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THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[May_ 



Our Local organizations. 



LANCASTER COUNTY AGRICULTU- 

 RAL AND HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



The Lancaster county agricultural and horticultu- 

 ral society held a slated meeting in their room in 

 city hall, Monday afternoon, May .5th, 188-t. The 

 the following named member.^ were present : 



John C. Linville, Gap ; -John H. Landis, Millers- 

 ville; M. D. Kendig, Cresson ; Dr. J. P. Wickersham, 

 city ; Henry M. Engle, Marietta ; F. R. Diffenderfer, 

 city; .James Wood, Little Britain; Levi S. Reist, 

 Manheim ; J. M.Johnston, city; C. S. Hunsecker, 

 Manheim township ; Joseph F. Witmer, Paradise ; 

 Wm. H. Brosius, Drumore ; J. R. Buckwalter, Salis- 

 bury ; Samuel Hershey, Salisbury ; Israel L. Landis, 

 city; Eph. S. Hoover, Manheim; Peter S. Reisti 

 Lititz, Solomon Gregg, Drumore ; S. P. Eby, city. 



The President being absent. Vice President Engle 

 was called to the chair. 



The County Institute. 



Dr. J. P. Wickersham, from the committee ap- 

 pointed at a former meeting to make arrangements 

 for a two days county institute of farmers to be held 

 in the court house on Wednesday and Thursday, 

 June 4tb and 5th, reported that the prospects o' 

 having a large and interesting institute were very 

 flattering. He had corresponled with a number of 

 the most eminent agriculturists in the state and had 

 received from them assurances that they would be 

 present. Governor Pattison had written that he 

 would be present on the second day of the institute. 

 Victor PioUet, who stands at the head of the farming 

 interests in the northern section of the state, would 

 be present on the evening of the first day, and per- 

 haps on the second. President Atherton, of the 

 Agricultural college, will be here and address the in- 

 stitute. Prof. .Jordon will discourse on fertilizers, a 

 subject of which he is a thorough master. Dr. Lor- 

 ing, the chief of the agricultural department, at 

 Washington will positively be here, and address the 

 institute. Ellwood Harvey, than whom there is no 

 higher authority, will deliver one or more lectures 

 on the horse ; and Willis P. Hazzard, who knows as 

 much about cows as Prof. Harvey does about horses, 

 will speak on that important subject. Prof. Heiges, 

 of Shippensburg normal school, will lecture on fruits, 

 flowers, shrubbery or kindred subjects. Thomas J. 

 Edge, of the state agricultural department, has also 

 promised to be present, together with many of our 

 mo«t learned local agriculturists. The committee 

 had also been in correspondence with the railroad 

 companies, and both the Pennsylvania and Reading 

 companies had agreed to issue excursion tickets at 

 low rates, to those desiring to attend the institute. 



J. C. Linville, from the sub-committee, reported 

 that he had replies from a number of local essayists 

 that they would be present — among others T. Black- 

 burn, of the Fulton Farmers' Club ; J. M. Frantz, of 

 Lancaster township; Johnson Miller, of Warwick; 

 Mr. Cooper, who will speak of "farmers' wives;" 

 T. W. Kinzer, on agriculture in the schools, and Dr. 

 Wickersham on " How to keep the boys on the 



Dr. Wickersham said there would be no lack of 

 able speakers, but the question is, shall there be an 

 attendance of Lancaster county farmers worthy of 

 the occasion ? We have a reputation of being the 

 greatest agricultural people in the country and the 

 eminent speakers who have been announced are'' 

 coming to.the institute as a compliment to the county 

 It is for us to see that they are worthily received^ 

 He hoped the townships would vie with each other 

 as to which shall send the largest delegation to the 

 institute. The court house has been secured by the 

 committee and he would not be satisfied unless it be 

 filled to overflowing. 



Several members promised large delegations from 

 their respective townships, and James Wood, of 

 Little Britain, wanted to know whether the institute 

 was to be exclusively for the " lords of creation," or 

 whether the ladies also were to be invited. Chair- 



man Engle replied that "the queens of creation') 

 were invited and were expected to attend. 

 Crop Reports. 



Several members from different sections of the 

 county reported the crop prospects to be excellent. 

 The winter wheat never looked better : there is 

 scarcely a poor field to be seen anywhere ; 

 the grass is in excellent condition ; the peach 

 trees are in better condition than was supposed a 

 month ago, and there may be a fair crop. Apples, 

 cherries and pears promise an extraordinary crop ; 

 grapes are budding out nicely ; strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, blackberries and other small fruits are in 

 good condition for a heavy yield. Tobacco plants 

 are coming on finely, though the season is backward ; 

 most of the farmers have sown Havana seed, and 

 probably two-thirds of the crop will be of that 

 variety ; seven-tenths of the tobacco crop of '83 is 

 sold, and most of the fat cattle are also sold and 

 shipped. The only drawbacks to the favorable re- 

 ports are that the mice during the winter girdled 

 many young trees and hedges, some of the clover 

 fields do not look well, and tlie ground is found to 

 be unusually hard to plow. The rainfall for March 

 was a little over 4}4 inches and for April 3 inches. 

 Essay on Wages. 



C. L. Hunsecker read the following essay : 



Wages has been defined as a compensation given 

 for labor. 



In tracing the history of the country, in reference 

 to high or low prices paid for labor, the industry of 

 the people, styles of living, resources, population and 

 wealth, its successful agriculture, manufactures 

 commercial operations, mining, education, the con- 

 struction of common roads, spanning rivers with 

 viaducts, excavating canals, and building rail_ 

 roads, its natural advantages, soil, climate, mil] 

 streams, great lakes, navigable rivers, the ocean, 

 easy facilities of travel, low fares and freights, its 

 cities, towns, public buildings, farm houses and 

 barns, the thrift and comfort, of the people in dwell 

 ings, furniture, clothing and food must be taken into 

 consideration. 



The ingenuity and industry of the indabitants, its 

 laws and customs, all have an important bearing 

 upon the price of commodities and the wages of 

 labor. The price paid for labor depends very much 

 upon the number of laborers, and the demand for 

 labor in a country. The expense of living, rents and 

 taxes, often [are so heavy, with a few exceptions in 

 the old world, that the day laborer, with the scanty 

 wages allowed to him, is in no condition of prosperity 

 or even of comfort. In those countries like China, 

 where rice is the chief article of food, wages are ex- 

 tremely law, and living comparatively poor^ the tea 

 gatherers making but a few cents for a day's labor; 

 the same is true of other branches of industry in 

 China and Hindoostan. 



Wages in our country are twice those of Belgium, 

 Denmark, France and England : three times those 

 of Germany, Italy and Spain ; four times those of 

 Holland. 



The prices of the necessaries of life are lower in 

 America than in Europe. The peasantry in the old 

 world, out of absolute necessity, are restrained to 

 live economically and poor. Sixty cents a day is 

 considered good wages for a workingman in any 

 part of the European countries, except Great Britain, 

 where wages are somewhat higher. In the Tyrol 

 silk region and in Italy they often do not get more 

 than ten cents. In the couotry in Germany ten 

 cents is the common pay. Women there often get 

 but five cents for a days' labor. In Sweden men 

 work from 4 o'clock in the morning, till 9 o'clock in 

 the evening and do not get any more. During the 

 war with France, many poor women in Berlin were 

 hired to knit stocking for soldiers for five cents a 

 day ; barbers in Berlin get five cents for hair-cutting 

 and two and two and one-half cents for shaving; 

 servants at hotels, 83 $8 to per month ; servant 

 girls, in private families, often get but 810 a year. 

 Sometimes these classes can not get work at any 

 price. The immense amount of capital of England, 



France and Spain, concentrated or held by a com- 

 paratively few in those countries of large popula- 

 tions, affords them very great advantages to employ 

 labor at low figures over new and sparsely settled 

 countries whose inhabitants have not great wealth 

 to operate successfully large manufacturiog estab- 

 lishments. 



Of the working classes of England, none has been 

 so much oppressed, or are in so low a condition as 

 the agricultural laborer. For five centuries, up to 

 1824, the magistrates in quarter sessions fixed the 

 rates of wages. They got only what the farmers or 

 employers of the peasants dictated, and that was 

 barely sufficient to keep body and soul together. The 

 bread riots in England of former days, were the re- 

 sult of high prices of food, and rents, and the forc- 

 ing down of the prices of labor. 



The prosperity of the United States has been made 

 up by the good prices paid for labor. It is employment 

 that has made us what we are. Here men go to 

 work, becaxise idleness is considered a crime, and the 

 chance presented to the workman of rising in the 

 community and standing on an equality with his fel- 

 low citizens very encouraging. 



A question is frequently asked. Were former 

 times better than they are at present? This is much 

 easier asked than answered ; but from all the infor- 

 mation that can be collected from history and expe- 

 rience, I should say that the present time is big with 

 favorable results, notwithstanding occasional strikes 

 among laborers for higher wages in our country. 



In spite of what is said of the good old times, 

 there have been vast improvements in the diversified 

 industries of our country in the style of living, the 

 price of commodities, and the rate of wages. 



It is true that the fluctuation of prices of commod- 

 ities and the rate of wages of labor, are very great 

 under different times and circumstances. 



The miserable occupants of certain tenement 

 houses in large cities, who scarcely earn enough to 

 pay rent and buy food to sustain life, barring all 

 comfort of room, furniture and clothing, eke out a 

 precarious existence, yet in our country, very few 

 persons die of actual starvation. 



Good and Bad Butter. 



" Do the farmers of Lancaster county make good 

 butter? If not, why not?" The question was dis- 

 cussed at considerable length by .Messrs. Hunsecker, 

 Wickersham, Wood, Witmer and Engle, and the 

 conclusion reached was that while some very excel- 

 lent butter is made in Lancaster county a great deal 

 more is of inferior quality. This is owing to several 

 causes, of which poor cows, dirty stables, improper 

 feed, bad management 'and untidy managers are the 

 most prominent. Other causes are that we are too 

 far from the Philadelphia market to compete with 

 the Chester, Delaware and Bucks gilt edge butter 

 makers ; our country store keepers who handle 

 three-fourths of all the butter made do not discrimi- 

 nate between that which is good and that 

 which is bad, but buy and sell good and 

 bad alike at the same price. The remedy is to 

 secure the best breed of butter making cows, treat 

 them with care and kindness, feed them with the 

 best kind of food, and prevent them from eating gar- 

 lic, hemlock, mouldy vegetables or anything else 

 that will taint the butter with an unpleasant flavor, 

 use the utmost cleanliness in milking the cows, y 

 churn the cream before it stands long enough to be | 

 come mouldy, work all the butter milk out of the I 

 butter, use no artificial coloring matter, and m.irket 

 the butter in tidy and presentable shape. While 

 creamery butter was acknowledged to be far better 

 than most of that manufactured by farmers, one or 

 two of the speakers maintained that dairy butter 

 when properly made was better then the creamery. 

 Dr. Wickersham said the best butter he ever ate was 

 in Denmark, where the cow stables are kept as tidy 

 as our kitchens, and the cows as neat as the milk- 

 maids. The Danes ship their butter to England and 

 even to India, and he ventured to state that they 

 would ere long ship it to the United States. He 

 thought one reason for the superiority of their butter 

 was the luscious juicy grasses abounding in that 



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