THE LANCASTER FARMER- 



133 



seeds and iiround the roots of transplanted 

 plants is often overlooked. I recently set out 

 my tomato 'plants, and in so doing I first 

 wrapped a strip of folded brown paper around 

 the base of the stem as a guard against cut 

 wi>rms, and after the plant was set the earth 

 was pressed down with the feet and the ^yhole 

 weight of the body. The earth was left from 

 the stem, and into this hollow a pint or so of 

 water was poured. Tlie earth can be after- 

 wards leveled around the plant. 



The time spent in cleaning your work 

 horses is not lost. Whitewash the stable. 

 Keep the watering trough clean and sweet. 

 Water often and a little at a time these long, 

 hot days, 



Improve your stock. Francis Galton says 

 nature is more potent than nurture. The 

 successful dairyman or stockman means the 

 same thing when he says that breed is better 

 than feed. The best management is largely 

 wasted unless you have well-bred stock to 

 care for. 



Bees dislike dark and fuzzy material. 

 Wear light clothes to escape danger of sting- 

 ing. James Heddon says in the Bee Journal: 

 " A man with a plug hat on rarely gets stung, 

 unless by a bee that, in trying to 'shoot the 

 hat,' aims too low, and hits the face by mis- 

 take, while a companion at a suitable distance 

 is perfectly safe." 



Now is the time to fatten and market the 

 old hens that have finished their laying. 



A GOOD bath at night and fresh, clean 

 clothing will put you in better heart for work 

 next morning. 



Don't rob yourself of a good hour's noon 

 spell because work is pressing. While you are 

 resting after dinner is a good time to plan 

 for a vacation trip with your wife after all the 

 crops are gathered. 



Sheep enjoy a shady pasture and should 

 have a weekly ration of salt. It is now time 

 to consider the question of having early lambs 

 next spring. 



YouMG pigs should be pushed for the early 

 market. Tiiey much enjoy a run in clover. 

 The orchard is a favorite place for pigs when 

 they can eat the fallen fruit and grow fat 

 upon the worms destroyed. 



Have you made any plans for saving the 

 best specimens of corn plants for bearing the 

 seed for next year's crop ? Give the selected 

 stalks extra chances for development and su- 

 perior seed may be expected. This is the 

 way to improve this crop. It requires only a 

 few years of careful selection and culture to 

 develop a vaiiety especially suited to the lo- 

 cality in which it has originated. 



If the straps around your buggy whiffietree 

 are too short the breast strap or collar will 

 make your horse's shoulders sore. The 

 whiffletree should have free play. If the 

 straps check this play even for a single degree 

 in the arc it makes about the centre the horse 

 will suffer for the restraint. 



A SLANTING board attached to the rear 

 end of a cultivator, when it is worked through 

 corn or potatoes, smooths down the marks of 

 the teeth and makes genuine level culture. 



There is a belief among old-fashioned 

 housewives that the ashes from apple-tree 



wood makes the best soap. This means that 

 this is richer in potash than ordinary wood. 

 If this is true tlie tnmks and limbs of an apple 

 orchard hold much potash, and a great deal 

 more blows away every Autumn with the 

 fallen leaves. Tliis suggests potash and ashes 

 as fertilizer for orchards. 



A cow is a kicker in many cases in return 

 for the abuse receiTod from the milker. I do 

 not blame a cow that is worried by the doa, 

 pounded by the hired man and sworn at by 

 the boss for defending herself with heel and 

 horn. But there are, too congenital and 

 chronic kickers — cows that kick for the same 

 reason that so-called Independent politicians 

 kick^simply to display their superiority to 

 ordinary cows. Such cattle are even worse 

 than the politicians, for they are not even 

 amusing. Fatten them for the shambles 

 without delay. 



Contributions. 



OWNING LAND. 

 Brook viLLE, O., Sept. 1st, 1884. 



To THE Editor of the Lancaster 

 Farmer.— Sir.- I don't know but what lean 

 do your readers more good by writing you a 

 short communication on the importance of 

 owning land. For land is the habitation of 

 man, the store house from which he must 

 draw all his needs. The material to which 

 his labor must be applied for the supply of all 

 his desires. The ownership of land is the 

 great fundamental basis of the social and po- 

 litical condition, and consequently the intel- 

 lectual and moral condition of a people. 

 On the land we are born from we receive 

 the sustenance of life. To it we return again: 

 we are children of the soil, as truly as is the 

 blade of grass, or the flower of the fields. 

 Take away from man the land, and he is but 

 a disembodied spirit. 



Everywhere in all times among all people, 

 the possession of land is the basis of aristo- 

 cracy, the foundation of great fortunes and 

 the source of power. We can neither build 

 houses, nor barns, nor factories, nor schools 

 without land, and in short, we can do nothing 

 without it. With land we always have some- 

 thing to do. As labor is a great moralizer, 

 this Is an important matter. Greeley once 

 wrote, that anyone was happy who had some- 

 thing to do, and a disposition to do it. As 

 population increases, so will wages decrease, 

 aud land increase in price, hence it is impor- 

 tant to own our land, as early in life as possi- 

 ble, so that when wages gets down to the 

 starvation point he may find employment on 

 this land. " Go, get yourself a piece of land 

 and hold possession." Young man, go West, 

 and get land. "To whomsoever the soil be- 

 longs," to him belongs the fruits thereof. 



In France it is unlawful for a man's landed 

 estate to be sold at his death, it must be di- 

 vided among his heirs so that each one will 

 get a piece of land. 



In Belgium and Holland more people own 

 land in proportion to the number of acres and 

 number of inhabitants than in any other 

 country, and they are said to be the happiest 

 people on the globe. For some people to own 

 too much land, is as bad as for some to have 

 none. 



Congress should by all means prevent 

 monopoly in land, for land they can't make. 

 As Deity is everywhere present, and this is 

 Ilis footstool, everyone of His children should 

 be an inheriter of a part of it. 



Wheat in this county averaged about 18 

 bushels to the acre; potatoes are turning out 

 better than was anticipated; oats is unusually 

 good. 



After an unprecedented drouth, it i» now 

 trying to rain, but it is only a try, a bare 

 sprinkling. For weeks the plows have been 

 stopped, with the fields only partially plowed 

 for wheat, much of the pasture is dead and 

 dried. I have never seen it so dusty, except 

 in California, everything is covered with dust, 

 we are therefore breathing a cosmical dust. 

 Doubtless our atmosphere is like what it was 

 before the waters were separated from land, 

 only a little dryer. G. 



Selections. 



DESTRUCTION OF SMALL BIRDS. 



Much has been said and written of the de- 

 struction of our large game in the Adiron- 

 dacks and on the Western plains and moun- 

 tains, but how little is known of the enormous 

 numbers of .small birds that are daily being 

 killed for purposes of decoration ! It is diffi- 

 cult for one who has not made a special study 

 of this subject to realize how much harm in 

 every way is being done by this means. The 

 farmers, above all, have deep cause to regret 

 this extermination of our small birds. Bird 

 life exists almost wholly through the death of 

 some other form of life, and by destroying in- 

 sects, worms and other noxious creatures the 

 bird is of the greatest use to the farmer by 

 protecting his crops. The vast slaughter that 

 is going on among our birds is already a 

 source of serious anxiety to all who take an 

 enlightened interest in agriculture. 



This destruction goes on mainly about the 

 great centres, but it is by no means confined 

 to any one section. We know, for example, 

 of one dealer residing on Long Island who, 

 during a three months trip to the coast of 

 S. Carolina last spring, prepared no less than 

 11,018 bird skins. A considerable number of 

 the birds killed were,of course,too much muti- 

 lated for preparation, so that the total num- 

 ber of the slain would be much greater than 

 the number given. The person referred to 

 states that he handles on an average 30,000 

 skins per annum, of which the greater part 

 are cut up for millinery purposes. This in 

 the past. At present the trade is growing, 

 and at a rate which is startling. We are told 

 by people who have the best facilties for 

 knowing that there arc, and have been since 

 early spring, hundreds of people on Long 

 Island shooting birds for the middlemen, who 

 supply the taxidermists and dealers. 



During the past spring and summer, and 

 up to the present time, large boxes of birds 

 "in the flesh" are coming into New York. 

 They are delivered to taxidermists, who em- 

 ploy girls to skin for them, and then sell the 

 prepared skins at 10 or 11 cents each. From 

 a single locality on Long Island one man, 

 who buys from the local gunners, sent in dur- 

 ing the week ending July 26 over S300 worth 

 of birds. As the prepared skins sell, as 



