The Lancaster Farmer. 



S. S. SATHVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., MAY, -1884. 



Vol. XVI. No. B. 



Editorial. 



MAY. 



" He soon was followed by a matd 



That strewed the way with flowers, 



Aud bid me hie aluiig with her 



Unto the green-wood bowers, 



There no peril, there no danger 



Throughout the live long day, 



Should e'er betide the weary stranger 



Along the Sylvan way ; 



Around her brow was bound a wreath, 



Of rich and rare perfume; 



CuU'd from the countless floral ranks. 



That In the meadows bloom. 



Her auburn locks were intertwin'd, 



With pearls and blue bells gay ; 



Her rosy cheeks and cheering smile, 



Kevealed the ' gentle May.' " 

 This is the Fifth month of the year, accord- 

 ing to our present reckoning ; and here again, 

 there are different opinions as to tlie origin of 

 the name. One authority states that 3Iay is 

 80 named in honor ot the goddess Maia, 

 daughter of Atlas and mother of Mercury, by 

 Jupiter ; whilst anotlier authority states as 

 distinctly that May is not derived from Maia, 

 but from the Latin Mains, i. e., Matjus, from 

 the root Maq, and is synonymous with the 

 Sanskrit mah, to grow ; and means the grow- 

 ing or sliooting month, alleging that the word 

 existed long before either Mercury or Maia had 

 been introduced. Among the ancient Rom- 

 ans, in this month, held the festivals of Bona 

 Dea, the goddess of chastity, and the feasts of 

 the dead : Nevertheless, among the common 

 people a superstition existed that it was un- 

 lucky to marry in the month of May. The 

 first day of May or May-day, and during the 

 calends of the month, the Roman youths used 

 to go out into the fields and spend the time 

 in dancing and singing, in honor of Flora, 

 the goddess of fruits and flowers. The early 

 English consecrated May-day to Robin Hood 

 and the Maid Marian, because their favorite 

 outlaw died on that day. Tlie villagers also 

 set up May-poles and spent the day in archery 

 and dancing. In our latitude May-day never 

 became very popular, it being decidedly too 

 cool for out-door sports, as a general thing, 

 and hence the traditional festival, so far as it 

 has been observed, has been transferred to 

 June, except on very special favorable occa- 

 sion. 



The French and Prussian name is Mai or 

 May : The Spanish Mayo, the Portugese Maio, 

 and the Italian Mayrjis, and properly speaking 

 according to one authority, the term, funda- 

 mentally, means mother, might, and power. 

 The Saxons termed it Trimilki, because they 

 they began to milk their cows three times a 

 day in this month. 



During tliis month all nature seems to be 

 enjoying the return of spring, and the thrifty 

 farmer, by the middle of tlie month, will have 

 finished much of his planting and sowing, ex- 

 cept perhaps, his Indian corn, which, if the 

 weather is cool and unfavorable, may be pro- 

 tracted to the month of June. Much garden 

 and field vegetation requires for its normal 



development a given measure of lieat and 

 moisture, aud if these are not present the 

 seed had better not be in the ground. The 

 various beans, beets, cabbages, carrots, pep- 

 pers, cauliflowers, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, 

 may now be planted, and celery, jiarsnips 

 and salsify weeded and cultivated ; not for- 

 getting the broccoli, radishes, spinach, 

 squashes, tomatoes, sweet and common pota- 

 toes, if the weather is favorable. Of course 

 the intelligent and practical farmer and gar- 

 dener will know the when, the where and 

 the how of these things much better than we 

 can instruct him ; nevertheless, it has been 

 alleged, over and over again, that, consider- 

 ing their opportunities, there is a lamentable 

 paucity of improved fruit and vegetables that 

 find their way to the tables of farmers, taking 

 them as a class. We kwmj that this was the 

 case fifty or sixty years ago, whatever it 

 may be now. 



During the month of May the flower garden 

 is also a prolific source of refined manipula- 

 tion, especially to farmers' wives aud daugh- 

 ters ; and many of them are daily engaged in 

 worshiping at the shrine of Flora. This sure- 

 ly is as it should be, for creative wisdom 

 would not have permitted such a floral pro- 

 fusion if they were not of some use. 



THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE. 

 From the proceedings of the May meeting 

 of our Local Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society, which are published elsewhere in this 

 number of the Farmer, it will be perceived 

 that it IS proposed to hold a Farmers^ Insti- 

 tute, in the Lancaster Court House, on Wed- 

 nesday and Thursday, the 4th and 5th of 

 June, and that committees had previously 

 been appointed to carry the project into effect, 

 and that those committees have made very 

 interesting and encouraging reports on the 

 progress they have made. This is as it should 

 be, for the material for a successful assembly 

 of this kind abundantly exists in Lancaster 

 county, and only requires an unselfish and 

 energetic effort to bring it into practical effect. 

 Such gatherings of the farming population, 

 and the interchange of views on matters re- 

 lating to their honorable and useful calling 

 must result in ultimate good— far more in- 

 deed than mere exhibitions of product and 

 handiwork, which are so liable to degenerate 

 into a sort of frolic, in whicli many are only 

 interested in the axe they have to grind. Be- 

 sides, it is a more intellectual gathering than 

 an ordinary fair, and something is needed to 

 stimulate the agricultural intellect in an 

 epoch when 2>rogress in all else seems to be 

 making such onward strides. It is an entirely 

 new thing in Lancaster county, and may ulti- 

 mately culminate in a fixed institution that 

 will dispense its usefulness annually at least ; 

 and, there is no reason why such an institute 

 should not hold its sessions semi-annually or 

 oftener — indeed, every township in the county 

 would be all the better by organizing auxiliary 

 institutes. It now remains to be seen whether 



this enterprise will be sustained by the farm- 

 ing population. It would bo humiliating if 

 tlie thing should fail for the want of an intel- 

 ligent and sustaining presence. A Judiciously 

 formulated programme of proceedings ought 

 to make the sessions of the institute the most 

 interesting and instructive assemblages that 

 have ever been held in Lancaster county, a 

 credit even to the "great garden" of the 

 "Keystone" Commonwealth. 



THE " BLACK-KNOT." 



{Sphwria morbosa f) 



It seems to be pretty generally conceded, 

 that what is commonly known as the "Black- 

 knot," is not produced by an insect at all, al- 

 though in its young and sappy state it has 

 formed a nidus for the development of differ- 

 ent species of insects, and notably the notori- 

 ous curculio. There are diflierent species of 

 these black excreseuces on different trees and 

 shrubs, and they are produced by different 

 species of fungi, but the sour cherries and the 

 blue plums have in times past been the 

 special objects of their infestations. It has 

 been determined by competent investigators 

 that the black-knot which infests the cheny 

 is a diflerent species from that which infests 

 the plum. But, perhaps the practical horti- 

 culturist may be indifferent about the species, 

 so long as he has a reliable remedy wherewith 

 to destroy the infection. All this may be 

 well enough, so far as it goes, but at the same 

 time, a scientific knowledge of any thing, 

 added to a practical knowledge of it, will 

 greatly facilitate the means employed in ac- 

 complishing its extermination. It seems sur- 

 prising that so little advance has been made, 

 among those most interested, in a knowledge 

 of the history, the habit, and the classification 

 of the different species of black-knots during 

 the past fifty years. From various " land- 

 marks" in our memory, it must have been 

 about the year 1S21 or l!^22, when we first 

 noticed the most conspicuous presence of the 

 black-knot, on a row of cherry trees, that has 

 ever come under our observation. We visited 

 the place for a series of seasons, and every 

 year found the black excresences increasing in 

 size and in number, and on a visit made about 

 twenty years later, there was no evidence that 

 cherry trees had ever grown there— every- 

 thing, " root and branch " had disappeared. 

 There were about a dozen of these trees in a 

 row, along an avenue that lead to the farm- 

 house ; about half the number were of the 

 variety known as "Morella," and these were 

 the most infected, and first succumbed to the 

 knotty infliction. Through these knots, the 

 •• Morella " cherry finally became nearly ob- 

 solete. 



We remember the profound regrets, and 

 doleful complaints made, conuected with the 

 unwelcome presence of these knots, but we 

 have no recollection of any attempt to coun- 

 teract, remove, or exterminate them, by any 

 remedial means. We think the popular 

 opinion was, that the disease — as it was con- 



