510 Correspondence of the Ciarinnatus. [November, 



and cultivated as ordinary field crops, is twelve feet tigh on an aver- 

 ao-e and well matured. The only question which arises ; can the 

 manufacture of it into molasses and sugar be made profitable ? Will 

 not the reduction of it to these products cost too much, especially 

 ■where wood and coal is as scarce as on our prairie lands ? We have 

 not with present rude fixtures been able to grain it. I visited one 

 of these rude mills which consisted of two wooden rollers, which 

 would yield to the resistance of the cane, propelled by a single horse, 

 and yet from thirty-five to forty canes would fill a common bucket; 

 and from appearance, it left more than one half of the sacharine 

 matter in the cane. One man, operating with one of these rude 

 fixtures, thinks the molasses can be manufactured for fifteen cents 

 per gallon, including cost of producing cane. If this be half true 

 it will be a great benefit to the country. I hope and believe the 

 difficulty of graining will yet be overcome in this inventive and con- 

 stantly progressing age ; and I think out of this very product will 

 yet spring up an important business, and the man who succeeds by 

 a cheap and easy process to make sugar will soon realize a fortune. 



I exhibited a sample of your Pirk Wheat at our fair, also a speci- 

 men of the barley grown ou your experimental farm, and they at- 

 tracted great attention — none as good were exhibited. 



Go on and you will yet realize your wishes, in your experimental 

 department, it is just what our country needs, and the State might 

 well afi"ord to lend you their aid. 



PRICES OF PRODUCE IN MARKET. 



Flour S2.50 per hundred pounds- — winter wheat none in market — 

 Spring wheat, 62 cents per bushel — Shell corn (old) 45 cents sixty 

 pounds — Ear corn, 43 cents seventy-five pounds — Potatoes, 25 cents 

 per bushel— Oats, 26 cents per bushel— Apples, $1.25 per bushel — 

 Butter, 20 cents per pound— Eggs, 10 cents per dozen — Hides, (dry) 

 7 cents per pound, green, 3 cents. Yours truly, 



John H. Hosford. 



The following from the pen of the Hon. Joii.v Belto\- O'Neal, SpringfieM, near 

 Nevvbunc, South Carolina, was, on reception, reaJ with interest, and we give it 

 to our subscribers. — Ed. 



F. G. Gary, President of Agricultural Department Farmers' Col- 

 lege. 

 My Dear Sir. — Eeading the article entitled " Fungi," in the 



CiNCiNNATUS, I thought my experience in the prevention of smut, 



