- 

 creased value of the manure thus made. In 

 fact, it was so "strong" that when scattered 

 as thickly as the leached dung of the yard, 

 it made a distinct belt of better grain in the 

 field. The testimony was so much in favor 

 of the stall-made manure,that this farmer is 

 now keeping all his live stock under cover, 

 and the farm is yielding larger crops and 

 growing richer year by year. If it pays to 

 stop any leak in the granary, it is all the more 

 important to look well to the manure that 

 furnishes the food, that feeds the plants, that 

 grows the grain, that fills the grain bin. At 

 this season the living mills are all grinding 

 the hay and grain, and yielding the by-pro- 

 ducts of the manure heap. Much may be 

 saved in spring work by letting this heap be 

 as small as out-door yard feeding and the 

 winds and rains can make it, but such saving 

 is like that of the economic sportsman who 

 went out with the idea of using as little 

 powder and lead as possible. In farming, 

 grow the largest possible crops, even though 

 it takes a week or more of steady hard work 

 to get rich, heavy well-prepared manure upon 

 the fields. More than this, enrich the land 

 by throwing every stream of fertility back 

 upon the acres which have yielded it. Watch 

 the manure heap as you would a mine of 

 gold. 



MANUAL ARTS IN FARMING. 

 So far as farming is of the nature of a 

 trade, its successful pursuit requires skill in 

 certain fundamental arts. It is true that the 

 extensive use of machinery has rendered some 

 arts, formerly important, of comparatively lit- 

 tle consequence, as, for example, the art of 

 reaping grain with the sickle, the kindred art 

 of using the grass scythe and grain cradle. 

 The combined reaper and mower, driven by 

 horse-power, has superseded both. Apparent- 

 ly the time is near at hand when the self- 

 binding harvester will entirely dispense with 

 the art of binding grain by hand. But this 

 steady change from hard labor to machinery 

 merely changes the kind of skill needed. In- 

 deed, the skill now required to run macliinery 

 successfully is of a higher kind and more diffi- 

 cult to acquire than that of the manual arts 

 superseded. To use the sickle or scythe re- 

 quires little more than patient repetition, and 

 blind following of example. To manage a 

 self-raking reaper or a self-binding harvester 

 needs not less patience and care, but also 

 higher mental qualities, a certain steady 

 thoughtful observation, good judgment, and 

 a development of what may be called the me- 

 chanical sense, a something which enables a 

 person to keep in his memory all the parts of 



a machine and their adjustments, and allow 

 none to get or remain out of order. There is 

 greater need here for that cultivated intelli- 

 gence which a good education alone gives. 

 The modern farmer's son who has had a few 

 month's study of mechanics and mechanical 

 movements, is much better prepared for his 

 work than one without this limited amount 

 of training. The essential principles of me- 

 chanics which underlie the knowledge of the 

 proper use and adjustment of machinery, may 

 be learned by any ordinary boy much easier 

 than circulating decimals or the arbitration 

 of exchange ; and when they are learned they 

 will be a thousand times more useful to him. 

 But aside from the more complicated kinds of 

 farm machinery there are a good many simple 

 arts useful to know and not specially diflicult 

 to learn, yet often poorly mastered. Among 

 these may be mentioned hitching up and 

 driving a team in the best way, adjusting and 

 holding a plow, building hay and grain stacks, 

 milking a cow, dropping seed with a horse 

 planter, cultivating corn, grinding a mower 

 knife, marking out a straight furrow, shearing 

 a sheep, husking corn, and many other things. 

 Tlie difierence between great skill in these 

 arts may be well illustrated by the case of two 

 men, both strong and willing, whom the 

 writer once employed to husk corn. One 

 would husk and crib sixty bushels (of seventy 

 pounds each) every day, the other seldom 

 did half as much. The first in a trial efibrt, 

 in ten hours of one day, husked one hundred 

 and twenty bushels ; the other could not husk 

 fifty to save his life. 



Might not greater interest in rural life be 

 imparted to our boys by well-directed efforts 

 to cultivate the highest development ot skill 

 in these useful arts ? Suppose a county fair 

 to select a half-dozen of them and offer a 

 series of prizes to those young men or boys 

 who should excel, in all or some of them. Is 

 it not possible tliat such a course would be 

 more useful to the community than the fast 

 trotting which now is usually the only form 

 of activity in which the management of any 

 fairs take much interest. 



Let intelligent friends of rural improvement 

 try some plan to furnish a substitute for the 

 demoralization so closely connected with horse 

 racing at the fairs. The kind of competition 

 suggested would provide an interesting series 

 of entertainments at these gatherings, and 

 also stimulate effort in the way of learning 

 useful arts. — American Agriculturist. 



HAVANA SEED. 



A prominent dealer in tobacco writes to the 

 Examiner as follows : 



The question of paramount importance to 

 the tobacco growers of this State, but more 

 especially of Lancaster county, to whom the 

 'growing of the, weed in the past has Iseen a 

 source of so much profit, is what shall we 

 grow as a substitute for the broad leaf once 

 received with so much favor, but now, as is 

 evident to all who are interested in the busi- 

 ness superseded by other varieties, and other 

 growths ? The broad leaf once so popular is 

 almost a drug in the market. Ohio and Wis- 

 consin can hardly be sold at any price. New 

 York is not much better. Tennsylvania and 

 Connecticut have proven very unsatisfactory 

 to growers and dealers for a number of years. 



Indeed, it is a question with many whether 

 the crop has not been gradually deteriorating 

 in quality and texture. Hence it is now be- 

 ing displaced in nearly all the seed leaf dis- 

 tricts by Wilson and Aliens Hybrid Havana 

 leaf, and last but not least, by Sumatra. And 

 it is now an assured fact that Wisconsin, 

 Connecticut and New York, will this year 

 grow only Havana, excluding other sorts en- 

 tirely, and one of the largest dealers in New 

 York, wrote me: "Your State will in an- 

 other year be driven into the cultivation of 

 Havana. But why not make an effort to 

 have all your people go into growing it this 

 year ? If you do not succeed in doing so, the 

 other States will take your place, and Penn- 

 sylvania will lose her rank and prestige in the 

 race." This is the simple truth. With 

 Havana we can not only drive Sumatra out of 

 our own markets, but, as has been proven by 

 actual experiment, it will displace it in for- 

 eign markets. 



Now as to seed. Any number of growers 

 by writing to the member of Congress from 

 their district can secnre pure Havana seed 

 from the office at Washington, from which 

 plants should be raised, simply to acclimatize 

 and procure. This may have to be done two 

 or three years until you get a leaf of texture 

 and size desired. Then raise sufficient seed 

 to last ten years, being very careful to keep 

 these plants separate and not allow it to mix 

 with any other variety. In some instances 

 the second year has produced a very desirable 

 leaf. 



But the question until we can raise the 

 seed from imported Havana, is " what shall 

 we plant ¥" Wilson's Hybrid has done very 

 well in some sections and in others has not 

 done so well, partaking somewhat of the char- 

 acter of seed leaf. On the whole, we think 

 that either this variety, the Wisconsin or 

 Connecticut Havana seed will prove very sat- 

 isfactory. Packers are doing their best to se- 

 cure a sufficient quantity of seed to supply 

 growers, which in most cases is sold at cost, 

 well knowing that with a full crop of Havana 

 leaf we can defy all competition. 



If reference to plants, if the seed is sown as 

 usual, the plants will be ready to set out 

 sooner than broad leaf, and therefore can be 

 planted earlier in the season. It matures in 

 less time, and hence escapes the ravages of 

 the green worm, and .to some extent the hail 

 storms, as it is generally housed before the 

 season in which they are prevalent. A friend 

 of mine raised '21.5 pounds of Havana from 

 one thousand stalks. Another raised sixteen 

 hundred pounds on one acre. In planting it 

 should be not more than fifteen inches apart 

 on the row, as that insures fine leaf, and 

 three feet between the rows. This will give 

 between eleven and twelve thousand plants to 

 an acre ; yielding at the rate above, from 

 twenty to twenty-five hundred pounds. My 

 friend, before spoken of, topped sixteen to 

 eighteen leaves to stalk; he allowed it to 

 grow up pretty well, then took two or three 

 small leaves off with the top, about fourteen 

 days before cutting it off. I tliink the num- 

 ber of leaves on a stalk should be governed 

 somewhat by the season and strength of the 

 land on which it is planted. The effort 

 should be made to secure a fine and medium- 

 sized leaf. 



