USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 28
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The law of colors in flowers is an interesting topic of study.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Peddlers have sold, in every State, black roses, blue roses, blue dahlias, yellow verbenas, &c. It is an obvious fact, patent to every botanist, that the law of colors in the different botanical families is as invariably fixed as the law of gravitation. You might as: well expect a rock detached from the base of a mountain to be hurled to its summit, as to expect these laws to change. The laws of gravitation will never do the latter, nor will the former ever occur. As in the vegetable kingdom, so iu the animal world. "The Ethiope cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots." In flowers, we will never see blue, yellow and scarlet in the same species. There is nothing out of order in the nature of this. uniformity.
The colors given to the plumage of birds is no more unvarying than that given to the petals of flowers.
The most enthusiastic poultry fancier will look in vain for the. scarlet plumage of the flamingo among his Brahmas and Dorkings.
The Usefulness of Birds.
We propose to give a few brief suggestions on the usefulness of birds to those engaged in growing fruits and flowers; and their usefulness and benefits to us, we fear, are largely overlooked by the horticulturist. The birds are of use to us, as well as the insects on which they feed ; but a balance in nature must be sus- tained. It would not do to have all insects nor all birds, but the natural balances of all the tribes of animated nature is, to a degree, self-regulating ; hence, the potato bug was most numerous the first year of his arrival among us, but his insect enemies soon followed him, and entomologists soon after informed us that nine other varie- ties of insects were preying on the potato bug and his eggs. The insect would have a mission to perform-a service to do-for the vegetable kingdom, in the fertilization of flowers; hence their honey is placed in those flowers for their food, and wax to build their cells ; and these flowers are dressed in bright colors, to attract the eye of the insect, and he flies from flower to flower, and carries on his back the dust that contains the fertilizing properties, from staminate to pistilate, and makes an impregnated seed. But the productive powers of insects must be held in check. Nature's bal- ances must be sustained. The fish and the animal furnish food for man, for other fish and animals, or the ocean and rivers would be overstocked, and the earth would not sustain the roving herds of wild beasts. Even the birds, to an extent, prey on each other.
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The birds we have always with us, and to be ignorant of their value and habits does not argue well for our powers of observa- tion.
Herb-eating insects are found wherever vegetation grows. The forest trees, evergreens not excepted, are pierced by borers, and their leaves eaten by worms and beetles. The wood of fruit trees is eaten by borers and the verdure gnawed by the canker worm, tent caterpillar, and the saw fly larvæ ; the juices of the growing twigs sucked by aphides, and the fruit ruined by the apple worm, moth and curculio. The growing stalks of the raspberry and the rose are pierced by tree-hoppers and ruined. The strawberry is eaten by root grubs and in the crown by worms and aphides. Gar- den vegetables are destroyed by cut worms and flea beetles, vine bugs and weevils. Corn is root-eaten by grubs, the stalk by cut worms, or sucked dead by the aphis. Small grains are rnined by the Hessian fly, chinch bug and grain weevils, and grasshoppers, and moths, grubs, caterpillars and grasshoppers injure the meadows.
Even the flowering plants of the garden and greenhouse are not exempt, but suffer by plagues of grubs, beetles, worms, aphides and mites. All these herb-eating insects propagate with alarming ra- pidity. Quietly in the autumn they are put away on the twigs and under the bark and in the soil, the seeds of another summer's de- structive work. Where, then, is the balance in creation that keeps this world bright and green ? Carnivorous beetles, lace-winged in- sects and ichneumon flies make constant war on the herb-eating species ; but these are not adequate to perform the work. Small, unwisely despised quadrupeds which eat insects could not find them in the wood of trees, follow them in their aerial flights, or where they hang on twigs or foliage plants. Cold blooded animals, such as snakes, toads and frogs, would have to increase until they be- came a plague before they could destroy sufficient numbers to hold them in check. If these means are insufficient, what can we do ? Can we hand-pick and shake for worms and beetles the great forests that keep us warm and render our country habitable, and search out and pierce with sharp wires all the boring larvæ that inhabit the trunks aud branches ?
Can we dig out and gather the white grubs, ent worms and wire worms that work havoc in the field ? Can the horticulturist keep his plants unmarred and loaded with fruit? The balauce which saves the vegetable world is found in the birds. To us, beetles, grubs and caterpillars seem disgusting, but to the songsters of our
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woods and fields they are delicious morsels. He prefers them to any other food, for even the robin, fruit lover as he is, will leave the tempting cherries to regale himself on the insects which he can find in the soil that has just been turned by the plow. The demands of the physical system of the bird for insect food, and the urgent wants of his offspring spur him on to continuous activity.
Each family of birds has its own sphere of usefulness and of use- ful exertion. Some families live chiefly on insects that are obtained on the ground. The heart warms and the ear catches sweet strains even in the winter, when we think of the thrushes, those sweet minstrels that fill the summer woods and groves with song. Their food is beetles and their larvæ, of grubs and the larvae of flies aud moths. Hardly any insect is refused by them. The wood thrush (I wish I could hire him to sing at my door by feeding him the choicest fruit) ; but no, he prefers his seclusion and simple fare of insects and wild fruit. The robin is neighborly and fond of good things. I have been amnsed to see him pick a string of currants and present it to his young ones, perched on a tree near by, or to see him try to swallow a large red strawberry. Some say that he takes too many cherries and strawberries, but his virtues are as nu- merous as his faults. You do not need that I should tell you of the destructive ravages of the white grub. I have seen robins eat the white grub and the May beetles which produce them in large numbers. He rears his young near our doors, and our bees are not troubled with the bee moth. We may see him present these moths to his little ones ; also, the larvæ of flies. He will also eat all bee- tles that are destructive to plants, and feed his offspring on cut worms. The insects which the robin alone destroys would, if left undisturbed, reduce your fruits to nothing.
The mocking bird also obtains a greater part of his food from the ground. They eat grubs, cut worms, and other kinds of cater- pillars. The brown thrush, whose song vibrates from the tops of the trees, and the equally fine voiced but secluded cat-bird, which sings in the willows, but likes an occasional bite of fruit. The pay that they ask for their constant labors while with us, destroying the destroyer, is not exorbitant, and it is short-sighted policy to re- fuse to give it cheerfully. Blackbirds, meadow larks and the oriole obtain their insect food from the ground and the surface of plants. The farmer eyes the blackbird suspiciously and the fruit grower the Baltimore oriole. Years of observation will teach you that
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blackbirds will eat a hundred beetles, grubs and grasshoppers to one grain of corn.
The destruction of these birds would be a calamity to general agriculture. The orehard oriole seems to enjoy general favor, and he deserves it. Any one who has watehed his tireless activity in searching after eaterpillars, among the twigs of trees, eannot fail to feel kindly towards him. But the Baltimore oriole, splendidly dressed in black and gold, has not eseaped anathemas. He destroys caterpillar and other noxious larvæ, and he also eats the plum weevil. He has been seen to eat seventeen (17) caterpillars in a minute; he aecomplished this by rejeeting the hairy outsides and eating only the internal parts. Can you not afford him a little fruit ? The eedar bird, with his wax wings, obtains his inseet food from plants. The fact that he eats eanker worms and the larvæ of the sawfly, ought to seeure him some indulgence when he eats cher- ries. The sparrows are a sweet and gentle bird, and no other family entertains us so much with their fine singing, from Mareh till November. I have heard the silvery little song of the tree sparrow in January. These birds eat a great many inseets as well as the seeds of noxious weeds, and as most of them raise, or make the attempt to raise, two broods each year, the number of in- sects consumed during the breeding season is very large. The rose- breasted grosbeak obtains the greater part of his food in spring and early summer, from inseets that can be found on trees, but in the fall he imitates the fly-eatcher, eatching them on the wing. The chewink is aeeused of eating fruit. Those familiar with him come to his defenee, and elaim that he never eats it or frequents localities where it is plenty, for that purpose. He will serateh among the dry leaves for seed and worms, and bring up grubs, moths and eut worms for his young. The yellow bird, or goldfinch, eats some of the gardener's lettuce seed, but he eats also the seeds of thistles, and the green aphis that affects the apple tree.
The warblers eateh inseets on the wing and on the twigs and foliage of trees. Some of them eat a little wild fruit. The tyrant fly-catehers sit on the branches of trees and watch for their passing prey, and woe to the insect that comes sailing leisurely along that way. The king bird has been accused of eatching honey bees. It has been proved by dissection, that he catches drones, and drones only, for only they have ever been found in his stomach. IIe only lurks around the hive sunny afternoons, when drones fly out on an airing. Swallows skim the air with, seemingly, as little effort as a
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floating thistledown, and house-flies and many other kinds of winged insects are devoured. Woodpeckers live, chiefly, on insects that infest the bark and wood of trees. In places where unrelenting warfare has been waged against these birds, vast forests have been destroyed. They are the preservers and not the de- stroyers of forests. Even in winter, several species may still be found busily engaged in the work of insect extermination. The little, downy woodpecker has been called sap-sucker in the Eastern States, and the yellow-bellied woodpecker the same unfriendly name in the West. But the downy woodpecker makes sad havoc with the apple worms, and the yellow-bellied variety have been known to carry to their young, the larvæ of borers, at the rate of one hundred and twenty in an hour. The opinions of observing naturalists, who have examined the contents of the stomachs of woodpeckers at different seasons of the year, is decidedly in their favor. Let not one of these birds be blamed until it has been proved that he does more harm than good.
I would be glad to mention many other families whose labors are useful to horticulture and agriculture, but have spoken of most of the families, some of whose members are looked upon as friendly to the interest of the farmer and fruit grower. We have made an estimate of the number of birds which live and rear their young on an area of about forty acres around a certain house. A little stream fringed with willows and a meadow is on one side. This estimate was carefully made from the number of nests found, and an intimate acquaintance with the locality. We find some attached to small areas, while others make large circuits in search of food. The estimate includes the following: Brown thrushes, ten pairs; cat birds, six pairs ; robins, six pairs ; blue birds, one pair; song sparrows, six pairs ; field sparrows, sis pairs ; chewinks, four pairs ; indigo birds. three; gold finches, three; red winged black birds, three; meadow larks, three; Maryland yellow throats, six; king birds, six ; night hawk, two ; kill-deer, three ; doves, three ; quails, three ; cuckoos, one. Now let us assume that each bird catches seventy-five insects per day, and this is a low average, considering that some birds eat hardly anything else, and the fact that two hundred larvæ of the fly have been found at one time in the stomach of the robin. If we estimate six months as the average stay of these birds, and that each pair raises a single brood of three, whose stay is four months, we shall have the sum of 4,050,000, as the number of insects consumed in a single season. I have made the
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estimate for the season low, and I am persuaded that an addition of one-half or more to the large sum above stated would bring it much nearer the true number of insects consnmed by seventy-five pairs of birds and their offspring.
A part of this food was no doubt obtained outside of the forty acres referred to, but I have made no account of the large flocks of black birds and others that frequented this same territory for food, and built their nests at other places, of the wood peckers and blne grays which visit it and build in an adjacent wood, or of the great flights of sparrows and warblers that often tarry a month or more on their vernal and autumnal migrations. What would become of the vegetation oh this forty acres if 4,000,000 of insects destroyed in a single season were left to propagate for five years.
Why do birds eat so much ? We find a strong reason in the fact that the temperature of their blood is one hundred and ten degrees, and ours only ninety-eight. Their life engine works under higher pressure, and demands more fuel. Then let us have laws for the protection of birds, and let us see them rigidly enforced, and protect these " feathered songsters in our groves."
What to Plant.
It seems entirely appropriate in a publication for an agricultural people to treat briefly on the ages and times of planting those fruits, that are not only a luxury but an every day necessity with every agricultural people ; and the system here set forth is founded on the experience of the most extensive growers in the United States. Hence we devote a portion of the present work to the agricultural and horticultural interests of our readers. To advocate the advan- tages of planting fruits at this age of the world would be as super- ogatory as to labor to convince people that the sun shone from the zenith at mid-day.
Between the first of September and the first of March many will send orders to nurserymen for plants and trees, and as most plant- ers lack experience as to size and age that will bear transplanting most successfully and come into bearing the earliest, we append this list :
Strawberries-Plant last year's runners.
Raspberries Last year's rooted tips.
Blackberries-Last year's sprouts or rooted cuttings.
Currants-One year old sprouts.
Grapes-One year old rooted cuttings.
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Cherries-one year's bud on Morella stock.
Plums-One year old.
Peaches-One year old.
Pears-One year old, only on pear or seedling apple stocks. Avoid all mountain ash, quince and thorn stocks; only seedling pears are long lived and healthful.
Apples-Two years old from the graft, on long apple roots, and use only root grafted. We make no recommendations as to varieties only plant those that have given you best satisfaction heretofore in this county. Localities are so various that no general list would be strictly appropriate. It has taken a long time to convince peo- ple that a tree or vine will come into bearing sooner and live longer if planted at the age of one year than four or five. Grafting per- petuates the finer varieties of seedling fruits. All new species are from the seed, but are thus perpetuated. The grafting process en- hances the fruitfulness of trees at the expense of longevity. All the old orchards of this county and State are seedling trees. Top graft- ing began to be practiced about seventy-five years ago in this county. We have in our possession the original manuscript of an article on the subject of top grafting, written by a Mifflin county farmer in Kishacoquillas Valley in 1812. Of all the millions of the human race, no two are alike. No two birds, no two animals, nor no two seedling fruits are alike. Variety, as well as uniformity, is a char- acteristic in every department of nature; hence our new varieties of fruits and flowers arise from a hybridization of the seeds.
In purchasing fruits, or vines or plants, send your orders direct to a reliable nurseryman, and avoid the whole trce peddling frater- nity.
We add the following true pen picture of the tree peddler, pre- pared some time ago :
A PARODY.
A nice yonng man was Billy Brown, With the smoothest hair of any in town, With talk like honey, softer than down, Was the language of Brown,
As a peddler of books, as clerk in a store,
And in everything else he had tried before, He had failed, for his stock of brains was poor ; He ought to had more.
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Hurrah for Brown! He has found the thing Suited to his talents that is to give swing, That ravishing tongue so promising, In peddling trees.
The spread he made in cards and designs, Circulars, blotters and scores of signs,
For printing and painting scores of times The name of "BROWN."
A wonderful stock, cheap, safe and sound, And millions of them to scatter around. In place of the things that now cumber the ground; Oh, the dove-like eyes of those liberal Browns Are so taking.
Why not invest just now ? Won't you, In this liberal barter, a dollar or two, As thousands are doing without more ado. By the simplest twist Of his delicate wrist
He daily pledges you what he will do. He plies his calling three months in a year. As suspected at first, it now is quite clear,
' That his blessed commission of 20 per cent. To such things of evil As is this poor devil,
Is why through the country a straggler he went, His patrons grew weary-weary and faint, At the losses incurred by these traveling saints; Plaintive and sad was their bitter complaint Till they suppressed their gas And canceled their bills,
Including this BILL with whom your'e acquainted. They are preaching and clerking again now, these Browns, With the smoothest hair of any in town; Talk just like honey, softer than down, Who is next, a new tree peddler is wanted in town, For the old one is played.
Training the Vine.
One of the important and profitable items in the horticultural interests in Mifflin county, is, The Training the Vine. As we view those beantiful'elevations by the side of the stream, as we do on almost every farm in Mifflin county, our first thought is, what a beautiful situation for a vineyard ; henee we deem it proper to de- vote a space to that valuable farm project.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
To trace through history, the management of the vine in differ- ent ages and countries, that we may profit by the experience of others, would be an historical research, interesting, not only to the horticulturist, but to the ethnologist, for the history of the vine and its culture, would be a history of humanity, parallel with man's existence, for we read in the volume of inspiration, that two thou- sand three hundred and forty-eight years before the birth of our Saviour, or four thousand two hundred and thirty years ago, Noah " begun to be an husbandman and planted a vineyard," "and drank of the wine thereof," with the same results that follow the use of wine at the present time, proving again, were proof necessary, of the fidelity of nature to her laws, and that man has been the same in all ages of the world. We have not the details of the treatment of the vine in the various ancient countries in which it was grown, but we do know that it was part of man's occupation, whatever might be the degree of his civilization, and some varieties of the vine have been indigenous to every country on which the foot of man hath trod. Man in his migrations from one quarter of the world to another, has ever strove to carry with him the fruits of the country he had left. Hence the efforts of the French, in the southern, and the settlers, in the northern states, from Northern European countries, to raise the grapes in their new homes, that were cultivated in their native lands. This was, invariably, at- tended with failure, and it has taken the people over two hundred years to learn that the grapes of Europe, will not succeed east of the Rocky Mountains. There, are even some who have not learned it yet, but are experimenting in the cultivation of European varie- ties.
It is a principle, now well-proven by experience, that plants and shrubs from the west side of the eastern continent, generally suc- ceed best on the west side of the western continent, while plants from China and Japan, do best on the east side of our western con- tinent. Thisis accounted for, solely on the similarity of climate, the influence of the GulfStream on their western coast and on our Oregon coast. As extensive and general as the cultivation of our improved American varieties have become, a great and very detrimental incu- bus hangs over theircultivation. I refer to the German and French methods of training and pruning. The lazy Italian and indolent Greek, in the sunny clime of Southern Europe, will have sufficient energy or instinct to plant his vines and an elm tree on which it may climb, and in whose inviting shade he may recline; but as for
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pruning, trellis or stakes, he will have none of it, but leave that which requires muscle, to the more industrious German or his more vivacious French neighbor.
The Greeks and the Italians have patterned after their ancestors in this, as in other matters, for more than a thousand years. No change of system, or, more properly, no system, no improvement, and, in fact, the course of practice does not seem susceptible of any improvement; for the experience in this country that if their varieties of grapes will not prosper when transferred to our shores, their manner of planting and training, and their system of neglect, will bear the transfer.
Now, the next step forward in training the vine, is to plant fifteen by fifteen feet, or twelve by twelve, or twelve by twenty feet apart, and train on a trellis twelve or fifteen feet high, or, better still, plant trees for that purpose. The elm tree seems most con- genial. Let trimming, as now done, be forgotten. This theory is from the teachings of nature, where the grape grows in its native state, and in the accidental cases of neglect, where they have been able to reach the adjacent trees themselves. A few observing growers have taken the hint, and are practicing it successfully. Grapes grown as above suggested, are ever free from mildew and rot, and are less liable to insect ravages; and even the old and almost discarded Isabella ripens regularly, and is free from rot when grown on trees. The persons who adopt these suggestions, will adopt no new thing, but return to the oldest and best system of culture known to man, and most in conformity with nature's laws.
A young man once remarked to an English bishop, when con- versing on religious subjects, "That he would believe nothing he could not understand." The bishop replied, " Young man, you will have a short creed." The reverse of this would be true, were we to believe all that has been written on grape culture. Our creed would be very long indeed. Pruning, propagating, manuring, va- rieties, &c., &c., all need consideration.
What I have said of the grape and will add hereafter, will be from personal experience and observation, which will be the excuse for the very frequent recurrence of the prononn "I," in this section.
History, varieties, planting, soil aspect, cultivation, pruning, in- sects, manures, preservation of fruit, propagation, &c., are items to engage our attention.
To some of these we will briefly refer, stating facts only, without de-
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tailing lengthy whys and wherefores. The cultivation of the vine en- gaged the attention of the ancients, of the middle ages, and down to our own times and country. A history of the grape would be a history of progress in every land. It was found indigenous in the new world, but cultivators, instead of improving new varieties, spent two hundred years of failure in trying to acclimate the varie- ties grown in Europe. No progress was made in grape culture until improvement in native varieties was undertaken.
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